#i think i’m finally starting to meet me though. and that’s pretty awesome

[clowningcrows]

when noah kahan said, “i’m terrified that i might never have met me”……….. yeah

[v6quewrlds]

HOMIESEXUAL, BURROW & IOSIVAS.

pairing⠀⁎⠀joe burrow/andrei iosivas x reader. word count⠀⁎⠀10.3k.

summary⠀⁎⠀joe burrow comes and goes through your life like the tides. just when you think you've caught him, he slips away from your grasp. just when you think you've finally moved on, he sneaks back in with empty promises. as if things couldn't get any messier, enter andrei iosivas, joe's wide receiver.

author's note⠀⁎⠀huge thank you to @xolilyxo for saving my life with this idea <3 i haaaate writing meet-cutes/first dates so bear with me for the first part of this fic. joe is genuinely horrible in this one sorry lmao but i love toxic!joe and this was so fun to write. will be taking a little bit of a break from this blog so take this as an apology <3 warnings⠀⁎⠀some usage of y/n, vicious cycles, situationships, reader needs to stand up, 18+ mdni, smut, angst, fingering, a singular spank, backshots!, choking, empty promises, joe will say anything for a nut, condoms used as metaphors lollll, no real ending bc i couldn't choose.

You adjusted your earbuds, the pounding bass of your workout playlist keeping pace with your sprints on the treadmill. The burning in your lungs was a familiar sensation, a small price to pay for the endorphin rush that washed over your tense muscles.

Your attention was squarely focused on your sprints and breathing, exhaling sharply as you watched the clock on the treadmill count down to the end of your cardio session. The chime signaling the end of your workout pierced through the music, and you slowed to a jog, taking a moment to catch your breath and lower your heartbeat.

As you lowered the speed and incline to a brisk walk, you felt a presence beside you. You glanced over to find Andrei, the Bengals' wide receiver, hopping onto the treadmill next to you. His eyes lit up when he saw you, and a smile slowly spread across his face in recognition.

“Hey,” he greeted, his voice warm and easy. You took in the sight of him, the tattoos on his left arm flexing as he pressed the start button on the machine. “Y/N, right?”

The two of you had met a few times in passing at games and parties, but you never really had a chance to get to know him beyond small talk. “Yeah. You're Yoshi?” you said with a smile, using the nickname you had heard the team float around him.

He laughed, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “Andrei, but Yoshi's cool. I didn't know you came to this gym.” He matched your pace as you walked side by side, your legs moving in unison.

“Yeah, it’s convenient, for when I’m in town for work and don’t want to miss a workout. How about you? How’s your first off-season in the league treating you?” you asked, trying to keep your voice steady as you inhaled and exhaled as intentionally as you could.

Andrei’s smile grew. “It’s been intense, but I’m loving every second of it. Gets a little lonely without the team around though. How about you? You work with Sam's fiancee, right?”

“Jess? Yeah. She was my RA during my freshman year. We work in marketing together. She’s the one who talked me into joining her in Cincinnati after I graduated. Best decision I ever made, really,” you replied.

Andrei nodded, his gaze flickering to the screen of his treadmill as he cranked up the speed, long, tanned legs still in a walk despite the speed increase. “I'm still getting used to the city, but the people here are great. And the fans are crazy about football, which is pretty awesome to be a part of.” He took a sip of his water, his dark eyes meeting yours briefly before returning to the display in front of him. You couldn't help but notice the way his biceps bulged as he lifted the bottle to his mouth.

“I don't wanna keep you from your workout, but it was nice seeing you, Andrei.” you said, your racing from more than just the cardio. You stepped off the treadmill, your legs feeling like jelly as you headed for the locker room.

“Hold up,” Andrei called after you, his voice filled with a gentle urgency. He quickly followed you, his eyes searching yours. “This is kind of random, but would you be down to grab lunch or something sometime?” His question hung in the air, charged with an undercurrent of hope.

“I’d like that,” you said, a genuine smile playing on your lips. You felt a sudden warmth spread through your body, and you hoped the fluster in your voice wasn’t too obvious. Andrei’s eyes lit up, and he immediately offered to exchange numbers. You swapped phones and tapped in the digits with fingers that trembled slightly from the excitement of the moment.

The next few days, the two of you texted back and forth, coordinating your schedules. It was a delicate dance, considering your busy lives, but somehow, it worked. You found yourselves with a mutually free afternoon and decided to meet at a quiet spot, a hole-in-the-wall burger joint that had been recommended to Andrei by some of his teammates.

At first, you didn't recognize the address or the name of the burger joint. But as you pulled up to the nondescript building, the heavenly scent of sizzling meat and the sound of laughter spilling out from inside sent your memory hurtling back to nearly a year ago.

You had come here with Joe once.

Joe was a waxing and waning fixture in your life, coming and going with the tides of the football season. The two of you had first met when Joe was drafted by the Bengals, and you quickly recognized the pull of his charismatic orbit. His charm and easy confidence had drawn you in, and your friendship grew into a passionate, secretive not-quite-relationship that had always been tinged with the bittersweet frustration of knowing it couldn’t last.

The league was unforgiving, and Joe had been clear about his priorities - football, family, and his foundation - none of which included space for you. But as the months went on, you found yourself hoping that maybe he would get his head out of his ass. As if he would suddenly wake up and realize that he did have a little space for you in his very short list of priorities.

But there wasn't space. Joe Burrow was a creature of habit, and football was his first love. He'd told you that himself, more than once. The season had taken precedence over your somewhat casual arrangement, and by the time summer rolled around, it had all but fizzled out like the last whispers of a forgotten promise.

Now, as you sat across from Andrei, the smell of greasy burgers and fries swirling around you two, you felt a pang of guilt. You would have had to be blind to miss the way Andrei's brown eyes lit up when he talked about his day and listened eagerly to your lame office stories. He was so earnest, so present, in a way Joe was incapable of being - not that it was the quarterback's intentional doing.

The two of you talked about everything from your families to your favorite movies, and it was easy, comfortable. Andrei had a way of making you feel heard that you hadn't felt with Joe. He wasn't distracted by the shadow of football, his mind wasn't a million miles away on the field. He was right here with you, in this moment. And when he reached out to steal a fry from your plate with a dimple you hadn't noticed before, you felt a jolt of something you hadn't felt in a long time—true, uncomplicated happiness.

“Yo, earth to Andrei! You okay, man?” Tee Higgins’ teasing voice cut through the air as the team gathered around their lockers post-workout. Andrei had been lost in his thoughts, his eyes glazed over as he replayed the events of the past few days texting with you.

Andrei snapped out of his daze, his cheeks flushed with a mix of exertion and embarrassment. “Yeah, my bad, guys. Just had a good session out there.” The lie rolled off his tongue, but the smirks from his teammates told him they weren’t fooled.

“Oh, I bet you had a good session, alright,” Charlie said, waggling his eyebrows. Their side of the locker room erupted into laughter, and even Andrei couldn’t resist a chuckle despite the roll of his eyes.

“Leave him alone, he’s just got a crush is all,” Chase Brown chimed in, slapping Andrei on the shoulder.

Andrei felt the weight of his words and his cheeks grew even warmer. He knew he was being obvious, but he couldn’t help it. You had consumed his every thought since your first real conversation at the gym. The way you had looked at him, the way your laugh had filled the quiet moments between your words, it was intoxicating. He hadn’t felt this way about someone since high school.

“She's older too, ain't she? Like by two years?” Tee said, his eyes twinkling with amusement. Andrei nodded, his face growing hotter by the second.

“Yeah, but that's not a big deal, right?” he managed to get out.

Chase laughed. “Who? Jess' friend? That's cool, she's a catch for sure. But why’re you blushing so hard, man?”

Andrei shrugged it off, trying to keep his cool. “It's nothing. Just met up with her a few days ago, you know how it is.”

“Oh, he's gone,” Charlie exclaimed, grinning as he slapped Andrei's back. “You got it bad, dude.”

“Shut up, man. It's not like that,” Andrei protested, his voice betraying the excitement he felt.

Joe kept his head down, focusing on his own locker, pretending not to hear the jokes at Andrei's expense. But the mention of your name sent a jolt through him. He knew he had no claim on you, he had made that clear when he chose football over you time and time again - he was aware. But the thought of you with Andrei was like a knife twisting in his gut. He felt a strange mix of jealousy and protectiveness, a storm of emotions that left a dark, uncomfortable weight on his chest.

As Joe made his way to the parking lot, he was flanked by Ja'Marr and Sam on either side as they talked about their evening plans. He cleared his throat, trying to dislodge the unspoken tension. “Has Jess mentioned anything about...?” he ventured, keeping his voice casual, not completing his thought hoping Sam would catch the unspoken name.

Sam shot him a knowing look, eyes narrowed, lips curled into a smirk. “Do you two get off on playing this weird hot and cold game?” He asked Joe, a disbelieving chuckle bubbling from his chest.

Joe’s face remained impassive. “What are you talking about?” He played dumb, hoping his friends hadn’t noticed the jealousy bubbling beneath the surface.

Sam rolled his eyes. “I haven't heard anything about her seeing anyone, but why don't you just text and ask her? Or better yet, just tell her you fucked up and want her back? I know she hasn’t blocked you yet, Jess reminds me of that every time you two come up in a conversation.”

Joe scoffed, trying to play it cool. “It's not like that. I just want to know she’s good. It’s been a while since I’ve seen or heard anything. That's all.” But the way his heart hammered in his chest, his blue eyes defensively wide told the defensive end it was a lie.

“If you say so,” Ja’Marr spoke up, his voice filled with an unmistakable hint of amusement. “But if I was her, I wouldn't take your ass back.”

Joe shot him a look that could've frozen water. “Thank you for your input, Ja’Marr,” he muttered, his eyes narrowing.

Sam laughed again. “Look, I'm sure she has nothing to hide. If she was seeing someone, she’d tell Jess. And since she hasn’t, then maybe it’s not that serious yet. Just apologize, I’m sure she’ll hear you out.”

Joe nodded, trying to convince himself that it was true. But the gnawing feeling in his gut told him otherwise. He knew he had to see you, to find out for himself what was going on. He couldn’t stand the thought of you with someone else, not when he hadn’t even had the urge to officially end things.

After arriving home, Joe found himself pressing your contact name, then the FaceTime button, his heart racing. When you picked up, he could see the surprise in your eyes. You looked beautiful, the soft glow of your bedside lamp highlighting the warm tones of your skin. Your curly hair was pulled back into a loose bun, and you had that look on your face, the one that told him that if he played his cards right, you’d fall right into his lap, just like you used to.

“Hey?” you said, a hint of wariness in your voice.

Joe took a deep breath, trying to keep his cool. “What's up?”

Your eyes searched his for a moment, reading the tension in his voice. “Not much, just sitting at home. What’s up with you?” you asked, playing along.

“I was wondering if you’re busy tonight,” Joe said, his voice dropping to a low rumble. “I haven’t seen you in a while. Thought I could come over, catch up.”

You leaned back into the cushion behind your head, raising an eyebrow. You knew Joe’s moves better than anyone else. At times, you thought you knew him better than he knew himself. “Why? You miss me?”

Joe’s eyes held yours, the intensity in them unmistakable. “Yeah, I did. And I wanna see you. If that’s okay?”

You felt a mix of excitement and annoyance. Why was Joe suddenly interested again? You knew he couldn’t just turn it on and off like that - not matter how much he liked to pretend he was unbothered by the gray area of your situationship. But the temptation was too strong. You missed your connection, the way he made you feel.

“Okay, come over then,” you said with a sigh, unable to completely hide the smile that tugged at the corners of your mouth.

Joe arrived at your apartment later that evening, and the moment he stepped inside, it was as if you had never stopped seeing each other. He took in the familiar scent of your perfume and the sight of you curled up on the couch. He couldn’t help but feel like he was home. The two of you talked about nothing and everything, the conversation flowing easily like it used to. He told you about the team's new plays and strategies, and you updated him on work and Jess' wedding planning.

But there was an undercurrent of tension, something more than just your unresolved history. Andrei's name hovered in the air, unspoken but present. As the night grew later, Joe's eyes searched yours, looking for answers he knew you wouldn’t just volunteer to give him.

“So, are you seeing anyone?” he finally asked, his voice casual, the rush of blood to his face anything but.

You felt a jolt of nerves. You should’ve known this was coming. “No, I’m not seeing anyone,” you replied, your voice steady despite the guilt of such a lie creeping in. “Not officially, or anything.”

Joe’s expression didn’t change, but you could see the muscles in his jaw tense. He knew you well enough to read between the lines. He knew you were lying to him. “But there’s someone you’re interested in?” he pushed.

You nodded, looking away from him. You felt the guilt press harder on your chest. “Yeah, I guess. It’s new, and I’m trying to figure it out. Figure him out.”

Joe leaned in, his hand falling over the back of the couch as if attempting to surround you without actually touching you. “Is it serious?”

His voice was a mix of curiosity and something else, something that made the guilt in your stomach coil tighter. He had a way of suffocating you, of making you feel like you were drowning in his mere presence, and you hadn’t realized how much you missed that feeling.

You took a deep breath. “No, it’s not serious. Not yet, anyway. We’re just...seeing where it goes.”

Joe nodded, his eyes focused intensely on yours. The silence between the two of you grew heavier, charged with unspoken words and desires. Finally, he leaned in closer, deciding he was tired of playing cold and now wanted the hot.

“Can I kiss you?” Blue eyes bore into yours, plump pink lips parted before his bottom lip was pulled between his teeth.

Your heart skipped a beat. You knew what giving in to him would lead to, but you couldn’t resist. You nodded, and Joe’s mouth was on yours before you had the chance to reconsider. The kiss was familiar and yet somehow new, filled with the same passion you had always shared, but with an urgency that hadn’t been there before. It was as if he was trying to claim you, to remind you of what they had before you were swept up in someone else's tide.

As Joe’s arms wrapped around you, pulling you closer, you felt the weight of the decision you needed to make. Andrei’s sweetness versus Joe’s intensity. The comfort of the known versus the excitement of the unknown. Your thoughts spun like a tornado, threatening to consume you. But for tonight, you decided to let it go, to lose yourself in the feeling of Joe’s hands on your body.

You moaned against his mouth, giving in to the moment. And with that one sound, the two of you were back to where you had left off months ago, your bodies tangling together in a dance as old as time. You stumbled towards the bedroom, hands fumbling with clothes and buttons, eager to reacquaint yourselves with each other's skin.

“Joe,” you whispered breathlessly as your bodies collided in a fiery embrace, the passion igniting like dry grass in a summer field. He kissed you like he owned you, and for a moment, you let yourself believe he did. Your bodies moved in a symphony of desire, every touch a silent declaration of his intent.

“What do you want from me, Joe?” you managed to ask between gasps, your body responding to his touch despite the turmoil in your mind.

“I don’t know what I want,” Joe murmured against your skin, his voice ragged with need. “But I know I can’t stay away from you, no matter how much I try.”

Your head tilted to the side as Joe's lips attached themselves to your neck, leaving a trail of kisses that made your body tremble. The room was spinning with the weight of his body on top of yours, you felt like you were drowning in his touch. It was all too much, too familiar, too overwhelming.

Joe let out a breathy chuckle against your neck, drawing a confused furrow of your brows in response. Your eyes cracked open in question, his blue eyes staring deeply into yours. “Isn’t this my shirt? You kept it?”

You felt a heat creep up your neck, the fabric of Joe’s shirt you had borrowed one night months ago clinging to your body. It had become embedded in your rotation of casual wear that you had completely forgotten it didn’t truly belong to you. “It’s comfortable,” you murmured, your voice thick with shy lust.

Joe's eyes searched yours, a hint of possessiveness flickering in their depths. “It looks better on you than it ever did on me,” he said, his voice gruff as he pulled the shirt over your head, leaving you in only a pair of panties. The air in the room grew thick with anticipation, your eyes locked as you both knew what was coming next.

With a fierce passion that seemed to have been building for months, Joe's hands explored every inch of your body, relearning the curves and planes he had once known so well. His touch was rough, almost desperate, as if trying to erase any memory of anyone else that had been there since him. And for a moment, you allowed yourself to be lost in it, to be consumed by the fire that was him.

He set you back against the sheets of your bed, eyes hungry as they trailed over every inch of your exposed skin. He settled over you, his frame broad as it obstructed your ability to think - or see - anything but him. His hands slid down your body, caressing your waist, your hips, before slipping into the band of your panties. He tugged them off, tossing them aside with a primal growl that made your stomach flutter.

“Unreal,” Joe hummed under his breath, his eyes roving over your bare form, his fingertips tracing the outline of your thighs, your belly, the swell of your breasts. The word seemed to hang in the air, a declaration of his desire, a claim of ownership.

You felt a shiver of anticipation, your body responding to his touch despite the chaos in your mind. You leaned up, your hands finding the hem of his shirt and tugging it over his head, revealing the hard planes of his chest, his muscles flexing in the dim light. Your eyes met again, a silent challenge, a silent question, a silent promise of what was to come.

With a low sound, his hands slid down to your thighs, urging them apart as he settled between your legs. The heat of his skin against yours was almost too much to bear, and you found yourself arching up to meet him, your nails digging into his back as he kissed your neck, your collarbone, and your breasts. His mouth was everywhere, leaving a trail of fire in its wake, and you could feel yourself spiraling out of control. The pads of his fingers traced circles on your inner thighs, moving higher, closer to the center of your need, until you were writhing beneath him.

“Joe, please,” you begged, the words slipping out unbidden. He chuckled darkly, his eyes gleaming with a hunger that was almost predatory. He knew exactly what he was doing to you, and it was a power trip he didn’t even bother hiding.

“Gimme me a minute,” he hummed darkly. His thumb grazed your clit, sending a shockwave of pleasure through your body, making your back arch off the bed. “I want to make sure you don’t forget who this pussy knows best,” he whispered, his voice thick with arousal.

Your eyes widened, and you bit your lower lip to stifle a gasp. The possessiveness in his tone was something new, something you had never heard from him before. It was raw, primal, and it sent a thrill through you that you couldn’t ignore.

Joe’s fingers teased and prodded with a firm pressure that had your hips moving instinctively. He watched your face, his eyes hooded and intense, as if memorizing every reaction. His free hand slid up your torso to the sides of your neck, giving it a trying squeeze that made you moan. The sound was music to his ears, and his mouth found yours again, his tongue demanding entry as his hand continued its merciless torment.

The sensations were overwhelming, and you couldn’t help but respond to his dominance. Your legs fell open wider, giving him full access, begging for more. And Joe delivered, his fingers slipping into your wetness, his eyes never leaving yours. He watched your face contort with pleasure, his own expression a mix of satisfaction and hunger.

“You’re so wet for me, baby,” he murmured, his voice thick with lust. “Always so wet, so ready. I love that about you.”

Your eyes rolled back in your head as he worked you over, his thumb pressing down on your clit as his fingers curled inside you. You could feel your orgasm approaching, a storm cloud gathering on the horizon, ready to break at any moment. You didn’t know if you could handle it, didn’t know if you wanted to handle it.

His hand moved faster, his grip on your neck tightening slightly as he watched you writhe and unravel beneath him. Your breaths grew shorter, your moans louder, until you were practically sobbing for release. And when it came, it was like nothing you had ever felt before. It burst through you like a tidal wave, drowning you in pleasure so intense it was almost painful. Your body spasmed around his hand as you rode out the wave, Joe’s eyes never leaving your face, his thumb pressing down harder on your clit as he watched you come apart.

When the tremors finally subsided, you lay there, panting and boneless, staring up at the ceiling. The room was spinning, and you could feel Joe’s weight on top of you, his cock pressing against your thigh. He kissed you deeply, his tongue tangling with yours, as if trying to claim your mouth the same way he had claimed your body. And for a moment, you let him, savoring the taste of him, the feel of his hardness against you, the scent of his sweat and cologne.

“On your stomach, pretty girl, just like that,” Joe ordered, his voice gruff with need.

You mindlessly complied, rolling onto your stomach with a shiver. The coolness of the sheets against your overheated skin was a stark contrast to the heat of Joe’s touch. You felt his hand glide over your back, tracing the line of your spine before it trailed back down, his thumb rubbing tight circles into the base of your spine as he distracted you from the anticipation as he pulled a condom on. Then, without warning, his hand connected with your ass in a firm slap that made you yelp and jolt forward. You looked over your shoulder at him, eyes wide and questioning.

“Want you to remember me every time you sit down tomorrow,” Joe said with a smirk, his eyes ablaze with possessiveness. He grabbed a pillow and placed it under your hips, shifting your ass a bit higher. You could feel his cock, hot and heavy, pressing against you. The head of it slid against your wetness, teasing you, making your pussy clench with want. He didn’t waste any more time, pushing into you in one swift movement that made you gasp, your head falling forward into the sheets.

You felt filled to the brim with Joe, his size stretching you in a way that was both unavoidable and incredibly satisfying. You could feel him everywhere, his grip on your hips tightening as he started to move. He was relentless, his thrusts deep and demanding, setting a pace that had you panting and moaning into the sheets beneath you. You knew your thighs were going to be sore in the morning, but you didn’t care. This was what you had been craving, this was what you had been missing.

“You feel so good, baby,” Joe murmured against your ear, his teeth grazing your skin as he whispered sweet nothings that sent shivers down your spine. You could feel his breath hot and ragged against your neck, his hips slapping against your ass with each thrust. It was needed, it was carnally satisfying, and it was everything you had been trying to ignore.

Your eyes squeezed shut, and you bit down on a stray pillow to muffle your moans. You didn’t want to admit it, but Joe had a way of making you feel like no one else ever could. It was infuriating and intoxicating all at once. Your hands clawed at the sheets, trying to find purchase, as Joe’s rhythm grew more intense. You could feel your orgasm building again, a slow burn that was starting at your toes and working its way up.

“Fuck, Joe,” you murmured, your voice muffled by the fabric. He chuckled, the sound sending vibrations through your body.

“Just how you like it, huh?” he said, his voice a low rumble in your ear. You whimpered, unable to form words as he continued to fuck you relentlessly.

Your eyes squeezed shut, the sensation of him inside you was overwhelming. Each thrust was like a declaration of his claim, each slap of skin on skin echoing through the room. He was everywhere, his heat enveloping you, his scent infiltrating your senses. It was too much and not enough all at the same time.

“Mm, that’s right,” Joe encouraged, his voice thick with pleasure as he watched the way you responded to his touch. “You need more from me, don’t you?”

You choked out a strained 'yes', the words trapped in your throat by the intensity of your building climax. You felt him shift behind you, his cock sliding out of you briefly before he turned you onto your back. He hovered over you, his eyes burning with desire. His hand found your chin, tilting your head back as he kissed you again, his tongue plunging deep.

With a powerful surge, he thrust back inside you, filling you completely. Your nails raked down his back, your legs wrapping around his waist as you tried to hold on to the last shreds of your sanity. The sensation was exquisite, his length stroking you in ways that only he seemed to know how to. You could feel your body responding to him, your inner walls tightening around him as he picked up the pace.

“Love being inside you, always have,” Joe murmured, his eyes locked onto yours as he pushed deeper, his hips moving in a rhythm that had you both racing towards the edge. Your breathing grew more ragged, your breasts heaving with each thrust. “You’re so fucking perfect, baby. Fuckin' made for me.”

Your eyes fluttered shut again, the words playing on repeat in your head, echoing through your body with every stroke. You knew you shouldn’t let his words affect you, but they did. They hit you in a place you thought you had closed off to him through the distance. A place that was still raw and tender, despite the time apart.

“Missed your pretty voice whispering my name. Can you say it again for me?” Joe rasped, his teeth grazing your neck.

“Joe,” you breathed, your voice shaky and needy. His name fell from your lips like a prayer, and you felt his cock swell at the sound.

“Say you missed me,” Joe urged, his eyes searching yours as he continued to drive into you. His movements grew more urgent, each thrust more forceful than the last.

“I missed you,” you whispered, the words slipping out before you could stop them. His eyes flared with triumph and need, his strokes becoming more powerful. He slammed into you, pushing you further into the sheets, with such a fervor that made the headboard thump against the wall with every thrust.

“Fuck, yes,” Joe groaned, his voice strained as he pushed into you. The sound of the headboard colliding with the wall grew louder, punctuating the air with a steady rhythm that matched his own. “Missed you too, more than you know,” he murmured against your skin.

Your eyes squeezed shut, the confession sending a bolt of heat straight to your core. You wrapped your legs around him tighter, your heels digging into his ass as you encouraged him to go harder, faster. The feeling of his cock hitting just the right spot inside you was divine, and you knew you were close.

“I'm sorry,” Joe murmured, his breath hot against your neck as he kissed his way across your throat. “I'm sorry I've been an asshole. Did I hurt you?” He didn’t stop moving, his thrusts still deep and demanding.

Your eyes flew open, and you stared up at the ceiling, your heart racing. The tenderness in his voice was unexpected, and it hit you like a punch to the gut. You couldn’t bring yourself to respond verbally or physically, too ashamed to admit the truth out loud. But Joe read you like a book, his gaze searching your expression for confirmation.

“I know I did,” he said, his voice low and remorseful. He slowed his pace, his strokes becoming more deliberate as if trying to convey his regret through every touch. “But I’m not gonna let you go again, baby. I promise you that. You’re mine, and I’ll make it up to you, every single fucking day if I have to.”

Your heart swelled at his words, even though a part of you knew you shouldn’t let them affect you. But here you were, lying beneath him, your body singing with pleasure, and you couldn’t help but believe him.

“Okay.” You whispered, still avoiding his gaze as your lips pouted in thought.

Joe’s expression softened, and he leaned down to kiss you, his hips stilling for a brief moment. When he pulled back, he said, “Gonna make you feel so good, baby. Just hold on for me, okay?”

The look in his eyes was earnest, and for a moment, all the tension between the two of you dissipated. You whispered your approval, your hands moving to his face, your thumbs tracing the sharp line of his jaw. You could feel his muscles tense as he took a deep breath, then his hips began to move again, slow and steady, as if he were savoring every inch of you. His eyes remained fixed on yours as he pushed into you, each stroke sending a new wave of pleasure crashing over you.

Your walls tightened around him, your body responding to his gentle dominance. His hands roamed over your skin, leaving a trail of fire in their wake. He kissed you with a tenderness that was at odds with the roughness of your fucking, his tongue dancing with yours, tasting every corner of your mouth. It was as if he was trying to claim you all over again, to erase every memory you had of anyone else.

And for a moment, you let yourself believe there was no one else.

Joe’s eyes searched yours, his expression a mix of lust and something deeper, something that made your stomach flip. His movements grew more calculated, his hips snapping against yours as he drove deeper. You could feel yourself climbing, your body coiling tightly around him, ready to shatter.

“Look at me, baby,” Joe murmured, his voice thick with desire. “I need to see your eyes when you come for me. I need to know it’s all for me.”

Your eyes opened, meeting Joe’s intense gaze. His eyes were like blue flames, burning into your soul. You could feel the pressure building within you, your orgasm threatening to break free. Your moans and whines were strangled as they escaped your throat, your breaths coming in quick pants as you tried to hold on.

He leaned down, whispering in your ear, “Good girl. Let go for me. Take what you need from me, baby. Wanna hear you scream my name when you do it. Give it to me. Give it all to me.”

The words were like a trigger, setting you off into an explosion of sensation. You moaned his name, your body convulsing around him as you shattered into a million pieces. Your nails dug into his skin, your legs tightening around his waist as the most intense orgasm of your life ripped through you. It was as if every nerve ending in your body was on fire, each spark igniting a new wave of pleasure.

His own climax followed closely, his hips jerking as he buried himself deep inside you, groaning out his release as it spilled into the condom preventing his proximity from truly reaching you. Joe's weight pressed you into the mattress, his breathing heavy in your ear. You remained connected for a few moments, your hearts pounding in sync. Slowly, he pulled out, rolling to the side and disposing of the condom before pulling you into his arms.

Your mind raced as you lay there, your body still trembling. You felt Joe's thumb stroking your cheek, wiping away a stream of tears you hadn't even realized had fallen. He kissed the bridge of your nose, his touch gentle and soothing.

“I've got you,” he whispered, pulling you closer. “I'm not going anywhere.”

You curled into him, the weight of his words pressing down on your chest. Joe’s arms around you felt like home, and you didn’t want to leave that behind.

You sighed, deflating against him with no energy to question his intentions or the future. For now, all that mattered was the warmth of his embrace. The comforting beat of his heart against your ear lulled you into a sense of peace you hadn't felt in months. The two of you lay there in the afterglow of passion, your breaths slowly syncing as you held each other tightly.

Your head continued to spin over the next few days, the intensity of that night with Joe replaying in your mind like a highlight reel you couldn’t turn off. Each time you saw Andrei at the gym or exchanged texts, you felt that dreadful pang of guilt. The sweetness of his smile and the genuine concern in his eyes made you feel like the worst kind of person for indulging him when you couldn't get Joe off your mind.

“I'm the worst,” you groaned to Jess one evening, a week after Joe’s unexpected visit. You were lounging in Jess and Sam’s living room, a bottle of wine between the two of you.

Jess looked at you, her expression a mix of confusion and concern. “What do you mean, babe?”

You took a deep breath and recounted the evening with Joe, leaving out the explicit details but sharing enough to paint the picture. Jess’ eyes grew wider with every word, until finally, she spoke.

“Yikes. You might be in deeper than you think,” Jess said, her voice a mix of shock and amusement. She took a sip of her wine, her eyes fluttering over to Sam as he took a seat next to her, his arm wrapping around her shoulders. “Babe, did you know about this?”

Sam looked at you, his expression begging you to play along. “Know what?”

You rolled your eyes with a huff, “Samuel, please. Did Joe say anything to you?”

Sam’s eyes darted to his fiancee whose eyebrow arched in challenge before he cleared his throat. “No actually. I told him to talk to you about the Andrei stuff, but he didn’t say anything happened.” He took a sip of his sports drink, the in-season replacement for his usual beer. “He's actually been pretty tight-lipped about everything, to be honest. Did you guys ever talk it out like I told him to?”

You sighed, playing with the stem of your wine glass. “Sort of. He said some stuff that... I don’t know. It just messed with my head. He said he missed me and that he’s not letting me go again. And when we were together... it was like nothing had changed.”

Jess’s eyes searched yours, understanding dawning as she frowned. “In a good way? Or in a...”

“In a way that seriously makes me question my self-respect,” you replied, your voice laced with frustration and self-pity. You took a long sip of your wine. “And now I’ve got Andrei, who’s so sweet and caring, but he’s also... I don’t know. He’s just different.”

Jess leaned in, her expression earnest. “Look, I know Joe’s got that... that pull, you know? And it’s easy to get swept up in it. But you can’t ignore what you have with Andrei either. Maybe you should take a step back from both of them and figure out what you really want.”

You nodded, knowing Jess was right. But the thought of cutting ties with either of them made your stomach twist. You enjoyed the excitement of Joe, the comfort of familiarity, but there was something about Andrei's gentle persistence that was equally intoxicating. You took a deep breath, setting your wine glass aside.

“I know you’re right,” you said, rubbing your temples. “But it’s so complicated. I don’t want to lead Andrei on or hurt him.”

“What about Joe?” Sam asked, breaking the silence. “I know you guys were never officially together, but do you care about potentially hurting him?”

Your gaze drifted to the floor. “Honestly? I don't. Not in the same way. With Joe, it's complicated. He's complicated. I don't even know if he'd ever truly let himself be hurt by me.”

Sam and Jess exchanged a look, the gravity of the situation settling over them. “Maybe you should just talk to them,” Sam suggested, his voice gentle. “You owe them that much, at least.”

You nodded, the weight of his words sinking in. You knew he was right. It was only fair to be honest with both Joe and Andrei about your feelings. But the thought of that conversation, of potentially losing one or both of them, was worrying.

Andrei felt like he was slowly going insane, his eyes scanning every line of your last text to him over two weeks ago. He had tried calling, but you always seemed to be busy or your phone went straight to voicemail. With the Bengals' season reaching its peak, he had been thrown into a whirlwind of games and practices, leaving him little time to dwell on his feelings. But now, with the team entering their Bye Week, he had nothing to distract him from the hold you had on his thoughts.

On the second day off, unable to stand it any longer, Andrei found himself at your gym again. He hoped to catch you, to talk things through, to understand what was happening. When he saw you, you looked stunning in a sage green workout set that hugged your curves in all the right ways. He approached, his heart racing, his mind a whirlwind of questions and fears.

“Hey,” he called out, his voice calling out softly through the sparsely populated gym. You looked up, your eyes briefly widening before you schooled your expression into something more neutral. He could tell you were surprised to see him, but there was something else there, something that looked suspiciously like anxiety.

You stood from your spot on the floor where you were stretching, casually reaching for your water bottle. “Hey, Andrei,” you greeted him coolly, your eyes avoiding his.

Andrei’s stomach twisted, his mind racing with a thousand things to say. He took a step closer, his eyes searching your features for any sign of your connection. “Can we talk?”

You hesitated, glancing around the gym before nodding. The two of you found a quiet spot in the corner, the clinking of exercise equipment the only soundtrack to your conversation. He watched as you took a sip of water, your eyes desperately trying to find something to focus on other than him. It was clear you were avoiding eye contact, and his heart sank.

“Look, I’m sorry if I misunderstood things and freaked you out,” Andrei began, his voice tentative. “I just... I don’t know. I can’t stop thinking about you, and I don’t get why you’re avoiding me.”

Your eyes finally met his, and he was taken aback by the sadness in them. You sighed, setting your water bottle down. You began to clear your throat to speak but paused, your hand picking at a piece of lint dusting your top. Andrei felt his heart racing, unsure of what you were about to say.

“If you don’t want to see me anymore, just tell me,” Andrei said, his voice thick with emotion. “But don’t ghost me. That’s not who I thought you were.”

You could only look at him, your chest tightening at his words. The truth was, you didn’t know what you wanted. Your mind was a whirlwind of Joe’s gravity and Andrei’s sweetness. You took a deep breath, your eyes never leaving his. “It’s not that, Andrei. There was a situation that came up and... I just need some space to figure things out. It’s nothing you did, I promise.”

He searched your face, looking for any hint of what you were referring to, but you offered nothing more. Andrei nodded slowly, his Adam's apple bobbing with an unspoken question. “That’s all I’m asking for. Just tell me if you need some time. I’ll wait, I just... I can’t ignore the way I feel about you. And if you don’t feel the same, then I need to know that.”

Your eyes softened, your heart torn in two. You reached out, placing a hand on his arm. “Andrei, I feel the same. I really do.”

He searched your eyes for any hint of a lie, finding none. The relief visibly washed over him. “So, what’s the deal, then? Why the distance?”

You took a deep breath, your mind racing with the events of the past few weeks. You had been avoiding Joe's calls too, the fear of what you might admit in the heat of the moment too strong to risk. The guilt was eating at you. “It’s complicated. I have some personal things to figure out. And I don’t want to lead you on, Andrei.”

Andrei nodded, his eyes never leaving yours. “Okay. I can give you space. But, when you’re ready, can we talk again? Maybe go on an actual date?”

You felt a rush of warmth from the earnestness in his voice.

“Sure,” you said, your voice soft. Andrei's smile was like the sun breaking through the clouds. All he wanted to do was give in to the hope that filled him at your words, to press his lips to yours and show you just how far gone he was. But he knew you needed space. So, with a nod, he stepped back.

“I’ll give you some time. But just know that I’m not going anywhere, okay?” His words were firm, a declaration that resonated in the quiet corner of the gym.

You nodded. Your throat was tight with the effort of holding back your true turmoil. “Okay,” you whispered.

Andrei’s eyes searched yours, as if trying to read the story behind your guarded expression. He smiled slowly, a mix of hope and pain etched into the lines of his face. “Cool, just text me when you’re up for it. We can keep it casual, no pressure.” His hands buried in his pockets as he took a step back, giving you the space he promised.

You felt a pang of longing as you watched him walk away, his broad shoulders slightly slumped. The reality of your situation was like a heavy weight pressing down on you, and you couldn’t ignore the sinking feeling in your stomach. You needed to talk to Joe, to understand why he had come back into your life so suddenly and what he wanted. But the thought of facing him, of admitting to your feelings and the mess you had created, was terrifying.

Days turned into nights and the week stretched on. Your thoughts consumed you, a tumultuous storm of emotions. You went through the motions of your daily routines, but your mind was elsewhere, replaying every moment with both Joe and Andrei. The intensity of your feelings for Joe was undeniable, but the tenderness Andrei offered was something you hadn’t experienced before.

So with a deep breath, you reached for your phone and typed out a message to Andrei. “Hey, I’m free tomorrow. If you’re still down, maybe we can grab brunch?”

Your heart skipped a beat as you hit send, the gravity of your decision setting in. Andrei’s response was almost instant, his excitement palpable even through the screen as he offered a time and a location for your date.

The next morning, as you sat across the table from him at a cozy bistro, the scent of pastries and fruity drinks mingling in the air, you felt a mix of anxiety and anticipation. The conversation flowed easily, filled with laughter and the kind of comfort that comes from unguarded openness. But there was a new tension between the two of you, a known thread of desire that hadn’t been there before.

You found yourself leaning in closer to him, drawn to his gentle smile and the way his soft giggles crinkled the corners of his eyes. When he walked you to the door of your apartment, you held on to a half hope that he would kiss you. But when he just gave you a warm, lingering hug before pulling back to look into your eyes, you realized that maybe this was exactly what you needed. A break from the intensity that Joe brought. A chance to explore something new, something that was patiently waiting for you to catch up instead of dragging you along for the ride.

The door clicked shut behind you, leaving you in the quiet embrace of your apartment. The scent of Andrei’s cologne lingered on your clothes, a sweet reminder of the date that couldn’t have gone any better. You took a deep breath and leaned against the door, your heart pounding.

Andrei hadn’t stopped smiling since he hugged you close that morning. His cheeks constantly flushed, and his eyes gleamed whenever he thought of you. He felt like he was floating, his every step lighter, his spirits soaring. He had been waiting for this moment since he first met you, the chance to show you that he was more than just a younger teammate of your best friend’s fiance. He wanted to show you the man he was and the love he had to offer.

The other guys immediately picked up on the change in Andrei's mood, his energy at practice the first day back from the Bye unmistakably lighter. Tee and Charlie exchanged knowing glances, and Chase was the first to speak up. “You keep smiling like that, you might be able to start catching with your mouth.”

Andrei chuckled, shaking his head as he took his place for the next drill. He hadn't realized he had been smiling so much, but he couldn't help it. The date with you had been like a breath of fresh air, and he was eager to see you again. You hadn’t stopped texting since that day, lightly flirting and setting up another date. He was trying to keep things casual, trying to moderate his excitement, but it was hard when he felt like he was finally making progress.

On the other side of the field, Joe noticed Andrei’s change in demeanor, his own mood plummeting. You had shown no interest in seeing him again, and the realization that you might have moved on with someone else—someone on his own team—was a bitter pill to swallow. He threw himself into practice, pushing his body to the limit to distract himself from the ache in his chest. But every time he looked over, Andrei’s smile was like a knife twisting in the wound.

“I’m down bad, bro,” Andrei chuckled, his eyes crinkling as he watched Tee and Ja’Marr laugh at the honesty of his admission. “I haven’t even kissed her yet and she’s all I can think about.”

“You haven’t kissed her?” Tee’s eyebrows shot up, incredulous.

Andrei shrugged, his cheeks flushing slightly. “I want to, but I don’t want to rush it. I’ll do it when it feels right.”

Tee nodded, understanding. “Just don’t wait too long, man. Girls like that, they don’t come around often. You gotta let her know what’s up before someone else does.”

“Speakin’ of, I’m surprised Joe was cool with you two hanging out,” Ja’Marr said casually, rolling his shoulders as the words spilled out casually.

Andrei's eyes snapped over to him, his smile fading. “Joe? What do you mean?”

Ja’Marr looked up, catching the shift in Andrei's expression. “You didn’t know?” He paused, realizing he might have just stepped into a minefield of unspoken locker room drama. “My bad, bro. Never mind.”

But it was too late. Tee stepped forward, shaking his head at Ja’Marr’s retraction. “Nah, finish what you were saying. Andrei deserves to know what’s goin’ on.”

Ja’Marr took a deep breath. “Okay, so, they had a thing a while ago. No labels or nothing, but it was definitely more exclusive than just hooking up. They decided to cool it off because Joe was focused on rehabbing his wrist, and she didn’t like feeling like a distraction. But they do this weird hot and cold shit every now and then, it’s toxic as fuck, honestly. But that’s just how they like it, I guess. Sam swears they soulmates but I don’t know about all that.”

“Damn,” Tee breathed out, his eyes wide as saucers as the information sank in. Andrei's heart dropped to his stomach, the revelation hitting him like a sledgehammer. The world around him grew quiet, the laughter and shouts from the other players fading into the background. He stared at the football in his hand, his mind racing.

“What the fuck, man?” He looked up at Ja’Marr, his voice low and tight. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

Ja’Marr held up his hands in a placating gesture. “Look, we all knew you had a thing for her, but it’s not my place to stir shit up where there might not be anything. Besides, Joe never talks about what they got going on, you know how he is. You and Joe are cool, and she’s not his girlfriend. You do you, you know?”

But Andrei didn’t know. He had thought he had a shot with you, that the connection was real and genuine. But now, knowing that Joe had been in the picture before - and possibly still lurking in the background - the doubt began to creep in. He couldn’t help but feel like he was just the rebound, the second choice. The easygoing charm that usually filled him was gone, replaced by a storm of confusion and anger.

After practice, Andrei went straight to his locker, avoiding Joe’s gaze as he packed up his gear. His mind was racing, trying to piece together what this meant for him. He shot off a text to you, asking to meet up at your place. He needed to hear it from you, to understand the depth of what had happened between you and Joe.

When he arrived, there was a storm in Andrei's eyes that you had never seen before. You felt a sinking feeling in your gut, knowing that something was wrong. He stepped into your apartment, and you could see the tension coiled in his stiff shoulders. He didn’t bother with pleasantries, his question coming out in a rush. “Did you and Joe have something going on before me?”

Your heart stopped. You hadn’t expected this. You took a deep breath and nodded slowly. “We did. But it’s over. It’s been over for a while.”

Andrei’s eyes searched yours, looking for a lie, for any reason to believe you were just playing games. “Then why didn’t you tell me?” His voice was tight, each word forced through gritted teeth.

You felt the walls closing in on you, the guilt of your omission weighing heavily on your chest. “I didn’t want to hurt you, Andrei. It was a complicated situation, and I didn’t know what to say without messing things up between us. I care about you, and I didn’t want us figuring things out to be tainted by me explaining my past with Joe.”

“I don’t care if you hurt me,” Andrei said, his voice filled with intensity. “I care about being with you, about us. How could you think keeping that from me would be better than letting me decide for myself?” His gaze was unwavering, and you knew he wasn’t going to let this go without a fight.

You looked away, your eyes stinging. You knew you messed up, but you didn’t know how to fix it. “I’m sorry, I just—”

Andrei’s hand on your cheek made you stop. He turned your face back to his, his eyes searching yours. “Don’t apologize. Just tell me if there’s still something between you two. Because if there is, I can’t do this. I can’t compete with him.”

Your heart clenched at the raw honesty in his voice. You took a deep breath and met his gaze. “No, there’s nothing going on. I want to move on.”

Andrei studied your face, the tension in his body slowly uncoiling as he saw the sincerity in your eyes. He took a step closer, his thumb brushing over the stress lines marring your face. “Okay,” he murmured, his voice thick with emotion. “Okay.”

The two of you stood there for a moment, the air between you charged with a tension that had shifted from anger to something more complex. Andrei leaned in, capturing your mouth in a kiss that was both tender and demanding. It was a declaration of intent, a promise that he wouldn’t back down. The kiss grew deeper, more urgent, and you felt yourself melting into it, your hands curling around his shoulders as if you were holding on for dear life.

When you finally broke apart, panting, Andrei searched your eyes again.

“Fuck it.”

He didn’t need to say more. With a newfound sense of urgency, he scooped you up into his arms and carried you to the bedroom, your kisses growing more frantic with each step. The weight of your confessions and the unspoken tension between you had transformed into a fiery passion that could no longer be contained.

In the dim room, you undressed each other slowly, as if savoring every moment. Your hands explored familiar yet new territories, the heat of your bodies melding together as if you were two puzzle pieces that had finally found their rightful place. The intimacy was intense, a blend of attraction and lust that neither of you had ever experienced together before.

“Are you sure?” Andrei’s voice was a gentle rumble against your skin as he paused, his hand hovering over the clasp of your bra. You nodded, the anticipation in your eyes unmistakable.

The rest of your clothes fell away, and you were left in nothing but the glow of the streetlights filtering through the blackout shades. Andrei took his time, exploring your body with a reverence that made your heart swell. Each touch was deliberate, each kiss a silent promise that he would be different from Joe, that he would treat you as more than an option.

Andrei’s hips moved in a steady rhythm, his eyes never leaving yours, as if he was afraid that if he blinked, you would vanish forever.

“Keep those pretty eyes on me, I don’t want you to slip away from me again,” Andrei whispered against your ear, his breath hot and heavy as your bodies moved together. “Gonna make sure you don’t forget me, no matter what happens with him.”

Your eyes searched his, a mix of want and fear. You nodded, your voice a breathy whisper as your eyes rolled back with a flutter of pleasure. He was so deep, so gentle, so deliciously slow as he pushed into you, making you feel like the most precious thing in the world. Your calves resting against his shoulders, legs parted, giving him full access, and he took it with a groan of pleasure that made your toes curl.

Andrei’s eyes never left yours, as if he was trying to memorize every detail of your face in the throes of passion. It was raw and beautiful, and it made your heart ache in a way you didn’t know was possible. You could feel yourself letting go, giving in to the moment.

“I’m all yours,” you murmured, your voice thick with need. Andrei’s response was to kiss you again, hard and demanding, as if he was sealing your fate with every touch of your tongues. The sound of your bodies coming together filled the room, a testament to your connection.

His hips began to pick up their pace, propping himself up on one elbow, his other hand roaming your body, leaving trails of fire wherever it went. Your chest heaved, your breath hitching as you felt yourself getting closer to the edge. You were falling, and you hoped you might never get back up again.

“Fuck,” you whimpered as he reached between you, his thumb circling your clit with a precision that made your back arch off the bed. Andrei’s eyes were intense, watching your reaction with a hunger that only fueled your own. The room was a cocoon of desire, the air thick with the scent of your arousal and the sound of your ragged breaths.

“Good girl, takin’ my cock like this,” Andrei groaned, his teeth clenched as he fought to hold back. He knew he had to give you what you needed, what he knew you deserved. He could feel the tension building in your body, the way you tightened around him with every stroke. He leaned in closer, whispering sweet nothings in your ear, his words hot and fast. “You’re so perfect, baby, so fucking perfect.”

“More, please, I need more,” you moaned, your voice shaking. He could feel the desperation in your words, the need for release, and he was more than happy to oblige. His hand found your neck, his thumb gently caressing your pulse point as he picked up his pace, his hips slamming into you with a force that was both gentle and fierce.

“Come for me, baby, come all over my cock,” Andrei urged, his voice low and demanding. And as if on cue, your body obeyed, the tension snapping as you shuddered beneath him, your orgasm washing over you like a tidal wave. He watched as you came undone, the sight of your pleasure etching itself into his soul. He couldn’t hold out much longer, the feel of you tightening around him pushing him over the edge.

With a moan of his own, he came, his release hot and powerful as he filled you. He collapsed next to you, his tanned chest rising and falling as he tried to catch his breath. You blinked slowly, biting back a smile as you felt him shiver against you, his milky white spend slowly leaking out of you.

You turned onto your side, your bottom lip pulled between your teeth as a hand came down to brush through Andrei's dark hair, your eyes shining with a newfound fondness for the man beside you. He pulled you closer, your limbs tangled together like vines, and you felt a warmth spread through you and couldn't help the giggle that escaped. Your giggles spurred Andrei on, unable to suppress his own chuckle as you two erupted into laughter at the absurdity of your situation.

The room grew quiet, the only sound was your mingled breathing and the occasional creak of the bed. Andrei’s thumb traced patterns on your bare shoulder, his eyes studying your profile in the soft light. “I meant what I said,” he murmured, his voice serious despite the playfulness of moments before. “I want to be the only one for you. I can handle whatever shit comes up with Joe. I just need you to be honest with me.”

You swallowed hard, feeling a knot in your stomach. The weight of your decision settled on your shoulders like a heavy blanket. “I will,” you said finally, tilting your head up to catch his eye. “I promise.” He responded with a soft, lingering kiss on your swollen lips.

Eventually, Andrei’s grip loosened, and he rolled away from you, smiling as you whined at the sudden loss of his warmth. “I need to use the bathroom. Need me to get something to clean you up?”

“Please,” you replied with a tired smile, watching him stride across the room naked. The confidence in his step was something you hadn’t seen from him before - not off the football field at least - and it made your stomach flutter. He closed the door behind him, humming softly to himself. You settled into the sheets, releasing a sigh of contentment.

But like clockwork, it didn’t last long. It never lasted long.

Your phone lit up on the nightstand, catching your attention with the notification of a new text. You rolled over, reaching for it lazily and your eyes widened as you saw Joe’s contact name on the screen. The message was deviously simple, as it always was. Your heart beat out of your chest as you read it to yourself.

Are you free tomorrow? We should do something. Miss seeing you.

[prozacwhorehouse]

hi! not sure if your requests are open rn but if they are, could you do a snl cast member reader fic where shes on a late night show and the host brings up how sweet her and mgg were being to fans on the street or something similar?

requests are always open my dear!! I hope this is similar to what you had in mind 🙌

just to set the scene, SNL!gf is on Jimmy Fallon here 🙏

—————————————————————————

“first off, since this is your first time on the show I want to congratulate you on all your SNL success,” the crowd cheers and claps at the mention, “i think we’re all in agreement that you were a remarkable addition to the cast, and such a hit so quickly - how was that for you?”

“I’m still trying to come down from it - it’s really weird to go from comedy gigs in bars to national television, but it was also the greatest thing to ever happen to me. I’m so grateful to have been blessed with such an opportunity and the friends I’ve made. truly a dream.” the crowd cheers once more, filling your heart with so much warmth, you hold your hands to you chest and nod in appreciation.

“speaking of friends you’ve made, we recently had marcello here, where he spoke so highly of you,” he explains. “i’m assuming you’ve seen that?”

“of course i saw it, i have a bunch of snotty tissues to prove it, cause it made me cry,” you smile as the audience laughs. “it was very sweet. i have a so much love for him.”

“speaking of love…” jimmy starts and you sigh, cheeks heating up when you respond, “i knew this was coming,” fake rolling your eyes.

“you and matthew gray gubler,” he hints, and the crowd goes wild, cheering and clapping because they’ve been waitinggg for more info on the two of you. the cheer even louder when a picture of the two of you from your Instagram out and about appears on the screen behind you.

“yes…” you raise your eyebrows, “continue,” you giggle with jimmy, who is very clearly revving up a question.

“we’re all dying to know where this came from!” he finally bursts, curiosity getting the best of him, the crowds sounds backing him up.

“yeah, it is a strange crossover, i will admit that. but, we met when aubrey plaza hosted the show two years back. she introduced us when he came to watch, but it wasn’t until i ran into him at a thrift store in the city a few months ago that we got to talking - and now he pretty much lives on my couch,” the audience laughs at your choice of words but also cheers and the hint that you two are possibly living together??

“well the fans love you guys - a lot of people say you act like you don’t know you’re famous when people come up to you in the street.” he mentions, with a laugh.

“famous is a big word, which i don’t think applies to me, definitely him though - either way, we’re all people. and i mean these are the people that got me to where i am. at the end of the day I’m always like ‘i made so many new friends today’, and, i don’t know. we love meeting people, i love all of you” you smile to the audience as they clap.

“there are multiple videos of the two of you, one of you guys paying for a strangers meal, one where matthew gives his shoes to a girl on the street because hers were bothering her, and you inviting some girls on the street to your show? i mean you guys are just insanely nice to complete strangers. it’s really awesome, I aspire to be like you guys,” he states.

“like I said, they don’t feel like strangers. i can remember all the people I’ve met. it’s very special. Matthew is the same way - we’re very social people, so every interaction we have is the highlight of our days. and everyone is so kind. I think if someone came up to me and said ‘i hate you you suck,’ I probably wouldn’t respond so humbly,” the audience laughs at your statement, “but yeah. i just like nice people. And Matthew just likes giving people his shoes, I guess,” the crowd clapping and chuckling once more at this.

“that’s just the kind of person he is. there have been so many occasions where I’ve walked around the city in a trenchcoat that is way too big for me when I refused to wear a jacket, and got cold anyway, and he’d give me his. i like to sleep cold, so he endures the tundra that is my apartment at nighttime. he will really do anything for anyone. someday it’ll get him in trouble, but for now, it’s one of the reasons i love him.” And the crowd is like LOVE AS IN PLATONIC OR LOVE AS IN LOVE???

Once again this all goes viral and I’m sure you can picture the comments. They’re raving about how passionately you talk about him. If you ever break up, the world may explode!!

taglist :

@sarcasm-and-stiles @mystargirl-interlude @rubyirene @ashrrams @ghostatrixx @forevermorepassionate @saint-boudica @reidmarieprentiss @awakeforu @spencerlicious @kittycat-april @baudarling @delusional-4-fake-people @avenlymars @angelinajolie0213 @arusio @littleslayofhorrors @jezabelle9299 @jaemnationnn @princess-ofthe-pages @flow33didontsmoke

[missriddle03]

heyyy baby how are you i loved you matt story anddd i have request but for chris like reader did video with the triplets car video and like fans start to notice how he is always looking at you like that AND THANK YOUU

hello!!!! im good thanks for asking, wbu? tysmm for saying that :) this took me longer than i thought but seeing as you are my first request ever i wanted to do it properlly. hope u like it <3 @lovetaylorrussellgrr

Title: Favourite girl

parings: fem! reader (y/n) x chris sturniolo

small synopsis: have a look at the request

time to read: 6mins and 30 seconds (average)

word count: 1,449k words

warnings: none :) just a cute fluffy read

song recommended: favourite girl by justin beiber (loosley based on it) p.s i've not listened to it but it came up on yt and thought it would be good to use it for this

The moonlit sky was a pretty sight to see but you and the triplets didn’t see much of it as all of you were getting ready to film a car video. Nick sat in the back next to you whilst Matt and Chris were in their usual seats.

“Hello, hello, hello!” Nick spoke to the camera. You were looking at your phone but put it away once you saw they were recording. “So, we haven’t got a proper idea of today’s video but we have asked you guys to ask us some questions! even though most of them are about y/n”

To that, you let out a small laugh. “I can’t help if I'm a fan favourite”

Chris turned his attention to you and smiled. “You’re everyone’s favourite” Silence followed his statement until Matt decided to talk. “We each have pulled up our instagram responses and now we are going to go through them together” Nick picked up a pair of glasses and put them on his head, he found a pair that was heart shaped and handed them to you as you placed them onto your eyes. Nick took his phone out and took a quick selfie with you. “Okay! First question, who did y/n meet first?” Matt asked as he put his phone away.

A huge smile formed on Nick’s face waiting for your response. You hugged Nick before you spoke, “I met Nick first in school but then he introduced me to Chris and Matt last. Chris and Matt had different classes to me and Nick” you explained. Chris took his phone out to read a question, “Would y/n rather kiss Matt or Chris?” He turned his head to you staring. “There is no way I’m answering that” you protested. Your eyes darted between Chris and Matt but stopped at Chris before rolling your eyes and looking at your phone. You swore you heard Chris say something but if he did it was too quiet.

“Waffles, french toast or pancakes” you grinned at the reference. All of a sudden Nick began shouting. “NO! Not again..I am not dealing with this. This was dealt with and forgotten about, we will not be bringing that up again. NEXT QUESTION!” All three of you laughed as Nick said that. “Okay..okay, so three words that describe you”

Nick spoke first, “Awesome, funny and stylish” You nodded your head in agreement. “I think I’m cool, maybe funny too and the best driver ever” Matt said.

“No cause like, I tried passing my test but I failed on one thing because a car zoomed past me and I was meant to see it but they failed me cause I didn’t go but I can’t go when a car is going over the speed limit” you said. “They should have passed you,” Matt replied.

“I would say I’m actually the funniest, the hottest and a Pepsi enthusiast” Chris put his fingers up like mini finger guns and winked, you couldn’t help but laugh. Meanwhile, Matt and Nick stared at each other again. “How are we related to this guy?” Matt joked. “I guess I would say I’m creative, weird and very smart” You finally answered.

This went on and on for a while, constantly answering questions; “Okay, are you all single?” Matt spoke. Nick and Matt immediately nodded their heads not wanting any edits about them hesitating. “Yes I am single and I like the single life” you answered. Chris was hesitating his answer but all of you knew he was single. “Yeah I am too..for now”

“Is there someone in your life that you like then?” You asked him, he rubbed his hands together and looked at you. “Yeah perhaps there is but she don’t like me like that I don’t think”

“Well if she doesn’t then she doesn’t see how great you are, she obviously isn’t worth your time” you told him. A twinge of jealousy overcame you but you didn’t know why you felt that way, why were you jealous that Chris likes someone? Why was his confession so important to you?

“That is all we have for today’s Friday car video. We hope you enjoyed it,” Nick spoke to the camera. Chris was looking at his hands as he was picking his fingers, Matt took the camera and gave it a big kiss before turning it off. “Do you wanna stay over tonight?” Chris asked you. Matt offered her a snack that was in his car door, you took it and accepted the offer to stay over.

The next week, you told Marylou that you were going to surprise the triplets with a pizza seeing as you went to the UK with your friend for a week and didn’t tell them how long you were going away for. Matt’s car was in their driveway and once you gained the confidence you walked over to the car knocking on the door. You saw them all look at you before opening the door, “Did someone order a pizza?” you said with a smile. You placed the boxes in the car seat next to Nick and then you saw Chris open his car door and give you a hug. “y/n! There’s my favourite girl. I missed you, how have you been?” he asked. He didn’t let go..not just yet. “I’ve been good I wanted to surprise you guys cause I didn’t tell you that I was going to the UK”

Now he let go of the hug once he saw Nick and Matt get out of the car. They each gave you a smile and all of you went into a group hug, “The pizza I got you guys was a meat feast pizza, I made sure I got 2 because I know Nick doesn’t like too much meat on his pizza”

“Thank you so much y/n, I love you,” Nick said. “I’ll wait inside so you guys can finish your video” You said to the guys. Chris waved at you and the boys went back into the car and began eating the pizza.

They shortly came in and you opened your tiktok, your inbox being flooded with tags in edits. A majority of them were you and Chris edits. You decided to open one up, the audio was ‘idfc’ by blackbear. It contained video clips of when you’re talking and Chris looks at you, moments where you’re just standing and he is still looking at you. Every moment where you smiled and he smiled straight away. You swore he never looked at you that much, you remembered some of the videos used were from the video you featured in last time. All the comments were saying how oblivious you were and how you must be dating each other. You looked at another clip and it was dated for today, posted only half an hour ago titled ‘how he talks about her’

“Y/n is not in this video today as she is away with her friend in the UK. I’m not sure when she is getting back but she deserves a little break. I know we have had a lot of messages asking how she is and when she will be in our videos next but we don’t have a definite answer for you guys. I do wish that she was in this video with us but like I said she deserves a break. She works so hard, harder than anyone I know and I’m glad she’s taking some time off even if it’s only for a little while”

You never told them how long you would be away for, when you did go on a mini break you received a message from Chris nearly everyday. You were brought back into reality when Chris sat down next to you, with a smile on his face. “Watcha watching?”

You turned your phone off, “Nothing important,”

“So, I was thinking we could maybe watch a movie. Not sure if Nick and Matt will but we could always have microwave popcorn. Only if you want to of course”

“Sure..why not,”

You weren’t really watching the movie, just focusing on the thoughts in your head. You didn’t want to jump to conclusions but were you the girl he liked? Maybe you felt something for him too…just maybe.

He gave you the popcorn bowl, “I wasn’t sure what you wanted so I mixed the sweet and salted together” Chris was on your opposite side, manspreading with his hands in his jogger pockets. You swore you saw him occasionally looking at you, after all he did say you were his favourite girl.

“Are you okay?” he asked you.

“Yeah, Chris, I am,”

also..should i do a prt 2 the confession???

[literallyrousseau]

𝕹𝖊𝖜 𝖄𝖊𝖆𝖗 𝖆𝖕𝖕𝖗𝖊𝖈𝖎𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 𝖕𝖔𝖘𝖙

I’m not the best with words so this thing will not be as sweet, or even impactful, as I intended. Warning for the frequent repetition of certain words.

Anyways! I ended up on Tumblr in the last few days of December, therefore pretty much exactly a year ago, landing among the Call of Duty fandom almost immediately, meaning the first people I encountered here were @embry-garrick-ravengard and @pedripop.

Dudes, you two are amazing people, fantastic writers and I’m thankful I met you two. No one can have playful banter as well as you, embryo, specially when you’re united with @akingdomscrypt against me. You’re also one of the most well-informed and knowledgeable individuals I’ve met. It’s genuinely so crazy to think I’ve known you and Kyo for this long, that one year ago I was just some dumb anon flooding Embry’s inbox and making the silliest jokes alongside Gabi — and when talking about “silly”, it’s mandatory to mention Creek, who even though disappeared months ago, was a good friend in the start of 2024 and always had me huffing.

It was through Gabi’s and Embry’s blogs that I was able to meet @hyenaspots, a lil gremlin who was also “just some anon”, like me, 365 days in the past. We first chatted through asks and reposts of @embry-garrick-ravengard’s posts, till we finally had the balls and created our own blogs in the beginning of January. You’re a fantastic person, Sam. Seemed like yesterday that we (me, you, Embry and Gabi) were playing Gartic Phone together and making bad photoshops inspired by Creek and @adrawinggnome.

Mr Gnome, sir, we haven’t interacted for a nice while, however the times we did, you always had me chuckling — you are also an incredible writer. It was also around this same time that I’ve met @kylesgarrick, and bro, I can’t refer to you, Andrew, without having flashbacks of the family drama at that time (/pos). Best Australian guy I’ve ever known. AND @sanguivorousmuse, responsible for the realest takes on anything related to Red Dead Redemption. Brother, you were one of my first moots ever, and I have it ingrained in my mind the goofy moments between us and Benny.

THEN WE HAVE YOU, @coyote-with-a-keyboard. Man, I can’t say how happy I am when I see you’re back on Tumblr. You write absolute bangers and is a JJBA fan, which always makes someone 100x greater than they already are. AND MY OTHER JOJOFAG FRIEND: @blond3ang3l. It’s extremely amusing to realize we first bonded by being two dogs for Risotto Nero, which is valid to pretty much any villain in JoJo. I love your posts bro, you’re always cooking with them. Also makes me happy as hell to see a notification about you. @insuke69, you are a fantastic kid. Thank you for being my moot. And @m1dnight-mars, an awesome man — I’m grateful for all the moments we had together.

@arthurlovesarthurmorgan, Arthur, you are also a good person and I’m grateful for the lil conversations we had.

It was maybe in March and April that I met another set of bewildering people. @abitopiia, you’re an amazing girl and all the interactions we had were golden. This seems futile, but I love your blog’s style. Thank you for all the chats we had and all the internal jokes built. @happyfeet3351: JENN, you are also so fucking sweet and awesome, all the times we interacted you were nothing but kind. I’m grateful for being moots with such a kind woman.

And @pussygirlpower. Zuza, I can’t put into words how much I appreciate you. You are a great friend that I’ve grown a lot close to this year. I value every moment I have with you and I’m so proud of everything you achieved this year. Thank you for being there for me. You’re THE Polish femme fatale, the Joe to my Frank.

@theratthatgotyeeted, brooooo. Much like Jenn, you are exceedingly sweet. Thank you for always tagging me in the nicest quizzes and tag chains, I wholeheartedly appreciate it very much.

It was in May that I got as close as someone can get to who came to be my best friend, my bro-husband. @akingdomscrypt, Cal, you deserve everything good in this world, the best of the best and all the recognition a man can receive. My appreciation for you is indescribable: I have no doubt you are the most talented person I know (the true Renaissance man), however your greatness cannot be summarized to ‘merely’ your abilities. No, you are a whole gentleman and everything people should aspire to be: you are kind, sweet, trustworthy, resilient, prudent, understanding, intelligent, funny — it goes beyond simple adjectives. To think that we went from talking to each other on comment sections to chatting everyday for hours puts the biggest smile on my face. You’ve become my safe harbor and for that I need to thank you for listening to me, and being there for me. Thank you for being not just a friend, Cal, but a confidant and an inspiration.

In the second semester of the year, after watching Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon during my winter vacations, I stumbled upon a great author who is working on the greatest masterpieces about the latter: @serotoninandespresso. Brother, your writing is stunning, and not only that but your personality is something else: you are kind, polite and also sweet. It fills me with happiness to see notifications from you and to see your posts on my “For You”. Thank you for being my moot.

When mentioning HOTD, @gayaristocrat comes to mind, one of the biggest Jacaerys appreciators ever. This is somewhat awkward, but I for some reason admire you a bunch (/pos). Had me all cheerful when I saw we had become moots — and I thank you for that.

@adamant1ne, bro, we haven’t interacted much but you seem like a genuinely nice guy. Thanks for earlier!!

@inlandvoid broooo, you also seem to be a great man and I look forward to interacting more with you in the future

@tapiocakisses absolutely love seeing you on my dashboard as well, mate.

To all my other mutuals, I’m wholeheartedly grateful for the “transactions” we have shared with each other. Genuinely, you’re all very important to me. My apologies for not interacting much, and if anyone ever wants to grow closer, I’m open to do so in this year to come. Thank you for all the support.

For anyone who reads this, I earnestly hope that 2025 enters your list of “the best years of your life”‼️ Wish everyone nothing but the very best and that these next 12 months take you all to new heights ‼️🙏

[milfjuulpod]

Guidance, Ch III

A/N: hiii sorry this took so long, all the chapters are posted on my AO3, same username. hopefully the next update will be better, i’m not too proud of this one :,(

previous chapters are on AO3 and my master list, here

You and Melissa had agreed on meeting after school for coffee on Thursday, giving you each time to prepare some work. One of her students was showing signs of dyslexia, and after a one-on-one meeting with the student, the redhead decided to take action. Via email, she gave you some information to get started and make an IEP for her. It was quite early in the year, and with it being your first year doing this job, you were quite nervous. Nonetheless, you put your best foot forward and got to work nearly immediately. 

Of course, your habit of drowning yourself in work caught the attention of others. A knock at your door pulled you away from the research in front of you. “Hey you! I feel like you’ve been here for weeks and we’ve barely bonded,” Janine announced herself, entering the room. The younger teacher was sweet, and even though her overzealous personality could be a bit much, you knew it was coming from a good heart. 

“Sorry, Janine. I get wrapped up in work pretty easily. How’s your Tuesday going? Kids treating you right?” You asked, minimizing the tabs on your computer. 

“Oh my students are great, right now we’re working on fractions and it’s actually going good!” She said enthusiastically. “I’m glad to hear, can I help you with anything?” You continued. 

“Uh, yeah! Jacob and I are going out for trivia on Thursday, you should totally join us! I heard you went to a great university and we would love to spend some time together after school. Have you met Jacob? He’s so sweet you’ll love him, you know actually-” You cut off Janine before she could start one of her infamous rants, which you heard lots about and we’re lucky to avoid until this point. 

“Actually, I can’t Thursday. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to get to know you guys but, I’m actually meeting with Ms. Schemmenti to help one of her students out.”

Janine’s face dropped, and just as quick as it did, she returned to her peppy demeanor. It reminded you of what she previously said about Melissa, and you silently wondered if there was any truth to it. “Oh, no worries. I’m sure we’ll figure something out soon,” Seemingly wanting to avoid more rejection, Janine gathered her things. “Wait, Friday is our half day, right? Maybe we could go grab lunch or something after school? Make up for me missing trivia?” You offered, not wanting to make her feel bad. 

It seemed like you made the right choice, as Janine immediately bounced back. “That would be awesome! I’ll tell Jacob right now, see you around!” 

-

The rest of the week passed by rather quickly, filled with new paperwork and projects that you continued to work on. Thursday came before you knew it, and with the final bell, the plans you had put most of your attention to were gathered, on their way with you to meet Melissa for coffee. 

Opus was gorgeous inside, filled with neutral colors and artwork from the team and local artists. Plants covered the walls and even decorated some tables. It was nice, you were happy to meet the redhead in a place like this. Upon seeing her, you felt your breath catch and couldn’t take your eyes away. Sure, it was right after school so she was wearing the same pink sweater and tight jeans, but something about seeing her more relaxed, outside of the school walls, it made your heart beat a little bit faster. 

“Hey hon, thanks for meeting with me after school. I brought some stuff to brainstorm with…” She trailed off, picking a table for the two of you and immediately covering it with papers and binders. Janine’s voice rang in your head again, and you began to feel insecure about where you stood with Melissa. Maybe even stupid, for thinking she would find a friend in you. 

“That’s fine, I’m gonna grab our coffees, macchiato?” You asked, but Melissa was quick to turn down the offer. “Absolutely not, you buy me coffee all the time. It’s my turn,” she walked past you, gently pushing you to the side with a hand on your back. Just as quickly as you remembered the infamous words about the older teacher, you forgot them. 

The rest of the afternoon was that way. One moment, completely entranced by the woman across the table from you, unable to pull your attention away. The next, avoiding eye contact and feeling uncomfortable and used. Something told you Melissa noticed your switch in behaviors almost every time, the way she would mimic your actions. It was impossible to read her. Maybe she wanted it that way, maybe you just couldn’t read her. 

After a couple of hours of this back and forth, the two of you decided to call it. “Thank you, again, for helping me. It means a lot,” Melissa said outside of the cafe, wind blowing her hair ever so slightly. “Oh…It’s no problem, I’ll see you tomorrow,” You smiled and turned to take your leave, anxiety bubbling at the surface, until a hand grabbed your wrist to face its owner yet again. “Hey, what’s goin’ on with you today? Usually you’re more…I don’t know…upbeat and engaged. Is everything okay?” 

“Yeah, I’m fine, sorry. I just…I mentioned to Janine the lunch you shared with me earlier and she said something that made me a little nervous,” You answered. As much as you didn’t want to tell the truth, you figured lying would be even worse. Instead of replying, Melissa motioned for you to continue. “She said she hoped you weren’t buttering me up for something and why else would you be nice to me?” 

Wrong choice. Melissa’s eyes widened and you could see all the rage she had in her expression. “Oh, so I can’t be nice to the newbie for one day? I gotta get somethin’ out of it? And you believed her…This whole time? Whole time you’ve been buying me coffee and offering to help, what are you trying to get out of it?” She yelled, and didn’t give you any time to retaliate as she got in her car and left you on the steps. 

Defeated, you stood alone for a moment, trying to collect your thoughts. You felt like an idiot, again. For believing what Janine said, and for treating Melissa poorly. You threw your work into the passenger seat of the car and drove to trivia. 

-

“Oh my god! I thought you weren’t coming? Weren’t you going to meet Melissa today?” Janine nearly yelled as she ran from her booth of friends up to you. “Yeah…I did. It didn’t go too well actually so I wanted to come here and at least have a good night. I hope that’s okay?” 

“Of course it is, here come sit with all of us.” Janine led you back to the booth with Jacob and Gregory, happy to be in the company of new friends. “Alright, trivia doesn’t start for another thirty minutes, what happened?” Janine asked, which was followed by Jacob interrogating you as well, and Gregory listening attentively. You explained the entire afternoon to the three of them, hoping to at least get it out of your system. All three of them had something different to say, but you took Gregory’s advice to heart. 

“Listen, Melissa’s a bit tough on the outside, but she always means well. Just apologize to her for reacting that way and, with time, I’m sure things will be fine.”

Thankfully, trivia started shortly after the advice dump you received, and you were happy to be done talking about it. Hopefully tomorrow morning, with a macchiato and an apology, you could make it up to Melissa. 

[funhouse-mirror-barbie]

When a woman is written to be a “strong female character” instead of a person.

So. I want to discuss one of my favorite characters from Helluva Boss. And I’m really sad to say that, despite her being my favorite character, she’s… well. She’s a woman in Helluva Boss. So. As much as I like her, I have a lot of problems with the way she’s written.

This is the same issue I have with a LOT of women characters, but for now I want to talk about Millie.

(review continues below cut)

I really love Millie, and was excited to see her character growth. I thought Millie’s establishing characteristics—that she’s very happy-go-lucky and that she is good at and enjoys fighting—were a nice start to her character

As the show went on, I was hoping to learn more about Millie—her flaws, her insecurities, her other strengths and blind-spots.

But. It’s been 15 episodes now, and Millie’s whole character still revolves around her relationship with Moxxie. To the point that in the episode where the main cast goes back to Millie’s home to meet her family, the plot focuses entirely on Moxxie’s relationship to her family.

The big climax of that episode even has her put out of the main conflict by getting hurt so that Moxxie gets to be the one to help Blitzø. There are exceptions to this, like in Exes and Ohs, but the main conflict of that story still revolves around Moxxie.

I also REALLY have to talk about Unhappy Campers.

While I’m sure there are people who believe we got to see and learn more about her in Unhappy Campers, having a woman character just be really good and really awesome at everything suddenly doesn’t really tell me about her. It just gives the impression that the writers didn’t know how to develop her or give her depth so they just made her “strong” by making her great at everything and having everybody love her to compensate for her lack of character.

(As a side-note, it really bothers me that, during the episode that is mostly focused on how cool and great Millie is, everyone thinks she’s a boy. Like. She can’t even be awesome and admired as a girl. In-universe, she has to be viewed as male to receive admiration.)

In that same episode, I was pretty shocked when Millie says this:

Because prior to this, Millie had never behaved in ANY way that gave me an impression whatsoever that she felt unimportant or under-valued. She had never done or said anything that implied she dealt with with any feelings of inadequacy.

This scene would have had so much more of an impact if we had gotten to have any more insight into Millie and to WHY she felt that way or why she believes she’s unimportant (I mean…aside from the way the writers treat her…if I was written as a prop for my husband I’d feel unimportant too. But I’m talking more about in-universe feelings and reasons)

But because Millie is so under-developed, when I watched this scene I felt nothing. I was just really surprised and didn’t know why she was saying that or where those feelings were coming from.

Those two basic characteristics that I mentioned before, that Millie is pretty happy go lucky and cheerful, and that she’s violent and good at fighting, is still all we know about her. Well. That and her character is basically a support beam for Moxxie.

She is often pushed to the sidelines of the story so the plot can focus more on Moxxie’s feelings and character. One thing I actually DO really like about Unhappy Campers is that, while Millie’s talking about not feeling important is very much out of left field, it at least leads to her calling Moxxie out for his shitty behavior and a total lack of support towards her in the way that she supports him.

It’s just very frustrating because, much like a lot of the writing in Helluva Boss, she HAS potential to be an interesting and complex character. We’ll most likely never get to see that version of Millie though, because the focus of the story is now on re-writing Stolas to not have any character flaws.

As a final thought, you can have a male lead show with male lead characters that doesn’t diminish it’s female ones.

(Once again, I’m not talking about this to shit talk or aggravate anyone. If you disagree with me that’s okay. These are my opinions, and I’ll never claim that my opinions are objectively right)

[asordinaryppl]

A3! Main Story: Part 4 - Act 15: PAINFUL RE:BAKE - Episode 1: Picaresque, Again

Ali Baba: “Alright, let’s go, we’re setting off on our search for the legendary phantom Oasis!”

[Applause]

-

Tenma: Thank you very much!

Yuki: Thank you very much.

Muku: Thank you very much!!

Misumi: Thanks, everyone~!!

Kazunari: Thanks for watching~!

Kumon: Thanks~!!

[Applause]

Banri: …

Banri: (... Man, you guys really are awesome.)

Banri: (Us Autumn Troupe are up next.)

-

Banri: …

Izumi: There you are, Banri-kun.

Izumi: Good work on the final day. You did a lot as the assistant director.

Banri: You too, Director-chan.

Izumi: Following the Spring Troupe, a lot happened with the Summer Troupe too…

Banri: And thanks to that, putting a schedule together was crazy work.

Izumi: Just as you gained more experience by working as an assistant director, the Summer Troupe also gained experience in their own ways. And because of that, they were able to take on those “challenges”.

Banri: If all this had happened during the debut performance, they wouldn’t have made it in time.  All of ‘em took on challenges and successfully returned with more experience under their belts.

Izumi: And next is the Autumn Troupe’s turn.

Banri: Yeah.

Banri: … Whenever I do work as an assistant director, I get a rough idea of what the first day of performances is gonna look like.

Banri: But, both Spring and Summer… Their performances kept me on my toes in ways the rehearsals hadn’t, from their first days to the last.

Banri: They leveled up a bunch for the Fleur Award.

Banri: Though standin’ on MANKAI Theater’s stage might also have something to do with it…

Banri: They’ve all grown beyond recognition as actors, and gave meaning to performin’ a continuation of their debut shows.

Izumi: Right… I think these sequels have been more meaningful to the members than I expected them to be.

Banri: Seeing the Summer Troupe, who are usually as chummy as puppies, “challenge” themselves towards their different dreams was also inspirin’.

Banri: Muku and Kumon gritted their teeth through that ruthless workshop, too.

Izumi: Is it lighting a fire in you, Banri-kun? From their Leader to their very last member, the Autumn Troupe is made up of people that hate losing, isn’t it?

Banri: Yeah. We’ll make sure to improve so we don’t lose to Spring and Summer. I’m sure they’re all thinkin’ the same thing too.

Izumi: Right.

Tsuzuru: Ugh, I’m thankful for Arisugawa-san’s praises for my scripts, but I could do without his drunk crying…

Banri: Heya.

Izumi: Come in.

Tsuzuru: Are you having a directors’ meeting?

Banri: Pretty much.

Tsuzuru: Good timing, I was lookin’ for you two. I’ve finished the script for the Autumn Troupe’s sequel–

Izumi: Already!?

Banri: Ain’t this the fastest you’ve ever been?

Tsuzuru: It’d already been decided we’d be doing a sequel to Picaresque, so I’ve been planning it for some time now…

Tsuzuru: And no one had any requests other than keeping the action fast-paced, so gettin’ the job done was pretty smooth sailing.

Tsuzuru: You all said the most in-character thing for Picaresque’s cast would be to live life as they please, so…

Banri: Still, this is too quick. We’ve got a bunch of time till performances start.

Tsuzuru: I wanted to get to Picaresque’s continuation as soon as possible, too.

Tsuzuru: I was curious myself about what everyone from the debut performance would be up to.

Izumi: A lot happened in the debut performance, after all.

Tsuzuru: Back then, I was allowed to watch the Autumn Troupe’s rehearsals right after they formed, and came up with the script based on that.

Izumi: Right.

Tsuzuru: You told me to give not only Banri, who was decided as the leader, but also Juza, a big role and it turned into a buddy play…

Izumi: I also told you that putting Juza-kun, who was most passionate about theater, on center stage might trigger a change.

Tsuzuru: And when it was all said and done… Juza’s growth lit a burning passion in everyone in the Autumn Troupe

Tsuzuru: I was affected by how much you believe in your actors, and how you place your trust in them, and realized, as a scriptwriter, how significant it is to entrust their roles to the actors themselves.

Banri: Damn, all that was going on behind my back?

Banri: When we started out, Hyodo was pretty much an amateur. Havin’ him carry all that responsibility… You guys are insane.

Banri: Geez, Director-chan, you’re so…

Tsuzuru: … But that’s what you’d expect of her.

Banri: Yeah. That’s just who she is.

Izumi: Back then, this troupe had nothing but the members who had just joined. No achievements, or anything else like that…

Izumi: That’s why all I could do was put my faith in you guys. And you’ve come this far, so all’s well that ends well!

Izumi: I don’t think my way of doing things has changed any.

Izumi: First thing I do is watch over the actors. What kind of feelings do they put in their practice sessions and performances?

Izumi: I believe doing everything I can to understand them is the most important thing.

Banri: That hits the nail on its head. I seriously don’t think I’ll ever have you beat in this complete faith you’ve got goin’ on.

Tsuzuru: Making Banri admit defeat’s a real feat.

Izumi: I feel like this just gave me bragging rights.

Banri: ‘lright, you’ll keep a real close eye on us Autumn Troupe too, won’t cha?

Izumi: Of course we will.

Tsuzuru: Leave it to us.

Banri: Yeah.

Banri: (... “Picaresque Returns”.)

Banri: (Back then, I felt a thrill I had never felt before in my life.  And now, just like in the debut performance… I get to live in Picaresque’s world.)

Banri: (I’ll give the scripts to everyone tomorrow. We’ve still got a bunch of time left, so I’ll set up a practice schedule, and…)

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[love-overdrive]

Ordinary Miss Yazawa Pt. 1

Summary: The house for sale next door to the Higashikata's was quickly bought by someone. Josuke wonders who it could possibly be before he finally gets to meet his new neighbor, a young woman named Mary Yazawa. However, Tomoko can't help but think something doesn't add up with this new arrival.

Relationship: Platonic! Tomoko and Josuke Higashikata x OC (gen- no romance)

Rating: SFW

Word Count: ~3.5k

Notes: Nothing I think needs to be warned about. Mostly bantering between Tomoko and Josuke (I love them dearly). No spoilers for Part 4.

A/n: Aaaaa my first fic with my oc <3 please enjoy! More information on my OCs can be found on my pinned posts. Concrit is always appreciated and welcome, too.

You can read this on my AO3 here!

(Please feel free to let me know if you'd like to be tagged whenever I post a new work!)

“Huh? Someone bought that house already?” Koichi pointed to the ‘for sale’ sign that had a big ‘SOLD’ sticker slapped over it. “I thought they only put it out a few days ago.” 

“Who’s that desperate to come here?” Okuyasu commented, rubbing the back of his neck. 

“I guess I’ll find out soon enough,” Josuke sighed. “Mom said that no one even came by to look inside.” 

“Damn, real desperate.” 

“Why would you buy a house without looking inside it?” Koichi pondered. “What if you don’t even like the inside? Isn’t that kind of a waste?” 

“How should I know?” Josuke shrugged. “I mean… at the end of the day, it’s just a house, right? You just go home and sit there. It’s not like these houses are bad or anything.” 

“But what if you wanted a big one!” Okuyasu shouted. “I know I want a huge living room in mine. Something awesome for parties.” 

Koichi tapped his chin. “Well, if we’re talking about what we want in houses… maybe many rooms. One for a library to put all my manga, a guest room for my family if they want to stop by, and rooms if you want to start a family.” 

“I would want a huge fridge,” Josuke added. 

“The fridge isn’t part of the house, dude! You buy that!” 

“What? No way, when we moved in our house, the fridge was there!” 

“That’s because your grandpa had bought it…” Koichi grimaced at the two. Josuke pouted for a moment at Koichi’s correction before waving his hand. 

“Well, that’s not the point! It’s still kinda weird to buy a house without looking at it!” 

“Who do you think bought it?” Okuyasu’s eyes widened. “What if it’s secretly a celebrity?” 

“Why would a celebrity come to live here?” 

“Damn,” Okuyasu deflated. “You’re right, you’re right.” 

“It’s probably just a family.” Koichi stated. “Probably couldn’t afford the prices in places like Tokyo and so they would come here to pay a cheaper rent or mortgage.” 

“How do you know so much about houses in Tokyo?” Josuke raised a brow. Koichi bashfully smiled and chuckled. 

“I saw it on the news yesterday. Apparently prices have been going crazy over there.” 

“Whoever bought this house probably has no clue what’s been going on here, though. I kinda feel bad,” Josuke commented. “I’m sure we’ll meet them soon. I just hope they’re not totally annoying or something.” 

Scratch that thought. It was not even 8 am on a Saturday and already the moving trucks next door had bothered Josuke. He sandwiched his head in between his pillow and huffed. Who the hell moves in so early?! 

Already cranky from being woken up, he glanced to his mirror and noticed his hair was a mess. What a great way to the start the day. He opened the window and was about to give his new neighbor a piece of his mind when he saw a young woman twirling her hair while the movers unloaded the truck. 

“Wait, careful with those ones, please,” she pointed at a box with the word ‘fragile’ on them. “Those were like, pretty expensive.” 

“Yes ma’am!” The men nodded, making her grin widely. 

“Thanks~, you guys are so sweet,” she replied, continuing to watch them. “Uh, put that box by the kitchen, and that one by the window.” 

Josuke raised a brow as he watched the scene. His new neighbor was definitely not what he expected them to be. 

He didn’t realize he was staring until the woman called out to him and waved. 

“Yoo-hoo!” She cheerfully yelled from below. “Hello! I’m your new neighbor!” 

He was taken aback by her peppy attitude- seriously, it was 8 am on a Saturday- but waved back awkwardly. “N-nice to meet you.” 

“Sorry for all the noise, I hope I didn’t disturb you!” 

“It’s alright, not like I was sleeping or anything,” he lied, feeling guilty at the thought of unleashing his previous anger at her. Josuke had to wonder how she was up this early. Was anyone else ever- 

“Josuke, who the hell are you talking to right now?” Tomoko snapped from the hallway. “What did I tell you about hogging the phone?” 

Right. How could he forget? 

“I’m not on the phone, mom,” he tiredly replied. Tomoko swung open the door without a second thought, only to find her son indeed was not on the phone, but still in his tanktop and pajama pants and leaning out the window. 

“Then what are you…?” She shook her head and strode over to the window, looking to see a slightly confused but smiling young woman. “O-oh! You must be our new neighbor. Welcome!” 

The woman chuckled and nodded. “Thank you. I’m happy to be here. If it’s not too much, I have some gifts for you all. Can I drop by soon to introduce myself properly?” 

Tomoko nodded quickly. “Of course, yes, you can. Stay for some tea, too!” 

“I’d love that! I have to finish with this, but give me about… um… like… three hours and I’ll be over,” the woman replied, waving one last time before turning around and ordering the men to drop off another set of boxes in a specific place. 

“I love her shoes,” Tomoko mumbled to herself as she closed the window. 

“I didn’t think it would just be some woman. I thought it would be a family,” Josuke rubbed the back of his neck and yawned. 

“I didn’t expect that, either,” Tomoko casually replied. “That being said, what the hell were you thinking!” 

Josuke’s eyes widened at his mother’s harsh tone. “What? What did I do?” 

“What did you do? You just introduced yourself to our new neighbor in your pajamas! Do you know how bad that makes us look? We have to make a good impression, not make her think we’re a bunch of slobs or something!” 

Tomoko frantically paced around Josuke’s room. 

“It’s not that big a deal. It’s just our neighbor. Not like she’ll die if she sees me like this,” Josuke sighed, knowing his mother’s rant would continue. 

“I can’t believe this. I knew she’d be here today, but I was trying to plan a welcome visit and everything, and now it’s all ruined! Now she thinks my son is a delinquent who just sits in his pajamas all day and that we’re a bunch of bums!” 

“I really doubt she thinks-” 

“No, no, no. Fix yourself up, now. I want you to put on your best clothes and make the best impression you can.” 

“But it’s so early and I’m tired! She won’t even be here for another few hours and it takes me less than five minutes to get ready!” 

“No. You will not be sleeping right now, you will be cleaning yourself up and- oh, for the love of god- clean up your room, will you?” Tomoko gagged as she stepped on a pile of Josuke’s dirty clothes. 

“She’s not coming in my room!” 

“What if she asks to see it, hm? You’re just gonna let her walk in and see how messy your room is?” 

“Why would she be in my room in the first place?” Josuke retorted exasperatedly. “She’s coming to have tea, not a house tour!” 

“That doesn’t matter! What if she wants a house tour? You don’t say no to your guests! Now clean up, that’s final!” Tomoko pointed at Josuke, leaving no room for any disagreement. Josuke rolled his eyes as Tomoko slammed the door shut behind her, leaving a grumbling and exhausted Josuke. 

Well… she won’t know if I sleep for another fifteen minutes, right? 

All too quickly, a fifteen minute power nap became an almost three hour long sleep. He only woke up due to hearing the door knocking, and that’s when all the panic set in. 

“Josuke, she’s here!” Tomoko called from downstairs. 

Shit! He thought as he tumbled out of bed and threw off his pajamas. “C-coming! Give me a sec!” 

Knowing his mother would get on his case about his clothes, he rummaged through his closet for anything nice he had that wasn’t a huge, wrinkled mess. He settled, for some reason, on his school uniform and threw it on haphazardly, nearly tripping over himself as he went to grab his comb from his mirror. 

He already knew he was taking too long, and he could hear his mother’s threatening tone when she called his name again, despite Tomoko trying to hide it under a veneer of saccharine sweetness. Josuke barely managed to get himself ready before he almost fell down the stairs to greet their new neighbor. 

“Well, you know teenagers, always doing their own thing-” Tomoko said to the woman, not realizing (or, more likely, not caring) that Josuke was in earshot. Tomoko placed a cup of tea for both her and the woman, who graciously thanked her. 

“I don’t mind, really. It’s good that they’re taking a moment to like, explore and stuff,” the woman mused. Up close, Josuke could get a better look at the woman. She had dark brown hair that went to her shoulder, but curled upwards at the ends of it. She wasn’t as pale as Tomoko, and her face was covered in freckles and beauty marks. Large, gold hoop earrings dangled from her lobes while her eyes had on some eyeliner and blue eyeshadow, which coincidentally, matched the baby blue sweater she wore. 

Josuke cleared his throat awkwardly so his mother could introduce him. Tomoko turned to him with a smile before her face fell. She shot him a death glare when she noticed how slovenly his appearance looked- a warning for what was to come after their guest had left. 

“Miss Yazawa, this is my son, Josuke. Josuke, this is Miss Yazawa.” 

Josuke bowed politely. “Nice to see you again.” 

“It’s nice to see you, too. But, you know, I’m not at work and I’m still pretty young, so you can just call me Mary,” Mary casually stated. Tomoko shook her head to Josuke, telling him not to do so. “And since you’re both here now, I hope it’s alright for me to give you my gift?” 

Mary pulled out a pink box wrapped with a golden, glittery bow. Josuke leaned over curiously, wondering what was inside. 

“Thank you, you didn’t have to give us something this big,” Tomoko said as she took the box. “I’ll just set it aside and-” 

“Oh no, feel free to open it! I think it’ll go great with the tea!” Mary giggled. 

Tomoko undid the bow and opened the box, gasping alongside Josuke as they saw many tarts, macarons, and other desserts they couldn’t even name within it. 

“W-wait a minute, this can’t be,” Tomoko quickly said as she examined the cover she just removed. “Is this really from that French bakery? Patisserie Chic? That one?” 

Mary nodded. “Yeah. I heard it was good. Have you tried it before?” She asked, fiddling with her cup. Both of them shook their head. Patisserie Chic was hailed as the bakery in Morioh, but it was, frankly, very expensive. As a teacher and single mom, Tomoko just didn’t have the funds to splurge that much on a slice of cake or a cookie. 

Especially not a whole box of them…

“No, we haven’t.” 

“Well, then that means it’s the perfect time to try them!” Mary grinned, clasping her hands together. 

All of them took a pastry and took a bit. Josuke and Tomoko gasped at the taste and covered their mouths. 

“Mmm! This is amazing!” Tomoko said, not caring she was talking with her mouth full. 

“Mhm! Sho good!” Josuke agreed, chomping down on the sweet. 

“I guess they were right,” Mary hummed, taking a small, ladylike bite of her pastry. She didn’t react much to the taste, but neither Tomoko or Josuke were paying attention. 

After indulging in her sweet, Tomoko wiped her mouth and looked at Mary. “So, Miss Yazawa, what made you move all the way to Morioh?” 

“Oh, it wasn’t a big deal or anything,” Mary responded. “I wanted to experience more things, so I took a position at the bank as their receptionist.” 

Tomoko raised a brow. “You moved from…” 

“Shibuya,” Mary answered. 

“Shibuya,” Tomoko repeated. Explains the makeup. “You moved from Shibuya… to here? For a receptionist job?” 

“Yes,” Mary nodded casually. Josuke tried to imagine what that would feel like, but he couldn’t think of anything. He loved Morioh, would live here forever, no questions asked- but moving here from Shibuya? That seemed a bit crazy. 

“I heard the housing prices and mortgages are high over there,” Josuke commented, trying to keep the conversation going. He’d thank Koichi later for that. Tomoko shot him a confused look, wondering why the hell her son, who was always too busy playing video games and could never clean his room, was suddenly discussing mortgages. 

“Yeah, they are. Morioh looks like a nice change of pace. I do like the quieter towns, too. And everyone’s been pretty friendly so far.” 

“It’s a very nice town, even if it’s smaller than what you’re probably used to,” Tomoko replied. “I hope I’m not coming off as too rude or anything, but are you living with anyone? A fiance or a husband? I didn’t see anyone else with you right now.” 

“Oh, no, I live alone. Again, I just moved for work and stuff,” Mary answered, not at all offended by the question. Josuke briefly wondered if all Shibuya women were like her. He did like that she was a bit more casual than some of the ladies here. 

“You are? I didn’t expect that. You look very young. I’m surprised you aren’t with someone,” Tomoko gasped, starting to feel her previous holdups wear down. Even though she was stern at times, she still was a young woman, too, and she hadn’t talked to another woman her age in a while like this. 

“I just haven’t found the right guy, you know?” Mary explained. “Like, I’m usually pretty busy with my job, so sometimes I just don’t have the time to really meet guys. My supervisor once said I should try a small town guy once in a while, instead of the big city ones.” 

“They’re pretty rough, aren’t they?” Tomoko replied. Mary nodded in agreement. 

“Right? Some of them are so pushy and don’t even listen when I talk,” Mary sighed. “All they do is talk about finances or the stock market or something, like, can we just talk about anything else?” 

“And don’t they always complain about you working, too?” 

“They do!” 

Josuke cleared his throat as the two women got caught up in their conversation, making them both silently return to their previous positions. 

“Well, in any case, this is a pretty nice place to settle down in. I don’t think you’ll have many complaints here,” Tomoko said casually. 

Josuke, wanting to be involved after sitting around boredly, looked at Mary. “So, Mar- Miss Yazawa, how old are you, anyways?” 

“Josuke!” Tomoko hissed, glaring at him. Mary giggled again and waved it off. 

“20,” she answered. 

“W-wait, 20?” Tomoko and Josuke said at the same time. 

“Yeah. Is there like… something wrong?” Mary cocked her head to the side. 

“No, I just… I didn’t think you’d be that young,” Tomoko responded, the surprise evident on her face. She mumbled a, “you could be my daughter at that age…”

“Woah, you moved out and everything by yourself at 20?” Josuke’s eyes sparkled, seemingly impressed with the fact she could do all that. 

“Mhm. It’s nothing crazy. I know lots of people who do the same.” 

Before Josuke could talk more, the phone began ringing. 

“Josuke, answer the phone, will you?” Tomoko asked. Josuke looked at the house phone attached to the wall and raised a brow. 

“It’s not ringing,” he replied, seeing as there was no light flashing on it. 

“No, that’s me, sorry,” Mary chuckled. “Is it alright if I take this call over there?” 

Tomoko was about to nod before her and Josuke gasped again at seeing Mary pull out a large, thick cellphone. They huddled together as Mary walked to the living room to answer. 

“Is that a-” 

“No way-” the two whispered to each other. 

“How the hell can she afford a cellphone?” 

“It’s the newest Nokia, too. I heard you can use it all around the world!” Josuke said with wide eyes. 

“Are receptionists really paid that much?” Tomoko asked. “Maybe I should consider a career switch.” 

“It’s not fair, how can she get a cellphone at 20, but I can’t?” Josuke whined. 

“I don’t even have a cellphone! Why would I get you one?” 

“Because… pleeease?” Josuke gave Tomoko his best puppy dog eyes before she shook her head. 

“No way. You don’t need a cellphone to waste more time on. You’re already slacking on your chores and schoolwork.” 

“Come on, I promise, I’ll do all my chores if I get one!” 

“No.” 

Josuke rolled his eyes and slumped against the seat. “One day, I’m gonna get one. And when I move out, I will not be yelled at about my room.” 

“You have to actually go to college and get a job for that,” Tomoko teased. 

“I will! You’ll see!” 

The two bickered a bit longer before Mary came back, Nokia in hand. Mary, true to her youthful age, had decorated her phone with some rhinestones and two pink phone charms. Josuke wondered once more if women in Shibuya did this sort of thing. They must be loaded. Or bored.

“Sorry about that, my supervisor was calling.” 

“Is everything alright?” 

“Yeah, just some things are gonna need to be done sooner than expected. But, not a huge deal. I’ll just pull an all-nighter or something,” Mary shrugged. 

“Ugh, never mind about me getting a job,” Josuke joked. 

“Aw, work isn’t so bad. It’s kinda fun!” Mary replied, a wide grin on her face. 

Josuke lost track of the time until Mary had left, citing her need to begin unpacking and organizing her house. Once she was gone, Tomoko folded her arms and stared quizzically at the door. 

“Something up, mom?” Josuke asked, wondering why she was just standing by their door. 

“I just can’t put my finger on it, honestly.” 

“Put your finger on what?”

“Obviously, I mean Miss Yazawa.” 

“What about her?” 

“I don’t normally like to gossip about others but something’s a bit strange about her, don’t you think?” 

Josuke shook his head. “Nah.” 

“What do you mean, ‘nah’?” Tomoko deadpanned. 

“Was there something weird about her?” Josuke scratched his cheek. 

“I mean, the fact that she lived in Shibuya and then decided to move here for a receptionist job, her being only 20, having a new cellphone- none of that was off to you?” 

“Is it supposed to be off to me?” 

“Well, yeah, it’s not really…” Tomoko paused, scrunching her nose at what she was tryna say. “Oh god… am I getting old?” 

“What?” Josuke shouted, confused where his mother would get that idea from. “What does this gotta do with anything?” 

“I think I’m getting too old. I know I look younger than my age-” 

“So humble.” 

“Quiet. But, jeez, she’s only 20! Are younger women these days working that hard and doing that much?” 

“I guess?” Josuke replied, not knowing much about women. “Maybe it’s what the women do in Shibuya.” 

“It’s gotta be that. I heard they got some crazy stuff going on there,” Tomoko commented, fanning herself. “And I guess you would need to work extra hard to afford that place.” 

“So then, it’s just cuz she’s from Shibuya.” 

Tomoko let out a breath, before nodding. “Yeah. Shibuya. Must be a Shibuya thing.” 

“So that settles it then?” Tomoko hummed back. “And you’re not worried about being old?” 

Tomoko tried to remain serious, but her lips twitched upwards as she let out a short laugh. “No. I’m good. I guess even the way I did things when I was her age was unconventional, too.” She rubbed the back of her neck. 

Josuke knew what she was referring to and pursed his lips. “Maybe. But I wouldn’t have you any other way.” 

“And I wouldn’t have you any other way, either. Mmm… maybe just a cleaner room but that can be worked on.” 

“Whatever,” Josuke laughed. 

“But, really, you should go clean your room. And if you have time one day, you should go stop by her house and help.” 

“Why?” 

“It’s just a good thing to do. She’s all by herself and she probably needs help moving things around.” 

“Yeah, I’ll do that tomorrow. I’ll call Koichi and Okuyasu over, too, since they wanted to know who it was.” 

Tomoko smiled, a proud look on her face. Josuke gave a questioning expression back. “Why’re you smiling like that?” 

“Nothing,” Tomoko shook her head before sighing wistfully. “I guess I just realized that you’re really becoming a man.” 

Josuke’s face softened alongside his mother’s. Well, he wasn’t really all that eager to do so, but maybe helping Miss Yazawa wouldn’t be so bad if this is how his mom would react. 

[light-end-dragon]

Chapter 5

Well-built Man: …Well, this dish….

Unkempt Man: Hey…

Cain: Oh, that! Yeah that does seem pretty good-I wanna try it too. Oh, but first…Akira! Come here!

I was taken aback by the sudden call of my name by Cain, who was waving me over to the space between him and Bradley. I hurried over, dragging a chair to sit with them.

Leader-like Man: ….This weak-lookin’ guy part of your crew too?

Unkempt Man: Ahaha-what a dumb mug. Hey look, your kind’s here! We got one of ‘em too.

Young Man: ….

Akira: Um…..

Cain: Hey, no need to be mean. His name’s Akira. ….Oh, I don’t think we gave our names, did we?

Bradley: Now that you say that, yeah, don’ think we did. Name’s Bradley.

Akira: Like he said, I’m Akira. I’m very sorry for interrupting you.

Cain: And I’m Cain; Nice to meet ya.

I saw Cain give a sideways glance to the men, having used their real names to introduce themselves. 

And it seemed he was wise to; upon hearing “Cain”, the men pulled back with a start. Only the young man looked up at us like he’d been struck.

Leader-like Man: ….That’s the name of the General of the Order right now.

Unkempt Man: You mean former General. I heard they ain’t anymore. You guys’re travellers. D’ya know if the General Cain really did resign from his post?

Bradley: Man, we ain’t been within spittin’ distance of the royal capital for years now; we don’t know shit.

Bradley: It’s just a coincidence this guy’s got the same name. Stop jumpin’ at shadows, will ya? 

Leader-like Man: …Well, you’re probably right. I haven’t heard anyone talkin’ about the General comin’ to some backwater place like this. 

Unkempt Man: Ha, I bet he’d be too busy chasin’ skirts all over the royal capital. Wanna bet he’s a player? Got a whole line of them royal ladies. 

Well-built Man: Ahaha, yeah, I bet he’s real busy on the “night watch”. If that’s what it’s like, I’ll bet 10 years from now we’ll all be ‘geniuses with the sword.’

Men: Gyahahaha! 

Cain: ……

Akira: (....How dare they….At least Cain doesn’t seem phased...)

Though he seemed well-enough himself, my own mood grew worse.

I gulped down the rest of my juice in one go; I wasn’t thirsty, but I was afraid if I had any left in the cup, I would’ve dumped it all over these men.

When I lowered my empty drink, the young man with long bangs caught my attention.

Akira: (He’s staring a bit too hard at Cain…..And he’s looking a little bit in the wrong place. Like Cain does as well before he touches us….)

Cain: So how long have you guys been around here, then?

Leader-like Man: Uh, couple months. I think we passed by this place before when we were travellin’, right?

Bradley: Oh, really….then I wonder if you know more about this one rumor I heard. The one 10 years ago, where a kid went missin’....

Young Man: …..!

(Sound of something spilling.)

Young Man: Ah..!

Unkempt Man: You idiot-did you just spill your drink?! You better not have gotten any on my shoes!!

Well-Built Man: God, what a moron. You can’t even drink a single glass without ruinin’ it!

Young Man: I’m-I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I’m sorry….

Cain: Hey, hey, his hand slipped. It happens to everyone. I’m just glad the glass didn’t break.

Cain: Bartender, can we get your best drink for these four? Thanks.

Cain raised a hand to the counter to signal the bartender. A short while later, he took the bottle of wine he received, dividing it into 4 glasses, handing them in turn to the gang. 

The final glass he gave them was to the young man who had spilled the drink in the first place.

Cain: Here, this one’s for you. ….You know, you don’t hafta answer if you don’t wanna, but I’m thinking your eyesight isn’t all that great? 

Young Man: Y…yes….The t-truth is, I can’t really see well at all….

Cain: Huh, really? Just from watchin’ you at the table, I don’t think most people would be able to tell. You’re pretty awesome. 

Cain: Just reach your arm out a little bit…right here. Yeah, right there’s the glass, I think you’ll be able to get the picture once you touch it.

Young Man: Th…thank you….

After taking the glass, the young man hung his head.

But then, with a sudden blink-he raised his head, his expression like that of a cornered animal.

Young Man: U-um…that rumor you mentioned a bit ago. I know what you’re talking about.

Cain: Huh?

Men: …!

Young Man: I-I mean, it’s not just me. If something like that happens in this area, everyone knows about it. It’s famous enough e-even the Order of knights investigated. 

Young Man: People went missing 10 years ago, in that forest ahead of the old town’s walls.

Young Man: Two boys.

Akira: (Wait, what? But we only heard of one missing person…)

Bradley + Cain: …..

Well-built Man: Hey. You….

Young Man: I-I mean…i-it’s a rumor right? So they were probably eaten by some beast in the forest. That happens in those parts a lot….

Leader-like Man: -It’s late. We’re going back.

(Sound of a chair scraping on the floor.)

Suddenly, the men all stood up from their chairs.

(Sound of fabric rustling.)

One of them grabbed the young man’s arm, yanking him forcefully with him. Within the sound of him being so violently dragged, I swore I could hear his breathing spasm.

Cain still had a friendly look on his face, like he was trying to pacify them. 

Cain: Hey, it’s fine, it’s fine; I think we’re all good with staying up late. I wanna hear more about that, it seemed interesting….

Leader-like Man: No. We’re leaving. See ya.

Still dragging the young man along, the whole gang then left the bar without another word.

-----------------------------:･ﾟ✧:･.☽˚｡･ﾟ✧:･------------------------------

(Sound of a breeze blowing by.)

Arthur: There were actually two missing people..?

Faust: That’s strange…that doesn’t match up with what we found at all.

Dawn. We met up with Faust and Arthur as agreed, exchanging what we knew.

Faust: We followed traces of that spirit to the forest, and there, we found a set of old, small remains. It’s most likely they are the source of this spirit’s grief, so we held a funeral for them.

Arthur: …There was a rotten sheath nearby. So it seems we were correct; the true form of this lingering spirit is the boy who wished to become a knight.

Cain: …I see…

Faust: But the remains we cremated definitely belonged to a single person. There were not enough bones for two people. 

Akira: Then, the rumor of a boy going missing was true? That young man was mistaken? 

Akira: But ‘one person going missing’ is on a whole other scale than ‘two people’. I don’t think that would be an easy thing to mistake…right?

Cain: No, it wouldn’t be; that’s the problem. He clearly said two people when he spoke about it….

Bradley: Those guys definitely know somethin’. 

Bradley: Like the Sage said, you don’t mistake those sortsa details. That means he said “two people’ on purpose.

Cain: Looking at his companions response, he might’ve been hinting at something that would be real inconvenient for them. 

Cain: The mystery of how many people went missing versus how many remains isn’t addin’ up, so….I need to talk to that kid further.

Faust: Understandable. When are you going to go, then?

Bradley + Cain: Tonight.

The two spoke in complete unison. 

Cain’s eyes opened wider at first, before he smiled and gave Bradley a hearty slap on the back.

Cain: Well, would ya look at that. We are gettin’ along. 

Bradley: Yer the one who said we couldn’t yesterday.

Cain: Okay, then lemme rephrase: sometimes we can’t, but when we can, we do.

[takeshitakyuuto]

Trigun Book Club reading update volume 2 part one AKA volume 1 part two

Wellllll apparently the volumes I procured are quite a few chapters shorter than the English translations (I have three Trigun volumes instead of two), so I’ve got a few more chapters to read before this section of the book club ends. I’ll be back on track once we hit Maximum though! It’s actually probably a good thing this happened, though, or else these posts would’ve been just too long.

Ch 8. Yay Meryl! So that’s why that grunt said わ

“Vash the Stampede-san” is absolutely hilarious to me

That one panel with Vash facing away from the viewer standing in rubble and the sun like a halo around his head is so beautiful

Ch 9. There’s some really interesting imagery in this chapter... Are they creating life in that boiler room?

This “angel” is kinda giving me NGE vibes. I like how I’m seeing so much of other pretentious famous anime within Trigun

Okay this angel thing is awesome

兄弟？ oh biiiiitch

How does this angel fit into the train/sand steam though? Was it just a vessel to hold and transport the angel or was the angel powering it in some way?

Neon coming to the rescue was unexpected, but I like his reasoning for it as well. What an upstanding criminal

I love the way music, and especially simple song, is incorporated into this chapter! Music is such a marker of humanity to me and it seems like it’s being used here to show the love that Rem had for humanity. Vash’s love for humanity (that we as the reader see) seems to come more in the form of physical help

That chapter was packed! If it wasn’t obvious by the amount of notes I wrote, this chapter has been my favorite so far :3 I also really liked Kaito’s involvement in this whole arc. I don’t actually expect him to ever show up again but I always love when we get a little help from the common folk, especially a younger character like Kaito. And honestly, I think this chapter sold me the rest of the way on this series.

Ch 10.　Starting off the chapter with my favorite girls? Win!

Lol hiring out Vash just so he can have some babysitters

Ch 11. A mystery in the picture... Perhaps these old people are more than what meets the eye?

Alright that mystery was solved real fast

This is my son, I hope for him to grow up to be a kind and great man. His name is Badwick. What? No, it doesn’t mean anything at all!

10/10 mustache right there

It’s probably just because I don’t usually read action series, but the action seems to move super fast. We’re all caught up on moving these parents out of the way of Bad Guy #547 and then there’s an explosion? Which is more car people

omfg Jii-san is strapped to the high heavens

Also obsessed with barrel Vash

Ch 12. Meryl is really out here being the number one badass

Final thoughts: It’s a little odd writing my final thoughts here because I’ve got one more chapter before my volume two is finished! But that chapter will be in next week’s reading update. I really liked this last arc and the themes of family that it brought with it. There wasn’t a whole lot of Vash but we all know just how much I love Milly and Meryl, so who’s disappointed? Not me. I like the character development we’re getting before the “real” plot kicks in, but overall it felt like just that- character development with minimal actual effect on the series. I’m looking forward to the meat of the series, and especially dealing with the things we’ve seen in previous chapters so far, like more backstory with Rem and hopefully more on that Angel thing. I’m also pretty stoked for more world building, as it’s a space western but right now there isn’t a whole lot of the space part of it. We’ve seen great technical advancements and those alien horse things that were in the background near the beginning but that’s about it for any space age type stuff. Another thing I’ve been wondering about is the “plants.” I’ve been taking it to mean factory type plants but I don’t yet know if I’m correct or not. I assume we’ll get more on them in the future, as they’re brought up pretty frequently, and I really want to know what they are and why they’re so important (it’s gotta be more than just “factories = good for economy” right??).

[disregardcanon]

okay, so a brief history of my headcanon for rava and kendall’s relationship

 i think that kendall and rava probably met at harvard. while he and stewy WERE partying pretty hardcore, i think that hero-complex kendall was also trying (and mainly failing) to do some social justice work and in a very hardcore “i hate my dad” phase. rava, who was from a moderately wealthy family and studying to be an attorney, saw him and was kinda entranced by how passionate he was.

they wrote articles together for the harvard lampoon that were some biting and sometimes insightful social commentary. kendall, at the time, was very against working for waystar and they spent a lot of time spitballing with stewy about what they could do. stewy was very profit minded so he ended up noping out of the project before he and ken had even graduated.

she and kendall got married right after graduation from undergrad half because they were very in love and half because they wanted to upset their respective families. rava continues grad school and kendall flails his way through a few different corporate jobs, trying to pitch ideas that seemed ethical but weren’t really practical and then getting into fights with people about not understanding his “vision”. that ended with him being fired from each when business bosses received confirmation that logan roy wouldn’t come for their heads if they fired his son.

when it became clear that employment elsewhere... wasn’t really going to work out for him, kendall sunk deeper and deeper into addiction as rava had her back turned with her last semester of law school and studying for the bar.

he makes a habit of using big, showy gestures of affection whenever she’s getting too frustrated by his behavior. it works well for a while.

halfway through rava’s semester of studying for the bar, kendall had an incident bad enough that she had to cart him off to rehab and it set her back a semester before she could take the bar. (which she did pass! yay!)  after he got back from rehab, they decided that he’d take his dad up on the offer of a job at waystar to “get him back on his feet”, and they started turning their attentions towards having kids instead.

kendall’s new big project, immediately, became kids. they decided that they like BOTH the options of adoption and having their own bio kids, so they started trying for bio kids a lot, but also doing research on good ways to adopt kids.

kendall did about half of that, with jess helping him stay focused and actually doing most of it. with his white savior complex, a transracial adoptee from india was a pretty obvious choice. a few months after sophie’s adoption was finalized they got sophie and kendall, for a while, put all his efforts into being The Best Dad TM.

it’s great while it lasts, but the increase in kendall’s time off work with waystar led to some pretty harsh criticism from his dad including “what have you got a wife for, anyway, if you’re doing all the raising? mister mom gotta go home and take care of the baby? pa-fucking-thetic” so he tries to focus more on work, which stresses him out, and he’s pulled between wanting to be an awesome dad and make rava happy but also Oh God My Dad Thinks I’m a Loser and i want to stick it to him but also make him proud of me, and it leads to a lot of him not doing anything that makes him happy or proud and just slipping back into alcohol.

this period does result in them getting a consistent nanny instead of babysitters, though, so at least the kids are a bit better cared for.

the slope leads down for a few years until it’s at the point where he can’t get off the couch for sophie’s 2nd grade meet the author day and rava makes him try seeing a therapist. again. it gets worse instead of better as he’s pulled between work, dad, and his wife and kids. logan keeps trying to pressure rava into leaving her job as a civil rights attorney just as he keeps trying to fold shiv into the company, and it causes some additional tension. and this, of course, is on top of kendall now being groomed as logan’s successor.

add in: iverson’s autism diagnosis and kendall absolutely refusing to confront what it means both for iverson AND himself, and he starts slipping back into the hard stuff. he’s erratic and impossible to be around and rava finds bits of coke on iverson’s ipad, which is when she tells kendall he has to move out.

if he can get himself cleaned up and show her that he’s ready to move back in with them, then she’ll let him. (spoiler alert: he never does this, even though he tries)

[msunitedstatesjames]

 I just finished season 2 of Shadow and Bone. What a wild ride of confusion, rage, and elation, guys.

Here’s my thoughts, but first, some disclaimers. If you haven’t watched the show and read the books, major spoilers follow, so beware. Also, though I had some major problems with this season, I did enjoy it overall, so remember that as you read. And if you absolutely loved this season more than anything, that’s cool too. All opinions are welcome here.

Most of this will be about the Crows because they’re the main reason I watch.

Here’s what I loved:

1. Just like last season, the casting and character work on this show was great. For some reason, I wasn’t immediatly sold on Nikolai’s character, but then I loved him to pieces shortly, which I guess is how it’s supposed to be anyway. Also, Wylan was perfect. Double also, I appreciate that this show continues to make Mal actually likeable, which was not always the case in the books. 

2. The visual effects were really cool. We’ve all seen a lot of different shows where characters have elemental magic, and rarely have I seen it look good in live action. But some of those scenes with the amplified grisha at the end made me think, “This is how a person wielding a whirlpool and/or ice shards might actually look if it could happen in the real world.”

3. The David/Genya dynamic was amazing. They were cute in the books, but I think TV David comes across even better. But it’s been years since I read the Shadow and Bone trilogy, so I could just be misremembering there. (Also, pretty much every romantic dynamic has you invested in this show.)

4. The moment at the end when Kaz and Inej see each other safe for the first time after the big battle, and then Jesper runs over and hugs her, while Kaz just has to look away in disappointement with himself. (Also, the final Kaz/Inej scene was very well done.) I always thought these two were the strongest characters in a group of very strong characters in the Crows books, and the show does their characters a lot of justice, even if I’m often left wanting a little more.

5. The dynamic between the Crows is really starting to get to book level, and I love it. 

Things I didn’t love (these range anywhere along the scale of mild disappointment to pointless rage)

1. The Crows just showing up and destroying the amplified grisha at the end. I mean, other than the grenade they threw, those grisha had plenty of time to counter their attacks. They definitely had time to stop that powder from flying into their faces. They could clearly hear Kaz be like, “Wylan, now!” As much as I love the Crows, that scene was a little ridiculous. The Crows can cause some major destruction in the books, but usually when they do they have some more advanced technology and some shadows on their side at least. 

2. When I realized that the Kaz-Pekka Rollins confrontation was going to happen in episode four of an eight episode season, I just about lost it. In the books, that moment is the culmination of two books worth of character development and plotting. And the fact that Inej was the only Crow who wasn’t there to see it just drove me crazy. That’s such a great moment between them in the books, when Inej finally thinks Kaz has lost himself to his revenge, after two books of telling him he’s not a monster, and then Kaz is just like, “Nah, I was just messing with him.” Like, what a relief that was in the books. (Also, I don’t really like that Pekka Rollins is still out there being his usual self, even though he’s locked up. In the books he’s not dead either, but by the end of the story he’s pretty much been scared witless and driven away. Hopefully he and Kaz don’t meet up again in the show because it wouldn’t feel very meaningful at this point.)

3. The Inej-Mogen conflict. It’s clearly filling in for the Inej-Dunyasha conflict in Crooked Kingdom, but it lacks the dynamic that made it so interesting in the books. Dunyasha as a Lantsov pretender (or not) was awesome. Dunyasha really being almost like a foil for Inej was awesome. It also brought in the interesting concept of Dunyasha being Inej’s “shadow,” or the result of all the sins she’s had to commit to survive. Which also brought up the idea of Kaz and Pekka as shadows of one another, and we got to have that great moment where Inej really forces Kaz to think about what he plans for the future, and how he plans to be different (if really at all) from someone like Pekka Rollins if he comes out on top. Also, one of my favorite passages in Crooked Kingdom is Inej’s “we learn to wring magic from the ordinary” moment, about how maybe Dunyasha is some lost princess, while Inej is just a regular girl who’s been forced to deal with the brutal side of the world, but that Inej will fight to get what she deserves anyway. It’s so powerful, and I don’t really think they could have worked it into a TV show anyway, but it still felt like a loss. (Also, as cool as it was to see Inej wielding a legendary magical sword later in the season, it kind of makes that “wring magic from the ordinary” passage from the book ring a little hollow.)

4. The best Kaz/Inej moment in Crooked Kingdom (in my opinion) was attempted, but they couldn’t do as much with it in the show as they did in the books, simply because they weren’t there yet with the story/characters. I think they really should have put off the Kaz trying to help Inej with her first aid scene for later. It was still effective in the show and I liked what we did get. But there’s so much good dialogue and character work there in the books, other than just the romantic tension, and most of it is so wound up with Crooked Kingdom’s plot that it would be hard to transplant elsewhere, but maybe they’ll try. But this was one of the biggest issues I had with this season overall. They tried to hit on so many of the important story and character beats from Crooked Kingdom, but they could never make them hit quite as hard as they do in the books because of the constraints of time/plot decisions.

5. I was sad that we didn’t get to see Matthias join the Crows yet. 

Things I’m still hoping to see, even though they kind of already adapted Croooked Kingdom:

1. The Jesper-Kaz feud. “Who’s Jordie?” Love it. Also, I’m sure we’ll learn more about Jesper’s background, and I’m looking forward to seeing that play out somehow.

2. Kaz in a murderdous rage over Inej’s safety. I want to see this man throw another man off a light house. Judge me all you want.

[ithinkabouttzu]

Hi!!! Is it possible to get a BoB ship???

I’m 5’3 with a hourglass build but I’m always a little self conscious about my chest bc it seems to draw a lot of attention, sometimes unwanted. Other than that, I’m pretty confident though most would say I’m pretty quiet unless I’m totally warmed up to someone. I tend to be very stubborn and sometimes say mean things when I’m angry, but I always try to keep a cool head as much as I can. I have auburn hair and really dark eyes. Freckles and dimples that everyone seems to love when they notice. It usually surprises people bc I have really bad resting bitch face 😭. Some people I know have gone so long without realizing I have dimples tbh.

I love to read!!! Like totally obsessed. I also know way too much about dogs but I love all animals in general. Id say baking, running, and gardening are like my top hobbies but I also love a glass of wine and a good tv show tbh. I for some reason have a knack for drawing in either very unhinged guys or very calm guys. Idk why there’s never been some middle ground there but 🤷‍♀️. Idk if any of this even helps but I love your ships! If you can’t get to this one, it’s totally fine! Thank you!

Thanks for your request lovely! Sorry this took so long to get to! life has been busy but i'm glad to finally put this out :))) of topic but from your description you sound gorgeous! Hope you enjoy <33

I ship you with......

Joe Liebgott!

Song recommendation:

I think you two would compliment one another so nicely.

You want unhinged? Here’s your guy, he’s the perfect mix of sweet and psycho. An awesome boyfriend and chaotic in the best way, but if someone crosses you wrong he’s coming at them full force.

When he first meets you, he would swear that you were the girl for him, he genuinely thinks you are the prettiest human being he's ever met, he'll do anything to have you.

Let's say you're a nurse and you two meet in some small pub before D-day. He would be staring at you all night, just waiting to make a move on you. He wants to approach you but then all of a sudden he gets really shy?

And he never gets this way when it comes to women , so he's not really sure what to do. Just say hello? Ask you to dance?

He finally decides on the latter, making his way to you quickly before he can regret it. And when finally gets to you, he's blank. It's like he's forgotten everything he was going to say to you when he looked into your eyes (sounds corny ik but just bear with me) it’s also so cute but the first thing he would notice about you is your dimples 🥺

You guys would have a ball, dancing and talking all night with one another, by the time the night ended, he would be completely smitten with you and try to see you anytime he could, and even during the war he would write you tons of little love letters that would make you smile

He thinks you’re jaw-dropping beautiful, he can’t help but think about you in such a sweet way, while he was gone, he would spend any down time that he had thinking of you or writing you letters. All of the guys would tease him about it for sure 😭

And don’t even get me started on how cute some of the letters would be, he’d write them in his best handwriting and write out the sweetest things ever (he would turn into shakespeare fr)

When he finally comes back from the war and you two settle down together, the first thing he gets for you is a sweet little dog. (if you want one) He knows how much you love them and would do anything to make you smile

Speaking of making you smile, this man would be so attentive to you when it comes to your interests and such. If you wanted, he would buy you plenty of books and he would always ask you about the book you’re reading, or if you want to run with him he would go along with you for sure!

I know for a fact that he would LOVE your baking, I mean this guy looks forward to your famous brownies and cookies. For his birthday his ask for you would be lots of your homemade treats for him.

He would hate for you ever to be self conscious about any part of your body, he would remind you over and over again how beautiful you were to him, and if anyone tried making you feel uncomfortable he would make sure to kiss their ass.

He would love to watch a nice movie with you over a nice glass of wine, it’s probably one of his favorite times with you honestly. Just you and him relaxing with one another after a long day.

Both of you can tend to be a bit stubborn sometimes but it’s really only because you guys want the best in y’all’s relationship, even if he does (very rarely) get snappy with you he’ll make sure to buy you flowers and some treats to say sorry

I know for a fact that he would be so attractive to your confidence, just the way you walk and the way you carry yourself makes him want to praise the ground you walk on.

Also, he lowkey finds it attractive when you get mad at him or you show him that resting bitch face. Like whenever you get heated about something you love and you’re trying to prove a point all he can do is look at you with love 😭

Overall he’d be such a great bf. He’s so sweet and supportive of you and just know that he would ALWAYS be in your corner no matter what 💞

Thank you for your request!! I hope you enjoy again lovely!!! 💝💝

[countessofravenclaw]

A very Bizarre fic about Nina living at Castillo house

The tittle pretty much sums it up. Don't as me how or why. This i not supposed to be taken seriously. That being said, ENJOY!!! This was the origonal working title, but I couldn't change it in the end of the day, it fits too well with the vibe. Again, don't take his seriously, please, I was just having fun with an idea I couldn't get out of my head. So few thing to be aware of: 1. Germangie has never existed. 2. This exists in a time vacuum somewhere between Soy Luna Season 2 eps. 5 and 10. Dedicated to @calyxthenerd for the original idea

“Nina! Good that you’re finally home,” Ana closed her laptop when Nina walked into her mother’s house. 

“Great that it’s great that I’m home?” Nina raised her eyebrow at her mother. She wasn't usually this enthusiastic about her coming home. “I was at Roller like always.”

“Come on, sit with me,” Ana tapped the table. Was she nervous? Nina had zero idea why her mother would be nervous. 

“Okay…” Nina said skeptically as she sat down, “Mom, why are you acting all nervous?”

“Well, there is something I have been meaning to talk to you about,” Ana started speaking. “You remember when I went on that date last spring?”

“Yes…” Nina was feeling even more skeptical now, “You never told me anything about it. Have you been on more dates?”

“Actually yes,” Ana nodded, “We have been seeing each other for a while now.”

Her mother had actually been on multiple dates? With one man? The thought alone was astonishing Nina. “Okay… Well, that’s great… So, how long has this been going on for, and why are you telling me now?” 

“Well, that is because…”

*

“I didn’t even know something went beyond that one date. I had honestly forgotten about it,” Nina told Luna as they were walking down Blake's hallway. “Now, it has apparently been going on this whole time.”

“Wait, your mom has a boyfriend?” Luna bounced forward. “That is awesome! Or is it not?”

“No, not like that,” Nina shook her head, “I’m happy that she’s happy. I have never been against anything. Mom and Dad are over, the more distance between them the better. But they want us to meet. I just wasn’t expecting that.” 

“You weren’t expecting what?” Gastón came across them in the hallways, and instantly kissed Nina on her cheek. “I noticed your call in the morning but didn’t have time to call you back. What was it about?”

“Uhm, I’ll see you at class,” Luna said and turned to walk around the corner leaving them alone. 

“Something wrong?” Gastón looked at her after Luna had gone. 

“No, nothing is wrong,” Nina started as he grabbed her hand, “but things surely are happening.” 

“What does that mean?”

“Well,” Nina breathed, “Mom told me last night that what I knew as a “one date” has actually been a full-blown relationship these past months, and now they want us to have dinner together so we can all meet. Apparently, he also has a daughter.” 

“That is a lot of information.” Gastón looked at her. “How are you feeling?”

“I don’t know how I am feeling,” Nina shook her head, “It’s a lot and coming out of nowhere. Should have expected it at this point. One thing my parents know is how to make my life a mess.”

“Hey, come here,” Gastón wrapped his arms around her, and she leaned her head on his chest. “So, when is this dinner happening?”

“Today…” Nina mumbled. 

“So, it’s really happening fast?”

“Yes.” 

“Sooooo, you want me to come and gate crash?” 

“I don’t think that’s gonna work,” Nina laughed nervously, “Thanks though. I just—I don’t know anything about this man or his daughter. Mom didn’t give me much detail and you know how I get…”

“I do,” Gastón smiled at her, “But also, I know how amazing you are. You have nothing to be nervous about.”

“You’re biased,” Nina rolled her eyes. 

“Maybe a little bit,” Gastón kissed her quickly. “For a good reason. Call me when it’s all over.”

*

“We’re here.” Ana noted as she parked the car on the street. “Are you excited?” 

“That's one word for it,” Nina nodded while looking ahead, “You could have told me sooner, about all of this.”

“Well, you always complain how I’m not spontaneous,” Ana shook her head, “I am learning. Come on, we don’t want to keep them waiting.”

“Sure,” Nina nodded again. How else was she supposed to react to any of this? 

They walked in front of a big, white, modern house. It reminded her a lot of Gastón’s house. 

As her mother was ringing the doorbell, Nina discreetly opened her phone and checked the last text Gastón had sent her. She smiled at his reassuring words. 

“Welcome!” The door was opened up by a tall man with dark short hair. “Come in, come in.”

Nina followed her mother inside, kind of hoping that the man had not noticed her. 

“Nina,” She was snapped out of her thoughts by her mother grabbing her shoulder, “This is German Castillo. German, my daughter Nina.” 

“Great to meet you,” The man, German, handed his hand to Nina and she shook it. “We have heard so much about you.”

“We?” Oh right. This guy had a daughter as well. Nina really had a hard time keeping up.

“Sorry, sorry I am late,” A girl with light brown hair walked down the stairs in the living room. She looked about three, four years older than Nina. “I had to finish the chord progression.”

“I told you this was important.” 

“Well, I’m here now.” 

“So, this is my daughter Violetta,” German gestured to the girl. “I‘ve told you about Ana and this is her daughter Nina.” 

“Hi!” Violetta smiled, “Nice to meet you—”

“Mr. German!!!” Suddenly a loud voice came from the kitchen as a woman walked out of it flailing her arms around, “This is a disaster! The cloths—”

“Olga…” German groaned, “We have guests. You remember Ana? This is her daughter.”

“Well…” The woman turned around like lightning, “Aren’t you an adorable thing.” 

*

“So, you go to Blake Sount College?” German asked Nina as they were sitting at the dinner table. She still wasn’t that sure how this was actually going, but it was going. Everyone was pleasant and it wasn’t that awkward. “How do you like the school?”

“It’s great,” She answered, “The teachers are great.” 

“I have always appreciated that school,” German continued, “I wanted Violetta to go there, but…”

“But I decided to be scandalous and go to music school,” Violetta rolled her eyes from the other side of the table. “I mean, he is being really supportive of my career—”

Her phone started ringing suddenly. 

“I’m sorry,” She looked at the screen, “I have to take this. It’s Leon.”

“But Violetta!” The German apparently tried to protest, “Leon can wait. It can’t be important! You don’t need to talk to him 24 hours a day.”

But it apparently wasn’t working as Violetta got up from the table. 

“Leon, Leon and always Leon.” German seemed to mumble to himself. 

Nina’s phone also dinged suddenly. “Mom, Luna sent me a message I need to answer. Can I?”

“Yeah, of course,” Ana nodded. “Luna is her best friend—” She explained to German after Nina had gone. “—like I told you, Nina used to struggle socially, but she has really come out of her shell in the past year. Luna has had a huge influence.” 

“That’s great to hear,” German responded. “Having friends of her age is always great.”

Violetta returned to the table. 

“What did Leon want?” German asked. 

“Relax Dad,” Violetta rolled her eyes, “he called me to tell me that they were boarding and taking off soon.” She looked at Ana. “Leon is my boyfriend. He and his band have been filming in Columbia.” 

“Luna was giving me a lowdown about a step combinations,” Nina returned to the table. 

“It’s okay,” Violetta smiled, “We were just talking about how Dad doesn’t approve of my boyfriend.”

“I do approve!” German protested. 

“You just otherwise almost choked when I told you about him?” 

“You were a child back then!”

“And you still treat me like one now—” Violetta mumbled something but got interrupted by a door opening.

“I’m back!” A girl about Violetta’s age—maybe a year older or something—with blonde hair walked in. “Oh, you’re still doing this?”

“This is—” German got up from the table, “—Ludmila. She’s…”

“I’m the daughter of his ex-wife.” Ludmila interrupted, “She’s a psychopath and in the mental hospital.”

“Okay,” German laughed awkwardly, “Pricilla is getting the help she needs. During the annulment it was deemed best that Ludmila stayed here… So, that’s a very good segway to the topic at hand.” 

“What topic?” 

“Well, as it has been months now, and for us, the natural next step in the relationship is moving into together.” 

“What?”

*

“Moving in? Moving in! I literally heard about this few days ago, and now we’re moving!” Nina was sure she was making a rail on the floor she was pacing. “Why am I ever expecting to see what is coming anymore?”

“Nina,” Gastón, who had been leaning on a bookcase while Nina had been going off, grabbed her hand to make her stop pacing. “Look at me for a moment. Take a deep breath.”

“Okay…” Nina breathed in and breathed out, “This just isn’t something I thought was going to be happening. At the same time, the fact that Mom didn’t tell me about this at all, maybe it was because it really is serious… I should have known.”

“No one could have seen this coming,” Gastón brushed a lock of hair behind Nina’s ear, “Don’t beat yourself up about that. This is a super big whiplash, move like that from your home.”

“That’s the thing,” Nina shook her head, “It’s not that. I’ve been between two houses my whole life, never truly been allowed to settle in one place. I don’t have a childhood home. The place where I was born, I couldn’t even tell you where it even was and any memories I might have had, are not good. I don’t have a problem moving. The house we live in now with Mom, we’ve only been there for maybe three years. I guess it's just how unexpected this is.” 

“So, you do think you could handle it?” Gastón asked.

“I guess so,” Nina shrugged, “You know how much I over think. In the end, it’s not that bad… Maybe it could work. The man was nice enough and his daughter was really nice. I want Mom to be happy.”

“Maybe it will go well?” Gastón suggested. 

“Maybe,” Nina smiled nervously.

“So, where is the place you’re moving to?” Gastón asked next. 

“Esc. 666 Bajada Antonia 1 Puerta 237, Cornellá de Llobregat, And 20899.” Nina read off her phone. 

“Seriously?” Gastón suddenly questioned. 

“Yes?” Nina looked at him confused, “What is it?”

“That’s like two blocks away from mine,” Gastón looked at Nina. 

“Really?” Nina looked at the address again, “But yours is Puerta 736 Lugar Benjamín 56.”

“And if you take a left from there and then another left and finally a right, you’re at Bajada.” Gastón explained, “It’s not even a kilometer, like only 500 meters or so. I always walked that way when in middle school since Hoja was up north.” 

“Well, that will make this better at least,” Nina let herself smile and wrapped her arms around Gastón’s neck. 

“I’ll be right there if and when you need me.” He said after kissing her. “By the way, you never told me the guy’s name. Since you’re moving in there, I think it’s pretty appropriate that I know too.”

“Yeah, of course,” Nina nodded, “He’s this quite successful engineer, apparently has this whole company. German Castillo.”

“German Castillo?” Gastón's face suddenly turned shocked to say the least. 

“Yes,” Nina looked at him concerned, “What’s wrong?”

“Uhm, so…” Gastón ran his hand behind his neck for a moment, “There is nothing wrong…just uh, we have lived there a long time and Mom and Dad obviously know him. I think they have been invited to bunch of parties held there and stuff. To put it bluntly, they don’t like him and think he’s weird.”

“Why don’t they like him?” Nina questioned. She couldn’t say that she knew German Castillo well. Isla and Marco had excellent judgment.

“I honestly don’t even know,” Gastón shook his head, “It’s just some stuff I’ve overheard. They’ve never said it and… now I am actually doubting myself. It might not even be the case. I should have never said anything. Your mom probably knows what she’s doing.”

“Not everyone survives her...” Nina laughed slightly.

***

“German!” German Castillo had been peacefully drinking tea that Olga had just made him in the kitchen and reflecting on his finally pleasant life, when that peace was rudely interrupted. 

“Is what Vilu told me true?” Now he was faced by his unpleasant as a surprise and apparently furious sister-in-law. 

“Depends on what she has told you,” German responded, annoyed. “I am more wondering why I ever gave you the key.” 

“German Castillo! When are you going to stop collecting women!” Angie almost shouted. 

“Oh, so that’s what Violetta told you?” German started to realize. “I don’t think I owe you an explanation.” 

“This is not about who owes who what?” Angie rolled her eyes. “I am worried, about Violetta, about you too, as your friend. May I remind you of your track record.?”

“You really don’t…” German tried to protest but Angie didn’t appear to be hearing. 

“Woman who went psychotic after you jilted her on the altar, a con-artist who you almost also married—German, Esmeralda just got convicted, it hasn’t even been a year—and a psychopath, who almost killed Violetta, her own daughter and me, and that’s the one who you actually married.”

“I am very well aware of all of that,” German sighed, “but you can rest assure, I’ve gotten it this time.”

“Are you sure about that?” Angie still didn’t look convinced. “Again, Esmeralda is in jail, Pricilla in the closed ward and Jade could have easily been too… You know, the common denominator is YOU. Who even is this woman who you are planning to move in here?” 

“If you would let me explain,” German continued exasperated, “Funny you brought Esmeralda’s trial up. Ana is a lawyer…”

“No,” Angie shook her head, “That redhead? You seriously decided to take out the only woman in your legal team? Who helped in putting away your con-artist ex-fiancée.” 

“I invited her for coffee,” German started defending himself, “She did an excellent job and… we got along splendidly. You haven’t even met her, properly.”

“I am not doubting her,” Angie sighed, “I am doubting you.” 

“Well, you aren’t getting an opinion. Her and her daughter will move here on Sunday.”

“Daughter?” Angie asked again, “So, you’re collecting stepdaughters as well? You remember how that went the last time?”

“You do realize that Ludmila thrived here. Your point doesn’t really stand. And you haven’t met her either.” German shook his head, “She’s a lovely girl. She goes to the best school in the city, Blake South College. She’s smart, studious, creative and extremely well mannered. It is amazing, there will be no trouble, boys, chaos, anything. It’s delightful.”

“I can imagine,” Angie still didn’t look convinced. 

“You are going to love them…and what are you doing here anyway?” German finished. 

“To get Vilu,” Angie stated, “She’s coming with me to the ultrasound, since Pablo is stuck at work, unfortunately. We won’t be able to find out the baby's gender this time around due to it.”

“We won’t?” Violetta’s voice rang as she walked to the kitchen. “Awww, I was looking forward to it.” 

“I know, but we can’t find out without the father being present,” Angie ran a hand on her stomach, “We’ll go again in two weeks, and you can come then as well. How about we stop at the mall to get a few things for the nursery.?” 

“Oh yes!” Vilu perked up, “I saw this cute teddy bear on Pinterest the other day. Perfect for my baby cousin, be it a girl or boy.” 

“It is a good thing that baby blue nursery works either way,” Angie smiled.

“OH, then if we're going shopping I wanna stop by Bartolomea,” Vilu continued, “I wanna get more things for decorating the room for Nina.”

“Oh yes, I was just talking with your father about that,” Angie commented.

“I thought that since Dad is forcing a move down her throat, the least I could do was to make her room look nice,” Violetta smiled, “I asked her what she wants, but she didn’t have much ideas.” 

“You've been talking to her?” German questioned. 

“I asked her number when they were here,” Violetta shrugged, “What, was I not supposed to? Of course, I was supposed to, that’s what great stepsisters do, and I have been proven to be an amazing one. Ludmila is gonna help me decorate once she gets back from the class she is teaching at the Studio.” 

“Well, you have fun then.” German nodded. “It is great that you’re helping out.”

“We will,” Vilu smiled back as she and Angie started walking through the door, “I’m gonna be using your credit card!” 

***

“The room is nice,” Nina said as she stacked the last box on top of the other one. She went to grab her phone from the bed and showed a brief panorama of the room on a video call. “Violetta has been pretty much bombing me with interior decoration questions the whole week.”

“Well, she did a good job,” Gastón responded as Nina sat back down on the bed. From what the phone screen showed he was sitting on his own bed in his room. “I told you everything was going to turn out fine.”

“I guess so…” Nina sighed.

“So, your first class is at 8, right?” Gastón changed the subject, surprisingly to school. 

“You know my schedule better than I probably do myself,” Nina noted. “But, yes, Ms. Fernandez’s Monday 8 am English class.” 

“Good, I’ll pick you up at 7:30.” 

“Wait…”

“I am not taking any buts anymore,” Gastón grinned on the other side of the screen, “Before you haven’t wanted me to do a round trip because “you’re in a completely different direction”. Well, that excuse isn’t working anymore, so I am driving you to school. We’re not actually having this conversation. Tomorrow, 8:30.”

“I’ll be ready,” Nina smiled. Seriously, the fact that Gastón lived so close now, felt so great. 

“You can’t blame me for wanting to see you as the first thing in the morning.” 

“No, of course not. I haven’t thought of it that way. It will make the morning much better.” 

“I mean that is only if—” Gastón started saying with a mischievous smile growing on his face. 

“If what?”

“Depends on how you feel about sneaking out in the middle of the night.”

“Wouldn’t you get in trouble for that too?” Nina laughed slightly while blushing. 

“Depends, Mom and Dad won’t know if they aren’t even here… they are going somewhere for the weekend, as always. Business in Brazil or something.” Someone yelled for Gastón in the background, “But not at the moment… I need to go. See you tomorrow. I love you.”

“I love you too.” Nina responded. The call disconnected actually just in time as the door of her new room opened and her mother walked in. 

“You got everything in order here?” Ana asked.

“Yep,” Nina nodded when she put the phone down. 

“Good,” Ana nodded, “I was actually thinking, Blake is actually quite far—”

“I got that covered already,” Nina responded, “Gastón’s driving me. He lives close by.”

“He does?” Ana questioned.

“Few blocks away.”

“That should not be surprising, given Isla’s immaculate taste. I have always liked this area.” Ana remarked, “Are you fine otherwise? This has happened quite fast.”

“Mom, I’m fine,” Nina sighed, “I want you to be happy.” 

“Good to hear that.”

“Did you ever actually talk to Dad about this?” Nina asked next. Mom had said that he knew about this. 

“I told him how it is. Informed him that we were moving. There is nothing to talk about.” Ana responded. “You’re not changing schools, and this is actually closer to his apartment than before. Nothing breaking the custody agreement.”

Nina rolled her eyes internally when the custody agreement got mentioned. It was surprising that her parents didn't need an actual court order. Thankfully, she’d be 18 in about nine months and the “custody agreements” and everything else to do with co-parenting would never be brought up again. 

***

“Thank you, Olga,” German sipped his cup of tea behind his daily newspaper. 

“Morning Dad,” Violetta walked to the table. “Ludmila said that she’s sleeping in, so we won’t be seeing her in the morning.” 

“Morning,” he nodded, “What are you doing today?”

“Well, the meeting with my label got canceled so we’re gonna go and meet up with Fran and Diego. Fran wants to show me a few of the house listings they are looking into.” 

“We?” German raised his eyebrows, “As in…is Leon coming with you?”

“Yes,” Vilu stated nonchalantly, “But that’s like in the afternoon. I’ll try to finish some sheet music in the morning.”

“Why didn’t you start with Leon going as well?”

“Because that's not the most relevant information,” Vilu looked at him annoyed.

“How is it not relevant?”

“How is it?” Vilu rolled her eyes, “Dad, I am an adult…”

“Morning,” Nina had walked down the stairs, while pulling on some sort of a navy blazer. 

“Morning. Is that Blake's uniform?�� German greeted her with enthusiasm that made Violetta raise her eyebrow. 

“Yes,” Nina responded, also seeming just a tad confused. 

“Well, it looks very stylish,” German continued, “don’t you agree Vilu?”

“Well, I am not that into plaid…” Violetta wasn’t sure what Dad was trying to make her say. She knew why he was so curious about Blake, but surely, he knew that she was too old to start attending now. 

“No one is into plaid,” Nina shook her head, “I don’t really know that much about style, but one of my friends could go on a rant about how ugly the uniforms are.”

“I think they are elegantly classic, and extremely appropriate,” German remarked. “So, what classes do you have today?”

“English, math and history,” Nina recounted. 

“Uuu, I loved math in school,” German continued, “What are you doing?”

“We’re starting calculus,” Nina started saying. “It has been fine, our teacher is pretty good.”

“Well, if you need any help, don’t hesitate to ask.” Vilu wasn’t sure if she wanted to cringe or facepalm on Dad’s enthusiasm. Just because Nina went to Blake, it probably didn’t mean that there was only studying in her life. But that was what Dad obviously was harping on to impress his new stepdaughter. 

“Because we all love to hear what sort of math you all did in the 80s,” Vilu piped up, before turning to Nina, “You don’t need to humor him, just to make him feel better.”

“I’m just trying to help.” German raised his hand up in surrender when the doorbell rung suddenly. 

“Olga probably is busy, so I’ll get it.” German got up from the table and walked to the door. 

“Hello.” Behind the door stood a boy in his teens, who looked vaguely familiar to German but he wasn’t sure why. He was sure he hadn’t met this boy before. He remembered all the boys who had come to his house. This one was looking at him quite curiously. 

“Uh, Hello?” German decided to respond. He realized quite quickly that the boy was wearing a Blake Uniform too. “What… Can I help you? Are you in the wrong place?”

“I don’t think so,” The boy’s accent was also kind of familiar. “I’m looking for Nina.” 

“I’m ready!” Nina showed up at the door, clearly knowing the boy. “Well, bye German, Violetta! I’ll see you after school.” 

“Did Nina already go?” Ana arrived downstairs while holding her laptop. 

“Yes…” German scratched his head after they had gone. He could have sworn he had seen the boy put some hair behind Nina’s ear as he was closing the door… “She just left with her friend.”

“No, her friend didn’t pick her up,” Ana shook her head. 

“Well, that’s what happened,” German insisted, confused. “I was there.” 

“Oh, no, that’s not what I meant,” Ana said while sitting down at the table. “Gastón is Nina’s boyfriend. She’ll be getting a ride from him, from this point on. His family lives close by.” 

“A boyfriend?” German looked astonished for a moment, “That was her boyfriend?”

“Dad, take deep breaths…” Violetta started saying, clearly quite amused.

“No, I am okay,” German tried to play it cool and sat back down, “I am just surprised. I didn’t know. You never mentioned it. Is it a new thing?”

“Not really,” Ana was still just scrolling something on her laptop, “They’ve been together since the start of last summer. I am not actually sure how long they have known each other, though, since they were friends before. He’s a senior at Blake so they met there.”

“A senior?” German questioned, “Wasn’t Nina a junior?”

“Yes? What does that have to do with anything?” 

“So, he's older than her? And now they’re in a car, alone, together?”

“I am not understanding where you are going with this?” Ana looked suspicious.

“These sorts of things are hard for Dad, you have to forgive him,” Violetta said as slowly as she could.

***

“I was looking forward to some peaceful life with a wonderful woman and her daughter, but first thing I find out in the morning is that she has a boyfriend. Why does everyone have a boyfriend?”

“German, we were supposed to look over this offer from Australia,” Ramallo sighed. 

“I could swear I have heard that accent before,” German didn’t appear to be listening. 

“Well, what sort of an accent?” Ramallo gave up. 

“Only thing I can think of is the Cordoban, but that can’t be right…”

“Well, the only Cordobans around here are the Peridas.” Ramallo suggested. 

“They don’t have a child,” German protested.

“Actually,” Ramallo corrected, “About 12 years ago, when I worked with Marco, he and Isla did have a 5-year-old son. I don’t think they talk about him much.” 

“Ramallo, can I speak with Dad for a moment?” Violetta walked into the room. 

“Sure,” Ramallo nodded and got up.

“Fancy to catch you alone,” Vilu grinned and took the chair Ramallo had left vacant. 

“You literally banished Ramallo away from here,” German noted, “So what is up?”

“I’d like to talk about your performance this morning.” 

“What performance?”

“Dad,” Violetta tilted her head in disapproval, “I get that you're quite becoming fond of your new stepdaughter. She’s smart, likes studying and reading, she’s everything I was not.” 

“Oh no…” German tried to protest. 

“I am not blaming you for that, I know that you love me for who I am. You don’t want me to change,” Violeta continued, “But don’t treat her as a do over, because you will make the same mistakes again. You already started.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” 

“You didn’t notice the choking that was happening after the “boyfriend” got mentioned?” Vilu raised her eyebrow. “Dad, let's be real here.”

“I was surprised,” German tried to protest again, “She’s young.” 

“Older than I was when I met Leon,” Vilu stated simply, “But we all know how you reacted to that. Nina’s not your daughter, she has her own Dad who is alive, and her boyfriend was here before you too. I am saying this because I love you, and really don’t want you to blow it.”

“I am not going to blow it, as you say.”

“I’m not gonna let you,” Violetta crossed her arms, “I know how you are.”

***

“It feels like you have more books when they’re in a box, opposed to when they’re on a shelf,” Gastón remarked as Nina handed him another book from the box. 

“I am not even sure how I fit everything in these boxes,” Nina shook her head, “But those were the last ones.” 

“Good,” Gaston nodded and walked over to the bookcase. 

“Remember…”

“...put them in alphabetical order,” Gastón completed Nina’s sentence before she was able to fully even start. “I know how to organize books. If you want to micromanage, grow 20 centimeters.”

“I’m not micromanaging,” Nina laughed as Gastón put the last books on the top shelf of the bookcase, where she never could have reached herself. 

She leaned on her elbow on one of the piles of boxes… Which ended up being an extremely bad idea as the top box was not completely on top of the lower one and empty, so her weight made it tilt and fall, which made her lose her balance. 

Arms went around her waist as Gastón caught her before she fell. 

“How? You were on the other side of the room.” Nina said as he pulled her back up, still holding onto her waist tightly. She placed her hand on his upper arms. 

“What?” He smirked, “You think I don't have a sixth sense for catching you in my arms, when that’s where I prefer, you’d be at all times?”

Nina took a shaky breath. How did he manage to make that smirk so attractive? Who was she kidding, everything he did was extremely attractive…

She got completely lost in his eyes and there was only one thing she was able to think of. 

She grabbed onto his shirt and pulled him into a kiss, which he responded immediately. 

Nina had always known that Gastón had much more experience in kissing than she did, not that she cared nor even wanted to know with whom. Even if she had no one to compare it to, it had become quite clear all the way from the start of their relationship that he was extremely good at kissing. Something that she didn’t mind at all, and it was actually making her so much more confident. 

As they started getting more heated, Nina pulled on Gastón’s neck, insinuating that they should move toward where they could continue this in a more comfortable position. She laced her fingers into his hair, when she noticed him turning stiffer in his movements. 

“What’s wrong? Why’d you stop?”

“Look, I absolutely adore you,” Gastón was looking at her quite seriously. “But I really don’t want to risk getting caught doing anything over here. Wouldn’t exactly be the best impression, especially on your stepdad. Your Dad is one in the million chill, not everyone’s gonna be like that.” 

“I guess—”

It turned out that Gastón had been right to be cautious as the door to the room suddenly opened. 

“German?” Nina responded as the door revealed her new stepfather. 

“I just wanted to see if you needed help with something, like the boxes.” 

“We got it covered,” Nina responded gesturing to the moving boxes, “They’re actually empty.” 

“Well, weren't you efficient…” German seemed to think what to say next.

“Gastón helped me.” 

“Oh yes, your…boyfriend,” German hadn’t appeared to notice Gastón before now, and was now furrowing his brow. 

“Yes, I’m her boyfriend,” Gastón placed his hand on Nina’s shoulder. “Great to meet you.” 

“You got to school okay? Drove safe?”

“Yes,” Nina nodded, “He knows the way. I mean I can’t even drive myself.”

“Under-aged drivers cause 50 % of the most road accidents.” 

“It was actually only 10 %.” 

“I do have to ask, because you look extremely familiar, but I am sure we haven’t met?” German looked at Gastón again, “My secretary thought you might be the son of his former colleague…”

“Well, was his name Marco Perida? Because people always say I look like my dad,” Gastón shrugged. 

“So, you are a Perida?”

“Have you looked at the time?” Gastón suddenly asked Nina. 

“Oh, were gonna be late soon.” Nina checked her clock ring, “Luna’s gonna blow a casket.”

“Wait, where are you going?” German asked as Nina grabbed Gastón’s hand and they walk edout of the door. 

“To Roller. Our roller-skating team trains there.” Nina said quickly. “I… don’t actually know the way though.” 

“It’s in a walking distance,” Gastón responded, “I’ll show the way. It was nice to meet you Sir… or whatever you would prefer.”

“Mr. Castillo is fine,” German responded. After Nina and Gastón had gone he muttered to himself. “Roller Skating?”

“Well, that went well,” Gastón remarked as they were walking down the stairs, “It would have been a different story if he had come in five minutes earlier.”

As they walked in the living room, they heard singing accompanied by someone playing the piano. 

“Las estrellas no se leer Y la luna no bajaré No soy el cielo, ni el sol Tan solo soy Pero hay cosas que si sé Ven aquí y te mostraré En tu ojos puedo ver Lo puedes lograr, prueba imaginar…”

“Oh, Nina!” It had been Violetta singing with some guy who had been playing the piano. The music stopped as they came downstairs. “This is my boyfriend Leon. Leon, this is my new stepsister, Nina. Daughter of Dad’s new girlfriend and they live here now. And that is her boyfriend…but I didn’t catch your name this morning.” 

“Gastón.” Gastón nodded. 

“We didn’t mean to interrupt,” Nina started saying. 

“You didn’t,” Vilu waved away, “We were just vocalizing a little bit.”

“The song was beautiful.”

“Thank you,” Violetta leaned her head on Leon's shoulder, “First song we ever wrote together. Either of you do any music?”

“Gastón plays the piano,” Nina said before he was able to open his mouth. 

“I actually don't,” He protested. “I took a few lessons while being like ten, twelve, cause Mom and Dad do… it’s kind of this workaholic’s destresser for them. Nina’s the artistic one. Her lyricism cannot be matched, even if I am biased.” 

“You write lyrics?”

“I write in general,” Nina blushed, “He’s over selling, but I have done some lyrical stuff.”

“You’ll have to show me some time,” Violetta started getting excited. “I could work it to a song…”

“Maybe someday,” Nina looked at her ring again, “We really need to get going.”

“Oh, before you go,” Violetta started speaking, “Has Dad been okay?”

“He’s fine. What do you mean?”

“Just making sure,” Violetta nodded, “If he starts acting weirdly, like dressing up or selling apples out of a cart, tell me.” 

“Okay…”

“Vilu, he surely wouldn’t ever do that again.” Leon laughed slightly. 

“It’s my father… You can never know.”

***

“Wow…” Luna exclaimed as she walked in with Nina, “This place is fancy.”

“You live in a mansion,” Nina noted. 

“Yeah, but it’s not like I own it,” Luna shook her head, “And Ambar lives there. This is your home.” 

“I guess so,” Nina nodded. “But I don’t own this either. We just kind of live here.” 

“Still a fancy house,” Luna twirled around for a moment, “It’s must be fun—”

She suddenly slammed into someone. That someone was German Castillo. “Who are you?”

“I’m Luna sir, Mister…” Luna started babbling, “I’m sorry about slamming into you, but I wasn’t looking ahead of me, because my head is often on the moon… Get it? Moon, because I am Luna…”

“Luna…” Nina signaled that she would shut up. “This is German Castillo, Mom’s boyfriend. My best friend Luna.” 

“Uhm, nice to meet you,” German looked like he had been attacked by a flock of birds. 

“Nice to meet you too,” Luna continued, “Great house you got here. I honestly quite like big houses, or I’ve been in those a lot, Mom and Dad work in them… that’s we why came here from Mexico, even if I didn’t want to, but then I found roller…”  

“Well, uh, I am busy, so it was nice to meet you…Lina.” German practically ran to his office. When he sat down, he had to scratch his head. Ana’s daughter had seemed practically perfect in every way, but there was a boyfriend and a best friend, you could not make heads or tails of her. Not to mention roller skating out of all of the world’s arbitrary sports. 

This was confusing.

***

“Gastón, come here for a sec?” Gastón was just about to walk into the kitchen when his parents called him into the living room. 

“What is it?”

“Didn’t you say last week that Nina was moving?” Isla closed her laptop screen. 

“Oh, yeah, I did.” Gastón nodded. “Ana has a new boyfriend.” 

“Well, that’s great. How’s she taking it?”

“She’s fine,” Gaston nodded. 

“Where did she move?” Marco had also put the tablet he had been reading away. 

“666 Bajada Antonia 1 Puerta 237,” Gastón responded, “It’s close, which is great. She’s finally letting me drive her to school. I did tell you this.” 

“Isn’t that—?” 

“I…”

“Spill it.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Gastón sighed, “But yeah… It’s the Castillo house.” 

“Ana’s dating German Castillo?!” Gastón saw his parents share an alarmed glance.

“I know what you think of him, but please don’t make a thing of it…”

“Who said we were going to?” Isla shook her head, “I was gonna call Ana anyway, just hadn’t gotten around to it yet.”

“Invite them for dinner,” Marco suggested as Isla pulled her phone out. 

“Good idea.”

Gastón blew some air out of his mouth. Now he had done it— Note to self, never tell his parents anything ever again.

{}

Soo... again, THIS IS NOT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY!! This seriously has zero plot, besides some cutesy Gastina. I know that the end sets up for some more of this, but as of now, I am not planning on continuing this. But I can always be convinced otherwise...

[oneandonlyval]

Visiting Sheena: Non-stop smiles, laughs, acid trip, a wonderful group of welcoming women, and camping in the beautiful outdoors!

I flew up to visit Sheena in Oregon! Finally got some camping/outdoor time in and it was awesome. Having the means to take a last-minute trip and enjoy the excitement of plane travel again has given me the bug again. For so long I felt stuck, in more ways than one, and the trip up to see Sheena and meet all of her incredible circle of women friends was the perfect welcome back into what I hope will be even more trips to come.

Adelle dropped me off at the airport, and I was flying out of San Diego before noon. The airport situation was easy, except I got tired of not having a bag on wheels QUICK! I had to take my bigger duffel bag since I was taking more of my camping gear (tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, etc.)

On the plane, I was seated next to this older, gray-haired woman, and she was as sweet as can be. She was also a VAL! She lives in Salem, OR, so she was just visiting San Diego and I can’t remember who she was visiting but I recall her saying how much she loved Chula Vista. She also kept telling me that I was going to do all the greatest things in life that I wanted and that I should make the most of life. It was sweet to hear that encouragement, I assured her I’d do my best to do all the things I wanted to do in my young life while I was still able to, and that I’d continue to be diligent about wearing my earplugs in loud settings! Haha.

I landed in Oregon around 2 and Sheena picked me up.

From there we went straight to the grocery store, Fred Meyer, to pick up my contributions of food for the group share. We stopped for McDonald’s before making the drive out. Yummm. The drive out to our campsite at Lake Timothy in the Mt Hood area wasn’t bad at all, about 2 hours only. Goes without saying but it was just stunning up there. Plush and green!

Sheena caught me up on what’s been going on with her. She had actually just broken up with her boyfriend Steve the day before 💔 Sucks.

I’m so inspired by her though. Her level of self-work, emotional maturity, and comfort with navigating conflict is incredible. I’m sure having a therapist has helped a ton. I really need to seriously think about getting on the therapist train. I only ever hear great things.

Anyway. When we arrived at our campground, we settled into our campsite, a nice big corner spot right next to the bathrooms! Also, the campground was not even a month old yet, so the bathrooms actually smelled good, and the floors were clean, UNHEARD of. It was great. We set up our tents, unloaded, had the music going, and waited for her friends to start arriving.

Pictured above is the group of us. In order from left to right are Annabelle, Rebecca, Monica, Me, Liz, Patty, and Sheena. The dog pictured is Stacey, Rebecca’s dog, and somewhere on the ground not seen is Liz’s dog, Frida, as in Frida Khalo.

I felt immediately comfortable around each and every one of her friends. Everyone was so genuine, kind, funny, smart, and just had such depth to them. She has really cultivated a strong circle. I would like to expand my circle of trusted friends into something that resembles what she has.

The level of openness. It was nice to be able to reconnect with Sheena again in this way. She is my favorite person to enjoy the outdoors with and I owe a lot of the trips I have experienced in my life to her, for coordinating and making them happen. I miss that so much.

After this trip, I am definitely looking forward to taking more trips up to see her and doing more in that area.

On Saturday, we all did acid! 🙈 Sheena and I did a full tab, and the other girls all did a half tab, except Liz, who did a half of a half, haha! The trip was amazing, I couldn’t stop smiling, and I always laugh a ton when I trip with Sheena. She gets the giggles like no one else I’ve seen, it’s pretty hilarious.

We spent that day walking the trails around the lake, hung our hammocks up, and just enjoyed the views and each other’s company.

There was only one moment for about 40 minutes where my trip got so intense that I felt like I was moving in slow motion, and seeing everything move in slow motion.

The photos Sheena took somehow got warped and they just so happened to perfectly reflect what I was seeing there for a while.

It was really HOT too which I don’t do well in the heat while tripping, so that was giving me some anxious feelings.

Also on Saturday, thick smoke from some fires elsewhere in the state or neighboring states rolled in and thoroughly ruined our view of Mt. Hood. It was also pretty smelly! Owell! That’s the PNW for you.

While still tripping, we all took the walk back to our campsite to regroup, try to eat, drink, and then head down to the lake to chill, and put our toes in the water. I stayed ashore and let my trip fizzle out, while all the girls except Annabelle took their floats out onto the water. That’s when I saw this adventure cat!!

So cute!

After our dusk time at the lake, we all went back to camp to transition into the night. Liz brought a game that included a bunch of cards that had different prompts of various depths geared toward getting to know one another. That was such a cool thing to bring to a camping trip. I would love to do that again. I need to ask Sheena to get that deck info for me so I can have that on hand. We all spent the rest of the night chatting, munching, and listening to music before it got too cold to stay up any longer (campfire ban for obvious reasons).

All in all, I enjoyed the trip so much and although it went by in the blink of an eye, we made the most of it and I can’t wait for the next one!

View of Mt. Hood on Friday night, before the smoke rolled in on Saturday.

Side quest!