#i think that one-shot is fun but i wouldn't rate it that high next to other fics ive written

[changeishard]

Chapter 7 is up!

Title: Love From the Other Side

Rating: Explicit

Relationship: Elliott/Penny

Summary: Sam was desperate. He knew his band, Goblin Destroyer, was good, but they haven't been able to get it off the ground yet. They had quit their day jobs to focus on this, and Sam felt like it was his responsibility to make them famous.

So he would make a deal. He could part with his soul. It wasn't a huge price to pay for their success. Sam deserved it. Seb and Abby deserved it, too.

But the devil wasn't interested in his soul.

He wanted Sam's wife.

*

Or, an AU where Elliott is a God who takes Penny to his realm as part of Sam's bargain.

[static-radio-ao3]

hit me with your best shot

romance writer regulus & hitman james - 4.4k, referenced sexual content + deeply unserious but hopefully fun!

for @arsonfaerie <3 happy birthday, maggie!

Regulus Black loves romance. He loves reading it and he loves writing it and he would probably love experiencing it too. Unfortunately, that last one hasn't happened yet, but for now he's happy just imagining.

He likes the escape romance books provide. To retreat, even for a few hours, somewhere warm and safe. To provide that for other people.

Except, some people don't seem to appreciate his approach. He scrolls through Goodreads reviews with mounting horror and a sinking feeling. Dorcas, his literary agent, always tells him to pay it no mind, but Regulus can't help it. He minds a great deal.

He taps on a one-star review. Most reviews rate the book quite high, but the low ratings still sting.

"Stop that," Barty says, waving a fry in front of Regulus' face to get his attention.

"Stop what," Regulus replies flatly, eyes trained on the words unrealistic and unimaginative. A reviewer by the name of magswrite claims that "Regulus Black wouldn't know romance if it hit him in the face. And at this point, I think it should hit him in the face for the great disservice he does to the genre at large."

There's more, but before Regulus has the chance to read it and weep, Barty snatches his phone out of his hands. "Enough," he says, leaving no room for argument.

"Give it back." Regulus swipes for his phone but Barty manages to hold it out of reach, dropping it next to him on the red vinyl booth.

"Not until you get a fucking grip."

"They say I don't know a thing about romance," Regulus whines petulantly. He slumps in his seat and snatches a fry from Barty's plate, munching on it with a pout. "Just because I'm not the most experienced, doesn't mean I don't know what I'm talking about."

He grabs another fry, somewhat aggressive dipping it in the mayonnaise. He bites it in half and hovers the fry over the sauce again. "Can I double dip?" he asks.

Barty shoots him a dry look. "Regulus, I've licked your asshole. Yes, you can double dip in the fucking mayonnaise."

"So crass," Regulus sighs as he covers the rest of the fry in mayonnaise.

Regulus has never dated, but he's not completely inexperienced. Barty was happy to be his first and second and third and, well, they kind of lost count at some point. But they decided early on it wouldn't be more. Couldn't be more.

That's fine with Regulus. He's never been particularly interested in dating. That's not to say he's not interested in a relationship, but it's just that the prerequisite steps to get into one never quite worked out for him.

People don't like Regulus. He's too uptight, too closed off, and too hard to read. Never mind the fact that he writes books for a living.

Regulus is somewhat of a fortress. Except, there are no walls to be scaled or broken down. The only way to get inside, to get to know Regulus, is to be patient enough to be handed a key.

Only a few people have one of those keys. Barty, for one. Dorcas, his literary agent and friend, has another. His brother had one, but he left. Took the key with him. Regulus went to great lengths to change the locks.

"Hey." Barty nudges his foot under the table. He studies Regulus for a moment, always a little too observant for his own good. As if reading his mind, he says, "Maybe it's worth another try. Just put yourself out there, you'd be surprised what you'll find."

LOOKING FOR SOMEONE TO TAKE ME OUT

>> jfp_: Hey, I saw you’re looking for someone to take you out?

>> jfp_: I’m James, by the way.

>> rab_: Hi James! Yes! I just think it would be good for me…

>> jfp_: How do you want to go?

>>rab_: Do you mean where?

>>jfp_: Sure, that too.

>>rab_: I think dinner seems like a good place to start.

>>rab_: But if we want to be a little adventurous, I’ve always wanted to go skydiving…

>> jfp_: I can work with that. Friday, 7PM?

>>rab_: It’s a date!

He'd called Barty in a panic because what does one wear to a first date?

Sure, Regulus has written plenty of dates but he's never thought about what his characters are wearing. Which features they want to accentuate or hide. Which colors match their eyes and which ones wash them out.

Hess on his third outfit of the day and poses awkwardly in front of Barty, who simply shakes his head and sends him back to his closet to change.

"And where did you say you found this guy?" Barty asks as he sucks noisily on a lollipop.

"I didn't say.” Regulus’ voice is muffled as he rummages through his closet. He has an emerald green silk button-down, but he's worried that might be a bit much for a first date. He pops his head out to tell Barty, “Craigslist."

Barty's head whips towards Regulus so fast he worries he pulled something in his neck. "I'm sorry, what?" Barty manages, voice strained.

"I put up an ad on Craigslist."

"Why on God's green earth would you look for a date on Craigslist?"

"Why are you saying it like that?"

"Because it's Craigslist! Oh my God.” Barty squeezes his eyes shut like he's suddenly plagued with torturous visions. “He's probably a pervert. Or a serial killer."

"Well, what else was I supposed to do?"

"Use a dating app! Ask your friends to set you up! Go to a Barnes & Noble and look confused in the History section! Ask the barista out! Literally anything but putting up an ad on Craigslist!"

Regulus genuinely doesn't know how none of these things occurred to him. He's a romance writer, he can write a meet-cute in his sleep.

He's aware of the existence of dating apps, he's aware of the fact that his barista always doodles a little heart next to his name when he orders a drink to go, and he's probably not even above looking confused in a bookstore in the hopes that someone will approach him.

But still, knowing things in theory and doing them in practice are wildly different. It's the main reason he's even going on a date in the first place.

"How was I supposed to know?" He cries out, head in his hands.

"Common sense!”

Regulus whirls toward Barty, pointing an accusatory finger in his face. "Don't talk to me about common sense, Mr. Public Indecency Charges!"

"Those are actually more common than you'd think."

"Barty! What do I do?"

Barty heaves a deep, long-suffering sigh and pushes himself out of Regulus' desk chair. He takes a few steps towards Regulus, who thinks he might get an encouraging speech, something touching and inspiring and world changing.

But it's Barty, so he says, "Bring pepperspray," as he flops down on Regulus' bed. Regulus wrinkles his nose.

"Get off my bed. You're in your outside clothes."

"Why does that matter? It's not like you minded when Rosie and I fucked on your bed."

"You did what?” Regulus asks, incredulous. “When? Why? Is this some sort of psycho-sexual thing?"

"No, of course not,” Barty says like it's obvious, which it isn't. “It was just for Rosie's back. The couch was giving him trouble."

Every sentence out of Barty's mouth is worse than the last. Regulus pinches the bridge of his nose.

"You and Evan fucked on the couch? Wait, more importantly, did you wash the sheets after?"

"Of course not, it'd be weird to do laundry at someone else's place."

And maybe calling Barty for help wasn't such a bad idea after all. This date no longer feels like the worst thing that could possibly happen to him.

Really, how bad could it be?

Regulus is chronically early. He'll show up anywhere with several minutes to spare, usually the first person to arrive. So when he spots James Potter across the room as soon as he enters the restaurant, a pleasant little thrill runs through him.

He makes his way to the table, tucked away in the corner, a little secluded and offering the illusion of privacy in the bustling restaurant.

“You must be Regulus,” the man says when Regulus stops in front of his table. Their table. His voice is pleasant. Low and smooth.

"You're... handsome," Regulus says. Not at all the first thing one should say to a perfect stranger on a date, but well, James is handsome.

He has the messiest head of hair Regulus has ever seen, but it doesn't make him look disheveled. Instead, he looks charming and inviting.

His glasses would make anyone else look severe, but on James, they just draw attention to his beautiful eyes. Dark and deep.

When he stands to greet Regulus, Regulus notices that he’s wearing a black turtleneck tucked in smart black trousers and shiny black loafers.

"Why do you sound surprised?" He asks, head tilted to the side as he sizes Regulus up. He fidgets under James' gaze, hoping that nervous sweats won't show through the green silk shirt he's wearing.

"My friend thought you'd be a pervert. Or a serial killer,” Regulus offers with a shrug. The comment makes the corner of James' mouth quirk up in a not-quite-smile.

James has a nice mouth, Regulus decides. In the back of his mind, he runs through descriptions he might use in his books. Like he's on the verge of telling a joke, already enjoying the laughter he'll incite. Like he's got a secret tucked away and is just about to confide you in.

"Oh, I'd never be a serial killer,” James jokes as he pulls out Regulus' chair for him. “I'm a hitman."

It startles a laugh out of Regulus. He covers his mouth with his hand, as if to keep the sound from escaping but it spills out anyway. James smiles a milimeter wider at the sound, and it feels like a personal victory to Regulus.

He drops down into his chair and glances at James when he moves to sit again. At the way his trousers tighten around his thighs with the movement.

"Mh, a much more honorable profession,” he replies, eyes shifting back up to James' face.

James winks at him. "My thoughts exactly.”

“I wanted to say thank you,” Regulus starts. He shifts in his seat, suddenly nervous. “I know it was rather… unconventional to post an ad like that on Craigslist. I honestly don't know what I was thinking, I just kind of panicked.”

James waves his hand, as if physically batting the comment away.

“Don’t even worry about it. Stranger things have happened. I've actually never taken anyone out like this before.”

The statement makes something flutter in Regulus' stomach. For a moment he thinks it's hunger, but then he realizes it's the ripple of butterfly wings.

“Oh?” He asks, trying for casual. He's not sure he succeeds.

“Yeah, it's usually not as fancy. Less pomp, you know?”

“Well, I feel honored.” And he does. A flush crawls up his throat and settles on his cheeks. He hopes James can't see it in the low light of the restaurant, but Regulus suspects that James is a very observant person.

They order and chat and drink and Regulus, to his own surprise, is having a great time. James makes him laugh and asks questions, but also doesn't push.

When the food arrives, Regulus takes a quick second to send a text in the group chat he has with his friends.

>> reg: So far, so good! Very handsome and NOT a serial killer👍

He sees that a few of them read the message right away and the three dots that pop up indicate that someone is typing, but he tucks his phone away again before he can see who or what, attention on James again.

He smiles as he looks at the food, but the white powder sprinkled on top makes him frown.

He glances at James, who looks at him expectantly, as if eager to see Regulus take that first bite. He must really love the food here, Regulus thinks.

With another quick smile at James, he turns in his seat so he can flag down a waiter. “Hi, I'm so sorry but this seems to have… parmesan on it? I'm lactose intolerant…”

“Oh, I see! Terribly sorry about that, sir. I'll get you a new one right away.”

“Whew,” he tells James, “crisis averted.”

James hums, but he seems a little confused.

“I'm lactose intolerant,” Regulus clarifies. “It's very not-sexy so I won't go into detail, but nothing good happens when I eat cheese and such.”

“Ah,” James says.

“Please eat!” Regulus says with a gesture towards James' own plate. “I wouldn't want your food to get cold.”

“Nonsense, I'll wait.” And the simple gesture makes butterfly wings flutter even quicker. He takes a sip of wine in an attempt to drown them.

The rest of the meal passes smoothly, no more food-related incidents. Regulus keeps a a watchful eye on all the food he eats, not wanting to have to cut the date short because of a stomach emergency.

James insists on dessert, so they split a lemon sherbet between them, one of the few lactose-free options on the menu. James seems vaguely disappointed that they don't get the tiramisu, but the sherbet is so good, Regulus doubts James minds for long.

“I have a surprise,” James says once they've paid.

Regulus wasn't sure what the proper first-date-bill-etiquette was, but before he could worry about it, James had slipped the waiter his card and took care of it.

The butterflies returned with a vengeance.

“Oh?” Regulus asks, interested piqued. “Do tell.”

James' laugh is warm and easy. “Well it wouldn't be much of a surprise then, would it?” The flickering lamp on the parking lot casts James in a warm yellow glow, accentuating his nose and his jaw. He looks like an angel in disguise.

James drives them to the city center, he'd even opened the car door for Regulus. He thought that was just a romance trope, not an actual thing people did. He's pleased to be proven wrong.

He watches the city lights flash by as they get closer to their destination. Their destination that is still a mystery to Regulus, by the way. He recognizes some places they pass but James' doesn't slow. Not until they're at the big, blocky building that has an arcade, a cinema, a laser tag arena, and an adventure park, whatever that is.

“Couldn't take you skydiving at 10 p.m.,” James starts as he helps Regulus out of the car, “but I figured ziplining might also do the trick.”

Regulus gasps, touched.

Apparently, you can zipline off the roof of this particular building and land on the next one where they have a beautiful rooftop bar.

The two of them pay for the harness and the gear, listen carefully to the instructions provided by the slightly bored attendant. Her blonde hair is choppily cut, the edges dyed pink as if she did it over her own bathroom sink.

James and Regulus take turns helping the other suit up. James' hands are warm and big, holding onto Regulus' waist to stabilize him as he steps into the harness. James fiddles with the back clasps for a second before declaring that Regulus is all set.

Regulus then does the same for James, securing the clasps and making sure all the straps are pulled taut and tight. And maybe he steals a look or two at James' ass, but the harness does wonderful things for him and Regulus is a simple man.

They talk easily as they wait for their turn, the to girls in front of them jittery and nervous. It occurs to Regulus that he should probably also feel jittery and nervous right now, but James makes him feel so at ease.

He's about to tell James as much when the attendant calls out, “WAIT!”

The urgency in her voice startles Regulus away from the ledge. She hurries over, tugging on her lip piercing in a worried fashion as she unclips Regulus' harness. “Oh my God,” she breathes. “The wire is fraying!”

“What does that mean?” Regulus asks, eyebrows pinching together in concern.

“That means this thing could've ended really badly, holy shit. I'm so glad I caught it. I'm sorry sir, I have no idea how this harness made it through our inspection. I assure you that we prioritize out clientele’s safety above all else. If you want to cancel your reservation for tonight, I absolutely understand. You'll get a refund of course—”

“Oh, well, I don't think that'll be necessary! Maybe we can still do the zipline. That is, if you still want to?” He turns to face James, directing his question at him.

James has his arms crossed in front of his chest, an impressive frown on his face as he looks at the faulty harness.

Regulus steps in closer to him, lowering his voice. “Hey, it's not your fault. She caught it in time and I'm completely fine. I'd still really like to do this, but if you're uncomfortable…”

James snaps out of his annoyance when Regulus touches his hand to James' chest. “No, let's do it,” he says, that easy smile returning. As long as James is with him, Regulus thinks he's as safe as can be.

The zipline is exhilarating. A thrill shoots through Regulus as he flies through the night sky, city lights blurring around him in a neon dream. James is flying next to him, arms stretched wide.

Regulus copies him and for a brief moments their fingertips touch, sending a fresh thrill down Regulus’ spine.

They land on the rooftop bar windswept and energized, a restless hum under his skin. He understands thrill-seekers now. That rush of adrenaline is unlike anything he's felt before. Although he wonders if the feeling is caused by the zipline or by James.

And he understand, now, what that reviewer meant about Regulus not knowing romance. He never knew it could feel like this. So thrilling and exhilarating yet comfortable and safe. James awakens in him emotions he didn't think he had and he is suddenly grateful to Goodreads reviewer magswrite for forcing him out of his books and into the real world.

He giggles helplessly into James' shoulder, the turtleneck soft under his cheek and the scent of fresh laundry filling his nostrils.

“That was…” but he doesn't finish his sentence, simply gazes up at James. He leans in, just the slightest bit, breath coming a little quicker. His eyes flutter shut and he hears the way James’ breath stutters.

Before their lips can connect, James jerks away. “Sorry!” He says loudly, not quite a yell but a near thing.

Regulus tries to ignore the sting. It's not weird to not kiss on the first date, he reasons. Maybe James needs more time.

Regulus takes a step back, removing himself from James' personal space. He tries to muster a reassuring smile, but it feels watery and thin, like he could burst into tears at any moment.

It's fine, he tells himself. Don't be a baby.

He feels a little unsteady now that he has removed himself from James' orbit and he mutters an excuse about needing to use the bathroom.

He calls Barty, who picks up on the second ring. “What?” He asks, breathless.

“Barty? Why are you out of breath?”

“Busy,” is all he says in return.

“Yeah, sorry, I… My date is going well but I tried to kiss him and he—”

A loud moan cuts him off mid-sentence.

“Are you having sex right now?” Regulus cries out. He ignores the pointed cough coming from one of the stalls.

Barty grunts in affirmation.

“Oh my God!” Regulus closes his eyes and is met with the mental image of Barty and Evan. He immediately opens them again. “Why did you pick up?”

“Case of emergency.”

Regulus can’t even find it in himself to feel touched at the sentiment. While it is kind of sweet, it is also deeply unhelpful right now. “I swear to all that is holy, if you are in my bed…”

“Don't be ridiculous,” Barty pants as if a few hours ago he didn't admit to having done that exact thing.

Regulus doesn't bother with a response. He simply hangs up the phone and shoves it into his pocket with perhaps a bit more gusto than strictly necessary.

He glances at himself in the mirror, taking a quick second to fix his hair. The windswept and messy look works for James, but Regulus feels like it makes him look more boyish and disorganized than charming and ruffled.

He makes his way back to James, who has managed to secure them a table on the edge of the crowd. It’s nice, being a little secluded from the rest. This way they can talk properly, something that Regulus usually dreads about dates but actually really liked when it comes to James.

“You strike me as an Old Fashioned guy,” James says when Regulus is in earshot. He gestures at the drink on the table. He's holding a drink of his own, a Martini.

“Very James Bond of you,” he remarks. James lifts his glass in salute. “And you're not wrong, I am an Old Fashioned guy." Regulus shifts his weight from one foot to the other, a sudden spike of nerves in his gut. "But I think I've had enough excitement for tonight… I should probably stick with water.”

On the one hand, Regulus really does think he’s had enough excitement for the time being, a faint buzz under his skin still from the zipline and from the almost-kiss. On the other hand, he doesn’t want to risk crossing the line between pleasantly tipsy and embarrassingly tipsy. He doesn’t think he can bear making a fool of himself in front of James. Again.

His lips tingle with the phantom feeling of James’ on them.

Regulus winces at the open disappointment on James' face. It kind of feels like a capital crime to upset James, his eyes wide and earnest behind his glasses.

“I'm sorry—” Regulus starts, but James interrupts him with a bright, “Don't be!”

Relief courses through Regulus’ veins, reassured by James’ smile. With a warm hand at the small of his back, they make their way towards the bar, where Regulus orders some water. The bartender looks a little confused to see James back again so soon, but hands Regulus his water before hurrying off to the other side to the bar and serve the people there.

They linger at the bar, not in any rush to get back to their table, to separate. Regulus leans in close so he can talk to James without having to shout over the music that’s playing.

“Have you been here before?” He asks. He tries not to inhale James’ laundry-clean scent, worried it’ll completely shatter his inhibitions. He feels more drunk off of James’ presence than he could from any drink.

James tilts his head to speak directly into Regulus’ ear. Regulus shivers when James’ lips brush against his skin. “No, this was a first. I don’t like going places with familiar people. It makes this whole thing more complicated.”

“That’s fair,” Regulus acquiesces. He can’t imagine being on a date and running into people he knows. He figures it worsens the inherent awkwardness of a first date.

He's glad he didn't have to share James with anyone else just yet, happy to remain in their bubble a while longer.

They pass time at the bar, venturing back to their table eventually to enjoy the view. It really is rather beautiful, but Regulus finds that his eyes wander to James more often than not. To the way his hair falls over his forehead and the way his muscles strain in his shirt and the way his Adam’s apple shifts when he takes a sip of his Martini.

No amount of water can drown the butterflies that flutter wildly in his stomach.

James offers to drive Regulus home. The car ride is nice, spent talking idly as music spills from the radio. When they arrive at Regulus’ apartment building, James hesitates.

“I'm sorry tonight was a bit of a bust,” he says eventually.

Regulus isn’t sure what James means. Yeah, maybe the cheese on his pasta was a bit of a bummer and the fact that he nearly went on the zipline with a faulty harness and then there was also the double rejection of James not wanting a kiss and Regulus not wanting a drink, but if he overlooks all those things, the date was… Pretty perfect.

And Regulus thinks it’s a good sign that he enjoyed himself as much as he did despite the minor issues they ran into. He’s quick to reassure James, turning in his seat so he can face him.

“Not at all! I had such a good time, James.” He leans over so he can touch his hand to James’, as if to physically convey his sincerity. “I promise.”

James clenches his jaw, a tension in his shoulders that Regulus desperately wants to work away. His hand shifts to fully grab James’. He intertwines their fingers.

“Still… I'll do better next time.” James cuts him a glance. “If you'll let me, that is.”

And Regulus has no choice but to kiss him for it. He doesn’t try to kiss him on the lips, he’s more than happy to let James indicate when he’s ready for that, if at all. Instead, he leans in slowly, giving James ample time to move away. He doesn’t. Regulus places a gentle kiss on James’ cheek. When he pulls away, he sees a faint dusting of pink there. A rosy blush.

He exits the car as gracefully as possible, which is a tall order considering the fact that James drives a Jeep, but the promise of next time carries him all the way to his front door as though on a cloud.

Regulus opens his front door with a flush on his cheeks and toes off his shoes with a swarm of butterflies in his stomach. He boots up his laptop, the blank document staring back at him.

He thinks of James, with his messy hair and his warm smile and his big hands.

He takes a deep breath. And he starts typing: Dominic Coin loves romance. He loves reading it and he loves writing it and he would probably love experiencing it too. Unfortunately, that last one hasn't happened yet, but for now he's happy just imagining. That is until…

[slayfics]

You leave a party with Katsuki.

Warnings: alcohol, NSFW themes

1.4k words

You let out a sigh as you poured your next drink. The party was fun, but you couldn't deny your own disappointment that a certain someone hadn't shown up.

You haphazardly mixed the tequila on the table with the margarita mixer nearby. Due to being several drinks in, your proportions were off, and you served yourself more tequila than you needed.

You had spent your time at the party catching up with friends and laughing, but in between conversations you unconsciously searched the crowds of bodies hoping you'd find Katsuki there.

It had been a while since you saw him now. You began to think you were foolish for thinking he'd come to the party being as busy of a pro hero as he was now.

Even knowing that your heart rate spiked once Eijiro, Denki, and Hanta walked in. Katsuki's usual crew. You took a sip of your drink remembering how fast your hopes were dashed when Katsuki wasn't with them. The strong taste of liquor splashed over your tongue, and it took everything in you not to gag it out.

What was left of your executive thinking screamed at you to pour more mixer into your drink. But your drunk thoughts were stronger and encouraged you to keep drinking to forget how pathetic it was that your main reason for coming was to see Katsuki again.

You exhaled in disgust at yourself, so pathetic you thought, and took another sip. Bringing the cup back down, you scanned the crowd to see where your next move was going to be when you saw what you thought must be your eyes playing tricks on you.

Katsuki was in the crowd, and he was heading over to you. You blinked hard, sure that he would despair when you reopened your eyes, but the opposite wasn't the case.

Katsuki scanned the table of liquor and mixers, "Not many options here are there?" he remarked on the leftover selection.

"There was earlier but you're fashionably late," you responded, flashing him a teasing smile.

Katsuki grabbed a plastic cup and poured a shot of vodka into it, "Had a late patrol and- wasn't gonna come. But those idiots," Katsuki grunted gesturing to his usual group of friends, "wouldn't take no for an answer... so here I am."

"I don't think I've ever heard someone be so upset to be at a party," You giggled.

"That's obviously a lie because we saw each other at the last party, and I hated that one too. Or were you too drunk to remember?" he asked and took a sip of his drink.

"Hey! I remember just fine! You had to drag Kaminari out because he was throwing up all over the place." You said hitting his arm playfully. Misstepping you momentarily lost your balance, but Katsuki was quick to grab your arm to stabilize you. 

"Tch- if you're not careful you're going to be the one throwing up all over the place," he chuckled. "The hell are you drinking anyway?"

"Here want to try?" You asked him, holding out your drink.

Katsuki grabbed the drink from your hand and took a sip. Immediately his nose scrunched up and he recoiled from the taste. "The fuck!" He exclaimed. "What is the matter with you? This is all tequila," he said, a slight cough escaping him.

"You're being dramatic," You teased. But you knew he was right. You had made the drink way too strong. Katsuki walked over to the sink and dumped the drink out. "Hey!" You exclaimed rushing over to him and trying to grab the cup even though it was too late.

Katsuki held the cup up high to taunt you. You pulled at his arm and stretched your fingers trying to reach for it. "Shit- you are drunk, hu?" he exclaimed laughing at your pursuit to wrestle the cup from him.

Giving up, you dropped your arms and crossed them, as you squinted your eyes at him. "You owe me another drink."

"Fine. I'll make you one that isn't poisoned," he teased and brought the empty cup to the table to re-fill it.

You walked over next to him, watching as he made a drink with moderate liquor. The party lights flashed across his face highlighting his features. It had been so long since you saw Katsuki in person, it was astounding to you all over again how handsome he was. "You know... you don't have to be here," you said, tossing out the slightest hint.

"Hah? I know that. Already told you though- the damn extras made me come," he said turning and holding the finished drink out to you.

"Yeahhhh but~ you hate parties," you spoke pushing your hint even further.

"It's fine- they are bound to be too drunk to stay any moment now anyway so- I don't plan on being here much longer," he said, leaning against the kitchen table.

You took another sip of your drink frustrated at the blond not catching on to your hints. Silently you devised a more straightforward plan.

"How's that one taste? Better than that rat poison you were drinking right?" he asked.

"Hm? What was that?" You said putting your hand to your ear pretending you couldn't hear over the loud music.

Katsuki taking you seriously repeated himself. "How does it taste?" he asked again.

You moved closer to him, "Sorry still didn't catch that, it's really loud in here. Want to go somewhere quieter?" You asked, taking another sip and batting your eyes at him.

Katsuki chuckled, "Are you serious? That's your move?"

"Well, you didn't catch on to my others!" You giggled and moved closer still to him.

"Tch- the answer is no. You're too damn drunk idiot." Katsuki said, but a grin crept onto his face from your invitation. You reached out and grabbed his hand flirtingly playing with his fingers.

"I'm not that drunk," You protested and leaned into him pressing your body into his. He was warm and you wanted nothing more than to get lost in him.

"You can't even look at me straight," he laughed and moved his hand to brush some stray hair strands out of your face.

Sadness washed over your drunken glazed eyes as you looked up at him. Katsuki couldn't help but smirk at the pitiful look on your face.

"If you don't want me, just be honest about it." You said and raised your cup to take another drink. Katsuki intercepted your cup, pulled it from your hand, and placed both yours and his cup on the counter.

Katsuki wrapped his arms around you and pulled you tighter to him, your head resting on his chest.

"That's not the problem," he said, and you heard the words rumble in his chest.

"Then what is?" You asked nuzzling more into him.

"Told ya- you're drunk out of your mind. Doesn't feel right." He said giving you a squeeze.

"I missed you though... kiss me at least?" You compromised.

Katsuki pulled you off his chest and placed his finger under your chin. He guided your lips to him as he pressed his lips softly to yours. Being given the taste of him now, you were set on not letting him go. You deepened the kiss pressing further into him. Embarrassed by the slight moan that left your lips at his contact. You had been wanting him again for so long. You gave into your drunken impulses and playfully bit at his bottom lip, your arms wrapping around his neck.

"Mm- hey-," Katsuki said pulling away before you could go further. "Fuck- you make it hard to say no you know that?"

"Then don't," you said and attempted to pull him back into a kiss.

Katsuki avoided your kiss and repositioned himself back. "How about this- I'll take you home. BUT- you got to promise to behave. Gonna feed you, get you to rest and sober up. Then... in the morning when you're clear-headed," he moved his lips to your ear to whisper, "I'll show ya how bad I really want you."

"Deal," you said, a huge drunken grin on your face. You interlaced your hand with his and led him out of the kitchen. Guiding him through the party to the front door as if to show off your prize.

sinners: @unofficialmuilover @maddietries @fiannee @i-heart-carlisle @derangedmango @matchat3a @zanarkandskylines @reneinii @pastelbakugou @abadbitchblogs @deluluforcarlos55 @pinkpurpledreams @that-one-fangirl69 @dreamcastgirl99

[dadscarathon]

Day One: Destroy all Neighbors

What a fun way to start Spooptober! Destroy All Neighbors combines some of the fun practical effects you would expect in an Evil Dead movie (the OG, not the new stuff), the goofiness of your Little Shop of Horrors and a dash of Airheads for self-deprecating references to music and the industry.

I enjoyed it! A lot of the practical effects were goopy and gross, just as you would expect. There was a lot of unexpected star power in the form of Jon Daly, Thomas Lennon and a Kumail Nanjiani cameo that could have come straight out of a Dan Harmon podcast episode.

I've been thinking about a rating system for my watches. Let's see if something like this will work:

Scary - did it frighten me at any point? Was there a jump scare that actual got me? This is the baseline, more startling than horrifying, but a lot of horror movies stoop down here, and some pepper it in like an appropriate spice. High marks for well executed, low for overuse or lame attempts.

Gross - was it nasty? Was something on the screen so gnarly that it made me wince or look away? Practical effects always seem to do this better than generated ones, but even digital effects can get disgusting.

Disturbing - The real gluten of fear. Does a noise I hear on the way to the bathroom remind me that things in the shadows are waiting for me? Do I suddenly find myself wondering if my own clone would mind if I murdered myself, or what would happen to my pets if the monster visited the house? A more ephemeral, but susbtantive fear than inspired by Scary.

Funny - I know, what's this doing in a rating about horror movies? If you didn't laugh a single time during Alien, maybe we wouldn't be friends - and that movie is an arguable horror masterpiece. A lot of modern horror, and especially indie horror lean into humor as a release valve to make sure that emotional balloon is nice and taut for the next fear poke.

Thoughtful - A lot of horror approaches the philosophical side of the genre and then stops before reaching any real revelation or submersion. A few movies go all the way in, not just in the effort to instill fear but a real exploration of human experience.

Ok, maybe that's more effort than is required, but I like categories.

Here's the score for Destroy All Neighbors:

Scary: 1 out of 3. DAN isn't trying to be frightening in this way, and that's fine.

Gross: 2 out of 3. Lots of squelchy practical effects. I'm not entirely certain I've seen a movie before with a corpse playing the drums with its intestines. That said, I didn't feel the need to turn away that I can think of. I did wince quite a bit at some of the effects and they were humorously and thoughtfully played out.

Disturbing: 1 out of 3. I was most disturbed on Will's behalf, as the audience can see that he's going to end up murdering most of the people he comes into contact with - a sort of second hand manslaughterer embarrassment.

Funny: 2 out of 3. There was some great dialog and bits played out. This is where the movie was aiming most of its energy and it works pretty well. I don't think it was a laugh a minute.

Thoughtful: 2 out of 3. The allegory in the movie, a message about using the time you have to create in a passionate way was there, not heavy handed, and not merely a prop for the plot.

Total score: 8 out of 15.

If you like practical effects, progressive rock (though this theme isn't hit that hard in the movie) or just a goofy good watch for your Spootober give it a shot.

[dalishthunder]

Destiny Waits for No One

Chapter 6 - On the Road Again

Pairing: Nebarra/LDB (Gender Neutral Reader) Rating: Mature Words: 1523 Additional Information: Slow Burn, Nebarra is an ass, Giving alcohol to minors Read on AO3

"So you mean to tell me, they're fighting over her? Over Camilla?" Nebarra asked as you left the inn the next morning after having had to listen to the plight of Faendal and Sven, both hopelessly in love.

You thought it was kind of sweet really; To be in love with someone... though perhaps not so much that you were willing to sabotage other people and lie to where your affection found its home.

You wondered if there was someone out there waiting for you to come home. Wondering if they thought you were dead... if they'd moved on. If anyone had even ever felt that way about you.... Or if you were alone in the world before meeting your friends.

Camilla was returning with a bucket on her hip from the river, a soft smile on her face as she worked, waving to an old woman sitting on a porch. "Yeah, I wonder if she knows how sweet either of them are on her."

He let out a little noise of disgust, "I'm just saying if you're going to be fighting over someone shouldn't they at least be attractive?"

Elbowing Nebarra, you whispered a harsh, "Can you be polite for once in your life?" She gave you a smile as well as she entered the shop, "Besides, I think she's rather comely."

"Of course you do."

"Are you always this unpleasant?" Kaidan slung an arm around your shoulders as he shot Nebarra a look.

"Yes."

"I bet he's in Skyrim because the other High Elves hate him too." Lucifer piped up.

"Is that why you're here instead of Black Marsh?" Nebarra bit back.

"No! My reasons for being here are too complicated for someone like you to understand."

"How old are you?"

Lucifer eyed him suspiciously. "Twenty or twenty two."

"Let me guess, you're trying to find yourself." The altmer sneered, and Lucifer's eyes narrowed.

"Wouldn't you-"

You buried your face in your hands, leaning heavily against Kaidan's side. "Can't we just get along? Just for while we're on the road? Please."

"I'll behave if he does."

You exchanged an exasperated look with Xelzaz. "We're going to play a game."

"Oh I love games! Can we play 'I Spy'?" Khash asked.

"That sounds like an excellent idea!" Lucien agreed. "Maybe a word game? Something with rhyming?"

You'd thought about playing a game to see who could stay quiet the longest, but the rhyming game seemed fun. "Yeah, sure."

"I have an even better idea," Nebarra grumbled, "We just march in silence instead."

Rhyming game it was.

"How do we play, Lucien?"

It was fairly enjoyable. You didn't recognize all the words, but it was fun bonding with your companions even if Nebarra refused to participate. And it occupied much of your journey along the road. You stopped for the night in a cave, a little over halfway to Ivarstead. Xelzaz prepared an absolutely delicious meal for you all which Nebarra, unsurprisingly, refused to eat, instead setting up his tent and eating inside away from everyone.

More for you then.

Lucien was fitting well into the group despite his lack of experience. He and Xelzaz enjoyed getting into passionate conversations about intellectual pursuits, and you really wished you understood them. You tried to absorb as much as you could, writing it down in your journal. Inigo, Khash, and Kaidan were playing some sort of Khajiit card game that Inigo had procured from one of the caravans. It really way relaxing....

But tomorrow you were to face your destiny.

At least you'd have some idea of who you were…. Who youare.

Somehow you'd managed to sleep through most of the night despite the nightmares. And though you wouldn't have called the sleep restful, it was better than nothing.

Nebarra was sitting around the fire when you left your tent, already packed up and ready to go.

"Morning," He said without even looking up.

"Morning." You sat next to him, taking a swig from your waterskin.

"What, no singing? No morning whistling? No irritating humming?" The altmer asked after a long period of silence. "No deliberate attempts to ruin my morning?"

"Have you done anything that makes your morning worth being ruined?" You replied.

"No."

"Then you have your answer."

"I hadn't realized you were capable of such reason."

You turned to look at him, eyes narrowed, something sour on your tongue. "What is your problem?"

"Touchy," He snipped. "I-"

"G'mornin." Kaidan interrupted with a yawn as he stepped out of his tent, shirtless despite the cool morning air. Though you supposed having grown up in Skyrim probably helped abate the cold. His scars from the prison were beginning to fade; the poultices from you and Xelzaz had really been working their magic. He must have found just enough room between you and Nebarra because he plopped himself down; Knees bumping up against your own.

"Do you mind?" Nebarra hissed, scooting away immediately. "Humans really don't have any manners do they?"

Kaidan just wrapped an arm around your shoulders and gave him a dry look. "A proper nord knows how t' keep warm on a cool morning."

"Then put some clothes on. Do you really expect people to believe you're a nord?" The mer pulled a bottle of wine from his pack, sticking a straw in and finagling his helmet to take a sip.

A shadow passed over Kaidan's face for a moment, "I was raised by a nord, as a nord.... But no, that nord ice doesn't flow through my veins if that's what you're trying to say. Truth be told, I don't know what I am... I don't even know the race of my own mother."

"Oh...." Nebarra went quiet.

You put a hand on Kaidan's and leaned into him, "I don't know how much help I'll be, but I can help you try to find that all out.... If you'd like that is."

"You'd do that for me?" The shock in his voice was almost almost hurtful.

"Of course! What are friends for? You're helping me, after all." You flashed him a toothy smile.

He laughed, "I'm paying off a life debt, Dragonborn. But, aye, I won't turn down a favor from a friend."

"You really just go saving whatever poor slek wanders on your path, don't you?" Nebarra mused, nursing his bottle of wine.

"I can think of one we probably just should have put out of his misery...." Kai shot him a look.

"Ohoho, you really think you can take me on, big man?"

You looked between them, discomfort welling in your gut, "Guys-"

"You have all the bark of a high elf, but none of the height-"

"Don't you think it's a little early in the morning to be having a dick measuring contest?" Xelzaz wore his exhasperation on his sleeve. You'd have thanked the gods, but you were pretty sure they weren't listening, so you sent a silent thanks to Xelzaz instead.

You helped him with breakfast, waking the rest of your companions for freshly scrambled kwama eggs and leeks, and Khash helped you both with the cleanup afterward, and before you knew it you were on the road again.

Clouds loomed on the horizon as you wound your way through the cold mountain path. A light snow began to fall, steadily getting heavier as the day progressed. Not enough to impede your vision too much, and you made sure that everyone had a buddy to keep track of so nobody got lost, but it was enough that it made the road harder to differentiate.

You had begun to contemplate stopping for the evening when you saw the telltale signs of civilization just over the hill. Sunset was upon you as you trudged through the snow and into the local inn, welcoming the warmth of shelter. Some hot mulled wine warmed you up from the inside, and despite the look you got from Xelzaz, you let Khash have some of yours. Just a few sips, nothing to get drunk off of, but enough to help her warm up.

"I cannot believe that you like that stuff..." She said after her second sip, wrinkling up her nose.

You just snickered. "More for me then."

Lucifer sat down next to her and she rolled her eyes, getting up to go listen to the bard.

"I don't understand why she doesn't like me." He bemoaned.

Kaidan clapped him on the shoulder, "Give it time, I'm sure she'll come around."

You closed your eyes for a moment.

Seven Thousand Steps.

You were supposed to climb The Seven Thousand Steps tomorrow and meet the Greybeards.... Hopefully the weather would clear up. While you were still laden down with some coin from the Jarl, inns were not something you wanted to have to spend all of it on.

So you bunked up with your friends... and Nebarra... letting Khash curl up between you and Kaidan. It was a tight fit on the bed, and the sound of snoring didn't exactly help you fall asleep. But you couldn't toss or turn to find a more comfortable spot....

You settled in for a long night.

[zippdementia]

Metroid Retrospective: Metroid OG

Continuing my "all Metroid games I can get my hands on" run with the original Metroid. This may be the only one of the lot I don't actually complete (aside from Federation Force, which I don't even intend to play).

I'd heard from many many people that the OG Metroid has aged incredibly poorly, far worse than its other contemporaries like Ninja Gaiden, the OG Zelda and Mario, and Contra. And I can't argue, even with the generous addition of save states and the ability to rewind that the Switch adds. It is not a fun game to play.

There are things I enjoy. I actually like the labyrinthian nature of the game, which forced me to draw maps and work out where to go next based on where I'd explored. There was a wonderful rush of satisfaction every time I found a new path forward or discovered a secret passage and expanding my own hand drawn map was its own reward.

I also enjoy the difficulty of combat. Enemies move in predictable enough patterns that as you learn them you can start abusing these patterns, leading them into your missiles or shots with a feeling that is remarkably ahead of its time in terms of making you feel like you are in a gun fight. It's another way the game rewards your continued play as it has a limited enough roster of enemies that you really do get better at playing and can see this in the fact that you start making more progress on the map. You can even start using certain spawning enemies as "farming" to restore your energy and missiles by taking them out over and over.

However, there are two things that hurt each of these "likes" pretty massively.

The first is that you can't duck and fire. This wouldn't be an issue except for the sheer number of ground enemies. Yes, you can jump over them but it just doesn't feel right to not be able to shoot down, even while jumping (you can shoot in every other basic direction, but not down). It makes for a lot of situations where rooms are harder than they feel they should be, simply due to mechanical limitations.

The second is more aggregious: when you die you start with a ridiculously low amount of health. Not full health, no. Not even one full energy tank (which is 99 energy). 30 energy. That's what you get. And that sucks because there isn't any "full restore" stations. Instead, you have to go camp in front of those forever spawning enemies and monotonously take them out over and over until you are full health... which of course, as you progress and get more energy tanks, takes longer and longer. It's a strange reversal of player reward, where the game actually gets MORE frustrating as your health bar gets higher and I can't imagine this was an intentional effect on the part of the designers. I feel like it was more just a sign of the early days of gaming and lack of experience creating a system that was antithetical to player growth.

And the enemy drop rate is not high. I spent 20 minutes one time restoring all my energy, only to fall in acid and get stuck and die two minutes later. That was about the time I realized I probably wouldn't finish Metroid 1. It's a shame, because if you just had some instant restore stations, I think this game would still be as good as Zelda, Mario, and others. But that one aspect just takes the lengthy exploration and getting lost in the maze-like Zebes and makes it tedious instead of tense.

[popculturebuffet]

Next up for Disney TVA, who is your favorite character from the cartoons in the second half of the Disney Afternoon era (1993-96): Marsupilami, Aladdin the Series, Gargoyles, The Shnookums & Meat Funny Cartoon Show, Timon & Pumbaa, Quack Pack, and Mighty Ducks the Animated Series? Skipped Bonkers since you said in the last ask that you haven't seen it yet.

Okay so getting this out of the way again (And yup haven't seen bonkers) So in addition to bonkers Marsupliami (though ti looks good and snookums and meat . Aladdin the Animated Series: No faviorite as I've only seen maybe one episode in recent years , but I do hear it's a fun adventure show and remmeber it being okay as a kid. never realized as a kid the two dtv movies werne't their own movies but the pilot for the show and it's finale respectivley (both still stand find on their own and return has if nothing else I can remmeber your only second rate)

Gargoyles: I LIVE AGAIN! I really need to watch this series in full at some point.. honestly reviewing it might not be a terrible idea as it'd at least get me around to it. I'll figure it out. Faviorite is Xanatos. Even just READING about him I loved the guy, a villian so damn good at gambits tv tropes named it after him and whose clever as he is self serving. The show itself is again one I BADLY need to watch as i've only seen a few scattered episode but the one that sticks in my mind I Had on vhs in high school, Deadly Force sticks out. It handles gun saftey.. in a way that dosen't feel hackned or over the top. Elsa gets shot.. but she made the mistake of leaving her gun unmprotected and apparently the show is consitent in making sure she never does again. IT's a show with a deep intretsing mythos, voice acting royalty, and is worth a look. Again I wouldn't mind doing a retrospective at some point (Splitting season 2 up a bit ) covering the first two seasons, the slave labor graphics comics and the recent revivial comics following up on those. Not plugging there either I just think gargoyles is neat. It's disney's equilvent to batman the aniamted series in my mind and it's a shame they never really captlized on it

Timon and Pummba: Only seen some of this for a review, it seems.. okay. Not terrible by any means but nothing I really want to watch despite loving these two characters.

Quack Pack: Daisy whose redesign while attractive is also fun and is that nice sweet spot of being fed up with donalds shit sometimes but not you know cheating on him, abusing him or everything three cabs daisy did. Don't be three cabs daisy folks. The show itself i've only seen a few eps of, some for reviews some on my own time but honestly.. it's okay. It has a reptuation for being awful, for being garbage that brought down the whole disney afternoon.... but really.. it's fine. I think a lot of people raging against it forget that donald getting into domestic scraps is just as much a par tof his dientity as donald duck the greatest adventuerer who ever lived. most of his shorts come from some small incident such as his car breaking down, a raido cooking show or his cousin showing up to eat everything he has. So going back to that with a bit of advneture weirdness ocasionally thrown in seems fine. Some plots do sound.. insane but the show seems okay. The versions of the boys.. are a bit weaker but it's less for characterization (thier about the same as they were in ducktales just older) , and more for trying to make them sound cool and that despite giving them unique va's.. they didn't do much in the ones i've seen to actually defenrtaite them. And honestly the redesigns are solid

Daisy and Donalds are great an dth eboys are fine. Their hair and Louie's backwards hat are 90s as hell but honetsly they aren't half bad and now I think about it dewey's would perfectly fit the 2017's dewey's love of attention and need to be seen as a jock. The show is far from perfect and some episodes seem nuts again like Huey's dental surgery turning him into a super villian.. but overall it's just fine. Not super mediocre, but not as bad as it gets a rep for. Also the humans thing... eh why not. I prefer an all furry universe, but I get Donald has interacted with humans before.

Mighty Ducks: One I haven't revisited and don't really.. intend to. It's a weird piece of the duckverse, with aliens, 90's super powers and hockey. I might check it out for the novelty as I have gained a love of hockey due to certain canadian television series

But otherwise it's just kinda.. there. There are other 90's action shows to visit. Gargoyles is just down the block. BTAS exists. I just really.. dont' care.

[radinagames2020]

Goodbye Volcano High

(Image from Steam)

Man I don't even know what to rate this one. Probably a 3?? The issue is, I was so excited for this because the art, music, and voice acting looked so good, and it was getting comparisons to Night in the Woods which I LOVE. And mostly it lived up to this hype! The rhythm game sections were fun and challenging, the art was fun, the voice acting was really really good, and I enjoyed watching the story play out - at first.

However...I'm extemely irritated with how the story went. I don't want to spoil anything, but basically: Justice For Fang. The last third of the story is a tale of a kid who messed up big time and has to go apologizing to their friends and patching up mistakes. And the writers were GOING to tell that story, whether or not anything in the plot leading up to that justified it. And I don't think it did!

In my opinion, Fang was not the one most at fault for what happened. At BEST I'd say it was even blame all around, but Fang is made to grovel for forgiveness from Trish and Naomi, while neither of them return more than a flippant half-apology. Naomi, especially, is super rude to everyone most of the time, but is treated like she's the one hard done by. I had to pause the game multiple times to rant about how ridiculous the story beats were - I almost felt like the game was gaslighting me.

However. I might just be relating to Fang a bit too hard, so it's possible other people wouldn't find this so irritating. If you can put that aside, the story does have a lot of good points. I especially loved the sibling relationship, and the game does a good job exploring what it's like to stare down imminent destruction and keep living in the meantime. And the rhythm sections were really fun. So, I'll average this out to a 3 overall.

------

Next up I'm going to play Stray Gods which is.... a musical based visual novel. I am a bit worried I'll have complaints about it as well, but I figured I'd give it a shot while I'm here (in this genre)!

[arizonaconservativegal]

Hi there. Californian desperately looking to flee this coming summer. Was once considering Arizona but I’m concerned that the election chaos of CA is in AZ too and now you have a Democrat governor. Is this still a place I can safely flee or is AZ lost like Cali now? Honestly asking. I don’t want to absorb the work and expense of relocating just to be in the same place.

I might give it a year and see how much Katie Hobbs is able to bypass or bully the legislature. I think they'll be able to keep her in check but they have an unfortunate habit of being certifiably insane so I hate to put all my hopes on them. In general, I don't expect the next four years to be super fun here but I wouldn't say the fight is over yet. Our state party doesn't know what the fuck it's doing but if they get their shit together, the state is very winnable. We may have had a big influx of Californians moving here since covid but this is still a slightly right of center state.

I'll give you my usual warnings about moving here:

If you're renting, you should know that housing prices in the cities / larger towns have shot up about 50% in about four years and show no signs of slowing. Be ready for that. I don't know offhand what the trend has been for the more rural areas, but I imagine it's gone up a fair bit too. Still much, much cheaper than California though.

If you're buying, you need to very thoroughly dig into the water rights where you buy or you might find yourself in a lot of expensive trouble very quickly. This is especially true if you are looking at a rural area but several unincorporated areas on the edges of Phoenix have learned the hard way recently that hiring water haulers isn't cheap.

In most of the state, illegal immigration tends to be more of a political issue than a daily life issue but for areas on the border and along major drug corridors, it is a very serious problem. Good luck getting into a hospital in Yuma - they're overflowing with illegal immigrants. I also personally know people who cannot go outside on their own property at night because the cartels use it to traffick all sorts of things and they will shoot you if they see you.

We did manage to hold on to the corporation commission, which regulates the power companies, so I'm not too worried about this unless the legislature does something dumb, but we do need a new power plant soon or we may be looking at rolling blackouts in the not super distant future... I think it'll be okay but it would have been good to have a Republican in the governor's office to smooth that process a bit.

We have a very low income tax and property taxes tend to be low for primary residences. People think this means we are a low tax state. What they forget is that we have a very high sales tax - nearly 10% in some areas. All said and done, we're fairly average for total tax rates when compared with other states. It's still a lot better than California, but I don't want you to be surprised.

You need a car to get around here. Public transportation exists but isn't very functional and nothing is close enough to walk. Make sure you get a new Arizona plate (you only need one) because otherwise everyone will see your Cali plates and automatically hate you.

And the last warning I have is that yes, it really does get fuck-off hot here in the summer. Expect temperatures to never fall below 100 for the entire month of July. If Phoenix doesn't get a straight week of 115+, that's a mild summer. If you're from LA, you probably know what to expect. Otherwise, make sure you have a good AC system - and you want AC, not a swamp cooler. Trust me.

All that said, it's really a great state to live in. It's raining today and that's a rare enough event that everyone gets excited for it. There really is nothing like a southern Arizona sunset. Jeans and a button down shirt count as formal attire in half the state, especially when paired with cowboy boots. Most of the population is from somewhere else so you can find restaurants with quality food from anywhere you like. In most of the state, you will literally never have to shovel snow or scrape ice off your windshield. We have all the major sports franchises so you can go to big games when you want and they don't totally suck but none of the teams are good enough that anyone really expects you to root for them over your home team. We have more biomes here than any other state in the country so whatever kind of environment you want, you can get. Natural disasters don't happen in most of the state - the worst thing is forest fires in the north which are usually manageable. We have a weirdly huge historic car community because our climate is so dry that the cars don't rust. People put Christmas lights on cacti. Haboobs look like the apocalypse is rolling in but are really just a funny word for the newscasters to say a lot. You will see people wearing a bolo tie unironically. I once saw a woman put a tumbleweed in the back of a minivan. I love it here.

[sugoi-and-spice]

Chapter One - Game Start!

Pairing: Tomura Shigaraki x Fem!Reader, (3rd Person)

Rating: Explicit - Minors DNI

Summary: Tomura Shigaraki was her dad's boss's son. He was the creep that stole girls' underwear and tried to grope her in his room. But it's not like he could get her Dad fired just because she wouldn't sleep with him, right? ...right?

CW: Quirkless!AU, Explicit Smut, Dub-Con, Coercion, Blackmail, Cheating, Sexual Guilt, Humiliation, Unhealthy Relationships, Virginity Kink, Groping, Power Play, Hate to Love

A/N: My Tumblr debut on this account! I hope you all enjoy. This is a fic I started a couple months ago as just a one-shot, but became absolutely ADDICTED to the concept. Chapters are long, so excerpts will just be posted on Tumblr. But if you like my style, please please please give me a follow and a request. Looking forward to your thoughts! ^_^

Read Full Chapter on AO3

[EXCERPT]

All things considered, it was kind of strange how ordinarily this entire situation had started. It was a lazy Sunday — the first day off she’d really given herself in months between cram school, swim practice, and studying for entrance exams. She was just laying on the couch playing Animal Crossing on her Switch, when her Dad entered the room, oh so casually bringing up:

“You know the President of my company? He’s got a son that’s about your age.”

Oh no. She knew that tone of voice. That was the, “Let’s get excited about something awful” voice that made her Dad think he was so slick. The, “help me clean the gutters” and “you have an orthodontist appointment” voice. Indicating that it was something so supremely unenjoyable that he needed to trick her into thinking it was something fun or god-forbid cool beforehand.

“He even went to your school, isn’t that neat?”

She shot him a glare. No. No, that was not especially neat. They were a couple of rich kids that lived in the same commuter vicinity of a private school near her fathers’ company. A school that every employee of said company got a nice little stipend to send their kids to due to the large donations that the head of that company made every year. Of course they went to the same school. It was practically custom made for them.

“The President has expressed a lot of interest in introducing you two to each other. Thinks you’ll be a good influence for him!”

“Why does he even know about me? That’s a little creepy.” she joked.

Her Dad was less than amused, “Of course I talk about you with my coworkers. Not to mention you’ve met him at company parties.”

“Huh. I don’t remember.”

That was kind of a lie. She did remember. She particularly remembered that the company president liked to talk about himself and his visions a lot. To the point that she had started calling him “All For One”, in her mind and had completely forgotten his real name. But in all honesty, she didn’t really think about her Dad’s job — let alone his boss — unless she really had to, unless it was right in front of her. So maybe the more honest response would’ve been “I don’t care”, but that was pretty rude.

He reached over, forcibly pausing her game, “That’s because you always have your face buried in your devices, Peanut.”

She rolled her eyes playfully, unpausing the game just as quickly. “What’s his name?”

“Tomura. Do you know him?”

Her fingers froze, her little villager sprite swaying on loop as they waited for her to click forward to the next dialogue option.

Oh she knew him alright. Everybody at her school knew him. Tomura Shigaraki was a fucking freak. And not in the Judd Apatow, misunderstood renegade type of way — this guy was genuinely creepy. The type of guy that brought knives to school. That stole underwear from girls’ lockers (although this was never proven). One of the senpai in her club was convinced that Tomura was stalking her. And he was the type to get away with it all. And now she knew why.

Kamino High had universally let out a sigh of relief when the creep had graduated back in April.

“I think it’d be a good idea.” her father continued, “He’s a first year at Todai, now. Maybe he could give you some entrance exam pointers.”

“No, I think I’ll be okay.” she said.

“He likes video games.” her dad tried to sell.

“Most kids my age do Dad. It’s really not that big of a selling point.”

“What if you just—”

“Dad.” she sat up suddenly, “I really don’t want to.”

He looked at her genuinely surprised. This wasn’t like his daughter to so vehemently oppose him on something. Especially when he was making it clear that it was something important.

“Why not?”

“Because he’s creepy! I don’t like him and I don’t want to spend time with him.” she insisted.

He frowned, “Honey, how can you say that? You don’t even know him.”

“Yeah and I’d like to keep it that way.”

Her dad sighed, “Come on, kiddo. I thought I raised you better than this.”

She looked down to her feet, guilt making its way slowly but surely through her body.

“I’ve met this kid. Sure he’s a bit of an odd duck, but I don’t think he deserves to be called a creep for that. He’s just a little awkward and lonely. Honestly, I think he just needs a friend.”

“And his Dad thinks I’d make a good one…?” she muttered.

“I think you’d make a good one.”

He leaned over, pinching her cheek teasingly, “You’re my friend after all!”

She snorted, swatting his hand away lightly, “Oh god, please stop.”

“Just hang out with him one time, alright? Can you do that for me?”

She sighed, “Fine.”

Her Dad grinned, clapping his hands together excitedly, “Great! It’s a playdate!”

“Please don’t call it that!”

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[curiousconch]

Chase You / Chase Me (Pt. 2)

Part 2: Before I dive right into you

Catch up here: Series Masterlist

Chapter Summary: In the aftermath of their pretend wedding in Las Vegas, Gabe begins to unravel his growing feelings for Alex. But as he attempts to bring his past to light, someone from Alex's previous life casts a shadow on the future.

Book/Pairing: Choices - Laws of Attraction / Gabe Ricci x MC (Alex Keating)

Words: 2.4k+ (sorry 🙈)

Rating/Warnings: Mature (16+) / alcohol consumption, some swears

Disclaimer: Most of the characters as well as some dialogue belong to Pixelberry. I am merely borrowing them.

A little after 1 AM, Las Vegas

Gabe can't help but smirk at the look of mischief in Alex's eyes as they stood by a quiet spot in the middle of Las Vegas. With her in that glittery dress, he somehow can't bring himself to part from her yet.

He knew it wasn't only him who felt that tingling in his fingertips when he brushed her cheeks, her breath smelling strongly of martini. He was very aware that Alex felt the same when she stared back at him, standing at that cramped cheap chapel while an Elvis impersonator stood nearby. The moment she stepped away when he said that it's just all pretend made Gabe's heart ache with regret.

So here they were, standing awkwardly after he shot down her advances again.

But he was sure he didn't want the night to end here.

After calling for a car, he shoved his phone inside the pocket of his slacks and turned to Alex.

"I was serious when I said I wanted a celebratory drink," he glanced apologetically to his side where she stood. "Our hotel bar offers my favorite scotch."

Alex raised her head, smiling. "Knew you had it in you, Gabe."

A car ride and a couple of glasses of Lagavulin later, there they were, lounging on stools at their opulent hotel bar, warm lights and jazz music providing a backdrop on the casual atmosphere.

"And I could not believe the rat thing worked! Who would've known they kept a rat in there as a pet? Like really?" Alex raised her glass to her lips, as Gabe sat on the barstool beside her, cradling his own drink.

"Beginner's luck, I would believe," he chuckled in reply, leaning forward, tie loosened and his coat hanging at the back of his chair.

"I am so offended," Alex gasped as she shoved her hands flat on her chest in mock disbelief. "I'm not only the boring nerd when I was in high school, Gabe. I was that nerd who sang and dance at the drama club!"

Gabe shook his head, his lips pursing. "That makes so much damn sense, Alex." He took another swig of his third shot, fighting for dear life from laughing his heart out. Not wanting to give her that satisfaction, he threw a sarcastic dig at her remark. "That's so believable, seeing you could snatch an Oscar from Meryl Streep herself and the no one wouldn't even bat an eye."

"Ah, law was plan A, sir." she saluted, placing her empty glass on the bar counter. "Acting was a fallback in case it didn't pan out." she giggled.

Gabe grinned as he rolled up his sleeves, beckoning the bartender for another round. "You should have made it your plan A, seeing how you turned out," he teased, bringing up the fun bit they did to retrieve a copy of Lydia Rothswell's marriage certificate. The very same act that almost made Gabe kiss Alex in the middle of The Strip.

"Aww, Gabe, finally found a better lawyer than you? Feeling threatened yet?" Alex leaned in, snickering as their glasses were refilled. "Don't worry, I' ll settle for being a Junior Partner for now," she said as she reclined, before throwing in a playful wink.

"Well someone's head just became bigger," he gave her a smug look.

"Just trying to keep up with all the cockiness in the room," she smiled coyly, watching Gabe's stupefied expression. It was clear then that she scored a slam dunk at the championship of comebacks, laughing at his astonishment.

Gabe finally gave up, joining Alex in her laughter. As their joy receded, he let himself take in the sight of Alex without any inhibitions. What he was beginning to see was the extent of her wit, her ability to keep her cool, and the sharp humor that matched only his.

Under the warm light of the lounge, she brilliantly shone. He couldn't focus at what she was now saying as he danced at the appeal of them becoming more than colleagues. Perhaps he resisted his own feelings long enough that he was past the point of denial. Or simply because he was starting to get drunk.

Though before he can even begin to consider that, he was still sober enough to know that he first needed to tell her the truth.

The truth that sometime long ago, their paths have already crossed. And that he did something very horrible.

Call him cynical, but he wasn't kidding when he admitted he was an all-or-nothing kind of guy. And that meant laying down all his cards on the table. Because for him, Alex was more than the occasional one-night stand. And he can't be certain of how long he could keep himself from his budding feelings, all stakes be damned.

What better time to be honest when there was enough alcohol in his system to prevent all rational thinking? It's now or never, he figured.

"Alex, I -"

"Alessandra? Alessandra Keating?" a deep voice came from behind him, interrupting Gabe. He cocked his head to get a clearer view, as a man with slicked back blonde hair approached from a private booth nearby.

Without hesitation, the tall stranger in the dark suit stepped forward, his striking features Gabe would have easily recognized anywhere. That face was almost in every blockbuster movie in the last five years.

"Julian? What are you doing here?" Alex asked, as abashed as he was. Gabe saw how she clammed up the very second she recognized the man.

"Oh my, it really is you!" the man stopped beside Alex's bar stool, welcoming himself to their company. The way he was looking up and down at her made Gabe's jaw clench so hard, his teeth gritted. But the man's next movement stunned him all the more. In front of him, the man embraced Alex, making Gabe suddenly want to combust. His tumbler could've shattered if he tightened his grip on it a little more.

"Uhm, Julian, hi," Gabe surveyed Alex as she writhed within the man's arms, waiting for any signal from her so he could do something, anything, to make this man go away. But she assured him with one look, shifting a little, making the man who wedged himself between them release her.

"It's been so long! When was the last time I saw you, like, 12, 13 years ago?" the man exclaimed, his annoying smile making Gabe want to slam his fist somewhere. And it wasn't on the bar counter.

Gabe heard Alex scoff, fighting hard to regain her composure. "Yeah, high school," Her icy demeanor took over, one that Gabe only saw in the courtroom. She brushed her dress as she tilted her head to Gabe's direction.

The man turned to Gabe, the surprise evident as he acknowledged Gabe's presence behind him. The two men sized each other up sending an undercurrent of tension between them. Before Gabe could even consider acting out of impulse, Alex cleared her throat to diffuse his temper.

"Julian, this is Gabe. Gabe, this is Julian, my -"

"Ex," Julian interjected, before turning his attention to the lawyer. Apparently, this guy had a habit, Gabe observed. "We were together senior year. Alessandra, my angel, we had the best time together, didn't we? We looked good together, at least after Alex thought to improve her image here. Sadly, we had to break up. Teenage romances, you know?"

The picture couldn't be any clearer; this was the person Alex was speaking about during their dinner back in New York. And hearing the way he talked, no wonder Julian got under her skin. He was a damned manipulative pretentious liar. Gabe could hear the dishonesty between the words, not an ounce of authenticity in sight while the blonde hotshot rambled on.

Alex wasn't showing any sympathy either, her brown eyes staring daggers at him, as he went on about his monologue, emphasizing on how she was his back then. She was clearly infuriated by his attempt to own her, as well as his lack of shame. As Gabe quietly considered her reaction, he deliberated on a strategy to put her out her misery. The moment an idea came to mind, he gave Alex a subtle look asking her to back his play.

Alex nodded, sitting a little straighter. Finding the instant shift in her, Gabe made his move.

"Sweetheart," he slowly raised his voice as he said the endearment, enjoying the contempt from the other guy when he was interrupted. "You never told me Julian Wintour was your ex."

Alex smiled smugly, appearing pleased with the nickname Gabe chose, a clear pun on the whole high school sweetheart trope. "Never crossed my mind, babe. It's such an unimportant detail in my past," she waved her hand dismissively.

"Ah, nonsense," he finished his drink and gestured for the bartender to clean up. "Mr. Wintour's history would have made a good conversation starter." Gabe straightened his vest and stood, collecting his coat. He sauntered towards Alex, circling around the now speechless Julian. He draped his jacket over her shoulders, clearly making a statement before he reached for her hand, wrapping it in his.

"Why? Isn't the shiny nameplate of Senior Partner not good enough?" Alex expertly rode along, locking eyes with her former flame before gazing back at Gabe enticingly. "Forgive him, Julian. My lovely boyfriend here has a bad hobby of underselling himself," she smiled warmly, the irony of her statement eluding her ex. Gabe was about to smirk with her ingenuity, stopping when he felt her arm slowly wrapping around his waist. He barely stifled a groan at the intimacy of her touch.

The other man went beet red at the gesture. For embarrassment or infuriation or both, Gabe didn't fucking care. All he cared about was for Alex to slap this douche's face, metaphorically speaking.

"Anyway, Julian, it's been a pleasure. It's been a long night, and we're about ready to retire at our penthouse suite," steadily, she got up from her seat. The command in her was undeniable, forcing anyone to feel nothing but regret the day they decided Alessandra Keating wasn't good enough for them. Then with a flourish, she turned around as she let Gabe take her away from her past lover's scrutinizing gaze.

Inside the elevator, Gabe caught Alex's exhale of relief, probably thankful that Julian was out of her sight. Gabe still held onto her hand, though Alex didn't seem to notice. As they began their ascent, he waited for her to break the silence, deciding that the questions running in his mind can wait.

"I would have traded my rankings for the look of disbelief in Julian's face," Alex said turning to him, to which Gabe arched his brow.

He smirked devilishly, knowing Alex could take the hint. "I believe I could offer a sight better than that."

She grinned at the innuendo, further lightening up the mood between them. "One day, Gabe, I'll take you up on that," she said, crossing her legs as she leaned on the polished wall behind her. "Though I'm sure you're dying to know... How did I end up dating the Julian Wintour?"

Gabe pondered before answering. "Hmm, actually not the first one that comes to mind, no." He tapped against his temple. "I doubted you would ever bat an eyelash to his direction."

Her eyebrows rose. "Ah, you think so highly of me." She chuckled, shaking her head at his reply. "But yes, he was my ex. And yes, he was the red on my ledger. He was my first love," she admitted. "That ideal, once in a lifetime, true love everyone's talking about? Julian was it, or at least I thought he was." she sighed, glancing at her reflection on the polished metal panel beside her. "But when things started to go downhill for me, he was the first one to walk out," she paused, taking a deep breath. "By cheating on me."

Gabe's body went rigid, clenching his fists so hard until his nails dug unto his palms. What the fucking hell? I know I should have punched that guy's perfect teeth! He decided against airing his vengeful thoughts, staying quiet as he glimpsed at her image on the walls.

"Joey reminded me how Julian made me doubt myself. If I'm really over what he's done to me, if he's still in my head," she continued, rubbing at her nape. Gabe felt her gaze fall on him, which he reciprocated. "But after walking out from him tonight, I am much more certain that I made it out, after all."

Gabe felt her squeeze his hand as she said those words, and his heart somersaulted inside his chest. "So thanks. I needed that little nudge," she said in finality.

He turned to beam at her as he relished the triumph in her words, hoping that it was enough to convey that he was proud of her. And to be part of that discovery about herself, about who she always was in his eyes - someone who was his equal.

When they arrived at her floor, she gently freed her hand from his grasp invoking a sharp exhale from him. She stepped out of the elevator, her gait as undeterred as ever. But then she turned, her soft expression dimmed by the lack of light. "And while we're on the subject of appreciation," she uttered, before dropping one last revelation.

"Thanks for that save you also gave me ten years ago," Alex glanced up at him with half-lidded eyes, her words laced with meaning.

It took him a few moments before he could even comprehend what she was trying to convey. He searched her eyes for some explanation but found none. "What do you mean, Alex?" he said, managing to find his voice.

"I know exactly who you are, Gabriel Ricci."

With that, the doors slowly closed in front of him, her sly smile fading from his sight until he can only see his own reflection. He examined her last sentence, repeating the words over and over in his head. There was only one plausible explanation: she only knew half of the truth. His body sagged against the wall as he shut his eyes, angry at himself.

No Alex, I think you really don't.

Author's Notes: Thank you for your continued reading! As some of you may have already noticed, this part was written purely in Gabe's POV because I wanted to expose his conflicted feelings for Alex. It's probably my own version of revenge, with PB stretching that slow burn as much as they could 🤭 Share your thoughts in the comments, I'd really appreciate it! 💖

Taglist: @adiehardfan @pixelnutrookie @starryjieun @fucking-random1 @sarcastic01lily @spookycolorpeanut @ophrookie @suitfer

@choicesficwriterscreations

It's my first time tagging a couple of folks, so please inform me if I missed including you. Also, want to be added or removed from the tag list? No problem - just let me know 😊.

[captainkurosolaire]

Prompt #16 ~ Arcade

A cataloging book of aves was given closure from the Crow's Nest. The dweller resident who occupied it held a huge fascination as if everything was richly new in experience. But the hobby didn't entirely prevent her from losing motivation. She had felt unaccomplished in her abilities with things out of her depths from being countered hardly by a formidable enemy who froze her only means of weaponry in her rifle preventing the shot along with suffering a gashing wound she kept the souvenir scar to thrive better. Furthermore the Captain had forfeited and sacrificed his arsenal of relics acquired over many painstaking years. To her perspective, it seemed she had made him lose more than gain. Everything she felt was about to be purified. The feline Captain had strong senses, and it aided in not only getting a prediction on the weather shifts, but also utilizing his numerous experience, there was a feeling aboard of morale being startled. As he took claim of the dawn, by loudly making his presence known, he clung to the ladder and gave ascent, he knocked to hatch since she had made the nest her quarters, "Oi' Shelah, c'mon we're going training." She had taped already hand's appendages from trying to learn the art of melee. It saddened her that little progression was made in improving. It gave ark memento, to how she was upon her islander days, always being the runt alongside far behind her fellow sisterhood. "What's the point? Quartermaster and First Crewmate already tried." Regardless she exhaled and opened up for him to scale the remainder. "Aye, I do hear. Although my methods may garner favor." Her personality type and foreign bringing made her a stranger to badgering. Which didn't always show results depending on the person teaching and tutoring.

Captain flashed a cheek and infectious grin. "Put that aim t' me this evening', I assure ye it'll be fun. I'll wait fer a decision below." He'd give her opportunity and room to choose. He hadn't done anything despite her island and beliefs against what she was fated and forewarned as an omen of ill. She contemplated before following pursuit. His lead brought her before clanking and rotating automatic machines, bright over abundance lights, ringing sounds of gil. Noises that shouted 'winner', overall a bustling and booming populated place unlike anything accustomed. "This is th' Gold Saucer, if ye think I'm a cheat or swindler, this place encapsulates it. Sometimes t' learn and progress, you have to make memories, and those that are fun, impact us more personally. Now we're going to play a mini-games, with this MGP wallet I borrowed from a fancy high-roller." Taking in leading her by arm as she didn't know initially how to consume all this scenery. "This is a Cuff-A-Cur machine, objective is to swing hard." She saw another demonstration before he activated for her to give a whirl, she gave a weak performance as the machine mocked her fist and punch and barely moved. "Though most like t' punch ole' Giga' lad. Striking force is what matters, although ye may struggle punching. Doesn't mean you can't kick th' difference either. N' combat, sometimes it matters using all we are or can be surrounded with in survival." She focused her long Duskwight leg's did provide range and advantage. Glancing at him briefly, doing a demo round kick. He transformed not only basic games of normality of arcade into actual serious regimen. Then she scored a much higher rating. It's compliment gave her a breathe of undefinable air. The Seeker sparked up ecstatically. He would navigate her across to the Moogle's Paw teaching her coordination and also as it tried scamming them from attaining their prize despite having it as the crane unhooked and it wedged between the exit barely clinging on. She was recommended and used to cover him while he shook the machine and wouldn't be weaseled out for the acclaim. The games all but continued even into Monster's Toss where they competed with another and overall defeated him in every round. It played to her strengths as a sharpshooter. These enactments were boisterously redefining her morale and even confidence, which although felt hindered and dampened, Captain saw to rectify. As energy was nearly sapped, "Well, I lost all th' MGP and overall my credit. Ye b' a mighty pirate... Listen, just cause we may lose some-days, or fall short, doesn't mean we can't seize th' next wave. This goes for everything n' one-day, we'll even go hunt ourselves some assassins, and prevail over that. We're on a path to grow together and use our coverage fer each other, weaknesses aren't nearly as troublesome. Much you've proven t' this started day, you b' more than enough." His nonchalant and vow as she was carrying a handful of stuffies and assortment of prizes clung to her waist. A massive amount beyond all his simple recognition. This was her first memory of treasure.

[dylanxmin]

A Little Serendipity

Part.20

before / next

•masterlist•

pairing; min yoongi x reader

genre; fluff, slight angst, slice of life au, strangers to lovers au

rating; PG-15

warnings; swearings, drunk yoongi, slight fighting(just yelling)

word counts; 3k

a/n; well, it is quite a long part right? lol,,, IM SO SORRY that it took ages to write, (it’s 2 week) but i had a writer’s block for this fic, and again, i’m so sorry,, but let’s chat a little, how did you find this part? i hope you liked it,, thanks for reading, ily ♡

''Y/N, can you take out the trash?'' after hearing Soobin voice, I blow a breath to the air, taking out trash never felt this tiring in my life, and probably this was all because of me laying on my bed for all day and doing nothing. My body slowly turned into a jelly by days, as I do nothing but pitying myself and yes, I know that is one miserable move, but no one can judge me at the moment, as I won't let it.

''Is it okay if I take out myself as trash?'' Soobin looks at me worriedly, fixing her posture to give me a response, raising her head from Taehyung's legs, ''We are still miserable, huh?'' With her move, Taehyung looks at me with flat lips, probably he was worried about me too, as Soobin tells him everything, and I'm totally okay with this because he is a good guy, making my best friend happy and all. At least one of the people who live in this apartment were happy. ''I am totally okay! Can't you see how fine I am Soobin?'' I scoffed but it wasn't intended to hurt her or anything like that. I just so sickened myself with these behaviors, and now they were stuck with me, and won't let go of me for a second. ''I'm sorry,'' misery was hearable by my tone, but I didn't mind it.

''Okay, that's enough!'' Taehyung and I were surprised by the sudden yell coming from Soobin, as we didn't expect it at all. She is looking very frustrated at the moment, and I can't deny that I'm low key scared at her. ''You. Sit.'' she points the light green couch with her finger, demanding me in a tone that I immediately obeyed. Taehyung's wide-open eyes wandering on Soobin, he was surprised as much as me, which it's understandable because I don't think that Taehyung made Soobin this angry before, and I can say that this is my specialty. ''I. Sit.'' after sitting to the couch I said in irony, but I only wanted to ease the tension she got in her veins but sadly, it backfired.

''Cut the crap, Y/N,''

''Okay, honey. I think we need to calm a little, huh?'' Even though I appreciate Taehyung's efforts to calming Soobin, I knew that it would backfire, too. Her deadly gaze gathers on him and he goes silent in a second, which I tried to hold my laughter as watching them will never make me less entertained, but right now I need to be serious, for not to be killed by Soobin. ''I don't want to become this, but you literally forced me to do this, Y/N. You know that right?'' she holds her hands on his knees, lifting one eyebrows judgmentally. I nodded, and if I have to be honest with this situation, whenever I feel or act miserable, Soobin is the one who always pulls me up with her attitudes, with her rough but correct words, so in a way, it was a relief to see her in this attitudes.

''Look, I know you and Yoongi for a long time, and I can't say that he is a bad guy, but if he said that he doesn't want you, then you have to move on sweetie. It's for the best,'' after she ends her words, Teahyung nudges her with his elbow, shake his head in disapproval, but I ignore his kind warnings. ''Well he didn't say that he didn't want me or anything,'' murmuring in my own didn't go as I plan it, and I understand that by the wide-opened eyes, staring at me in surprise. ''Wait a minute, what?''

''Why did you say that he rejected Y/N, Soobin?''

''Because she was living in her bed for almost a week now, and not doing anything apart from eating, and breathing which she barely eats. I thought that he rejected you, Y/N!'' Both of them now looking at me, their puzzled glances stay on me until I start to speak, which is a very uncomfortable moment for me. ''He never officially rejected me, but with his lack of interest, finally, I understand that he doesn't want to be with me.'' With an exhausted whine, Soobin puts her head in his palm, covering her face, while Taehyung shaking his head, and he tries to hold back his laughter by biting his lip.

''Y/N, what did he say to you?'' Instead of giving him a decent response, I just shrug my shoulders because remembering the moments we had wasn't the best thing I wanted to at this moment, but eventually, I gave up. ''Well, he said that he needs some time to deal with his problems and all, that he couldn't find the answer yet, and something like this.''

''You are such a stupid person, Y/N,'' Soobin start to talk under her breaths, looking at me in disappointment, but I couldn't understand the fuss about what I said. He clearly rejected me with his behaviors, didn't he? Taehyung gets up from the couch to come to my side, holding my shoulders after sitting right beside me. ''Honey, I'm sorry but you totally misread the situation.'' his lips were still flat, but I could read the pity that he feels for me, and still I couldn't understand what they were trying to say.

''If he didn't reject you 'officially' then that's mean, he didn't reject you Y/N, because Yoongi isn't a guy who interprets his words or, his behaviors. He would totally speak to you, in a case like this.'' Taeyhung start to explaining to me, probably gets sick of my silly looks, as I can't understand what they were trying to say to me by calling me stupid. ''He is one straight guy, like the straightest.''

''Firstly, I don't think this word exists, and secondly, are you sure? Because it feels like he rejected me.'' Soobin literally growled at me, before start to talking and telling how stupid I am, all over again, and in a way, I agreed with her. ''I'm telling it for the last time, I know him, okay? I know him and yes, it is not a rejection. Get this, Y/N.'' The room buried in silence, after what she said. I tried to order my thoughts for a second beside my emotions because if it's true, and if he really didn't reject me, so that's mean I still have a shot with him. ''I guess we broke her, baby.'' Taehyung's words were nothing but a whisper for me at the moment, thrill just takes over my body, heartbeats reach my neck, goosebumps appear. Even though they explained to me more than one time now, I still couldn't believe it and didn't want to believe it mostly. Because if I hold my hopes high one more time just to drop them all over again, I couldn't bear the idea of this. I just needed to suppress it, give this possibility a good thought then, maybe I can be happy about it. Yes, this plan sounds good to me.

Well, I gave it a good amount of thought this idea, but whenever I think, it feels like it's not real at all, sounded like a dumb idea but every time I call this idea 'dumb', Soobin was there to punch me or kick, and if she can't be my side physically, she would simply call me dumb as quittance, which I find it very childish but who am I the judge? I literally stayed at my bed for weeks and cried like a highschool girl, and being a high school girl isn't a bad thing unless you are not a grown woman, who has to work for paying her bills, for food and all. I'm almost twenty-six and my behaviors would tell the very opposite.

''Y/N, we are leaving! Are you sure about not coming with us?'' Whoops! I totally forget the dinner thing, but even if I didn't forget it, I wouldn't dare to go out and face with him as nothing happened before or, how many times I thought about his feelings for me, as according to Soobin and Taehyung, he had feelings for me or, didn't reject me? Whatever it is, I just couldn't face him, so I just passed tonight's event. ''I'm pretty sure Soobin, have fun!''

''Okay, I love you, have fun!'' And after the last yelling, she closes the door very loudly that I jumped on my chair. ''Jeez. woman,'' But after a moment, her words start to itching my mind, how could I have fun in this home, with my thoughts? She was clearly mocking with me, but I decided to let it slide away. As I have to deal with my work stuff, and I meant writing when I say it because I need to get my work done or, my publisher is going to kill me eventually. Okay, maybe killing is a little exaggerated will but still, I couldn't judge her, as I came back Seoul for almost four months now, and I did nothing, rather, I have to write at least half of the book that I'm working on these days.

Hours had passed, and I could barely write a decent storyline as most of my paper had a lot of crossing on the words that I wrote but still, it was better than nothing, I guess? When I finally straighten my back cracking voice reach to my ears, shut down my eyes when I feel the pain, the ache reaches through my neck, and I sighed. I didn't know how much time had passed now, but according to my back pain, I could say that it is a lot. ''Okay, now what I am going to do?'' I ask myself out loud, lean on my back until I touch the chair, rubbing my eyes because they were itching in exhaustion. So, I stayed in this pose until I heard the door ring, which it's a semi-surprise for me, as I didn't wait for Soobin to come back this early, but probably she felt sorry for me and decided to cut the night early this time. I stand up swiftly to open the door, which I still couldn't understand why she wasn't using her keys. ''Are you too drunk to open-''

''How did you know that I'm drunk?''

''Yoongi?'' My jaw drops to my chest after seeing the boy leaning on the corner of the door, a silly grin hanging on his lips, looking at me in shock, as I 'know' that he was drunk. After a moment of not knowing what to do and failing to talk to him finally, I could be able to gather my courage to talk. ''Okay, I guess you need to come inside,'' and before I could finish my words properly, he takes a step to the small apartment, walking to the couch as he was familiar with this apartment more than me. I close the door, before following his steps, and watching him sitting to the couch cozily. ''You didn't come today,'' he said as making a statement, but it was obvious that I wasn't there with them, as he came to my place but he was drunk so I hold myself from saying something ironic. ''Do you need to drink water?''

''You didn't come,'' he just ignored my question with a very demanding voice. I didn't know what to do for a second, so I just ignored him just like him. ''Maybe coffee. So we can purify from all the alcohol, huh?''

''You didn't-''

''Yes! Yes, I didn't come today Yoongi. What are you trying to say? For god sake!'' We both look very surprised, as neither of us waiting for this aggressive yelling from me, but hearing the same thing over and over again starts to irritate me, as I could feel the tension between us growing rapidly, his chest starts to move swiftly as well as mine. I watch his expression to go angry from shock, but without waiting any minute, I continued to talk. ''I have a life beside you. You know that right? Plus, I don't need to explain it!''

''Oh you have a life, huh?'' his husky voice spread into the room, misty glares of him stayed on me, there were some emotions that I couldn't understand but decided to ignore it. ''Yes, and this surprised you because?''

''You can have a life but I can't?'' now his voice starts to raise, leaving me in shock with his statement, so he decided to continue. ''When I say that, when I say that I have a life and have something to deal with, you scold me. But here we are, you say that you have a life!''

''Okay I think you are overreacting right now, Yoongi,'' I couldn't help but roll my eyes at his reactions, which his attitudes now making me a little uncomfortable, but what I said made him angrier I guess, as now he stand up swiftly with shaky hands. ''Am I overreacting? Overreacting!'' his hands start to brush his hair, now his whole body was shaking in rage, for a second I thought he was going to throw something at me but thankfully, he did not.

''If I am overreacting then what are you doing? Why are you not coming when we all hang out? Are you chicken out for being at the same place as me? Just because I said that I need some time?'' if someone could see the two of us, probably would think that he was having a tantrum with all of these hand gestures and yelling but luckily, we were alone. But the one who is not lucky right now is no one other than Yoongi. As he called me a 'coward' after all, he has to pay this. ''I am not. Chicken out. I have some things to deal with, you know?''

''Haha. Funny but I am not buying this crap.'' his imitation of the laugh was highly ridiculous and unnecessary, but somehow he manages to trigger my anger. ''What do you want, Yoongi? One second, you want me gone, don't want to see me, but then coming to my house and scolding me. What do you want?'' breathlessness takes over me at the end of my words, semi-coughed for fixing my throat, but just when I stop talking, his husky voice covered the room. ''I'd never not want to see you, Y/N,''

''What?''

''How could you think that? I'm dying to see you every damn day, every moment.'' When he stopped talking, I just stay there quietly, staring blankly at his face because words were pretty hard to establish for me, as what his words now wandering in my mind, trying to make it sense but doesn't work. He sigh. ''I'm not a bright person like Hoseok or, funny like Jin. I don't even know how I got to be friends with them Y/N. I am not an outgoing person. I'm just a man who goes to his studio, locks himself to there, and just works on his music.''

''And you think that I am best at being funny or anything else? I called you Min Yoongi for days, Yoongi,'' I said immediately after he finishes his words because he was being ridiculous.

''Everyone loves you Y/N. You are funny, caring, pretty-'' his eyes widened after what he said, taking his sight from me to landing on the room. ''You think I'm pretty?'' I questioned because I had to. It is just too much information for me at one time. First, he says that he wants to see me every day and then calls me pretty? This man wants me dead, for sure. His shy smile appears on his lips, only to cause me more ache on the heart, taking my breath by my lungs, so we both stay silent. Nevertheless, I could hear my heartbeats, throbbing loudly, and I'm pretty sure that he could hear it too.

''Yes. Yes, I think that you are pretty, beautiful and amazing. As I know that I'm a stupid man who is afraid to break your heart or, couldn't fulfill your needs, but I am sure about one thing that I want you in my life, as more than a friend.'' he ends his words, raises his brows as waiting for an answer, but I couldn't talk at the moment. Neither I manage to talk, nor breathing. Jaw drops to the chest, mouth dried in shock, vacant stares placed on his weak smile. I waited for this moment, for almost three months, and now instead of jumping to his arms, I just stay there, petrified like a statue.

''Okay, I guess this is the time where you say that you want me in your life as more than a friend or, I am going to freak out,'' An instant laughter takes over me until I start panting, his face grows more worried now, but it was so cute. ''I.. Of course I want you in my life as more than a friend, Yoongi. Stop looking at me with those doe eyes.''

''Thank goodness! For a second you got me, Y/N,'' his chuckles echoed with mines, as his steps start to get closer to me, while I could feel my pulse on my body, wriggle on the stomach, as he holds my wrist to pull me closer, nodding as asking for permission. Rather than permitting him, I bumped my lips to his soft ones, tiny giggle slides by his mouth when he deepens the kiss.

''Did I mentioned that you are talented as well?'' he asked after breaking the kiss, caused me to chuckle, and I gave him a little hard hit on the shoulder, but he responded it with a giggle, before leaning to kiss me, he said, ''Well, just to make sure, you are very talented.''

taglist; [ @mochiloverbts ]

[leelee10898]

Fast cars & Freedom: Bad Liar (12/?)

The end of summer zoo trip has arrived, as tensions run high will the trip be a disaster? Catch up HERE

Pairings: Logan x Ellie, Colt x Ellie

Rating: Mature

Ellie had gotten herself in well over her head again. After Logan told her what he wanted, and the blow up with Colt. She made herself busy with work, and spending her free time with Luca. She had been looking forward to the zoo trip all summer, but that morning she woke up dreading the day. She had minimal contact with Colt, and Logan was often at the track preparing for a big race coming up. She got up and got herself ready before waking Luca up. Once luca was ready they went down and had breakfast. Ellie sat there picking at her muffin, not having much of an appetite, and her stomach was flopping all over the place.

“Hey guys. We're sorry but we're not going to make it to the zoo today.” Ellie gave her dad a confused look. “Um ok. Not that I didn't want you guys to come but, it was only supposed to be The four of us. Luca, logan, colt and I.”

“oh Logan invited us the other day. But, sally and I are going away for the day.” Frank grabbed a cup of coffee while the frustration swirled in Ellies head. “You ok kiddo? You look a little pale.” Ellie shook her head “Yeah, im fine just, my nerves are shot.”

“Grampy, I'm going to the zoo today. I'm going to see Lions and pandas and tigers and hiphopitamuses.” she grinned, Ellie and Frank chuckling at the mispronunciation. “You mean hippopotamus’s” Frank snickered. “Yeah, that's what I said hiphopitamuses. Silly grampy.”

“Well you have fun. And don't let the monkeys fling poop at you.” Frank waved. “Dad! Seriously?” Ellie scolded him. He stuck out his tongue and walked out the door.

Ellie and Luca drove alone, meeting Logan and Colt there. After a 2 hour drive they pulled into the parking area of the zoo, meeting Colt at the gate. “Colt.” Luca went running, a wide smile spread across his face “Hey princess.” he scooped her up in a hug. “Hi Colt.” Ellie walked up to the too. “Ellie.” He acknowledged her. He still was angry, her stomach churned again, the stress was eating at her. “Hey Luca, Hey Ellie, you guys made it finally.” Logan came walking up, Ellie turned towards his voice glad he was there but her face falling slightly seeing Stacie standing next to him. “Oh, hey Stacie I didn't expect to see you here.”

“Oh, yeah Logan asked me to tag along.  Riya and Darius couldn't make it.” Stacie grinned.

Ellie chewed the inside of her cheek, trying not to say something she might regret.

They paid for their tickets and made their way into the zoo. Luca was ecstatic,  she loved the zoo and Ellie would often take her back on the East coast. She would always tell her how her parents would take her when she was a little girl, and her favorite animals to see were the otters.  Logan was just as excited as Luca he had never been to the zoo before. They walked around coming up to the Arctic Fox. "Wow, so pretty. Its fur is snow white." Ellie marveled at the beautiful animal before her. "Well, its white what did you expect." Colt snorted, Ellie shot him a dirty look. "Let's move on." Stacie suggested, sensing the tension.  

They walked up to the baboons, they watched them run around and jump, playing with each other.  Ellie stood next to Colt, who had Luca on his shoulders, her gaze set on Logan standing with Stacie. His hand planted on her shoulder as he stood behind her, pointing things out.she watched as Stacie laughed, and then playfully slapped his chest.

"Ok. Let's move on." Ellie snapped, they all looked at her as she quickly turned making her way to the next animal.

They stood in front of  the penguin display. "OOH penguins, I love penguins Colt. Get closer. " Luca tugged on his hair. "Ouch. Alright, Alright. I'll move closer." Logan stood next to Ellie and Stacie. "Awe look at the babies." Stacie swooned. "Did you know the father hatches the egg while the mother hunts?" Logan crossed his arms, pleased with his input. "Oh yeah? Where did you hear that?" Stacie quirked her brow, Logan gave her a lopsided grin "happy feet." Ellie rolled her eyes annoyed.  Stacie was her friend, but why did Logan invite her on their family outing, or for lack of better terms, dysfunctional family outing?

Of course you'd be impressed by that Ellie mumbles under her breath.  Colt cocked his head to the side.  "Something bothering you Elle?"

"NO." she snapped.

"You know most penguins go through life with one partner. Once they find them, they never seperate." Ellie shot him an unamused look. "If only some humans were like that." He focus on her as he spoke.  "Come on squirt, lets go look at the giraffe's."

Ellie stood there alone a minute while everyone followed colt. She could feel her stomach churning again. This was not how she anticipated the day going. Once she semi composed herself she joined the others.

After an afternoon of snide remarks and jabs between the 3 of them Ellie finally had her fill. They were standing in line to get drinks. It was hot, and tensions were running high. "Can we go see the tigers? Mommy, I want to see the polar bears, you promised we could see the polar bears. When Can we see something else. " Luca whined.

"Luca, we will go in a minute. Calm down and let stacie get her drink." Ellie snapped. "Whoa Ellie calm down. Are you mad about something?" Logan questioned as Ellie stood there, mouth agape "Seriously Logan?" She threw her hands up in the air "Why did you invite Stacie here?"

"I didn't think it would be a problem." Ellie rolled her eyes. "Of course not. Nothing is ever a problem. This was supposed to be a family outing. Is. Is something going on with you and Stacie?" She pointed at him, just as Stacie walked up. "No, were just friends Ellie." Logan said in defense prompting stacie to chime in "Ellie, I told you I would never do that to you."

"Why do you care so much Ellie? You want to be with Logan?" Colt broke his silence. The four began to argue amongst themselves for a few minutes, finally Ellie spoke up "I'm done with this. Come on Luca, lets let's go see the polar bears." She turned looking for Luca, she was nowhere to be found. "Luca? LUCA!" she shouted panic setting in.

"Luca." Logan shouted, still not getting a response.  Ellie began to hyperventilate colt on her immediately "Ellie, Elle I need you to calm down. We're gonna find her. Breathe in." He looked up "Logan, go look by the polar bear enclosure, and then to the Lions.  Stacie, go tell a staff member we have a missing child." The two nodded and took off.

"Colt, my baby. What if we." Ellie sobbed.

"Hey, calm down. We're gonna find her, trust me." He pulled her into a tight embrace, calming her down. "Now, is there anywhere else she would go?" Ellie's eyes went wide "Hippos."

Colt grabbed her hand as they took off running, darting around the other visitors. They came upon the Hippo enclosure, their eyes darted around before Colt locked eyes on the small brunette child "Luca." She shouted, she turned smiling at him. "Ellie, I got her." He shouted as he scooped her up in his arms. "Luca, you scared us. You can't wander off sweetheart."

"Lulu, oh thank god. Baby you can't wander off, you scared us to death." The three stood ellie and colt holding onto her for dear life.  

Logan and Stacie ran up, thankful she was ok. A slight pained look on his face as he watched the interaction between the three. "I'll go and inform the staff we found her." Stacie gave his shoulder a squeeze as she parted. Logan made his way to the trio "Thank god you found her. Hey lulu, you really gave us a scare." Luca reached over for Logan. "Are you mad at me uncle Logie?" Logan chuckled "no. I'm glad you're ok. But you can't wander off like that ok."

They decided to call it a day after that. Luca having school the next morning. Both men agreeing to come see her off. As Ellie put Luca to bed that night the day replaying in her head. How did things get so screwed up. Was there really something going on between Stacie and Logan? She knew Colt was upset about the divorce, but the way he stepped up and took control of the situation made her really believe he would be a good dad, if he was Lucas father. And the few minutes Luca was gone terrified her, it was just a few minutes but it felt like a lifetime. The nagging nauseous feeling crept back up again, she couldn't wait for it to be all over, the divorce,  the paternity results. She laid down, tossing and turning in bed most of the night.

The next morning she woke up, got Luca ready and sure enough both Colt and Logan were there to see her off. Luca was excited to start school, she excelled in preschool,  and placed much higher than a kindergarten level on her school entrance test. Though she most likely got her smarts from her mother, Colt was also very smart, and Logan really showed his intellectual side during the study date with Riya and Darius all those years ago. She would definitely be a force to be reckoned with in school, that was for sure.

Ellie took the day off of work, she knew she wouldn't be productive with her mind occupied with Luca being at school. She spent the day wandering around the house,  cleaning up, unpacking boxes she still hadn't gotten around to. If she were being honest with herself she was also trying to block out the fact the court date was the next week. She often found herself wondering if she were making a mistake,  and every time she wondered it, Dracys words popped in her head. He loved Luca, he really seemed like he would be a good dad. But what if being a family wasn't enough? What if he turned out to be just like Kaneko, wanting more, the crew again. She took a deep breath, allowing herself to think those thoughts brought back the familiar nauseous feeling. She took a deep breath calming herself down,  she would cross that bridge when the time came, only if she were Colts.

Before she knew it, it was almost time to get Luca from the bus. Logan had a race he coming up, so he had to take off right after they got Luca on the bus. Colt however, would be there. Ellie sat on the front patio waiting when she heard the familiar sound of a bike coming down the street. She watched  him as he pulled into the driveway. She always loved the way he looked when he rode. He had traded in his old leather jacket for a new one, his shoulders broader than when he was 19 going on 20. He was still as fit as ever, ellies mind flashed back to the night they hooked up, her hands pressed against his muscular chest. She bit her lip at the thought,  his impossibly tight shirt not helping the situation as he walked towards her . "I knew you would be out here already." He smirked as he walked onto the porch. "Yeah, how'd you know that." She tilted her head at him. "Because you're always like an hour early for everything."

He was right, and she couldn't believe he remembered.

"You ever think you'll go back to a car?" She asked.

"Not anytime soon," He chuckled "Guess I'll have to use one of the cars I Have sitting around for when I have Luca."

"I miss it." Colt eyed her "miss what? The bike? You want that too?"

"NO. I miss the riding. The thrill, the feeling." A blush crept up on her cheeks she prayed he didn't notice.

"Let's take a ride. " He stood holding out his hand. Ellie hesitated "I ahhh. I dont know, Luca-"

"will be off the bus in 45 minutes, we have time. Come on, we have plenty of time." Ellie contemplated for a split second, before an old feeling she had tucked away ignited her body. "Let's do it." She jumped up following him to the bike. They climbed on and he fired up the bike.

She wrapped her arms around his waist tightly, her head rested against his back. She watched as the scenery flew by in a blur, the sound of his peaceful breathing putting her at ease. She missed this more than she thought, she needed just one last ride before she closed that chapter of her life completely. They drove for about twenty minutes and then came back to the house. They got off the bike, "thanks. I needed that." Ellie smiled as they walked together to the patio. "Yeah  anytime." He sat down fidgeting with his thumbs. "I'm leaving town Elle." He blurted out. Ellie felt her heart drop into her stomach. "Colt. We have court, and what about Luca?" She was shocked, she couldn't believe he would just leave.

"I can't go to court, I can't go and I won't.  If I go, I will contest it all. But if I leave, you'll get what you want,  you'll be happy." He turned looking at her "That's all I want for you El, to be happy, that is all I ever wanted. I'll tell Luca, it's not forever,  just until after the court date." His voice cracking a little, she could tell he was giving everything he had not to break down, she had seen it once before, the night his father died. She tried to do the same but her eyes failed her terribly.  "Colt I. I'm sorry." She began to sob, a wave of emotion crashing over her. She hated this, she hated all of this. Why couldn't he of just got the annulment 6 years ago, why did she still have to care about them both?

"Ellie please don't cry, please." His voice wavering more. As he pulled her into a hug. "What. About. The test results,  what if they call?" She sniffled. "You call me, text me leave me a voicemail. Its shotty connection so I may not get them right away. If for some reason i can't get there, and she's not mine, just don't call me and tell me." Ellie shook her head. "When will you leave?"

"This weekend, friday morning. Just  for a week."

Before they knew it the bus pulled up. They were greeted by a bright eyed, big smile little girl. "Mooooomy, coooolt." She flew into Ellies arms almost knocking her over. "Whoa." Ellie goggled, steadying herself. "Did you have a good day?" "I had the best day ever!" She ran to colts arms as he scooped her up twirling her around. "Hey sweetheart, what did you do today?" He put her down as they sat down "Well my teacher tried to teach us counting today and they only had us count to 20. I said that's it?"

"Oh yeah? Well what did she say?" Colt cocked his brow, knowing Luca she gave this teacher a run for her money. "Well she said that we would work on counting past 20 later on in the year. So I said, lady I can count past 20 with no problem." They looked to her to finish.  "And she said oh yeah, that's excellent what can you count to? And then I said um like 1,000. So she didn't believe me so I started counting." Her face going somber "She. She cut me off at 497." Ellie and Colt both looked to each other and laughed.

"That's amazing squirt. You are so smart, just like mommy." Colts sincere gaze met her eyes. "Hey Luca. I have to tell you something ok?" Luca looked up at him "I just wanted to let you know that I have to go out of town for a little bit."

"You're leaving?" She sniffled.  "Yeah but not til Friday, and just a few days."

"Will you put me on the bus every morning?" She batted her tiny little lashes, Just like her mom, he was a sucker for it and Colt was warped around her tiny little fingers. "Yes I will."

"And get me off the bus?" Ellie chuckled, she was persuasive.

"Of course, wouldn't miss it for the world." Colt hugged her.

The week flew past, she missed Logan and wasn't sure what to do about him. Could she really divorce Colt and then date Logan? Was that even fair? Would she lose him forever? Could she handle that? Friday morning Colt came to put Luca on the bus, Ellie thought it best if he did it alone, it would be hard on them both when he left. Just a few short days and it would be over, but was she ready? Only time would tell.

Colt drove the biggest part of the day. Fighting back the urge to turn around and show up to that court house next week.  He needed to push through to get to his destination and try to clear his mind.

After almost 8 hours he pulled into the Lake Tahoe area. Up a gravel driveway to a nice cabin that sat by the lake. The woman stood there hands on her hips,  "Bout time you came up here to see me."

"Hey Mom."

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ROD

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[roswellroamer]

Day 18. February 16, 2020. Kaiteriteri day rides. 275km

Glad I took some great shots yesterday from Kimi Ora resort since it was pretty gray in the AM. Still, really cool to wake up in the woods in a modern unit with a view of the water. I enjoyed my continued vegetarian diet through no choice of my own as the included breakfast was served at the main lodge (about 300 steps down the hill). Plenty of nice choices there and still pleased with the taste of the veggie dinner offerings from last night. One thing I also woke up to was a good amount of swelling and puffiness around my left eye, as the histaminic reaction had spread. Still able to use my eye, but feeling weird and half swollen shut, I felt like saying "Cut me, Mick". Actually got a bit worse for the first half of the day but as of now which is nighttime I will hope that the swelling reduces tomorrow. No real hindrance other than folks asking me if I had fallen from my bike! Heading north we managed to get Ted's debit card to be taken at the local unattended station then aimed up over the very tight and a bit scary hill just to get to the main road. We turned right on Takaka Hill Road and were immediately greeted with a sign that said we may have construction delays. after just a mile or so we ended up first at the traffic light. Theee indicator LED lights showed 6-12', 2-5' & 1'. We had just missed the green light as we saw the last car a few turns up the steep hill but waited it out. We joked about timing our return so that we wouldn't have to again wait another 12'. It wasn't construction but the recent heavy weather had actually washed away a few sections of road, dropping 4-6' of roadway down the hill and now cordoned off with construction barriers to be fixed who knows when. We aimed for the northernmost point on the South Island, Cape Farewell. There are some dramatic rock features that are worth the few hundred meters of tramping up to see them as the South Island abruptly ends into the see. Pics above. The "cave" is hard to see as it is under a very high and steep cliff with no safety measure but the water actually flows into and through this dramatic hole in the mountain's base. Also you can see the water flowing in but didn't want to have a "hold my beer" moment trying to capture the wave action inside the cave. The other spit of headland is marked by a flying buttress of stone and this was the last bit of land that Cook and his crew saw when returning to England in 1770. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Farewell,_New_Zealand

We explored all 3 of the areas we could ride to and they encompassed maybe 10 or 12km of gravel roads around the top of the island. It felt pretty remote and it was beautiful even on a gray day. Next we retraced southward with a slight detour to cruise through Collingwood before opting to stop at the Mussel Inn. In addition to the bohemian vibe, we were treated to a culmination concert of African circle drums and dance provided by a group from around the country that had come together for a 4 day drum circle camp there. I got into the beat as they accompanied my tasty and quite large New Zealand green tipped mussels. Yes Jerry, I pulled the hair patches! 😉 In the toilet though I didn't need it, instead of toilet paper there was a bin of shredded cardboard. As the rain started up again we took our leave and the next brown sign turnoff took us to the Te Waikoropupu springs. This was a great stop as the size of the springs and especially the volume of water billowing from the ground was impressive. A sizable river basically emanated from there in just a couple springs. They are the largest freshwater springs in New Zealand, the largest cold water springs in the Southern Hemisphere and contain some of the clearest water ever measured! Took some pics but hard to grasp the clarity of the water and the volume. Spoke to a couple from Madison who were riding for a couple months on a BMW 1200GS they bought from the dealer in Dunedin we visited. McIver & Veitch. They bought it and have an agreement to sell it back when done which saves them a good third over renting. Good idea for longer rides/rentals. Heading back to the highly technical Takaka Hill, after crossing that Old Takaka River (insert Larry David joke here!), I had the uber geeky idea to count the turns since it had seemed twistier than the Dragon this morning. Of course with a 10' delay at the same one way light location due to bad timing or poor planning, I had to remember I was at 222 turns while at the light. I counted 250 turns in what Ted researched to be a 14.8 mile stretch of road. That is a turn per mile rate of 16.83 turns per mile. The Tail of the Dragon boasts 318 curves in 11 miles. That is a T.P.M. ratio of 28.9. So the Dragon wins. But I have never counted the Tail's twists myself. My impression was that this road is twistier but at this point I'll just accept that all the T-shirts are correct and Takaka Hill is just a bit less twisty. Still a fantastic road that wouldve been a lot more fun if not enveloped in fog at the top and wasn't raining/wet. We then headed past our resort to the closest sizable town of Motueka. Lots of restaurant choices there since the woman at reception yesterday seemed to indicate there wouldn't be much to choose from on Sunday in Kaiteriteri and our resort's kitchen is closed for Sunday dinner. If the weather held off we would try to head there for dinner. However the rain persisted and we also found that the nighttime and slick wet turns required to get back to Kaiteriteri were strong dissuaders. We explored Kaiteriteri a bit more and found the Beached Whale which said they'd be open for dinner later. It also said entertainment 7 nights a week so that sounded good. We rolled back up the hill to our jungle unit and I actually got a one hour nap which was sweet. 😴

We headed back on the bikes in our riding boots and Goretex jackets since it was still raining lightly. I wore jeans, for a mile trip you weren't gonna get very wet unless the weather opened up on us. Ted was far enough ahead of me that I didn't see him slide on the curve approaching the main road. He didn't go down but I also slid at the exact same spot, I'm guessing at least 3-4"". Closer inspection on the return ride revealed a white painted yield sign which must've had lines 6" to 12" wide painted right on the turn covering 2/3 of the width of the lane. We had been warned in the first couple days by a biker about the painted lines in NZ. They are slippery at home too but I think they use no grit here at all on some of them. When wet they can be especially dangerous. We both almost had a real problem at that same spot which we discovered during dinner discussions. A mushroom pizza and a Coke were then serenaded by possibly the owner on guitar and a computer and equipment to provide the accompanying rhythm and occasional synthesizer. He was very good. Again mostly American stuff. Eagles, Johnny Cash, Ike & Tina, Nancy Sinatra, Van Morrison (Irish I know) etc. Good day and going to head toward Havelock tomorrow with some great looking detours to French Pass if the weather cooperates. 😴

[dontreadthistrashgarbage]

Pt.5

"You're flashy again today!" Charlie said appreciatively to Guerin, who had opted for blue lipstick, dangly earrings and a yellow cropped sweatshirt over leggings and chunky black boots.

"Well yeah, we're gonna be in a private room so I'm taking advantage of not having to hide!" Guerin posed by poking her cheek paired with a pouty smile. Charlie grinned to see her friend looking cheerful.

"Well you look great."

"I look great? Look at youuuuu!" Guerin crowed, "Boy better watch out, you look on fleek." She dipped into english to adequately express admiration for her friend.

"Stop you're too much." Charlie rolled her eyes at how over the top Guerin was being, but it still made her happy cause despite how obnoxious it was she was being genuine with her opinion.

"Never." Guerin linked arms with Charlie, "Do you know where we're going?" The girls had met at the station closest to the karaoke place that had been chosen by A.C.E and would meet the group there. Charlie led the way, familiar with Guerin's legendarily poor sense of direction. She texted Jun to let them know when they arrived. Once inside Guerin chose two beers to bring in with them.

"We'll need these for bravery. If we wanna sing in front of those five." She said sensibly.

"I could use a drink but I'm not going to sing." Charlie accepted the beer.

"That's fine, but if you wanna do a duet later I'm here for you." Guerin winked.

Just then Chan appeared in the lobby, "Did you two get lost? You're taking forever." He said.

"Hey, don't talk to your elders like that." Guerin said, undermining herself by sticking out her tongue as they moved to follow him.

"Sorry Guerin-Noona, Charlie-Noona." Chan pouted at the older women, causing Guerin to immediately melt and coo at him.

"You are so weak." Charlie teased her friend as they made their way into the assigned room.

"It's true I'm the softest. Hey everyone!" Guerin called out, waving to the rest of A.C.E as they joined them. "Awww you had the same idea we did!" She commented on the assortment of drinks already gathered on the table in the center of the room.

"Charlie, you look great!" Donghun piped up after everyone had finished their greetings. Maybe it's because Guerin was looking for it, but she caught Jun go from looking and smiling at Charlie to shooting Donghun a surprised expression at his compliment.

"Thanks." Charlie said shyly, "It's nothing much." Her outfit was a simple hoodie and jeans but she had left her freshly dyed hair down, apparently the vibrant pink and purple was a hit.

"Nothing much. Pshaw. you are the belle of the ball." Guerin threw an arm around her friend, tapped her beer to Charlie's and the two of them started with their first drinks of the night.

The seven started off restrained enough but after a few songs Guerin insisted that without Queen it wasnt worth coming out so she sang Don't Stop Me Now which got everyone more riled up despite her not quite hitting every note. Seyoon got particularly aggressive with the tambourine during a flailing dance off so Guerin had to disarm him but otherwise no one was hurt. Charlie even joined in after a few drinks and sang Spice Girls and Backstreet boys much to the amusement of A.C.E and with Guerin acting as her solo hype team and yelling along.

After about an hour they flopped down for their first break as Jun, Chan and Seyoon hurried to the front to order snacks and more drinks.

"Jun was right, this is fun!" Charlie exclaimed happily.

"I've found the perfect song for us to do next! Will you sing it with me?" Guerin scooted over to Charlie, showing her the selection.

"Oh... oh yes. Definitely." Charlie nodded, the alcohol in her system making her bold.

Donghun leaned slightly across Charlie to try and peak at the song choice but Guerin snatched it away. Charlie blushed at the proximity of Donghun being so close. Sure she liked Jun but that didn't make her blind. Or sober. The other three returned, Jun came in first seeing Donghun and frowning as the two seemed to separate quickly. Byeongkwan tried to take the song selecter from Guerin for a peak and she jumped away from him.

"Noona what is it, let me see!" Byeongkwan said, reaching again.

"No, it's a surprise!" She twisted away from him and collided with Seyoon who had fortunately just set the snacks he was carrying down. His hand automatically went to her arms to steady her as the two stumbled.

"Oh shit" she was shocked into english for a moment, "Seyoonie I'm sorry are you okay?"

Before he could answer Guerin felt Byeongkwan reaching for the song selecter again and she yanked it instinctively away from him, which moved her closer to Seyoon. He used her momentum to pull her closer to him, but switching to look at Byeongkwan.

"Stop antagonizing her, at this rate she'll accidentally kill me." Seyoon said with a grin. Guerin tsked and pulled away from him. She had enjoyed feeling his hands on her and being so close to him, but she while she may have been too tipsy to make a snarky comeback with that level of distraction, she wasn't drunk enough to act on it.

"It's not my fault she's not watching where she's going." Byeongkwan shrugged.

Jun had surreptitiously settled in Guerins abandoned spot next to Charlie and was offering her another drink.

"Noona do you have a song picked out?" Chan asked, opening a bag of chips.

"Oh yes! Charlie is gonna sing with me!" Guerin spun and held her hand out to her friend who got up to join her. Jun looked disappointed for a moment until Guerin started the song choice. A.C.E all laughed and cheered as Take Me Higher came over the speakers.

The two women had a grand time singing along heartily, eagerly using the two dance moves they knew from the performance (poorly) and freestyle dancing the rest (also poorly). Guerin also mixed in randomly singing to each member of A.C.E, but she stopped when she sang the lyrics "I want you, I need you, say you love me" to Seyoon who had a big grin that started to falter. She threw herself back into the song and the two wrapped up with big cheers from the audience. Charlie flopped back into her seat between Donghun and Jun while Guerin sat next to Byeongkwan at the end of the couch.

"That was amazing!" Jun cheered and clapped loudly, giving Charlie a standing ovation.

"I'm glad you guys liked it." Charlie beamed up at him.

"Noona, maybe you could come to our dance practice sometime, before you try that again in public." Byeongkwan suggested to Guerin.

"Do you want to die?" She joked, throwing her arm around him and pulling him into a healock, but completely unable to keep a straight face.

"Aah, I'm kidding I'm sorry!" Byeongkwan tapped at her arm.

"Charlie you sing really well!" Donghun said. Guerin noticed him lean in closer to her friend as Jun's smile faded a bit, eyes moving back and forth between the two.

"Stop, I'm not a singer." Charlie protested.

"No really! We should sing a song together." Donghun pressed.

"Nooo you'll make me sound so bad." She waved her hand in protest, "Really you're being too nice."

Donghun took hold of her waving hand, "I'm serious, let's-"

Before he could finish his sentence Jun grabbed her hand away from Donghun and pulled her up toward him, he held her hand tightly, staring at Donghun, then moving his eyes to Charlie, "I like you. I don't want to see him flirt with you like that."

Charlie was flabbergasted. Her mouth worked as her mind caught up to what had just happened. Byeongkwan tapped lightly on Guerins arm, she had forgotten she was holding him as things unfolded and she quickly let him go but no one said anything else.

"I'm sorry to bring it up so suddenly but-" he suddenly couldn't speak anymore as Charlie took his hands and pulled him in for a kiss. Jun looked shocked.

"Sorry, I like you too. I got carried away." She looked down suddenly shy again but Jun beamed, pulled her chin up and kissed her again. Guerin, Byeongkwan and Donghun both cheered and bounced up. Seyoon had a big smile on his face, Chan looked shocked with a somewhat vacant smile on his face.

"I'm sorry Jun-ah, but you weren't doing anything so I thought I'd egg you on." Donghun clapped both of them on the back. Jun shot him a glare, "That's great so you can stop forever now." Guerin resisted bouncing over to Charlie and forced herself to sit back down. Seyoon scooted over to her.

"Did you know about this?" He asked, still smiling and watching.

"Well I knew Charlie liked him, but I wasn't sure about Jun." She looked at Seyoon, "Did you know?"

"Yeah, he talked to us." He responded.

"He wasn't sure he'd ever act on it, and if he did this wasnt in his plan." Chan piped up, laying across Seyoon to join the conversation.

The rest of the evening was spent drinking, singing and dancing. And, in the case of Charlie and Jun, holding hands and smiling at each other. Even Guerin with her high tolerance for alcohol managed to get well into tipsy by the time they were ready to wrap up.

"Are you okay getting home?" Charlie asked her friend, concerned.

"Yeah I'm fine, I'll just take a taxi or something." Guerin waved off her friend. She had heard Jun asking Charlie to get a coffee somewhere so they could talk and there was no way she was going to interrupt that. The two of them went their separate way, A.C.E held back until Guerin was able to flag down a taxi and get in before they headed off to their dorm.

"She was kind of drunk, think she'll be okay?" Donghun, peaked backwards concerned.

"Yeah, cabs can be creepy especially toward women." Byeongkwan added.

Chan looked genuinely concerned, "Normally I wouldn't worry about her but..."

"You guys go ahead without me." Seyoon peeled off and ran back to the taxi, stopping it and sliding into the backseat.

"Idiots. All of them." Donghun shook his head.

"What are you doing?" Guerin asked in surprise as Seyoon slid into the seat next to her.

Seyoon thanked the driver and apologized to him before answering Guerin, "Just making sure you get home safe. You never know these days." He said with a shrug.

"You're silly." She scoffed, "But that's very considerate of you, thank you."

They were quiet for a minute before Guerin spoke again, "Tonight was so much fun, thanks for letting Charlie and I crash your party."

Seyoon laughed, "It was never our party. Jun planned this after he invited Charlie and you."

Guerin covered her mouth to keep from laughing too loud, "He is slick." She giggled.

"It was fun anyway. We have fun when you're around." Seyoon said offhandedly looking at Guerin.

She smiled shyly then reach up to cover his eyes with her hand, "You have such an unsettling habit of staring directly at people." She laughed nervously trying to cover up her own reaction to the direct eye contact. He reached for her hand and pulled it down so she could see him still looking at her.

"You don't want me to look at you?" He asked, raising his eyebrows to accentuate his curious smile.

"I don't mean it like that. It's just a lot to look at you sometimes." Guerin tried to cover her tracks without thinking. She puffed out her cheeks realizing what she had said too late and looked straight ahead. Seyoon reached over to poke her cheek which caused her to glance at him from the corner of her eye and giggle. "Sorry, I'm not thinking straight. Just forget it."

His classic smile remained in place as he shrugged in acceptance and leaned back, just happy to have pestered her.

"Hey so what is your company's policy on dating?" Guerin asked suddenly.

"Our... dating? Why?" Seyoon was surprised by the sudden question.

"I'm curious for Charlie." She answered.

"Ah... I see." He nodded for a moment, trying to ignore the moment of disappointment he felt, "We can date. They want to know and I don't know how they'd go about it as far as announcing it." He shrugged, "I guess we'll find out."

"That's good at least. I'm glad you're allowed to be human." She smiled at him.

He bit his lip then slid his hand over to rest on top of hers, "Me too." He added, staring straight ahead. Her hand twitched under his but she didn't pull away. They sat like that for the next few minutes in silence until arriving at her apartment. She thanked him for riding with her home and tried to pay which Seyoon had to threaten to take her card away before she gave up. Once inside her apartment she washed her face, changed into pajamas then collapsed onto her bed.

"What the shit." She said to herself, flopping around in frustration under the covers.