#i wanna hear jen english say it now!! | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

idontlikeem · 3 years ago

Note

Sick/Injured Fic + I Didn't Mean to Turn You On

you can find the fic tropes mashup game here!

REALLY great combo, oh man! I had this idea right away—be warned, nonsense ahead!

sidney i promise i love your vocal fry

Zhenya’s never paid much attention to how Sidney talks.

He’s familiar with Sidney’s laughs—the slightly-stilted media chuckle he uses when he’s trying to buy time to think through an uncomfortable question, the gentle camera-friendly laugh when something genuinely amuses him but he’s very aware of the public within earshot, and of course the ridiculous high-pitched honking giggle that comes out when he really, really thinks something’s funny and can’t modulate his response.

Zhenya covets that last laugh, goes out of his way to elicit it, makes a fool of himself far more frequently than he’s willing to cop to in order to hear it, to watch the way it squinches Sidney’s whole face up, making his eyes disappear into half-moons above his cheeks, which get so, so pink.

So, yeah. Sidney’s laughs—Zhenya can categorize them all. But his voice? He’s never thought much about it. Sidney’s soft-spoken, and his singing is terrible, and Zhenya can easily drown him out in the room simply by virtue of having a lower voice.

Zhenya tends to not pay attention to the interviews they do. He doesn’t watch the stupid Christmas specials they make, he doesn’t stick around for postgames unless he’s actively participating, and he generally does his own thing during team media days if he can manage it. So, whenever Tanger teases Sidney with who are you trying to be when you talk to reporters, Kim Kardashian? you’ve already got the ass—, Zhenya’s ignored it—he doesn’t know what Sidney’s getting up to in his interviews, but it certainly isn’t any of his business.

(Tanger might be onto something, though. About the ass, at least.)

Finally, though, for the first time ever, they get roped into a joint interview during the league media day, and it’s clear when they get on the plane that Sidney has a cold.

He’s taken a decongestant so at least he’s not sniffling and sneezing all over, but his eyes are red-rimmed, and he’s sucking down cough drops like they’re pieces of candy.

Jen outright laughs at him on the plane. “Well, that’ll make at least that part of your interview easier, won’t it?” she asks as she holds up her phone and snaps a few pictures of them sprawled out in their seats.

Zhenya frowns. “What she mean?” he demands. In his experience, being sick only makes an interview worse, unless they’ve given him the good drugs beforehand.

Sid looks miserable. “Ugh,” he mutters, clearing his throat. “I kind of...I do this voice thing, sometimes. I don’t mean to,” he shoots Jen a glare, but she raises an unimpressed eyebrow and goes back to ignoring them, “but I guess sometimes I talk...lower, you know. Lower than usual.”

His voice sounds a little harsh, sure, but Zhenya probably wouldn’t have noticed unless he was listening for it.

He shrugs. “Okay, is fine. You do all questions, since special voice easier for you today.”

Sidney frowns heavily at him. Zhenya serenely ignores it in favor of demanding the picture from Jen to post to his Instagram. They look good, and Sid’s smiling—not quite one of his best smiles, but close. The internet will like it.

As the day wears on, though, Zhenya...figures it out.

When Sidney’s being interviewed, he can’t mainline cough drops, and his voice gets rougher and rougher as the day goes on. By the time they sit down with Friedman, he’s downright husky, and Zhenya—has a problem.

He’s distracted all through the questions, brushing past being asked about his desires to leave the Penguins (as if) and smiling vaguely down at the video Sportsnet took of him the previous year at his house. He’s babbling a little bit, he knows it, but if he doesn’t fill the silence—

Well, if he isn’t talking, Sidney is, and Tanger’s jokes about Kim Kardashian are suddenly, horribly explained.

It’s not right, Zhenya thinks miserably, listening to Sidney earnestly spill out the same meaningless platitudes about winning as a team he’s no doubt used a dozen times today already and trying not to shift too obviously. It’s not right that he feels so shitty and sounds like...like…

Christ in heaven, Sidney sounds sexy, and there is something seriously, seriously wrong for Zhenya to be thinking so when Sidney is so clearly miserable.

The interview ends, eventually, and Jen picks them up and chats at them the entire drive back to the hotel. Zhenya’s not required to contribute, thank god; he’s so past being able to hold polite conversation in public, it’s not even funny.

Naturally, this means Sidney follows Zhenya back to his room, recapping the day and whining about his sore throat. He stands too close when Zhenya fumbles the keycard into his room’s lock, like always. He smells like menthol from the cough drops, and his shirt is wrinkled and one side of his collar is flipped weirdly, and really, how hadn’t Zhenya realized how desperately, hopelessly attracted he is to Sidney before today?

Zhenya beelines for the minibar as soon as he’s got his shoes off inside his room, hoping that a few tiny bottles of mediocre vodka will at least kill off the semi he’s been sporting since halfway through the interview, if not distract him from the problem entirely.

It would help if Sidney would stop. Talking.

Instead, though, he flops back on Zhenya’s bed—he’s in my bed, Zhenya thinks hysterically, throwing one of the shitty flavored rums Sidney pretends he doesn’t like over before Sidney can ask—and keeps it up, talking about the other players they saw and what did Zhenya think of doing a co-interview, and did he really mean it when he said he’d seriously considered leaving, because—

“Sid,” Zhenya finally interrupts desperately, turning to look over his shoulder at the bed. Sidney’s voice is getting raspier by the second—he’s starting to sound like a girlfriend Zhenya used to have who was a heavy smoker, especially after she had been… He wrenches himself away from that train of thought. “Sid, please, stop talk, please.”

Sidney snaps his mouth shut and stares at him, eyes big and sad.

Zhenya winces and downs a bottle of—god, is that Svedka, disgusting—before jumping to try and smooth this over. “Not— Don’t mean, like, not want to talk, just…” He trails off and turns around, facing Sidney and scrambling to come up with something that doesn’t make him sound like an asshole, or insane.

Too late, though, he remembers his situation, and before he can sit down or do something to cover himself, Sidney’s gaze has already settled at Zhenya’s waist.

“Geno,” Sidney rasps out. “Geno, are you…?”

“Is your voice, I’m sorry!” Zhenya wails, sitting heavily in the desk chair and dropping his head in his hands. “I’m not mean! Is just, you sound…” He shrugs and trails off. There’s no point in trying to explain—he doesn’t have the words in English for it, and frankly, he’d rather Sidney not put together how much of a perv he is.

Sidney’s quiet for a minute, and when Zhenya dares to peek at him from between his fingers, he’s chewing on his lip, color high in his cheeks.

“I sound like I’ve been giving head, don’t I?” Sidney says abruptly, the corner of his mouth curling a little, and Zhenya’s whole body jolts. “I sound like I’ve had a cock down my throat, and now you’re thinking about that, and it’s making you—” He gestures vaguely at where Zhenya’s dick has now definitively gone from semi to fully hard.

“Please, Sid, I’m not—” Zhenya starts desperately. This is going off the rails, fast, and he doesn’t know what to do to fix it.

“I think you are,” Sidney says softly, and oh, now he’s doing it on purpose, Zhenya just knows it, and all he can do is stare when Sidney gets up and crosses the room, before dropping to his knees between Zhenya’s legs, holy shit.

“Sid, you—” Zhenya chokes when Sidney runs his hands up the inside of Zhenya’s thighs. His hands are hot through the thin suit fabric.

“Wanna hear what I really sound like, after?” Sid says, a gleam in his eye.

#sidgeno #flash fic #fic asks #my fic #hockey rpf

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ggukkiedae · 4 years ago

Text

❝ℍ𝔸ℕℕ𝔸ℍ : ℕℂ𝕋 𝟚𝟜𝕙𝕣 ℝ𝔼𝕃𝔸𝕐 ℂ𝔸𝕄❞

𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚜:

⇢ hannah’s features on other relay cams in nct 2020. you can find hannah’s hour on the relay cam right here

𝚛𝚎𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚜:

⇢ conversations written in italics are spoken in english, bold for japanese. requests and feedback are highly appreciated!

Mark’s hour: 12-1 PM

“out here, hannah cooked brunch for us” “yes, i did, so eat up! there are grapes on the table, so have some first”

there was a clip where her hands had the chicken tenders and placed them on the table as well as a bottle of ketchup in case jungwoo wanted some. mark immediately had a bite while jungwoo moved into frame

“yah,” jungwoo grinned as he sat down “it’s been too long since i last had this”

she scoffed, “you had some like four days ago” “that’s four days too long”

she sat in front of them out of frame while they ate and jungwoo just “you’re not gonna eat?”

“i’m having late lunch with yangyang before we meet up with yukhei gege”

“hannah, show your face” “i don’t want to” “can you just come here?”

she walked over beside jungwoo and bent down to say hi to the camera

“hi, czennies! i made them brunch, now i’m gonna go shower and take a nap”

jungwoo kissed her forehead before waving her off “sleep well”

when mark asked who sirius black was, jungwoo looked around as if to check who was there then went “you’re lucky hannah isn’t here. she’d literally kill you”

they sat in the room talking for a bit while waiting for hannah to fall asleep

when mark and jungwoo were leaving to head to the tenth floor, mark took a quick shot of her sleeping “alright, she’s knocked out. time to go”

Lucas’s hour: 4-5 PM

the elevator opens on the floor he was headed to and the first thing you hear after the ding is “yukhei gege! oh, it’s your relay time”

“huanuo said she has something to show me” “i’ll show it when it’s not your relay cam”

lucas laughs and pulls her into a hug “i already know what it is, but it looks like she’s going to keep it a secret from czennies first”

bonus: insert clip that everyone saw revealing yanghan here

Sungchan’s hour: 10-11 PM

sungchan was peacefully (not) trying to cut up his old shoes before he paused for a moment

“should i get noona’s help?”

he just continues while struggling “noona makes a lot of diy clothes back at the dorm. maybe i should have asked if she had better scissors for this”

while he’s splattering the paint he pauses and laughs “noona’s going to laugh at me, isn’t she?”

Shotaro’s hour: 11PM - 12AM

she comes in while sungchan is teaching shotaro 90’s love

“hey, you wanna go back to the dorm together? oh, you’re filming”

they get her to dance 90’s love with them after some reluctance from her end then she cheers shotaro on when he does it alone

then shotaro turns to her and switches into japanese

“can we show what we’ve been working on?” “which one? with the floor work or no?” “without. the one we haven’t shown the others yet”

sungchan is clearly confused when shotaro hands him his phone “play this”

watch it here

sungchan just “wah, i’m the first to see this? i’m special!”

she laughed while ruffling his hair and side hugging shotaro, “i’ll be in the practice room down the hall if you need me. call me when you're done so we can go home together?”

“noona, you don’t wanna eat with us?” “save me food, i’ll let you two end roo’s relay cam in peace first”

Haechan’s hour: 2-3 AM

she wasn’t on his relay cam per say, he just talked about her and his family

“my little siblings love her, and my parents always say she’s their second child. i’m obviously the first. she would come to my house a lot during breaks, so basically she’s part of our family. take that, jungwoo and lucas hyung. i’m the real big brother!”

Jeno’s hour: 3-4 AM

she wasn’t actually there either jeno just talked about her

“hannah sleeps here when we promote for dream. you can tell because if you open my closet, she has a bunch of clothes here”

for fun, he decided to call her

“yes, jen?” “say hi to czennies! it’s my relay cam” “oh, uh, hi! jeno, you better not show them how messy your room is” “... too late”

she laughed and told him to go and play games, so he said goodnight and hung up

“i didn’t think she’d be awake, but let’s listen to her and play”

Yangyang’s hour: 6-7 AM

yangyang looked up when he heard the convenience store opening. his eyes softened and he walked towards who just entered

“hey, what are you doing up?”

a familiar shade of purple-y silver hair flashed on screen while hannah immediately walked into yangyang’s open arms

“i have the worst headache and stomachache, and we’re out of painkillers. oh, sorry, are you filming?” “it’s okay, we can edit that out later. let’s go get your painkillers and my food, yeah?”

spoiler: the staff kept it in

hannah uncharacteristically clung to his side, arms wrapped around his waist the whole time they walked around the convenience store to get their stuff. on the way back, he chuckled at her

“you know, you’re cuddly when you’re sleepy” “so i’ve heard”

the video cuts to the next part just as she was about to yawn

yangyang’s in the kitchen alone and searching up a video on how to cook milk ramen

“hannah’s trying to fall asleep back there, so i’ll try to do this as quietly as i can”

when he was adding the seasoning into the boiling milk, you can see a pair of arms wrap around his middle. he patted her hands

“i thought you were asleep” “i can’t fall asleep” “do you wanna eat?”

there was a rustling which could only be her shaking her head

“i’ll just sit with you while you eat” “i’ll finish up fast, then i’ll be right there with you, okay?” “eat slow, i don’t want you to choke”

yangyang turned to the side and quickly pecked her lips

“yah, you’re filming!” “it’s out of frame! besides, they can edit this out”

the captions popped up saying “it’s too cute to edit out”

video cuts to yangyang getting ready to eat with a half-asleep hannah next to him on her phone

she quietly listened to him talk and eventually ended up leaning her head on his shoulder

“our music became a lot more dynamic. what do you think about resonance?” “it was nice to work with everyone. it’s funny because hendery oppa and i used to send each other little souvenirs, but we only got really close while preparing for the era”

pretty soon, yangyang’s on the couch

“hannah is off to sleep, and i will be, too after ending this in one minute”

which he did

#hannah.nctdaily #hannah.nct2020 #nct 24th member #nct dream 8th member #nct female member #nct female addition #hannah #lee hannah

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lovelyirony · 4 years ago

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“i was going to ask that you go easy on me. i’m feeling kind of tender today.” For whomever you want!

Being alone is something that Bruce thought was the best option for him. He doesn’t really like being social or “on” all the time, and he’s fine with drinking tea in his room and working on homework. For fun, he’ll usually watch one of his “shows” on the weekends.

Being alone can oftentimes lead to being lonely, unfortunately. One of the drawbacks, and something that Bruce doesn’t like.

He thought he was pretty well-adjusted to college. He didn’t really need to make friends immediately. His mother had written to him from Aunt Becca’s house on new stationary that friends come along when you’re least expecting it.

And then he got to orientation and his leader said that “friends are something you need to pursue! Get out there and go make some! Join a club!”

Bruce had not done that.

He doesn’t want to say that he’s scared of people, but they...intimidate him. He was made fun of his whole elementary and most of his high school time, so it’s not like Bruce learned how to successfully navigate friendship.

So here he is in his dorm on a Wednesday night at 10:34, post-shower, and he realizes that he is all alone and he probably needs to change that.

But he’s not sure how. He’s not great at “event-crashing” and there’s no way that he’s just going to sit down and talk to somebody. He’s in it for the confusion, it seems.

A week later, there’s a knock on his door.

It’s one of the girls who lives on his floor, Nat or Natalie or something.

“I smelled coffee,” she says. “And I want to know if I can have some.”

“Um...sure? Do you want cream or sugar or anything?”

“Is the cream flavored?”

“Yeah, it’s the, uh, new fall flavor. I thought it could be good in coffee.”

Her eyes light up, and she walks straight into his room, not even noticing the notes pinned all over his cork-board and the sad laundry pile in the corner. She pours coffee neat as can be into her own mug, sits down on the desk chair, and looks at him.

“Are you going to have any?”

“Uh...yes?”

He pours some, and then gets the cream out. He passes it over to her, and she takes it gladly.

“None of us really see you anywhere,” she says. “Why is that?”

“I, um. I guess I don’t get out much,” Bruce mutters. “Can you...can you smell the coffee from my room?”

“Not from where I am, but Clint lives across the hall,” Nat says. “Room 816. He wanted coffee, but was too shy to ask if he could. We’ll provide coffee costs so long as we get it.”

“Um, sure,” Bruce says. “I always leave my room unlocked. I’m Bruce.”

“Nat, I live in 842. What are you majoring in?”

“Chemistry and biology,” Bruce answers easily. “A focus in genetics.”

“Whoa. Cool. I’m studying business and security.”

“What do you want to do with that, if you don’t mind me being the millionth person to ask that?”

Natasha smiles, and Bruce can tell that she’s more than most people think.

“My friend Tony and his boyfriend want to revamp his dad’s company, so they’re gonna need a bodyguard.”

“Cool,” Bruce says. “I want to help people and create cures.”

“Always honorable. You wanna come with us to the drive-in movie tonight?”

Bruce blinks. He’s not expecting an invitation to be thrust his way so...directly.

“Um, sure. You sure about that?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well...we’ve never met before this.”

“We’ve done enough,” Natasha says easily, grabbing her mug and heading for the door. “We’re meeting in the lobby at eight, but we’re getting dinner at seven if you wanna come to that. Tony would really like to meet you, he’s been complaining about the lack of ‘smart’ people.”

“I’ll...I’ll see you, then.”

Right at six, Bruce is nervously tugging at the hem of his shirt, or wringing his hands.

He sees a guy who he thinks is Clint.

“Oh hey! You came!” he says with a grin. “Do you have any bandages?”

“Do you need one?”

“In the future? Yes. Currently? No,” he says, getting out his phone. “What do you think you’ll get for dinner?”

“Um, probably their lasagna or something. I know that the pizza tonight is barbecue chicken.”

Clint pulls a face.

“The worst one, bleh. Ooh, Thor’s on his way!”

Thor is...Thor. There’s literally no other word to describe the vibe of him.

He’s wearing a flannel, jeans, and he looks like he could be a nature guide at a national park.

Bruce is stunned. He’s never seen him around before.

“You met Thor yet?” Nat asks, lips curving into a smile.

“No,” Bruce says faintly. “I don’t think I have.”

And then in walks Tony and Jim (or Rhodey?), and his eyes light up.

“Bruce, my darling dearest. I heard that you are a smart man, and I am all about smart men. Let’s talk science.”

Bruce actually gets engaged in conversation, and he loves it, even when Steve says “could we have this in English, please?”

"Absolutely not,” Tony says. “Bruce and I are on the same wave length, so you will have to get used to us being annoying.”

“Sorry Steve,” Bruce says softly.

Steve grins.

“I’m just joking around, Bruce. Don’t worry about it. Wait until I start talking about art techniques.”

Dinner is good. Bruce gets to know more about everyone, and laughs out loud at most of Nat’s dry humor.

“Finally, someone with good taste,” she says. “You’re coming to the movie, right?”

“What’s playing?”

“One of my favorites,” Thor rumbles. “Ben-Hur.”

“We’re going to fall asleep,” Sam murmurs to Bruce. “Like, seriously. It’s boring.”

“The set design isn’t,” Bruce says softly. He saw the movie once with his cousin Jen and their grandpa. “It’s a beautifully made one.”

“Then you can sit next to Thor,” Tony decides. “Because otherwise he’ll spend the whole time trying to wake us up so that we don’t miss a part, or several.”

“It’s a good movie,” Thor says, although he seems to know that he’s lost the debate.

“We’ll have a good time regardless,” Clint says. “Especially since I’m planning on eating a whole tray of Oreos and passing out.”

“At least save some for me,” Sam says. “I don’t want a repeat of last time.”

“Your fault for making moon-eyes at Bucky,” Nat retorts.

“Oh, I did not.”

“You did,” Thor said simply. “But let’s get to the car before we lose our spot.”

There’s not exactly a spot to lose. The only other people are older couples and the occasional young teenage couple who has every intention of parking a bit further away and hoping to god everyone ignores them.

(And everyone will.)

Bruce comes to find that they weren’t joking about having him sit next to Thor; they point out that Thor is actually really excited to have someone to talk to.

“It’s true,” Thor says, grabbing a blanket out of the car to settle down over his chair.

Or at least, that’s what Bruce thought was going on.

What goes on is that Thor shares it.

“Weather’s supposed to go low tonight,” Thor says. “Can’t have you getting cold and me knowing I could’ve done something about it.”

Bruce will say, if anyone asks, that he was not blushing and they can’t prove it because it was dark outside.

He moves his chair closer.

After all, he doesn’t want to stretch the blanket farther than it can reach. And he wants to hear Thor better.

The orchestral music starts up and floats in between cars, and Thor looks at the screen, completely enraptured.

Nat gives Bruce a look, and he looks away.

“I brought soda, you want some?” Tony whispers.

Bruce jumps as he turns to face the genius, who is so unbelievably close.

“There’s Dr. Pepper and Pepsi but with cherry.”

“Cherry, please,” Thor rumbles. “Bruce, for you?”

“Um, I’m...I’m good.”

Movie night is...nice.

Bruce doesn’t really focus on the plot that much, not when Thor is whispering every so often about a favorite piece of music or what he liked about an actor’s choice.

He doesn’t mind it. Not at all. He notices the smallest things, and Thor passes him over a snack. It’s nice.

It’s nicer when they drive back and Thor tells him that he’s glad he came.

“I’ve seen you around, I just wasn’t sure how to get you to come with us,” Thor says. “You’re always in your room.”

“I tend to be a bit of a homebody,” Bruce says nervously, readjusting his glasses. “I, uh...I’m just not always accustomed to people.”

“That’s alright,” Thor says. “We’re having dinner again, we always have it at six. Feel free to come. Nat would like to see you again. You’ve been on her hit list.”

“Her what?”

“Friendship, don’t worry,” Clint says. “She has a certain list of people she wants to ‘hit’ as her friends. We’ve tried to get her to change the name about eight times.”

“It means serious business,” Nat scoffs. “Also Bruce, you have to come get coffee with me this weekend.”

Friendship is a confusing business, Bruce decides. He loves it, but it’s confusing. Mainly because he can’t believe that people actually want to hang out with him. He’s waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“You keep waiting for shoes to drop,but we never throw them up in the air,” Sam says. “Now come on and come with me to get Bucky from his stupid class and harass him into coming grocery shopping with us.”

Bruce laughs.

“Okay, but I need to make a list first. Otherwise I’m going to forget to get the tea for Tony.”

It becomes comfortable, and he...he enjoys it. He likes that they cook dinner (disastrously) for Halloween together, and they all dress up in as best a costume as they can manage.

He gets inside jokes with everyone, and he and Nat make a habit of having coffee in his dorm room most mornings before heading down for breakfast, and they all eat lunch together outside when the weather is nice.

He and Tony get along fantastically, and they both help each other bounce ideas off one another and come up with new ways to think about problems.

And then...there’s Thor.

Thor is his friend, one of his best ones. But there’s something that he’d like to be more there, and he’s never sure how to approach it. He’s not even sure if Thor wants to approach it.

They walk together and they nap together, and Bruce sometimes wonders if Thor looks at him as much as Bruce looks at him.

They go on errands together, and they’re usually always sitting together for movie nights.

Nat thinks Bruce is acting ridiculous.

“Quit being a little bitch and go ask him out,” she says over coffee. Steam curls around the mug, and Bruce looks away for a minute, pulling a face.

“Nat, he’s....he’s Thor. I can’t just ask someone like him out.”

“Why not?”

“Because I ramble about genetics and how much I appreciate certain scientists! How is that going to translate when we go on a date and I can’t figure out what to say?”

Natasha looks at him like he’s the biggest idiot in the galaxy.

“You’re the worst,” Natasha decides. “You guys already go on dates, basically. I mean, he doesn’t let anyone else come with you guys to go get ice cream on Saturday nights. You go grocery shopping with him and make those mug-brownies together.”

“That’s....”

“You don’t do that with anyone else, do you? I’m so sure that you don’t, otherwise I would have heard about it by now.”

Bruce shrugs, sighing and pouring himself his cup of coffee.

Natasha’s face softens, and she hops up onto the bed beside him.

“Look. I know you have this whole self-loathing thing going on, and god knows most of us on this floor do as well. But just because of that, it doesn’t mean you get to deny yourself happiness. If that was the case, I’d never bring home latkes.”

Bruce smiles softly.

“Thanks, Nat.”

“No problem. Also, we’re having family dinner inside to talk about an upcoming vacation, possibly.”

“Vacation?”

“We ditch class on Friday if we can help it, and we spend the weekend at a lake nearby. You wanna come?”

“Sure!”

Thor is currently enduring a pep talk from Bucky and Sam, who are both quite bad at pep talks.

“You can do this!” Sam says. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

“I can think about twenty different ways,” Bucky says. “But I won’t mention them.”

“Bucky, you are grievously bad at this,” Thor stresses.

“What are you, my English professor? What’s with the vocab?”

“Uses big words when he’s stressed,” Sam mutters. “Thor, you’ll be fine. It will go well.”

“Or it will leave me flummoxed.”

“Shut up.” Bucky groans. “You’re worse than Steve. You sound like a dying Victorian.”

Thor just groans, face-planting onto a pillow.

“Someone just put me out of my misery.”

“Or don’t,” Bucky says. “What’s stopping you?”

“The fact that if he doesn’t like me it’ll be awkward for the rest of eternity?”

Sam snorts.

“If I didn’t know Bucky, you’d be the stupidest person I know.”

“Hey!”

The family discussion about the vacation goes well, and Tony keeps giving Bruce pointed looks, and Thor is enduring the most uncomfortable gaze from Natasha he’s ever suffered from.

They both cannot take this for long.

It’s awkward, honestly. They’re both in the lobby of their floor, and Bruce can’t meet his eyes and Thor isn’t quite sure how to go about it.

“Would you like to get coffee with me?” Thor asks.

“Sure,” Bruce says. “You want Timely or Joe-Fix-It for coffee?”

“...Timely, I heard they introduced a new flavor.”

“Alright.”

They both relax a little bit into the car ride, and by the time they’re at the coffee shop, both are laughing about a text that Loki sent about one “hypothetical” situation.

It’s easy, and it’s...nice. Thor wants this, and so does Bruce.

“I have something to ask you,” Thor says, looking into his coffee before gazing at Bruce. “And you can say no if you’d like.”

“Go easy on me today,” Bruce says softly, and Thor doesn’t miss how his hands clench around his coffee cup.

“I, um. I have feelings for you. The kind that make your heart speed up.”

“Anxious thoughts?”

Thor barks out a laugh at that, and scratches the back of his neck.

“I am...this whole thing is ad libitum.”

“What does that even mean.”

“Without preparation.” They sit for a moment, Thor collecting his words.

“Bruce?”

“Yes?”

“Do you...do you remember when Natasha was on her period romance drama kick, and we watched Sense and Sensibility?”

“Um, yeah? Why?”

“Do you. Do you remember at the end? The quote about the heart?”

“No?”

“Shit.”

It was going to be romantic. Thor was assuming that Bruce remembered the quote about the heart and the always, because it was honestly a cheesy but good movie, and Thor was going to pretend like he knew the quote too so that it would make for a romantic confession.

“Let me, ah...” he fumbles to get his phone out. “I was hoping you would have remembered the quote.”

“And you don’t know it?”

“No, unfortunately. I fell asleep.”

“So did I!” Bruce laughs. “I think we both fell asleep that night. What are you doing now?”

“I’m...looking up the quote. I’m quite sure it applies to our current situation.”

“You sound so proper,” Bruce teases, and Thor slides the phone across the table, showing a truly shitty edit of the quote done in pink, loopy cursive.

His face softens, and he turns up to Thor.

“You...really mean that?”

“More than anything. I’ll be yours, if you want.”

“I want.”

Thor laughs, grin wide and big as he gets up and engulfs Bruce in a hug.

“I think I could not get happier.”

Bruce turns red, adjusting his glasses.

“I’m...I’m happy with you,” Bruce says, and by god he looks cute like this, all flustered. “But I think we should head back before we have to sign in at the front desk, right?”

“Of course.”

There’s a pleasant energy in the car after that, and before they exit, Bruce takes Thor’s hand.

“Yes?”

"Do you think they’ll be surprised?”

“Considering that they’ve been dropping hints for weeks for both of us? I’m expecting Steve and Tony to gloat for weeks over winning over Natasha.”

“You’re sure they won over Nat?”

Bruce grins guiltily. “Nat invited me to her sleepover with Pepper and Sharon. I learned things.”

Thor laughs, getting out of the car.

“Then I look forward to their reactions.”

Not much actually changed, honestly. They were already so close, although Thor is prone to random forehead kisses and bragging about his boyfriend in every single class, to the point where one teacher had to limit his stories about Bruce to two a week, so he had to make them count.

Bruce enjoys kissing Thor a lot, and always enjoys when Natasha makes a little “aw” noise or when he has a date planned.

It’s nice. And he likes it a lot.

#thorbruce #natasha romanoff #bruce banner #thor #sam wilson #bucky barnes #tony stark #lovelyirony writes #i just love them a lot :)#also YES the reason i wrote the sense and sensibility scene like that is because i havne't watched the movie #so i thought it'd be cute if they knew that they watched it #(and yes i am aware that there is a book)#also yes natasha just goes to his room to get coffee #avengers as a college dorm #WHICH IS ENTERTAINING TO THINK ABOUT

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btschooseafic · 3 years ago

Text

Hey you, what’s your dream?

Pairing: platonic!oc x ot7

Details: manager!oc, predebut/idolverse, partial BTS World!verse

Summary: Aviva and Jungkook go to Los Angeles for a month.

Warnings: This is a fictional story based on real events. The characters presented here are not the same as their real life counterparts.

[Masterlist]

Interlude 4: Love in LA

summer - keshi

“Feel like summer and I don't wanna miss you

If we don’t touch lips, not an issue”

July-August 2012

When it was decided Jungkook and his choreographer teacher would go to Los Angeles to train from July to August, Aviva was asked if she wanted to go along as a translator. All she needed to do was pass the international driving test and she was good to go.

Not having been home, or seen her family in some time, Aviva took the opportunity to take a few days off to meet them in San Francisco.

Aviva and Namjoon spent plenty of time with Jungkook going over easier common English phrases that he might need to use during the trip.

Aviva and Jungkook had plenty of time to practice English over the 13 hour flight, although they also watched several movies, napped, ate snacks, drew, and compared plane travel playlists.

Jungkook, Son Sungdeuk, and Aviva were staying in a dorm room provided by Movement Lifestyle, the dance company they were learning with. It seemed like the booking agent hadn’t been aware that the room was for two guys and a girl. There was one bedroom with a bunk bed, and a small common living space with a pullout couch. Aviva took the couch, and though she felt a little uncomfortable at first, she quickly adjusted. There was only so much of doing a person’s laundry twice a week before you got over any awkwardness, and besides, they were all too busy to feel awkward. While Jungkook and Sungdeuk focused on dance, Aviva was essentially acting as a full time translator, along with managing meals, travel, and business opportunities.

Jungkook was also feeling stressed out, having double the language barrier with both English and a lot of complex dance terminology. Aviva studied hard so that she could help him better.

They would wake up early in the morning to research terms at a nearby Korean restaurant, where Jungkook said he felt less homesick.

On the weekends they had free time, and ran around by the ocean. Sometimes Sungdeuk would treat them for a meal, sometimes they’d go off by themselves.

On the second Sunday both Aviva and Sungdeuk had business meetings. Jungkook asked Aviva if she could drop him off at the beach still. She was worried about him wondering around alone, but when she picked him up he excitedly told her about meeting a restaurant owner who was Korean, and gave him a free lemonade.

Two weeks before the trip ended, Aviva and Jungkook were coming out of the dance studio for a lunch break when someone suddenly ran at her.

Aviva caught her in a hug, the girl’s legs wrapping around her waist as she laughed.

“Oh my God! I haven’t seen you in person in forever! Your hair got so long! Are you surprised?”

“Ah… noona, are you okay?” Jungkook asked nervously in Korean.

“Jen…” Aviva hugged her back, rubbing her back for a moment before letting go. “Yeah, you did surprise me, can I put you down now? You’re scaring Jungkook.”

“Who?” Jenny wondered.

“My co-worker. My friend. He’s standing behind you, confused.”

“Oh…” Jenny slid off of her, looking sheepishly at Jungkook. “Sorry, I didn’t see you there…” She blushed.

Jungkook continued looking confusedly at Aviva.

“This is my little sister,” Aviva told him in Korean. “She’s your age.”

“Oh!” Jungkook bowed slightly. “Um… nice to meet you!” He held out his hand. Jenny shook it, chewing at the inside of her cheek.

For the next week Aviva spent any free moments with her sister. Jenny was staying at her friend’s house nearby. She joined Aviva and Jungkook for breakfast, Jungkook shyly pointing out his favorite dishes on the menu, Jenny impressing him with her high spice tolerance. Jenny met them during their lunch break as well, picking up food and eating with them quickly on the studio’s front stoop. Aviva would leave with her for an hour or so, to the beach, or window shopping, while Jungkook went back inside for practice.

At night the sisters stayed up late chatting in Jenny’s friend’s living room, eating cartoons of ice cream and giggling about nothing.

On Saturday, Jenny joined Aviva and Jungkook on this week’s excursion. At first Jenny and Jungkook awkwardly followed Aviva through museum, not quite looking at each other or speaking. Then they both got excited by an empty staircase and wanted Aviva to take pictures of them on it. From that moment on, the two found they had a lot in common, from singing, to photography, even to skateboarding! When Jenny mentioned she had wanted to take up skateboarding recently, Jungkook said he’d always wanted to try. On Sunday the two of them went and bought skateboards and practiced together.

Aviva was surprised when Jenny texted her that she’d fallen, and Jungkook was overreacting. She rushed downstairs to find Jungkook carrying Jenny on his back towards the dorm as Jenny complained, her face bright red.

“How do you say idiot in Korean?” Jenny huffed. “I just skinned my knees, he doesn’t need to fucking carry me!”

Aviva laughed. “Your face!”

“Shut up!” Jenny said.

“…Pabo,” Aviva said. Jungkook blinked. “Both of you are idiots… come inside, I’ve got a first aid kit.”

Jungkook finally put Jenny down when Aviva insisted she would be fine. Jenny sat on the toilet in the dorm’s bathroom. Jungkook hovered in the doorway until Aviva shut the door on him.

“I don’t get it,” Jenny muttered. “He was so shy at first, now all of a sudden he’s picking me up and practically running us back here…”

“He’s a passionate kid,” Aviva said, cleaning off Jenny’s knees. “He gets protective over people he cares about.”

“Okay, sure,” Jenny said. “But we’ve only known each other for a week…”

Aviva shrugged. “I’ve always told you you’re a very lovable person.”

“Shut up,” Jenny said again, shoving her. Aviva just smiled.

The last week of the trip, Aviva had been planning to meet her family in San Francisco. However, seeing how well Jungkook and Jenny got along, she talked to her parents, and they came to visit in LA instead.

Jungkook joined them for dinner one night.

“Are you sure I don’t need to dress up or anything?” Jungkook asked, pulling at his t-shirt.

Aviva shook her head. “It’s a casual restaurant. Just chill,” she said. Jungkook swallowed. Aviva sighed and gave him a quick hug. “What are you scared of?”

He shrugged. “It just feels… weird. Can’t explain it. Sorry.”

“Don’t have to be sorry,” Aviva told him. “Remember to breath. They won’t bite.”

By the time dinner ended, Aviva’s mother had given Jungkook resources for learning English, and Aviva’s father had suggested some old comics for him to read.

“…I think dad was more excited to talk to you than to me,” Jenny said as she walked Jungkook and Aviva back to the dorm. “And I haven’t seen him in a while…”

Jungkook looked confusedly at Aviva, who translated. He shook his head. “I’m sure that’s not true!” He said in Korean. Aviva sighed and translated again.

Jenny looked at Jungkook, her face scrunched up in what Aviva recognized as a look of determination.

“Avi—do you mind if me and JK go to that ice cream place down the block by ourselves? We’ll bring you back something if you want, I just… want to talk to him a bit by myself.”

Aviva titled her head. “How will you say whatever you want to say?” She wondered.

“…We’ll do our best with Google Translate and charades,” Jenny decided. Aviva nodded.

“Okay, text me.”

Aviva waited up for Jungkook in the living room. She could already hear Sungdeuk snoring in the other room by the time he came back.

“Your parents picked her up at the ice cream place,” Jungkook told her when he saw her sitting up looking at her laptop.

“I know, she texted me.” Aviva held up her phone. She looked at him expectantly.

He sighed. “Do we have to talk about it?”

Aviva shook her head. “I trust you guys.”

Jungkook smiled.

“Okay. Thank you. I’m going to sleep now.”

By the time the trip was over, Jenny looked almost sadder to see Jungkook go than Aviva.

“That’s not true!” Jenny said when Aviva accused her of this at the airport. “I’ll miss you both, really!” Aviva started to translate but Jungkook waved his hand, blushing.

“I understand,” he said to her in Korean, before turning to Jen, his smile bittersweet as he told her in English, “I miss you.” Both his comprehension and pronunciation had improved a lot over the course of a month.

Jenny took his hand in hers, smiling back at him.

Aviva squinted at them. “Do I have to give you both the, ‘if you hurt them I’ll hurt you’ speech, or can we skip that, cause it’s kind of awkward for me?”

“I vote skipping,” Jenny said, raising her hand without missing a beat. Aviva repeated her question in Korean, looking at Jungkook.

He waved his hands emphatically. “Yeah, no, let’s not do that, I agree.”

Aviva was pleasantly surprised to find Jin, Namjoon, and Soonyoung waiting for them at the airport when they touched down in Seoul.

“Your hair!” Soonyoung squealed at such a high pitch that Namjoon winced, and Jin’s eyes went wide.

“Ah, is that what you use all your vocal training for, Soonyoung-ssi?” Namjoon grumbled, rubbing his ear. Her eyes narrowed at him.

“Yeah, bet I could make even you hit that note with a good swift kick between the—”

“Okay, okay,” Jin said nervously. He looked around. “Eh, what happened to Sungdeuk-seonsaengnim?”

“Bathroom,” Jungkook said.

“Anyway,” Soonyoung continued. “How can you not be excited by how cute Avi’s hair is!” She squealed again, a little less loudly this time, touching the short ends of Avi’s new shoulder length hair. “You haven’t cut it in years—what happened?”

Jungkook flushed. “Ah, that’s sort of my fault.”

Aviva shrugged. “It was an accident, Kookie, don’t worry about it,” she said, patting him on the arm. Namjoon looked at them questioningly. “Jungkook-ah got gum in my hair, Jenny—that’s my sister, cut it out, and it was kind of high up, so she went to even it out and… snip… snip.” Aviva motioned her fingers like scissors. Jungkook winced. “She did pretty good though, I think.”

Jungkook smiled a little dreamily. “Yeah…”

Soonyoung raised an eyebrow at him. “Okay… Anyway, girl, let’s get home. You must be tired. And if you’re hungry, Jin-oppa gave us some leftover stir-fry, for some reason, so you can eat that in the car, if you want.”

“Oh. Thanks, oppa,” Aviva said to him.

He smiled.

“No problem. For some reason, I keep making too much recently, so…”

Namjoon shook his head, smiling slightly. “It’s Jungkookie. He eats the most. Now that he’s back, we’ll never have any leftovers again.”

“Yah!” Jungkook protested. Aviva shrugged.

“He’s a growing boy. Gonna be taller than you someday, Joon-ah.”

“Yeah? He’s welcome to it. He’ll hit his head on the doorframe,” Namjoon thought.

“We should get going,” Soonyoung said again, linking her arm with Aviva’s.

“Ah, right, we’ll wait for seonsaengnim, then,” Jin said. “Give him a ride back, to be polite.”

“I’ll just walk you two to the exit,” Namjoon offered, taking Aviva’s bag.

“You don’t have to—” She started, but he was already walking.

“I’ll just run and get the car,” Soonyoung said as they stepped outside. “Joonie, wait with her.” Namjoon made a face at her way of addressing him, but nodded.

They stood in the muffled quiet of small groups of people getting into cars, moving along with their suitcases. “It does look good,” Namjoon said, pushing her hair back from her face. She stiffened and he stopped, drawing back.

“Thanks,” she said quietly.

“You’re not… sad to cut your hair?” He wondered. “Since it was so long…”

She shrugged. “It was a pain to take care of, actually. I was just leaving it longer because shorter hair would make me stand out more, and… well, I was feeling nervous about going to a hairdresser.”

“What makes you nervous about it?” Namjoon wondered. Aviva looked at him. His expression was completely non-judgmental, just curious.

“Well, I don’t like strangers touching me, but I can’t move, because I’m paying for a service, and then there’s the small talk…” She sighed.

“If you ever want to go, I can go with you,” Namjoon offered. She frowned. “If that would help…”

“Well, it might, but… Wouldn’t you get bored?”

“I don’t think so. I don’t remember ever feeling bored when I’m with you.”

“Namjoon…” Aviva looked at him, not sure what she was going to say, and saved the effort of figuring it out by a car pulling up in front of them, the window rolling down to reveal Soonyoung buckled into the driver’s seat. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” he repeated. “I’ll see you around.”

Back at home, Soonyoung noted that the trip had done both Aviva and Jungkook well.

“You both seem to have gained a little confidence,” Soonyoung thought as they lay on Aviva bed together, Soonyoung chewing her old favorite American brand of gum and flipping through a nostalgic magazine Aviva brought back for her. “Although, that boy is still such a baby—are you sure him and Jen were interested in each other?”

“They exchanged emails, and phone numbers,” Aviva told her. “She’s shown him some lyrics she’s written, and he’s shown her a cover of a pop song he was too embarrassed to show the boys—it’s cute.”

“I can’t believe it,” Soonyoung popped her gum.

“Ew, stop, you know I hate it when you do that,” Aviva said, pushing her. Soonyoung did it again, looking her full in the eye. Aviva glared.

While she was gone, it seemed like the Bangtan lineup had finally settled. With all seven of the boys finally promised their debut, Aviva was extra happy to help Youngjin book them some side gigs for exposure, such as background dancing and writing on other artist’s songs. Aviva was nervous when the head of every managing department, as well as Bang got together to review her work.

After looking it over, Kim Byunho, Head of the Artist Management team, nodded. “My vote is yes.”

“I’m the same,” Bang Si Hyuk said.

“…Alright,” Youngjin said uncertainly.

“I would say so,” Jungsook agreed. “What do you think, Aviva-ssi, are you ready?”

“Ready?” Aviva repeated. “For what, sunbae?”

#bts #jeon jungkook #bts x oc #jungkook x oc #idolverse #bts predebut #manager!oc #fanfiction #bts fanfiction

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roc-thoughtblog · 4 years ago

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Sense and Sensibility Readthrough Part 10

Chapter 13, Pages 54-61

Today I actually paid attention to the meaning of the lyrics to Rolling Girl, and couldn't stop myself from crying. Then, like a sucker, I looked for English covers, and cried again. Oops. Song hits too close to home. Anyways.

Previously, Margaret was the best character. Marianne x Willougby now confirmed beyond reasonable doubt to Elinor, and Mrs. Jennings and everybody else now knows that Elinor has a secret beau. Poor Elinor, and probably poor Edward in advance, too.

Relatedly, two old friends dragged me out last night to witness the rare event of yours truly drinking, which mostly involves me pulling entertaining faces at weak cocktails after a single sip, because alcohol tastes as powerful and godforsaken as nuclear fallout to me, and lingers just about as long on the poor blasted wasteland of my helpless tongue. I don't have a secret beau, but they still did insist on dragging out of me every plausibly hypothetical detail, and then proceeded to try to set me up with the waitress of the night when there predictably turned out to be none. I dearly love my friends, but, Elinor, my point is that I want you to know that I feel for you.

I feel like sometimes I turn these preambles into diary entries. I'm entirely okay with this, though I should probably tag them somehow.

Also, oh my lord, this chapter sure happened, wow.

Readthrough below.

Chapter 13 Apparently things start really evolving now. Exciting. (EDIT: THEY SURE DID)

THEIR INTENDED excursion to Whitwell turned out very differently from what Elinor had expected. She was prepared to be wet through, fatigued and frightened;

Aha, Austenism coming up, first thing.

but the event was still more unfortunate,

Yess called it. So how was it worse? Were there floods? Surprise Edward & Mrs. Jennings meeting?

for they did not go at all.

... my expectations got double-subverted. Well, something is about to happen. I see now why all the details of the coming trip were attached to the last chapter instead of opening this one. They're out to picnic, and;

eager to be happy, and determined to submit to the greatest inconveniences and hardships rather than be otherwise.

I love this line. Anyway, while they're eating, Colonel Brandon receives a concerning letter though; his faces changes colour and he has to leave temporarily, like a really important phone call.

I guess this will be the impetus for change?

Haha, Lady M tries to stop her mother from prying into Brandon's personal business but Mrs Jennings is just not that type of person. Brandon's not really forthcoming and says it's just business in town, but he does have to leave immediately to attend to it.

It sounds really urgent. Him not being present means they can't go to the venue Sir Middleton wanted to use, which was an estate Brandon was related to. He's effectively cancelled the whole party for a business that where apparently, "I cannot afford to lose one hour." He's still not forthcoming on what though.

Willoughby and Marianne make snide comments betting that Brandon has invented the excuse himself to cancel the party because he's a spoilsport. Guys, please. :(

Sir M is very accomodating of Brandon regardless. He's a good-hearted fellow, really, if a little dim occasionally. Aww, Brandon says goodbye to Elinor. That's sweet, I really enjoy their friendship. Help I teared up slightly, I think I'm still emotional from the song. Marianne gets a silent nod. Yeah, I understand.

Anyway, now that he's gone, Mrs. Jennings starts eagerly speculating the reason for his urgency. A "Miss Williams" supposedly.

WHAT

SHE'S HIS DAUGHTER? BRANDON HAS A DAUGHTER? His NATURAL DAUGHTER? She's good enough at least to only reveal the daughter part to Elinor, but, damn. Wow, uh. Wow. People sure gonna bug him about Miss Williams now.

Wait but he's 35 right, so how old is Miss Williams?? When do people have kids again?? Oh my gosh, is Margaret going get a FRIEND HER OWN AGE?? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!

"Oh yes; and as like him as she can stare. I dare say the Colonel will leave her all his fortune."

But WHAT HAPPENED? Why aren't they together right now? Why is he attending random parties alone? aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Though I do wanna say that does make the Mrs. Jennings' hypothetical Marianne/Brandon pair a bit stranger. Beyond just a man who could be her father, a daughter who could be her sister? That's something alright.

after some consultation, it was agreed, that although happiness could only be enjoyed at Whitwell,

HAHA, I really enjoy these lines. It's the kind of thing where it's not what anyone is intending on meaning, but it's accurate to what's happening in a roundabout way. Anyone everyone goes on a drive instead and presumably Willoughby and Marianne have a very romantic time on theirs.

Another dance in the evening? Is that just what rich people do all day? ... Do rich people still do that all day? Wow, there are like 20 Careys, a family who has now been mentioned twice that I recall and I don't know if they'll be important or just filling up the numbers.

Also I admire and yet detest the seating arrangements haha.

Mrs Jennings -> Elinor -> Willoughby -> Marianne. Willoughby, why you separate the sisters? You don't seem to talk much to Elinor anyway. ... are you trying to hog Marianne? Is that the play? I'm not judging here, I'm just curious. Would be sneaky play.

Despite the general pattern of narrative voice, it is abundantly clear that Elinor is the primary focus here as all the information is exactly and only what passes through her ears; makes the seating arrangement of Mrs Jennings on the other side very clever too, beyond just the charming blocking of having her lean over two people to harass Marianne with her mysterious Romance Sleuthing Acumen. Apparently she has figured out exactly where Marianne and Willoughby have gone on their "drive", and thanks to seating Elinor will now hear too.

HAHA SHE CALLS WILLOUGHBY MR. IMPUDENCE. This and Willoughby calling Elinor saucy, the dialogue really doesn't pull punches sometimes. Apparently Willoughby took her on a tour of his to-be-inherited estate. Elinor pieces together that Mrs. Jennings got the beans spilled from the servants. I told you two! Don't discount the servants! Mrs Jennings sure doesn't! Treat your groom a greater friend, Willoughby, and mayhap the seal of loyalty might have affixed his lips. :'D

Ah, but Elinor is still worried about propriety. Elinor, I love you dearly, but this is most harmless romanticism really. It's not like the horse thing. Haha, aww, Elinor's tactitly acknowledged Marianne’s relationship and intentions with Willoughby, and Marianne does that thing where she sort of lost the argument but is too pleased to really turn it around.

Haha, Marianne returns later to describe the actual house she saw with great enthusiasm. She's just that excited, how very Marianne to gush so; she might also be gloating juuuuust a little over having seen the house and expecting to inherit it. :'D Very amusing; poor Elinor to have to listen to it though, deliberate or not. Her own beau is so far away, and his own inheritance dicier. Must sting a bit.

AaaaaAAAAAAAA this has been my hour but I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MISS WILLIAMS. I would have continued onto the next chapter, hour be damned because it's saturday, but skimming through Brandon doesn't come back. I don't want to skim too far ahead but as far as I can tell he doesn't come back for at least 10 chapters noooooooooooo you can't just spring that on me and leave me hanging aaaaaaaaaaaa. :'(

Ahh well, I suppose if I were any of the Dashwoods I wouldn't expect to see him until "after winter" anyway, whenever that will be. That'll be it for today then, I suppose. :'D

I think with the addition of Miss Williams, Colonel Brandon and his DAUGHTER are now the most intriguing characters to me. Not being able to find out their deal for weeks is gonna drive me nuts. I hope he's not an absent father though...

Miss Williams is also an instant favourite for just existing, because as you can see with Margaret, I have a soft spot for children caught in an adult world.

#1300 words #Jane Austen #Sense and Sensibility #readthrough #novels #Margaret = Brandon > Elinor = Mama Dashwood > Marianne > everyone else #Diary Preamble #also if you caught the pesterlog reference #that was deliberate and its one of my favourite pesterlogs

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mischiefandspirits · 5 years ago

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Iron Legion (10/?)

Never let it be said that Tony Stark ever does things by half. He might have grown up with little family, but he wasn’t about to keep it that way.

Tony Stark was seventeen when his first child was born, and that was just the beginning.

For Masterpost, AO3, and Fanfiction

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Big Buff Uncle, Part 1

Tony Stark was thirty-six when Bruce was introduced to the family.

Nebs, Harley, and Peter all glared at one another.

“You really want to do this?” Harley growled.

“You think I’m scared of you?” Peter scoffed.

“Don’t even think of it, little brother,” Nebs hissed. “I will toss you off the balcony.”

Peter met her eyes and set down his card. “I’m out.”

Harley tackled him. “I just needed one more card you jerk.”

“I AM THE PHASE TEN MASTER!” Peter laughed, trying to shove his brother off.

Nebs slapped her cards onto the bed and stood up. She grabbed Peter and threw him over her shoulder.

“H-hey, Nebs, let me go!” he shouted, barely managing to keep his glasses on his face.

“Oh, I will. Right over the balcony.”

Peter’s eyes widened and he started squirming. “What? Hey, no, you can’t do that! Harley, help!”

“Revenge!” Harley cheered, following them down the hall.

“Mom!” Peter shouted as they made it into the living room.

“What are you three doing?” Mom asked, looking up from where she was working.

“Revenge!”

“Mom, they’re going to toss me off the balcony!”

Mom rolled her eyes. “Nebula, no tossing your brothers off the balcony.”

“I wasn’t going to actually toss him, just let him dangle.”

“Good to go on this end. The rest is up to you,” their dad's voice called out.

“No dangling each other hundreds of feet in the air,” Mom said before turning back to her work. “You disconnected the transmission lines? Are we off the grid?”

“Boo!” Harley jeered. He and Nebs shared a look. “Want to throw him in the pool instead?”

“Sure.”

“Mom!” Peter pleaded as they turned towards the elevator.

“Your father already cut the power. Take the stairs,” was her only response.

“I hate this family,” Peter groaned, flopping over.

“Maybe next time you’ll think twice about going out before we’ve laid down,” Nebs said.

“Maybe next time you’ll learn how to be good at cards,” Peter muttered as the lights came on.

Nebs jostled him and he coughed as his chest hit her shoulder.

An idea came to him and he gave a few more coughs. “I… I think I’m… having an attack!” he coughed out. “My inhaler!”

“You’re fine,” Nebs said blankly and the worry quickly fled Harley’s face.

“Nice try, bro.”

“Oh, don’t act like you didn’t fall for it,” Peter snorted.

Harley stuck his tongue out before rushing ahead to push the door to the penthouse’s lower level open for Nebs. “When did Pepper become Mom?”

“A few weeks ago. Uncle Rhodey asked when she and Dad were getting married and I realized that when they do, she’ll be our step-mom. I figured I’d get ahead of the game.”

“They’re not even engaged. Uncle Rhodey was just joking,” Nebs pointed out.

“It’s going to happen eventually,” Peter scoffed. “Uncle Happy agrees. He’s got a ring already.”

“That’s hilarious,” Harley chuckled.

Nebs froze just before the doorway to the pool.

“What’s up, Nebs?” Harley asked.

“Don’t call me that, and someone’s overwriting J.A.R.V.I.S.’s phone protocols.”

“Is that even possible?” Harley asked and Peter turned to try and look at her.

“Not typically. It seems Romanoff took more than we thought,” she growled. “I’m going to tear S.H.I.E.L.D. a new one.”

Peter groaned and went limp. “What do they want now?”

Nebs hummed and set him down. She brought up a projection of F.R.I.D.A.Y. in the elevator with a man in a suit. Her arms were crossed and she was tapping her foot on the floor. “Agent Coulson, as I’ve told you before, Boss isn’t seeing anyone right now. You can make an appointment -”

“It’s an emergency,” the man said.

“Then I will alert Boss and ask his permission. You do not need to invade our home and hack my brother!”

The man ignored her, holding his phone up. “Stark, we need to talk.”

“You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark, please leave a message.”

“This is urgent.”

“Then leave it urgently.”

Coulson stepped out of the elevator and F.R.I.D.A.Y. said, “Sorry Boss, he wouldn’t listen and used a device to override my control of the elevator. I’ve alerted security. Should I call the rozzers?”

“That won’t be necessary,” Coulson said.

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Nebs growled, turning back to the stairs. “You two stay down here.”

The two shared a look and darted into a media room. “Jay, bring up the security feed!”

“… Fury I didn’t want to have anything to do with S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Dad was saying as the feed came up on the tv. He was standing next to Mom with a glass of champagne, glaring at Coulson. F.R.I.D.A.Y. was behind them, holding up a holographic phone.

“Give the word Boss,” she said cheerfully.

“That won’t be necessary,” Mom said, stepping forward and F.R.I.D.A.Y. pouted, letting her prop disappear. “Phil! Come in.”

“Phil? Uh, his first name is Agent,” Dad said, following her.

“Oh no, they’ve turned Mom!” Peter gasped.

“Come on in, we're celebrating.”

“Which is why he can't stay.”

“We need you to look this over,” Coulson said, holding out a tablet.

“No, what you need to do is leave,” Nebs said, marching in with her mask and her red pixie cut wig on.

Coulson turned to her with curiosity. “Ms. Parker, I thought you quit.”

“I work with security now,” tapping her hip where her badge and gun were strapped to her belt. “And as security, I’d be happy to show you out.”

Coulson turned back to Dad. “Mr. Stark -”

“Even if I was your consultant, which I’m not, official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday.”

“Is this about The Avengers?” Mom asked.

“I turned that down too,” Dad pointed out, taking a drink.

“This isn’t about personal preferences anymore. We need Iron Man.”

Tony smirked. “More than you know.”

“Not that much.”

Mom took the tablet and pushed it into Dad’s hand.

“Whatever,” Tony huffed, walking away.

Nebs stepped up to Coulson’s side. “You’ve dropped off your package, now kindly exit the building or I will have to resort to force.”

“Look that over, Stark,” he said before allowing Nebs to take him into the elevator.

“I never get to do anything fun,” they heard F.R.I.D.A.Y. sigh before J.A.R.V.I.S. closed the feed.

“What do you think was on the tablet?” Peter asked.

“Probably cool classified spy stuff we’re not supposed to know,” Harley answered.

“Probably,” Peter agreed. He looked at his brother. “We’re going to go find out, aren’t we?”

“Of course,” Harley said, throwing his arm over Peter’s shoulders.

“You’re going to get us into trouble with the spies,” Peter said, but followed his brother out of the room and up the stairs all the same.

Mom and Dad were whispering to themselves when they arrived, but broke apart when she spotted them.

She kissed him and said, “Work hard.” She came over to them and ruffled their hair. “Change of plans. I’m flying out to DC tonight. Your father has some work to do. If you need anything, go to your sisters first before bothering him, please.”

“What’s going on?” Harley asked.

“Nothing you kids need to worry about. Go shove each other into the pool or whatever you were doing before.”

Harley pouted, but Peter just rolled his eyes. Everyone knows you don’t go to Mom for information and you certainly can’t work the puppy eyes on her.

He waited until Mom had left before slipping up next to where Dad and F.R.I.D.A.Y. were going over the files from the tablet. “So what’s going on?”

Dad snorted, but explained, “Fury lost something and he’s going to need some help finding it.”

“Something?”

“A power source, one that apparently can make wormholes. Your grandfather mentioned it one of those journals Fury dropped off in his attempt to turn me to the dark side.”

“Cool!” Harley said. “Hey, is that the Hulk!?”

Peter’s eyes lit up. “Are you going to get to meet Dr. Banner!?”

Dad gave him a look. “No way, kid. You wanna meet the jolly green, you’ve got to go through Jen.”

Peter widened his eyes and leaned against him. “But Dad!”

“Nuh-uh, Petey-pie. I’m not bringing you into this just so you can meet Banner. Especially with Fury hovering about. Call Jen.”

Peter crossed his arms. “Fine, I will. Jay -”

His dad placed his hand over Peter’s mouth. “Yeah, no. She’s got her own big green problems to deal with. She doesn’t need to be dragged into Fury’s circus either. Why don’t you go play? Pep said you guys were going swimming? Do that. We can talk about meeting Banner later.”

“Promise?”

“Nope,” Dad chirped and Peter frowned. “Get out of here you gremlins. I’ve got to find Fury’s box before the guy who stole it blows something up or whatever he’s planning.”

“Sweet,” Harley said. “Can we blow something up when you're done?”

“Sure, sounds fun, just don’t tell your mother.”

“Tori or Pepper?” Peter asked and Tony blanched.

“Alright, we’re done here. Out! Out!”

The two snickered as they left.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Finally, someone who speaks English.”

“Is that what just happened?”

Tony shook Banner’s hand with a smile. “It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.”

“Thanks,” the other man said, looking uncomfortable.

“Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube.”

Tony ignored Fury. “Really, it’s great to meet you after all this time. I’ve heard so much. Don’t know why Jen refused to introduce us.”

Banner’s eyes widened. “You know Jen?”

“Met some years back. Great lawyer. She really helped me out so I return the favor sometimes when she needs some extra resources for a case. Glad she’s finally working the bigtime. Guess she just needed a little backbone. Gets it from your side of the family, I hear.”

The doctor froze and Tony slapped his back. “Don’t be modest, Banner. Big Green’s tenacity can’t have just come out of nowhere.”

“Is that what you call it?” Romanoff muttered.

“Let’s get back on track, Stark,” Fury ordered.

“I would start with Loki’s stick. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?”

“I guess we'll find out.”

“You might not like that.”

“You just might.”

“Boss, you’re getting a call. It’s from you-know-who,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. announced.

“Thanks, Baby Girl,” Tony said, pulling his phone out. “Sorry, Brucie, gotta take this.”

“You know they’re just going to eavesdrop on you,” Banner pointed out.

“I’d like to see them try.” Tony slipped out of the lab and into a nearby empty one. “Fri, Jay, scramble all nearby signals with audio or video. Don’t bother being nice about it.”

“Of course, Sir.”

“Right away, Boss.”

A moment later, the call connected. “Hey kids, how’re you doing?”

“We’re good,” Peter said while Harley, as per usual, got straight to the point.

“Did you fight the bad guy?”

“Yup. Kicked his butt. Now Dr. Banner and I are trying to find what he stole.”

“Can -”

“No, Pete.”

“Did you meet Captain Ice Pop?” Harley asked.

“Otter Pop,” Peter corrected.

“I otter shut you up!”

“I don’t know what you're arguing about and I don’t care. Yes, I met the Capsicle.”

“I like ours better,” Harley said.

“You can’t even agree on one!”

“Still.”

“Is he a jerk like grandpa?” Peter asked.

“Your grandfather wasn’t… a jerk exactly… but yes.”

“Knew it! Pay up, Nebs!” Peter chirped.

“Oh good, Nebula is there. I was starting to get worried.”

“F.R.I.D.A.Y. told me I couldn’t tie them up and leave them in their rooms until you returned.”

“Probably for the best. Not sure how long this is going to take.”

“Where are you now?” Harley asked.

“Some giant flying S.H.I.E.L.D. ship. Jay took pictures. I’ll have him show you.”

“Is that legal?” Peter asked.

“Probably not.”

“Are you almost done in there?” Banner called.

“Break time’s over. Call you later, kids.”

“Bye, Dad!” Peter and Harley shouted as one.

“Goodbye, Father,” Nebula added.

“Bye, love you, don’t kill each other.” Tony hung up with a smile and returned to Banner’s lab.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Threat! Verbal threat! I feel threatened!”

“Sta-”

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Tony blinked and pulled his sleeve down to look at his watch.

“Got somewhere to be, Stark?” Romanoff snarked.

Ignoring her, he frowned at the readout on his watch before pointing at the staff. “That thing needs to be put in a box. Preferably lead-lined and far away.”

Fury rolled his eye. “Stark, we need -”

Tony brought up his watch’s holographic display. “See this? It’s a monitoring watch the doc makes me wear after I stuck this,” he tapped the reactor, “in my chest without talking to her first.” Not a lie, exactly. He’d made it after she’d found out about the palladium poisoning, which was after he’d put in the new reactor. “And see this,” he highlighted one graph. “It’s supposed to monitor the radiation given off by the reactor. It’s usually low enough not to be a concern, but right now there’s been a sudden spike.” He held up his hand when literally everyone tried to interrupt. “But the energy isn’t concentrating in my chest like the rest, it’s focused in my brain.” He brought up a visual for effect.

Bruce leaned in closer. “That’s the amygdala. It’s in charge of emotions.”

“Between having this in my chest twenty-four-seven and the vitamins the doc shoves down my throat, I’d be immune at these levels. Maybe a headache at most, which I’ve definitely got. Can’t say if it’s from the glow stick or Capsicle, though. You all, on the other hand, would be a different story.”

“Our arguing,” Thor said, catching on and sending the staff a look.

“Stark is arguing too,” Cap pointed out.

“That’s just my natural personality,” Tony said with a shrug. His personality compounded by his daddy issues, but still.

“You need to bring something in to contain this thing,” Bruce told the agents.

“We still need to track down the Tesseract,” Fury argued.

“We’re already running the search. We don’t need it anymore. Get it out of here,” Tony said.

Romanoff glanced between Bruce and the stick. “We should probably do what they say. This might be exactly what Loki wants, to make Banner angry.”

“It’s working,” he muttered and Tony wrapped his arm around the man’s shoulders.

“Why don’t you let off some steam? I hear it’s not good to bottle it all up.”

Bruce raised a curious eyebrow, but both were distracted by Cap pulling Tony away.

“You know damn well why! Back off!”

Oh, I’m starting to want you to make me, Tony thought, but shoved it down. Instead, he said, “Calm down, Captain Otter Pop.”

“Otter Pop?” Cap mumbled, looking lost.

Whoops, Harley was going to kill him.

He didn’t have long to think about that though because right then the computer went off, indicating that the Tesseract had been found.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“He wants flowers. He wants parades! He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered…” Tony cut off and his heart clenched. “Son of a bitch,” he hissed pulling out his phone and rushing out of the room. “F.R.I.D.A.Y., contact Nebula. Have her evacuate the tower. Get everyone out yesterday!”

There was no response.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y.!”

“Stark, what’s going on?”

“He’s taken the tower!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Nebs?” Peter whispered.

She shook her head and put a finger to her lips.

The footsteps in the corridor continued on without stopping and all three relaxed.

Nebula waited a few moments, then reached out to F.R.I.D.A.Y.

The AI appeared in the room. “All the invaders have left the floor.”

“Who are they?” Harley asked.

“I recognized some of them from the files Boss was given. They are the ones he is meant to be tracking.”

“Can you reach him?” Nebula asked.

“No. The moment they arrived some odd energy wrapped around the building, preventing any communication with the outside world.”

“Is that how they’re getting around security?” Harley asked and F.R.I.D.A.Y. snorted.

“They’re not getting around it. They’re just smashing down whatever doors they need to get through. And without being able to send out a signal, the alarms are useless. I turned the sound off since it’d be annoying to listen to.”

“What are we going to do?” Peter asked.

“We need to get you two out of here,” Nebula said. “Do you think you can find a safe route out, F.R.I.D.A.Y.?”

“I can try, but it might be better to just wait here. Boss will realize something is wrong soon.”

The three shared a look and shook their heads.

“Naw.”

“Nope.”

“We need to move.”

F.R.I.D.A.Y. sighed. “Alright, I’ll see what I can do.”

“Do we know what they’re after?” Peter asked.

“Don’t even think about it,” Nebula hissed.

“But -”

“No,” she said, cutting Harley off. “We are getting you two out of here, now.”

“Fine,” Harley huffed and Peter pulled out his phone.

Nebula pushed open the door and looked out. “F.R.I.D.A.Y., how does the -” She spun around as something tapped into the intranet. “Peter!”

“They’re siphoning energy from the arc reactor. Bet they won’t like this then,” he said, tapping at the screen.

F.R.I.D.A.Y. disappeared.

Nebula’s eye twitched. “Did you just turn off the arc reactor?”

“Yup.”

“The one they were currently using?”

“Yes,” he answered slowly, wondering what she was getting at.

“Did it occur to you that they might wonder how the arc reactor could be shut down if no one outside the building can remotely reach inside?”

No, it did not.

“Nice going, now they know we’re here,” Harley said, shoving him.

“As soon as the backup generators kick in, have F.R.I.D.A.Y. get you out. I’ll act as a distraction.” Nebula placed her finger in Peter’s face. “No more dumb moves!”

“Right, of course, promise!”

She nodded and slipped out the doorway.

“Smart moves on the other hand,” Peter hummed, turning back to his phone.

“What are you thinking?”

“Remember how Dad blew up Stane by overloading the reactor?”

“Yeah,” Harley said, smirking as he caught on.

“Think we can make whatever they’ve got blow up if we shove enough power into it.”

“I like the way you think.”

“Does anyone want my opinion?”

The two froze, turning as their hologram sister reappeared alongside emergency lighting.

“You gonna rat us out?”

She smirked. “If you want to boost the power of the reactor, you’re going to have to do it manually at the controls near the base. I’ll show you the way.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So here are the kids everyone has figured out so far: 1. Nebula 2. Dum-E 3. U 4. Jarvis 5. Peter 6. Harley 7. Friday 8. ??? 9. ??? 10. Jocasta 11. Karen 12. ??? 13. Morgen 14. Edith

With the grandkids Vision & Vivian. Also, I've been informed I should include Droney and Redwing in the count, though they're more like pets.

So you guys are still missing three. Also, the three crossed out might end up with different names because of plot reasons. I'm still deciding.

A hint for the three you guys haven't guessed: 8 and 9 are from the comics and alongside Jocasta are called the triplets in this AU, while 12 is adopted like Nebula and is technically in the MCU, but only so far as their origin story.

#tony stark #peter parker #harley keener #iron family #Avengers

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xingjieisbaby · 6 years ago

Text

Vacation Ch 5

Xiao Gui then walked back outside to see his members still in shock.

“Are you guys dead?” Xiao Gui asked. Justin shook his head.

“I just can’t believe you’re dating someone.” Justin said.

“I can’t believe he’s dating Song Miu. She’s god tier man.” Wenjun said.

“How did a rapper start dating one of the greatest vocalists of all time?” Jeffrey asked. Xiao Gui laughed.

“Yeah I thought you’d like someone like Song Aria because she’s literally the god of rap.” Justin said.

“Or Kim Jennie, her energy is like yours.” ZhengTing said.

“Miu balances me out. I have to be mature around her because she’s so vulnerable. But I like that. I like protecting her. I like being the one she calls when she feels sad or scared. I love waking up to her calls whenever she has a nightmare. I like being the one she relies on.” Xiao Gui said with a soft smile.

“How come you fell for her and not one of the other Guardians?” Jeffrey asked.

“Jie ge and Aria are basically the same person except she’s a whole lot scarier and quieter. I can’t date someone like Aria because well, she’s so independent and mature. Don’t get me wrong, she’s my best friend. But she makes me feel like a child despite me being older than her. Jennie is me in a nutshell. She’s super energetic and vibrant. But I also can’t be with someone like because well, it’s Jennie and Jennie is something else. She’s like someone you think is one way but when you meet them, they’re actually freaking crazy.” Xiao Gui said with a laugh.

“Is Jennie single?” Yanlei asked. Xiao Gui wanted to laugh.

“Yes but she and Yanjun are basically dating. They’re not officially dating but everyone can tell that they’re together. Ari says he’s too much of a dumbass to realize that Jennie likes him back.” Xiao Gui said.

“Are any of the Guardian members single?” Yanlei asked.

“The older ones are. Actually I think Mira Jiejie might find Jeffrey cute. She voted for him during the Aini stage and every stage after that.” Xiao Gui said. Jeffrey looked at him in shock once again.

“Eh? Really? I’m cuter.” Justin said. Xiao Gui looked at him, disgusted. ZhengTing hit him with a pillow.

“Xiao Gui, you have to tell us how she fell for you. It’s Song Miu. She’s the epitome of elegance and grace.” ZhengTing said. Xiao Gui shrugged.

“I ask myself that too. I ask her that but she’s too shy to answer.” Xiao Gui said. He then felt his phone vibrate. It was Miu.

Kaikai?

Hey baby. You done?

Yep~ I feel better now. Jiejie and Jennie Jiejie are here. I’m seeing Jennie Jiejie blush because of Yanjun gege.

Did he finally ask her out?

I don’t know. But I ship~

Xiao Gui smiled softly. He could already imagine her squealing like she normally does when she finds something cute.

You know who I ship?

Who?

Us.

On the other side of the screen, Miu blushed. Aria quickly noticed her sister’s change in demeanor and smirked.

“Linkai being his soft ass self when it comes to you?” Aria asked. Miu blushed even more.

“He’s not soft to me only.” Miu said. Jennie looked over at her friends.

“Yeah right. The kid is whipped for ya Miu. He at least fights back whenever Ari and I pick on him. But with you, he just smiles.” Jennie teased.

“Truth.” Aria said.

“Xingjie gege is the same for you though Jiejie.” Miu said.

“I don’t deny that.” Aria said. Aria then looked over at her best friend.

“Ya know, Yanjun be pretty whipped for ya Jen. Linkai told me how much he smiles when talking to you.” Aria said with a smirk. Jennie blushed and threw a pillow at her.

“Stop teasing me.” Jennie said with a groan, making the girls laugh. Miu then turned back to her phone.

Baobei?

Baby~

Babeeee reply to me

Kaikai misses you. Love him.

Miu smiled softly at her boyfriend’s neediness.

Xiao Gui pouted when he saw that she didn’t reply. The boys looked at him when he pouted.

“What happened?” ZhengTing asked with a curious look.

“She stopped replying to me.” Xiao Gui said. That’s when his phone vibrated yet again.

Sorry I was talking to jiejies

And I do love you silly. I love you more than anything.

Well, except Jiejie

Understandable. Damn I top Jennie huh.

LOL. Don’t tell her please~ also she’s about to live stream. Tell your friends to tune in if you guys wanna see what it’s like with Guardians at night.

“Jennie is gonna live stream if you guys wanna watch.” Xiao Gui said. The boys quickly turned on their laptop.

Tuning in.

Okie~ live stream is starting right now.

“Hello people of Earth~ it’s ya girl, Jennie! I’m currently in my hotel room with the Maknae line of the Guardians. There’s Miu and there’s Ari. Excuse our faces, none of us have makeup on right now because we’re about to sleep.” Jennie said as she panned the camera over to her friends.

“Hi guys~” Miu said with a wave.

“Hi from Australia~” Aria said with a wave.

“Alright what do y’all wanna do?” Jennie asked the girls as she jumped on Aria.

“Ow.” Aria yelped. Jennie laughed as she sat on her best friend.

“Hmm, let’s do a Q&A session?” Miu said.

“Down, Alright guys, send in your questions for us! We got quadrilingual girl squad in here tonight so you guys can ask your questions in Chinese, Korean, Japanese or English tonight.” Jennie said.

“First question, who are you guys wearing? And why are you sitting on Ari.” Jennie read. She looked over at Aria and laughed.

“Alright y’all, ootd! Let’s go. I am wearing pjs from my clothing line. Shameless plug but you asked for it! Go to Cherrykoko to cop these pjs~ Ari what are you wearing?” Jennie asked.

“A hoodie. now get off of me.” Aria said as she pushed her friend off of her.

“Aria is currently wearing a hoodie that’s also from Cherrykoko. Miu over here is rocking her boyfriend’s hoodie like it’s a dress. Miu give us a spin.” Jennie encouraged with a smile. Miu got and did a little twirl.

“How’s your hoodie sis?” Aria asked.

“Comfy.” She said with a laugh.

“Did you take it from him today?” Jennie asked. Miu shook her head.

“I’ve had this one.” Miu said with another laugh. Jennie shook her head with a smile.

“Next question: what are the rooming arrangements?” Jennie read.

“Okay so back at the dorm, we have separated rooms. All of us as of right now because we all have schedules at different times and some of us just have trouble sleeping. Like Ari has insomnia so if she wakes up, she’s gonna be awake until however long it takes for her to go to sleep again. I usually have schedules until late night because of filming and I would come home really late. So yeah we just have separated rooms.” Jennie said.

“While we’re on tour though, we share rooms depending on how many rooms there are. So if there are three rooms, Rita unnie would get one room to herself. Jennie and Mira unnie would share a room and then Miu and I would share.” Aria said.

“If there’s only two rooms, then it would be the Maknae line and Unnie line.” Jennie said.

“I wanna send in a question but I don’t know if they’ll answer it.” Yanlei said.

“What do you wanna ask?” ZhengTing said.

“I wanna ask their ideal types.” Yanlei said.

“Me too.” Justin said, typing in the comment section.

“What are your ideal types?” Aria read. Jennie looked at Miu with a smirk.

“Maknae, what’s your ideal type?” Jennie asked. Miu hid her face in a pillow.

“Stop making fun of me~” Miu whined.

Xiao Gui smiled at her cuteness.

“Fine I’ll go first. But you have to answer Maknae. My ideal type is someone who can make me laugh.” Jennie began to say. Aria smirked.

“Someone that tells bad jokes right? Like really really bad jokes?” Aria said, holding back a laugh. Jennie looked over at her and threw a pillow at her.

“I’m going to fight you.” Jennie said.

“Yay.” Aria said, laughing.

“Anyways, back to me, I really like someone that can make me laugh because like that’s how you cheer people up. This person has to be sarcastic because I’m very sarcastic and I need that in my life.” Jennie said.

“Ari, you go. As you guys know, our Ari has a boyfriend and she’s been in a committed relationship for three years now. Let’s find out what type of guy he is…” Jennie said.

“My ideal type? Hmm~ I like tsundere characters. Like you know the type that seems really tough and mean at first. But when you get to know them, they’re like the sweetest person ever?” Aria said.

“Describe your boyfriend in one word.” Jennie commanded.

“Omg why does only one word come to mind?” Miu said with a laugh.

“I know, I wanted to say that word too but then it would be too obvious who it is. Hmm, magician.” Aria said.

“Explain what that means.” Jennie said.

“He does a lot of magic tricks. It’s pretty cool. But I said magician because he’s capable of anything. There’s always something new to learn about him and I find that very intriguing.” Aria said.

“I would also like to note that he’s also willing to change for the sake of Ari.” Jennie said.

“Alright Miu~ your turn. Also guys, Miu’s boyfriend is currently watching our stream.” Jennie said. Miu hid her face behind a pillow again.

Xiao Gui wanted to laugh. She was just too cute.

“Okay, so my ideal type is someone that has lot of layers to them. Like there are a lot of sides. My boyfriend has a side to him that only I see and then there’s a side to him that the rest of the world sees. I like that… it makes me feel special that I see all of him.” Miu said. Xiao Gui looked at the screen softly. He took out his phone once more.

You are special Baobei.

“Wah Gui, already texting her when you hear her words huh. Nice nice.” Jennie teased when she heard Miu’s notification.

“Alright next question, ‘Ari can you please sing? You always rap but I remember that you can also sing.’ Wah OG fan right here. Ari sing.” Jennie said. Aria began to sing to her own song, Why Don’t You Know. Miu began to dance to the song as she remembered the choreography.

“Okay next question.” Aria said with a laugh.

“Okay! Um hahaha I like this one. If you could date anyone in Idol Producer, who would it be?” Jennie said.

#New chapter that was too long for an author’s note #zhu xingjie #zhu zhengting #lin yanjun #wang linkai #xiao gui #nine percent xiao gui #gramarie #gramarie entertainment #gramarie boys #idol producer #fantasy restaurant #nine percent yanjun #ninepercent #j.zen #9% imagines #9%#npc #banana entertainment

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bastardnev · 6 years ago

Text

That Guy Next Door -- Ch. 7

one more week till we officially reach the halfway point!! damn that went by so fast dfkjgdfgdf

tagging: @tylerblacks @joonhobi @rivela @aliciasfox @sailor-slam-dunk @kidvoodoo @smolsammichu @simulated-heat @douglas-leon-michael @1dluver13xx (lemme know if you ever wanna be added to my tag list!!)

Prev.: Ch. 1 ♡ Ch. 2 ♡ Ch. 3 ♡ Ch. 4 ♡ Ch. 5 ♡ Ch. 6 ♡

The first month of Neville and Mustafa’s relationship went by quickly. They maintained their usual routine, going about their work and family-related business during the week and finding time to hang out (or, at the very least, talk on the phone) during the weekend. To Neville, it seemed like only yesterday that Mustafa first moved into the neighborhood and they became acquainted with one another. Time really does fly, he mused whenever he thought about it.

Neville wanted to do something different for their next date, however. Up until that point, it had been the two of them going out someplace to eat or shop. This wasn’t a bad thing, but he felt that it was time to do something new, and this was exactly what he told Mustafa the next time they had a chance to talk.

“I was thinking that maybe you can come over to my house for dinner,” Neville told Mustafa over the phone as he walked across the parking lot to his car, just having finished yet another long day of work. “On Saturday. Would that be okay?”

“Sounds good to me,” Mustafa replied.

“Good.” Neville sat down in the driver’s seat and shut the door, tapping his fingers in the steering wheel. “Wasn’t sure if you’d be up for it or not.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” “I thought you might say that it’s too soon for you to be meeting my family.”

“Come on, Nev.” Neville didn’t have to see Mustafa’s face to know that he was rolling his eyes. “You know I don’t have a problem with hanging out with the girls.”

“It’s not just them. It’ll be Wade, too. Y’know, the guy that is hellbent on interrupting every single moment we have together? I love him to death, but he can be a bit of a handful at times…”

“I’m pretty sure I can handle him. Today I had to break up a damn war between a group of six year olds.” Mustafa chuckled. “Dealing with Wade will be child's play compared to that.”

“You don’t know Wade like I know him,” Neville sighed, but he smiled. “But hey, if you think you’ll be fine, then alright. Don’t say I didn’t warn you though, Moose.”

Neville knew that in order for this dinner date to go smoothly, he needed to take measures so as to avoid any possible issues.

More specifically, he had to make sure Wade knew to not act like a complete nuisance (and to not convince the Jen and Daisy to go along with whatever scheme he came up with).

“I assume you all know why I’ve called you here,” Neville began, slowly pacing back and forth in front of the couch. Seated on that couch were a confused Jen and Daisy as well as an incredibly bored-looking Wade. “I have an important announcement to make.”

“Moose is moving in with us?” Jen suggested.

“You’re finally getting married?!” Daisy asked, beaming.

“You’re pregnant?” Wade shrugged.

“No, no, and no,” Neville replied. “But it is Mustafa related. Tonight, as I’m sure you’re all aware, is Saturday night. Not just any Saturday night, though -- it’s the night where Mustafa comes over for dinner.”

Wade put on a look of mock surprise. “Is he? Really? This is the first time I’m hearing about this. It’s not like you’ve been talking about that all week or anything.”

“I’ve been talking about it all week because you keep asking me about it, Wade.” Neville put on his best fake smile.

“So what are we having tonight?” Jen asked as she put her feet up on the coffee table. (“Oh, so it’s okay when she does it…” Wade complained.)

“I’m thinking we’ll probably order pizza, just to keep it simple.”

“Also because you can’t cook to save your life!”

“Wade, if you keep this up, I’m locking you in the basement.”

“You say this as if you haven’t trapped me in your basement ever since I moved in! I’ve spent close to 10 years down there!”

Daisy looked back and forth between the two of them before finally settling on Neville. “Daddy, have you and Wade known each other for that long?” She asked.

“Longer,” Neville said, shaking his head slowly. “Unfortunately.”

“Wow! You’re old!”

Silence. Neville sighed, and he clapped his hands together. “Okay, back on topic, please. You know I love all three of you dearly, but I need you all to be on your best behavior tonight. Not that any of you are ever bad--”

“Not even me?” Wade asked.

Neville rolled his eyes. “There doesn’t exist a word in the English language that describes your particular kind of annoying, Wade,” he said.

“I’m sure if you search hard enough you’ll find one.”

“As I was saying, you’re all lovely, and I need you to be your usual lovely selves tonight when we have company. This means I don’t wanna see any fighting from you, girls. And I also don’t want any rude jokes.” He shot a glare at Wade as he said this. “Alright?”

“Okay!” Daisy and Jen both affirmed, while Wade gave a half-hearted shrug and an, “I guess…,” which was easily more of a response than Neville thought he would get from him. Despite this, the question still remained: Would Wade actually take Neville’s request to heart?

No. No, he would not.

“So, what makes you think you’re good enough to be dating my little Neville, huh?” Wade asked, eyes narrowed at Mustafa, who had been interrupted right as he was about to take a bite out of his pizza.

He slowly put his slice down, looking to Neville (whose red, burning face was on the table) for a moment, and cleared his throat. “Uh…” He said with a little chuckle. “Well, I like to think I’m a pretty good person.”

“You think you’re a good person. But are you actually one?” Wade took a sip of his water, staring him down from over the rim of the glass. “There’s a big difference between thinking and knowing, you know…”

“Wade…” Neville’s muffled voice could be heard. “Cut it out. Please.”

“I’m asking important questions here, Nev! Can’t blame me for wanting the best for you,” he said with a little smirk. “Tell me, Mustafa -- if that even is your real name--”

“It is.”

“--what’s your life like? You got a job?”

“Yes, I’m a teacher. First grade.”

“You got a good home?”

“Well, you live right next door to it.” Mustafa shrugged. “You can just look out the window and see for yourself.”

Wade’s mouth formed into a line. He nodded. “...Okay, fair point.”

“Yep, he’s right.” Neville’s voice came again. “Let’s leave it at that please--”

“Can I ask a question?” Daisy, after having been watching this whole scene in silence, suddenly asked in a sweet voice that sent shivers down Neville’s spine. He was all too familiar with that tone of voice -- it meant she was about to ask something she wasn’t supposed to.

“Go right ahead!” Before Neville could object, Wade had already given her permission to speak, as if he were waiting for her. This bastard.

The next sound they all heard was the sound of Daisy’s hands smacking the table, surprising Neville and making his head shoot up. “When are you getting married?!”

Neville’s face grew bright red due to the embarrassment of the question, the giggles from Jen and Wade, and the shocked look on Mustafa’s face. “Lord help me…” He groaned as he put his head back down.

“Well…” Mustafa scratched the back of his neck, grinning sheepishly. “We’ve only been together for about a month…”

“And?” Daisy still looked confused.

“Life isn’t like a Disney movie, Daze,” Neville said, propping his head up on his elbows. (“No elbows on the table, Daddy!” Jen quipped, much to Neville’s humiliation.) “People don’t normally get married immediately after meeting each other.”

“Why?”

“Because they need to get to know each other first.”

“Why?”

“So that they know they want to marry them.”

“Why?”

Neville shut his eyes and took in a deep breath through his nose, slowly letting it out through his mouth and opening his eyes again. He knew he was going to lose this argument. “...Just eat your pizza, kid.”

Neville dried his hands with a towel, having just finished with the dishes. Mustafa and the others had gone into the living room to “talk” -- or, as Neville liked to call it, “continue the interrogation”. He knew that it was probably a bad idea to leave Mustafa alone with them, but he was in charge of the dinner cleanup (and Wade had dragged Mustafa out of the room before Neville had a chance to intervene).

Now, however, Neville was finished, which meant he could join them. He walked out of the kitchen and entered the living room. He spotted Mustafa sitting on the couch, and he sat down on the arm of it, prompting Mustafa to look over and smile at him. “What’d I miss?” He asked.

“Not much, actually,” Mustafa replied. “I’ve just been sitting here watching them trying to get the DVD player working.”

“Why do we even still have this?” Wade asked, crouched down by it. Daisy and Jen were on either side of him. “Haven’t we upgraded to Netflix yet?” “Uh, we have,” Neville replied, frowning. “You’re the one who’s living in the past.”

“The basement doesn’t have those types of luxuries…” Wade complained. “Well, I already went through all this trouble to set this damn thing up, we may as well use it-- Jen, no, don’t give me that look. ‘Damn’ is not a swear.”

“Wait, wait,” Neville interrupted. “I’m lost here. Why are you setting it up in the first place?”

“Family movie night, duh!” Wade said it as if it were the most obvious thing ever.

Neville tensed up. “What?”

“Wade told me about how you guys always do a movie night on Saturdays,” Mustafa said. “It’s a family bonding activity.”

“Yeah, Nev. Don’t tell me you forgot...” Wade was wearing a shit-eating grin on his face.

There were many things that Neville wanted to say to Wade at that moment, but he knew that this wasn’t the right place to do it. “...Wade, can I speak with you for a minute? Out in the hallway.” He asked with a big (forced) smile.

“Why, certainly, my friend! Lead the way.” Wade got to his feet, doing finger guns at Mustafa before following Neville out of the room.

It was once they were out of sight that Neville’s expression turned to one of confusion and annoyance. “Family movie night?!” He hissed, keeping his voice down.

“Isn’t it great?!” Wade replied, clearly ecstatic and proud of what he’d done. “I thought of it at the last second. This is gonna be awesome.”

“How is it gonna be awesome? God, I didn’t plan this far ahead…” Neville ran his hands through his hair. “Mustafa was supposed to leave not too long after dinner, not stick around for a damn movie!” “You want him to leave this early? Come on, Nev, it’s only seven! You can’t kick him out this soon. Don’t you want to spend more time with him?”

“I mean, I do, but…” Neville was the type of person to always stick to a routine-- this sudden development went against that night’s plan. “I wasn’t expecting this. I wasn’t expecting you to do anything that you’ve done tonight.”

“How can you say that? You should know that the moment you tell me not to do something, I’m already planning out how I’m gonna do it.”

“I’m gonna get you back for this one of these days…” Neville shook his head, sighing. “Okay, fine. I’ll go along with this under two conditions: first, you’re in charge of getting the snacks together. And second, I am not watching Frozen again. I’ll never get those damn songs out of my head.”

“The first part is easy, the second one…” Wade made a vague hand gesture. “Well, you’ll have to have that conversation with your daughters.”

“I can do that. Easily.” Neville turned and started to walk back to the living room, taking one last glance at Wade over his shoulder. “I’m a persuasive person, Wade.”

“I swear, I hear Elsa in my nightmares,” Neville complained as he walked Mustafa back to his house, causing Mustafa to chuckle. “You laugh, but I’m being serious. I must have seen that movie close to a hundred times.”

“My poor, poor Nev,” he replied, putting an arm around him and giving Neville a pat on the shoulder. “It’s not easy being you, is it?”

“It really isn’t.” The two of them reached Mustafa’s porch, and Neville sighed, rubbing at his temples. Mustafa was about to say something, but Neville interrupted him, saying, “I… am so sorry.”

Mustafa looked at him, brow furrowed. “What are you sorry for?

“For how everyone acted tonight. Daisy kept asking weird questions, Jen kept making comments, Wade was being… himself--”

“Neville, you don’t have to apologize at all. I loved it!”

“You-- You loved it?” He was shocked.

“Of course! If I were ever uncomfortable, I would have left, believe me. You have such a cute family.”

“But Wade literally interrogated you like some overprotective father! You didn’t think that was weird at all?”

“I mean…” He shrugged. “It was unexpected, yeah, but it wasn’t bad or anything. I knew he was only teasing you and trying to make the girls laugh. If anything, that made me wanna stay even more.”

“And Daisy’s repeated performances of ‘Let It Go’ didn’t bother you?”

“Neville, I teach first graders. You think I don’t hear that song all day anyway? I’m used to it.”

“I… damn.” Neville was impressed. “I was so sure you were gonna hate me after this.”

“What? No, never! I can’t hate you.” He ruffled up Neville’s hair. “I really did enjoy myself tonight, Nev. Don’t worry.”

“Good.” Neville breathed a sigh of relief, and before he knew it he felt Mustafa’s lips on his cheek and his face go hot. He made a mental note to start getting used to that kind of thing.

“Thanks again for dinner. I’ll text you tomorrow, alright?”

“Alright.”

With that, they went their separate ways, Neville returning back to his own house. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Wade waiting for him in the hallway, bouncing on his heels. “Dear God, what now?”

“Oh, you’re back,” he replied with a coy smile. “I was so sure you’d end up staying at his house for ‘dessert’.”

Neville sighed for what had to be the millionth time that day. “The moment you get a boyfriend, I’m going to bug the shit out of you about it. Mark my words.”

#neville #mustafa ali #adrian neville #wwe fanfiction #mustafa x neville #long post #jess.txt

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milleniumhan · 7 years ago

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When love and hate collide.//Personalized Fic.

Notes: Hey guys! This is the first of many personalized fics, it was requested by the beautiful babe @heckin-harrington. Hope it doesn’t disappoint! <3 I hope y’all enjoy it and if you do please let me know! Feedback + reblogs are always very appreciated. <3 Thank you!

Summary: Hawkins is full of strangers, luckily for you Steve is one of them...but then again, so is Billy.

Pairing: Steve Harrington + Female reader (Jenna)

“Where do you think you are going?” your mum said in a menacing tone, it was yet another stressful shout-filled morning at your household.

“I’m taking the fucking bus to school, no way I’m going with you.”

“You watch your language young lady”

“Whatever” you half shouted as you slammed the front door.

You started walking down the neighbourhood, towards the bus stop. Moving to Hawkins had proven to be harder for you than you expected. The absence of your friends, of the familiar, it was all replaced by empty faces and unfamiliar places. It always sucked to be the new kid in town, but you were used to that, Hawkins was just another state of the many states you had lived in and constantly moved to. Still, this was different. Everyone here seemed to be very distant and cold, just like the place.

You shook your head, trying to somehow get rid of these vile thoughts that kept creeping into your mind. Today marked the third week since you had started school here, you thought to yourself, maybe people would finally give you something more than pleasantries and fake smiles.

You were so caught up on the memories from your previous hometown that time passed you by and you didn’t realize you were walking slower than a tortoise. As soon as you looked up you saw the bus had already parted, leaving you behind and no one caring that you were calling at them to stop so you could get in.

“Oh, come on! For god’s sake! Could this day get any freaking worse?” You let out the longest sigh in history and as you went to furiously run your hands through your curly hair you noticed it was wet. Stretching out your hand in front of you, you suddenly there were light drops of water falling from the sky. “Jesus, please no” you grunted at yourself before deciding to make a run for it. Just as you were turning the corner the loud honk of a car stopped you right on your tracks.

“Hey!” Steve shouted from his car as he rolled down the window “Need a lift?”

You looked at him, then up at the sky, and then at him once more, giving him a desperate nod. He let out a chuckle and leaned to open the door.

“Thank you” you whispered shyly as you gently shut the door. You had seen him around in school, but you didn’t really know who he was.

“No problem” he said giving you a confident smile and driving off.

The first thing you noticed was the music coming from his radio.

“Is that...is that Foreigner?” your tone coming out more patronizing than you intended.

“Um…yeah” Steve hesitated to answer. “I, uh, I can turn it off if you want.”

“Oh, no! I didn’t mean it like that, I love Foreigner!” You said, stopping him from ending the music.

“You do? You don’t think it’s lame?” he said unable to hide his eagerness.

“No, not at all. What other bands do you like?” you inquired, not knowing this would unravel a long conversation about music and bands. Steve told you about his favourite bands and you did the same, which then led to you talking about movies and tv series. After a while of laughing and sharing interests, the car fell silent, but not in an uncomfortable way. The sound of the rain tapping on the surface of the car somehow soothed the air that surrounded you both. Once you got to the school parking lot Steve got out of the car and darted over to your door, putting his jacket over your head so the rain wouldn’t hit you.

As you were walking towards the entrance of the school you bumped into Billy. His stare was as stern as always, especially when he looked at Steve.

“Harrington.” He let out in an annoyed tone, “Jenna” he said, turning to look at you.

“Hey, Billy” you said in a soft spoken manner before he left, brushing past Steve’s shoulder.

“So, I guess that’s your name, huh?” Steve said looking at you.

“Oh, yeah, sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. You can just call me Jen, though.”

“Hello, Jen. I’m Steve.”

“It’s nice to meet you Steve.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Jenna.” You both stood at the entrance momentarily, not saying anything, just looking at each other. “Well,uhm” Steve said, clearing his throat “I guess I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah” you whispered “I guess so”

And with that, he was gone. And so were you, your heart and mind now satisfied, you had finally had a real interaction with someone in this forsaken town.

“Hey Jenna”

You searched the hallway to see where the words had come from. A part of you was anticipating to find Steve in hopes your previous conversation could continue, but instead you found Billy.

“Hey Billy, you headed to english?”

“Nope, I’m skipping. Carol, Tina and Tommy managed to get a bunch of booze and we are going to go get shit faced, Wanna come with? We’ll have fun, I promise.” Billy leaned on your locker and gave you a sly smirk.

“No thanks, I’ll pass.” you responded with a half smile.

“Fine then, suit yourself.” He said as he started to walk away towards the entrance. “You sure? Last chance.” He shouted back, only gaining a polite nod from you before you headed to class.

“Jenna, is that you?” Your mum called out when she heard you entering the house.

“Yup. I’m home.” your voice was tired, almost as tired as you were. You flung your backpack across the living room and sat down on one of the couches. Your mum entered the room and stared at you in a condescending manner.

“So, how was school?” she started, like she always did.

“Meh” you replied “the usual”

“Jen” your mum said, giving you a knowing glare.

“I just, I don’t like it okay? I don’t understand why we had to move to this stupid place, we were fine in Texas for christ’s sake.” You knew you shouldn’t poke at the subject again, but you couldn’t help yourself, you hated this place.

“We’ve talked about this. Your sister’s gymnastics team moved here because the training center here is better. We did all of this so that Claire can live out her dreams.” You rolled your eyes and crossed your arms as you heard the same old argument.

“Well, what about my dreams, my friends, my happiness. Does that mean anything to you? Doesn’t that matter too?”

“We need to support Claire, why can’t you understand that?”

“I do understand it! And I love and support her, but I’m just tired of having to give my life up because of it” the tension in the room rose as both of your voices started to become louder and louder. It was the morning all over again. “You know what? I can’t do this right now.” In a swift move you grabbed your coat and stormed out of the house.

At first you weren’t sure where you were going, so you started walking down the street towards the park, maybe you could go there to clear your mind. You passed what seemed to be an endless line of identical looking houses, not knowing who lived in each one even though this was your neighbourhood. When you reached the end of the road you noticed a familiar face, it was Billy again. He was smoking a cigarette out on the front porch next to Tina and Carol. The moment his eyes noticed you his face completely lit up along with his signature grin.

“You stalking me, Jenna?” he said in his usual snobbish voice.

“Are you stalking me, Billy?” you mocked back.

“So, did you finally come to your senses and changed your mind?” he inquired, making reference to the encounter you had had earlier at school.

You stopped for a moment, wondering if this was the right thing to do. You knew it wasn’t. They were not exactly the smartest or nicest crowd to hang out with, but at this point you didn’t care anymore, it would just be for one night anyway. You just wanted to rebel against the world, even if it was just for a moment. You wanted to feel something, to have people around you, people to talk to, even if they were assholes. You took a deep breath and turned to look at him.

“Well, you did promise booze and fun.”

“That I did” he said giving you a wink “Come on in then, darling” he extended his arm and put it over your shoulder as you both entered the house.

After that night you constantly hung out with Billy and all of his friends, gaining a lot of talk from other people at school. Everyone seemed to think you and Billy were dating, which wasn’t exactly the case, but there was definitely something going on there.

Friday’s were always the day in which you would go to someone’s house and get wasted alongside Billy. You waited for him patiently at the usual spot, but he was taking longer than usual. Something felt weird, Billy could be anything you want except unpunctual, he hated when people were late. You looked around, searching for any signs of life, but nothing. You decided to go back inside, maybe he had gotten stuck at gym class or something like that. The school was almost empty by now. You roamed the deserted hallways, you weren’t sure if you were even allowed to be there.

As you made your way to the gym, a loud bang coming from a classroom startled you. You went back a couple of steps to try and find the place of origin, worried that someone might’ve gotten hurt. As you went to open the classroom door, you heard two voices whispering.

“Shhh! Someone’s going to hear us stupid” Tina?

“No one’s here, even stupid nerds go home after 3:00” Billy?

“What the fuck is going on?” you thought to yourself. You opened the door slowly, trying not to make noise, only to find Billy and Tina hidden in the corner all over each other. They were so focused on what they were doing that they didn’t even notice you were there.

You ran out of the school, tears threatening to leave your eyes. It was there where you encountered Steve, he was standing beside his car with his keys on his hands, ready to go home. You started walking towards him without thinking, almost as if your legs were acting alone. He was surprised when you approached the vehicle, you two hadn’t spoken in a long time after all, but like he could read your mind still he held you in tightly between his arms, somehow knowing that was what you needed. Something stirred inside of you and you completely broke down, your tears soaking the shiny material of his jacket. He slowly ran his fingers through your curls as you continued to sob. After a while you finally pulled back from the embrace, wiping your tears with your sleeves.

“I’m sorry” you managed to mutter out

“It’s okay, Jen, don’t be.” Steve said, giving you a reassuring smile and running his thumb over your cheek, wiping any remaining tears. “Come on, get in.”

You drove off to Steve’s house, he took the long road as you beside him, telling him everything that you had just witnessed.

Steve’s heart swelled up with both anger and sadness. Whenever he saw you with Billy, out in the parking lot with him smoking cigarettes, or doing something reckless, he just wanted to run and and take you away from him. Months went by like this, killing Steve slowly, and now you were here, hurt by the same guy that had hurt him. He wanted to run back to school and punch him, but we all know how that would turn out.

You arrived at his house, which was empty. No sign of his parents as usual.

You went up to his room where you sat down on his bed, tears still slipping out of your eyes. Steve stood by the door, analyzing the situation. He wasn’t sure what he should do. After a moment he decided to sit down next to you, to offer you some words of comfort.

“Come on, Jen” he broke the silence in a soft voice, gently placing his hand over yours, he was barely making contact but it somehow felt more intimate than any other instance. “I’m sure you’ve left better behind...I mean, you...you are you.”

“What do you mean?” you replied just as softly

“Well, you know...Billy...Billy, he’s and ass.” Steve said, not really knowing where he was going with this. He was trying really hard not to fuck and say something wrong. You gave him a sad smile before letting out a sigh, shaking your head and placing both your hands over your face. You knew deep down inside you weren’t just crying because of Billy.

“I’m just” you sighed through your hands “It’s not just because of him”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s everything, Steve. I hate this place. I’m so sick and tired of moving, of never being able to stay in one place, make lasting friendships, create real ties with people. I’m sick of having everyone tell me what to do, what’s best for me, but never really listening to what I have to say, to what I want.”

Steve sat next to you, not a single word escaping his mouth. He just sat there, listening to you say all the things no one else cared to listen to. Taking the time to try to understand everything that was happening with you, and boy did he understand. You reminded him of himself, before Nancy. He knew the empty feeling that came with being like that, the fake friendship and toxic relationships you were surrounded by. He understood everything like no one else ever could.

“I just want to be surrounded by people who love me, who care about me. I want to pursue my dreams, do the things I want to do, not the things I have to do because of my sister’s dream. I just want to be free to be me.” The more time went by the more you felt yourself unravel. You couldn’t stop, you had been holding it all in for so long. “I just, I don’t know what to do. I hated hanging out with Billy and Tina, don’t even get me started on Carol and Tommy, but they somehow filled the void. They were there, even if it was bad company, they were there.”

“I get it” Steve started, finally breaking his silence. “I felt that same way, not too long ago I was the one hanging out with those assholes, but now I have other people. I found better friends, I have Dustin, you know? And for what it’s worth, you have me. I might not be the best dude in the world but I’m always here if you need me. I’m sorry about the things that happen with your family, mine is a broken mess, so I also get that. Look, maybe this will cheer you up” he said with a smile before reaching out to get something from the drawer in this night stand “Def Leppard, your favourite. I got it after you told me how much you liked them.”

You smiled at the thought of him remembering what you had talked about the first time you ever met. This was the exact moment where you realized how much you really liked Steve. You had buried any and all feelings that you had for him in the back of your mind, thinking you were only being dumb, but this was it, this was the reassurance that you needed. All this time, you were in love with Steve.

He handed the small cassette tape over to you and signaled to the stereo across from you. You took the hint and got up to place the cassette inside. The music started blasting, filling your body instantly with joy. Steve got up and started to sing along, imitating Joe Elliott...a dorkier version of Joe Elliott, anyway. His exaggerated facial expressions making you laugh out loud, this was the first time you had laughed like this in a long time. Your giggles filled the air as you were both dancing badly to your favourite rock band.

“Remember this moment” Steve whispered, he too realizing that he was in love with you.

Tag-list babes! <3 : @ambeazyyy @ayatimascd @missnena2194 @ditchthesticks @javapeach @lilo-1398 @catnissprior-blog @justrunawayoftheshit @steveharringtonofficial @tobarblog @hishoodies @theroyalbrownbarbie (If I forgot anyone please let me know <3)

#Milleniumhan's personalized fanfics #steve harrington fluff #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington fanfiction #stranger things #stranger things x reader #stranger things 2 #stranger things fanfiction #Billy Hargrove #Billy and Steve

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sinsiriuslyemo · 7 years ago

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Cuba v DR Season 17: Special Features

You asked, and we answered!!! We all answered lol together, it was…interesting to say the least. Hahaha

CAST/AUTHOR Q&A

Does Dama ever regret marrying Nevada? Or wonder if she would have been happier with someone else?

Dama: Is Channing Tatum available?

Nevada: *arches a brow at Dama* That guy looks like a fucking cyborg. Coño you have shitty taste.

Dama: He’s handsome, he dances and I could actually hurt myself on his abs. Yum. But, in reality, no. I’ve never regretted marrying him.

Nevada: *mumbles* Gross.

Dama: He’s my idiot ‘till death. *Smiles* Or ‘till Channing calls.

Nevada: That’s fucking disgusting.

Dama: Oh? Who would you pick then, hmmm?

Nevada: Nobody, cause I’m not a dick. *smirks*

Which language are Nevada and Dama more comfortable speaking?

Dama: Personally, I prefer speaking English. I like speaking Spanish to Nevada because it’s intimate and not everyone will understand us. I enjoy that. With my kids I speak it because it’s an important part of who we are and I want them to be a part of that.

Nevada: Bro, literally everybody around us except for the Blackwoods speak Spanish. Como que ‘intimate?’

Dama: Can I change my answer about us being happily married?

Nevada: *points a thumb at Dama* You see what I gotta put up with?

Amanda: Okay, but half the time, you deserve it. Seriously.

Jen: Half?

Dama: Preach sister.

Nevada: Jesus Christ, surrounded by fucking ovaries over here.

*All three women arch a brow at him*

Question for Amber and Omar, separately but addressed to both of them: Does Amber want to get back together with Omar and hope that it will be like it was before Fallon?

Amber: No thanks

Same question for Omar.

Omar: No, I don’t wanna get back together with Amber.

Also, do either of them sometimes regret Fallon coming into the picture? Because like, without her they might’ve still been close and together

Omar: Honestly, I think we would’ve broken up anyway. It’s got nothing to do with Fallon. We just eventually ran out of shit to talk about and things to do that wasn’t sex. We would’ve grown apart anyway. Maybe it would’a taken longer, pero we would’a broken up eventually, I think.

Amber: I agree. Sexually, we have incredibly chemistry, but we didn’t do anything but have sex. The funny thing is now that we’re not married or together, we have tons to talk about.

Question for Nevada: does he ever regret marrying Dama and having all those babies? Like, does he ever think what his life would be like without them and just having raised Eddie? And what does he feel and think about that?

Nevada: *pauses for a minute* Nah. I mean I know my life would be a hell of a lot easier if they weren’t in the picture, but I like having my family around. Sometimes I wish I didn’t have the extra responsibility, pero for the most part, having kids ain’t so bad. Having a wife, though… *Dama glares at him* I’m kidding, she’s handy too.

Amanda: He just doesn’t wanna sound all lovey-dovey, but he loves his wife and those kids a lot more than he lets on.

Question for Eddie, is he gay? Or is he just BI?

Eddie: Coño, what’s it matter? I can stick my dick in anything I want right? If you’re at a buffet, you don’t just eat the sushi, you want some sausage too.

*Nevada laughs*

Dama: Eduardo Cuervo-Ramirez, I do not want that crass language on this interview!

Eddie: Tia they asked me a question, I’m supposed to answer. Yeah I guess if you wanna put a label on it, I’m okay with dick or pussy. What matters is the person, not the parts.

Dama: Jesus Christ, Eddie!

Nevada: There you go, mijo. Way to be how you want. *looks at Dama* Dejalo, chica.

*Dama rolls her eyes*

Will the story progress up to the last season to show us what will happen to everyone, when they’re old and gray? And hopefully not leave us with a cliffhanger. At least make everyone happy. Also, can I please request that everyone end up happy and Nevada doesn’t die in his line of work/ironically from a stroke caused by Lily or something lol would be hilarious though! Oh And Omar gets his job back and hopefully gets back together with Amber. Oh and to know what will happen to Rafael and Roxie!

We actually can’t say much to this question guys… It’s an amazing question! But neither myself or Amanda are fans of spoilers so we plan on keeping the ending under wraps for now. But I can promise Lily won’t give Nevada a stroke. Jesus, I hope not lol

Do Nevada and Dama plan to raise NJ like they did Eddie? Or will Nevada try to teach him so of the “business” ? I think Nevada will not want that for NJ like he didn’t want it for Eddie … Right?

Dama: I think Nevada and I both agree that none of our kids should be anywhere near the business. Right baby?

Nevada: *pauses for a minute, then shrugs* I don’t know, I kinda wanna do a “Take Your Kid To Work Day.”

Dama: I will put a bullet in you.

Nevada: Why? You think our kid is too good to run a strip club? It’s a legitimate way to earn a living, and he’d get to be surrounded by pussy and tits all day.

Dama: No! No I don’t wanna hear it! Lalalalala! I will not listen to my son and the word pussy in the same sentence, pendejo!

Nevada: *smirks and shakes his head* NJ comes near my business, I’ll bash his nose into his face. Mejor?

Dama: *Cringes* Not better.

Nevada: Bueno, what do you want me to do, chica? No, he’s not gonna learn anything about the business.

Question for Roxie: Does she ever feel homesick? And what are thoughts of Rafael and Roxie moving to London permanently?

Roxie: Oh, I really do miss my home. London has a special place in my heart and I’ll never stop missing it. But my heart is with Rafael, he’s my home now. And whether we move to London, or stay in New York, I’ll be perfectly content.

Rafael: I always thought maybe we’d retire in London, but our lives are in New York for now.

Roxie: London isn’t great to raise children, I want them to see sunshine. They’ll never see it there.

For some reason, I’m imagining Nevada not to have tattoos although if Dama has and he’s been like, badass for ever, it’s natural to assume he has. I just can’t picture it. So question to either the cast or authors: does he have a tattoo/multiple and of what and when did he get them if he has any. I actually hope Nevada doesn’t have any tattoos cuz I like him just Nevada. I’d rather just imagine him to only have packs and the build of a man to die for <3

Amanda: He doesn’t have any tattoos, but what he has an abundance of is scars. Bullet wounds, stab wounds, you name it.

Dama: So fucking sexy.

Jen: Yeah…if you like injuries from…stabbings and prison.

Dama: Like I said. So fucking sexy.

Nevada: I got one near my eye where my mom tried to pluck my eyeball out with a fork.

Amanda: Thank you for that insightful addition, Nevada.

Nevada: Mhm. Her favorite scar is one I got right on my chest, that was from a bar fight when I was like twenty or something. Fucker broke a chair over me, it broke and he used on of the pieces to–

Amanda: Okay, we get it. *shudders* Scars are sexy, but details really creep me out.

Dama: Sometimes he tells me that story to get me in the mood. I don’t condone violence but it already happened…and the scar is so… *eyes focus on his chest and then his crotch*

Amanda: Seriously? Later, woman, we’re in the middle of an interview.

Nevada: Fuck that *to Dama* Wanna go to the bathroom?

Dama: *Stands up* We’re gonna take a brief intermission.

This question for the Cuba vs Dr Q&A, this goes out to Dama and Nevada. So you guys have been married for about 7 years at least, how do you guys keep the spark going? - Delia26

Dama: A strong connection on both a mental and physical level, common interests and things to do together, special things only you two do. Like anal, or pottery.

Nevada: I hate pottery. Everything else, yeah. We like to try new shit every once in awhile.

Dama: And if one of us suggests things, we always gives two options. Like…we could go bird-watching or we can put on expensive clothes and have sex on a pile of money. It’s all about options.

Nevada: Bird-watching? Who would wanna do that?

Cast questions… Lily what are your favorite things about your Papi and Mami?

Lily: A question for me? Papi look! Someone ask-ed me a question! Ummm I like my mami because she is the prettiest person in the whole wide world and she looks like a princess! She makes me Mac and Cheese and she even still does the sippy cup song with me and NJ and Fi. But Fi doesn’t like it. But Fi doesn’t like anything.

For Papi, I like that he brushes my hair and tells me bedtime stories. He gives the bestest cuddles in the UNIVERSE! Which mama says is bigger than just the world. Papi also comes home from work and plays with me, even though sometimes I can tell that he sleepy.

Nevada: Oye, what about me being the most handsome man in the whole world, princesa? You don’t think papi’s handsome?

Lily: *giggles* No! Papi’s aren’t handsome! Papi look like a troll!

Nevada: Ah si?

Lily: Papi’s can’t be handsome silly! Otherwise the princess would marry them and not the prince!

Nevada: You just said your mother looks like a princess. Oye, you hurt my feelings, no more tea parties for you. *crosses arms and looks away*

Amanda: Are you for real? She’s six.

Nevada: *shrugs defiantly*

Lily: *Bottom lip trembles as eyes fill with tears*

Jen: Now he’s done it.

Nevada: *to Dama* Nothing to say?

Dama: *Still laughing from the troll comment*

Nevada: *gets up and leaves the room*

Amanda: Aye, he’s so fucking sensitive. *bites bottom lip* Please don’t tell him I said that. *looks at Lily* Lily, your papi just wanted you to say he was handsome, you don’t have to mean it.

Lily: Mami says not to lie *sniffles*

Dama: *Kneels* Sweetheart, you said the princess marries the prince right?

Lily: Si.

Dama: Well then if I’m the princess, that makes papi the prince, right?

Lily: Oh! *Hurries out to Nevada and hugs him* Papi don’t be sad. I love you so much! Mami says you’re the prince! So you’re the most handsomest!

Nevada: You don’t mean it. *gives her a puppy pout*

Lily: I do! I do! Mami said if she’s the princess then you’re the handsome prince!

Nevada: Mami says… *sighs and gets up, walking with Lily back into the interview room*

Lily: Papi is the handsomest! I mean it papi! Right mami? *Nevada rolls his eyes* Tell him!

Dama: *Smiles* I’ve always thought so.

Questions for Omar: Do you still love Amber?

Omar: I’ll always love Amber, but I’m not in love with her. No.

Has Fallon grown on you or did you love her unconditionally the first time you saw her?

Omar: She’s growing on me, I guess. Shit, she didn’t do anything to me. I got no reason to hate her.

On that note,how is fatherhood treating you?

Omar: She’s not dead, that’s something right?

Amanda: *looking at Omar with an expressionless face* Where did you go?

Omar: What?

Amanda: You’re not the same Omar anymore, it creeps me out a little.

Omar: *shrugs*

Jen: He’s the absolute worst now.

#nevada ramirez #rafael barba #trouble in the heights #law and order svu #cuba v dr

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andromeda---galaxy · 7 years ago

Text

i’ll protect you

The line they’re in wraps around the building and winds down the street, full of monsters and ghouls and a whole lot of superheroes. There are kids here that Philip thinks probably shouldn’t be, and he thinks he sees his Social History of Photography teacher dressed like a giant frog with his wife and child in tow.

Lukas shifts anxiously at Philip’s side.

Philip takes his hand and Lukas smiles softly down at him. They’re both dressed like cowboys and Philip is trying to focus on everything else but how hot he thinks Lukas looks. They got their costumes entirely from Good Will and Lukas is actually wearing chaps, which Philip already plans on asking him to keep on later on tonight when they close their bedroom door. Philip tips his hat back on his head and they step forward a little bit as the line moves.

“You think Izzy is having fun with her cousins?” Lukas asks, his voice wavering a little bit.

Philip laughs. “I’m sure she’s still hoarding that hot dog toy because she’s bad at sharing.”

Lukas scoffs. “As if they don’t have an entire basket of toys at home because Angela gets them that monthly dog box thing.”

“We need to do that for Izzy,” Philip thinks, imagining it.

There’s a shriek and Lukas jumps, eyes finding the haunted house in front of them. He looks worried and Philip clicks his tongue.

“Kinda sucks Jen and Evan couldn’t come,” Philip says, trying to distract him.

“I like her but Jen is way, way too wrapped up in her work,” Lukas says.

Lukas met them in his Advertising Management class, and he didn’t realize they were a couple until about two weeks into term. They’ve both also been wondering if they’re in the right major, and Philip hadn’t seen Lukas so positive he was doing the right thing until he met them. They assured him using marketing and communications knowledge would help him market himself in his motocross career, and put him ahead of the pack with other riders who didn’t have that knowledge. Surprisingly, Evan drives a dirtbike too, and Jen plans on managing him when he gets into the circuits. Which gave Philip some ideas he’s yet to voice.

“What do you mean?” Philip asks.

“She’s got some English essay that’s due in a couple weeks but she said she got into it and couldn’t leave,” Lukas says. “Evan had costumes for them and everything. Now they’re just answering the door and handing out candy. Evan felt really bad, but Jen gets into this zone and she like, can’t get out of it.”

They’ve hung out with them a couple times so far and Philip likes them, but he knows Lukas would like to hang out with them more often. Jen is definitely more focused on school than they are, and they’re pretty damn focused on it.

Philip bumps into Lukas’s hip. “You tired of just me?” he asks, pouting a little bit.

Lukas scoffs a bit, looking scandalized. He tips his hat back and leans in, smashing their mouths together hard, like he always does when he’s trying to make a point. Philip hums a little bit and they take a step forward, still kissing.

“You’re ridiculous,” Lukas says, kissing his cheek before he straightens back up. “I love you. I love you. I love you so much I’m going into this crazy ass haunted house because you want to.”

“You don’t want to?” Philip asks.

“I want to because you want to,” Lukas says.

Philip smiles slowly. “You’re scared.”

“I’m not scared,” Lukas says, pointedly looking away from him.

“You’re scared,” Philip sing-songs, straightening up a little taller so he can rest his chin on Lukas’s shoulder as they continue forward. “Don’t worry, babe, I’ll protect you.”

“Nope, I’m gonna protect you,” Lukas says, reaching down and wrapping a secure arm around Philip’s waist. “From the wolfman, from fuckin—ghosts and whatever, whether I shit my pants or not, I’m protecting you.”

Philip snorts, turning into Lukas’s chest. “So romantic.”

It takes another twenty minutes before they’re scaling the squeaking stairs and Philip holds onto Lukas and hopes it curbs his fear a little bit. A tall man that looks like Frankenstein’s monster lets them into the lobby in groups of four—they’re paired with two girls, who are also holding hands.

“Oh thank god,” the redhead says, looking them up and down and immediately getting closer. “Another set of gays.”

Lukas snorts and he towers above the two of them, they’re so short.

“I’m Philip and he’s Lukas,” Philip says, nodding in their direction.

“I’m Diana, she’s Zoe,” the other girl says. She has dark hair and she’s dressed in a NASA uniform, and Zoe is dressed up like an alien. “We’re here on a dare—if we make it out we get fifty bucks each.”

“Really?” Philip exclaims.

“If you make it out?” Lukas asks, his eyes wide. “What the hell’s that mean?”

Zoe shrugs, getting closer to her girlfriend. “My sister puked in here last year and had to stop and get her husband to come in and rescue her.”

“Her husband should have been with her in the first place!” Lukas says, holding Philip tighter.

“That’s what I said,” Diana says. “Fifty bucks each. We really need it.”

“Well, this one thought it’d be fun,” Lukas says, looking down at Philip. He looks around and a shudder goes through him. Philip follows his gaze—the walls look like they’re bleeding, moldy and gross. It kinda seems like it’s supposed to be an old disgusting insane asylum, from the signage and the strange front desk. And Philip doesn’t feel scared, probably because Lukas is holding him so close.

“Maybe he should go in front,” Zoe says, widening her eyes and pointing at Philip.

“No way,” Lukas says. He sets his jaw, trying to look strong. “I guess—I guess I’m going in front.”

“Babe, I can go in front,” Philip says.

“No,” Lukas says. “No way.”

Philip gazes up at him, shaking his head.

“Aw, that’s sweet,” Zoe says. “Diana, why don’t you—”

“No way, honey bunch, you’re going in front of me,” Diana says. “I’m gonna have my eyes closed the whole damn way.”

Lukas presses the bridge of his nose against Philip’s temple. “I’ve got you,” he whispers.

Philip’s heart does a little summersault. He’s torn because he doesn’t want Lukas to be scared but he’s also really, really into the whole gallant white knight thing. He just nods, smiling softly.

The door in front of them slowly opens, whining like they’re in a horror movie.

“Oh Jesus Christ,” both Lukas and Diana say at the same time.

Philip tries not to snort, sharing a brief look with a horrified Zoe. He’s glad they’re not going through this alone. He looks back behind Zoe and sees that the wall is closing in on them. Literally moving closer to exactly where they are. He stares at it for a moment to make sure it’s actually happening.

“Uh,” Philip says, tugging on Lukas’s sleeve.

“Oh fuck,” Lukas says, and he immediately ushers Philip behind him.

“Great, we got the goddamn Star Wars compactor scene happening here,” Diana says, reaching for Zoe’s hand and backing away from the moving wall.

“Come on, we gotta go through the door,” Lukas sighs. He starts forward and he reaches one arm back, wrapping it around Philip’s hip.

“I’m so sorry but I’m putting my hands on your shoulders,” Zoe says, close behind Philip.

“Yeah, we’re making a train,” Diana yells.

“It’s okay,” Philip snorts. “We’re obviously gonna stick together.”

“She’s gonna—fuck!” Zoe yells, and they all jump because the door slams closed behind them.

“Can you open it?” Lukas asks, his voice shaking.

Philip snorts. “What, you wanna go back out?”

Lukas narrows his eyes. “Of course I wanna go back out.”

Diana tugs on the knob over and over but it doesn’t do any good. “Nope,” she says. “We’re about to face certain death.”

The hallway is dark and Philip can hardly see in front of him, only the outline of Lukas’s hat and the shine of his suspenders. Lukas squares off, swallowing hard. “Okay, okay, let’s just—go as fast as we can, come on.”

“You gonna barrel forward?” Philip asks, laughing a little bit.

“Babycakes, I’m gonna need you to stop laughing,” Lukas says, patting him on the hip.

“You told your mom we want a joint funeral, right?” Zoe asks.

Philip laughs again, turning around and grinning at her. “C’mon, guys, we’re gonna be—”

There’s a loud, high pitched, other-worldly howl behind them and it definitely isn’t either one of the girls, Philip doesn’t care if they just met, he knows that for a fucking fact. All four of them start screaming too, like that’s gonna do any good, and when Lukas takes off he holds onto Philip with a vice grip.

“We can’t run!” Diana yells, though all four of them are fucking running. “We’re gonna—”

But Lukas is suddenly skidding to a stop and pushing Philip even further behind him. “Oh shit, shit, shit—”

Philip feels like he has a monkey on his back because Zoe is absolutely clinging to him, but he can’t blame her because he’s doing the exact same thing to Lukas, his arms wrapped around his middle. It’s so dark, but he can fucking see that there’s a large, imposing bald man in front of them. With an axe buried into the middle of his skull.

“Okay, dude, just—go find a hospital, you’ll be fine—” Lukas says, trying to inch around him.

Philip follows, spluttering and burying his face in Lukas’s shoulder. They only have a sliver of space to work with to get around the guy and they have to press against the wall to keep going. As Philip passes Lukas throws his arm out in front of him, like that’s gonna do anything if the guy decides to attack.

“Don’t look at him, please,” Lukas says, his voice still shaking. “Just, yeah, don’t look at—my—my Philip—”

Philip laughs again, feeling Zoe reach down and take his hand.

“Don’t make eye contact, Di!” Zoe yells, speeding up and watching the guy zone in on her girlfriend. “If you make eye contact he won’t leave you alone.”

“Great, Jesus—fuck—thanks—”

Lukas wraps his arm around Philip again and they hear Diana squeal as they rush past. “Baby, stay close to me please—” Lukas says, groaning a little bit, and not in the good way that Philip is used to.

“You’re being so polite tonight, Lukas,” Philip says, plastering himself against Lukas’s back, tugging Zoe along behind him.

“I’m gonna kill you later,” Lukas growls, shooting him a look. “Crazy cute—weirdo—”

Philip chuckles, but the sound dies as soon as they turn the corner and get out of the hallway.

“Goddamnit, fuck—why—” Lukas moans.

There’s one buzzing lightbulb hanging from the ceiling and it’s doing its best job to barely light up one single solitary chair in the middle of the room.

“Shit, Lukas, be careful!” Diana yells.

Lukas leaps like he’s been electrocuted and Philip’s breath catches in his throat when he sees what she saw—a woman, all in white, standing right next to Lukas and facing the wall. Lukas nearly topples over but his main intention seems to be to put his entire body in front of Philip, and even though Philip’s heart nearly leapt out of his chest when he saw her, he’s trying not to get turned on by how much Lukas needs to protect him.

“Zoe, she looks like that crazy-ass roommate you had freshman year!” Diana shrieks from somewhere behind them.

“Honey don’t make this worse than it already is!”

Philip tries not to laugh again. He’s having the best time.

Lukas looks up and Philip follows his gaze, watching the dirty lightbulb. “That thing is swinging all on its own, Philip,” Lukas says, sounding resigned. “It’s swinging all on its own.”

“Just—just angle around her,” Philip says. “Just—just weave—”

“Is that the only way out?” Diana asks. “That black hole right next to her?”

All four of them look around manically, searching for another exit, and just as they’re turning to look at their only way out the woman in white rushes them, screaming her guts out. All of them start yelling again too, Lukas’s shrieks coming out in little short, harried bursts. He nearly picks Philip up off the ground as he makes for the exit, and Philip can hear the girls tumbling over each other because Philip’s hand is ripped away from Zoe’s.

“Don’t leave us!” she yells. “We have a dog at home, we can’t die!”

“We have a dog too!” Lukas screams, weaving through the door and into another hallway. This one is really close quarters and Philip is hurled forward into Lukas’s back when both girls run into him.

“Sorry, sorry!” Diana yells. “Got a little—overzealous—what kind of dog do you have?”

“Australian shepherd puppy,” Philip answers, because he knows Lukas is too concerned with taking tiny baby steps forward. Lukas’s arm that isn’t wrapped around Philip is stretched out in front of him, waving frantically in the darkness. “What about you?” Philip asks.

“We’ve got a Golden,” Zoe says. “Her name is Ginger, she loves treats and—”

“I’m glad you guys are just like—having a conversation,” Lukas says. “Just, talking about dogs as I’m just sacrificing myself here—”

“Sorry, sorry, right,” Zoe says. “Task at hand.”

“You’re our fearless leader,” Philip says, running his hand up and down Lukas’s side.

Lukas sighs and doesn’t answer, taking the next turn. Philip looks around—they’re in the middle of what looks like a set of prison cells, and the ceiling is a lot higher than it was in the hallway. Everything is rusty and old looking, like the walls would hurt their hands if they tried to touch them. There’s sinister-sounding laughter reverberating off the walls and Lukas sighs again.

“This room is too big,” he says, shaking his head. “I feel like—I feel unsafe.”

“Let’s just—let’s just run,” Diana says.

“You were the one saying not to run earlier, dummy,” Zoe says.

“Just go,” Philip says, close to Lukas’s ear. “Just—straight shot. Straight ahead, I think that’s the way out right there.” He points to a door at the end of the room, beside a big crate that looks like there’s blood seeping out of it. He feels like Lukas isn’t gonna move any time soon and Philip leans in, pressing a kiss to the back of Lukas’s neck. “C’mon, babe.”

Lukas sighs for the third time in five minutes and starts walking, but as soon as he takes his first step all of the cell doors slide open. And before they know it a fucking hoard of zombies are shuffling out, heading toward them.

“Oh shit,” Lukas says, his head whipping around.

Diana echoes his sentiments, hissing another string of curse words.

“I don’t like this show,” Zoe mutters. “I hate this show, I hate the way they sound.”

The zombies slowly come towards them and they look disgusting, jaws hanging off their hinges, eyeballs gouged out, arms half in sockets. Their clothes are ragged and hang off their broken bodies.

“Let’s go,” Lukas says. “You’re too cute to be in here, Philip, I’m like, almost offended to see all this disgusting shit this close to you—”

Philip lets him tug him towards the exit and he never thought he would get so turned on in the middle of a haunted house. But when they’re two feet away from the exit the bloody crate flips open, revealing a mass of limbs and a head that’s still alive, drooling and gasping and gaping at them. Lukas shrieks, cursing, and Philip dissolves into hysterics again.

“Baby, you—Philip, dammit—”

“I hope we’re almost to the end,” Diana says, as they enter the next hallway. “My heart can’t take much more of this.”

“Remember we have brownies and OnDemand at home,” Zoe says, close to Philip.

“I think something just touched me,” Diana says, her voice high.

“Shit!” Lukas says, jumping. “Something just—Jesus!”

Philip feels it too and it’s he can’t tell what it is, a vine or a hand or something reaching out from the walls and brushing his arm. It sends shivers up his spine and he doesn’t know why but this is the scariest part of the house so far. He presses up against Lukas, holding onto him. “Go faster,” he mutters, his heart raging in his chest. Something touches him again and Philip cringes away from it. “Faster, Lukas.”

“Shit, shit—”

“Oh my God,” Diana exclaims.

“OnDemand and brownies at home!” Zoe repeats.

Then the hands build and they’re everywhere, hundreds of them, reaching out and touching, brushing against shoulders and heads and hips, dragging through Philip’s hair underneath the brim of his hat.

“There are breasts here!” Diana yells. “No touching of the breasts!”

Philip tries not to laugh. “Run, Lukas,” he says, urging him along. “Go, go—”

“Don’t have to tell me,” Lukas mutters, picking up the pace, still holding onto Philip. The hands reach out farther and Philip can’t tell if they’re real, they feel rubbery but it’s gross, like they’re coated in something sticky. They all run and the hands seem to extend out farther and farther as they go, worse and worse until all four of them are batting them out of the way.

“Kick the door down if you have to!” Diana yells.

But Lukas doesn’t have to, because it falls open as soon as he’s about to touch it. They nearly topple down again but they right themselves fast.

They’re in a graveyard.

It’s huge and Philip can’t even tell if they’re inside anymore. The sky looks kinda fake, but good enough that it’s fooling him.

“How the hell did they hide this shit?” Zoe asks. “Are we still in the building? What the hell?”

“It’s so quiet,” Lukas says. “Too quiet. Untrustworthy quiet.” He tightens his hold around Philip’s waist, and the way he’s reaching back looks uncomfortable. But he doesn’t falter.

“I think it’s almost over,” Philip says, rubbing Lukas’s arm up and down. He doesn’t even hear crickets. He does hear Diana and Zoe whispering harshly to each other, something about puking, and Philip tries not to look at the names on the graves. The grass feels weird and fake under his boots. “You think this is the end?” he asks, feeling a little dizzy.

“Somehow, I doubt it,” Lukas says. He twists his neck around, looking every which way. They walk up close to a brick wall and turn the corner, seeing another long expanse of graves. Philip’s stomach starts turning a little bit and he squeezes his eyes shut tight. His mind wanders to places he doesn’t want to remember. A small funeral, Gabe’s hand on his shoulder, Helen trying not to cry. Lukas so close, strong and stalwart. His mom’s body being lowered into the ground.

He feels like he’s being stupid. He was having such a good time. They couldn’t have gotten paired with a better couple. Lukas has been so cute and funny and protective. This isn’t the same graveyard, his mom isn’t buried here. But the sickly feeling bubbles up in his throat anyways and he swallows hard.

He thinks he might have made a small noise, because he feels Lukas pulling him up alongside him, wrapping an arm tight around his shoulders. “You okay?” Lukas asks, softly.

“You think it’s almost over?” Philip asks. The pain flashes in his eyes, the fear and worry and loneliness, the desperate sadness. It’s almost like he’s there. Back there, in that moment.

“Yes,” Lukas says, even though Philip is sure he doesn’t know that. Lukas looks around for a moment and squeezes Philip’s shoulder. “Look. There.”

Philip follows his finger. There’s a nice, pretty white gate a good ways away, the word EXIT weaved above it in red and pink roses.

“Right there,” Lukas says. He leans in, tipping Philip’s hat a little bit when he kisses his temple. “So close.”

“You alright, Philip?” Zoe asks, rushing to catch up with them.

“It’s okay, it doesn’t even look that scary,” Diana says. “You’re okay, cowboy.”

Philip smiles a little to himself, looking over his shoulder at them. But when he does he sees it. He doesn’t like how it looks, on top of everything else his mind is doing, and his heart stutters. “Uh, uh—guys.”

“What is it?” Lukas asks, turning to look.

A man. Standing back in the shadows by the bushes, tall and menacing. And he’s holding something.

“Uh, bad,” Diana says. “Bad.”

“What’s he—”

They hear the rumble of the chainsaw.

“Oh fuck, Jesus Christ, no,” Lukas says.

They all four stand there for a minute as the lunatic revs the chainsaw again, and then they see him running, no, sprinting out of the bushes and in their direction. They start backing up and Philip feels his eyes getting wider and wider, then Zoe starts to scream.

“Run!” she yells. “Run if you want to live!”

They all turn and start to move, and once again Lukas wraps an arm around Philip’s waist and hauls him along with him. The chainsaw sounds like it’s getting closer and closer and they’re all shrieking wildly, not daring to look back at him for fear of seeing him right the fuck there behind them.

“Oh shit, oh shit!”

“No, no, no! He’s coming!”

Philip keeps his eyes on the pretty gate, the exit written in roses, and they’re close now, they might make it now, the wind rushes by in his ears—he feels a hand on his back that definitely doesn’t belong to one of the girls and they sound like they’re screaming louder and the chainsaw is blaring, but Lukas yanks him away and practically carries him through the gate.

They don’t stop running until they’re at least another twenty feet away and finally the chainsaw sound stops.

“Oh my God,” Diana says, collapsing to the ground. “Holy shit. Holy shit.”

Zoe crawls over to her and collapses down next to her. “Fifty bucks each. We made that money. We earned that goddamn money.”

Philip is heaving, his breath coming fast, and he feels Lukas’s hand in his hair. Something occurs to him and his heart leaps. He reaches up, patting Lukas’s hand and the top of his own head. He looks at Lukas. “My hat,” Philip says.

Lukas narrows his eyes.

“I lost—I lost my hat,” Philip says, looking at Lukas’s own still snug on his head.

The girls look over at them and both seem at a loss for words.

Philip walks over so he can see inside the gate. He doesn’t hear the chainsaw, can only see the grass and all the graves.

And his hat, right there in the middle of it all. Way, way too far away.

“Fuck,” he says, looking at it. It looks so small from here. “I guess—I don’t know.”

“Stay right here.” Lukas leans in, kissing him on the cheek. “I’ll be right back,” he says.

Philip’s heart lurches. “No, babe,” he says, grabbing onto Lukas’s arm. “It’s fine, I’ll come back tomorrow or something during the day—”

Lukas takes Philip’s hand and kisses his knuckles, letting him go without another word.

“Lukas,” Philip says. He knows he’s not in any real danger, that even if the chainsaw guy caught him he wouldn’t actually hurt him, but watching Lukas walk into a dark, creepy-ass graveyard that they just ran through doesn’t make Philip feel very good.

“Oh damn,” Zoe says, watching. She knocks Diana in the shoulder. “Honey, look.”

Philip’s heart is in his throat. Lukas is walking really slow and Philip doesn’t know if that’s the right tactic, but he watches him get farther and farther away. He finally reaches his destination, snatching Philip’s hat up into his hand.

Then they hear the chainsaw.

“God, fuck,” Philip mutters. He sees Lukas mouth the word shit, breaking into a run. “Come on, Lukas!” Philip yells, gripping his chest. “Come on baby!”

“Come on, Lukas, come on!” the girls chant. “Come on, come on.”

The guy is chasing him. He’s wearing a fucking Leatherface mask and Philip kinda feels like he’s gonna puke, watching Lukas get chased by him. He starts towards him and Lukas holds out his hands, shaking his head.

“Come on,” Philip says, watching the guy get closer and closer. “Come on!”

He gets so close and Lukas yells, but then he crosses through the gate and the guy immediately backs up into the shadows, the chainsaw boiling down to silence.

Lukas runs into Philip’s arms and Philip clings to him, burying his face in his neck.

“Got your hat,” Lukas says, holding it against Philip’s back. “Almost lost mine, but I—I got it.”

Philip laughs, shaking his head, holding him as tight as he can.

“Jesus,” Zoe says. “So gallant. Hun, would you have done that for me?”

“No. Way,” Diana says, and Philip can’t help but laugh.

Lukas and Philip are sitting together in the bath a little over an hour later, and Philip tightens Lukas’s arms around him. He never takes baths alone but he loves doing it with Lukas, especially when they’re both exhausted and don’t feel like standing in the shower. Or when they’ve been running from a homicidal chainsaw killer. Angela was horrified to hear of how scary it was, and reiterated how happy she was just to bring her dogs over and let them play with Izzy for a couple hours instead of going with the boys on what she calls their hell journey.

“I feel like you should wear the hat in bed later,” Lukas says into Philip’s ear. “You know, that might be a good idea.”

“Babe I’ll wear whatever you want me to wear,” Philip says, smiling to himself.

“And maybe we should watch, like—a romantic comedy or a cartoon or something,” Lukas says. “With all the lights on. Maybe we should put a bow in Izzy’s hair and take a bunch of pictures of her.”

Izzy is laying inside the bathroom by the door, and her tail thumps against the tile when she hears her name.

“You trying to wipe your mind of that place?” Philip asks.

“Yes,” Lukas says. “With nice things. Like the image of you riding me wearing that hat.”

Philip hums to himself, pushing back against him a little bit. “I mean, that’s only fair. After you were so—so gallant. So sexy. So protective.” Philip doesn’t think of the graveyard but he thinks about everything before that—how scared Lukas was but how Philip was always, consistently and without fail, his number one priority.

He doesn’t want to think about it but it pops into his head—when Ryan Kane took them by surprise, in the old apartment. Lukas tried to protect him then too, tried to shield him with his body right away. But then Kane started threatening, took his gun out, could tell Philip was Lukas’s weakness—

“Hey,” Lukas whispers, kissing his cheek. He nuzzles his nose there, drawing his fingers back and forth against Philip’s stomach. “Hey. Come back to me.”

Philip closes his eyes and sighs, focusing on Lukas’s hands and his mouth, the feel of him. Nothing else. “Best part of that shit was meeting those girls,” Philip says. “I’m glad we exchanged numbers.”

“Me too,” Lukas says. “They were hilarious.”

“You were pretty funny too,” Philip says, smiling.

Lukas scoffs. “Yeah, I’m trying to protect you with my big, strapping, attractive body and you’re fuckin’ laughing at me.”

Philip laughs again now, arching his neck back on Lukas’s shoulder. “Big, strapping, attractive body. Yeah, that’s you.”

“Maybe next year we’ll fly down to Orlando and go to Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween,” Lukas says, kissing his cheek again. “Feel like that’d be more enjoyable. They give out candy.”

“Mmm, I’d like that,” Philip says. “But tonight—romantic comedy and cowboy sex sounds perfect. Izzy photoshoot we can do in the morning. I need to prepare for her antics.”

Izzy grumbles a little bit but wags her tail again.

“Happy Halloween,” Lukas whispers, biting at Philip’s neck.

Philip hums, his eyes falling closed. “You a vampire now?”

“Mmmhm.” Lukas sucks at his neck and Philip sighs, shifting to give him better access.

“Alright,” Philip says, his breath starting to get fast. “Think we should head—head to bed.”

“Yes sir, Sheriff Shea, sir,” Lukas says. But then he stops, his mouth coming to a halt on Philip’s skin. “Oh—no. No, Helen is the sheriff.”

Philip snorts. “Lukas, just take me to bed.”

“Yes,” Lukas says, kissing his cheek, over and over. “Yes, that I can do.”

Philip knows he has a lot of hurt locked up in his head, and he doesn’t ever know when it’s gonna crop up, fall forward, try and blind him.

But he’ll always have Lukas’s arms to fall into when it does.

#philkas #eyewitness #Lukas Waldenbeck #philip shea #my writing #some halloween shit

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showingthroughtome · 7 years ago

Text

somewhere in between - one

September 2011

“What? Haven’t heard of chill?” She yelled over the loud music directly into his ear. “No need to act like a high-strung Chihuahua on stage.”

“No one else complained.” Harry defended himself with a smirk and a kinked brow.

“I don’t know why they wouldn’t. I’ll place the first one now.” She patted him on the shoulder, then his face fell and she couldn’t keep it up - Lenny never didn't have a hard time keeping up a joke. “I’m just kidding, Harry. It was actually -”

read below - story page - character page - thanks!

September 2011

Thinking of one thing and one thing only, Louis busted through the swinging doors that led to the record store’s break room, with arms outstretched and a cheeky smile on his lips.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I've got news!” He shouted through the room, coming to a quick disappointment when he found only three out of his six coworkers. “Wait, where is everyone else?” He looked between Lenny, Jen, and Niall, who looked at him for one moment, shrugged, and then went back to what they were doing.

“Guys! Serious news here!” He flopped himself down on one of the three couches in the room - he preferred the red velvet one over the tacky cheetah print loveseat or the worn leather sectional. He propped his feet up on the coffee table stood between him and his friends and rested his hands behind his neck.

Not one of them paid him any attention, even after all that noise. Lenny, as usual, was hard at work making flash cards for her French 101 class with Jen sat right next to her, flipping through them and butchering the pronunciation as she attempted to learn secondhand. Niall sat with his phone in his hand, doing nothing remotely important, causing Louis to get fucking pissed.

“Yo, fuckface, you'll wanna hear this.” Louis threw a pillow, successfully knocking Niall right where he wanted - smack dab in between both of his eyes.

Niall readjusted himself with a slightly aggravated look of his own. “Oi! What’s so damn special, Lou?”

Both girls managed to pull their attention to Louis after the dramatics, exactly like he was hoping.

“That fucker Rico finally quit.”

“You're shitting me?” Jen automatically perked up. She probably hated the shitty teenager most of all. Rico would always hit on her even though he was only sixteen and knew she'd never come close to touching him.

“Nope. At last night's shift he just up and left. Gave me his name badge and everything.” Louis pulled out the token of Rico’s final moment from his pocket in victory, holding it up for the others to see.

The sight had the three gasping in wonder and clapping in a roaring applause.

“So no more missing Metallica CD’s?” Niall air quoted the final three words in Louis’s direction.

“Nope.”

“No more missed shifts because of violent vomiting?” Lenny copied Niall’s actions.

“Nope.”

Next it was Jen’s turn. “No more creepy flirting because you may be older but we have the same maturity level so what does it matter, baby?”

“Oh, come on, Jen. You kind of liked it.”

Jen snapped her head in Niall’s direction so fast Louis could feel the wind from it all the way across the room. “Bite your tongue, little Irish boy.”

“That's so sick, Niall.” Lenny backed up her closest friend - the one who would always study with her and entertain her during a particularly dry shift - and threw her pencil straight for Niall's chest. Luckily for him, she had terrible aim.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Niall picked the pencil off the couch next to him and tossed it back.

“I'm just so fucking glad he's gone.” Louis exhaled a sigh of relief, brushing his short bangs away from his eyes. “I’ve been trying to get Tiff to fire him for months.”

“He’s her nephew, she'd never do that.” It was something everyone knew way before Lenny pointed it out.

Tiff, the owner of the record store, was one of the most kindhearted people on the planet. She’d hire any sixteen-year-old that walked in her shop without assumptions that they weren't mature enough for the job. That's how it was for a sixteen-year-old Louis, then two years later, a sixteen-year-old Niall, and then a year later, a sixteen-year-old Lenny. Jen was technically seventeen when she was hired but close enough.

The bottom line - Tiff was too loving and giving, so when her brother’s bratty son needed a job, there was no hesitation.

When he turned out to be complete shit and everyone suggested she fire his ass ASAP, she claimed they couldn't afford the loss of a worker, though, they all knew the truth.

“Well, I guess she's going to have to hire someone else now.” Jen smiled hugely as she picked up Lenny's flash cards.

“I'm sure we will be able to fill the hole Rico left.” Louis remarked sarcastically as Jen held up a card to Lenny that read ça va? Lenny knew the meaning and read the words well enough to convince her three strictly English speaking coworkers that she made no error. Louis, who had worked the night shift before, closed his eyes and drifted off to a light sleep at the sound of it.

That is, until Parker came into the room, pushed his feet off the table with a swift kick of her boots and said, “Wakey wakey. You said you'd help me.”

Louis blinked around the room, finding the girls in the same position but Niall gone to take over the register once Parker's shift had ended. He listened to her boots clack as they slapped against the hard black and white checkered linoleum on the way to her work locker, pulling out a pair of electric clippers.

“What ya doin’?” Lenny tilted her head in the direction of Parker, asking sweetly.

“Don't worry about it, babe.” She opened the door to the bathroom, waited for Louis, and once he entered behind her, slammed it shut a little too harshly.

Through the thin door, Jen could be heard saying, “Yeah, Len. Chill out or you'll kill her mysteriousness.”

Louis chuckled at that but Parker rolled her eyes and plugged in the clippers. It took longer than planned, but soon enough, Parker exited the bathroom, no longer sporting shoulder length curls but a Sinead style buzzcut.

---

Niall was absolutely buzzing from the idea he got during his five-hour shift, getting nearly as excited as he was when Louis came in with his grand news. To be fair, though, Niall could excite himself over almost anything. Of course, when Niall got to the break room, no one was there. Louis had to take over the register for the final two hours of the night, and Lenny had probably gone to bed since she had an 8am the following day. Jen was probably having dinner with Toby at his second job - the pizza shop across the street. And Parker, after shaving her head, strutted through the storefront and out the door, off to go buy bleach to experiment with dying the little black stubble she had left.

Who the fuck knew where Brando could be? Probably smoking pot and playing guitar somewhere.

Niall just waited as he took a nap on the leather sectional. Tiff would eventually walk out of her office to have a meeting with the night manager for a short debrief of the day, and since Niall slept so lightly, he'd wake up right away.

Which he totally did do, but the ceremonial noise of Tiff leaving her office - a slap of window blinds against her door - didn't come for two whole hours. Not until Louis walked into the break room with the register drawers in his hand.

“Good night for sales!” Louis boomed as loud as could be, most likely just to spite Niall, nothing else really called for that decibel level. “Making Mama Tiff proud one day at a time, we are, Nialler.”

“Sure are.” Tiff confirmed in a baby voice, pinching Louis's cheeks going off the sound of disgust he emitted.

“Tiff, we talked about this.”

“You'll always be sixteen to me.” Two light slaps to his cheeks emphasized her hold over him.

Niall had enough of not seeing all this torment - it was always best to witness the way Tiff could do anything she wanted to Ol’ Mischievous Louis because no matter how much it bothered him, he respected her too much to truly rebel. Niall flipped over and sat up, blonde hair surely askew.

“Hey.” He remembered the exciting thought he had earlier. “I know who you should hire as a replacement for Rico.”

“Oh yeah?” Tiff turned to Niall, placing a hand on her hip. “Who?”

“This mate of mine. He's a second year uni student with a heart of gold. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say a bad word about him.”

“Boring.” Louis pretended to yawn.

“No, mate. You'd like him too. He loves a good pint.”

Even though that got a nod from Louis, Tiff shook her head and sighed, “Great. Exactly what I need.”

“Just interview him,” Niall suggested. “We were talking the other day and he was sayin’ he really needed a job.”

“Well, looks like you just got the job for him.” Louis teased Tiff’s weakness with a gentle elbowing.

Even though they could both tell she wanted to argue, she just scratched her head with a manicured nail and took a seat. “Tell him to come in anytime tomorrow for an interview. I'll be here all day.”

---

The interview was a short one - shorter than Tiffs interview with Louis and Niall, even shorter than Lenny's, who she was certain of after two questions. Tiff met this kid and by the time the first horribly bad pun left his mouth, she could tell he'd fit in with the crowd she had created.

Rico was the sore thumb on her perfect staff of oddballs but this kid wouldn't be. She told him to come in on the following Monday and she'd give him a short three-hour shift with her other uni student, feeling relieved knowing she wouldn't have to search for another employee for at least another year.

---

The new hire came in 15 minutes early and somehow, by the time Lenny came into work - 10 minutes early - he had her coworkers fawning all over him. Niall had already known him so his heart eyes were already on display. Louis, Jen, and Toby, on the other hand, were meeting him for the first time as well.

“Lennox!” Jen jumped up from the couch and shuffled over to Lenny. “The new guy is here and kind of amazing and so beautiful.”

“He's right there. He can hear you.” Lenny laughed and pointed over to where the tall, curly headed boy was looking right at them. “Hi, I'm Lenny.” She smiled and stepped around her eager friend to offer a handshake.

He gladly accepted her hand and offered his name in return. “Nice to meet you. My name’s Harry.”

“Solid, standard name.” She didn't know why she said it, yet, she often did that - said things that were kind of weird but kind of made sense. It was like stating a fact that seemed obvious though no one thought about it until someone pointed it out. Moving on, “So we have your first shift together! You're lucky you've got me because I’m an excellent person to shadow.”

“It's true.” Jen threw an arm around her best friend's shoulders. “Sometimes I just stand behind Lenny to get some of her awesomeness.”

Louis quirked his head to the side. “Really? I do it because she smells nice.”

“Of lavender and honey.” Niall agreed.

“You guys are creeping me out for her.” Toby giggled with dazed out eyes and a bite of his pepperoni slice (the one he had at 10:00 in the morning every morning).

While Lenny giggled along with Toby - because he was the kind of guy who got people to laugh just by laughing himself - Harry put on this charming as hell smile and, without any hesitation, declared, “I feel lucky.”

“You should.” Lenny turned to him and waved a hand for him to come closer. “Now, follow me.”

In the short time they had before their shift, Lenny showed Harry the ropes. She first brought him to the tiny, old fashioned punch in clock and the card he was to use every day before his shift began - his name already printed on the one he was designated for the next two weeks.

Next, she took him to the register - an even older one where you had to manually type in the price of each item, sum them up, then print off a receipt with the total. Even with it being not as simple as the scanning system every other place had adapted to, Harry caught on after one demonstration. Lenny was thankful for that; she didn't want another Rico on her hands.

They still had a couple minutes left before Jen unlocked the doors for the official opening time of 10:30am, so Lenny sat at her favorite register - the right one - on the vinyl stool Niall put there after too many shifts of standing in unsupportive shoes (he always complained of a bad back). Often, the two people on shift together would fight over it but since Harry was new he had no clue to go for it.

He had many other questions though. All about the people who worked there who he hadn't met yet. Lenny told him about Brando who would come in around three every day with a black electric guitar strapped to his back. And about Parker, Louis’s almost girlfriend and Brando’s twin sister, who acted like she hated everyone but had her moments. Harry’s jaw dropped when hearing the story of how Parker shaved her head in the bathroom after Louis bet her that she would never. Then nodded when Lenny told him how much she pulled it off.

Jen walked past the two, rolling her eyes at the sound of Parker's name, unlocking the one latch that kept the general public out. At nearly that exact moment, The Cranberries started playing on the loud speakers and Dream Records was open.

“So that's that.” Lenny stood up at the sound of the song that she had already explained away to Harry as the daily song Tiff requested be played when the doors are opened - by the band the store was named after and inspired it to be started in the first place. She smiled as Harry bounced his head along to the steady bass and laughed at how disenchanted he'll be by it in a few weeks. Though, she had heard it maybe a million times and still, she swayed her hips to the rhythm.

“Sick.” Harry said as the song faded out, watching the doors for any customers to come in. The usuals wouldn't show up for another twenty minutes at least but maybe a straggler would come in and shock Lenny.

Instead of just watching the door too, she picked up her book - Through the Language Glass - right as Harry went to talk. “I can't believe I actually got this job.”

“Why? Are you not worthy?” She threw a playful hand over her heart. “Should I inform Tiff? Get her to rip Niall a new one for your lack of competency?”

“No.” He snorted. “Just because… I really needed a job and when I really need one, I can't seem to get one.”

“Ah, I get that.” Lenny pulled on her high ponytail, splitting it down the middle to tighten it. “Well, not really. I got this job when I was sixteen and saw the help wanted sign on the way home from school.”

“Wow. That's lucky.”

“Yeah, it's probably one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me.”

“Except for getting a shift with me of course.” Harry looked away from Lenny's blue eyes and out to the sea of vinyl’s filling the room.

“Oh yeah, totally. Completely. How did you know?”

“You just have a certain glow about you.” He noted, turning back to her and looking her up and down. It was almost flirty, but Lenny assumed that what could be taken that way was normally just friendly when directed towards her.

“You'll come to learn that I always have this glow.” She placed a hand on her hip where her black high waisted jeans met her peach blouse. Harry chuckled and shook his head, which in turn made Lenny’s shoulder slump dramatically. He didn’t budge though, holding his ground and the idea that he had some kind of effect on her. She had to change the subject, so she perked back up and questioned in a chipper tone, “So you're in uni too?”

“Yeah. I'm in my second year at UCL.”

“No way! I'm in my first one there. What's your major?”

“Film Studies.” It came out of Harry's mouth as a mumble for some odd reason.

But it had Lenny’s eyes blowing wider with envy at the cool field of study. “Now that's amazing! Much more interesting compared to my Linguistics one.”

“No way!” He repeated her words in the exact way she had done earlier - with too much excitement for something that probably didn't deserve it. “I'm not really sure what that is or what you'll do with it, but I’m intrigued.”

“It's the study of language.” Lenny didn't say it with much pride even though she loved the major with her whole heart. It's just, well, she always felt like such a stick in the mud talking about language. One time she was talking about it to Louis and she swore he fell asleep even though he denied it every time she threw it in his face. Harry was still awake thus far so she continued, “It's kind of really intense and way more scientific than I ever expected but I'm going to use it to teach English as a second language.”

“Yeah, see, that is cool!”

“Whatever you say.” She rolled her eyes. He had to be lying about his enthusiasm. But when she looked back at him, he still had his eyebrows raised and lips upturned. “I do get to take a ton of second language courses though. Right now I'm in French and then I'll go into Italian for a term and then I'll get to do the Asian languages.”

“Even cooler.”

She wrapped a piece of her long, copper hair hanging from her ponytail around one finger. “Thanks! I thought so too.”

Harry smiled so wide at Lenny that wrinkles crinkled at the side of his eyes. Eyes that she noticed were the most interesting shade of green - reminiscent of the leaves on the trees right before they start to turn for autumn. They perfectly balanced the dark shade of his hair and popped against his skin.

He broke her examination with a shrug of his shoulders. “I just try to write not so horrible scripts and get okay marks for them. But, like, at the moment I’m taking a photography class and I get so many points taken away for wrongful composition.”

“What? Isn't it up to you what the right composition is?”

“You would think but the more I learn the more I realize how false that is.”

“I am so sorry to hear that.” Lenny sympathized a little more than necessary, smiling, understanding what it's like to get to school and realize that what you thought you knew about something was completely wrong. It happened frequently with her, especially since she was studying something as vague as language.

“Nah, no worries.” He tucked a curl behind his ear and followed the sound of the bell that rang when the store’s front door opened. A couple walked in, donning matching jean jackets and cups of Starbucks coffee.

Lenny recognized them as Lacey and Peter and gave them a wave. She felt Harry's gaze shift to her, but where she thought she'd find his eyes on her face, they were directed to her hand falling on the counter top. Once he realized he had been caught, he coughed and pointed to her hands. “Right now actually, the focus in my photography class are hands so the grading isn't too rough. Turns out that hands look good in any way.”

“Really?” She looked down at her own and stretched out her fingers multiple times, admiring the tiny gold rings she slipped on that morning.

“Yeah! Like, I got a shot a couple weeks ago of my friend holding a pint at a pub and got top marks for it.”

“Nice!” Her jealousy of his major grew again. “I wish I could do pub related things for uni.”

Harry, with a squint, questioned speculatively, “You go to pubs?”

“What? I don't seem like the type?” And maybe she didn't. She did always keep her hair perfectly neat, not one lock straying out of place. She wore a lot of pastels because it made her pale skin look slightly tanner. And she was currently in a bare faced make up phase - mostly prompted by laziness but ultimately because she just liked that look. Perhaps she did seem kind of boring and plain, like someone who didn't explore a nightlife at all. Though, looks often were deceiving.

“Not necessarily.” Harry answered her question with one head shake and then slowly, a sly smirk was gracing his lips. “I mean, you look like you enjoy a good time but like that good time centers around a cup of tea and a book.”

“Ya know? I do like that. But I'm of age, Harry, so me and my friends have seen our fair share of nights out.”

“That lot here then?” He nodded his head in the direction of the break room where most of her friends were usually found. Lenny would try to deny it if it weren't so obvious. Instead, she pressed her lips together tightly and blinked at him. He bit his lip and moved on. “Alright. What's your favorite bar?”

“It's called The Third Shoe.” She said without considering any other option. “I know, the name is weird but they make the best Bloody Mary's.”

“With bacon?”

“No. But three sticks of celery if you're kind to the bartender… which I always am.” She bragged as proudly as she felt at that achievement.

“I'll have to check it out.” With a grin from ear to ear, Harry straightened in front of his register and eyed Peter as he approached them.

“Please do.” She said right before greeting a beloved regular. “Hey, Pete. You find anything good today?”

At the same time Peter held up a copy of a Mudhoney album his girlfriend appeared behind him with an 8-Track version of Nevermind - the truest classic of them all.

“Hello, Len!” Lacey cheered, putting her Starbucks down on the counter and pulling out her wallet. “It's on me today.” She smiled at her surprised boyfriend who handed over his vinyl without a second thought.

“New guy?” Peter turned to Harry.

“Yeah. ‘S my first day. Harry Styles.” Harry offered up a handshake that wasn’t returned - not that Peter was rude, he just didn't touch people, everyone knew that after their first meeting with him.

“I'm Lacey.” His girlfriend swooped in and took Harry's hand. “That's my beau, Peter.”

“Nice to meet you both.”

Lenny rang up their purchases in less than a minute and then placed the plastic bag on the counter. Peter picked it up and waved. Before they got too far, Lacey turned around and informed Harry, “You'll be seeing us a lot around here.”

“Every day around eleven to be exact.” Lenny specified to Harry once the bell rang again with their exit. “Like clockwork.” She pulled the stool closer to the register and sat. Harry seemed to be taking note of it and in silence, Lenny wondered, “So film studies? What's that like?”

“Stress. Anxiety. Fear you'll always do shit on a project.” Harry made a list as he ticked his fingers with each point.

“Sounds about right for linguistics too.”

Plus, never being quite sure if you were saying the right things or if the word was being used in the particular context it was meant to be, Lenny didn't say because she didn't feel like constant comparisons of majors were necessary. It was just what was on her plate as the biggest stressor at that moment.

“You'll have to let me see some of your work one day.” Lenny suggested, genuinely interested in what a charming guy like Harry would create in his film classes.

“I don't know about that.” He sounded less interested - way less. It was one of the few times that day that he broke eye contact and looked down sheepishly at his Chelsea boots.

Lenny assumed it was insecurity of unimpressive work but for some reason she couldn't see Harry creating something bad. She hardly knew him but she couldn't see it. She could imagine it being goofy and exciting, light and fun - not unimpressive. So, she swung her leg out from the stool and into his line of vision. It got her what she wanted - his attention - and Harry looked at her face.

“Please.” She puckered out her bottom lip and held it like that.

At first, he didn't seem fazed, then seconds ticked by and his shoulders loosened up. “Okay, maybe one day. If you really are lucky.”

Clapping her hands, she exclaimed, “Yay! If I'm lucky!”

“Don't get too happy, Lennox. None of it’s good.”

“I'm overwhelmed with excitement.” She clapped even louder with a grin wider than it was before Harry called her by the name Jen often would. And as endearing as it was, she figured she should tell him the truth. “But, umm, my name is just Lenny. They all like to give me dumb nicknames that involve Len, but it's just Lenny.”

“Yeah right if you think I'm not going to get in on that, Leonard.” Harry rolled his eyes with a goofy smile fighting its way across his lips.

The new name was a good effort, but it didn't fit the schema so it got a giggle out of her. “That's L-E-O, Harry. Not L-E-N.”

“Close enough, Lendora.” He shrugged.

“Wow, I'm feeling that regret about you already.” She shuddered and flipped open her book, listening to Harry roar with laughter at her reaction.

---

Harry hadn’t even worked at Dream Records for an entire week before he considered everyone in there a friend - Parker and Brando included. It turned out that they really did have a soft inside if you talked to them for long enough. Which Harry never had a hard time doing with anyone.

Especially not with Lenny.

Out of everyone - excluding Niall - she was the one he got on with the best. The cause was likely the first shift they shared, yet Harry liked to claim it was something more. If you asked him, Lenny lit up when she saw him because of how much they had in common and how much they laughed when they were together and not just because he would keep her entertained for their five hour shifts.

Harry was lounging on the leopard print couch, spread out over the expanse of it since it’s the one he felt most comfortable on. Niall and Jen were sharing headphones on the leather sectional and listening to the new St. Vincent album. And Lenny was sprawled across the floor, three textbooks surrounding her, vigorously taking notes on lined pieces of paper.

She had a paper due at the end of the month and two exams in three weeks, but even with all that time left, she couldn’t actually relax and put her coursework aside. Harry worried for her sanity sometimes. Sure, he had only known her for five days, though, most of that time, she was studying, talking about studying, or most likely thinking of studying.

Sometimes Harry was jealous of her. Jealous of her drive and ambition to do well. But not always.

He sat up slightly, just enough so his head was resting on the arm of the couch and he could see her better.

“What ya doin’, Lenny?” He asked so she’d have to flash those blue eyes at him.

“Copying down the words of these riveting textbooks for the fun of it.” She glanced over at him with a smirk. A sweet smirk. Because even when Lenny was attempting to be sassy, it came out as incredibly adorable. “What are you doing?”

They had both finished their shift half an hour ago where they spent the whole time talking about nothing in particular. They discussed how they would go back to the break room and relax - Harry meaning a nap with the usage of relax and Lenny meaning a study session. Why they were asking each other what they were doing now, Harry didn’t know. He figured it was because it already felt weird to be around her and not talking to her.

“I’ll probably take a little nap if my phone could stop buzzing.” Harry pulled it out of the pocket of his always too tight skinny jeans. Messages were lighting up one after another so quick that he couldn't even read them.

“Oh, Harry Styles, just so cool and popular he is.” She deepened her voice to sound like a proper lad, dropping her pencil to beat a fist against her chest twice and then stick up a peace sign. It was so ridiculous. Harry wished he had his camera to snap a shot of it.

“Shut up.” Harry laughed incredulously then unlocked his phone, opening the group chat that wouldn’t stop going off. “It’s about the gig tonight not my cool quotient.”

“The gig?”

“My band's gig.” He typed out a quick reply of okay to all the reminders of what time to be at the club and then locked his phone once again, only after putting it on do not disturb.

Harry wasn’t looking at Lenny in that moment, yet the blur of red hair could still be seen from the corner of his eyes the moment she shot up from the ground.

“Whoa whoa whoa, you're in a band?”

“Yes. I haven’t mentioned that?” He was sure he had - he had to have. They practiced every night for hours. It was like one of the only things he did other than school and work that week. Lenny just shook her head and kept on grinning with bewilderment. “We're not very good. Quite shitty actually. But it's fun and the lads are cool and I get to sing in front of people and act like a fool.”

“Oh my god, you sing?” Her eyes grew wider at every revelation.

Harry couldn’t tell if she was getting ready to make fun of him or not so he went into defense mode right away. “I'm the best part of the group, okay?”

“No way! I have to see this! Niall!” She reached up and shook the blonde's knee.

Taking one headphone out, Niall surveyed the room. “Yeah?”

“Harry is in a band in which he sings.” She said it like it was some amazing news that everyone should hear. Harry was still unsure of how she was going to use this information, but either way, he liked how she was acting like a child on Christmas morning.

Niall wasn’t nearly as enthused at what he considered old news. “Yeah, they strictly do old school rock and roll covers.”

Harry could hear Lenny’s jaw as it dropped. “You’re kidding me.”

Quietly, Harry admitted, “He isn’t lying.”

She squealed and clapped and then squealed again. “I’m dying. Dead. Please let my ghost come to this gig?”

A million excuses ran through his mind so she wouldn’t show up. All of them good enough to keep her away. But then he thought about seeing her outside of work, seeing what bar-Lenny looked like, acted like. He couldn’t help the words that came out of his mouth. “Yeah, sure.”

“Can we all come?” Jen sat up a little bit too, echoing her best friend’s joy.

“If she is going to laugh at me, you all might as well too.” Harry thought what the hell? It wasn’t as if his band was that bad. They were kind of good. He just could admit that to himself.

“I am going to cry.” Lenny reiterated before laying back down with her books, flipping open to a fresh page of notebook paper.

“I’m going to sleep.” Harry tossed his phone to the ground beside the couch and turned away from his three giggling coworkers.

“I’m going to try to study but my mind is going a mile a minute now.”

Harry groaned and burrowed deeper into the couch, covering his head with his arms, hiding a secret smile.

---

Everyone from work got there just in time for them to see Harry and his band play. They were there to see them take the stage and perform five songs - all by The Doors. They got to witness Harry dancing around like he actually was a rockstar and not a film studies major.

Lenny found it to be surprisingly impressive even though she wanted it to be embarrassing and hilarious. The more she had gotten to know Harry, the more she was learning that he was pretty damn good at everything - he picked up the job at the record store like a pro by the end of his first shift and she had gotten a glimpse of one of his beautiful photos when he was reviewing them on his camera.

But, she knew when he came to them after he got done doing whatever performers do at the end of gigs, she would have to make fun of him. So, that’s just what she did.

“What? Haven’t heard of chill?” She yelled over the loud music directly into his ear. “No need to act like a high-strung Chihuahua on stage.”

“No one else complained.” Harry defended himself with a smirk and a kinked brow.

Her compliment was interrupted by two arms wrapping around her shoulders from behind and then a familiar voice whispering against her cheek. “Hey, babe!” Soft lips brushed where the breath fanned her skin.

Without a doubt, she knew who it was.

“You showed! Oh, my god!” She turned around to find one of her favorite people, popping a kiss to his lips with a stretch to her tiptoes. He gave her a tight hug right around the middle that had her lifted a few inches off the ground. As she came back down, she remembered that she hadn’t introduced him to her new coworker/friend. She spun quickly and said, “Harry, this is my boyfriend, Chris. Chris, Harry, the new guy I was telling you about.”

“Hey, man. Lenny tells me you have a wicked way with puns.” Chris gave Harry a head nod and one of those genuine smiles that made Lenny’s stomach tie in knots.

And Harry was about to say something back, but then Jen got a sight of Chris and bounded towards him, already drunk enough to drape herself over people. “Chrissy! You made it out of that lab.”

“Finally.” Chris threw his head back and his hands up, relieved as much as Lenny that he could make it out with her friends and away from the Chemistry lab that consumed him most days of the week.

“Have you gotten a drink yet?” Jen nearly threw hers at him.

Chris shook his head of black hair. “Nope.”

“Next round is on me.” Harry spoke up, grabbing Niall by the crook of the elbow and pulling him away from the girl he was chatting up.

Lenny wanted to say that Harry didn’t have to but he was gone before she could. So instead, she wrapped her arms around Chris’s neck and felt the vodka trickle further into her system.

authors note:

hiii!!! here it is!! im excited, are you? i am also kind of nervous!!

thank you for reading though!

i had a nice authors note written but then i accidentally deleted and my heart sunk so here we go again!

please please please let me know what you think! it makes me so happy and makes me want to write and post for you guys! it can be anon man, if thats what youre comfortable with! i would just love a little feedback! tell me what you think about lenny?? and harry?? and the ending!! who is your favorite side character?? they will be featured a lot so i am interested to hear.

i actually have another fic ive been working on... also friends to lovers... but different. i like it and i hope to start posting that too... ya know, if i know people want to read it... *wink wink*

in all seriousness, i love all you guys! thank you so much for reading! thank you so much to eriza for not only being such an impressive banner maker but also, an amazing friend! thank you to ashumi for swooping in and beta-ing my stuff. with my writing, its not easily done but you make it look it. youre awesome! and finally, thanks to all my friends who encouraged me to write this fic!

check out the character page at the top (or on the story page) to put faces to all these characters im trying to create.

love you, and i promise my authors notes wont be this long again until the epilogue,

lauren xxx

#1dff #sib chapters #hope you guys like it #tell me what you think #id love to hear #:)#nervous

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graphicallysam · 7 years ago

Text

Para:: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

Who: Sam and Mercedes

When: First Day of School 2010

Where: WMHS Halls

What: Samcedes meet for the first time

Stepping off of the bus, Sam looked up at his new school with a sigh. The bus had been noisy and crowded, and from the looks of all of the students pouring into imposing building, that was going to change as his day went on. Immediately, he missed the He tightened his grip on the strap of his backpack and looked down at the worn paper in his hand even though he’d memorized most of its content. He headed up the stairs, narrowly missing being rammed into by a guy trying to catch a football. Sam glared a little and shook head. He already missed his smaller school back in Tennessee.

He narrowed his blueish-green eyes as he passed by lockers, looking for his own which was in a separate hall altogether he realized belatedly. He finally managed to find his numbered metal container and put his combination in just as a girl walked over to hers, catching his eye. He paused and took in her curvy form and unique style. She didn’t dress like any girls he’d known, but he liked what she was wearing. “Nice shoes,” he said, glancing down at her sneakers. They were really awesome.

Mercedes had just taken off her headphones as she headed to her locker. The first day of school was always like a zoo. She was humming softly, oblivious to nearly everything until she heard someone speak to her. She turned and was stunned slightly as she saw the very cute guy that seemed to be looking at her. That was something that never happened. “Huh, oh? My shoes? Thanks.” She smiled brightly. Mercedes was an avid sneaker lover and these particular ones were blue, red, and black and made her think of Spiderman.

“Are you new?” She asked him after a few seconds of getting her lock open, not recognizing the face, because she would’ve definitely remembered a face like that. She had lived in Lima all her life and knew mostly everyone that had gone to school in the same system.

When she turned to fully look at him, it kind of felt like time stopped. It was like one of those moments in a cheesy romance movie where the two characters are like staring at one another and all of the people are walking past them in slow motion. It was a really weird feeling to have, one he'd never experienced. He smiled at her thanks and tried to think of something funny to say, but the only thing he could think to say was “you're welcome, little lady,” like Elvis even though he rarely did impressions of Elvis. He cringed internally and fought the urge to bang his head against the locker door.

She started opening her own, granting him a moment of reprieve for which he was grateful. Then she looked at him again like she was studying his face before she asked if he was new. “Oh...uh...yeah, my family moved her from Tennessee in July. I kinda spent the summer working on getting rid of my accent so I didn't sound like some kind of hick you Yankees.” Why was he so nervous? He felt really nervous, and he knew he was nervous because he couldn't stop rambling. He had to physically force his mouth shut for a moment to get himself to stop. “I'm...I’m Sam…”

Mercedes thought her cheeks would explode she was smiling so much. His voice was so sweet, and she even let out a chuckle at the Elvis impersonation. It was pretty dead on actually. Even the way he kept talking was adorable! He was a new kid at a new school and he thought he had a weird accent, how did this cutie end up talking to her of all people? She began pulling things out of her black and purple plaid backpack, getting her locker the way she liked it. She had a purple framed magnetic mirror for checking her hair throughout the day, then she began to put up her various magnets. Music notes, Storm and Gambit from X-Men, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and Spider-Man. She used the magnets to hold up the pictures of her friends and family.

“Hi Sam. Welcome to Lima,” she beamed. “I’m Mercedes, and yes, like the car. Also, don’t lose your accent, you don’t sound like a hick. Makes you sound unique, which is a good thing.” That was something she struggled with a little, but she was slowly realizing that there was nothing wrong with being different than people expected.

His eyes widened as she pulled the magnets out of her book bag. He hadn't wanted to bring his, unsure of what the other students would be like, but seeing hers, he felt kind of silly and very impressed. “Where’d you get those magnets? They're…” his voice hit a twang, and he cleared his throat. “They're really awesome. Are you into comic books? Because I've never met a girl that was really into them. Usually they just like Thor and Iron Man because they think they're hot and stuff.” He blushed when she called him unique and nodded.

“I got most of them online, but my big brother took me to the Wizard Con in Columbus this summer and I got these really awesome Storm ones there. She’s my favorite superhero hands down.” She had tried to hide her geekiness once she got to high school, but her best friend told her people need to learn to accept each other as they were instead of being fake, so here she was, letting her geekiness be free. She wrinkled her nose a little and hoped he wasn’t one of those guys that didn’t think girls could actually like this kind of stuff. “I do like comic books, and Thor is extremely hot. I don’t care for Iron Man like that, but I respect his skills. Even though Black Panther is richer and smarter, but most people don’t realize that.”

She tilted her head slightly as she looked at him. His ears were a little red, which was weird, but in a cute way. “So what grade are you in Sam?” She was curious if she would have him in any of her classes.

“What’s Wizard Con? Is it like Comic Con? Because I've always wanted to go to that,” he admitted, feeling himself starting to relax. “I think Storm is one of the best X-Men. I really like Wolverine.” So she knew her stuff. That was kind of refreshing. She was beautiful and geeky, and Sam found himself wanting to linger in their conversation. “I never thought about Black Panther. I didn't really read those comic books, but that's true!” He shifted on his feet and leaned against the lockers. “I'm in the 10th grade. What about you, Mercedes?” he asked, trying out her name on his tongue.

“Yes it is. I’d love to go to Comic-Con one day, but that’s a lot of money to save up since it’s in California. Wizard Con is closer and they have cool booths and panels, and there are so many cosplayers.” She was very pleased to hear he liked Storm too, most guys liked Jean Grey or even Mystique. It was nice to talk to someone that knew stuff without talking down to her like she knew nothing. When he said her name she felt her face get really warm and her stomach did a weird wavy, flip-flop thing. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, it was a completely new and weird feeling and it was a bit scary. “Oh, cool, me too,” she said quietly, her voice sounding weird to her own ears. “Uhm, do you know where your classes are?” Which was a dumb thing to ask. Of course he didn’t know, he was new! She really wanted to take that sentence back, but it was too late now.

“Next time Wizard Con is going on, you should let me know. I mean, if you want. We could maybe go together?” He framed it as a question so that she could decline if she wanted to. Then he realized it sounded like a date. He hadn't meant to ask her on a date, but he also didn't mind the idea of taking her on a date. It was all kind of confusing. “No, I don't know where like...any of my classes are. They don't give you a tour when you're new.” He was actually a little worried about it.

“Okay. I don’t see why not, as long as our parents are okay with it. My brother was the one that drove last year, and it’s just under 2 hours away.” She didn’t even register his question in terms of a date, she just figured he wanted to go see all the cool comic stuff. Besides, she couldn’t date yet, per her daddy. Which was no big deal anyway, guys at this school weren’t into her like that. She shook her head as she closed her locker. This school was a mess, no kind of orientation for new students? “Well, it looks like I am going to be your McKinley High tour guide then. What’s your first class?”

Sam cleared his throat, smiling a little when she offered to be his tour guide. “Um...I have English.” He handed his schedule over to the girl so that she could see his classes. “Are the teachers here...nice? I'm supposed to meet with the guidance counselor this afternoon to go over my success plan.” He really hated that he wouldn't have teachers he knew and who knew him and his learning style.

She took the offered schedule and gave it a quick once over as they began to head down the hall. “Your schedule actually looks decent. You might want to try and get out of Mr. Jennings Geometry class though. He has a tendency to do pop quizzes a lot. Most people barely get out of his class with a C.” She looked up at him and smiled. “Our guidance counselor is really nice, a little quirky, but she’ll make sure you get the right fit with everything.”

He stepped closer to her to avoid walking into another student, feeling hyper aware when their arms brusher together. She seemed unfazed by the crowded hall, and he tried to imitate that. “Thanks for showing me around,” he said as they turned the corner. “You don't have to, though. I'm sure I could figure it all out. I don't wanna take up your time.”

“I know Ohio isn’t the south, but we have good hospitality here too,” she teased. She was used to being bumped into in the hallways by other people, but she was entirely too aware of Sam’s closeness. He smelled really good. “I don’t mind, I like helping people. I’d feel like a huge jerk if you got lost.” She stopped by the door of his English class. “Each hall is a different subject for the most part, so if you can remember which hall you should be good to go. Obviously, we’re in the English hall right now, science is to the left and math is to the right, that should get you through until lunch, and you probably go to see the counselor after that.” She handed him back his schedule. “If you see me at lunch, you should come say hi.” Not bad Mercedes, an open invitation that didn’t sound like ‘OMG sit with me at lunch you gorgeous southern fried cutie!’.

Sam was pretty sure he’d made his first friend at McKinley, and he was kind of impressed with himself, especially since it was a pretty girl. He gave her a smile as he took back his schedule and nodded. “Yeah, I will. Thanks for showing me around, Mercedes,” he said when they were stopped in front of his class. He wanted to talk to her some more, but then a bell rang. “I should probably head in there…” he said with a little shrug.

“No problem. If you need help with anything else, you know where my locker is,” she smiled. When the bell rang she waved at him and headed off to her own class. She hoped she would get to see him at lunch, or maybe he’d be in one of her classes. He seemed like a really nice guy, and it would be cool to have a friend she could geek out with about Marvel.

#char: mj #para #para 001 #samcedes rp

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