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softtdaisy · 3 days ago

Note

soooo thinking about bodyguard Hotch (as always) and inspired by the latest fic, I wondered what other characters think of how close Hotch and reader are getting when he's still "on the case"?

I'm a sucker for outsider perspectives and I'm sooo curious if the BAU gang suspects anything or maybe even the stalker's perspective on Hotch and reader 👀

keep on teasing me / Aaron Hotchner

summary. 5 times someone teased Hotch about the case, the one he did the teasing

words count. 4 593

what to expect. the team is here but nothing except for that

a/n. thank you so much for your request sweetie!! i didn't see the BAU as The BAU in this series i picture them more some kind of agency or i don't know but they're here and it was sooo fun to have them around so hopefully you love this 🤍

bodyguard masterlist | criminal minds masterlist | F1 masterlist | general masterlist | request

1. the team meeting

“Agent Rossi, but you can call me David. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

You watched as David extended his hand, only to take yours and give it a kiss. “Well, the same goes for you, David,” you replied with a soft laugh.

You noticed Hotch rolling his eyes next to you, and you pinched your lips not to laugh even harder.

After you received yet another letter in your mailbox, the bureau decided to add new cameras and a security system to your apartment. Meaning, you had to leave for the day. Something you weren’t quite sure you understood, but you still agreed to.

Then again, you didn’t really have a choice when Hotch was literally pushing you outside this morning.

“It’s a great occasion for you to meet everyone,” he justified in the car while driving you to his office for the very first time.

You didn’t realize you had never seen where he was supposed to be working until today. How funny he knew every single centimeter of your place, and yet you didn’t even know what type of wood his desk was made of. Or if he had pictures on it. Pictures of whom? That was another question.

But he was right. You got to meet everyone. Seeing the real Derek, Emily, and Spencer you’ve seen on screen during the weekly meeting. Getting to meet the bubbly Penelope that was sending mail written in pink to organize every event you had to go to. You already knew Jennifer, the one who stayed with you when you had to get ready for a special occasion—after Hotch did once and left the room with cheeks redder than your lipstick.

“Maybe one of you can finally answer my question,” you said, your arms crossed on your chest once you were all in the meeting room. All their eyes landed on you, curious to see what could be on your mind. They were hiding many things from you—you didn’t need to know about the wannabe stalkers and those that defended you.

You put your hands on the desk in a very professional way, bending over. Just enough for Hotch’s eyes to fall on your back and your ass for a second. Something that didn’t go unnoticed by David.

“Why can’t I be here while you put cameras all over my place?”

“Because” Spencer started in a low and calm voice that he could say anything, you would believe him. “It’s safer that you don’t know about all of them in case something happens. We know that people tend to look at things that could put them in danger when they feel threatened. And if your stalker comes into your place…”

“Which he won’t.” Hotch interrupted him.

“Well, yes, but in case he does, you won’t be looking at the cameras because you won’t know where they are, and there is a smaller chance that he will notice them.”

You nodded; his explanation was fair, and your first thought was right: you tend to believe everything this man said. “But if I walk around naked, that means you will all see me?”

Sure, they laughed. You did too. It was a genuine question, but the situation was rather funny considering your case. Even Hotch let out a laugh, but mostly to hide his embarrassment at the idea.

Nobody answered your question in the end, and the discussion went to other subjects: the following weeks, the events, the organization… always the same movie playing on repeat in the end.

After the meeting, the girls offered to get you a coffee, and you gladly accepted their offer to change your mind. And discover the office. “And I’ll show you Hotch’s desk!” was a very good argument too.

Did he hear it? Yes. Will he stop you? No.

He was ready to accept your teasing about his bland and boring office if it made you happy.

Instead, he stayed in the meeting room to organize the latest proofs and stuff they collected.

“She has a point,” he heard in his back.

When he turned around, he wasn’t surprised to see David leaning against the door.

“What if she walks around naked and doesn’t know where the cameras are?” he added with a cheeky smile. Because that wasn’t his main concern. That wasn’t what he really meant. “But now that I think about it, you’re always around, so if she walks around naked…”

“Stop it,” he groaned, turning his back to him again. If he couldn’t see his amused face, he could hear his laugh. And again, the heat grew on his cheeks. It happened already; he almost saw you in your underwear. When you left your room and forgot that your bodyguard was always around.

Or you didn’t forget at all?

2. the recording studio

“One more take!”

You happily nodded, putting your headphones back on your ears to get ready to record again.

This was the first time since your case started and Hotch had been watching over you that you went back to the recording studio. You had been asking multiple times in the past. But until the team couldn’t secure a place, they kept refusing. More than once, Hotch offered that they build their own recording studio at your place.

“The whole point is that I don't get to work alone, Aaron.” You told him over dinner one night when he put the offer on the table again. “I know what I can do, sure. But I also need some artistic view, and as much as I appreciate you, you’re not an artist.”

And so after meeting the team you were used to working with and talking with your producer a couple of times, Hotch finally agreed to bring you to the studio. On one condition: he was going with you. Something you immediately said yes to because “you’re going to see me in my best element.”

Derek came with him, mostly to protect you from the fans when you would leave. They were already a lot when you arrived; they can’t imagine the number after the session. And two bodyguards were better than one.

Meaning, on top of looking after you, Hotch had to look after his own reactions looking at you. Because you were right, you were in your element, and there was something magical in the way you lit up when you sang. You were living for your music. The words you wrote these past weeks were the happiest, which it wasn’t hard to understand why.

More than once, he got lost in the beauty of the moment. Like there was nobody else in the room except for you and him. Like most of the time you spent together, to be honest. But it was…different. These felt more like a dream than the reality of what you were going through, putting the reason why Hotch was by your side all the time. He wished it would never stop.

When you started another song, this felt like another dream beginning. Another movie to start. The next episode of his favorite show.

And the truth was, Hotch wasn’t even paying much attention to the words you were singing.

But Derek was.

“They couldn't have me, and they never will. And sometimes I hold you closer just to know you're real.”

“Wait a minute.” Derek whispered. Hotch immediately perceived the amusement and especially the teasing in his voice. “She wrote this song lately?”

Hotch didn’t move, or maybe just a little when he crossed his arms tighter against his chest. But his eyes didn’t leave you. Not for a second. “How am I supposed to know?” he replied in a sharp tone that would indicate he didn't want to talk about it more.

Yet, he knew Derek Morgan more than anybody on this team. When this man had an idea in his head, there was little to nothing that could be done to change his mind. So he wasn’t surprised to see him make a step closer to the producer to put a hand on his shoulder. Neither was he when he heard him ask what the name of the song was.

“Bodyguard.”

You called that song Bodyguard. As much as he tried to stay focused on you, Hotch noticed from the corner of his eyes Derek turning his head to him and giving him a proud look. “Bodyguard,” he repeated, so low it was almost unhearable.

You sang the whole song, talking about the need to protect each other and being ready to do anything for their safety. And if it was more true on Hotch's side, it was the whole reason he was here in the first place. He could tell that there was some truth for you too. He knew that you had defended him already, for fun, when his teammates showed amusement about the situation and your complicity. For real, when you heard some people from outside questioning him—his ability or even his look.

He never felt unattractive, nor did he think he was the most handsome man in the world. But hearing you say there was no man you would rather have by your side than him built his confidence back. And having you sing it in a song that would probably be on your album was on another level.

“I think I understand now why you don’t want to get rid of this mission.” Derek finally said when he walked back to Hotch.

Hotch, who rolled his eyes again and sighed, said, “Shut up.”

And Derek laughed again. Except this time, Hotch couldn’t contain his smile when you looked at him after finishing your verse. With a sweet smile, like you were waiting for his approval. Asking if he had understood what you were trying to say.

And his simple nod was the answer you both needed to say he knew. He understood. And he felt the same.

3. the teasing

“You know everything will be fine, right?”

You found it ironic that you were the one reassuring your bodyguard.

You were sitting cross-legged on your sofa, watching as Hotch kept going back and forth between his room and the living room. Clearly more stressed about leaving than you were.

Sure, you did have anxiety about him leaving in the past. And sure, you loved having him around and wished he didn’t have to leave.

But Hotch had to work, and the girls offered to stay for the night. It could have sounded sexist that they were two when usually one man was enough. But JJ was doing the bodyguard job; Penelope was just looking for a good excuse to spend time with you. And a pajama party never hurt anybody.

He gave you a side look after putting his bag down on the floor. “How can you be so sure, exactly?”

Was he being unfair? Yes, and he knew that. Hotch trusted his team with closed eyes. He never doubted them in any case. And he wasn’t even doubting them now.

But he couldn’t help the feeling that he was the one that could treat you the best. Maybe it was above the case situation.

“Because the girls will be there, we are just going to talk and eat and drink wine.” You were enumerating each element with your fingers. Before opening your hands to show your outfit. “And I'm wearing my favorite pajamas; nothing can happen to me.”

Hotch rolled his eyes. Because he knew that fucking pajama too damn well. A pastel-colored tank and shorts that were showing too much skin for his own good. You had been wearing it many nights around him already. And his eyes couldn’t help but fall on your naked legs anytime you would sit by his side. And his mind was hoping silently that the fabric would go higher and higher on your thighs.

“Yeah, tell me about it,” he mumbled in his breath before walking back to his room. Your feet were so light on the floor that he didn’t hear you either getting up or following him.

“Aaron Hotchner,” you laughed in his back. But he didn’t turn around, didn’t see you lean against the door or cross your arms on your chest, putting the almost see-through fabric against your skin. “Are you running away because of my pajamas?”

You smiled when you heard him laugh. “Yeah, sure, they are my next enemies after your stalker.”

“Ouch, stalker mentioned before leaving? Not nice, Aaron.” You put a hand on your heart, pretending to be more hurt than you actually were. The reality was there, and you couldn't fight it, so at least you could laugh about it. When he turned his head slightly, just enough to give you a look, you noticed the amused smile on his face from your whole comedy.

But you weren’t done with him. Not when he had the audacity to leave you for the night. Not when a low, low voice in your head was reminding you that you were scared Hotch could forget about you as soon as he closed the door—something that could never happen if you could actually read his mind.

So you walked to him, slowly. “Actually,” you started, sitting on his bed right in front of him. Perfectly in his sight, with your hands resting behind you, so his eyes would fall on your neckline. “I don’t think my pajamas are your enemies.”

And it did. His eyes fall on you and the trail of skin from your neck to your chest. “Are we seriously having the conversation?” he sighed.

“I think,” you pursued, making your eyes go down on him very slowly. “That you actually loved them a lot. Maybe they are the reason why you have a hard time leaving tonight.”

The clench on his jaw. The way he bit his lips. Or the way he turned his head to try to get rid of the thought that appeared—the one where he threw everything away to lay you on this bed and took these pajamas away from you.

You knew you hit right.

“Hotch?” you heard from the living room.

The girls were there. The game was over, for now.

“We’ll talk about this later.” Hotch finally replied, pointing to you and the room and basically everything that was driving him crazy. He tried to gain composure back, pretending he was mad about your behavior.

But your only answer was a laugh. “Oh, I’m sure we will,” you continued laughing before joining the girls.

Giving Hotch one last look at your ass in these goddamn shorts that would last with him all night.

4. The Stalker

It started as a beautiful and calm day.

Nothing planned. No meeting. No event. Nothing.

Just you writing a new song and Hotch working in his room. Sometimes you tend to forget these types of days could even exist, but they did. And you loved them.

You were lying on a rug, your legs on your sofa, listening to a melody you had composed a few days ago to find the perfect chorus when you heard Hotch’s door slam suddenly. “That son of a bitch.”

It was in these moments that you realized how much you trusted Hotch with your life. Because you didn’t even flinch a little as it was a sudden and loud reaction caused by God knows what. You simply waited for his figure to appear.

And he did. Oh, you almost forgot he had his glasses on when he was working on his computer. This explained the little smile on your face when you saw him, with faded blue jeans and a dark grey shirt that looked very nice on him.

“Something’s wrong?” you asked, looking at him from above. And he did look a little disappointed by your lack of reaction. But could you blame him? He was mad enough for two.

But instead of speaking, he handed his tablet to you.

And you saw the reason for his anger—a very justifiable one now that you could see the cause.

A picture of you two in the street from three nights ago when you had a sudden need for Italian food. You had binge-watched a whole cooking competition on TV, and you were craving pure Italian food from the restaurant down the street. The thing was, they didn’t take online orders. Even when you were a famous singer or a convincing bodyguard.

So you and Hotch went there yourself to order too many dishes that you shared the very same night.

Turns out, your stalker had been waiting for you. And made sure you knew about that.

“Your boyfriend looks pretty, but not as pretty as me, my love.”

Hotch turned his head suddenly. “Are you laughing?” But it was a dumb question. He could perfectly hear your sweet laugh in his ears, even from how far you were from him in this position.

“I’m sorry.” You apologized, putting your hands up in the air while getting up. You had a hard time finding your breath again. “I can’t help it.”

Hotch waited. And waited. Until you finally calmed down. But he was the one to freak out a little. When you landed your eyes on him. And when you put a hand on his arms, patting your fingers on his biceps. “He thinks you’re pretty.”

That was the point that made you laugh. That he was pretty. And the worst part was that Hotch knew why. You had a whole discussion the other day on the difference between pretty, beautiful, and gorgeous. “You, Aaron Hotchner, are gorgeous,” you said in a very serious tone.

You tried to explain that he wasn’t cute or pretty, not with his dark figure and the intensity of his look. He could be considered beautiful when he looked softer, like when he was relaxing. But he mostly looked gorgeous. You even said you wanted to put him in a music video because “that would make it work so much better.”

So you laughed about the pretty part.

Not the boyfriend part.

“You realize how dangerous it is that he saw us?” he finally added, trying to get away with the idea that being called your boyfriend sounded satisfying for the both of you.

You simply shrugged at his question. “See the positive side of it; at least he won’t approach me when you’re here. And you’re here all the time.”

And just like that, you made it sound like it was a normal thing for him to be considered your boyfriend by others.

Hotch could clearly get used to it. Or make it real someday.

5. the jealousy

“I don’t like that.” Hotch said in his breath. It could have been missed, almost inaudible.

If Emily and he weren’t in the same room, in total silence.

She turned around, her hand still full of the chips she was eating. “You want me to grab something else?” she asked, her brows furrowed from the confusion. She asked him what he wanted to eat during the tailing tonight. He had a real nerve to complain now.

But Hotch turned around, even more confused than Emily was. “What?” He looked down at the chips bag in her hands and let out an amused sigh—at least he wasn’t too angry to forget how to laugh. “I’m not talking about the chips, Prentiss.”

“Oh,” she replied, taking another handful. “Then what are you talking about, Hotch?”

She had to wait again. Because suddenly the idea of saying out loud what had been on his mind all day wasn’t as genius as he thought it was. He was being an idiot, ridiculous, he would even say. That was his job. That was everyone’s job. And he had no right to say it wasn’t a good idea or that he wasn’t happy about “Oh, it’s about Derek taking care of her tonight, right?”

A groan. That was all Hotch could answer at the moment.

And a laugh. That was the only reaction Emily had to the situation.

“Are you jealous?” she finally asked after a moment. And maybe he was quick to reply that he wasn't. Too quick, he didn’t sound sincere at all. “Ok, you’re completely jealous.”

It was a decision they made all together. Hotch was the very first to agree. After the stalker’s latest letter and the proof he had perceived the chemistry between Hotch and you himself, the team thought it would be safer to ask Derek to bring you to the premiere instead of him.

New face, new man, an easy way to confuse the stalker. And made him believe his threat was working.

Choosing Derek out of anybody was a good strategy. Sure, Spencer was good-looking but not as confident as his colleague. The girls would have been a great support, but they wouldn’t have made him jealous. And David was a great father figure, less of a lover—even if he was still talking about your compliments.

Hotch had all the proof the team made the right decision when he saw the flash crackle when you walked the red carpet, with Derek following you closely.

The good option, right? Young, good-looking, funny, smiling…

“For what it takes,” Emily started again. And if she hoped he would put his eyes away from the view of you, looking so beautiful with your dark-colored dress and your hair up—in a way he could imagine his fingers brushing your neck—she was wrong. “She’s not with him like she is with you.”

No answer. But a sigh. A very subtle sigh that was a sign of relief. Because Hotch noticed it too, honestly.

When Derek put his hand on your back, you didn’t take a single step back to cuddle against it—like you did with Hotch.

When Derek told a joke in the car, one they all heard and that made some of the team laugh, you didn’t laugh as hard as you did with Hotch—with your eyes showing your amusement, your head falling back, and a hand hitting his chest.

But mostly, anytime Derek was looking at you—definitely not in the same way Hotch was, but still—you weren't looking at him for as long as you did with him. Because anytime you were looking at Hotch, you were appreciating every single feature in his face like it was the last time.

“Oh boy.” Emily laughed, and this time, Hotch turned his head in disappointment. “You’re so falling for her.”

“Shut up.” Hotch finally replied. He saw the way Emily bit her lips, trying to contain her smile and mostly her laugh from his reaction.

And he was fighting too. Because she was so right.

“I refuse!”

Running after Hotch wasn’t too hard in your apartment—it was big but not that big. Yet it felt like this man had a little too much fun making you run in a circle and going room after room without stopping walking. Will he even stop walking one day?

Well, yes, he did. Right in front of you. Meaning you stopped too, but only by hitting his back. “You don’t want me to do my job?” he asked with a soft laugh.

“That’s not what I mean!” You hit his chest—it was an easy target, right in front of you. But Hotch was quick to turn around and grab your wrist before you gave him another punch. Or whatever you were trying to do.

“Just not with somebody else, hm?” You didn’t reply, but you frowned your brows so hard, in a way he was the master of, that he had his answer.

Hotch had been called for a mission with a young woman, the ex-wife of a high politician that didn’t want to go alone to some charity event. For your defense, you stopped listening after you heard Aaron Hotchner and the name of another woman in the same sentence. It was a one-night thing; he would be back in the morning. Nothing very unusual from your routine.

Except for the fact it was Hotch with another woman.

And the idea of seeing a picture of him looking like a god—because you knew he would, he always did—with someone else was… “maybe,” you finally answered in a mumble that made him laugh harder.

Hotch could have been angry. If it had been any other client, he would have reminded them that they had absolutely no opinion to give about his job. His job was, indeed, his job. Actually, he already had dropped a case because of a jealous client. So yeah, he could have been angry.

First, if it wasn’t you. At this point, he would be stupid to not accept you as a client. You were…you. A great and wonderful woman that made his day much better, a friend that he wanted to cherish for as long as he could. And, well, whatever you were, that justifies your place in his head and heart. He could only accept your jealousy after being jealous himself seeing you with Derek.

Second…well, because he wasn’t going to this case after all. He was called for it, and he had done the meeting, the organization. Everything was ready. And until a few hours ago, he was still on it, ready to spend another night with politicians—the thing he probably hated the most in his job. But he quit at the last minute. Spencer would go for him, and he would do a much better job at pretending to be interested in what these idiots would say—mostly to contradict them.

“That’s funny.”

You opened your mouth only to close it. And opened it again. “You think I’m funny?”

“Everyone kept teasing me about this case, saying I’m too involved with you, that my reactions are too much, that I’m too possessive. You teased me about not wanting to leave you.” It was hard to concentrate with his big green eyes stuck in yours and his fingers brushing your wrist like that. “But you are the one who refuses to see me go somewhere with someone else.”

You stayed like that, in silence, for a few seconds. You, frowning and pretending to be hurt. Him, with his proud smile that was only making you angrier.

But in the end he was right.

It was fun to tease him about his feelings when yours just hit you in a quite violent way.

So you took a step back, then another, before turning your back. “Blame a girl for being jealous,” you said in your breath before walking to your sofa and lying down. Pretending that stupid and arrogant—and many other adjectives you could find to describe Hotch that weren’t true—had already left.

But he hadn’t.

He looked at you.

He could have told the truth.

He could have told you he wasn’t going there and he was just playing with you.

But instead he said, “You win.”

You didn’t even turn around. Didn’t even move. Which made him laugh even harder because he knew you were simply pretending not to care. But when Hotch walked closer to you, enough that he could put a hand on the sofa and tilted his head to look at you, he saw the smile on your face. The one you were trying to hide but couldn’t contain at the idea of him being by your side.

“I’m staying with you.”

And you both knew these words had more meaning than they were pretended to.

He was staying. Tonight. Maybe longer. Maybe forever.

Tag List: @kiwriteswords @monzabee @raysmayhem-72 @kajjaka @pastelpinkflowerlife (if you want to be in it, ask me and I’ll be happy to add you x)

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scarsnfevers · 1 day ago

Text

Fire & Storm

Chapter III of Wolfgang

summary: problems exist to be unraveled. But when a stranger stepped out of the shadows to offer their hand, you sensed—too late—that they carried with them a fire far greater than your own. And somehow, you found yourself drawn to it… willingly, almost hungrily.

genre: werewolf!stray kids x werewolf!reader x werewolf!changbin

chapter word count: 4,4k

chapter warnings: mature language

It had been three weeks since that morning by the lake.

Since the howl that had cut through the silence like a memory uninvited, since the scent in the air had told you something was coming, or perhaps already there. But you hadn’t gone back. Not once. You had turned away, just as you always had. It wasn’t what you wanted.

A pack. Wolves. Alphas and Betas and Omegas, all pressed too close together, their thoughts loud and their emotions louder. Too many scents in too little space. It reminded you of the city, of closed windows and crowded rooms, of breathing in everything that wasn’t yours until you forgot where you ended and others began. You had fled that life with both hands open, desperate to reclaim something that resembled solitude. Perhaps it was your past that made you wary. Or perhaps it was the taste of peace you’d found here in the woods—quiet, sacred, untouched. You didn’t want to give it up. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

You hadn’t thought about them much since then.

Or at least, that’s what you told yourself.

The sun was dipping low now, casting long shadows across the winding dirt road as your car rolled steadily toward Fox River. The engine hummed beneath you, steady and familiar, as the trees blurred past on either side. The small town sat nestled at the edge of the forest, about eight kilometers from your cabin. It was the only place nearby with anything resembling a store. You liked it well enough. It was quiet. Uncomplicated.

You parked just off the main street, near the old general store with the faded red awning and creaking wooden steps. The bell above the door chimed softly as you stepped inside, the scent of dust and old pine rising to greet you. Shelves lined with canned goods, dry staples, and the occasional local brand of honey or soap greeted your gaze. The woman behind the counter gave you a polite nod, one you returned with a faint smile.

You moved through the aisles with slow, practiced ease—grabbing coffee, oats, dried herbs, rice, and the few vegetables that looked halfway fresh. A carton of milk. A small bag of dog kibble, though you hadn’t had a dog in years. You kept it just in case. Some part of you liked the idea of being prepared. The town had its rhythm, and you moved to it like someone who’d lived here much longer than you had. No one asked questions. No one pried. That was part of the unspoken agreement.

But when you stepped back out into the cooling air, bags in hand, you found a familiar face waiting by the side of the general store.

John.

He offered you a warm, worn smile, the kind that creased the corners of his eyes. His hands were tucked into the pockets of his weathered jacket, his boots dusted with gravel. "Evenin'," he greeted. "Didn’t think I’d see you in town today." You smiled softly. "Running low on a few things. Figured it was time." He nodded, eyes scanning the bags in your hands. "Looks like you’re set for another quiet week, then." "Hopefully," you said.

There was a pause. Comfortable.

"Everything alright up at the cabin?" he asked, head tilting slightly. "Anything need fixing?" You hesitated, shifting the weight of the bags. "Nothing serious. Just… I think something’s off with the boiler. Hot water’s been a little temperamental. Comes and goes." John scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Could be the ignition valve. Or just some old pipes acting up. Want me to come take a look?" You shook your head. "It’s alright. It can wait until tomorrow afternoon. No need to trouble yourself tonight." He looked at you then. Not just looked—saw. A flicker passed across his features, something thoughtful. Knowing. Like he was reading lines between the words you hadn’t spoken.

He knew. Or thought he did. But he said nothing of it.

Just nodded once, slowly. "Alright. I’ll swing by around three tomorrow, then. See if we can’t get it sorted." You offered him a grateful smile. "Thanks, John." He tipped an imaginary hat and turned, his footsteps crunching softly against the gravel as he made his way down the street. You stood for a moment, watching him go. Then you turned back to your car, loaded the bags into the trunk, and climbed behind the wheel.

The drive back felt longer than it had on the way in, the dusk settling heavy around you. The forest was quiet again, its trees tall and ancient in the fading light. But something about the silence felt… deeper now. You didn’t dwell on it. Just kept driving. Back toward the cabin. Back toward solitude. Back toward the peace you had chosen.

For now.

You hadn’t been waiting for him. Not really.

The afternoon had moved slowly, the kind of drowsy quiet that settled into the bones of the forest and stretched its limbs across the floor of your cabin. A low breeze had picked up, slipping through the trees and brushing past the windows, whispering like it carried stories. The kettle had boiled and cooled again. The sun crept steadily across the floorboards, casting long, golden shadows through the kitchen. You’d almost forgotten about the boiler entirely—until the phone rang.

It was an old sound. Sharp and jarring in a house that had known only silence for days. You flinched before you even registered the name on the screen: John. With a breath, you picked up.

“Hey, sorry to bother you,” his voice came through, warm as ever but strained, almost sheepish. “I just—wanted to give you a quick heads up. I won’t be able to make it out today.” You glanced toward the window, toward the trees that swayed gently in the wind. “Oh?” you asked, shifting the phone to your other hand. “That’s okay. Everything alright?” There was a beat of hesitation on the other end. “Yeah. Mostly,” John said, with a rough huff of laughter. “Had a bit of a run-in with a bad landing this morning. Tripped coming down from a survey point near the southern ridge. Arm’s busted pretty good.” Your brows rose. “God, are you alright?” “I’ll live. Got it wrapped and iced. Gonna be in a sling for a while though.”

“I’m sorry,” you said, and you meant it. He was kind—the kind of man who still stopped to help when someone’s groceries spilled in a parking lot. “Is there anything I can do?” “No, no,” he answered quickly. “I just—well, I figured you might still need someone to take a look at that boiler. I can send one of my....son's.., if that’s alright. They’re good with that kind of thing.” You hesitated only a second, fingertips brushing the edge of the counter. “Sure,” you said. “That’s fine. I don’t mind waiting, though. It’s not urgent.” “No trouble,” he said. “One of them’s already out near Fox River. I’ll give him a call. Shouldn’t take him long to swing by.”

Something in his voice wavered again, almost like he was waiting for you to say more. But you didn’t. You only nodded to yourself and said, “Thanks, John. And take care of that arm.” “I will,” he said, and his voice softened. “And… thanks. Talk soon.”

You hung up and stared at your phone for a moment longer than necessary. There was nothing strange about it. People got hurt. People sent others in their place. Still, something sat just beneath the surface of that call—like the moment before a storm, when the air thickens and the leaves turn the wrong way. You felt it in your skin. But you pushed it down. There was no room for paranoia here. Just quiet. And maybe a boiler that hissed more than it should. You moved through the rest of the afternoon with quiet intent, letting the rhythm of small things carry you. A cup of tea. Folding the last of the laundry. You wiped down the counters even though they weren’t dirty. Lit a candle you’d almost forgotten you had, and let the scent of cedar and clove drift into the spaces between your thoughts. You didn’t expect whoever it was to show up early. Or late. Or at all, honestly.

But sometime past four, you caught the sound of tires crunching gravel—slow, deliberate. You paused.

The wind had stilled.

It wasn't the kind of silence that comforted. It wasn't peace. It was the kind of stillness that pressed against your skin like a second weight, heavy and unmoving. As if the forest itself had paused to watch what came next. The air had shifted. You felt it the moment your hand reached for the door handle and your breath snagged in your chest. Something ancient stirred beneath your ribs. A whisper of instinct, not loud enough to hear, but loud enough to feel.

You stepped outside.

The wooden boards of the porch groaned softly beneath your feet, the sound muffled by the thick silence hanging in the trees. The forest beyond your cabin stood utterly still, draped in shadow and bathed in the cool amber light of the lowering sun. The scent of pine hung in the air, earthy and grounding.

And then you saw him.

Leaning casually against the side of a dusty pickup truck, arms folded across his chest, a young man stood watching the cabin. Watching you. He wasn’t tall—not by usual standards—but there was something solid in the way he held himself. Compact strength. Sinewy confidence. His frame was broad, the shape of someone who worked with his hands, who moved often and moved well. But it wasn’t his posture that made you stop.

It was the scent that hit you first—familiar and foreign all at once. Smoke. Not like cigarette smoke or wildfires. No, this was different. Campfire and ash. A hint of birch bark curling in flame, mixed with something warmer… spiced cedar, maybe. And underneath it all, something unmistakably alive. Wolf. Alpha. Your breath caught, shallow in your lungs.

You hadn’t expected this.

You hadn’t expected him.

For weeks you’d avoided every path, every noise, every scent that hinted at pack. You’d come here to disappear—not just from the humans, but from them. Wolves. The structure, the hierarchy, the mess of scent and sound and expectation. You hadn’t come looking for a pack. And yet here he was.

His eyes met yours.

And the world, for just a fraction of a second, forgot to turn.

Your wolf stirred.

Not with aggression, not with fear—but with alertness. Awareness. Something raw and ancient, curling at the base of your spine. You didn’t shift. Didn’t move. But you felt it nonetheless—the way your body responded before your mind could catch up. The young man pushed off the truck and crossed the gravel path toward the porch. His movements were unhurried, fluid in a way that betrayed practice. Graceful. A predator at ease. When he reached the bottom step of the porch, he paused—just long enough for the silence to stretch again.

"Changbin," he said simply, voice deep and smooth, with the faintest rasp of gravel. "John sent me. Something about a boiler?" It took a beat too long for you to respond. The name pulled you back. Your lips parted, air returning to your lungs. "Right. Yes. The boiler," you echoed, before stepping aside and gesturing toward the door. "Come in...By the way, I'm Y/N." He nodded and ascended the steps. You watched him carefully—not because you feared him, but because you didn’t understand him. He moved past you with a nod of thanks, the scent of ash and wolf lingering in the air between you.

Inside, the warmth of the cabin wrapped around your skin like a thick blanket. You’d lit the fire earlier, though the flames had dulled to glowing coals. The young man scanned the room briefly, taking in the details. Not in a nosy way—more like a soldier assessing terrain. You noticed it because you did the same.

You led him to the narrow hallway that wound toward the cellar door. Still, that silence lingered between you. But it wasn’t awkward. It was… charged. As if words would only shatter something too delicate to touch just yet. He took the stairs down into the basement first, and you followed, arms folded, pulse loud in your ears. The cool air of the cellar greeted you like a damp exhale. Shadows clung to the corners, and the single overhead light cast golden pools against the concrete. Changbin crouched beside the boiler, inspecting the pipes and wires with practiced ease. You stayed a few paces behind, unsure whether to speak or let the moment stretch longer.

"So," he said, voice calm as he worked, not looking back, "what brings you out here?" You blinked, caught off guard by the normalcy of the question. "I needed quiet," you said after a moment. "The city got too loud. Too many.... 'people'."

He hummed, like he understood. "It’s quiet out here," he agreed. "But not empty."

You tilted your head slightly. "No. Not empty."

Silence again.

You watched the way his shoulders moved beneath his jacket as he worked. The way his fingers traced the old wiring, firm and sure. The scent of his wolf still hovered in the air, softer now, but no less distinct. It clung to your awareness like static. He glanced back over his shoulder. "Is it just you out here?" You nodded. "Just me." Something flickered in his eyes—curiosity, maybe. A quiet kind of respect. "Takes guts," he murmured. "Being alone with the woods." You offered a faint smile. "I’m used to being alone." He didn’t press. Just nodded once and turned back to the boiler.

The minutes ticked by with the soft clink of metal, the low hiss of a valve turning. You leaned against the wooden beam, fingers tracing the grain absentmindedly. Finally, Changbin stood, wiping his hands on a cloth from his back pocket. He turned to face you, features unreadable for a breath.

"It’s not a quick fix," he said. "Your boiler’s old. Could patch it, but it’ll just break again. Best to replace it." You nodded, already expecting that answer. "That’s fine. I can manage with cold water for now." A faint smirk ghosted across his lips. "High body temp has its perks." You lifted an eyebrow, matching his tone. "So you did know." The man tilted his head, amused. "I could smell it on you from the driveway." You exhaled through your nose, shaking your head lightly. "John never mentioned… that he had wolves working for him." "He doesn’t," Changbin replied. "Not usually. I’m… family." You looked at him more closely now. The dark hair, the sharp eyes, the quiet confidence.

"His son?" A nod. "Unofficially. He took me in when I was young." You absorbed that in silence. Somehow, it made sense. The steadiness. The scent. The eyes that held things too old for his age.

The steps back up from the basement were quieter than before. No words passed between you as you ascended, only the soft creak of the wooden stairs beneath your feet and the faint hum of your thoughts. The tension lingered in the air like static, fragile and unsaid.

At the threshold, Changbin paused. One hand already on the doorframe, his figure half turned toward you, framed by the fading light of the evening. His eyes met yours — steady, calm, but something in them held weight, like he, too, had felt the pull that stirred beneath the surface. “I’ll come by again tomorrow,” he said, his voice low, almost reluctant to break the quiet. “Late afternoon.” You gave a small nod. “Alright.”

There was a heartbeat of stillness. Then, with a last glance, he stepped outside. “Take care,” he murmured.

“Yeah. You too,” you answered, maybe a little too fast — and the moment the screen door clicked shut behind him, you let your breath slip out, sharp and quiet. Your fingers lingered on the doorknob as you stared out into the evening, watching the outline of his truck vanish between the trees. Then, without letting yourself dwell, you closed the door — perhaps a bit too quickly.

Your wolf was pacing beneath your skin.

Overstimulated. Overaware. Overwhelmed.

And for the first time in a long time… not entirely alone.

The truck rumbled down the narrow, winding road, its tires humming against gravel and fallen needles. The forest stretched out around him, silent and shadowed, the last traces of twilight caught between the high branches like secrets left unspoken.

Changbin’s hands gripped the steering wheel tighter than necessary.

Only when the cabin disappeared behind the trees did he exhale — a long, slow breath that deflated his chest and loosened something behind his ribs. The quiet he’d worn like armor in her presence crumbled at the edges, the controlled composure slipping free now that he was alone in the hush of the truck’s cab.

And still, her scent lingered.

Wildflowers. A storm — soft, but gathering — somewhere in the heart of summer. And lilac.

Not the sharp kind that clung too sweetly to the air, but one that was worn into the skin, like memory. Like a name never said aloud. It filled his lungs even now, even as the night pressed in around him, and it was maddening in a way he hadn’t expected. Maddening because it was unmistakable. Not just wolf. Not just stranger. But her.

He ran one hand through his hair, raking it back from his forehead, knuckles grazing the edge of his jaw. It had been hard. Hard to stand there in that house, beneath the low ceilings and the hush of the trees curling close to the walls, and pretend not to feel the way the air had shifted the moment she’d opened the door. To pretend he didn’t feel the answering pull — old as instinct, sharp as hunger — low in his chest. He could still see her eyes, the quiet caution in them, the silence stretched too tight between every word she’d spoken. But also something else.

That flicker.

Recognition.

He understood why she had come here. To disappear. To breathe without the pressure of too many minds crowding her own. He didn’t know what had driven her into these woods — not yet — but he knew that look in her eyes. The kind of quiet you only found after something inside you had burned down to embers.

And still…She’d looked at him. Really looked. And his wolf had gone so still inside him he thought for a moment it had stopped breathing.

The road leveled out ahead, and he turned onto the wider stretch that led back toward the forest station. The windows were down, the crisp night air tugging at his shirt, and somewhere in the distance, a hawk called — high and lonesome. He didn’t know what the hell he was going to tell John. He didn’t even know what he’d say to her tomorrow. But the part of him that was wolf — the part that had barely stirred for months — was awake now. Watching. Waiting. And wanting.

His jaw clenched. He shifted gears. The truck picked up speed.

By the time the familiar outline of the cabin came into view, warm lights glowing behind curtains and the low sound of laughter echoing from inside, Changbin felt like he’d aged a year on the drive back. He pulled into the gravel lot, the headlights sweeping across the porch where someone had left boots by the steps. The engine groaned to a stop.

He sat there for a moment, unmoving. Letting the weight of the woods settle over him. Letting her scent — finally — fade into memory. Then he opened the door and stepped out into the night.

The scent of rosemary and charred onions greeted Changbin as soon as he stepped inside. The air was warm, thick with the promise of food and the kind of domestic noise that came from too many bodies moving in practiced rhythm.

From the kitchen, Maria’s voice floated in soft Spanish, quick and affectionate as she instructed Felix on how to slice something thinly, not murder it, as she put it. Hyunjin laughed under his breath. Jeongin muttered a protest, clearly the one who’d earned the reprimand. The floor creaked beneath Changbin’s boots, but no one turned — not until he passed the archway into the living room.

John looked up first, shifting carefully in the armchair where his injured arm rested in a black sling. The television was on, some wildlife documentary playing on mute, but the soundless narration couldn’t hold their attention now. Chan sat cross-legged on the couch, a hand loosely cradling a mug of coffee he hadn’t touched. Jisung was slouched beside him, a throw blanket bunched at his hip, his head turning as if drawn by static in the air. Not one of them said a word. But they could smell it.

Her.

The sharp, instinctive awareness of another wolf. Female. Powerful. Present.

John blinked, unaware of the subtle shift in the room, and smiled faintly as he gestured Changbin over. “You made it back fast.” Changbin nodded once and stepped farther inside, ignoring the way Jisung’s eyes practically glowed with unspoken questions. “She still having issues with the boiler?” John asked, flexing his good hand around a mug that had long gone cold. Changbin met Chan’s gaze briefly — quick, silent — before answering. “It’s shot. She’ll need a full replacement.” “Damn.” John leaned back with a quiet exhale. “You think you can take care of it?” “Yeah.” Changbin’s voice was steady, low. “I’ll head over again tomorrow. Late afternoon.”

A soft “oye, te escuché” came from the kitchen as Mary called for her husband. John sighed with a chuckle, then slowly pushed himself to standing. “Duty calls.” As he passed through the doorway, the room shifted.

The moment he was out of earshot, Jisung sat forward, tension crackling like static between his shoulders. “Okay,” he said, eyes wide, voice hushed but sharp. “You were in her cabin?”

Changbin didn’t answer.

“What was it like?” Jisung pressed on, leaning in. “Did she— I mean, what did she smell like?” His grin was sharp, teasing. “Wait—don't lie—was it like, ‘oh no, we might’ve just—’” “Jisung,” Chan said quietly.

The tone was enough.

Jisung stopped mid-word, mouth still open, eyes snapping to Chan like a scolded pup. Chan didn’t look angry — not exactly. Just steady. Grounded. A silent, firm enough. Changbin smirked despite himself, gaze dropping to the floor for half a second. The echo of her still lingered in his chest. That scent, the silence between them, the way the air had shifted the second their eyes had met. He didn’t answer Jisung’s question.

He didn’t need to.

Footsteps behind him stirred the air. Soft, nearly weightless, like a breeze catching leaves. Minho entered the room without a word, his presence so quiet it was almost ghostlike. He leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed loosely over his chest, eyes shadowed and unreadable. “I might need help tomorrow,” Changbin said without turning around. His voice was steady, but it carried the edge of something that hadn’t been there earlier.

Chan looked up from where he sat, a hand draped casually over the armrest of the old couch. His expression was calm, but his eyes missed nothing. He nodded once, slow. “Alright.” “I’ll come,” Jisung volunteered instantly, almost too quickly. There was eagerness in his tone, but also curiosity, hunger—for answers, for involvement. “I can handle it.” Chan turned his gaze toward Jisung, his demeanor cooling. “No, you can’t.”

“What?” Jisung looked between them, his tone halfway between a protest and a plea. “I’m not a pup anymore.” “You’re not,” Chan agreed evenly. “But you’re still too green as an Alpha. You don’t walk into something like this unless you know how to hold your center.” Jisung bristled but didn’t argue. He knew better than to push when Chan used that voice—the one that quieted rooms. Chan’s eyes moved past Changbin then, landing on the silent figure in the doorway. The weight of his gaze shifted the energy in the room. Changbin turned his head slightly, glancing over his shoulder.

Minho was watching them, or perhaps just watching him. The older wolf gave no outward sign of emotion, but the air around him was heavy, still. His arms remained crossed, body unmoving, but his eyes met Changbin’s with that unspoken understanding only those like them shared. A moment passed, stretched out like a taut wire. Then Minho gave a single, slow nod.

Jisung groaned aloud. “Seriously? You always get to go.” “Because he doesn’t talk shit in front of other wolfs,” Changbin said without missing a beat. Jisung opened his mouth to protest, but Chan’s gaze flicked to him, sharp and warning. The younger wolf clamped his mouth shut and sank back into his seat with a grumble. Changbin let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly in amusement. But it didn’t reach his eyes. Not fully. The scent was still there. Lingering. Threaded into the fibers of his jacket, his skin, his memory.

“Tomorrow afternoon?” Minho asked, his voice low and quiet. Changbin nodded. “Yeah.” “Good,” The other wolf murmured. His tone was less about the boiler and more about the unspoken truths hanging between them all. The fire snapped in the hearth, loud in the pause that followed. They didn’t need words. Not really.

The scent on Changbin was loud enough.

masterlist | prologue | chapter I | chapter II

🐺 taglist; @shoganaiiii, @h0rnyp0t, @maddy24207, @ihrtlix, @alisonyus, @poody1608, @asweetblueberry2, @thatgirlangelb, @rougegenshin, @vampkittenb82, @braveangel777, @dark-moon-light02, @softchannie, @miniverse-zen

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drabbletron · 2 days ago

Note

Psst, 18 for Rumble? Is that possible? 👀

Bucking In The Bathroom: Rumble X Reader SMUT

|| It is very possible! This is my first time writting for him so hopefully its good. Barely edited and written on the clock lol! Enjoy! ||

🔞 MINORS DNI 🔞

Rumble hasn't stopped moaning since you first put your mouth between his thighs. First came the licking to tease him, then the nibbling to get him to open up, now comes the best part where you can smush your face right into his pretty, periwinkle valve. The soft mesh like a pillow against your cheeks as you lap at his entrance, trying to shove your tongue as deep as it will go and then deeper still. He just tastes so good! Supple, wet, and irresistible!

Your hands come up to wrap around his massive thighs, keeping him right where you want him so he can't squirm away from you.

"Ah, slag, you don't let up do ya?! Ya like it that much?"

You hum, pressing deeper into him and using your thumb to run fierce circles over his anterior node as a response, making him grip the walls in the corner of the too small bathroom as he bucks helplessly into you. The ceramic tiles crack under his fists and his helm tosses back, knocking a few lose with a moan.

Outside the bathroom the bar goers hardly hear a thing over the pulsing music. No one knows if it's the singer in the song or the mech at your mercy wailing, and frankly you don't even care. His pretty lips are all yours for the taking and you lose yourself, eyes rolling, to his taste. If you werent drunk before, you'd consider yourself that now. Valve drunk as he overloads against your face with a call of your name.

Rumble's dizzy processor can't tell which way is up and which way is down as the graffitied bathroom spins in his optics. He knows he's finished, but the way you slurp against him, so very hungry, gives him the urge to take more.

"If ya like it so much, maybe you should keep at it?! Feels crazy like, like -- hell I dont even know, just keep doin' that!"

Amid his encouragement, Rumble's servo finds its way to the back of your head to jam you further into him. His grip is bruising, but his moans make it more than bearable. Then he falls forward to catch himself on the stall, metal bending under his grip, and you're dragged back onto your ass, off balance and drowning in his plush valve while he humps your face because he hasn't let go of your head.

"Jus' like that! That's it! 'M gonna overload --! 'M gonna--Agh, frag yeah!"

Hot transfluid spills from his valve down your chin and throat as his still thrusting hips smear it all over your face. You're certain to be a terrible mess after this encounter, but with the way Rumble looks, hunched like a wild animal above you and venting like it's going out of style, now's the time to admire and bask in what just transpired.

Through rough venting and heavy static, all he can utter is this: "Maybe next time I'll return the favor."

#maccadam #mtmte #transformers #transformers x reader #mtmte x reader #tf mtmte #valveplug #rumble x reader #tf rumble #tf rumble x reader

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iidesxreii · 3 days ago

Text

Fire, meet Medicine - E. Buckley

╔ Pairing: Evan Buckley x Plus Size!Black!Doctor!Reader

☆ Word Count: 3.2k

☆ Category: Fluff (near the end)/SMUT! (18+ YOU HAVE BEEN FOREWARNED)

☆ Summary: You find yourself at a halloween party with one particular person fighting to get your attention. And when he does, all hell breaks loose.

☆ Content: First meet, makeout, SMUT!!!!

╚ A/N: Since my first fic did so well (in my opinion) I guess I'm gonna keep going with posting my drafts. I have about 4 drafts that can be tied into this so I'm going to call this a series and just go through with posting these on Wednesdays. I'll post regular fics on Saturdays instead. This is written with a plus size, black female character in mind. I don't see a lot of Black!reader fics let alone PlusSize!reader fics so I decided to make one for myself as it is my ethnicity. At some point it will be VERY known, but hopefully it doesn't bother any of you! ALSO!! I know my smut scenes suck, I'm trying and working on them to get better. If you have ANY tips, and I mean ANY, please send them in or message me about it so I can get better. Literally anything to make my fics better helps.

As always, even if you hate it, let me know. constructive criticism is always welcome when it comes to my writing.

═══════ ･｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ｡･ ═══════

You check your outfit over once more before turning in the mirror and making sure your modesty is still intact. It was halloween and you were finishing up your outfit. Which consisted of a small green dress, some wings you found last minute and a whole lot of glitter. You flattened out your dress before grabbing the clutch you had packed before you started getting ready. It had all of the normal necessities. A card holder, keys, lip gloss, makeup wipe, compact mirror, a stain remover stick and a miniature deodorant. You grabbed your phone off the charger and checked the time. The party you were attending was across town and had started at 10. You on the other hand hadn’t gotten off your shift until 11 and rushed to get ready as quickly as possible. You knew the party wasn’t going to end soon since it was an LA party, but you still wanted some time to mingle about.

You make your way down the stairs of your loft and into your living room area to check on your dog. Cerberus was fully capable of protecting the apartment while you were gone, but you always made sure to check on him before leaving. Your heels click against the hardwood as you walk over to your dog and rub your hand against his head. He makes a little sound which has you poking your bottom lip out. You almost cave in and say fuck the halloween party. You could have your own. You, Cerberus and a bucket of candy from the store. You sigh and shake your head before heading into the kitchen. You check his automatic bowls before peeking back at him in his bed. You blink a few times before making your way to the door and heading out, locking the door behind you.

You put in for a rideshare and make your way down to the lobby. The rideshare app dinged and you were donned with a wait time of 3 minutes. You shuffled a bit as you felt the eyes of your doorman on you. Connor was nice, you spoke to him every once in a while but not like you spoke to Fredrick. Frederick was your favorite, he treated you like his own daughter. Asking about your residence at the hospital and making sure you were taking care of yourself. You spoke to him every morning and you were sure you wouldn’t miss another chat tomorrow morning. Maybe you’d bring him a coffee. Before long your phone is pinging and letting you know your ride was outside. You make your way outside and get into the car. Immediately your trek starts and you’re on your way.

You walk into the house of your friend who was hosting the party and sca around for her. You wanted to say hi before heading anywhere else. The minute you walked through the door boys looked your way. Some approached but others just watched, you could feel their eyes digging into you. Before long you find your friend and give a hug before thanking her for the invite.

“You look so good! I’m so glad you could make it. Hopefully residency isn’t so bad?” Your friend, Emara, gave you a hug before looking you over once. Emara was your dorm mate in med school. You guys clicked almost immediately and clicked even better when she found out you were 2 years younger than the preconceived notion she had placed on you. She wasn’t aware she was bunking with a ‘literal genius’. Her words, not yours.

“It’s just as I expected! How is yours?” You look over her costume and smile. She was of course dressed as a sexy nurse. She was waiting for residency before she pulled out all the stops. She was waiting for the chance to actually drop the bomb that she was a doctor.

“Calmer than North Med! Enjoy the party and the hotties! We’ll have to catch up later on!” She turns and heads off into a crowd with a handful of shots in her hands. You turn towards the makeshift bar and pour yourself something to drink. You turn around and lean on it before noticing the lovely, and very hot, man dressed as Robin. He had his eyes on you, and you were attempting to ignore him. You turn away from him and make your way deeper into the crowd and away from his eyes. A good 15 minutes later you find yourself talking to a girl that was also a student at your med school. Though you had never formally met her, you were excited to talk to her. You had also managed to avoid the blonde haired boy pretty nicely. Ever since the encounter 15 minutes ago he’s been trying to get to you, but you wanted to play the long game first.

You hadn’t let yourself experience a relationship in a while seeing as you were always busy with schooling, then med school came around, and then residency. You had no time for a relationship back then, or right now. But you could have fun in the meantime. You turned to the girl and said you were going to grab a drink and heeded off towards the counter. You stopped to grab another drink and managed to slip away to the backyard as you noticed the guy coming your way. You stayed hidden from him for a while before you caught him coming at me from a little ways away. You tried to hold back a smile before turning to him as he approached you. He stopped right next to you and made no effort to speak to you just yet. You sipped your drink and checked the time on your phone that you had pulled out of your clutch when you were getting that other girl’s number. 1:38. It wasn’t like you had work tomorrow, but you still wanted to be in bed by a certain time.

“Are you playing a game with me?” The guy turned to you ever so slightly and you giggled into the cup that was at your lips. You peeked at him for a second before taking another sip of your drink and turning to him fully.

“It’s my first night out in like a couple months. I just wanted to have a little fun is all.” He drank the rest of his drink and he sat it down somewhere. He turned back to you and asked a question.

“And why did you choose me to play it with?” You looked up into his eyes. He was taller than you expected and you kinda liked that. He had a birthmark above his eye, he smelled like alcohol and it was mixing with something so good. You couldn’t explain it. It smelled like something You needed in your apartment all the time. If you were being honest, you wanted him in your apartment all the time. The things you’d do if you had his scent near you all the time. Wait…no.

“I dunno. You were cute. And you caught my eye.” He shook his head and let out a low chuckle. It riveted into your brain and straight through you. It was hot, fuck that, it was sexy. You loved the sound. And you wanted to hear it again and again and again.

“Ah. Cat and mouse. Which one am I?” You let out a giggle and shook your head. He had a point. But you weren’t sure which one he was. You bit your lip and scanned his body, you didn’t know if this was the alcohol talking or if you genuinely thought this, but why were you running from someone as sexy as him? Instead of running you should’ve been getting your payback for the last few months. You were in desperate need and you had finally found something that appealed to you as much as your vibrator did.

“What’s your name?” was what came out of your mouth. You watched confusion pass by his face before his answer slipped out of his mouth with a quickness.

“Buck.” You raised your eyebrows at that answer. Who names their kid Buck? But like he read your mind he continues. “It’s a nickname. I-it’s my last name. Evan Buckley…hence the Buck…” You shook your head and smiled as you extended your hand. You think it was the alcohol hitting. Whatever you mixed in those few cups were coming back to bite you in the ass.

“(Y/N), nice to meet you Buck…but I have a proposition.” He made a face and you assumed he was listening. You placed both hands onto his shoulder, and leaned up to his ear. You were close enough to whisper but not to get lip gloss on it. “I’m not going to lie, this could definitely be the alcohol talking but, I’ve never met someone who appealed to me as much as my vibrator did. And I’d kill to have her right now. So instead, how about we get one more cup of whatever it is they have in that kitchen, get shit faced and make our way to the bathroom. That way, I get what I've been needing for 9 months, and you can learn my last name.” You leaned back onto your feet and winked at him. He easily grabbed your hand and beelined his way to the kitchen area. You both grabbed a cup each, and downed it in that same second. Then you made a direct line for a bathroom. You both make it to a bathroom and the minute the door closes your back is pressed against the door with his hands running all over your body. His hands felt so good running over your body, everything felt surreal. This is exactly what you needed in your life. Or at least right now at this moment.

He pulled away for a second and instead went into your neck. Sucking, licking, soft kisses, all of it was pushing you to the edge. His hands found your ass and gripped it tightly, which made you moan. In turn, you rake your hands down his back and he almost growls in your ear. He pulled away from your neck and quickly lifted you onto the bathroom counter. The feeling of the cold counter threw you off for a second making you gasp and arch your back. He took this as an opening and pushed his way in between your legs. He began rubbing your thigh with one hand and dipped his head back to meet your lips in a kiss. You felt him grind against you and your eyes almost rolled out of your head. There was a knock at the door and you both ignored it. You wanted this. You needed this. Nobody could stop you from going through with this right now. Then there was another knock. And another and another and another. It was constant at this point, and you knew it was only going to get worse. You pushed him back a bit before checking your phone. 2:10.

“Do you want to get out of here?”

By 2:27 Buck has you pushed up against his door and is trying to unlock it to no avail. You release him and he grumbles as you step to the side to allow him to unlock the door properly. You were sure that if he didn’t get the door unlocked he was going to have you in any way in the hallway of his apartment building. The lock clicks smoothly and Buck opens the door before bringing you in. Before you can get a look around you’re tugged into him and he’s picking you up with ease. Before you know it you’re being tossed onto a bed.

“Are you sure about this?” Buck is standing over you and your mind is anywhere but vanilla. You watch as he takes his shirt off and you almost pass out from how good he looks. Instead of marveling like you want to, you find his eyes again and smile.

“Thinking I’m going to change my mind Buckley?” You’re perched up on your elbows and Buck is eyeing you up from head to toe. You watch as his eyes darken and his pupils dilate before they find yours.

“I’m all about consent.” His smile is shit eating and you almost find it funny. He leans down and places both hands on the bottom of the bed. He’s leaned over almost primal looking. He’s cute, what else can he do?

“That’s hot.” you mean it towards him, but the consensual part is just as hot. You bite your bottom lip and motion for him to come to you. He crawls up the bed and you find it in you to take off the dress you’re wearing. As the dress passes your eyes you find Buck sitting back on his ankles undoing your heels. He takes one off, and then moves to the other. Your heels are soon discarded along with your dress and wings. His pants soon find a home on the floor with your costume and you both are back to kissing. His kisses trail down the valley of your breast, over your belly button and to the top of your underwear. He looks at you before watching for any type of wavering. When you nod he drags your underwear down and is faced with your soaking cunt. He all but groans as he licks a tender stirpe up your center. You shudder and reach for his hair. As you come in contact with his locks he dives into you licking recklessly. Sucking, licking, hot breaths passing your sensitive bud. Everything feels much better than you could’ve imagined. He hums something and your back arches. Your breathless moans push him over the edge and he finds every way to get you to react like that again. You feel the bud in your stomach growing and your grip on his hair gets tighter. He flattens his tongue against you and you immediately find release.

He doesn’t let go though, he moves and inserts two fingers into you making your legs wrap tightly around his head. He takes this as something you liked and continues digging into you. He takes his time exploring the inside of you and your moans become a mix of heavy breaths and incoherent words. He finds that ever loving squishy spot and picks up his pace. Buck watches as you fight the inevitable, taking pride in the fact that he’s doing so well you think you have to hide anything that falls out of that pretty mouth of yours. You, on the other hand, have to stop the string of curses that threaten to fly out of your mouth. Buck finds your bud once more and expertly licks at it with his tongue. He starts slow, picks up space and then slows it down again. You arch your back and pull him into you more as you find release against his face once more. Your legs begin shaking and you’re reluctant to let go of his hair. He pulls your hand from his head and kisses the back of your hand.

He lifts his head from you and pulls his fingers out, licking them clean. A devious smile on his face as he moves up to find your lips. He captures them in a kiss and you immediately taste yourself on his lips. You didn’t know what about it had turned you on, but it made another pool between your legs. Buck pulls back with your bottom lip between his teeth and tugs on it just a bit.

“Can you give me one more? You’re shaking and holding on pretty tight.” You nod your head and Buck bites his bottom lip before kissing you once more and heading back down. His fingers find that spot inside of you again and this time you hold nothing back. You let out every moan and whimper that graces your lips. It turns Buck on more as he finds your bud and licks at it relentlessly. From how good it felt you find yourself grinding into his face for more pressure. Buck tries to find release from his bed. He grinds his own hips into the bed as you moan from how good he’s making you feel. Your hips become sloppy and Buck knows you’re about to reach another release so he takes his free arm and wraps it around your hips. He locks you to the bed and continues his assault on your cunt. Within moments your moans become breathless gasps and Buck sits up to watch your face fully. Your eyes roll back and you cum but he doesn’t let up on his fingers and you find yourself squirting onto his chest. Buck in awe, cums in his underwear at the sight of you.

“Oh my god! I’m so sor-” you begin to panic. You had never experienced that in the many years you had been sexually active. No guy, or girl during your small phase, had ever made you feel like that. Buck immediately closes his eyes and you wish the bed would swallow you whole.

“No. No no no. Do not be sorry.” Buck gets off the bed and heads into the bathroom with a slight jog. You hear water running and then in seconds he’s back out and leaning over your trembling legs. “That was the hottest thing ever, oh my god.” His reassurance calms you almost immediately and you find it comforting that he wasn’t mad about it. He wipes at your legs and your core before making sure he’s got everything with another swipe of the towel. He immediately heads over to the dresser and digs into one of the drawers. He grabs a navy blue shirt and turns to head down the stairs. He comes back up and is holding sheets in his hand. You notice the wet spot, courtesy of you and a blush finds its way onto your cheeks. You grab the comforter and wrap yourself in it as Buck changes the sheets as fast as possible, then he turns to you with the shirt in hand and holds it out to you.

“I’m gonna go shower. Do you want to stay or do you want me to call an uber?” His voice is softer as you make your way back into the bed. He follows suit and places himself on the edge of the bed and his hand finds a place on your ankle. He’s rubbing soothing circles into it while your leg jerks ever so slightly.

“W-whatever you want…” You whisper it and Buck’s eyebrows crease. You had never been asked if you wanted to stay, let alone given something to sleep in. Buck smiles and his hand finds its way to your thigh and he pats it softly. He hands you the shirt before standing and heading towards the bathroom.

“It’s way too early to be kicking you out. I’ll drive you home tomorrow.” and with that he’s in the bathroom. You hear the shower turn on and then slight humming. You place the shirt over your head before fixing the duvet over the entire bed and lying down. Before long his pillow lulls you to sleep.

#evan buck buckely #evan buckley x reader #911 x reader #911 abc #9-1-1 fanfiction #9-1-1 LA #9-1-1 TV show #Evan Buckley fanfiction #Evan Buck Buckley x reader #evan buckley x black!reader #evan buckley x plus size reader

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misshoneyimhome · 15 hours ago

Note

Your last relic has given me many thoughts! One being a 3some of Willy and Knies. Knies thinks he knows everything there is about pleasing women and Willy shows him that he in fact knows nothing.

Oh absolutely, this combo is definitely one of my top favourites too! 🌺 And honestly, who better to guide the baby Leafs than our calm, collected, and ever-so-charming Swedish boyfriend?

Hopefully I captured even a hint of what you had in mind when it comes to William’s gentle yet confident teaching vibes 🙈

Tropes & warnings: Matthew Knies x reader x William Nylander, Friends to lovers, Smut 18+: Threesome (M/M/F), Oral sex (f receiving, m receiving), Vaginal sex (protected), DVP, Praise kink, soft dom vibes, Gentle guidance, reverence, aftercare

➼｡ﾟ

Bed Chem I William Nylander x reader x Matthew Knies ☆

The moment the final buzzer went off, the building erupted.

You weren’t on the ice, but somehow you felt it all the same—that pulse of adrenaline, the eruption of joy that cracked through the walls of Scotiabank Arena like a sonic boom. The Toronto Maple Leafs had clinched a playoff spot, and the city was electric. So were the players. So were you.

The locker room had been a mess of champagne sprays and booming music, post-game interviews overlapping with spontaneous shouts and camera flashes. But by the time you reached the dimly lit rooftop bar uptown, the energy had mellowed into something warmer. The buzz of victory still hung in the air, but it was laced now with alcohol, cigarette smoke from the balcony, and the sort of grins that came from knowing a season’s worth of grit had finally paid off.

You arrived with a couple of the WAGs, but it didn’t take long for Matthew to find you.

“There she is,” he said, looping an arm around your shoulders like it was second nature. “Thought you were gonna ghost us after the win.”

You gave him a look, amused. “You think I’d miss a party full of sweaty men and overpriced cocktails?”

“Yeah,” he said with a crooked smile. “But only because you’re smarter than all of us.”

He tugged you toward the bar, ordering you a drink before you could even ask. He remembered your go-to without question—of course he did. You’d been there through enough of his rough nights and quiet ones, holding space and talking him down when the city felt too big, too loud. He’d always said you made it easier.

Tonight, he was golden. Laughing freely, glow from the overhead string lights catching in his tousled curls. You stayed close, not because you felt like you had to—but because being near Matthew always felt like choosing warmth in a cold room.

“You sticking to your usual?” you asked, nodding to the beer in his hand.

He glanced down at the label and made a face. “I dunno, I might need to branch out. Try something more… mature.”

“Oh yeah?” you teased, sipping your drink. “Like a whiskey sour?”

“Like a wine spritzer,” he deadpanned.

You choked on your drink mid-laugh, earning a proud smirk from him. That was how the night flowed—easy, playful. You’d drifted in and out of conversations with other guys, teammates leaning over to toast, make a joke, ask you how work was. But Matthew always came back, his hand at the small of your back, his laugh ready for your next sarcastic quip.

You weren’t blind to how the others saw it. You’d heard the chirps. The “When’s the wedding?” comments. The knowing glances. But it wasn’t like that. You were close—had been since the day he’d landed in Toronto, fresh-faced and already exhausted by the noise. You’d been his anchor.

Still, as you leaned against the bar beside him now, the air between you felt… warmer than usual. Maybe it was the drinks. Maybe it was the way his thumb absently brushed your wrist. Maybe it was the fact that, for once, you didn’t feel the need to pull away.

And that’s when Mitch, two beers deep and already in rare form, decided to start chirping.

“Mattie, be honest,” he called out across the lounge. “You bring your own PR girl out for moral support, or is this part of your new strategy?”

Matthew didn’t flinch. “She’s just here to keep me humble.”

You rolled your eyes, but Mitch wasn’t done.

“No seriously—dude acts like he’s a girl whisperer just ‘cause he got a couple swipe rights after a hat trick.”

“That was one time,” Matthew muttered.

“I bet he still thinks making a girl laugh is enough to get her off,” Mitch added, practically giggling now.

You turned your head toward Matthew, sipping your drink with a smirk. “Is that true, Kniesy? Is that your big secret weapon?”

His eyes flicked to yours, somewhere between defensive and amused. “Maybe… you know, I’m very attentive.”

“Oh, so you’ve read a women’s magazine before.”

“Hey,” he said, leaning in, “I didn’t say Cosmo wasn’t a resource.”

Laughter broke across the group. Even you giggled—genuinely. He was good at that, at making you laugh without trying too hard.

And still, you felt it: a shift in the air. The faint buzz of someone watching.

You turned your head, casually scanning the room.

William stood near the windows. Alone.

A glass of something amber in his hand, one foot crossed over the other, posture relaxed—but his eyes were trained on you. He looked like something out of a noir film. Gold hair curling slightly at the nape of his neck, sharp jaw highlighted in low light, blue eyes unreadable but unwavering.

You hadn’t spoken much tonight. A few words in passing. A gentle squeeze of your elbow when you first arrived. But you knew that look. You’d felt it before.

William Nylander didn’t hover. He didn’t chase. But he watched—especially when it came to you. Not possessive. Not overt. Just… watchful. Like someone who kept the perimeter clear without ever needing to be asked.

You turned back to your drink before your thoughts could spiral.

“So,” Matthew said, leaning in with a grin. “Back me up here. You do think I’m a good listener, right?”

You raised an eyebrow. “I think you’re an excellent listener. When it comes to Spotify playlists and Uber Eats orders.”

“Ouch.”

“I’m just saying,” you shrugged, teasing. “Your success rate with women might have less to do with skill and more to do with… face symmetry.”

Matthew groaned. “Unbelievable.”

You leaned into his shoulder, whispering just loud enough for only him to hear. “You’re cute. You’ve got a good heart. But I don’t think you know quite as much as you think you do.”

He looked down at you, playful spark dimming just a bit into something more earnest. “So teach me.”

The words hung between you for a beat longer than they should have.

You didn’t even get a chance to respond before William joined your side.

He didn’t say anything. Just stepped in, sitting close enough that his arm brushed yours. He was still holding his drink, but his attention was fully on the two of you now. And Matthew—bless him—sat up straighter.

William’s voice was quiet but firm. “Some lessons take more than charm.”

Matthew blinked. “Wasn’t asking you, bro.”

“I know,” William replied, eyes still on you. “But maybe she should.”

Your pulse jumped.

The banter was still there. The teasing. But something else had slipped underneath it. Something sharper. He wasn’t just joking. And neither were you.

You swallowed, trying to mask the heat rising in your chest. The room had shifted, and you weren’t sure if it was the alcohol or the way both of them were looking at you now—like you were something worth studying. Something worth sharing.

Somewhere deep in your gut, you felt it:

This night was far from over.

It was always like that with team nights out—one moment the room was buzzing, too full, too loud, everyone trying to shout over each other, and the next it was emptying out, drinks half-finished, jackets thrown over shoulders, plans whispered between teammates as they slipped out in pairs or small groups.

You hadn’t noticed how late it was until you checked your phone. Past one.

Someone had changed the playlist from classic bar bangers to something smoother, bass-heavy, the kind of rhythm you felt in your chest before you even recognised the song. The laughter had faded. The clinking glasses, too. And when you finally looked up from the low leather couch, it hit you—nearly everyone had left.

Nearly.

Matthew was still beside you, legs spread, fingers drumming lightly against his thigh, leaning forward now like the weight of the day had finally hit him. He looked relaxed. Buzzed. Eyes soft and cheeks still faintly flushed.

William stood a few feet away, now with his drink abandoned on the edge of a side table. He was rolling the hem of his sleeve with slow, careful fingers, like he had nowhere else to be.

You wet your lips, heart skipping when the silence held. It wasn’t awkward. But it wasn’t casual either.

Matthew exhaled a short laugh. “Didn’t realise we were the stragglers.”

“Or the smart ones,” William offered, finally sitting down in the armchair across from you both.

You watched the way he lounged into it, like his body already knew how to own a space before his mind even tried. William was… intimidating in the quiet. Not because he was trying to be—but because there was something about his silence that felt like a secret.

Matthew gave a half-smile. “Guess that means we get the afterparty.”

You stretched your arms above your head and hummed. “Or we’re just too stubborn to go home.”

“Speak for yourself,” Matthew said. “I live for moments like this.”

“Like what?”

“This,” he gestured around. “End of the night. No pressure. Just… honesty.”

You looked at him sideways, surprised.

William tilted his head. “That usually comes after drink number six.”

“Exactly,” Matthew grinned. “We’ve reached that stage.”

You didn’t say anything at first, just let your gaze bounce between them. The air felt… different. Still warm, but thicker. Slower.

“So,” Matthew said, suddenly glancing at you, “what’s the most honest thing you’ve said to someone after midnight?”

You blinked. “That’s a loaded question.”

“I know. That’s why I asked it.”

You smiled. “I told someone I was in love with their dog once.”

Matthew snorted. “That tracks.”

You glanced at William. “Your turn.”

He looked at you, then at Matthew. “I told someone I didn’t want just sex.”

That pulled the air tight.

Matthew blinked. You stared.

“Well, damn,” Matthew said softly. “Didn’t expect you to go deep.”

William just shrugged. “Honesty, right?”

You looked at him a moment longer. The calm in his voice wasn’t forced. There was no bitterness. But something flickered in his eyes. Something unreadable.

“What about you?” William asked, nodding at Matthew.

Matthew hesitated. Then smirked. “I once told a girl I could make her come just with my mouth.”

You burst out laughing. “No, you didn’t.”

He raised a hand in mock-defence. “Hey, she agreed with me.”

“Was she unconscious?”

William chuckled. “That’s the cockiest thing I’ve heard all week.”

Matthew grinned. “I’m just saying, I’m good at what I do.”

You gave him a look, playful but sharp. “You say that with a lot of confidence for someone who thought clitoral stimulation was a TikTok trend.”

Matthew feigned a gasp. “I did not!”

“You did,” William added, unbothered. “In the group chat. We all remember.”

“Et tu, Brute?”

You were laughing again, but something about the heat in your cheeks wasn’t just from amusement. It was Matthew’s eyes on you, bold and youthful, and William’s steadier gaze—quiet, unreadable, but somehow deeper. You felt the shift again. That edge between teasing and something else. Something closer to a line neither of you had acknowledged yet.

You stretched your legs out across Matthew’s lap without thinking. He rested his hands lightly on your shins, thumbs brushing over your skin. William’s eyes followed the movement, slow and deliberate.

“You know,” you said, tone light but voice quieter, “for a guy who claims to be so good with women, you never really struck me as someone who… understood them.”

Matthew raised an eyebrow. “Oh really?”

You nodded. “You’re enthusiastic. And sweet. But I think you think enthusiasm can replace intuition.”

He looked genuinely intrigued. “So what, I need a mentor?”

“Maybe,” you teased. “Someone older. Wiser. More… Swedish.”

William didn’t even blink. “You offering your services?”

You paused. The words hung there.

Then you tilted your head. “Maybe I am.”

Matthew leaned back, mock serious. “Are we talking about, like… a coaching session?”

You smirked. “You couldn’t handle me, Kniesy.”

“Try me.”

William shifted in his seat, jaw flexing just slightly. “He might try, but he won’t finish.”

Your breath hitched.

Matthew grinned, playing it cool. “You think you’d do better?”

William’s gaze never left yours. “I know I would.”

That’s when it happened. That moment. The second when everything tipped sideways. Because you weren’t joking anymore. And neither were they.

And God help you, but the idea didn’t scare you. It thrilled you.

You took a breath, heart pounding. “We could always find out.” The words slipped out softer than you expected. Barely more than a whisper.

Matthew blinked. “Wait—are you… serious?”

You looked between them. Maybe it was the drinks, or maybe it was the tension that had been brewing for years. Your pulse was screaming, but your gut was calm. “I trust you both,” you said. “And I… want to feel good. I want to be with people who know me. Who care.”

William leaned forward slowly. “We’d never do anything you weren’t sure about.”

Matthew nodded, eyes wide but sincere. “We’d take care of you.”

You gave a slow, steady nod. “Then let’s go.”

No one moved for a moment. It was like the silence itself needed a second to process what had just happened.

Then William stood first, walking over to you and offering a hand. You took it without hesitation. Matthew followed close behind, grabbing his jacket and slinging it over one shoulder.

And as you stepped into the cool spring air, sandwiched between two men who suddenly looked at you like you were a star they couldn’t stop orbiting, your chest tightened—not in fear, but in anticipation.

Because this wasn’t just a wild idea anymore.

This was happening.

And something told you… it would change everything.

William’s place was warm.

Not just physically, though the condo had that lived-in luxury—soft lighting, clean lines, the smell of cologne and something woodsy hanging faintly in the air. But the warmth came from something else. The quiet, steady kind. The way William held the door for you and Matthew. The way he let you walk in first like you belonged here.

You’d been in this place before—group hangs, pre-game meet-ups, the odd Sunday movie night when the guys needed normalcy. But never like this. Never with this undercurrent humming beneath your skin, this sense that every movement was leading somewhere.

“Can I get you guys anything?” William asked, already shrugging off his jacket.

You shook your head, still standing in the entryway, heartbeat too loud.

“No,” Matthew said softly. “I think we’re good.”

William looked over his shoulder at you, eyes darker now. “Then come here.”

You moved slowly, unsure but not nervous. Like stepping out onto a frozen lake—you could feel the tension beneath the surface, but something in you trusted it to hold.

Matthew trailed behind you, a step or two slower, his usual confidence muted now into something gentler. Watching you. Watching William.

You stood in the centre of the living room, just a breath apart, the three of you hovering like magnets waiting to be pulled together.

It was William who crossed the distance first.

His hand reached out, fingers brushing your jaw, tilting your face toward his.

“You sure?” he murmured.

You nodded. “Yeah.”

His kiss was soft. Focused. Like he’d wanted to kiss you for a long, long time and was finally allowing himself the pleasure. It wasn’t rushed. It wasn’t greedy. It was knowing.

You leaned into it before you realised, one hand sliding up his chest, anchoring yourself to the steady beat of his heart.

When he pulled back, it wasn’t far. Just enough to glance past you—to Matthew.

“Come here.”

Matthew obeyed. You felt his presence at your back, warm and close, as his hand found your waist and his lips grazed your neck.

“God,” he breathed. “This is… so much better than anything I ever imagined.”

You laughed softly, breath catching as he pressed a kiss behind your ear. “You imagined this?”

“I’m a guy,” he said. “We imagine everything.”

William chuckled low, one hand sliding along your arm. “Then stop imagining.”

And just like that, it began.

They moved with you, not at you—guiding you gently to the sofa, William sitting first and tugging you into his lap, your knees straddling him as Matthew settled beside you, hands brushing your thighs like a question.

You kissed William again, deeper now, more need curling beneath your skin. You felt Matthew’s lips at your shoulder, his hands climbing slowly up your torso, fingertips teasing beneath your blouse.

When he reached the first button, he paused.

“This okay?”

You nodded.

One by one, the buttons came undone. Then William’s hands joined his—warm palms sliding up your back as they helped you ease out of the fabric.

Every touch felt intentional. Every movement filled with quiet reverence.

“You’re beautiful,” Matthew whispered. “Like, unfairly.”

You turned your head and kissed him—Matthew—softly, testing the space between you, surprised by how natural it felt. How right. There was no hesitation, no awkward clash of lips. Just warmth. The heat of his breath mingling with yours as his mouth parted under the pressure, tasting of beer and something more.

Your fingers curled at his nape, drawing him in as you deepened it, emboldened by the low sound he made—half sigh, half groan. His hands stayed respectfully on your waist, thumbs rubbing soothing circles just above the hem of your jeans, as though memorising the feel of your body, asking for permission with every pass of skin on skin.

Then you felt another pair of hands—steady, sure, achingly familiar.

William’s.

They skimmed low, trailing from your ribs to your hips, where they caught the waistband of your jeans and knickers. He moved with careful intention, tugging them downward in one smooth, patient motion. You rose slightly, shifting your weight just enough to let him help you out of them completely.

The moment you were bare, the air hit your skin—cool, sharp, electric.

And then William’s mouth followed.

He kissed your inner thigh first, just above the knee, a slow drag of lips and breath that made you twitch. Then higher. Then higher still. You felt the stubble on his jaw graze you gently, his nose nudge soft skin as he pressed closer. And finally, the warmth of his breath against your core.

You couldn’t help it—you gasped.

His hands came to rest on your thighs, thumbs stroking soothing lines along their curve as he knelt between your legs. His eyes lifted to meet yours, sharp and dark and reverent, like he was about to say grace.

“I’ve thought about this,” he murmured, more to himself than to you. “About tasting you. About making you fall apart.”

And then his mouth was on you.

Firm. Intentional. Unhurried.

His tongue swept through your folds with maddening precision, teasing before pressing flat against your clit with just the right amount of pressure. He moaned softly into you, and the vibration alone sent a bolt of heat through your spine.

Your back arched, hands scrambling for something to hold on to. One found his shoulder. The other slid into his hair—thick, soft, a little damp with sweat—and you tugged, instinctively, just enough to feel him groan in response. The sound went straight through you.

You could feel every detail. Every flick of his tongue. Every purposeful pause. Every moment he let his nose nudge against your thigh like he couldn’t get close enough. It was overwhelming. And still—somehow—exactly what you needed.

Beside you, Matthew hadn’t moved far. His breath was uneven now, chest rising and falling like he’d just sprinted a shift. He reached out with one hand, stroking the length of your arm with gentle reverence. His other hand cradled your jaw, grounding you in his presence as his lips found yours again—slow, coaxing kisses that gave you something to hold onto while William unraveled you below.

Your thighs began to shake. That pressure—low, hot, coiling—was building fast.

“W-Willy,” you gasped, hips tilting into his mouth.

And then he stopped.

Pulled back. Licked his lips.

You let out a sound—needy, wrecked, half-whimper.

He just smiled. “Your turn,” he told Matthew, his voice rough and knowing.

Matthew looked like he might combust on the spot.

“I—I don’t wanna ruin the fun,” he admitted, flushed to the ears, breath catching.

“You won’t,” William said calmly, standing to his full height. “Watch. Listen. Then try.”

You moved in your position, pulse still racing, as you lay back on the couch, legs open and draped across the cushions in invitation. Matthew moved between them, eyes wide, searching your face like you were sacred scripture.

“Okay?” he asked quietly.

You nodded, offering a reassuring smile. “You’ve got this.”

He started slow. Tongue tentative. Hands a little unsure, but sweet. So sweet.

William crouched beside him, not touching either of you—just guiding. “Go slower. Focus on the top. Feel her breathing. Let that guide you.”

Matthew listened. Really listened.

He adjusted. Tilted his head. Flattened his tongue. One of his hands splayed against your lower stomach, the other steadied your thigh, and he moaned when he felt you twitch beneath him.

Your breath caught.

He was definitely a quick learner. Smart and curious. And when he found that rhythm—pressure and pace just right—you let your head fall back with a cry.

“Matt—oh my God—”

He kept going. Determined now and focused. He sucked your clit a few times, and just like that you came, hard and fast—hips bucking, hands fisting the cushions, voice echoing through the room as the coil inside you snapped and pleasure rushed over you in waves.

Matthew pulled back slowly, lips shiny, eyes wide with something like awe.

“Oh… yes,” he breathed, resting his head on your thigh like he couldn’t believe what he’d just done. “That was—holy shit.”

William chuckled softly from above you, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Told you.”

You were still shaking, heart pounding, chest heaving.

And then they came back to you. William next to you on the couch, lifting you gently into his lap, kissing your temple. Matthew kneeling at your feet, stroking your calves as he gazed up at you with something between pride and disbelief.

And then, like they’d rehearsed it, they kissed you—one on the neck, one on your lips. Like you were sacred. Like you were theirs.

And for the first time in a long time, you felt like you were.

“More?” William asked, his voice husky, lips brushing the shell of your ear.

You nodded, breath shaky, body still humming from the aftershocks of pleasure.

“Say it,” he whispered, his hand trailing down your side, anchoring you with every touch. “Tell us what you want.”

Your reply was a breath, a confession. “I want you. I want to feel you inside me.”

The air shifted—like something ancient and silent had just been summoned. They helped you up, warm hands on your arms and hips as you left the sofa behind and padded down the hallway together. William guided you into his bedroom, dimly lit and clean, with soft sheets and the faint scent of cedarwood lingering in the air. You could hear Matthew behind you, the slight catch in his breath, the soft creak of the floorboard under his weight.

Your back met the edge of the bed, and you sank down gently as you watched them both undress completely.

William stood at the foot of it, eyes dark with restraint as he reached into the nightstand drawer. He slid a condom out of the box, tore it open with ease, and rolled it on with a practiced hand, his gaze never leaving you. Then he climbed onto the bed, shifting beside you and drawing you gently to your side, body curled around yours.

His hands were everywhere—stroking your spine in long, grounding sweeps, massaging your hips with reverence, touching you like he was reminding himself you were real. One of your legs lifted to hook over his hip, welcoming him in.

He kissed your shoulder, your neck, your cheek, before positioning himself at your entrance.

And then—slowly, carefully—he pressed in.

The stretch made your eyes flutter shut. You gasped, body arching instinctively as the fullness hit, his body molding to yours in the most intimate way. The heat of his chest at your back. The sound of his breath at your ear. It was more than sex—it was surrender.

You opened your eyes—and there was Matthew.

Standing in front of you, one hand loosely gripping the base of his cock, the other resting against his stomach. He was flushed, eyes heavy, lips parted as he watched William sink into you.

You reached for him. “Come here.”

He did.

You took him in your hand first—slow, teasing strokes that made his hips twitch—before guiding him gently to your lips. You kissed the tip, then slid your mouth over him inch by inch, letting the moan in your throat reverberate around him.

William began to move behind you. Long, deep thrusts. Controlled. Reverent. His fingers tightened around your waist as he matched the rhythm of your mouth.

It was overwhelming—in the best possible way. The push and pull. The heat. The rhythm of William moving inside you, the weight of Matthew on your tongue, their soft groans and praises surrounding you like a lullaby spun from sin and safety.

You were the centre of gravity. And you wanted more.

You pulled off Matthew with a whimper, lips wet, hand still stroking him slowly. “I want to feel you too,” you whispered to him. “Please.”

They stilled.

William’s hand traced down your side, grounding you. Matthew looked at you like he was trying to memorise you.

A pause. Then William’s voice, low and careful: “You’re sure?”

You nodded. “Yes. I want this. I want both of you.”

William then gently pulled out before Matthew reached for a condom with shaking hands, tearing it open and rolling it on with quiet reverence. Then he lay back on the mattress, propped on pillows, arms open in invitation.

You climbed over him slowly, one knee on each side of his hips, gently and slowly guiding him to your entrance. You gasped as you eased down onto him—already sensitive, already aching—and he moaned beneath you, hands flying to your hips like he couldn’t believe you were real.

You rode him slowly at first, trying to catch your breath. But then William was behind you again—steady, calm, the grounding presence he always was. He pressed soft kisses between your shoulder blades, hands sliding along your waist.

“Lean forward for me,” he murmured.

You obeyed, bracing your hands on either side of Matthew’s head. His arms cradled your back, keeping you steady as William positioned himself again.

You felt him—hot and hard—at your entrance. And then, with excruciating care, he pushed inside.

The stretch made you cry out. Your fingers curled into the sheets. Your body trembled with the sheer intensity of it.

“You’re doing so well, baby,” William breathed into your shoulder. “Let me in. Let us take care of you.”

They held still for a long moment, letting you adjust. Letting your body catch up to the sensation of being filled completely.

Then—slowly—they began to move.

In sync.

One pushing while the other pulled. A rhythm of careful thrusts and reverent touches. Their hands roamed your body like you were art. Their lips brushed against your back, your shoulder, your neck. Matthew’s eyes locked with yours, wide and worshipful.

You’d never felt anything like it. Not even close.

The pleasure was molten. Liquid. Spreading through you like wildfire. Your moans turned to cries. Their names spilled from your lips like prayers.

You came first.

It hit like a wave—your body shuddering, your thighs quaking, your voice cracking as they held you between them, coaxing you through it.

Matthew followed next, gasping your name as he thrust deep one last time, head thrown back against the pillow.

William came last—always controlled, always composed—his arms wrapping tightly around you as he buried himself fully, groaning into your skin as he let go.

And then…

Stillness.

Just the sound of breathing. The weight of their bodies. The lingering tremble in your limbs.

You collapsed between them, chest heaving, every nerve ending singing.

No one spoke. They didn’t have to.

It was quiet.

Not the kind of silence that begged to be filled—but the kind that settled in like a warm blanket, the kind that only followed something honest. Something real. Like your bodies had said more than words ever could, and now the quiet was just the breath between pages.

You lay between them. Skin still flushed, heartbeat finally slowing. Matthew beneath you, chest rising and falling, one hand still tracing lazy patterns up and down your back. William behind you, one arm wrapped securely around your waist, the other splayed across your ribs like he never wanted to let go.

No one moved. Not really.

Matthew let out a low, exhausted chuckle.

“I can’t feel my legs.”

You smiled, face buried against his chest. “Can’t feel my brain.”

William kissed the top of your spine. “Can’t feel bad about that.”

You laughed softly—genuine, a little sleepy. Your muscles ached, but not in a way that hurt. More like the echo of something good. Something earned.

They stayed close, touching you gently like you might disappear if they let go for even a second.

You shifted slightly, limbs heavy, letting your cheek rest against Matthew’s chest. His skin was warm. His heartbeat steady.

“I still feel like I’m floating,” you murmured.

“Same,” he said, voice low, a little shy now. “That was…”

He didn’t finish.

He didn’t need to.

William’s voice came from behind you, soft and steady. “You were perfect.”

You turned your head just enough to glance at him over your shoulder.

“So were you.”

He smiled—slow, tired, full of something that made your heart clench.

“I mean it,” he said. “You didn’t just… let us have you. You trusted us. That matters.”

Matthew nodded. “It really does.”

You closed your eyes, letting the weight of those words sink in. Maybe it should’ve felt overwhelming. Maybe you should’ve been second-guessing everything. But all you felt was… full.

In every sense of the word.

“Alright,” William said, sitting up a little. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

You started to protest, but he was already easing you up, his hands gentle, movements unhurried. Matthew helped too, his touch soft, reverent, the teasing edge from earlier now replaced with something tender.

William disappeared into the ensuite, returning a moment later with a warm cloth and a bottle of water.

He crouched beside the bed, pressing the bottle into your hands. “Small sips.”

You obeyed.

Then he brushed a damp cloth between your thighs, movements careful, almost clinical—but still loving. Like he was honouring the body he’d just worshipped.

You touched his wrist lightly, silently thanking him.

When he finished, he climbed back into bed beside you. You reached for him without thinking. Matthew rolled over too, pressing a kiss to your temple.

“We should probably talk,” you whispered, unsure where the thought came from, but knowing it needed to be said.

“Eventually,” William said, already pulling the covers up over all three of you. “But not tonight.”

“Yeah,” Matthew echoed. “Let’s just… be.”

You sank into the sheets, wrapped in warmth and the scent of their skin.

The weight of the moment finally settled in your chest—not heavy, but real.

Because this wasn’t just some wild night. Not something you’d laugh about tomorrow and lock away in a mental file labelled “one-time mistakes.”

This was something else. Something that shifted tectonic plates you hadn’t realised were movable.

You didn’t know what tomorrow would bring. You didn’t know what this meant for any of you.

But right now, in this bed, with two men who had just shown you more tenderness and reverence than you’d ever expected to receive in your entire life—right now, you weren’t afraid.

You were seen. Held. Wanted.

And when you finally drifted off, tangled between William’s quiet strength and Matthew’s golden warmth, the last thing you felt was a kiss on your forehead… and a voice, low and steady, murmuring into the dark:

“Sleep, baby. We’ve got you.”

#my asks #smut 18+#william nylander x reader x Matthew knies #william nylander imagine #matthew knies imagine #wn88 imagine #nhl smut #nhl fanfiction #nhl imagines

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garageofshumii · 3 days ago

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letting this idea out of the vault. opinions? (it would be a multichaptered landoscar au set in the 2025 season with comparisons— i won't spoil it, but connections to another ship)

Oscar doesn't even know how it starts, really. Lando's practically glowing, full of confidence from his win in the last race, last year. He moves with an easy grace, invading Oscar's private space a little too much for his liking. "Straya mate," His teammate leans over, waving a small camera on in a stick in his face. "So, Piastri. How's it feel to be back home?" Piastri. Lando hasn't called him that in a while. Not since— well, not since Hungary. He used it more in Oscar's rookie season, but since then, they've gotten closer. At least, that's what Oscar thinks. Oscar frowns, batting the camera away with one hand. Lando looks positively delighted with himself, smile just as wide as it had been when he won in Miami. "Would you like—" Lando pauses, a cute little pout appearing on his face as he tries to collect his words. "—A vegemite sanga?" His attempt at an Australian accent is terrible. From the passenger seat, Mark's head swivels around, unimpressed with Lando's antics. His eyebrows are narrowed in disdain and his lips tilt downward in a frown. Lando returns his gaze defiantly, chin jutting out as he corrects his posture, appearing a little taller than normal. "Your teammate's accent is terrible." Mark comments dryly, eyes straying to the streets as they pass by. Oscar follows suit, more out of habit than anything else, and a familiar brown sign winks at him as they come to a stop at the red light, a few metres away from the shop. He catches Mark's eye in the rearview mirror. "Can we make a quick stop for gelato?" He asks. Messina is basically non-existent outside of Australia, and he misses hokey pokey and the honeycomb pieces in the gelato. Mark is frowning and Oscar snaps his mouth shut, waiting hopefully— Lando perks up at the mention of dessert. "There's gelato?" Mark shakes his head exasperatedly, dropping around 100 bucks of cash in Oscar's hand. The lobster-coloured notes send an ache of something running through his chest. Mark nods at the handle of the car door. "Off you go then," He says, a hint of a smile on his face. "Get me their biggest tub available. Nicky glasses, hokey pokey, and—" His face falls slightly, as if he just recalled a painful memory. "—vanilla." He says the flavour like it had personally offended him, even though the Aussie isn't necessarily one to hold grudges. Usually. His manager is looking a little on the edge at the moment; jetlag will do that to you, and Oscar has the sudden urge to get out of the car and take Lando with him. He grabs Lando by the wrist gently, successfully capturing the Brit's attention and the use of his dominant hand in one fell swoop. Lando grins a little at him, wiping the curls out of his eyes that look green in the relentless afternoon sun. "Let's go," Oscar says, letting go of Lando's wrist. He opens the car door and almost spills out onto the road in a pile of nervous energy. Thankfully, his reflexes keep him from embarrassing himself and Lando follows out behind him, two feet planted firmly on the ground and hands clutching a digital camera of some sorts. Their car takes off with a loud noise as the engine starts, disappearing off down the street. Oscar's pretty sure he sees a self-satisfied smirk on Mark's face as he drives away, but he isn't lost. At long last, he takes a deep breath and looks around at Melbourne. I can get home by myself, easy, Oscar grins to himself. He's very happy— this is home, after all. The streets are familiar. Lando shifts on his feet, slightly nervous, maybe a little unsettled by the strange surroundings. Oscar turns and wraps an arm around Lando's waist, steering him towards his favourite gelato place in the whole world. Lando giggles a little; he's hyperactive, despite having not consumed any sugar since the apple juice on the flight over. Oscar tilts his head, looks over at Lando and smiles. "Welcome to Melbourne, Lando Norris."

tags: @lewispitlane

#shumii.writing #fic: 21/07/24 #f1 #formula 1 #lando norris #oscar piastri #ln4 #op81 #landoscar

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darknight3904 · 12 hours ago

Note

tommyxfemreader thigh riding🫦 maybe in her home in Jackson lowkey forbidden since he’s with Maria (love u queen but…)

Pretty Boy

Jackson!Tommy x Fem!Reader

Summary: Cursed to watch him from afar, you finally make a move on Tommy one day when he's stuck in your house due to a thunderstorm.

Warnings: Language, Smut 18+, Dom/swtich!reader, sub/switch Tommy, thigh riding, dirty talk, handjobs, cheating (don't do that irl.)

TLOU Masterlist

Word Count: 2.2k

I got carried away with this one, whoopsie. Went a bit off the rails, but I hope you enjoy it, anon. @xodilfluvr No pressure tag, but I think you're going to like this one.

You had a major problem.

You couldn’t get him out of your fucking head. Tommy Miller was eating up every spare nook and cranny your brain had to offer.

You arrived in Jackson nearly a year ago. With its quaint town and even nicer people, you were finally comfortable here at the end of the world. The issue though had started about six months ago, your first patrol run was led by none other than the ex-Firefly himself. You at first hadn’t thought much of him, probably just another guy with a big mouth and no skill to back it up. Instead, you were astounded when he brought down three infected, all head shots, from atop a large hill. Then, he’d wrapped his arms around you, repositioning your elbows in the best way to hold a gun so you didn’t get knocked on your ass by the kick back. His deep voice had your head spinning as you tried to focus on what he was saying about aiming right.

Since then, you’d become a woman obsessed. But truly it wasn't your fault, Tommy Miller was just really fucking pretty, a pretty boy if you will. Dark curls and big brown eyes to go with, god, he was gorgeous, who could blame you for being so interested?

Now, most people would bite the bullet, ask their crush out instead of pining like some teenage girl, and you would, you really would, except there was one issue. Tommy Miller was a taken man.

Maria had scooped him up a few months back, right when you realized your feelings, too. How convenient. You had no interest in being a homewrecker, but admiring never hurt anyone, right? You could look all you wanted, just not touch. Kind of like a fancy museum, Tommy was the artwork and you were the observer, content with staring and imaging what that piece might look like above you each night, sweaty and with loud moans coming out of his pretty-

“You alright?”

“Oh, yeah, m’ fine.” You say

The loud sound of rain beating down on the twenty-something-year-old roof had you nervous, hopefully, it wouldn’t cave in tonight while you slept. The storm had come out of nowhere. One minute, you and Tommy were standing in your kitchen; he had swung by to tell you that the patrol shift was changing since Eugene had pulled a muscle in his back, the next, it was raining like a fucking monsoon was coming through Jackson.

“Damn it.” Tommy curses as he stares out the window over your kitchen sink, “M’ gonna get drenched going out there.”

“You could just stay here,” You blurt out, “Just till the storm blows over.”

Tommy looks at you, obviously weighing his options: go outside, get drenched, and probably end up sick since it was a twenty-minute walk between your place and his, or sit down and just wait it out.

“Alright, fine, better than getting soaked to hell.” He grumbles

Tommy had been in a sour mood all week, you had picked up on it after he hadn’t had his usual pizzaz during your Thursday shift with him down in the greenhouse. You motioned for him to sit down on the couch, handing him a glass of brandy.

“Where the hell did you get this?” He sniffs the glass

“It’s a secret.” You smile, sitting across from him in the big armchair you loved, “You look like you need to relax, figured it’d help a bit.”

Tommy sighs, sipping the amber liquid, his adams apple bobbing as he does, you squirm in your seat, fuck you hadn’t been alone with him like this since well…ever.

“Yeah, it’s been a long couple of weeks. Maria’s been busy, council shit new buidlings and then that roof that caved in on Leona’s house.” Tommy sighs, “Haven’t seen much of each other.”

You hum in acknowledgement, feeling sorry for how lonely he must’ve been.

“Sorry, you don’t wanna hear my shit.” Tommy gives you a small smile

“No!” You counter, “I like hearing you talk.”

“Is that so?”

True to your request, Tommy talks to you. As he sips at his drink you refill it twice, loosening him up a bit as you pour yourself some listening to him talk about how he found some fancy new scope for his gun.

“You wanna watch a movie?” You ask

“Tired of listening to me, sweetheart?” He smiles, a faint blush on his skin from the drink

“Nah, just got something I think you might like,” You grin, waving a DVD case that reads Alien on it, “It’s the directors cut.”

“Well, shit, pop it in.” Tommy grins

The movie hazily plays in the background as you sit beside Tommy on the sofa a single throw pillow separating the two of you as he rests his arm on it. You’re too focusied on the man beside you to take any note of whatever the hell Ripley was doing on screen. You’re too focused on the way Tommy’s thighs shift every few minutes the muscles straining against the tight denim of his dark blue jeans.

Without thinking about it, you reach out running a delicate hand up his thigh, brushing the fabric of the pocket before he jumps back.

“What the hell’er you doin’?” His loud voice bounces off the wall

“Shit, sorry!” You fumble, jumping back as if he’s burned you, tears whelling in your eyes. You hadn’t expected him to be so well repulsed by you “I didn’t mean to, fuck.”

Tommy eyes you, the flickering screen illuminating him for a second. His eyes scan over your figure, probably thinking you were some pathetic loser, crying cuz’ he raised his voice for second.

“Sorry, you just uh scared me.” Tommy doubles back, “Didn’t mean to make ya cry, sweetheart.”

Tommy’s next move has you shocked, he inches closer to you, a big hand cradles your face as he wipes a few stray tears that have escaped your burning waterline. He lets out a low hum, one that spreads warmth across your stomach and down to your lower belly.

“Pretty.” He softly whispers like it’s a secret no one can know, if only he knew you thought the same about him.

You nuzzle into his touch, elated to finally feel his hands on your bare skin again. You never want to leave this moment.

Tommy pulls back abruptly, hands falling down, “Sorry, I shouldn’t have…I should leave, got shit to do at home, theres this leaky faucet and the basement door is broken.”

He’s rambling still as you place a small hand on his chest, keeping him on the sofa beside you. You grab the remote, muting the TV and switching it off, you’ll pop the disc out later on. The alcohol has you bolder than ever as you push him back down when he goes to stand. Your legs straddle his hips, using your weight to keep him right where you want him.

“But it’s still raining.” You whisper, leaning in so your nose brushes his

Under you, you can feel something hard beginning to form, his cock twitching against you as you slowly begin to shift a bit, pretending like you don’t know what you’re doing. Tommy’s hands rest on your hips, his eyes fluttering shut, a soft fuck leaving his lips as you move.

“Darlin’ this isn’t…I’m…Maria and I…”

You push a finger to his lips, “Shhh…It’s alright.”

You push yourself off his lap, knees hitting the soft carpet as you pull the zipper of his jeans down, the pretty sight of his green and blue boxers greeting you, “You’ve been so stressed, Tommy, let me take care of it.”

You push the band of his underwear down, his hard cock springing up from the fabric, it’s drooling head leaking as your eyes widen. You expected him to be big, just not this big.

You’ve only pressed a kiss to the pink tip of it before Tommy is hauling you back up into his lap, settling you on one of his thighs.

“What’re you doing?” You ask

“I wanna watch you.” He mumbles, skin flushed as he stares at you, fingertips tugging at your shirt

A coy smile lines your face, you hold all the cards now, he was yours. You free yourself from your shirt, unclipping your bra as you go and then you stand only for a second to wiggle your pants off. Your hands have just hooked under your panties when he stops you.

“Keep 'em on.” A deeper blush paints his pretty face, “Wanna watch you with them on.”

You smile, pressing your lips to his as you settle back on his thigh, cunt weeping when you feel it flex under you.

“What do you want me to do, cowboy?” You softly whisper into his ear, teeth nipping the sensitive skin there., "Hmm? Gonna ask me? Y'look so damn pretty like this, mmm pretty boy."

“Fuck…” Tommy whispers voice just barely there after all your compliments, “Ride my thigh, baby, get yourself off on me.”

You softly hum, “What do we say? Gotta ask nicely, pretty boy.”

Tommy’s eyes scan your face, he clearly isn’t used to be treated like this for just a split second you think you’ve over stepped but then he’s opening his mouth again, falling into your hands.

“Please.” He softly asks

You press a kiss to his cheek and then to the tip of his nose, “Good job.” You mumble.

You’re not sure what’s come over you tonight, you could blame it on the brandy, the alcohol is the reason you’re dominating your crush of a whole year, the same man who was in a relationship with the literal laader of your town. Perhaps it’s just the result of buried feelings, all you know is that this feels good, and it seems like you’re not the only one.

Each roll of your hips along his thigh has Tommy’s lips falling with a groan as his cock weeps for you. A loud moan leaves your lips when the muscle beneath you flexes, Tommy’s deep voice fills your ears.

“Fuck you’re pretty like this. Christ, always knew you’d look good ontop of me.”

Your head spins. Tommy Fucking Miller had just admitted to having sexual fantasies of you. You hips roll more argressively against him, the cotton of your panties is soaked, proably seeping into his jeans as you get yourself off on his thigh.

“T-Touch me, touch me please.” He mumbles, hips jumping up towards your hand when one lands on his belly

“You sure?” You mumble a smirk on your lips, “Thought you were a taken man, what we’re doin’ right now is certainly forbidden.”

Tommy’s head falls back onto the couch when your run a finger over the slit of his cock, a fucking whimper leaving his lips.

“Fuck, I don’t care.” He groans, eyes squeezed shut

“Look at me.” You say, you’re not going to miss one second of this

The thick muscle of his leg presses up to your clothed clit and you bite your lip, Tommy’s deep brown eyes meet yours and you feel a bit sorry for him.

Your hand wraps around his cock, pumping him at the same pace your hips roll into him. He groans your name loudly as you twist your wrist.

“Baby, fuck…” Tommy’s forehead glistens with sweat as you press a warm kiss to his neck, nipping at his skin, “M’ not gonna last.”

“Go on.” You smile, “Cum for me, I don’t mind.”

“Not til you get yours.” He affirms, his stomach tightening as you steady yourself by placing a hand on his shoulder

Big hands find your soft chest, thumbs flicking at your nipples as you try to keep your cool, wanting to maintain your dominance over him.

“You gonna cum? Gonna cum all over my fucking thigh?” Tommy grins, your hand still pumping him, “Yeah, you are, it’s like you’re in heat, girl. Knew you wanted me, always starin’ like I’m some piece of meat you wanna strap down on your bed.”

“T-Tommy!” If he keeps this up, you’re going to lose it

"It's alright, I'd let ya." He laughs, "Yeahhh that's it, she's crying all over my fucking jeans, gonna havta' wash em' real good tonight."

A loud moan leaves your lips, your brain is blank as he talks to you, your climax is so close.

“Go ahead, pretty girl, cum on me,” His southern drawl fills your ears, “M’ all yours now, go ahead, stake your claim.”

Another roll of your hips and he roughly gropes your sensitive chest and you’re gone, wetness spilling into your ruined panties and his pants as Tommy groans into your ear. Warm cum spurts over your hand as he reaches his end, chest heaving as your his stutter into his thigh.

You bury your face in his neck, not wanting him to leave you again. The storm outside has stopped; you can tell by the way the sunlight has started to stream back through the windows.

“You alright?” Tommy whispers into the still air

“Fine.” You say, looking at him as he stares back

Tommy glances around, eyes scanning your nearly nude form, his ruined jeans, the discarded pile of your clothes, his softening cock and your hand covered in his spunk.

“Fuck.” He groans

You knew it, He regretted it, that line about him being yours wasn’t real. You’d fucked up majorly and lost a friend, god you were so fucking stupid sometimes. You go to stand, legs a weakened mess as you stumble. Before you can get far though, Tommy pulls you back down into his warm body.

“Where the hell are you goin’?” Tommy asks, “You’re stayin’ here with me. I’ll get you water in a minute, then we can go shower.”

Water? Shower? With him? What the hell was he thinking? Didn't he need to get home to his girlfriend and the broken basement door?

As if he’s a mind reader, Tommy presses a kiss to your lips, “ Don’t gotta worry about Maria anymore, I’m all yours now, baby.”

Liked this fic? Check out More Tommy Here

This is the product of listening to Sabrina Carpenter while writing. I think it turned out nicely :)

Requests are open, I love getting them, so if you have anything you really want me to write, don't be shy, come chat.

#tommy miller #tommy miller x reader #tommy miller x fem!reader #tommy miller smut #tommy miller fluff #tlou #the last of us #fanfic #smut #requests #tlou smut

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iwritenarrativesandstuff · 2 days ago

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Theory: LX intended for CXS to dive to save LG

Preface and disclaimer: this is kind of an out-there theory; more a few loose thoughts that I found interesting to think on - I fully expect that some or all of this will turn out to be totally wrong. Link Click loves showing us scenes only to later have them be revealed as either a) shown out of order, or b) recontextualized by further info we weren't initially privy to. I fully expect this will be the case in s3.

For now though, concerning Cheng Xiaoshi's death, Yingdu arc is what we have to work with. And there's a particular scene that really, really bothers me: the very opening confrontation against Vein.

(Actually, there's a lot that bothers me. There are multiple timeline inconsistencies that can't simply be explained by animation error - the most egregious is CXS figuring out his powers by diving alone when he had to figure that out in s1, well after the point many timeline changes had already occurred that would directly lead to the events of s2, our current timeline. It makes my head hurt. That's why this post is not about the inconsistencies, even though it bothers me that I cannot come up with a good explanation for this atm. My best guess is that multiple possibilities or potentials are collapsing in on a singular timeline due to LX, SYY and/or LG's actions but I really don't know. Whatever. On with the theory.)

Let's start with a key assumption. If this assumption is proven to be wrong later, then the theory very much falls apart, but I feel fairly confident about this for now.

Assumption: CXS's death scene from Yingdu episode 1 is the original timeline, as is the dive back to the basketball court.

The reason I think this is from both a narrative standpoint and a character one. From a narrative standpoint, it makes sense to show us either the first timeline or the most recent one after s2's cliffhanger ending. These are the timelines that actually have consequences for our story. Here, we see a lot of focus given to the transfer of Cheng Xiaoshi's power, and his dying request of Lu Guang. This dying request, to save everyone, is referenced in a later nightmare sequence, where Lu Guang is reminded that everyone has died. I don't think it makes much sense to focus on Cheng Xiaoshi's final words in a repeated timeline, unless they were framed as something Lu Guang has clearly heard before, which, they weren't.

Which brings me to the main reason I believe this is the original timeline: Lu Guang's reaction.

He's in shock for much of the events here - doesn't look at all like he knows or knew what was about to happen. If this wasn't the original timeline, I would expect him to look more desperate and sad than shocked. His reaction after diving also doesn't make much sense to me if this isn't the first dive he's attempted. Again, I'd expect him to look more haunted and sullen if this is a repeat. Instead, he looks around at his clothes and at his surroundings for a bit before getting hit by the ball, sees Cheng Xiaoshi, gasps and immediately tears up. <- Not the reaction I'd expect from a man used to diving.

Hopefully, you either agree with me or can at least suspend your disbelief enough to hear me out.

Let's go over what's odd about the initial Vein confrontation, yes?

Vein never actually shoots or even aims at Cheng Xiaoshi

"This is the punishment for you changing the past."

Vein doesn't finish off Lu Guang afterwards

Point 1: Vein knocks Cheng Xiaoshi back and twirls his gun. A few seconds pass in which Vein does not aim at Cheng Xiaoshi at all, just stands there, maybe to make sure he stays down. Lu Guang rounds the corner and Vein immediately fires a shot at him.

If Vein wanted to kill Cheng Xiaoshi, he could've already done it here. He's fast. He fired that shot at Lu Guang in a split second. The implication here is that Cheng Xiaoshi was not the target - the target was Lu Guang.

Point 2: Vein tells Lu Guang that his actions are punishment for changing the past. If we go by the assumption that this is the original timeline, this... doesn't make much sense. Lu Guang doesn't have the power to change the past without Cheng Xiaoshi's ability. It suggests that Vein is not after them here because of Lu Guang's attempt(s) to save Cheng Xiaoshi, but for some other deviation.

Conclusion? This is a shared punishment. In the original timeline, it seems very likely that Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi made some kind of change, or changes, to the past. <- This may actually explain why Lu Guang in the current timeline is so adamant about Cheng Xiaoshi not changing anything.

It is possible that the combination of their powers resulted in some kind of significant deviation, or else that they were mistaken for or had the blame pinned on them for someone else's actions. Either way, Vein seems to only gun for one of them, but it's not the one I'd expect.

After all, if this is a punishment for changing the timeline (and presumably, you wouldn't want them changing anything else), why wouldn't you shoot the guy who actually... makes the changes? Why try to shoot Lu Guang?

Well... maybe you would if you actually wanted the exact opposite outcome.

Vein misses Lu Guang several times in this scene. It's a little strange, given that he's been backed into a corner and his attempt to fight back does him no good at all. You can see in his fight against Shao Yuanyuan/Wang Qing in episode 6 that he does have good aim and is actually fairly efficient with his objectives. You could say he's toying with him, and maybe so! Vein clearly loves a good fight. Much like Liu Xiao, he has the vibe of a "hunter". But Vein also is stated to have a certain set of principles. To me, it feels like he's putting on a show.

This brings me back to the main question: why didn't he try to shoot Cheng Xiaoshi? Why kill everyone connected with them and attempt to kill Lu Guang, ostensibly as "punishment", when Cheng Xiaoshi is the one who can actually dive?

Point 3: Lu Guang helps Cheng Xiaoshi into the darkroom and locks the door. Vein fires a shot but then just kind of... stands there, grimacing. He doesn't even try to break the door down, which I'm sure he easily could. <-This is the weirdest part of the scene.

I don't think this was supposed to happen. I don't think Cheng Xiaoshi was intended to take that bullet.

I think Vein put on that show, wanting Cheng Xiaoshi to see him shoot Lu Guang. I don't think Vein expected Cheng Xiaoshi to dive in front and die.

You could say that Vein just decided to wait outside for Lu Guang to come out instead of exerting energy, but that's strange because in the time afterwards, from 23:11 on September 12th when they stumbled into the darkroom to just a little before 00:05 on September 13th when he leaves, Lu Guang gets injured, but is left alive, and Vein is nowhere to be seen. There is absolutely no way Lu Guang was able to fend off Vein, and the only other possible sign of a continued skirmish is more blood on the photo and its positioning (this could be an animation error, truthfully - everything else in the scene is the same as before - but if it is an error then that helps my point even more - there are no further signs of struggle).

The police didn't arrive and force Vein to leave. The implication is Vein left Lu Guang alive after waiting patiently outside the door for him to come out. Why? Why wait?

Well, one possible explanation: he didn't want to interrupt the power transfer.

Think about it. Why leave one alive, but kill everyone else? If it was to avoid them making changes, only one of the pair with the actual powers needs to die. Not everyone connected to them. This situation seems explicitly orchestrated to make it so Cheng Xiaoshi cannot resist diving back. I suspect he was already intending to - if you look at the scene where Lu Guang glances down at the shattered photo, his breath hitches - I suspect Qiao Ling is already dead and they know that.

Cheng Xiaoshi's last request is to save everyone, since he is now unable to - he cannot take the shot himself, so he passes the ball to the person he trusts most. And I think this was the goal all along. In a situation like this, how could he not try to save them? Especially if, as I suspect, the rules regarding past and future weren't made quite as strict in this timeline as they are in the current one.

Except this didn't go quite according to plan, because in epic Cheng Xiaoshi fashion, he did something that wasn't anticipated and died in Lu Guang's stead. Not ideal, clearly, from Vein's reaction, but it doesn't actually matter.

All that matters is that one of them dives back. The outcome is the same.

Why kill everyone, but leave one alive, and with a power that will allow them and inevitably tempt them to try to save their loved ones? The most obvious answer is if this is exactly the outcome you wanted.

Now, why do I say Liu Xiao intended this if the main actor here was Vein? Well, for one, Vein doesn't seem aware in Yingdu arc of changes to the timeline, except in this scene. Needless to say, he is definitely not privy to Lu Guang having future knowledge - Lu Guang is suspicious to him, but it does not seem to occur to Vein that he could be from the future. This information likely comes from Liu Xiao, who Vein works with during the arc to obtain Cheng Weimin's book and who unzips his body bag at the end of the season. Out of anyone who could've orchestrated this, our favourite puppeteer manipulator is the most likely candidate.

I won't claim to know what's going on with Liu Xiao, nor what his goals actually are, but I suspect he has at least some future knowledge or is somehow able to catch glimpses of parallel lines. He comes across as much older in the flashbacks with him and Li Tianchen as children. There is an odd bit in Yingdu episode 2 during the roulette scene where there is a flash to the gun killing him. Metaphor or vision? It's hard to say.

Interestingly, in the Bridon pv, Liu Xiao looks back at Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang in the airport and smiles but does not approach them. Lu Guang even mentions that they didn't run into Liu Xiao in the past timeline.

At the end of episode 1, in the current timeline, Liu Xiao says "Finally, we can start the game." It implies that all the pieces are finally in place. This may be why he approaches Cheng Xiaoshi in the airport and asked Xia Fei to trail him, expecting him to have dived back from the future.

I suspect his knowledge isn't perfect. Liu Xiao is a gambler. He's not like Lu Guang, who needs to have perfect control and anticipate every outcome. He wasn't really paying much attention to Lu Guang at all until he noticed something strange - ostensibly his heartbeat. Again, I suspect the person he intended to have dive was Cheng Xiaoshi. Lu Guang was not expected - but he can still work with this, and clearly does, because at no point does it seem like any of Lu Guang's actions or knowledge disrupted his plans. Instead, it seems like everything is going smoothly because of his actions.

Everything Lu Guang does, including his decision to stall Vein and try to get him killed, seems to work out in Liu Xiao's favour. I suspect, inadvertently, that Lu Guang is doing exactly what he wants him to. Lu Guang's only real moment of "masterminding" is therefore implied to have been anticipated. Liu Xiao smiles when Xia Fei receives the call about Vein's "death", as if he knew.

"You might have seen something interesting."

It checks out. This frame from Train Trail during his verse says "the puppets are standing" over everyone's silhouettes - including Lu Guang. Lu Guang is also frequently shown as either trapped or drowning in official art and in Yingdu - if he was intended to be a mastermind on equal footing with Liu Xiao, I really don't think we'd see so much of his feelings of helplessness, nor his repeated assertions that he essentially has no idea what he's doing and doesn't actually expect the outcome to change. Liu Xiao doesn't seem to have any such compunctions or concerns in this sense.

If Lu Guang does turn out to have been essentially manipulated into this situation, it would follow a particular pattern seen in Link Click. There are characters who enact control over others but are ultimately being puppeteered or manipulated (Liu Min trying to control what is said about him comes to mind, as does Li Tianchen's literal control, to an extent), as well as characters who, through desperation and/or love, and the limited options available to them in their shitty situations, become complicit in something immoral and suffer for it (Emma taking the money from Zhu, Li Tianxi being the other half of the remote control, Vivian becoming a scammer). If Liu Xiao really did orchestrate Lu Guang's dive, then Lu Guang would follow both these patterns, as a puppet with the power of future knowledge that can (and perhaps has) hurt others, and as a victim who made a desperate choice and is now trapped by its consequences.

One last bit of evidence - this time explicitly about Liu Xiao.

^Everyone is familiar with 091305 by now. September 13th at 12:05 am. The date and time Lu Guang dived back from. However, something interesting here: the year is blurred out.

Moreover, I see people say sometimes that this is Cheng Xiaoshi's death date - it isn't. Remember the time from when they were in the darkroom? Cheng Xiaoshi's death occurred on September 12th, just a little past 11:11 pm.

Here's one last fun thing before I close out this post:

Liu Xiao, why does the date on your Tetris game-over say September 12th, 2024 when Yingdu arc takes place in 2019? I wonder whose game-over this could be?

#here. please read this i spent hours on it #liu xiao is so... fascinating. what do you want hat man? what's your goal here???#i'm so psyched to see where he and shao yuanyuan go as characters. three people meddling with the timeline now. damn #storyrambles #link click #link click theory #sgdlr #liu xiao #lu guang #cheng xiaoshi #vein #xiao weiying #forgot my analysis tag!!!#call me ace detective the way i am ace. and also a detective

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ragnarockz · 9 hours ago

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Beach House Mommy!Agatha x Reader but actually x me because it's my birthday tomorrow and I would want nothing more for her to [REDACTED] [SIRENS BLARING] [GUNSHOTS] me 🤎

Tip Jar 💰

You had to split up. There was no way around that fact. You were pretty sure it was the only way to tackle and hopefully complete the first trial. Jen had split you all up into pairs to find the ingredients needed to curb the poison. You kept your mouth shut knowing that originally Agatha hadn't drunk the wine at all. You had watched from the corner of your eye as she dumped it into the potted plant near the bar. You knew evidentially it would be hard to trust her through whatever the trial may be.

And of course, as your luck would have it, Jen had paired you up with Agatha.

You followed the witch as she moved quickly; trying to think on her feet of where two of you could possibly find petroleum. You mumbled something about Vaseline and heard her snap her fingers as she ushered you up the giant staircase to the huge bathroom. You followed her inside and caught a glance of her reflection through the almost floor to ceiling mirror. Your focus was waning as you, to put it bluntly, checked her out.

Maybe she had caught you staring or felt your eyes on the back of her head but she cleared her throat loudly and held onto the edge of the countertop and looked up into the mirror and back at your reflection.

"You know the longer we waste time...timer is ticking down there..."

"Sorry..."

Agatha shrugs as she lowers her gaze to look upon the countertop. Nothing remotely interesting there. You watch as she lets go of the countertop and bend slightly; trace the curve of the back of her legs through her grey pants as she opens up the cupboards.

"Wine?!"

You blink as you take a step and then two towards her; trying to peer over her shoulder to see for yourself.

Sure enough, among the bathroom essentials, there's a bottle of wine tucked under the vanity.

You hear the witch quietly laugh to herself under her breath as she grabs hold of the bottle's neck and pull it out from its hiding place. She places it on the countertop and grins like a well-fed cat. It sends shivers down your spine as you watch her and then suddenly feel as if your stomach sinks a little lower and your heart starts to beat quicker. Whatever the hell she's doing clearly is having an effect on you.

"Wine in the bathroom..."

You hear yourself mutter under your breath and catch as she half turns around to stare you down. Well-fed turns into hungry as you catch a glint in her eye and see the smile creep up on her lips. You hear her long french tipped nails tap against the countertop as it seems like she's doing nothing but waste time. Precious time that you know will run out if you don't find the ingredients that Jen needs to make the potion.

"Agatha-"

"Do you think this wine is poisoned?"

You don't answer her at first because how can you? You're playing with fire and you know it and you also know, that's exactly what she wants you to do. She wants you to reach out and try to touch the flames she's offering you with a grin. It's almost too pretty to ignore; almost too perfect and too tempting and you do, without thinking, take another step towards her.

You watch in silence as she tears into the bottle and opens it; no need for a corkscrew here. The gentle pop as the pressure is released makes you flinch and her lick her lips. She's staring you down now as she holds the bottle up tightly around its neck and you can see the veins in her hands from just how tight her grip is. Your mind starts to wader, starts to drift...

Those hands the same way around your own neck.

Her free hand comes up; palm up and her pointer finger curves to beckon you towards her. She does this exactly three time before she stops moving her finger and waits for you to close the gap between her.

And what can you really do in this moment but listen to her? She's walked this Road before, hasn't she?

She gap is closed and she slowly circles around you so that you are now the one with your back against the countertop edge and she's as free and open to move about if need be. She keeps that grin plastered on her face as she brings the bottle up a little higher; eyebrows raising in suggestion.

"No wine glasses up here..."

She's not telling you with the tone of her voice but almost, in a way, demanding you. You swallow hard and try not to let your gaze linger on her but you can't help it; cannot help but to stare her down and try to read her face as you bend your knees ever so slightly so that she's a head taller than you now. She looms over like a bad omen and you watch as she brings her arm higher, closer with the wine bottle slightly tipped.

She's waiting in silence; a pressure for you to conform and bend to her will.

Your knees get soft and week and your stomach flip flops and without a hint of doubt, you open up your mouth to her much like a baby bird waiting to be fed.

The smile on her face scares you just a little but also makes you feel red hot right inside of your core. Your eyes scan her face and can only pick up on the absolute pleasure this is giving her; the unmistakable power grab she's getting out of this. You feel your insides clench around nothing and a dull, deep throb between your legs almost sends you spiraling as your tongue pushes out ever so slightly.

You watch in silence as she brings the bottle closer so she doesn't spill anything as she tips the bottle and lets a stream of wine fall into your mouth.

It's sweeter than the one downstairs and lighter too in a way that's hard to describe. You close your eyes and hear her exhale through her nose as she somehow knows when it's time to tilt the bottle back to stop pouring. Whatever she's given you, you close your mouth and swallow it and pray that there won't be any side effects or even worse, death.

Death was what made Agatha scared downstairs; what made her unsure about when she was forced to drink her share of the poisoned wine. For someone who had been down the Road before, it was curious for you to see her in such a panicked state. Maybe before, death wasn't an issue so early on in the trials. Maybe now, the stakes were higher than ever before.

"...How was that? Good?"

Her words are sweeter than the wine and you try not to moan your response as your eyes open back up to stare at her. Her perfectly curled hair falls around her face in a soft veil and you wish nothing more than to reach out and touch it; feel it against your own face as she closes the gap maybe a little more.

Maybe this wine wasn't poisoned but, enchanted.

She holds the bottle with power as she does close the gap between you and her now, still towering over you as she does so. You try to push up with your knees to get back to regular height to face her and find yourself staggering as if that single drink she gave you was enough to make you tipsy. You hear her laugh; tiny and breathless as she allows you to stand up tall before she reaches past you to place the bottle down with a heavy thunk.

The gap closes and before you know it, the witch as her lips locked with yours as she's pushing you against the countertop with her body. You instantly feel the knobs of the cupboards hit against the back of your legs and the edge of the counter at your back. She breathes into your mouth and tries to stifle back a moan as her hands hold onto your waist to pull your closer into her. You do get to feel the softness of her hair against your face and the way her long nails now dig into the side of your hips. You're the one who breaks first with a small whine into her mouth that makes her pull away from the kiss.

"...Didn't really pin you as the desperate one of the group..."

You can hear the tinge of venom dripping from her words but you also see past it as the throbbing increases and you pray that she's willing to go a little further than just a heated kiss in a bougie bathroom.

Your prayers are heard as you watch her expression darken; eyes become heavy and her fingers start to close inwards near your navel and then dip down into the waistband of your linen pants.

You let out a sigh of relief and you know hopefully, that pressure will lesson the second she makes skin to skin contact. You hold your breath and hear yourself counting down in your head as her fingers dip lower and her nails start to drag against your skin.

Time seems to melt until you feel that soft, warm point of pressure press gently onto your clit and you can do nothing more than let out a strangled moan.

You can sense her smiling at you; just like before. The cat that ate the canary grin. She's literally got you in the palm of her hand and there's no way now for you to back out from Agatha Harkness' power.

This is, without a doubt as you sink back against the counter's edge, where you belong.

She's whispering to you and you can barely hear her over the buzzing in your mind; the rushing of blood to your ears as all of this suddenly becomes very real. This big, bad witch that everyone was wary over and has so much history in unsavory things was literally using the opportunity to rub at your clit.

"That's it, sweet thing...comeundoneformenow..."

More venom mixed with all that sweet wine she didn't even drink and you're feeling yourself fall against her. Brow knitted tight together and your teeth bared as your bite your bottom lip to stop yourself from moaning loudly, she moves her finger faster and collected the slick from between your legs to use as lubricant.

Your brain fizzes out as you sense a sharp ringing in your ears and her words that fly out of her mouth are suddenly crystal clear.

"It's been a long time since I had a trial go like this..."

"Like...what?..."

You can barely whisper through your teeth as you start to twitch; your muscles slowly starting to give out and you feel your orgasm drawing near with each steady swipe of her finger. The idea of you coating her fingers with your cum suddenly fills you with a sense of desire you didn't know could be that intense. You let out a moan and watch through squinted eyes as her mouth opens in a ah reaction; enjoying the hold she has over you.

"This won't save you but maybe that potion will...if we ever get to making it, that is...do you even care? Do you even want it if it means I have to stop rubbing at your-"

And she stops herself then from speaking any further so she can slide her finger down and plunge into you; wet and warm and waiting.

You moan loudly and fold forwards towards her, her hand. You want to feel her so deep inside of you it splits you in half. You don't dare say of of these thoughts out loud but you're pretty damn sure she can read your fucking thoughts because the way she laughs sends shivers down your spine.

She's laughing as you try to gather yourself; try to push through to show her that this is what you need. You didn't realize how difficult it would be now as she, without any fucking remorse, laughs at the way she's got you wrapped around her finger. How she, Agatha Harkness, has you at her every whim.

She could kill you right now and you wouldn't be any the wiser because at that moment, you feel a sudden release of pressure from between your leg. You can feel yourself dripping out, down her finger, into the softness of her palm. No doubt the sleeve of her blazer is wet with slick and sweat. You moan so loud she leans in to shut you up with her lips.

She's sloppy and messy and her hair falls into your face once more; she's breathing heavy and you can feel the perspiration on your own face and in the room.

Her finger pulls out of you and snakes back up one last time, swiping at your throbbing clit before slipping out from your pants.

That hand, those fingers, find your face as she cups it and very, very slowly those fingers start to creep across your cheek and towards the corner of your mouth.

She pulls her own mouth away from yours, hungry and swollen and wet as that wet finger takes its place instead.

You take it just like you take the wine she offered you; sweeter than the red liquid. Sweeter than her kisses were.

The taste of yourself in your mouth; the taste of how she worked to get you there. Soaked and dripping for the witch killer between your legs in the bathroom of the first trial.

#Marvel #Agatha Harkness x reader #Agatha x reader #Agatha All Along #BEACH HOUSE MOMMY!#x reader #THIS WAS SO SELF INDULGENT HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY TO ME #YA BOI IS GONNA GO PASS OUT NOW BECAUSE F U C K #FUCK!#anywayreaderwasdefinitelymeandthiswasjusthappybirthdayporntomyselfokthanks #THANKS BETA #YOU'RE WELCOME BETA #Writing

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damn-stark · 1 day ago

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Chapter 9 Cheers to a New Year

Chapter 9 of Tragedy at the Miller’s

A/N- OMG WELCOME BACK EVERYONE!! thank you for coming back and welcome new readers! I hope you like the chapter!

Warning- FLUFF, some angst, light violence, talks of death, alcohol, spoilers for season 2, Remember this is a rewrite not an AU, so the major stuff that happens in the show will happen here :)

Pairing- Joel Miller x daughter!reader (platonic of course :), OC x Fem!reader

Episode- 2x01

(If you want to be tagged let me know!)

————

*A FEW MONTHS AFTER SALT LAKE CITY INCIDENT*

The summer breeze runs coldly past your face, wiping away the thick beads of sweat that roll down your forehead. The thundering hoofsteps on the dry ground mix perfectly with the pounding of your heartbeat only drumming harder and harder the closer your horse gets to your destination.

A part of you wants to slow down or come to a stop, but when you look back, the hard cold breeze steals the gasp that escapes past your lips when you notice how close she is, threatening to catch up to you. Thus you immediately nudge your horse to quicken her speed, creating a cloud of dust that blocks her view of you and leaves her clueless and nervous as to how far you'll get.

There comes a moment where she thinks she lost you, there’s too much blocking her view, so she grows intensely more nervous because she knows she’ll never live it down. She’ll be ruined if you reach your destination, and she can’t allow that. You need to lose. Yet when her horse jumps over a fallen tree she finally sees you again, sun beaming down at you as if it was made for you, calm lake water glimmering behind you and basking your figure in an almost ethereal light, and a cruel winning grin decorating your face as you gloat your victory.

“I win!” You cheer. “I win!”

You jump off your horse to let her hydrate herself and proceed to jump up and down to only rub it in Ellie’s face harder that you are indeed the winner and she is the loser. Even if Ellie makes her horse slow down now that she sees that you won, you continue to gloat and be just as enthralled that you won. Even more so when you see the pout on her loser face.

“What?!” You exclaim proudly. “What?!”

Ellie finally reaches you and hesitates climbing off her horse because she doesn’t want to admit defeat, but her horse mirrors yours by drinking water, so she has no choice but to get off and see you gloat like a crazed fanboy.

“I won! I won!”

Ellie rolls her eyes and you hop over to her to throw your arm around her shoulders and yank her against your side to jump up and down with her.

“Whatever,” Ellie grumbles as she crosses her arms over her chest. “Your horse is older, mine is still young.”

You stop jumping and push your face close to hers. “Don't be a sore loser. Admit, I’m better than you.”

“You've been on horseback longer than me.”

You mock her moving mouth with your hand and taunt her further. “All I hear is excuses. I won fair and square. I am victorious.” You grin and press her harder against you finally causing her to shove you aside to sulk in her defeat.

“Don’t you have something better to do?” She snaps back and you take a deep breath to finally try and calm yourself down.

“No. We finished patrol and archery lessons. Now I’m all yours,” you explain kindly, missing the fact that she’s still seething.

“Until the evening,” you add as you remember your other duties. “I have some writing to do for Phantom of the Opera, and then I have to plan sets…why don’t you come with me? You have an artistic mind. I could use your help…and maybe you’ll meet someone…” you trail off and look at her hopefully, but she looks annoyed at your suggestion.

“My friends and I enjoy having you around, but I want you to have friends of your own. People you can confide in like I confide in mine,” you add since she stood quiet. “I know someone who will actually go to the theater today and I think you’ll like her. Her name is Kat. So come? Help?”

Ellie sighs and turns around to slowly approach her horse, so you draw out a deep breath, calming your once racing heart before you slowly mirror her actions but by sticking to your horse.

“Yeah, maybe,” she entertains you but you can’t tell if she’s being serious or not. It’s always hard to tell with her, so you’ll have to double-check with her later and hope she is being serious. You’ve seen her struggle for a while now to come out of the house. Your dad says it’s normal, that it takes a while to get used to being in a community again, but you think that besides that she’s still really struggling with what happened with the Fireflies.

It took so much from her, but you don’t want to touch the subject because one, you just feel too guilty and heartbroken, and two, what can be done about it? Your dad made sure that any kind of hope died in that hospital that day.

“I am willing to go all or nothing back home,” you try to cheer her up as you see that the smugness she once carried is slowly dwindling and getting replaced by that solemnity that usually takes place in her features.

“How about it?” You press and keep your eyes on her as she looks at the peaceful horizon.

“Can I…hm…can I ask you something?” She struggles to ask, making you lose every ounce of pride and excitement.

“Uh—”

“You have to be honest,” she cuts you off without knowing and snaps her head toward you to look at you across the lake with eyes full of loud vulnerability, letting you know that she’s putting all her trust in you with whatever she’s going to ask.

“Okay,” you say loud enough so she can hear, and nod faintly.

Ellie turns away to hit her fist against the palm of her hand and gather what she needs to ask you, while you continue to keep your eyes on her like a person afraid she’ll somehow vanish into that river, feeling your heart pick up again only this time it's not out of excitement and adrenaline to win and gloat. This time your heart begins to pound out of fear, and you feel every breath grow ragged.

“I know,” you barely hear Ellie say as she keeps her back turned to you. “I know you said that you and Joel were apart the day we were all at the hospital,” she continues and finally turns to face you with confusion more than anything else, making your heartache along with jump.

“But you were still there. You still know what happened…so tell me that everything Joel said is true,” she almost pleads with her eyes sharing how confused and scared she feels.

“Why,” you pause and drop your head to clear your throat and hide how ashamed and scared you feel. “Why are you doubting him? Is there…a reason?” You ask as you meet her gaze, noticing that she’s approaching you since you haven’t moved a muscle away from your horse.

“It’s just I think back to that day,” she explains without taking time to think, letting you know that this is what has kept her isolated and upset—“and I can’t help but think that it all ended too quickly. One minute I blacked out in the street and the next I woke up in a car heading to Jackson, and no matter how hard I try to remember something. I come out blank.”

Your eyes sting and your throat aches. Your heart pounds so hard that you fear if she stands too close she’ll hear your fearful heart debating at that moment whether to break your promise to your dad and tell Ellie everything. Not out of guilt but because as you look at her now, her eyes are pleading harder as her soul looks for some kind of sense to that day.

“All I went through to get there couldn’t have amounted to just one day that I wasn’t a part of,” she continues with her eyes filling with tears that only tug at your heart more. “Everything I lost couldn’t have amounted to nothing, could it?”

You remember the promise you made. You remember that day at the hospital and remember that your dad left nothing behind, not even a flicker of hope, because if he had left something alive then they would have come after Ellie, wouldn’t they? And as far as you know no one has come to your door, so you think about the life that she can have and the life you desire for her to have with every fiber of your being.

That desire urges you to keep quiet, but…she’s asking you now with every fiber of her being for the truth and you want to give it to her. She deserves it. She needs it.

Keeping your dad's secret goes against everything you are as a person and it hurts to keep something so important from Ellie, but…it’s the same love you harbor for her. It’s the same desire for her to have a good life that makes you go against yourself and forces you to keep that promise.

“I wish I could give you a clear answer of that day,” you break your silence and fight hard to keep your voice from breaking. “But as I’ve said I didn’t come across my dad until he already had you. I heard everything that happened while I was trying to get out of my restraints. I’m sorry I can’t be more useful, but I trust him.” You nod and finally break away from your spot to approach her and grab her shoulders to look her in the eyes and lie.

“You…do?” Ellie asks with tears still brimming in her eyes and her voice soft.

“I do,” you lie again. “I trust him.”

——

*5 YEARS LATER*

A deep breath leaves your nose, the soft fabric of your glove wrinkles as you fist your hand, and the leather of your jacket crinkles as you lift your hand to knock on the door.

Expecting to get a delayed response, you rest your case on the floor and step back before you strain your ear and catch a moment of silence before you catch the echoes of shuffling and hard footsteps growing louder and louder until finally as a calm wind hits your back, the door opens and a warm smile immediately decorates your features as you come face to face with your beloved father.

“Howdy,” he greets with a small smile.

You pick up your guitar case off the floor and redirect a greeting. “Hey.”

Your dad steps back, welcoming you inside his quiet house so you walk in and right away when you’re enveloped by the warmth of his cozy house you scan the space you can see from the entrance.

“Where’s my Teddy?” You ask excitedly as you tug your boots off.

“Sleepin’,” your dad lets you know as he walks past you and stops by the staircase. “He drank his bottle and fell asleep. It’s been,” he pauses and thinks for a moment. “Twenty minutes.”

You sigh with slight disappointment but nod in comprehension regardless. “That’s good. Thank you. How was he today? He behave?” You ask as you slip into some slippers you have by your dad's entrance.

“‘Course,” your dad assures you right away because even if your son was fussy he wouldn’t care. “We went out for a short walk. Passed by to visit Tommy and Benji, and came back home to eat some lunch. We’ve been here ever since.”

You smile proudly and nod gently. “That’s good,” you praise him and set your guitar case down by the entrance to take your warm layers off next. “Sorry I took long, I had to go pick up some stuff from the house.”

Your dad shakes his head and throws his hand out before he walks away. “Don’t worry, you know Teddy and I enjoy spendin’ time together. He keeps me busy on my days off. How was work?” He asks from the kitchen and actually shares a small chuckle before he explains himself. “It’s still so…crazy that I ask you that now. I don’t think I’ll get used to it.”

You scoff lightheartedly and finally are able to part from the entrance to join him in the kitchen. “Great. Nothing beats being able to plan for a play, but I love working with the animals and tending to the plants. We had to try and get the greenhouses warmer though. This winter really has brought a bad cold, Mia and the clinic are running through medicine like crazy.”

“It’s all those people the council is bringing in,” your dad says loudly without realizing you’re in the kitchen now unloading stuff you’ll need for tonight’s dinner. “We don’t know where they’ve been or what they’re bringing in with them. They need to be more careful,” he repeats the same argument he’s had since fall, and then turns around, getting startled by you being so close.

“Well, we can’t leave ‘em out,” you repeat yourself as you glance down to see what he’s offering you in your unofficially assigned mug. “And it’s not just them. Colds are normal. More so in these cold seasons.”

“Coffee,” he says as the scent wafts in your nose as he pushes the mug closer to you. “Had it ready for when you got here.”

You smile brightly and take the mug from him. “Thank you, Daddy,” you tell him sweetly as you take the mug from him and walk over to the dining table to take a seat, seeing him mirror you as you take a sip of the bitter but warm drink.

“And you sound like Maria,” your dad keeps arguing. “You need to think about your own. Teddy. He’s young and we don’t have the medication we once did when you were a little girl.”

As your dad takes a seat across from you, you put the mug down and swallow thickly before you raise your brow and calmly rebuttal. “A couple we welcomed has a baby just as old as Theo. I worry about my son, we take precautions, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t in the same boat. If we can help, we will. That’s the right thing to do.”

Your dad watches you hard without saying anything verbally, but the wheels of his mind churn with many different thoughts and arguments he wants to share but doesn’t express because he knows you’re too stuck in your own way, just like Maria. Thus instead he drops his gaze and nods stiffly, leaving that topic as it is. For now.

“You hear from Ellie. Is she coming to…our New Year's dinner?” He asks as he keeps his gaze averted as if nervous to hear the response.

“Yeah,” you assure him and watch as he seems to draw in a relieved breath as he keeps his eyes off you—“but she’s bringing her friends.”

Your dad scoffs and takes a sip from his own drink before he finally faces you as he has something to say. “Now she can’t be in my company without her friends? Does she take them to your house too?”

You hold his gaze for a second and then your eyes flicker to your drink to watch the dark coffee before you take a long sip and then shake your head hesitantly. “No,” you deadpan, causing your dad to sigh deeply.

“I swear—”

“Uh,” you cut him off and look up, catching his gaze as he also looks up at you at the same time. “No.” You shake your finger at him. “Look I…feel bad. I do. I want to help too, but I already told you my condition. I’m not taking sides.”

Your dad's gaze twitches to a squint before he drops his head and gently shakes it as if in disbelief at what you just said.

“She’s been keeping my company at dinner,” you do let him know so he’s in the know of some of her whereabouts. You respect her privacy and her boundaries regarding your dad, so you don’t tell him everything he wants to know. You just tell him the mundane things. “I’ve been teaching her some stuff so she’s not just an awesome babysitter, and she actually has a knack for cooking. She could be better, but she’s learning.”

Your dad nods as he takes it all in before he draws out a small breath. “I am sorry I’ve been keeping your husband from dinner, but well, all these plans are hard work,” he sighs. “And he’s eager to learn everything. He can do it all by himself, but he insists on learning from me.”

You smile gleefully. “It’s okay. He doesn’t mind staying behind and I don’t mind either. Plus it makes me happy to hear that you’re working so well together.”

Your dad nods. “He’s…he’s a good guy. Hard worker,” he adds and lifts his head as he rubs his chin. “I couldn’t have asked for a better partner. Nothing like the young men I worked with before the outbreak.”

You laugh softly and pick up your mug to take a drink, but before you do, you watch your drink for a moment with a teasing smile before you take a sip.

“What?” Your dad probes as he notices your smile.

Before you can answer though, you take a longer drink and then set the mug down and ask him a bold question. “When was the last time you talked to someone? Romantically I mean so you’re not a smartass.”

He scoffs in disbelief and you lean in closer and continue since you know it’s going to be hard getting him to cooperate about the matter. “Tomorrow is the New Year community party, it will be a great opportunity to warm up to someone.” You say and shake your shoulders to tease him. “And it’ll be great if you did have someone to talk to.”

“Will it? Or will you be happy if I did?” He asks as he sits back.

You giggle and flash him a smirk before you respond honestly. “It will make me very happy if you meet someone. This house is lonely and you spend too much time alone.”

He shakes his head and argues. “I spend my time with my family. Work. And a lot of quality time with my grandson.”

You chuckle softly. “It’s not that same,” you quickly rebuttal. “You need someone to come home to after work. Someone to have dinners with when I’m not here or when you don’t go with Uncle Tommy. Won’t that be nice?”

Your dad crosses his arms over his chest and keeps shaking his head as he keeps fighting you. “I don’t have the best record with women. You know that. Sarah’s mom left. Your mom…passed. Tess…also died, and with her, I didn’t give her what she gave me.”

You lean over, basically laying on the table to keep arguing your side. “Yes, but that was before. Jackson is as stable as a community is going to be. It can be different. I’m not telling you to have a wild romance, something sweet. I know it can be hard in times like now, but it’s about the time you spend while you’re alive that matters. Don’t think about what might happen, instead live and enjoy the memories you’ll make.”

Your dad holds your gaze softly before he offers you something real. “Tess pushed her way in, it’s not easy otherwise. Not since your mom.”

You blink repeatedly and draw out a small and slow breath before you drag yourself back and mutter. “I know, but you can’t look for my mom or Tess in every woman you see. Look, you don’t have to look for a soulmate and maybe they don’t want that either. Just someone to spend your days with.” You say and shrug sweetly. “So tomorrow I want you to shower, do your hair real nice, wear something dapper, and put on that cologne I made you, okay? And…be less scary.” You flash him a grin.

“Scary?” He scoffs. “What does that even mean?”

“Why don’t we start getting ahead at starting dinner before Maria and Uncle Tommy get here,” you mention as you hop off your seat. “Teddy should still be down a little longer.”

——

*LATER*

“Come on, come on,” you encourage Teddy as you grab his little hand and run to the front door with him in your arms, making him giggle giddily and then kick his feet when you reach the door to let you know he wants to do it again.

Much to your son's excitement though, you stop to open the door, welcoming Jesse, Dina, and his father Apollo.

“Look who I brought with me!” Apollo announces proudly which only makes you smile brightly.

“Howdy, children! I’m so glad you could make it!” You greet Jesse and Dina warmly as they block Apollo. “Please come in. Jesse-boy,” you greet as you look at him and step back to let them pass. “Dina Nolastname,” you tease and without fault, she smiles back at you.

“Sunshine,” she teases back and walks in first with a much brighter smile lighting up her face as she stretches her arms out. “Teddy!” She exclaims and takes your baby from you before she heads inside.

“This is for you,” Jesse says as he walks in and hands you a dessert plate.

“Oh why, you’ll have to thank your mom for me,” you tell him as he walks in taking his coat off.

“Actually I made it,” he retorts, making you laugh and pat his shoulder. Thus in response, he turns around to look at you with his eyebrow raised.

“I did,” he insists and you laugh harder before you calm down and look at him with a wobbly smile.

“Oh, Jesse,” you coo and say nothing else because you know him. You know Dina too, not just because they’re both Ellie’s best friends, but because since they are younger and more active in the community, besides working alongside them, you’re now in charge of teaching them everything they need to know. Albeit you do spend more time with Jesse than with Dina.

“That’s unfair,” Jesse grumbles as he can’t make his lie convincing to you. “You’re unfair.”

You snicker and pat his shoulder again as he walks away. “I’ll let you have it if anyone else asks!” You throw out after him.

“Yeah, yeah,” he says over his shoulder before he disappears into the dining room to greet everyone already inside, leaving you to lastly greet your husband Apollo.

Albeit rather than greeting him normally, after he closes the door and takes off his warm layers you raise your hand to show off your palm.

“Look,” you pout and show off your injury.

However, instead of treating you kindly and worrying, the bastard high-fives you with a sly grin.

You gasp because it stings your wound and your feelings.

“It’s serious,” you remark and he laughs harder before he closes the gap between you to gently take your wrist and press a kiss on the tip of your fingers, avoiding the big red mark on your palm.

“What happened?” He whispers against your lips as he leans in closer as if wanting to rob you of your breath.

“I burnt myself grabbing a hot plate,” you explain and he giggles this time before he brings your hand up to press another gentle kiss on your fingers before he puts your hand on his cheek and then grabs your jaw to smash his lips against yours and start a passionate kiss you almost lose yourself in.

Albeit after you steal a few steamy minutes for yourselves, you pull back but don’t stray from each other, he wraps his arm around your shoulders as you both walk inside.

“You take care of it?” He asks with concern.

You nod. “Yeah, but it still hurts.”

He smiles and caresses your shoulder. “It’ll pass. Let’s bandage it and take something for the pain.”

You smile giddily and hold onto his waist harder. “Tequila?” You ask.

“Duh.”

You pat his torso and interject. “I brought you your comfy shoes. Oh, and your harmonica! Maybe you’ll join in for a song? My Uncle Tommy and I plan to play a duet.”

He nods. “Maybe I will.”

It’s no clear answer but regardless you smile because you’ll get him to do what you want.

In any case with the people you were waiting on already here, you don’t linger any longer. You gather around the table to try and officially start dinner with Ellie sitting at the opposite end of the table to be as far away from your dad as possible so it’s hard for him to steal a glimpse of her, and easy for her to avoid looking at him.

You would do anything in your power for them to at least sit across each other so they could face one another. It’s not going to solve their problems no matter how much you want things to be that easy, but it would…ease your aching heart having Ellie be able to at least look him in the eye.

Alas, you don’t push it.

“Hey,” a soft voice speaks, making you look down to see your cousin Benji dragging a chair back to be able to sit next to your son's high chair. “Can I help you feed him?” Benji asks. “My dad let me feed him some snacks today.”

“You'll have to eat too. I can’t have you starving if you’re feeding your cousin,” you explain to your five-year-old cousin. “How can you grow up to be as strong and tall as your daddy then?”

Benji glances at your Uncle Tommy and then glances over at Apollo bringing Teddy over to sit him in his high chair. “I promise I’ll eat along with him too then. Can I?”

The corner of your lips pulls to a smile and you stop messing with him and nod. “‘Course you can. I needed help anyway.”

Benji grins and then turns to shake Teddy gently, causing the baby to blabble something back to him as he watches Benji sit down.

“Before we start eatin’,” your dad steals your attention and catches you off guard by speaking up first without having to be told to.

“I would just like to say…with this year coming to a close…that I’m grateful for having my grandson joining us for the first time this year. I'm looking forward to sharing many more years with him.”

You smile proudly and share your glee with Apollo before you focus back on your dad as he continues while he nervously scratches the back of his head.

“And I’m hoping that we…can gather like this. Like a family again. No matter what happened in the past it’s good to be amongst each other because we’re all we have…” he trails off to end his speech abruptly, so you and Apollo share a knowing look since you both conclude that the last bit of your dad's speech is about one person in particular. Ellie knows it too, you know she does, but she avoids all eye contact, making things awkward for all those who know what happened between her and your dad.

“Does anyone else want to add anything else?” Maria interjects and you all look around at one another in silence and curiosity until Jesse cuts in.

“I would just like to add one short thing,” he addresses the table. “Thank you for having Dina and I, here at this family dinner. It’s really an honor and I hope we didn’t intrude.”

“Of course not,” your Uncle Tommy assures him kindly. “You both are welcome anytime. You’re Ellie’s best friend’s, you’re like family.”

You nod gently in agreement and Dina interjects this time. “Thank you.”

Once again you all wait just in case someone wants to say something, but after a while of silence, Maria thankfully brings the moment to a close. “Okay, let’s eat then.”

You turn to grab your son's food and whisper to Apollo. “Kill me next time that happens.”

“You shoulda said something,” he says.

You scoff. “Nothing I said could’ve saved that.”

“No, but it would help us forget.”

You both laugh and then you turn to your son and show off his food. “Who wants to eat?” You ask in a sing-song voice, making his eyes go wide and his feet kick like wild. “You and me both,” you tell him.

Thankfully during dinner, there were no more awkward moments. Yes, you liked your dad's speech. It was sweet, and as much as you want him to mend things with Ellie, that last bit was too forward. He’s lucky she didn’t react whatsoever and make a scene.

Besides that, nevertheless, dinner was perfect, everyone got along, there were conversations had across the table, at the sides, and at the ends. Laughs were shared, and many drinks were poured. It makes it easy to forget what exists past the walls of your town, and it makes it easy to forget that no matter what’s between you and them you’re never safe as long as they’re alive. It adds a sense of doom to every moment as if it might be your last.

At least ever since your dad took Ellie from that hospital and killed every chance of a normal life, that’s something that’s lived in the back of your head. You make sure to keep it there, but it’s still there, pestering you and you know it.

Maybe that’s why you have come to enjoy every moment even more. Or maybe it’s because you have everything you could need in life. Whatever it is, you like to mark every moment as beautiful.

Yet nothing can compare to moments around a campfire with your family and music. You love those the most.

“Hey,” Dina directs at you as she drops herself on the empty seat next to you.

“Hello…Dina,” you probe as you tune your guitar with your baby strapped to your chest.

“I thought that maybe…maybe the day after tomorrow we could get Joel and Ellie together for a movie night,” she suggests knowing the tension but not knowing exactly why it was there—“we could watch Curtis and Viper. They like that movie.”

You stop tweaking your guitar to turn and face Dina with your eyes glimmering with joy. “That would be a good idea,” you praise her. “It’s not too obvious but just enough of a push,” you explain, making her nod in agreement with a smirk.

“Yeah exactly!” She exclaims. “So?”

You sigh. “You're gonna have to do it solo. I have to teach the kids choir and then the adult choir right after.”

Dina slumps down and hums in disappointment but you nudge her to assure her. “It’s okay, she’ll go if you do. As long as you’re there she’ll be there.”

Dina’s eyes flicker up to you and they widen a bit before she hides her smirk by looking down. She’s about to add something, but then you’re interrupted.

“What’s going on over here?” Ellie tries to join the conversation, ending the conversation you were just having so as to not ruin Dina’s plan.

“Suggesting. No, pleading that Sunshine here sings some Joan Baez. She really kills those songs,” Dina lies smoothly with a small smile directed at Ellie.

“Hm,” Ellie hums and looks between you and Dina, so you turn away to finish tuning your guitar whilst Dina gets up and points back. “I did promise Benji we’d play the tambourine together. So. Join me or…what?”

Ellie holds her gaze for a moment before she nods slowly. “It’s not like you’re asking.”

Dina giggles and shrugs before she turns away to join Benji, leaving Ellie to now stare down at you.

“You’re going tomorrow to the New Year's party, right?” You ask her to avoid getting questioned.

“Well,” she sighs. “There’s not much of a choice.”

“That’s what I like to hear!” You exclaim at her over your shoulder. “Do your hair, wear something clean and nice, and put on that nice perfume I made for you. And…be in a party mood.”

Ellie scoffs. “What do you mean? What’s wrong with my hair?”

“Bun or half up,” you tell her the options you like.

Ellie scoffs and touches her hair before she walks around you, blocking the warmth of the campfire. “I’ll do it if you allow me to go on that patrol with you and Jesse the day after tomorrow.”

You finally finish tuning your guitar and then face her with your lips pursed. “You’ll listen?” You deadpan.

She nods quickly but you don’t know if she actually means it. She has the tendency not to listen to orders or go by the book. It’s why you don’t like patrolling with her and especially not when Dina is tagging along. You like patrolling with them separately or else you just really lose your patience.

“Fine,” you give in, knowing that either way she was going to that event tomorrow. “Just don’t wear your beat-up Converse. Please.”

She rolls her eyes and nods. “Yeah, yeah.”

You watch her walk off to join Dina and Benji before you feel your little one moving, so you look down and notice that he woke up.

“You’re supposed to be sleeping Theo,” you whisper and he yawns and rubs his eyes before he begins to wiggle around, leaving you no choice but to take him out and sit him on your lap pressed against you.

“You’re lucky you’re cute,” you muse and kiss the top of his head. “Do you want to help me play today, hm?”

Teddy turns away from the guitar and nuzzles his head against your chest but stays wide awake instead of trying to fall back to sleep. Thereafter footsteps approach you from behind before a warm arm wraps your neck, filling your nose with their comforting scent, and wrapping your body with more warmth as he presses himself against you.

“What are you playing with Tommy?” Apollo asks before he presses a kiss on the top of your head.

“Something you can play too,” you let him know and grab his hand while he leans over to kiss the top of Teddy's head before pressing another kiss on your lips, making you smile giddily while not realizing that your dad couldn’t help but watch the tender moment from across the campfire.

“I like the sound of that,” Apollo says against your lips before he slips away to sit next to you instead.

“You ready, Sunny?” Your Uncle Tommy finally blurts, making you sit up straighter and grin.

“Of course. I always am!”

With nothing else to add and with nothing but pure joy and gleeful excitement, you start the jamming session. As the song picks up, your Uncle joins in with his own guitar, Apollo joins in with his harmonica, and Benji and Dina lastly join in with their tambourines, while Maria, Ellie, Jesse, and your dad listen with amusement.

That is until you abruptly stop and hand Teddy to Apollo before you jump up, stopping everyone in their tracks to look at you and wait.

“Oh my gosh!” You exclaim and look at your uncle and Maria. “Uncle Tommy, Maria, tell everyone about what we have planned for spring!” You squeal with your guitar in hand before you run behind your Uncle Tommy to wrap your arms around his neck with excitement, making him lift his hand to grab onto your arm.

“Oh,” Maria laughs quietly. “Yeah. Well it’s not set in stone, but we—”

“We have to talk to the council,” you cut her off as you can’t contain your excitement and hug your Uncle tighter. “But we want to do a spring fair!” You laugh and let go of your uncle to go sit back down next to Apollo while still drumming your feet against the ground.

“Sunny wants to do that for her birthday,” your Uncle shares what you left out and you nod eagerly.

“Course she does,” your dad mumbles while you continue.

“I heard that,” you point at him.

“Good,” he quips.

“Pft,” you blow out and go on. “And…” you trail off and nudge Apollo. “Tell ‘em, Darlin’!”

Apollo scoffs and smiles at you. As he parts his lips albeit you’re too excited to let him share the news. “We—”

“You’re having another baby!” Dina interrupts you just as excitedly, but you snap your fingers and shake your head.

“No. If we do the fair our band,” you continue and grab Apollo's arm to shake him gently. “M.A.M.A. is getting back together to play at the fair! Isn’t that so fun?!” You giggle and Jesse claps.

“Wait what,” Dina interjects with amusement and confusion. “You’re part of a band. What do you play?”

“Folk music mostly,” you share with glee.

“They’re good too,” Jesse shares with the group since he along with your uncle Tommy and Maria are the only ones who’ve heard you play.

“I of course am—”

“Lead,” Ellie continues for you, making your dad chuckle because she’s right.

“Exactly,” you direct at her. “And I sing with my guitar,” you continue and don’t share anything else about anyone else just your role. “We will play for the two days we want the fair to be.”

“We just need to talk to the council,” your uncle lets everyone know. “But we think it’ll be a good community event.”

You nod eagerly in agreement.

“Well you have your husband, your uncle, and Maria on the council so how hard will that be to get across,” Ellie inputs with a sly smirk, but you take no offense to it.

“That’s right,” Dina chimes in along with Ellie. “You’re like a Nepo baby.”

Again you take no offense to it. You just smile proudly. “Well if anyone had to take that role it would be me,” you gloat and press yourself against Apollo. “Okay. Can we continue playing?”

In response, Benji hands his instrument to Ellie.

“Wait where are you going?” Dina remarks as Benji runs around the fire to join your side

“Hey, can I sing with you?” He asks as he ignores Dina.

You smile and nod. “‘Course you can. I’ll play and you lead!”

He nods. “I want to sing the song you and my daddy play.”

“It Ain’t Me, Babe?” You ask and he nods—“Okay! Ready?”

“Always.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” You laugh and once again begin to play.

Now the session may not be perfect, but you don’t care, you love every second of it. Every second is perfect to you and you only wish the night could be filled with your music for eternity. You want nothing more but to stay playing music with your family. You want to see their smiles and see them enjoy themselves. You want to feel like you aren’t torn with Ellie and your dad’s estrangement, and being around the campfire playing music gave you a taste of that. It gave him a taste of it too even if they were far and never spoke because at least you were together.

And that’s all you could ask for, being all together.

——

*THE NEXT DAY*

Between fall and winter, it’s been hard taking your son outside because your dad is right, medication is not the same as it was before, which means you need to be careful that he doesn’t get sick but you also need to make sure that he has a good immune system. Thus when you can you like taking your son with you to the animal pens to visit the gentler animals like the rabbits and the sheep for example. Plus it helps so he doesn’t grow up scared of them.

Albeit he doesn’t seem to share the same fascination for animals as you do. For example, a bunny seems to be curious about him sitting amongst them so it gently hops over, causing little Teddy to look up at you with concern and panic.

“It’s okay,” you assure him as you caress his cheek with your knuckle. “They won’t hurt you. They’re just curious, that's all.”

Teddy turns around to crawl to you so you pick him off the ground and sit him on your lap before you bend down to take a little bunny off the ground.

“Look,” you coo as you pet the bunny's head. “It's a baby just like you. He’s gentle just like Hermes.”

Theo hides his face against you so you gently cup his cheek with one hand to caress him too.

“You know your auntie Sarah liked bunnies too,” you tell your son. “Not as much as she liked butterflies, but she did want a rabbit because your grandpa didn’t want to deal with a dog until she was older.”

Teddy eyes the bunny you still hold and you slowly get the bunny close to him again. “In the spring we’ll be able to take them outside and we’ll all be in the meadow in our backyard so you can see the Rue flowers your grandpa and I planted for your grandma. They’re yellow and small. And then we’ll see the flowers we planted for Sarah. How will you like that?”

Teddy watches the bunny and then glances at you with uncertainty.

“It’s okay, we’ll try another time, hm?” You assure him and put the bunny down so it can hop back to the others, letting Teddy relax and put his hand out to call out for it now that it’s far. When he doesn't gain their attention he then drags himself off your lap and gets on his hands and knees to try and crawl close to the rabbits all huddled in one corner eating away.

You watch him to make sure he doesn’t pick anything off the ground and puts it in his mouth while also trying not to be too paranoid. Your dad says if you’re scared then they’ll be scared too, so you just watch him with awe. That’s all you can feel every day you set your eyes on him. You never thought you’d ever feel that way about anything ever and that’s not to say you don’t look at Apollo or anyone else you love with admiration, there’s just a different kind of admiration that you feel when you look at your son and you never knew such a tender thing existed until you first laid your eyes on him.

Alas, the door to the small animal barn opens and when you peek back you see your Uncle Tommy walking in.

“Hiya,” he greets with a warm smile. “Knew I’d find ya here.”

You smile sweetly and wait until he’s in the rabbit pen with you before you question why he has his rifle with him. “You just come back from shootin’?”

He nods as he watches Teddy watching the rabbits now that they’re not near him. “Yeah.”

“Did Ellie end up going with you?” You probe knowing the answer to that since she had told you about it and asked you to go to be in quote “like old times”, when you know she wanted to make shooting infected a competition.

“She wouldn’t miss it even if I tried to make her,” your Uncle says. “But then again I tell myself that it’s best to do what she wants and not what Joel wants.”

You nod in agreement as you watch Teddy crawl back to you with eagerness after he’s spotted his Uncle Tommy.

“Exactly. You’ll only get her mad if you try to interfere. It’s like I tell my dad, it’s best to let her be. She doesn’t need us looking after her anymore. She’ll learn from her mistakes.”

“Try to make him understand,” he grumbles and grins widely as Teddy finally reaches him. “Hey, Teddy! What are you doin’, huh? Are you chasing those rabbits?”

You roll your eyes and scoff as Teddy babbles and pushes himself to his feet using your uncle's knee.

“Just a couple more months and you’ll have a hard time catching up to him,” your uncle says as he picks Teddy off the ground to carry him in his arms. “You’ll be nothing like your mama, will ya, little Teddy Bear? All she wanted to do was be carried by me or her daddy at your age.”

Your uncle tickles Teddy’s belly, making the baby giggle before he throws himself on his uncle's shoulder and pats his back as if it’s been years since he last saw him.

“How was it?” You ask your uncle as you stand to your given height and walk over to pick a bunny off the ground to keep it toasty and warm in your arms.

“Oh, you know,” your uncle sighs as he rubs your son's back. “There’s only more and more coming down.”

You gently rub the bunny's head and sigh deeply even though you already knew that. You just hoped it had changed since the last time you went to patrol.

“I wanted to ask you if you could go out there and scout. Come up with a way to divert the infected away from town before we have a herd in our hands we can’t control. I know.” He nods. “I know you don’t want to put yourself at risk with your little one here now, but with Eugene gone, there’s only so many people with the experience I need who can come up with something that will work.”

You glance at the bunny and watch it nod to sleep as you lull it with the way you pet its head. “I’ve been going on Patrol’s because there’s been an influx of infected,” you remind him so he doesn’t beat himself up.

“I know,” he whispers. “But I just…” he trails off. “Your dad is right. You and Apollo need to avoid risking your lives if it’s not necessary.”

You smile softly and glance up at him. “And he says Apollo is eager to work with him,” you mention.

Your uncle chuckles and Teddy lifts his head off your uncle's shoulder to look between you and your uncle out of curiosity—“Apollo is eager and he’s good at all of it. He could replace your dad if he wanted to, but your dad…puts him on the schedule more than he should. It’s his way of caring without saying it.”

You smile proudly and nod softly before you reassure your uncle about his concern. “It’s okay. Hopefully, this is a temporary problem. Plus I won’t go scout alone. Nor will I conduct the plan alone when the day comes.”

Your uncle looks unsure but he really does trust you more than anyone, so even if he doesn’t want to he has to rely on you.

“With Mia needed at the hospital. Atlas working at the Dam, and Apollo with his hands busy with all that plannin’ and construction is it fine if I take Jesse?”

Your uncle nods right away. “Yeah, of course. The kid is smart.”

You nod in agreement with a smirk. “He is and he listens better than Ellie, that’s why I like teaming up with him.”

Your uncle chuckles.

“But I’ll take her too. I won’t have her cooped up here just because the old man wants it.”

“Uh, yeah that ain’t goin’ to work. She’s leavin’ with Alpine group. You need more people though? I can go or Maria can go too.” He offers but you shake your head.

“No, no, it’s not that I needed more people. Jesse and I will be okay on our own. I just wanted to take Ellie. That’s all,” you let him know before you put the bunny down to start heading out of the pen now that you have a new task.

“Where are you heading after this?” You ask your uncle as he follows after you with your son still in his arms.

“I’m going to meet up with your dad and Maria.”

You nod in comprehension before you slow down to let him catch up before you ask what you need from him now. “If that’s so could you take Teddy with you? His dad should be off work real soon so it won’t be long, but I need to go get ready so I can head out sooner rather than later. I’ll let Apollo know, so you just need to watch him. Could you do that for me?” You ask and bat your lashes even though his answer is easy to guess.

“Of course I can. The little guy isn’t fussy and Benji loves to look after him.” Your uncle assures you, making you sigh with relief and smile tenderly.

“Great, thank you, that saves me a lotta time.” You ramble and hook your arm around his as you head out of the barn and face the bitter outdoors. “Also can we talk about last night? That speech,” you laugh awkwardly and your uncle laughs with you—“I appreciate my dad for tryin’ but couldn’t he have been more obvious?!”

“That’s what I told Maria, but she doesn’t get it like you do.” He teases. “He just needs to let Ellie breathe. That’s all she needs. He’s lucky she wants to be in the same room as him as it is. He’s only pushing it.”

You sigh and nod lightly. “Yeah. That’s what I’m saying, but he’s in denial. He doesn’t want to admit he did something wrong. Until he does nothing will change and I won’t be a part of it. As Ellie’s family member stuck in the middle, she deserves that from me at least.”

“It’s a real sticky situation, but that’s good Sunny,” your uncle praises you. “And it’s a good thing you didn’t say anythin’ last night either. Nothing could have saved that.”

You giggle and shake your head. “No, I know.”

You smile faintly and add nothing else on the matter. You continue walking together until you have to take your separate paths, so while your uncle walks to where he's heading to with your son, you let Apollo know the new plan. And since there’s not much Apollo can say but be careful and that he understands what he needs to do, you don’t take long to go get ready for your scouting mission, nor do you take long to head out to the horse barn by the gates, catching the Alpine group on their way out.

Thus you hide in the background so Ellie and Dina don’t notice you and make a big deal. Albeit you do notice that Ellie’s ex-girlfriend Kat is in the same group, so Godspeed to her for having to deal with Dina and Ellie together. They’re like…little devils when they’re paired up.

“You’re doing the Alpine run,” you hear Jesse announce. “I know a couple of you are new to this trail, so listen up. You’re taking Route 191 down to Hoback…” he trails off as Dina catches his attention when she raises her hand, which knowing her is nothing good or something completely surprisingly smart.

“Yes, Dina,” he picks on her, letting her share what she needs to say.

“Hi, uhm, should we stick to the roads, scan the countryside, hit our checkpoints, and sign the log books?”

You roll your eyes but you still can’t help but be amused.

“You know what?” You hear Jesse say. “That sounds great. But while you’re doing all that, we’ve got reports of strays. So be careful when you get into the town,” he says as he hands the others the flags for today. “Now, I see Ellie over here looking like Curtis and Viper.”

You chuckle and clap softly, knowing that neither of them caught you.

“The fuck?” You hear Ellie remark before Jesse continues.

“So, let me remind you, this is just a recon patrol. If you see one or two runners, that’s fine, clear ‘em out. Anything more, anything worse you come on back and we send out a squad. Understood?”

“You know you’re only, like four years older than us, right?” Ellie interjects and Jesse thankfully ignores her.

“Just say you understood.”

Ellie nods and mocks him using that deep voice. “Understood.”

“Thank you!” He exclaims and turns around to give the people at the gate a signal to open the doors. “Your patrol leader is Kat, so you will follow her orders. When you’re back, today's all-clear sign is yellow. Yellow, good. Green, bad.” He finishes saying before he walks over to Dina and Ellie to hand them their flags and tell them something you don’t catch, so you just wait until the team is walking out the door before you break away from your spot, and head towards Jesse who's already expecting you actually because he saw you a couple times while he was giving his instructions.

“Hey,” you greet him warmly when you meet halfway. “How’s your day been?”

He shrugs. “Can't complain,” he says. “You?”

You shake your head gently. “I can’t complain either. Had a slow start today, so I’m fully energized for later. You goin’ right?”

He sighs as he turns away to head back to the barn knowing you’ll follow without having to be told. “Only for a little bit.”

You scoff. “Oh, come on. It’ll be fun! I mean there’s gonna be music and drinks. And it’s gonna be fun.”

He draws out a small breath and drops his head as he shrugs. “I don’t know. We do have early patrol and you and Apollo do end the night early, so where’s the fun in that?”

You chuckle. “Well we do have a ten-month-old who we have to tend to and it’s just…well, if you have a kid you’ll know, but the day is always busy. Anyway, we can talk about that later, I came to you for a reason. Would you want to come with me on a quick scouting mission? Just up to the Ski Lodge. We won’t take long, and if you’re busy then it’s okay. It just didn’t hurt to ask.”

Jesse raises his head to look at you and without thinking too much about his response he nods. “Yeah, I’d like that actually. You heading out now?”

You nod to answer his question, so without dragging it out any longer since you’re both already ready to head out, you just have a horse saddled, and take your preferred weapons for protection since you’re not supposed to be out there killing anything.

“Oh,” you add as you walk past the front gate. “Ellie is coming with us tomorrow by the way. She thought she was making a deal but I knew she was going to the party tonight regardless so,” you let him know.

“So she was trying to manipulate you,” he says and you laugh softly and add on.

“She attempted.”

He laughs and you secure your grip around your reins before you scan the area, catching nothing but a snowy field. Yet you still look out.

“Are you taking Dina tonight?” You ask as you keep your eyes out.

“Uhm, no…we broke up.”

You scoff and quickly snap your attention to him to look at him with surprise. “What? When did it happen? You guys got to my dad's place together.”

He nods and averts his gaze to take his turn keeping an eye out. “Yeah well we all ran into each other, so that was just a coincidence, but yeah it just happened.”

“Aw man,” you sigh with an apologetic smile. “Sorry, Jesse-boy.”

He shrugs and glances over at you. “You know I’m getting used to it so it doesn’t matter.”

You hum and he doesn’t let his eyes linger, but he holds your gaze for a moment too long so you notice the speechless cry for help and wedge yourself in whether he wants your help or not.

“Now, I’m going to give you my unsolicited advice here, okay?” You warn him, earning a quick acknowledging glance.

“Please, go ahead. I don’t mind. Especially when it comes from you, you know that,” he says kindly so you sigh and let your eyes linger on him for a while before you look at your path ahead and draw in a breath to share your thoughts.

��Have you tried permanently breaking up? I just mean it’s your whatever time breaking up, maybe the healthiest thing will be to take your time apart. Figure yourselves out, maybe test new waters. You have options here in Jackson, you know? Take advantage of it, and who knows.” You shrug with a soft look on your face so he knows you’re just trying your best to be helpful and share your concern. “Maybe a couple of years down the line, you’ll wind up back together stronger than before.”

You take your eyes off the white blanketed fields broken by other horse tracks and look over at him, catching him watching the area around you in a rather stoic way before his shoulders rise as he takes a deep breath and then glances over at you and breathes out. “Maybe you’re right. It's just easy with her you know? We know each other. We can skip all the formalities and get back to it,” he opens himself up to you so you take it more seriously.

“Yeah, I bet, but it can’t be healthy for either of you to continue this cycle,” you argue. “I mean I know I don’t have much experience in the area. My first serious boyfriend died…and I married the other one who was already my best friend, but I like to think I can still differentiate between what’s good and what’s not.”

Jesse finds your gaze and holds it for a moment before he shrugs softly. “I’d rather have little experience with something long-term like you and Apollo than go from partner to partner, so I don’t mind your little experience actually. I mean you and Apollo look happy, are you not?”

You smile with admiration and nod. “Yeah we are but we both actually loved someone else before we became more than just friends. So you can love more than one person.”

Jesse nods gently and sighs deeply.

“Think about it,” you tell him so he doesn’t have so much on his mind now. “Consider it. You can go on as you are or try and move on.”

“Thank you,” he says without sharing if he came up with something or not. “I can’t really get advice like this from Ellie, you know? She’s…awkward about this stuff and well none of my other friends have advice like you and Apollo.”

“So we’re old?” You tease and he looks at you wide-eyed and shakes his head, so you giggle and reassure him. “I’m messin’ with ya. I take pride in having some mature advice.” You flash him a smile. “Especially for someone who doesn’t tease me at the end because she can’t just say thank you. She has to be weird about it. Just like my dad.”

“I swear,” Jesse chuckles. “If I didn’t know them like I do, I’d think they’re blood-related.”

You touch your chest and nod. “Right? I get scared sometimes and I’m like ‘hey are ya sure Ellie isn’t somehow your kid too’?”

“It’s unbelievable sometimes.”

You nod softly in agreement as you guide your horses to do a turn so you can head up the hill that takes you to the lodge just above. And since it’s not snowing, getting up to the lodge is easy. It is cold, but that doesn’t slow the horses down like when falling snow makes the walk harder to trudge on or obscures their view.

Nevertheless, when you reach the lodge Jesse finally asks why you’re here. The guy had just completely followed you without question. This could’ve been just an escape for all he knew and he still followed.

“So why did we come here?”

You grab the telescope that’s inside the lodge and begin dragging it with you to the porch. “My uncle Tommy wants to divert the crowd of infected away from Jackson, so he sent me up here to come up with a plan to avoid having a herd gather up too close for comfort.”

“Oh, I see. Okay. That’s smart.” He says as he jogs ahead to open the back doors for you so you can walk out with ease.

“I’m thinking fireworks,” you share what you’ve come up with. “It’s loud enough for stragglers and crowds of them to hear. And with them working with a hive mind, once one follows they all do, so fireworks are loud and big enough to trigger that.”

You place the telescope down and turn it to point it out so you can take a quick scan before you step away and point your head to the scope. “Do you want to take a look, share something quick you can come up with?” You direct at Jesse, and without hesitation, he fixes the collar of his jacket and his gloves before he steps forward and takes a longer look than you did so he can make sure to look at every point and corner.

You like to think you have memorized the area so you didn’t need time to look, you were already cooking up a plan, but it was still smart to come scout before you put something down on paper.

“Well,” Jesse fills the silence and backs up slowly. “It wouldn’t be smart to lead them forward. There’s the dam, and we’ll just risk them turning around because of the rivers.”

You nod slowly in agreement with a proud look decorating your features.

“Plus,” he adds on. “Any infected behind Jackson will come forward and run into town. The same goes if we want to work the other way around.”

“Yes,” you praise him and step forward to look through the telescope and look out at some mountains to the side of Jackson. “So I was thinking we take the lowest path in between the mountains just there.” You point out and move back so he can take a look. “It’s far enough so if any avalanches happen they won’t hit us or any hunting grounds, and easy for us to cross as well as them.”

“Yeah,” Jesse interjects. “I see.”

“We get ahead of the infected first and then set off the fireworks. We wait and when we see movement we just move back once.”

“Then we circle around and come back,” Jesse shares exactly what you were thinking about. “We watch where they’re coming from and since we’ll be at lower altitude we’ll have plenty of space to take any path around them.”

You grin and nod. “Exactly!” You exclaim and then point out. “If they do get closer we can make explosives. Create an avalanche to block their way to us.”

He huffs. “You learn that from Eugene? He was very tactical.”

You scoff and nod. “Some of it. The Fireflies loved blowing shit up. I was young then so I didn’t do much of the action, but I still learned a lot from them. We all did, and that’s why we need to look out and see if we can come up with other alternatives until we have enough to choose one that has the highest chance of being successful.”

Jesse grins and claps gently. “Okay, let’s do it. I’m so down.”

“Good.” You smile softly and point your head at the telescope before you return to it to do as you said.

——

*LATER THAT NIGHT*

“Henry, gimme the gun.” Your dad pleads softly.

“Henry. Henry, please.”

His eyes find you through his shock, they’re struck with fear and clouded with tears. You carefully try to reach out for the gun glued to his hand while your dad keeps pleading.

“Gimme the gun. Gimme the gun.”

You plead too in disparate attempts to get the gun from his hand whilst your own heart gets struck with fear over the fact that you don’t know what he’s going to do next, but you also feel a twinge of hope as he remains still because it means he can put the gun down, but then…

The next thing you know his blood stains your clothes as you cradle his lifeless body in your hands...

You used to imagine and dream of how life could’ve been with Henry when you finally returned to Jackson and stayed long-term, and you always pictured a sweet life. You probably would’ve had a kid too, or at least you would’ve liked one. He would have a happy life in Jackson, or at least you liked to think so.

Once you started falling in love with Apollo and when your grief turned to fond memories, you stopped dreaming and imagining a life you could never have. Instead, your dreams drew up Apollo and your life with him. You imagined so many great and sweet things, and now everything you have imagined has come to flourishion. Most importantly you’re happy—no you’re beyond happy with your life, and the thought of Henry being happy and proud of your life and the fact that you moved on makes you happy.

“Hey, you ready in here? I’m getting hungry,” Apollo announces his presence as walks into your shared room with your baby in hand.

“Oh,” you gasp and clutch onto the sunpin in your hand before you turn to face him, noticing his lips spread to a cheeky smile.

“Look at you,” he muses as he looks at you up and down slowly before he breaks away from where he is to approach you. “You look beautiful.”

You smile timidly and drop your head. “Thank you,” you whisper as if it’s your first time hearing it. “You,” draw in a deep breath and lift your head to check him out in his black and white plaid wool overcoat. “You look incredibly handsome. I almost don’t want to go to that party.”

He chuckles and grabs his chest. “Oh, you hit me right in my weak spot.”

You giggle and close the gap between you, letting him stroke your chin with his pupils completely blown out and his lips turned to a smirk. “There’s no need to celebrate New Year's because I have everything I could ever want,” he whispers and slides his hand to your jaw to pull you in for a gentle kiss before you’re interrupted by your son yelling out.

“Oh, why you look the best, Teddy,” you direct at Theo as you press your hands on Apollo’s chest and smile brightly at your son. “You always do.”

He babbles and you and Apollo laugh.

“Oh you’re ready to go, are you? Have someone to see?” You tease and pinch his cheek, making him giggle, and then reach his arms out so you could hold him instead—“Okay, hold on, let me get my shawl first.”

With haste you walk away to grab your light blue shawl off the bed and drape it around your shoulders, completing your outfit and coordinating the blue shawl with your white shin-length dress that has flowers embroidered on it.

Before you announce that you’re finished, however, you put the pin back on your picture wall and admire it for a second before you face your family and offer their impatience some relief. “Okay, let’s go.”

You proceed to try and take Teddy, but he changes his mind and stays with his dad so you hook your arm around Apollo’s and walk to the church where the party is being held.

“Maybe we should’ve brought his stroller,” you say when you’re more than halfway at your destination.

“Please,” Apollo scoffs. “I’m sure there will be plenty of arms for him to go to. It’s a miracle he even wants to start walking.”

You hum and press the side of your face against his shoulder and think out loud. “I wonder if Ellie will make it.”

“I’m sure she will. Her friends will be here and even if she tries to play cool she will be where her family and friends are. She doesn’t like missing out,” he tries to assure you. “Yeah, you’re right.” You sigh and choose to believe it so your stomach is not in knots. “Anyway thank you for letting me take a longer nap. I think you should have woken me up because you were out there—”

“Eh, eh,” Apollo cuts you off and drifts his eyes to you. “Stop that. I told you we’re not going to do that. Our home life is not a job, okay?”

You draw out a small breathless chuckle and nod before you kiss his shoulder and nuzzle against him again.

“I will say though,” he interjects. “This did earn me cool points and now I’m maxed out.”

You lift your head off his shoulder and giggle before you pull him incredibly closer. “There will be a lot of arms to hold our little Teddy Bear, we could sneak out.”

“Ah, like a couple of horny teenagers.” He grins. “I like that. Hot.”

“Well we’re not teenagers, but we are horny adults.”

He snorts and nods his head. He seems like he wants to say something witty but then Teddy yells out, “Pa!” and flings himself forward. You and Apollo follow his line of gaze and catch your dad approaching the church completely unaware you’re behind him since he’s partially deaf and probably has shitty eyesight.

“Daddy!” You call out and break away from Apollo, catching your dad's attention and making him stop in his tracks to look over and smile immediately.

“Hey,” he greets happily.

You quicken your step to reach him and greet him with a gentle embrace while he takes this time to kiss the top of your head before he offers you a more personal greeting.

“Hey, Baby. You look real pretty.”

“And you look clean and well put together,” you tease, making him roll his eyes.

“Yeah after I was threatened.”

You roll your eyes now and push him gently before you fight back. “Advised kindly.” You say and turn as Apollo catches up to you.

“Hello again, Apollo,” your dad directs at your husband.

“Sir,” Apollo says with a faint smile before he’s interrupted by Teddy reaching out for his grandpa which only makes your dad incredibly happy.

“Hey there Teddy,” he muses and takes him from Apollo. “You’re lookin’ like a real nice gentleman, cowboy.”

Teddy looks at him with his eyes bright and full of adoration and tries to say something but his inability to speak coherently only lets him babble.

“Look what you forgot at my house,” your dad mentions and reaches in his back pocket to pull out Teddy’s wooden horse that your dad made, and that Teddy absolutely loves. Thus he quickly snatches it from your dad and starts chewing on it.

“And you’re matchin’” you point out the blue flannel Teddy is wearing under his overalls.

Your dad finally catches the flannel and grins. “Well, would you look at that? Aren’t we a dapper pair?”

You smile with awe and watch him turn to continue heading inside. You and Apollo follow after them and only grow more eager to head inside and join the party when you’re hit with the most delicious smell of grilled food and finally register the soft folk music playing inside.

“Before I forget,” your dad interjects and peers back. “After patrol is it okay if I pick up Theo from daycare? You could pick him up at your usual time? Is that fine?”

You and Apollo share a speechless look since you both know your answer without having to communicate it.

“Yeah, that’s fine. I’ll pack his stuff then.” You let him know, so right away your dad looks at your son and grabs his little hand to dance it around.

“You hear that? We’re gonna be spendin’ our time together tomorrow. Would you like to go on a horse ride? You like those.” You hear him tell the baby before he opens the door of the church and lets you and Apollo walk in first where you’re greeted by bright warm lights hanging from the ceiling, and a lively vibe from the community as they’re mingling and enjoying the holiday party, reminding every single person amongst the crowd how beautiful humanity can be when you’re not concerned about monsters.

“Hello, Holloways!” People greet you and Apollo and you kindly greet everyone back while making small talk with others, losing your dad and Teddy in the process, but not worrying at all because you trust your dad completely.

Eventually, after you make your rounds you both flock towards Atlas and Mia as she’s with Gail, a woman she considers her mom and a woman you’ve known for a long time now.

“Happy Birthday, Gail,” you say in a sing-song voice as you startle her before you hug her from behind.

“Thank you again,” she drops her conversation with Mia to address you. “You know it's bad manners to scare your elderly.”

“Oh,” Atlas brushes her off. “Now, now, you have the mighty spirit of a forty-year-old. Don’t worry.”

You giggle and hug her one more time before you walk away and plop yourself next to Mia and her husband.

“Thank you once again for the flowers,” Gail directs at you and Apollo. “They go very well with my dining room.”

“Specially grown for you,” you let her know sweetly. “They’re your favorite after all.”

She hums and raises her cup of alcohol to you with a half smile.

“Where’s Teddy?” Mia asks, making Apollo groan as he sits next to Gail and drapes his arm around her shoulders.

“You know it’s a miracle you even notice us anymore. That goes for everyone here.”

“Aw, are you jealous of your baby, bro?” Atlas teases him as he throws his napkin at him. “It’s not our fault your kid is way more interesting than you.”

Apollo leans forward toward his brother pretending like he’s going to retort, but instead, he grabs a handful of his fries and shoves it into his mouth, making Atlas gasp and threaten him.

“Do it again I dare you.”

Apollo chews louder and Atlas then smirks in return before he grabs his second hot dog and pushes it toward you, so you open your mouth to take a bite, but he then leans in and takes a bite from the other end, causing condiments he piled on to spill out and drop on the ground by your feet.

“Great,” you remark and stand up. “You eat like a pig.”

He shrugs. “It's just spilled condiments, Sunny-D.”

You walk around him and walk away to head to the bar and swipe four shots off the bar before you then change your course to your uncle, Maria, and your dad all gathered at one table while also greeting people you pass by.

“The party is here!” You holler and set the cups down. “Nothing like tequila on an empty stomach.”

“You’re not serious are you?” Your dad snaps at you and you take your cup while you pass Maria and your uncle their own cup so you can clink your cups.

“No,” you lie to your dad. “I know better.” You nod stiffly and share a smile with your uncle and Maria before you down your shots.

“That’s the stuff,” your uncle mumbles and sets the cup down before he beams at you. “You’re not gonna repeat your 26th birthday on me are ya Sunny?” He probes cheekily.

“Ugh,” you groan and sit back. “That headache the next day was horrible, but,” you snap your fingers. “It was fun, so we might have to save our voices to sing down the street again.”

“Getting bad hangovers is a sign of gettin’ old,” your dad breaks his silence, making you slowly drift your eyes to him to shoot him a glare—“maybe that’s a sign to quit.”

You prop your elbow on the table to rest your chin on your hand and rebuttal sassily. “Have you quit?”

He looks at you speechlessly and you scoff and lift your head off your hand, catching your son crawling on the table with his wooden horse to try and reach the shot for Apollo, but your uncle is quick to push it away.

“Ah, ah, you’ll have to wait at least 18 years for that, Teddy.”

Said baby pouts so your uncle snatches him off the table and rises off his seat to start throwing Teddy in the air and catching him, making the baby laugh with immeasurable amusement.

“Where’s your sister?” Maria now directs at you and you meet her gaze and shrug.

“I don’t know. I did not want to stop by her place because she gets mad if I rush her,” you mention and look around, noticing Jesse walking out the back with Apollo—“Jesse is here, so I imagine she’ll be here soon.”

“The last time I saw her she was in her room,” your dad says, avoiding the fact that the garage is basically her house now, not just a room. “Still not ready.”

You sigh and then take a look at him to change the subject. “Well you did your hair,” you pause and lean in to take a sniff. “And you smell nice.”

“Well those are the same clothes from this morning,” Maria snitches on your dad, making him scoff and glare at her before he grabs his cup of whisky and shakes his head in disapproval.

“Like it matters,” he grumbles.

“It truly, really does,” you say and pat his shoulders. “But it’s okay. You look…clean so we’ll be okay. Just, you know, no grumpy face. Try and look…out-going.”

He sighs and takes a longer drink.

“Me and Maria know some good ladies he can talk to,” your uncle Tommy now chimes in. “They’re here. Do you want us to introduce you?”

“No.”

“Yes,” you and your dad answer with the opposite at the same time, making Maria chuckle before she gets off her seat.

“Come on you two,” she directs at your uncle and Teddy. “Let’s go check on Benji, make sure he hasn’t taken his hat off. We’ll be back,” she tells you over her shoulder so you throw her a thumbs up and watch them take your son outside while also catching your husband and Jesse coming back inside with plates of food.

“You talk to Ellie or did you just barge in?” You now dig deeper since you’re alone for a few seconds.

“I,” your dad pauses and then continues as he seems to gather his thoughts. “Checked up on her. Saw her guitar needed some fixin’ and took it. That’s it.”

“Just,” you sigh. “Remember to give her space, okay? I know she can close herself off, but she needs it.”

“It’s that garage,” he mutters as he looks at his cup. “I just…I don’t know.”

You look at him with pity and pat his hand before you direct your attention to Jesse and Apollo as they reach the table and take the seats your uncle and Maria were at.

“Here, darling,” Apollo says as he passes you a plate. “I saw Teddy with Tommy and Maria. He didn’t even bat an eye.”

You giggle. “Yeah, wouldn’t count on it, he’s outside going toward the older kids.”

“He thinks he’s grown like them,” your dad interjects and you nod softly in agreement.

“He’d run if he could,” you add and then pass him a plate of food Jesse brought for your dad.

“Getting drunk?” You direct at Jesse before you take a bite of food.

“No, early patrol,” he says, making you and Apollo both smile teasingly before you interject when you've swallowed.

“Come on loosen up a little, Jesse-boy. It’s okay to be late once in a blue moon. It’s New Year’s Eve, we’ll understand. And if you sleep in tomorrow it’s no worries.” You try to advise him, but he shrugs as he seems unsure.

“I don’t know. People are relying on me…”

“Yes,” Apollo agrees. “But you’re also still young living in an apocalypse. It’s okay to be young and irresponsible. That’s why we’re here. They can rely on us.”

Jesse looks between you and Apollo and remains quiet but you see the wheels behind his eyes turning.

“You’re both really bad influences,” he says with his mouth full of food, making you and Apollo share an amused look.

“But they’re also right, Jesse. And that’s coming from an old man. Don’t wear yourself out so young, hm? You ain’t a dad, nor do you have a wife. Once you do then you can carry more weight on your shoulders because they’ll rely on you, but for now…breathe.”

Jesse blinks and looks down at his food before he nods softly. “Thank you, Joel.”

You smile before you continue eating, brushing aside your conversation and moving on to other insignificant matters that come up while you’re at the table.

More drinks are brought to the table by you, Apollo, his brother, and Mia, but Jesse never takes it too far. He babysits his same drink for long periods of time while your dad also doesn’t move or try to do what you told him. Which is annoying, but you also can’t force him so you leave him be, plus…he does help with Theo by taking care of him while you and Apollo go around the church mingling hand in hand.

Now you aren’t as popular as Maria, but Apollo and you do have good reputations in Jackson. You’re both very well-liked; Apollo for his dedication and work to Jackson, and you for your plays, dedication, and as Dina likes to tease, because of your relationships with the higher-ups of Jackson. It’s why you’re so sought after at the party. Eventually, Ellie arrives with Dina, but you’re stuck in conversations with people that you can’t get out of.

Some people have feedback and complaints. Some people just genuinely want to talk, and others ask about your baby and your personal life. Some even think you’re always on the clock and ask for help, but you tell them you can help them some other time.

It’s a miracle you can find an escape since you’re pulled deeper into the crowd, but when you do, you and Apollo turn your talks of a rendezvous into a reality away from the crowds and into some cold and secluded corner.

“Are you going to keep your wife warm, Mr Holloway?” You tease cheekily, making him smirk.

“I would hate to let such a pretty thing suffer any kind of discomfort,” he plays along while you lift your hands to cradle his face with your hands wrapped with your warm shawl—“so you tell me where it is you feel that bitter cold the most.”

“Why don’t you just try and find the spot and I’ll tell you if you got it, hm? Like a game.”

Apollo snickers and drags a hand away from your waist to slowly slide it up your figure and reach your jaw to cup it before leaning in to press a kiss on it.

“There?” He whispers and you draw in a heavy breath before breathing out your response.

“No.”

He smiles against your flesh, you feel his lips rise before he presses a wet kiss below your jaw. Yet that’s not the spot so you hum your disapproval, making him drag his lips by your ear.

“No, cold,” you let him know and he grips onto you tighter while gently tilting your head his way so your lips can brush against each other. Yet before he can actually mesh your lips together he moves up to kiss the tip of your nose.

“How about now?”

You giggle and shake your head, so he presses a kiss on your right cheek and then on your left before trailing his lips up to kiss your forehead. However, neither place is the right one so he lastly pulls your hand off his face to kiss the tip of each finger.

Even then he doesn’t get it right so he puts your hand back on his cheek to let you stroke his face before you drag your hand back to hold the side of his head tenderly while you look at him just the same way.

“Do you give up?” You ask and he scoffs and shakes his head before he finally feeds your craving by pressing a light feathered kiss on your lips.

“There, my darling?” He queries and meets your gaze just between his lashes.

“There,” you whisper before you can’t contain yourself a moment longer. You smash your lips against his and completely lead him into a slow heated kiss.

Any other day this would be grounds to go home and continue in the comfort of your shared room, but you’re outside now, attending a party, so you don’t tug at your clothes. You just let your hands roam, lighting up a fiery path down and up your bodies that make you forget the cold.

You may have eaten your fill when you were inside, but right now in your secluded corner, you’re devouring each other as if you’re starved, only fueling each other's need with groans and moans of satisfaction.

If you weren’t so busy with each other you’d hear the pounding of each other’s hearts running in the same hasty beat, but you’re so consumed with one another that you only know that you want more and more until…you reach a danger point and force yourselves to stop.

“Warm now?” He probes as he drags his nose across your cheek to press a kiss on your neck.

“Burning.”

Apollo smiles at your response and forces himself to pull away to face you.

“I’m afraid my fire won’t be turned off soon, but why don’t you distract me by dancing with me?” He asks as he offers you his hand.

You sigh. “Well we have to do what we have to do, don’t we?”

He smirks and before you could actually freeze you hurry back inside. Yet before you can connect at the dance floor, you go and grab just one more drink at the bar, finding none other than Jesse and Ellie.

“Hey!” You exclaim completely drunk by your passionate escape. “You’re finally here.”

Ellie leans in and sniffs you before her eyes drift past your shoulder, finding your husband before she looks back at you and quips. “And you’ve been…not here.”

You giggle as you swipe the drinks off the bar. “You’re dressed nicely and you did your hair. Good, now dance, loosen up. Right, Jesse?” You ask and look at the man you had talked to before.

“Just—sure,” he changes what he was going to say as you narrow your eyes on him. “If you are not going to make it tomorrow let someone know.”

You raise your brow and shoot him a smug look. “I’m not wasted, just drunk off…excitement and joy. I’ll be there, and so will Ellie. On time, right?”

“What was that about being young?” She retorts like a smart ass, so you've decided you’ve had enough and start backing away.

Before you can leave the pair though, Ellie takes a step toward you to uncover your shoulder. “Nice tattoo,” she says smugly.

You glance down at the sun tattoo that she drew on your shoulder and scoff before you look at her with a half smile. “Thanks. Someone dear to me drew it for me.”

She hums as she crosses her arms over her chest. “I bet she’s cool.”

You drop your smile and shake your head. “You ruined it,” you remark and turn around, hearing her laugh as you walk away and head toward the dance floor with drinks in your hand.

At first, the crowd of dancing bodies makes it hard to find Apollo, but then as if the crowd knew of your yearning souls, they part ways for you to find one another, and there in the middle of the sea of bodies, across from you on the dance floor is him, waiting for you.

The moment Apollo’s eyes land on you, his eyes grow small and get brighter as the corner of his lips lift to a bright star-struck grin. All while you slow down to a brief stop to take him in and memorize this moment as he stands there under the warm twinkling yellow lights with his charming smile that only brightens the room.

Once you’ve marked down every single inch of him you start to sway your shoulders to the music as you continue walking toward him.

Apollo laughs before he walks to you to meet you halfway and grab his drink so you can both chug it before he takes your hand to take you over and place the cups on a random table. Once they’re disposed of he guides you back to where you were, and gently places his hand on your waist, making your eyes fall on his touch before you’re surprised by his roughness when he wraps his arm around you and pulls you against him so you’re pressed against each other, leaving no space in the middle, and letting you feel each others thumping heartbeats.

“You look absolutely beautiful tonight,” he compliments you as you wrap your arms around his neck and start swaying to the music, while he strokes your cheek with his other hand before he grips onto your waist with both hands.

“I love you,” you tell him in a honey-laced voice as you look at him as if it was just you and him alone in this room.

“I love you too,” he whispers back against your lips as he presses his forehead against yours.

You smile giddily before you mold your lips against his and savor the sweet taste of his lips without caring enough to stop. You’re so lost in each other that you forget you’re in a crowd of people. You remember to dance. You just don’t pay any attention to the people around you.

And maybe it would’ve been a good idea staying oblivious, but as the saying goes, good things come to an end.

As if caught doing something you weren’t supposed to, you pull away from Apollo and gasp for air whilst gripping onto the back of his neck, while he takes heavy breaths and holds onto your waist tightly.

“Hey…it’s a family event,” you catch Seth saying and think it’s directed at you and Apollo, but when you look over you see that his attention is on Dina and Ellie.

“Sorry,” Dina says for her and Ellie, and you see them trying to walk away, but Seth keeps staring them down with his face red. “Sorry!” Dina says again but louder this time, causing you to look at Apollo for help, but he rubs your sides gently to try and assure you.

“You’re in a church,” Seth mutters as Dina grabs Ellie by the hand and tries to take her away. “Dykes.”

You gasp and drag your hand down to grab Apollo’s arm with shock, disgust, and concern.

“What the fuck did you just say?” You hear Ellie exclaim as she spins around to storm toward Seth, whilst Dina quickly turns with Ellie and takes her hand to try and pull her away before she can cause a bigger commotion. Not like she should stop Ellie from showing Seth a lesson.

“Ellie, no. Ellie!”

You grip tighter onto Apollo and look at him with concern, but he’s focused on Seth and Ellie and starts to pull away to head toward them. Albeit before he can reach Seth, suddenly from the crowd comes your dad and before you know it he shoves Seth down so hard, that the old man drops hard on the ground, causing everyone who wasn’t aware of what was going on to gawk now, whilst you use both hands to hold onto your husband and look at your dad completely bewildered by his action.

“Get the hell outta here,” your dad orders Seth while the crowd murmurs and Maria quickly comes over to pick Seth off the ground.

“Seth, let's…let’s take a walk. Come on. Let’s go.”

You look over at Ellie, missing your dad's glance and noticing how horrified and shocked she looks over what happened before your dad steals her attention.

“Are you okay?” You hear him ask her, making her finally look over at him.

“What is wrong with you?” Ellie snaps at your dad, making Apollo grab your arm and start to gently caress it as you look over at the scene completely…distraught.

“I don’t need your fucking help,” Ellie continues to sneer and you feel it deep in your heart, all the strings tug, and not just for your dad, but for her too.

“Right,” your dad nods after he takes a glance at the gawking crowd, and then moves his head in your direction, but doesn’t dare meet your eyes, instead he just takes leave in the silence.

You would go after Ellie first, but you know her well. She’s too upset to talk to right now, so you let her and Dina disappear from the crowd and think about one person instead.

“I should go talk to him,” you whisper and look at Apollo.

He nods as he holds your gaze. “Yeah, that’ll be good. We should take Theo to bed anyway.”

“We can come back,” you try to offer a solution for quite an early leave, but he grabs your shoulders to gently rub them.

“It’s okay, sweetheart, I’m okay. I'd rather spend the rest of the night with you at home,” he assures you before he leans in and presses a kiss on your forehead.

“Okay, thank you,” you offer him before you stroke his chin and offer him a smile before you press an appreciative kiss on his lips, making a faint smile appear on his lips.

“Let’s go get Teddy,” you murmur and walk off the dance floor to find your Uncle Tommy with Theo.

“I’m going to talk to him. I’ll talk to her tomorrow,” you let your uncle know as you take your son from him. “Goodnight Uncle Tommy, and happy new year.” You say softly as you offer him a short embrace and a small kiss on his cheek.

“Goodnight and happy new year, Sunny.” He redirects before he offers Apollo the same, and vice versa, letting you then leave the party with your spark snuffed out compared to when you first got here.

Even so, you still stop by your dad's house and actually catch him on his porch strumming a guitar.

“I’ll see you at home, my love,” Apollo whispers.

“Yeah, I’ll see you then,” you redirect and watch him leave with Theo for a few seconds before you look over at your dad, noticing his averting his gaze, but even then, you still go and join him on the porch behind a heater, choosing to lean over the porch railing while he stays seated in his chair with his guitar.

“Teddy asleep?” He asks, making you glance at your path home and nod gently.

“He’s getting there,” you let him know and finally hear his wooden chair creak as he gets up to walk over to your side without adding anything on any matter. He just puts the guitar down against the railing and looks out at the scenery in front of his house whilst you let out a deep breath and see your breath form in a puff of smoke in front of you, feeling no point in delaying why you stopped by. He knows it too even if he pretends not to.

“You know,” you sigh and gently hit your thigh with your balled hand before you cross your arms over the railing again and look at him, noticing him pretending to be busy moving the heater between your legs—“I’m going to say it because I’m almost thirty, what you did just now in that party was stupid. I respect what you did. I really do because I didn’t defend her at that moment, but there were other ways to defend her.” You throw out bluntly, but he still doesn’t meet your gaze. His eyebrows pinch together and his lips droop ahead, but he doesn’t show you what he feels.

“I know. Don’t you think I know that,” he says agreeing with you. “When I saw her face I knew it was wrong, but…I don’t regret it. I would do it for you too.”

You nod stiffly and blink to look ahead. “Yes, and I appreciate it but you need to stop trying to do what you think is right and think about how she would want you to respond.”

Finally from the corner of your eyes, you see your dad turn his head your way, so you look over and see his eyebrows knit together as he looks at you with conflict before it breaks and a mist begins to cloud his eyes.

“I missed out on ten years of your life because I left you,” he brings up and obviously tries to fight the quiver from being heard in his voice as he clears his throat. “Because you were mad at me. I don’t want ten years to pass with her.”

You swallow thickly and nod softly in comprehension before you narrow your gaze and become blunt once again. “Yes, that’s why I’m telling you that you need to think about her. If you had thought about what I wanted those years ago, you would have given me a choice and told me what you felt. You wouldn’t have abandoned me without a word and made me torment myself for ten years as I asked myself what was wrong with me to cause you to leave.”

Your dad scoffs in defeat and drops his head to sniffle.

“When you took Ellie from that hospital you just thought about yourself. You were selfish,” you’re not ashamed to say because, in more words or less, it’s an argument he’s already heard from you. “I-I understand why you did it. You love her, and I love her too, but at that moment you needed to give her a choice and either fight your way out or respected her choice if it’s what she wanted. Now, well,” you scoff and shake your head. “We’re at a point of no return.”

Your dad sniffles again and then slowly looks out before he looks at you as if his eyes weren’t just watery and he was fighting every fiber in his body not to cry.

“And because we’re at that point of no return you either come to terms with what you did, admit that you acted selfishly, or…” you trail off and let him fill in the blanks because you know he knows what will happen if he doesn’t see the things the way Ellie sees them.

“And if she doesn’t…forgive me when I admit I was wrong…then what?” He asks with frustration and also a feeling of helplessness.

“Then,” you sigh and briefly spare a glance at him before you look down as you feel a tug at your heart. “You watch her live her life from afar. You can’t force yourself in her life if she doesn’t want you in it.”

Your dad fists his hands so you gently place yours on top of his and offer him some reassurance. “She will forgive you though. Just let her come to you when she’s ready, you can’t force that, so that means stop being so overprotective and talking to people behind her back. She has to navigate the world herself. If she needs help she will ask, if she doesn’t then that’s when you step in. She can be stubborn.”

He scoffs softly in agreement, and you wrap your hand around his, making his clenched hand soften to hold your hand back as he meets your gaze with unsureness now.

“Just be present and come to terms with what you did because regret or not there’s no going back to that day...” you trail off softly and let out a deep breath to draw out all the tension that had built over that conversation before you offer him a sweet smile.

“I'm going to head home now, okay? Good night and happy new year, Daddy.”

He turns to face you and before you can leave he wraps his arms around you to pull you for an embrace. “Happy New Year, baby. I love you.”

You hug him tightly and don’t fret to say those words back. “I love you too.”

You pat his back and he rubs yours before you steal one more glance at each other and then you depart from his porch, offering him only one last thing. “I’ll see ya tomorrow!”

“Yep.”

You hug your shawl tighter against you and basically trot away to try and reach your warm house quicker.

However, as you’re walking away from your dad's house you cross paths with Ellie and stop dead in your tracks before her, noticing that upset look still clinging onto her, so you offer her a warm smile as she holds your gaze speechlessly.

“Happy New Year, Ellie…and,” you pause and can’t help your smirk as you think about what might have caused such a commotion.

It’s not like it’s hard to guess why Seth said what he did.

“You got the girl,” you tease, breaking that frown into a quick and faint smile. “Let’s talk about it tomorrow. Good night.”

She draws out a small breath and breaks her silence. “Goodnight.”

You offer her one last smile before you walk away and head home for the night.

A/N- Ahh what a chapter!

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