#i'm still bouncing around rules for doing customs in my head

[wispythreads]

I did catch on to that part of it with him bouncing between jobs so frequently, and some of the other things like the fridge freezer, but they were still included in the jumbled up thoughts I listed out partly because I was thinking about them before coming to an answer, and partly because I'm not fully sure if those answers are all there is to it.

Cause, yeah, there’s the newspaper clipping rebuking him for being “unprofessional and brash” (which damn that’s also just rotating in my head because Vince was clearly reading this specific clipping earlier and blatantly lied saying Rody hadn’t been mentioned at all, later scribbling out the section talking about the waiter), he’s very clearly messy and unkempt in pretty much every aspect of his life, and even if he gets the to-go question right in the tutorial, Vince appends the "Good work." with "keep tone in mind."

But, the thing is, he does know a lot of the basics. Much of the tutorial is really just for the benefit of the player to know how the mechanics of the game works, Rody meanwhile nods along and does whatever task is needed without comment, only getting tripped up when Vince mentions the way the menu for his bistro works, and when the aforementioned customer asked if he could get boxes to go or call in his order ahead of time. Which I think are reasonable things to get tripped up on! Those seem like things that would vary depending on the establishment he was working for.

I keep thinking about his reaction when Vince pivoted the conversation of "do you actually like your job" onto Rody. His awkward response that it paid him money. Vince voicing specifically “I doubt you wanted to wait tables for a living-”, and that being met with how there was “something” Rody went to school for, that he was too hesitant to tell Vince, feeling he’d get made fun of. The impression that its some passion he had that just didn't work out. The revelation later that the “something” in question was him majoring in hospitality.

He was afraid he'd be made fun of for actively going to school and choosing to study for skills that, either ironically or purposefully, would've been useful for his current job of waiting tables. A goal that he flunked out of. He has had 28 jobs in the service industry over the course of 7 years. He keeps losing his job, but he also keeps getting hired.

I keep thinking of the post-credits scene of the Best Served Hot, whisky lemon cake ending. "I can't keep watching you ruin any semblance of progress you make with yourself while trying to make me happy, it's exhausting-"

He's only 4 days into this job when he approaches Vince for a raise. He already figures he'll have enough to do something nice for Manon, his "girlfriend," by the end of the week, but he wants more to make it really special. He is very clearly told 'no.'

On the 5th day, when his shift is finally over and done, we don't next see him as we usually do, back at his apartment. He's still at the bistro, all the lights turned out. The only other person presumably being Vince hacking away at the meat in the freezer that'll be used for the meals in the morning. The first time I went through that night, I presumed Rody had just been selected to stay late and help clean up for the night, with whatever Vince was doing in the background ominous horror ambience to be unsettled by.

But we can't really do anything while there that would support this initial assumption. There are only two things you can do. Snoop around in Vince's office, and... steal from the cash register. Whether you avoid doing the latter as I did or not, it has no bearing on whatever ending you get, but just the fact that it's even an option to Rody...

How many other times did he allow his love for Manon to rule over his decisions, making choices in the pursuit of what he believed would make her happy, no matter the cost, before finally facing a price for his obsession beyond the scope of his worst nightmares?

...

And after all that I do want to defend the rollerskates a bit because

Rollerskates in restaurants are kinda a thing, in the 1960s (the year this game is set) they were a pretty popular gimmick/tool for diners in the U.S. at least, not sure about elsewhere in the world unfortunately

Yeah he canonically brought and proceeded to wear rollerskates to work at a fancy bistro. But that also means Vince watched him show up to work one day, wearing rollerskates, and just let him do it. Just watched Rody roll around his fancy bistro attending to customers that expect the highest of professionalism, and said nothing.

[emyn-arnens]

Tell us about and dark things silent crept beneath and Shadows of Madness and Despair?

Thanks for the ask! (from this ask game)

And dark things silent crept beneath is a oneshot about the Woodmen of Mirkwood, set just before the main events of LOTR. Its inspiration comes from this quote in FOTR about Gollum's activities in Mirkwood: “The wood was full of the rumour of him, dreadful tales even among beasts and birds. The Woodmen said that there was some new terror abroad, a ghost that drank blood. It climbed trees to find nests; it crept into holes to find the young; it slipped through windows to find cradles.”

Here's a snippet of it:

Do not venture into the forest alone. Keep to the Old Forest Road and do not stray from the path, no matter what catches your eye. Do not look into the eyes of any creature that watches you from the gloom. And never, ever wander past the eaves of the forest after nightfall. You will not return. These were the rules of the Woodmen, and so were the children of the forest taught from the time they bounced upon their parents’ knees. The rules kept the Woodmen safe, for as long as they minded the forest, the forest minded them. It was an uneasy partnership, but it had held for many generations (barring the troublesome youths who sought to prove that they had no need for the safety of the rules, and who had soon learned otherwise). It had held until the first of the young livestock had been killed, dragged away in a trail of blood in the dead of night. It had held until the killings continued, and the malevolence of the forest—or of some creature within it—could not be denied.

The fic has been stuck in development hell for some months now because it requires creating a full cast of OCs, and that requires figuring out plausible naming customs for the Woodmen, and that requires figuring out what language they speak. I read somewhere that canon suggests that they speak Adunaic, but I'm not sure if that would still be the case at the end of the Third Age, and if their language wouldn't have been influenced by the Mirkwood Elves, who they canonically have dealings with, or the Men of Lake-town or Dale, who they could plausibly have dealings with. (This is a plea for help btw. I'm in over my head.)

Shadows of Madness and Despair is a oneshot of Emeldir leading the women of Dorthonion through Nan Dungortheb, after fleeing from Dorthonion when Morgoth's forces overtook it during the Dagor Bragollach. The oneshot plays with the horror elements of Nan Dungortheb and the women's efforts to survive their journey through it. Here's a snippet:

It was a fell, foul place, full of horrors beyond the minds of Men. Those who entered did so only because desperate need drove them into its dark embrace—and few found their way out. There were tales of those whose hearts were clutched by fear and who had been unable to draw their gazes from the eyes in the shadows until they became transfixed and immovable, their faces blank masks that held no light of life or recognition of their fellows. Other tales told of those who had strayed from the path, beckoned by the illusion of light, and had become forever lost in the shifting shadows. And still other rumors told of those who had disappeared in the night, taken without a cry.

Emeldir looked warily around the enclosing cliffs that hemmed them in darkness. Would that they could have taken another path, any path but this. “Do not drink of any water here, and do not look into any eyes that peer from the shadows,” Emeldir instructed, turning to the women who followed behind her. “Do not stray from your fellows, for if you do, you may never return. These paths are twisted and treacherous and seek ever to lead those who walk upon them astray.” She held the women’s gazes as she spoke.  The women stood together in a tight knot, holding the hands of their sisters, aunts, neighbors, and friends. Children and babes clung to their mothers, too frightened even to cry, and their mothers’ faces were pale and strained as they listened to her. “We will camp as we always do: children and aged in the center, and healthy and hale guarding the perimeter," Emeldir continued. "But we will double our watch in the evenings: Eight women must stand guard—two facing north, two south, two east, and two west. We cannot afford to be taken unawares in this place.”

[popfizzles]

@dreamaredoodle wanted a minotaur too, but didn’t get a chance to throw in her hat for the adoptables, so I instead tried my hand at doing a custom for her!!!

[i-cant-sing]

I'm living for Y/N attacking stupid uncle Naoya with her plush!!! Would she give him the silent treatment ever? WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF SHE SLIPPED UP AND CALLED HIM "DAD" IN FRONT OF EVERYONE?

Baby Fushiguro calling Yandere Uncle Naoya "dad" accidentally

Oh my, you know that he's never gonna let it go. As soon as you said the word, you're embarrassed and Naoya only adds fuel to the fire as he mockingly asks you to repeat what you said.

You try to run away, but Naoay doesn't let you escape, swiftly swooping you up in his arms and pulling you to his chest, grinning evilly as he asks "Where are you going, bub? Leaving your father here all alone-" "YOU'RE NOT MY FATHER-!" "Hush, hush, child of poverty- although if you're my kid, then you're "child of riches, wealth, and abundance" hm?" He says as he bounces you around, while reader is trying to scratch his face off.

And from then on, whenever reader is in trouble, Naoya puffs up his chest and uses the "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. No child of mine should jump into the freezing cold pond just because they wanted to pet the koi fish. Didn't I buy you the koi plushie that was custom made by Gucci? You're not poor anymore sweetie! You're rich, like me- your fatherr- STOP WHACKING ME WITH THE KOI PLUSHIE! ISTG I WILL RIP IT APART IF YOU DO THAT AGAIN-" *gets whacked in the face again with the plushie and reader proceeds to zoom away*

Even as you grow up, Naoya still doesn't let go of it. You could be stomping over to your room and Naoya will trail after you, yelling at you to not walk away and roll your eyes at your "dad". And no matter how many times you tell him that you just called him "dad" one time, he'll just shake his head and say that you only said it because you saw him as a father figure and that's because he is doing a "spectacular" job at raising you, and that only means that he should just try harder to become the man that you could look upto, and that means forcing you to follow the stupid rules- like no dating or going out without his explicit permission.

Sometimes though, he takes it a little to far and that ends up in you tearing up because its not funny anymore. All of this only reminds you how Toji isn't in your life anymore, or as Naoya likes to put it, "Toji abandoned you." (He didn't, Naoya's lying ass kidnapped you)

Naoya will always remember the first time you called him "dad" and he feels so delighted knowing that some part of you looked up to him as a parent. You felt safe with him, felt that he loved you. Which is why he never wants to stop caring for you, stop providing for you, stop keeping you safe. And if that means he has to put multiple GPS trackers on you, have servants following you 24/7, send bounty hunters after you when you run away, drag you back kicking and screaming and lock you away in your room, then he will. You're a child, and he doesn't expect you to understand why he does stuff to keep you safe. He expects himself to do whatever is necessary to keep you out of harm's way, even if that makes you hate him.

[beels-burger-babe]

All is Fair in Dice and War

***Soooo, @bagelsinatoaster I love this request. However, you didn't specify which board game and as I am a huge nerd I decided to take some creative liberties and combine this with another idea I've been meaning to write which is: MC introducing the demon bros to Dungeons and Dragons. I certainly had fun with this and I hope you like it!*** Summary: Leviathan's world is flipped upside down when MC tells him there is a game that basically allows him to be the Lord of Shadows in real life!! He demands that his brothers join him as MC introduces them all to the chaotic shit show that is Dungeons & Dragons. For once, it was a peaceful day in the House of Lamentation. Lucifer was lounging in the living room with a cursed record playing softly in the background. For once, Satan had willingly joined him and was sitting by the fireplace, thumbing through a book on the human world. Belphie had been passed out on the couch when he arrived and was still laying there with an impressive puddle of drool collecting near his mouth. Even Asmodeus and Beel had joined in, with Asmodeus gently humming to himself as he painted his nails and Beelzebub happily munching on a snack as he enjoyed the sight of his family getting along. Yes. It was perfectly quiet and peaceful, and Lucifer didn't even have any traces of his regular migraine. But of course, nothing good lasts forever. Everyone jumped as the door slammed open and a wide-eyed Leviathan dragged you into the room. The two you very closely followed by Mammon loudly complaining. "Oi! You're gonna hurt them! Cut it out, Levi!" Lucifer sighed and closed his eyes, momentarily mourning the peace that he had just barely begun to enjoy, and closed his book. "Leviathan, let MC go. What are you freaking out about this time?" Lucifer regretted asking the moment the words left his mouth. Levi looked at it with the expression he only ever got when his limited edition Ruri-Chan merch arrived; his eyes were wide and glittering with excitement while his face bore a grin so large that Lucifer was surprised it didn't rip his skin. The third-born was practically vibrating as he let go of your wrist and pushed you forward. "Tell them! Tell them about the game!"

You laughed at Levi's excitement and casually rubbed your wrist. "I was just telling Leviathan about a game that we play in the human world called Dungeons and Dragons-" "You get to make a fantasy world that everyone plays in, and everyone makes characters. You can be a wizard and cast spells against a huge monster! Or a war hero fighter that has been betrayed by his brother! Or a noble knight who is looking for his lost kingdom! And the best part is that it's real!" Levi interrupted, nearly jumping in place as stars danced in his eyes. You put your hands out towards him to try and calm him a bit. "Well, not entirely real. It is played in person, but it's a role play tabletop game, meaning it mostly relies on the players' imagination. That is unless you have thousands of dollars to spend on 3D maps and figurines of your characters." Levi's eyes grew even wider, if possible, as he started shaking his hands up and down. "I CAN HAVE A FIGURINE OF A CHARACTER THAT I MADE?! GAAAAAAAAAHH!" A pillow flew across the room and hit Levi square in the face as a now awake Belphegor glared at him. "Will. You. Shut. Up?" the Avatar of Sloth hissed as a dark dangerous aura grew around him. Beel gently patted his twin's head in hopes of calming him. Leviathan pouted as he noticed no one else seemed to be getting excited about it. "C-Come on guys! This isn't even a video game! It's a thing that we can all do together and personalize it to be something that everyone will like. It'll be fun! Right MC?" You nodded as you gently tossed Belphie's pillow back over to him. "Yeah. I love D&D. I played it all the time in the human world. There's action, suspense, and even romance if you really wanted it," a couple of the brothers perked up at that. "I could put together a one-shot for you guys to try it out if you'd like? I'll help you make your characters, and we can all get together for an evening and play it sometime in a couple weeks." The room went quiet as everyone thought it over. Most of them had no interest in the game itself, but if it was organized by you... "I'm in," Beel decided with a nod. "I think it will be fun. All of us trying something new; it could be neat." Satan casually flipped a page in his book, "The creative aspect of it is definitely appealing. We'd be the masters of our own fate, and that most certainly piques my interest." Asmodeus smirked as he put the cap on his nail polish. "And you said it could be whatever we want? My, one might say that this game could help our wildest fantasies come true~" he made sure to wink at you as he giggled. Belphie, who had only just got back his pillow, scrunched up his face in disgust and launched it at Asmo. "Don't make this weird Asmo," he looked over at you and shrugged, "So long as you do all the work in putting together the character thing, sure. Why not?" Mammon looked over at you from the corner of his eye. "Ya mean to tell me, that you can make it so I'm some awesome, rich, and powerful prince?" Asmo scoffed as he pushed the pillow off his lap. "Please Mammon, even the world of make-believe has its limitations." Mammon blushed as he growled at his brother. You just chuckled and teasingly elbowed his side. "Don't listen to him, Mammon. There is a set amount of how much money you start out with depending on your class and background, but I'm sure we can find something that will make you happy." The second-born blushed even more as he grumbled quietly under his breath. Lucifer tilted his head in thought. "I suppose that if everyone else is playing, naturally I must as well," he stood and began to make his way to his office. "I look forward to seeing what you come up with MC." The next two weeks were spent planning and carefully figuring out the details of the one-shot and the characters that everyone was going to play. Levi was, of course, the first one who came to you to build his character. The two of you spent hours going through the Player's Handbook and sourcebooks to find the perfect build to recreate the Lord of Shadows. In the end, you put

together a human fighter that you gave a couple magic items to make Levi's vision really come to life. It seemed basic, but for the Lord of Shadows, it was perfect. The moment the two of you finished, Levi dove to his computer and ordered a custom-made mini that looked exactly like his character. Satan was genuinely interested in the game, especially after he learned about all the lore and rules behind the different classes and races. You had just been chilling in your room one day when the door burst open. Satan stood there with wide eyes holding a copy of Volo's Guide to Monsters. "MC, why didn't you tell me there are cat people?!" You chuckled, knowing exactly where this was going. "They're called tabaxi, but yeah, they're basically cat people. Would you like to play as one?" He scoffed and snapped the book shut. "Is that even a question? Of course, I'm playing as one." After some discussion and bouncing back and forth between classes a couple of times, Satan settled on a tabaxi druid; that way he not only looked like a cat, but he could speak to them as well. After a few days of you spending time with his brothers focusing on getting their characters ready, Mammon came to you wanting the coolest, most epic character ever. At first, it was clear that he wasn't fully invested in the process, but as he saw the customizable options and all the cool stuff that his character could have, you got his attention. You ended up designing a golden teifling rogue (you tried to tell Mammon that teifling usually wasn't yellow, but he gave you such a sad look that you couldn't say no) that was decked out with piercings and gems all over its horns and tail. He tried to act like he wasn't that excited about it, but one day during class you caught him doodling what looked like a stick figure version of the character on his sheet with a big smile on his face. Asmodeus came in shortly after Mammon finished,

insisting on having the most charming and beautiful character there was. You tapped your chin at the request. "I mean, stereotypically bards are extremely charming and...well seductive...almost too seductive. But that's only thei-" Asmo had hearts in his eyes before you could even finish. "That's what I want to be!" You sighed and made a mental note not to include any dragons in the session as you marked Asmo down to be an elven bard and helped him create his character sheet. You hadn't heard anything from Lucifer for nearly that entire first week, until one day as you were lounging in the living room, he walked in holding a stack of resource books. "Ah, MC. I've been looking for you. I wanted to inform you that I will be playing a half-elf multiclassing as a paladin and hex-blade warlock." You blinked at him as he put all the books down in front of you. "O-Oh. Would you like help putting together your character sheet?" He just grinned and began to make his way out of the room once more. "I've already done it. I must admit that this was quite a bit more interesting than I thought it would be," and with that he was gone, leaving you to try and figure out what had just happened. With only a few days left until the one-shot, you had to go find the twins and get them to make their characters. Beel apologized like crazy for you having to track him in down in order to get his character made. The poor guy was in the middle of peak Fangol season and had completely forgotten. Once the two of you sat down in the kitchen with an empty character sheet in one hand and snacks in the other, Beel gave you his full attention. He put a lot of thought in his character and wanted to make it really good since he appreciated that you were doing something that they could all do as a family. He bashfully decided to play a halfling. Not only did the little creatures share his love for food, but he thought it would be neat to try being small for once. His class was also a surprise. After carefully flipping through all of the class options, he had eventually settled on a cleric. "They're the healers, right? This way I can help the others if someone gets hurt." You gave him a huge hug then and there. Belphegore, on the other hand, was not so easy to work with. "Belphie, come on. Just flip through the book and choose something!" He groaned into his pillow and rolled onto his side to glare at you. "I told you I would play if you did all the work for me. Me flipping through a book is work. It's not happening." After an entire hour of trying to get him to cooperate, you gave up. In retaliation you made his character a goblin barbarian, just to drive in the fact of how much of a brat he was acting like.

Finally, the day came for you all to play the one-shot, and much like you expected, it was complete and utter chaos. You had tried to maintain some structure and keep everyone on track, but it was hopeless. Levi and Satan were taking the game seriously and, Diavolo bless them, were the only reason their party was making any progress. Mammon was trying to pick-pocket every non-player character that they met while Asmo distracted them by flirting. This worked great for them until Mammon got caught and would've died from the resulting injuries if it wasn't for Beel. Speaking of Beel, the poor fella was trying his best to do well in the game but kept getting confused by all the rules and different stats and modifiers. Belphegor spent most of his time, trying to explain it to his twin, but in the end, Beel accidentally ate his dice and Belphie passed out on his shoulder. And then there was Lucifer. He had been mostly quiet the entire game. Surprisingly, he let Levi and Satan take the charge in any investigations and puzzle-based interactions, but he did so with a smirk. You had a funny feeling in your stomach that he was up to something, and you were right. It was the final boss. Satan and Levi were on the edge of their seats, having worked so hard to get the party to this point. You smiled, knowing that one of the best parts of D&D was finally taking down the big bad. In this case, you had prepared a beholder for them to fight. It would be no easy task. The fight should have required them to work together in an epic battle of wits, magic and melee attacks. Only, when everyone rolled initiative, Lucifer went first. The eldest smiled as his eyes sparked menacingly. "For my bonus action, I'd like to use my hex blade's curse on it, which allows me to add my plus four proficiency bonus to all damage, and makes any rolls of nineteen or twenty critical hits. I will then use my long sword with divine smite at third level to attack him and attack him again using my extra attack," barely giving you time to process what he said, Lucifer rolled his dice twice. "And that would be a nineteen and a natural twenty, meaning they're both criticals due to the curse. That should hit, yes?" "Wha-" You could only watch as Lucifer, now with twice the amount of damage due to his critical rolls pulled out a disgusting number of dice and rolled them all. And of course, with his luck, they all rolled high. "So that's 90 points of damage plus the extra damage from the curse and the bonus from my duelist ability per attack, brings this 102 points," he smugly perched his chin on top of his hands as the table gaped at him. You gulped and looked down at the beholder's character sheet, "Y-You just took o-over half of his hit points in one round..." His grin widened at the information, "What, like it's hard?" You never got the chance to finish the game, as Satan burst into his demon form and pounced on Lucifer, the eldest laughing like a mad man, while Levi tore up his character sheet in a fit of jealous rage. Levi never asked to play with everyone again after that. ***This was just so self-indulgent and I just- I loved it. It combined two of my favourite things and I have never been happier. This was more crack than fluff, but either way, it was fun and I hope you nerds out there enjoyed it 🥰 Thanks again for the request @bagelsinatoaster!*** Taglist: @mimik248 @roseytoesy @ester-is-here

[jonnnysuh]

Never Not - Park Jinyoung

Pairing: idol!Jinyoung x gender neutral reader

Summary: Your bad day is turned around when your childhood best friend, Jinyoung, returns to your hometown and takes you on a tour of your favourite memories together.

Genre: angst, fluff, friends to lovers

Warnings: suggested sexual experience

Word Count: 4.3k

Requested by: Anon

A/N: Hi guysssss. I took a small break from tumblr bc I got super busy with work. I haven’t written something like this in a while, but I actually loved how it turned out. I recommend listening to Never Not by Lauv to get into the mood <33

Effort was hard to make these days. Even the way you walked had an unmistakable slouch. Your exhaustive strides were just a shallow reminder that there used to be a hop in your step. Five more minutes and you were free from the shackles of work. Free to figure out what to make for dinner, and appease the gurgles of your stomach.The seconds on the point of sale system didn't seem to move fast enough as you folded the customer's final item and shoved it into a bag.

When you were a kid, no one told you how exhausting being an adult was, and thus it became something to look forward to. You were so caught up on getting that first kiss, sneaking out to go to parties, seeing people that your parents didn't approve of, that you didn't realize that life didn't slow down from there. It was like you blinked, and you were no longer 16. Instead, you were twenty-something perpetually feeling like life was just an endless pit of "what ifs" and building up the courage to make something of yourself. Another mindless "Have a good day." escaped your lips as you bid a customer bye for the nth time that day. You wondered how many of your years would waste away telling others to have a good day, when you yourself hadn't had one in a while.

You pressed your fingers against your temple to sooth a small growing headache. Working in retail for as long as you had, you knew that the s-curved line of people didn't stop for your discomfort. With a fake smile on your face, you welcomed the next few customers as your eyes wandered around the store looking for the person who was going to take over for the next hour. Fifteen minutes past the hour, your replacement finally came. Externally, you wanted to scream and ask them what took you so long? but you knew that would only make you as good as the worst customer. Graciously, you nodded at them, before walking away to the back room to fetch your things and head out.

...

You stood against the wall at the bus shelter shivering from the cool summer breeze that was disguising just how rapidly autumn was truly coming. Today probably wasn't the best day to forget your coat.  You rubbed your arms for warmth, taking micro footsteps in place.  The pain in your feet made you romanticize the comfort of the sturdy old bus seats as a place of rest. You felt your phone in your pocket vibrate, but you let it ring out. You were determined to get a seat on this bus. A deep sigh escaped you as you surveyed the density of the crowd on the platform- the ride home was definitely going to be longer than usual. When the bus arrived, you queued behind a long line of people. Your phone rang a second time, at this point the crowd was getting larger and you knew you weren't going to get a seat on this bus.

PRIVATE CALLER 

"Hello?" you pressed your phone to your ear. Sometimes your mother used phone booths to reach you, so you expected her voice to be on the other end of the line. "I'm offended I had to call you twice for you to pick up."  The voice was much deeper, and the delivery much more lighthearted than anything that would've came out of your mother.  The absence of a greeting was distinct and direct, but no matter, you knew exactly who this was.

You felt the tenseness of your shoulders drop with just the sound of this voice. "If I had definitely known it was you, I wouldn't have picked up, Mr. Private caller." you jest with the phone  pressed between your ear and the crook of your shoulder.

"You know, I was gonna suggest that I pick you up, but just for that comment, I change my mind."

You poke your tongue at your cheek, coyly. For all the changes that occurred in your life, for some reason you could depend on Jinyoung's quick wit and humour to hit the spot even after all this time.

"That's fine, I just finished work so I was thinking of just going home anyways."  You had no idea he was even back in South Korea. Last you heard, he was on tour somewhere in North America. More than that, you couldn't even remember when the last time you actually talked was. You were curious about what he was up to these days, but you you knew any hint of urgency in your voice would lead to incessant teasing on his part. The line progressed slightly, but you still didn't feel any closer to the entrance of the bus.

  "I'm about to get on a bus home." 

"Well, don't get on." 

"If I don't get on then you're gonna have to repay me for the fare I paid to even get here." You eyed the bus reaching its capacity, and stepped aside. You twisted your fingers in hope that he was being 100% serious, otherwise you were going to have to wait out for the 6:30pm bus.

"I can't believe the cost of your attention is only $2. Do better." the voice quipped. 

"Okay, Jinyoung I guess I'll just get on, then." you threatened, although you had no intention of boarding the departing bus.

"Fine, fine. I'll pay for your fare. Just wait for me."

...

The sky had darkened tenfold since you hung up from Jinyoung's impromptu call. The streetlights glowed gold against the lavender backdrop of the sky. You sat on the bus shelter bench, swinging your feet back and forth as you waited for him. If he took even a minute longer, you vowed to somehow become the president of the Park Jinyoung hate club. Of course, you wouldn't actually, but the idea became more appealing the longer you waited. 

You weren't one to go on spontaneous outings- at least not since your teenage years. Recently, you followed the strict routine of work, home, sleep, and to stray from it seemed pointless. But the fact that he even thought of you when he came back home to South Korea was still not something you could wrap your head around.

In the distance, a glow of headlights appeared, stopping perfectly adjacent to your bus stop. The window rolled down, and there appeared Jinyoung's face in all its glory. To say all the words in your vocabulary disappeared would be an understatement. A part of you doubted he would even follow through. Without missing a beat, he returned a look to you. "You just gonna stare at me, or are you gonna get in the car?"

...

Your backpack was sitting atop your lap, bouncing with the movement of the car. Jinyoung hung one hand over the steering wheel. The orange and purple of the sky twisting, and creating a brand new colour that only seemed to grace the skies at this hour. The music was unidentifiable, but the volume was low enough that you didn't even bother trying to figure it out.

"So what'd you do today?" he asked. 

"I worked, I told you that." you replied, matter-of-factly.

"And how was it?"

"I honestly can't tell the difference between this week and last week. Or even last month. Same old, same old. Annoying customers, stale lunch, forgot my jacket at home even though it's 15 fucking degrees outside." 

"Do you still work at that clothing store you started at when we were 20?"

  Your eyes shifted, following the ever-changing scenery of the highway. No idea where he was bringing you, and yet you were brought to comfort by Jinyoung's habits.  You knew he didn't have a drug deal, or a random party planned.  Jinyoung was always the type to be home before midnight. He was a self-proclaimed goody-two-shoes, but you weren't completely fooled. You knew he could bend the rules if it seemed to serve him.

  "That exact same one."

 "Anything else?"

  You looked at him, the shock settling in that he was really right next to you-- no longer just a figure on a billboard that you used to know. The changes of his physicality were subtle; his face was more defined, but his cheeks still carried the baby fat that had been there since childhood. The shadow of his facial hair loomed on his smooth skin. The mole on the top of his lip, not necessarily gone, but faded. He looked older, but the aura of his presence remained the same.

"And then I was dumb enough to get into a car with a stranger because he said he'd give me $2."

Jinyoung side eyed you, causing you to erupt in laughter. His glare was also unchanging. "Stranger? Your memory's fading already?" He shook his head disappointedly. "I thought you still had a few good years left."

  "Oh yeahhhhhh. Sorry Jinyoungie. Didn't recognize you with all the fame." you pinched and pulled on his ear- both things a relic of your grade school years. When you were kids, you never let him forget the age gap. Granted, it was only 3 days, but that gave you the freedom to refer to him however you pleased, while he was stuck with the honorifics.

As you let go, the curve of his ear flushed red. "OWW.” he cried, swatting your hand away. “You’re lucky I’m driving otherwise I would pull your hair.”

Being raised with Jinyoung meant that you were inseparable but kind of in the worst way. If Jinyoung got  a good mark on a test, his parents would immediately flaunt it to yours. If you wanted to sneak out, he was on your tail telling you to go back home. And if he knew you liked someone, then that person would know soon enough by the words of Jinyoung. All of that warranted ear pulling, and if you did something in retaliation he would pull your hair.

He was one of the few people in your life, who encapsulated a certain time of your life.  The time in your life when you were young, and the world felt so big and everything was possible.

  The car rocked back and forth as it shifted into the elevated ramp of a parking lot. Your eyes widened as you realized where you were.  He lingered in his seat before popping his seatbelt off and exiting the car. You followed him, swinging the passenger door open.

  "So you randomly called me because you wanted to hang out at the...convenience store?" you gestured to the old, orangey building. The bricks were chipped, and the fluorescent lights illuminated the outside through the big glass window.  You remember the days when you and Jinyoung would sit on the parking blocks and split a bag of chips until you were chased off the property by the owner. He pulled on the store door, pressing his back to it and letting you enter first. 

"Well, I wasn't going to come here until you started yanking my ears. That's when I knew you were hungry."

Without stopping, you weaved through the store until you reached aisle 3- the snack aisle had become a home to you and Jinyoung when you were growing up. In grade school, you were both fearful of what was beyond the boundaries of your home and school so you indulged in after school snacks at the convenience to talk about the latest happenings in your life. As you aged, it became the place of solace after exams, or the meetup location for last minute plans.

  He picked up a package of gummy worms, and shook them in your face. "Do you remember what happened the last time we ate theseeee?" Jinyoung smirked. For a moment, you were taken aback by how much he had grown. In your teens, you and Jinyoung met eye to eye. Now, you felt like you had to look up at him in order to be taken seriously.

  You crossed your arms, "Yeah, we ate them in the parking lot and you made me confess who I had a crush on." 

"Chan, right?" 

You nodded, with a sulk as you reminisced. "That wasn't fair."

 "Why? Do you still have a crush on him?" 

"I haven't thought about him in so long. You really think I'd have a lingering crush on a guy I haven't seen in years?"

Jinyoung shrugged, and shifted his feet. "You had a huge crush on him, though. You even stared at him like this." He rested his palm to his cheek, letting out a deep sigh while trying to maintain an enamoured expression. You snorted, hitting him on the chest. "You'd write his name all over your notebooks AND you bullied me into giving you one of my new ones." he added.

You let out a belly laugh. "And then I wrote his name all over that one too."

Jinyoung rolled his eyes. "They were premium quality notebooks. My aunt sent me them from the states!"

 "You had a kabillion of them. Besides, you pestered me for-like-ever to know who I liked, but you never even told me who you had a crush on." You grabbed the bag of gummy worms from his hand and placed it in your shopping basket. Your attention shifted, as you realized you should be in search of your favourite chocolates. You knew that you were far too old to be eating junk food for dinner, but there was something familiar about being hyped up on food that you knew would rot your insides. Your eyes landed on the top row of the wall, and before you could grab your favourite chocolates, Jinyoung stripped it from the wall and dropped it into the basket. He piled on a bag of sour cream and onion chips, and then you both ventured to the drink refrigerators.

  Both of you stared deeply at your drink options. On each level of the fridge, stood several different colourful drinks. If you knew Jinyoung, then you knew he would pick a Coke- it was something he swore by in your younger years. You hummed, mentally deciding between an iced tea or a vitamin water.  You weren't sure why it bothered you when Jinyoung picked up a Sprite, but you tried to hide your dismay. With an ice tea in hand, and a basket full of both of your favourite things, you made your way to the cashier.

  At the last moment, Jinyoung placed a bright yellow umbrella on the checkout counter. He looked down at you, surely, “You never know when it’s gonna rain.”

...

The following car ride to your next destination only lasted about 3 minutes before he parked on the side of the road and dragged you down the street, with the plastic bag full of your foods in hand. 

"I should've known you were going to bring me here." you said, strolling down the familiar gravel pathway towards your elementary school. All colour in the sky had disappeared now, finding it hard to see anything but the outline of each other and some features.

  Both of you settled on the grass field, onlooking the tall school building that was the foundation of your formal years. As soon as you opened the bag of chips, you found yourselves deep in conversation, talking about what life had been for him the last few years. You couldn't help but be in awe when he explained the rush he got when he got on stage, and how he got anxiety when he thought he wasn’t doing his best.  The candidacy of his thoughts drew you in and you were surprised that he trusted you with his secrets. 

All these years, you had always wondered what he was up to, if he was living a life far better than the one he left at home.  To everyone else, he was this huge pop star that had travelled the world 3 times over, but to you, he was your best friend who left home at 16. You had seen him through the bad hair phases, the adolescent temper tantrums, the voice cracks, and the questionable fashion choices both your parents had put you in.

  He leaned back on his arms as he gazed at the school. "Are you afraid of change?" You were silent for a moment as you thought. "On a scale of 1-10?" you rocked your head back and forth. "It's a 15."

Jinyoung raised his eyebrows. You held your legs to your chest, and looked at him. "Why?"

He opened his mouth, but quickly closed it and looked smugly in the other direction. "Heyyy." you poked him repeatedly. "You can't just ask me that and not tell me why."

He enclosed his hand around your finger, forcing your poking to come to a halt. It felt like he was studying your face. Never in your life had you ever felt like you were under the scope of Jinyoung's gaze. The darkness of the sky acted as a mask, hiding your blushing face.

"It was the last thing I asked you before I left." he admitted. "I asked you that when things were about to change big time for us… I always wondered if you resented me for leaving you behind."

  The last day before Jinyoung left to become a full-time trainee, you two snuck on to this very same field. Both of you ran across the grass, picking up dandelions; believing that if you gathered enough and blew on them, that they would fuel your wishes.

  “You thought I could resent you?” He nodded. “Well, for starters, I hate your guts.” You replied sarcastically, causing him to look at the ground with embarrassment and your face softened at the sight of it.

  “You know what I wished for on all of those dandelions, Jinyoung?”

 “Not to fail the math exam.” Even in a soft moment, he couldn’t help but be sly. “No!” You exclaimed. 

“Well, you should’ve. You got a 48.” He sensed your killer look on him. “So what’d you wish for?”

You played with your fingers. You thought you’d take this secret to the grave. “I wished that you’d be successful in whatever you chose to do.” His eyes enlarged, alarmed at your confession. “but maybe I should’ve wished for the math thing.”

  Jinyoung giggled, inching closer to you so your legs were pressed against each other. 

“What did you wish for?” You asked. He smiled with the side of his mouth, shaking his head. 

“I wished that I’d always find my way back home.” “Oh goddd.” You gagged. “you’re so corny.”

 “What about you, huh? You used your wish on me!” he bellowed, his voice echoing against the school playground. 

“Hey, I might just be the reason why you’re famous.” You fought back.

You flipped your phone over, 7:53, the brightness of it only barely illuminating the dark. You thought about what you would be doing at this moment if you weren’t here, if he hadn’t picked you up.  Mmm probably falling asleep to a tv show. Probably dreading tomorrow. Probably not as happy.

"But what did I say? You know… the first time you asked me that question?” You couldn’t even begin to imagine how 16-year-old you answered.

  "You said you were excited to see who we were going to become.” The words of your younger self were so hopeful, yet your current self felt hopeless. Your expression sank, and Jinyoung offered a small smile to revive it. He felt guilty having asked you the question in the first place.

You sat in silence for a bit, dwelling on the excitement for life that you once had. Where was it? And how could you get it back?

“I feel like I’ve let myself down. I don’t even know who I am now.”

Jinyoung blinked slowly, watching his childhood best friend crumble. He rested a hand on your shoulder.  "I just look at you, and in so many ways you're the same. I still know what makes you laugh, and the way you say things. I can still pick out your favourite snacks, and know you’re gonna pull my ears when I do something to piss you off.” he yanked on yours softly. "Everything about you feels just how I left you. I feel my youth when I'm with you. But at the same time I’m comforted by how much you’ve changed.”

“I don’t think I’ve changed much.”

“You don’t see it, do you?” You shook your head no. “Do you remember how scared you were to even leave the house when we were kids? Now you live on your own. You never took anything seriously back then, but you’re now one of the hardest working people I know…” his voice softened. “And you let yourself be vulnerable with me when it used to take hours to drag it out of you.” You laid on his shoulder, and he rested his head on top of yours, snuggling closer. “You fear change, yet you’re changing right before your own eyes. And maybe one day, I’ll come back here, and I won’t even be able to recognize who you’ve become.” You sniffled, the idea of Jinyoung not remembering you broke your heart. You held your chest. “But if that day does come, it’ll be okay. Because I know that the person that you’ve become will have it all figured out.  I’ll always be rooting for every single version of yourself even if it doesn’t include me.” You sobbed quietly, interlocking your fingers with his. He held your hand tightly, rubbing his thumb against the back of your hand. For once, there was an action not done out of habit or relic. It was an action evoked just for this moment, and it was a change that you didn’t mind.

…

Jinyoung held your hand, leading you down a narrow road a few minutes away. The sound of crickets, barking dogs, and distant vehicles could be heard as you stood in the middle of the road of your childhood neighbourhood.

  You hadn’t been here since you moved in 2016. You looked up at the large modern house that sat on what used to be two lots. Yours and Jinyoung’s childhood homes were purchased by a wealthy business man and demolished to build the business man’s dream home. You stared at the foreign house that sat on the place of your childhood dreams and frustrations.

  Jinyoung placed his hands on your shoulders and stopped you at the exact halfway point between what was once his house and your house. You rubbed your arms as a gust of wind rushed by. Without thinking, Jinyoung slipped off his hoodie and placed it on top of your shoulders.

“I remember racing you down this street.” You piped up, pointing down the end of the road. Jinyoung always won that race. No one was faster than him on this street.

“I remember finding that stray puppy and fighting over who got to keep it.” He responded.

“It should’ve been me.” You bickered. Jinyoung laughed, amused at how you were always one to hold a grudge.

“Do you remember that day when it started raining soooo hard and we had to walk shoulder to shoulder under my umbrella?”

You nodded. “Ya, that was the same day with the gummy worms, you dummy.”

“So do you remember what happened right here?” He pointed at the exact spot you were standing. You racked your head for a memory, but nothing stood out to you clearly. You shook your head no. “We always said bye to one another here...but…?” you trailed off.

He took a step forward, both of you standing directly under the streetlight now. You watched his face light up as he likely played the moment back in his head. “So that day, standing under my umbrella, we were about to go our separate ways. You turned into me.”

He took another step closer, popping open the bright yellow convenience store umbrella and holding it over your heads.

You could see it now. It was drizzling so hard, even your hair wasn’t protected from getting soaked.   You wrapped your hands around the handle, just like how you did back then. Chest to chest, huddled under the umbrella. Jinyoung locked eyes with you, your heart beat faster.

“And you looked at me, and I swear I was going to say everything I wanted to tell you right then and there.” Your mouth opened in shock. “This was the place where I almost told you I loved you.”

You studied the eyes of the boy you watched grow up. He looked scared, but sure. There was no doubt in your mind that Jinyoung meant what he said. He lowered the umbrella, not letting his gaze veer from you.

  Your life was just a build up of what if’s and trying to gain the courage to make something of yourself… but you didn’t want that anymore. With your heart beating out of control, you leaned into him, taking the risk and kissing his lips. He wrapped his arms around your waist, deepening the heat of the kiss.

A round of thunder boomed above you, and little by little, raindrops began to pour from the sky.

You and Jinyoung separated to look up at the sky. “I did say, you never know when it’s gonna rain.”

You both ran for the car, shoulder to shoulder, under the umbrella. From your heads to your toes, you were soaked in the rain, but neither of you cared. You silently thanked the world for every bad thing that happened to you today that led to this.

…

You blinked your eyes awake, surveying the damp clothes strewn across your living room floor, and the heat of the bare body laying next to you on the couch. You stared at your sleepy childhood best friend, a smile spreading across your lips. This was a change you were ready for. 

[awhmilkywey]

burgers and fries | t. carrick |

pairing & genre: tobias carrick x f!mc (ava dahl) — fluffy as hell

warnings: one curse word | english is not my first language

word count: 2.4k

request | prompt | neither | challenge

tags: @usuallyamazinglyaverage ; @perriewinklenerdie ; @cyb3r-kat ; @moonsoltice ; @romewritingshop ; @tsrookie ; @hedwigsbixch

a/n: a special thank you to @usuallyamazinglyaverage @perriewinklenerdie and @cyb3r-kat for allowing me the use of their characters (anna dawson, claire herondale and bianca hemgrove, respectivel) and a bonus to perrie for being generally awesome and helping me out with this fic. You can thank her for the Romeo line!

Ava has a history of flouting protocol to assist her patients.

The machine whirred to life, shooting a steady stream of murky liquid into the small paper cup. Ava skimmed her medical chart while she waited. Her patient was a young adult who came in with severe chest pain and discoloured skin around her calves. The primary doctor wrote down that earlier scans ruled out heartburn as well as pericarditis. She reached for her coffee and took a cautious sip. The blemishes could point towards a blood clot—deep vein thrombosis, perhaps? It could quickly develop into a pulmonary embolism if left untreated.

The nurses' station was relatively quiet when she approached.

“Could you order a lung scan and a chest X-ray for my patient, please?”

Marlene took the chart with a professional nod. Her exhaustion matched her own.

Ava murmured a quiet thank you and tossed her cup in the bin. The results wouldn't be back for a couple hours. If her hunch was correct then she would most likely need to page the surgical department. For now, however, her rounds were finished and she could take a breather.

Her face twisted into a frown as she remembered her bag was still in the conference room. Her confrontation with Harper ensured she had been too uncomfortable to remain there. Ava decided to take the stairs one at a time. Saying she was dreading their next meeting was an understatement. They would need to have a serious conversation with Bloom. Ethan breaching protocol was on him alone. A conversation with Harper was in order as well; earlier she had been caught by surprise but she wouldn't let that kind of treatment stand. Barging in, wrongfully accusing her without any evidence whatsoever, yelling and refusing to believe her even when the culprit was standing right there—Ava wondered when the cool renowned surgeon became an unruly child.

The revelation that Harper still saw her as a reckless intern made her incredibly angry. Her one mistake happened over two years ago and she came forward to shoulder the blame. Ava had grown since then, both as a doctor and as a person. Her near-death experience also served to put things into perspective, to say the least. She would always have the best interest of her patients at heart but she would never again jeopardize her career so foolishly.

That thought brought her back to Ethan. Frankly she didn't recognise him any more. He came back from the Amazon a different man—one she wasn't sure she liked all that much. Their tentative relationship hadn't stood a chance. Him being her attending was difficult enough, then she was facing the possibility of being suspended, and just as she thought they could make it work after all, Naveen promoted her and Ethan was her superior once more. He maintained a painfully professional demeanour around her from there on out. Ava wasn't doing too great during that time.

And when her intern year came to an end, he disappeared. He wasn't answering her calls nor her texts and her trips to his apartment were fruitless. She found out he was out of the country through WHO's Instagram account. She stopped bothering afterwards.

Ava shook her head, red curls bouncing over her shoulders. Dwelling on the past wasn't helpful. Especially when the Ethan from her memories didn't correlate with the Ethan she was currently working with. Her most recent conversations with him left a sour taste in her mouth.

The conference room wasn't as empty as she expected.

“Heading out?” Tobias sent her a warm smile.

“I've some free time to kill.”

He nodded in understanding. “Holding up okay?”

Ava hesitated. It occurred to her that he was the only person she was truly comfortable with on the team. The only one who'd never underestimated her or made her feel lesser.Tobias was the person who either supported her suggestions or countered them with his own logical arguments and used both as teaching opportunities.

“I've been through worse,” she replied, shrugging non-committally.

He scowled. “What Harper did was uncalled for.”

Ava offered him a wry smile. “I have a history, don't you see?”

“Oh you mean the history of being civil to Bloom even though you want to punch his face in?” he asked innocently.

A laugh bubbled up in her chest and he soon followed with his own deep chuckle.

“There's this place downtown.” He sobered up but was still grinning. “One of my favourites, if you want to check it out.”

“What's in it for me?” Ava raised a playful eyebrow.

His eyes darkened, tongue briefly flickering out. “Good music, good books. We could get dinner after.”

Ava swallowed. “Sounds fantastic.”

Tobias' intense look softened. “It's a date,” he said cheekily.

She laughed again and swatted at his arm. “Lead the way, Romeo, before I change my mind.”

Bantering with him was easier than it should've been. Knowing how laid-back he could be when comfortable made her notice more about how he carried himself around the rest of the team. It gave her a small thrill to be able to witness that side of him.

Tobias drove her to a time-worn shop tucked away between a colourful diner and a boarded-up building. An old sign hung over the entrance reading The Starlight Den. The outer walls were covered in messy chalky drawings and splashes of peeling paint, broken crayons and plastic buckets sitting to one side. He laid a hand on her lower back, gently guiding her through the battered wooden door.

“I used to come here all the time as a kid,” he commented, glancing fondly around the shop.

Neutral colours predominated with the occasional vibrant hue flashing here and there. Bookshelves lined the left side, brimming with works from classics to comic books. Customers could settle down on various armchairs and sofas, reading under the light of several dimmed lamps. Ava slid her eyes from the makeshift coffee bar to the vintage posters on the opposite wall. A soft tune drifted from the gramophone in the corner. Neat stacks of vinyl records were arranged in polished boxes in the centre. A counter held several players for general use nearby.

“This is a dream come true,” Ava marvelled, running her fingertips across the book spines.

Tobias hummed, reaching to pluck a comic from the shelf. He presented it to her with a flourish. Spider-Man was holding a man clad in green on the cover.

“First introduction to Spidey. Also the first comic I ever read,” he disclosed, absently thumbing through the pages.

“I didn't know you read comics.”

Tobias cocked his head. “Haven't read them in a long while but they were a big part of my childhood.”

Ava cast a look about. “I can see why you'd like to come here.”

Two teenagers were hanging around a record player, giggling quietly to each other, while a sharply dressed man made small talk with the handsome man behind the register. The overall atmosphere was quite cosy. It felt a bit like home. When she returned her wandering gaze to Tobias, he offered her a knowing smile.

“I have an idea,” he announced with a quick clap of his hands. “We each pick a book and a record for the other. I have a player back at my apartment.”

Ava crossed her arms. “Is this a ploy to get me into your bed, Carrick?”

He raised his palms up in mock surrender. “Absolutely not. Just a ploy to get a pretty woman eating take-out on my couch.”

“From that diner next door?”

“Rosa makes the best burgers and milkshakes in Boston.” He gave a solemn nod, cracking up in the following beat.

Ava contemplated him. “It's a date.”

He lit up with a boyish smile.

She didn't know much about his likes and dislikes given that all their interactions revolved around their work. Browsing the bookcases, she opted to get him a copy of The Little Prince. She remembered her papa reading it to her when she was sick or when grief was heavier than most days. She picked up A Day at the Raceson her way to the counter.

“Don't peek,” Tobias warned after their purchases were done. “I'm going to get our food and then we can head back.”

“I want nuggets.” Ava blushed when her stomach growled.

He patted her head. “As you wish, m'lady.”

Ava watched him walk away, unable to remember the last time she was this happy. Tobias was so carefree. He didn't allow their work to burden him, always trying to finding the silver lining in each case, and refused to let it interfere with his life outside the hospital. It was a breath of fresh air, compared to her previous relationship with Ethan. Tobias was light where Ethan was dark.

The ride back to his flat was mostly quiet. He tapped on the wheel along with the song playing on the radio—she vaguely recognised it as being a new Ariana Grande single. She, on the other hand, was more occupied with staring out the window and trying to control her nerves. Butterflies fluttered in her stomach, making her almost want to throw up. Tobias was undeniably attractive, charming and witty. And they were going to be alone at his place.

Ava choked on air.

He was quick to lay a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, hey, I got you.” At her lack of response, he slid his hand further and began to rub her back, eyes briefly leaving the road to look her over.

“I'm good,” she gasped.

His touch continued to burn her skin until the car was parked in his garage.

Tobias' flat was messier than she expected but not in the dirty sense of the word. It was a sort of organised chaos that breathed life into the walls. The coffee table peeked from beneath a mountain of medical journals, two blankets were thrown haphazardly on the couch with a pillow half-fallen on the carpet, like he had dozed off while reading. The telly was still on as well and she paused to watch Jessica Aniston and Matt LeBlanc acting on the screen.

He steered her towards the kitchen.

“I forgot to clean, sorry.” He seemed unusually sheepish.

“Mine's not much better, believe me,” she reassured him, squeezing his arm. She took the food bags from him and set them on the table. “Kitchen or living room?”

“Living room!” he called out from the pantry, coming out with a package of napkins and a container of assorted candy.

He had stored away the blankets and the pillow by the time she brought the food to the coffee table, journals stashed away in the corner bookcase. Ava noticed that he also changed into a looser tee, his biceps highlighted underneath the artificial lighting. He grabbed their purchases from the shop and turned to her with a bright smile.

“I realised we don't actually know each other that well,” he said, grabbing the book from the bag, “and I would like to remedy that.”

Ava accepted the gift, lips quirking up at the sight of the blue cover. “I've never read The Great Gatsby,” she informed.

His smile widened. “Let me know what you think when you're done, yeah?”

“I got you this one.” God she was nervous. “I, uh—I didn't know what you liked so I figured I'd give you one of my favourites. After my mum died... my dad used to read it to me as a kid.”

Tobias met her gaze and she was surprised to see him so serious. “I—Thank you, Ava. It means a lot that you would share that with me.”

She needed to look away. Was he getting closer?

Her stomach growled again.

“Eat,” he murmured, slowly leaning back. “I'll put the records on.”

He returned to the couch as the beginnings of Dancing Queenfilled the room. Ava beamed.

“How did you know?”

He popped a fry in his mouth. “I may have cheated on this one. Claire told me you were a fan.”

The mention of her friend warmed her heart. “I didn't know you and C were buddies.”

Tobias rubbed the back of his neck. “We're not, not really. I, um, went to ask her how you were after what happened. Anna and Hemgrove were gone already, so...”

His concern sent the butterflies into a frenzy. Ava focused on her burger so he wouldn't see the deep red staining her cheeks.

It was only two episodes into Friends that she noticed the missing fries in her plate. An indignant yelp was muffled by the food in her mouth. Tobias blindly reached for another one but she slapped his hand away, earning her a surprised squawk from the man. Ava made a move for his plate and was stopped when he put his arm between them, lifting the other up so she wouldn't touch his food.

“Oi! That's not fair!” she protested, not realising she was half-sitting on his lap as she tried to get her fries back.

“All's fair when you're hungry, sweetheart,” he retorted, laughing at her worthless attempts.

The loud sound of porcelain breaking was unmistakable. In an effort to get closer, she had pressed against his chest, their bodies practically glued together, and the twist of his wrist weakened his grip on the plate. Ava sunk into him in defeat and promptly peeped as her groin made contact with his.

“Shit, sorry Av—nghh...” He cut off with a strangled moan.

Ava hurried to relieve the pressure of her thigh on his crotch, feeling mortified.

“I'm sorry—” “Wait—” they spoke at the same time, both floundering.

“Just—wait.” Tobias held onto her hips, heaving out a frustrated sigh.

She would never admit to anyone that no, she very much did not want to move.

Except maybe to the girls, who would most definitely grill her tomorrow.

They remained in that exact position for a couple silent moments. Neither sure what to say nor how to act upon the revelation that they were entirely too comfortable physically for two people who were supposed to be just work acquaintances.

Up close, his eyes looked more green than brown. Ava told herself that she had bigger things to worry about.

But it was a pretty colour.

“I really want to kiss you right now,” he quietly confessed. “I have to know, though. Is—is there anything between you and Ethan?”

She let out a shaky breath, touching her forehead to his. “Not since last year.”

He gave a short nod, raising a hand to cup her face. “Could there be anything between us?”

“Why don't you kiss me and find out?” she whispered against his lips.

She felt his smile before he did.

[nothing-but-dreamy]

ON THE EDGE ~ Pt. 9

A/N: I'm sorry for the long wait. But I hope it was worth it. Have fun :)

Characters: Gavin Reed x fem!Reader

Warnings: cursing

Words: 2.340

The next morning, once again, yn went early to the police station in hope she would find Connor. And she was right. Like the day before, the android was already there, sitting at his desk, checking some files at a fast pace. She approached him slowly, still searching for the right words, "Good morning.", yn said softly with a careful smile.

Connor looked up with a warm smile, "Hey, good morning. You wanna talk, right?", he asked softly, already knowing what would follow.

Yn felt guilty as she saw Connor's eyes. He was so nice and handsome but sometimes that wasn't just enough, "Yeah… Listen, Connor, I… I like you. I really do. But not in this way-"

Connor raised his hand to stop her, "You belong to Gavin. I get that. Hank meant that you accepted your feelings the same way like I have become a deviant. First, you had to discover what there was before you could understand your feelings.", he said matter of factly but still smiling. As yn had followed Gavin the day before, Hank had explained it to the android. For some time, there had been a certain dynamic between them. Like a bond. Connor understood it. He had noticed it as well. He had seen the same between North and Markus. For him there was no reason to step between two people who belonged to each other.

Yn was surprised but it was indeed suitable, "Wow.. yeah… I- I guess you could say it that way. I just didn't know about it until now. I'm sorry.", she said and hoped he would accept her apology.

But Connor smiled reassuringly, "Don't worry. I understand that.. well, I don't understand what you see in him-", he said and looked around yn.

She followed his glance and both watched how Gavin came in. Yn smiled softly. He looked a bit better, still tired but better. Suddenly, she felt excited to see him. Remembering last night…

Connor caught her attention again as he spoke up, "...but I will accept it. We... We can still be friends, right?", he asked hopefully.

She smiled broadly, "Of course! You won't get rid of me so easily.", and to underline her words, she hugged the android.

After that, Yn walked over to Gavin who leant casually against his desk, checking the file of the operation 'JoJo' once again. He smiled broadly as she approached him, "Good morning, Detective Reed. I'm not sure if you're aware of that but you have something in your face."

Gavin looked confused and started rubbing his face, "What? Where? There's nothing.", he said a moment later.

"Sure! Right there. I guess, 'normal' people would call it a happy smile.", yn said grinning.

Gavin rolled with his eyes but was smiling again, "Very funny. Oh, I have something for you."

"W-what?", yn was surprised and watched curiously how Gavin grabbed something from behind his back. It was a cardboard cup of coffee from her most favourite Café in town, "Oh, thanks. That's so sweet of you.", yn said with a huge smile. Usually he did this move on special occasions like her birthday. But this time, it was different. It meant something different.

Gavin stepped forward, "Turn the cup around.", he whispered. It was as if they were in a bubble - just the two of them.

Yn turned the cup in her hand and her smile went even bigger. She even blushed a bit much to Gavin’s surprise. Since he knew her, he had never seen her being this 'girly-like'. Especially, because what he had done wasn’t such a big deal in his eyes. On the spot where usually the name of the customer got written was 'dream girl' scribbled. Next to the nickname was a heart.

"Gavin, that’s so sweet.", yn whispered and saw Gavin's love filled eyes sparkle because of her reaction. She lowered her voice, "You know, if you would have pulled off something like this earlier I might have checked something.", yn said with a wink before she walked to her desk.

Gavin chuckled, "Yeah, that was what I tried to prevent, you remember?"

"Well, but who knows how much coffee I would have got from you by now.", she said grinning.

Gavin's smile changed into a devilish smirk. He took a small note, crumpled it in his hand to a ball and threw it against yn. He didn't hit her. Instead, the small ball bounced from the cup in yn’s hand and hit Chris' forehead as he passed yn. Chris looked up confused and both yn and Gavin acted as if nothing had happened while they tried to suppress a grin.

*

Captain Fowler stood in the door of his office. As Hank noticed him, Fowler nodded to signal him to join him in his office. Connor went over to yn and Gavin to go over the plan of the operation 'JoJo', the name was just too silly not to get used.

Hank closed the office door and joined his boss who stood in front of the glass to watch over the office.

"The operation is almost fully planned. Just a few things are left. But with Captain Allen and his unit, we won't have any problems.", Hank said.

Fowler nodded, his eyes observing yn and the two men. While she explained something, both were listening to her, "She has this team under control, hasn't she?”, he said, acknowledging all of her actions so far.

“Oh, yeah. She has some true magical powers.”, Hank said proudly.

“It's also helpful that Reed admitted his feelings to her, finally.”, Fowler said and noticed how Hank stared at him.

“But… how…? You knew about that?” Hank asked, visibly surprised.

Fowler just smirked knowingly, "Of course. It wasn't that hard to see. Yn is such a good Detective, I was surprised that she never noticed something."

Hank looked at the small group. A question came into his mind regarding the rules when it came to relationships at work, "So are you gonna separate them later?"

Fowler looked at his old friend, "And having a raging Reed running around here? I don't think so. I like the peace-"

"Watch it, asshole!", Gavin barked as an officer dropped a bunch of files to the Detective's feet.

Fowler shook his head as he saw Hank's side glance and smirk, "...you know what I mean.", Fowler said and went back to his desk.

Hank observed his team a moment longer. They all had done a great job and he was sure the operation would be successful.

*

Operation ‘JoJo’ caused even Captain Allen’s team to chuckle. While yn stood grinning in the conference room filled with amused guys, trying to explain the plan to them, Gavin watched her amazed. He was still surprised how everything had changed so fast. The day before, he had tried to kill Connor and now, he stood across the room, watching yn who always started to grin when her eyes fell on the nickname on the cup of coffee. It was just a coffee he had brought and yet, she reacted more to it than she had to the flowerpot of Connor. Once again, Gavin grinned stupidly and tried to hide it.

As Hank began to speak, the room was calmer again and the attention with him, “Captain Allen, Detective Reed, Connor and I will go inside. Detective Y/L/N will observe the whole operation from the outside.”, he said, looking at yn who nodded in confirmation.

Captain Allen stepped forward, “Jones, Tenner, you two will stay with Detective Y/L/N. The others will surround the warehouse. Hastings and Benner, you will join us to go inside. We will launch the attack all at once so no one can escape.”, he said authoritatively. All his men were nodding understanding. Allen looked at his men, “Any questions?”, Allen asked but there was none. The plan was clear: no shooting unless it was necessary. It was an operation to arrest the dealer and the boss to blow up a drug nest.

As everything was clear, Allen’s team got up and cleared the room to get ready. In two hours, the operation would start. The next meeting would be at eight and they had to make sure that all of the suspects would be there before they could strike. Connor and Hank left the room and only then, Gavin walked over to yn who collected the files, “You still wanna stay outside missing all the fun?”, he asked with a smirk.

“Yes, like I have promised you that. But it’s a one time thing. The next time, I’m in the middle of the rodeo no matter what.”, yn said jokingly but as she saw Gavin’s expression she stepped forward laying her hands on his chest and searching his eyes, “What is it? And don’t you dare to run away or to say ‘nothing’. Speak with me, please. Do you still feel guilty?”, she asked and as he looked away she knew she was right, “No matter what I say, I can’t change that, right?”

Slowly, Gavin shook his head before he matched her glance, “It’s not that I wouldn’t try to move past it but I… I have this dream…”, he admitted and embraced her softly around her waist. He didn’t care if anyone would see them. He had waited too long to have her close and now, no one would get between him and her.

“Dream? What dream?”, yn asked surprised. It was the first time she heard something about a dream.

“About the case and how you got … shot. It’s haunting me. Almost every night, I dream about how you pushed me away and how you laid there bleeding. I can’t get the pictures out of my head because I…I-”, but her soft hand on his cheek stopped him. He closed his eyes as he felt her touch.

“I know, I can’t stop you from feeling guilty but I’m here for you. I will listen to you when you wanna talk. Just don’t shut me out, please. We will get through this together.”, she whispered. She smiled as she saw Gavin looking at her.

With his thumb and index finger, he grabbed her chin carefully to raise it up before he kissed her lovely, “I like the way you say ‘we’.”, he whispered.

*

Even if yn became more and more jittery the closer they got to the warehouse, she stayed outside as planned. The docks were dark and from some distance, they had watched how cars had stopped and parked until everyone had entered the warehouse. Yn observed how Allen’s men sneaked through the shadows around the warehouse. To watch this tactical team move was always a pleasure. As Allen got the information that his men were ready, Allen and Hank took the lead of her team to position in front of the door. Nervously, yn watched how Gavin and the others ran over the open place, how they stopped at the door before Allen kicked it open. She could hear the typical DPD-instructions calling through the night while from the other side Allen’s men were stopping a few guys from escaping. Not one shot was necessary, and yn felt relieved to know that her friends weren’t in any danger AND she was proud that their plan had worked out this well.

Jones and Tenner helped their colleagues to store away the arrested dealers in the cars while yn watched the scene. Everyone considered the operation as over until yn noticed a movement on the right side of the warehouse. A tall guy sneaked out of a hole behind a stone. And even from a distance, yn noticed that it was the boss. Obviously, he was able to escape or to hide inside until he could crawl through this sideway. Her team was still inside and Allen’s guys were busy with the already arrested men. Yn knew the longer she would just stand there the more it was possible for the boss to disappear with one of the cars.

Without thinking, Yn grabbed her gun and ran after the fleeing guy, “DPD! Stop and hands up.”, she called out, the guy stopped surprised, turned around, looked at her and raised his own gun to aim at her.

Two shots were echoing through the night. Gavin was just about to close the handcuffs around the wrists of a henchman as his head shot up in fear of what was going on out there, “Yn!”, Gavin breathed. In the next second, Gavin ran out of the warehouse. He got followed by Hank, Connor and Allen. All four men stopped on the pavement. Eyes glued at yn who slowly lowered her gun.

Gavin ran over to her, grabbing her shoulders with a concerned expression on his face and turning her over to him, “What happened? Have you shot?”

“This bitch shot me! She tried to kill me! She's crazy!”, the boss called out who was lying on the ground.

Yn looked from Gavin to the boss, “Crazy? Yes. But if I would have wanted to kill you, you would be dead by now. I never miss my prey.”, she said with a grin, storing away her weapon and relaxing while she winked at Gavin who relaxed as well, just very slowly.

“You shot me in the foot!”, the boss called out again, this time holding his foot in his hand protectively.

"Of course. I told you to stop and you threatened me with your gun. I’m just a much better shooter than you are.", Yn said grinning. She looked at Hank who stepped forward, "He sneaked out of a side door behind a stone as you were busy inside."

“Good job.”, Hank said with a proud grin and patted her shoulder.

Gavin embraced her, bringing her close, “Hell! And I thought you would be safe out there.”, he said relieved.

“You know what? Me too.”, yn admitted. She was slightly shaking and glad to have Gavin by her side.

[tigerkirby215]

5e Zac, the Secret Weapon build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Christian Fell. Made for Riot Games.)

No one:

Literally no one:

@tigerkirby215​: “HEY FUCKERS WHO WANTS A ZAC BUILD?!”

Full disclosure: I watched Dorans and Dragon’s video for Zac and while it’s really well done (like really well done. I honestly suggest you watch it) I felt like it took a bit of an interesting direction. Ds&D and I have always had different ideas for our builds and I think with the release of Tasha’s there’s actually a lot of interesting new directions to take Zac in.

Also spoiler alert but this build is the most jank-ass fucking shit I have ever made but it strangely works really well? Like I literally sat on this build for two months debating if I should even post it. Also Zac’s a grappler, because of course he is.

GOALS

There's plenty of me to go around - Zac stretches and bounces and changes his shape more-or-less at will.

Why thanks; I do work out - Zac is one of those “hold you down for 10 seconds total in a teamfight” types of junglers.

I'm not as squishy as I look - Of course to be a big bundle of green goo we’ll need to be big. Like, really big.

RACE

END ME I’M MAKING A BUGBEAR! :D

Okay to be fair Bugbear hate is kinda overblown, especially by yours truly. You get +2 to Strength and a +1 to Dexterity as well as Darkvision and several other useful traits: you have a Powerful Build to carry more stuff, for one. You are also Sneaky and get proficiency with Stealth, which is nice because if you launch a Surprise Attack you can do an extra 2d6 damage.

But of course the main trait of a Bugbear is their Long-Limbed bodies. All your melee attacks have a 5 foot longer range, which is obviously important to make Stretching Strikes!

Custom Lineage: If you’re insistent on making a custom “goo creature” race with Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything rules here are my suggestions: make yourself Medium (yeah duh) and give yourself proficiency with the Athletics skill. Increase your Strength by 2 and take the Skilled Expert feat for Expertise in Athletics along with a +1 in Wisdom. You will have an uneven DEX score but I dunno just go for Athlete or something later in this build.

ABILITY SCORES

15; WISDOM - Braum isn’t the only champion who believes the heart is the strongest muscle, as if you’d read Zac’s lore he is actually quite a compassionate soul. Also we need Wisdom for our main ability.

14; CONSTITUTION - Zac is a tanky boy, so up the tankiness!

13; DEXTERITY - When you can stretch and squeeze like silly putty dexterity comes naturally. We need that dexterity to jump over walls, among other things.

12; STRENGTH - A lot of it is elastic strength, but if you’re going to throw Cho’gath into Shyvana you do also need upper body strength.

10; CHARISMA - He’s a nice guy when you get to know him, but Zac’s also a bunch of Zaun sewer goo.

8; INTELLIGENCE - Living in the sewers and then later being raised as a weapon means you don’t know any math, science, or history.

BACKGROUND

Zac did grow up in the streets, but the skills from the Urchin background don’t fit him well so we’ll be modifying it heavily. Take proficiency in Acrobatics to squash and stretch as well as Perception to keep those wards up. You can pick your choice of languages or tools because Zac kinda... doesn’t do much other than fight? I mean he’s literally called “the Secret Weapon” what do you want from me?

But your background feature of City Secrets is very useful for traveling the streets of Zaun, letting you find your way around alleys and jungle gank paths to travel through the city twice as fast as the average person! "Put some spring in your step."

(Artist unknown. Made for Riot Games.)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - MONK 1

Been awhile since we’ve visited the good ol’ Monk class eh? Well you can grab Athletics finally, as well as Insight to know if someone’s worth clobbering. You also get proficiency with an artisan’s tool or musical instrument, and I mean... Zac still doesn’t have much lore.

But how about some class features? Monks get Unarmored Defense equal to their Wisdom plus their Dexterity, for 14 AC total. Would medium armor be better? Yes, but you can’t wear armor if you want to use Martial Arts! Martial Arts gives you a variety of benefits: you can punch with DEX or STR, your punches are now a d4 (and will scale as you get levels), and if you punch with your Action you can punch with a Bonus Action after the fact!

LEVEL 2 - MONK 2

Second level Monks get Ki points to use for a variety of features: Flurry of Blows lets you attack twice with your Bonus Action instead of once, Patient Defense lets you dodge as a Bonus Action, and Step of the Wind lets you Dash or Disengage as a Bonus Action. An important thing to mention about Step of the Wind is that it doubles your jump distance, for those big Elastic Slingshot jumps!

You can also put on some boots and get some Unarmored Movement. 10 more feet to be exact!

I guess I’m also obliged to mention Dedicated Weapon from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything which lets you turn any weapon you’re proficient in into a Monk weapon as long as it’s not Heavy or Special. This will be important later but it’s not exactly in-character for Zac.

LEVEL 3 - MONK 3

Third level Monks get to choose their Monastic Tradition and Way of the Astral Self will give you some long stretchy limbs! As a bonus action you can spend 1 Ki to summon Arms of the Astral Self. When you do so, each creature of your choice that you can see within 10 feet of you must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take force damage equal to two rolls of your Martial Arts die due to your Unstable Matter.

Your arms will stay up for 10 minutes and give the following benefits:

You can use your Wisdom modifier in place of your Strength modifier when making Strength checks and Strength saving throws.

You can use the spectral arms to make unarmed strikes, which has the following benefits:

The reach of the arms is 5 feet greater than normal, which stacks with your Bugbear arms. 15 foot reach with extra stretchy arms!

The unarmed strikes you make with the arms can use your Wisdom modifier in place of your Strength or Dexterity modifier for the attack and damage rolls, and their damage type is force.

You can also absorb some blows with Deflect Missiles. When you are hit by a ranged weapon attack you can use your reaction to reduce the damage by 1d10 + your DEX mod + your monk level. If you reduce the damage to 0, you can catch the missile. You can then spend 1 ki point to throw it back as part of the same reaction. You make this attack with proficiency, regardless of your weapon proficiencies, and the missile counts as a monk weapon for the attack, which has a normal range of 20 feet and a long range of 60 feet.

Tasha’s Cauldron of Everyone also gave Monks the Ki-Fueled Attack ability which pretty much doesn’t impact you in the slightest.

LEVEL 4 - MONK 4

4th level Monks get an Ability Score Improvement but we’re instead going to grab the Skilled Expert feat. You can increase your Wisdom by 1 and grab proficiency in Survival for optimal jungle clear. But what we’re mainly here for is to make our hands extra sticky with expertise in Athletics! Is the build starting to make sense now?

You can also land safely after an Elastic Slingshot jump thanks to Slow Fall, reducing fall damage by 5 times your Monk level. If you want to keep yourself in the fight then Quickened Healing (also from TCoE, because that book really likes giving new Monk features) will let you take advantage of Cell Division for 2 Ki points, healing you for a number rolled on your Martial Arts die plus your Proficiency bonus. It’s not much but in a pinch it might save you!

LEVEL 5 - MONK 5

5th level Monks get an Extra Attack, so you can punch twice with your action, and then punch some more with your Bonus Action! You can also bring some heavy CC into the party with Stunning Strike; if you hit an enemy in melee you can force a Constitution save or stun them! Yes actual honest-to-god League of Legends stun!

Oh and because Tasha’s Cauldron really wanted to buff the Monk you get Focused Aim, letting you use up to 3 Ki points to increase your roll to hit, at a 2:1 ratio. (1 Ki point = +2 to hit)

(Artwork by SemLimit on DeviantArt.)

LEVEL 6 - BARBARIAN 1

Jumping over to Barbarian, land of the true tanks. Barbarians get Unarmored Defense based on Constitution that we won’t be using but I’m obliged to mention anyways. Of course what we’re here for is Rage which will augment you in a number of ways: you’ll resist Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage and will do more damage with Strength-based attacks (which you probably won’t be making.) But the most important feature is this line right here:

You have advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws.

You know what’s a Strength check? Athletics! So even if you use Wisdom for it you’ll still have Advantage on top of Expertise! And Athletics is used for grappling! At least that’s how I’d rule it, but talk to your DM just to make sure they’ll let this dopey shit into their game.

LEVEL 7 - BARBARIAN 2

Second level Barbarians can let themselves go with Reckless Attack. Your Unstable Matter will give you advantage on your attack at the cost of giving enemies advantage to hit you.

You also get Danger Sense for advantage on Dexterity saves against effects you can see coming. Is a Jinx rocket heading your way? Slingshot out of there!

LEVEL 8 - BARBARIAN 3

Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything gave Barbarians Primal Knowledge for a free skill proficiency from the Barbarian list, so take Intimidation I guess because you are a huge freaky slime guy.

Third level Barbarians get to choose their Primal Path and guess what? It’s Totem Warrior time! As a Spirit Seeker you can cast Speak With Animals and Beast Sense as a Ritual but we all know that’s not what we’re here for. What we’re really here for is the Totem Spirit of the Bear. You can now resist all damage while Raging, with the exception of Psychic damage. Hey there has to be %health damage to deal with tanks after all. (Now if only they’d nerf Grievous Wounds.)

LEVEL 9 - MONK 6

This will be our last Monk level; sad I know. But it’s worth it for the Visage of the Astral Self. You can use a Bonus Action and a Ki point to summon the visage. (And can do it while summoning your arms.) While the spectral visage is present, you gain several benefits:

Astral Sight lets you see through magical (and nonmagical) darkness up to 120 feet.

Wisdom of the Spirit gives you advantage on Wisdom (Insight) and Charisma (Intimidation) checks.

And Word of the Spirit lets you either whisper in team chat to a creature of your choice that you can see within 60 feet of you, or shout in all chat so that everyone within 600 feet can hear you.

Your regular fists are also considered magical thanks to Ki-Empowered Strikes, and you get 5 more feet of Unarmored Movement! "Woohoo!"

(Artwork by Dragonflamebg on DeviantArt.)

LEVEL 10 - FIGHTER 1

Teamfight time? Team Fighter time! First level Fighters get a Fighting Style and since you’re punching people your only real option is Superior Technique, giving you a d6 Combat Superiority die to use on a Battle Master Manuever. That Manuever shall be Grappling Strike, letting you grapple as a Bonus Action after punching someone for some Stretching Strikes!

You can also heal with Cell Division assuming the enemy team doesn’t stack Grievous Wounds thanks to Second Wind; it’s a d10 plus your Fighter level. "Keep it together."

LEVEL 11 - FIGHTER 2

Second level Fighters get Action Surge for even more punching! This will be more important in like, two levels.

LEVEL 12 - FIGHTER 3

Third level Fighters get to choose their Martial Archetype and for some crowd control in a teamfight Battle Master is a great choice. You are a Student of War which means more tool proficiencies which make no sense because Zac has no lore woo! But of course what we’re mainly here for is Combat Superiority: you have four d8 Superiority Die (plus a d6 one from your Fighting Style) which you can use on a variety of Maneuvers:

Trip Attack is good if you want to bounce, forcing the target you hit to make a Strength save or fall over!

Distracting Strike is like stunning the target in the sense that it gives your allies an opening, but unlike Trip Attack you don’t have to force a saving throw. (Instead Distracting Strike just works after you hit them!)

And if you think your arms aren’t stretchy enough already? Boom; Lunging Attack for 20 foot reach!

LEVEL 13 - FIGHTER 4

4th level Fighters get an Ability Score Improvement: hey it’s everyone’s favorite feat Grappler! You have advantage on attacks against enemies you grappled, and if you’re grappling someone you can then pin them to hold them in place!

Now pinning someone you’ve grappled does take an action but here’s where Action Surge comes in: turn 1? Grab them. Turn 2? Pin them! Easy!

LEVEL 14 - FIGHTER 5

5th level Fighters get an Extra Attack... which you already have. "I hate it when this happens."

LEVEL 15 - FIGHTER 6

Hey more Ability Score Improvements! Want all the fun of a high Constitution score without the Constitution? Look no further than the Tough feat: it gives you +2 HP per level for some big gains!

(Artwork by GisAlmeida on DeviantArt.)

LEVEL 16 - FIGHTER 7

7th level Fighters get to Know Your Enemy: by spending a minute studying someone (IE looking at the scoreboard) you can learn if an enemy is superior, inferior, or equal to you in a number of areas described by the ability.

You also get one more Combat Superiority die and learn two more Maneuvers: Goading Attack will make it harder for enemies to hit your friends (and it works against Tier 4 enemies who likely resist fears), and Disarming Attack will let you stick your hand to your opponent’s weapon to make them drop it!

LEVEL 17 - FIGHTER 8

8th level means more ASIs and I’m starting to think ignoring all your stats was a bad idea. More Wisdom means better punches, better grabs, and better AC.

LEVEL 18 - FIGHTER 9

9th level Fighters get Indomitable, letting them reroll a failed saving throw once per Long Rest. Regardless of what you roll on the new die however you have to use the new result. This can be used on Death saves to try to keep alive a little longer thanks to Cell Division.

LEVEL 19 - FIGHTER 10

10th level Battle Masters get Improved Combat Superiority. Your superiority die are d10s now; even the one from your Fighting Style! You do also learn more Maneuvers but honestly? We got just about everything that we need already. If you’ve hit level 19 playing Zac League of Legends then you deserve to make some choices of your own.

LEVEL 20 - FIGHTER 11

Our final level is the 11th level of Fighter for an Extra Attack that does stack! That means you have 3 attacks total and one extra from Martial Arts!

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Beat up, or beat down? I'm flexible - No matter how you look at it 4 attacks per round is great, especially since you can give yourself Advantage and boost your damage output with Battle Master Maneuvers.

Pick on someone your own size - If everything goes well you should have a solid 200 health by level 20! Definitely nothing to sneeze at, especially with Rage giving you resistance to almost everything and Second Wind letting you heal yourself!

This is gonna get messy - You’ve got a +16 to Athletics checks for Grappling when using your Astral Arms, and can give yourself Advantage or add Superiority die to your Grapple checks. Do I need to explain that that’s really good?

CONS

Don't push your luck, champ - None of your stats are maxed out, and that’s bad. Your hit modifier isn’t great, your Battle Master saving throw is low, but most importantly your AC is really bad. Big health is nice but not being hit is also very helpful. Just saying if you have the chance to go for Point Buy I’d take it.

I never skip breakfast - A small pool of Ki combined with limited Maneuver die means that you’re running on some very potent fumes. Frequent short rests will be needed to make the most out of this build.

These jerks don't know when to quit! - Grappling builds have the ever-constant problem of falling off in the late game when most foes simply can’t be grabbed. This build honestly peaks around level 13 and just falls off from there. This is definitely one of my builds that I think works better in a low level campaign.

But if you want something unique that works well early here’s your build! Big reach to hold everyone in place so your party can beat them up. Playing the CC tank might not be that glorious but it’s a job someone’s gotta do. And remember: "It's not how much you can lift. It's how good you look!"

(Artist unknown. Made for Riot Games.)

[ooohyou]

Submitted to r/nosleep by u/NemesisLuce

Please support the original author.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my job. Cute little bookstore in a quaint little town. I love helping customers find the right book for their mood. I love showing cute children’s books to curious kids. I love talking with sales reps and figuring out exactly which new releases to order from them.

I also fucking hate my job.

It was ten minutes past closing time, and I had my brightest, fakest smile on while trying to get the last customer out of my store. No sir, I cannot look up a book on the computer if all you know is the cover was red when you saw a poster for it 5 years ago. No sir, “I think it was about the cold war and a detective who drank too much but maybe it was something else” does not help me at all. Look sir, all my historical thrillers are on this shelf. Does anything ring a bell? No? Was it made into a movie? You don’t know? Oooookaaaay then, I’m sorry to inform you that we are already past closing time, here’s the store number, if you remember the title give us a call and we’ll order it for you if it’s still available. Thank you, good evening to you too sir, goodbye. Yes you have your umbrella, it’s right here in your hand sir. Okay bye bye.

I sighed and gave my cashier the biggest eyeroll I could manage before locking the door and turning over the sign that previously said ‘come in, we’re open!’. I heard the coins clanking in the coin counting machine (do these have a name? I don’t know. Coin counting machine is pretty self-explanatory and I’ve never bothered to check if they were actually called that), signifying that Alice had started to sort her cash drawer. I would only need to take out the profits of the day, make sure she had enough cash for tomorrow, and send her home. I went through the motions mechanically, only thinking about the nap I was about to have in the breakroom. It was going to be glorious. I really needed it if I wanted to be alert for the night shift.

Oh, yeah. We’ve got a night shift here. It’s my store’s most… peculiar aspect. We close at 6pm, but we open again at 11, up until 5am. Then we open again at 10am. So when I said ‘nap’ earlier, I actually meant the first half of my night, since I am working both shifts. Yes, I live in my store. Please buy books instead of reading stuff on the Internet, I would really love to be able to afford another employee.

So there I was, counting money fully on autopilot, daydreaming about drinking a nice cup of herbal tea and hugging my pillow, when Alice said something that ruined my plans.

“I forgot to tell you, something weird happened when you were on break.”

I snapped out of my daydream instantly and shot her a questioning glare.

“Yeah, this old lady came in, looking for something about fairy tales. I showed her the section but she didn’t want to have a look there apparently, and she asked me about something from the back. And I was like ‘do you think we’re hiding books from our customers or something’ so I just told her everything we had was on display in the store but we could order any book we didn’t have if she wanted. And she just shook her head and mumbled something and then she handed me this pamphlet and I was like ‘okay feel free to look around’ and didn’t even look at the pamphlet before shoving it in my pocket because a kid entered the store holding an open juice box and that was a disaster waiting to happen so yeah but that was weird right?”

She had actually run out of breath by the end of her sentence, and I wasn’t surprised. I was pissed though.

“Alice for FUCKS sake. Give me the pamphlet, don’t look at it. I’ll write that you were fired because of the store’s financial situation and give you a glowing recommendation.”

All color drained from the young girl’s face. I wasn’t mad at her, but I was still mad. She was supposed to know the rules. Hell, I even had her train the temps we hired to help around Christmas time. In retrospect, it was a miracle nothing bad had happened.

Okay, I was slightly mad at her. But I really didn’t want to be.

I saw in her eyes that it had finally clicked. She understood the gravity of what she had done, and handed me a crumpled pamphlet from her pocket, making sure to avert her gaze. God damn it. She had one momentary lapse, and it cost me a good cashier. Fucking hell.

“I’m sorry…” she started.

“It’s okay Alice, you didn’t mean to. You were alone on the floor, she was an old bat, it could’ve happened to anyone. You’ll be missed around here, but please don’t visit.”

She nodded. She finally remembered the rules, and she understood that there was no other way.

I put the cash drawer in the safe while she gathered the stuff she had left in the break room. I opened the back door to light a cigarette. She had tears in her eyes as she exited the store. I gave her a smile and clasped her hands in mine.

“You were a good employee, Alice. You’ll do great in a regular bookstore. Don’t doubt yourself and avoid this street for a few weeks. Call me if you run into any trouble, okay?”

“Thank you for the opportunity, boss. I really loved working here.”

“I know you did. Now hurry home. Don’t answer to anyone knocking on your door. Be safe.”

She nodded and scurried away, her backpack bouncing with her steps. I crammed my half-finished cigarette into the already-full-but-I-keep-forgetting-to-empty-it ashtray and went back inside.

The pamphlet was sitting on top of the safe, and as I grabbed it I felt the urge to read it. Nope. In the bin you go. I was accustomed to those old tricks. First rule of working with my clientele is to know when you can’t trust your instincts because something’s fucking with them. Second rule is to trust your instincts. Confusing? Welcome to my life.

So I ended up sitting at my desk typing furiously on my computer instead of napping. I still had a few hours until night shift, but I absolutely had to start interviewing prospective employees in the next couple days – in the meantime I just had to hope one of my part-time employees would like to work a few extra hours. I just have too much work to spend all my time manning the register and keeping the tables neat. While the store isn’t that big, it still is a lot for one person.

I obviously had to update the employee rulebook as well. Just emphasize that you can’t take chances with crazy old people. You never know if they’re truly crazy or something else.

“Never accept anything a customer hands you directly if it’s not (real) money. If they’re promoting something, make them leave any cards, pamphlets, posters at the register. If you end up accepting whatever they gave you, don’t look at it, and come to me immediately.”

Yes, it’s weird. I know it’s weird. Look, I pay my employees a fair enough wage that they make sure to follow the rules. I don’t care if they think I’m crazy. I probably am. It doesn’t matter.

I pressed enter and added:

“If a customer asks if they can see what we have in the back, politely decline and offer them to order whatever book they need. If they persist, come get me.”

God damn it, Alice actually handled this part well. But she grabbed the pamphlet, and I had to protect her.

I don’t write the rules to make my employees better workers. I write them to make sure they survive. The main reason any infraction is cause for termination is that, well, it could be the cause for the actual termination of their existence on Earth. Getting fired from a job is a way better alternative.

Alice accepted the old lady’s pamphlet. It could’ve been anything else. A tissue, a cigarette, a glass of water. She unknowingly made a bargain with whatever the woman was. ‘I gave you something, now I’m free to take something’. Entities like the old lady abide by archaic rules. In a store, this is what applies. I lost a regular day customer that way. The poor lady was watching over her kid, who was merrily making a mess looking through the 3-5 years old section, when a young girl came up to her. “Look miss, look I made a drawing”, she said. My customer grabbed the piece of paper and the girl ran off. A couple days later, posters popped up everywhere in town for a missing toddler.

I was obviously pissed. I’d been waiting to see that little girl again and tell her that business rules applied only between merchant and customers and she had no right to force an innocent, unaware person into a contract. My night clientele is well aware of that, and treasure having a place to find literature enough to not risk jeopardizing the fragile balance between both worlds. Nonhumans can be facetious little shits though, and I’ve never seen that girl again. Some entities enjoy chaos just for the sake of it. This one just danced around the rules, grabbed what she wanted, and ruined two lives. My customer sank into a deep depression and ended up gouging her eyes out during a manic episode. Her toddler was never found, but I don’t think he will grow up to be a respectable, human adult.

I checked the time and decided I could get 2 hours of sleep before having to get the store ready for night shift. So obviously I went to check out who – or what – was knocking on the glass window near the entrance because who needs sleep anyway.

It was an old lady, her wrinkled bloated nose pressed against the glass, her skeletal fingers tapping against it in a rhythmical fashion that was getting on my nerves. She had piercing, blood-injected eyes that were fixed on me and a grin so large it couldn’t possibly be natural.

I didn’t have time to be scared, but I still felt the fear creeping up on my stomach, slowly making its way through my body. No matter how hard I tried to reject it, I couldn’t. Stupid human nature. I adorned my best customer service smile and walked up to the old lady.

“My apologies, you seem to be a bit early. We will be open for business at eleven.”

I didn’t need to yell. I knew she could hear me clearly in spite of the glass separating us.

One… two… three taps on the window. Her already impossibly wide grin grew even wider, revealing rotten teeth sticking out of black, putrid gums. Thick, yellowish saliva was dripping down in strands from her non-existent lips. By the time the corners of her mouth reached her temples, I was sure I would lose my fake confidence and run in the opposite direction. No matter how many times you deal with unnatural entities, being mere centimeters away from a nightmarish mouth full of rot and decay will shake you to your core. I tried to breathe calmly, being secretly thankful for the glass that separated me from what was probably the foulest smell I’d ever submitted my nose to, hoping the old lady would see me standing my ground and respect the rules of business. I could deal with her inside my bookstore, where she would be a customer. I just needed to stay brave and meet her transfixed, unwavering gaze. Her eyes were more blood vessels than pupils, and I found myself focusing on those instead of whatever was moving in her mouth. I did not want to see her tongue, not after seeing the state of her teeth. And I sure as hell did not want to see whatever I clearly caught moving around her mouth if it wasn’t her tongue. No, her eyes were scary but I could deal with them, no matter how unsettling it was to see them bulge in and out of her head in a slow motion, almost as if they were breathing. The glass became foggier and foggier on her side due to her heavy, animalistic panting, but I kept my gaze straight, only catching glimpses of fog and movement in my peripheral visions. If I were to treat her like an animal, I needed to assert myself as the alpha. I don’t yield to rude, entitled customers, and I wouldn’t yield to rude, entitled nonhumans breaching the unspoken contract that allowed them to enjoy my store.

After what felt like forever, she stopped tapping on the window. Her grin reverted back to a normal, almost friendly smile. She blinked, soggy wrinkled eyelids covering those eyes I had stared at for far too long.

“I guess I’ll see you when you’re open, then”. In spite of the glass panel separating us, I felt her putrid breath against my ear as she whispered her parting words.

Just like that, she turned and left.

Understandably, I was not looking forward to seeing her during the night shift. My regular customers were unsettling enough, I did not want to add the batshit-insane-nightmarish-grandma to the list.

I’m a business owner. The customer may not be always right, but they are always my priority. I will have to open tonight, because while some may not consider books to be a necessity, I guarantee you that it is vital not only for my business, but for some of my night customers that I open every night. I complain about my life a lot, but some of them face issues they can’t simply look up on the internet nor ask a friend or even a therapist. They may urgently need something from the night inventory, and I will do my best to provide it for them. I’ve always loved being a bookseller, but helping nonhumans find whatever fits their very specific needs has given me a sense of purpose I’m not ready to give up just yet.

I will open tonight. And I will protect my business and its rules, to ensure that I can open tomorrow night.

(Note: edited some words to fit in with the location LOL)

[i-run-with-a-wolfpack]

Twilight fanfiction/ Embry Call x OC/ mature rating/will be a short one but more than 1 part

Can't Help But Wait 1 - The Start of It All

"Hey."

Startled, I dropped the handful of books in my hand and gasped. "You scared me," I laughed as he walked around me, crouched down and began picking them up.

"Sorry."

I held my hand to my chest and watched as he stood slowly, giving me a small smile and handing me the dropped books. His fingers brushed mine and I felt it. There was an unmistakable attraction between me and him.

Embry Call.

I nervously smiled and returned to my task. He watched me for a moment before retreating to his favorite corner to read. My stomach was buzzing at the thought of him in such a close proximity. Until I remembered he wasn't available. Still I found my way to his corner, pretending to dust the shelves and hoping he'd talk to me again.

For the last several months, Embry had come to the bookstore everyday. He didn't say much, but the way he looked at me. Wow. No one had ever looked at me as intensely as he had that day. I felt so drawn to him. 

Embry was quiet and thoughtful, spending his lunch hour, sitting near a window and reading. He was like my dream man. If only he didn't have a girlfriend. I hadn't seen him in days. I was a little embarrassed to admit that I had missed his daily presence, especially since we had barely talked. 

I knew he was 20 and employed full time working with Paul and Jared doing construction. He usually came in dirty or shirtless or both. I often had to remind him to get his shirt back on since it violated the store policy of no shirt, no shoes, no service.

What a stupid rule.

Paul and Jared were a little older, both married to girls from the rez. I had a cousin who lived there and since it was such a small community, she knew all the gossip. That was also how I found out that Embry had a girlfriend. 

"Hungry?"

I stood near him, offering him half of my sandwich. I tried not to sigh when he smiled up at me. "You shouldn't have." Embry hesitated for a moment before reaching for the food, our fingers touching for the briefest of moments.

I was about to walk away when I heard his melodic voice utter, "Will you join me?"

Internally, I did a happy dance before I remembered the girlfriend. Damn. "I don't know…" I shrugged as I turned to face him.

He patted the arm chair across from his. "Please?"

How can I say no to that?

"You're really funny," Embry commented later after I had told him a story about one of our more eccentric customers. This was one of the longest conversations I had ever had with Embry and I was loving every second of it. 

As we sat and talked about everything from work to books to the weather, I couldn't help but think, this guy is so perfect for me. I loved the way his intense, dark eyes held my gaze. I noticed the way his attention would drift from my eyes to my mouth and back again. It almost seemed like he wanted to kiss me. Almost. 

I jumped when someone tapped on the window and my head jerked toward the sound of voices outside on the sidewalk. Embry groaned when Paul tapped his wrist and gave him a stern look. The other guys with Paul were eyeing me up and down. One of them was even making kissy faces, obviously trying to embarrass poor Embry.

I burst out laughing when one of them, Jared, I think, was pressing his back against the glass with his hands around his neck, making it look like he was being kissed by someone. "Your friends are really mature," I scoffed.

Embry stood and sighed. "I use the term 'friends' loosely."

I laughed in response, but my smile faded when he held his hand out to me. I locked eyes with him as my hand slid into his. He pulled gently, but I still ended up in his arms. "I'm so sorry," I sputtered nervously. 

Embry laughed as he put a little distance between us. "Sometimes I forget how strong I am." 

I blinked quickly up at him, suddenly aware of his sinewy arms and how they expertly held me. His touch was feather light as his arms encircled my waist. He smelled amazing. It was a combination of the outdoors, fresh cut pine, and a manly cologne smell. It wasn't overpowering, just enough to catch my attention and make me wish I could sniff his skin.

Oh wow. I really have a problem.

I stepped out of his hold, shrinking away from him as I suddenly felt very guilty.  "You have a girlfriend, don't you?" I blurted suddenly. 

Embry looked at me as though I had slapped him. He shook his head and made his way to the cash register. When he plopped down the book he always read, I glanced up in confusion. "You want to buy this?"

"It's a bookstore, isn't it?" he snipped at me.

I sighed and nodded, angry with myself for whatever I did to upset him. I rang up the book and watched as he threw down a twenty. I handed Embry his change, cupping his hand with both of mine. "I didn't mean to make you mad. Someone told me you were involved so…"

"You think I'm a cheater, Nicolle? That's the type of guy I seem like to you?" he huffed impatiently as the front door was yanked open by his friends.

I opened my mouth to retort, but he was gone before I could speak. I looked down at the book in my hands and immediately darted to the front door to catch him. "You forgot your book!" I called down the street.

He hopped into the bed of Paul's work truck and as it sped by, he yelled, "It's for you!"

I looked down at the book and then back at him as the truck careened around the corner and out of sight. I slunk back into the store, just staring at the book I had seen Embry reading on his lunch hour for months now. 

Waiting - A Book of Romantic Poetry

I never realized this was what he had been reading. And why did he buy it for me?

As the rest of my shift passed slowly by, I opened my precious gift to read the first page. Instead I found that someone had written a note inside.

N -

I know you can't understand what you feel for me. I barely understand it myself. For months, I've sat in this store just to be near you. I can't explain to you why. I know you would never understand. But I need to be near you.

Please know that I can't help but wait until the day I can share my secrets with you and we can finally be together. It's all I dream about.

Love, E

I swallowed thickly as I reread the note a few more times. Why? What is he waiting for? Why couldn't he just ask me out? And why did he get so upset when I mentioned his girlfriend? I was so confused.

With my mind on Embry and his cryptic note, I finished my closing procedures and was beginning to lose hope that I would ever see him again. He was so angry when he stormed out that I just prayed I'd get the chance to straighten things out with him. His note had me more intrigued than ever.

With my back to the front door, I heard it open and cringed, knowing I should have locked it first thing. "I'm sorry, we're closed!" I called out as I swung around to see who had entered the store after closing.

My breath caught in my throat when I found a pair of bloodshot eyes staring back at me. "We're closed," I repeated, silently hoping this boy was just here by accident. 

He glanced around quickly, his movements jerky and nervous. "You alone?" he croaked.

I swallowed thickly and shook my head. "My boss," I lied, "is in the back room."

He glanced in that direction and I noticed his disheveled appearance, dirty hair, and the unmistakable sign of needle marks on his arm. A junkie. He could barely focus on one thing before his head and gaze would bounce around. "You're lying," he spat. "You've been the only one here all day."

"You've been watching me?" I squeaked.

He smiled with his yellow crooked teeth and I shuddered because he didn't look scared anymore. He wanted something. I just prayed it wasn't me. Before I could ask, he produced a long hunting knife from his back pocket and pointed it at me. "I need money," he demanded. 

I swallowed thickly and nodded. I knew I was in danger. Forks didn't have a huge problem with drug use but having worked downtown, I'd seen enough panhandlers to know it was an issue. He was obviously desperate for his next fix. He scratched at his skin with one hand and waved the knife around with the other. "Did you fucking hear me?" he spat. "The money! I know you have it!"

I began to move around the counter to retrieve the bank bag from under the counter when the boy advanced on me. "Where are you going?" 

"It's behind the counter," I replied shakily. "Just let me go get it."

When I moved again, he reached for my arm and squeezed hard. "Don't try anything. You hear me?"

I nodded again, my eyes never leaving the enormous, jagged edge being brandished my way. He let go but followed me as I rounded the corner and dug the bag out of the drawer we kept it in. "Here," I choked out as I shoved it in his direction. I prayed he would just take it and leave me alone.

He smiled devilishly as he unzipped the bag and sifted through it. When he returned his gaze to me, I froze. I took a careful step back when he moved toward me. Now my back was pressed to the side counter and I had nowhere else to go.  When he raised that sharp knife and pressed it to the center of my chest, I resisted the urge to scream. 

"You're really pretty," he sneered. 

I could feel the nausea beginning to take over. I just wanted him to leave. "You got your money...can't you just go?" I argued in a voice that betrayed how scared I really was.

He leaned forward, his face only inches from mine. "I'll go when I'm ready," he challenged me angrily.

When he lowered his gaze to the front of my shirt and began dragging the knife up to tear my clothing, I squeezed my eyes shut. "Look at me," he urged in a growly voice that made my skin crawl.

I couldn't stand to see that look in his eye.  I didn't want that to be the last thing I ever laid eyes on. "Please don't," I begged when I felt the pull of the knife against my shirt, occasionally hitting my skin.

I could feel my shirt falling open and the unmistakable feeling of blood dripping from the cuts. "Look at me!" he demanded again.

I whimpered in response to his harsh tone. When I leaned away from him he grabbed the back of my head and hissed in my ear, "We're gonna have some fun now."

"Hey."

My eyes snapped open to find we weren't alone. I stared back at the beautiful eyes I had seen in my dreams the past few months. My stomach clenched in fear when I realized he could be in danger too. Before I could tell Embry to go, my captor swung around and swiped at Embry, causing me to shriek out in fear.

Embry jumped back quickly but not before the tip of the knife cut across his stomach and tore his t-shirt open. The Iittle bastard chuckled at the sight of Embry's spilt blood. Consumed with anger, I shoved the boy from behind, gasping when he turned the knife back to me. 

Embry seized the opportunity to put him in a headlock and grab the wrist that held the knife. "Look out!" I cautioned as they struggled and the knife swiped the air. Embry tightened his hold and I watched as the intruder gasped for air until his eyes went dark. 

When he landed in a heap on the floor, my hero rushed forward and gathered me up in his arms. His eyes quickly scanned me, zeroing in on the cut on my chest. He scooped me into his arms and climbed over the trash on the floor. "It's gonna be okay," he murmured into my hair over and over.

I threw my arms around his neck and sucked in a deep breath. He tightened his hold on me and when I opened my eyes, I found the robber was coming back for more. The door swung open and I heard a voice call out, "Embry! What's the hold up?"

Embry fell to his knees with me in his arms and that's when I saw the jagged blade had sunk deep between his shoulder blades. The junkie pulled it right back out and chuckled maniacally. "Now what, hero?" he taunted.

I cupped Embry's face in my hand and felt the tears welling up in my eyes. I looked up to see Paul kneeling in front of us. "Take her," Embry growled. "Get her outta here."

I whined in protest when Paul pulled me from Embry's grasp and swiftly carried me to the front door. I turned my head to see Embry lunge at the monster, tackling him to the ground. Paul yanked his truck door open and carefully set me on the passenger seat. His eyes widened when he saw the cut on my chest. He pulled a rag from his back pocket and held it to the wound as I watched him.

"Please go help him," I begged. "Embry needs your help."

Paul glanced back through the front window and chuckled. "He's fine. Embry doesn't look like it, but he's quite the scrapper," Paul joked. 

I furrowed my brow and gathered the front of Paul's t-shirt in my fist. "This isn't the time for jokes! What if he kills Embry?" I cried.

Paul looked hard at me and scoffed. He gestured to the cut on my chest and shook his head. When he leaned in close to me, I locked eyes on him and listened to his words. "That guy hurt you, Nicolle. He'll be lucky if he walks out of that store alive."

I shifted my gaze to the store to find Embry straddling the junkie and pounding his face over and over. "You're right. Please stop him," I gasped. "I don't want Embry to go to jail over this!"

Paul glanced between me and Embry, finally sprinting back into the store and yanking his friend off the drug addict currently looking unconscious on the floor.

The next few minutes went by in a haze. I heard the sirens from an ambulance and police car. Officers dashed past me and stormed into the store as Paul pulled Embry away. A gurney was dragged through the doorway and I watched the beaten boy on the floor begin to receive medical treatment. 

He wasn't dead and I was relieved. He had scared me and hurt me but I couldn't bear the thought of Embry going to jail for it.

I could see the gurney being pushed out and his battered body strapped down. His eyes were fluttering open so I assumed he was still conscious. He even gave me a sickly smile and I turned my nose up in disgust.

The next thing I noticed was Paul's voice as the officers led him out of the store and straight up to me. He was arguing with the police and suddenly I realized why. He was in handcuffs, just like Embry. "Stop!" I shouted. "You arrested the wrong guys!"

I explained to the officers that if it weren't for Embry, I didn't know what could have happened. But all they wanted to focus on was the fact that Embry had beaten the young junkie to a pulp. "He stole the deposit!" I declared. "He put the bag in the back of his pants."

An officer jogged over to the ambulance and checked the 'victim' to find I was right. He produced the bag and checked the contents. "Please let these guys go. I swear they saved me from him. He could've killed me with that knife he had."

After they saw my knife wound and Embry's cut open shirt, as well as discovering the large weapon behind the counter, they seemed to finally come to the conclusion that these Quileute boys were my heroes and agreed to let them go. The officers insisted on driving us to the hospital to be checked out since we obviously weren't riding with the criminal. I was happy to see that they had at least handcuffed the junkie to the gurney before speeding off.

Embry and I settled into the backseat together and after a few moments, he scooted close to me and pulled me to his chest. I tried not to cry as he crushed me in his arms and kissed the top of my head. "I'm so sorry, Nicolle. I should've been there sooner. I'm sorry you got hurt," he whispered into my hair.

"I'm fine," I sniffled. "It's just a scratch, I swear."

Embry cupped my chin and tilted my head up. "He didn't...you know...touch you, did he?"

I blinked back my unshed tears and forced a smile up to his weary face. "He didn't get the chance. You got there just in time and...you...saved me."

He squeezed his eyes shut and nodded, pulling me back to his chest and cradling me in his arms. "I almost lost you," he breathed.

I slid my hands around his waist, smoothing my fingers under his shirt when I realized I couldn't feel the gash on his stomach. I peeled back his shirt, that was torn and bloody, only to find no cut, no mark, no stab wound. 

"Embry?" I gazed up at him with questions in my eyes. "I don't understand." I felt around on his back where I knew for certain that the knife had been plunged in and there was nothing. 

"I saw you get stabbed," I gasped.

Embry's jaw tensed and he shook his head. "I'm fine," he insisted. When I furrowed my brow in confusion, he scoffed. "Just drop it, Nicolle."

His anger was back. Just like earlier in the store when I mentioned his girlfriend, it flipped a switch in him and he shut down. 

He had secrets, that much was obvious. As the scenery whizzed by and we finally pulled up to the hospital, I felt Embry's hand slip into mine. He leaned in close and pressed his mouth to my ear. "I'll tell you everything, I promise. Just trust me, honey."

I turned my head slightly and gazed up into his dark, mysterious eyes. I wanted to know everything. I needed answers to all my questions. But most of all I needed to know why my whole body lit up when he touched me. Or why I hadn't been able to stop thinking about him since the day he first set foot in the bookstore. 

I didn't believe in love at first sight, but there was always something pulling us together like magnets and I needed to know more.

....