#ignoring what we saw in the trailer and how it doesn’t look good for them

[maraudersmary]

NICOLE NGOZI NICOZI ARE REAL

lezzas are winning rn my loves

[coulsons-fullmetal-cellist]

He's Just Dieter

(Dieter x horror loving female)

Words: 1, 624

Summary: you and Dieter go and see Barbie together!

Warnings: some swearing, boys being disrespectful, Dieter being adorable and chaotic

Check out masterlist here

“Come on Barbie, let’s go party. Ah, ah, ah yeah! Come on Barbie let’s go party. Ooh woah, ooh woah!”

“Someone’s excited.”

Dieter stopped himself mid dance to notice you. You and Dieter were going to see Barbie and were dressing up for it. Pink wasn’t really your colour, but you fell in love with the gingham dress you saw Margot Robbie wear in the trailer, so you had gotten yourself a yellow version. He took one look at you and lovingly wrapped himself around you.

“You’re so pretty!” he squeed as he proceeded to feather your neck with kisses. You stopped him as he reached your décolletage area.

“Dieter, we don’t want to be late.”

He grumbled begrudgingly. “When we get back?”

“When we get back.”

At first, like everyone, you scoffed at the idea of a live action Barbie film but once news came out about it, you became more interested. The fact that it was being written and directed by Great Gerwig brought you hope that the female characters would be treated with care and respect. You ignored the backlash mainly because they were from men who felt threatened by a film about a girl’s toy. The fact that Dieter had gotten himself a bright pink suit purely to go see Barbie proved he did not feel threatened at all. It was actually his idea to go and see it and he was more than excited.

“There’s so much pink!” he exclaimed as you arrived at the cinema, “It’s nice to see lots of men who are comfortable enough in their sexuality to wear pink.”

“You look good in pink.”

“I know I do.”

You did your obligatory pre-screening trip to the bathroom and when you got out you noticed a teenage boy lurking, probably waiting for his girlfriend. You felt his eyes leering at your chest and your skin prickled in disgust.

“Hey babe, wassup?” his barely broken voice made his try hard flirting attempt almost hilarious.

“I’m twice your age, and you’re definitely not my type.” You scurried off to find Dieter who was getting movie snacks and you headed to line up. There was a young couple in front of you who were bickering with each other and making no effort of the others around them.

“Why can’t we sneak in to watch Oppenheimer?” You noticed it was that boy who tried to hit on you from earlier. He was standing next to what you supposed was his girlfriend who had clearly dressed up to see Barbie.

“Because it’ll be obvious if we do. And Kelly and I want to watch this film.” She motioned to her sister who was also dressed up to see the film.

“It’s a stupid movie.”

“How do you know?” Dieter had to ask, “Have you seen the film?”

“No,” scoffed the boy, “But Barbie is a stupid slut who’s only here to teach girls about fashion.”

“Actually, Ruth Handler created Barbie because she noticed that girls were projecting their ideal selves when playing with dolls and wanted to create a more mature version to reflect that. She’s supposed to be a role model telling girls that they can be whoever they want to be.”

“Whatever,” he clearly did not hear anything Dieter just said. He was giving his girlfriend a look which he was giving you earlier. She and her sister were dressed as a ballerinas which you thought looked cute but now you feared for their safety. He snaked an arm around her and tried to kiss her, but she moved away saying no, but he persisted which just brought back dark memories from your past. He tried to kiss her again, and she was ready to turn away again, but at this point Dieter stepped in.

“Hey, she said no, and you should respect that.”

The teenager seemed almost insulted, “She’s dressed sexy so she’s clearly putting out.”

“Uh, she’s dressed that way because she wants to.”

“She’s my girlfriend so I can do what I want.”

“Being her boyfriend doesn’t give you permission to treat her like property. Now you are going to treat her like a lady and apologise.” You swear a dark shadow was forming over Dieter’s face, bringing with it lightning to strike this boy down.

“You know what? Fuck this, and fuck you Stacie.” He stormed off leaving the poor girl close to tears. Her little sister instantly hugged her and both of you gestured the same.

“Are you okay?”, she nodded, and Dieter gently placed his arms on her shoulders, “Seriously if he doesn’t respect you then he’s not worth it. You deserve someone who loves you for you and it may take some time to fine them, but they are worth it.”

“He’s right. If he doesn’t respect your choice in films, he’s not worth it,” you looked at Dieter, “Well my films are a bit too scary for him, but he likes that I like them.”

The little girl looked at you, “You love scary movies? And you’re so pretty!” then she finally noticed Dieter in all his pinkness “You’re so pink I love it!”

He crouched down to be level with her, “You’re so pink I love it!” the little girl giggled in response, “So which Barbie are you dressed as?”

“I’m Barbie in the Nutcracker and Stacie is a Snowflake!”

“You both look amazing! Did you get the costumes from a store?”

“No, our mum made them for us.”

“Wow, that’s awesome. Does your mum love Barbie?” Both of them nodded.

Seeing Dieter basically go into protective dad mode was so sweet and endearing that suddenly the thought of him holding an imaginary daughter came into your head. You knew if you had a little girl that she would be loved and protected by this man. The thought became overwhelming, and you were feeling faint. You excused yourself to go to the bathroom. You have never wanted to have a baby before but now this sudden desire felt strange and foreign; you weren’t sure if it was nice but the thought of Dieter being a father made it feel safe and almost normal. You splashed some water on your face and it helped a little, so you made your way back to the cinema. Dieter sent a message that he was inside and had saved you a seat. Kelly, the little girl waved at you from the back of her seat and Dieter joined in the waving.

“Are you okay?” you nodded as you sat next to him. He pulled the armrest up and snuggled you close.

The movie was everything; beautiful, full of life and colour. You absolutely loved Barbieland and wished to live there. When lawyer Barbie did her little speech about having no difficulty holding both logic and emotion at the same time and it doesn’t diminish her powers but expands them you almost teared up because it felt so real to your spirit, and you wished people would see you that way. There was so much for everyone to relate to.

“Oh my god, I’m totally Allen!” you had to agree with your boyfriend.

The fight between the Kens was your absolute favourite. You couldn’t remember the last time you laughed so loud and free in public. The musical number in the middle of the fight just made sense and the song stayed in your head long after and you were sure Dieter was going to learn the entire dance number. And then finally, you were in tears at the end when Barbie wanted to be a real person.

“You’re crying,” Dieter said, “I’m guessing that means you liked it?”

“I don’t think I’ve related more to a non-horror film in my life.”

You had gathered in the cinema lobby, Stacie and Kelly were buzzing around you, sharing in the excitement of the film.

“Was that amazing or was that amazing?!”

“Amazing!” both of them squeed.

Kelly tugged on her sister’s skirt and motioned to the cardboard cutout displayed in the lobby.

“Can we get a picture with you?” she asked Dieter. He went through a series of silly poses with both girls and then made sure to get a few with you. You said your thanks and farewells and made your way to through the carpark.

“You know, if they were ever going to do a live action Powerpuff Girls film, that is how they should do it.”

“I’d love to be in that film.”

“You’d be amazing.”

“You’re amazing,” You felt his hands wandering and you gave him the look reminding him that you were in public.

“When we get home, remember?”

“I remember,” he kissed you, “But you’re keeping the dress on.”

“Well you’re keeping the suit on.”

“Can my pants come off?” you nodded.

*****

Barbara was glad her daughters had enjoyed the film but even more important, she was glad they got home safely.

“So did Chad tolerate the film?”

“He didn’t see it, he left, in fact we’re not together anymore. I’m worth more than that.”

Barbara gave a tutt of approval, glad that her daughter finally saw that she was worth more than that boy.

“There was a Ken there with his Barbie,” Kelly was bubbling.

“We met a nice couple is what she means,” Stacie confirmed.

“And she was pretty and likes scary films and he was really pink. They’re going to get married.”

“I don’t think they were engaged.”

“They’ll get married. I know it.”

Stacie got out her phone to show her mum the photos they took. Barbara took the phone and looked at the photos with a stunned look on her face.

“Wait, that’s Dieter Bravo!”

Stacie and Kelly looked at their mother in confusion.

“Who?”

Films referenced: Barbie (2023), Oppenheimer (2023)

Lovingly tagging @boliv-jenta @simpingcowboy @ellenmunn @o-sacra-virgo-laudes-tibi @brilliantopposite187 @chaithetics @myloveistoolittle @cevans-is-classic

[lovesick-rambles]

No One Messes with Mikey's Girl

commission for: @fleur-ships

summary: Michael is surprised at himself for agreeing to go on a double date with his girlfriend Fleur and their friends, Natalie and Trevor. The whole thing has left him feeling anxious.

word count: 2.3k

content warnings: blood mention, very mide sexual language

author's note: AHH thank you so much for commissioning me, Jules! I loved writing this so much! Thank you also for letting me insert myself and Trevor in it! It made me so happy! :)

banner credit: cafekitsune

Michael let out a long, heavy sigh, “Are you sure that this is a good idea?”

“For the tenth time, yes!” Fleur rolled her eyes, “Come on, we’ve been talking about this for like a week now. You’ve had time to prepare!”

“Yeah, and I’m still not.” His hands gripped the steering wheel, “Why am I so masochistic?”

“You are so dramatic! It’s not like I’m dragging you to go get a lobotomy!” She couldn’t help but laugh at his pitiful face, “It’s just a double date. A double date that you agreed to, might I add.”

“With a man who not-so-secretly wants me fucking dead!” Michael winced at the thought of his old friend publicly murdering him during this date.

“And my best friend!” Fleur chirped, ignoring the statement he just made.

“And your best friend.” He replied, “Whom I’m a little more fond of. Even if her taste is…questionable.”

She swatted his arm, “Hey! Be nice! You could say the same thing about me being with you.”

Michael scoffed, “Hey, at least I’ve never made chili out of human flesh.”

“Sure, but didn’t you fake your death?” Fleur questioned, smirking while she asked.

“Jesus, Fleur, that was fuckin’ years ago!” He groaned, “Man, I get that enough from Trevor so now I have to hear it from you, too?”

She sniggered and lovingly placed a hand on his thigh, “I’m just teasing, baby. You don’t need to be nervous. It’s just our friends, we’ll have fun! I promise.”

“If you say so.” The car slowly came to a halt as Michael parked it, “Let’s just pray that Trevor doesn’t gouge my eyes out with the goddamn spork.”

“He won’t!” Fleur stepped out of the car and gave him another smirk, “He’s much more likely to use the steak knife.”

“Gee, thanks. You know how to make a man feel better.” He glared at her and placed a hand on the small of her back. They entered the unfamiliar restaurant and walked up to the host stand, “Yeah, uh, reservation for De Santa?”

The hostess scanned the reservation list, quietly mouthing the names she read, “Yep! Here you are! We have two guests waiting for you, already.”

“Wonderful. Thanks.” Michael said dryly, giving Fleur a pained look. She hit his chest with the back of her hand and shushed him before following the hostess. He trailed behind slowly, contemplating if anyone would notice if he hightailed it to his car or not. But, he decided against it. Only because he didn’t want to leave Fleur here alone. He spotted their double date, Natalie and Trevor in the distance and felt his heart sink. He likes them, well, he liked Natalie, but he just felt nervous about the whole thing. He hasn’t been on a cutesy date like this since his teenage years, so it was a little odd to be here again as a 48 year old. Natalie saw them approach and her face lit up, waving at them. She hopped out of her seat to swallow Fleur in a hug, rocking the two of them back and forth.

“I’m so happy to see you!” Natalie laughed, a huge smile plastered on her face.

“Well, well, Mikey.” Trevor leaned his face against his hand and glared at Michael, “Awful nice of you to finally fuckin’ show up. You have a knack for bad timing.”

“Jesus, T. Seriously? I just got here.” Michael took a seat at the booth.

“It just ain’t nice to keep a lady waitin’.” He looked over to Natalie and gave her a smile.

“Oh, yeah? And what do you know about manners, Trevor?” He rolled his eyes, “Your idea of romance was stealing a man’s wife and hiding her away in your trailer.”

“Really? Fuckin’ bringing up a fling I had in front of my girl? That’s low, Mikey. But you’ve been lower. Six feet lower, actually.” Trevor sneered, his lip curling a little.

“Oh, shush you two!” Fleur scoffed, “You two are bickering like an old married couple! Let’s order some drinks and food and just have fun!”

“Yeah, I agree.” Natalie peered at Trevor from over her glasses, “Besides, you promised you’d be well behaved for once, T.”

Trevor sighed and looked back at Natalie, “You’re right, I did promise. I’ll be good, darlin’, I swear. Wanna take a bet to see if Mikey will behave, though?” He pointed at Michael and chuckled, “You’ll lose right away.”

“Oh, yeah, because I’m the one with behavioral issues.” Michael looked at Fleur, who was scowling at him, “I mean, uh, how have you two been?”

“Oh, you know. Keepin’ busy.” Natalie shrugged, “T.P.I is still going strong, my shop still pulls in dumb tourists, we’re living together, life is fine. Nothing too crazy. How about you guys?”

“Yeah, same here. This is actually the first time we’ve been able to go out in a while!” Fleur beamed, “Things get so boring at the Vanilla Unicorn sometimes. It’s always the same three creeps who want the same drinks asking for my number or one of the stripper’s.”

“I hear you. It’s been a while since we’ve gone out like this, too.” Natalie elbowed Trevor gently, “This fucker gets to have wild days whenever he wants. Guns, blood, glory, you have it. Me? I sit behind a counter waiting for someone to just pick a fucking towel already.”

“Jesus, don’t make me sound like an asshole!” Trevor laughed, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

“You don’t need Natalie to do that.” Michael muttered, earning another glare from Fleur.

“Wanna run that by me again, Mikey?” Trevor cocked an eyebrow at him, clearly getting agitated.

“Okay, let’s order something!” Natalie interrupted, waving her hands, “I’m fucking starving.”

“And I could use a drink.” Michael agreed.

“I think we all do.” Fleur awkwardly giggled, “So yes! Let’s get something!”

That seemed to ease the tension a little bit. They all relaxed a little and scanned the menus, each picking out something they wanted. Michael was stiff. He forgot what it was like to be on dates. Actual, cliche, romantic dates. He didn’t know what to do, completely forgetting how to act. He’d give Fleur a small smile every now and then before going back to taking a sip of his drink, but he felt that it wasn’t enough. Finally, he sighed and copied Trevor by draping his arm over her shoulders.

“Hey,” She said, locking her fingers with his, “You okay?”

“Yeah,” He shrugged, “Just a little stiff. This date stuff, it reminds me of being a kid, you know? I’m rusty. Out of practice.”

“Well, guess that means we should do this more often.” Fleur suggested, batting her eyelashes at him. 

He chuckled at her, his heart fluttering a little because of her, “I guess so. I have to admit, this isn’t half bad. I’m actually enjoying it a little, I think.”

“Aw, well, would ya look at that?” Trevor chimed in, “Michael admitted a feeling! We gotta alert the news!” He started clapping loudly, turning a few heads.

“On second thought, maybe I hate this.” He replied dryly, flipping Trevor off.

“No, no, don't say that!” Natalie jokingly pleaded, “Please, I’m having so much fun! We don’t get to see you often. He’s just a bastard.”

“Same here with this guy.” Fleur pointed at Michael, “This is fun! Sadly, I think our men have some allergy to fun and have to argue like school children.”

“Squabbling must be a side effect of this allergy.” Natalie joked, side eyeing Trevor. He laughed awkwardly, feeling a little sheepish. Michael also felt embarrassed and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. 

“You remember when we used to hang like this when we were younger, T?” Michael asked, moving on from what just happened. Trevor furrowed his eyebrows and nodded hesitantly. Michael snickered softly and continued, “Man, we used to drive the bartenders nuts. We would drink them out of house and home or until they’d force us out.”

Trevor shook his head, a grin slowly spreading across his face, “They fuckin’ hated us. Every goddamn bar in town shuddered at the names ‘Michael Townley’ and ‘Trevor Philips’. Good times.”

“Yeah, good times.” Michael trailed off, thinking for a bit, “Hey, why don’t we do that anymore?”

Trevor shrugged, “I dunno. Guess we both never think of it.”

“Well, maybe we should.” He suggested, “Uh, you know, do more of these double dates the girls like so much. But also maybe just us, like old times.”

Trevor looked at Michael, confused at first but he quickly became pleased, “I’d like that.”

Fleur and Natalie exchanged a look of relief. As funny as their bickering was sometimes, it got tiring. It was nice to have them get along like actual friends for a change. They were happy that the mood had shifted to something happier for the four of them. Natalie held up her drink and initiated a cheers that they all took part in. Things were looking up. 

In the middle of their meal, a strange man suddenly appeared and leaned against the table near Fleur, “Well, it isn’t often you find a pretty girl here in Plastic City, let alone two. Come here often?” Both women cringed at the cliche and stared at the stranger uncomfortably. He leaned in closer to Fleur, making intense eye contact, “Say, what’s your name? Let’s get to know each other.”

Michael was frozen, his eyes not moving from this guy. Trevor noticed his posture and cleared his throat, “Can’t you see she ain’t interested? She’s already got a man. Beat it if you like them teeth of yours.”

The man tore his gaze away from Fleur for the first time and locked eyes with Michael, “This guy? He looks a little jaded for someone like you. Come on, don’t you want someone with a little bit of action?”

“Oh, I’ll show you action!” Michael reached across the table and grabbed the man’s collar, practically crawling over Fleur to get out of the booth. He dragged the man out by his collar, not even caring about all the looks he was getting. 

“Michael?” Fleur called out, but it was no use. He was out of ear shot and even if he wasn’t, he wouldn’t stop for anybody. All Michael cared about was showing this punk a lesson.

“This is the Michael I remember!” Trevor cackled, getting out of his seat. He quickly turned to Natalie and grabbed her shoulders, planting a kiss on her forehead, “Sit pretty for me, yeah? It’ll only be a second. M, wait up!” With that, he cracked his knuckles loudly and followed Michael out, the sound of his steel toed boots getting quieter with each step. Fleur and Natalie looked at each other, not exactly knowing how to react. A few moments passed before they both silently got up and followed the men out, not having to search too hard since the three of them were in the middle of the parking lot. Trevor had his arms hooked under the stranger’s armpits, securing him in place. Michael alternated between punching his face and torso. It wasn’t a pretty sight. In fact, it was attracting some attention. But, Natalie and Fleur were only focused on what was unfolding in front of them. The guy who was flirting with Fleur was unrecognizable at this point, his nose bleeding profusely and his eye was squinting because it was bruised. Michael wasn’t focused on anything else besides pummeling this guy into a bloody pulp and Trevor had this crazed, cat-like look as he helped keep their victim in place. 

“How about this for a little bit of action, huh?” Michael sneered, curling his fist, “How’s this action feel, huh buddy?” His fist made direct contact with the guy’s stomach, making him cry out in pain. Michael continued taunting him, saying how someone with that small of a dick could never get a girl like Fleur, how he has more man in his pinky toe than he has in his whole body, how no one smart enough knows not to mess with Mikey’s girl, and so on. 

Trevor had a huge, toothy grin plastered on his face and he showed it to Natalie, “Didn’t I tell ya to wait, sugar?”

Natalie winced at the violence, “Well, who refuses to have a show with dinner?”

“Good point!” He yelled before turning back to encouraging Michael and insulting the man nestled tightly in his arms.

Fleur’s eyes never left Michael. It all happened so fast. Sure, seeing this guy be turned into minced meat before her wasn’t a pretty sight, but her chest swelled with how quickly he wanted to defend her. Frankly, she found it very attractive. 

“Okay, boys.” Natalie said hesitantly, “I think you made your point clear. The poor fucker ain’t getting any bloodier. The police were also called so uh, T? Wanna grab dessert?”

“Oh, fuck yeah!” Trevor pushed the man down, getting one kick in before returning to Natalie, “Let’s do this double date night thing again soon!”

“I agree!” Michael panted, wiping his bloodied knuckles on his jacket, “Fleur, baby, we should make plans with these two again very, very soon.”

Fleur chuckled and wrapped an arm around his waist, “Did you enjoy it that much?”

“Fuck yeah I did!” He smiled and kissed her on the cheek. The couples said goodbye to each other quickly before Natalie and Trevor sped off in his truck, hearing police sirens in the distance.

“Thank you, baby.” She looked at him, lovestruck, “Thank you for taking care of that creep.”

“Anytime, hon.” He replied, opening the car door for her, “I love you. No one messes with my girl. No one.”

[mttbrandgender]

ATLA Netflix thoughts

Okay, I am going to break down my very strong feelings about what little information we have on the ATLA live adaptation because I cannot physically keep this to myself. I am throwing this together pretty last minuet so it is less structured than I would like but this is what I’ve got time for right now.

A few things that I feel are important to know about me before we start. Firstly, I do not believe that any visual media should be adapted to another visual media, especially animated media into live actions. There has never been anything animated that has been made better in a live action adaptation. Animation is a sacred media to me, specifically 2D animation. Secondly, I adore Avatar: The Last Airbender. I watched it as it aired when I was super young and have rewatched it countless times since then. It is legitimately my favorite show. Thirdly, I am a hater, I love to tear into things and dissect them so this will be a lot of that. There will also probably be a lot more when the show also comes out. Alright, anyway!

As soon as I heard there would be a live action remake, safe to say I was not excited. I heard the original creators of the show were involved and I still did not feel good about it. ATLA really was perfect in my eyes. It was done in a perfect medium and was a perfect story with characters that felt REAL. How would remaking it in live action add to this nearly untouchable show add value? My partner has urged me to keep an open mind and not hate it entirely before we could watch it. So, I put it in the back of my mind and didn’t think about it too much for a while.

Until, suddenly, articles started to come out about what liberties the new showrunners decided to take with the show. I knew I should probably not have read them, usually I don’t even watch trailers for things I want to watch but I decided I had to know what was being said, I was painfully curious.

The first thing that I saw was that Sokka’s sexism was ‘iffy’ and ‘didn’t hold up’ so they decided to take it out of their version. I was completely shocked. Sokka’s sexism in the series WAS iffy but it was called out as such WITHIN THE NARRATIVE. That’s how they found Aang in the first place, Sokka was being sexist and Katara got angry about it. We are introduced to Sokka as a flawed character who holds these misguided beliefs about women because of the circumstances he was raised in. It is not a glorified concept within the show. Throughout the three seasons, we as an audience not only get to watch him unlearn these concepts but we also get to watch strong female characters speak out against sexism without being brushed off. It is essential to the plot and instills in its audience that it is okay to have to unlearn these ignorant beliefs, it doesn’t make you a bad person. Sokka is not a bad person or a bad character because he holds these beliefs. We get to explore why he feels that way while also watching him learn to be better. Why would you want to take that out? Because sexism is problematic, and we don’t want our show to be problematic! Look how progressive it is! You are robbing this character of the ability to change and grow because from the jump they are not flawed.

This leads to the next issue. They are writing Aang to be more responsible and ‘driven’ leaving less time for fun side quests. What? I’m sorry I must have misread that; you want the 12-year-old boy who froze himself in the ice originally because he did not want to do Avatar stuff to come out of it and immediately want to get straight to business?? That just rubs me the wrong way. In the original show, we get to see Aang slowly come to terms with his responsibilities while also acting in a way that is realistic for someone who is 12. I also saw someone say that nearly every shot of Aang in the trailer was him with a serious face. The charm of the show and Aang as our main character is that he’s a kid! He acts like a 12-year-old kid and matures as he goes through more experiences with his friends. Where is the integrity of these characters? It seems like these showrunners are so afraid to showcase any of the characters as flawed and how can you have perfectly responsible unproblematic characters that are also children?

At this point, it feels like what they need is a character integrity team to help them make these decisions because they are striking out so far. Why are we robbing these characters of their arcs? By taking away any issue or flaw, you’re taking away so much potential. This takes me back to my original thought which is why the hell would you want to take something that is so highly acclaimed and beloved and remake it? You are setting yourself up to fail no matter what. This is not a story that needs retelling in my opinion. I would much rather they take all this creative energy and resources and use them to write something else in this world. Why retell the story when you could write a new one with new characters that people haven’t spent nearly 20 years watching and loving?

The most recent thing I read was that they wanted to ‘solve’ some of the ‘gender issues’ Katara faced in the original show. Like the earlier bit with Sokka’s sexism, I take huge issue with this. These two things play into each other. Katara is not nurturing and motherly because she’s a girl. She and Sokka lost their mom when they were very young and almost immediately after, their father left for the war. Sokka and Katara were made to take on these roles at a super young age because of this conflict. Sokka is attempting to be the man of the house, trying to imitate his dad as best he can in order to fulfill that role. We know from The Waterbending Master that the water tribes hold some sexist beliefs, as Master Pakku will not instruct Katara because she’s a girl. From that, it’s not a crazy notion that Sokka might hold some of those beliefs from his upbringing. It is also critical to Katara’s character because she was fulfilling that motherly role after her mother passed. She doesn’t do it perfectly; she has a lot of control issues and can have a bit of a temper. Neither of them are bad nor outdated character because of these things. It’s a realistic reaction to the situation they found themselves in. Through their experiences in the show, they learn and grow into better and better versions of themselves. Why would the showrunners want to take that all away?

There are also so many bigger pictures issues I have thought about as well that we don’t have an answer to yet. The pacing, what they plan on fitting into the first season, how long are the episodes, etc. I am still attempting to stay open, but it is really getting hard the more I hear about it. Thank you for reading my rant and I’ll see y’all in 20 days for the premiere, I will be taking notes. :)

[tohellandback99]

I tried to post this myself, the art and the music I feel when I see it. I’m responsible for taking and sharing the pictures and the artwork. I was going to talk about it myself but then he spoke, which honestly he can explain it better than I can. I’m going to post this, everyone who wants to speak, can speak. He has saved my miserable ass so many times, I’m sad to say times he could’ve died. Both because of my external and internal circumstances. People have seen him so much but they have never actually seen him, if you catch my drift. So everyone gets to see him now. (I’m reading what he wrote,) I don’t hate him, I was confused and now I just hate the fact that he was the only one doing anything about anything I deal with. And how when we were being bullied and harassed as a young kid he was shamed for defending the girls like he’s some evil monster? Can you fucking stand it?

(By having two of my prominent, introjects like this when I was unaware meant that I could ignore them in my body entirely and the brain gaslit me into believing that simply, he doesn’t exist. No memories would be uncovered. And he wouldn’t have had to find or relate either. For security. It’s insane)

😮‍💨 alright, so this is what he wrote;

I did this a while back with my little sister. A long while, I had intended this for both therapy and her big-self’s comics. (The child alter always wanted to be able to speak about it since what happened was over, if it was possible.) To help refer my doctors to my inner-inner world. He did all the inking and the painting portions pretty much…

she was stuck. A small happy ending is I figured out she was closer than I ever knew and could understand, and somehow I managed to wake her up and she’s… doing as good as she can…

The right side is the flip side of this world. Like an underworld.

………. 😞 2012, in August right next to my birthday. ParaNorman came out and was being shown in theaters and I was brought to the theater, as a gift. And what a gift it was. I don’t know if it was that Friday on the exact day or if was Saturday. But all it took was one, loooooong, uncontrollable blank frozen stare out of the blue, at this picture on the right and it was me. (We, didn’t see this movie on that day but waaayyy later.) And I didn’t know, no one knew until way later, even after seeing the movie.

While I’m in therapy and working on reflecting on my existence and why I look different than the body, I remembered I SAW the trailer…… YEARS ago. and that that and this picture was all, it took. And that that is why this small child would show herself to me. I thought I was just having bad dreams. And they were terrifying and I felt the fear, the pain, and the screaming. And I couldn’t do anything about it.

I find out in therapy that I used to share the same name as my abuser, and that I did EVERYTHING I could to not be like him at all to the point where I didn’t even have a face anymore. I hated him and they, hated me. And then. And I completely forgot what the fuck I was doing; I was protecting her

Sigh, and there you have it. Now my head hurts, but I’ll get over it. Not like anyone asked so it’s okay! I am grateful to the people that are listening to what I just said. Thank you so much

[zumpietoo]

Gee, Snorty....that IS petty, but not “delightfully” so....just snidely, juvenilely and pathetically soo....seriously, that embodies “dog in the manger”......

And, LBR, the reason is supremely simple (and immature) selfish, “If I can’t get my way, nobody can”, etc....

And, again, I hate Barfie, I’m quite confident they won’t be endgame....but I’m similarly confident Jabi will be....and Jizzy definitely won’t be....

Ummm.....so, again, you actually have no issue with Jabi, even think we’re fine, etc....buuuut....you still want them split because it would piss off Barfies? Who we hate, too? Gross.

Also, not like they’re Jughead fans or ever were.....they, like you in shipping VD, only support it cuz they think if the person is “taken care of” and ignore that still doesn’t remotely guarantee their ship.....

No, dude, even with the trailer flipping them off, all you Jizzy/VD stans have been completely delusional and endlessly insisting you’d get your way.....oh when you are screaming raged fueled rants at RAS. etc....

Bottom line: Barfies are assholes, so are you. But at least Barfies do currently have a canon ship. You do not and never will again....

Oh good lord, again, “save the writing”----dude, it’s a fucking goofy TeeVee show, in its final season. Irrelevant....and completely incorrect. Actually, that isn’t remotely Barfie, nor is either “safe”, considering what they actually are together are icky, fascist elitists....

Jug doesn’t “use”Tabitha, the entire reason they work is because she actually gets him and loves him....and doesn’t take credit for his accomplishments or him for granted. And you could maybe argue this was Tabs in mid season five (tho I’d moar say she simply saw in him what he really was and looked past the booze, inspiring him to become that person again)....and NONE of these things are remotely bad things, anyway....or, actually, “safe”. Jizzy, in fact, were toxic and her “love” nearly destroyed him.

Being your best selves isn’t the “safe” choice, it’s the positive choice....

Sense to YOU, a biased shipper who seems to not actually watch the show....

A) Douchie doesn’t have a “hero complex”, he’s a dick who likes attention/again, credit for the accomplishments of others (it’s actually something he shares with Slizzy)....and, again, a fascist thug.

B) Slizzy seemingly has and has moved past that. Also, turns out her “darkness” is a combo of sexual impulsivity and, again, a fascist, jackbooted thug.

C) Jug’s already “grappled” with that.....Slizzy’s and Douchie’s betrayal was why and he’s been clean and sober for quite some time. Part of what helped was somebody actually caring about him and putting him first for once.

D) Tabi has that, as well....and her plot was never, exclusively about being Jughead’s GF.....tho, at least you’re a Slizzystan who actually admits that was why Erinn was cast. However, the one defining her thusly is your racist ass.

Ummm....this is YOUR version and what you’re saying is, “anything but my fanfic”, which is bullshit....and typical GG bullshit at that.

And, again, you clearly don’t actually watch, noobie sock....

Ummm.....

Love how you’re not only a stupid, lying, noobie sock, STILL, Snorty....buuutttm you’re, once again, a disgustingly racist one. At least your juvenile anon is only somewhat so, versus your raging version....

Also....

Ummm....no, they aren’t....other than the actors want to work again. And only Cole’s being classy about shit, per usual. And you’ve already been outed as a Cole hater (and hating Erinn, cuz racist cuntbag)----also, then that should apply to the showrunners, even if you disagree....and, maybe accept you aren’t getting your fucking way.

[tauforged]

thinking about how rell was doomed to face the task of holding back the indifference alone despite being a child and ultimately failed, not because he did anything wrong, but purely because by putting him on a pedestal as The Only One Who Could Save Them, rather than finding a way for all of them to shoulder the burden together, the red veil inadvertently doomed their beloved holy one to a long, arduous, lonely death. thinking about how albrecht recognized that the indifference preys upon our fears and insecurities and uses our emotions to pry open cracks and find its way into our minds, but was so wrapped up in his guilt and convinced that he was uniquely beyond help that he never once stopped to consider that this concept applied to him, too, and not just the children of the zariman. thinking about how all he ever talks about is how much he failed his daughter, how loid is too good for him, and yet when we hear from them all we hear is that euleria missed him so much she drove herself mad trying to find out what happened to her papa, and loid loved albrecht so much he was willing to do anything for him, even if that meant helping albrecht doom himself to martyrdom. thinking about how the only times anyone tries to show concern for the tenno’s wellbeing, they’re either brushed aside as unreasonably overbearing or shouted down for ‘treating them like a child’ and subsequently ignored. thinking about how what saved the holdfasts from losing themselves to the void was talking through what happened to them and realizing they’re capable of leaning on eachother for support. thinking about “a memory of love holds the indifference at bay”. thinking about how in the sacrifice, we helped umbra not by removing his memories of what happened to isaah, not even by allowing him to get revenge— but by showing him kindness and compassion even in the face of bloodthirsty howling grief, by seeing the “ugly, broken thing” ballas had left behind and still extending a hand to him for comfort. thinking about how instead of slaying the orowyrm at the end of each cycle, we approach them as they lie defenseless and show them mercy. thinking about how we hear an echo of the lotus saying “dream” as we run a hand along their snout. thinking about the confused way each wyrm cocks their head at us before flying away, pacified and confused in equal measure by the gesture of kindness. thinking about the end of witw, where the tenno stops and allows the vessel to “crush” them, how puzzled the vessel looks when we do so, the way it hesitates and doesn’t even move to stop us when we reach out to hold its face. thinking about how margulis was blinded by the tenno but never held them in contempt. thinking about how natah was meant to destroy these orphans of the void, but instead saw them for the frightened children they were and took pity, saving them and by extension herself. thinking about the scene at the end of the second dream where the lotus carries the operator to their transference chair after being attacked by the shadow stalker. thinking about the scene at the end of the new war where the drifter carries the lotus to the transference chair after she collapses. thinking about how the man in the wall likes to steal terms of endearment from its targets’ parents when it talks to them. thinking about the scene in the duviri trailer where the drifter offers thrax their hand, and how he trembles and hesitates as he’s about to accept it before pulling away and resetting the cycle instead. thinking.

starting to notice a pattern of people who refuse to accept help and hold themselves to impossible standards and are convinced they need to shoulder a burden alone despite being surrounded by loved ones who want nothing more than to help them (albrecht and the player tenno in particular) being especially susceptible to being tormented by the man in the wall. hmm. hmmmmmm

[watercoloredlie]

A Night to Remember

Gif credit:

unanuvola

Summary: All you wanted was for Eddie to ask you to senior prom. After one wisecrack too many from him about prom, you decide to just ignore him and go with a group of your friends instead. So you’re surprised when Eddie shows up to prom after all.

Warnings: A little bit of angst, some pining, a good bit of fluff.

Notes: That wink and that smile. That is all. @hellfirehoe​ thanks for encouraging this fic lol.

To say you had a crush on Eddie Munson was a bit of an understatement. You two had been friends since you joined Hellfire Club during your sophomore year. The two of you were practically inseparable by junior year. You had hoped he would go to junior prom, but he no showed which wasn’t too surprising. So you went by his trailer eager to see him that night only to see him get out of his van with a cheerleader. You briefly thought maybe he was just making a deal with her until you saw her kiss him on his front stoop. Your smile faded and you quietly drove home.

Now it was senior year and you were actually excited for senior prom. It was the last hurrah of senior year, so to speak. It was bittersweet seeing your various classmates get asked to prom when the one person you wanted to ask you had no interest in the event at all. You sat at Hellfire’s table like you usually did talking with your friends excitedly about prom.

“Shut up. Prom is so lame. It’s like the peak of adolescent conformity. You waste money just to dress up for one night, rent a limo, and go to a dance surrounded by people you can’t stand.” Eddie scoffed ranting a bit as he ate some pretzels.

Your excitement visibly deflated and you stood up gathering your things. “Well the world doesn’t revolve around you, Munson. You have every right to think prom is lame, but that doesn’t give you the right to ruin it for everyone else.”

His beautiful brown eyes were wide as he stared at your now retreating form in shock. You avoided him for the rest of the day until the final bell rang. Eddie was standing at his van in the parking lot talking with Gareth and Jeff. Unfortunately, your car was parked beside them. You made a beeline for your car moving to open the driver’s side door only for your breath to catch in your throat when an all too familiar hand adorned with silver rings reached out holding the door shut.

“Whoa, what’s the rush, sweetheart?” Eddie smiled at you.

You rolled your eyes at him and tugged at your car door. “Just let me go, Eddie.”

“No. Not until we talk this out. Look, I’ve obviously upset you and I’m sorry.” He apologized with a soft sigh.

Unshed tears welled up in your eyes as your emotions got the best of you. “No you’re not. Look we all get it. School dances aren’t your thing. You hate prom. We’ve only heard it a million times from you. Do you know what it’s like watching every girl around you get asked to prom while the one guy you want to ask you hates prom? God, I don’t even know why I’m even wasting my breath. Why don’t you go spend prom night screwing another random cheerleader?”

“What?” Eddie looked at you in shock making the mistake of moving his hand off of your car.

Without another word, you got into your car tossing your bag onto the passenger seat. You shut the door and wiped your eyes. He just watched helplessly as you pulled your car out of the parking spot then drove away. Once you were out of sight, Eddie turned back toward Gareth and Jeff who gave him knowing smiles.

“We told you, man.” Gareth chuckled softly at him.

“Yeah that is so not helpful. Fuck. I can’t lose her.” Eddie swore running his fingers through his hair.

Jeff nodded his head as he patted Eddie’s shoulder. “Then make it up to her. Maybe it’s time that you tell her how you really feel.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You avoided Eddie completely after that outburst. It was pointless to want him to be your prom date so you agreed to go with your friends to prom as a group. The day arrived faster than you expected. It was fun getting ready for prom though. When all was said and done, you felt like a princess. Prom itself was fun, but seeing all the dancing couples got to be too much so you stepped outside for some fresh air.

“Sorry I’m late, Sweetheart.” Eddie winked then slowly smiled as he approached you.

Your breath hitched in your throat as your eyes widened in awe. “Eddie?”

Sure enough, there was Eddie Munson standing before you dressed for prom. His long dark hair was loose yet somewhat neat. He was wearing a black dress shirt with the top buttons unbuttoned giving a glimpse of his chest tattoo. His pants were black and you noticed his signature handcuff buckle on his belt. 

“Look, I know you’re royally pissed at me, but just hear me out for a second, please?” He pleaded with you.

You sighed and gave in. “Alright I’ll hear you out.”

“Okay you were right. I was being an asshole and I’m sorry for that. Truth is that yeah, I do still find prom lame as all hell, but it’s worth it just to see you smile.” Eddie admitted.

You were confused yet surprised at the same time. “What?”

“I told myself it was just a crush. I always thought you deserved so much better than Eddie ‘the Freak’ Munson. Because you do. You deserve the world.” He took a step closer to you.

You took a breath gazing into his brown eyes. “What if I don’t want the world? What if I just want you?”

A slow song could be heard playing from where the prom was being held. Eddie took that moment to pull you to him and began to sway along to the music. You smiled softly feeling most of your anger and disappointment toward him melt away. The two of you swayed quietly for a few minutes then you tilted your head up slightly to look at him. He looked a bit nervous and you couldn’t help finding that endearing.

A soft giggle fell from your lips. “You can kiss me if you want.”

“Oh thank fuck.” Eddie chuckled softly and leaned in capturing your lips in a gentle kiss.

The two of you got lost in the moment as you savored kissing each other for the first time. It was a moment which didn’t last long as your friends found you and a chorus of ‘It’s about time!’ surrounded the two of you. The group stayed at prom a little bit longer where you and Eddie got to slow dance on the actual dance floor. You guys decided to ditch not long afterward.

“So you saw me and the cheerleader huh?” He remarked as he helped you into his van.

You carefully climbed in and sat down. “Yeah. I got bored and ditched junior prom after a bit. I thought I’d surprise you, but uh, I was the one surprised.”

“I didn’t sleep with her. She just kissed me trying to get a discount.” He admitted after getting into the driver’s seat.

Confusion appeared on your face. “Why not? She was pretty.”

“Yeah well I was too hung up on the prettiest girl I have ever seen.” Eddie winked at you and started the van.

You smiled brightly at him. “You think I’m pretty?”

“I think you’re beautiful, Sweetheart.” He grinned softly.

You giggled relaxing while he drove to meet up with the rest of your friends. “Careful, Munson. I might just have to keep you around if you keep sweet talking me.”

“Oh now that I’ve got you, you’re stuck with me, beautiful. I’m not going anywhere.” Eddie promised smiling as he focused on the road ahead.

[erodasfishtacos]

HSLOT HOUSTON

Okay, I’m actually so happy with this one. Come talk about it with me in my inbox! 😌

warning: smut

please like, comment, share, rec!

🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠

It was a bit of a shock, well a lot of a shock when YN is scrolling through her instagram time and it becomes flooded with a gif of her husband passionately kissing a gorgeous blonde.

The trailer for Don’t Worry Darling had dropped out of nowhere and now there was a nasty feeling on jealously, insecurity, and possessiveness in the pit of her stomach.

She knew it was irrational, they were married for fucks sake, but those emotions weren’t always rational.

YN watched it, over and over, until she tossed her phone onto the side table hard enough that it slides off and falls harshly on the ground.

Harry and crew were downstairs, it didn’t look like the Houston show was going to happen because of the storm.

She felts ridiculous and immature for the tears welling up in her eyes. It’s not like she was upset or mad at him.

She was proud of him for his acting abilities and all of his hard work - that’s why she was mad at herself right now.

YN knows Harry is expecting her downstairs to help figure out details, what to do for the fans, etc.. because she was a major part of the production crew.

But she nearly felt like she was going to throw up.

Could you blame her?

Who on earth would want to see their significant other making out passionately for the world to swoon over?

YN scrubs the tears from her cheeks, hadn’t even realized they were falling.

She does the worst thing ever, pulls it back up and starts ready comments, especially from their friends - it almost felt like betrayal. Jeff, Glenne, Lambert, Gemma.

A message appears at the top of the screen.

Bunny 🐰: come on darling, need you down here. meeting is about to start 😗

Her fingers hesitate.

yn: be down in five

Bunny 🐰: is everything okay? where’s my kiss? 😗😗😗😗😗😗😗😗😗😗

She sighs, she feels bad because it’s not his fault.

He had been offered the role, came home and instantly told his wife that if she wasn’t comfortable with him having romantic scenes - he’d turn it down.

YN wasn’t like that.

When she was being logically she would never want to stand in the way of Harry persuing his dreams.

It was acting and she had even been on set a few times when there were heated scenes but it just felt different - uncomfortable.

YN throws one of the bunny merch hoodies, a pair of cropped leggings, and black nikes before heading down from their suite to the conference room.

Harry had purposefully kept the seat open for her, right next to him, and she slips into quietly as they continue to talk.

There were a lot of higher ups in the room, from the venue, the touring company, his team - deciding on what they should do about the weather warning.

He instantly tugs her as close of possible to him with a long arm wrapped around her shoulder and a subtle kiss to the side of her head.

They’re talking about the people standing outside in the rain for GA, they all get quiet, and Harry nudges his wife, “Darling, they’re talking t’you.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Can you repeat the question?” YN asks, eyes a bit wide in embarrassment at all the stares on her face.

A venue manager speaks up, “How do you think the fans will react and how can we ensure them of another show here. We do not want to lose the business of this concert.”

“Obviously upset. People have flown in for the concert - so maybe if you reach out to some of those fans and reimbursement their flights, they’d be more likely to come back and that would look good on you guys,” YN offers, tense and trying to ignore Harry’s concerned expression - he could always tell.

“Jamie, get on that,” The man orders with an executive nod that he liked the idea and Harry squeezes her shoulder lovingly.

The meeting goes on, she would normally wait for Harry to wade through all the people wanting to speak to him but she zips through the maze of bodies and back down the corridor to the elevator.

She about there when she hears someone running to catch up with her, knows exactly who it is when he pulls her back into his strong chest.

“Wha’s wrong?” Her husband murmurs in her ear, lips brushing softly and his arms keeping her as close as possible.

“It’s nothing, I just need some time alone,” YN sighs, stepping out of his warm embrace and turning to face him.

“Did I do somethin’? Baby, c’mon,” He coaxes, frowning as he studies her face, “Talk t’me, please.”

“I’m just - I’m being dumb,” She chuckles with no humor in her tone, tears welling again and she is quick to cover her face in her sleeve because fans are being to notice them.

“Okay, okay. Let’s get y’upstairs,” Harry replies, guiding her towards the elevator and throwing his arm around her to block her - it would look playful in the fan photos.

The crowd gets irritated when Harry refuses to stop and sign things, take pictures but his bodyguards quickly block them from getting to close.

Once in the elevator, alone, Harry cups her face gently, “Baby, y’gotta tell me what’s going on, m’confused.”

“The trailer, it came out and -“

Harry is perplexed for a moment, “Is that why everyone’s blowing up m’phone?”

Then he’s pulling it out, swiping a few times, and the short ten-second trailer is playing across his screen and he knows instantly.

“Sweetheart,” He sighs, tucking it back into his pocket, “M’sorry-“

“No, no. Don’t apologize,” YN interrupts him, eyes frantic as she speaks, “I’m not - It’s not your fault. I just wasn’t expecting it and it threw me off. I am so proud of you -“

“But y’a bit jealous, huh?” Harry smirks, rubbing his thumb against her bottom lip lightly, tugging to tease a bit.

“You’re my husband. Of course, I don’t want to see you do that with anyone else,” YN replies, watching as her husbands eyes meld into something fiery and golden.

“Can I tell you a secret?” He asks, voice deepening into what YN likes to call his sex voice and it really does work - makes her stomach flip.

“Harry, you don’t have to try to make me feel better. I’m re-“

Harry hits the red stop button on elevator, pausing the movement - it was a single elevator to the penthouse so it wasn’t effecting the rest of the hotel guests.

“Let me tell you a secret. The day we had to film tha’ scene, when I had to kiss someone who wasn’t you over and over again. When I had to act like I would fuck someone other than you,” Harry’s teeth are grazing her jugular dangerously, his breathe minty and cool, “You remember that one night on the balcony?”

“Mm,” YN agrees shakily, she remembers that night a few months ago well.

-

Harry had come home from set with a mission.

He hadn’t disclosed what happened that day and YN had completely forgotten to ask later on.

When he stormed through their master bedroom and swung open the balcony doors, his eyes fall hungrily on his wife who’s reading a book on their balcony. ***

Her skin was glowing on the dim fairy lights and reflection of the moon, it was late- nearly midnight when he’d finally gotten home.

She was lounging on the sofa, sprawled in a silk pajama set that was simple but so sexy in the way her natural breasts lay without a bra - nipples poking at the fabric.

It had only taken him a moment, he’d been hard the whole ride home thinking about his wife, and when he saw that, he was striding over and murmuring, “You know your safe words, right baby?”

-

It was him eating her out hungrily, ridding her of her clothes and him still fully dressed as he nipped and sucked at her clit.

-

Then he had bent her over the balcony railing, overlooking the Hollywood hills where surely their neighbors could have seen if they squinted.

His fingers were digging harshly into her backside, thrusting and having her tits sway with the force as he praised her on how well she took it.

-

And it ended with back on the couch, her legs soaked from her multiple releases, skin smattered in bruises and love bites, and Harry kissing her roughly as he pinched her clit and released inside her.

-

“The reason I wrecked y’tha’ night was because doing all that shit on set made me want to come straight home to m’wife,” Harry whispers like there’s other people in the elevator with them.

“Harry,” She mutters shyly, avoiding eye contact and looking down to the marble floor.

“No, look at me, baby. All I could think about were how much better your mouth feels, how no one can ever compare to how fuckin’ sexy y’are,” He rumbles, his hand is slipping underneath her hoodie and palming at her belly.

“Love you,” YN replies, reaching up to press their lips together and whine when his tongue automatically finds it way into her mouth.

“Been with you since I was fifteen. Y’know tha’? There’s a reason for that, s’because nobody gets to me like you do. You always make me crave more. The reason I put that rock on y’finger and y’name on m’bank account.”

“Bunny, please.”

Harry smirks against her lips, “Please what?”

“Fuck me, c’mon,” She begs desperately, his hand teasing at the waistband of her leggings but not giving her anything.

“Gotta give it t’you when you ask, s’my husbandly duty,” Harry kisses her again, hands moving to tug them down.

“Yes, be a good husband,” She scolds, getting on her tiptoes out of instinct as he slips two fingers up into her.

“M’tryin’,” He gruffs, hissing at how wet she is for him as he curls his fingers towards the front her wall to hit her spot, “Only one f’me. Never want anyone else, been an love-struck idiot for you since I was fifteen.”

-

After they finish, Harry presses the button to restart the elevator and they’re both panting, with a light sheen on sweat.

When they step into the foyer of the penthouse, Harry cups her face and makes sure he has her full attention.

“I love you. If this movie or me acting with other people romantically is too much for you. Please tel me, m’job is never more important than m’marriage,” He says seriously, face still splotchy from coming in the sticky, hot elevator.

She shakes her head, “It doesn’t make me uncomfortable - well, not when I’m thinking logically. I’m proud of you, I can’t wait to see the movie.”

“I love y’so much, sunflower. Y’my soulmate, the reason I have the courage and confidence is because of you.”

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

“Where the Crawdads Sing” (2022) movie review:

Short review:

It’s fine, I guess, if you can ignore the huge leaps in logic, story inconsistency, forced melodrama, and the twist ending that felt like a “subversion of your expectations” but only for the sake of doing so. 

Letter grade of D+ / C- 

Long review:

DISCLAIMER: I did not read the book, so this will be solely a discussion about the movie.

So...yeah. This may be one of the few times where I fully agree with the Rotten Tomatoes score. When I saw that it was sitting at 36%, I wasn’t convinced since the movie looked like it had a lot going for it. Murder mystery, strong female lead, based on a best-selling novel, and tackling heavy themes like abuse. This movie LOOKED good. It was only after watching the movie did I realize that maybe the trailer did too good of a job selling people on the story.

Maybe the problems I’m about to discuss are a result of the movie being an adaptation, which means a lot of material from the books may have been cut. At it sits right now, it feels like there is a lot missing from the movie. 

First off, what the focus of the movie was supposed to be on. The trailers make it seem like the story is about a young woman dealing with being ostracized by the town she’s living in. To the people around her, she is the “marsh girl”, this boogeyman-like person who is the subject of many ghost stories and rumors. But, that’s not what the movie is actually about. There’s only one real scene where Kya Clark deals with the town’s bullying (when she ran away from school). Other than that, the REAL movie is about her whirlwind romances with Tate and Chase. 

This is a huge problem for me because the closing argument of the movie doesn’t feel representative of the movie as a whole. The defense attorney talks about how the town feared her and didn’t understand her, but you never really see the town do that except for one scene near the beginning. Sure, the prosecution’s witnesses said bad things about Kya, but that’s expected, especially since they were close to Chase. Maybe this is just me but family members bad-mouthing the suspected killer isn’t the same as shunning a girl just for her lifestyle. 

It’s not enough to say Kya is shunned by the town, we need to see it. Emphasize that point because it’s literally the closing argument of the movie. 

But okay, so the movie is actually a melodrama about two, failed romances. Sure, that’s fine, I can deal with that. Except the romances feel so contrived that I felt like I was watching the first draft of a cheesy, young adult romance novel. 

Let’s start with Tate.

Tate’s romance storyline...hurt my brain. I guess there was chemistry there, but it was the type of chemistry where two gorgeous people just stare at each other and you’re supposed to assume they like one another. Because aside from looks, how their relationship progressed didn’t make sense to me. Their first kiss literally happened because Tate talked about the tragic deaths of his mother and sister, which was immediately followed up by them frolicking through some leaves in the wind. And then, they nearly had sex for the first time because they saw some geese flying in (were they geese? That’s just my guess). I guess people are turned on by birds on a creek/marsh/swamp/lake.

But what truly bothered me about Tate’s storyline is that this man left her for years WITHOUT an explanation. I would’ve been fine if his excuse was that he had been drafted for Vietnam since the war was during this decade, but the character’s actual excuse was that he thought Kya would never leave the marsh. So, after promising to never abandon her...he abandons her. And yet, they still get married at the end. 

Was I supposed to like Tate? If so, his abandonment of Kya was so egregious that it essentially ruined his character in the second half of the movie. Even leaving Kya for one year would’ve been bad enough, but the movie makes it clear that it was for several years. And the thing is, I think the audience is supposed to be pro-Tate since he’s part of Kya’s happy ending. I’m not saying any of this because I’m #TeamTate, I’m saying this because Tate’s inexplicable abandonment of Kya actually hurt the storyline.

Alright, let’s move onto Chase. 

For the most part, I thought the movie did a decent job at setting up Chase. He’s the “nice guy” who starts off great, but then is revealed to be a violent abuser who Kya must escape from. You’re not supposed to like Chase (unlike Tate) and the movie made it clear with its portrayal of the character. 

My complaint about Chase’s storyline is more indicative of the movie’s problems as a whole. This whole movie feels like cheap, forced melodrama, like a soap opera but with a higher budget (so...the CW). For example, the scene where Chase is outed as having a secret fiancee. The revelation was so sudden and forced that it was unintentionally hilarious. It’s not enough that Chase is an abuser, no, he has to have a secret lover who Kya never knew about. 

The fiancee doesn’t come back up in the movie, if I recall correctly. So...if this character is only there to serve as a “shock” reveal...maybe...cut the character? The fiancee reveal isn’t necessary to show that Chase is an abuser, that point is already made when he smacks Kya. Yes, I am aware that it was the fiancee reveal that led to Chase becoming violent, but the movie could’ve done Chase’s heel turn in a much more natural way. 

Maybe Chase turns into a violent drunk like Kya’s father? You see him drink beer several times in the movie, that could’ve been a subtle way of showing that Chase was becoming an alcoholic. Or maybe Chase learns about Tate and becomes a jealous monster when Tate comes back. There are several ways to do Chase’s storyline without having to resort to the forced twist of “I had a secret lover this whole time”. 

Now...the ending.

I’m actually not opposed to the “accused protagonist was actually the killer” twist...in theory. This type of twist can work, but it’s usually done when the author is portraying the protagonist as the TRUE VILLAIN of the story. For example (SPOILERS FOR TWO OTHER MOVIES):

1) Primal Fear: Edward Norton’s character reveals he faked his personality disorder in order to escape a guilty verdict.

2) Body of Evidence: Madonna’s character was guilty the whole time and is actually the kind of person everyone thought she was (a gold digger who murders her lovers)

So, what is the movie trying to say here? That Kya is the boogeyman that the town made her out to be? “Oh, but she needed to kill Chase because he’s evil!” Sure, I get that, but the twist hurts the story since it validates the town’s perception of Kya as an unrepentant murderer when most of the movie is centered on portraying Kya as this misunderstood person. 

If this is the angle that the story was trying to take, why not just have Kya admit to the killing? Have her claim it was either 1) self-defense or 2) she needed to do it because Chase left her no choice. The attorney can argue that, under the circumstances, Kya killed Chase “in the heat of passion” (voluntary manslaughter). At the very least, Kya could avoid facing the full wrath of the judge and jury, especially since Kya’s story could make her look sympathetic. 

This ending really left a bad taste in my mouth. In addition, it was another example of the forced melodrama that was prevalent throughout the movie. What did Kya killing Chase add to the movie? Aside from casting Kya in a negative light, it felt unnecessary, especially since the ending already felt stretched out. 

Aside from the story, the leaps in logic were pretty hard to take in. Now, I’m someone who watches Marvel movies, plays games like Persona, and watches shows like Stranger Things. I can suspend my disbelief just fine. But somehow, this movie was pushing it, especially since the story took place in the real world:

1) So I guess Social Services doesn’t know how to do their job? It’s not like Kya was moving around like Jason Bourne, she’s literally living in the same house throughout the whole movie. No one bothered to investigate the house for more than five minutes? Also, she sends out mail from where she lives. The government can’t track her down that way? (my girlfriend, who does social work, was frustrated by this as well)

2) Speaking as a law school student, the courtroom scenes ranged from “Okay, not so bad” to “Please god, make it stop”. Every time the lawyers approached the jurors, I wanted to punch something in the room.

3) This feral swamp girl looks surprisingly good, like she’s a Hollywood actress or something. But seriously, Kya did not look like someone who was surviving alone in the wild. Yes, she had a house, but it was still her alone against the wilderness. She looked like someone living in the town, which goes against her whole story.

4) Kya, the feral swamp girl, becomes a best-selling author...sure. I feel like I’d be more accepting of this plot point if we had actually seen more examples of her poetry. Instead, the movie just assumes that the audience will accept that Kya is an amazing writer. 

5) Kya, who was a murder suspect, somehow got away with hiding evidence within her books. You’re telling me the police wouldn’t put her books into evidence? It’s not like there was a secret compartment either, she just taped Chase’s necklace on one of the pages.

6) The defense attorney making it seem like Kya murdering Chase was too ridiculous worked a little too well. So many things had to go right in order for Kya’s murder scheme to work. 

Okay, I’m exhausted. My advice, just go watch “Top Gun: Maverick” again. Or “Thor: Love and Thunder”, that’s a fun movie. Oh heck, even “Minions - The Rise of Gru”, people seem to like that movie.

/

/

/

Other nitpicky complaints:

1) It’s not a good look that Delia Owens, who is wanted for murder, wrote a story where a young woman gets away with murder. 

2) The army (marine?) brother coming back didn’t really add to the movie. I know he tells Kya that their mother died, but the character doesn’t actually do anything in the main story. Kya could’ve easily learned her mother died through the newspaper or something.

3) What was the point of the cat in the courtroom? They showed the cat sitting on a chair like it was significant or symbolic of something.

4) Kya and Tate never moved from that one spot in the marshes. Sure, let’s just stay in the area where the townsfolk hate my very existence and is the area where all my traumas occurred. You’d think that Tate would’ve convinced Kya to move at some point, especially since he’s a college graduate.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

just saw the dead city trailer and ran here. What do you think about the time jump there with older Hershel playing into everyone reuniting with the CRM? Ready for your FTWD analysis too. also just realized FTWD will probably coincide with dead city. Going into the new phase with low expectations and hopefully a good outcome🤞🏻

Yeah, I saw them. Super exciting! The thing is, I don't think Hershel will actually be significantly older. I seem to remember them talking about a very small time jump, like maybe a few months, but I don't think it will be more than that. The actor who plays Hershel does look older, but that's just because kids age so quickly on film. It's been 2 years since this young man first portrayed Hershel, so of course he'll look older. That doesn't mean he is in the show.

Cailey Fleming, who plays Judith on the show, is kind of an exception here. She's a 14-year-old who still looks like she's ten, lol. But that's not true of most kids. So, I wouldn't worry overly much about there being a time jump.

As for other observations about the two new trailers, here is what I sent my fellow theorists:

@twdmusicboxmystery:

A few things that immediately jumped out at me.

Maggie says someone is “the key” to getting Hershel back. We’re meant to believe she’s talking to Negan, and she may be. But we know they can sometimes splice together trailers in a way that can be misleading. But this is a theme we saw heavily in S4 and S5, including around Grady.

The storyline they lay out for Fear, brief tho it may be, feels like a template for the CRM. People raising an army to challenge a larger organization.

June looks exactly like Leah in this picture:

Any insight into who the guy in the wanted poster is? It COULD be Rick. Doesn’t look like him in particular, but closer to him than to Beth, lol.

I got IMDb to try and confirm weather or not they’re using the same actor for Hershel. I think they are, but none of the spin-offs are listed anywhere on IMDb yet. Not Dead City and not Daryl Dixon. Which is a little strange since fans can edit the pages. It’s odd that no one has added them.

I almost feel like maybe they’re purposefully being kept off the pages for now. Though I don’t know why they would do that.

@galadrieljones:

That is weird about IMDb. I agree it makes it seem like they don’t want the info out there. It’s strange like the spin offs still don’t seem real? Esp the Daryl one.

@wdway:

You asked who we thought was in the wanted poster. I think it is Negan.

I've been thinking about some of the scenes that we've seen in the past seasons that implied that Negan might know something about the CRM but maybe not realize that's who it is and I think that Negan might be smart enough not to question certain things to closely.

When Jadis held him at the junkyard she called the CRM helicopter which he saw. Nothing was ever explained about how he just totally ignored that. At the satellite station they had a room where they were growing pot I wonder if he was growing pot to sell to some group connected to the CMR in exchange for other medical supplies like insulin that we saw with Tina, Sherry and Dwight had stolen when they left the sanctuary.

In Here's Negan there was a lot of open questions about the cancer medicine he got from the doctor in the RV. It just seem to me there are a lot of questions that were put out and then skipped over.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Great points! I hadn't thought of that. 👍

So, these are our initial thoughts about the two trailers. What does everyone else think?

[littlemisslipbalm]

“you make me so angry sometimes”

idk if this gif makes sense, but i feel like it will if you read the story, it just gives me that vibe. 

A one shot I cooked up idk, it’s about Harry and a makeup artist on DWD, it’s quite angsty, idk how that happened, it’s also very long, idk how that happened either, maybe i do a part 2, maybe i don’t idk lmk. Feedback is appreciated, not proofread. REBLOGS help writers tremendously and i love reading whatever you write in the tags its my favorite thing!! Love yall and Merry Christmas!

Word Count: 17.7k | Warnings: ENEMIES to LOVERS! swearing, angst!, some anxiety -like self-doubt, yn being mean to harry kind of a lot, i dont remember, nothing too crazy, Nick Kroll?, lots of conversation

-

When she pictured herself as a makeup artist in Los Angeles, she hadn’t pictured exactly what she was doing right now.

She had expected doing gorgeous makeup for gorgeous actresses or doing wildly fun stuff like in Euphoria. And because of that she had worked her ass off to get where she was today. She had practiced for hours, worked countless hours for free, and networked to the cows came fucking home.

So why the fuck was she using tattoo-strength concealer to cover up the maybe 60 tattoos some asshole musician turned actor had all over?

Don’t Worry Darling was her first major film to work on so she couldn’t complain. She was happy to simply be there. Well she had been. The first day she had showed up 15 minutes early and had worn her favorite power suit she had. It was dark navy with a white lace long sleeve turtleneck underneath. She hoped to look fun but professional.

Hollywood was all about impressions, especially first ones, even when you’re the makeup artist. She had quickly learned that she was one of six makeup artists. One of them being the friend who had helped her get the job, Angie. Angie was like her surrogate mother in Los Angeles that she had met on her first film job for something much less high profile than Olivia Wilde’s second directing project. Her braided grey hair and fabulous jeans had drawn Y/N right in and they had connected instantly.

Since Y/N was deemed the most inexperienced by the head of the makeup department, she was relegated to easier jobs: assisting the other artists on main characters sometimes, mostly dealing with minor characters touch ups (and full make-up if she was lucky), and the job nobody wanted: tattoo coverage.

Harry Styles was one of the leads for the film and besides his minimal acting, everyone knew he was a worldwide rockstar. With the rock and roll life starting off as a popstar life at the ripe age of 16, he had amassed around 60 tattoos in the past decade. Impressive by her standard normally. She usually counted herself as an appreciator of tattoos and their art, finding them similar to makeup and the self expression that came with both forms. Especially since she had a few of her own, but when she walked into Trailer #6 and saw a good amount of Harry’s tattoos, she wanted to murder every artist he’d ever been to.

She had to make an inventory the first day of all of his visible tattoos when he was just wearing boxers. He had been friendly, trying to make conversation, but as the time wore on, they both grew tired and silent. She had to write down the location and a description of every tattoo and as he took off everything but boxers she grew more and more annoyed with his random and dumb tattoos. Some of them were amazing, the eagle, the anchor, the butterfly, and the ferns were probably her favorites. But some of them, she couldn't hold back her rolling eyes and annoyed expressions. The “Big” on his right big toe, a miniscule lock, almost everything on his inner left arm (the packers logo, Pingu, etc.)

She traces at the rose and the ship and then flips his arm out to reveal his inner arm to her gaze. “That is a big fucking bee.”

He snickers, “Y’like it?”

She ignores his question. “For god’s sake, someone is needle happy,” she said as she examined his left arm, taking note of every permanent drawing.

He shrugs his right shoulder, uninhibited by her prodding. “Dunno, beginning to regret some of them.”

“I would hope,” she mutters, scribbling on her paper the various ones she had just seen on his arm. Next was his ribcage ones.

He scoffs, “Oi, it’s not like you haven’t got any.”

“How would you-” She looks at him wide eyed.

“Right…” he takes his right hand and pushes her hair past her ear to reveal three little red line butterflies following the curve of her ear, “There. At least.”

She huffs and knocks his hand away from her. Her hair falling back into its place.

“Maybe some located in a few more intimate places I’m guessing from the red rushing to your cheeks right now.”

“Can you just let me do my job,” she says, not giving in to his teasing or sparing him a glance as she feels his intense gaze on her face. She was studying his left rib cage where a few cool tattoos happened to be.

“You at least have some taste or persuasive artists because not all of these are shit,” she speaks again after just the sound of her pen on the paper filled the trailer.

“Gee, thanks,” he laughs unamused and rolls his large green eyes.

She thought he had some of the biggest eyes she’d ever seen. But she also knew to keep that to herself because he’d either take it as a compliment and think she was noticing him too much or he’d take it as a massive insult and get her fired.

His right hand taps at his thigh, tapping a rhythm she didn’t care to pay any attention too. She just wanted to finish the stupid inventory of the stupid tattoos on this stupid man.

“Take those off,” she says to Harry, looking back at her clipboard again, filling up quickly with her notes.

He stands there, staring at her stubbornly. He was entirely bored with this exercise, especially since his company was some of the worst he’s ever had. She spares him a glance when she doesn’t notice any slipping off of the colorful sweatpants he’s wearing.

She arches a brow at him, her pen tapping impatiently against the paper. “Go on. Can’t imagine you want this to go on longer than it already has.”

He rolls his eyes again, slipping his thumbs into the waistline of the pants and tugging down. Simultaneously, he toes off the dirty vans he seemed to wear everywhere. The fabric pools easily and he steps out of them and discards them on the couch behind him. He’s actually wearing black briefs. She chooses not to notice anything further than that.

“Socks...can stay on,” She tries to say as he begins to peel one off. He stops midway and nods.

She flings his shirt to him, not needing to see his naked torso for another moment, “I know you’ve got some feet and ankle tats, but I also know that you won’t be wearing anything that will expose them. Thank your lucky stars that I don’t have to makeup your feet.”

He catches the shirt easily and slips his arms inside before tugging it quickly over his head and over his expansive shoulders. The ferns disappear out of sight.

“Well then we’re almost done then. Just got the knee ones -”

“And the tiger. That’s gonna be one son of a bitch,” she sighs and examines his legs, not bothering to crouch.

“What the actual fuck dude?” Her tone is exasperate and like she would rather be anywhere else than here.

“I’m sorry?” He sputters, hands on his hips and eyes bewildered.

“Yes. No. Oui. Non. Who are you?” She rubs at her eyes and shakers her head.

“S’a little rude.”

“You’re right,” she semi-rushes out at his serious tone, ready to apologize. When a grin spreads over his face and he chuckles under his breath she really wants to smack him upside the head. He was exhausting. “You’re unbelievable.”

“Thought it was funny at the time. Kind of think it’s even funnier now since it’s got you all mad.” He leans over her shoulder to look at her notes and when she glances at him unhappily he just looks smug.

“Alright,” she finishes the scribble of a description and clicks the end of her pen, “All done. You can get dressed. I’ll see you bright and early for tattoo makeup. It’s gonna take about an hour to do all this, just so you can mentally prepare for that.”

“It was nice to meet you,” he attempts at a friendly and professional farewell. “See you tomorrow…” he trails off as he watches her turn on her heel and walk out of the trailer door swiftly. The door swung shut and bounced a little bit in her wake.

Harry sighed and adjusted his clothes and hair in the mirror. After a moment he shakes his head, an even louder sigh escaping him.

-

“Good morning!” She greets happily, walking into the trailer without a knock. Well-rested and happy at least that she doesn’t have to just inspect a body, she looks around the trailer.

She realizes no one is there and she’s taken aback. First of all, if Harry wasn’t there then he shouldn’t have left his trailer unlocked. And second, he was fucking late, the fucking twat.

She grumbles, setting her coffee on the countertop. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. “In through the nose, out through the mouth” she mutters. She knew this was a big opportunity and having a big star like Harry in her corner could make her career. She needed them to get off on a better foot today.

“Good form, I’d say relax the shoulders a little more,” the door swings open carrying the California twang-British accent that she would soon become all too accustomed to.

Harry points at her shoulders and narrows his eyes regarding her in the trailer. She offers a strained smile through the mirror and Harry sets down his personal things on the couch.  

“Alright, well let’s get started shall we,” she smiles and turns to him, gesturing to the swivel chair next to her.

He nods, a twinkle in his eye as he regards her. He’s unsure of the tone and attitude she’s giving him today. She had been feisty yesterday, cordial at times, but mostly biting and witty. He had liked it. It had made the whole ordeal bearable whereas now she seemed to be laying it on a little thick.

“Just your hands and neck today,” she says, pulling out the makeup materials needed and a checklist of the tattoos she needed to make sure were invisible.

“Should only take..a little under an hour today. Just gonna remind you now though, other days we won’t be so lucky.”

Harry chuckles under his breath and rolls his head around his shoulders before sitting in the chair. “Were you tired yesterday?” He inquires.

“Why do you ask?” She throws a glance over her shoulder at Harry. He’s begun slipping off his sweatshirt and yawns as he does it.

“You seem different from yesterday and I’m just wondering which one is the real you.”

She continues working about the room and rolls her eyes to herself, “I’m always the real me. I come no other way, but this morning I woke up and thought ‘this is the job you’ve fucking wanted for ages, so stop being such a bitch so you don’t get fired, you prick’.” She pauses and turns to face Harry. “The ‘you prick’ was directed at me, that was still part of my thought,” she adds.

He throws his head back and laughs. Then he nods, still laughing lightly, “I get that. Sometimes I’m just so in my head and yesterday I was just so fuckin’ bored. Sorry if I got on your nerves.”

“Don’t mention it.” She waves her hand at him nonchalantly.  

Then she moves to inspect his hands and notices the lack of rings, unlike yesterday when she had to make him take them off.

“You have amazing cuticles,” she notices and mentions without any pretences. Harry mutters his thanks, pursing his lips as he watches her work.

She stops her inspection and places the clipboard on the countertop in front of them.

“Could you take your necklaces off? I need to cover up half of the swallows and the years, for when you unbutton your shirt a bit.”

He wets his lips and nods, hands going to fiddle with the clasps behind his neck. He slips off one of the necklaces with ease, a yellow eye beaded necklace that he lays gently on the countertop next to the clipboard. Then he takes his cross and pulls it over his head, no clasp needed.

“Could I put some music on?” Harry asks after five minutes of Y/N working in silence and Harry only being able to stare either at himself, her work, or nowhere.

“I can,” she stops her work for a moment, “Can’t have you messing up the makeup before it sets. Otherwise I’d have to kill you.” Harry can’t be sure if she’s joking or not. Therefore, he was intent on not messing it up.

“Any requests?” She stands at the counter now, instead of seated on a stool working on Harry's left hand.

He shrugs, like he hasn’t got the faintest idea about good music. She refrains from rolling her eyes once again because she feels herself in a test. She wets her lips, sifting through different things in her Spotify and then lands on her playlist titled “it’s your song” named after Elton John’s song. It had some other musicians, a mix of Queen, Bowie, and more and she was sure she would pass the test.

She presses shuffle and She’s Always A Woman by Billy Joel begins to play over her laptop. Harry nods pleased and she wants to shake her head at him.

She can’t hold back the scoff though after a moment of going back to finishing his hand.

“What?” His British accent thickens with his annoyance growing.

“Nothing,” she chirps, intently putting the final touches on his wrist.

“Seriously. What?”

She stands and sets down the makeup. “Can you unbutton your shirt?” She made a note to herself that from now on she’d have to have him take his shirt off before setting to work because if his hands got messed up she’d have to start over. Thankfully he was already wearing a button up this morning.

He stares at her, offering no movement, just inquisitively waiting for her to respond to his original question.

She shuts her eyes, taking another deep breath and then bites at her lower lip. “It’s just...you’re so easy to read.” She fears adding anything else and moves towards him with the makeup hoping to encourage him to unbutton his shirt.  

His right hand deftly pulls at the buttons as he regards her. His eyes are intent on her, she can see him clearly calculating her. Her green paisley button up tucked up into the back of her bra leaving a splay of her stomach. The semi-balloon sleeves cinched at the wrists leading to her slightly ringed hands. The oversized blue jeans that have no holes, just a tiny patch right next to the left pocket. The frayed ends of the pants laying over her rather pristine white old skool vans.

The Boxer fades in as she waits for him to finish the unbuttoning of the shirt. He’s still staring at her.

“Am I?” He finally inquires, voice pitched higher like he doesn’t believe her.

She gives him a serious stare and leans over him and adjusts the collar of his shirt. She adds paper towels to avoid makeup on his clothes.  

“Yes!” She laughs, “And you don’t even think so, which is like...of course.”

He hums, tilting his head back as she sets to work on covering up the swallows. He wiggles his hands that now both rest on the arm chairs.

“I don’t see it.”

“Of course you don’t,” she glances at his face, their eyes meeting for a moment. “You’re Harry Styles. Everyone is in love with this image you created for yourself and it has just enough of your true self that people feel like they really know you, but you also maintain the illusion. So you think you’re this mysteriously amazing, not like the rest guy, but you are just like the rest of them. Obsessed with yourself and rich so you’re deemed eccentric rather than crazy for all the extravagant shit you do. So when you want me to play music and don’t offer any suggestions I know exactly what music I need to play for you to like me.”

“I feel like that last part says more about you than it does me,” he quirks a brow at her, straining his neck to look at her face as she continues to work.

She flushes, his response both better and worse than she expected. She had gotten a little carried away in her response and she had no idea why. She truly wasn’t one to go off on people so easily and especially not with someone she hardly knew, but something about Harry had her on edge. She was just thankful he hadn’t gotten mad at her response, instead he took it in stride. Further proving her point that he was extremely smart and did things purposefully and she saw right through it all.

She grumbles, “It says that all anyone has to do to get close to you is understand the smallest bit about you and you’ll let them in.”

“That is just so completely wrong, Y/N, I hate to break it to you.” It’s Harry rolling his eyes now, unable to move much more of his body as she continues painting on the concealer to remove his tattoos for the movie.

“Fine. Enlighten me on what I got wrong.”

Their argument had all but drowned out their music. They both did love this music and ironically if they would just shut their mouths, they’d probably like each other a lot more.

“Might as well,” he sighs. “First of all, my image is authentic and of course I don’t want to give myself all away. I enjoy my privacy and for everyone to truly know me I’d have to give that up. Which I’m not keen on. So, I regret to inform you but I am the same guy everyone is “in love with”. Second, I know I am a little self-involved, how else would I get here if I wasn’t constantly taking inventory of myself and reevaluating who I am. As a musician, I want to give as much of myself as possible or else it just feels inauthentic. And the extravagant thing, I can’t help that I like nice things and my job has allowed me to afford those things.”

He stops to take a deep breath and she’s working in stunned silence, in disbelief that Harry is even telling her any of this or that he’s spoken that much and so quickly. Wasn’t he notorious for speaking slowly with barely even a sentence worth of actual information. He sounds tired and frustrated, but also, surprisingly, sincere.

He continues, “The music thing. Maybe it was a test, but still it doesn’t mean I give everyone a mile when they say their favorite musicians match up with mine or something. I note that they either did their homework or might be an interesting person to get to know.”

“So which am I?” She widens her eyes.

“Obviously the second even if you’re also making it painfully clear that you don’t like me.”

“You’re smarter than I thought, Harry. I’ll give you that,” she smirks slyly, finishing up the bird coverage now.

He laughs. “Thanks,” he drawls out.

“And I admit that maybe you aren’t as easy to read as I made out, but I think we’re going to have to agree to disagree about the whole being your authentic self. I just don’t buy it. I can see your mind working constantly, you’re not one to just let yourself be free in public. And I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, I’m just saying, you shouldn’t pretend like that’s not what you’re doing.”

Her final thought leaves Harry silent. She pays no attention to his silence or at least she’s actively ignoring it. Instead she tunes back into the music that had gotten them back onto the wrong foot. This was going to be a long few months.

When she’s satisfied with her work, she has them sit there for thirty minutes to give it all time to set before Harry is off to hair and other makeup. They sit there listening to music. Neither of them have spoken again, except instructions from her and Harry’s hums of approval of songs.  

Harry stands up after thirty minutes as she stays behind to pack up some items. Just as he’s about to step out of the door, he turns and calls her name.

“For the record, I don’t think you’re giving me a fair shot. You said yourself that you’re different every day. That every version of you, is you. So I hope you’ll give me the same allowance, every version of me is me. In this trailer, in my music videos, on tv, in interviews, in my free time. It’s all truly me.”

She bites her inner cheek as he ducks his head and exits the trailer, not allowing her any response.

-

“You’re late!”

“Meeting ran over with Nick and Olivia. Sorry,” Harry says as he begins to undress.

It’s the first day she has to cover all of his tattoos. It was going to take forever by all accounts. It had been two weeks since shooting had begun and she had gotten the simple hands and neck down to 45 minutes so she could only dread what his entire body would take.

“It’s fine,” she grumbles, knowing there wasn’t really anything else she could say about him coming late from a meeting with the director and producer.

Over the last two weeks, they hadn’t grown any fonder of one another. Not at all. They at least had gotten into a system though and she was grateful for that at least.

They showed up, Harry got in his chair, she set up the music, and they got to work. Harry would practice lines on some days and he’d tell her that before she turned on the music so there were no interruptions. Sometimes they talked about stuff on set or music or she’d give Harry his line when he was trying to be off script and forgot one. She wouldn’t classify it as pleasant, but they weren’t at each other throats like they were originally.

Trailer 6 had gotten a little homier as the weeks went by, too. Harry began leaving some of his stuff there and he started putting up silly drawings he would make while on set or polaroids people had taken with him while he was there. He tacked up napkins of restaurants that catered the set and wrote funny jokes and quotes on post it notes. His personal assistants sometimes brought in snacks while Y/N was still working and Harry always offered her some. They were usually healthy, but sometimes she’d eat some. Jeff, his manager, had also stopped by on occasion during his tattoo touch-ups that had become a thing after shooting days had grown longer.

On first meeting, Jeff had said, “Y/N? Harry mentioned you.”

She had turned to Harry with an arched brow and he had shrugged. When she looked back at Jeff she didn’t see Harry give Jeff one of the deadliest looks he could muster. She had grimaced and said “Well we spend enough time together for him to know my name. So thank god for that at least.”

They had all laughed and she had gotten back to work on Harry’s wrist.

Today, she needed Harry in his shorts. It was the first day of shooting where his character would be only in his boxers so she had to cover up all his visible tattoos. Olivia had told the makeup department they actually had to cover up his feet tattoos as well. She wanted him sockless in the scene and Y/N had groaned immediately when she made it to the trailer and Harry wasn’t already there.

“But please, for the sake of my job, strip, dude.” She says, arms crossed over her chest and leaning against the counter as she watched Harry set his things down. Her soft green striped cardigan is open, exposing the white tank top sitting underneath. Her bright green shorts hang loose on her, cinched at the waist and folded over once. Her white high top nike’s tap impatiently on the floor, waiting for Harry to get moving.

He nodded, truly feeling sorry for his tardiness, knowing today was a long day. He was anxious and tired. Acting was a different experience to music and he just was really trying his best.

As he began to take off his shirt, he laughed. His arms pulled the shirt over his head and when it popped out from beneath it, he repeated, “Strip, dude,” attempting to mimic her American accent.

He had practiced his American accent in front of her while running lines, but it had a 50’s drawl to it. His acting coach had been drilling him for weeks before shooting and he still liked to practice. The accent he had just down was far off from that and far off from hers too.

“Do not,” she warned.

“What?” He asks innocently and flutters his eyelashes.

She knows his game by now and she knows she should just ignore him. She knows this after fourteen days. She knows this after hours with him. She knows this, but then she’s opening her mouth and playing into his teases.

“Sorry, what’s a word you would know? Mate?” She tries for a British accent with the last word, knowing she can’t win this.

Harry snickers and scratches at his nose with his index finger before starting on taking off his pants. “You’re so Californian.”

“Thank you,” she chirps, moving to sit beside him now that he had settled.

“I like your shorts,” he muses, crossing his legs, likely a little cold.

She glances down at her cotton shorts that showed more of her thighs when she sat for a moment before returning her gaze to his left arm. The longest task of the day was this damn arm.

“Thanks,” she mumbles, “Wanted to be comfortable today. Knew it was gonna be long.”

A smile bubbles onto his face, his pink lips parting to reveal his shiny white teeth behind them. “So true.”

The music is low today. She had chosen Joni Mitchel’s Blue album for the first pick of the day. She had quickly learned Harry preferred listening to albums in order. It tended to make him less jumpy when the same artist came on multiple times like an album. So when she tried to play just an album one day, she found him more cooperative and less irritable.

After thirty minutes of work, she can’t stop noticing how shivery Harry is. It was late October in LA, so it was still warm, but admittedly the mornings could be a little chilly. His shivering was concerning for many reasons. Mainly he was messing up her work and concentration, but she also didn’t want him to get sick or something.

“Do you want me to see if they have a blanket and slippers or something? You look like you’re turning blue.”

Harry turns his attention to her. He had been reading over the script for today again. “That’d be great. I can call…” He trails off trying to think of the name of one of his assistants, but apparently he’s too scatterbrained for it. She assumed it was the hypothermia traveling to his brain already.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll walkie someone.” She says as she grabs the walkie talkie, flicking to the personal assistants channel.

“Hey,” she chirps happily. Harry noted how she talked to other people. So sweet, yet sincere. With him, it was serious and sincere but more biting, callous at times. Less so lately, but she definitely was sharper with him. He didn’t know if it even bothered him anymore. She was engaging if nothing else.

“Is someone free to bring two blankets and men’s slippers over to Trailer 6? I’ve got a naked Jack and I don’t want him freezing before I’m done covering up his tattoos.��� She takes her finger off the talking button and glances sideways at him, “Who knows, maybe that would improve his acting. Y’know on second-thought-”

“Alright, alright,” Harry tries to grab for the walkie talkie, but she turns from him holding a finger up signalling him to wait as she listens for a response.

Someone says a simple “On it” and she turns off the walkie talkie and gets back to work.

“I took my finger off the speaker before I said the thing about your acting. Relax, Harry.” She says when he’s still glaring at her. “Just love to see you squirm.”

He shakes out his short chestnut hair, some of it falling over his forehead. Instinctively, she reaches up without even looking and smooths it back. Like she was tucking her own hair out of her eyes, but instead it was Harry’s. She decided to say nothing and was relieved when Harry didn’t say anything either.

She finishes his forearm and moves to his outer upper arm. The rose holds her attention when the PA knocks on the door and she has to race to get it. Nothing could stop her from moving on this work. It was already an hour in and she wanted to scream.

She swings open the door and she wants to die. It was Autumn. Her least favorite PA, of course. She was insufferable and obsessed with Harry. Which was not why Y/N found Autumn insufferable. There were so many more reasons. So many. But that particular character flaw didn’t help her case either. Y/N tried to just take the blankets and slippers from Autumn, but the woman insisted that she come in.

“I’ve got it,” Y/N says.

“No, don’t want you to get makeup on anything,” Autumn’s saccharine voice grinds at her ears and she contemplates cutting them off.

Harry sat in his chair, legs crossed, nodding along to the music, his script discarded on the counter in front of him.

“Hi Harry!” Autumn practically yells, walking right up to him.

Y/N takes a deep breath at the door, letting it swing shut. She bites her lower lip as an attempt to bite her tongue as she walks back to her set-up. The set-up Autumn was conveniently blocking.

“Hello, Autumn,” Harry says kindly, making eye contact with her. “How’re you today?”

“So great! So great! Thanks for asking. How are you?” She points a finger at him like she might poke him and Harry squirms away from her a bit. She, of course, doesn’t notice this.

“Well, thanks.” His eyes flicker to Y/N, who is standing behind Autumn, hands on her hips and attempting not to tap her foot. His tone is clearly dismissive, but Autumn must ignore it. Y/N knows Autumn isn’t as helpless as she tries to come off.

Autumn asks, “Where do you want these?”, gesturing to the two blankets and slippers stacked on top.

“Just on the counter is fine, thanks,” Harry says.

Autumn does as he says and then stands there with baited breath. Y/N’s not sure what she’s expecting. For Harry to ask for her hand in marriage or something? But he just glances between the two women. His own foot begins wiggling in impatience.

“Busy day,” He attempts at dismissing her once again - with kindness.

“Oh my gosh, totally!” Autumn gushes, starting to go off on all of the tasks she has to do. She stands so close to Harry, Y/N genuinely thinks she’s going to sit in his lap. Y/N stares up to the ceiling, begging god or whoever to end her misery right there and then.

Harry sees Y/N’s expression and tries to maintain the neutral expression he’s had for the entirely too long interaction. A smile threatens at his rosey lips that had chapped from the morning air.

“Right, well,” he cuts off Autumn, “Y/N needs to get back to tattoo coverage, I think. So...have a nice day.”

Autumn’s eyes widen like she forgot that there was anyone else in the room and steps back from Harry. Y/N nods, a grimace clear on her face. Autumn gives her the same small she used to get from the popular girls in high school when she happened to be talking to their cool guy friend that they wanted to be more than friends with. Sickeningly sweet and completely fake. She could see the contempt in Autumn’s eyes that swirled just beneath the surface of her perfectly outlined green-ish eyes.

“Okay! You too, Harry!” She begins walking to the door and Y/N takes her seat again, closing her eyes and counting to ten. “And Y/N,” Autumn adds as an afterthought.

“Oh my fucking god,” Y/N sighs, her hands going to rub over her face and through her hair. “That was exhausting. Jesus Christ.”

“What? She’s nice. Maybe a little clueless,” Harry counters. “But she was so nice,” he confirms again, seemingly trying to convince himself of it as well.  

She grabs the slippers and slips them on the ground so Harry can put them on easily. Then one of the blankets that she drapes over Harry’s bottom half. He smiles at the gesture, a ‘thank you’ said in a whisper.

“Please, she knows what she’s doing,” Y/N scoffs, “And she’s obsessed with you!” She grabs the concealer to get back to work, “She was all over you and never took her eyes off of your body. It was like she wanted to touch you or something. It was icky.”

“You touch me,” Harry adds cheekily, adjusting beneath the warm blanket.

She laughs, a smile gracing her lips as she gives Harry a look. He was clever.

“It’s my job to touch you, Harry.”

Harry had really tried to not laugh, but it was just so funny. They both snicker, their eyes meeting for a moment longer than usual.

“Speaking of my job,” she adds after controlling her laughter, “Does she not realize just how long it takes to cover all of your bloody tattoos with this shit to make it look like you’re a pristine skinned 50’s psycho killer?”

She finishes the rose coverup and moves to the ship. Harry nods solemnly.

“It’s true...And it doesn’t help that you’re terrible at it, so it takes a thousand years longer than it should.” He adds, laughter overtaking his serious tone at the end.

“Oh my god!” She shrieks in delight, trying not to mess up her work, “That is so rude! I messed up one time - mostly because of you, by the way. And give me a break, this is so not what I thought I’d be doing as a makeup artist for movies.”

He nods again, muttering “Fair, fair.”

They grow silent, enjoying Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, the album that she had queued after Joni’s.

“The body thing, I just learned to ignore it, I think.” Harry mutters, eventually, but it’s thoughtless, like he’s not revealing anything about himself with the statement. But it kind of shocks her. Her eyes widen and she stops her work to stare at his face.

“Harry,” she waits till his eyes meet hers, “That’s, like, not normal. Are you serious?”

“I mean, I’m very comfortable with my body, like I haven’t minded the last 45 minutes of sitting practically nude in front of you. And I have plenty of revealing photos out in the world. I just don’t notice staring anymore, it’s not, I don’t think it’s what you’re thinking,” he tries to reassure her. His eyes are intent on hers, full of seriousness that hadn’t been there a few moments ago.

“It’s one thing to be comfortable in your skin and another to be desensitized to objectification,” she insists.

He nods. “I know. Thank you. I would let you know if what she had done had bothered me, so don’t worry. I felt completely safe the whole time.”

“Good,” she nods back and concentrates again. “Good,” she repeats once more under her breath. There had been way too many distractions already today and she wasn’t even done with his arm yet.

As she continues to work up his arm, Harry sings along to some of the songs on Elton’s album. He happily taps his feet to the different beats, now safely tucked in soft fluffy slippers. She would never admit just how amazing it is to be in the same room as Harry’s singing. It was truly special to be less than a foot from him and hear him sing just under the unique voice of Elton - who was someone he actually knew, which was equally as cool.

He hit every note and knew every word. She was impressed. How could she not be when a literal rockstar sat before her? This was the first time she was truly starstruck by her charge, Mr. Harry Styles.

By two hours, they had moved onto an album by Dolly Parton and they were both singing. They strangely had no fights today, maybe some snarky comments from both of them, but no outright mean-spirited words were exchanged.

She stood in front of Harry, finishing up the swallows. She had finished both arms and the birds, all she had left was moving down his body. Up next, the butterfly.

“I love this tattoo,” she mumbles, twisting Harry’s standing body to face her and taking her seat again. This left her eye to eye with the butterfly on his stomach.

He makes a surprised face and raises his recently plucked eyebrow at his counterpart. “Oh really?”

“Don’t act so surprised. I told you day one that not all of them are rubbish and honestly they’re all pretty cool. I just was so annoyed that I had gotten tattoo coverage as my job and then I had to go and index them all.” She flicks her eyes up to his sculpted face and sees he’s watching her work. “Plus, I have some butterflies of my own, remember?” She grins.

“Yeah,” he ponders her words, “I don’t think that’d put me in a good mood either.”

He pauses again and she continues to work silently.

“So what’s your excuse for the second day then?”

“You provoked me,” she doesn’t spare him a glance, shrugging like it was the simplest answer in the world.

“Pardon?”

“Let’s not go down this road again, Harry.” She sighs, smoothing over the freshly covered butterfly tattoo. His sternum looked so naked, it was unnerving. Now the ferns.

Harry involuntarily shivered when her fingers traced over the ferns lightly, taking note of the expanse of skin she’d have to cover.

“You’re right,” he agrees, “But agree to disagree on the provocation.”

“Sure,” she says curtly, focusing on his skin and her job.

The expanse of skin that the ferns inhabited was slightly fleshy and especially soft. It bordered where his boxers began and she ignored that part of his body completely. It was of no importance to her and she really had no issue blocking it from her vision, even when it was right in front of her. She finishes one fern with Harry jumping only twice from her cold hands. He couldn’t put his robe on until the makeup had all set for half an hour so he’d have to be cold for possibly another hour still.

She traces the fern that is still visible and Harry shivers. She instinctively shushes him softly and his body quiets. As she works, her hair splays around her shoulders and Harry looks down at her working and doesn’t realize what his hand is doing until it’s too late. His right hand runs over her hair, smoothing it out of her face. It was rarely ever down, so it must have been the novelty of it.

“Sorry, I-” he chokes out when he jerks his hand back.

She sits back, slightly taken aback. Her body flushes just from their positioning and what a hair caress would mean normally in this position, but she’s a professional and she shakes it off.

“It’s fine. We’re even.” She assures him, breaking eye contact with his own wide eyes. “Seems like we’re both hair touchers.”

“It’s just so soothing,” Harry muses. “I think it’s human instinct to touch other people’s hair since it’s so enjoyable for yourself.”

“Possibly,” her voice raises, his thought was definitely plausible. Or maybe they were just two touch starved people who were very much in each other’s personal space 24/7.

At the two and a half hour marker, she gets a walkie message from Olivia’s assistant asking when they’d be done. She had just finished the tiger tattoo, which had been surprisingly easy. It took a while, but Harry didn’t shiver once and neither of them pet each other’s hair.

“Probably 40 minutes, sorry. He has a lot of tattoos and the makeup needs to set.” She says seriously and gets back to work, barely regarding the response of “Yeah it’s fine, just wanted an estimate”.

“Jesus,” Harry moans as she covers up his knee tattoos.

She groans in veiled disgust, “Did I just hit a secret erogenous zone? Is that why you have ‘oui’ there, you creep?” There’s a teasing tone behind the nickname she uses.

Harry laughs and runs his hand over his face, pulling at his jaw and lower lip. His jaw is so sharp, she watches him adjust it. “No, no. I’m just so goddamn tired of this.”

“And it’s not your fault,” he adds, feeling bad immediately after he said it. “It’s actually been nice today, but I’m feeling antsy, like I need to move. I don’t like to sit still.”

“I know,” she says under her breath. She simply nods in agreement.

Finally, the tattoos are all covered up and set. They had talked about George Michael when she got to his ankle tattoos that she hadn’t seen before and they laugh about the tattoos and chat a bit more. She helps him slip on his robe that he keeps in his closet in the trailer and then follows him out of it. They had decided they were hungry and he had been pushed back an hour since he had taken so long, so he had a free half-hour.

As they walked to craft services, they talked about actual things besides work. She was pleasantly surprised by what Harry talked about. It was more than music or the movie. It was the tv show he was currently obsessed with and how he hated LA’s traffic the most out of all of his dislikes for the city. She couldn’t help but grin at his Los Angeles slander. She loved this side of him.

-

Breakfast together after finishing his tattoo coverage became their regular thing. He would come into the trailer, racing from his morning meeting accompanied with tea for two, they’d get his tattoos covered as quickly as possible, and then they’d eat together.

They’d save their “in-depth” chats for breakfast. In early November, he joked about No Nut November and insisted he really wouldn’t have a problem with it - which had made her laugh. They worried together over the U.S. presidential election and meditated together in his trailer to Fleetwood Mac.

Around late November, Harry had requested that Y/N just do his face makeup as well, just to simplify his life a little more and the department had agreed easily. She had to spend extra time on set getting lectured on how to properly do Harry’s makeup, but after two days she stopped getting notes about it. She was so extremely proud and thankful to Harry for doing that.

All he said was: “I mean, you’re extremely talented so I’m not scared of you fucking up my face. Plus, it does make my life easier. Two birds with one stone.”

In late November, he told her about his favorite holiday drinks at Starbucks and what he was getting his mother for Christmas.

When the Vogue cover came out, he laughed over that woman who responded to his cover saying the world needed to bring back manly men. He joked that he was going to really push that from now on, that he was a manly man, and he would sputter with laughter every time he tried to say it with a straight face.

He hand delivered her a special ‘Treat People With Kindness’ sweatshirt that he only had for the cast and crew of the film. Most everyone got them from a PA, but Harry decided since you saw him first in the morning, why not.

He told her about him winning Hitmaker of the Year from Variety when he had left the award sitting in Trailer 6 and about how weird it was to film acceptance speeches in an empty room. His smile had lit up the entire set that day and the day he did his interview on set. He was so smiley she had to bump him with her elbow because he wouldn’t stop smiling at her and it was unnerving.

“Stop that,” She muttered.

“Stop what?” He smiles wider.

“That!” She squeaked, her head shaking as she ducked it to regard his anchor tattoo. “You’re smiling too much.”

“Oh no,” he says sarcastically, “God forbid I be happy.”

“It’s not that,” she bumps his thigh with her elbow, trying to keep her own smile off her face, “Your face is just so intense when you smile. Feels like you’re gonna burn a hole through me.”

He laughs, completely unconvinced, “You just don’t want me to be happy is what I’m hearing.”

She rolls her eyes, “Whatever, dude.”

She saw he was serious about the ‘manly men’ references when the Variety photos came out and everyone and their mom posted the pictures with some variation of that comment as their caption.

She still found that she rolled her eyes at some of the things Harry did, but she genuinely counted him as a friend by the time December had rolled around.

Over three hours, almost always completely alone, doing work for a job you both care deeply about can really make or break a relationship. And that first full-body coverage day had made them stronger together. After that, Harry and her would banter with one another, but there was never anything intentionally cruel. Just friends giving each other shit sometimes. Harry had been right, he had changed her mind about him. And she had realized that that was who Harry was. He was a deliverer. If you didn’t like him at first, he would try and try again until you did, but he did it in a way that wasn’t weasley or anything. It was terribly genuine and she saw it in every relationship he had on set.

On several occasions she had witnessed his friendship with Nick Kroll. A man she had regarded with dislike before the film. She had quickly realized that dislike was misplaced, but she maintained that it was just because she hated adult cartoons - citing that she literally refused to be friends with any person who willingly watched the Simpsons, Family Guy, and/or American Dad and all of those similar shows.

Nick was far nicer and less weird than she had realized. So she quickly shot her friend from high school an apology text for all the Nick Kroll slander she had spouted back in the day. Her friend had rejoiced but also said how jealous she was that Y/N got to see him regularly on set.

Nick and Harry got along great. Harry generally got along better with older people, she noticed when she was introduced to his friends on the somewhat frequent occasion. Trailer 6 was where Y/N saw most of these reactions take place. She would be introduced in the first minute and then she would smile politely and get back to the work of covering up Harry’s numerous tattoos.

Harry would say something simple and Nick, the literal famous comedian, would laugh. In the beginning she’d raise a brow, confused because it truly wasn’t that funny, but as Harry’s friend now, she kept her mouth shut.

Nick would come and sit on the couch while she’d work and eventually all three of them would chat. Sometimes she would get up to go to the bathroom during those morning chats and she would look in the mirror and think to herself “How are you casually talking to these two men right now” and then she’d think “Because you are a boss ass bitch, you got this” and go back out there with a smile on her face.

“Y/N, what are you doing tonight?” Nick asked on the first Friday morning of December.

She looks up from Harry’s cross tattoo that was half covered. Harry was reading, a book casually propped in his right hand and glasses resting on the bridge of his nose. He glanced at the other two in the room. Nick had been getting some work done before he had spoken.

“No plans,” she states simply before getting back to work. It wasn’t full body today, but it was arms and torso, so kind of a lot still.

“You should come over for dinner at my place with Harry,” Nick smiles kindly. His scruff was really coming in today. “To celebrate us almost wrapping the first half of the movie.”

Harry had thankfully freshly shaved before he sat down. It was her least favorite part of her new job. Whenever he came in for touch ups and she had to shave his afternoon shadow. She was terrified she’d cut him and never live it down from her department or Harry. She had no idea which would be worse.

“My wife will be there too, of course,” he adds, hoping to entice her to say yes.

Harry glances between Y/N and Nick again before focusing on his book again.

She purses her lips, finishing Harry’s hand and moving onto the anchor tattoo. “Yeah, I mean, I don’t know why I’d say no. As long as I’m not intruding on the throuple,” she grins up at Harry.

He stares at her with his big green eyes, slightly obscured behind his prescription glasses. He raises his brows and wiggles them a little bit, teasingly.

Nick laughs and slyly winks at Harry through the mirror. Y/N none the wiser as she removes all traces of Harry’s tattoos.

“Great!” He claps his hands and stands up. “We’ll talk or I’ll make sure Harry gets you the info or something. I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out. My wife’s been wanting to meet you,” he smiles again and walks out of the trailer.

She tilts her head at the last part. He talked about her to his wife. Did he really count her as that close of a friend? She was just a makeup artist and he was a producer… She glances at Harry and he gives away nothing. His jaw looks extra prominent and she knows it’s because he’s clenching it. He did that when he was focused or angry, remembering it bulging on the first day they met and how clenched it had been then.

“Unclench your jaw,” she mutters, “It’s not good for you.”

Harry hums and unclenches it.

He stretches his neck by rolling his head around his shoulders and she glances at the movement. His skin is still beautifully sun-kissed and his pores look so soft, only his moles change the texture of his skin. She loves his moles though, they make him especially unique in her eyes. Not that he needed anything else to set him apart from the crowd. Still, she loved them. His collarbone is prominent as he sits there shirtless and she wishes she could reach out and brush at it. But she gets back to work, knowing the only time she’s gonna be brushing near that part of him is when she’s covering dates in those dips behind his collarbones.

“Y’know, I could just drive you to Nick’s tonight,” Harry says, putting his book down and taking off his glasses. He rubs at his eye with his free hand.

“You’re blind and British, how do I know you can even drive yourself?” She asks sillily, pointing to his glasses.

He shakes his head, “I’m serious, Y/N. Aren’t you staying in the same area as me?”

He asks because they had relocated to Palm Springs a little while ago and everyone had gotten rentals and it was hard to remember where everyone was holed up when they weren’t on set.

“Yeah, think so. But you don’t need to pick me up. I have a car.”

“Nonsense. I’ve been to his place before, don’t want you to have to deal with directions, that’s just silly.”

“I guess...” she resigns relatively easily. She had never hung out with Harry off the set or Nick for that matter. It felt surreal, but she knew the right answer was usually just say yes in these situations. So that’s what she says. “Yes, that’d be great, thank you,” she confirms and watches as Harry’s eyes glimmer softly before turning back to his book. A triumphant soft smirk rests on his face.

The words die out between the two of them as she works on. He hums along to the music and continues reading his book. When she’s done with his tattoo coverage and his face makeup, she sends him off to hair and the rest of his day. He gives a flirty wink as he walks out the door and she rolls her eyes in response. She tidies up her kit and then goes to do some other makeup work.

When she wasn’t working with Harry, she was assigned to some of the minor characters and doing their makeup. They were always her second concern, especially now that she did Harry’s makeup as well as his tattoos. As she works on them, she can feel her mind drifting to Harry. Harry and how they were friends now. She was pretty sure, right? They were friends. He had never really said a mean thing to her if she really thought about it. It was her… She had been rude and mean-spirited and he had just taken it. He rarely had even thrown it back at her. He was so good to her and patient and she realized that he had proven to her that he was good. He was better than good, he was kind and loving. Considerate. Wonderful. All of those positive superlatives, Harry filled them. And she had the audacity to be mean to him.

She paused the brush that was adding blush to an actresses cheek.

Lisa, the actress, looks at Y/N confusedly, “What’s wrong?”

Y/N twitches her head, refocusing on her task at hand. The realization of her pausing her work becomes clear as she looks between her hand and the cheek that has not enough blush on it. “Oh,” she breathes. “...I just realized that I was terrible to someone who doesn’t have a mean bone in their body.”

Lisa nods, “Apologize.”

“Yeah, I mean...We’ve kind of moved past the phase where we don’t get along. Like now we’re friends, but the realization just really hit me.” She sighs, picking up where she left off on Lisa’s makeup. “I’ll make sure to apologize next time I see them.”

Lisa smiles.

-

At the end of the day, Y/N realizes she left her tattoo coverage kit in Harry’s room after their touch-up session halfway through the day. She had run off to help with a makeup emergency for a tiny cut on a minor character’s face and forgotten to go back and grab her things. Another roll of her eyes and a huff of breath and then she’s walking back to Trailer 6, a place that seemed like a home away from home now. She knocks, patiently waiting at the bottom of the steps.

Harry swings open the door and props it with his hip. He’s got a toothbrush held in his mouth, slowly scrubbing back and forth with his left hand. His costume is somewhat taken off, he’s still got the pants on with suspenders hanging down, his chest was completely bare and he looked funny with some of his tattoos only being half covered based on what parts of his skin had been showing today. Her work. His skin looked half silky smooth and half tattooed like usual.

His naked skin seemingly left her breathless because as her eyes returned to Harry’s face, she breathed a soft, “Hi.”

“Hey,” a smirk twists onto his face. “Forget something?”

“Yes,” she nods, coming back to her senses and entering the trailer at Harry’s gesture.

She begins to pack up the kit that had been left haphazardly strewn around on his counter. “I’m sorry I left a mess like this, I got called over to something else and forgot.”

“Don’t worry darling,” Harry grins at his joke.

She looks up from her work and sees Harry in the reflection of the mirror. He’s wiping off the makeup from his chest and his beautiful tattoos reemerge as entire images.

She laughs humorlessly, “It gets less funny each time you use that.”

“That’s not true,” he looks at her through the mirror now, his green eyes trained on her face, “Everyone else still thinks it’s hilarious.”

“They’re humoring you and your fragile ego,” she winks and watches as Harry’s smirk twitches from his perfect face.

“You’ve got a very mean disposition, you know that?” He asks.

He finishes his chest and moves to remove the makeup from his left arm, glancing at the mirror every so often to check himself and to flicker his eyes over Y/N’s face.

She genuinely laughs at that, but scolds herself internally for being mean when she had planned to apologize the next time she saw Harry. This was the next time so why was she doing this instead?

“Rewrite sweet disposition for me?” Her voice honeyed. Clearly stubborn and terrible at saying sorry...maybe her and Harry were a better match than she realized.

Harry twists his lips as he slips on his t-shirt he was wearing today.

“Pick you up at 6:30?” He says as his head pops out from beneath the rainbow striped sweatshirt he slipped on top of the shirt. His chestnut hair had been toweled out and was flopping over his forehead slightly.

She sighs and zips close the kit, standing from the seat she had taken at his counter and turning to face him now.

“6:30 is perfect. Thanks again for doing this. I just can’t believe Nick Kroll is inviting me over for dinner!” She smiles, shifting to lean against the counter as she waits for Harry to finish up. She didn’t have to but for some reason she felt like she was in no rush.

“Are you serious?” He’s moved on to changing his pants now and he’s slipping on black sweatpants.

“Yeah…” She blinks and her eyes widen as Harry appraises her expression.

He straightens up after fixing a cuff on the pants and he can’t tell if she’s being genuine or sarcastic. It was always so hard to tell with her.

“I mean, Nick Kroll is like a huge celebrity and I know in the entertainment business you’re not supposed to get starstruck but when I was in college my sister thought he was weirdly hot and my friends and I would shit talk him. I don’t know, it’s just kind of surreal to be having dinner at his place. Like I’ve watched him on tv and now I’ll be eating with him...so weird.”

He shakes his head, beginning on his dirty vans now. A small laugh escapes his mouth and he glances between her and his shoe, scratching his head quickly. “I still can’t tell… It feels like you’re fucking with me right now.”

“I’m not!” She insists, her hands coming out in front of her in a confused fashion. “I used to watch that guy’s tv show then he’s my boss now he’s inviting me over for food? It’s a lot to process.”

“How come it’s not surreal to be having dinner with me then?” He asks semi-joking, a hint of offense tinged within it. It’s visible only in his knitted brow and twisted lip.

“Careful there, sailor. Venturing into some dangerously self-absorbed waters.” Her eyes light up, a quick raise of her brows accompany the shine, and she decides now is her time to head out. Especially as she thinks about getting ready for this soiree tonight. She needed to shower and pick out an outfit with less than two hours to prepare.

Harry sputters at her response and fumbles with his pink shoelace. “That’s not...that is - You’re being unfair. My question is valid.”

She shrugs her shoulders and skirts Harry’s attempt at grabbing at her arm to stop her from leaving. “Okay, Mr. Big Man On Campus. I promise you you’re the most popular boy in school.”

She blows him a kiss and walks out the door as he attempts to get her to come back by calling her name a few times and slightly shouting “C’mon! I wasn’t being insecure. That was a reasonable ask…”

He sighs and shakes his head again. Every interaction would end with one of them either rolling their eyes or shaking their head and usually a sigh on both of their lips. It was exhausting, but exhilarating too.

20 minutes later, Harry receives a text from Y/N: “You’re still picking me up right :))) ?”

He’s in his car, getting ready to finally leave after getting held up with last minute schedule changes that he had to be informed about by some PA that he had forgotten the name of. His lip quirks to the right and he closes his eyes for a second enjoying seeing her name on his phone screen for a moment.

He types back: “Of courseeee”.

“Fab.” She sends back, immediately followed by: “Fanks BMOC ;)”

A full smile rolls onto Harry’s face after he swipes his tongue over his lower lip. “Yeah, yeah, save it for the next guy” he types out quickly before throwing his phone gently beside him and driving back to his apartment. She made him feel young, not that he wasn’t young, but generally his friends didn’t text like she did.

-

At 6:28, she receives a text from Harry Styles - his name in her phone. A name she had never expected to see in her phone unless her Spotify was on shuffle. Yet, instead, his name popped up under messages and it read “Here!” followed by a quick “I think” and then a phone call coming through from the apparently anxious man himself.

“Hello Harry.” Her tone even. She throws little items into her purse, making sure everything she needs is there.

“Could you peek out your window? I’m not quite sure I’m at the right place and people are staring…” nerves laced in his rushed tone.

She ambles to the window and opens up the shade she had closed to change. Below her, she sees a sleek black Range Rover with a slightly disarrayed hairdo and big dark glasses peeking below the windshield. She ignored the instinct to retch at the sight of the Range Rover and peered at the lamp lit sight below her. It was definitely Harry, but she searched for the prying eyes he was worried about and saw none. Well, maybe a few, but it wasn’t a lot.

“I see you, I’ll be right out, dude. Just deep breaths, it’s mostly crew staying here right now so they’re just seeing that it’s you, another guy they work with. They won’t come up for pictures...I would hope.”

She hangs up with no farewell, snatches her purse from its place on the bed and races out the door. Harry smiles anxiously at her when she stands next to the passenger’s door and he unlocks it. She bites her lip and raises her brows, waiting to hear if anything terrible happened in the minute and a half it took her to come downstairs and out to the car.

“Hi,” he exhales.

A smirk crawls onto her features and her eyes sparkle with a bit of a childish glee that normally she didn’t exhibit as she glances at him. “Hi.” She says quietly. “Alright big boy?”

“‘M fine.” He huffs but balks at her smile that she maintains while she stares at him. “What?”

“Just happy to see you, I guess,” her smile returns after speaking and Harry glances between her face and the windshield in front of him.

He can’t tell if she’s being serious or not once again. But he fears that conversation of her either ridiculing him for thinking she is serious or being offended that he still can’t tell. Instead, he will keep his mouth shut. For the most part.

“Happy to see you, too,” his lips create a closed mouth smile quickly before turning out of the parking lot.

She watches him. Their first time together outside of work. And they were friends. She needed to get used to simply thinking that. He picked her up to take her to dinner with her other friend and his wife. This was normal life, just with big names behind those terms of relation. Jesus, she always said it didn’t bother her to be around celebrities so why did she think about it so damn much?

She twitches her head and refocuses on Harry and his driving. His jaw is clenched again and she wants to reach out and sooth it herself. Instead she starts to open her mouth to correct him, but stops herself from that as well. They weren’t at work and it didn’t feel like something just a friend would say right now. She refocuses on the view of his eyes that are barely visible while he regards the road. His large eyes that she had grown acquainted to are surveying what he’s doing, every so often drifting to the right side of the road to check out the lane beside him. But then, always back to right in front of him, leaving a crescent of green visible to her.

“Can feel you staring at me…” His voice sounds like it’s rolled around in gravel after the long work day. It makes her wonder if he’s supposed to have a vocal rest when he’s not at work, but then again it’s the weekend now so maybe it was fine. Maybe she should ask him. Or maybe she should stop worrying so much about him.

“Have I got something on my face?” His low register bumps her from her racing thoughts. He doesn’t take his eyes off the road, but she can see he’s widened his eyes in wonder.

“No! Of course not, I just was...making sure you weren’t going to crash us or something.” She grasps at straws, desperate to not be caught by Harry.

A low chuckle bubbles from his chest and he spares a small glance over at her bundled up in his passenger seat. She matches his gaze with something of distrust hidden behind her eyes. She hopes to convey that she’s being silly and when Harry turns back to look at the road unassumingly, she feels like she has won. The harmonies of the beginning of a Queen song take over the silence, Harry’s spindly fingers thrumming against the wheel.

They arrive at the Kroll’s Palm Springs residence at 6:50. 10 minutes early and the two twiddle their thumbs for a few minutes, trying to pass the time and not intrude earlier than they were supposed to. She appreciated that Harry liked to be timely but not early, similar to how she was.

“So what is the fascination with Range Rovers?” She queries, leaning against the door’s armrest. The back of her head touches against the semi-tinted window.

Harry shifts in his seat, seat belt no longer constricting him and no road requiring his attention as they sit in the driveway. He rushes a hand through his hair and lets a single strand of hair fall over his prominent forehead.

“Dunno,” he shrugs his shoulders and allows a hand to fall onto the steering wheel absentmindedly. “I don’t really prefer them anymore, but when I’m in LA and doing work, it makes things easier. My other cars are a little flashier...have more privacy in this.”

“Yet the effect is similar,” she muses.

Her head tilts to take in Harry’s appearance, sharp black silky button-up and dark green plaid slacks, and she rubs a hand over her jaw. His eyes flicker to the movement and attempt to really take it in, even in the dim glow of the lamp light outside barely peeking into the dark interior of the car.

“Effect?”

“Y’know…” She arches her brow at him. He feigns innocence or possibly the expression is genuine. She’s begun to realize Harry was as genuine as they came, but she just didn’t think he was that unaware. An assumption that was likely correct, but even Harry liked to pretend he was a completely unassuming individual.

“Forget it,” she finishes when he gives no indication that he knows what she is hinting at. She doesn’t want to get into it with him again. Especially when he plays at this game where he has no idea what she’s talking about. It made her feel like she was crazy for thinking he made these calculated decisions to get his desired outcomes.

They move on, neither of them quite sure what the other was getting at in that conversation. The two of them walk into the house a minute before their expected arrival time side by side and are greeted happily with Nick and his wife. They’re ushered in and Y/N is happily received by the happy couple.  

“So, Y/N, how’s it been for you working with these two? I know they can be more than a handful - especially together,” Nick’s wife, Lily, asks after a sip of wine.

The group of four had been eating for a while with Nick and Harry bantering for quite a bit at the beginning about whether or not Harry would be willing to hand feed Nick. The answer was settled at “another time”.  

Harry seems to have a very specific habit of watching whoever is speaking - no matter what. So after Lily has finished speaking, his gaze flickers to Y/N, the person his brain expects to speak next. He watches her attentively as she wipes her mouth on her napkin before speaking.

Her hair was styled differently tonight than it usually was on set, she had it down rather than up in a ponytail or braids. He hadn’t had time to really look at her when they had been in the car, his mind occupied with stress and exhaustion that he refocused into driving and deep breathing. Now, in the comfort of a trusted friend’s home, he was far more relaxed and able to truly take in her appearance, which he couldn’t help but think was beautiful. He’d have to tell her that at some point. That he thought she was beautiful. Not that he didn’t see her on set and think she was beautiful...he just hadn’t really thought about it before. She was his wily makeup artist who was critical of him most times, but occasionally sweet, who had an amazing taste in music and good aesthetic style. The beauty part of it all, he guessed wasn’t something integral to their relationship before.

But now he was sitting beside her at the Kroll’s nice dining table and she had her hair splayed in front and behind her shoulders with one side tucked behind her ear and her outfit fit her impeccably. The top she had on had capped sleeves that cinched with buttons at her delicate wrists and a severe drop to create a small sweetheart neckline just above the curve of her breasts. It was silky and shiny, a blush pink that complemented the high waisted dark grey slacks that flared over shiny black boots that he wasn’t sure where they ended beneath the pants.

“Well,” she starts, chuckling under her breath when she meets Harry’s stare, “Harry and I spend a lot of time together, covering up all his tattoos, and he yaps a lot. So, it’s actually pretty refreshing when Nick comes in, because Harry’s then talking half the normal amount.”

He huffs a scoff, while Lily and Nick laugh happily. Nick interjects an “ouch” for the bite she just took out of Harry, but she thought it was fine, he can take it.

Harry thought to himself that if she can serve it, then she can definitely take it. His eyes remain on her as he opens his mouth to speak, but then look at Lily when words actually come out. “Well, Y/N, she thinks she can read people really well, but it’s actually quite the opposite. She had me completely wrong when we first met, so I talk now in hopes that she’ll really understand me.”

His head tilts to her when he mentions her name, but otherwise doesn’t glance her way away again. He scrunches his nose at the end of his comment, implying he converses with her out of pity.

It’s her turn to scoff and stare at him unamused. Nick and Lily share a look, unsure of what was going on, they had concocted this dinner date idea in hopes to set the two up but the way this conversation was going, they seemed to be pushing each other further and further away from one another.

“That’s simply not true,” she says curtly and takes a sip of her quickly emptying wine glass.

“Which part?”

“Almost all of it, I’d say,” her eyes glaring back at him, fiery with a disdain he hadn’t seen in awhile. “You’re proving my original perception of you with every passing second,” she adds.

“Care to elaborate exactly what the original perception of me was for the class,” his eyes are wide and wild, any extra adoration he had started to feel towards her slipping away just as quickly as it had come, like a wave along the beach.

“You know, so why don’t you?”

“I want to hear you say it,” he grits out the command.

She shifts in her seat, glancing at Nick and Lily who are watching on and she has a feeling she won’t be getting an invitation again anytime soon. Lily gives her a semi-reassuring smile like she was sorry to have asked the question at all, but Y/N knows this is kind of her fault, not that she would ever admit that. Her comment could have been taken innocuously, but Harry’s pride wouldn’t let it slide. Like she said, she should have known better, the weeks of friendship were flying out the window and she was helping them along.

“And what if I don’t?”

“Have fun calling an uber at this time of night,” he shrugs, malice dripping in his tone.

She truly was taken aback at this. A slight sound of shock leaving her mouth. Harry was many things, impatient and anxious usually, but downright cruel with her, she had yet to see it. Arrogant and pompous, definitely, but this wickedness that was starting to creep from the shadows worried her. But the little fiery demon within her wasn’t going anywhere either - yet she might back down to save herself some money and hassle.

“Fine,” she raises her brows in a challenge to him and restates her original take on him - possibly adding a bit extra malice in her phrasing, “You are a shell of a man, held up by the people around you, creating the illusion of a completely genuine and down to earth rocker who dabbles in acting, philanthropy and all around goodness. No one’s ever had a bad experience because no one’s ever truly met you. Not the real you.” She takes a deep breath as she shakes her head in disbelief now, a sarcastic laugh leaving her mouth, “And I thought, I really thought, that I had been wrong. Because these past months you really fooled me with your sweet smile and deep eyes. But when it comes down to it, you tricked me just like everyone else.”

Harry stares at her blankly and she shakes her head once more, feeling foolish. For thinking Harry was someone he wasn’t. For thinking the past few months had been real. For thinking that tonight would go off without a hitch. And the shit part of it was that she had really hoped that all of it was true. She wanted this to be her life, but her instincts had been right. Beware of the picture perfect because it always is just a mirage of deceit and lies.

“All I’ve got to say is you’re a damn good actor Harry, so at least you’ve got that going for you.” Then she pushes back from the table and stands, turning to Nick and Lily. “I really am so sorry, I understand that you probably want me to leave, so I’ll just be going,” her voice faltering at the end, she wasn’t as strong as she liked to pretend and she was pretty sure she just ruined her chances of working again in Hollywood. You’d have to be an idiot to be an enemy of Harry Styles and she feels like she just became his first.

“No!” Nick says quickly, standing too, “I think things just escalated really quickly and some things were said that both of you didn’t mean. Um...just, let’s take a few minutes to cool off. Harry could you and Lily deal with the dishes and I’m going to talk with Y/N alone.”

Everyone nods and Y/N follows Nick down a hallway, a little confused but following after he beckons her with his hand. They go out a side door and end up on a porch in the backyard. He stoops down and opens a little sitting mailbox she didn’t see and pulls out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. He places one between his teeth and then offers one to her. She accepts, not usually a regular smoker, but right now seemed like a fair time to indulge in the bad habit. She needed to calm her rapidly beating heart.

He lights the cigarette for her when he sees her shaking hands and then in turn lights his own. They stand on the porch beside each other and stare out into the dark night sky.

“Well, this wasn’t how tonight was supposed to go,” Nick starts, after a few exhales of smoke.

“No,” she laughs nervously, her foot toeing at the wooden slate on the porch. “I shouldn’t have tried to make a joke.”

“No one’s to blame,” Nick says quickly, glancing at her, “You and Harry...you both have really strong personalities and I don’t think either of you are used to being challenged.”

She nods along, she definitely had to agree after the argument they had both willingly gotten into in front of other people.

“I think that can be a really good thing, challenging each other, because then you two can both grow. But what happened in there was more of a battle to the death rather than a friendly spar.”

“Yeah,” she exhales, flicking at the burning cigarette between her fingers, “I don’t know why he gets under my skin sometimes in a way I’ve never dealt with and it’s kind of uncomfortable so I lash out, I guess.”

Nick stays quiet, taking a drag of his cigarette.

“Ugh,” she groans, “I wish I hadn’t done that. We were doing so well, it’s like I don’t even really know what I’m saying, it’s like I can’t handle a friendly spar, I always end up going in for the kill - as you put it.”

She rubs at her face with her free hand and then takes a drag herself. Nick bites at his lower lip, trying to think of a solution.

“Y’know? Lily and I had concocted this plan to try and set you and Harry up tonight,” he says slowly, revealing the plan that had clearly been taken off the table as they just needed to attempt to salvage cordiality.

“Really?!” She’s in complete disbelief and slight dismay that the plan was seemingly ruined.

“Well,” he sputters, “When the two of you aren’t throwing verbal fireballs at each other, you’re actually quite sweet to one another. Those fond little glances you hope no one sees, well he does that too, and you both fail miserably because I see it all the time. I’m sure plenty of people do too.”

“Oh,” she states, visibly deflating. She looks to the ashtray conveniently on a table behind her and presses out the rest of the cigarette. “Should probably talk to him, huh?”

Nick nods, stamping out his nub of a cigarette as well. They go back inside and into the kitchen where Lily and Harry have plated dessert. Harry looks a little sheepish, likely having a similar conversation with Lily and she wouldn’t be surprised if her expression looks similar, if not a bit more flushed from the outdoor chill.

Lily murmurs that she and Nick are going to eat their dessert in the living room, a fair bit away from the kitchen and the two now deflated counterparts nod and then stare at each other, knowing what they need to do.

“Can we talk?” Harry rasps out, his voice even lower as he speaks softly, a mere foot away from her in the kitchen.

She nods, but moves further from him to lean against the counter and tuck her hands behind her. She’s lost her appetite and doesn’t want Harry to see her shaking digits.

He’s ducked his head and a stray curl falls over his forehead, laying there softly. He doesn’t move to fix it, just stares at his feet until she begins to talk. He can’t not look at her face when she speaks.

“So…” She slowly starts, not enjoying the tension in the room. Her eyes can’t meet his though, his stare dark and unnerving like usual, but almost painfully so now. “I can start.” She kicks at the tiling on the floor like she had done outside as well, trying to not think about the eyes trained on her right now. “I’m sorry I lashed out on you, Harry. I didn’t mean what I said, it was just a heat of the moment response.”

“I’m sorry, too,” Harry says immediately once she finishes speaking, “I shouldn’t have gotten upset over a silly joke and brought up a sensitive subject. Then it escalated…”

“Yeah, I really liked the friendship we’ve garnered these past few months and I just can’t believe I almost ruined everything - including my career…” she squeaks at the end and tears start to roll from her eyes. “Oh god,” she is hit with the gravity of all that she almost ruined as Harry stares at her again. “I’m so sorry, Harry, I really am. Do you forgive me? I don’t think I could stand it if you didn’t.”

She stands there and feels sobs wrack through her and her hands go to cover her face out of embarrassment. She had caused a scene and now she was making another one. In front of Harry.

In an instant his arms are wrapped around her frame and he’s hushing her cries. They had never hugged before, but now seemed like as good a time as ever. His arms were strong around her and she pressed her face into his chest, not caring at all about how she looked or whether this was worse than getting in a fight and running off.

“Of course I forgive you,” he says and then begins repeating her name over and over, trying to soothe her. He definitely had been hurt by her words, but it seemed like she was more upset about the whole situation than he was and he didn’t think bringing up what specifically had hurt him would help her frame of mind.

She settles after some time, her whimpers and tears subsiding after being rocked into a more peaceful mindset with the help of Harry’s calming voice and reassuring embrace.

“I really am sorry,” she whispers again.

Harry pulls his neck back and his head off the top of her head to look at her face. It was tear stained and her eyes were glassy, lips slightly puffy. He gave her a soft tight-lipped smile. “No more apologies,” he states sternly and then softens again at the slight quiver in her lip. He pulls from her a little more, leaving her at arm's length, with his hands still attached to her hips, fingers slipping over the plaid fabric. “I meant to tell you this earlier, before things…” he stares at her face again and she holds it this time, “You look beautiful tonight.”

She scoffs and her eyes immediately drop to her feet, “Definitely not anymore.” She doesn’t believe Harry.

“‘M serious,” he insists. His right index finger goes to rest beneath her chin and brings her face up to look back at him.

“Sure,” she says, still not convinced but not sure how else to respond. She feels herself warming at all the positive attention he’s pouring into her.

His gaze won’t falter from her face, he’s intent upon making her understand him. He whispers her name, “Accept the compliment.”

“You’re stubborn,” she notes.

“So are you,” he counters quickly.  

“Fine, thank you,” she sighs when he won’t stop giving her that look of his. That look that makes her want to melt into the ground because it feels like she’s the only person in the world. “Though you looked especially good tonight, too,” she adds, her hands rubbing over his shoulders softly.

“Thank you,” Harry states lowly, the words only traveling to her ears. His hands fiddle with the sides of her top, thinking about the night and where they were now. Her eyes were red from crying and overall she looked tired beyond her years. “Do you want me to take you home?”

“That’d be nice.”

They make a quiet farewell to Nick and Lily, as well as apologies from both her and Harry. They don’t speak in the car and the music plays loud enough for it to not seem unreasonable for them to be silent. Harry’s hands don’t tap against the steering wheel, they sit in their spots stoically doing their job and nothing more. She watches the window, legs crossed and hands clasped in her lap. She’s thankful for the music because she knows that even though they had talked, it wasn’t enough. What she had said was hurtful and one apology wasn’t enough for how she had behaved. She didn’t think her and Harry would be the same after tonight, but the silence made it possible for her to pretend none of it had happened.

Just as Harry’s car is pulling up the apartment complex that is far darker now, the harsh splatter of rain begins to fall on the pavement and the sleek black car the two are still sat in.

“Oh,” she comments offhandedly, just responding to what she had noticed.

The rain grows louder when Harry parks and then turns off the car. He glances at her for the first time since they got into the car. She registers the look out of the corner of her eye, her face still looking out at the rain. She loved the rain, but there wasn’t always a lot in Southern California, especially not in Palm Springs. It seemed that tonight was different.

“Well,” Harry breaks his silence, she thinks that’s her cue to leave and unbuckles her seatbelt, but he continues. “This certainly wasn’t how I expected this night to go.”

She stops moving, her hand hovering over the handle of the door. She sits back and settles into the seat, feeling her teeth bite into the plush of her bottom lip.

“That’s what people keep saying,” her eyes remain on the rain hitting the front of the car, the splatters of seemingly black liquid that form when the clear rain touches the onyx hood of the car.

“Huh?” Harry grows perplexed at the rather wistful tone of her and how she won’t look at him again. He was still hurt, but he had hoped them talking in the kitchen had straightened some things out. During the car ride he hadn’t wanted to talk, but it didn’t mean he was still angry with her. Just confused, and growing further confused by the second.

“Oh,” she repeats, “Didn’t Lily say? Her and Nick concocted that dinner in hopes to set us up.”

Harry hums, knowing that because Nick had left out a little part of that plan. That he had been a part of it. He had been talking with Nick about getting to know her better outside of work and how Nick had thought it’d be a good idea to have dinner so he had told Lily and they set it up like a casual dinner party. Harry didn’t know how to respond because her knowing that he was in on the plan might just make matters worse. He really didn’t think things could get much worse, but it seemed that they always managed to make it happen so in the end he decided to keep his mouth shut.

“I don’t know if we’d ever be able to work out differences out for that,” she decides to continue, when Harry stays quiet. She scans the interior of the car and watches Harry for the briefest moment before going back to looking out the window. “Nick said that we challenge each other to grow, but all I see us do is hurt each other.”

Her voice is just above the rain pattering outside the car and Harry thinks it sounds almost melodic if it weren’t for the sadness laced in every word.

“I disagree,” he states before wetting his lips.

“Of course you do,” she laughs in spite of herself.

“Even after all these months together and you still don’t get it. I like you.”

“You don’t like me, I don’t know how you could ever like me,” she shakes her head. “We just...we get under each other’s skin. You can make me so angry sometimes and I know I make you angry too. And when we’re not angry, we’re focussed on something that doesn’t have to do with ourselves.”

“I don’t think what you feel for me is anger,” Harry insists, “Just because something feels burning and fiery, frustrating even, doesn’t mean it’s anger.”

His body shifts closer to the center divide and she turns to face him finally. His eyes are extra dark in this lighting, which is barely there from a streetlamp a ways off. She longs for the comfort of his light green eyes, the soft pale glow of the moss that seems to have been trapped within his iris. Maybe for that reason she unknowingly leans closer to him.

“Then what is it?” She whispers, eyes blinking slowly as her breathing grows strained.

“Passion.”

Immediately, her head is tilting to meet his lips. Her mind knows one thing, she needs to be kissing Harry right now. And then she is. His left hand goes to cup her cheek as his lips attach themselves to hers. His soft lips press to hers in a long searing kiss. They stay there for a moment, pressing all of that passion and frustration into the kiss.

She presses impatiently forward, her lips starting to move more, wanting to kiss him deeper. Harry obliges, parting his lips and kissing her more vigorously. He licks into her open mouth and smiles at the sound she makes in appreciation for his actions.

She’s shifted to have herself kneeling on the leather seat and she’s leaning over the console. One of her hands finds purchase on Harry’s thigh and grasps tightly, her other at the back of his neck, pressing him closer if it were possible.

His chest is pressing against hers as he pulls her closer. He kisses her and his fingertips rub softly at the apple of her cheek. Eventually they run behind the shell of her ear and trail down her neck.

Eventually, she pulls away and stares at Harry. She watches as his eyes flutter open gently. His soft eyelashes dust his cheeks before moving away, allowing his eyes to peer at her in the dark.

Her breathing feels a little irregular after the kissing and she’s sure she is heaving her chest slightly, likely mirroring Harry’s chest as well.

“So, where to now?” She inquires, lips quirked up at her suggestion.

Harry giggles and scratches his nose against his index finger.

-

Harry doesn’t stay the night, he walks her up to her apartment door though. He kisses her chastley in front of her door and wraps an arm around her waist as he does so. He bids her a goodnight and a promise of seeing her soon.

They don’t see each other for a month. Both of them had been so blissful after the endorphins of kissing their person that they had forgotten that filming had wrapped. They weren’t set to work for a month. Harry texted her the next morning informing her that he’d be in England until filming resumed. She was still going to be in California, filming was moving back to Los Angeles, so she’d be back in her place there. Her family knew she was working, so they had sent her presents ahead to her place instead. Angie, her only true friend in the area, was spending her time with her actual family and Y/N didn’t want to intrude.

So the holidays were going to be spent alone. Those four weeks alone passed surprisingly quickly. She practiced techniques on herself, bought a tiny Christmas tree like the one in A Charlie Brown Christmas, watched A Charlie Brown Christmas and just about every other holiday movie possible. She fell in love with young Hugh Grant and Colin Firth for the thousandth time. She sang carols to herself and decorated her place with decorations from Target. She jammed out to the new Miley Cyrus album and held dance parties for herself in the house. She baked cookies and even attempted a trifle after watching a Great British Bake Off episode. She did and she did all in hopes that her mind wouldn’t wander to the guy who hadn’t called.

Harry texted occasionally, but it was infrequent at best. He was a busy person, she knew that. She knew who he was. And she didn’t want her mind to have enough time to feel sorry for herself. For her to think that she was just somebody to pass the time with while at work, because if she stopped doing things that’s where her mind would wander. Why did her mind spiral like it did? She had no idea, she’d always been like that.

His absence, their separation, made her question if her own feelings were even true. She wondered if when she saw him he would act as if nothing had happened. As if he hadn’t said their relationship was passionate and she had kissed him until she couldn’t breath.

Too much time alone, she needed some fresh air. On January 2nd, after an uneventful night at home and a lackluster countdown washed down with cheap champagne, she decided to go and walk around near her place. There was a coffee shop that wasn’t extremely expensive that she also liked that she figured she would get coffee from. After a brisk walk, she walked through the store's doors and ordered an iced green tea. As she waited, she watched the other customers around her, wishing to see a friendly face, someone she knew. And seconds later, she was met with half of that wish. Someone she knew, not necessarily a friendly face.

“Autumn.” She states with a grimace when someone taps her on the shoulder and she spins around.

“Y/N? It is you!” Autumn, one of the PA’s from Don’t Worry Darling who was especially in Harry’s business, exclaims overly happy as per usual.

Y/N bites the inside of her cheek and gives a tight lipped smile, trying her best to be cordial.

“How’s your holiday been!” Autumn asks.

“Great. You?”

“So great!” She’s quick to lean closer and say in a hushed tone, “But I miss working on set, especially getting to see that Harry everyday. He’s just so gorgeous.”

A breath gets stuck in Y/N’s chest at the mention of Harry’s name. Her brows can’t help but raise a bit at Autumn’s comment. Even lowering her voice didn’t make it feel alright to talk about Harry like this. He was her friend after all.

“Sure.” Y/N nods abruptly, realizing Autumn wants some recognition of what she’s just said. Y/N’s eyes glance around the room, hoping for an out like her drink is ready or something - no such luck.

“I mean,” Autumn keeps talking, of course, “You’re so lucky. You get to see him shirtless, like what? Everyday practically? Don’t tell me you don’t miss that just a little bit!”

“I miss working,” Y/N says, avoiding what Autumn is trying to get her to say. “And Harry’s my friend, could you maybe not talk about him like that with me?”

Autumn’s eyes widened in shock, her lips parted dumbfounded by her co-worker's response. Y/N’s name is called for her drink and she’s thankful for the serendipitous nature of that sound getting her out of the awkward situation she had just been in.

When she gets back to her apartment, she surprisingly has a text from Harry himself. She’s always telling everyone; speak of the devil and he will appear, in one way or another. It’s a Happy New Year well wish followed by a separate text asking how she was.

It was sent a minute ago so she decides to try and give him a call. She preferred talking on the phone over texting.

It rings a few times and then, again surprisingly, he picks up.  

“‘Lo?” His voice is nice and deep and sounding extra British after his weeks surrounded by family and such.

“Harry,” she sighs contentedly.

“Happy to hear your voice,” he says her name and she can tell he’s smiling just like she is, from ear to ear.

She bites at her lip, hearing him say her name.

“I’m well, thanks,” she says after a moment of happy silence.

“What?” Harry laughs, confused.

“You texted asking me how I was and I called to respond.”

“Got it,” Harry chuckles, and she hears him shuffling around, likely sitting down on something.

“How are you?” She continues.

“Good, starting to wind down for the day,” he lists off the things he’s been doing over the past few days. Some of it work related, some of it family activities. All of it fun, he insists. “What did you do today?” He finishes, knowing she was an avid activity doer based off of the snaps she had sent him over the past few weeks.

“Tidied my place, went to the coffee shop and got iced tea…” she tries to think and then she gasps, “Oh! And I saw Autumn, one of the Don’t Worry Darling PA’s -”

“The one who’s obsessed with me?”

“Exactly!” She laughs, “And I may have kind of told her off… accidentally.”

“Accidentally told her off?” Harry repeats, incredulous. “How’d you do that?”

“Well,” she doesn’t want to tell him the rest, but there’s also a tiny part of her that really does, “She was gushing about you, which, ew. And then she asked if I missed seeing you shirtless everyday.”

“Well do you miss seeing me shirtless?” Harry smirks.

“Oh shut up!” She’s quick to reply.

“So you do?”

“If I really wanted to see you shirtless, all I’d have to do is type in “Harry Styles sh” and it would come up,” she rolls her eyes even though she knows he can’t see them. “Wouldn’t even need the whole word. Guaranteed.”

“Uh-huh?” Harry questions still, “If you want me to send you shirtless pictures that the rest of the world hasn’t seen, Y/N, all you have to do is ask.”

“I do not want you to send me shirtless pictures of yourself!” She exclaims. She feels like jumping out of a window right now. This conversation had escalated so quickly and she felt herself flushing, maybe even perspiring a little bit. And she also knew that she also would probably like it if he sent her shirtless pictures, which made this whole thing worse.

“Offer stands,” he says, smug as he normally was, happy he got to banter with her again. It had been dull without her, if he was honest with himself. “If you ever find yourself in need, just send a cheeky text and I’ll whip one out for you, no matter where I am or what I’m doing.”

“See this sounds like you’re saying something sincere, but really you’re just telling me you’ll send me nudes at any time.”

“No one said anything about nudes!”

“Shirtless, nude, sounds like you’re getting too caught up in the details, hon.”

“No!” He protests, “You’re the one who’s supposed to be flustered right now, not me!”

“Aww, you’re flustered,” She coos.

Harry groans. “Whatever. I’ll be back on the 8th, be ready to go out on the 9th. I’m taking you on a proper date.”

“How do you know I’m going to say yes?” She bite her lip again, she’s really sweating now. She couldn’t believe he had just asked her out on a date out of nowhere. Out of them just joking about nudes. Maybe she didn’t know Harry as well as she thought.

“Because you called me,” he says confidently.

“I call everyone.”

“But I don’t offer shirtless pictures to everyone.”

“That has nothing to do with me saying yes to this date.”

“Or does it?”

She laughs at his words, at how his voice still manages to convey every facial expression and quirk of his lips. She knows there’s a smile on his lips as he stares in the distance, imagining her face just as she is his.

“Yes.” She smiles.

“Yes!” He repeats happily.

She hears him stand up and spin around possibly and she chuckles slightly, amused at the silly man across the world who had seemed to have stolen her heart.

“See you soon, Harry.”

“Not soon enough.”

-

On the Saturday of their date, Harry insists on picking her up. He meets her at her door and winks at her after pulling away from their short hug. He laces his hand in hers and she follows behind him as he all but drags her to his car that is downstairs. He seems giddy. His hair has grown out in the month he’s been gone and she knows they’ll cut it when filming resumes. He’s wearing Gucci flared blue jeans - she knows from the big logo on the bottom left pant leg - a ‘Waiting for Sunset’ graphic tee beneath a black cardigan with little animals and items knitted in it. And of course, his dirty ass vans. She had hoped that maybe Christmas would bring him a fresh pair from someone, but it seemed there was no such luck.

Either way, he looked good and upon scanning his outfit, she was pleased that she had dressed correctly for the occasion, knowing one of the sins of Los Angeles was being improperly dressed wherever you might go. Harry had said casual, but casual can always mean so many different things. She got it right with light wash high-waisted levi’s, a brown cream rib-knit long sleeve that buttoned like it could be a cardigan, and some fun chunky boots that added some height to her normal stature. She had contemplated between this and possibly twenty other tops and a few other bottoms. Landing on this felt right, plus it didn’t clash with Harry, the color of her shoes actually matched the color of the snake on the cardigan.

They both compliment each other on the way out to his car and she giggles when he stops and twirls her around. He says he didn’t get a “proper look” before for him to compliment her adequately. After the twirl, he nods and starts them off again, complimenting the specific pieces of her clothes and says she looks beautiful again. His giddiness was contagious.

“No Range tonight,” she muses when Harry stops them in front of a Mercedes-Benz cream convertible, top up.

“Not working,” he replies, unlocking the car with the key into the passenger’s side door handle.

She smiles and slides into the car and watches him jog around to his side and unlock it as well.

“Tonight is going to be fantastic,” he says, leaning over the console and kissing her cheek, just beside her lips.

And when he pulls away with that smug smile of his, she knows he kissed her there on purpose. But the little tease only makes her smile more. He was good at this. And he was right.

The night was fantastic. As was every night after. And she learned that Harry was so much more than anything she ever thought. She counted herself lucky to be loved by a man like him.

[silvercrystalwhump]

A Surprise Call

Vincent belongs to @ashintheairlikesnow

No TWs today, except maybe that Vince is very tired, and the nieces took his number from Dmitri's phone

-

Vince flops back onto the small couch that sits along the wall of his trailer. His arms rest on his thighs as he rubs his temples, shooing away a persistent headache. Exhaling, he sinks into the cushion. For once, his work phone is empty of messages. Tamara didn’t have something for him to answer, to plan, or to pray is ignored. 

Surprising, since everyone and their mother was asking him about Helaena. Pretending to be a newly famous actress’ boyfriend always came with a downpour of questions, too many impossibly personal. Apparently, this is her first time paparazzi saw something damning enough to shove onto front pages and media boards. One photo.

Vince blinks, the image of the photo refuses to come to mind. He opens his notes and types a sloopy reminder to refresh his memory. Since, it was a matter of time before someone asked about it and carve into his answer with the finest of toothed combs.

Vince feels his phone ring on the small coffee table next to him, his personal phone. The sound reverberates across the room, echoing through his small corner of this set. He exhales again and, reaching over, picks up the phone and answers.

“Hello?”

A small voice chirps up through the phone. , “Who are you?” A layer of friendly demand coats her question.

“You… called me,” Vince pauses as he pulls the phone away from his ear and stares at the number. It’s not one saved in his phone. Hesitantly, he continues, “I should be asking you that.”

Distantly, another slightly sharper voice hisses, “Tia, you can’t just ask him that!”

“Then what do I ask?”

Vince slowly pulls the phone away from his face again and actually reads the digits, the area code was the same as Dmitri’s. Rarely, did he ever receive automated or random calls with that area code at all.

“You know our Uncle,” the sharper voice becomes much clearer, probably getting closer to the microphone. Her voice is firm, the demand actually sticking to her words like syrup. “You’re in his phone under Sweetheart.”

That’s why it’s Dmitri’s area code. The two young voices have names very quickly. Vince sits back and rubs his forehead.

“I- You’re Tiana and Roxana aren’t you.”

“How’d you know,” The younger one chirps up again, her voice almost happier as her voice comes closer to the phone, “Does Uncle D talk about us?!”

Vince leans over and grabs his work phone, opening up Dmitri’s number on it, “He does, he cares about you two.” 

“So you know about us but why don’t we know about you?” the sharper voice asks with bravado, “Who are you? Are you his boyfriend?”

Vince opens Dmitri’s number on his work phone and texts him, You’re nieces took my number from your phone.

“I do know Dmitri,” Vince answers after a brief pause, “We are close.”

“How close?” the chipper voice asks, “I’m Tiana, but everybody just calls me Tia.”

Are you serious, Vince’s phone buzzes, Hold on, I’m sorry that they’re harassing you.

Vince texts back, It’s fine.

“Why do neither of you talk about each other?” Tia asks, clearly getting impossibly close to the phone. Her breath sounds like static as she speaks, “Like Mom only knows that Uncle D has a boyfriend, she doesn’t even know who you are and they tell each other everything.”

“Well,” Vince mutters, as an old sense of guilt presses into his chest, “We have parts of our lives together and parts that are separate. Some overlap, some don’t.”

The other woman pipes up, “Isn’t that not a good relationship, especially if you’ve been dating, you’ve been in his phone for at least six months as Sweetheart.” 

“That was Roxy by the way.”

“Shush!”

Vince pauses, running his hand over his pants nervously, and the slightest pang of guilt pokes him harder. He rests his elbows on his knees and lets his eyes close.

An assistant knocks and pokes their head into the doorway of Vince’s trailer. Vince nearly jumps out of his seat to look at them. “Vince, the director is asking for you.”

“I’ll be out in a moment,” he replies as he pulls the phone away and shows them the call. They give him a quick nod before disappearing out the door.

Vince returns to the phone and opens his mouth to speak when he hears Dmitri’s voice faintly through the phone. “You two seriously took his number from my phone. I told you two that he’s private. That is not an invitation to make his number from my phone and call him!”

“How did you-!” Roxy nearly squeaks and her voice abruptly drops off. The phone gets dropped, a clunk echoing through the speaker. 

Dmitri, picking up the phone, breathes, “I am so sorry. I didn’t realize that they went through my contacts earlier.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Vince says as he stands, letting Dmitri’s voice settle some of his nerves, “I have to go, I’ll see you later tonight?”

“Yeah, love you,” Dmitri says with a tired sigh, “I’ll keep them off your case.”

“Love you too,” He hangs up. Tossing his phone back onto the table, Vince allows himself one final, oxygen-depriving sigh before he dashes out of the trailer, ignoring the last buzz.

[fuckyeahjuliankeller]

hello once more, you all know what time it is!! 

for those who don’t, it is sam wilson and anthony mackie o’clock, and that means this is going to be a long post! 

and once again, i mean no disrespect or hate to anyone i speak about here. i know i shouldn’t preface my posts with that every time, but i’m not trying to start fires.

so we all saw that final trailer that came out, yeah? it looks GREAT. i’m so hype!

this is what i was talking about, though. i have seen countless more amounts of people with varying phrasing of the same general idea, which is “where is bucky” and “sam’s had enough screentime” and “it’s bucky’s turn.”

to that, i will start by once again repeating myself that sam’s character is complex. he is more than the sidekick he was reduced to in the mcu thus far. there are questions about his character whose answers will define his personality and set it into stone for all future projects involving him. 

examples: what motivates him? why did he follow steve into battle? what was his childhood like? where did he come from? what experiences shaped him into the truly good man he is today? what’s his family like? 

the different part about this, the part i haven’t touched on yet, are the justifications for this preference and the implications these justifications have. 

there are, of course, the ones that hold no water. there are the “he doesn’t have the serum” and “he doesn’t fight well” and “he doesn’t know how to use the shield, he’s never used it before” and “he isn’t a significant character, he doesn’t deserve it because he hasn’t proven himself worthy.”

this trailer in particular has shown that sam wilson is more than capable of wielding the shield. it has also shown that he is a powerful orator and a generally elite athlete, especially when it comes to his own skillset. he easily looks like he has been holding back on all of these crazy fight moves, as well as establishing himself as an adept public figure, one who is at ease in the spotlight of the world. 

prior to that, sam has always been an opinionated, motivated, selfless man. he has always been a good man. 

there should be no argument there anymore. that is undeniable.

it also seems to me like some of the fandom doesn’t yet understand that sam wilson is his own character, and anthony mackie is a fantastic actor in his own right. it seems to me that many fans believe his presence is reliant on bucky barnes.

so let me re-iterate this. 

sam wilson is his own character. his validity does not depend on bucky barnes’ shortcomings. his validity does not depend on sebastian stan’s endorsements. his achievements do not rest on anyone else’s, and this has been made abundantly clear throughout the mcu. 

sam’s validity does not depend on the validity of a white man. he himself is not a white man, therefore he carries a different experience and his role carries a different weight than his white counterparts.

sam wilson did not get the shield because bucky barnes was tired. sam wilson is not in the spotlight because bucky barnes greenlit him to be. sam wilson is in the spotlight because of his own actions, because of his own motivation and determination and morality, and because he proved himself worthy on his own to carry the mantle and represent the face of america.

the show is not about bucky barnes struggling to come to terms with carrying the mantle that makes him the face of a country that doesn’t want him representing them. the show is about sam wilson in that role. he is, as many have pointed out to me, not simply “the other lead.” 

sam wilson is the lead.

anthony mackie is a gifted and fantastic actor who has time and time again discussed the significance of his role and sam’s presence in the mcu. he has multiple times mentioned how important he feels like his role is in the show, for all the reasons that one would expect it to be and more. he has attached himself to this character who was reduced to nothing more than a witty sidekick on paper following ca:tws, and made him into a figure that marvel execs decided would be the right choice to lead a show.

and going back to my last long post: discrediting anthony mackie’s road to this point in his life and career by saying that he’s “stealing the spotlight” from sebastian is not a good take whatsoever. in fact, it makes the show that much more powerful, if a white man at the helm is so important to general consumers of media that having a black man front and center of a project (not limited to the mcu, as i’ve observed and as many people have discussed with me) is something overlooked, and when it cannot be overlooked anymore, it is complained about.

so i say it’s a good thing that sam is getting visibly more trailer screentime. i say sam getting more screentime is a message to fans who have found it so incredibly easy to overlook his presence and sideline his character and actor until sam was right up in their faces being badass and powerful and the superhero that we all deserve.

so to those fans who have been ignoring anthony mackie in favour of other white leads in the mcu, especially in this show, i aim to be as gentle as possible when i say this. 

it is a good thing that you can see sam wilson now. it is a good thing that you can see his impactful presence, and recognise it for the power it holds. it is a good thing you can truly see the man who wields the shield, for whom this show took life. it is a good thing that you can’t ignore him anymore.

so let’s stop pretending like it isn’t, yeah?

[let-me-luve-you]

Don’t Be Clingy

Tom Holland x Sister

Summary: Being Tom’s little sister means getting to go visit the Spider-Man set. You want to spend as much time with Tom as possible, but everyone else don’t think you should. 

Warnings: Angst, Fluff, cussing, Rude af brother and spiderman cast, Tom being the best big brother ever

A/N: I don’t think Harry or Zendaya or Jacob or any of the Spider-Man cast would actually act like this. It’s just for the story. Also, I just googled Smok’d. Idk the age limits in England. If I’m wrong, just pretend for the story. 

MASTERLIST

With Tom filming Far From Home mostly in London, it means you get to go to set often. Kevin Feige had met you on multiple occasions and he knew you wouldn’t tell any Marvel secrets. He allowed you to come to the set whenever. Unlike the rest of your family, they could only come on certain days.

You loved being able to watch the movie be made. The whole process blew your mind. You are only ten years old and you already knew that you wanted to make movies when you were older. Tom loved having you on set. You were this ball of energy and when he needed a little pick me up, he would talk to you about what you had learned and what you thought worked and didn’t work. He would always listen and if you said an idea, he would usually mention it to Jon to see what he saw. A few of your ideas were actually going to be in the movie.

This was the last week that the cast and crew were going to be in London before they ventured off to other countries. They flew out on Tuesday to go to Berlin. Tom was kind of disappointed he had to leave his home and family, especially you, but he knew he would be back once the movie was done filming.

It was Friday afternoon and the cast was almost done for the day. You were sitting in Tom’s chair watching the final scene being filmed. Between takes you could hear Tom and Jacob talking about going out to dinner tonight. You knew you had to ask Tom if you could join. You watched Harry walk over to Tom and Jacob while they fixed the lighting.

“Where are we going tonight? First rounds on me.” Harry said.

“Thinking maybe we could go to Smok’d and then maybe find another pub.” Tom said.

“Sounds good to me. You know where the best places are.” Jacob said. “We can get everyone else to join us too.

“Okay. Ready on set.” Jon said. Harry looked over to him and nodded before walking off set. Tom and Jacob getting back into character. The scene filmed on for another thirty minutes. When it was over, Tom walked over to you and held a hand out to help you down from his chair.

“You have fun today bug?” Tom asked you as he guided you to his trailer.

“I did.” You beamed at him. “I wish I could go with you to Berlin.”

“Mum and Dad are flying out when we go to Venice. They are using it as a minivacation, but I’ll tell them to bring you and you can stay with me and come to set with us.” Tom said. He moved to the bedroom part of the trailer to change out of his Peter Parker clothes. When he was in his own clothes, he walked out and asked, “ready to go home?”

You nodded and followed him out. When you walked out of his trailer you saw Jacob, Harry, Zendaya, Jake, and Angourie standing in a circle talking. “Can I go with you to dinner tonight?” You asked Tom as you walked up to the group. The whole group heard you and you saw the awkward glances of everyone.

“No Y/N. You’re going home.” Harry said flatly. “We don’t need to babysit a kid on our last Friday night in town.” Tom gave him a what the heck look before he turned to you.

“What Harry means to say is, we are going to do adult stuff tonight. It would be safer if you stayed home.” Tom said with a gentle voice.

“But I want to hangout with everyone. I’ll be good I promise.” You begged. Everyone stood awkwardly and watched the oldest Holland and youngest talk it through.

“I know you would, but you need to be 18 to get into here.” Tom said. “You’re eight years short of that.” Tom grabbed you by the shoulder and led you away from the group. When they thought you were out of ear shot Harry spoke up.

“She’s so clingy. Hopefully Tom can distract her so she’ll leave us alone tonight.” Harry said with a laugh. The whole group laughed with him. “I can’t stand when she’s always around. That’s why I always travel with Tom.”

“Come on man. That’s your sister.” Zendaya said. “But you’re right. Tom’s been too nice to her and letting her come around too much.”

“Yeah. Doesn’t she have Barbies or something to play with? Why is she always here. I’d hate to be Tom and have a shadow following me when I’m trying to do my job.” Jacob said.

Everyone kept talking about you and it broke your heart. You fought the tears that were wanting to escape. Tom also heard these things. He felt you tense up next to him. He looked down at you not knowing what to say. You refused to look up. You found your shoes way more interesting.

“Is mum here yet?” You asked quietly. Worried if you spoke louder that you would start crying.

Tom looked around the lot and saw Nikki talking with a guard. “Yeah. She’s over there. But list-” You ignored Tom and walked away from him. He was shocked you didn’t even say goodbye. “Y/N come back here.” He said chasing you down and grabbing you by the arm to stop you. “Look, what they said back there, it wasn’t okay. I’m going to let them know that.”

“I’ll talk to you later.” You said yanking your arm from Tom’s grasp. He watched you walk to your mum and hop in the back of the car. Nikki looked over at Tom with a confused look. When she saw the pain in her eldest son’s eyes, she knew today wasn’t a good day for you.

Tom walked back over to the group. He was pissed at what Harry had said. Pissed at what his friends had said. As he got closer he realized he needed to cool off some before he said something he didn’t mean. He kept walking towards his trailer and Harry called out to him.

“Yo div. Are you coming with us or driving yourself?” Tom ignored him and slammed the door of his trailer. He started to pace the length of it when Harry barged in. “Dude. What’s up with you? Y/N say she hates you or something?”

“No.” Tom said shortly.

“Okay? What’s your problem? You were fine just before that whole situation.” Harry said.

“You really had to say those things about Y/N?” Tom asked, finally looking at his younger brother.

“I didn’t mean anything by them. I was just joking around.” Harry said defensively.

“She’s hurt, man. You started something that got everyone else involved. Y/N will never want to come to another set again. She thinks the whole cast hates her and thinks she's annoying.” Tom said, starting to raise his voice.

“She doesn’t need to come to set so much anyway.” Harry said, acting like he didn’t hear anything else.

“Dude..” Tom said with disgust. “She’s our sister. She loves us. I love her. I want her around. This is the only set she can come to because this movie is kid friendly. I’m going into movies after this that she won’t be able to visit, which means months without seeing her in person unless I fly from the US back home on a weekend.”

“I know, but all this hollywood stuff is too much for her.” Harry said.

“Have you even talked to her when she’s been here?” Tom asked. Harry shook his head no. Saying he was too busy working. “She’s observant as fuck. She’s seeing things that Jon isn’t. She’s told me things between takes and I’ve mentioned them to Jon and he has used the ideas. I don’t know when you started to think she was a thorn in your side, but you need to apologize to her.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong.” Harry stormed to the door. “Catch your own ride to Smok’d. We will see you there.” Harry paused halfway out the door, “And check the attitude.”

Tom sighed as he fell back onto the couch. He was so frustrated at Harry for not seeing what he did to you. Tom knew he had to make it right, so he got up and went to his car. He drove straight to your favorite restaurant and got your favorite meals and desserts.

Driving home, you stayed silent. You didn’t want to cry from the rude words you heard. You definitely didn’t want your mum to see you cry and get mad at Tom. So the whole 45 minute drive, you stared out the window.

“Y/N, can you tell me what happened?” Nikki asked gently. She looked in the rearview mirror and saw you shake your head no. She sighed and decided to leave it for now. When she pulled into the drive, you immediately went up to your room and slammed the door. You weren’t supposed to lock it, but you did anyway. You fell onto your bed and finally let the tears fall down your face.

“I thought we had a couple of more years before she started acting like this.” Dom said, trying to make a joke.

“She didn’t have a good day. She wouldn’t tell me what happened. Tom looked upset too, so I’m not sure. I’m going to give him a ring.” She said, setting her purse onto the kitchen counter and took her phone out. Tom answered after a couple of rings.

“Hey mum.” He said with a sigh.

“Tom, dear, what happened today?” She asked.

“She wanted to go to Smok’d with us.” Tom answered honestly.

“She can’t get in there.”

“I know. I was trying to explain it to her, but almost the whole cast was standing there so I pulled her away. As we were walking away, things were said about her being clingy.” Nikki gasped as she heard people were talking ill of her daughter. “I tried to tell her it wasn’t true, but she walked off before I could get it through her head. I’m getting her food right now and headed over.”

“Tom, that’s sweet of you, but maybe give her the night to calm down. She’s really upset. How about just drop the food off with us and we will give it to her. You can go to Smok’d with everyone else.”

“Maybe. I’m not really in the mood to go out now. Especially after my fight with Harry.” Tom said. He cringed wanting to keep Harry out of this with his mum.

“What about Harry? Why did you two fight?”

“Nothing. Just a rough day is all. I’ll see you in a few, mum.” Tom said, hanging up before she even got another word in. He knew he would pay for it, but he was fine to take any punishment. After fifteen minutes, he pulled into his parents’ driveway. He stared at the house trying to gather the courage to face his protective mum and his hurt little sister. He finally got out and reached into the backseat for the bag full of goodies. He walked into the house and walked straight for the kitchen.

“What did you and Harry fight about?” Nikki asked when he walked in. He sighed.

“He said some hurtful things and thinks she’s overreacting. Thinks she has no business on the set anyways. I got mad at him because his words started everyone else's.” Tom said.

“What?” Nikki asked, shocked.

“I know. Where is she? I want to go talk to her.” Tom said looking in the living room.

“She’s in her room. Hasn’t come out since she got home.” Nikki said pointing to the stairs. “But I really think you should let her calm down a bit. Go out with the cas-”

“I don’t want to see any of them right now. I have to make sure Y/N is okay.” Tom said with pleading eyes. Nikki whispered okay and nodded her head for him to head up. She was proud of Tom for caring for his sister. She was happy she raised him to care for others.

Tom walked slowly up the stairs. When he got to your door he could hear your quiet cries. His heart hurt hearing it knowing he shouldn’t have ever let it get to this point. He should have called Harry and everyone else out on their shit the second he heard it. Tom tried the door and noticed it was locked. Tom knew about the strict no locking the door rule because he was the reason for it. He knocked and waited for an answer.

Tom heard the cries stop. Like his sister was muffling it with her hands. He knew she was hoping whoever was at the door, they would leave. “Y/N/N baby, please let me in.” Tom said. He didn’t hear any movement. “Please. I have a surprise for you.” Again nothing. “That’s it. Y/F/N Y/M/N, you know you aren’t supposed to lock this door, so let me in before I get dad.” That did it. Tom heard you get off your bed before he heard the lock unclick.

He tried the door again after a second and when he walked in he saw you in bed with the covers over your head. He walked over and gently sat next to you. He put his hand on your shoulder and turned you to face him. He pulled the covers down and saw the broken look on your face.

“Go away.” You whispered and tried to turn away from him again. He wouldn’t allow it.

“I’m not going anywhere. I want to have a movie night. I have all your favorites for dinner. Even got desserts.” He said trying to bribe you.

“Keep it. Throw it away. I don’t want it.” You said not looking at him.

“Come on. I can’t apologize for what they said, only they can. But I can say what they said isn’t true. I love that you are on set. You are the pick me up I need between takes. You are seeing these things for the first time and you bring new light to it. I told Jon all of your ideas. He’s using a lot of them. Did you notice that?” Tom asked, pushing some of your hair out of your face.

You shook your head no. “I love having you there. I really do. You make it so much better. When you aren’t there, it’s just a job. When you are, I can share that experience with you and we can discuss things. I love having you on set. If Harry wasn’t helping the crew, I would exchange him for you.”

“Hey now.” You turned towards the door to see Harry.

“Why are you here?” Tom asked him.

“You never showed. Came to check on you.” Harry said before turning to you. “Also came to apologize. What I said wasn’t true. It was rude.”

“No. You don’t like me.” You said with a pout. “That’s why you are always gone.”  

“No it’s not. I just said that as a joke. It was a bad joke and it was horrible to say. I shouldn’t have said it. I love having you around. I get to watch you grow into this beautiful young girl. I just wanted a night with our crew where we could do whatever and not have to worry about you.” Harry said kneeling beside your bed.

“I’m sorry I always tag along. I won’t do it again.” You said look from Harry to Tom.

“No, no, no, no.” Tom was quick to say. “We want you around. We love taking you out to dinner with the cast, but sometimes, we need to be able to do some things without you. It isn’t because we don’t want you around, it’s because we just want to let loose of responsibilities for a little bit.”

“It’s like when you go into your treehouse to read. You just want to be away from things.” Harry added.

“Oh. I think I understand it now.” You said.

“I’ll always love you. You’re my best friend.” Tom said leaning over to kiss your forehead.

“Can you do me a favor?” You asked looking from both brothers. They both nodded. “Go out to Smok’d. Have fun with your friends. I’ll stay here and eat all the food Tom bought me.”

“No, I can’t do th-” Tom said before you interrupted.

“You can hangout with me this weekend before you go. Go join the cast for a fun night. I promise I’m no longer upset.” You said. “Please, for me?” You begged. Both Tom and Harry sighed before looking at each other.

“On one condition.” Tom said. You looked at him confused. “Come stay with me until I leave. Sam can cook us food and we can watch movies, go to the arcade, or do whatever you want. We can even build a fort in the living room like we did a few months ago.”

You smiled widely at Tom’s one request. “Okay. Yeah. Maybe mum can run me to the store so I can get us snacks.” Tom laughed as you started planning. “Now please go have fun. I’ll see you tomorrow.” You said hugging Harry before hugging Tom.

“Okay, we’ll go now. Go eat that food I bought. I don’t want it to go to waste.” Tom said as he stood up to follow Harry out the door. “Love you Y/N.”

“Love you too Tom.” You said with a smile.

[purpleyellow]

Stained

BTS 8th member

Sunny’s masterlist

“EXO starts to catch onto Sehun and Sunny”

requested by: anon

a/n: Feel free to share your thoughts with me. 💜 thank you to baejl for helping me brainstorm ideas!!

Sunny sat carefully on EXO's couch and looked around the details of the living room, while Sehun picked up some bowls and chopsticks in the kitchen. 

This was the first time he had taken her to the dorms, and maybe the fourth they hung out as a whole. Their diner plans changing last minute after he got the news all the members would be out, which meant they could enjoy the meal fully in private for once.

Still not sure about how she felt about the whole situation, Sunny didn't back down, despite the feeling that things could escalate very quickly. After all, she still had no idea which of his members knew about their little dates, nor where they went to and how long they would take to come back.

She pushed the questions aside as Sehun walked back, passing her a bowl of tteokbokki while balancing his food and picking up the TV remote.

“I saw this movie trailer the other day, and apparently the full thing is on Netflix, so we could start it and if it gets boring we can look for something else.” The boy continued the conversation they had started once arriving at the apartment, and Sunny nodded.

“That sounds good” She adds, afraid he might not have noticed her movements and lowers down to grab the chopsticks he had sat on the coffee table.

Unintentionally, Sehun goes to do the same, his elbow coming in contact with the bowl in her hands and making it tilt just enough so that a little of the sauce falls on Sunny's shirt.

“Oh crap” He muttered at the same time she hissed and held the styrofoam away from herself.

“It's okay, I just need a sink” Smiling through the annoyance, Sunny tried to remember what her mom told her would remove hot sauce stains while remaining patient and not at all bothered that her shirt was no longer white.

“I'm so sorry. Let me show you the way to the bathroom” Sehun led her down the hallway, trailing right behind Sunny when she entered the small room and by consequence, making her feel uncomfortable with closing the door.

The girl decided to just leave it open and turned on the faucet. Before she could decide an alternative to taking off her top and putting it under the water, the boy's arm made the corner of a hand towel wet and Sehun tried bending himself over the sink to check out where the stain was.

“I can take care of it” Taking his arm in her hand, Sunny thought of something she could say to not make her sound so harsh and reassure him everything was fine.

When she faces his way, all the words went out of her head as the proximity of their faces dawns on her. Somehow, in the hush to clear her shirt, both of them had thrown personal space out of the window which led to their current position. Sehun bending over the sink to face her while Sunny had slouched a little, making their noses almost touch.

A glimpse of a smirk appears on his face as they fall in silence, but the moment lasts a good three seconds before an “OH!” from the door pulls them apart.

“At least close the door next time. If I had known you were here, I would've gone to the other restroom instead of ruining the mood,” Chanyeol laughed as she took way too many steps to reach the opposite wall from his group mate. Sehun sending him a pointed look before muttering “Then go your way now that you saw that we're in this one”.

“Hyesun, how are you doing?” The older asks with a friendly face, but Sunny only has time to give him a tight-lipped smile before he turns to someone outside the bathroom and smiles mischievously, “Ay, Somi, guess who came to visit us”.

Somi’s quick footsteps are heard before the girl arrives next to her group mate. Her curious gaze turns surprised at the sight of the BTS member.

“Sunny? How are you doing?” Somi smiles invitingly, and her eyes travel between the people and the room. Face showing judgment once she looks at Sehun, finally registering where they were, “The common bathroom? Really? You were alone in the house”.

“It's not like that” Sunny widens her eyes and holds her shirt out to showcase the stain, though that's the most explaining she does before Sehun changes up the topic.

“Weren't you supposed to be at the movies? What happened?”.

“Packed session, hangry Baekhyun Hyung. We decided to order take out and come back here,” Kai explains boringly as he passes by the hallway. He does stop curious and smirks after spotting the girl, “Sunny, how's it going?”

Once again, she doesn't get the chance to answer as Sehun suggests for them to leave the restroom before someone else gets the wrong impression. Maybe it's a good thing Sunny doesn't get to say how she's truly feeling because the only thing that came to her mind was how badly she wanted to open a hole in the ground and die inside it.

Going back to the living room, the remaining members seemed to be making themselves comfortable in their house when Chanyeol, once again, made the girl's presence known by requesting them to greet their visitor.

Xiumin and Kyungsoo raised their heads from the couch curious, the first laughing and greeting her cheerfully while the other bowed and questioned to Sehun “Are we crashing anything?”

“Sunny, hello. I didn't know you were here, but I think we ordered enough for everyone, so whatever” To her relief, Suho didn't seem to make and jokes and spoke to her calmly. Yet, just like she wasn't there, he turned to Sehun and made an impressed face, giving the younger a thumbs up before walking off to the kitchen.

“We crashed their date, so obviously there's more than enough food for everyone,” Baekhyun spoke while grabbing a pair of chopsticks and stealing a rice cake from the bowl Sunny was holding previously.

“It wasn't a date, don't worry” Sunny smiles, pulling away from her embarrassment. The room goes silent for a second before Xiumin and Kyungsoo hide their laughs and Chanyeol punches Sehun's arm while giggling out “Dude, that was tough”.

Ignoring the teasing sounds from his members, the boy in question turns to her frowning, “It wasn't a date? I bought you food!”

“Well, the other day we went on dates, this time you never said it was one” Sunny smiles sheepishly making Baekhyun laugh and teasingly back her up.

“Well, Sunny, would you please consider this as another date with our desperate Sehun?” Suho approaches from behind of him and tries to squeeze Sehun's cheeks together, only to get slapped away by the younger.

“While we're at it, could you please consider also being his girlfriend?” Xiumin shouted over the noise.

“Ya, that's enough,” Sehun crossed his arms, facing the wall in a failed attempt at hiding the flustered situation of his face.

“Weirdos” Somi made herself known by the girl's side and crossed arms with her “Let's go upstairs, so I can lend you a clean shirt”

Turning back to the hallway, Sunny stopped a final time when Suho asked if she would stay over for dinner. After she agreed, a new set of cheers were hear, as well as Baekhyun's loud “EXO's family night has a new member!”