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maybeimamuppet · 3 years

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it takes a village

hey hey little muppets!! happy wednesday!! this is a request fill for gracerailly on ao3 who requested the poly-stics babysitting cadnis' kids.

cw/tw for depression/depressive episodes

otherwise, enjoy!!

---

Cady wakes up to chattering coming through the baby monitor.

Which is unusual, because Janis usually wakes her up with their twins. But today, Janis is still in bed next to her and gives a quiet groan when she hears the noise.

“Jay?” Cady asks groggily. “What’s the matter?”

Janis groans again and flops onto her back, bringing her hands up to sign. That’s never good, Janis only uses sign language when things are especially bad for her.

“Can’t move,” she signs. “Feel… heavy. Slow. Dead.”

“Oh, my love,” Cady hums sadly, leaning down to kiss her forehead. “Do you think you’re having a depressive episode?”

Janis nods slowly. Cady can tell she’s using a great deal of energy to bring her hands up again. “The girls.”

“I’ll get them up for today, don’t worry about it,” Cady says immediately. “You relax. Everything’s okay.”

Janis pouts but nods again, letting her hands drop back to her side. Cady pecks her nose gently before she goes to get their daughters up.

They’re both awake, standing up in their cribs and waiting for someone to come get them ready. Both of them look her way when Cady switches the light on, with their adorable frizzy curls and sleepy blue eyes.

“Good morning, my little loves!” She says happily, going to give them their morning kisses. “Did you have good dreams?” Both twins nod happily. “Good, that makes Mama so happy.”

“Where Mommy?” Layla asks, rubbing her eyes and holding onto her stuffed elephant. Cady pauses for a second. How does she explain this in terms they can understand?

For now, a white lie won’t hurt anything. “Mommy’s still asleep, Mama gets to get you ready today.”

Leo reaches out first, so Cady grabs her and carries her over to be changed before swapping her out with Layla to do the same.

“There we go, all clean! Let’s go have breakfast,” Cady says happily, scooping them both up and carrying them downstairs to the kitchen.

“Mama?” Layla pipes up. Cady smooches her chubby little cheek a few times.

“Yes, Ladybug?”

“We hab f’uit?” Layla asks. “P’ease?”

“Yeah, of course you can have fruit,” Cady says. “Good pleases, too, that’s a good girl. Bumblebee, do you want fruit too?”

Leo just nods. She’s less of a morning person than her twin. Cady sets them both in their high chairs and buckles them in for safety, then washes some blueberries for them to eat.

Leo picks at hers, resting her elbows on her tray and holding her head in her little hands.

“What’s the matter, Lolo?” Cady asks sadly while she gives the pets their own breakfast and prepares some quick cereal for herself.

“Miss Mommy,” Leo says with a precious little pout. “Want cuddle.”

“Aww, sweetheart,” Cady says. “Mommy’s still here, she’s just upstairs. And we can go see if she wants to cuddle after breakfast.”

Leo perks up a little bit at the reminder that her mommy is still there, just not at breakfast, and starts eating her blueberries with a bit more speed. She and Layla chatter away about their plans for the day while they eat. Cady can’t quite understand what they’re saying, but she grins at the interactions regardless.

“All done,” Layla says when her blueberries are finished. Leo shoves her last few in her mouth and chews them with a nod of agreement.

“Good job, girls! Okay, let’s wash our hands and then we can go see Mommy,” Cady says. She grabs each from her chair and helps them wash the berry juice off their tiny hands, then carries them back up to the main bedroom to find Janis. “Jay? You up for a cuddle?”

Janis rolls over and gives a weak grin when she sees her whole family there waiting for her. She nods and gestures them over with a hand, so Cady sets the twins down to run over to her.

“Be gentle, girls,” she says quietly, following after them. She scoops Leo up and helps her get on the bed since she was struggling to make it. Layla sits and cuddles in on top of Janis while Leo nuzzles into her side. They both can clearly tell something’s off.

“Mommy sick?” Layla asks. “Need med’cine?”

Janis chuckles weakly and brushes a hand through Layla’s messy hair. Cady can tell it’s taking nearly all of her energy just to cuddle their babies, but Janis forces herself to keep going.

“Kind of, but medicine won’t fix it this time,” Janis says quietly. “I just need cuddles and sleep.”

“Wha’s wrong?” Leo asks, unfortunately curious. How do you explain depression to some barely two year olds? Cady thinks for a second before she tries to explain.

“You girls know how Aunt Reggie is a doctor? And she talks to people who are sad or scared or mad a lot, to help them feel better?” Cady begins. Both twins look her way and nod. “Some of the people Aunt Reggie talks to have something called depression. That’s a tough word, can you say it?”

Both girls try, sounding closer to ‘press in’ than anything else.

“Yeah, good job! But Mommy has depression too. Sometimes it makes her sad, or sometimes angry, or scared. Today it’s just making her really tired. But she’ll feel better soon, and then she can play with you again.”

“I can fissit?” Layla asks, wanting her mommy to be better now.

“You can’t fix it this time, Ladybug,” Cady says sadly. “But we can help Mommy feel better by giving her cuddles and letting her rest. We love her bunches, huh?”

Both girls nod and cuddle in again, trying to squeeze every ounce of love for their mommy into the snuggles. Layla even leans in to leave a wet, but sweet kiss on her forehead. “Mmmmwah!”

“Thank you, girls,” Janis says with a weak chuckle. “What did you have for breakfast?”

Cady knows that the twins are going to talk for a while, which buys her some time to track down a babysitter. She pulls out her phone and is about to shoot off a text to Damian before she remembers that he’s out of town visiting family. Aaron went with him, so that just leaves the Plastics. Oh boy. It’s worth a shot.

spacecadet: Hey is there any way you guys could take the smalls for the day?? Janis is having a depressive episode and I need to be able to take care of her

georgewashington: Are you sure you want us to? What about Damian?

spacecadet: He’s out of town for the week. I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t desperate, I know you’re still sorta wary of them

georgewashington: I just don’t want to hurt them, or make you guys upset. Janis would never forgive me if something happened to them because of me.

spacecadet: Regina, you don’t have to worry about stuff like that. Unless it was something major we could never be mad. And Janis does trust you, she’s just protective

georgewashington: If you’re sure, we can take them. Gretchen’s working from home today, so we’ll all be here. What should I do?

spacecadet: Oh, thank you so much!! All they’ll really need from you guys is somewhere to nap and someone to play with. I’ll pack them some toys and things they’ll need and I can drop them off

spacecadet: Just maybe hide anything stainable, breakable, or expensive :/ they are toddlers

georgewashington: Okay, I’ll prep what I can. See you soon.

spacecadet: Thank you so much, Regina!!

Cady switches her phone back off and rolls out of the bed. Once she’s changed out of her pajamas, she goes to get her babies. “Okay girls, should we go get dressed?”

Layla crawls over when she reaches out, but Leo doesn’t want to leave Janis.

“Wha’bout Mommy?” She asks sadly.

“We can come see Mommy again for a little bit when you’re done, Mama will go fast,” Cady coaxes. Leo thinks for a second before she also comes to be picked up. “Yeah, there we go.”

Cady carries both babies back down the hall to their bedroom and sticks both in Leo’s crib to keep them contained.

“Do you want to match or dress different today, pumpkins?” She asks, rooting through their dresser for some outfits.

“Mash,” both twins say at the same time. Cady chuckles and pulls out two of everything she needs. Two green shirts, two pairs of soft black jeans, two pairs of socks. Layla reaches for her first this time, so she heads to scoop her out and rests her on the ground in front of her.

Layla giggles when Cady pops her shirt over her head and surprises her with a kiss on the other side. Cady smiles back until they reach the socks, which are always a struggle. Luckily for her, Layla cooperates and is quickly dressed and subbed out for Leo.

Cady repeats the process on her second daughter before she heads to their closet to grab the finishing touches. Two tiny pairs of white high top converse that match her own, and two of the jean jackets Janis painted to match her old ones. These have teddy bears on the back, which are absolutely adorable.

“Mommy painted these for you while you two were still in my tummy,” Cady says, resting them on the rail of Leo’s crib.

“In you tummy?” Leo asks interestedly. Cady nods and carries them both to see the pictures on their bulletin board. That’s a more recent addition to the room, and full of pictures of all the people important to the twins.

Cady points to one of her maternity photos, specifically at her belly. “You two were in here. That’s where you grew for a while.”

They both look curiously at the photo, then down at their own tummies. “How we come out?”

“Um… we can talk about that another day, let’s go do your hair,” Cady says quickly. Before the twins can say anything else she carries them into the bathroom and pops them down on the counter. She gives them each a comb to play with and then sprays them down with some detangling hairspray, brushing their dark curls out to a more manageable state.

She splits Leo’s down the middle and ties hers in space buns on top of her head, then gives Layla one ponytail so the Plastics can tell them apart more easily.

“I have a surprise for you, girls,” Cady says as she roots through the basket for some hair bows, per Leo’s request. They both perk up at the mention of a surprise and look to her interestedly. “You guys get to go to Aunt Reggie’s house today, isn’t that cool?”

“Aunt Weggie house?” Layla asks curiously. They’ve never been to Aunt Reggie’s house, Uncle D is their usual babysitter.

“Yeah! You get to go play with her and Aunt GG and Auntie Karen and Nutmeg,” Cady says, clipping the green bows to their hair ties.

“Wow,” Leo says excitedly. Cady laughs and picks them up again to carry them back to Janis.

“Mommy,” Layla calls happily, running back to Janis’ side of the bed. Janis helps her back up for another round of cuddles. “We go Aunt Weggie house!”

Leo wriggles her way up again as well, and Janis grabs her for snuggles too. Once she has her babies safely back in her hold, she raises a suspicious eyebrow at her wife.

“Just for the day, they’ll be fine,” Cady groans. “Damian’s still out of town and I want to be able to give you my full attention.”

Janis shrugs and brings her daughters up for some kisses, making them both giggle in delight. Cady takes the time to go pack some supplies for the girls while Janis has them occupied.

She packs enough diapers to last them each a week, some extra clothes in case of disaster, a few of their favorite small toys and activities, their pacifiers, and their stuffies. They already have sippy cups and other dishes there, since Damian insisted on buying everyone some just in case there was ever an emergency and they had to babysit. Turns out it was a great idea.

When Cady brings the jackets, backpacks, and shoes back into the bedroom to finish getting her daughters ready, she finds Leo carefully stroking her little hands through Janis’ hair, while Layla sits on Janis’ belly and is thoroughly explaining all the things she wants to do at her aunts’ house.

She chuckles at the precious sight before she enters the room and snatches Layla up for tickles and kisses. Layla shrieks in surprise, but quickly starts laughing and trying to push her away. Cady carefully rests her down and gets her tiny shoes on, and Janis grins when she sees the cute jacket Cady tugs onto Layla’s arms.

Leo goes next, giggling anxiously and curling into Janis for protection as Cady looms ominously overhead. She squeals when she’s snatched up by the mama claw and brought in for her round of kisses and tickles. Once her shoes and jacket are on, it’s time for them to go.

“Okay girls, give Mommy hugs, we gotta go,” she says quietly. Janis grunts slightly as both twins jump on top of her for one last cuddle before they head off.

“Bye girls,” Janis whispers. “I love you.”

“Luh you, Mommy!” Both twins call at the same time. Janis chuckles and kisses them one last time before Cady scoops them up and rests them on the ground.

“Get some rest, love,” Cady murmurs, bending down to kiss her wife. “I’ll be back soon, text me if you need anything.”

Janis nods and curls back into bed. Cady flips the light off on their way out and follows the twins to the car.

—————-

“Whoa,” both twins say when they see the apartment building. Cady realizes she probably should have explained that their aunties don’t live in the whole thing.

“Big house,” Leo says slightly anxiously. Cady chuckles and picks them both up to carry them in.

“Your aunties live here with other people,” Cady explains. “There’s a bunch of little houses in the building that other families live in.”

Cady carries them past the main desk and to the elevators. Leo gets to push the button to call it, and then Layla pushes the button to get up to the right floor.

“Can you knock?” Cady asks, since both her hands are full. Both of them helpfully rap their little fists against the door. “Good job. There’s Auntie Karen!”

“Hey!” Karen says happily. “Come in!”

Cady enters and sets the twins down. Layla toddles off immediately, making a beeline for Nutmeg.

“Dog, dog, dog,” she says happily on her way. “Doggy! I pet, p’ease?”

“Yes, you can pet her,” Karen chuckles. “Hi Leo.”

“Hi,” Leo replies quietly, pressing against Cady’s leg with a heartbreaking pout. Leo’s always been her anxious one, and is clearly frightened at the prospect of facing a new environment all alone.

Cady crouches down to comfort her, stroking some stray hairs away from her baby’s face. “You’re gonna be okay, Bee. Aunt Reggie and Aunt GG and Aunt Karen are gonna play with you, Mama put all your toys in your backpack. And you have Georgie in there too, he’ll give you cuddles if you get scared. And then you get to take your nap, and probably have lunch.”

“Wha’ lunch?” Leo asks.

“I don’t know, we’ll have to see what they have for you, but I bet it’ll be so yummy,” Cady says. “But you’re gonna be safe, little love. Your aunties will protect you, and they can call or text me on my phone if you need me. And I’ll be back to get you in a while, okay?”

“Okay Mama,” Leo says.

“That’s my brave girl,” Cady says happily, pecking her forehead and standing up. “Oh, there’s Aunt GG!”

Leo runs over immediately for a hug. She and Gretchen have a special bond, which Cady is always happy to see. Regina pops out of the kitchen too, upon hearing the commotion that the twins bring everywhere they go.

“Aww,” she coos when she sees Leo cuddled up with her girlfriend. She comes over to Cady to urgently ask, “Which one is that?”

“Leo,” Cady chuckles. “She has space buns, Layla has a ponytail.”

“Got it,” Regina says. She looks down when she feels something tug on her pant leg. “Oh, hi Layla.”

“Hi!” Layla says excitedly. Regina just looks at her for a second, not totally sure what to do. Layla reaches to be picked up, so Regina bends down and scoops her off the floor.

“I should get back to Janis soon,” Cady says. “I’ll have my phone, you can text or call if anything comes up.”

“Sounds good,” Gretchen says, still holding Leo. She sets her down for a second and says, “Go say bye to your mama.”

Regina sets Layla down too, and both twins run to give Cady a goodbye hug and kiss.

“Mwah. I love you, girls. Be good, I’ll be back to get you later,” Cady says, kissing both of their foreheads and holding them close before releasing them back. “Have fun!”

—-

Regina notices Leo hunch in on herself a little bit and look around anxiously when Cady leaves. Layla is fine and very occupied trying to play with a lazy Nutmeg. Regina still doesn’t quite know how to handle the twins, but Leo is clearly frightened. She knows how to deal with that.

She heads over and crouches down in front of her, but leaves some distance so Leo doesn’t feel crowded. “Hi, honey. Can you show me what you have in your backpack?”

Leo nods and sits down across from her, removing her little backpack and resting it on the ground in front of her. “Help p’ease?”

“Okay,” Regina says, undoing the zipper for her. “What do you have there?” Leo reaches in and carefully pulls out her stuffed giraffe. “Who’s that?”

“Georgie,” Leo says quietly. “He gi’affe.”

“That’s so cool,” Regina says. “Should we show Georgie around so he knows where everything is?”

Leo nods, so Regina stands and picks up the baby to give her a little tour. Leo holds tightly to her stuffed friend and looks around curiously.

“This is the kitchen,” Regina says. She lets Leo look around at all the things on the walls, giving her time to adjust. When Leo looks back to her, they move on. “And this is the living room.” Leo’s seen this, it’s where the entryway leads to and where Layla is currently playing with Karen and Gretchen. She looks around for a short while before she’s ready to move on. “And this is the office, this is where we do our work, and over there is the bathroom.”

“Where sleep?” Leo asks, so Regina shows her the two bedrooms.

“This is where Aunt GG and Aunt Karen and I sleep, and then this is the bedroom for when we have people come sleep over,” Regina says. Leo looks around curiously before giving a nod. “What do you think?”

“Big,” Leo says. Regina chuckles and nods.

“It is pretty big. Oh, do you want to see something fun?”

Leo nods interestedly, so Regina carries her to see the axolotls in the tank in their bedroom.

“Fishy!” Leo says excitedly, pointing to the tank. “Ooh.”

“They’re called axolotls,” Regina explains. Leo tries to say it, but it just sounds more like ‘blelele’. “Yeah, close enough!”

“Name?” Leo asks, looking curiously at the strange creatures. Regina holds her at a different angle so she can see better and points to each one.

“This one is named Versace, and this is Gucci,” she says. “And then waaaaay back here is Louboutin The Second.”

Leo giggles. “Silly name.”

“They are, just a little,” Regina agrees. ��Okay, let’s go find your sister, hm?” Leo nods, so they head back to the living room. Layla has finally been satisfied with the amount of doggy cuddles she’s been given and left the poor creature alone. She’s now busy explaining her toys to Gretchen and Karen.

Gretchen looks up when they come back, and smiles when she sees Leo cuddled into Regina’s shoulder. “Do you wanna come play?”

Leo nods, so Regina sets her down and lets her run over to her twin and their toys. Regina jumps a little when she feels an arm slide gently around her waist to rub that one spot on her lower back, and a sweet peck pressed to her neck.

“You’re really good with her,” Gretchen whispers. “It’s cute.”

Regina shakes her head and pulls her closer. “I’m not. I just know how to calm people down. I don’t even know how to play with them.”

“Just try,” Gretchen says quietly, kissing her cheek gently and heading back over. Regina watches as Karen and Gretchen play legos with the twins, building masterpieces and then taking them apart to make new ones. Gretchen makes it sound so simple, just try. But Regina wouldn’t even know where to begin.

So she just watches. Leo sits on Karen’s lap and builds her creations, and Layla stands in between the couch and the coffee table in order to make hers. Regina takes a sneaky picture of Leo explaining her tower to Karen.

“Aww,” she coos quietly when she sees how it came out.

“Send that to Janis, she’d like that,” Gretchen chuckles.

Layla looks over at her curiously. “Aunt GG?”

“Yeah?”

“Who… um… Janis?” Layla asks, lisping the end but managing to get the sound out.

“Janis is your mommy, that’s her name,” Gretchen explains.

“No,” Leo says with a head shake, joining their discussion.

“No?”

“Mommy name… uhm… love,” Leo explains. The Plastics all fight to contain a coo, looking at each other.

“Mommy’s name is love?” Karen asks. Both twins nod. “And what’s your mama’s name?”

Janis tends to switch between nicknames for Cady more often, so they’re curious to see what her ‘name’ is.

“Baby,” Layla says.

“No,” Leo disagrees. “Mama Bullaf’y.”

“I don’t know.” Layla says eventually.

“That’s okay,” Regina chuckles. “You’ll learn it soon.”

—————

“Hey, Jay, how you feeling?” Cady asks gently as she heads back into her bedroom. Janis groans quietly when she flips the light on. “You know it gets worse if you just sit here in the dark all day. You need light. You’re like a plant.”

Janis pouts at her. Cady kicks off her shoes and crawls back in next to her for a snuggle.

“The girls are fine, the Plastics seemed really excited,” she says quietly. “It’s kind of nice, isn’t it? Just us for a day.”

Janis nods. They both love their daughters more than the world, but it is nice to have a break from time to time. Even if the circumstances surrounding it are less than ideal.

Cady’s phone dings in her pocket, so she fishes it out to see who’s messaging her.

“Speak of the devil. Aww,” she chuckles, holding it so Janis can see.

reginald: Sent a picture: Play time

reginald: Also, just thought we’d let you know, they don’t know your names.

spacecadet: Really?

reginald: They can’t decide if yours is baby or butterfly, and they think Janis’ name is love.

spacecadet: Oh my goodness

reginald: It’s actually really cute. Gretch said to send that picture to Janis and Layla didn’t know who that was.

spacecadet: At least they don’t think our names are mama and mommy anymore. Are you guys still good?

reginald: Yeah, everything’s good. Leo just needed a little tour and now she’s all settled in. And Layla and Nutmeg are best buds.

spacecadet: Haha, poor pooch. She’s always after Daffy and Ellie too

reginald: Oh, Nutmeg loves it. She just gets to lay there and be cuddled, it’s her dream come true.

spacecadet: Well you guys can have the twins anytime so she can get her snuggle seshes in

reginald: Sounds like a plan, I’ll let Nutmeg know. We’ll probably keep sending you stuff, too.

spacecadet: Please do, you guys are so good with them. Thanks again <3

reginald: Of course.

Janis chuckles as she reads over their conversation too. Cady cuddles her closer and pecks her forehead.

“Did you eat?” She asks. Janis shakes her head. “Okay. I’m gonna go get you something, I’ll be right back.”

Janis pouts again, so Cady leans down to kiss her a few times before she leaves. Janis grins contently and settles deeper in under the covers.

——————

Karen continues playing with the twins for a few hours, and Regina stays to watch. Gretchen has some new designs to work on and heads into the office for some quiet.

Regina’s making progress with the twins, eventually even coloring a picture with them once they pull out some crayons and paper. They both eagerly compliment her drawing of a rabbit.

It’s almost relaxing, in a strange way. Karen makes conversation with everyone as she draws a duck, and the twins seem to be warming up even more to the environment.

Relaxing until Layla suddenly snatches the same crayon Leo wanted to add another beautiful scribble to her page. Leo whines a, “Hey!” and scrambles to take it back. Layla shrieks and holds it out of her reach, and suddenly they’re both in tears.

Karen and Regina look to each other in concern at the two little tantrum tornados they now have to deal with, and each gently pick up a twin so they can’t reach each other. Karen looks very anxious as Leo thrashes in her hold and releases a shriek that so loud they can’t quite figure out how such a small person managed it. Apparently quiet little Leo is actually the screamer of the two.

Layla seems to be more physical, wriggling to be put down so she can get back at her sister. Regina refuses to let her down, knowing it’ll only get worse if she does. Time for some desperate measures.

She manages to carry a wiggling and screaming toddler into the kitchen in one arm, doing a strange sort of fireman’s carry. It works well enough. She grabs two of the sippy cups they have and fills them with some cold water.

Karen is now holding Leo as far away as she possibly can, trying desperately to keep her grip as Leo kicks and shrieks like a banshee in her hold.

“Good lord,” Regina murmurs under her breath. “Hey!”

Her tone isn’t mean, or harsh, just loud. Both twins briefly stop their antics to look at her, knowing they might be in some serious trouble here.

She hands Karen one of the cups to give to Leo. “I need both of you to take some big drinks for me, okay? You’re gonna run out of tears to cry, we have to give you more.”

They both take their cups with a very serious look in their eye and drink a good bit of their water. They don’t want to run out of tears, that would be bad.

“Good job,” Regina congratulates when they pull away with a gasp. It’s a trick she was taught in college, that actually regulates their breathing and helps calm people down in intense moments. “Now you’re gonna take a nap. And we can have a talk when you wake up.”

For safety, they decide to keep them apart. Layla gets set up for her nap in the master bedroom, and Leo in the guest room. They make little barriers with pillows so they don’t fall out of bed and give them the best blankets, then leave them with their stuffed animals, pacifiers, and cups of water to rest.

“Fucking hell,” Regina breathes when she shuts the door to where Leo is resting. “Where do they get the energy for that?”

“Revenge is a big deal for toddlers,” Karen shrugs. “They don’t like when things aren’t fair.”

“Christ,” Regina sighs, sitting down and rubbing her temples. Karen sits down as well. “They’re so sweet, usually, what-what happened?”

“I know what you’re thinking, and no it’s not,” Karen responds. Regina looks at her in shock, wondering how she could’ve possibly known. “It’s not your fault, and you’re not a bad aunt. Do you know how impressive what you just did is? You got two toddlers to stop having a tantrum. That’s, like, really special.”

“But they only started getting upset when I started playing with them. All I can do is… stop them crying or whatever,” Regina grumbles. “I don’t know how to interact with them, or-or play with them.”

“They were upset because they were overtired,” Karen hushes, letting Regina lean onto her shoulder. “We just should’ve had them nap sooner, that’s all. But you’re really special, you know.”

“Hmm?”

“You treat them like people,” Karen says quietly. “That’s, like, super rare. You showed Leo around when she got here instead of just making her go play, and you helped them calm down instead of yelling at them for being too loud or whatever. That’s what’ll help them the most.”

Regina gives a noncommittal hum and accepts the comfort offered by her girlfriend.

“And even if you don’t really play with them that much, they still like you,” Karen continues. “You still talk to them, and give them cool stuff. Playing isn’t the only way to interact with them.”

“I guess,” Regina agrees. “You’re good with them too.”

“They’re easy!” Karen says happily. “But I’m still a kid at heart, I guess. They’re easy for me to relate to, or whatever.”

Regina chuckles. “I can see that. You’ve always been the fun one.”

“Thanks,” Karen laughs back. “You okay now?”

“Yeah. Thank you, honey,” Regina says quietly, leaning in for a quick kiss. “I love you.”

Karen beams, it’s quite rare that Regina says ‘I love you’ first. “I love you too.”

——————

Leo wakes up from her nap first. Gretchen had been hiding in the study throughout the crayon debacle, leaving it to her girlfriends to handle. But the office is closer to the bedrooms, so she decides to be the one to go comfort Leo as she hears her start to cry.

“Hey, Leo lady, good morning,” she says gently. Leo scrambles down off the big bed she’s on and runs in for some comfort. “What happened?”

“Dark,” Leo whimpers, sniffling into Gretchen’s shoulder. “‘N big. Scared.”

“Aww, I’m sorry, sweetheart,” Gretchen hushes. “You don’t need to be scared, nothing here can hurt you. See?”

Leo nods in relief when she flips the light back on. “T’ank you.”

“Of course, honey. I think Karen is making lunch, are you hungry?” Gretchen asks, shutting the light back off and carrying her back into the kitchen. Leo nods and rubs her eyes blearily. She’s not quite awake yet.

“Hey, Leo,” Regina says quietly. “Good morning.”

“Hi,” Leo yawns. Regina chuckles gently.

“Do you feel better?”

Leo nods again. “Wha’ lunch?”

“I don’t know, we have a lot of things here,” Regina answers. “What would you like?”

Leo shrugs, so Gretchen carries her in to see her lunch options. Karen looks up from her sandwich when she hears them come in. “Hey, kiddo! Did you have a good nap?”

Leo nods with a little smile. “Auntie Kawen lunch?”

“Yeah! I’m having a sandwich, do you want one?” Karen asks. Leo nods. “Okay, what kind?”

Leo wiggles a little bit, so Gretchen sets her down to go look at the options. She and Karen both chuckle as Leo picks a large jar of peanut butter out of the cabinet and hands it to Karen.

“Dis p’ease,” she says. Karen takes it from her and unscrews the lid.

“Okay, do you want jelly in it too?”

“No t’ank you.”

“Okay, good job! I’ll bring it to you in a second,” Karen says. Leo runs back to Gretchen to spend some time together while they wait on lunch.

When they head back to the living room, Regina is gone. Leo looks around in confusion until she comes back with her twin. Regina beckons her over, so Leo lets go of Gretchen’s hand and heads over to her other aunt.

Regina sets Layla down next to her. “Do you two feel better now?” They both nod. “Good. Being angry like that is no fun, huh?” They both shake their heads. “Say sorry for fighting, then we can go play again.”

“Sorry Leo,” Layla says sheepishly.

“Sorry Lala,” Leo replies, wrapping her twin in a hug. Layla hugs her back for a second, popping up on her tippy toes to squeeze her sister.

“Sorry Aunt Weggie,” Layla adds. “Fer sc’eaming.” Leo nods to agree.

“Thank you for your apology, girls. Layla, let’s go pick your lunch and then you can play some more,” Regina says, picking them both back up and carrying them to the kitchen.

“There they are,” Gretchen says when they return. “Leo, your sandwich is ready, do you want something to drink with it?”

Leo nods and heads over to see what they have in the fridge, while Layla goes to Karen to pick her meal. She also just picks a sandwich and is quickly released to go pick her own beverage. Leo chooses apple juice, and Layla picks milk.

Surprisingly, each twin finishes about half of her sandwich. Karen helps them down off their chairs and releases them back to the living room for more playing. Leo dives right in and pulls out a small puzzle she brought, pulling out all the animals and trying to work out where they go again. Layla does her own for a while, but gets bored pretty quickly.

So she decides to go on a short adventure. Her Aunt GG disappeared into a room a while ago, so Layla heads off to find her.

Gretchen turns when she hears noises at the glass door to the office, spinning around in her chair to find Layla on her tippy toes trying to reach the doorknob. It takes a few tries, but she manages to open it and toddles into the room victoriously.

“Hi GG!” She chirps happily. Gretchen laughs and beckons her over.

“Hi Layla. What are you up to?” She chuckles, pulling her into her lap and re-doing Layla’s ponytail since it got messed up during her nap. Layla seems delighted to be sitting at the big desk where her aunties do their work.

“Lolo do puzzle,” Layla explains. “Don’t wan’ to.”

“Aww. That’s okay, do you wanna help me with a few things?” Gretchen replies. Layla nods eagerly, so Gretchen wheels them closer to the desk and pulls over a design she’s working on for a client.

“Ooh,” Layla says. “P’etty.”

“Thank you,” Gretchen chuckles. “I have to draw it first, and then I make it a real dress people can wear later.” Layla looks at her in awe. “I know, right? Here, help me with this. What color should I make these flowers here?”

Layla suddenly feels a massive amount of responsibility weigh on her two year old shoulders. This is very important. “Uhm… uh… lellow.”

“Yellow?” Gretchen asks. “That would be really pretty, actually, good job! Yellow would look nice with the blue here. Good pick!”

Layla gives a happy little wiggle on her lap, and watches eagerly as Gretchen sketches the flowers in with a yellow pencil.

“Aunt GG?” Layla pipes up as Gretchen moves onto another area.

“Yeah?”

“Me too?” Layla says. “P’ease?”

Gretchen chuckles. “You want a dress?” Layla nods. “Okay, we can try that. Here.”

She sketches out another model, with about the same proportions as Layla.

“Here, stand up, that’ll make this easier. How long should we make the skirt?” Gretchen asks, popping Layla onto her feet and crouching down in front of her. She points to her ankle, just below her knee, and just above her knee. “Which one?”

Layla looks at her legs for a long moment before she points above her knee. Gretchen smiles and nods.

“That’s what I would have picked too. And should it go out big or be closer to your body?” Gretchen asks, demonstrating where each type would fall. Layla picks a big poofy skirt. “Oh, yeah. You got some good style, chica. Now the sleeves, where should they go?”

Layla watches as Gretchen points to her wrist, just above her elbow, and her shoulder. She points to her shoulder when Gretchen takes her hand away and giggles as Gretchen tickles her.

“Okay, come see,” Gretchen says, picking her back up and resting her on her lap again. Layla smiles happily when she sees the form of the dress. “Now we get to pick what colors and patterns it has. What’s your favorite color?”

“Uhm… g’een,” Layla replies, pointing to her t-shirt. Gretchen grabs two different greens that would look good with a dress this shape, one closer to an emerald and the other a lighter fern sort of shade.

“Which green?” She asks, holding them in front of Layla. Layla picks the lighter one. “Ooh, yeah.” Gretchen carefully makes the skirt green, a plan for fabrics already starting to come together in her mind. “Now what should we do with the top bit?”

“Uh…” Layla says. “Sparkledy.”

“Sparkly? I didn’t even think of that,” Gretchen hums. She pencils it in the same color and adds marks to make sure she knows the bodice should be sequined. “You could be a designer too, Lala, look at this cool dress we drew!”

Layla giggles and looks proudly at the drawing. “Now make it?”

“I can’t make it right now, but yeah, soon! All my stuff to make it is at my work,” Gretchen explains. “Here, let’s take a picture to show your moms, they’re gonna be so proud of you.”

Layla smiles when Gretchen holds her phone up for a selfie, and laughs as her auntie kisses her cheek with an exaggerated smooch sound. “Cheeeese.”

————-

Cady reaches an arm out of the bath she’s dragged her wife into taking when her phone pings with a text. She carefully unlocks it to find a few messages from Gretchen.

fetchen: Sent a picture: i have a new assistant!

spacecadet: Aww! She looks so happy <3

fetchen: Sent a picture: no, seriously, she designed this dress basically herself

fetchen: are you open to having the girls as models at some point?? i’m kind of thinking i should start a children’s line

“No,” Janis pipes up quietly, having read through the conversation as well.

“Not even for Gretchen? It’s not like it’s a huge company. And how cute would they be in outfits like that?” Cady pleads. She’s wary of the idea as well, but knows Gretchen would handle everything safely.

Janis considers this aspect, and has to admit her daughters would make excellent models. Maybe she can make an exception for Gretchen. “Fine.”

spacecadet: You should, we’ll buy all your designs

spacecadet: And if they’re into the idea I don’t see why they couldn’t model for you. Layla loves a camera

fetchen: haha i’ll have to get Gina to take some pics of her then! she’s been looking for a way to connect with them anyway

spacecadet: Aww, how sweet. They love all of you

fetchen: that’s what I keep trying to tell her! anyway, I should probably get back to work with Lala. tell Janis I say hi!!

spacecadet: Of course!! Thank you <3

Janis nuzzles into her neck as she flicks the phone back off and sighs, in a mix of exhaustion and contentment.

“Layla must take after you,” Cady murmurs. “Little artist.”

Janis grins gently against her. “We’ll see.”

—————

“There you are,” Regina says as she enters the office to find Layla with Gretchen. “What are you two up to?”

“GG make d’esses!” Layla says happily. “I helpin’.”

“Oh, you’re the best helper,” Regina responds. Layla beams at her. “What did you do?”

Gretchen smiles too as Regina tips her head up and kisses her forehead, then starts gently looking through the designs. Gretchen pulls out the one she designed with Layla’s help and shows it to her.

“She did this pretty much herself,” she says. “And now I kind of want to start a children’s line.”

“You should,” Regina says. “You could make little matching ones of the adult designs you do. Have, like, a mommy and me line. I’d buy that and we don’t even have kids.”

“That’s a good idea,” Gretchen hums. “I’ll think about it more later. We’ve done enough work for today, let’s go play!”

Regina chuckles as Layla runs out of the room when Gretchen sets her down, her little ponytail bouncing behind her.

“You two are cute together,” she murmurs. “You’d make a good mom.”

“So would you,” Gretchen says, wrapping her arms around her waist. Regina shakes her head and tries to move away, but Gretchen refuses to let her go. “No, look at me.” She gently cups Regina’s chin and makes her look into her eyes. “If you wanted to, you would make a wonderful mother. You’re not your dad. You’ve made so much progress, sweetheart.”

Regina flushes at the pet name and buries her face in the crook of Gretchen’s neck. “We’ll talk about it?”

“Yeah,” Gretchen agrees quietly. “Always. Whenever you want, we’ll talk about it. You know you can always talk to us?”

Regina nods. “You know too?”

“Yeah,” Gretchen murmurs. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Regina whispers, unfortunately having to pull away from one of her favorite places, since her spine is beginning to ache at being hunched over to cuddle her smaller girlfriend. “We should probably go save Karen.”

Gretchen laughs and takes her hand, leading her back out to the living room.

—-

A short while later, Regina half-watches Karen giving the twins ‘airplane rides’ around the apartment, weaving around the furniture and in and and out of rooms. She’s also half-watching her Tiktok feed for the day. Hmm.

She brings up her text thread with Cady to ask a very important question.

Cady peeks at her phone when it chimes, picking it up from the bathroom counter to see the message. She laughs when she sees what it is, and heads back to the living room where Janis is lethargically sprawled on the couch.

“Regina wants to know if she can put the babies on Tiktok,” she giggles.

“Absolutely not,” Janis grumbles.

“Oh come on, grumpy pants,” Cady coaxes, turning their show back on and dimming the lights a bit. “Some of them are cute, and Gretchen says she’s having a hard time connecting with them. She said she’d send them to me for us to check before she posts them. Please?”

Janis does kind of want to see how her daughters react to a few of the trends she’s seen, and knows she’s wary of the idea simply because she still has a hard time trusting Regina. So, begrudgingly, “Maybe.”

Cady grins and kisses her hair, and they wait for the videos to come in.

They only have to wait a few minutes before the first one comes through. Cady pauses their show again and waits for Janis to turn onto her back on top of her, then brings up the video so they can both see.

Layla and Leo sit side by side on a very nice couch, their little socked feet not even making it to the end of the cushion. Regina hands each one a little gift bag, and they both tear in to see what present they’ve gotten. Layla gasps excitedly when she pulls out a banana.

“A ‘nana!” She says happily. Leo pulls out one of her own and looks at it in confusion. “Leo, we got ‘nanas! Aunt Weggie, open p’ease?”

Leo’s eyes go wide and and she gives an excited gasp when she realizes she actually has one of her favorite fruits in her hand, and asks for hers to be opened in sign language. Regina laughs and peels both bananas. Each girl takes theirs back and munches happily on it while the video closes. Just before it cuts, they both say a muffled, “T’ank you!” around their bites.

Cady and Janis both laugh, and Cady sends back a message to explain that they usually give them their bananas pre-peeled, so that’s why Leo didn’t recognize it.

The next video comes through a few minutes later. Leo and Layla have finished their bananas and are still on the couch. Regina enters the room filming, rests her phone on the coffee table, and leaves the room.

It takes a second for them to notice, but Layla clocks the phone first. She rolls onto her tummy and slides off the couch before going to pick it up. She sees herself on the screen and pauses for a second to smile at her reflection before she goes running to find her auntie in the kitchen. The background moves wildly as Layla pokes her little tongue out in her concentration, and the rhythmic little thumps of her footsteps can be heard.

“Aunt Weggie!” She calls happily when she finds her. “You left you phone!”

“I left my phone?” Regina says in fake shock. Layla toddles over and gives it back. “Oh, thank you! You’re very responsible.”

The camera flips around to show Layla wrapped around Regina’s legs, giving a wide smile up at her just before it cuts.

“Aww,” Cady coos. “We’ve trained them well.”

“She’s so cute,” Janis chuckles, tapping the video to play it again.

The next one features Leo, sitting on Regina’s lap in the kitchen. Regina explains that Leo had asked for a drink and they’re going to see how well she can pour it herself. A small glass is put in front of the toddler, and she’s offered a bottle of almond milk.

Leo takes the bottle carefully and tips it over the glass, slowly pouring some into the cup. She has the right motions, but quickly gets carried away and fills the cup too much. It spills over onto the counter, and Regina quickly grabs the bottle to stop it. Both Leo and Regina pull the same face, wide eyes and lips pressed into a thin line as they look into the camera.

“Oh no,” Leo says. “Needa towel, p’ease.”

Someone else, most probably Gretchen, hands over some paper towels, and Leo carefully swipes it over the counter to clean up her mess.

“There we go,” she says, sounding more like ‘dairy doe’.

“Good job!” Regina congratulates as Leo ever so carefully picks up her very full cup of milk and takes a sip. Regina helps her get down off her lap, and a ‘T’ank you!’ can be faintly heard. “You’re welcome!”

“Oh goodness,” Cady laughs. “At least she cleaned up after herself. Poor Regina.”

“And she’s polite,” Janis chuckles quietly. “Her sweet little voice.”

“We’re doing a good job,” Cady says quietly. “With them.”

Janis nods in agreement and scrolls back up to the video with the bananas.

It takes a long while for the next video to come through, and Regina explains that they’d taken a break to eat dinner (alfredo pasta) and then to clean said dinner off the twins. Layla had apparently taken a special liking to the meal and managed to get it in her hair, so that took some extra time.

But a video of two clean babies comes through. Regina is sitting on the ground wrapped in a fitted sheet so just her face is visible. Karen seems to be filming this time, and encourages the girls to go get their auntie. Leo seems a little concerned, but they both run over to Regina.

When they just make it, Regina suddenly opens the sheet and snatches both inside like a venus flytrap. They both scream in surprise, but their adorable giggles are quickly heard. The video cuts, and they both run into the trap again, and again, and again.

Another one comes through, and this time Gretchen is the one in the sheet. The twins don’t stop laughing the whole time, their giggles making a precious audio for the video. Just before it cuts, Gretchen is looking exhausted, but Leo calls a delighted “‘Gain!”

So, another one comes through with Karen in the sheet. The twins’ hair is frizzy and their cheeks are pink by this point. Cady is just glad they’re getting some energy out before bedtime.

Janis laughs gently at each video, wondering how she hasn’t thought of this. Apparently her daughters are easily entertained. “I miss them.”

“I miss them too,” Cady sighs. “I’ll need to go get them soon, though, it’s getting late.” An alert suddenly comes through her phone then, letting them know a thunderstorm is approaching. “Uh oh.”

“Maybe not,” Janis chuckles. “You shouldn’t drive in that.”

“But they freak out during storms,” Cady says anxiously. “Especially Leo. But I can’t get there before it hits.”

“She’ll be fine,” Janis comforts. “Regina can handle that.”

“I hope so.”

—————

Regina grins happily as she reads the comments for the videos she’s posted so far, everyone delighting in her precious nieces. She’s reading one that seems nearly distraught at how polite they are when a text comes through from Cady.

spacecadet: Hey, I just saw that a storm is coming. Jay doesn’t want me to drive in it but both of the girls get really scared

Regina checks her weather app and sees that a small but strong storm is rapidly approaching. She peeks out the window to find that the sky is already grey with dark clouds.

reginald: Yeah, you definitely shouldn’t drive. I think we can make it, you come when it stops.

spacecadet: Are you sure?? I know they’ll be fine but you shouldn’t have to deal with both of them screaming

reginald: Oh, it’s fine, we already have. There was a little incident before naptime. And scared babies are easy, we’ll be fine.

spacecadet: Incident?

reginald: Bad word choice. Both had a tantrum, they were tired and wanted the same crayon.

spacecadet: Oh goodness, I’m sorry

reginald: Cady, they’re two, it’s fine. We dealt with it and they’re fine. Is there anything you usually do with them during storms?

spacecadet: If you say so. If we know they’re coming we usually warn them, and if it’s really bad we hide in the basement so the noise is muffled. But you can do whatever you need to

reginald: Sounds like a plan. See you whenever it passes.

spacecadet: Thanks, Regina :)

“Girls!” Regina calls gently as she clicks her phone off. Leo and Layla come barreling down the hallway to her when they hear her call, and Gretchen and Karen quickly follow. Regina crouches down to the smalls’ height to explain the situation. “There’s a thunderstorm coming, but you don’t need to be scared. We can all have a storm party!”

“A pawty?” Leo says anxiously. She instinctively reaches for Layla’s hand, nervous at the prospect of a storm. Especially without Mama or Mommy there to comfort them.

“Yeah!” Regina says excitedly. “Come on, let’s get ready.”

Gretchen and Karen seem confused, but follow along with Regina’s plan. They open the curtains on one of the floor-to-ceiling windows so they can see out, and the twins helpfully grab all the couch cushions and pillows they can carry. Regina gets blankets, and they build a little fort in front of the window, held up by a lamp.

Regina, Gretchen, and Karen head inside, and the twins sit in between them to wait.

After a few minutes, the first flash of lightning lights up the dark sky. Both twins let out a whimper of fright and scream when a crack of thunder follows.

“Shh, it’s okay,” Gretchen comforts as they both bury their faces in her chest.

“Loud,” Leo whimpers.

“I know,” Gretchen hushes. “The storm can’t hurt you, it’s just a scary noise.”

“Let’s play a game,” Regina coaxes. Both twins peek their little faces out to see her. “Come here.” Anxiously, they both crawl into her lap and look out the window. “Let’s count.”

“Count?” Layla asks anxiously, jumping and letting out a squeak of fright at the next lightning.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Regina says, coaxing them to look. “One… two… three… four… five… oh, there’s the thunder!”

“Why count?” Leo asks, poking her face out when the booms stop.

“If we can count high that means the storm is far away,” Regina explains. “It’s gonna get closer, and then it’ll move away and be done. And we’re safe in here.”

She smiles as she sees the twins take some deep breaths to calm down and cuddle closer into her. They still jump when the lightning goes by, but this time they count with her.

“One… two… free… four… fibe,” they say anxiously. This time, they giggle when the thunder hits. Layla says, “I did it!”

“Did you make it thunder?” Regina chuckles. Both girls nod. “Good job. Oh, here we go, do it again!”

They only make it to three this time.

“Get close?” Leo asks curiously, looking to her aunties.

“Uhhuh,” Regina confirms. Karen and Gretchen switch to be on either side of her and cuddle in close with everyone. “It’s getting closer and then it’ll go away.”

A few more rounds go by where they get as high as three, and then they start only making it to one or two. Luckily, they don’t seem scared anymore. They look excited to be tracking the storm and making the thunder happen.

“Oh, we can count higher now, the storm is leaving,” Regina says happily. “You’re doing so good!”

Gradually, the rain slows and the storm dissipates. Leo and Layla look curiously out the window the whole time, and make no effort to leave Regina’s lap once the sun gently peeks out from the horizon, beginning to set for the day. Strangely, Regina finds herself not wanting to let them go, either.

Gretchen and Karen gently exit their little tent to get all the twins’ things packed back up, and find their shoes and jackets once again. Gretchen is just tying on the last little shoe when they hear a knock at the door.

“Who could that be, girls?” Karen says excitedly, also trying to stop Nutmeg from barking at it too much. “Go see!”

Both twins eagerly run down the hallway to the front door, and Leo stands on her tippy toes to open it.

“Mama!” They both call happily, wrapping each of their little bodies around one of her legs.

“Hi, sweet girls!” Cady says happily, bending to pick each of them up and kiss all over their little faces. “Oh, I missed you so much! What did you do today?”

Both girls immediately launch into a story, explaining in as much detail as they can the exciting events that happened with their aunties. Cady enters and shuts the door behind her as they rattle off their favorite parts.

“Really? Did you have so much fun?” Cady asks when they finally have explained everything they wanted to. They both nod eagerly. “Good. We have to go home now, can you go say thank you?”

Both twins wiggle to be set down and run back to their aunties, giving hugs and saying thank you for a fun day. Cady follows suit too, and grins as her daughters seem to linger for just a while longer with Regina.

“Thank you so much,” Cady says gratefully. “You guys are so good with them, thank you.”

“Anytime!” Karen says happily. “Bye girls!”

Both girls wave goodbye and call a, “Bye-bye!” over their mama’s shoulder as they’re carried out of the apartment and down to go home. Cady chuckles and kisses each forehead gently as she buckles them into their car seats.

——————

“Mommy, Mommy!” Both girls call happily when Cady unlocks the front door to let them in, toddling full speed down the hall and over to Janis on the couch. Cady stays behind for a second and gives a small grin at the wide smile her wife gets upon seeing their children.

“Hi, girls!” Janis says happily, sounding like she already has a bit of energy back. It usually takes her a minimum of a few days to recover from an episode, but she’s already making good progress through this one. “I missed you.”

“Miss Mommy too,” the twins say at the same time. Janis grins contently as they both worm their way up on top of her for a snuggle.

“Aww, my sweet girls,” Janis coos. “Did you have fun with your aunties?”

Cady rolls her eyes lovingly, knowing Janis just opened a whole can of worms for herself. At least she has enough time to go get the twins’ bedtime things ready for them while they explain their whole day to their mommy.

The twins apparently gave Janis an abridged version of the story, because when Cady comes back she finds them all silent. Both twins are cuddled into Janis’ chest, one little head on each of her shoulders. Janis has a hand resting on each of their backs, holding them close to her. Her eyes are closed contently, and she looks the most at peace Cady thinks she’s ever seen from her. She’s glad to see it.

She sneakily snaps a few pictures of her perfect little family before she does unfortunately have to break up the little cuddle party. “Alright, munchkins, it’s bedtime.”

“I can get them down,” Janis says quietly, opening her eyes when Cady kisses her forehead.

“If you want, of course,” Cady agrees. “I got their jammies ready and everything.”

Janis nods and picks up both of their sleepy girls, standing carefully and carrying them upstairs. Cady flops onto their bed and listens down the hall as Janis gets them into their pajamas, brushes their teeth and hair, and reads them some bedtime stories.

The end of story time is her cue, and she hauls herself up to go to the nursery to kiss their babies goodnight. Janis is hunched over and pressed against Leo’s little face, giving her her goodnight kisses and having their little nightly chat. Cady goes to Layla first.

“Did you have a good day today?” She whispers. Layla nods. “Good! What was your favorite part?”

“Uh… doggy,” Layla responds.

“You liked playing with Nutmeg?” Cady chuckles. “I bet she liked you too. What part did you not like?”

“Fundersto’m,” Layla says.

“I know, that must’ve been scary,” Cady replies. “But you made it through the whole thing even though you were scared! You were so brave, Ladybug.” Layla beams at her, and Cady smiles back. “Are we gonna have our best day tomorrow?” Layla nods again. “Good, get some good sleep so you’re ready for it.”

Cady leans down to kiss her forehead and down her little nose.

“Goodnight, my sweet little pumpkin, have sweet dreams,” Cady whispers. “I love you so much.”

“Luh you, Mama,” Layla says quietly, followed by a yawn.

Cady and Janis switch twins then, repeating their process on the other girl before turning on the white noise machine and nightlight, and leaving them to sleep.

—————

Across town, all three Plastics flop into bed early, exhausted after a very, very long day. It’s Regina’s turn in the middle, her favorite nights. She’d never admit it, but she loves having each of her girlfriends cuddled up on either side of her all night.

“We did good,” Gretchen yawns. Her girlfriends nod in agreement. “We… we should have a chat tomorrow.”

“Stop yawning, you’re making me yawn,” Regina grumbles. Gretchen chuckles and leans in for a kiss. Regina suddenly forgets her complaints and kisses her back.

“Ahem,” Karen coughs. Regina rolls her eyes lovingly, but flips over to give Karen some affection too. “Thank you.”

“I love you,” Regina whispers, kissing both of her girlfriends and cuddling in under the duvet.

“I love you too,” Gretchen murmurs, also kissing both of them before cuddling in on Regina’s right side.

“I love you three,” Karen says, getting her kisses in and settling in on Regina’s left. They say this every night, and still always giggle at ‘I love you three.’

They drift off tangled in each other, completely exhausted but completely content.

It takes a village.

---

hope you enjoyed!!

i’m still undecided on whether to give the plastics kids, which is why i left the ending sort of intentionally vague in that regard :))) so let me know!! if you guys want i can totally do a kid fic for them, or just give them a kid and not write about it. or not give them a kid!!! up to you guys!

im hoping to have requests re-opened by next week! I'm just finishing up some last little things here and there and then they should FINALLY be reopened bc its been forever omg. anyway!

thank you all so much for reading and have a lovely day!

lots of love,

ezzy

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omgrachwrites · 4 years

Text

Our Souls Crave This Magic- Chapter Three

Pairing: Prince Caspian x Reader

Summary: All you want is a quiet year of university as you and your best friend, Edmund move to New York City. Though, that all changes when you meet the spoiled trust fund brat, Caspian. College au.

Warnings: fluff, slow burn romance, enemies to lovers

Words: 2463

Disclaimer: This gif doesn’t belong to me,all characters are 18+

A/N: Literally just realised how many side characters I’ll have to put in this bc Narnia characters don’t work hahaha! Also, I know that Caspian’s parents are dead, omg Nathaniel Parker is his dad but in this they’re alive and well! Hope you guys enjoy and let me know what you think, please let me know if you would like to be tagged! I love you all! xxx

previous chapter masterlist next part

Chapter Three - An Odd Companionship

You were in heaven, or at least you were as close to heaven as you were ever likely to get as your eyes roamed over all the Halloween themed snacks. There were things that you’d hardly even heard of such as, pumpkin spiced m&ms and chocolate with candy corn in the middle. You loved Halloween, when you were in university in London; you loved to decorate your dorm room, even though 9 times out of 10 you’d be going out to a party. It seemed that Halloween was an even bigger thing over here in America so you knew that you had to decorate your loft apartment.

Glancing behind you, you laughed at the bored look on Edmund’s face; he looked over at you and scowled as he pulled a tongue at you. Lucy, on the other hand looked as excited as you felt, “ooh, marshmallow Oreos,” she grinned and her face lit up, “I should send some over to Susan,” she took a packet off the shelf and threw it into the cart.

Edmund groaned in frustration as he covered his eyes as he trailed behind, “I get why we’re decorating the loft, it’s a tradition and the both of you are obsessed. But, do we really need to buy all of the snacks?”

Ed wasn’t a fan of Halloween. Lucy gasped in horror as she placed her hand over her heart, she was so dramatic, “how can you even say that? These snacks trump the ones in England!” she scoffed at him before wandering down the aisle, intent on grabbing more snacks.

Ed carelessly flung an arm around your shoulders and you smiled up at him, resting your head on his shoulder. Then, your best friend dropped a major bombshell, “Caspian is coming over to help us decorate,” you groaned in frustration, receiving stares from strangers but you didn’t care.

You pinched your temples as annoyance shot through every inch of your body. It was the worst news that you’d heard all day, “jesus, Ed! Why does he have to come over?”

Ed smirked as he looked at you without sympathy, “I think that you’re forgetting, Y/N, just because you don’t like him doesn’t mean I can’t be his friend.”

“He called me a slut,” you pouted as you both caught up with Lucy, you were still sore about that fact.

Ed huffed out a deep laugh, “actually, he didn’t.”

“He didn’t have to, Ed! It was implied.”

Edmund rolled his eyes and lowered his voice so Lucy wouldn’t hear the conversation you were both having, “okay, maybe it was implied but trust me, he didn’t mean it. I think he feels awful about it actually.”

You scoffed as you looked away, wrapping your arms around yourself, he should feel bad, Ed stopped you by placing his hands on your shoulders, worry etched into every corner of his freckled face, “Y/N,” he sighed, biting his lip and you knew that he was trying to find the right words, “please don’t lie to yourself and don’t pretend that you liked Caspian before all that happened. Don’t bring what your dad did into this, Caspian is not the same.”

Edmund’s eyes were so intense and worried that you had to look away, all of the Pevensie siblings were there for you when your dad betrayed your family. And for that, you felt eternally grateful. But, you didn’t want to talk about your dad.

“I can see that you really care about Caspian but I just don’t share your judgement but I suppose for you, I can tolerate him,” you smiled, “even though he is the most insufferable person that I’ve ever met, I hope you know that I would never ask you to choose between Caspian and I,” you would never make your best friend do that.

Edmund laughed as he cupped your cheek, “well that’s a good thing because I really like Caspian,” he smiled when you frowned at him and tilted your head, “you’re my best friend, Y/N, if I had to choose between you and Caspian, I would always choose you.”

You laughed bashfully as you rubbed the back of your neck; you weren’t used to people putting you first. Before you burst into tears like a total loser, you pulled Ed into a hug, inhaling the fresh scent of his aftershave.

Later on that day, you and Lucy entertained yourselves by working your way through some of the Halloween chocolate as you decorated the loft. It had been a long time coming but New York was finally beginning to feel like home. Presumably, Edmund was off somewhere sulking, he wasn’t getting involved with the whole decorating thing but you wanted to go all out. You knew that you’d probably be working on Halloween, but the beauty of college parties was the fact that they seemed to go on all night.

As you were adding fake cobwebs to the corners of the kitchen, there came a quiet knock on the door. Your blood ran cold and you scowled to yourself when Ed answered the door and you heard Caspian’s soft melodic voice. Despite yourself, you peered over your shoulder to look at the handsome man as he grinned at Ed and ran his hands through his thick hair. You were surprised when you noticed that he was wearing a simple white shirt and jeans. You were almost fooled into believing that he was just like everyone else, but you knew the truth.

“Hi, Caspian,” Lucy shouted joyfully and you narrowed your eyes at her as she pulled him into a hug. What a traitor.

“Hey, Lucy,” you could hear the smile in Caspian’s voice and you rolled your eyes, “how are you?”

“I’m good thank you, I’m going to go and decorate the bedrooms, are you alright, Y/N?” you glanced back at Lucy who shot you a meaningful glance as she walked away.

Caspian bit his lip and looked at you from beneath his thick eyelashes, and you noticed that he had the decency to look guilty, “want any help, Y/N?” he muttered and you sighed, remembering the promise that you’d made to Ed.

“Sure, Caspian. You’re on skeleton duty,” you gestured to the plastic bones by the door, “don’t mess it up,” you teased.

Caspian smirked and you had to look away, he was so blindingly handsome in that moment, not that you’d ever admit it, “I’ll try not to.”

The both of you somehow managed to work in harmony for a little while until Caspian halted his movements and out of the corner of your eye, you saw him glance at you. You almost felt the burn of his eyes on your skin.

“Y/N,” he started and when you looked over at him you were surprised to see that his deep brown eyes were soft and a crease was forming in the middle of his forehead, “I owe you an apology; I didn’t mean what I implied the other week. I was in a bad mood, lack of sleep you know.”

You grimaced, it was your fault that he hadn’t got any sleep that night, “right,” you flushed as he walked behind you to grab some tape, the warm spicy scent of his aftershave washing over you, “I’m sorry about that.”

Caspian shrugged, “I think I was jealous too.”

His confession shocked you so much that you gasped and almost toppled off the chair that you were standing on. How was he jealous? “Jealous?” you squeaked.

Caspian’s eyes widened as he realised how it sounded and you could tell that he was trying to backtrack, “I swear, not in the way you think, it’s just, it’s been a while,” he flushed and you found that it was pretty endearing.

A frown graced your features as surprise wracked through your body, you hated Caspian but you weren’t blind to his attractive looks and mild mannerisms. Most girls would fantasise about him, “seriously?” you raised an eyebrow, “no park avenue princesses’ have won you over?”

Caspian let out a deep laugh that would reduce most people to a puddle, “nope,” he smiled as he picked up a can of silly string, “although I’m flattered that you’re surprised, even if you don’t think much of me.”

Caspian’s voice was teasing but you still kind of felt guilty, if you were being truthful, it wasn’t all that personal because you hated everyone like him, it didn’t matter who they were. People who had too much money and not enough sense got on your nerves.

“Trust me, Caspian I have my reasons for not liking you.”

Caspian touched your elbow gently as he walked past you, “I wish you would tell me what they are, because I know that you’re hiding something, Y/N.”

You wouldn’t open yourself up to Caspian, no matter how many sweet smiles that he shot your way. There was no way that you were going to be allying with your enemy; Hell would have to freeze over first.

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

A couple of weeks later, Caspian was sitting in the living room of Edmund’s loft apartment with his text book open on the coffee table. The words in the text book in front of Caspian seemed to swim before his tired eyes, the young man groaned as he rubbed his hands over his face as his head began to throb. He glanced over at Edmund who was fast asleep with his cheek sticking to the paper of his essay with his mouth agape. Caspian chuckled and looked over at the clock; it was a little past 2 in the morning.

Caspian was glad that Ed had suggested that they studied at his apartment, Caspian had had a row with his housemates, they were some of his closest friends but lately, they were pissing him off. Caspian stretched his tired muscles, he needed to finish this essay but they had run out of coffee a little over an hour ago. He stood from the couch, fully intent on grabbing some more coffee when he saw that Y/N’s bedroom light was still on and the door was slightly ajar.

Biting his lip, Caspian decided to ask her if she wanted anything, he’d feel bad if he didn’t at least ask. He swallowed and peeked his head through her open door and he was awe struck with what he saw. Y/N had her back to him and she was painting a beautiful landscape of a castle in ruins, surrounded by mountains and an ocean. It was so hauntingly beautiful.

“Y/N?” he called out softly and she jumped as she was startled and she whipped around to look at him.

“Caspian?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you, I was going to go and grab some coffee, do you want anything?”

Her lips parted slightly, like she was surprised that he’d even ask, her eyes were downcast for a second as she fiddled with her fingers. Caspian had never seen such a look on her face before, it seemed that she was in fact, human, “would you mind it if I came with you?”

“Oh!” Caspian exclaimed, gobsmacked that she wanted to go with him but she looked a little upset, maybe she needed a break, “sure, Y/N. Of course.

Y/N smiled tightly at him as she grabbed her distressed leather jacket before following Caspian into the main part of the loft. As soon as she saw the state that Ed was in she giggled, shaking her head. Her laugh was a pretty sound when it wasn’t directed at Caspian’s expense, “someone couldn’t cut it, huh?”

Caspian laughed at the smirk on her pretty face as they walked out into the cold night together, it was an odd companionship, “did you need a break or something? That’s the only reason I can think of as to why you would actually spend time with me willingly,” he teased and Y/N laughed as she bumped her shoulder against his.

“I sure did need a break; my art assignment is really kicking my arse.”

Caspian bit his lip and decided to try his luck, “is that what you were painting. From where I was standing, it looked beautiful.”

Almost at once, Y/N tensed up and her face grew stoic which was a shame, “thank you but um, no that’s something else,” she ran a hand through her messy hair but she didn’t elaborate.

“What was it?” Caspian asked with interest, they were actually having an adult conversation and he didn’t want to stop now.

Y/N scoffed as she gave him the side eye, “nice try, keep dreaming, pretty boy.”

Caspian chuckled as he held up his hands in defence, “can’t blame a guy for trying.”

As they were walking down the dark high street, Caspian internally groaned they ran into a family friend who was leaving a bar, he was completely insufferable. Why the hell was he in a bar in Brooklyn? Michael smirked as he looked from Caspian to Y/N, if Y/N thought that Caspian was an arrogant trust fund baby then he was nothing compared to this guy.

“Hello, Caspian, you’re out late, it definitely looks like you’re slumming it but I never would have believed it,” his lip curled when he noticed Caspian’s NYU jumper and Caspian’s blood boiled in anger. Michael raised an eyebrow as he looked over at Y/N, “at least you’re slumming it with a pretty girl.”

Y/N let out an angry breath as she glared at Michael, “watch it, wanker.”

Michael grimaced, his blue eyes cold and lifeless, “interesting, a mouthy British girl,” he let out a nasty laugh as he patted Caspian’s shoulder. Caspian clenched his jaw, he so wanted to punch Michael in his smarmy face, “make sure you call your mom.”

“Are you alright, Y/N?” Caspian lowered his voice as Michael pushed past them.

She nodded but she looked angry, angrier than Caspian had ever seen here, “what an arsehole. How do you know him?” she gritted her teeth as she glared at Michael’s retreating back.

“Family friend unfortunately, I have to put up with him,” Caspian muttered, distracted when his phone vibrated in his pocket, he sighed in frustration when she saw it was a text from his mum. What the hell was she doing up at this time? Did she have eyes everywhere or something?

‘Just because you haven’t been in touch with me sweetie, doesn’t mean you can get out of the wedding at the end of November, I hope you haven’t forgotten. Evelyn says that she hasn’t heard from you in a while, sort it out, Caspian x’

Caspian scowled as he angrily shoved his phone back into his pocket, talking to Evelyn hadn’t been a part of the deal. Not yet anyway.

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

@smiithys @elayneblack @amelie-black @generalblizzarddreamer @blackbirddaredevil23 @whiskeywinter89 @graciehams

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ashintheairlikesnow · 4 years

Text

Akio’s Idea

CW: Some vague past noncon references, discussion of traumatic events, referenced minor whump, referenced Oliver being gross as shit - all vague, Akio Gets An Idea, modern slavery

(Lisa Huang appears in Teenage Dream)

“Thanks for driving down here, Lisa.”

“No problem.” Lisa Huang pushes her glasses back up on her nose, sitting back in the hard plastic chair in the side room with its large conference table. The faint sounds of the gym are still audible here. Lisa’s got one ankle laid over the other knee, hands behind her head as she looks around. The heavy knit cap on her head is a deep saturated orange, the rest of her clothes a mix of faded gray and blacks. It makes her look, just a little, like she’s wearing a pumpkin on her head. “I needed to meet my sister for lunch some time this month, so I figured, two birds one stone. The drive down was really pretty, anyway. Wow, the gym has hardly changed at all, has it?”

“Not really.” Akio gives her a half-smile. He’s in his own casual clothes, just a hoodie over a t-shirt and jeans. He feels like she’ll see his heart beating, the way he shifts from foot to foot. Lisa was always good at reading people, better than Akio’s ever been, anyway. “New equipment, new kids, but… you know. You probably didn’t exactly get lost.”

“Ha! No. I could have walked to this room with my eyes closed.” She gestures at a large framed photo across the room, settled along a wall between two windows. “They haven’t even changed the team photo. We were, like, kids when we went there.”

Akio looks over his shoulder.

He’s right in the center of the photo, next to the old governor, smiling brightly for the camera. On either end of the line, their coaches. Spread throughout the center, all of them, a range of ages, wearing matching windbreakers and gym pants, smiling. All of them, smiling.

One of them, missing, presumed dead.

“Yeah, Mark’s still really proud of that, I guess.”

“I remember. That crusty old guy’s what got us the WRU sponsorship. Mark just about had a stroke when they wanted to do that whole marketing campaign with us.” Lisa laughs. Akio doesn’t. His nerves are shot, and he doesn’t want to make small talk about WRU. Not knowing what he knows. Not with who’s waiting in the hallway.

Lisa seems to pick up on his reticence. Her laughter fades, and she tilts her head, some of her black hair brushing along her shoulder. “Aki? What’s up, man? I haven’t talked to you in, like, six months and then you ask me to come down to the old gym and say it’s super important but you can’t say why on the phone. Talk to me, man. I don’t mind being here, but if you’re going to propose, I have some real bad news about how thoroughly I am not going to do that. Nothing personal, I don’t want that mess with anyone else, either.”

That does pull a laugh from him, and Lisa relaxes slightly. “Don’t worry, Lees, I’m not asking you to-... anything me,” Akio says, heading for the doorway to the conference room. His palms feel sweaty. His palms never feel sweaty. He can swing through the air and only feel the perfect rush of what his body can do, he can land on his feet, he broke an ankle once without a sound, but now… now he’s scared.

Scared of what he’s going to show her.

Scared of how she could react.

“I’m actually sort of dating someone,” Akio confesses, after a pause. “I mean. I think we’re dating.”

“Honestly, you not knowing if you’re dating someone or not is the most Nakamura thing I can imagine,” Lisa says cheerfully. “You haven’t changed much, either.”

Has he not? He feels like a whole different person since he found Tristan again. Like he’s aged ten years in a few weeks. A new anger burns under his skin, fury at grieving the loss of a boy who was never actually gone.

“What’s his name?”

Akio stops, hand on the doorknob, and turns to look over his shoulder at Lisa’s impish little grin.

“Oh, fuck off, Aki, you think I didn’t know? We practically lived together at the gym. What’s his name? Is that why you wanted me here, to meet him maybe?”

“His name’s-... uh, his name’s Ben. He’s not here, but. Okay, so. There’s something I needed to show you today. I want to show everybody from the old group, but… but I wanted to start with you.” He can feel heat in his eyes, unfamiliar fear making his pulse thrum. Something in his expression makes her own smile fade.

Lisa Huang leans forward, dropping both feet to the floor. She watches him, dark eyes traveling over his face. “Aki? What’s wrong?”

Akio laughs, a little helplessly. “Just… so much is wrong, Lisa.”

“Talk to me, Nakamura. What’s going on?” Lisa’s concern is open, and genuine, and he can’t think of any way to answer except just to open the door, glancing to where Chris is waiting sitting on a bench in the hallway, and gesture him inside.

Chris comes in slowly - he’s nervous, too, and one hand grips tightly to the oversized plastic feather necklace he’s always wearing, rubbing his thumb over the carved vanes. He’d be less recognizable, Akio thinks, if he still had the long blue hair and not the short copper. As it is, he’s all giant green eyes and narrow chin, black compression shirt under a loose oversized blue one, black jeans, wearing his friend’s old black-and-white checked shoes.

Lisa glances at him, and he’d be less recognizable, maybe, with blue hair, but Akio sees the color drain from her face as she takes in a man who is, as far as she knows, a very dead boy. She moves to stand, gets halfway up, drops back down into the seat again. “Aki-” Her voice catches, cuts off. “Akio, what-... who is-”

“Lisa.” Akio’s own voice is rough, staying close as Chris steps inside further, then stops. His thumb rubs at the plastic feather, his other hand curves over his stomach, gripping into the fabric of his t-shirt. “This is-”

“Tristan fucking Higgs.” Lisa cuts him off, getting to her feet again. “He’s-... Aki, Tristan’s-”

“A little less dead than we were supposed to think he was. This is, um. Christopher Stanton.” When Lisa looks at him, eyebrows furrowing, Akio shakes his own head in response. “He was Tristan Higgs. Our, our Tris-... but he ended up-”

“Lisa,” Chris says, suddenly, the name slotting into place in a mind where memories still slip and slide out of his awareness seemingly at will. They stick or they don’t, and Akio doesn’t know what makes the difference. His eyes light up, and he takes another two steps forward, then stops when Lisa flinches slightly back. “Lisa, um, Lisa… Lisa-... you, you, you you did, um, you did, you were good at the uneven bars, were, you you you-you… you wore the, the same ponytail holder every time you did a meet.”

Lisa’s eyes fill with tears, the glitter of them visible even across the room, and her hands come up to cover her mouth. “Oh my God,” She whispers. She sits back down, but it’s more like her legs simply stop working, dropping so heavily the chair creaks beneath her. She keeps whispering, oh my god, oh my god, over and over, her face ash-gray, her eyes locked on Chris’s face.

“Wha-... what…” Lisa takes in a breath, and then another, and Chris moves closer to her, bit by bit. Neither of them is able to close the last foot or so of distance, and Akio watches them, his own lips pressed together into a thin line. He’d expected her to deny it, to call this a joke, to call Chris an impostor, but-

Lisa was the one closest to Tris, other than him.

Lisa remembers him well enough to see him in the older, more angular face in front of her, knows him well enough to hear in his speech and the way his fingers tap carefully on his own skin - finger-twist tap tap tap - that it’s Tristan, through and through.

“What happened to you?” Lisa manages. She sounds like she’s choking on the words.

Chris rocks a little, uncertainly, his eyes drifting to look to the windows, the walls, drifting over the framed team photos over the years. “My, my, my parents-... after-”

“I remember that. But you-... you had to go live with someone-”

“My, my aunt.” Chris’s eyes find the old photo of the team with the governor and lock on. His pale eyebrows come together a little, frowning. Something in his face goes distant. “She, she, she… she gave me up.”

Lisa looks at Akio, who nods. “It’s true, as far as I can tell. He went to stay with his mom’s sister, and then… WRU.”

“After he ran away?”

Akio swallows, and shakes his head. “He, uh. He says he never ran away.” He doesn’t mean to talk for Chris, but Chris is moving away from them, staring at the photo on the wall, wandering towards it and away from he and Lisa entirely. “She, uh. She sold him.”

Lisa jerks forward, as though she’ll be sick on the floor, and closes her eyes. “That’s not possible,” She says, in a low voice. “That can’t be what happened. They would-... nobody would do that to someone, nobody would-”

“They did it to him. He didn’t even know who he was, Lees. They gave him a new name and did that thing where they take all his memories and they sold him to someone.”

Akio knows the look on Lisa’s face. Her mind is spinning, overwhelmed. He knows the feeling, he’s cycled through it a hundred times now, his body and brain working to understand that while he was crying in his bed missing his best friend, visiting his parents’ fucking graves to leave flowers for him, Tristan was locked up somewhere, not even knowing who he was.

“But WRU only takes people who sign up on purpose.” Lisa’s hands drop. Her mouth barely moves. There’s almost no sound to the words.

Akio takes in a breath, glancing over at Chris, standing in front of the photo of the team at the governor’s mansion. “So, I asked, he says-... that’s a lie. They… steal people. Or people get given to them, like Tris was.”

“Who-... who did they sell him to?”

“Him. I was, was, was sold to him.”

The two of them look over to where Chris is pointing at the center of the photo. Akio moves over to him, Lisa pushing herself up to follow on his heels.

Akio’s eyes follow the line of Chris's arm, to his index finger pressed just lightly against the glass covering the photo in the frame. Lisa jerks in a breath.

“You’re fucking kidding me,” She says, voice flat, almost empty, the emotions struggling to catch up to the pile of information building up. “That’s-... that’s the governor that got fucking murdered-”

“Right before he was supposed to testify against WRU,” Akio says, blinking. “I remember. Our coach was super pissed because of the publicity. He had some kind of bombshell something that was going to-... oh. Oh shit.”

If Chris hears either of them, he doesn’t show it. He just keeps looking at the man in the photo, tracing the line of his face with his fingertip.

"Right there," Chris says. “I was there.” His voice is nearly drowned out by the sound of creaking, of shouting, of bodies in the air or on mats coming in through the open door. Behind them, out in the practice area, nothing changes. Everything is the same, with Tristan and without him. Life went on.

Life goes on.

Here, though, the silence draws out, as Akio and Lisa stare at Chris's fingernail, with a star sticker stuck to it, and at the photo of the old governor, the one who died, with his arm around Akio's shoulders. Here, time stands horribly still.

"What do you mean-... you’d been… I mean, we had been told you’d, um, that you’d… you know-"

"Under the, the, the desk." Chris taps lightly on the glass. The desk was right behind them, in the photo. His finger is tapping just behind Akio's legs. "I was... right, right, right there. He, he, he, he liked that no one ever saw me. I was there.”

Akio looks at the smile on Governor Branch's face and remembers how his skin crawled at the man's too-friendly touch. How he’d kept asking questions about Tristan, pushing until Akio had gotten upset. How he’d joked with them and Akio had gone home and taken a shower that nearly burned him from the heat just to feel clean for reasons he couldn’t explain to himself.

How the governor kept asking about Tristan.

"I'm going to be sick," He whispers. Akio Nakamura, smiling gymnast, is standing right in front of the fucking desk. Oliver's hand curved around the ball of his shoulder and he's leaning in and, oh god, they're all smiling, all of them.

Their coaches had been so happy for the photo op.

“Tristan-” Neither of them correct Lisa on the name. “Are you-... are you saying you were under the desk when this photo was taken?”

Lisa’s in the photo, too. She’s off to the side, not really looking at the camera, smiling tightly. Lisa never liked photos, and she didn’t even want to go to the governor’s mansion that day. Her hair was longer then.

“Probably. Some… sometimes he would, um, he, he, he would, he would… make me wait in his, his, his room.”

“Gross,” Lisa says, weakly. “How-... how old were you?”

Chris blinks. He’s lost, Akio thinks. Inside his head, inside the memories he can’t hold on to very well. Grasping on with slippery fingers to images and thoughts that someone will have to remind him of later. “They, they, they, they told me to say I-I was eighteen.” He presses his finger directly over Oliver Branch’s face, digging the flat of it in until a smudged fingerprint nearly obscures the man’s face entirely. “They beat me un, until I said it.”

“WRU did?”

Chris nods.

“But you weren’t…”

“No.”

"Why would Governor Branch buy-... But why..."

"Too pretty," Chris whispers. "Too, too, too pretty for... for, um, for for anything else. He, he, he… wanted young." There's a healing wound on his forehead sure to scar and his green eyes are dark and Akio should move, before he throws up on the photo.

He can't. He keeps staring at the desk, like if he tries hard enough, he can step in and tell a younger version of himself Tristan isn't dead, he's right there, just look. Just look. Just look.

Tris was right there the whole time.

While Oliver Branch looked at Akio Nakamura like dinner laid out for him on a plate, he had Tristan under his desk, and when they left he probably pulled him out from under the desk and-

Akio has to turn away, then, jamming his hands into his hoodie pockets and walking away, to the window, breathing in and out as he stares at the cars in the parking lot outside. His blood rushes in his ears, pounds through his temples. His fingers pulse.

Behind him, Lisa asks Chris about his life now, and he answers, in his familiar stammer that Akio had missed so much when he had to live without it. He talks about his brother, going to college.

All of it is-... good, that Tristan rebuilt, that he has people now, a family. But he had a family then, one he should never have had to lose.

Akio has to let them talk, because he’s afraid if he opens his mouth he’ll start screaming.

How many people has this happened to? Akio knows the company line. People disappear into WRU sometimes, running from debt or criminal charges or homelessness, and they get a whole new life.

But he knows the other side of it now, too. He knows Chris - he knows his dead best friend was never dead at all. He knows what happened to him. He’s met a houseful of others - Chris’s older brother with a pretty smile who told him none of us ever want it, not really. The other quiet brother who has a scar on his neck he won’t talk about. The others who stared at him when he came over, terrified to get close to him, scared he’d turn them in.

Akio has started looking at the street kids he sees sometimes and wondering who ran away from WRU and who’s going to end up there.

He’s started to wonder if it has to be that way at all.

When he trusts his voice again, he says, “Did-... did WRU know you were-... weren’t willing-” It’s stupid, he knows better, but he wants - he wants so badly - for it to have been some kind of terrible misunderstanding. If it is, he tells himself, he can pull back from this.

If it is, he can focus on Tristan, he can walk away from the rest.

“They, they, they call us ‘underagers’,” Chris says, and he still doesn’t look away from Oliver Branch’s face. “We, we, we have special rooms. They… know. We’re... we, we, we... we sell for more. After I, I waas rescued they, um, they they they sent people once. To take me back. My, my, my brother kept me safe.”

Akio feels a rush of heat that threatens to burn him alive in his own fury. WRU has been giving the team money and marketing opportunities and bullshit since-... since they met the governor, who had been the one to hook them up with WRU in the first place, and… and the whole time he’d known what happened to Tristan, he was what happened to Tristan, Governor Branch and his oily fucking voice and his stupid jokes and he had Tristan the whole time.

WRU knew.

They know.

They’re still doing it, probably, hurting people like Chris, sending fucking SWAT teams after them if they get out. How many people are out there hurting like this?

There’s an idea that’s been building in the back of his mind. Foggy, barely-formed. But as his anger lights him up, Akio feels the pieces coming together. Speaking up, speaking out, telling people what happened to his best friend will probably ruin his career. It could ruin his life.

But there are a lot of people like Tristan Higgs whose lives are already ruined. A whole lot more whose lives will be if nobody ever stops it.

If he’s going to speak out, he might as well make sure everyone is listening.

“Lisa, do you still speak to the girls from the Canadian team?”

She nods, frowning. “Yeah, I speak to a bunch of different people still. Why?”

Akio looks over at Chris, at Tristan Higgs’s face. The last day he saw Tristan was at his parents’ funeral, wearing an ill-fitting suit and rocking against the weight of grief, his aunt saying it’d be awhile before he could come back to practice.

He’d never returned.

Then the texts stopped, then his aunt said he’d run off, then she said they’d found his body. Then then then. One lie after another, so she could fucking sell him. So WRU could make money off someone who needed help, who Akio couldn’t hear crying for him, for someone, for anyone, to get him out of this.

Akio turns back, and to Lisa and Chris he’s nearly a silhouette of darkness backlit by the light from outside.

“What if we-... what if we make it so WRU can’t do this anymore?”

“How?”

“I have an idea. Just... what if we make it so nobody can ignore what’s really happening anymore?”

---

Tagging: @burtlederp , @finder-of-rings , @endless-whump , @whumpfigure , @astrobly @newandfiguringitout , @doveotions , @pretty-face-breaker , @boxboysandotherwhump , @oops-its-whump @cubeswhump , @whump-tr0pes @whumpiary @downriver914 @vickytokio

#chris the strawberry blond romantic #akio nakamura #lisa huang #speak out arc #box boy whump #whump #modern slavery #box boy universe #bbu #wru #referenced past noncon #referenced past torture #referenced past minor whump

103 notes · View notes

skzsauce01 · 4 years

Text

Cold, White

Synopsis: While competing in a QR code treasure hunt event at your friend’s Halloween party, an unexpected companion gives you a little company.

A districtninewriters event.

Warning: slight sexual harassment, mentions of creepy-ish props

Word Count: 2.5k

Pairing: gn!reader x exbf!Seo Changbin

Genre: fluff, college party au

Read intro here. Return with the “pink Among Us astronaut” link

But which one?

After a few moments, you spotted two vampires talking softly to each other. It shouldn’t be too hard to strike up a conversation with them, you decided and began walking over. Halfway there though, you turned around, feeling someone or something staring at you back. However, you didn’t spot anything, and turned back around to head towards your destination, all the while still feeling like you had eyes glued to your back.

“Hi,” you greeted, walking up to the vampires. “I’m Y/N. How are you two doing tonight?”

They turned to you, and you immediately regretted choosing them to walk up to.

“Oh, a little skeleton,” one of them smirked, looking you up and down. You crossed your arms over your chest, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

The other one slung his arm around your waist and leaned in far too close. “Can I get you something to drink, Lil Boo?”

Oh, you did not skip studying for this. “Actually, I’m going to--”

Out of nowhere, the lights turned off. There were a few screams, but none as loud as the one in your heart when the vampire used the darkness as a chance to slide his hand down to other areas. You tried stepping away, but his grip was strong, so you just squeezed your eyes shut and hoped the moment would pass quickly.

Before he got all the way down, however, you heard a loud crack and felt his hand flying off of you as he tumbled a few feet backwards.

“What on earth, man?” he cursed, and you were suddenly aware of a new presence beside you.

The newcomer made a weird noise as if he was breathing through a machine and turned towards you. He offered you a hand, and when you tentatively put yours into it, he dragged you away, leaving behind the vampires.

“Thanks,” you gasped once he finally stopped at a faraway corner.

He placed one hand on his hip and used the other to rub the back of his… head? It was much too big to be a human head, you decided. Was he wearing some sort of mask? It was hard to see in the dark, but he sensed your curiosity and leaned forward for you to take a better look. You reached for it slowly, and when he didn’t resist, you placed your hands onto his costume. The majority of it was warm and fabric-y except for where your thumbs landed. There, it was cold and possibly white like a one-way glass. A visor of some sort, you decided, and tried to push it up to see his face.

As soon as you do, however, he jerked back and quickly shut the glass back down.

“S-sorry,” you stuttered out.

He seemed too distracted to respond to your apology. You turned to see what he was looking at and saw smoke rising from BamBam’s mezzanine. Was there a fire? No, the kitchen is to your right. Before you could question any further, the lights came back on, but only on the second floor, casting a spotlight over your best friend who stepped grandly out of the smoke.

“Good evening, ghouls and fools, snitches and witches!” his voice boomed. “Are you ready for tonight’s main event?”

Ah, that’s right. The reason why BamBam’s parties were so popular was because there was always a special kick to them, be it a go cart race or a game of Running Man. This must be why the lights are off, you realized.

“Around the house, I have hidden a QR code on each floor of the house. Each one will give you a couple of words which when unscrambled will give you the name of the item. The person who makes it to the backyard gazebo first with their item first wins,” he explained. “Each code is locked by their own minigame which you have to complete to access, but of course, your efforts will not be without reward.” There were a few ooh’s at that announcement. “Whoever brings me their time first wins… two tickets to the Caribbeans!”

Your ears perked up at that; maybe you were glad to have skipped studying after all. The Caribbeans! You’d heard many good things about that vacation spot and had always wanted to go with someone special. Someone special. You looked sadly down at your hand that felt oddly empty without a familiar warmth around it.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Go!” prompted BamBam.

Around you, footsteps of partygoers dispersed in a frenzy and excited squeals filled the air. You looked around, surprised to see the masked man still standing beside you.

“Are you going to participate?” you asked.

Instead of answering, he pointed at you.

“Me? Yeah, I guess I am.”

He seemed to perk up at your answer and shyly tugged on your sleeve.

“Do you want to come with me?” you guessed.

He nods.

“Alright, but if you win, you’ve gotta give me one of those tickets,” you joked, but to your surprise, he agreed to your condition readily.

The first minigame was not hard to find since there was a crowd around it. It was a simple ring toss game where you had to throw pumpkin shaped hoops onto brooms labeled with different point values until you reached 100.

The task proved to be more difficult than anticipated, but you were making considerable progress compared to others because your pink friend ran back and forths, picking up your rings for you.

At last, you got to a hundred, and the gamemaster revealed the code to you. You scanned it with your phone and read the clue.

친. (Chin)

Satisfied, you looked up, expecting to see the astronaut throwing his rings. Instead, you found him waiting for you just around the corner.

“You aren’t participating?” you asked, walking up to him.

Again, instead of answering, he pulled you by the sleeve to the next floor. By the pep in his step, you could imagine him smiling behind that cold white mask, and you couldn’t help but wonder if he knew something you didn’t.

You nearly laughed when you saw what challenge awaited you on the next floor. The room was decorated to the top with zombies and blood, but at the center of it all was a wizard stirring a pot labeled “love potion.”

“Who dares step foot into my lair?” hissed the sorcerer with an accent that was too over the top even for his character.

“Just tell us what the mission is, Felix.” You shook your head with a smile. You knew Felix through your ex-boyfriend, and you stayed in touch even after whom you thought was your soulmate left you for college.

Felix faltered for a moment from you calling him out, but quickly recomposed himself. “Very well, brave one. Your next mission is to prove that my potion works.”

You raised a brow. “How?”

“By drinking it, of course. And then--” he smirked in a way that set off alarms in your system-- “kiss me.”

“Oh, come on. What are we, twelve?” you scoffed at the reverse kissing booth challenge. Still, you crossed your arms and stepped over plastic bones and foam eyeballs to make your way over to him.

When you were about halfway, you noticed Felix’s smirk suddenly growing wider and questioned why. Your curiosity was soon satisfied, however, when the pink astronaut suddenly overtook you with large strides and beat you to the cauldron.

“Hey!” you complained, but your words fell on deaf ears.

The pink man kept his face turned away from you as he flipped up his cold white visor and downed the potion. It must have tasted horrible since this was a challenge after all, but he didn’t miss a beat slamming the now-empty vial on an adjacent table and planting a smooch squarely on Felix’s green face. He then flipped his visor back down and gestured at your phone.

“Me? Scan?” you frowned. “But you--”

Growing impatient, he took the phone from you and scanned Felix’s code. He then stuffed the device back into your hands and dragged you up the next flight of stairs.

You questioned his sudden change in demeanor but kept it to yourself. Instead, you looked at the next clue.

자. (Ja)

As soon as you arrived on the third floor, you immediately decided that its minigame was the hardest. Your eye twitched, not that anyone could see it doing so since the floor was completely blacked out. The only thing you could see was some glow-in-the-dark thread, and you were supposed to thread it through a normal, matte needle.

“This can’t be possible,” you deadpanned.

The gamemaster, someone you couldn’t see but very much wanted to give a piece of your mind, “wooooo’ed” unhelpfully at your misery.

Your eyes struggled to switch between the different light levels, making your whole body tense up and your hand to shake. You let out a frustrated grunt after your nth attempt. By then, other competitors also entered the room, making you nervous and even more shaky.

As you were about to hang your head in surrender, you saw a pink glove clasping over your hand and steadying it. The touch sent a familiar sense of electricity up your spine, but you ignored it in favor of the task at hand. Together, you finally got the thread through after five tries.

“Yes!” you celebrated, startling a few other competitors around you.

The gamemaster handed you a slip of paper with the code on it, and your new friend led you to the exit by hand. When you realized that his hand hadn’t let go of yours since the game, a blush crept over your cheeks. You cleared your throat twice to push down the heat, but it seemed the astronaut took it the wrong way and immediately dropped it and looked at you with worry.

“It’s fine,” you shook your head when he started bowing. “I, uh, I just had something in my throat. I should thank you, actually, for helping me back there… and for all the times before that too.”

He stared at you for a few moments, looking down as he was a few steps above you on the staircase, and you couldn’t help but wonder again what he was hiding behind that cold white mask. Just as you were about to reach forward again, however, he turned back around and resumed climbing the stairs.

The last minigame was on the roof. There, a sign greeted you, telling you that multiple QR codes are hidden around the place, and that you had to find one of the many to complete your word hunt.

You looked at the code you received from the thread game. 구 (gu), it read. What could the last hint be?

You and your pink friend looked and looked, but struggled to find anything. BamBam sure didn’t make things easy for you, did he, you scoffed dryly, looking at all the pools of slime and hollowed out pumpkins where the code could be hiding.

It didn’t help that it was particularly cold that night and that you were on the roof of a three story house. As you shuffled around some prop mummy’s linen for the code, you felt a chill run up your body.

The astronaut must have been at least ten broomsticks away, but as soon you shivered, you heard him walking right up to you.

“Hey. Did you find it?” you asked, not grasping why he was here.

He shook his head and rubbed his hands up and down his upper arms before pointing at you.

“Me? Yeah, I guess it’s a little cold, but I’m okay. Let’s just find this thing quickly and head back down.”

You turned back to your mummy, but your new friend didn’t move. Despite wanting to keep you warm, he realized he wasn’t equipped with a jacket to give you.

Finding nothing in the mummy, you moved on to the next coffin, oblivious to the man’s distress behind you, and patted down a plastic vampire for any goods. As you were distracted, you didn’t realize a figure looming over you from behind. By the time you noticed the shadow being casted over you, it was too late to avoid--

“Wha--”

-- the hug.

The pink astronaut, unable to come up with any other solutions, decided to share his body heat with you. It warmed you up alright, but you weren’t sure if it was because of him or the fire that ignited on your cheeks.

“H-how are we supposed to search like this?” you stuttered.

He thought for a minute before waddling side to side to show you how you could walk.

You chuckled at his antics. “This isn’t going to--”

And then you saw it. Right there. Stuck on his arm. The last QR code.

“You found it!” you exclaimed, surprising him with how quickly you whipped out your phone and took a picture of the code. “You must have brushed up against it when you were looking around.

This time, you grabbed his hand and made your way downstairs to the backyard as the scanning process loaded on your phone. Once there, you looked at your last clue.

“남(nam),” you read aloud now that no competitors were around you. “친. 자. 구 . 남.” The words were scrambled, so you read them out a few more times until the realization hit you.

Your eyes widened. “남자 친구(namja chingu). Boyfriend. But I don’t--”

And then you looked up at the pink astronaut. He stared back at you, unmovingly, and your hands gravitated to his visor again. This time, he didn’t stop you, so you pushed the cold, white glass up to reveal the warmest smile you’ve ever seen.

“Changbin…” you breathed, recognizing him right away.

“Y/N, I know no amount of apologies can ever atone for me leaving you, but I’d do anything for you to take me baaaaaaa-aack!”

Without even hearing the rest of it, you dragged him to the balcony where BamBam was waiting.

“I got it!” you shout at your friend. “The item! I’ve got it right here!”

BamBam looked amused. “This is your boyfriend, Y/N?”

“Yes,” you said without missing a beat. Both the boys jumped a little in surprise at your eagerness.

“Alright then,” chuckled your best friend into a microphone. “We have a winner!”

You could hear groans coming from the house as gold confetti rained down from the gazebo. BamBam handed you the tickets and shot you a wink before making himself scarce. You gleamed at the prize until you felt a tap on your shoulder.

“Y/N-- oof!”

You attacked Changbin with a hug and wrapped your arms around him, frowning when you noticed he lost weight. “You’re back…”

After overcoming his shock, he returned the hug and patted you on the head. “I’m sorry I left you.”

You shook your head against him. “No, don’t be. You were chasing your dreams. What kind of person would I be if I held you back just because of our relationship?”

“But I hurt you.”

“Yeah. Yeah, you did, so--” You pulled your face away from his body to look him in the eyes-- “make it up to me at the Caribbeans?”

Another loving smile spread across his face as he cupped yours with his hand. “I will, but be warned: I’m never letting you go again after that.”

You laughed together. “Ooh, spooky.”

~ ad.gold

#Changbin #stray kids changbin #districtninewriters #halloween event #stray kids #skz #seo changbin #stray kids fic #skz fic #changbin fluff #stray kids fluff #skz fluff #changbin fic #gender neutral reader #20201030

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malecsecretsanta · 4 years

Text

Merry Christmas, bloodspeckledraphael!

For @bloodspeckledraphael. Hi! You mentioned coffee shop AUs, lots of Malec firsts, and tattooed!alec, so hopefully you'll like this :) Happy holidays!

Read On AO3

*****

Tattooed Romance

“Make sure you keep that dry for the next week,” Alec said. “It’s going to be fifty dollars.”

The woman passed her credit card across the counter, and Alec slid it into the machine. The woman’s upped arm was covered in a clear layer of plastic, and Alec could just see the heart design underneath it.

“Thanks,” the woman said, taking her card and receipt.

“Have a nice day.” Alec smiled and followed the woman to the door. He switched the light-up sign in the window to Closed, and locked up after her.

“Last one?” Izzy poked her head out of the tattoo parlor’s back room. Her long black hair was up in a high ponytail, and her tank top showed off the sleeves of tattoos that covered both of her arms.

“Yeah.” Alec followed his sister into the back of the shop, separated from the main area by a curtain. The back was a cluttered mess of boxes of supplies surrounding a rickety wooden table with four chairs around it, and a single tattoo station shoved off to the side. Max was perched on one of the chairs, watching Jace put the finishing touches on a heron tattoo on his right arm. Max was counting the days until he was old enough for his first tattoo.

“Alright,” Alec said. “Max, it’s past your bedtime.”

Alec’s youngest brother tipped his head back and pouted. “Please? I want to watch Jace finish!”

“Already done, buddy.” Jace held up his arm, showing off the design. “Let me wrap this up,” he added. “I’ll be right there.”

“Thanks.” Alec took Max’s hand and led him up the stairs at the back of the room, Izzy close behind.

“I’ve been thinking,” Izzy said. “We should get a break.”

Alec didn’t respond. If he took a break, they wouldn’t be able to pay rent next month.

“Alec,” Izzy said. “We can close early for one night. There’s a band playing at that coffee shop where Simon works—”

“Jace likes that coffee place because he has a crush on Simon’s friend,” Alec said. “He doesn’t go for the coffee.”

“I know. But it’s not like we’d have to pay for tickets.”

“And what about Max?” Alec asked. “Who’s taking care of him?”

“Max can stay on his own for a few hours,” Izzy said. Alec frowned, and she backtracked. “I mean, I can ask Aline.”

Alec considered, then nodded.

“Yes!” Izzy pumped her fist in the air. “I’ll text her now.” She jogged past Alec to the door at the top of the stairs, already fishing her old phone from the back pocket of her jeans. Alec followed her into the apartment.

The Lightwood siblings lived in the rooms above their tattoo parlor, to avoid having to pay rent on two buildings. The front room was taken up by the kitchenette, another wooden table with four more mismatched chairs, and the single dark green sofa pushed up against the back wall. There was a tiny bathroom that they all had to share, and two bedrooms, each with a twin bed against each wall and a dresser in the middle.

Izzy had already disappeared into the bathroom. Alec crossed the main room to the bedroom he shared with Jace, closed the door behind himself, and sat down on his cheap mattress. The springs groaned under his weight.

Alec stared at himself in the cracked mirror over the dresser. He could see the shadows under his eyes from across the room.

Maybe Isabelle was right. Maybe he could use a break.

o-o-o-o-o

“What can I get for you?” Magnus leaned across the counter and smiled at the next customer.

They didn’t look up from their phone. “Um, iced coffee, please. And a slice of pumpkin bread.”

“That will be…” Magnus glanced down at the till. “Eight dollars, fifty-seven cents. Can I get a name for your order?”

The customer paid in cash. Magnus put the money away and scribbled the order on the side of an empty cup.

“Hurry up,” Clary called. “Let’s get these people out of here so we can close.”

Magnus handed her the cup. “Calm down, biscuit. This is the last one.”

Clary wrinkled her nose at him and turned to make the drink. On Magnus’s other side, Simon finished wiping down the last blender and yanked his apron off over his head. Magnus caught a glimpse of the logo on the front, the howling wolf’s head over the words The Gray Wolf, before Simon tossed it onto the counter.

“Done,” he announced. “No thanks to either of you.”

Clary shoved a few loose strands of hair away from her face. “I helped.”

“No, you didn’t,” Simon said. “Come on. Let’s close up. I’ve got D&D in an hour.”

“Why do you play at half past ten?” Magnus asked. Simon shrugged.

“Why not? I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” Simon ducked into the back room to grab his stuff. A moment later, Magnus heard the back door slam shut.

“You’ll be here tomorrow, right?” Clary asked. “I know it’s normally your day off, but—”

“I already told Simon I’d cover for him while he plays,” Magnus said. “Besides, I want to hear this band.”

“No,” Clary said. “You really don’t. The only person who wants to hear this band is Simon’s girlfriend, and I think even she’s going to be disappointed. Don’t tell him I said that.”

o-o-o-o-o

Alec stood outside the door, waiting for his brother to finish in the bathroom. The front door swung open, and Isabelle stepped into the apartment. She wore a red top with black leggings and combat boots, and her hair was tied back in a high ponytail.

“Is he still in there?” she demanded. “We’re going to be late!”

“I’m done!” Jace stepped out of the bathroom. “Does my hair look okay?”

“You look fine.” Izzy glanced at Alec’s outfit—plain jeans and a sweater with only one hole in it. “You’re not wearing that, are you?”

“What’s wrong with this sweater?”

“Everything, brother dear,” Izzy said. “We’re going to be late.”

“Max is at Aline’s?” Alec asked. Izzy rolled her eyes.

“No. I left him alone in a back alley to get kidnapped. Yeah, Aline and Helen are watching him.”

“Okay, then.” Alec grabbed his wallet off the kitchen table and tucked it into his back pocket. “Let’s go.”

o-o-o-o-o

Magnus handed a carboard tray with six iced coffees across the counter to the next customer in line. “Enjoy,” he said, and they smiled and dropped a five in the tip jar.

“Hey, Magnus,” Clary said, poking her head out of the back room. “You’ve got this, right? I want to watch.”

“Have fun,” Magnus said. Clary smiled and disappeared.

The Gray Wolf was packed. Simon’s band was setting up on the small stage, helped by Clary’s mom and stepfather. Magnus moved back to the till, ready to take the next customer’s order.

The front door to the shop swung open, setting the small bell ringing. Magnus looked up.

Three people stepped into the shop. The black-haired girl, who Magnus vaguely recognized as Simon’s girlfriend Isabelle, and the blond boy peeled off immediately to find seats, while their friend crossed the shop to the counter.

“Hi,” he said. “Um. Can I get a dragon fruit refresher and two small coffees?”

Magnus forced himself to look away from the other man long enough to type in the order. “That’s going to be twelve dollars and forty-nine cents.” Magnus leaned across the counter slightly, smiling. “Could I get your name?”

“Um. Yeah. I’m Alec.”

“Alec.” Magnus handed Alec his receipt. When Alec reached out to take it, Magnus noticed the tattoos on the inside of his wrist, a complex swirling pattern that extended up under the sleeve of his sweater. “I’m Magnus.”

“Nice to meet you.” Alec was definitely blushing.

“I’ll have these drinks ready in just a minute,” Magnus said. He turned and grabbed two coffee cups from the stack. He had no idea which drink was for Alec, so he scribbled his phone number on the side of the nearest one.

o-o-o-o-o

“Here.” Alec handed Izzy her dragon fruit drink and Jace one of the coffees.

“That barista was flirting with you,” Izzy said casually, taking a sip of her drink.

“What?” Alec had been about to take a sip of his coffee. He set the cup back down on the table. “He was not.”

Jace smiled. “Then explain this.” He turned his own cup around. There were seven numbers written on the side. “I think this one’s for you, bro.”

“Oh.” Alec reached out and took the cup from Jace. “Huh.”

He looked over at the counter. The barista—Magnus—was handing another group of customers their drinks.

“You think he’s hot,” Izzy said. It was an observation, not a question. “Ask him out.”

“I just met him!” Alec said. “Once! For five minutes. Who asks someone out after five minutes?”

“Oh my God,” Izzy said. “You’re hopeless.”

On stage, one of the microphones squealed. Everyone clapped their hands over their ears.

“Hello everyone!” A boy with messy brown hair was standing behind the mic. “We’re the Mortal Instruments. Thanks for coming out tonight.”

The crowd cheered.

Jace elbowed Izzy in the side. “I didn’t think you were into lead guitarists.”

“I didn’t think you were into redheads, but you’ve been shooting heart eyes at Clary the whole night,” Izzy said. “I notice you’re also too chicken to ask her out.”

“I’ll talk to Clary if Alec talks to the barista,” Jace said.

The band had started to play, and the music was loud enough that no one heard when Alec said, “I’ll think about it.”

o-o-o-o-o

“So,” Clary said. “Simon’s off with Izzy and her brothers, and we have to clean up.”

“Why can’t Luke take care of it?” Magnus asked. “He owns the place.”

“He and my mom are having date night,” Clary said. “It’s on us.”

Magnus tossed the rag he’d been using to wipe down the tables into the sink. “Speaking of Isabelle’s brothers,” he said. “I saw you talking to Trace.”

“His name is Jace,” Clary said. “And we were just talking. You were staring at Alec.”

“Maybe I was,” Magnus said. “So what? I don’t even know if he likes guys. Or if he’ll call.”

“I mean,” Clary said. “He was staring at you, too. Here.” She handed him a beat-up old wallet. “It was on the floor by his seat.”

“This feels like stalking,” Magnus said, taking the wallet from her.

“It is not,” Clary said. “It’s not like you’re Googling him. You just happened to have a friend who knows his sister’s boyfriend, and she told you that the Lightwood siblings run a tattoo parlor called Light Art, and that it’s just down the street from Taki’s.”

o-o-o-o-o

Alec stood behind the counter of the parlor with an empty coffee cup in one hand and the parlor’s phone in the other.

He had fifteen minutes until he had to open for the day. His siblings were still asleep. Normally, Alec would have woken them by now, but if he was going to do this, he wanted to be uninterrupted.

Alec had never done something like this before. He didn’t have much dating experience. There had been a few guys in high school that his parents had found out about and disowned him for, and there had been a casual fling or two since then that had ended quickly.

Still, there was something about Magnus. Something about the sound of his voice and the light in his eyes, and Alec knew he sounded ridiculous, but he really did want to call.

But he didn’t. He stared at the phone until the clock on the wall shifted to nine, and then he opened the parlor and got to work.

o-o-o-o-o

Magnus stopped outside the glass door, studying the writing on the outside. Light Art Tattoo Parlor, printed above a design of swirling flames.

It was definitely the right place. Magnus pushed the door open.

The walls were covered in art. Magnus spotted a knot of thorns, a golden sword, a series of spirals formed by a silver whip, a demon with dark bat wings—and fire. Fire covered the walls, sketched into swirling loops, exhaled from the mouths of dragons, burning across the walls and pages. It was breathtaking. Magnus wondered who had drawn the flames. Was it Alec?

A few feet away from him, a customer was lying face down on a table. Their shirt was draped over a nearby chair, and Isabelle stood over them, needle in hand. Magnus could hear the whir of the needle from the doorway.

Without looking up, she said, “Could you wait by the counter? Someone should be out in just a second—Jace! Alec! Customer!” The last three words were a shout.

“Oh, I’m not here for a tattoo,” Magnus said. “I think I have something of your brother’s?”

Izzy glanced up. Magnus dangled the wallet between his fingers.

“Oh,” she said. “Oh. You know what? How about you take that to him. Alec’s in the back.” She nodded toward a curtain hanging across the back of the parlor.

“Thank you.” Magnus crossed the shop and ducked behind the curtain.

Alec was sitting at a table in the back, head bowed over a piece of paper. Magnus could hear the faint scratching sound of Alec’s pencil. He was drawing, so engrossed in his work that he hadn’t heard Magnus enter, or Izzy’s shout from earlier.

Alec’s hair flopped forward, hiding his expression. Even without being able to see his face, Magnus could tell that Alec was completely lost in his art. Every line of his body leaned toward the page. It would have been a crime to interrupt.

Alec looked up. “Oh!” he said. “Magnus. Um. Hi.”

“Hello, Alec,” Magnus said. “You left this at the Gray Wolf.” Magnus set Alec’s wallet down on the table. Alec sighed in relief.

“I was looking for that. Thanks so much.” He reached out and pocketed the wallet.

“And since I’m here,” Magnus said. “How would you feel about getting dinner with me?”

“What?” Alec set his pencil down and twisted to face Magnus. For the first time, Magnus caught a glimpse of the paper. A single cat’s eye stared up from the page, lined in thick black pencil smudges like eyeliner.

Alec saw Magnus looking and flipped the sheet over.

“I…,” Alec said. “If it’s cheap.”

“I know a place,” Magnus said. “If you’re interested.”

Alec blushed, and Magnus smiled. This was going better than he’d expected.

“Sure,” Alec said.

“I’ll mee you at the Gray Wolf,” Magnus said. “Eight o’clock tonight?”

“Yeah,” Alec said. “Yeah, I’ll be there.”

“Wonderful. I’ll see you tonight.” Magnus winked and turned around, pushing his way past the curtain and out of the shop.

o-o-o-o-o

Alec paced back and forth outside of the Gray Wolf, wondering if he was supposed to go in.

He couldn’t see Magnus through the windows; only Clary was behind the counter. It was 7:45.

“You’re early.”

Alec turned around. Magnus stood behind him, wearing a long black coat, a blue scarf, and eyeliner. Alec had never stopped to consider how attractive eyeliner could be on a guy, but he was thinking about it now.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes.” Alec fell into step beside Magnus as he led the way down the block. It was early December, and Alec’s fingers were freezing. He stuffed them into the pockets of his jeans.

“You’re cold,” Magnus said. He unwrapped his scarf and draped it around Alec’s neck. “That suits you, actually. It brings out your eyes.”

“Oh,” Alec said. “Thanks.”

“And…here we are,” Magnus said. He stopped them in front of a small diner that Alec must have walked past a hundred times, but had never entered. “Taki’s. Best food in the city.”

“I’ve never eaten here,” Alec confessed, and Magnus smiled.

“Well then. Prepare to have your eyes opened.” Magnus reached for the door handle. “After you.”

Alec stepped into the diner.

o-o-o-o-o

“So,” Magnus said. “Why a tattoo parlor?”

“What?” Alec looked up from his hamburger. Magnus was right—it was one of the best he’d ever had.

“Clearly, you wanted to be an artist,” Magnus said. “So why did you pick tattooing?”

“Because… the starving artist thing doesn’t pay the bills, and I have three siblings I’m responsible for,” Alec said. “And you can charge a decent amount for tattoos.”

“You have some, right?” Magnus nodded to Alec’s sleeves, which didn’t quite cover the patterns extending down his wrists.

“Yeah. They go up my arms and down my back. I, uh, could show you. Later.”

Alec realized what he’d just said and blushed. Magnus arched an eyebrow.

“Oh? I might take you up on that.”

Alec’s blush deepened.

“So,” he said. “So…what about you? Why the Gray Wolf?”

Magnus shrugged. “I’m kind of between full-time jobs at the moment. My friend’s parents own the shop, and she offered me a job.”

For a moment, Alec wondered what that would be like, to have friends supporting you, instead of always being the one supporting others. Alec’s only friends were Helen and Aline, and they were busy taking care of Helen’s siblings.

“Can I ask you something?” Magnus asked. He leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. Alec told himself not to get distracted by Magnus’s eyes, and failed.

“What? Sure.”

“How did you end up taking care of three younger siblings?”

Alec blinked. “Oh. Well. I don’t really take care of Izzy and Jace. They’re adults.” It wasn’t true, and Magnus clearly saw that, but Alec kept going. “And Max isn’t so bad. Our father is dead, and Mom… she left for a better job. A long time ago.”

“And she couldn’t help you at all? Even with Max?” Magnus asked. Alec shrugged.

“She wouldn’t help me if I asked, anyway. Neither of them was exactly thrilled when I came out.”

“I’m sorry,” Magnus said. He looked down at the table. “You never should have had to deal with that.”

Alec cleared his throat, slightly awkward. He knew his situation wasn’t ideal. No one had ever told him it shouldn’t have happened. No one had ever implied that Alec should have been able to live his life for himself, instead of for his siblings.

“Thanks,” Alec said. He didn’t know how to say everything he’d been thinking, but from the shine in Magnus’s eyes, Alec thought maybe he understood.

o-o-o-o-o

Alec took Magnus back to the tattoo parlor after the date.

“Do you want to go back to the parlor?” Alec had asked. “I can show you around. Or is it too soon to bring you home? Is that weird?”

“You live there?” Magnus had asked.

“Above the shop.”

Magnus had taken Alec’s hand. “We’ll stay downstairs.”

Now they were standing in the center of the main room. Magnus was spinning around slowly, taking it all in—the art covering the walls, the chairs and padded tables where customers sat, the carts of equipment, and the colorful metallic swirls Izzy had painted all over the floor when they’d first started renting the place.

“Do you draw all of these?” Magnus asked. A lot of the art was painted right onto the wall, but most of it was framed sketches and paintings. Magnus trailed his finger along the bottom of one of the frames. Alec knew which drawing Magnus was looking at without having to ask.

Alec had drawn that himself, ten years ago. He’d been eleven years old, doodling on the back of his math homework. He’d seen that simple swirl of flames and known what he wanted to do. Now, it was the logo of Light Art. Alec didn’t even care that it was weird to have a math worksheet framed.

“I drew that one,” Alec said. “I was eleven. It’s what inspired… this.” Alec gestured to the entire parlor. “Jace and Izzy do a lot of the art, though. Even Max has drawn a few”

“Artistic family,” Magnus commented. He turned and met Alec’s eyes. “It’s all amazing.”

Alec’s breath caught. He was so used to people coming in and out, telling Alec what they wanted and expecting it to be prefect—no room for mistakes or creative freedom. And here was Magnus, who just appreciated the art on the walls.

“Which one’s your favorite?” Magnus asked.

Alec laughed. His favorite wasn’t on the wall.

“I did say I’d show you my tattoos,” Alec said. “It’s one I drew. Izzy and Jace did all the actual tattooing, obviously. It’s not on the wall because I didn’t want someone else to get it.”

Alec shrugged off his old gray sweater and, feeling acutely self-conscious, his tee shirt. He pretended not to notice Magnus’s gaze and turned around.

Alec had tattoos climbing from his wrists up both arms, spilling over his shoulders and down his back. He’d known, starting a tattoo parlor, that he’d need tattoos; he’d put a lot more thought into his than Izzy and Jace had put into theirs.

Alec’s tattoo was one he’d spent hours working on, night after night. It showed four hands, all emerging from the abstract border of strange symbols and flames surrounding them. That border was the same design that extended down to Alec’s wrists. The hands themselves all curved inward in a spiral, each hand cupped so that the fingers formed a circle of clear, unmarked skin at the center of Alec’s back. One hand was larger, with black marks on the back of it. One’s skin was more golden than the others. One wore a silver bracelet. One was far smaller than the rest.

“Alec,” Magnus said. “It’s beautiful.”

Alec didn’t have to ask if Magnus knew what his tattoo was for. It was obvious to anyone who knew Alec.

Alec still had his back to Magnus, but he heard footsteps, and then Magnus was only a few inches away from him. Alec felt the ghost of Magnus’s fingertips on his back, tracing the hand that was modeled after Alec’s own.

Magnus’s fingers moved across Alec’s back, to the space in the center of the hands, where there was no ink, and up Alec’s spine to the back of his neck. Alec wasn’t sure he remembered how to breathe.

“Alec,” Magnus said.

“Yeah?”

“Could you do something for me?”

“Um, yeah. Sure.”

“Could you turn around?”

Alec did. Magnus was so close, Alec almost bumped into him. And then Magnus leaned even closer.

“Is this okay?” Magnus asked. Alec knew that if he said no, Magnus would back off. Alec could send Magnus away and go back to work. He could draft a dozen new tattoos for tomorrow and work without the distraction of a boy in his life, and never see Magnus again.

Magnus, the first person in a long time who had looked at Alec as a whole person on his own. Not just as a member of the Lightwood family. Not just as his sibling’s caretaker. Just as Alec.

It wasn’t a very difficult decision.

“This is more than okay,” Alec said.

“Just wanted to clarify,” Magnus said. “Because I really want to kiss you right now.”

Alec leaned forward and kissed Magnus, instead.

o-o-o-o-o

They kissed for a few minutes in the parlor, and Alec thought about inviting Magnus upstairs, but he shared a room with his brother, and Alec did not want to have to explain any of this to Jace.

Magnus and Alec ended up leaving the parlor. Alec locked the door behind them and sent a message to the group chat he shared with his siblings, telling them he’d be back later that night, or early the next morning. Magnus reached over to take Alec’s hand. Alec let him.

“Where should we go?” Alec asked. Magnus shrugged and tugged Alec after him in a random direction.

They ended up taking the subway into Brooklyn, and Magnus led the way through the streets to his loft. They stopped and kissed on the doorstep, and again in Magnus’s living room. Then Magnus went into his kitchen and made hot chocolate.

Alec smiled when he realized what was in the mugs. “Thanks. It’s freezing out there.”

Magnus sat down next to Alec on his cream-colored sofa. He didn’t even care if he spilled his drink on it.

Alec took a sip of his cocoa. “Wow. This is really good.”

Magnus laughed. “I can’t take credit. It’s the Starbucks stuff.”

“Oh. Do they have good hot chocolate, or something?”

“Alexander.” Magnus shook his head in disbelief. “You’ve never had Starbucks hot chocolate?”

“No.”

“Next date. We’re going to Starbucks.”

Alec set his mug down on the coffee table. “Did you… you want to go out with me again?”

“Of course.” Magnus set his drink down next to Alec’s and reached for his hands. “I made out with you in a tattoo parlor and then brought you to my apartment, Alec, what do you think?”

“I mean, when you say it like that…”

Magnus laughed and leaned in. Alec closed his eyes.

o-o-o-o-o

When Magnus woke up the next morning, Alec was still asleep. His black hair was a tangled mess on the pillow, and he was curled on his side, one arm extended in Magnus’s direction. Magnus vaguely remembered them falling asleep holding hands.

Magnus ran his fingers through Alec’s hair. Alec didn’t wake up, but he mumbled something in his sleep and turned his head in Magnus’s direction.

Magnus thought Alexander Lightwood might be a very easy person to fall in love with.

He got up and made them both cups of coffee.

o-o-o-o-o

One Year Later

“Hey, biscuit. I need to ask you for a favor,” Magnus said.

Clary didn’t look away from the whipped cream bottle in her hand and the drink in front of her. “No guarantees. I have a date tonight.”

“I need someone to clean up for me,” Magnus said. “I’m supposed to be over at Light Art by eight.”

“Can’t, sorry. Jace is picking me up at seven. Can Simon do it?”

“I already asked. He’s at some nerdy gaming convention with Isabelle. I didn’t even know Isabelle liked video games.”

“Oh, she does,” Clary said. “The really violent ones where your character is a complete badass. Didn’t you hear what happened after Simon introduced her to Tomb Raider?”

“Alexander did mention that,” Magnus said.

Clary looked at Magnus and sighed. “I’ll call my parents. It’s their shop, they can put some extra effort in just this once.”

Magnus grinned at Clary. “Thank you, biscuit.”

o-o-o-o-o

Luke and Jocelyn were both behind the counter when Jace walked into the shop. He wasn’t alone.

“Alexander.” Magnus abandoned his apron next to the espresso machine and went to kiss his boyfriend. “I was going to meet you in an hour.”

“Jace mentioned he was coming over. I thought I’d say hi. We’ve got our new artist holding down the fort.”

“How’s Mark doing?” Magnus asked.

“You know, he’s a little strange,” Jace said. “But I like him. I especially like when his little brother makes those pancakes for us. That kid has a future in culinary arts.”

“Come on, Jace,” Alec said. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”

“Yes,” Clary said. She’d appeared from behind the counter, apron off, her red hair tied back.

“I’ll see you later,” Alec said. Jace clapped his brother on the shoulder and followed Clary out the front door.

Alec reached for Magnus’s hand. “Ready?”

“Absolutely.”

o-o-o-o-o

Mark Blackthorn was just closing up the tattoo parlor when Magnus and Alec got there.

“Everything’s put away,” he said. “And Julien came by with more pancakes. I left them on the table in the back.”

“Thank him for us,” Alec said. “And tell Aline to text me back, will you?”

“Yeah,” Mark said. “I’ve got to go, I’m actually late for something. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Bye, Mark,” Alec said. Magnus waved.

“Okay.” Alec went over to one of the tattoo stations and pulled out a needle. “You’re sure about this?”

“I already said I was,” Magnus said. He sat down in one of the chairs and rolled up his sleeve. “Go ahead.”

o-o-o-o-o

When Alec was done, he wrapped Magnus’s arm in plastic and gave him the same instructions he’d give to anyone. “I’ll give you a sheet with tips for taking care of it. It’s going to itch, fair warning. Keep it dry for the next week.”

“Got it,” Magnus said.

“Do you want a pancake?”

“I would love a pancake.”

Alec and Magnus went into the back room, where, sure enough, there was a plate of pancakes sitting on the table under a layer of plastic wrap. Alec grabbed them and led the way upstairs. He stuck the plate in the microwave and made hot chocolate to go with them.

“I love this,” Alec said, sitting down next to Magnus on his old, shitty sofa.

“What?” Magnus asked, balancing his plate of pancakes on his knees.

“All of this. Getting this place to ourselves for once. The fact that you just got a tattoo. Hot chocolate in the middle of the night. You.”

Magnus smiled and set his food on the end table so he could tug Alec closer to him. “I love you, too.”

#bloodspeckledraphael #malecsanta20 #*fic20 #*gifts20

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jeminy3 · 5 years

Text

The Things We Carry.

One of many old drabbles I’m finally getting around to finishing. Expect more Blind!Roy in the future.

In this one, Roy visits the Hughes house a few months after the Promised Day. He refused Marcoh’s offer to heal his eyes.

Features: Blind Character PoV, implied self-loathing, depression, character death and the repercussions on their spouse and child, discussions of death and violence with a child.

Read on AO3

Read on Google Docs

Twitter Post

Cool art by Manalfedz

–

"Can you see this, Mister Mustang?"

Roy stares, aiming slightly down and to his side where Elicia's voice is coming from, but he sees nothing besides the usual darkness.

"No, I can't," he says.

He hears the girl huff softly, then the clicking and clacking of plastic as she retrieves another toy.

"What about this? The light's really bright, can you see?"

Roy knows it's pointless, but he strains his eyes anyway. He thinks he can see the tiniest spot of grey flickering in the darkness of his vision, maybe, but it's so faint he can hardly tell.

Well, he can't bear to dash the girl's hopes. So he says, "Just a little bit."

Elicia gasps softly. "Really? Yay!" Her little voice beams with excitement, and she claps her hands vigorously. It warms him, and Roy can't help smiling.

Suddenly there's the sound of her mother, Gracia, entering the room, telegraphed by footsteps on the dining room carpet and the shifting of her clothes.

"Look, mommy! It's so bright, even Mister Mustang can see it!" Elicia says, probably waving the light-up toy around for her mother to see.

"That's nice dear, but I think Mustang's had enough for now," her mother replies, somewhat curtly. There's the soft 'thunk' of dinner plates, heavy with food, being laid upon the table Roy's currently sitting at.

"Can you pick up your toys and play in the living room? We're having dinner now."

"Okay..." Elicia says, not hiding her dejection.

There's more click-clacking as she retrieves her toys, and the sound comes and goes as Gracia joins him at the table and begins to speak. Roy can imagine her carting her toys to the other room one armful at a time - she must have brought more toys than he first thought.

"I'm so sorry if she bothered you, Mustang," Gracia says quietly, slightly strained.

Roy lightens his voice, waving a hand dismissively. "Oh no, no, it's fine. She's just curious is all. Perfectly natural at her age."

Gracia sighs, a bit long-sufferingly. "I suppose. I can't imagine what it's like myself."

"Not many can," Roy says casually.

By now he's felt around for his fork on the table, which he uses to explore his dinner via holding it by the base of its tines instead of the handle, using his fingertips to discreetly touch at the food. Feels like meatloaf slices, with sides of peas and mashed potatoes. Very humble, as Gracia had warned him before he came over, but nonetheless appetizing as the smell wafts up to his nose. It's warm, homely, like the Hughes' household always is. Thank God that hasn't changed.

Roy tries the peas first, enjoying the way the soft seeds gently burst into mush between his teeth, tasting mildly sweet and buttery.

Gracia speaks up again after a soft clinking of metal-on-dinnerware from her direction. "I don't mean to pry, but- how are you, lately? I'm sure it hasn't been easy, at work or otherwise."

Roy pauses to swallow the peas. "...Like I've said, we have a system now, and it works. I should be asking how you've been, Gracia. It's been a while."

Gracia stutters a bit. "Oh- Me? There's not much to tell, really. Just more of the same."

Roy blinks uselessly in her direction, halfway though lifting a piece of meatloaf to his lips. "...Even after the eclipse?"

Gracia laughs uncomfortably. "Ah- Well yes, that was quite the scare, but we're alright now. And very glad that we are!"

His guilt stings at him again at the word, the memory of that day. In all his nerve-fraying preparation for that event, he'd arranged safe passage for his own family out of Central, but not the family of his closest friend. Another wound to pick at himself with until the end of his days.

...And by now Roy thinks he's hearing a pause in Elicia's toy-handling that line up perfectly with every other line of their conversation, but... Eh. He elects to ignore it. Not like she'll understand what they're talking about anyway

Roy clears his throat lightly. "...I'm happy to hear that, but- I worry about you, Gracia. You know I do. And I'm sorry again that I couldn't visit sooner."

He can hear the shifting of Gracia shaking her head. "Roy, please. I'm alright, really! Major Armstrong has been kind enough with electing to watch Elicia for me when I'm out. He's such a great help, you know."

Roy smiles around his mouthful of meatloaf, both at her statement and the juicy texture of the meat. Gracia always was a great cook.

After swallowing, he says, "So I've heard. Working out well, I imagine?"

"Oh yes, Elicia adores him. Says she talks his ear off all the time."

She chuckles lightly. Roy can’t help laughing as well, imagining the tiny girl pestering the relatively massive Strong Arm Alchemist with a deluge of comments and questions, not unlike what she was doing earlier with Roy himself.

But the lightness is short-lasting, falling into an uncomfortable silence as they returned to their food. Roy fills his mouth with a spoonful of mashed potatoes, doing his best to ignore the emptiness that occupies the third seat at the table now - even without eyes, he can still feel it there.

Gracia gives a small sigh, suddenly. "...Still...."

"Mm?" Roy grunts through his mouthful of potatoes.

"...Are... Are you sure you're alright?" she asks, in this strange, almost desperate tone of voice. "I know at work you are, but- what about your personal life?"

Roy swallows thickly, partly because of the potatoes, partly because this conversation was making him uncomfortable now. He clears his throat and forces a chuckle.

"What personal life? I practically live at the office, you know this, Gracia," he says, half-laughing.

Gracia doesn't lighten her tone, though, cutting deeper instead. "...I'm serious, Roy. After what you've gone through, what happened in-"

"The explosion, yes. It was terrible," Roy cuts in, more curtly than intended.

He jerks his head in the direction of the living room, because by now he's confident that Elicia is quietly listening in on them. An explosion had taken his sight - that's the public statement they'd released, among many, many others, to explain what'd happened on the Promised Day.

Gracia catches his hint with a small cough. "Ah- of course. Sorry..."

Roy straightens, clears his throat again. "...It's fine. I'm coping as best I can, like I always do." His tone leaves another sentence hanging between them, unspoken - So please, don't worry about me.

"...That's what I'm afraid of," Gracia says quietly, more to herself, really

Roy can't think of a response - and soon silence falls again, this time pressing down like a great, crushing weight, a sensation of drowning.

There's another clinking of dinnerware - Gracia seems to have stopped eating. She sighs again, this time with an air of finality. "Just... don't run yourself too hard, Roy. You've been through a lot."

"I'm-"

"I would know," she adds quietly, cutting off Roy's response. This time, he swallows nothing. Or perhaps the sentence he attempted to say.

He's not liking this trend of everyone around him worrying excessively for his personal well-being, lately. But it can't be helped, he supposes, with the severity of his condition and the position he's still holding despite it. It's been nearly two months now, and his superiors are still shocked that he's refusing to retire, but at least Grumman's been willing to work with him. He'll admit that it's been anything but easy, but he'll be damned if he stops pursuing his goal and lets himself become a burden to everyone. He simply can't give up now - he's done too much, come too far, and couldn't live with himself if he did.

...Besides, he can hardly live with himself as it is.

He hears Gracia shift, and suddenly feels a warm hand grasping his own from across the table, gentle but firm.

"If you ever need to talk, I'm right here" she says, full of warmth and sincerity like she always is.

...Like Maes was, too.

Roy swallows at nothing again. "...Thank you," he whispers, trying his best to sound sincere.

Because to be brutally honest, he can't see himself taking up that offer very often, if at all.

---

The tension at dinner never quite went away, even into dessert. Sweet slices of pumpkin pie gained a bitter aftertaste on Roy's tongue, and he decided to take this as his cue to take his leave and head back home to his apartment.

“Thank you for the food, Gracia,” he says, somewhat tersely, rising from his chair. “Delicious as always.”

“Thank you, Roy,” she responds, a little stiffly. She shifts and takes his hand to shake it - hangs there for a few moments, awkward, leans closer as if wanting to offer him a hug instead. But she doesn’t, probably sensing Roy’s tension at the idea.

Still, he bows politely, retrieves his cane and makes his way to the living room and the front door beyond it – then finds himself stopped by a small hand tugging on his pant leg.

“Mister Mustang! You’re not leaving, are you?” Elicia chirps at his side.

Roy lowers his head in the direction her voice is coming from (or as best as he can guess). “I’m afraid so, dear. I’m sorry, but it’s getting late-”

“But I wanted to show you somethin’!”

“Ah- Oh. You did?”

“Mommy, can I take Mister Mustang to my room before he goes? Pleeeease?”

“Yes dear, but don’t keep him long,” Gracia calls out from the kitchen over the soft sound of running water, probably starting to wash the dishes.

“Okay!” Elicia bounces against him, and he feels her small fingers reaching up to grasp his own. Roy flusters slightly, caught between his own awkwardness and the whims of this precocious little girl. The girl, of course, wins out, and he submits to being tugged along by the arm across the house and into a bedroom down the hall.

Roy feels for obstacles with his cane instinctively as Elicia leads him inside, helping him around her furniture and scattered toys on the floor. He finds himself lead to her bed near the back.

“You can sit on my bed, Mister Mustang,” she says. Strangely, it sounds more like a command than an offer.

Roy ponders this as he seats himself on the little bed’s soft comforter, along with the silence that’s suddenly settled around him. Elicia doesn’t say a word as he hears her walk across the room, close her bedroom door, then return to the bed. Neither does she stop to retrieve a toy, or a book, or anything.

Roy feels the mattress sink and rise as her small form takes a seat next to him, still saying nothing. He feels very nervous, suddenly.

After a beat, she finally speaks, and in this strange, solemn sort of way. "Mister Mustang, can I ask you something?"

Roy turns in her direction, not sure what she's implying... but he gives her a smile anyway. "Of course, dear. Ask me anything."

"Who really took your eyes?"

Roy is... caught off-guard, to say the least. His smile vanishes in an instant, and he stammers out his response, his eyes blinking uselessly. "My... W- What?"

Elicia pauses for a moment, then speaks again, still in that odd tone of voice. "...It was the monsters, wasn't it. The ones who killed my daddy."

She knows. And she sounds far, far too serious about it. It's frightening.

...But then, Roy thinks, should he really be surprised? This poor girl lost her father when she'd barely turned three years old. She's been living with a grieving mother ever since, and the entirety of her short life in a violent, war-mongering country that's just gone through an earth-shattering upheaval within the past few months. He can't imagine what she's gone through, at such a tender age.

Obviously quite a bit, as she already has the presence of mind to keep up appearances in front of him and her mother while they discuss sensitive topics, and the intelligence to corner him for sensitive information in privacy.

Ah... she's already so much like her father, Roy realizes. Too stubborn to accept anything but the truth. He sees no point in not being honest with her.

He clears his throat to compose himself. "...Yes, it was them."

Elicia grunts. "I knew it."

Now, Roy could ask a sensitive question. "And how did you know, Elicia? Who told you about the monsters? Not your mother, I hope."

Elicia shifts, her hair-ties clinking softly as she shakes her head. "No, not mommy. She gets too sad. Mister Armstrong told me. I asked him over and over and over, 'till he told me all about the monsters living under the ground, hurting people and making them die. They made all that bad stuff happen during the ee-clips."

Oh, Alex... His heart is so soft. And Elicia is so cunning, now.

"They're all gone now, right Mister Mustang? You guys killed them all?" she asks expectantly.

"...Yes, we did. Even the one who killed your daddy. I fought him myself," Roy says, but not with any air of triumph.

Elicia doesn't seem to notice that, though. She gasps with excitement. "You did?! You used your fire, right?"

Roy nods, the memory not being pleasant. "Yes... I burned him a hundred times. Maybe more."

Elicia's hair-ties clink again, nodding her head. "That's good. I hope he hurt before he died."

This voice of cruelty and vengeance has no place coming from the mouth of a four-year-old. Roy frowns, poised to nip it in the bud here and now.

"Well, I don't, Elicia. Not anymore."

"Huh?" Her hair-ties clink again as she turns to face him, probably wearing a puzzled look on her little face.

Roy takes a deep breath, releases it. "Elicia, listen... I know how you must feel about this. I felt it too, when I was burning that monster. But it's not a good thing. I almost lost myself back there."

Elicia makes an odd, confused little sound. "Lost...? Like a maze? Mazes are easy, you just follow the walls 'till you find the way out."

Roy can only chuckle. She's thinking of her puzzle books... Perhaps her innocence isn't completely lost after all. But ah, how to explain this...

"It's... a different kind of maze," Roy says, grasping for the words even as he speaks. "It's more like... a maze that's inside you. With no walls."

Elicia makes another confused sound, shifting and scratching her head. He can imagine her small face scrunched up with exasperation.

"...You're weird, Mister Mustang," she says finally.

"Hah, I know," he chuckles. "But it is like a maze."

He reaches out to touch her little shoulder, patting lightly when he finds purchase. "Listen... have you ever felt so sad, or so angry, that you forgot about everything else? Even who you are?"

Elicia makes thoughtful sounds at that."Um... I dunno. Maybe when Daddy died. Mommy was so sad she forgot to eat sometimes."

"Mm..." Roy scoots closer to her on the bed, draws her in with the arm at her back, hugging her against his side as she leans into him.

"Well, that's how I felt," he continues. "When I found that monster, and he told me he killed your daddy... I was angry. So, so angry. Like it was filling me up, all the way from my feet to the top of my head."

Elicia hums sadly.

"I forgot about everything. I forgot who I was, who my friends were. All I wanted to do was just... be angry, forever, and burn that monster over and over for what he did to your daddy."

Elicia pulls away slightly. "But- you can't just be angry. Not for forever."

Good, she understands. "That's right," Roy nods, "I couldn't. I thought I could, but my friends knew better. They stopped me, before I was lost for good."

Elicia makes a sound like something between awe and sadness.

"It was like... Like I was a completely different person back there," Roy says, getting a bit lost in the memory himself, now. He could almost laugh at it now, in this terrible sort of way. "...Can you even imagine? Being so angry that you're not even yourself anymore?"

"No... That's scary," Elicia says, matter-of-fact.

"Yes, it was," Roy says thoughtfully. "I was pretty scared back then. And I don't scare easily."

Elicia sighs, then wraps her small arms around his waist in a hug. "It's okay, Mister Mustang," she says, as if he were still upset about it now.

...Well he does sound a bit watery in his voice, Roy realizes belatedly. Remembered too much of his emotions back then, perhaps. He chuckles again, but welcomes her comfort, wrapping his arm around her small shoulders.

"I'm fine now, dear, I just don't want that to happen to you."

"Mm..." Elicia hums, snuggling closer to him. Roy leans against her in turn, the warmth a small but welcome comfort.

There’s a beat of silence. Eventually, Roy breathes another long sigh. "Well... it's over now. Hopefully there won't be monsters like that ever again.”

"Yeah," Elicia mumbles, her face half-buried against his torso.

They stay like that, holding each other, for a long while. At least, long enough for Roy to fight back down the tears threatening to well up in his chest. No need for that, now.

Suddenly, Elicia leans away from him and speaks up again. "Mister Mustang... Can I tell you a secret?"

"Of course," he says.

"Don't tell Mommy. Promise."

"I promise."

"No, you gotta pinky promise. Like this."

She takes his hand in her two small ones and carefully splays out his fingers, then hooks one of her little pinky fingers with his own. Chuckling a little, he bends his finger, sealing the gesture.

"Alright, alright, I'm doing it. Will you tell me now?"

Elicia giggles slightly, and he can hear her smiling now. "Yeah, yeah! Um-"

She pauses for a moment, as if steeling herself.

Then she says, "I wanna be like you when I grow up. An Alchemist."

Roy's grip relaxes at the revelation, his breath escaping him slightly with bewilderment. An alchemist… like him? Despite the still-cynical part of his mind, he can feel his heart swell in his chest. He can only hope that by the time Elicia reaches adulthood, the State Alchemists will be reformed into something she can be proud to be a part of. Servants of the people and paragons of science, no longer living instruments of war and death. Hopefully...

Elicia releases his hand and makes a worried sound at his tension. "Um- Girls can be Alchemists too, right?"

"O- of course," Roy says, trying and failing to recover. "Just... do your studies and work hard. That's all you need to do, really." Setting aside everything else, he isn't wrong.

"Okay! I will, I promise!" she says, all but bouncing against him on the bed by now.

Roy tries to laugh through the tightness in his chest. "Hey now - I hope you don't want to burn things like me, too?"

She stops bouncing. "Huh? No, not that. I wanna help people. Make no more bad things happen."

And this… gives Roy great pause. Her desires are so pure, so simple - so much like his own, when he was young and innocent and only knew he wanted to learn, to fight, to protect people.

Yes, he definitely wants to cry now. "Oh- Oh?"

"I dunno what I'll do,” Elicia continues. “But- I just wanna help people. Like Daddy did, but with Alchemy. You can do that, right?"

Roy swallows, losing the battle with his emotions. "Of... of course you can. We're supposed to, in fact. It's one of our rules: 'Alchemist, be thou for the people.'“

God, let it be true when this girl grows up.

"'Alchemist, be thou for the people'..." she repeats, slowly. After a beat, she says, "...I like that."

"...I'm glad you do." Roy smiles, now feeling tears gathering in his blind eyes, spilling from their corners.

Elicia startles at him. "-You're crying! What's wrong, Mister Mustang?"

Roy wipes at his eyes with one hand, sniffling. "Sorry, Elicia, I... I-it's happy tears, really."

She throws her little arms around him in a desperate hug, burying her face in his chest. "Please don't cry Mister Mustang! You're gonna make me cry!"

He holds her against him, laughing and pressing small kisses into her hair. "I'm sorry, I'm just- I'm so proud of you, dear.”

When he senses her lift her head to look at him, he adds, “...Your daddy would be, too."

He hears her start to sniffle, and she buries her head against him again, turning her head slightly.

"I hope he watches me,” she says softly. “I wanna be the best Alchemist ever."

"...And I'm sure you will," Roy whispers to her.

And he hopes Maes is watching him, too.

END.

#fullmetal alchemist #roy mustang #gracia hughes #elicia hughes #blind!roy #jeminy writes #jeminy3 art

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honeylikewords · 4 years

Note

Eddie loves costumes that require or are helped by being done by a group. Couples costumes, friend group costumes... And when he has his own little ones, family costumes! David, meanwhile, doesn’t care much for making a spectacle of himself more than he already is at his massive height. So he goes for a bear kigurumi every time. But that won’t stop him from gushing over the cute little costumes he has his wee ones in. :3 I’m just statin’ facts

I like to think that Eddie’s costumes don’t necessarily chase the pop culture zeitgeist but are more about his personal fixations; mythological characters, obscure film characters, pun projects (for example, he has his wife don a flower crown and peasant dress and carry a bottle of wine and drape a towel over her arm to be a “Midsommelier”), and the like!

Plus, it’s way more fun to have his partner or friends in on the joke! One year, Eddie went as Mr. Rogers and all his friends as assorted citizens of the titular Neighborhood, another he took it upon himself to make costumes so that four of them could go as The Talking Heads (he wanted to be David Byrne so badly); another year, once in a relationship, he procured costumes for himself and his girlfriend to go as Vinz Clortho (Lewis Tully) and Zuul (Dana Barrett) from the original Ghostbusters, elated to have an opportunity to run around unhinged and recite his favorite lines, like “During the rectification of the Vuldrini, the traveler came as a large and moving Torg! Then, during the third reconciliation of the last of the McKetrick supplicants, they chose a new form for him: that of a giant Slor! Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you!”

His girlfriend mostly just enjoyed the swishy orange dress.

Once he and the missus get together and get married and have their children, Eddie goes above and beyond for Halloween, insistent that even if he and his wife don’t dress up (which would never happen, obviously), they have to dress up the babies. It’s just too cute to pass up the chance at!

In a surprisingly dark move, Eddie sews a hoodied onesie for the baby so that they appear to be wearing the same little suit and burlap sack as Sam from Trick ‘r Treat (Eddie tries to justify it with Sam not being inherently evil and mostly just a pretty cute little kid out for trick or treat when his wife complains that dressing their baby up as a demonic Halloween spirit might be distasteful), and it’s surprisingly well-made and warm, keeping baby nice and cozy as Momma and Dada go about their autumnal activities. (Eddie decided that to match baby, they all had to go as various horror movie ‘monsters’/fright-makers; the missus was the Bride of Frankenstein, and Eddie wanted to go as the Babadook before his wife talked him down to the more normal-passing Norman Bates, concerned that the amount of makeup necessary to pull off a Babadook look would upset the baby too much.)

For Eddie, Halloween is such a fun time-- rife with history and mysticism, spiritual oddness and social kookiness, and aesthetic wonderment alike run rampant during those weeks leading up to the All Hallow’s Eve-- and he just can’t let go of the chance to indulge in some once-a-year merriment, especially when it can involve his friends and loved ones (and his peculiar interests).

For David, however, Halloween is more down to earth. David is deeply discomforted by scary stories, gory decorations, slasher movies, jump scares, etc; the spookery of the season and its axis around death makes him more than a little uneasy, at times, so he prefers a more “Great Pumpkin” kind of Halloween than a, say, “Friday The 13th” Halloween.

He likes to decorate the house with sweetly carved jack o’lanterns (recently having discovered that there are plastic and foam pumpkins he can carve and keep throughout the years and that carve like his more familiar medium of wood, David tends to prefer the synthetic gourds for house decor and organic ones for the outdoors), putting up string lights and smiling sheet ghosts.

He’s the Local Dad that will sit on his porch all night in a warm, comfy costume-- David, ever the pragmatist, decided many years ago that he either goes as Paul Bunyan (for warmer Halloweens) or a teddy bear (using the bear kigurumi for colder evenings), and never falters to employ those costumes-- and hand out candy, smiling at every trick-or-treater without fail.

His favorite trick-or-treaters are always the babies; he knows they can’t eat candy, but watching parents walk up to the house with a wee little bundle in their arms, peeking out of a princess dress or pumpkin suit, well, it just melts his heart every single time, and he will often stick out a finger and try to boop the baby on the toes to say a wordless “hello”!

But the very, beary best costumed kiddos are always his own.

David’s little ones get to go as anything they like, so long as the costume isn’t excessively horrifying or unsafe (i.e. nothing sharp, nothing that would let them catch a chill, nothing gory), and David’s children often pick more unusual costumes, so that never seems to be an issue for them.

One year, one of his sons desperately wanted to be a chicken (reasons unclear); another, his daughter wanted to be Santa (”For Halloween, sweetie?” “Yes, please.”); many times, David has dressed the wee-est baby up as Babe, the blue ox that accompanies Paul Bunyan in many of his tales.

David also likes to see what his wife chooses to dress up as; she likes to pick comfortable costumes, as well, since she is usually the parent that walks with the little ones to take them trick-or-treating (as she is the parent most comfortable talking to strangers). Her costumes are usually built around a sensible pair of walking shoes and a warm jacket, and David always finds them adorable. He was especially fond of the year when she was a few months pregnant and went as Winnie the Pooh, citing the baby bump as her “rumbly tumbly”.

Each boy has their own Halloween traditions and comfort zones, but I like to think both of them have an equally wonderful time on the holiday, in their own special ways!

#the mute #mr. mccarthy #anonymous #messages

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k-writer1998 · 4 years

Text

Rebel Hours (2/18)

Kwon Jieun always fit her parents’ image of the “perfect” daughter... at least to their knowledge. Away from prying eyes she was like any other girl living life to the fullest doing what she wants. When a little someone named Bang Chan comes into her life priorities are changed, mistakes are made, and her life finally becomes her own.

Fluff

w.c: 2.1k

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

Three weeks… three weeks passed and I cannot stop thinking about that night. When Seungmin moved in, when school started, when I started my part-time job, CB97 has been haunting my mind. Even now sitting with my closest friends for dinner, he won’t go away.

“I’m crazy. Someone please tell me how to stop it.”

“Just accept your fate of being an underground rap group fangirl for the rest of your life.”

“Hwang Hyunjin I- this is why your best friend status has been given to Seunghee. Not helpful!”

“Excuse me she isn’t here so I get my title back until further notice.”

“That’s not how it works Hwang and even if it did you are doing a terrible job as best friend.”

“Hey, I think I know him.”

My head snapped up at Seungmin’s announcement. No way, the world cannot be that small. Everyone stared at Seungmin who looked at his phone before he spoke again.

“Yeah, he was an upperclassman at my high school. If I remember correctly everyone loved him and I think he was captain of the soccer team too.”

“You are supposed to help me stop thinking about him, not make it worse!”

“If you’re going to make a big deal why not just go back there and see him again. Maybe you’ll realize something is wrong with him and you’ll stop. If not what’s the worst that can happen?”

“You’re right and you’re so sweet, saying you guys will come with me and all.”

“Wait a minute I-”

“Too late best friend and any complaints can be taken up with Hyunjin for running his mouth.”

Before they could protest more, we paid and I dragged them to the apartment. I quickly shed my “congressman Kwon’s daughter” look and exchanged it for my favorite distressed black jeans, maroon bodysuit and leather jacket. After a quick touch up on my makeup, we headed to the club. It wasn’t super busy so we were talking by the dance floor when I felt eyes on me. I flipped my silver hair over my shoulder, to subtly look around, and there he was staring at me from the DJ booth. I immediately snapped my head back.

"He keeps looking over here so that's a good sign," Jeongin encouraged.

"Exactly. He noticed you out of everyone and what do you do? Hide. I did not raise a coward."

"You didn’t raise me at all, Hyunjin, and I am not hiding… I'm just uh playing hard to get…"

"Really that's what you're going with? Your cover stories still suck like when we were kids."

"Seungmin I didn’t ask for this disrespect. You’re all traitors except Jeongin."

"Uh well, sorry to be a traitor too but that was really bad."

"I leave for college and this is what happens? You turn my own son against me?"

"Tone it down drama queen. Lover-boy stepped down from the DJ booth. Seems like he's switching out so here's your chance," Hyunjin pushed.

"Go sit at the bar, away from us, so you look more approachable," Seungmin ordered.

I gave them a nervous smile as I thanked them before taking a seat at the bar. Facing outward in my seat, my eyes scanned the crowd for a particular blonde. I catch sight of him, his eyes mimicking mine, before our eyes connect and a smirk tugs at his lips. In my confused panic I smile back, giving a small wave before turning back to the bar to cringe at myself.

“I’ve finally caught you. You left before I could thank you for grabbing my hat.”

“Sorry the clock struck midnight, had to go before my carriage turned into a pumpkin,” I teased.

“You never left a glass slipper for me though.”

“I didn’t, yet here we are.”

“Here we are,” he echoes.

He eyed me up and down with a smirk playing at his lips. Thank god he played along with whatever came out of my mouth cause I was sure as hell that wasn't flirting, guess I’ll just go with it.

“So Prince Charming, is there a reward for returning your prized hat?”

“It’s Bang Chan,” he laughed before adding, “there is… if you can trust me.”

His laugh was an intoxicating sound that left a joyful buzz in my chest. I shouldn't, I know I really shouldn't but looking at his face with that dimpled smile and the shine in his eyes… it drew me in. We just met each other a few moments ago and only shared a few flirty encounters yet what about his face makes me want to trust him? I looked at his outstretched hand…

“Okay, I’m game. Let’s see if your bark matches your bite,” I challenged, placing my hand in his.

“Well first things first, what’s your name? Or should I just call you Princess?”

“That’s fine. If this night goes well I’ll think about giving my name.”

“Then, after you princess.”

He gestured toward a guarded door. I got up and followed his lead as we approached the door and the guard just gave me a quick look before he gave Chan a curt nod, moving aside. I shot the boys a quick text as we maneuvered through the back area to a back door. I saw their encouraging and warning messages before sliding my phone in my pocket. We walked past a lot of the popular shops before we reached an empty street aside from one section that had light pouring from it. Upon further inspection I couldn’t help the genuine smile that pulled across my lips, a night market! I heard Chan chuckle behind me as I was pulled into the organized chaos. Voices exploded from all sides, the smell of various foods swirled around, and a sea of bodies breezed about. I was practically vibrating with excitement, somehow drifting with the crowd as my eyes scanned the various stalls and stores. If it wasn’t for the hand that grabbed my wrist, I would have been pulled with the tide.

“Slow down princess, don’t want you to get lost now,” he chuckled.

He slipped his hand in mine as I sheepishly smiled at him before we moved together this time. He allowed me to drag him around where he bought me various snacks and sweets. I tried to pay but he used his body to block my way causing me to playfully nudge him after every time. Chan showed me a few of his favorite stalls as well, one which sold boba and was the only one I was successful in paying at because I may or may not have hid his wallet in my pocket when he asked me to hold it. I gave him a cheeky smile when he realized and he scrunched his nose with a laugh in return. There was even an arcade like area with a claw machine which I excitedly ran to. Of course I failed miserably but Chan confidently proclaimed he could easily grab the eevee plushie for me. I tried to contain my giggles as his face slowly started to fall as the number of tries continued to go up. After a while I put my hand on his shoulder to stop him.

“I promised you that plushie and I’m gonna get it,” he paused for a moment before a devious smirk appeared on his face. “Watch my back?”

I narrowed my eyes at him and tilted my head in question, an unsure smile pulling at my lips. The shine in his eyes told me he was up to no good but my curiosity got the better of me. I reluctantly looked around at the people passing by and no one was paying us any attention. I started to hear the sound of metal on metal and the sound of plastic shaking. Before I could turn to see what Chan was up to I heard a man yelling. The next thing I know we are sprinting through the market, the man’s voice drowning in the din of the crowd. We finally slowed down in a park and I don’t know if it was the adrenaline, but a laugh bubbled out of me.

“What just happened?”

“I said I would get you the plushie didn’t I?”

“Did you open the machine?!”

My mouth dropped as he gave me a triumphant grin while holding up the plushie. He really is something else… this Bang Chan. I took the plushie from his hand with a smile, my eyes travelling over him in this new rebellious light, as he nonchalantly replied.

“I never said how I would get it for you.”

“You are ridiculous. You know that?”

He just shrugged his shoulders with a goofy smile before he put out his hand. I took it as we walked towards a set of steps, he had one more place to show me. Chan and I have been talking nonstop and everything about it was so natural. We joked, played around, definitely flirted, and something about it felt… right. We were currently talking about movies but my words trailed off as we reached the top of the hill and the view of the distant city lights dotting the landscape entered my line of sight. Chan's low chuckle brought me back from my admiration.

"Sorry… this view is just so stunning!"

"I thought you might've liked something like this," he smiled softly.

We took a moment to just bask in the beauty of the view. I felt Chan's presence behind me but his warmth only ghosted my skin and the chill of the night air breezed through the space between us. Instinctively I moved closer to him, stealing some of the warmth radiating from him as I continued the conversation.

“Okay but back to my question. As a hopeless romantic I must ask. Which romance plot is the worst in your opinion?”

“Hmmm… probably the whole fake dating thing.”

“What? You don’t find it romantic to pretend to fake your true feelings so you can help your crush get back their ex or some other plot point?” I joke.

“Yeah no," he laughs, "I just don’t get why it's easy for them to be a couple in front of other people but behind closed doors they can barely face each other.”

“Well if you and I were in a fake relationship,” I started, a playful urge fluttering in my stomach as a coy smile made its way to my face, “yeah we can kiss and cuddle up to each other perfectly fine but when it’s just us two...”

I took a step towards him, entering his personal space, and the sound of his breath catching in his throat drifted to my ears as I leaned in. Leaving mere inches between us, I pause and look into his eyes before continuing.

“Isn’t it difficult? To be a breath away yet you can’t do anything about it because you don't have to pretend anymore?”

I give him an innocent smile before stepping away and turning to look back at the city, letting the moment sink into his mind, but in an instant my view of the city blurred. He had spun me back to face him once again, my hands resting on his broad black-tee clad chest to keep myself steady at the sudden movement. His arms snaked around my waist and my eyes trailed up to look at his face which had a cocky smirk playing on his heart shaped lips.

“I wouldn’t know. I chase after the things I want.”

The deep baritone of his voice sends a delightful shiver down my spine and the warmth emanating from his body almost burns but my mind can’t get enough of it. I was on the verge of losing my mind because of this boy.

“You play a dangerous game Mr. Bang Chan,” I chuckled softly.

“If being with you means danger it’s definitely worth the risk.”

“Cheeky.”

I can’t help but laugh as I boop his nose. A laugh bubbles out of his throat and the notorious dimple makes an appearance once again. This moment brings a familiar feeling pricking at my chest as our eyes found their way to each other once again. His eyes dropped to my lips for a moment, something that didn’t go unnoticed, as I tilted my head innocently. The distance between us started shrinking. My eyes fluttered closed and my lips felt the warmth of his breath, his lips a beat away… until my phone decided to ring with the annoying voice of Hwang Hyunjin yelling “YAYAYA PICK UP THE PHONE!” The sudden screaming in the silence made us both jump away as a low growl escaped my lips. The haze in my mind cleared and I pulled my phone from my pocket, giving it a well deserved glare.

#stray kids #skz #stray kids imagines #stray kids scenarios #skz imagines #skz scenarios #bang chan #bang chan imagines #bang chan scenarios #my writing #rebel hours

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imagine-that-one-thing · 5 years

Text

Something To Be Thankful For.

Authors Note: Just a little something I wrote with a lovely friend of mine, Mel.

The crisp autumn air nipped at my skin as I rushed from the New York City street to the foyer of my apartment building. My heels clicked and the plastic bags in my hands rustled as I walked to the elevator, and then waited for what felt like forever for it to get to the main floor.

Upon reaching my apartment, I was greeted by the dim light I managed to leave on — a mere example of my responsibility. The bags left red lines on my fair skin and thudded on the counter as I began to unpack.

I continued putting the groceries away, and slightly reorganizing my pantry, for nearly a half-hour before a soft knock at my door brought me out of my concentration and back to the real world.

Without expecting any company, or packages, I softly walked to the door and peered through the peephole. To my surprise, Harry, my ex-boyfriend, stood waiting on his phone. I stared at him for a moment more, watching him lock his phone and impatiently await my greeting.

With a heavy, and annoyed, heart, I unlocked the door and pulled it open. As soon as his eyes met mine, I knew something was on his mind, but whether or not I was willing to be apart of this thought process — I was unsure.

“Scar, it’s so nice to see you,” Harry started, looking at me sweetly. “May I come in? There’s something we need to talk about.”

“Oh?” I replied, probably seeming more shocked by this question than I should have. “Come in.” I waved him in, opening the door further for him.

He promptly took off his shoes, placing them on the matt just as I like it. He kept his leather coat on, making his towering figure than much larger and darker as he stood over me slightly. I found myself admiring him for a second before I collected myself and closed the door behind me.

“Do you want anything to drink?”

“Tea,” He answered, “If you have any.”

He smirked at me, knowingly. He knew I had more tea than I could handle.

I filled the kettle, and Harry walked over to the island, pulling out a stool and taking a seat. He watched me with his arms crossed as I prepared the two mugs of tea. English Breakfast for him, Green for me.

He filled the void with small talk, covering the weather, the fact that the apartment hasn’t changed since the breakup, and his recent travels. This was enough to grant me time to pour the boiling water into the mugs, prepare Harry’s tea to his liking, and pass it on for his approval. He sipped it, nodding and smiling at my successful preparation.

“Okay,” I began, leaning over the counter in front of Harry. “What is it that you need to talk to me about so badly?” I questioned, cutting his small talk short, eager to hear what he has to say at this point.

“There’s no easy way to put this,” Harry pushed his hair back, noticeably blushing as he choked on his words. “I need you to come to my family’s Thanksgiving with me this year.”

“What?”

“I know, it’s crazy.” He said, stopping to chuckle as he watched my facial expression. “I couldn’t bring myself to tell them about the breakup, so they think we are still dating and it’s too far gone for me to tell them now."

“So, let me get this straight, you're inviting me to thanksgiving because you didn’t tell your extended family that you broke up with me?” I questioned, waltzing around the kitchen beginning to put away the groceries that I neglected.

“No… yes... I mean… I’d like you to come, please don’t make me face everybody alone.”

I shook my head with a small chuckle escaping the corners of my lips, “No. Tell your family that you decided to leave, you were the one who wanted to split up.” I reminded him of his decision, making sure he didn’t forget it for a second. I sure haven’t forgotten the night he ended things in the middle of a storm. The harsh weather should have been enough to tell me that the night wasn’t going to go as planned, and indeed, it didn’t.

Harry nodded his head, “I made a mistake, can’t we work things out?” he questioned, beginning to help with putting the groceries away.

Even though the relationship between the two of us had changed, much to my despair, what hasn’t changed is the connection and the way we could effortlessly manoeuvre around the kitchen without getting in each other's way.

“No, not until after the holidays, you can’t just show up and ask me to go to your family event and expect me to take you back.“

“Are you doing this just to make me go alone? Is this to get back at me for breaking up?”

“It isn’t always about you. You broke up with me, you need to prove to me you deserve a chance, and asking me to Thanksgiving because you don’t want to face the music, isn’t winning me back.”

“Scarlett,” Harry sighs, “Let me prove it to you at Thanksgiving. Please, don’t make me go alone, you know I can’t.” His voice was faint and vulnerable, his eyes soft. I took a breath, doing my best to disregard the tugging heartstrings straining in my chest.

Harry had never been one to handle family gatherings and holidays.

He managed every excuse possible to avoid them, and for the most part, he tended to make sure his tours collide with holidays; Harry would rather be alone than to sit through the holiday events with his family. He despised the concept of only getting together for holidays, he disliked the questions, and most of all, he despised the idea of not having a safety blanket.

He needed someone he could lock eyes with from across the room and know that, at any given moment, he had a safe haven or a quick getaway.

“You’re such a coward…” I huff, shaking my head at him. “Fine. I’ll go. But you’re driving. This doesn’t mean we are getting back together, and you better be on time,” I warned, well aware that he had a tendency to be late.

Harry smiled at me, his Cheshire grin he had always made itself known.

“Thank you, love.”

I shook my head and took a sip of my tea, resting my elbows on the counter, locking eyes with him, “Don’t thank me yet, we haven’t made it through Thanksgiving.” I responded.

Harry smirked and chuckled lightly, “Oh, but we will. Thank you,” he leaned closer to kiss me like he would any other time we were situated across from each other.

I turned my head to the side, allowing him to grace my flushed cheek with his tender kiss, “Going to dodge me, huh? Still giving me the cold shoulder?” He questioned.

I leaned closer with a cocky grin painted across my lips, “I won’t be dodging you at thanksgiving. You’ll pick me up at ten, right?” I cocked my head to the side, purposely batting my eyes working a charm to (Mel finish this)

Harry cleared his throat, “Yes, at ten… Are you hinting for me to leave already?”

I shrugged my shoulders, the idea of trying to play hard to get and to keep him on my toes played in my thoughts. “You said what you needed to say, you drank your tea, so unless you plan to stay the night, yes. Leave.”

“Is that an invitation?” Harry questioned, his eyes flicking between us and the bedroom, the bedroom that has been barren and cold since he stopped staying the night.

I shook my head, “No, merely an indication that I’m ready to get in bed, alone, so, please.” I gestured towards the door.

❇ ❇ ❇

Standing at the front door of a house I have wandered into various times made me feel uneasy, timid, happy, and sad all in one. Perhaps it’s the emotions from the fact that we had to fake a relationship due to Harry’s fear of being alone. Whatever it was, the door stared at me and it stared at me in the most unrelenting and welcoming approach.

I swallowed my emotions, my eyes locking with the pleasant autumn pumpkin wreath that was a welcoming accent to the mahogany grain door. With a quick glance towards Harry, my fears and anxiety were suspended and the smile on my face became painted on. He gave me his reassuring glance and nod before the footsteps leading towards the door halted. Before I could think twice about hightailing it to the car and going home, the door opened.

At first, Harry’s mother stared at Harry and I like we showed up unannounced— She was stunned, to say the least.

“You came,” she simply smiled at Harry, her arms welcoming him instantly.

Harry nodded, “Of course, I did.”

“Scarlett,” she beamed, “I thought you were working, Harry said you were probably working,” she commented while ushering me inside, welcoming me with a warm hug— A hug I had missed dearly.

While we walked down the hallway, I glanced back at Harry, wanting answers on what exactly he has told his family, but I shook the thoughts away and continued walking down the immaculate hallway that hasn’t changed since the last time. The candles were lit with the same warm scent, the table runner hadn’t moved an inch, it was still the same geometric patterned cast in a palette of blue, taupe and grey; the paintings and portraits all hung immaculately in the same positions.

I reached the end of the hallway and found myself instantly submerged into a swarm of family members that seemed to have missed me as much as I had missed them. I was pulled into conversations, and quite literally dragged from Harry’s grasp, something that wouldn’t have bothered me, but it did. I didn’t know how to act or what to do, after all, how was I to know how to fake a relationship?

I stood behind the kitchen counter, trying to focus on the conversation at hand— Harry’s sister’s engagement— while I aided in helping some of the women prepare different portions of the late lunch. One thing that can always be noted, is that no matter what time the food is meant to be on the table, it will always be an hour later. Schedules in this household have never been on time.

With one hand clasped to the wine glass, the other continued to add the ingredients to the pumpkin pie mix, meanwhile, my eyes scanned every person in an attempt to locate Harry. No matter where I looked, or how many tall figured men I saw, it was never him.

“And, you and Harry, how long until the two of you walk down the aisle?” I was asked.

I panicked, the sudden rise of interest between Harry and I is something I can’t handle, my blood ran cold.

How can there be an engagement when there isn’t even a valid relationship?

I chuckled and shrugged my shoulders, “That is up to him,” I responded calmly, taking the moment to step away from the kitchen counter, “Speaking of Harry,” I began, doing my best to keep a smile on my face, “I should go find him, and tell him lunch is nearly ready.”

I left the conversation without an intention to go back and I wandered out to the patio where the men always settled themselves with beers and spirits.

“Harry,” I placed my hand in the small of his back and took the space beside him, “Can I talk to you inside, please?” I questioned, gently pulling him away from the men and taking him inside.

Harry took my hand, his fingers intertwined perfectly with mine as he silently took me upstairs, disregarding his sister calling his name, questioning what we were doing.

He took me into the bathroom, oddly enough, the one connected to his old room. It was funny that I had been here so many times, yet somehow still felt out of place.

“Your family is asking me so many questions, Harry.” I started, as soon as he closed the door behind him. “I can’t keep lying.”

Harry turned away briefly, looking at the bathroom door, and turning the tap on to cancel as much noise as possible.

“What kind of questions?” He asked me, whispering and coming closer to me.

It pained me to answer him. Perhaps in another situation, I would be excited about answering their questions about marriage. I wanted to marry Harry when we were together. But now, in the midst of a breakup and still pretending to be together, marriage was a thought that made me sick.

“When we are getting married,” I whispered, “I can’t do this, Harry. I need to go home.”

“Don’t say that,” He rubbed my arm. “I know you don’t mean that.”

“I do mean it,” I stated, placing my hand over his to stop the rubbing. “I don’t fit in here, Harry, I need to leave.”

“Love,” Harry began, “I don’t think the problem is that you don’t fit in, I think it is that you fit in too well,” Harry informed me, his comment took me by surprise and left me stunned and speechless.

“I would feel better about that compliment if we were actually dat-,” I began, but got cut off by a quick knock at the door.

“Harry?” Gemma called, opposite the dark wood, “Is everything alright?”

Harry looked at me, eyes widened and begging me to just shut up for once — a tendency he knew I had a bad habit of. I smirked at him, knowing that often times my childish antics got us into more trouble than necessary.

“Scar is just feeling a bit sick, Gemma.” He replied, “Give us a few minutes, alright?”

“Dinner is nearly done!” She whined, “Don’t take too long.”

With the final statement, Gemma was on her way. Harry made sure the footsteps went all the way down the stairs before picking up the conversation again.

He looked at me and sighed, “Is this what this is about?” he questioned.

“No… yes… no, I don’t fucking know, Harry,” I became confused and lost in my own thoughts, “I just- fuck, Harry, yes, this is about us not being together, I thought I was okay with faking it, but I am not, your sister thinks we are going to be in-laws, she wants me in her wedding, people want to know when we are getting married, and they don’t even know that you fucking left, just up and left,” I didn’t hold back my words as they slipt from my lips effortlessly, “you fucking left, and didn’t have the courage to tell everyone, including the family.”

Harry nodded, “listen, just hear me out.”

“What? So you can sugar coat things? I think I should leave.”

“Damnit, Scarlett, listen to me for a minute, please darling, just listen.” He pressured. “I didn’t tell anyone because I still love you. I didn’t stop loving you. I was being self-absorbed, and I know that now, sweetheart. I would do anything to take that back, but I know I can’t just make it disappear. It happened, yes, I left, I admit it, I fucking left and it was the worst mistake”

“It was,” I whispered, tears clouding my vision. “You really are stupid.”

Harry chuckled, “I know, I am.”

“But, I love you,” I said, contradicting my whole argument.

With this his hands he cupped my face, his loam-grey eyes gleamed into mine and for a split second, time stopped, I wasn’t even sure if I was breathing. Captivated by the moment and the unforeseen rise of all the emotions, I did the unthinkable- I kissed him— I kissed him softly and slowly as if my life depended on it, and for a brief moment, it felt like my life did depend on it.

“I’m so—I'm sorry,” I muttered as I dragged myself away from him.

Harry shook his head, he stepped closer to me and filled the space between our two bodies. Harry kissed me sincerely, granting me a long-drawn, liquid, tempestuous kiss I had been yearning for since he left.

Oh, how I had yearned the taste of his satin-soft lips.

I could sense the aching tension between the two of us, a tension that had undoubtedly been brewing for quite some time. Our bodies were keen to investigate each other’s like we were two kids in love again. Our brazen hands didn’t know where to start as they both trembled with an ache to welcome every dip and curve our bodies had to offer.

“I want you.” His breath touched my neck and bestowed shivers down my back with his keen anticipation.

I wanted him too, I’ve wanted him since he left, but this wasn’t right? Was it?

Without much thought, the words, “I want you, too.” Left my desperate lips that wanted nothing more than to keep tasting his sugary taste.

He benevolently shifted me towards the vanity and lifted my body to sit on the edge of the vanity, while his hands tugged at my shirt.

The tips of his fingers brushed under my shirt and manoeuvred their way to my cleavage, sending sweet shivers down my spine. I tasted the walls of his mouth and allowed his warm hands to travel every inch of my body that he desired. His soft hands travelled my body like it was a map he wanted to travel ever so dearly.

He swiftly dealt with my shirt, exposing the tender skin beneath it, his eyes taking in the view for a brief moment, and his lip became caught between his teeth.

My breath hitched in my throat the second I heard knocking on a door, and I pulled away from Harry’s lips and swatted his hands away from my body. I looked at him, wide-eyed and slack-jawed with racing nerves pulsating through my body. I swallowed hard, the sudden thought of us getting caught, even though we are adults, became devastating.

“Shh,” Harry hushed, pressing his finger to the edge of my lips.

Harry stepped away from me and with a heavy huff, made his way out of the bathroom and into the bedroom where someone was knocking on the door.

“What? What could you possibly need to knock on the door like a mental person?” I overheard Harry mutter, and I had no doubt his sister was on the receiving end of the comment. “We will be down in a minute, just give us a few minutes, and don’t give me that look,” Harry stated sternly, and I hopped off the counter to move closer to the door to better hear the conversation.

“Mum won’t let us eat until we are all at the table, so hurry up with your shag and get downstairs,” Harry’s sister had no remorse for her comment, and again my eyes grew wide.

“That is not what is happening,” Harry was quick to defend, even though that is exactly what would have happened if nobody has interrupted, damn it. “She feels unwell, give her a minute, and get your head out of the gutter, thank you.” Harry proceeded to inform his sister, promptly closing the door.

I stepped out of the bathroom as I heard the door close, pure shame painted across my blushed cheeks, “she knows. She knows, Harry,” I whispered softly with a cracked voice.

“She doesn’t know what we were doing, it is a good thing I turned that water on for the conversation, then she would know the biggest secret of the day. Love eavesdroppers.” He winked in an attempt to lighten the mood, but I found there to be nothing humorous about almost getting caught in the guest bathroom by his sister…

“Harry…” I began, suddenly remembering that we are sitting here playing ‘happy couple’ when we are far from a happy couple. “What’s going on?”

To be quite honest, we haven’t even been happy, we have both been miserable, even if we have been too stubborn to realise it.

“With us?” He questioned. “You know I can’t be the only one to answer that.”

“Give me some direction.”

“If we were together, how would those marriage questions make you feel?” He asked, in a soft and honest way.

“Happy,” I replied, even though he knew what my answer would be. “You know it’s what we wanted.”

“Then why can’t we just be happy?” Harry questioned me, even though he seemed more to be questioning himself.

“I don’t know, Harry, I can’t be the one to answer all the questions, this is a two-way street… I thought we were happy, I thought what we wanted would become a reality, but we took a 180.”

Harry nodded, “we were, I just fucked it up. Scar…” Harry trailed off, “I love you, I can look you in the eye and tell you I love you a thousand times, but it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t feel the same, so tell me, do you love me enough to forgive me?” Harry questioned, putting me on the spot for what felt like the hundredth damn time.

I stared at him for a moment, my world is becoming a scrambled mess as I fought to find the right words to say. I had been waiting for this moment for a while, but I never thought it was going to come. I never thought he would truly confess that he was wrong and apologise to me. I thought we would go down in history like another failed couple who once loved each other but fell when things got tough.

His face dropped and he looked down at the floor, his head shaking in the process, “Okay,” Harry began with a softened and disheartened voice, “I’ll take you home, just let me get my keys,” Harry informed me.

“Harry,” I gently grabbed his hand as he attempted to turn away and walk towards the door, “I still love you. Harry, I need to know that you’re not going to do this again, that you’re not going to decide to walk out on the relationship and think I’ll take you back again.”

“Scar, walking away was the biggest mistake, I wish I could take it back; I was selfish and self-absorbed. I love you, darling, I want my life with you, I want to have you by my side through thick and thin, no more running when things get rough.”

“Promise?”

Harry nodded, “I promise to love you and protect you, I promise to do everything in my power to make sure I don’t break your heart or ruin us again, I promise to be the man you need me to be.”

I smiled up at him, “Then we don’t need to go home, let’s enjoy lunch with your family.”

Harry leaned down and kissed my lips sweetly, “Okay, let’s go before my sister comes back up.” Harry gestured towards the bedroom door before we left the bedroom.

Harry and I walked down the stairs, and overlooked the side-eyed glares and wondering questions on what happened upstairs. I smiled politely, making my way towards the table with Harry’s hand in the small of my back, the only thing keeping me secure and sane. Prying eyes of the family had never been something I’ve appreciated; I don’t like being the centre of attention.

Harry placed his hand on the back of my chair and leaned closer to me, and whispered,

“Ignore it,” pulling my chair out chivalrously.

I nodded, sitting down and awaiting the Thanksgiving toast. Anne stood at the end of the table, her wine glass secured in her hand, and Harry rose his nose up at the thought of having to drink the wine at the table, he has never been one to savour the taste of his mother’s choices of wine. I’ve always referred to him as a ‘wine-snob’, and in all honesty, he is.

I clasped my fingers around my wine glass and beamed towards Anne, her sweet smile and serenity graced us generously,

“The year hasn’t been easy, everyone has been busy, it has been hard to get everyone together but I’m thankful today we can be together. I hope that we can make more of a habit of coming together and may the rest of this year will be wonderful… Gemma is gesturing to her watch for me to hurry up. So happy thanksgiving, to family,” Anne held her glass up and we all followed, cheering to the family before she gave us the initial permission to begin devouring the meal.

Forks and knives clinked plates, laughter pervaded the air and chatter never seemed to halt. One thing that can always be said about this family is that there’s never an awkward or dull moment, it’s not in the family nature to have a silent moment.

Among all the noise and clutter of serving plates, I kept noticing Harry acting out of character beside me. He barely ate his food, but he fumbled with the potatoes and turkey on his plate for minutes on end -- Rearranging the pieces as if he was displeased with the setup. I glanced at him every now and then, and in between my glances and subtle analysis of behaviour he took sips of his wine, and briefly engaged in small conversations.

I turned to him, finally, furrowing my eyes at him with a mouth full of food. It seemed as though this action was the tipping point for Harry.

He cleared his throat, his hand released his fork and knife and glanced up and around at everyone at the table, his teeth chewed between his bottom lip.

I swallowed, “Everything okay?”

Harry simply grinned, “Couldn’t be better,” he informed me before he shifted his plate away from him, “Can I— can I get everyone’s attention? Put your forks down for a minute, please,” Harry began and I side-eyed him, unaware of what he was doing.

Trust him to somehow make this about him.

Gemma stared at her brother, and shoved another piece of food in her mouth, before she heavily huffed, “What could you possibly have to say? Just shovel your food and eat.”

Harry shook his head, “Shut up and listen, I know that’s a hard thing for you to do,” Harry muttered, “I can’t keep this in any longer, there are some things I’d like to say.”

“Well, get on with it, don’t drag it out, drama queen,” Gemma chuckled, taking her wine glass between her fingers.

“It has been on my mind for a very long time and it has taken me this long to figure things out. I uh… I can’t even go for that typical sweet speech but I am far from perfect, and the woman beside me knows this and still has managed to stick by me and not give up on me,” Harry took a moment of silence before standing to his feet. “Hey, will you stand with me for a minute?” Harry challenged as he extended me his hand.

Without much thought, I accepted, I placed my hand in his and stood to my feet.

“I’m in love with you, I have been since we met, you’re my other half and I don’t want to live this life without you, honey, I know I’m not perfect, I know I make mistakes and sometimes I’m hard to deal with, but you’re the one my mother told me I’d end up marrying… Will you marry me?” Harry said, getting down on one knee and pulling out a blue velvet box.

I gawked at him, stunned.

Just a few hours ago, Harry and I weren’t even in a relationship, we had been broken up for a few months without reason. The only reason I came here was to save him the burden of having to face his family alone.

I’ve loved this man for years, I’ve loved him through the ups and downs life has thrown at us, I’ve loved him through the good and bad times. Just because we broke up, it doesn’t mean I ever stopped loving him; I’m not sure I’m capable of not loving this man. He had never been the knight in shining armour that everyone dreams of as children, he was never the one to say the right words at the right moment, quite honestly he was a master at ruining sweet moments with quirky comments. He used to always joke that he’d screw up his proposal by saying something stupid and ruining the moment because of his nerves, I’m quite surprised he has managed to get this far with just a few stuttered words.

“How do you have a ring?” I inquired, astonished that he has a ring after all this time.

“That’s your answer?” Harry breathed out with a small laugh.

For a split moment, silence filled the room, something that is rare, “It’s a yes or a no, darling!” Gemma piped in, amused by the response.

“No.” I shook my head, and for a moment, I heard everyone in the room gasp and every mouth hit the floor. “Yes, No, wait, are you serious?”

“Would I be on one knee with a bloody ring if I wasn’t?” Harry responded while I ran my fingers through my hair.

All that I could think about was the fact that he left, no matter how we sugar coat things, he still left that one night, he still walked out and went MIA on me.

Harry stared at me and I could tell his heart was more than likely beating just as fast as my own, “Love, I need you to say something.” Harry breathed out.

“I love you.” I smiled down at him and tugged him back to my level. I looked him in the eye and my hands cupped his face before I kissed his lips, “Yes. A thousand times, yes,” I mumbled just for the two of us to hear. His lips curved into a smile before he pulled me closer and kissed me deeply.

We pulled away and Harry’s hand took my own, with a grin on his face, he slid the ring on my finger. I was in awe at how beautiful it was, and not in the way that is shined perfectly in the light and is probably the most expensive piece of jewellery I have, but because the meaning behind it is beautiful. We are two old souls, entirely in love with each other, and no matter the ups and downs we face in this life, we will always conquer and overcome the mountains as one.

Harry cleared his throat and looked towards his family who was still staring with dropped jaws, “Well, don’t all congratulate us at once.”

After Harry’s comment, everyone congratulated the two of us, everyone seemed to be over the moon despite the fact it was entirely out of the blue and nobody saw it coming.

After a while, everyone and everything settled down, dinner was eaten, and everyone was back to mingling around the lower level of the house and relaxing. Gemma danced around me with a bottle of wine in her hands, giggling as she clasped the bottle opener,

“So, ye’ really marrying my brother, huh?”

I nodded with a smile, well aware of her tipsy state, “Unless you don’t want me to?” I questioned playfully while I leaned over and grabbed the wine from her hands, “Here, let me open it,” I informed her.

“No, I want you to marry him, now we can go shopping for dresses, you’ll be my sister-in-law, and we, we… I don’t know where I was going with this, but welcome to the family,” Gemma grinned as I opened the wine for her and handed it back to her.

“Ah, is it really thanksgiving if my sister isn’t sloshed?” Harry questioned with a chuckle, “Gemma, can I have my soon to be wife now?”

Gemma rolled her eyes and nodded. “With the wine.” Harry gestured towards the bottle that Gemma was cradling with no desire to part ways with it.

“Get ye’ own bloody wine, you wine snob.”

“I am not.” Harry defended.

“You are.” Gemma and I responded in unison before laughing.

Harry rolled his eyes, “Darling, care to join your wine-snob fiance in the living room?”

“Of course.”

Gemma groans, “Get a room, you make me sick.” She shooed the two of us out of the kitchen.

I sat down on the couch and Harry placed a white blanket over me before taking the spot beside me. He wrapped an arm around me, allowing me to rest my head on his chest while we relaxed in front of the crackling fire. “Been quite they day, huh?” Harry began and I nodded, “Who would have thought this is how it would end?”

“Apparently you since you have had the ring.”

Harry hummed, “I didn’t know today would be the day.”

“You always do things out of the blue. But I wouldn’t have it any other way,” I muttered as I curled up into him, beginning to feel the sleepiness after eating so much.

Harry kissed the top of my head, “Glad you said yes, thought you wouldn’t for a minute.”

“Glad you finally asked.”

“Mhm,” Harry hummed, his body relaxing as he draped the blanket over him, meaning only one thing— it was time to call it a day and take the long-awaited nap on the couch, accompanied by the heated fireplace.

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