#it’s just iPhone pictures but i try to make it pretty

[wexlermendelssohn]

[rosegolden13]

Pictures TF-141 have of you on their phones!!

cw: stalking (but not malicious I promise)

Gaz is definitely a professional photographer. He’s just artsy like that. He’ll take the most perfect photos of you and you don’t even have to train him. He just knows how to do it. Honestly, it kind of makes you jealous how talented he is and he’s so nonchalant about it, too. Maybe it was an ex-girlfriend that taught him all this? (It wasn’t, he just has sisters, he’s a sisters kind of guy for sure). The lighting is always perfect and he’ll even help you pose, guide you into position with his hands. Is it mostly an excuse to touch you? Yes. Do the pictures always come out good? Also yes. His favorites are the more domestic ones: you wearing his shirt in the kitchen with the morning sunlight filtering through the window, you cuddled up on the couch with two blankets and a hoodie with a goofy smile on your face. These are the ones that are printed out, folded into his pocket and accidentally put through the wash, or tucked into his wallet.

Simon only has pictures of you that are as unnerving as they are sweet because you have never seen him take *any* of these but he has almost a thousand all in its own album dedicated to you. Yes, some of them are your regular selfies or posed pictures of you next to a pretty fountain or across the table on a date. His favorites are of you and him together- he likes the reminder that you’re really his. But the large bulk of the pictures are taken from strange distances… You at the bar laughing with your friends at girls night when you’re absolutely positive Simon was supposed to be at home waiting for you… and then there’s the one where you’re on your morning jog… The only explanation he gives you is a casual shrug and a gruff "It's for your protection, love." Just be glad you didn’t scroll to the very top of the album because there’s some from before you two were dating. Ahem… enough of that creep…anyways…

Price has the most terrible pictures of you. I’m talking god awful. Like most of them are of you in your pajamas, unshowered, messy hair, no makeup, and to make matters worse, it’s taken at the worst angle known to man. Of course, a few of them are decent because they’re ones you have sent him but if he’s taking the picture? He’s bound to zoom in way too much and get the strangest angle THEN he’ll even coo at the picture, proud of himself. In half of them, you’re trying to smack the camera away- he always chuckles at those ones when you look through them together. When you try to insist that he delete these, he genuinely frowns, entirely confused like they’re not the most heinous pictures. “What do ya mean, love? Look at that, that’s my girl. I’m keepin’ ‘em all.” Lovesick man tsk, tsk. Don’t ever tell him that he can change his lockscreen from the default or it’ll absolutely be the most embarrassing picture of you imaginable.

Soap is also artsy and can take good pictures of you but half the time, he chooses not to. He likes to capture the chaos and there is some beauty to that, too. So, yes, he’s got some cinematic pictures of you on hikes overlooking a view or on the beach where you're lounging in the sun. But mostly his camera roll is filled with blurry selfies from when you two were drunk at the bar or videos from when you two got scolded at the grocery store for pushing each other down aisles in grocery carts. His personal favorite and lockscreen is a picture of you with your face all scrunched as he squeezes your cheeks between his thumb and forefinger. There's also a scattering of sketches he's drawn of you on classified documents and then secretly snapped a picture of. He'd be in deep shit if Price found out about those... "Keep 'em a secret, lass, will ya?"

Okay just one more of these cuz they're so fun hehe. Yes, ik Price is probs great at tech from being in the military but I like to imagine he's sucky at an iphone- it's so endearing.

[inkedbydesire]

Extortion Part 2 (18+)

Jimmy Uso x Black Fem Reader

(Part 1)

Warning: 18+ Content, detailed storyline with just a little SMUT, MINORS DO NOT ENTER

Summary: Some extremely intimate photos of you and your boyfriend Jonathan Fatu (Jimmy Uso) have fallen into the wrong hands. Now you two must deal with the aftermath of finding out you’re being extorted.

Word Count: 3.9k

A/N: It took way too long to write this. But I’m thankful you guys seemed to like the first part of this story so I decided to continue it. I apologize in advance for any grammatical errors or typos.

Tagging: @msbigredmachine @trentybenty

*************************************************

"Bitch, why would you be butt-ass naked fucking on a balcony anyway?"

You watched your best friend through the screen of your iPhone as her caramel features contorted in pure confusion. As always, Chanel didn't hold back. You could always count on her to ask the most outwardly obnoxious questions. And normally her bluntness would make you laugh, cutting through any tension in your life. But not today. Not with everything you were currently dealing with. Today all Chanel's lack of a filter did was pile onto the rapidly growing weight on your chest.

It had been two days since you'd been back home from Costa Rica, and you were still trying to wrap your head around the mess you and Jonathan had found yourselves in. You could barely eat or sleep. And for the last 48 hours, you had been doing everything in your power to distract yourself from the magnitude of the situation. Stupidly, you were hoping to somehow wake up to it all being an extremely vivid dream. But no, each day you still awoke to that email taunting you.

You had no choice but to face reality.

Someone had pictures of you and Jonathan having sex out on that balcony in Costa Rica. That person threatened to spread those pictures if Jonathan didn't cough up 50,000 dollars in the next few days. The email said that he had a week starting after the day that the email was delivered. That was two days ago. Which meant you only had five days left before everything came crashing down.

You couldn't stop obsessing over the only two options you had. And neither one of them offered much comfort.

Option one: Pay the money.

Get it over with by doing what the creep was demanding. It sounded like the quickest way to get whoever it was to leave you and Jonathan alone. But still... who's to say that the person wouldn't come back for more, figuring that if Jonathan did it once, he would be liable to do it again? After all, the person would still have those pictures. And even worse, they could easily get Jonathan's money and still sell the photos to someone else.

Option two: Go to the cops.

Extortion was illegal. Maybe the authorities could track down the person before anything got leaked. But there was zero security in that. Even if the cops could find the person before the deadline, who's to say they hadn't already sent the photos to a few of their friends just in case?

No matter how you looked at it, you still felt like this was something that would haunt you for the rest of your life. And it left you feeling completely helpless.

Calling Chanel wasn't about seeking advice. This situation was unique to you and Jonathan, so you knew she could offer none. This call was more about needing a lifeline. You had to get ahead of this somehow. And you knew that there would be no pressure in telling Chanel. She was already privy to tons of your deepest secrets since you two became best friends in middle school. She knew you better than anyone on earth.

There was one person you were dreading having to relay the information to though, your mother. Just the thought of that conversation made you physically sick. And you were pretty sure that Jonathan was in the same boat with his parents.

How do you tell the people who raised you something like you were having sex in public and now someone had pictures of it?

It seemed damn near impossible.

However, yesterday Jonathan did tell his twin brother about the predicament. To your astonishment, all Joshua did was laugh at the situation at first, but then Jonathan hit him with a dose of reality. This situation didn't just affect you and him. Joshua could very well be confused for the person in those photos. Sure, he and Jonathan were fraternal twins with different hairstyles and tattoos, but everyone knows that the general public is going to believe what they want.

Who knew how far all of this could spiral?

The blackmailer could take those pictures and twist the story however they wanted. Hell, they could take an extreme step and make it look like you were cheating on Jimmy with Jey if they wanted to. People wouldn't give a damn about the truth. They would only care about the mess.

You had no idea that one reckless moment with the man you loved would spiral into such a living nightmare.

"That's not the point, Chanel," you stated to her as you returned from your stress-filled thoughts.

Her face softened as she studied you. "I know. I was trying to cheer you up, Y/N. You look terrified, girl."

"Thanks for trying," you murmured, then sighed before saying "I am terrified."

"Do you and Jonathan know what y'all are going to do?" A look of genuine concern washed over her facial features.

"Not yet," you admitted with a weak shrug. "But we don't have a choice but to figure something out."

Truthfully though, you and Jonathan hadn't even had a real discussion about the ordeal yet. You fainted when he told you about it in Costa Rica, so you felt like he was giving you the time and space to fully process what was happening. The expression on his face when you came to would forever be burned into your memory. You don't know how long you were out but when you opened your eyes, he was hovering over you, holding a cold towel to your forehead with the most petrified expression on his face. You had never seen him like that before and never wanted to see it again.

"This is a crazy-ass situation, Y/N," Chanel muttered more so to herself as your eyes averted up to the top of your phone screen after you felt a buzzing sensation. You quickly skimmed over the message you just received from Jonathan.

As you typed your okay to his message, you exhaled a breath you hadn't even realized you were holding. Even amidst the chaos, the mere thought of being near him made the burden feel just a little lighter.

Costa Rica was only a memory now as you and Jonathan had to step back into your day-to-day lives. He went back to work, and you, a first-grade teacher, had lesson plans and grading to get through. Your sub had covered for you while you took your little impromptu vacation, but on Monday you had to return to the classroom.

The world didn't stop for this disaster. You and Jonathan still had to find a way through it. No matter how this played out, the earth would keep spinning.

You conversed with Chanel for a few more minutes over FaceTime before you tore yourself away from the welcomed distraction and halfheartedly focused on your lesson plan. About 15 minutes into that, you heard Jonathan entering your apartment with the key you gave him a month ago.

"What's up, baby?" You heard his cheerful voice as he turned the corner and entered the living room. He dropped his training bag on the floor before walking over to where you were sitting on the couch. You pushed your MacBook aside and stood up to greet him with a hug.

"Get anything done today?" He asked you as he lifted you without effort while you wrapped your legs securely around his waist and placed your arms around his neck.

"Not much." You admitted to him. Anytime you tried to solely focus on your lesson plan, your mind wandered to that email and the mass destruction that was soon awaiting you. And that seemed to be the only thing to occupy your mind.

"I understand. It's a lot going on," he stated knowingly before pecking you on the lips.

"I'm about to hop in the shower right quick, though. Come get in with me." He added.

"I already got in," you told him.

"I didn't ask you that. I said come get in with me." He responded with a smile as he kept you in his arms and started walking towards the stairs that led up to your bedroom. He didn't place you back onto your feet until he reached the bathroom connected to your room. Something you already knew he would do because this was nearly a weekly occurrence for you two. You would always shower before Jonathan came over, and he would always want you to get right back in with him. Some nights you stood your ground, and others you gave in.

Tonight felt like one of those caving-in nights.

"Okay, but I don't want to hear no complaining about the temperature." You warned him as you moved over and pulled your shower door open. You turned on the water, adjusting it to your liking. A liking that Jonathan always seemed to have a problem with. You could already hear his nagging, "It's too hot." But on second thought, you found yourself adjusting the temperature so that you wouldn't have to hear his whining. Something you always did in the end anyway.

"I don't even be complaining," Jonathan muttered under his breath in a childish tone, making you smile and shake your head as you turned your attention to your mirror.

You watched his reflection as he took his hair down from the low ponytail he had it in and tossed the hair wrapper on the counter. You took the same wrapper and used it to put your braids up into a bun before walking back over to where he was removing his clothes. You followed in line, removing yours before stepping into the shower with him.

Your body instantly relaxed underneath the soothing water as you and Jonathan eased into familiar positions with his hands resting on your hips as you adjusted yourself in front of him. Lucky for you both, your shower was wide enough for you to stand beside each other rather than someone being forced to be in the back. You never had to deal with the predicament of someone hogging the water, and you were very thankful for that. One less thing you had to hear Jonathan jokingly whine about.

The sound of the water softly cascading off your bodies and hitting the shower floor could be the only thing heard for a few minutes as you and Jonathan appreciated each other's physical presence. He ran his hands from your hips to your thighs, then back up again while you traced his tattoos with your fingertips. He then planted a light kiss on your forehead, and for that moment while you were lost in each other, it almost felt like everything was okay.

Almost.

"Alright... how do you feel about everything?" Jonathan asked, abruptly shifting you back to reality. You looked up, connecting your eyes with his, knowing that "everything" meant that he finally wanted you to express how you felt about that email and what could potentially come of it.

You didn't know how the hell you two would manage to pull it off but no matter what you had to figure it out. Step one: have an actual conversation about it.

"I've... I've been," you begin to say, searching your brain for the right words.

"I've been managing it," you finalized as you reached behind Jonathan and grabbed your French vanilla-scented soap bar and loofah, before proceeding into your showering routine for the second time tonight.

Every few seconds you were internally uncontrollably freaking out about the situation but still, you wanted to appear brave in front of Jonathan. You already did something as extreme as fainting over it so you didn't want to do anything further to add to the stress he was most likely already under.

"Well, you know you don't have to manage the shit on your own......that's what I'm here for," he told you as he turned around and grabbed his showering items that were neatly kept beside yours. It was sort of unspoken but Jonathan had low-key moved into your apartment over the months. 75 percent of his clothing and personal items were sorted among your things. It happened so seamlessly that somehow it seemed like it had been that way all along.

"Be real with me Y/N." he urged you as he returned his gaze to yours watching you intently. It was clear that he wasn't buying your "I've been managing it" bullshit. He had learned your body language so well that he always knew when you were holding something back from him. You didn't know why you still tried to put up a front for him. He saw right through it every single time.

"Okay ........" you began to backtrack on your previous statement.

"Truthfully, I'm scared Jon," you revealed to him as you dropped your eyes from his and focused more on washing your body to distract yourself from how intense the conversation was about to get. 

"I'm scared that if those pictures are exposed, I won't be able to face my family and friends or your family and friends anymore." You continued, and the more you talked the more you realized that wanting to put on a brave face for him was pointless. He had to be your rock through this as you had to be his. This was something you were going through together.

"And I know you're not supposed to care, but I'm scared about how the internet will perceive me and most importantly..." You paused as your next train of thought caused your heart to sink.

"I'm scared of losing my job," you concluded.

Since you were a little girl, you've always known that you wanted to be a teacher. So after you graduated high school you worked hard to make your dream come true. There were zero bumps in the road during your 4-year teaching career up until this point.

This whole ordeal was nerve-wracking because your being in a relationship with Jimmy Uso was public knowledge that even most of your students knew now. A lot of them tuned in to wrestling with their parents or on their own so the fact that Ms. (Your/Lastname) was dating a wrestler was exciting news to them. The amount of Jimmy and Jey Uso action figures you found yourself having to confiscate because your students thought it was funny to bring them out during the middle of your lessons was comical. But despite that, you still found their admiration for Jonathan and his craft heartwarming and even planned to surprise them with him on Career Day in the future.

But right now that same future was looking dreadful.

Your stomach turned at the thought of what your students and their parents would see if those photos were to get leaked. You had no idea how the school board would react. Would they understand that this was something that was completely out of your control? Or would they blame you for being reckless?

Could this be the end of your teaching career? You couldn't see any other school hiring you if those photos were exposed. 

"What about you? How do you feel, Jon?" You suddenly asked him needing to deflect from your own feelings for a moment. You already knew how real this whole thing was but talking about your fears out loud was suddenly making it hard to breathe and the steam from the shower wasn't making it any better.

"I thought about it and I feel like I'ma be able to handle whatever happens," he told you with a surprising shrug as he moved his soapy washcloth from his neck to his chest.

This was your first time paying close attention to it but Jonathan didn't seem to have the same worry on his face that you had been sporting for the last 2 days. Besides looking terrified when you fainted afterward he quickly transformed back into his carefree goofy self. All this time you were assuming that you two had to be experiencing the same emotions because who wouldn't be freaking out behind this?

But you should've known that not even this could rattle Jonathan Fatu.

Since being with him you learned that no matter what life threw at him he always seemed to maintain a Hakuna Matata ass mindset. He always saw the glass as half full instead of half empty in any situation. He eased through life reminding himself to take things one day at a time. And that shit worked for him. But you on the other hand were a raging worrier. You worked yourself up and stressed over the smallest things. You two being so different in that aspect was probably why your relationship worked so well.

Jonathan grounded you.

"I'm just worried about you baby. I don't care how I'm going to be viewed or how people are going to react if those pictures get out. But I know this will affect you in a different way than it will affect me so how you're handling everything is my main priority."

As you thought about it you realized that he was right.

The backlash of the photos would hit you two differently. For one, Jonathan was a part of one of the most important storylines that the WWE had to often and he put so many years into the company. They wouldn't fire him over this especially with it not being his fault. Yeah, it would look bad for a little while but people would move on.

But even though you had given 4 years of your life to teaching, you could still see the school board turning their backs on you.

And as sad as it sounds at the end of the day Jonathan was a man. No one would judge him as harshly as you would be judged for what those photos consisted of. In fact, Jonathan would probably get a few brownie points while you would be slut shamed for simply engaging in a natural act with your boyfriend.

That was the world you lived in.

So you could see why Jonathan didn't carry the same stress as you.

"We were just having a conversation about you not being able to handle my lifestyle a couple of days ago and then some shit like this happens. I bet you really thinking about not wanting to be with me now. That's the only thing I'm worried about." he admitted.

You looked up at him confusedly for a few seconds.

"Wait ...... that's what you're worried about?" you asked him. "Me not wanting to be with you over this?"

As he nodded yes at you solemnly your heart fluttered at the notion that you walking out of his life was his main concern. Not the pornographic images of you and him that could potentially be plastered all over the internet in a few days.

He was worried about you breaking up with him. It sounded crazy but you loved him more because of it.

"Jon....listen," you told him as you ran your wet hands up his chest before placing them on either side of his neck.

"That's the last thing on my mind," you told him attempting to put his mind to rest.

"Yes, I'm scared as fuck about what will happen but I'd be even more terrified if I didn't have you to lean on. I love you."

"I love you too." He responded before leaning down to place another kiss on your forehead.

"We just have to figure it out," you said to him.

"I'm already on it." he told you "We got a meeting with my lawyer tomorrow morning. I'm not giving up no money just to have those pictures used against us anyway so we gone take it to the law and deal with whatever comes next."

You had no idea that Jonathan was already on top of things. His taking the initiative to do so did give you just a little more hope in the outcome.

"But no matter what we gone be alright ......... alright?" He asked you.

"Alright," you responded.

"Just stop stressing yourself out about it. I don't like how you been walking around here looking. And I don't want you to scare the fuck out of me again like you did when you fainted."

You could see in his eyes how much that still bothered him. You realized then that you needed to find a way to somehow take on his mindset. You had to stop worrying so much about it because, at the end of the day, it wouldn't help anything. 

"I'm trying. I literally just can't stop thinking about it ..... like not even for a second. But I'll try Jon. I swear." you told him truthfully with a weak smile telling yourself that you would fight hard to have a better spirit about the situation. 

"If you need some help not thinking about it I promise that I could take your mind off of it for a while." He stated to you.

"How?" you asked him and instantly regretted it when you saw the goofy ass grin he gave you in response as he placed his hands on your hips again.

"Jon no ..... no," you told him as you pushed his chest a little.

"That's the whole reason we're dealing with this right now." you shook your head at him and genuinely laughed for the first time in 2 days baffled that sex would even be on his mind right now. But you really weren't that surprised. Not much could throw a wrench in Jonathan's sex drive. There was no difference between him and the energizer bunny.

"Come on.... we can't let some weirdo with a camera stop us from doing what we do." He spoke to you softly before leaning down and planting a few kisses on your neck knowing that was a sure way to get you stirred up.

 And it did.

"You looked good as fuck in them pictures though." He said when he returned his eyes to yours.

"I don't care. Something like that is supposed to be for your eyes only," you responded to him with a hit of playfulness causing him to smile. 

Engaging in the very act that had a whole world of trouble waiting for you seemed ironic. But you had been worrying yourself crazy for 48-plus hours about the possible outcomes of that email. Maybe you deserved to let go for a moment.

You were still hesitant but all of that went out the window when Jonathan's lips touched yours. As you gladly welcomed his tongue into your mouth you felt him pulling you with him as he moved back and sat down on your shower seat. He then broke the kiss by reaching down grabbing hold of your right leg and pulling it up to place it over his shoulder.

"You're going to drop me" you squealed as you gripped onto him for support as he softly kissed your other set of lips.

"Have I ever dropped you before?" He asked as he paused to look up at you.

"No." You responded.

"Okay then. I'm not going to start today," he told you then moved his focus back to between your legs. He held onto you tightly as you tried your best to balance on one leg underneath the water as you felt his tongue on your clit. He moved it slowly up and down over your button causing you to moan out into the air.

"Oooh s-shit Jon" you breathe out as he started to gently suck on your clit. As you focused squarely on that feeling that email traveled to the far back of your mind.

You would just have to deal with that shit tomorrow.

*************************************************

[l3v1s-g4m3r]

lmao I might make like a series but it’s just different aus where you know the brothers prior to being kidnapped/sent to the devildom

it’s mammon this time !!

so you open your email to a free iphone scam. you delete it and go on with your day. the next day you get another one. you delete it and go on with your day. this happens for a week straight before you eventually add the number on the scam email to tell this idiot off. you say, as I quote;

“bitch stop fucking sending me scam emails 😐”

he replies and somehow HES the mad one now. you two argue for like 10 minutes straight because, gosh, he just can’t accept that he’s wrong??

the argument dies down and you both go back to your day. that is until you get another scam ad the next day.

“ok you rat bastard what’s your address I’m finna pull up rn one of us dying today and it ain’t gonna be me”

he.. actually sends you coordinates??? there’s no way this mf will just give away his address, so you put the coordinates in google.

it shows your house.

“WHAT THE FUCK HOW DO YOU KNOW MY ADDRESS 😭”

he doesn’t say how or even WHY he has your address on hand, but he decides to fucking blackmail you to help him make money.

you agree because you don’t want some random sixty year old man to come to your house because you didn’t help him make money.

he tells you his name is mammon, and yeah serves him right because he IS a demon for blackmailing you.

you try to do the iphone scam like him, doesn’t work. you try the “you have a virus” scam, it doesn’t work.

so you have to take great lengths.

you become a discord e-kitten. and it surprisingly works really well, all you have to do is claim you’re a minor and send pics of your feet. then send the money to mammon.

and you’re not scamming people while doing it so all is good!

as much as it is a surprise, you and mammon become pretty good friends. I mean, you are basically the ONLY source of money he has, and a pretty good one at that. you even call him boss!

when you’ve made him about $1000 (or 50,000 grim if you transfer it), you both decide to show each other your faces and he’s actually a cutie bro?? like what?? you expected a sixty year old man blackmailing you but he’s a hot guy in his 20s??

one day while you were preparing to get on discord to continue e-kittening, you get sucked into a random portal. and fall straight on your face. right infront of a bunch of hot men. just great.

when the cute redhead explains your situation, you’re not too worried. might aswell get used to being here, since it’s gonna be your home when you’re dead!

the raven haired fellow gives you you’re “phone” for when you’re down here and tell you to call mammon.

wait, mammon?! boss?!

you look at the profile picture and surely that’s him, I guess you saying he was a demon for blackmailing you was the weird truth. why else would he be here?

you click the call button.

“oi, what’s the big idea-“

“HI BOSS!”

“wha- WIMP?! WHY ARE YA CALLIN’ ME ON A RANDOM NUMBER?!”

“so um, long story short, I’m in hell and this black haired guy told me to call you. I think his name was lucifer??”

“no way… YOURE THE EXCHANGE STUDENT?! THIS IS A PRETTY NICE DAY AFTER ALL! COMIN’ THERE NOW!”

everybody else in the room is confused why you called mammon “boss” and why he was so buddy-buddy with you, considering he doesn’t do that with strangers, especially HUMANS.

mammon would’ve been annoyed he had to babysit some human, but he has no problem with it because he’s making money and he’s with his wimp 💕💕.

[sugarcoated-lame]

Life’s A Beach | Bradley Bradshaw x Reader

Single Dad!Bradley x Reader

This is the second installment of my single dad Bradley miniseries | part one | library blog

Summary: A few weeks have passed since meeting Bradley and Caroline, and what better way to spend time with the adorable father-daughter duo again than a day at the beach?

WC: 6K

Warnings: all of my works are 18+ minors DNI, shirtlessbradleyshirtlessbradleyshirtlessbradley, reader wears a bikini but there are no descriptions of body size/shape, mentions of food/eating, mutual pining, like one tiny mention of smut towards the end if you squint, I don’t really think there’s much else this is literally just straight up fluff, dilf Bradley just being the absolute sweetest, this part is much longer than the first bc I already had it written and then couldn’t help myself from adding almost 3k words while editing oops, once again I suck at titles and summaries :)

a/n: the header for this chapter was my first attempt at making a mood board, I hope y’all like it :) I love Dadley Dadshaw™️ and little Caroline so much, I couldn’t stop smiling while writing this chapter of pure fluff! If you enjoy it, please comment/reblog feedback is always appreciated. Thank you for reading! <3

•

•

You’re checking yourself in the mirror for probably the twentieth time when your phone buzzes with a text alerting you that Bradley is outside. You’d spent an embarrassing amount of time this morning trying on countless swimsuits in an attempt to find the perfect one.

It’s a sunny Saturday afternoon and with Bradley having the day off, and Caroline done with school for the weekend, he’d invited you to join them for a day at the beach. Since meeting them at the mall a few weeks ago when you’d helped reunite the father-daughter duo after the little girl had gotten lost, you’d maintained pretty regular communication.

The two of you had been texting almost daily, chatting about your days and getting to know each other a little better, and you were delighted to find out that Bradley did not, in fact, have a wife. He’d send you silly pictures of him and Caroline that never failed to make you smile even after a shitty day, and left you wondering how someone could still be so attractive while making the stupidest faces. 

He told you a bit about his job — as not just a pilot like his daughter had told you when you met, but a fighter pilot, a naval aviator — and you told him about yours. You talked about your respective hobbies, favorite movies and your tastes in music among other things. Anything and everything that had come to mind, really.

Talking to Bradley was always easy. And there was definitely a bit of flirting. Okay, maybe a lot of flirting.

You’d also talk to Caroline too. She and Bradley had FaceTimed you a few times over the weeks and she’d update you all about how she was enjoying preschool so far, telling you that her daddy cried when he dropped her off on her first day — though, Bradley insists that he didn't — and about the new friends she’s made, before always asking when she’d get to see you again. You’d promised her, soon.

You’ve been pretty swamped with work, but you’re excited — if not a little anxious — to see them again. Though you hadn’t gotten another chance to see Bradley in person since that first day at the mall, your crush on him had grown exponentially. He was funny, charming, an amazing father to the sweetest little girl, and not to mention incredibly good looking.

Even through an iPhone camera, Bradley always looked so effortlessly gorgeous, his boyish smile and pretty eyes never failing to give you butterflies. You’d have to actively try not to swoon all the times he’d called you ‘sweetheart’ or said you looked pretty over FaceTime. 

You could tell the mustached man liked you too, if his shameless flirting was anything to go by. He was too charming for his own good and he never seemed to fail to paint a blush on your cheeks. So, you want to make sure you look good when you join him and his daughter at the beach today.

You’d settled on a black bikini, the longline triangle top big enough to cover you up with enough cleavage to still be sexy, and the bottoms a little high waisted, the side strings pulled up high on your hips to accentuate your curves. You’d let your hair fall loose and flowing, and put on a light dusting of makeup.

After receiving Bradley’s text, you quickly throw on a matching black cover-up that ties at the front, your favorite pair of shorts and some flip flops, grabbing your bag and heading out the door.

Bradley’s waiting for you, leaned up against the side of his classic blue Bronco in a white and baby blue floral Hawaiian shirt — which you’ve learned over the last few weeks that he seems to own quite an array of, a pair of dark gray swim trunks that show off his muscular calves, and a pair of aviators shielding his eyes from the early afternoon sun.

His tanned features only seem to glow in the bright light of the sun, and as you watch Bradley’s face light up with a grin when he sees you, sandy curls blowing in the slight breeze, you have to clench your teeth to keep your jaw from dropping. God, he’s gorgeous.

“Hey, sweetheart. How are you?”

Bradley pulls you into a hug as soon as you reach him, and you happily wrap your arms around him. Inhaling his delicious scent and relishing in his warmth as you tell him that you’re doing good, before asking how he’s been too.

“I’ve been good, thanks. You look beautiful.” Bradley compliments you with a growing smirk once he releases you. You’re going to have to get used to the blush that seems to permanently reside over your cheeks whenever you are in his presence.

“You look– good too…” You trail off shyly, lips lifting into a sheepish grin as you push back some strands of hair that had blown in your face from the breeze, looking down at your sandal-clad feet. 

Flirting with Bradley was much easier over text. You’re just thankful that his eyes are currently covered by his sunglasses, unsure if you’d be able to handle his deep, honeyed gaze on you right now without your knees buckling.

Bradley chuckles at your shyness, he loves how easily he can make you flush.

“Come on, I know someone is very excited to see you.” He places a gentle hand at the small of your back and leads you to the passenger side of the Bronco, opening the door for you. Your skin tingles with warmth where his hand had touched you as you climb into the passenger seat and Bradley closes the door for you.

Immediately upon entering the truck, you’re met with a high-pitched yell of your name. You turn around to see Caroline, all tucked into her car seat, sandy curls tied up in pigtails, and a tiny pair of aviator sunglasses that match her dad’s over her eyes. She really is Bradley's mini-me and you don’t think she could get any cuter.

“Hey, sweet pea!” She’d told you when you called her that on one of your FaceTime calls that that was her favorite nickname because peas are her favorite vegetable.

“You ready for a beach day?” You inquire happily, to which Caroline replies with a toothy grin and excited squeals of affirmation. She lifts her little aviators up onto the top of her head as she talks excitedly to you, while Bradley chuckles and begins to drive.

The two of you spend the entire drive to the beach chatting animatedly, Bradley chiming in here and there, but mostly just enjoying listening to the way you happily field the kind of questions and roundabout rambling that can only come from a four-year old. 

He swears that his heart is going to explode out of his chest seeing how great you are with his daughter. How much Caroline already seems to love you, and how much you seem to love her too.

*** 

Upon arriving at the beach and finding a spot for the Bronco in the moderately crowded lot, Bradley quickly leaps out of the driver’s side to open your door for you, eliciting a bashful smile and quiet ‘thanks’ from you as he takes your hand in his much larger one to help you down.

When your feet are safely on the ground and he’s closed the door behind you, Bradley makes his way to the back door to help Caroline — who is bouncing her little legs and practically vibrating with excitement – out of her car seat. 

The three of you make your way up to the beach, Bradley carrying a large cooler that he procured from the trunk. And while you try your hardest to not drool over his impressive arms, you hold a large tote that’s filled to the brim with a blanket, towels, Caroline’s countless beach toys, and an umbrella sticking out of the top in one hand, and Caroline’s smaller hand in your free one. 

It’s only a short walk, and the second your feet touch the sand, Caroline’s little hand releases yours as she bounds ahead of you and her father in search of a good spot to set up.

Bradley lets out an exasperated sigh and lifts up his sunglasses, sharp eyes trained ahead to follow his daughter’s bouncing pigtails as she runs along the busy beach. “God, she’s really gotta stop doing that.”

Holding back a giggle — because you know firsthand that Caroline wandering off is a fairly common occurrence — you look up at Bradley with a sympathetic pout.

“Yeah, but if she didn’t do that, you never would’ve met me.” You shrug matter-of-factly, lips tugging up at the corner on their own accord. 

Bradley can’t help but chuckle at that. 

“I guess that’s true,” the playful smirk growing on your face draws a matching one onto his lips. “But, sooner or later, she’s gonna give her old man a heart attack.”

You join him in his laughter as you continue walking toward the empty spot where you see Caroline has stopped, bouncing on her feet and waiting for the two of you with an adorable toothy grin. 

“You’re not that old.” With a playful roll of your eyes, you lightly smack his shoulder.

Once everything is set up – the blanket laid out along the sand and held down at the corners by the heavy cooler and the tote, the large beach umbrella creating a nice bit of shade, and Caroline’s various toys already scattered about — Bradley kicks off his flip flops and reaches up to begin unbuttoning his Hawaiian shirt. Dropping his aviators onto the blanket along with it, leaving him in just his dark gray swim shorts with his torso bare. 

Whoa. You thought he was hot with his clothes on, but you nearly went into shock upon seeing him without them. You knew Bradley was obviously in shape — you could see that even under the Hawaiian shirts and soft looking Navy tees he always wore over Facetime – but you didn’t know he was that muscular.

All golden skin and rippling muscles, broad shoulders and strong arms. Almost ridiculously toned abs and thick thighs leading down to shapely legs, Bradley looked like he was sculpted by the gods. Though he was a father, he certainly did not have a ‘dad bod’. You guessed that his elite naval training must be to thank for that.

In the hopes of distracting yourself — and to stop yourself from frothing at the mouth over Bradley’s physique, you decide to focus on applying the sunscreen that you also found in Bradley’s beach bag. You remove your cover-up and shimmy out of your shorts, already enjoying the warmth of the afternoon sun blanketing the newly exposed skin.

Holy shit, Bradley has to stop himself from saying out loud as he catches a view of you in your bikini. 

The way that the black fabric fits your body perfectly, just a hint of your plush breasts visible in the triangle top and the high-cut bottoms with little strings that cinch in at your waist accentuating your curves in all the right places, has Bradley’s heart beating faster and his cheeks heating up with a flush that he knows is not just a product of the bright sun. 

He feels like he might start drooling at any moment as he takes in the sight of your skin – so much skin, and he wants to know if it would feel as soft as it looks, under his fingertips.

He watches in awe as you begin to apply your sunscreen, delicate hands smoothing over planes of skin, and Bradley wishes he could replace them with his own. He needs to stop ogling you before his swim trunks begin to show the evidence of just how much you’re affecting him.

When you’re finished lathering yourself in sunscreen, Bradley’s heart starts clenching in his chest for a whole different reason as you offer to help Caroline apply hers. She accepts your offer without hesitation, head nodding a mile a minute and that big grin that never fails to make Bradley’s heart melt on her sweet little face, and he swears she’s never taken to anyone — not even the Dagger Squad — so quickly.

He gazes on, eyes with wide adoration as you kneel down to meet his daughter’s height, gently – and oh so patiently – rubbing the cream onto the baby-soft skin of her arms and legs as she jumps and squirms around, her golden brown curls bouncing, the impatient four-year old ready to take off like a tornado down the beach. 

Bradley can’t help but admire the sweet smile that overtakes your face and your soft laugh as Caroline scrunches up her adorable little button nose while you apply the sunscreen to her face, and he swears his heart grows three times its size when he hears the giggles bubbling out of his little girl’s mouth as you playfully pinch her nose and let her know that you’re done.

“What do we say, Caroline?” Bradley asks his daughter before she has a chance to run off in her excitement. His tone is slightly stern and his hands are on his hips, though a smirk is tugging at the corner of his lips as he squints against the bright sun to look at his daughter who returns his gaze with a wide-eyed, almost caught-out expression.

“Thank you!” Caroline turns back to you and wraps her arms around your neck in a quick hug that makes your heart melt. 

Before you can hug her back, she races over to her dad and hugs her arms around his hips, her little head resting on his taut belly as she looks up at him with those big, brown puppy dog eyes that rival his own. 

“Can we go in the ocean, Daddy?” 

When Bradley lovingly strokes the crown of her head and grins down at her, you swear you could cry from how adorable the two of them are. “Of course we can, Bug.”

Then, Bradley lifts his little girl off the sand – and she looks so tiny in his arms – and you can’t help but giggle at the two of them as he leans down to blow raspberries on Caroline’s tummy through the fabric of her ruffly lilac bathing suit, high-pitched squeals and shrieking giggles leaving her as she flails in his hold, breathlessly yelling, “Daddy, stop!” while he continues to tickle her.

“Alright, alright. I’m done.” Bradley chuckles, only stopping when one of Caroline’s flailing limbs nearly hits him in the face. He presses a kiss to one of her flushed cheeks, and then the two of them are looking at you with matching grins. 

“You comin’, sweetheart?” The term of endearment makes your heart flutter. You glance between the two of them, holding back a laugh at the four-year old that’s buzzing with excitement in her father’s arms.

“I think I’m just gonna relax here for a bit and soak up some sun, but you two go ahead!” 

Bradley looks down to where you sit on the beach blanket with an appraising look as you smile at the two of them, a hand hovering above your squinting eyes to shield them from the sun, and you could swear you catch his eyes trailing down the line of your body for just a second before returning to yours. “You sure?”

“Yeah, you two go! Enjoy some father-daughter time.” You nod, a pretty smile on your face, and the playful wink you send his daughter has Bradley’s swim trunks feeling the slightest bit tighter again. Yeah, maybe a few minutes apart from you would do him some good.

Little does Bradley know, your reasoning for staying back is similar to his for not arguing with that. You need a moment to yourself to refrain from doing something stupid – like trying to lick his abs or climb him like a tree – if you have to be up close to him and his gorgeous body for one more second.

You relax onto the blanket, your face hidden under the shade of the umbrella as you watch Bradley take off toward the ocean with Caroline still in his arms, the little girl giggling the whole way there. 

You watch on adoringly as Bradley plays with his daughter, chasing her around on the wet sand and scooping her up in his strong arms, spinning her around and dunking her partially into the water. The two of them run through the waves, splashing each other, all smiles and laughs the entire time. 

In just the brief time that you’ve known them, it’s very easy to see that Bradley’s daughter is his whole world.

When they return a while later, Caroline sprints ahead of her dad to reach you on the blanket where you’re already waiting with a smile to hand her her beach towel that has cute little frogs printed all over it. 

Bradley reaches the two of you a few moments later and your arm freezes mid-air as you reach up to hand him a towel as well, too distracted to even ogle over his glistening, wet skin as you notice the red shade that’s beginning to take over the skin of his cheeks and his broad shoulders. 

��Bradley, you’re all red! Did you put on any sunscreen?” You question with a breathy laugh, though Bradley can see the concern in your eyes as he takes the towel from your outstretched hand and begins to dry the water droplets on his tanned skin.

Before he can respond that he had, Caroline chimes in. “Daddy says he burns if he even looks at the sun!” She exclaims through her giggles.

You laugh along with her for a moment before fixing him with that cute, sympathetic pout again that makes Bradley’s heart flutter in his chest.

Before he knows it, you’re reaching into the beach bag for the tube of sunscreen and standing to be closer to his height – though he’s still got quite a few inches on you. 

“Here, let me-” You squeeze some of the sunscreen out onto your fingers, and then your delicate hands are working the cream into the skin of Bradley’s face and his cheeks are, again, warming even more and not because of the sun. 

His skin tingles where your light touch had been, and Bradley thanks whatever gods are out there that Caroline jumps in and insists that you build a sandcastle with her before you get a chance to start working the sunscreen onto his shoulders. He doesn’t know that he could handle you touching him any longer without saying or doing something stupid.

“Thanks, sweetheart. I think I can take it from here.” Bradley’s tone is flirty as he holds a hand out for the tube of sunblock, fingers grazing yours, and his lips turn up in a smirk at the flush developing on your own cheeks as you nod back at him. And he can’t suppress the quiet chuckle at the stumble in your steps as you make your way back over to Caroline to get to work on your sandcastle. 

After applying the sunscreen to his own shoulders, Bradley sits down in the sand to join you and his daughter. 

“Daddy! We’re building the world’s biggest sandcastle!” Caroline exclaims, filling up her bucket with sand. “It’s gonna be bigger than you!”

Bradley lets out a throaty laugh, “Yeah, I’ll bet!” He looks to you and the two of you grin at each other conspiratorially. “Can I help?”

Once the three of you have built – and demolished, a la Caroline jumping straight onto it – the “biggest sandcastle she’s ever seen”, she and Bradley convince you to get in the water with them. 

You all play a game of tag in the shallows, Bradley stopping to lift his daughter out of the water every so often when there was a large wave, before you and Caroline decide to gang up on Bradley to splash him with salty seawater until he’s soaked and looking at the two of you with a pout that you want to kiss right off of his lips. 

Then, Bradley’s pout quickly morphs into a mischief-filled grin, a matching one growing on his daughter’s face as you look between them, the two of them seeming to have a sort of silent conversation. 

“What are you-” Before you can finish asking the question, you let out a yelp as a strong pair of arms wraps around your waist and lifts you into the air, both Bradley and Caroline laughing like hyenas as the four-year old begins splashing you with water, and you can’t help but laugh along with them as you squirm under Bradley’s very strong grip. 

All too soon, Bradley’s arms are releasing you, but he keeps a steadying hand on your waist as he settles you back onto your feet. His whiskey-hued eyes peering into yours and you can only gaze back, left a bit breathless, your skin set alight with butterflies where his large palm had been even when he’s no longer touching you. 

“Daddy, I’m hungry!” Caroline announces, tension in the air dissipating as she jumps up and down between the two of you, tugging on the hem of her dad’s swim trunks. 

You can breathe again as Bradley chuckles at her and finally shifts his gaze away from you, pushing back some of the wet curls that are stuck to her forehead. “Yeah, me too. Lead the way, Bug.”

The three of you make your way back up to your little setup on the beach, the little girl tugging you along with a hand wrapped in yours. 

Bradley produces a few little packs of apple slices and the three sandwiches he’d packed earlier that morning from the cooler, peanut butter and jelly – Caroline’s favorite, as you’ve learned over your many facetime calls with the father-daughter duo and giggled at the four-year old’s jelly-covered face, where you let them know they were one of your favorites too. 

“Bon appetit.” Bradley chuckles, holding out one of the plastic wrapped, diagonally cut sandwiches to you, a slightly sheepish smile coming over his mustached lips. “I know it’s not much, but-” 

You cut him off with a shake of your head before he can finish his statement, and meet him with a sincere grin. “It’s perfect.”

He hands Caroline the one sandwich that has the crusts cut off and a packet of apple slices, and then pulls out an ice cold bottle of water for each of you, and a juicebox for his daughter. 

While Caroline sweetly asks you to put the straw into her juicebox for her, Bradley pulls out one last thing from the cooler that has your heart leaping in your chest when you turn to notice him place something down in front of you. 

A bottle of your favorite iced tea. Something you’d never explicitly mentioned to him, but that Bradley had noticed you always seemed to be drinking on your video calls with them. It’s such a simple gesture, and yet you feel like you could cry at the sweetness of it. 

Bradley’s chest swells with pride as you pin him with a bright smile, eyes full of adoration. “Thank you.”

“Anything for you, sweetheart.” Bradley sends you a wink that sends your heart into overdrive as he takes a bite out of his sandwich. 

Bradley admires the two of you as he sits and eats his PB&J. His daughter is once again talking at you a mile a minute in that adorable, roundabout way that only little kids do as you follow along enthusiastically with a smile, you gently wiping jelly from Caroline’s face with a wet napkin and making sure that she drinks her water when you notice her cheeks getting a bit flushed.

“Just like her daddy.” He listens to you tell Caroline with a playful shake of your head, and the wink you send in his direction has Bradley swearing internally that he’s going to die, and he can’t help but think that he’d be more than happy to do this all the time. 

After spending a while longer on the beach – you and Bradley sat on the large blanket chatting and watching Caroline play and build her own little castles with her pail and shovel, the three of you jumping in the water one more time, and you hiding your snickers behind your hand while Bradley tries to convince Caroline that it is not a good idea to bury him in the sand – the sun is just beginning to set. 

And though he doesn’t want this day to end, Bradley decides it’s time to head home when he notices his four-year old rubbing her eyes and starting to yawn every couple of minutes.

You help him pack everything up and then the three of you make the trek back to the car, Caroline half asleep on her dad’s broad shoulders, while you walk close by Bradley’s side in a peaceful silence.

Caroline falls asleep almost instantly once Bradley gets her settled into the Bronco in her car seat, and you can’t help but coo at the adorable little girl when you turn back to look at her from the passenger seat. 

The drive back to your apartment is a peaceful one, the sun still setting and bathing everything it touches in its dying golden glow — including Bradley — and you find it hard not to stare at his exquisite side profile as he bops his head along to the classic songs that play quietly from the radio as the two of you chat idly, low enough to not wake up the sleeping little girl in the backseat.

When the Bronco comes to a stop in front of your apartment, the sky has almost fully darkened and neither you or Bradley move for a long few moments, neither one of you really wanting to say goodbye, not quite ready for this perfect day to end yet.

Bradley clears his throat and turns his gaze to you with that boyish, mustached grin that sends butterflies coursing through your system and the smile you meet him with is an easy one. 

“Thank you for coming today,” Bradley’s voice is quiet, raspy and deep and heat pools in your tummy as he continues to speak. “Caroline had a blast. She really likes you.”

His statement has you glancing back at the sleepy four-year old and beaming with adoration when you turn back to reply, “I really like her too. And, I had a great time. Thanks for inviting me.” 

Bradley’s smile turns more playful as he nods his head, his honey brown eyes peering deep into your own as he quietly speaks again. “I really like you too.” 

With the pulsing in your ears from your heart practically beating out of your chest, it takes you a few long seconds to reply and all you can manage to get out is a whispered “Yeah, me too…” 

Your voice trails off and and your smile turns sheepish, gaze tilted down toward your lap to hide the obvious flush you know is blooming on your cheeks.

Bradley’s grin only broadens, eyes full of mirth at your sudden shyness.

“Can I walk you to your door?” His deep voice sends a shiver down your spine and you don’t really trust yours to be steady with him looking at you like that, so you simply nod in response. 

After Bradley checks behind him to see that his daughter is still sleeping soundly in the backseat, he unbuckles his seatbelt and quietly hops out of the Bronco. He quickly makes his way over to the passenger side to open the door for you and help you down from his truck.

With one last look through the window at Caroline, Bradley locks up the Bronco and you begin the short walk to your door. The two of you are trailing along the concrete path slowly, Bradley’s palm hovering at the small of your back to guide you and warming your skin through the thin fabric of your cover-up. 

You hesitate when you reach your front door, leaning your back against the hardwood to face Bradley, still not quite ready to cut your time with him short. 

Peering up at him through your lashes, you thank Bradley before letting him know again, “I really had a great time today.”

“Yeah, me too, sweetheart.” You could swear he’s really trying to kill you every time he uses that nickname. “We should definitely do this again sometime.” 

Your voices are both still quiet, as if to not disturb the peaceful, but intense atmosphere that’s built around the two of you.

“Yes, we should.” You nod your head, bottom lip caught between your teeth as Bradley’s eyes peers into yours, pools of molten honey searching your expression. 

Whatever he’s looking for, he seems to find it. One of his big hands reaches up to cup your cheek, large palm splaying across the smooth skin and long fingers reaching into your hair, and he loves the way you instantly lean into his warm touch. 

Bradley just admires you for a long moment, his heavy gaze trailing down from your pretty eyes to your plush lips, further to where your chest is rapidly rising up and down under your sheer cover-up as your breath quickens, and then back up again to see the look of want in your dilated eyes. 

When he can no longer take the tension that’s been building up between you all day, Bradley takes a step closer, leaving only a few inches between the two of you. He leans down and the hand on your cheek guides your lips up to meet his in a kiss that’s sweet, but firm, and all-consuming. 

Your lips move softly against his, one of your hands lifting up to wrap around the wrist of his hand that still cups your face. His pulse under your fingertips grounding you as you sigh into the kiss, and you think you could get lost in him. 

His lips, gentle and languid as they press against your own, the hairs of his mustache tickling your skin, and the comforting scent of him surrounding you — the spicy cologne that still lingers on his clothes, a hint of sweat mixed with the fresh, beachy scent from a day spent on the sand and sea, and something that’s just Bradley.  

When Bradley deepens the kiss, lips moving more fervently against your own, your resulting whimper has him crowding you against the door, no longer an inch of space left between your bodies as his broad chest presses against yours, his free hand coming to grip at your waist.  

Bradley’s tongue trails the seam of your lips, begging for entrance that you grant him without resistance, swallowing his deep groan as your free hand reaches up to his hair. Your fingers tangle into the strands, his waves extra defined from the salty sea water, fluffy from the beach and now, you. 

As your tongue glides along with his, Bradley’s strong hands now both squeeze at your waist, trailing down your sides until they reach the backs of your thighs. He effortlessly lifts you into his strong arms, never breaking the kiss, and your legs wrap around his waist as the weight of his body presses you harder into your front door. 

Things continue on like this — for minutes or hours, you’re not quite sure as you completely lose yourself in the feeling of Bradley’s kiss — only getting deeper, hungrier, more frenzied. Your lips never parting from Bradley’s despite the burning that’s beginning to grow in your lungs, thighs clenching around his hips in search of even a hint of friction to curb the arousal that’s building in your core.  

Bradley finally pulls away when the lack of oxygen gets to be too much. Your lips chase his, the little whimper you send him when his mouth is no longer on yours, going straight to his cock that’s pressed against your hip, straining against his already-tight swim trunks, and his head is spinning from the way your lips trail down to press gentle kisses to his jaw. 

He wishes he could take you inside your apartment — to your bed, and he would have, but it’s then that he remembers his four year-old daughter is asleep in the backseat of his car. 

Bradley’s forehead presses against your own and he breathes in deep before exhaling a deep sigh to steady himself. After pressing one last peck to your lips, he sets your feet back down on the ground. He takes a step back to look at you, hands hesitating to leave your waist as he doesn’t want to stop touching you yet.

Your expression is dazed, lips are swollen and eyes blown wide, your heaving chest matching his own as you take the oxygen back into your lungs, and Bradley can’t help but pull you in one last time with a hand on the back of your neck to kiss you breathless — again.

When he pulls away this time, Bradley hardly gives himself a moment to catch his breath before he pants out, “Can I please take you on a date?”

You nod your head near-frantically and you laugh just as breathlessly. “I was starting to think you’d never ask.”

Bradley chuckles, gazing down at you in adoration, his thumb that reaches up to caress your cheek and his next words draw a blush to your cheeks. 

“Believe me, I’ve wanted to for weeks. Since the first day that we met you.”

You turn your head to press a sweet kiss to Bradley’s thumb. 

“You could have. I definitely would’ve said yes.” You reply with a bashful smile.

“Yeah, I’m a bit off my game. I haven’t really done this in a while if I’m being honest.” Bradley admits a little sheepishly and you nod along, encouraging him to continue. 

“I haven’t dated much since Caroline. She’s kinda become my whole world.” He scratches the back of his neck, feeling a bit awkward and hoping you don’t think that’s pathetic.

You take his hand in yours and smile at Bradley, eyes shining bright in what can only be described as admiration. 

“You’re an amazing father, Bradley. You're so dedicated to Caroline and that’s one of the things I love most about you.”

You give his hand a gentle squeeze as you gaze up at him, leaning up on your tiptoes to place a gentle kiss on his sun-reddened cheek. “And I definitely want to go out with you.”

“Thank god.” The pair of you let out relieved laughs at his words. Bradley’s hands reach out for your waist once again. “Come here.”

Bradley leaves you with one more passionate kiss that ends way too quickly for either of your liking and a ‘Goodnight, sweetheart’ that paints a blush on your cheeks.

After making sure that you’re safely inside your apartment, Bradley strides back to the Bronco, unable to wipe the grin from his lips. With a glance in the rearview mirror at his baby girl still sound asleep in her car seat, he begins the short journey back to their home, a goofy smile on his face for the entirety of the drive as he thinks about how he’s going to take you on the perfect date.

•

•

•

Thank you for reading! x

Don't forget to comment/reblog if you enjoyed, feedback is always appreciated! I've got one more part planned for this little series, it's not written yet but I hope to get it out to you guys soon <3

tag list: @wkndwlff @sebsxphia @chaoticassidy @dempy @ohgodnotagainn @shanimallina87 @mavrellover91 @memoriesat30 @that-bitch-bri @classyunknownlover @hisredheadedgoddess28 @foreverrandomwritings @lt-spork @princess76179 @gigisimsonmars @kidd3ath @averyhotchner @sammyrenae68 @tv-fanatic18 @one-sweet-gubler @kmc1989 @avengersfan25 @fictionalmenloversblog @a-court-of-roscoe-and-baby @praline357 @girlsclub2004 @misshoneypaper @diorrfairy

also tagging some people who reblogged/commented on part one: @bitter-post-millennial @rhettabbotts @hangmanssunnies @milestomaverick @becks-things @indynerdgirl @perfectprettypisces @annathesillyfriend @southpawbitch @colourfulsuitwonderland @wildxwidow @roger-that-cap @ineedtosusoutmyreadinglist @valhallaas @mayari-tala @teacupsandtopgun @dorothychxca @fangirlvoice @jjenjoysthings @kmc1989 @rosiahills22 @je-suis-prest-rachel

[sillyyuserr]

A longer, more in depth (9 parts all in one) terukane analysis, and/or everything i could find, compiled (one of my better pieces of work imo) ⭐️

Ok so it might be the fact that i ship them so i see a lot of things they do as possibly romantic even when theres no romantic implications, but the amount of times it feels like AidaIro seems to be implying that teru likes akane is getting to a suspiciously high number. Like lets look at this from a non-shipper’s pov (or at least try😭)

Item A: teru looking at akane

Without the context that he’s looking at akane, he genuinely looks like he’s showing something of raw emotion, unchanged by his “fake persona” but a genuine reaction. Looking at this picture at face value one would assume he’s big time crushing. I mean i wouldn’t say “omg hes so in lovveee!!!” But considering he doesn’t really open up to like anyone, i think this is definitely something??

Item B: them going together on a romantic outing

Yes i did make it sound much more compelling then it actually is but cmon man. The school festival is considered a “romantic event” and these two spent the entire time hanging around the school together. Giving the excuse that "it's our job being in the student council" (which i guess it is) but in reality it was because no one wanted to come with them.

Which i mean they also did technically go on an actual date together

nene is so cute here 😭😭

Item C: teru trusting akane more than anyone (?)

Teru likes talking to akane, trusts his intellect, and considers him someone he can rely on but doesn't like it when his whole world starts to revolve around aoi. My guy, that's jealousy.

He is shown to trust him and even show his back to him in multiple instances, knowing he wont hurt him, and he’s someone he can trust (lets ignore what happens on the literal next page)

Even being one of those “i fight alone” type of people. But when akane’s there, he’s never fighting alone.

Item D: not sure if thats whats happening here but im pretty sure he tried glazing akane even blushing n shit like ‘oh no mr judge im not guilty🥺💄💋’

And then got agitated when it didn’t work

Item E: akane knows teru better than we think

When kou and teru were fighting, the reason teru even walked out in the first place was because of the fireworks. And whos idea was that?

Akane’s. He knew he liked fireworks and that they’d lure him out of his room. And again, he was right they did it fact get him to leave

Item F: valentines day event

i dont think i even need to break this one down. Its a picture of JUST them TOGETHER posted on VALENTINES DAY. 2/14/24. THE ANNUAL HOLIDAY THAT CELEBRATES NONE OTHER THAN ROMANTIC LOVE. Also teru’s color being used as akane’s sparkles and akane’s color being used as teru’s sparkles kinda shows that AidaIro arent just showing us two characters, they’re showing us TERU and AKANE, TOGETHER. If it really could be anyone im sure they’d put them in a general setting, but with the paired colors i’d say that says otherwise. Some might say they’re looking at eachother

Okay warning, it starts to get a little unhinged past this point, read with caution

Item G: possible fruit symbolism

first off, this picture.

First lets look at hanako’s. We can see he has two drinks, both red + with strawberries, along with a red straw. While also being pictured near other red fruits.

In this picture, nene’s flower(s) are literally strawberry flowers, putting the association between strawberries + nene out there. Meaning the strawberries in his drink could be purposeful, along with the red undertones. (red being her eye color) (sorry for quality im on iPhone)

Moving on to teru’s, he has one drink, being yellow-ish with pineapple on the side, and chunks in the drink itself. Whilst his straw is orange, while also being pictured around a ginormous pinapple

And this isnt the first time we’ve seen him pictured with pineapples

This god awful picture unfortunately exists so im adding it as proof/evidence for my argument. (Oh and not to mention akane has green pants on so everyone’s a lil funky igs)

notice how as soon they got to his house his outfit changed? This is him when they got to his house (clearly in a long-sleeve shirt, not the hoodie)

this is him with akane + nene going on a date

All within the same chapter i think, but him changing outfits i feel like says something. Like we’re supposed to associate that with something other than aoi (them talking ab how to save her at his house) or his family. Like aidairo are shoving it in your face ‘disassociate teru w aoi!!!’ He even straight up left when they started talking ab how they missed aoi at the karaoke place. (More or so when he left they started talking but ykwim) Since nene is being associated with strawberries it leaves the only other person to be akane, this also making sense also because of the straw color. (The straw being orange; akane’s rep color being orange, as nene’s is red)

also the fact that fruit is literally associated with the queer community

Item H: triangles + queer symbolism

Quick history lesson, A triangle has been a symbol for the queer community, initially intended as a badge of shame, but later reclaimed as a positive symbol of self-identity. In Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, it began as one of the Nazi concentration camp badges, distinguishing those imprisoned because they had been identified by authorities as gay men. In the 1970s, it was again, reclaimed as a symbol of protest against homophobia, and has since been adopted by the larger queer community as a popular symbol of queer pride. More or so, the upsidown triangle. and guess whos ALWAYS wearing a fucking upsidown triangle

My guy has one for EVERY OUTFIT 😭

Item I: extras

This picture. Him holding akane’s shirt and aoi’s bag really shows that AidaIro REALLY doesn’t want us to know which one he likes 😭 if you’re confused, teru’s supposed crush is supposed to be ambiguous (options: akane, aoi) to the audience (basically just me and maybe a few others).

In the “kiss comic” part of the art book, not only are teru and akane’s on the same page, but they also look like they go together

Thats all i got for now (´-ω-`) MAN this took me like 5 different consecutive days. I wrote like 3 parts on one day, 2 more parts the next, and 1 more part today. 😭 hope you enjoyed and this re-gave you faith that terukane might be canon one day 😔 fake it till you make it

Feel free to comment and tell me ab anything i may have missed!! :3

[holysainz]

heating up - carlos sainz jr

pairing: carlos sainz jr x girlfriend!reader

warnings: none

summary: you convince your boyfriend to take on the hot pepper challenge … chili vs chili

You glance across the room at Carlos. Your boyfriend is sprawled across the couch, engrossed in a Spanish reality show. He’s so absorbed that he doesn’t notice the devilish smirk playing on your lips.

“Hey, Chili” you call, borrowing his nickname. It’s ironic given his pitiful tolerance for spicy food, a fact you’re planning to exploit.

“Yeah?” He replies, still glued to the screen.

You flash a grin, holding up your iPhone, “How about a hot pepper challenge?”

He turns, a horrified expression on his face. “You mean … on camera?”

You nod, savoring his almost cartoonish horror.

“Oh no. No, no, no,” he protests, shaking his head.

“But your fans will love it!” You argue. “Picture this: ‘Chili tamed by chili.’”

“Terrible pun,” Carlos grimaces but you know that he can’t deny you anything and see the resignation slowly start to spread across his face.

“Oh, come on! It’ll be fun!” You promise, flashing your most persuasive smile.

After a moment of consideration, he sighs. “Fine but if I end up in hospital, I’m blaming you.”

And that’s how you both find yourselves in your kitchen, surrounded by an array of intimidatingly red peppers of all shapes and sizes. You flip your phone camera on and your fans are immediately alerted to a new live stream.

“Hello everyone! As you can see,” you gesture to Carlos, who is eyeing the chili assortment with a mix of fear and determination, “I’ve managed to convince our very own Chili to join us in a hot pepper challenge.”

Carlos waves to the camera, forcing a smile. “I’m pretty sure she’s trying to kill me.”

Your fans are thrilled, flooding the comment section with laughing emojis and anticipatory messages. You decide to up the stakes.

“The loser has to do the dishes for the rest of the year,” you declare, raising an eyebrow at Carlos.

“Deal,” he agrees, much to your surprise.

You start off easy with some mildly spiced jalapeño poppers. Carlos manages it with just a few beads of sweat dotting his forehead. Then, you turn up the heat. Literally.

A red-hot habanero pepper is next. You both bite in. Carlos’ face goes from confident to confused to horrified in the span of seconds. Tears prick his eyes as he reaches for the milk … but you’re quick.

“Nope. No milk until the end,” you tease.

He glares at you but it’s short-lived as he doubles over coughing. You’re laughing so hard you can barely keep the camera steady.

The challenge continues, each round spicier than the last. Your fans are going wild, making their bets, offering their condolences to Carlos. Some suggest calling an ambulance preemptively.

Carlos, despite being a tormented, sweaty mess, hasn’t backed down. You’ve got to give him credit — his determination is astounding.

Finally, you reach the grand finale: the infamous Carolina Reaper. By now, Carlos looks like he might pass out but he stubbornly insists on going ahead.

“I’m not losing to a vegetable,” he states defiantly, glaring at the wrinkly red pepper as if his stare alone could send it up in flames.

The Reaper hits hard. You feel your own eyes watering but the sight of Carlos — eyes wide, face red, fanning his mouth frantically — is enough to keep you going.

“Okay, okay,” you relent, laughing between teary coughs and reaching for the milk. “I think that’s enough torture for today.”

Carlos doesn’t say a word, just snatches the glass and downs it.

Finally, he manages to croak, “I hate you.”

You’re still laughing. “Oh, come on. It wasn’t that bad.”

“I’m literally breathing fire,” he complains. “I think I might have been turned into a dragon.”

Your fans are cracking up, their comments buzzing with laughter and commiserations for Carlos.

Wrapping up the live stream, you turn to Carlos, whose mouth is now firmly wrapped around the spout of an entire carton of milk

“You okay there, dragon?” You ask, still giggling.

Carlos just glares, face half hidden by the carton, his expression only fueling your laughter. “You know, you’re lucky I love you,” he chokes out.

And despite your grinning and teasing, you know you’re even luckier to have him.

Your spicy challenge video goes viral, featuring in countless meme compilations. Your fans, ever the comedians, edit fire-breathing animations onto Carlos and photoshop his face into every relevant House of the Dragon scene they can get their hands on.

Carlos grumbles each time he sees the video but you notice the smile he tries to hide. He’s a good sport, and though he’ll never admit it, he enjoyed the chaos. Plus, he’s free from dishwashing duties until the end of the year so who’s the real winner here?

You smile, plotting your next challenge. After all, what’s the good of having an extremely memeable boyfriend if you can’t immortalize his best moments on video?

—

taglist: @musingsbyshreya

[danakin-skywalker]

Your Mom (Sam Kiszka Imagine)

Taglist: @hailthegodsong​ whose encouragement goes unparalleled

(A/N): from me to you here’s an old draft I finally finished!!

Fun fact I started writing this fic 20 days shy of THREE YEARS AGO. Damn. 

So I saw this meme on Instagram forever ago and thought it would be a hilarious fic idea and I haven’t written for Sam (or any of them really but ESPECIALLY Sam) in a HOT minute so here goes nothing! Also I definitely misread the ending but oh well shut up

This was originally intended to be a more meet-cute style fic, but I decided to add a more extended ending than just  “you meet Sam and fucking hit it off immediately.” Also yes I definitely spent a few paragraphs in this fic just infodumping about one of my favorite records I own but that’s a you problem now, dear reader.

Enjoy!

***********************************************

Your Mom

As far as potential ways your morning could’ve started, you can’t say you expected to land on the phone with a random middle-aged woman from across the country.

It all started when your friends dragged you out to a mutual guy friend’s birthday party. You had just gotten out of a pretty messy but well-overdue breakup and both you and your friends knew that this party was bound to be filled to the brim with your friend’s cute guy friends. You were quite certain that you weren’t ready to just hook up with a stranger quite yet, but your friends insisted and you also didn’t want to let down your mutual friend on his birthday.

So there you were, in the middle of his crowded living room dancing along with your friends. You were maybe four drinks deep and feeling tipsy, but not quite enough to encourage any advances from the men all around.

Eventually, you got sick of the chaos and went to the bathroom. When you entered, you smirked to yourself at the sight of someone’s iPhone abandoned on the counter. Funnily enough, it looked just like yours- black with a clear case. You chuckled to yourself and threw your phone onto the counter next to it. Once you were finished in the bathroom, you grabbed your phone and opened the door, only to be hit by the thumping music and excessive chatter once more. You decided since it was approaching midnight and you weren’t having any fun, you would just find your friends, make up an excuse and head home.

So you did, making sure to hug the birthday boy on the way out.

You didn’t even realize your mistake until the next morning, when the phone on your nightstand was blaring at you.

You lifted your head from your pillow and knit your brows together confusedly. It wasn’t just that someone was trying to call you at 9 in the morning on a Sunday. You never have your ringer on.

You picked up the phone and scrunched your face even more when you read the name “MOM” across the screen, but without the contact picture you had set for her in middle school. You hesitantly unlocked the phone and held it up to your face.

“Hello?”

The voice on the other end hesitated for a moment in surprise. “Oh, hello there. Could you hand the phone to Samuel?”

In a moment of morning grogginess, you turned your head to look for who she was talking about, before realizing that you were in fact alone in your room. “Uhh, I think you might have the wrong number.”

“No, this is definitely my son’s phone number. Do you have the right phone?” She asked back, making your eyes widen in realization.

You slowly turned the phone around in your hands to see the black iPhone with the clear case. But not quite the clear case you had meticulously picked out on Amazon. You groaned as you flopped down in bed and pulled the phone back to your face. “I think I know what happened here. Your son left his phone on the bathroom counter of a birthday party I attended last night, and because he has the same phone and case as me I must’ve switched them up on accident.” You explained, rubbing the sleep from your face.

You could hear the woman on the other end chuckle. “Yeah, that sounds like my Sammy. You didn’t look at your phone at all between the bathroom and now?”

You couldn’t help but laugh pitifully at yourself into your pillow. “Nope, guess not. I don’t even know why I was there, my friends wanted me to go to meet some new guys but I literally just got out of a shitty relationship so I really don’t-“ You paused when you realized you were rambling about your personal life to a stranger on the other line. “I’m so sorry I don’t know why I’m telling you this. You don’t even know me.”

She was quick to respond, “Oh nonsense! It sounds like you need to talk. I usually call Sam around this time every weekend just to catch up, but I can absolutely go for some girl talk. Besides, from the night it sounds like he had I’m sure he’s not up yet.”

You sat back up at this, seriously considering her offer. “You really don’t mind?”

You could hear her hearty, warm chuckle through the phone. “Sweetie, not at all! My only daughter has been in a relationship for a while, I’ve sorta missed these kinds of talks. Besides, you sound like you could use some guidance.” You smiled back toward the phone and leaned back onto the bed.

You and the stranger’s mom talked for almost an hour. You walked her through the ins and outs of the relationship you just ended, describing in detail when you knew it wasn’t working and hearing her little tuts and hums of agreement or disapproval of what you were talking about. You quickly learned that her name was Karen, and you introduced yourself as well. You were doing most of the talking, but you were thoroughly affirmed that she was listening.

“Well, from what I can tell, you made the right choice ending that relationship. It sounds like he has a lot of personal work to do, and I think you made the best choice given the situation.”

You bit your lip. “You think? I still can’t tell because now I’m just so disillusioned with the whole thing. I mean, I was at that party for hours last night and I don’t think I even looked at any of the guys. It just sounds so exhausting starting over from scratch and not even knowing if they’re a decent guy or not.” You mumbled, playing with the edge of your comforter between your fingers.

She hummed from through the phone. “Well, that’s the risk of looking for love. You won’t find it right away, even if you sometimes think you have, but that’s okay. Because then when you do find it, all of that hard work becomes worth it and then suddenly it’s not work at all.”

You smiled at her words. “You sound like you’re a really great mother. Your kids are very lucky to have you.”

“That’s very sweet, thank you dear. My kids have all left the nest by now but I try to make sure they know how important this stuff is. Actually, the one who’s phone you’re holding is the one I’m most concerned about in that department.”

You arched a brow and propped yourself up on your elbow, as if she was in the room talking to you. “Oh really? What’s he like?”

“Well, he’s really a sweet boy. He’s got strong morals and he’s very smart. Handsome too, if I say so myself.” This made you giggle, understanding she was complimenting herself just as much as she was him given that he’s her flesh and blood. She sighed before continuing, “He just… He struggles in relationships. He’s always picking these girls with ulterior motives or who change him as a person. But he’s just so stubborn I can’t imagine how to get through to him. It’s nothing like talking to you.”

You hummed in agreement. You knew how stubborn boys could be. What you didn’t know, however, was that from across the phone gears were turning in Karen’s head. “Listen, how about you give me the number to your phone and I call and see if Sam has it. I wouldn’t put it past him to have not realized by now either. I’ll have him call you so you can set up a time to exchange them.”

You raised your eyebrows at the concept of meeting this famed Sam. “Oh, I don’t think he’ll be able to call me without my phone passcode. I can’t on his either.”

Karen hummed from behind the phone, and you could just barely hear the smile on her face as she responded. “Okay, well then I’ll just give you his address and I’ll tell him you’re stopping over tonight whether he likes it or not. Feel free to take your time, that little shit doesn’t need to be going out again tonight if he’s leaving his iPhone behind in random bathrooms.”

You laughed at her idea and agreed, giving her your phone number and writing down his address before thanking Karen one last time and hanging up.

You heaved a sigh and finally got out of bed to make yourself some coffee and start your day.

You took several moments throughout the day to wonder about Karen’s conversation with Sam on your own phone. You figured since she didn’t call again that he did, in fact, have your phone. You couldn’t help but wonder what kind of notifications he was seeing pop up on your screen. You hadn’t seen any on his- he must have notifications turned off for all his apps.

Your quiet curiosity about this boy continued through your afternoon as you ran errands and cooked for yourself. Finally, after you’d finished cleaning the dishes around 7pm, you decided to make your way over to Sam’s apartment.

You didn’t known why your stomach was wound into nervous knots. You didn’t even know the guy, and clearly he hadn’t caught your attention last night.

And yet, as you reached your hand up to rap your knuckles against his door, you felt yourself let out a shaky breath in anticipation. What if you recognized him? What if he recognized you?

You didn’t have long to ponder before the door flung open and you were met by a tall and lanky guy with long hair. He knit his brows at you for a moment, until his eyes met the phone in your hand and he heaved a sigh of relief.

“Oh thank God, you must be Y/N. I was worried you got lost, or that my mom gave you the wrong address.” He explained.

You chuckled at him, “Oh, no she told me to take my time so you wouldn’t go out again tonight.”

He scoffed and threw his hands into the air exasperatedly as you handed him the phone. “Yeah she wasn’t too thrilled with me this morning. I’m Sam by the way. Please, come in. I have your phone charging I’ll go grab it.”

He beckoned you into his apartment and you reluctantly entered as he walked further in to retrieve your phone. You spared a moment to feel guilty for not charging his, but your attention was quickly pulled by the interior design of the space.

He had vintage posters and tapestries strewn about the walls, lots of potted plants lining the windows and an elaborate dream catcher hanging from the windowpane.

You almost didn’t even notice him return as your eyes closely examined his stuff. You had slowly made your way over to his record collection by the time you heard him speak. “See anything you like?”

You couldn’t help but jump slightly, not expecting his proximity, and he smirked at you as he held out your phone to you.

You accepted your phone and turned back to the records, blushing slightly. “Yeah, you’ve got a lot of good stuff here. Jim Croce, Frank Sinatra, Janis Joplin…” you trailed off as you reached out to unsheathe one of the records. Deja Vu by Crosby Stills Nash & Young. “I love this album.” You mumbled, fingertips tracing over the textured maroon cover as it met the delicate gold detailing.

You turned back over toward Sam to see him smiling fondly at you. “That’s a great one. Did you know Jerry Garcia worked on it?”

You couldn’t help but raise your eyebrows. “Really? Oh, I love Grateful Dead!”

Sam took a few steps closer and took the record out of your hands, opening it up to the middle where the musical credits were listed. He leaned in close so you could see and extended his finger to the aforementioned name. “See? Steel guitar on Teach Your Children.”

Trying to ignore the sudden closeness, you sighed in wonder as you looked at the tiny writing near the bend of the sleeve. “Wow... Yeah, I guess there isn’t any steel guitar in the other songs.” 

Sam shook his head, still smiling softly down at the record sleeve before turning over to you. You almost missed the way his eyes flicked down to your lips, but in such close proximity it was easy to notice. And even easier to replicate as you noticed your own gaze flash down to his mouth in response.

Suddenly, Sam piped up. “Hey, do you have anywhere you need to be after this? Or would you wanna stay for a drink? I can pop this record in if it would help persuade you...” He held up the record sleeve and wiggled his eyebrows in an over-the-top seductive way.

You laughed but felt your heart jump a bit at the offer. You allowed yourself a few moments to consider as you weighed the pros and cons in your head.

Okay, this is a complete stranger and you’re already in his apartment, do NOT accept the drink and stay.

Well, hang on. This isn’t a COMPLETE stranger. This is Karen’s son.

DO WE KNOW KAREN THOUGH? DO WE REALLY??

But he’s cuuuuuuute...

“Hey, you still there?”

You were shaken from your inner turmoil by the reminder that time was still passing outside of your head, and Sam needed an answer. “You can say no if you want, I know we literally just met...” He scratched the back of his head bashfully as he started backtracking.

Somehow, this was what won you over. “No, I don’t have anywhere to be. Although, I think your mother’s elaborate plan to keep you from going out tonight is starting to fall through.”

Sam leaned back and barked out a laugh at this. “Oh I see, so you really are in cahoots with my mom. Okay, okay. Has she already betrothed me to you?”

You shook your head and chuckled in response, “Not exactly, but she did give one hell of a sales pitch.”

Sam tilted his head back with a groan and rubbed his face in fake exasperation at his mother’s antics. In this moment you couldn’t help but let your eyes travel down from his face to his hands, his neck, his chest...

“Well, let me do my best to forget that happened. Besides I’m pretty sure this still doesn’t qualify as going OUT, so I feel like we’re in the clear. Anyway, what can I get you to drink?”

You were snapped back to reality by Sam once more as he left your side to hover between his refrigerator and the little bar cart parked right next to it, swaying from side to side and reaching each hand toward the different options as he swayed closer, eyes trained on you for a response. You couldn’t help but smirk at his relentless efforts to make you comfortable in his home. It made you wonder what kind of coaching Karen might have given him after your phone call with her.

You ended up choosing a bottle of red wine from near the back of the cart, as that would be both an easy thing to share between two people while also allowing you to quietly max out on two or three drinks in case the situation did end up requiring a quick escape.

Sam was more than happy to oblige and immediately donned an exaggerated Italian accent that was slowly but surely drifting into a rough New York Italian accent with each passing sip. However, the laughter that bubbled up out of you each time only further encouraged his antics.

Both sides of the record came and passed and you two were still deep in conversation, covering everything from where you both grew up, to what you do for work now and casual interests. 

You couldn’t help but arch your brow at the admission of his work, “Oh you’re in a band? You guys any good?” 

Sam let his eyes travel over to the coffee table in the little hallway leading toward his bedroom. Sitting proudly there was his personal copy of the Grammy award for Best Rock Album of 2019. “I think we’re pretty good.”

He decided against flexing the award itself so as to not come off as arrogant, a motive that similarly inspired the object’s current placement in his home. As he let his eyes return to yours, he was surprised by your expectant expression.

“Well?” You asked. “That’s it? No elaboration? No new single I just need to listen to? You’re band is ‘pretty good’ but you don’t seem to be in any rush to show it off, Sam.” You tried to hide your smirk behind your wine glass.

Sam’s jaw dropped open in indignance at your remark, which immediately made you giggle. “Well, I- I don’t know, I feel like it’s not in good taste to boast. Besides, we aren’t exactly making music for the general public to all enjoy so the last thing I’d wanna do is gas us up only for you to not be into it.”

You hummed to yourself and turned away for a moment to let your eyes once again survey the vast record collection before you. “I mean, if your taste in vinyl is any indication I think it’s a pretty safe bet. But fine, keep your secrets.” You adopted a more playful tone for the last bit as you finished off the last of your wine.

Sam watched wistfully as the last of the red liquid vacated your glass and disappeared down your throat. He knew what this meant.

“Well, as much fun as it would be to drink you out of house and home, I should probably get going.” You remarked as you unfolded your legs and moved to stand. Sam matched you and took the empty glass from your hand after swallowing the last mouthful from his own.

As Sam walked back into the kitchen area with both glasses, he called out to you, “Hopefully you don’t have to trek too far, do you live nearby?” Facing the wall, he raised his eyebrows hopefully and craned his neck in search of your reply.

“Not too bad, just a few blocks away really.” You responded, putting your shoes back on and raising your voice slightly to be heard over the faucet Sam was now running.

You missed Sam closing his fist to himself in a little “yessss” motion before turning off the faucet and placing both glasses rim-down on his counter to dry. “Oh, well in that case, why don’t I walk you home?”

You froze for a moment and considered the option.

I guess he would’ve murdered me by now if he was going to.

Before you can decide, Sam returns into the room and adds, “But if that’s too forward I can send you off into the night by yourself. Up to you.”

You tilted your head as you considered that element as well.

I mean it certainly WOULD be safer to have a chaperone on these streets after dark...

“Alright, yes, you may walk me home.” You chuckled, standing over him as he hastily started putting his shoes on. “How very chivalrous of you, you really sweep the girls off their feet, huh?” 

He scoffed and stood back up to be more eye-level with you, “Oh, surely your initial encounter with my mother naturally gave you that impression?”

You laughed, thinking back to your conversation with Karen, “Well, sure, but you would think she might be biased given it’s her own son she’s describing.”

Sam smirked as he opened his front door and held it open for you to lead the way, “Okay, well did I live up to your expectations?”

You followed his nonverbal direction to walk through the door and smiled to yourself. “I mean, my expectation for tonight was to run over, drop this phone off, grab mine and be home two hours ago. So it’s safe to say you’ve definitely exceeded my expectations.”

This got a full laugh out of him as the two of you started walking down the hall toward the building elevator. “Hey I gave you plenty of opportunity to take that route as well.”

You nodded, giving him credit where it was due. But it was just so much more fun to tease him. “Sure, like when you coerced me with alcohol...”

“HEY!”

“...And lore about my favorite albums...”

“LISTEN maybe I’m just an enthusiastic host in my humble abode. Have you considered that?”

Somewhere in the middle of this back and forth, Sam’s hand had brushed against yours twice before catching onto your own hand. The conversation didn’t cease as you both divided your attention enough to interlace fingers. The tiny little act of intimacy, the microscopic affirmation that you were in fact picking up on something between you two, it made your heart flutter like a schoolgirl.

“Either that or you’re really playing the long game to kill me. Is that why you needed to see which building I live in?”

Checkmate.

Sam heaved a sigh, stupid grin still plastered onto his face. “Okay, yeah. I’m the world’s worst serial killer personally escorting you home safely.”

“Or about to follow me inside so as to not have evidence in your own home.” You pointed out as the elevator door opened up to the building lobby.

Sam smirked down at you as he held the front door to the building open for you, “Damn, I think you’re watching too many true crime documentaries. Maybe it’s me who should be worried about you.”

You chuckled and used your hand interlocked with his to pull him in the direction of your apartment building. “Mmm yes, this has all been a misdirect. Now come with me to this undisclosed second location where nothing bad will happen to you.”

Sam stopped walking for a moment and you turned around with a cheeky grin, “Oh my god I’m kidding Sam, come on.” He smiled softly down at you before following your lead, matching your pace with his much longer legs as your entwined hands swung slightly between the two of you.

Sooner than you’d have liked, you arrived at the front door of your apartment building. You stopped walking and turned to Sam, “Well this is me.”

A brief look of panic washed over Sam’s face as he frantically tried to decide how to proceed. “Well, I won’t be getting murdered tonight so I will not be following you inside.” You rolled your eyes as he continued, “But this was fun, and you really do live nearby, which is cool.”

You nodded, subconsciously closing your hand a bit tighter around his at the thought of it being gone soon. “Yeah, I had a good time tonight. And of course, thank you for taking care of my phone... and make sure you thank your mom for me otherwise we would’ve both been out of luck today.”

Sam’s eyes widened and he turned to look down the street in thought. “Shit, yeah, I don’t even wanna think about how long that would’ve taken to sort out without her.”

A brief spell of silence washed over both of you before Sam, looking down at your hands interlocked, mumbled, “You know, we could do this again sometime. If you wanna.” He used his shoe to fidget with a pebble on the ground as he dared not meet your eyes, just in case you didn’t give the answer he was hoping for.

You, however, beamed back up at him and squeezed his hand affirmatively, “Yeah, I’d like that.” You took a small step forward and Sam’s head whipped up as he processed your words. “I mean, maybe not the trading phones thing. I did feel rather naked without it today.”

Sam cracked a grin and gently pulled you even closer by your hand that still joined his, bringing the two of you nose to nose. “Yeah, maybe we could just trade numbers instead.”

You couldn’t help your eyebrows shooting up in surprise, blood rushing to your cheeks as he stared you down. 

Now there’s the ladykiller Karen was describing.

You reached into your back pocket to retrieve your phone, unlocking it quickly and opening it to a blank contact page. You couldn’t bring yourself to put more space between you and Sam while he typed his information into your phone, especially once you felt Sam’s hand in yours guide your arm around your back so he could physically hold you close as he typed.

You went back and forth between watching the focus in his eyes as his face was lit up by your phone screen, watching him gnaw slightly at his bottom lip, and peering down at the phone screen himself. He finished up by saving the contact and hitting the “call” button before immediately ending the call upon hearing his phone start to vibrate.

His head whipped up to hand your phone back, only to find your eyes fixated on his mouth. As quickly as you could, your eyes darted back up to meet his. But it was too late, he caught you. His eyes flit down to yours as he handed you back your phone.

“Well, Y/N, I guess it’s until we meet again.” He started, and you took a moment to consider the fact that this is the third time the two of you have delayed parting ways that night.

However, every last thought siphoned right out of your mind when he pressed his forehead to yours, eyes trained onto your lips as he licked his lightly. You couldn’t help your eyes when they fell down to watch him partake in the action. 

You had to put this poor boy out of his misery. It was only right, right?

You raised yourself onto your tip toes to close the gap and place a gentle kiss onto his lips. One of his hands came up to cradle your cheek softly as the two of you got lost in each other for a moment. You pulled back after a few seconds but he didn’t; still frozen in time with his eyes closed, rubbing his lips together slightly to memorize the feeling.

Against his lips you breathed, “Goodnight Sam.”

By the time Sam’s eyes opened, you had walked up the small set of stairs leading to the entrance of your building, flashing him a bashful smile.

He beamed over at you, waving goodbye with his phone in his hand. That is, until the phone began to light up causing him to stop and see what the commotion was all about. He barked out a laugh, “Well guess who it is?

You couldn’t help but laugh. The day was ending the very same way it started; facilitated by Karen.

Sam looked back up at you from the sidewalk, “I’ll take this on my walk home. Have a lovely night, Y/N.”

You waved him off as he answered the phone, still smiling and watching you as you disappeared into the building.

“Hey mom, what’s up?”

“Sam, ok good so you did exchange the phones? I’ve been watching your location today and I saw it get brought over, why are you back where it was before?” She asked, her tone of voice implying she already knew the answer.

Sam shrugged to no one, and responded, “Well, what kind of a gentleman would I be if I didn’t walk her back home as a thank-you?” He couldn’t help the giddy smile creeping onto his face as he spoke.

Karen was smarter than this though, “Mmhmm, yeah alright. So are you gonna see her again?”

This stopped Sam in his tracks as he physically pulled the phone away from his face to stare at his mother’s name on the screen. Before he could ask she added, “Did you think I didn’t also notice the fact that your phone made it safely to your apartment HOURS ago?”

Sam’s face flushed scarlet as he walked back through the door to his own building. “Mom, ok it’s truly none of your business but... Yes I think I am. At least, I hope so.”

Sam could hear her chuckle from the other side of the phone, “Good. You better treat her nicely, Samuel. She’s been put through the ringer but she’s got a good heart.”

Sam rolled his eyes as he walked down the hall, “Aren’t you supposed to be saying that to her? ‘Treat my son well that’s my baby’ or something like that? You’re my mom.”

He jumped a bit at the sound of her loud “HA!” coming through his phone speaker. “Yeah and your mom scored you the date you had tonight so don’t blow it, I like this one.”

Sam couldn’t help but smile as he reentered his apartment and his ears immediately perked up to hear the subtle sound of the Deja Vu record still spinning on the turntable, needle aimlessly bouncing around the middle area of the vinyl. 

“I like this one too, mom.”

(A/N:) AAAAA I wrote something again!! If my writing voice has changed mind your business bc shockingly enough I have aged. Also I forgot what my typical fic length used to be but this feels long sorry about that, also very dialogue heavy so sorry about that too if that’s not your vibe. 

But this was fun. I had fun writing this. Thank you very much for reading it.

[desertfangs]

Grocery Store - Marius/Daniel - Slice of Life - 1340 words

Just a little slice of life ficlet written for the @vamptember prompt "Grocery Store." I love imagining the immortals in stores and shops, IDK why but it's always fun to picture so I couldn't resist.

Full text beneath the cut.

The air was electric with the impending storm and it made Daniel’s hair stand on end. Marius hurried him along the sidewalk, wanting to get home before the downpour.

They made it two more blocks before thunder cracked overhead and the sky opened. Rain pelted down in great sheets, raindrops slamming into the pavement with such force that they bounced back up and soaked the legs of his jeans. Daniel spotted the bright lights of the supermarket across the street and pulled Marius toward it. 

They rushed inside, the automatic doors dinging as they closed behind them. Daniel’s sweatshirt dripped water on the floor. Marius watched the rain through the glass, squeezing the wetness out of his long hair. He glanced at Daniel. “Are you all right?” 

Daniel bit back a sarcastic retort about how he was not the Wicked Witch of the West who could be melted with water. “A little wet but I think I’ll survive.” 

“I was sure we’d make it home before it started,” Marius said, clearly annoyed that he’d misjudged the timing. 

Daniel shrugged. “It’s the weather. Not even our Norse friend Thorne can hold back the thunder.” 

Marius smiled faintly and then sighed. “I guess we can remain here for a bit, see if it stops.” 

Daniel noticed one of the cashiers watching them. The store was open for several hours yet but it was pretty empty. He grabbed a hand basket and urged Marius deeper into the store. They could at least pretend they were doing more than riding out the rain.

They meandered through the produce section. Daniel picked up a pineapple. He could just barely remember how it had tasted: sweet, tart, acidic. “Did you ever get to try one of these?” 

Marius shook his head.

“Shame.” He set the pineapple down. Sometimes the things some of the older vampires had never gotten to experience astounded him: tomatoes, chocolate, Spaghetti-Os in a can. Things he’d always taken for granted. In another five hundred years, who knew what new wonders Daniel would find strange or incomprehensible, or simply never get to taste? 

Marius wandered in front of an endcap stacked with soft drinks. As he stood there in front of cans of Pepsi and Dr. Pepper, Daniel was struck suddenly by how out of place Marius looked here inside a garishly lit supermarket. Even in the modern clothes he wore tonight—khakis and a red polo shirt—he had an air of timelessness that made him stand out, exacerbated by the pallor of his marble skin. 

Of course, any mortal who noticed something off would chalk it up to their imagination, but he looked so otherworldly that it made Daniel’s pulse race. He was beautifully inhuman. Daniel surreptitiously snapped a photo with his iPhone. 

Marius turned, smiling indulgently, and Daniel felt his cheeks flush a little, sure Marius had heard his thoughts.

They moved on to the bakery section. There, they studied the display case of cakes, decorated with bright colored frostings and little sugar flowers. 

“Incredible, isn’t it?” Daniel pointed to a cake with beautiful orchids in shades of pink and orange made out of icing.

“It is a fascinating use of colored sugar,” Marius said. 

Daniel started to say something about the artistic merit of cake decoration but decided against it. He wasn’t in the mood to get roped into another debate about what constituted art. 

He headed down the next aisle and found himself in front of an array of canned vegetables with glossy, colorful labels. Daniel lifted a can of peas from the shelf as Marius came up silently beside him. 

“Armand used to love the canned food aisle,” Daniel said, remembering the first time he’d taken him to a grocery store. Armand had spent an hour lifting cans, reading the labels, and questioning Daniel about the contents. They’d bought a cart full of stuff, so much that they’d had to take a taxi back to their apartment, where Armand diligently opened every single can and dumped the contents out onto styrofoam plates to study it. 

Daniel laughed at the memory, even as the ache of missing his maker wormed through him. 

“New York is not that far,” Marius said softly. 

Daniel sighed. He thought about that a lot, but he wasn’t ready. The stilted phone calls he and Armand shared were awkward and strange and Daniel didn’t know how to talk to him anymore. The thought of being in the same room as him again was overwhelming. He placed the can of peas back on the shelf.

“We can’t even get a mile back to our place,” Daniel quipped. 

Marius smiled at the bad joke but Daniel caught something in his eyes, a sadness or a longing perhaps. It was gone before he could be sure, replaced with something more playful. “Is that a challenge?”

“You know I enjoy challenging you, but that was merely an observation,” Daniel said, purposely bumping Marius’ shoulder as he moved down the aisle. “Come on, Old Man, I’ll blow your mind.” 

He heard Marius laugh softly as he turned the corner to the next aisle. When Marius reached him, Daniel gestured to the shelves full of colorful cereal boxes with cartoon mascots and big, colorful fonts. 

“Behold, the modern breakfast of champions,” Daniel said. 

Amusement crinkled the skin around Marius’ eyes. “I know what cereal is, Daniel. I do watch television occasionally.” 

“But did you ever imagine such a thing when you were young, mortal, and hungry in the morning?”

“Did I ever envision an illustrated tiger trying to sell me a box of sweetened grain? No, I can’t say that I did.” 

Daniel sighed. “Sometimes I think about how much has changed in the few decades since I was mortal and then I try to imagine how different everything will be in another hundred years, let alone a thousand.” 

“Does that worry you?” Marius asked.

Daniel shook his head. “I want to see how the world changes, what advancements are made, what new technologies and inventions appear. It’s part of why I wanted this.” 

“But…” Marius pressed.

Daniel shrugged. “I guess I didn’t expect things to change so fast.”

Marius laughed, loud and boisterous, his voice ringing through the aisle. He put his arm around Daniel’s shoulders. “The longer you live, the faster things seem to change. The more you will step out of the house and realize the world is not the one you knew a century or even a decade before.”

Daniel stared at the glossy cereal boxes that now had metallic shiny letters decorating them. He couldn’t even remember what Frosted Flakes tasted like. “How do you handle it?” 

Marius considered. “A passion for the world and the people in it, I suppose. A desire to discover what will happen next.” 

“And that keeps you going?” Daniel asked. 

Marius was silent for a long moment. “I endure because I must.”

“For yourself or for everyone else?” 

Marius ruffled Daniel’s hair affectionately. “Always asking pointed questions.” 

“You like that about me,” Daniel said wryly.

“Indeed I do.” Marius was silent for a long moment. “I believe surrounding ourselves with others is how we remain connected to the world and keep our desire to exist in it. Mortals and their art and creativity and philosophy and new wonders.” Marius’ arm slid down and around Daniel’s waist, tightening around him. “And there’s our own kind, of course. Never discount the power of connection to others who also endure.” 

Daniel leaned against him, Marius’ body solid and powerful like it was made of his stone, his arm around Daniel like a marble vice, keeping him close and safe. 

“I think that’s the key,” Daniel said. “Connection to our kind.” 

“You’ve always been wise beyond your years.” Marius kissed the top of Daniel’s head and led him out of the aisle, back to the front of the store. 

The rain had abated, becoming only a light drizzle. Daniel replaced his empty hand basket in the holder and they walked out into the damp night, arm in arm. 

[rainbowsky]

Hello Rainbowsky,

I know, hiking CPN can be washed by saying WYB went to Inner Mongolia to see the shooting location for his upcoming movie and may be went on hiking when he had free time.

But, WYB who never posts more than 1 personal picture in an entire year, decided to post his hiking pictures even when the picture location matches with the shooting location of XZ and there were heavy rumours of him visiting XZ.

Also, he went to Japan and other places for seeing shooting location but he did not post pictures from there. People are also saying that if it was for movie he will not spoil the location before movie releases.

Rainbowsky, what do you think?

Hi Anon,

It's true that there are people trying to wash this whole Inner Mongolia thing. It just goes with the territory. In fact, the bigger and stronger the CPN, the harder people work to wash it.

However.

Fake, fan fiction, CPN.

It's not really washable. In part because there's not enough information available to independently verify or debunk anything, sure, but also for all the reasons everyone's been discussing lately.

The location

DD's filming locations are not known at this point. Somehow (and I can't possibly express how thoroughly impressed I am by this) the film set has been so totally locked down that nothing has leaked from it, to the degree that no one even knows for sure that the project is currently filming, or where. So people claiming he was there for filming... that's speculation.

The film synopsis solos are relying on to wash this CPN talks about the character we'd presume to be DD's (it's the only young man mentioned) being from "the heart of" the Great Khinogan Mountains.

The Wulanhada volcano park that DD was photographed by is not anywhere near that area.

We don't know exactly where GG is filming so we can't get too carried away about it, but it's pretty disingenuous for people to claim DD was there for filming when it's not anywhere near where his character is supposed to be from, and the terrain around the volcano park is totally different from the terrain where DD's character is from (would probably not make a good stand-in location for that region).

Wulanhada volcano park, left - Great Khinogan Mountains, right

Of course it's not impossible that he was there for filming, but given what little we know (the same information solos are trying to use to wash this), it seems unlikely.

It's also possible he went there directly from Beijing, but that's a 5 hour drive at minimum, so wouldn't likely have been a day trip. And DD isn't going to post a photo of himself at GG's filming location, he's going to post one that says what he wants to say while still maintaining plausible deniability. This volcano park is perfectly situated to provide all of that.

Aside from that - as turtles have already pointed out - why would DD share photos from the area where he's filming, when this film has been so very locked down until now? It doesn't make any sense at all. Keeping locations secret is what's been protecting this film from leaks and stalkers.

The content

It's pretty interesting that we've seen enormously popular photos from GG (his birthday post has over 33.7 million likes, while the Xiao Zhan Studio birthday photos post is at 4 million likes), featuring him hiking in the wilds and hanging out in campground areas, and then we get something similar from DD who, as you said, rarely shares personal photos anymore.

They both seem to be very outdoorsy lately!

For two people who - according to solos - are 'trying desperately to get out from under the tyranny of this delusional CP', they sure are making some big mistakes about how to appear to be very different people living very different lives...

His and his B&W Leicas

His and his credit card iPhone cases

His and his Gucci lion head necklaces

Yeah, they're really putting in every effort to shake this 'reputation destroying', 'horribly toxic' ship! 🙄

More on that here.

The timing

This is the biggest thing, and in my opinion what we should be focusing on the most. Because as far as I'm concerned, this post is a statement - a very loud and clear one.

DD is being (yet again) attacked with these horrible, laughably false (like, seriously - the photos are clearly of a woman who is much shorter and smaller than DD) rumors about him attending a concert with a particular actress, and suddenly the supertopic for that 'CP' is shut down and we get photos from DD that point to a totally different CP. One that he's supposedly trying to 'shake off'.

Then we see him partying it up openly, publicly, at a concert for his dear friend Da Zhangwei. Not even wearing a mask, so everyone is free to fully identify and photograph him.

It seems to me that DD is sending a pretty clear message:

I'm not dating an actress, I'm with GG

I don't need to disguise myself as a woman to go see a concert

And this is exactly what happened last time these kinds of inflammatory rumors were circulating about him with that same actress. People were claiming that the actress was wearing the same bone necklace as him (with a blurry photo where the necklace couldn't even be seen), so GG released footage wearing a Gucci lion head necklace that DD had previously worn for a race.

GG and DD don't fuck around.

So while I'll tag this with my regular "the mysteries of yizhan" tag that I use for all candy/CPN, there really is no mystery here at all. DD is fed up with this bullshit and won't stand for it.

In fact I was just saying to a friend the other day that the biggest mystery I have about GGDD these days is, how do solos manage to remain solos? They have access to the same information we do. 😅

[9800sblog]

wooyoung tarot reading

public persona vs real personality

do I have his energy permission to do and share this reading? queen of wands

in public

hypnotizing is the word to describe what wooyoung goes for; childlike (childish), immature, hard to ignore, messy - fun, entertaining, funny, never a dull moment, makes you wanna re-watch his content multiple times. bad, dangerous - sexy, captivating, impressive, killer moments (literally the 10 of swords), he wants to kill with looks, and skills (dance, modeling, body, literally his eyes, etc). out of all ateez members tho, he seems to be the one to try to look most unavailable (the devil reversed), he acts rude, sassy and sometimes distant, because he is the dangerous dude, the bad boy. but never actually too harmful, he's approachable, more like a best friend you're secretely in love with, that you're so close he doesn't even care what he does around you, he's a menace and if you try hard enough you can actually turn your feelings into reality (lmaaaaao). he tries to look super inner confident, like others’s opinions really don't matter to him, he just doesn't listen and they can never get to him, you can't force wooyoung to be or do anything he doesn't genuinely wants to, he's wooyoung, he's the synonym of self control. if he gets bothered, you'll get sliced, he's dangerous and you guys are close enough that he can just show it when he's uncomfortable. big party, big social life, a man of the night, trendy and cool, in with the kids

in privacy

dude's so chill and casual, familiar, literally giving the vibes of a big family that lives nearby each other. he's like so much more introverted, not only did I get the hermit but the 4 of cups at the same time. you see wooyoung quiet in the back during interviews? that's genuinely how he is casually, just vibing in his own head, in his own world. he doesn't move much, he likes things to stay the same forever and ever, if possible, he likes what he already knows. he's a very polite dude, "excuse me, please and thank you" seem to be natural part of his vocabulary, he treats people fairly like how they treat others, actually. very protective of his kind, would kill for those he loves, big big heart. he's not as flashy with his money or physical appearance, like how his style is mostly casual and comfortable gym clothes or how he spent years with that old ass iPhone 5 just because it still worked 😭😭😭☝️I don't think he keeps a lot to himself, he seems to give away his stuff to family and really really close friends, he doesn't care that much about being socially powerful, he likes genuine connections with those that are similar to him (example, moving from a company with a big name to follow a friend because he's genuinely happy with little things and moments). I think he's pretty quiet and private in general and very traditional for SURE, like "there's a proper way to treat people and exist in civilization". hobbies would include quality time with friends and family, arts like pictures, drawing, paintings, cooking, games. he loves company.

[blueskittlesart]

hi, correct me if i'm wrong but i seem to remember you saying that you're majoring in illustration! i'm currently in the process of applying to colleges and i plan on majoring in illustration as well, so i was wondering if you had any advice for portfolios. I could really use some tips on the presentation aspect specifically, bc I'm a little lost when it comes to stuff like the arrangement/organization of pieces, how I should crop my pictures, etc. any advice you can give me is greatly appreciated!!

hi yes i can totally help you out with this! i like to think my college portfolio was pretty good bc i got accepted to every school i sent it to lol :) the main pieces of advice that i was given when building it were this:

studies and pieces that show off your technical skill are great, but limit them to around a third of your portfolio at most. art schools DO want to see that you're technically skilled and can like, draw a charcoal still life or a self-portrait, because those ARE important skills to have, but ESPECIALLY if you're applying to a school that's more known for contemporary fields like animation or illustration, it's much more likely that they want to see your creative mind at work. the single best thing you can put in your portfolio is a BODY OF WORK, and specifically a body of work that shows off your own ideas and your own take on whatever you're producing. this means 3+ pieces that are interconnected or related to the same central theme. my portfoilo, for example, consisted of 2 or 3ish traditional, technical pieces which showed that I had a certain level of technical skill, and the ENTIRE rest of it was devoted to a series of original interconnected narrative comics I'd written and drawn. Every reviewer I met with told me that this was what made my portfolio stand out to them--it showed that I was not only technically skilled, but that i had something i wanted to DO with that skill, that I had direction and drive with my art and was able to produce work that reflected that. If you're maybe (definitely) not quite as ambitious as me, something like a series of 3-5 interconnected illustrations or a short comic if you're into that might do the same thing.

as a side note, if you DO have a body of work as the central focus of your portfolio, a lot of colleges will be interested in your process as well! for example with my comic portfolio, i used one slot to demonstrate my process, because I penciled every page traditionally before digitalizing it and i had extensive character and worldbuilding sketches. I wouldn't devote more than one slot to it, but if you have a body of work where the process is important to you it could be worth throwing in!

arrangement is tricky, but the advice I generally heard was "put your best stuff first." whatever you're most excited about, whatever is going to grab someone's attention the fastest, that's what you want to have in your first slot. (I actually don't think I followed this advice on my applications LOL but it's what i was TOLD to do and i think it's solid advice.)

in terms of editing, assuming we're talking about traditional pieces being photographed, you want to make sure your pieces are 1. well-lit, (DO NOT TAKE YOUR PHOTOS WITH OVERHEAD LIGHTING. wait for an overcast day and take them outside trust me) 2. legible, (no weird shadows obscuring parts of the piece, high-quality enough that no details are lost due to digital pixelation, etc) and 3. as color-accurate to real life as you can make them. most of this is just about getting a decent-quality camera (a newer iphone should be fine) and a good location. (outside and overcast, as previously mentioned) you may want to throw your pics into photoshop and play with the balance slightly, but I wouldn't do anything too drastic, try to get the most accurate photo possible without any editing. (if your pieces are small and flat, scanning them in may work better. most public and school libraries have scanners you can use for free.)

finally, cropping. the general rule that I was taught is to crop the piece, not the photograph. if you've got a piece on paper and you're not sure you like how the actual drawing is oriented on the paper, crop the PAPER down to size, and THEN photograph it. your photos should aim to show the ENTIRE piece from edge to edge (unless it's a detail shot obv) and I even like to include a little bit of extra "breathing room" around the piece so that it's clear exactly where the dimensions of it end. here's a piece I used for my college portfolios for reference:

i lowkey do not like this piece now but that's not the point. this is what i mean by breathing room--a few extra inches of space around the actual canvas so it's clear that this isn't a closeup and you can see where the canvas actually ends. the same is true for digital pieces. if it's a full bleed illustration (something with full color all the way to the edges of the canvas) just make sure you like the composition cropped the way it is and submit the full piece as-is. if it's a floating spot or something similar without hard edges, leave a bit of white or transparent breathing room around the edge of your image.

hope this helps! if you have any more specific questions lmk :)

[pssy-wagn]

Day 26: Android/Cyborg

“...and that’s why you’re just better off without them. Are you listening to me?”

“Yes, Dean.”

Crossing his arms, he looks at Cas in the eyes from across the kitchen table, “Then what’d I say?”

“You went on and on about why this phone is better than that phone. For the umpteenth time.”

Looking at the bill in front of him, he points to the upgrade that Castiel can now have, “You have an upgrade, Cas. You can pick any phone you want. Why in the hell will you stick with an Apple phone? You’ve got your pick from Android, my personal favorite, Google Pixel-”

“It’s just a phone, Dean.”

Sighing, Dean stares kind of disheartened at his portion of the bill, “I still have about three months with mine.”

“And you want to trade it in so bad already. The only thing wrong with yours is the screen.”

“Protector. Screen protector. But I wanna get a new one too,” Dean whines.

“I don’t even want an upgrade. There’s nothing wrong with my phone.”

“No. Except it’s starting to drop calls, your pictures are blurry when you send shit to me, your Messenger sucks hardcore-”

“I thought it was just a software update I needed.”

“That’s Apple products for ya. They don’t give a shit. They’re just like that N’Sync song, buy, buy, buy but with a U, not like, goodbye. Anyways, that’s how they getcha.”

Looking at his phone, Cas makes a quick phone call.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Gabriel.”

“Hi, Cassie!”

Sighing, he ignores his dreaded nickname from his older brother, “Gabriel, you have an Android phone, right?”

“Talking to you on it right now. Why?”

“Time for an upgrade-”

“Oh, sweet. Yeah. There’s a reason why I ditched my iPhone. It was-”

Cas is listening to hear what’s next in his sentence but when he looks at his screen, it’s on his wallpaper of him and Dean kissing with fireworks going on in the background. Dean looks at him from his plate of eggs and bacon, “Did he hang up?”

“I think.”

Nodding, Dean tears a piece of bacon, “Or did it drop the call? Again.”

Sighing, Cas searches for Gabriel’s number in his cell. Before he even has time to hit Call, Gabriel is calling him.

“Gabriel?”

“Why did you hang up on me? I was talking for a good two minutes until I realized I was talking to nobody!”

“His phone sucks!” Dean hollers from the back as he retrieves his second mug of coffee, “Talk some sense into your brother!”

“Dean, quiet. I’m on the phone.”

“Not for long”, Dean mutters under his breath.

Cas throws him a frown, “I will spit in your coffee, Dean.”

“Oh, please. You say that so much, it’s lost all threat.”

Shaking his head, he goes back to his phone only to be shown his wallpaper again. Exhaling hard, he looks at Dean who has a smug smile on his face.

“Dropped again, huh?” Dean fishes out his phone from his hotdog pants, “Wanna use mine? I bet you can stay on the phone with Gabe’s little ass longer.”

Squinting his eyes at his husband, Cas grabs the phone from his outstretched hand, “I hate you so much right now.”

“Lost meaning too,” Dean laughs as he shoves a forkful of eggs in his mouth.

When Cas goes into the next room to make his phone call, Dean takes Cas’ phone to try to make a call.

Calling Sam, he puts his phone to his ear.

“Hey, Cas. What did Dean do this time?”

“The fuck? That’s the reason he calls you all the time?”

“Oh. Hahaha, uh, hi Dean.”

“Uh-huh. He doesn’t call just to say hi and shit?”

“He does. About two days ago we were talking about fish tacos.”

“Fish tacos?”

“Yeah. If made just right, they are pretty good but nothing compare-”

“Compared to what? Beef? Steak? Hello? Sam?”

Looking at the screen, he knows the call dropped. Laughing out loud, “Cas! Your phone sucks more dick than you!”

When he comes back into the kitchen, he slides Dean’s phone to him.

“So what did you and your brother talk about? He agrees with me, huh? It’s time to switch, Babe.”

Dean slides him his phone back. Cas looks at it, sadly, “I’m sorry, ol’ gal. I think it’s time to let you go.”

“Get the new Samsung one, Cas. That one looks awesome.”

“I’m saying goodbye, Dean!”

Putting his hands up in surrender, Dean simply rolls his eyes, “I’m gonna go get dressed. We could hit up the AT&T store before we gotta go grocery shop.”

“Fine.”

When they get to the store, Sam calls Dean. As soon as he pulls his phone out of his pocket, he drops it just outside the store; having it smash onto the sidewalk curb grill and down its drain. Both Dean and Cas look at each other, mouths agape.

“What the fuck?! My phone!”

Going on his hands and knees, Dean tries to fish it out but his arms are too big. Leaving him, Cas goes inside the store. Coming back out, a woman shines her phone’s flashlight into the drain, “Let me help you, sir.”

“Thanks.”

When she pulls it out, the phone is completely cracked. Dean tries to turn it on but hears the water sloshing around inside.

“Good thing you’re at an AT&T store, right?” The woman nervously chuckles.

“I guess.”

Walking inside, he sees Cas eyeing the display phones, “Cas? I’m getting a new one too.”

“Perfect. I’ll get the newest Apple, my husband wants the newest Android.”

“What? We’ve been over this, Cas!”

[hannahssimblr]

Chapter One (Part 2)

“Look at this picture.” I’d said to Claire one day in January as we hung out in my room trying to study.  She’d turned my laptop around to examine the screen. “Yeah, it’s Jude and his friends at some restaurant.” She then sighed. “I can’t believe you’re still checking his profile.”

“Yeah but look at his right hand.”

“Okay. He’s just resting it on the seat.”

“Against that girl’s thigh.”

“That doesn’t mean anything, he’s probably just accidentally touching her. That’s barely even noticeable.”

“They’re together.” I’d concluded. “I just have a feeling.”

“There’s no way you can know that just by looking at his hand.”

“I’m sure I’m right.”

And I was. That’s how I found out about his new girlfriend. Her name is Astrid and she’s from Denmark. She has very light, white blonde hair and is always wearing something black with a flattering cut, putting together trendy outfits with items that you can’t get in the shops in Ireland. I know all about her. They go to college together, she studies ceramics and she’s twenty, a whole year older than he is, and two years older than me, which makes her seem tenfold more threatening. Sometimes when I’m feeling particularly masochistic I’ll scroll through her social media and take note of all the things about her that make me feel bad. Her skin, her eyelashes, her lips, her hair, her boobs, her nails, the fact that her boyfriend has his arms around her in her profile picture when those arms could have been around me instead.

‘She’s not that pretty.” Claire reassures me once we get to Starbucks, because once again, like a broken record, I’m talking about Astrid. We’d only settled into our seats with our coffees when I’d come across yet another photo of her, sitting on a carousel shot in monochromatic 35mm film. Very arty. 

“I think she is.” I say mournfully.

“She’s not. She just has nice hair.”

“Unlike some of us.” I reach up to touch the nape of my neck where my hair now abruptly stops. I had to have six inches chopped off on account of my split ends and heat damage, and I’ve never gotten used to how plain the cut makes me look and feel. My mam insists that it makes me look French, but I know it actually makes me look five.

“Come on Evie, what does it matter? She’s a random Danish girl and I bet she’s really pretentious and boring.”

“She can’t be boring. Not if he likes her.”

“Maybe he likes her because she drops her knickers for him.”

I frown, disturbed by the thought of that. I look at my iPhone 4 and scroll to the next photo of her. “Look at her here, you can see her better. She is actually just objectively pretty.”

“I don’t need to see her, you’ve already forced me to look at her enough times.”

“Do you think I should wear more black? Like do you think this is the look for me?”

Claire confiscates my phone. “Stop looking at her. It’s bad for your brain. You’re fine the way you are, now can we please stop talking about Astrid the boring Dane and talk about the exam instead?”

“The exam!” I cry, putting my forehead onto the table. “I’m doomed.”

“If you’re doomed, imagine how I feel! That whole paper was bonkers.”

“English Paper Two will be worse.”

“And let’s not even think about the rest of them.”

“I wish I could be put down.”

She puts her hand on the back of my head and smooths down my hair. “No, look, we’ll be fine. You were right, we can’t fail.”

“And if we do?”

“Well, you already sorted with your NCAD pre-offer, and as for me, whatever. My dad will sort something out.” By that she means he will enrol her in a private university where nobody cares about how much you got in the Leaving Cert, only how much money is in your dad’s wallet. 

“We still need to pass.” I moan. “For like, the principle of it. Imagine how humiliating it would be to open up that envelope in August and see a complete shambles.”

“Yeah, and Christ, imagine what Kelly would say. I’d never get over that.” I glance up to see her smirking, and then I smile too, and before we know it we’re in peals of laughter over our coffee. Claire does an impression of Kelly’s smug face, perfectly emulating the way that she flicks her hair and pushes her chin out, and then I join in too, doing my best Kelly voice, imagining her in all kinds of insane scenarios where she’d be trying her best to make us feel bad, but failing hilariously. After a few minutes we’re in pieces, shoulders shaking, tears rolling down our cheeks, not even caring that people are looking at us. 

“God.” She says between gasps of laughter “I love you, Evie.”

“Same.” I say. “I dunno what I’d do without you.”

We survive the rest of the Leaving Cert, and after I hand in my final paper I don’t think about any of the exams again. I can’t face the uncertainty of it hanging over me, even though I know I probably did alright, but I’m not going to make my parents proud with my results. 

I work in a café for the summer, spending my days serving coffee, even learning how to create hearts and flowers with the foam. The women I work with swear that I can do it so well because I’m an artist, but I’m not convinced that’s true. I think it’s more to do with focus. I find that when I’m working, when I’m really truly immersed in something that’s physical, like loading up the dishwasher or wiping down the fridges, I don’t really have time to get lost in my thoughts, and it suits me. I don’t have to spend the long summer days mourning last year, wishing I could be in the water every day again, picturing the feeling of the warm sand under my feet and the possibilities of what was ahead of me. Now my days are just routine, endless polishing of cutlery, mopping floors and tossing frozen scones into the oven again and again until my back aches, my feet hurt and I’m too exhausted to worry about anything else.

On slower days I get carried away and imagine all sorts of fantastical things, like what I would do if one day I looked up and Jude was in the queue, ordering a coffee from me. I wonder what kind he would get. An espresso? Americano? Does he even drink coffee? There’s so many things I don’t know about him. When I start wishing he would talk to me, I know it’s time that I find something to keep me busy.

I’m blandly content here, working, serving, waiting for August to come. Waiting to get my college offers so that I can leave Tullamore and move to Dublin and start all over again as a new and improved version of myself who isn’t obsessed with a boy who doesn’t like her. 

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[axb200171]

BLOG PROMPT 5 - Visualizing Identity

This photo represents how I see myself and my future. The light peeking through the blinds makes me reflect on how much more there is to look forward to in my life, and my own journey in self-discovery and learning more about who I am.

This photo represents where I see myself currently. My life is pretty structured, and I have a sense of where I am headed and my ambitions, but there is also uncertainty because life can be unpredictable at times and I may end up on another path.

This is a photo of a tree with dried leaves, but to me, this symbolizes how I've grown and stayed true to myself and my beliefs throughout the years. Growing up, I always did what other kids and people did to try and fit in, but I realized that I have to live my own life instead of just doing what others want me to do.

I used my iPhone 13 using the Lightroom app to take these pictures. The first picture was taken indoors at around 5:30 PM, and the last two pictures were taken outdoors, in clear conditions at around 9:00 PM.

[purplesurveys]

1967

What’s your favorite movie? Two for the Road, with Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney. It's been like, what, 11 years since I've decided it was going to be my favorite movie forever and ever? and it's absolutely never getting replaced.

When was the last time you went swimming in a pool? Pool has definitely been A WHILE since I never swim unless it's at the beach anymore. Safest to say it's been over 5-6 years.

Have you ever seen a band live? Who was the last you saw? Do boy bands count? I saw Seventeen a year ago and will be seeing them again in less than 24 hours.

But if you mean a band in the sense that the members play instruments and such - that would be Se So Neon back in 2023.

Who do you live with? My family.

When was the last time you went outside? Earlier this evening to greet and feed the stray cat we fondly call dada cat :) We've pretty much claimed him now the same way he's claimed us. I'm more than willing to keep buying him cat food if it means he gets to eat something for the day.

Do you like the smell of lavender? It's okay!

Do you shout out the answers at quiz shows? Sure.

Do you get nervous speaking to people you don’t know on the phone? I do, it's why I never opt for calls. If someone calls me without a heads-up, I automatically reject it. If they do give me a notice beforehand, I usually come up with a 'reason' for my unavailability.

Do you have a passport? What’s the picture like? I do. My picture isn't the best there but I hardly care. The important thing is that I never lose it the passport lmao

Have you ever watched a foreign film without the subtitles? No, that wouldn't make no sense. How would I even understand the movie...?

Do you watch movies based on the actors or the movie plot? I usually stay for the plot. Like I have my favorite actors, of course, but it doesn't necessarily mean I'd watch everything they put out.

Do you have trouble falling asleep at night? Only if I'm trying to sleep earlier than I usually do - like at 9 PM.

What did you have for dinner yesterday? My dad made lasagna.

Do you own an iPhone? Yup.

Have you ever been on a boat? I've been, yeah.

Have you ever been tested for drugs? No. 

Have you ever thrown up in public? In a public restroom, sure - but never in the presence of other people, in public.

Have you ever had a panic attack? Many.

Can you parallel park? Yes. I recently had to do it last weekend and I'm SO fucking glad I've still got it looooooooool

Do you know how to drive a stick shift? I don't.

What’s your favorite kind of Mexican food? They're more Tex-Mex, but chimichangas and fajitas!

Is your room clean? I could throw out more stuff but otherwise it's cleaner than average. I feel like my mom's ridiculous standards for cleanliness has just somewhat been transferred over to me hence my not-so-confident answer, but tbh it's not so bad.

Would you rather be with your boyfriend/girlfriend right now?

Have you ever injected a drug? Neverrrrr.

Where is the shirt you are wearing from? Continued from before the weekend. I got it from H&M.

Whose bed did you sleep in last night? Not a bed, actually – I fell asleep on the couch.

How many people have you liked in the past 5 months? None.

Are your toenails always painted? They aren't.

When was the last time something bothered you? Around two hours ago... I had a really bad headache that was basically an awful mix of feeling hungry + being in traffic for 1.5 hours + the car being too cold if you point the aircon at you yet too hot if you point it away + my driver being a bit of a maniac on the road.

Are you hungry? Craving any food in particular? Not anymore-ish. I was super hungry but the only thing in the area where I was earlier was an Sbarro...so even though I wanted (and needed) a meal with rice, I had to make do with pizza which tasted just fine + pasta that tasted like nothing. It did the job filling me but like I wasn't satisfied taste-wise.

Anything on your mind atm? I actually have to review a deck tonight but idk if I'm feeling up to it or if I'll just leave it for tomorrow.

What is one thing that the Titantic has taught you? That I'd totally either die with my pets, or give up my life for them.

If you were ever to be famous, how would you want your signature to look? I wouldn't change the one I have now; I feel like it's cryptic/lowkey enough in a way that celebrities usually like to make theirs. I'd probably add some sort of symbol though, like a smiley face or heart just to make it cute too heheh.

Last thing you bought at Walgreens? Don't know what that is.

Did you have long hair as a young kid? I went through phases of both short and long hair.

How many songs do you know by the band you are listening to? Enough.

Have you ever been given flowers? Yup.

What color is your cell phone? It's blue.

Does your first name have more than 6 letters in it? How about your last? Not my first name. My surname has exactly 6 letters.

Have you ever gotten a black eye? What caused it? Never had.

Do you like the age you are right now? I neither like nor dislike it. The idea of turning 27 this year just feels like...turning 27. And that's fine by me – I'd rather feel neutral about age than having an existential crisis with every year that gets added.

Have you ever kissed your cat? Yeah literally all the time, I'm crazy about that cat. I also raised Max to have the tolerance of a dog lmao, so I get to kiss him and shake him and squish his little face and stuff and he's learned to not hiss or scratch/bite aggressively.

Do you say sexy a lot? Not really.

Have you ever been to Texas? Nope.

When was the last time you had pizza? For dinner around 3 hours ago.

Ever hooked up in a tent? Nope.

Do you like to have long hair or short hair? Long.

When’s the next time you’re going away? Nothing planned for the next few months.