#katherine’s like ‘hey i know it’s been a couple years since then but i’ve been thinking about what we talked about when you first came back’

[oskea93]

Keep it to Yourself (2)

✶ DouglasBooth!Nikki Sixx x OC ✶

Warnings: Mention of drug use, cursing. A/N: Thank you so much for the love guys!! I hope you enjoy the 2nd chapter, it's kind of a long one. If you would like to be tagged, just let me know! Gif(@ughmerlin)

Taglist: @fancywasmyname1, @kaitieskidmore1, @xxisxxisxxis, @sparxx27,  @cruecifymesixx, @tempt-ress, @a-sia-san, @x-xinenas, @casualcomputerarbiter-blog​, @makaelahdelvalle

“Is this some kind of sick joke, Bryant?”

I leaned my head against the payphone door – watching as Nikki filled up his car. “Afraid not.”

Wyatt stayed silent for a moment, my surprising news turning more into a nightmare as the minutes passed. He let out a sigh, “You’re 20 years old – got your whole life ahead of you but you decide to fuck it all up by eloping that idiot.” His usually soothing voice dripped with anger.

It was a total whim – Nikki and I were just sitting around, and he brought up the idea of getting married. We’d been together for a year almost and the thought of marriage never crossed my mind. I didn’t even think Nikki found our relationship to be serious half the time. He had dreams of becoming a rockstar – a wife – the old ball and chain – would only hinder that dream. There was no ring – no getting down on one knee. It was basically you have this one chance to say yes and get it done or it’ll never happen again. We scrounged up enough money to get a marriage license and were married the next day at the courthouse. A random guy from the street was our witness – Nikki buying him a bottle of booze as payment. It wasn’t the fairytale wedding most girls dream of, but it worked for us.

“I thought maybe you would have a change of heart and be happy for us.”

An annoyed laugh rang through the receiver, “Be happy for you – Bryant, you need to be married to this kid like you need a hole in the head. I’ve told you from day one that he wasn’t the one – have you're fun and then leave. You need to be with a man that has structure – someone with a steady income – I don’t give a shit if the guy works on Wall Street or at the gas station on the corner, Nikki is not the man you need in your life.”

“That’s rich coming from you, Uncle Wyatt.” I muttered.

This seemed to piss him off even more – “And what the hell is that supposed to mean?”

I played with the phone cord, unsure of what to say. “It’s just –“

“Just what, Katherine?” His tone aggressive as he used my legal name. “Now that you’re married, you think that you can talk to people however you want? Just remember this little girl-“ He paused. “I’ve known guys like Nikki all my life – Hell, I’ve been one of those guys and I know how they pick one girl, stay for a bit, and then move on to the next thing. Don’t come crying to me when he kicks your ass to the curb when the next little hottie crosses his path...”

I could pick the man out of a sea of people.

His hair was a little longer than I last remember – his clothing changing with the times and trends. The fancy sports-car that the guys purchased for him glistened in the California sun – the sun hitting the red paint just right.

“There she is.” His arms spreading open expecting me to jump right into them for one of his ‘famous hugs.’

“Hey, Doc.” I forced a smile as he pulled me in.

His touch felt more like relief than welcoming – kind of like a forced thank you for coming and saving my ass. “I’ve missed you, kid.”

I pulled away first as he took in my appearance. It’d been almost three years since we’ve seen each other – a lot of things changing in that time. “You look great.” He smiled. “More mature – nothing like that little girl I met backstage.”

“Yeah, well –“I shuffled nervously. “Someone had to grow up and become the adult.”

His eyes locked with mine, squinting as my words coursed through his brain. “May look different but that attitude is still the same.” He pulled my suitcase out of my hand, placing it in the trunk as I placed myself in the passenger seat. I took a couple deep breaths – the reality of what was about to happen finally hitting me. I was cool as a fucking cucumber the whole flight – only worrying that Wyatt would pop up at any second and drag me off the plane by my boots. I didn’t think about what I would do or say when I finally saw Nikki again. I already knew that he wasn’t going to be happy – raging would be more like it.

The thought of if this was a good idea was now creeping into my psyche. Hannah’s warning to watch my moves and have an escape plan just in case he’s bad enough where he tries to harm me played on repeat as Doc drove through the canyon. From the way he was going, Nikki still lived in the same house.

“So-“Doc smiled. “What’s been happening with you lately? Last I heard you were living in South Carolina.”

I glanced at him through my shielded lenses, rolling my eyes. “Just living life.” I was short.

“You got a job?” He continued to press.

“No –“I turned to look at him. “I just live off my good looks and hope old men want a young plaything to leave all their money too.”

His face instantly fell as he glanced at me – my face expressionless as he fumbled to form a sentence.

He chose to end the conversation after that leaving the rest of the journey completely silent. I was somewhat grateful but talking made me forget about my internal thoughts – the ones eating away at my emotions...

“Where are we even going?”

I watched as million-dollar homes passed by as we travelled further into the hills. Nikki remained silent – his eyes hidden behind his dark shades – a stoic expression on his stubbled face. We had been driving for almost 30 minutes – silence taking up most of that time. I could tell from his body language that he was nervous. His body was stiff as he kept both hands on the steering wheel. He was home from the first leg of the Shout at the Devil tour – the guy I had known before tour started was left somewhere on an abandoned highway. Nikki was different – a little distant – more focused on the drugs and booze than before.

Instead of saving the money that was coming in from the shows, he and the rest of the band went on a spending spree – laying thousands down on new cars, expensive clothes, and the finest designer powder they could get their mitts on. It was a nice feeling not to be struggling anymore but Nikki was going through the money like water in the desert. His habit went from a couple bumps here or there to being desperate for the next fix. Shady looking characters were in our apartment every night as he got ready to go out with the guys. They followed him around like a puppy would their owner – Nikki was their client – he had the money, and they had the blow.

I kept glancing at him as he concentrated on the road, “Is there a party up here or something?”

He cleared his throat, slinking further into the leather seat of the Camaro. “No.” His answer simple.

“Then why the hell are we u-“

He stopped the car in front of a large home – the exterior darker than those around. “Welcome home.” His voice flat. I looked between him and the house – confusion written all over my face.

“What?”

“You wanted a house, didn’t you?”

I stayed quiet for a second – trying to process the situation. “Are you trying to tell me you bought a house – this house – and you didn’t bother to ask me how I would feel about that?” I pointed towards the home; my eyes fixed on Nikki.

He ignored the question, driving past the gate that secured the house from the open road. The driveway was long and steep – the house sitting perfectly on the hilltop. It was an open landscape – not many trees and the perfect view of those that lived in the valley.

“Nikki – you can’t be serious right now?” He placed the car in park – turning the engine off before removing himself from the car. I didn’t wait for him to let me out, hastily slamming the door shut as he rounded the passenger side. “Please tell me you didn’t buy this house?”

“You know-“He smiled as he removed his sunglasses – the telltale signs of last night written all over his face. “You bitch about living in a small apartment but yet here you are bitching me out for buying you a beautiful house.”

I raised my hands in the air, “I didn’t ask you to buy me a fucking house, Nikki!”

He rolled his jaw in anger as I vented about how we were supposed to be saving money and not throwing it away on things that we didn’t need or things we could wait for. I was perfectly content in staying in the apartment – hell, it was better than the one he was in when I first met him. I made sure to keep it clean and we shared the rent 50/50. Just because Motley had become a success didn’t mean that I wanted him spending that hard earned money on a house. We had plenty of time to look at houses – a house we would both love – not the first one that had a for sale sign.

“Fine –“His voice low. “You don’t want to the fucking house – “He hastily reached into his shirt pocket fishing out the key before throwing it as hard as he could down the embankment. “Then no one will fucking get the house!”

“Are you out of your fucking mind?!” My anger exploded as I raced to find the key. He stood behind, leaning against the black hood. I knew it was gonna be like finding a fucking needle in a haystack – the only chance of getting into the house would be to break in...

Doc’s car pulled up the familiar driveway – Nikki’s overzealous purchases sitting in front of the house. “I’ve always hated this house.” I muttered.

“Yeah-“Doc smirked. “Nikki’s made mention of it a time or two.” He placed the car in park – a knowing sigh slipping past his lips. “Ready for this, kid?”

I tucked my lip between my teeth – a nervous habit I had since childhood. “Ready for it like a hole in the head I guess.”

He chuckled at my answer, walking up the stairs ahead of me. The day I left kept flashing in my mind – the way my shoes hit the stone steps – Nikki trying to follow behind but stumbling from the drugs. Doc unlocked the door using his personal key that he had made, telling me that he had keys to all the guy’s houses. Stepping across the threshold showed me just how much he had changed. The once bright living room was now painted in a dark red – black, leather furniture scattered around the room. The house was an absolute mess! Liquor bottles, beer cans, food containers, and clothes littered the living room and kitchen.

“You can’t afford to get him a housekeeper?” My nose turned up at the smell. “This place is a fucking pigsty, Doc.”

He waved me off as he started towards the staircase. From what I could see, all the doors to the rooms were closed – the bedroom we shared being off to the left side. “Let me go see if he’s up and decent.” I nodded my head, looking around in disgust at the mess.

Gold and platinum records lined the walls – older photographs joining here and there. The photos that hung while we were together were nowhere to be found – probably burned and turned to ash. Heavy footsteps sounded as the person descended the stairs – my heart starting to race at the thought of seeing Nikki again.

Doc appeared seconds later, “He’s not here.” He spoke out of breath. “Fucking needles and baggies are lying all over the closet floor – probably got high and left for God knows where.”

I threw my purse on the couch, taking a haphazard seat as Doc began to pace the room.

“When’s the last time you seen him?” His eyes connecting with mine.

He thought about it for a second, “Probably three – four days ago I guess.”

I looked up at the ceiling, my tolerance for him starting to waver. “You have a guy that’s actively addicted, knocking on death’s fucking door, and the last time you laid eyes on him was four days ago? Are you fucking kidding me, Doc?”

“I talked to him on the phone the day before yesterday and he sounded fine. I can’t be on babysitting duty twenty-four fucking seven, Bryant. I have other bands that need me –“

“No-“ I cut him off. “You have other cash cows that are out there killing themselves so you can make a name for yourself and have money in your pocket.”

He ran a hand through his thinning hair, “I didn’t bring you out here so you can rip me a new one, Katherine.”

My anger finally coming through, “Don’t fucking call me that.” My finger pointed in his face. “You don’t have the right or luxury to ever call me by my real name.”

“And who has that luxury, Bryant?” He pressed. “Your fucking ex-husband who’s out there killing himself because you fucking left him? You know you may think it’s my fault that Nikki is the way he is, but you’re just as much to blame. He didn’t get bad until you sent the fucking divorce papers – this is on you, sweetheart.”

“Fuck you.” I pushed past him, making my way to the front door.

I started walking down the driveway, not even caring that the sun was starting to set, and I didn’t have anywhere to go or anyone to pick me up. I made it about halfway down before Doc’s car came up beside me. “Get in the car, Bryant.” His voice monotone. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that in my 25 years of being on this planet. That was my go-to move anytime Nikki pissed me off and we happened to be in the car. Hell, there was sometimes I would just get out of the car at a red light and start walking down the busy street.

“I’m sorry –“ I turned to look at him. “I don’t accept rides from assholes.” My boots slapping against the concrete.

Doc let out a string of curse words, finally stopping the car as he got out and tried to catch up. His fingers grabbed tightly onto my wrist, spinning me around into his body. “Fucking stop, Bryant.” His breathing ragged. “I already have enough to deal with and you acting like a fucking brat doesn’t need to be added to the plate.” I pushed the hair out of my face, yanking my arm out of his hold.

I waited a second as he walked back to his sports car before inching my way back to the passenger side. I may have slammed the door a little too hard, earning a look from Doc as he drove to the main road.

“Vince is throwing a party-“He spoke. “My guess is Nikki’s probably there since all the dealers are there.”

“He’s like a month flying to a bug zapper.” I mumbled.

The drive to Vince’s beachside mansion didn’t take long – traffic being light for that area. Different cars surrounded the home as music blared out of the open windows. I watched as people moved out of the way as Doc drove up to the front – those outside looking to see who was arriving. I didn’t bother waiting for Doc this time – getting out and stomping up the staircase.

I had no idea where he could be – the house was ginormous. The music grew louder as I neared the living room – a circular couch sitting in the middle of the room. A tall skinny guy was the first person I noticed – still having the same stupid haircut he had when we first met. Tom was a fish out of water in the world he lived – the opposite of Motley Crue. It still amazed me to this day that he was the reason Motley got signed.

My eyes moved across the couch, a head full of jet-black hair bent over a silver serving tray caught my attention. I watched as the lines that were perfectly placed vanished as the rolled up bill moved in a vertical motion. His head popped up for a moment, rubbing his nose as the high was hitting.

“I see you found him.” Doc stood next to me. “This is mild compared to what he’s usually doing.” I kept my eyes trained on Nikki as he talked to Mick and Tom – laughing at whatever they were saying. “Bring back memories?”

I glanced at Doc, rolling my eyes before walking towards the white couch. Nikki was in his own world that he didn’t even notice that someone was getting closer. Tom was the first to notice, his jaw dropping to the floor as his eyes grew wide.

“Holy shit.”

Nikki and Mick looked up to see what caused Tom’s reaction, Nikki’s eyes connecting with mine. It took him a moment before his smile started to fall – sobering up within seconds.

[mousebites-blog]

My hand hovers over the phone for a second before I pick it up and call Dana.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Dana, it’s me.”

“Zoey! Hey, how’ve you been?”

“Fine, I guess…. how’re your kids?”

“Oh, Charlie finally convinced me to let him get a driver’s license, and Jeramy graduated high school last month.”

“That's big, I’ll have to write him a card.”

“I think he’d like that; it’s been a while since we’ve seen you.”

“Yeah…”

“Is there a reason you called?”

“Oh, um, do you remember Kaite?”

“Katherine Hemmingway? From high school?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“I just… you know, her birthday is coming up on the 14th, and she’s been on my mind a lot recently, and I,” my voice cracks, “I-I just wanted to talk to someone who could also remember her.”

“Oh, are you doing ok?”

“I guess. I’ve… I’ve been feeling… I don’t know.”

“Do you want to get dinner at The Palms and talk about it sometime?”

“Yeah, that’d be nice” my voice trails off. “Do you remember the time we replaced all of the Prom King and Queen votes with one's for me and Katie?”

“Of course, I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look on Mr. Smith’s face as I crowned our first female Prom King,” she chuckles, “It was definitely worth the ban from prom committee.”

 “Katie fought against that plan so hard, but once I pulled her up on that stage— I don’t think I’d ever seen her that happy before”I lean up against the wall and sink to the floor. “God, I-I-I… mi…”

“I miss her too, but I don’t think you’re doing ‘fine.’ Do you want me to come over?”

“Y-y-yeah.”

“Okay, see you soon Zoey.”

I hang up the phone and cry on the floor of my unlit kitchen. 

After what feels like forever, Dana knocks on my door.  I pull myself up and let her in.

As she leads the way to my kitchen, she asks me, “Does Samantha still live with you?”

“No, she broke up with me a couple months ago.”

“Oh, I'm sorry, I didn’t realize”

“No, no it's fine. It was probably for the best.” I slump into a chair at my kitchen table, “She got a job in Chicago, but I didn’t want to leave.”

Dana sits in the chair opposite. She ideally glances around the room. “Have you stayed in contact with Kelsey or Steph?”

“No, not since they moved.”

We sit in silence, listening to the clock above my fridge tick.

I get up to grab a cup of water but my hand freezes above the faucet.

“Dana… I-I just feel like I cou-should have done something.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like if I had gone with her to college like we planned, maybe…”

Dana gets up and joins me at the sink. She slowly rubs my back.

“Oh Zoey, that was 20 years ago, you can’t change the past.”

“I… I know,” tears stream down my cheeks, “but I wish I could.”

[clouditae]

First Love | 11

Yoongi x reader | 18+ | college au | tattoo artist au | angst | fluff | swearing

Word: 2.6k

You first saw him in the multi-purpose room. Later learn his name, and on your third year, as he becomes your neighbor, you discover his lifestyle. Knowing your crush on him was nothing but that, you wanted to find the courage to look for love. Asking your friend for help, you’re pointed in the direction of the expert. Your neighbor, Min Yoongi

Chapter Index

It’s been about a week since you last saw Yoongi. A week since you’ve discovered that he has a past with Sam, the girl you met at the party, but you’re not fully sure if it’s the same Sam and what past they have. 

You never told Ari about this. It was too… embarrassing for you to mention. You did what Ari didn’t want you to get hurt about, and you’re deeply hurt. Sure you didn’t do the actual thing with Yoongi like a lot of girls have, but what you did and what happened after caused a silence between the two of you. It’s not like you’re avoiding him the way he’s avoiding you. He hasn't texted you or talked to you, and Hoseok says there’s usually a girl in his room so he has to wait for her to leave before he can go in. 

Ari would give you worried glances, but you’d brush it off like you’re not about to cry because your feelings for him grew ten times more. When you left his room and went to yours, you lied in bed and cried yourself to sleep. Just like you did the first night of the year. That fear you felt when you were in that room only proved to be right. This ended badly and you’re left feeling empty.

Right now you’re sitting in class trying to focus on the lecture rather than on Sam and Yoongi, and you and Yoongi. You want to know who this girl is and what past they have together to make Yoongi sound so hateful. The only person you can ask is the person who knows him best. Thankfully you’re meeting Ari and Hoseok for lunch after class. 

As your professor finishes his lecture, you pack your belongings and leave the room like a lot of eager students who are just done listening to long rambles about night photography and how to have a better advantage when taking them. Walking down the hallway, you reach the stairwell and follow the group of people heading down. When you’re out of the building, you make your way towards the food court where Ari and Hoseok will be waiting. 

Not having your earphones in, you’re stuck with listening in on others conversations. Nothing is interesting to you; they talk about class or “the bastard is gonna get his ass beat when I see him this weekend—I can’t believe he cheated on me”. Conversations you can care less for. You have your own problems and one of those is how to bring Sam up in a conversation without causing Ari to get suspicious and cause Hoseok to question things. Sweet Hoseok is oblivious, and you want to keep it that way when you ask about her. 

Off into the distance, further away from the court, compared to you, is Hoseok chatting with someone. Your face lights up in realization as you pick up the pace to the food court. With another quick glance at Hoseok, and realizing he’s making his way over, you lightly jog inside and scan the area for Ari. You’re starting to feel the panic as Hoseok gets closer and closer to the building while your eyes continue to glance back and forth in the room. 

Where is she?

“Y/N over here,” her voice rings, hand waving towards you from the far left corner of the room. 

You almost run to her now as you throw your bag on a chair next to you and rush, “Whatever I ask Hoseok play along—I’ll explain everything later—” 

Hoseok has just arrived. “Hey guys,” he says, smiling as he takes a seat next to Ari and places a kiss at her temple. 

You try your best to act like nothing happened. “Hey. Are you guys ready to eat? I’m starving,” you tell them, voice wavering just a bit from the adrenaline of just a simple beating him here. 

“Yeah, let’s get some grub,” he agrees, smiling oh-so happily as he gets up. To your luck he never catches on, but Ari’s now staring at you with a curious look. You give her a begging look and that is all you need to do before she gives up and plays along with your request, but you know she’ll be barking questions the second the two of you are alone. “What are you guys in the mood for? I got an A on my performance so it’s my treat,” Hoseok explains, a huge grin on his face as he wraps his arms around Ari’s and your shoulders. 

“I’ll never deny free food, and congrats, babe.” Ari gets on her tiptoes and places a kiss on his cheek.  

“Thanks, baby, and don’t even argue with me Y/N, you’re letting me pay today,” Hoseok concludes without giving you a chance to deny his offer. 

You sigh, “Then can I have Chinese?” You point to the stand next to the Greek food stand. 

“I’m down for some Chinese,” Ari inputs. 

“Chinese it is!” 

After spending five minutes waiting for Ari to decide what she wants, getting in line and placing your order, and finally getting your food, the three of you sit at the table, munching on your orders. Ari and Hoseok spend a majority of the time talking while you struggle to find a way to bring up Yoongi and Sam. There never seems to be a perfect moment, and the longer you wait, the closer you get to finishing your food and leaving for the day while Hoseok goes back to class. 

But it’s like fate is on your side as Hoseok says, “Yoongi seems to be having a lot of girls over because almost every day when I go to the room, there’s a piece of red tape on the door. This is worse than usual. I know I said this before, but I really want to go in my room once in a while without having to wait all the time.”

It hurts. It hurts more than anything to hear that again, but you can’t let that pain show on your face even as Ari glances at you with a worried expression once again. “Oh, yeah,” you begin, swallowing the lump in your throat, “I forgot to say this last time, but some time last week I heard someone knocking on his door. It was a girl and it sounded like Yoongi wasn’t happy to see her there,” you claim, leaving out the details of being in his bathroom rather than in your room. 

Hoseok frowns. “Really? Did you happen to catch her name or what she looks like?”

“I didn’t see what she looks like, but I think he said Sam?” You try to look like you’re struggling to remember what he said, but his words are so clear in your head. 

You can see the slight shock on Hoseok’s face as he mutters, “Oh.” 

So he does know Sam. “Do you know her?” you question. 

Hoseok can only shake his head as he answers, “Yeah. She’s Yoongi’s ex girlfriend.” 

You need more information. You feel desperate for more information. “What happened between them? It has to be something bad since he didn’t sound happy and you don’t look like she’s a great person.” 

Hoseok picks at his food, taking a quick glance at you. “You can’t tell him I told you this.” 

You do your best not to look eager as you nod. “Of course.” 

“They met when they were sophomores in high school. It was an immediate attraction, and after five months they were dating. They’ve been together for four years before they broke up last year.”

“Why did they break up?” Ari asks, seemingly invested in Yoongi’s past just as much as you are. 

He sits back, running a hand down his face. “When Yoongi is dedicated to something, he’s dedicated. He’s also not good at expressing his feelings. In high school and even now he works on making music, so he tends to be cooped up in his room for days. Sam wanted attention from him—you know, to know he still loves her, but Yoongi struggles with that. Last year Yoongi caught her cheating on him, and that was the end of that.” 

You can’t think of anything to say. He met a girl; he fell in love, and now he’s heartbroken. How long did it take for him to fall in love with her? How long will he continue to let this eat him whole? 

“That must have sucked,” Ari mutters with a sincere tone. 

“Yeah, and I’m really hoping the girl that is in the room isn’t her,” Hoseok groans, taking a bite of his food.

“Never get back with an ex. Especially if they’ve cheated on you,” Ari recites, as if it’s an actual rule written in a book somewhere. 

“What does she look like?” you inquire. You have to know that the woman you met at the party, the nice girl who made you feel a bit more comfortable being there... You have to know that she is not the Sam that broke Yoongi’s heart. But the memory of Yoongi’s dejected look flashes in your head. 

It is her. You know it. You were his distraction in the bathroom when he saw her that day. 

“She has like red blondish hair? Brown eyes. She’s a theater arts major, so if you’ve gone to plays you may have seen her.” He shrugs, finishing the rest of his food. 

“Plays? I’ve been to a few.” Ari taps her chin in thought. “I’m trying to remember a girl with that hair color. What plays has she been in?”

“Uhhh…” he trails off, eyes darting back and forth a bit as he tries to remember. “The last time I saw one was when she was in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. She was Katherine? I’m not a pro at Shakespeare, so I’m not totally sure if she played that character.” 

“Oh! The strawberry blonde? She’s gorgeous,” Ari comments, eyes wide with surprise.

Yeah, she really is, you confirm, remembering how pretty she is and how her laugh was so bubbly and warm. You can feel a tinge of jealousy boiling in the pit of your stomach. She’s pretty, friendly, funny and so much more. Yoongi fell in love with her. He’ll never fall in love with you, and you hate yourself for thinking about that. 

“You’ve seen her before?” Ari asks.

You blink a few times in realization that you said those words out loud. “Yeah. She was at the party I went to. She was the other team I was playing against in beer pong.” 

“Really?” Hoseok baffles, voice louder than before. Ari covers his mouth, smiling apologetically to the eyes glancing in your direction. They’re the perfect couple when it comes to being loud. He removes his girlfriend’s hand from his mouth. “No wonder Yoongi was acting weird when he came back. He was in a pissy mood—more than usual,” he adds. 

“Damn. He must really hate her.” Ari shakes her head, pressing the lock button on her phone to check the time. “Oh, babe you should go. Class starts in ten,” she tells Hoseok, looking to him as her phone goes black once again.  

Taking a quick glance at his watch, his eyes widen before he closes the lid to his box, picking it up along with his backpack. “You’re right. I’ll see you guys later.” Giving a quick kiss to Ari, Hoseok quickly leaves the food court. 

The second he’s out of sight, Ari’s attention is now on you. “So are you going to tell me what that was about?”

You sigh. You can’t have a second to yourself before she bombards you with questions, but it’s just like you predicted. “Well what I told Hoseok was what I told you to wait for.” You avert your gaze. “Except I was in Yoongi’s bathroom when Sam knocked on his door.” 

“What were you doing in his room?” You can see the hint of curiosity and playfulness dance on her face.

“What happened that day was a mistake. Sam clearly wants him back, and Yoongi hasn’t spoken to me since that day.” You can see that Ari wants more information as to what happened that day, but you just aren’t ready to tell her. Tell her what will most likely be the biggest mistake you’ll ever make. “I’ll tell you some time, Ari. Just not now.” 

Her being your best friend, she can tell your distress and can only nod, reaching across the table to take your hand in hers. “Whenever you’re ready, hon, I’ll be here and ready to beat ass if necessary.” You nod, now fighting the urge to cry all over again. You’ve been fighting the urge to cry almost every day, and you feel ridiculous about it. “Want to head back to the dorm?” 

You nod again, closing the lid to your entrée box. You grab your backpack, along with your food and follow her to the trash can to toss the food and follow her out of the building. Walking through the crowd, Ari loops her arm through yours, smiling as she leads you to the bus stop to wait for your ride back to the dorm. 

A short, and somewhat crowded ride later, you and Ari lie in your own beds staring up at the ceiling in silence. “I know I have a paper to write, but right now I could care less what the four main issues Hunston discusses regarding in corpus design are. I think I’d rather talk about the Tokugawa era and its fall than anything with corpus linguistics,” Ari complains, the sound of her feet hitting her bed filling the silence. 

You frown in confusion. “What?”

“Exactly!” she whines, “Why did I decide to take five classes this semester?”

“Why did you?” you ask her, turning to your side to see her through the mirror. She can’t see you though, so it always makes you feel a bit weird staring at her without her really knowing it. 

“I want my last semester to be the easiest,” she answers, her smile spreading across her lips. The smile leaves as she sits up and stares at you. Seeing her serious expression, you sit up and look at her. “If you don’t want to do this with Yoongi anymore you should tell him. I’ll make something up to Hoseok if he asks.”

You give her a small smile as your gaze goes down to your hands on your lap. You know you have to end things with him. If you continue to receive these lessons it’ll only hurt you in the end. You can’t keep pushing yourself onto this hope that he’ll one day fall for you. No matter how much you wish for his attention, you’ll never get it. “Yeah, I know,” you whisper, blinking back the tears. 

You hear her moving around before the sound of her feet hitting the floor causes you to look up. She grabs her white water bottle. “I’m gonna go fill up my bottle and then find Rollan downstairs because I have questions about bringing a cat in here.” You chuckle. “Be back,” she sings, opening the door and leaving the room. 

When the door closes with a bang, you let out a shaky sigh and grab your phone that’s hidden under your pillow. You unlock it, going to your contacts and search for his name. Once you tap on his name and open the text, you type away with shaky fingers. 

[1:14 pm] Me: Hey. After thinking about it, I feel like I’ve learned enough to try and find someone on my own. I won’t be needing those lessons anymore. I hate you.

Deleting the last sentence, you hit send.

[negandarylsatisfaction]

[SUMMARY: After Negan kills Katherine's husband, four years later he comes across her in Alexandria with her son. With remorse and guilt Negan attempts to make it up to Katherine.]

[Inspired by Twd episode.]

Negan and Katherine.

It had been four years now that you had left Alexandria. Four years since you had seen your friends, since you had your son and since your husband was brutally killed. Making your way back to Alexandria was something you had not planned to do especially knowing that Negan was still there. Even with him locked up in a prison cell you couldnt take being anywhere near him and so you left. Now there was no choice for you but to come back, you no longer had a safe place for your son and you were willing to do anything you had to do to keep him safe.

Walking towards Alexandria with your son holding your hand beside you, you took a deep breath knowing you would soon see Negan. However, you were not expecting to come across him at the entrance, by himself, walking freely. As a truck drove off you suddenly found yourself a few feet away from Negan himself. His presence making you stop in your tracks, your blood began to boil. Negan looked like he had seen a ghost, he could see the fury in your eyes.

"Katherine.." his voice making the hair on your skin rise from the overwhelming feel of anger.

"I didnt escape, if that's what you think."

You couldnt bring yourself to speak, if he didnt escape, what the hell was he doing out here freely? Who the hell let him out? His eyes suddenly falling to your son beside you, a look of guilt taking over his expression. Nausea settling in the pit of your stomach before you pulled your son, Jasper closer to you.

"Mommy, who's that?" Jaspers voice making you finally let out a breath that you felt you had been unknowingly holding for the last minute. Shaking you quickly picked up your son and held him close as you

walked past Negan.

"Come on baby, let's get inside." Negan watched as you quickly rushed past him, his eyes never leaving you as you entered Alexandria.

"Shit.." Negan knew he was in for a rude awakening.

Angrily you walked inside rushing to find your friends. Daryl and Carol instantly looked at each other nervously knowing what they would have to now deal with.

"Hey little man," Daryl muttered with a smile to Jasper as you put him down beside you.

"Who let him out?" Wasting no time to get to the point you crossed your arms before them expecting an explanation. It had been four years since Daryl last saw your son but the moment was over taken with emotions with the sight of Negan.

"I had to do it," Carol whispered as you stared at her with a straight face.

"It was you?" Your voice was cold before realizing your son was looking up at you confused.

"I'll take him," Daryl picked him up and quietly left the room with him.

"How could you let that monster out?"

"Katherine, I did what I had to do. Alpha had to die, Negan was our only chance."

Looking away you pressed your lips together in disapproval, but what could you say?

"How long has he been free?"

"For the past year and hes been no trouble," Carol responded. She felt guilty knowing the pain this man caused you but truly felt in her gut it was her best option at the time. Quietly you nodded and crossed your arms before you.

"I understand," you whispered knowing you now had no choice but to deal with the presence of this man.

Daryl was in the kitchen sitting at the table with Jasper, you smiled watching him cut up apple slices for your son. Daryl looked up at the sound of you entering the room and smiled shyly.

"Smart kid," he muttered before eating a slice of the apple.

"Like his dad," you sat down across from Daryl looking over at your son.

"Listen, he ain't-"

"You guys did what you had to do." You interrupted him calmly.

"Alpha is gone. Alexandria is safe, that's all that matters. I just dont want him to be anywhere near my son and I."

Daryl nodded completely understanding how you felt.

"Yall could stay on my side if that'll make ya feel more comfortable," he suggested. You nodded in response feeling a sense of relief. It had been too long since you had seen your friends, it was bittersweet. Thinking of your husband Mathew you smiled looking at Jasper, there was so much resemblance between the two.

"Why dont I show you around, got some new folks that you should know."

"Sure," you stood up taking your sons hand and stepped outside with Daryl only to run into Negan outside talking to Carol. Negan looked at you for a moment before you took your son and quickly walked off.

"Just keep ya distance from em," Daryl muttered low to Negan who simply nodded with a straight face.

"How she doin?" Negan couldnt help himself but to ask. A lot had changed since you last saw him, his way of thinking, the way he acted with others, the kind of man he was. Negan had very much regret with many things in his life but one of his biggest things was killing your husband. Killing your husband and not knowing you were expecting a child made him feel like complete shit when he learned of it. He could only imagine how tough it had been for you.

"She'll be alright," Daryl whispered before following in your direction and introducing you to the others.

It had now been a couple of weeks living in Alexandria. Never did you let Jasper stay far from you, you didnt trust anyone let alone with Negan being around. Sitting in the garden you made, you had your son sit beside you playing with toys while you began to plant.

"Hey Miss Katherine, can Jasper play freeze tag with us?" A young girl just a few years older than Jasper had asked you with an innocent look. You looked over at your son and smiled with an nod.

"Just stay where I can see you, okay?"

"Ok mommy" Jasper ran off with Chloe and began to play. Negan was on his side organizing boxes of snacks for the town. He continued to work as time went on until he suddenly looked up and found Jasper standing a few feet away from him. He stared at Negan curiously making him swallow uncomfortably.

"Hey kid." Negan muttered low as the boy looked up at him.

"Jasper!" Negan suddenly looked up to find you running towards him and pulling your son back.

"What the hell are you doing?" You yelled at him making him lift his hands up innocently and take a step back.

"Jasper, didnt I tell you to stay where I could see you?" You crouched down to your son who looked at you quietly.

"I wanted a snack, mommy."

"I'll get you one in the house, Jasper."

"I want that one," he pointed at the box next to him. Negan hesitantly took a snack out of the box not being sure how youd react, and reached out giving you a bag of fruit. Roughly you grabbed the bag out of his hand and stood up as Negan sighed.

"Its just a bag of fruit-"

"Stay away from him!" You yelled as your son looked up at you in confusion.

"You think I'm gonna hurt the damn kid?" Negan took a step closer making you back away pulling your son tightly to you.

"Kat!" Daryl ran to you getting inbetween the both of you.

"Come on let's just get inside," Daryl led you away from Negan. You couldnt take your eyes off him as you walked away, you couldnt help the anxious fury he suddenly would make you feel. Negan knew you had every reason to feel the way you felt, he couldn't imagine how hard it was for you having to see him near you but Negan wanted you to know he felt remorse.

"I was just trying to give the damn kid what he wanted," Negan muttered to Carol as he watched you walked off.

"Its best you keep your distance-"

"She thinks I'm gonna fucking hurt her kid." Negan turned to Carol with furrowed brows.

"I've done a lot of stupid shit but hurt a kid or his mother, I dont fucking think so."

"Negan, you killed her husband."

"I fucking know what I did-" he snapped at Carol before storming off.

Daryl led you to where you slept and tried convincing you Negan wouldnt harm your child but you couldnt trust him. Your anger towards him was still fresh. You hadn't truly got to see Negan the way the others had and truth be told you didnt care to. The next few days you stayed as far as you could from Negan. Here and there he would look at you wishing you'd hear what he had to say. He saw how protective you were of your son, you looked alot tougher from when he last saw you.

That late evening Daryl had gone on a run. Alexandria was quiet and everyone was inside. Taking a nap in bed you held your son close falling into a deep sleep, such a deep sleep you didnt feel him get up from bed. About an hour later you began to move around and slowly realized you didnt feel your son beside you. Your eyes flung open, practically jumping out of the bed.

"Jasper?" You screamed out going around the house, every closet, every room, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Jasper! Jasper! Where are you?!" You screamed running out of the house. Something you feared for so long was happening in this moment.

"Jasper!" You screamed again when Negan began to hear your screams from inside. Carol ran and found you frantically running, searching for your son.

"Katherine, relax-where did you last see him?" Carol grabbed you as you panted and Negan showed up behind you.

"He was sleeping-he was asleep. I-I just woke up and he was gone. It's late, where the hell could he have gone?" You looked around you anxiously when Chloe suddenly came running from the entrance.

"Guys! Its Jasper-"

"Oh God, what?"

"We went out to play hunt together and um his foot got trapped under a rock- I'm sorry miss Katherine-"

"Where is he Chloe?" You asked in a shakey voice.

"Hes by the river." She answered with big worried brown eyes.

"The river?"

"I know where he is," Negan spoke making you look over at him.

"I'm going alone."

"Its dark out there, and you dont even know where the hell to go" Negan insisted.

"I'll manage," you responded stubbornly.

"Katherine...he has a point. Its dark and Negan does know the area. He won't hurt you or your boy." Carol whispered assuring you Negan could be trusted with this making you give in.

"Let's go," you walked off before Negan as he followed. It was dark in the woods as the two of you quietly made your way to the river. Negan couldnt imagine the fear you felt in that moment. Tears silently falling down your face, he really felt bad for you. He knew you had been through enough.

"Hes gonna be alright," Negan attempted to comfort you as you walked beside him.

"Do me a favor and dont talk to me, dont-" you stepped on a rock and lost your balance making you gasp. Negan caught you by your arm not letting you hit the floor, not letting you go till you were balanced on your feet.

"I'm fine," you pulled your arm back as you continued to walk. You could hear the water from where you were, you could tell you were close and began to move faster.

"Careful, sweetheart theres some steep hills in this area."

"Jasper?" You called out before quickly spotting his jacket beside him.

"Mommy!"

"Oh my god, Jasper-" you ran to him and dropped to your knees observing how his foot was stuck underneath the rock. Right away you noticed your son was on the edge of a very steep and dangerous hill. Negan took it upon himself to carefully get around you and lifted up the heavy rock off your sons foot.

"You okay, baby? Can you stand up?" Jasper struggled to stand as you held onto him when he suddenly slipped and was just about to fall deep into the hill.

"Jasper!" You screamed as he slipped through your fingers. Negan moved quickly and caught your son by his wrist.

"Got cha," Negan groaned as he slowly pulled him back up to you. Jasper got back on his feet, you quickly pulled him away from the edge.

"Are you okay?" You whispered looking at him worriedly, checking his body for any scrapes or bumps.

"I'm ok," you sighed as you grabbed his face gently.

"Baby I told you, you cant be doing these things. You're scaring mommy, I dont know what I'd do if anything happened to you." Your voice cracked as Negan stood behind you.

"I'm sorry.." your son looked at you with guilty puppy dog eyes.

"You gotta stay with your mom, kid. Shes just trying to protect you." Negan suddenly spoke crouching down beside you to talk to your son. You didnt look his way, you didnt say a word to him, you didnt know how to react.

"Come on, let's get home." You whispered before you stood up and carried your son through the woods. Negan was alert with your surroundings, hell he made sure to stand close behind you just incase you missed a step. You werent sure how to feel after what had just happened. What were you suppsoe to do, lie to yourself? Negan had been helpful to find your son safely, Negan saved him. Once the two of you got on steady ground you felt Jasper fall asleep on you. Negan looked around on the road to make sure there was no one near. Pressing your lips together, you rubbed your sons back thinking of the horrible scare you just went through. Thinking of what could've happened if Negan wasnt with you. If Negan didnt grab him...

"Thank you," you whispered making Negan look over at you in surprise. Still with all his guilt he didnt think he deserved a thank you from you.

"The least I could do," Negan responded in a rugged voice before the two of you reached Alexandria.

"The hell happened?" Daryl rushed towards you having just returned from a run and hearing you had left with Negan.

"Negan saved Jasper," you responded softly leaving him shocked.

"I'm going to lay him down." The two men watched as you quietly walked inside before looking back at each other.

"I still need to have a talk with her." Negan admitted making Daryl nod.

"Go ahead, ima put the supplies away." Daryl walked off as Negan hesitantly made his way inside the house.

Negan stepped into the house with you quietly closing the bedroom door behind you, a soft gasp escaping your lips at the sight of Negan.

"I....Negan-"

"I just need you to listen to what I have to say. Please." His eyes were filled with desperation, a look you never thought you would see on him.

"I know what I did and I know nothing can fucking change it, not an apology, not my word but I need you to know-" your eyes welled up as he spoke, quickly he looked away not being able to take the heartbroken look you had. Clearing his throat he turned back to you and took a step closer.

"If I could take back what I did...I fucking would. I ask to be taken every God damn day for what I did to you...to you and your son." He stared directly into your soul as his eyes teared up. The look of despair magnified as he spoke.

"I cant imagine the pain I caused you, Katherine and I know you'll never fucking forgive me but please know...I'm not that man anymore. I dont even know who that was, "he whispered roughly.

"I think about that night...how sick you looked, how you just needed help, you were fucking pregnant and I just....I fucked up." A tear dropped from your eyes making you quickly look away. Negans voice broke as he spoke.

"I know you wont be able to forgive me but I just needed you to hear this. You dont have to talk to me, you dont even have to look at me. But know from this day forward I will keep both you and your son protected with every fucking thing in me. You have my word. " Negan rubbed his hand over his face and left the house leaving you alone with your conflicted feelings and your conflicted thoughts. Of course, you werent ready to fully face this man and deal with him but him saving your son put certain things in a different perspective. Negan pouring his feelings out to you in such a raw form made you think. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but eventually you can be more accepting of Negan being in your life.

[janeyseymour]

Dangerous Desires- pt 7

chapter 1. chapter 2. chapter 3. chapter 4. chapter 5. chapter 6.

Kat gets into some trouble and school, and Jane has to take care of the aftermath.

Katherine Howard liked to blend in with the walls at school. Considering she had already been through 14 schools since beginning kindergarten at age five and she was only sixteen, it was just easier that way- it’s not like she made any friends she would keep in touch with anyway.

But after the last house, and switching into a school that was known for being rather snobbish, to say the teen had anxiety about going to this school was an understatement.

It had been a few weeks since she started living with Jane, and so far she had just blended in for the first week in this school. That’s how she liked it. Well, until this day. It started the second she walked into the homeroom. She had been in this area before, but that was when everyone was younger and kids were a fair degree nicer. Now, they were cold and cruel and didn’t care.

“Kat Howard’s back,” she heard one of the students in the hallway tell his friend.

“Not for long. You know how that girl bounces around. Such a shame, she’s a pretty little thing,” the friend, presumably a jock and flirt, snorted.

“Of course that’s what you’re thinking about,” the first boy smacked the other upside the head. “She is hot though. But are you willing to shack up with someone who isn’t a virgin?”

“I mean,” the second male shrugged. “She’s hot. And besides, we don’t know if that rumor’s true or not.”

“Of course it’s true man. You’ve seen her. Plays the whole innocence card until she doesn’t and then she dips and leaves for another school. There’s no way she hasn’t lost it.”

(It wasn’t true. Katherine was indeed a virgin, and she couldn’t believe she hadn’t escaped the terrible and ruthless rumors from the last school she was at.)

Looks of disgust and judgement were thrown her way throughout the day, but she only continued to do her best to be invisible.

And it was working- until lunchtime came around.

The girl was sitting by herself at lunch as she had done so for the past week, when she was so rudely interrupted by a girl slamming her hand down on the table hard enough to make Katherine practically jump out of her seat.

“You’re Kat Howard, right?” A preppy girl leaned down so that she was eye-level with the skittish teen.

“Uhm,” Kat worried her lip through her teeth.

“You are, aren’t you? Or do you not know?” the snobby girl laughed in distaste. Kat nodded mutely.

“Well, listen here.” She jabbed Katherine in the chest with her perfectly manicured finger. “Stay away from my man, or you’ll have it coming for you.”

“I-” Kat stuttered. “I don’t even know who you are?”

“How could you not know who I am? Oh, is it because all you’ve done for the past however many years is bounce around from foster home to foster home?”

“I-I’m sorry,” was all the girl could muster out.

“Yeah, you better be fucking sorry. My boyfriend was talking about you earlier, and I swear to God if I ever hear your name come out of his mouth again-”

“Hey, Kaylie, what’s going on over here?” A teacher interrupted.

“Nothing Mr! Just greeting the new student!” The girl, who she now knew was named Kaylie, smiled sweetly at the teacher who had come to intervene. The teacher seemed satisfied with this answer and began to back away.

With the teacher gone, the preppy teen had gotten far too close to Katherine for comfort.

“If I ever see you around my boyfriend again,” she sneered. “I will fuck you up more than any other foster home has before. That’s a promise.”

Kaylie stood upright, smoothed out her skirt, and plastered on a sinister smile. “Have a good day now, and welcome to the school!” she exclaimed loudly before skipping away.

Katherine, on the other hand, was frozen in her spot. She knew how cruel high school students could be, but she never thought they would stoop so low. And what Kaylie had threatened, well it terrified her honestly. The house that she was in before Jane- it royally fucked her over and left her more terrified than she had thought possible.

Feelings of anxiety and panic were overwhelming the young girl, and it was clear to her that she was about to spiral more than she would ever like to, much less in a public area of the school. Her brain told her to get up and run to the bathroom- the nurse’s office- the front office- anywhere. But her feet stuck to the ground below her as though she was being weighed down by concrete.

The next thing she knew, people, who she could only assume in her haze were teachers, were picking her up from her spot at the table. She came back around just enough to feel their hands on her body- hands touching her in places that teachers really shouldn’t have been. Hands that reminded her of-

She heard screaming. A piercing scream that was louder than she had ever heard before. And then she realized the high pitched shrieks were coming from her. She didn’t know she even had it in her anymore to fight like this. She thought it had been beaten out of her a long time ago. With this newfound voice of hers, she began to try to fight her way out of it, thrashing about like a wild animal trying to escape its predator.

“Let her go!” a new, more gentle voice called out from the distance. “It’s clear that this girl is having a panic attack, and I’m sure a bunch of hands on her is the last thing she needs right now! Let her go, and back away from her!” The last sentence echoed through the cafeteria, and the hands slowly let her go.

“Katherine, yes?” the gentle voice spoke from a distance. “It’s Nurse Mack. I need you to give me any sort of signal that you can hear me, okay?” Katherine didn't respond in fear. “Katherine, dear?”

When the teen didn't respond again, she heard one of the teachers who had their hands on her curse, “Jesus Christ Courtney! She’s just being insubordinate!”

“I need all of you to leave,” she stated finitely. When she was met with varying degrees of objection, her voice turned smooth with honey, but the words she spoke were threatening. “Out, or I will report you to the principal and the police for having your hands all over this young girl’s body. Surely, you don’t want that? Yes?”

In her haze, Katherine could tell that this woman truly was trying to help her. It wasn’t some sort of sick and twisted joke to lure her into a false sense of security. When the others had left, she tried to take a deep breath in attempts to ground herself. It would come out shaky, but it was better than feeling as though she was suffocating.

“That’s it honey, yeah. Can you try to take another deep breath for me?” The nurse continued to coach her through her panic. Eventually, she had calmed down enough for the nurse to be able to speak to her effectively.

“Alright love, do you think we could take a walk down to my office? You can lie down there until you’re feeling a bit better,” Ms. Mack offered. Katherine nodded and stood on wobbly legs.

When the two entered the office, the girl wasn’t quite sure what to do, so she stood in the door frame for a few moments.

“Would you like to lie down?” Katherine shook her head no. “Okay dear. How about you just sit with me for a few moments. I just have a couple phone calls to make.” The nurse pulled up a chair next to hers and gestured to it kindly before dialing a number on the phone.

“Hi, is this Jane Seymour? ...Yes, it’s Courtney... I’m well, thank you. I do have Katherine down in my office and I have a feeling the school will be calling you if they haven’t- oh, wonderful.” The teen couldn't miss the sarcasm dripping in the nurse’s voice. “She had a panic attack, and I haven’t been able to talk to Henry yet, but I do suspect he’s going to try to get her into some trouble as he does with the foster kids... I know, it’s horrible. I’ll do my best to stand up for Katherine, but I am afraid I’m on thin ice with him as of lately... coddling the children, or at least that’s what he’s calling it... yes. I’ll see you soon, thanks. Bye.”

“You called my foster placement?” Katherine looked up curiously once the nurse had hung up the phone. “I did. Not to get you into trouble or anything. Jane and I have had correspondence in the past, and I find it’s usually best if I chat with her first. Not because she’ll be mad or anything, no she would never be. It’s for reasons above you- she and the principal have a not-so-great past, and if she has background knowledge of what's-” the phone ringing interrupted Miss Mack. She stole a glance at the caller ID before groaning.

“Hi, yes, this is Miss Mack, and- well yes, I do have Katherine... she wasn’t being insubordinate, she was having a panic attack and should not be repri-... for what I’m not sure, but it’s clear she was not okay and... yes Dr. Tudor. I’ll bring her when she’s feeling better... she’s still not very responsive and I do think that... okay, okay. I’ll bring her down. Thank you, bye.” The nurse placed the phone back on its dock, not even trying to hide her annoyance with the principal.

“This damned school couldn’t give half a shit about anyone here but their grades,” she

muttered under breath.

She turned to face the poor girl next to her with a solemn look. “Unfortunately, I have to

take you down to the front office. I’ll do my best to defend you, but the worst thing that should happen is you’ll be given detention.” Katherine nodded slowly before allowing herself to be led to the office.

“Katherine Howard, only been here for a few weeks and already causing trouble,” the principal addressed her not-so-kindly. “Should’ve listened to the other principals in the surrounding schools I suppose. I’ve already called your foster mother and she’s on her way to-”

“No!” was the first thing that had come out of the girl’s mouth since the whole incident had occurred. “She had a really important meeting today and-”

“It’s already been handled. She’s on her way now to pick you up and see you through. For your insubordination, you’re being suspended for the rest of the week.”

Many thoughts swirled around Katherine’s mind. Would Jane be mad? Would she hit her? Would she throw her out of the house? Or maybe, considering how kind Jane had been so far, would she get a talking to and that be that?

“Sir, if I may,” Miss Mack interrupted. “I have to try to explain again that she was not being insubordinate on purpose. She was having a panic attack, and when I got to the cafeteria, some of the other male teachers had their hands on her and-”

“Are you instigating that the other teachers were the cause of this, Miss Mack?”

“No sir,” she stated. “What I’m saying is she was clearly already in the midst of her panic when these men came towards her and only continued to make the situation worse for her. If you would please-”

“I’d advise you to stop talking now Courtney. You’re already on thin ice, and another strike against you and you could be-”

“Dr. Tudor? Ms. Seymour is here now. Should I bring her in or?” the receptionist stated quietly, eyes veering anywhere but towards the principal.

“Bring her in.” The receptionist stepped aside for the blonde to march herself. Somehow, the woman looked just as wonderful as she had when she walked out the door that morning, albeit a bit frazzled.

“Hi love,” Jane’s warm eyes met fearful ones, but one glance at her and the teen couldn’t help but feel that maybe it would be okay after all. There was no malice behind the blue-grey eyes- there never was when she was looking at the girl. “We’ll sort this out, and then I’ll take you home, yes?” She turned to the principal.

“Henry,” she practically spat out, any trace of warmth now gone. “What is it?”

“Oh Jane, it’s always a pleasure,” a sinister smirk appeared on the principal’s face. “Is that really how you should act with your foster daughter in the room? You shouldn’t be mad at me- maybe your foster-”

“I doubt Kat did anything worth me leaving my meeting, and it's just your horrid management skills. Now,” she turned towards the nurse who had refused to leave the room. “Miss Mack, can you tell me what happened?”

The nurse began to explain what had happened before the principal interrupted, “This is my school Jane Seymour, and if I say she’s to be suspended, that’s what will happen. Miss Mack, go back to your office and mind your own damn business, or it would really be a shame for you to-” he was about to threaten firing her when the nurse simply held up a calm and steady hand.

“Yes sir.” With that, she turned to leave, but not before mouthing to the blonde, ‘I can’t afford to lose this job.’ Jane gave her a sympathetic smile and nod.

“She’s suspended for the next week, and I don’t want to hear anymore about Katherine refusing to listen to the directions of her teachers again, or she will face expulsion. Have I made myself clear?”

“Sure Henry,” the woman scoffed, not so much as giving him a second glance and instead running a gentle hand over her foster daughter’s- hoping and praying that she could signal that it didn’t matter what Henry had said; she was going to be just fine.

“Katherine?” The principal looked at her expectantly.

“Yes sir,” Katherine agreed lowly, head hung in shame.

The two had made it back to the house in silence. The teen wasn’t quite sure what to make of Jane. She had expected to be yelled at within the first ten seconds of getting into the car, but it never came. She was expecting glares to be shot at her whenever the older woman could get a chance. She was even expecting to possibly be struck by what was usually such a soft hand. But it never came. Silence had washed over them, but it wasn’t a terrible silence. Daggers never shot from the blonde’s eyes; every once in a while, Katherine would lift her head slightly to take a look at the woman next to her only to be met with the same blue-grey eyes filled with more love and compassion than she could ever imagine. A hint of concern was mixed in there, but the teen chose to see the warmth mostly. The soft hand that had found its way over Katherine’s in the office never once left; the warm and kind hand had held on tight, without an ounce of selfishness to it-, all in attempts to convey silently that everything would be alright.

Jane only let go of her sweet girl’s hand when she made moves to get out of the car, but Katherine stayed still.

“Honey, are you ready to go inside?” The older woman asked when she noticed the teen had yet to even unbuckle her seatbelt. The look of uncertainty in the girl’s eyes was confused and wary- almost as if... almost as if she was expecting Jane to yell at her and beat her once they were behind closed doors. “We don’t have to of course. If you’re comfortable out here, we can stay out here.” The blonde settled herself back into the car, prepared to sit with her girl for as long as she needed. She gently stretched her hand back out over Katherine’s.

The two sat in silence for quite some time. There was no, “Enough of this Katherine. You’re being silly. Let’s go inside.” No, Jane Seymour was the most patient woman you would meet, and she was more than happy to sit in silence in her car for the time that Katherine needed.

They had been sitting in the car for just over two hours when the silence was broken with Katherine’s body betraying her and let out a small hiccup. Jane, who had recently begun to doze off in the car, groaned softly and allowed her eyes to glance over to the teen without the teen noticing. She was crying, and it appeared she had been crying since the blonde allowed herself to close her eyes. It was as if this sweet and innocent girl had learned how to cry silently- much practice was clear. The way her body shook so softly that if Jane hadn’t been paying attention, she may have never noticed it- even with her hand still holding Kat’s. The way there was no heavy breathing or choked out sobs like Jane tended to- just silent tears streaming steadily down the girl’s face as regularly as water flows through the stream.

“Kat? Love, what’s wrong?” Jane repositioned herself so she could get a better look at the girl in the passenger seat.

“Oh,” the teen jumped a bit in her seat as she wiped furiously at her tears. “You’re awake! I'm fine. We can go in now.”

“Sweetheart, I don’t want to push you, but it’s clear you’re not okay. We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t wa-”

“I’m so sorry,” Katherine practically threw herself at the woman. “I’m so sorry,” she repeated over and over, openly weeping now.

Jane, who had opened up her arms and was now awkwardly leaning over the armrest to embrace the girl, just gently shushed her and murmured soft and sweet nothings to the girl until she had calmed down a bit.

“How about we go inside, prepare dinner, and then we can talk? It might be a tad more comfortable than the car?” the blonde suggested lightly. Katherine nodded solemnly, but hesitantly.

“We don’t have to if you don’t want to, but-”

“No,” Kat stated firmly. “We can. I’m being silly.”

“I’m sure you have good reason as to why you wanted to stay in the car so long, dear,” Jane affirmed. “But, if you’re ready, let’s get going. I was thinking of making your favorite casserole tonight?” The shy blush and smile that appeared on Katherine’s face made Jane’s heart melt.

The two had sat down after preparing dinner together, Kat’s chair much closer to Jane than she had ever dared to be before.

“So love, we do have to talk about what happened today,” Jane spoke softly after she swallowed her mouthful. Kat nodded slowly. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”

The teen launched into her story, every so often looking at the woman before her to see if there were any signs of annoyance or agitation. There never was.

“I’m just- I’m really sorry you had to miss your meeting. I know it was a big meeting with your boss for your promotion, and I’m sure I got you into trouble, and I-”

“Well, I won’t lie to you: my boss wasn’t very happy about me leaving so suddenly, but he knows that any foster child that is in my house comes before a blasted job. And love, your mental wellbeing is more important to me than any sort of promotion I could or could not get,” Jane told her softly.

“That’s what you say now,” Kat muttered under her breath, but the blonde picked up on it.

“I want you to hear me out on this Kat. I know you’ve heard it in the past, but I truly mean it. You matter more to me than anything else in my life. All of the kids who have been through my house hold a very special place in my heart, and you are no different,” she spoke in a gentle but firm tone.

‘You are different though. You’re so much different than any other child,’ Jane added in her head.

“But it was such a stupid reason to get pulled from work. You’re not even like, slightly mad?”

“It’s not a stupid reason at all, sweetheart. You can't help the panic that stormed its way through your body,” Jane sighed before admitting the next part, “And, I understand because sometimes I get them too.”

“You do?” Kat looked astonished. No foster parent that she had ever lived with before had ever admitted to being anything less than... Well, no foster parent had ever admitted to her that they also struggled sometimes. She knew they did, but no one had ever blatantly admitted it before. Jane nodded silently, a sign that it would be something they would speak about later.

“I do. So I understand the feeling. And I know that you would never do anything purposefully to get me out of that meeting.”

“So, you’re not upset? Not mad? Not going to yell and scream at me? Not hit me?” Kat asked so casually that it truly made Jane’s mouth fall wide open in shock.

“Of course not honey.” Jane’s eyes went wide. “Is that- is that why you didn’t want to get out of the car?”

“Everything’s hidden behind closed doors,” Kat sighed, eyes dulled and slightly glazed over. “It’s happened before.”

“I will never, ever lay a finger on you that isn't full of love and care. It won’t ever happen. And I rarely raise my voice. It happens, yes- I’ll admit to that. But it’s few and far between, and even if I get frustrated with you: I will never strike you. Not now, not ever. That’s a promise, my sweet girl.” The blonde understood these fears. She hadn’t lived Katherine’s life, but anger and violence was seemingly all she knew. Jane knew she had already promised herself to show Katherine a different light before, but she promised herself again in that moment.

“O-Okay,” the teen’s eyes came back to life. “I’m not in trouble or anything? You don’t like... want to take away my phone or something?”

“No dear. You’re not in any trouble at all. You didn’t do anything wrong, and that principal is just an idiot,” the woman scoffed. “I’m sorry you had to go through all of that... bullshit.”

A present day Jane was lovingly stroking her soon-to-be daughter’s hair listening to her tell the tale when she felt a laugh being suppressed against her night shirt.

“What’s so funny young lady?” Jane sounded mock-annoyed, making sure to make it evident she was joking.

“It’s just... that was the first time I had ever heard you curse. It was pretty funny,” Kat continued to giggle softly.

“Well, I suppose it can be quite funny when those who don’t have mouths like a sailor curse,” Jane mused. “So love, what was the point of that story?”

“You didn’t give up on me that day either. Most would’ve dropped me right back off at the social services office claiming they couldn’t handle such a trouble maker. But you, you didn’t,” although she knew Jane never would, there was a hint of confusion laced in her soft voice.

“Well of course not. I would never dream of it,” Jane stated clearly.

“You were the first foster parent I lived with who heard me out.”

“Every child deserves to have their voice heard, especially in situations like that.”

“You were the first ever foster parent to admit to me that you weren’t perfect.”

“No one’s perfect, love.”

“Well, I know that. But, everyone just likes to pretend that they’re perfect, and then they show that they aren’t. You... you admit that you aren’t perfect, and yet you still are the closest thing to perfect that I’ve ever seen,” Kat smiled up at her soon-to-be mother, moving impossibly closer into her hold.

Jane sighed, pressing yet another gentle kiss to the teen’s hairline. “Well, that’s very sweet of you, but you and I both know I’m not perfect. Far from it. By you my dear, you are a gift to me and this world. Imperfections and all, I would never dare to lose you.”

[austennerdita2533]

Hey!

I love Penelope Douglas for sure check her out! She writes some of the best smut tbh. I’m working my way through her devils night series right now-I’m on book 2. It’s good so far, definitely dark though. I’m interested to see how she goes about a redemption arc for the character Damon right now I don’t think he deserves one but I hear such good things about his book, Killswitch, but that’s book 3 so I will see how it goes. I definitely recommend Birthday Girl from her though I loved it and the couple from it are my favorite age gap could I’ve ever read. I find myself still re reading some of their best moments.

I am slightly embarrassed by Credence though so I hope it doesn’t bother you too much if you read it. Just so you know before going into it, it is about her and her step uncle/cousins. To be fair they are not blood related and very distance to the point she didn’t even know about them. But she does call him Uncle Jake during a sex scene, and the two others call her cousin during one too. There’s also a MMF scene with her two cousins. But on top of that there is a sexual assault scene (it does get stopped but the intent is there)-personally I wasn’t a fan of how she inwardly dealt with that scenario it felt like she was blaming herself for it instead of holding the other character accountable. Uncle Jake also does kiss her when she is still 17. So if any of that makes you uncomfortable don’t read it.

I’m so happy you liked the atlas six as much as I did. I can’t believe we have to wait until next year for the sequel to see what happens. It’s too long!! I also liked Callum the least, I still appreciated his character though and what he brings to the story I just wasn’t a fan of his, probably because of his problems with Libby/Parisa. Plus his powers terrify me-as someone who likes to have full control of my emotions the fact that someone could just change everything scares me. I also loved Nico he is my typical character that I love the whole I’m an asshole but soft and caring for the people I love gets me every time. Parisa is my queen though I’m obsessed with her. Like I’m literally in love with her, I wish she was real so she could be with me instead. Not that she would because I’m broke have 0 magic or power to give to her, but still. But I have a thing for power hungry women so I was gone the second I met her. But anyway if she was real she could destroy me or do anything she wanted to me and I would say thank you. Reina I also love and agree she could destroy the whole planet and one day probably will. I just love how she is there and wants all that knowledge but also doesn’t give a fuck about anyone else. Tristan also grew on me I’m still not completely sure how much I like or don’t like him yet he gets annoying sometimes because he is constantly in his mind about his alliances but I also love how loyal and caring he is. Libby is my girl!! I also relate to her as well since I was an outcast and battled inadequacy and all that (you and I must have some stuff in common!) Out of all the characters I relate to her the most and am rooting for her so hard-also because the author made her from Pittsburgh and I’m also from the area so I felt personally attached. But Olivie just did an interview and said Libby is getting a corruption arc and I am so excited about it!!

Okay ships- so I will be honest and I think it’s an unpopular opinion but oh well-I am a nicolibby stan. They have every single dynamic that I love in a ship and they could potentially be my favorite book couple of all time if that is the road they are being taken. Honestly I was obsessed with them from their first interaction so i have it bad for them. Obviously I know they were not romantic in this book but the potential (at least for me) was there especially in some of their quotes in the end. I fully believe they are soulmates though-even the author said they were born on the same day and feel like their other half is missing in an interview once-whether that will be platonic soulmates or romantic soulmates I have no idea and I could see either happening. My heart will break if it is platonic but it’s okay I can just live in my own little head about their potential.

But I get the idea and also like both libbytristan and NicoGideon and could see those happening instead of nicolibby too. I wouldn’t say I would be mad about it either-I do like both just to me the potential of nicolibby works more for me! My only thing about libbytristan though is I’m not sure how much of their tension/feelings are real (like did any of it exist before Parisa put the idea of the other person in their thoughts to lead to all the feelings.)

Weirdly enough since they probably my least favorite characters I also adore Tristan and Callum together. Their dynamic just works for me.

And I love Parisa and Dalton too and I’m so interested in how that relationship pans out because they have some stuff to figure out. But they work well together and honestly they are just so sexy together so I’m down for it. Although I do ship myself with Parisa more than her and Dalton but I’m biased.

Honestly though all the ships are wide open though so I’m curious to see what ends up being endgame. But omg yes the twist I was not expecting it-I’m so excited for the rest of this trilogy!!!

In other news though I finished up the ravenhood series. I know you said you either read it or it was on your tbr. But god I loved it. That series broke me and then put back all the pieces. If you haven’t read it and want to feel both heartbreak and happiness I highly recommend it!

Oh and don’t apologize for babbling as you can tell I also babble!!

-ACOTAR anon

Hiiiii sweets!

I've been sifting through a bunch of summaries of Penelope Doulgas' work on Goodreads and there's a bunch of stuff there I think I'd enjoy. I'm all about good smut. I didn't realize she had that many books. I'm excited! Thanks so much for the rec! I love dark romances/erotica every now and again so I'm also going to have to dive into the Devil's Night series at some point.

Oh, and idk if you know about it/read it but a couple of my friends told me about the Crossfire series by Sylvia Day a while back. It's BDSM, like Fifty Shades, but supposedly loads better. I don't know if you're into that but I figured I'd just throw it out there anyway. The smut is supposed to be steamy. I haven't read it yet but I do have the first four novels on my Kindle (where they've been sitting, unread, for about 2 years now)...so that's something haha.

And please don't be embarrassed about Credence. Seriously, the most wonderful thing about reading is you can go wherever tf you want in your imagination. No one can stop you. There are no rules. No restrictions. You can be whomever or whatever you want to be for a while, morality notwithstanding. One of my favorite things about books is that I can experience the most bonkers, outlandish out-of-this-world stuff that I'd never dream of wanting/liking in real life. It's liberating!

Thank you for the trigger warnings, though. I appreciate that. None of them sound off-putting enough to keep me from reading it. (Tbh, I want to read it more now.) I've read loads of books where characters marry or have sex with their cousins or siblings *waves at ASOIAF, the Secret History* so it doesn't bother me. I've also read most of Lolita and all of My Dark Vanessa by Kate Russell, which both romanticize pedophilia in disturbing degrees, so it takes a lot to put me off. If curiosity could kill then I'd be long dead by now. Hell, sometimes I will purposely read things I know will upset me to my core. What can I say? I'm a weirdo. 🙃

I DON'T WANT TO WAIT A YEAR FOR BOOK 2 OF THE ATLAS SERIES, EITHER. AHHHHH. How am I going to make it that long? It seems so far away!

Callum is the most terrifying of them all right now, imo. I think that's why I disliked him the most. Like you, it shook me to my core to imagine someone like him being able to toy with my emotions. I have a tendency to detach, to keep my emotions pressed close to my chest so that I can't be manipulated or hurt, and the idea that someone could have power over them, over me in that way is...no freaking thank you! I would put as much space between him and me as possible. Most of the Atlas crew had the right idea there. He does bring a lot to the story, though, like you said. I have a feeling he's going to be one of those characters I "love to hate" as the series progress. I might even grow to "hate to love" him, idk. He's just such a shady bastard! And so judgmental/mean to the girls.

I'm with you on Parisa, by the way. She's the kind of conniving, ambitious siren of a woman I can get behind. She has a similar vibe as Katherine Pierce on TVD. I mean, there's nothing in her arsenal she won't use and I love how she weaponizes her beauty. It's delicius. She's unpredictable. Definitely the type of character who inspires "scared and aroused" energy any time she walks into a room. Like, she could choke you and instead of crying you'd just ask her to do it again...harder lol.

Reina has the same kind of "no fucks given" attitude I have because I genuinely don't care what people think of me, either. I'm just here to do my thing. Be nerdy. Learn. Whatever. And Nico is my fave for the same reason as you--the asshole who only has soft edges for those who matter to him. *heart eyes*

Omg, Libby is going to have a corrupted arc? AHHHHH. That's going to be amazing, I cannot stinking wait! I was sort of hoping she'd go dark so now that it's confirmed I'm even more pumped. Also, I think you and I have more in common than either of us realized. I'm from the Pittsburgh area, too! How wild is that? Maybe there's something in the water here and that's why, like Libby, we've both felt inadequate and like outcasts at different points in our lives? Olivie might be onto something here...🤔

The thing that's been so cool for me about this series so far is that there are a bunch of potential pairings I could get behind. And I kind of like that it's not clear cut right now. Most series I know who I want together or who will be together like halfway through book 1. I like that I don't know have firm preferences and am still open. That's novel. Not to mention fun!

I don't blame you for shipping Nicolibby so hard, though. They're definitely one of my top contenders for a romantic pairing. They have that enemies-to-lovers element with witty banter that I always gravitate toward. And you're right about Libby/Tristan. I don't know how much of their connection was manufactured because Parisa intervened, either. That'll be fun to puzzle out moving forward. And Callum/Tristan should NOT be a ship I like but they have a palpable something that I can't put my finger on. I've got my eye on them, for sure.

The Ravenhood series is still on my tbr. I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed it so much, though! It's rare to read something that just ticks all your boxes. The next time I'm the mood to binge a series I'm gonna have to pick that one up. :-D

I've been trying to clear out my backlog of ARCs lately. (Not possible because I'm getting more on the regular - as in constantly haha - but I'm trying.) I just finished Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult, which has a Sliding Doors premise that is set during the pandemic where the main character has a parallel life experience (one, where she's in the Galapagos Islands on vacation when the shutdown hits so she's stuck there with strangers, alone, not speaking the language; the other, where she's in Manhattan with her surgeon boyfriend and recovering from COVID). It's intense but so, SO good! Picoult is such a good writer. Anything I've read by her has been moving, with rounded and real characters. I haven't been disappointed yet. I so recommend her.

Oh, and if you're into nonfiction/biographies at all I finished The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson not long ago, which is about Winston Churchill as well as those around him, and it was fantastic! Read more like fiction. I loved it. I am no longer surprised it was on all the BEST lists for 2020.

[silentlsworld]

The Quarantine in the Year

Hello! A quick note before I get into it. A couple weeks ago, I saw a post asking about a fan fiction about our beloved Bones squad in quarantine and thought, why not? 

Disclaimer: I do not own the original Bones characters, that is all HH. That said, please don’t duplicate or pass this off as your own. I would appreciate that my imagination and creativity be respected. 

A/N: This is just a one shot right now. In the process of creating an AO3 profile and will post more frequent updates there. Let me know what you think! I hope you enjoy!  

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

“JACK HODGINS! Don’t you dare!”

“But Angie, you know that with the Mass Spec I have here, I’d be able to help break down the particulars, play around with some samples-”

“NO Jack! Uh-uh. NO. You are not bringing a deadly disease/virus into our home just so you can play Dr. Jekyll.”

“But-”

“No buts Jack. Uh-uh. Maybe when the Jeffersonian reopens you can get in contact with the Virology department at Georgetown. And even then! Even then, that is a hard maybe.” Angela shook her head walking away. Jack sat there in his wheelchair looking disgruntled but as he kept thinking, he realized his wife was right. Sighing in defeat, he rolled away going to find Michael Vincent and their daughter, Katherine Temperance. Hearing their giggles throughout the hallway, he figured they were in the media room watching reruns of the Flintstones.

Angela shook her head as she walked into the kitchen. Jack had some nerve and always managed to shake her up beyond belief sometimes. She picked up the phone with the intention of calling her best friend. It had been four months since she had seen Brennan and while she knew it was for the best to keep them, their families and everyone around them safe, she still missed her still socially awkward best friend and their girl time.

-----------

Brennan walked into the kitchen absolutely drained. Christine and Hank had been at again and she had just about had enough of her children’s bickering. At just three years younger than his sister, Hank was even more energetic and had pent up, what Booth called, “chaotic energy”. He often found himself overwhelming his sister or getting them both in trouble. It was only 11 am but she went ahead and opened the cabinet pulled out the new bottle of wine Booth had bought yesterday when he went grocery shopping. Pouring herself a glass, she looked out the window above the sink. Booth was in the backyard working on setting up a tree house for the kids after they had spent an entire month begging for one. Christine so she could have a place to escape Hank for a bit and Hank so he could have his own ‘Ninja Turtle’ hideaway.

The phone rang. Seeing the caller ID, she smiled.

“Hey Ange, how’s it going?”

“Oh sweetie! I am going to kill my husband!” Angela exclaimed.

“Why? Not that you wouldn’t get away with it. I mean we both could get away with murder. However, judging from the last time you called and said Hodgins had been finding creative ways to sexually satisfy you even with the kids at home, I can only conclude that you are being sarcastic.”

Angela chuckled. God, she missed Bren so much.

“Yes, sweetie. I’m kidding but he was talking again about trying to contact one of his colleagues in the Virology department at Georgetown to try and get samples of the virus strain and poke and prod it with some tests. Says he could help figure out a vaccine.”

“Oh. He might Ange. But-”

“Bren not you too. It’s dangerous! And with Katherine being in and out the hospital right now-”

“I know Ange.” Brennan interrupted. “I was going to say that I understand your hesitance and fear. I understand it from both points but you’re right. Being in and out of a hospital right now does put you and Katherine at a higher risk of exposure. How is she by the way?”

“She’s hanging in there. The doctors have given her a special corrective glasses to help right now,” Angela sighed.

“They still don’t know if it is in fact LCA?” Brennan questioned. Her heart going out for her best friend. Metaphorically of course.

“No. That’s the thing, they don’t. They have no idea what it is and it-it… it’s just really frustrating sweetie.”

“I’m sorry Ange. I really am. I wish I could embrace you and be there for you during this time of extreme emotional distress.”

“You are sweetie. Just being here talking to me on the phone is enough for now. Thank you.”

“Of course. I’m always going to be here supporting Ange. Always.”

Angela smiled as Brennan spoke. Her best friend had really come a long way. It felt like it was just yesterday she was forcing Bren out of the lab to go with her to a club and like fate, they had stumbled upon a dead body mummified within the club walls. She was just about to remind Brennan when she heard a shriek on the other line.

“MOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM HANK IS AT IT AGGAAAAAIIIIIIIINN! HANK NOOOOOOO!” Christine shouted so loudly Booth came tumbling inside, hammer still in hand.

“Ange, I’m sorry to cut this short but my children are being extremely difficult, and I swear I’m going to metaphorically explode if I have to separate them again.” Brennan huffed.

“It’s okay. Believe me, Hank and Christine are a duo and with both inside at the same time during quarantine. Let’s just say I’m glad I’m not you.” Angela joked trying to ease Brennan. It worked.

“Ha-ha I can imagine you are. I’ll call you back Ange. Tell Hodgins and the kids hello for me.”

“Will do. Bye Bren.”

“Bye Ange.”

“Bones.” Booth huffed confused. “What’s going on?”

“Our children have been very dedicated to breaking the laws of physics with their antics today Booth and I’ve just about had it trying to talk to them.”

Placing the hammer on the floor by the door, Booth walked over to his wife. He could see the energy had dissipated from her eyes and the half-drunk glass of wine on the counter confirmed it.

“Bones let me talk to them. Top off your glass and go take a bath. Take some time for yourself, I’ll deal with our tyrant children.”

“Booth, are you sure? They’re both the exact same level of cranky and intolerable now.”

“Yes. Go. I’m their father. The load to discipline doesn’t only fall on your shoulders.” Booth confirmed. Smiling Brennan hugged her husband giving a quick kiss.

“I’ll thank you later,” she smirked up at him. Booth chuckled as she quickly topped off her wine and grabbed the book that she had hastily discarded on the couch walking into their room.

“HANK!” Christine shriek filled the house again.

“Christine Angela Booth! You know how your mother feels about yelling the house.” Booth chastised his daughter walking down the hall to their room. He thought he would be dealing with another case of Hank either going through Christine’s journal or using her dolls as plungers. What he didn’t know was that he wouldn’t be prepared for the disaster he was about to walk into.

[prettyinlimegreenboots]

Waiting Game

Many, many thanks to @thebarkeepwrites for being my personal cheerleader these last few weeks. You have been absolutely amazing as I've been in my slump. I'm dedicating this to you for being amazing!

Warning: hospitals, car wreck, and car accident

Seven days. It had been seven days since he heard his voice. Seven days of silence, not that it wasn't out of the ordinary. But he was used to him pipping up every now and then to add a sarcastic comment to whatever Race was talking about.

Throwing his head back against the chair, he sighed loudly, just wanting Spot to wake up, or at least move.

This whole thing started with a trip to the grocery store. They were cooking and there were two ingredients that they thought they had but didn’t. Spot offered to run to the store to grab them. He got to the store, safe and sound. However, as he left the store that’s when the nightmare started.

From what Race gathered from the police, Spot was pulling out of the parking lot when he was t-boned, directly impacting his side of the car. He was rushed to the hospital, where he had been unconscious for the last seven days, Race by his side the entire time.

A knock on the door drew his attention from Spot. Sighing, he lifted his head from the bed, eyes widening when he saw who was standing there. “Hey.”

In any other circumstance, Race would have laughed loudly at how awkward Jack Kelly looked standing in the middle of the door. Katherine stood behind her husband, nudging him into the doorway, before she breezed past him, wrapping Race into a hug. “How is he?”

“The doctors are hopeful that he will wake up soon. It’s just a waiting game for him to open up his eyes.” Race stepped back from the hug as he was pulled into a hug by Jack. “You guys didn’t have to come up here.”

Jack patted his back a couple of times. “Wild horses wouldn’t keep us away. How are you holding up?”

“Uhhh . . .” Race reached up and scratched the back of his neck, sighing. “I just want him to wake up. It’s been too quiet with him just laying there.”

Kat chuckled. “Spot wasn’t the most talkative person to begin with. He’s always quiet unless you get him going with whatever nonsense.”

“It's just too quiet in this room.” Race chuckled, dryly.

Katherine skirted around them to take a seat at the bedside, reaching over and picking up Spot’s hand, giving it a squeeze. She talked quietly to him as Jack gave Race a hard look. “Have you left this place at all?”

Shaking his head, he sat in a chair, giving Jack a look. “If it was Kat in that bed, would you leave?”

“Nah, you’d be dragging me from this room, much like I’m about to do.” Jack gave his best friend a look. “Come on, let’s go to the cafe.”

Race hesitated, looking at Spot and Katherine. “I, ugh . . .”

“Kat will be here the entire time. She’s not going to leave his side until we’re back.” Jack promised, clasping a hand on Race’s shoulder, gently leading him from the room.

The two walked silently down the hallway, the only sound they heard was the squeaking of their shoes on the linoleum floor. The two joined others in the elevator, taking them to the main floor. Jack guided Race along until they found the cafeteria. Jack pushed Race into a chair, leaving him to grab some food for him to eat.

Soon, Jack returned with a tray full of Race’s favorites. “Half of that needs to be finished before we go back upstairs.”

Without another word, Race started tucking into the food. Jack kept up a steady stream of one-sided conversation. Pushing the tray away, Race sat back in the chair, taking a long sip of Coke, raising an eyebrow at Jack. “Is that okay, mom?”

“Yeah that’s okay. Do you want me to pack some of this up for you later?” Jack asked, quietly.

Shaking his head, Race stumbled to his feet. “Can we go back upstairs?”

Nodding, Jack got to his feet, grabbing the tray as the two headed out of the cafe. Jack threw the food away before following Race back upstairs. Once back in the room, he threw himself into the chair opposite of Katherine with a sigh. Leaning forward, he laced his hands with Spot’s, giving both Katherine and Jack a look. “Thank you for everything you’ve done. I’m sure Spot will share his appreciation when he wakes up, whenever that may be.”

“Anything for you two.” Katherine smiled at him from the other side of the bed. “Do you need anything?”

Shaking his head, he sighed. “Just for him to wake up.”

Without another word, Katherine got up from her spot, walked around the bed, leaned over and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Please let us know if you need anything and when he wakes up.”

“Absolutely.” Race smiled. “Thank you for sitting with him while I got something to eat.”

She squeezed his shoulder before leaving the room with Jack in tow. Leaning forward, he placed his head on the bed as he gently squeezed Spot’s hand. “You’ve got to let me know that you’re still here. I miss you Spottie.”

Sighing loudly, Race’s hand smacked the bed with a groan. He didn’t want to think of a life without Spot by his side. They had been married for only three months, just moved into their first home together, and just started living their life together. Though they had been together for over four years, Race felt like everything was finally falling into place for them.

“We talked about starting our lives, Spottie. Kids, vacations, memories being made.” Race whispered. “You can’t leave me, Sean. It’s too damn soon. I’m supposed to have 60 plus more years with you, not just the four we’ve had already.”

Race’s eyes shifted to his still husband. Giving his fingers a squeeze, he brought them to his lips and kissed them. “I love you, Spottie. Dammit, you can’t leave me.”

Laying his head on the bed, he was soothed by the constant beeping of the heart monitor, letting it lure him to sleep.

Hours later

A moan dragged him from the deep sleep he was in. He blinked, trying to remember where he was. Blinking his eyes slowly, he recognized the hospital room he had spent the last seven days in. Sitting up, he stretched his arms and back before looking up at the bed. A small smile crossed his face. “Welcome back.”

“I’m not dead.” came the croaked voice as a bright smile crossed Race’s face.

Squeezing Spot’s hand, Race was on his feet, leaning over and pulling Spot into a long kiss. Spot moaned at the kiss but pulled back seconds later. “Racer, you’re going to kill me.”

“Not for a long, long time.” Race promised, leaning over and gently kissing him. “You scared me.”

Spot sighed, giving him a look as he reached for the controller to adjust his bed. “Can you call the nurse?”

Race nodded, pushing the button, looking Spot over. “Do you remember anything that happened?”

Spot was quiet as he played with the ring on Race’s hand. “I remember leaving the store, the bag of groceries in the backseat of the car. Anything else is all a blurry mess.”

Race was unable to say anything as a nurse came into the room to check Spot over. Several questions were asked, all of which Spot could answer. She adjusted his meds before promising that the doctor would be shortly, leaving the room a few seconds later.

“Can you tell me what happened?” Spot asked as the door shut behind the nurse. “Did I cause the accident?”

Race immediately shook his head. “No, no Spot. You didn’t cause an accident. Someone ran into your car. You’ve been in the hospital for the last seven days.”

“I didn’t cause the accident?” Spot’s voice was small, fear creeping into his voice.

Race looked at Spot, locking eyes with him. “Sean Patrick Conlon, I promise you that you didn’t cause this accident. You were the victim in this.”

“Ok. So what are the damages?” Spot looked at the cast on his foot and winced at the pain in his chest.

Race leaned over and kissed him. “Broken foot, couple of bruised ribs, and a concussion. From what I’ve heard, you’ll be here a few more days then released.”

“I hurt.” Spot pouted, giving Race a look.

Race bit his lip. “I’m sorry about that. Do you want me to get the nurse to increase your meds?”

“No, but will you cuddle with me?” Spot put on the puppy dog eyes as he attempted to scoot over on the bed.

Race gently got on the bed, as Spot laid his head on Race’s chest. Instinctively, Race’s hand started running through Spot’s hair as they both relaxed. Race thanking whoever heard his prayers that Spot was going to be okay. Pressing a kiss to his forehead, Race sighed, relaxed as he felt Spot’s breath on his chest as he drifted off to sleep.

Thank you for reading. Please let me know your thoughts about this!

[we-are-inevitable]

not moving on, not looking back // ch. 9

A/N: FINALLY GOT ANOTHER CHAPTER UP AHHAHAHAAAA i hope you guys like this!!

Read On AO3!

“David! I’m getting a divorce!”

That is decidedly not what David had expected to hear at 7:45 on a Thursday morning, but at least Katherine seems happy about it. It takes a few moments for him to fully process the gravity of the situation, but David is quick to adapt, raising a brow and staring at her with a confused smile. “Uh- huh, that… Wow? Good? Oh no? How- How do I respond to that?”

“Good! It’s good!” Katherine squeals as she sits down, on top of one of the spare desks stored in David’s room. She already looks different, more carefree; she’s wearing her hair up, has on bolder makeup than usual, and is wearing a pair of fitted slacks, heels, a blush colored blouse and a blazer rather than her typical dress. “I’m checking in at the motel for a while until I can find myself somewhere to stay, but we talked it out and he agreed with me and everything is fine, so, yeah! Last night was the last time we’re ever going to sleep together, so it was a special occasion and I’m a little hungover, but don’t tell anyone,” Katherine chirps quickly, looking at David with a wide grin.

That is a lot to take in. He looks at her as he leans back against his desk, crossing his arms in front of him. “I’m sorry, did you say you slept with Jack after agreeing to divorce? Like, slept in the same bed?”

“Nope. We fucked.”

“I-- Wow, okay. Kath, that’s not a mental picture I needed to see.”

“Unless you think about Jack alone, right?”

David nods before he can stop himself. As soon as he does so, his eyes widen and he immediately shakes his head, staring at Katherine as his jaw drops. “Wait, no! No, no, I don’t-- What? No, that isn’t-- I’m not-- No!”

Katherine doesn’t look convinced.

David hesitates for a moment before giving in and sighing, hiding his face in his hands. “Look, Kath, I am so sorry… It’s just- It’s a stupid little crush. Nothing substantial, and nothing happened, I promise. He doesn't even know, and--"

“Wait, you think I’m upset?” She asks with an amused tone. “David, this is the best thing that’s ever happened to us! I think you two would be really good for each other.”

“Shouldn’t you be the one to know that your husband is straight?” David asks with a raised brow, then blinks. “Unless-- No, no, I don’t want to hear any more. If something is going to happen, then I want to hear it from him first. I don’t want to speculate.” He runs a hand through his hair and sighs, then looks at Katherine. “What… What are you trying to say?”

“I’m trying to say that this is something I give you permission to pursue. Not that you need it, of course; you’re a grown man. You can do what you want,” She says simply, before standing and taking a few strides toward David. “But if you like Jack, then I want you to go for it. I won’t mind. I don’t know how he’ll feel, I don't know if he'll feel the same way, but… it’s worth a shot.”

David looks down at her with a hesitant look, before giving a sharp nod. “Noted. Thank you… I just-- If and only if he feels the same. I... don’t want to be a rebound? I’ve been in that situation. It’s never, ever good for my mental health.”

“Then take things slow and see where it leads," Katherine says gently, then bites her lip. "But I’ve known Jack since sophomore year, Davey, and he isn’t the kind of guy to do something like that. I promise,” She murmurs  sincerely, gently squeezing David’s shoulder. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go do some paperwork.”

David watches as she walks toward the classroom door. He thinks for just a moment, and opens his mouth before he can stop himself. “Hey, Kat?”

“Hm?”

“Stay with me until you find a place,” David says simply, looking at her with a grin. “Don’t waste your money on a motel. I have a spare bedroom you can take, so… Stay with me. It’s the least I could do, since you’ve helped me so much these last few weeks. I-- My sister is coming into town this weekend, so I’ll be sleeping on the couch, but the spare room is yours.”

Katherine considers it, then smirks. “I hope you’re ready for all night Gossip Girl marathons.”

“As long as we throw a few episodes of Glee in, I’m down.”

“Trashy reality TV?”

“A must have, obviously. Sappy romcoms?”

“I have a whole box of DVDs,” Katherine grins, then gives David a wave and walks toward the door. “I’m staying with Hannah tonight- she's a friend of mine. Works with Jack," She explains with a broad sweep of her hand. "But I’ll see you tomorrow! Get ready for some Blake Lively action!” With that, she leaves the room, giggling down the hall.

David shakes his head as she walks away, letting out a content sigh. For once, he feels... Good. Excited. He’s looking forward to Katherine staying over, for as long as she needs to, of course. It would be good. He has… a friend.

That’s the first time it really hits him that he has a friend. Katherine and Jack are his friends, his real friends, and David is so glad to have them in his life.

But he needs to check up on Jack.

That afternoon, David says goodbye to Katherine in the office before heading outside the front doors. He walks down the sidewalk for a few moments, but stops in his tracks when he sees a familiar deep blue truck in the parking lot, and hears a familiar deep voice softly singing along to an old Johnny Cash song.

David grins to himself and walks toward the truck. His smile only grows wider when Jack notices him and rolls the driver’s side window down, waving. “Davey! Hi!”

David shakes his head, hurrying toward the truck. “What are you doing here, cowboy?”

“Well, ya see, I was gonna pick up my ex, but she told me she was workin’ late while I was already here, so I decided to stay and pick up the only adult I know who doesn’t own a car,” Jack says with a smirk, hanging one arm out of the window. He’s still in his professional "I'm A College Professor, Respect Me" clothes- navy slacks, a white button up with the sleeves rolled to his forearms, and a navy vest. He seems to have already taken off his tie, but he’s wearing glasses and oh, God, David is weak at the knees.

“See, I knew not owning a car would come in handy,” David teases back, leaning up against the door of the truck. “I am the responsible and economically-friendly adult who doesn’t own a truck that emits tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere each year that you’re talking about, right?”

“That’s the gayest thing I’ve ever heard you say. Get in the truck before I leave you here, dumbass.”

“Yes, sir,” David replies with a chuckle, walking around the vehicle to climb in. He sighs as he sits down and leans back, buckling up as Jack pulls out of the parking spot. “Hey, so, I... I know that the whole Katherine thing didn’t work out. How’re you holding up?”

“I think I’m doin’ good,” Jack replies with a sigh, looking straight ahead at the road in front of them. “It’s… It’s a good thing. Right? I mean, it’s an amicable split. We aren’t fighting over the house, ‘cause it belonged to my family, and we already figured out who gets to keep what last night after... yeah. Plus, this’ll be good for… me. Give me the chance to, uh, figure some things out. Self exploration, that’s what Kath said.”

That sounds promising, but David refuses to get his hopes up. “Well, if you need anything, let me know. I'm here for you, Jackie,” David offers with a soft elbow nudge, grinning. “So, the house belongs to your family?”

“Belonged. Past tense. They’re all, uh, gone.”

“Oh, shit, I'm sorry. I didn't realize."

“No, hey, it’s chill. I kinda figured Kath would tell you about it, but I guess not,” Jack says with a shrug and a glance toward David, offering him a sad smile. “My mamá, her family owned it. They moved to America in the ‘30s. Stayed in Texas for a while, but they came up this way for work. My great grandfather worked here in Tarrytown, and actually helped build the house, plus a few others around town. There were some… family issues regarding ownership of the house, so it was sold to a different couple when I, uh… moved, but Kath and I bought it after we got out of college. It’s been renovated, but it’s a piece of history.”

“I figured that you were hispanic, but I didn’t want to assume,” David says softly. It feels really nice to learn a little bit more about Jack in such an intimate way. "That-- Sorry, I just... yeah. The house is really cool."

“Ya don't gotta be sorry for wonderin', Davey. I'm Mexican,” Jack clarifies with a grin. “If ya can’t tell by me bein’, y’know, brown. My great grandpa, Francisco- he and his wife, Dorotea, brought their three kids over. My abuela met my abuelo here in Tarrytown and had my ma. My mother’s maiden name was Maria Velásquez, but she married a guy named Daniel Kelly, so that’s where I come in,” Jack explains with a deep chuckle, shaking his head. His smile soon fades, though. “She passed when I was ten, and my dad… He’s gone. My adoptive mom lives in Connecticut now, too, so now it’s just… me.”

“Shit, Jack…” David bites his lip, looking over at him with a concerned expression. He rubs the back of his neck, gulping hard. “If it’s any consolation, I’m glad you were able to get the house. To, y’know, have something of your family. I'm sorry you had it so rough, though.”

“Thanks, Dave,” Jack says with a grin, then shrugs. “And don’t get all down on me now. It’s been eighteen years since that shit went down, so I’m good. Really,” He nods, and there are a few moments of silence that pass before Jack turns to look him in the eyes. “Hey, are you free for a little bit?”

David really should have said no. He really should have avoided being anywhere alone with Jack for a prolonged amount of time, because this was only going to end in heartbreak.

But, then again, David has been through worse.

“I’m all yours.”

[violetwolfraven]

Crossover Headcanons

((I know I have requests in my inbox but I just had to get this out of my head. Also I probably won’t be posting those requests for a while because my writer’s block is only barely starting to lift, so...))

Anyway this is gonna start off from one perspective and go to more later. Enjoy. 💜

Tw: past death, nightmares

...

So this is a... spin-off? Of the reincarnation au? An alternate timeline? A variant? Whatever it is the newsies are reincarnated and remember their past.

Also somehow most of them are going to the same college here, (I’m not going to say which one because I don’t want to research colleges right now) even if they’ve got a wide range of majors.

There’s only one dorm building even if people are only allowed to share a room with someone of the same gender.

This works out well for Elmer, because he’s pretty happy to be rooming with his boyfriend, Buttons.

But then he gets up to the floor their dorm is on and almost drops the box he’s holding.

Because it’s fuckin her. His national-level math nemesis since 11th grade. They’ve only faced off twice, the first time with her team winning and the second with his winning, but they’re each the only one who can beat the other in a math competition.

Elmer can see the shock in her eyes as she recognizes him and shouts YOU and then she’s stomping over to him aggressively enough that he’s pretty sure she wants to throw down physically.

Jack (who’s also on that floor with Davey) figures that too, and steps in front of him before she gets too close, but that girl acts like she doesn’t even notice him and shouts I WAS HALF A SECOND BEHIND YOU SOLVING THAT PROBLEM!

Elmer is kinda terrified but he defensively shoots back well I still solved it first and moves around Jack because this is his math nemesis and his fight.

The girl scowls at him for a couple more seconds then just sticks out her hand to shake, and Elmer realizes that he doesn’t actually know her name beyond the surname he’s seen on the back of her mathletes jacket. She introduces herself as Cady Heron.

Elmer Kazprzak, he responds, and Cady looks like she’s trying not to laugh, but he figures that’s probably fair, with how ‘Elmer’ was a common name in 1885 but not so much in 2003.

Jack clears his throat so Elmer introduces him but forgets that this isn’t their high school so things like oh this is Jack. He’s basically my dad. are weird.

Cady definitely thinks it’s weird but she doesn’t question it. Instead she just asks where Elmer is living, and it turns out, of course, he and Buttons are right next door to her and her roommate, Karen.

(I say Cady is living with Karen because Gretchen wanted to live with Regina and rules be damned Janis is with Damien.)

Elmer isn’t completely sure he’s not going to get murdered in his sleep but he guesses if he could handle the 1899 Newsboy Strike and World War I he can handle Cady Heron.

Meanwhile Katherine is going to Harvard so Sarah is rooming with someone she’s never met and she’s a little nervous.

And in stomps a girl who declares I’m a lesbian and if you have a problem with that tell me now so I can switch dorms.

And Sarah responds with my girlfriend out at Harvard would be pretty pissed at me if I did have a problem with that.

The girl lets her guard down, explains that she comes from a small town, and says her name is Alyssa Greene.

After that little bump, they get along good. Alyssa explains that her girlfriend, Emma, registered late and couldn’t get a dorm with who she wanted.

And Sarah’s just kinda like wait Emma as in Unruly Hearts Emma? Alyssa’s just like yeah!! I’m so proud of her!!

Sarah brags a bit about how Katherine is studying to be a journalist with a specialty in queer stories and long story short they become besties and eventually Alyssa introduces Emma for real and Sarah introduces Smalls and Sniper.

Emma and Alyssa are a bit thrown by the whole nickname thing but hey whatever now they have a Lesbian Club!

They do meet up with the boys occasionally but the Lesbian Club meets on a video call with Katherine every Saturday.

Anyway Jack meets Janis in art class and initially they kinda think each other is weird because their styles are very different but then they get in an actual conversation and get along amazingly.

Jack is definitely a fan of Janis’s philosophy of when someone hurts your friends you attack and grind your foe into the ground.

Janis tells her new bestie about Cady and Damien (and Regina, Gretchen, and Karen, though she still keeps Cady and Damien closer than the former Plastics) and she’s honestly shocked by the amount of friends Jack tells her about.

She does recognize some names, though. Romeo and Damien are both theatre majors and they’ve become friends.

But anyway Jack and Janis are like. Super good friends. Art buddies. Mlm/wlw solidarity. Protective friend pals.

Janis is pretty surprised when she introduces him to Cady and they’ve already met, and apparently oh fuck your math nemesis is Jack’s Elmer???

Jack’s just going oh fuck Elmer’s math nemesis Cady is Janis’s Cady???

Also Regina met Spot and Sarah at the gym and now they meet up with a few other people every other week to throw down like their own personal fight club.

At first Regina was just angrily trying to fight with no technique, but don’t worry, Spot and Sarah teach her.

There weren’t a ton of out gays at Northshore High, so yeah the Mean Girls crew definitely gets along with the Newsies crew out of solidarity.

Janis and at least one of the Plastics but I can’t choose which one(s) join the Lesbian Club.

Meanwhile Race is super hyped to meet Emma cause like I choreographed a dance to your song wanna see???

Emma is flattered but kinda weirded out and she mentions her friend Angie who’s a dancer too and Race is just *error 404*

Cause of course he saw the news story and knows Emma knows these 4 big Broadway stars but it just. Hasn’t connected until this moment that she like has their numbers.

He tries not to freak out too much cause he knows that’s weird but Emma eventually goes do you wanna meet her? And Race goes do I wanna meet her? She’s only my IDOL!! she’s been dancing like 20 years and she’s still got it!!

Emma calls Angie partially because she likes her new dancer friend and wants to make him happy and partially because she wants to prove to Angie that people do appreciate her zazz and despite how she was just a chorus girl until a few months ago this random boy from New York has been a fan since he was 12.

Angie can’t exactly fly over at the drop of a hat but she watches some videos on YouTube of Race dancing and like holy hell this kid is good. And his friends are too but this kid right here has zazz off the charts.

When she finds out he’s an orphan she’s lowkey can I adopt him??? but then she finds out he already has an adoptive mother and it’s Medda Larkin.

Medda Larkin who did more than a few shows with Angie when they were young but left Broadway to open her own theatre.

They fell out of touch years ago but still follow each other on Instagram and stuff.

But Angie shows Barry and Dee Dee and she’s super excited like remember Medda Larkin??? THIS IS HER ADOPTIVE KID AND HE’S AMAZING

And they watch YouTube clips of Emma’s new friends in high school shows and like wtf these kids are fuckin talented why aren’t they on Broadway???

They almost tell Emma to tell her friends to drop out of college and come straight (haha not that straight) to Broadway but Trent is like wtf no education is important.

Whatever the actors aren’t that relevant.

Sarah has a nightmare about her death one night. And with the others it’s not as big of a deal because they’re all rooming with each other, but Sarah’s roommate isn’t one of them.

She thinks Alyssa is asleep so she calls Katherine crying about how scared she was, how guilty she felt to be leaving her brothers and friends and Kath without a goodbye.

And Alyssa isn’t quite awake, but she’s awake enough that she hears Sarah whisper about how everything is just so stupid complicated. I shouldn’t be afraid of dying when I’ve done it before—when we’ve all died horribly—but I still am, Kitty. I can’t stop being afraid.

Alyssa is out of it enough that she falls back asleep, but when she wakes up she knows what she heard. That her roommate thinks she had a past life and died and implied that all her friends did.

Emma notices she’s acting weird and when she asks what’s wrong she tells her.

They both know it sounds crazy, but...

Emma tentatively points out some weird things about their friends from New York.

She’s study buddies with Race and occasionally he points something out she got wrong on her history homework. Something so small and inconsequential that it would’ve been almost impossible for him to know unless he was there and remembered from experience.

Smalls and Sniper have a habit of jumping apart if they were so much as holding hands and someone walks in on them, even though they come from a mostly accepting city with an accepting friend group.

That whole group straight up skipped history class the whole week they were learning about World War I and refused to make up the work.

They bring the half-baked theory to Janis who immediately remembers all the times she’s seen Jack draw small war-torn towns in France and dirty city streets and an outdated skyline as if seen from a rooftop, all of them too detailed to be anything but directly copied from something Jack has seen before.

But the question is if they’re drawn from a reference photo or a memory.

Cady realizes, upon hearing the theory, that Elmer and Buttons never take her up on offers to come to football games because they don’t like the noise.

More specifically, she remembers the look on her nemesis/frenemy’s face when he said he didn’t like fireworks.

Aaron notices that Davey always solves math problems by hand. He never uses a calculator unless someone reminds him it’s an option. And half the time, he defaults to using his right hand with terrible handwriting even though he’s left handed. Almost like he was raised with the whole ‘left hand devil’ thing, which doesn’t make sense because he went to a public school; not a religious one.

Damien realizes that Romeo has a habit of correcting the costume department, like he knows the period clothing for Hello, Dolly! better than they do. It annoys the hell out of them because upon some research, he is always right.

Regina notes how Spot and Sarah fight like they’re fighting for their lives in a street brawl. She knows that because she started taking karate in an attempt to win fights. She noticed months ago that her friends use technique that’s barely sustainable, like they’re just trying to stay alive until they can run or backup comes.

However all this is just fun and games, a crack theory they’re all mildly creeped out by but don’t really believe, until Gretchen finds it.

An article on the Newsboy Strike of 1899.

There’s a copy of the Newsies Banner, written by Katherine Plumber, which references strike leaders Jack Kelly and David Jacobs.

But they could write that off as just a creepy coincidence if not for the photo.

It’s the one Katherine and Darcy took that first day, which is in black and white and not the greatest quality, but clearly shows a lot of familiar faces.

A later story by this Katherine Plumber documents lives of street kids with interviews from kids with the same odd nicknames as the group they know.

Regina was the most cynical about this theory and even she can’t deny it now. There’s just too much evidence.

Especially when Karen finds Crutchie’s obituary, but Regina stops her from showing it to anyone else because that’s just too creepy.

The Mean Girls crew and Alyssa and Emma are... unsure if they should confront their friends about this, because a) this is freaky and b) the newsie gang is clearly still harboring trauma due to their deaths.

Plus, as Damien points out, being gay was illegal in 1899. Do you think they want a reminder of how they had to hide their feelings for each other back then?

Emma and Alyssa share a knowing look because they know what that’s like.

In the end Karen lets it slip when she asks Davey a question about her history homework involving World War II, mistakenly believing he was there.

Davey naturally questions her about it and she spills the entire story about how Alyssa heard Sarah’s phone call and they figured everything else out from there. She even shows him the article with the 1899 photo and the Newsies Banner.

And... shit, there’s a lot of memories behind that picture. And that’s them, over a hundred years ago, when they were kids and they weren’t all the same age like this time around.

The old Davey looks so big compared to Romeo and Elmer and god was Specs tall for a 15-year-old.

Davey didn’t even meet Smalls and Sniper in this lifetime until they were 16, but in that picture they’re only 13 and they’re so small.

A sidenote on Katherine has a picture of her in a hairstyle he hasn’t seen her in since 1917.

It’s a mixture between ptsd and nostalgia and Davey can’t decide whether to freak out or be happy.

He takes the article to Jack and tells him about how Gretchen found it and their non-reincarnated friends know.

Jack’s silently cursing the fact that he really should have been more careful with what he drew around Janis, but it’s kinda a relief that they know, honestly.

He shoots a quick text to the group chat and then turns his phone on do not disturb mode while he sits Janis down for a little chat.

He doesn’t go into graphic detail, but he does tell her an abridged version of everything. How they were basically a family and all lgbt+ in the early 20th century and how they died before their time and got a second chance.

It’s more than a little freaky for Janis, but it does explain a lot.

Such as how Jack demonstrates on a dare that he can still do some parkour because once upon a time, he used it to run from the cops.

Elmer tells Cady he’s so quick at math because he used to have to calculate change quickly and later had to help Jack and Davey come up with battle plans based on numbers vs tactics and terrain.

Regina definitely trusts Spot’s combat advice a lot more now because he was essentially a gang leader as a teenager and it has literally saved his life.

Race admits to Emma that her song made him cry because... in this lifetime he might not have had to be closeted, but in his last he was constantly worried about getting arrested or worse if people found out not just about him and his boyfriend, but his friends. His family.

Emma may or may not collaborate with him after that to write a song about how much it hurts to be closeted for your own safety and how much better it feels to be free to be who you are. Race dances in the music video and many of the other newsies make appearances but it’s mainly him and Emma. Spot and Alyssa cry when they see it. Damien does, too.

Who am I kidding everyone cries.

They get like 4 million hits on YouTube and it’s amazing.

The title is probably In the Light or something.

Also Cady, Aaron, Kevin, and Elmer form their own college level mathletes team and no one can beat them.

(Kevin’s not as close with the main group literally only because I don’t know that much about him as a character.)

(Also Stacy, Kailey, and whatever their boyfriends’ names are might be there somewhere but I don’t know them either.)

Katherine does get to meet the new kids in person eventually. And also I didn’t mention this earlier but Specs goes to Harvard too and he comes to visit too.

The power when the Lesbian Club finally gets to meet all in person? Unparalleled.

:)

[anotheronechicagobog]

Wow Part 2/Final Leslie Shay x reader

written by @anotheronechicagobog​

warnings: swearing, implied smut, mentions of homophobia

It had been a few days since the kiss and things were incredibly awkward. Kelly knew, and at first, he seemed really happy that it happened, then annoyed because it became apparent that neither you nor Leslie, were going to do anything about it. His frustrations were growing and it came to the point where he went around begging and doing favours for others in the firehouse to get them to help him get you two together.

“Kelly, are you sure this is a good idea? Won’t Y/N and Shay be mad?”

“Oh definitely.”

“Then why are we doing this?”

“C’mon Otis, don’t you want Y/N to be happy? Aren’t you tired of seeing them stare longingly at each other?”

“If I get punched I’m blaming you.”

“Fair enough.”

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

Their plan was... Bad. Achingly, obviously bad. But neither of them were all that adept with setting people up, they could have involved Sylvie, but it would require the energy of 10,000 people to deal with her romantic optimism. So instead, they set the two of you up on a blind date with each other.

The two of you were enjoying yourselves when three frats decided to have a fart contest all from different spots in the restaurant. And when you two tried to leave you couldn’t because there were a bunch of drunk dambasses blocking your exit. You would’ve smelt more pleasant if you’d been sprayed by a skunk.

Then they tried putting a onesie on your son that said ‘will you date my mommy?’ and handing him to Leslie, but he spit up all over the front before the handoff. And they were stuck cleaning him up.

As a last-ditch attempt to get the two of you together they convinced Leslie to take you to her brother’s wedding as her guest... Which ended up being kind of a disaster because the bride never showed up, they couldn’t drink yet, and Leslie’s family barring her parent and brother who were otherwise occupied were all judgemental assholes with a few homophobes in the mix.

The two men spent the next three months brainstorming the perfect way to get you two together. They watched romcoms to gather ideas and prepare. Romcoms!

It wasn’t until you two sat them both down for a serious conversation that they realized something was different. They couldn’t put their fingers on it until you placed your intertwined hands on the table. “We have been dating for the past six months.”

“Wait, what?”

“But we’ve been trying to get you together for five months!”

“We know. And that’s why we’re telling you earlier than we were planning to.”

“All of your ideas have been awful and we know you’re planning something big and we just don’t want to have to deal with whatever travesty you’ve planned.”

“Oh come on, our attempts weren’t that bad.”

“First you sent us to a mediocre pizza place a block away from three different frat houses, then you trusted a newborn to deliver the message for you, seriously I have no idea how you guys were expecting that one to go, and then you sent us to my brother’s wedding where we first of all couldn’t drink yet because we’re both still breastfeeding but were surrounded by all of my homophobic relatives.”

“Seriously guys, we appreciate the thought and effort, but please, stop now. We’re happy, everything’s going well. We don’t want to have to deal with another Hallmark movie directed you guys.”

“Okay, fair enough.”

“Yeah, they were pretty bad... Sorry. I am happy that you’re together though.”

“Who else have you guys told?”

“Only the two of you so far.”

“I feel honoured, how did you two get together by the way?”

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

FOUR YEARS LATER AT YOUR AND LESLIE’S WEDDING

“... And that’s how we found out that our two favourite ladies sat down and talked to each other two days after their first kiss because Kelly and I both asked them to.” Everyone was practically rolling on their seats with laughter. You and your new wife included. Although it was hard to forget that you were an unwilling judge to a farting contest, the story still managed to get a chuckle out of you. You looked at your completely gorgeous wife in her white form-fitting pantsuit, in awe of how happy she and your children made you. The big ballroom lavish wedding wasn’t really her thing, but it was yours, and she just wanted you to enjoy and remember today. “... Really though, I have not seen Y/N smile as much as she has with Leslie... Ever, actually. So, to the happy couple, I wish a long and joyful life together. Cheers.” You and Leslie clink your glasses together, ending with a kiss and Leslie whispering your ear “I can’t wait to rip that garment off of you tonight.”

“Hey Shay, you’re a bit close to the mic there!” Rounds of laughter peeled their way out of every guest who’d just heard and understood Leslie’s filthy promise to you. “Oh shut up Severide! Just come up and do your speech so we can dance already!”

“Haha, alright, guess we better speed the reception along for you huh?” More laughter from you and everyone in the room. “Okay, so I’ve known Leslie for a long time and I have learned that she has a pretty expressive face. Before Y/N and the kids came along she was only ever temporarily happy. But now, all she does is smile and laugh, and she just looks like she feels complete. I love you guys both so much and I wish you nothing but the absolute best. Cheers!”

“Cheers!”

You spent the night dancing with Leslie, your wife (!), and your two wonderful children. Katherin and Thaddius. At the end of the night, after Leslie had made true on her public promise, you double-checked that everything was packed before delicately placing both four year olds in the car, and heading to the airport. More than ready to spend the next two weeks at Disney World with the three people you love most in the world.

[toomuchtv95]

Selfish

Pairing: Damon Salvatore x Reader

Word Count: 3.4+k

Warning: Fluff, Angst, Smut (18+), Unprotected Sex

Summary: You and Damon have a long history together and when you find out that he’s got werewolf venom in his system and no sign of Klaus, he refuses to to take the cure. Once you comforted Damon about not taking the cure, you find out why he didn’t take it.

A/N: I know this was supposes to be out yesterday, but I got distracted and didn't get editing it. I manage to finishing it super late (2am) and I was tired and I ended up editing it today. I also didn’t plan on it being this long, but I was on a roll and I just kept writing.

MasterList Moblie MasterList

It was a quiet afternoon at the boarding which is what you needed. Things have been hectic over the last couple of weeks. Elena was turned into a vampire; Klaus was dead but then ended up he wasn't and now there's a vampire hunter out there killing every vampire he can get his hands on. As you walked into the parlor with a blood bag in your hand, you headed straight to the cart to grab a glass and poured the blood into the cup. Drinking the blood, you closed your eyes letting the blood hit the right spot. As you stared down at the blood in the cup, you took a few deep breaths as you tried not to think about the fact that you were slowly losing control for blood.

“You know what I hate? Vampire hunters.” You chugged the rest of your blood before turning around to see Damon walking in shedding his coat. Damon stepped over to the cart to grab a napkin to wipe off the blood from his shoulder.

“Well, no one told you to go and piss off a vampire hunter.” You muttered to yourself as you set your glass down to help Damon. Grabbing the napkin from him, you unbutton the first few buttons of his shirt so that you had better access to the blood.

"You know if you wanted to see me topless all you had to do was ask," Damon whispered as he gave you his famous smirk. You rolled your eyes as you shook your head slightly back and forth.

"Nothing I haven't seen before." You spoke low so that only Damon could hear just in case more people were lurking in the house. After cleaning up the blood, you took a few steps back as awkwardness and silence filled the air. “I need some air.” With that said you disappeared out of the room.

Once you walked outside there was a slight breeze with caused you to cross your arms over your chest as you held your sweater close. Standing underneath the entranceway of the house you closed your eyes as you thought back to when things were simpler. Before you were a vampire, you were a witch that was born in 1685. You were born to a powerful witch who had a child out of wedlock and was kicked out of her family. Your mother had taught you everything you need to know about being a witch and when you were attached by witch hunters, they had killed you and your mother. The only difference between your deaths was you woke up as a vampire which meant you lost your magic.

“I’m worried about you.” You pulled out of thoughts when you heard Damon speak up from behind you.

“Since when you do care about me?” You mumbled to yourself without realizing that those words slipped your mouth.

“Where is that coming from? I’ve always cared about you.” Damon lightly grabbed your upper arm, turning you around to face him.

"Well, you have a hell of a way of showing it.” You blurted out in anger that you have been holding back for so long. Damon was stunned at your outburst. He knows something as been bother you lately, but with everything that's been going on, he's kind of neglect you and he feels guilty about it. “Why don’t you just go back to Elena? Because it’s always about her.” You yanked your arm out of his grip and walked towards the forest.

“What the hell is your problem lately?” Damon vamp speed so that he was now in front of you.

“You are! This town is and I’m sick of this crap. I’m sick of fighting battles that aren’t mine to fight! And I am sure as hell sick of tired sitting around watching you and Elena do whatever it is you two are doing with each other!” With that said you disappeared into the forest not caring that Damon was calling after you.

This was one of the many arguments that you and Damon have been having lately and most of the time it was about Elena. You and Damon had a history that dated back to the early 1900s. Some people would say that you two were bad for each other and others would say that you two couldn’t live without each other. When Damon showed up in Mystic Falls after you and Stefan, things between the two of you escalated. Constantly arguing, him always dropping everything to go save Elena, and sometimes that meant he left you when you needed him the most. The Salvatore brothers were your best friends and only friends you manage to keep over the centuries. You had meet Stefan first during one of his ripper stages in the late 1800s.

The first time you meet Damon was in 1912 when you returned to Mystic Falls with Stefan for their nephew’s funeral. Then when Damon made Stefan feed on human blood again, Stefan disappeared leaving you behind and that’s when you and Damon got close. The two of you spent a few years together and after getting to know Damon, you started to develop strong feelings for him, but he was still hung up on Katherine. So, you did the one thing you do best, you flipped the switch. You tend to flip the switch when things got too much for you. You were the type of person who cares too much and once you became a vampire, you learned about the switch causing you to use it quite often. You ended up disappearing because when you had no humanity, you were not pretty to be around.

For the next 40yrs, you struggled with your humanity, turning it on and off whenever you felt your emotion start to take control. It wasn’t till the early 50s when Stefan found you and helped you turn back on your humanity and keep it on. Then in 1960 you ran into Damon again and found out he turned off his humanity, and for some reason, you were determined to help him turn it back on, which didn't go as plan. Your feeling for Damon resurfaced after a somewhat drunken one-night stand with him and after almost 10years, you flipped the switch again not wanting to feel those feelings for him again. With both you and Damon and no humanity, you were basically Bonnie and Clyde. The next 17years you and Damon traveled around and in 1977 is when the two of you settled in New York and at that point, you were completely lost with yourself.

That was the year that Stefan sent Lexi to deal with Damon while he came and personally got you to save you from yourself. After leaving Damon yet again, you felt lost without him, considering the two spent so many years together. Once your switch was back on, everything flooded back to you, all the kills you made, and of course your feelings for Damon. There was something that always drew you two back to each other, rather it was fate or just luck. When you and Stefan arrived back in Mystic Falls in 1994, Damon and returned claiming he hand turned his humanity back on and wanted to make good with the two of you. You soon found out that he was lying everything. Then you and Stefan left Mystic Falls and the two of you went your sperate ways until about two years ago and the rest is history.

As you sat down on a tree stump, tears formed in your eyes as you felt like you were falling apart. It was moments like this where you wanted nothing more than to turn off your humanity, but you worked so hard to keep yourself together for the last decade. You laid your head in the palm of your hands trying to gather yourself. Without realizing it, you felt a pair of hands grab yours causing you to look up to see Damon squatting down in front of you.

“I’m slowly losing control, Damon.” You finally admit was been going on with you lately and you felt completely broken. “I’m having a hard with controlling my urges for blood again and my emotions are all over the place and all I want to do is turn it off.”  

“Well, that's not going to happen because I won’t let it.” Damon felt terrible that he didn’t help you sooner, but he was determined to help you know no matter what it takes.

Tears rolled down your face as the damn was now broken. “Ever since that night that Klaus compelled me to suck that innocent man dry all I think about is blood and how I want to drink from the vein again.” Damon could see that you were on a verge of a breakdown and he knows that you need him right now. “I am losing control and I don’t know much longer I can hold on.”

“Hey, look at me.” Damon grabbed hold of your face forcing you to look at him. “I’m going to help you. I promise.” You nodded your head not believing him. Damon forcefully pulled you into his chest and that's when you completely broke down. Damon wrapped his arms around you tightly not wanting to ever let you go. Damon hated seeing you like this and he would do anything to make your suffering go away.

"Hello, sweetheart.” You stopped dead in your tracks when you heard the one voice that you thought you would never hear again. With the Veil to the other side being down Mystic Falls was crawling with ghosts who most of them were out of revenge, but you had no idea that Henry was one of them.

Slowly turning around, you saw your ex-fling who had died 250yrs ago to a stake to the heart. “Henry,” you choked out as Henry stepped out of farther from the shadows. All of a sudden, your body gets thrown up against the brick wall letting out a groan in the process.

“I see you moved on without thinking twice about me and with another vampire.” Henry tightened his grip around your neck causing you to gasp for air. “250yrs I have been watching over you and I knew you were in trouble when you first laid eyes on Damon Salvatore. How could you do this to me? To us?” Henry was raging with anger as his grip was only getting tighter.

“You died 250 years ago.” You struggled against this grip as the air from your lung escape. “Why are doing this? You and I both know that what we had was just a fling that lasted a summer.” The two of you agreed that it was just supposed to be a fling that lasted a summer, but you notice that he was catching feelings so when you went to end things, he was already dead. He had a stake through his heart, and you were left with disposing of his body.

“I loved you. Why didn't you love me back? Instead, you wanted nothing more than that." Henry pulled you back slightly before slamming you into the wall again. Henry slammed his hand into your chest wrapping his hand around your heart causing you to gasp in pain.

“Henry, please stop.” Henry slightly squeezed his hand around your heart causing you to gasp for air. “I’m sorry that I hurt you, Henry, but you knew that I couldn’t love you like the way you loved me. You need to move on. You shouldn’t haven’t held on this long.” Within a blink of an eye, Henry let go of your heart as he took one last breath as he stumbled to the floor causing you to slide down against the wall.

“Y/N,” you looked up to see Stefan standing in front of standing over Henry’s lifeless body.

“I’m okay.” You manage to speak up as your breath started to become even. Stefan extended his hand offering to help you up which you gladly took. “Did I miss the ceremony? I was a little busy.”

“No, it hasn’t started yet. We have another problem.” As Stefan pulled you up, you could see the worriedness on his face which instantly caused you to be worried. “It’s Damon. He's got werewolf venom on his system from wooden bullets that were laced with it. We are trying to get a hold of Klaus, but it’s not looking good. He refuses to take the cure. Alaric is with him now. Call him and convince him to take it because he’s not listening to me.”

God, this can not be happening. Not again. Grabbing your phone, you landed on Damon’s name and instantly click on it. “Y/N,” Alaric answered on the second ring.

“Alaric listen to me. You shoved that cure done his throat because odds are, Klaus isn’t coming through.” Anger flooded through your veins that Damon is dying, and you were miles away.

“He won’t take it, Y/N.” Clutching your eyes shut, you felt tears coming on just thinking about losing Damon. You spent so much time with Damon, and you must admit that if he dies, you probably won’t survive. You would end up turning off your humanity and never turn it back on.

The last 24hrs have been hell and all you wanted to do was sink your teeth into someone’s neck and drain them, but you have worked so hard over the last couple of months to gain control again. After Alaric called you back letting you that Klaus came through with his blood and Damon was going to be okay, you thanked whatever god was listening. Pulling up to the boarding house, you cut the engine of your car and climbed out and headed into the house. Walking into the living room, you saw Damon standing of the fireplace with a glass of bourbon in his hand.

“I wanted to apologize.” Damon didn’t bother looking up knowing you were the one that walked in the room.

“No, you don’t get apologize.” You stepped down the steps and stood a few feet away from Damon. “Why wouldn’t you take the cure? You would rather die than to be human again? Did you think of how it would make me feel if you died?” Anger pulsed through your veins as tears filled your eyes. Damon set his glass down on the table next to him before turning to fully face you.

“Yeah, I would rather die right now than to be human again because I’m selfish like that. I make bad decisions that hurt you in the end. We spent a handful of years together and I know I’m bad for you, you, and I both know that. So, I would rather die right now than then spend the rest of a miserable human life disappointing you and losing you when too old and sick. I’m not going to change, Y/N. And there no apology in the world that shows you how sorry I am for everything that I’ve done to you.” Tears welled in your eyes as Damon spoke with pain in his voice.

“Fine, then I'm selfish too." Damon snapped his head towards you and looked at you confused. “Because I would do anything to save you and if that means that if I had to travel miles away to find Klaus to get his blood then I would do it. And I’m also selfish because I realized that I can’t live without you. I've tried and it's miserable.” More tears filled your eyes as you were now pouring your heart out to him. “I’m not sorry that we spent 20 plus years together and I’m definitely not sorry that I’m in love with you, Damon. I’ve been in love with you for almost a century and I -” Damon rapidly closed the gap between the two of you and crashed his lips against yours. The kiss was gentle yet slow. Your entire body had been taken over with lust as your lips moved in sync with his.

Damon pulled away just enough to get a full look at your face. “I didn’t take the cure because I don’t want to be human if it means you’re still you. I don’t want to grow old if it means I lose you in the end." Damon frames your face with his hands then lightly stroked your cheeks with his thumbs. “I love you, Y/N.”

A smile spread across your faces, as you pulled him as close as you could to you before kissing him passionately. You wrapped your arms around his neck as his hands roamed your body making their way down to the back of your thighs. Giving them a light squeeze, you jump up, wrapping your legs around his waist and your lips not once leaving his. Damon pushed up again a nearby wall causing the stuff on the table to fall to the floor.

A small chuckled escaped your lips as you pulled away to see what had dropped. "Stefan's going to kill us if we break something.”

“He’ll get over it.” In one quick movement, he pulled you away from the wall and carried you up to his bedroom. Once inside, he laid you onto the bed with him hovering over you. His lips left a trail down your jaw eventually working his way to your neck causing you to let out a moan. His fingers found the hem of your shirt, slowly drawing it smoothly off over your head. You looked at him with a smile on your face as you reached for the buttons on his shirt and unbuttoned it, then slid off and tossed it to the floor. You stared at him, letting your eyes linger over his body. You have never seen anything as beautiful as Damon.

“I guess you got what you wanted.” He smiled down at you as he was referring to your convention a few weeks ago. “Topless and all.”

"And like I told you. Nothing I haven't seen before." You sat up leaning back on your elbows as your hair laid loose at your shoulders.

“That was over 50years ago,” he whispered gently.

“Yeah, well I remember it like it was yesterday,” you admitted and without hesitation, Damon leaned down and planted a kiss upon your lips. As you reached out, you started unfastening his pants and once they were off, he pushed you back on the bed gasping as he kissed his way down your stomaching. As he stopped at the top of your pants, he unbuttoned them and drew them down your legs and tossed them into the pile of clothes that was growing on the floor. Once the two of you were completely naked, his hand rested on the back of your thighs before gently moved them apart.

You smiled at him just as he gently slid into you and it was just the most amazing feeling in the world. He withdrew and pushed in again and you groaned at how amazing it felt. Even though it’s been 50yrs, you never once forgot about how good he felt, and you weren’t going to lie no other man could make you feel the way Damon did. He smiled at you and you knew you were smiling back at him. He repeated the motion a little faster, his breath unsteady, his hand on your hips giving them a light squeeze. You wrapped your arms around his neck as he lifted your legs so that they were around his waist. You gasped at the change in position inside of you, hitting you a spot that hasn’t been touched in a very long time.

We moved together and it felt good, it felt right. His hand moved to your thighs and you gasped as he started to touch you, his fingers grasp and if it could leave a bruise it would. He slammed into you again and again. You shut your eyes as you felt yourself getting closer and closer to your climax. As the two of you both cried, his body relaxed and collapsed onto yours. After a moment of both of you catching your breaths, Damon rolls onto the bed next to you adjusting the sheet over this lower half. You followed his action before laying your head on the pillow and faced him and to see him smiling at you.

You reached up to touch his face and he turned in your hand and kissed the palm of it, a gesture that made your heart melt. “By the way, I would never ask you to change who you are.” You smiled at Damon, before scooting closer to him just inches away from his face. “I love you for who you are.” You whispered against his lips just as Damon kissed you with everything he had.

“I love you, Y/N.”  Damon pulled away just enough to speak before returning his lips to yours. You deepened the kiss as you pushed Damon back onto the bed before laying on top of him. For the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon in bed going at it like rabbits and cuddling and when the evening came around Damon took you out to dinner as a first date.

Tag List: @butifulsoul125​

[george-mackay-macfine]

Wedding plan,

Requested: No / Yes

Synopsis: George need Eleanore to make his ex jealous. Things go further than they both planned. 

Word Count: 2,320

A/N: This is an idea for a film I was writing, I hadn’t worked on it on years but wanted to turn it into a George fic cause I love the concept. This hasn’t been proof read,

To begin this, I need to relive the worst time of my life. The time my girlfriend of six years dumped me, out of nowhere. 

And to add insult to injury her older sister invited me to her wedding, with an additional plus one… 

So, I devised a plan to get her back, a plan which involved my best friend. Eleanore,

To begin I needed to get Eleanore and our friend Michael to agree to come with me, and that meant crashing their movie night.

Through the door to their apartment I could hear the music of Friday the thirteenth playing, and knowing how much Eleanore and Michael scare, I took it as an opportunity. 

As I slammed the door open Michael and Eleanore jumped, Eleanore throwing popcorn everywhere.  

“I know how I'm winning her back.” I stride into the living room, throwing the door closed behind me. 

“Bugger,” Michael moaned picking popcorn out of his wine glass. I sit in front of them on the coffee table. 

“Katherine, I know how I’m winning her back.” Eleanore picks popcorn out of her hair, throwing some of the kernels at me. 

“Yippie,” 

“Who are you again?” Michael snorts. I open my mouth to reply only to be cut off by Michael. “You kind of look like our old friend George, except our old friend George ditched us for some girl and her magical vagina,” Michael stands and sways past me into the kitchen,

“C’mon Michael, she’s not just some girl.” 

“He’s right Michael,” I look over to her and give her an appreciative smile. “The world girl isn't being properly used, Medusa may be a closer match?”

“Hey now, c’mon,” 

“But you're right. He does have similar features to Michael, for example this one also looks like a total dickhead.” She deadpanned. 

“Look I'm sorry guys. I am. I know I've been a shit mate these last couple of weeks.”

“Eight,” Michael called from the kitchen.

“What?”

“Couple means two, you've been a shit mate for longer than that.” Michael finishes, I look at Eleanore who nods her head in confirmation. 

“Fine. Eight weeks. Thank you Michael. And I'm sorry for that but guys. I need to see her.”

“She won't see me. Please.” Michael walks out from the kitchen and sits beside Eleanore on the couch. “Please.” 

“Fine, What’s your plan?” I pull the envelopes out of my top pocket and hold them towards him. 

“This.”

“You're going to write her a letter.” Eleanore raises her eyebrow. 

“Bit tame, don't you think mate?” Michael chuckles. 

“No, Felicity and Michael's wedding party. She'll be there as Bridesmaid, and we'll be there as guests.” 

“But we weren't invited.” Eleanore clicks her fingers and points at Michael in agreement.  

“But you were.” I fan the envelopes open, revealing the other two. Eleanore reaches forward and grabs the two addressed for Michael and herself. 

“Whose Felicity again?”

“You know this is criminal offence?” Eleanore spoke at the same time as Michael. 

“You know Felicity. She used to come to all the parties... She used to be…” I looked to Eleanore for help .

“Bigger…"

“O.” Michael studies his invitation before looking up to me. “I mean sure, you can show up to this thing looking like a total dish, but that's not really going to do anything to her is it? Not going to make her see what a narky cow she's been.”

“I dunno, I suppose I was just going to show up, and show her I've changed.” 

“That won't work. It's not going to get her blood pumping is it? Make her jealous.” Michael smirked before he looked to Eleanore. “Eleanore can be your date. For all Katherine knows in the time since she left you, you've gone and coozied up to Elle.”

“Yes, then when the wedding comes we can spend the week in Scotland showing her I've changed, and break up at the reception.” Eleanores face shifts to one of disgust. 

“You're mad. You think I want to spend a week in Scotland helping you win back your crazy ex-girlfriend.”

“Please Nore, you're the only one who could make it happen.”

“No I'm bloody not. She hates me, if anything that'll turn her against you even more, idiot.”

“She's a point there mate.” Michael clicks his fingers. I kneel in front of Eleanore and hold onto her hands. 

“She doens't hate you. She just isn't your biggest fan.” I began to plead. “Please. I love her, and I need to win her back.”

“Give me one good reason why I should help you."

“I'll give you two. One, you're my closest friends, two because I love her Eleanore. I need her with me.”

“No,” She stands up and walks towards the kitchen. I share a look with Michael. 

“... Thomas will be there.” Michael coo’s, Eleanore stops, spins slightly. 

“I'm listening.”

“Well, you and Thomas still have that super weird, sexual tension right?”

“You mean their game of cat and mouse they play?” I turned to Michael and raised an eyebrow. 

“It's not cat and mouse.”

"Then what would you call it?” I turned back to her. 

“Mutual use.”

“Well, why don’t you and George both mutually use each other?” Michael smirked. 

And that’s how we ended up here. My best friend Eleanore and I have spent the last four days hanging off one and other, all to irritate our ex’s, or in Elle’s case, 'ignite something in their loins’

I watched her from across the room as I rolled the joint between my fingers, gently rolling the thin cylindrical roll of goodness. 

“Turn on some music,” I called from my side of the room as I brought the wrapping to my lips, licking the open end of it. 

“On it,” Eleanore opened the window behind her, the cool chill of the Scottish night rushing over me. “Brings back memories doesn’t it?” I heard her call, eliciting a chuckle from behind me. 

“All the way back to our first year of University,” I heard her move to the floor where we’d created a nest of cushions and pillows and flip on the stereo. “You know, I always thought it’d be you and I,” I admitted, the wine from the nights dinner going to my head. 

“What?” 

“Second year of University. Remember we lived with Michael, Morgan, and Freddie in that shitty little house.” I looked at her, laying in the bed we’d made. Her cheeks flushed from the wine we’d drunk. 

“Course I remember,” I smiled, the warmth of the memories rushing through me as she looked at me.

“You always used to sneak into my bedroom late at night, after parties.” I finished rolling, “We’d sit out on the roof smoking cheap cigarettes and talk for hours about nothing.” I pulled out a lighter, “To me… back then it was everything.”

“George…"

”First time I met you, I promised myself that I would never fall in love with you, but it was three in the morning and we were laughing way too hard at something stupid,” I walked over and lay beside her, the now lit joint hanging from my lips. “And for the first time in a long time I felt happy, And that’s when I knew I was screwed.” 

“Why didn’t you tell me back then?” I passed her the joint, 

“I couldn’t lose you.” I gripped her hand as she put the joint between her lips and inhaled. “And then you started to date Thomas. God do you know what it’s like to feel that way about someone who doesn’t feel like that about you?” She slowly let the smoke out as I digested what I’d admitted. 

“It’s like drowning, but you won’t fucking drown.” I moved beside her, turning to look at her. God she’s beautiful.

“Who did you love?” She turned to face me, our noses brushing. 

“You,” She whispered. “Third year, after Thomas and I broke up for the first time and you’d just started dating Katherine…” She cleared her throat. “You weren’t home a lot… But when you were I sat there, three o’clock in the morning on top of the roof smoking cheap shitty cigarettes, falling in love with you. Your face, your voice. All of you,” I turned away from her, She didn’t move she was still looking at my face.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” I whispered. 

“Like you, I was afraid of losing you. I’d become so attuned to having you in my life, that the thought of you being anywhere else scared the utter shit out of me.” I turned to look at her again. 

“You and I are just one big ‘it’s complicated’ aren’t we?” She let out another buff. 

“I think we’re just going to have to be secretly in love with each other, and leave it at that.” The music stops, I look away from Eleanore, she looks towards the stereo. One of us is going to have to move. 

“Not it,” I cried quickly. 

“Fucking christ, It’s closest to you George.” I shrug and takes the joint from her lips, popping it between my own. 

“I won, you move.” She groaned and rolled her body. She was partially laying onto of me as she began reaching above to grab the speaker. 

“Jesus, just grab it.” I groaned as her hair fell on my face. 

“It’s just ugh, I can’t reach it.” 

“Just get it,” 

“Fine.” She moved again, straddling my hips, moving to easily reach the speaker. I watched as the pendant slip out from beneath her shirt and dangle over my face.

“You still have this,” My hands grip the pendant, fingers moving over the metal as the music restarted. It was the pendant I’d given her for her birthday in second year. 

“Of course I do,” My hands move away from the pendant over her shoulders. My eyes run over her face. I sat up and leant back on my elbows watching her. 

“How come I haven’t noticed how beautiful you are lately?” She unconsciously moved down towards me. 

“Because you’ve been busy looking at someone else since third year.”

“What a bloody idiot,” I grabbed her and pulled her towards me. My lips meeting hers, I felt the hesitation, and tasted the red wine that stained them. “Don’t think about it,” I whispered before my tongue touched hers. My hands begin to slowly move her shirt off her shoulders as her fingers began to unbutton my shirt. “Nore,” I pulled away looking at her. 

“Mutual use,” She whispered. 

“George,” Someone called with a loud knock on the door. I shifted, feeling Eleanore’s head bury itself into my chest. “It’s me,” I unwrapped my hands from Eleanore’s body, pushing a kiss to her lips as I got up. Pulling on my pants and shirt I walked to the door, pulling it open. 

“Katherine? what are you doing here?” 

“I was hoping we could talk, in private.” She tried to peak around the door. I pulled it behind me. 

“Let me grab my shoes. Won't be a tick.” I ducked back inside grabbing my shoes and pulling them on. I lent down and kissed Eleanore on the head before rushing back to Katherine. “What did you want to talk about?” 

“Us,” 

Michael and Eleanore stood out the front of the doors as the crowd gathered. Eleanore clapped her hands as the bride and groom passed by them, others throwing rose petals. 

“Well,” Michael started loudly, “For a wedding we only attended to make George’s ex jealous, I am happy for them.” 

“Super,” Eleanore muttered. 

“Reception time,” Michael fluttered his fingers, his hand wrapping around her wrist. 

“Y/N, wait.” I called from behind them, I watched as Eleanore tried to move away quicker pulling Michael with her.

“We don’t want to talk to him?” Michael looked back at me with an eyebrow raised. 

“We don’t?” 

“Eleanore. Will you talk to me. What's wrong?” She let go of Michael and pulled me to the side.

“I got my hopes up.” She whispered. 

“About what?” 

“About you actually loving me back.” She whispered, trying to pull away from me. “Forget it.” She sniffled. “It's pathetic really, how much I still hope it's you and me in the end because I know you love her, How much you want her.” 

“Eleanore,” 

“But I'm still the stupid girl whose been in love with you since third year.” 

“But you said,” I took a step backwards, she loves me. 

“I know what I fucking said. I lied G. It's you, it's always been you.” She screamed. 

“Then why would you agree to this?” I screamed back. “Why would you agree to come to this wedding, to make Katherine jealous?” 

“Because I'm an idiot. I thought that if we spent time together, and pretended to be together you would somehow see it's me. Not her,” She moaned hands covering her eyes. “I’m an idiot.” 

“Nore, you’re my best-friend.”

“Friends don't look at each other the way we do George,” Her eyes moved behind me, filling with flames. Someone was walking towards us, and I could only guess it was Katherine.

“Nore…” 

“George, come on the party is starting.” Katherine reached out and wraps her arm around my bicep. 

“Good enough to fuck, but nothing more.” I heard her whisper. “And you…” Her eyes turned to Katherine. “Fuck you, You made me feel like I was never good enough, for Thomas, for George.” Her face fell. “Guess what. I was good enough. I am good enough.” Behind her Michael clapped loudly, Thomas even joined in. 

“Eleanore, let me talk.”

“I almost wish we'd never met George.” She rushed away from me, her cheeks pooling with tears. 

“C’mon George, the party…” 

“Did you know about this?” I asked Michael. "Why didn't you say something? We're just friends.” I screamed. “Why would you suggest this,” My chest heaved with the effort. 

[memelover1024]

Salvatore-Mikaelson Chapter 2

Tvd Series

Salvatore OFC-Mikaelson OFC

1300 words

Now Part One

Third-person POV

Detroit, Michigan 2009

The bar was loud, Athena sat in the corner booth waiting for the informant she was meeting, nursing a glass of vodka mixed with O-. she saw a tall man wearing a leather jacket walk into the bar, he looked around but when he spotted her he slowly made his way over, a douchie smile on his face. He sat down at the other end of the booth.

"that strawberry?" he asked gesturing to the drink in her hand

"Strawberry blonde, want some?" without waiting for his answer she turned and gestured to the young bartender with a scarf wrapped around her wrist to come to the table. When the girl got there she sat down next to Athena and offered her her clothed wrist. Athena gracefully removed the scared from her wrist and sank her teeth back into the holes in the skin she had made earlier. She brought the girl's hand over her glass and applying a small pressure to one of the veins, blood spilled from her arm and into the glass. Once Athena's cup was full enough she stopped applying pressure, and it stopped bleeding immediately.

"How did you do that?" the man asked her

"Science and medicine, learn enough about the human body you can do basically anything." he nodded, Athena gestured to the girl to go over to him and she did. He sunk his teeth into her arm and drank greedily.

"Don't kill her, she's very helpful," with that the man withdrew and with a gesture from Athena, the girl wrapped the scarf back around her wrist and went back to work.

"I agreed to meet you because you claim to have information that would be useful to my brother and I, what is it?" Athena demanded, all hints of kindness gone from her voice, face now in resting bitch mode.

"Kathrine Pierce," he said with a smile on his face. She gave him a confused look and thought for a moment, then it hit her.

"Ahh, Katerina Petrova. Have you found her?" she asked.

"No, but-" he was interrupted.

"Then why are you wasting my time?!" she asked sternly. He hesitated for a moment, terrified of angering her further. Hed heard the stories of what her and her brothers were capable of.

"I've found her doppelganger," Athena froze, Katerina was the last of her family line, Klaus had said so himself, he'd made sure of it.

"That's impossible, Katerina's family line ended with her. And vampires can't have children."

"I don't know how it's happened, Mrs. Mikaelson, but it is. She's in mystic falls, Virginia. Her name is Elena Gilbert. She looks just like Katherine, and she's human.'' Athena looked at the floor deep in thought, then she smiled a genuine, excited smile. The curse could finally be broken.

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention, now tell me, what reward do you want for this information."

"Assistance," the man said.

"Assistance?" Athena responded amused. "Whatever for?"

"My friends and I have been imprisoned underground for 150 years, we want revenge on the people who did that to us, but the Salvatore brothers have gotten in our way, I ask that when the time comes for you to go to Virginia to claim the doppelganger you destroy mystic falls in the process." Athena saddened at the mention of her long-lost brothers, even though she had a new family she still missed them. She had not seen Stefan in 90 years on account of what Klaus had done to Stefan's wife, Athena's adoptive sister, Rebekah. And she had not seen Damon since she was human, on account of what he did to her sons. She missed Stefan with all her heart, and even though she missed her twin, she didn't think herself capable of forgiving him for what he did. She nodded at the man's request.

"Now that good sir, is something I can do," she replied boastfully, smirking.

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

Athena pulled up to her brother's Dearborn, Michigan mansion in her green, 1966 Lamborghini Miura. The house was small for Klaus's usual lodgings, but it was only temporary. She walked up the stairs to the front door and let herself into her temporary home.

"Klaus! Where are you," she called not loudly since she knew he could hear her.

"I'm in my studio!" he called back from the other side of the mansion.

She made her way through to the back of the house to a sunroom on the edge of the house's garden. There was Klaus on a stool sitting in front of a large canvas. He was painting a small red bird that was 10 feet in front of him in the garden, the red paint of course was the blood from the body lying at his feet.

"Nik!" she screamed and gestured to the body on the concrete floor.

"What?"

"You're going to stain the concrete! You know you can't wash blood off of stone!"

"It's fine sister, were only going to be staying another couple of months anyway,"

"Yes, about that..." Klaus turned from his painting to look at her, puzzled. "I have a surprise for you." he smiled.

"Do you now?" he inquired, Athena just grinned. "Well? What is it?"

"I.. or rather one of my minions, has found us a doppelganger." he stared at her, expression unreadable.

"That's impossible..." he started

"That's what I said, but my informant is positive, she looks just like Katerina and she's human," she told her brother, stepping towards him. He smiled, but noticed the hesitation hidden in her eyes.

"What else? There's something off I can see it.'' Athena scoffed, she hated how he could always tell when something was up with her.

"My brothers, or my biological brothers to be specific, Stefan and Damon. They have named themselves her protectors. They'll be a problem, and it's not like we can just kill them,"

"Why not?" she gave him an annoyed look. "Alright fine, I won't hurt them, I see why you would want to protect Stefan but hey Damon after what he did-"

"I thought we agreed to never speak of that," she cut him off, hurt by the memory he had dug up.

"I'm sorry," Klaus said, genuinely noticing her change in mood.

"Its fine," she responded, setting aside her emotions, "so, we have a doppelganger, it won't be that hard to procure a vampire and werewolf, we have a witch, and I could also always do the spell myself, all we need is the moonstone."

"Katerina stole it when she escaped, we have no idea where she or it is," he told her.

"But we do, my brothers have dated not one but two doppelgangers. So id say they are as smitten with them as they are. Katerina turned them for a reason. And having a doppelganger who is basically a biological double out in the open-"

"She has too much to lose if she doesn't come out," Klaus surmises.

"Exactly, she knows we can find her using the doppelgangers blood, and she doesn't know Stefan and Damon are my brothers, she thinks you will kill them on sight. Shell try to protect them. She might even come out just to stop you to get back at Elijah for breaking her heart,"

"Elijah's not here, he's working against us,"

"She doesn't know that, and it's the last thing she'll expect,"

"So we just wait till she shows herself, then make a move," he asks.

"Yes, we shouldn't tip them off that we're coming until we are ready to strike. They can't stop us but they will make it harder." Klaus smiled at her.

"Alright! So where am I going to commit my next massacre,"

"Home."

[they-say-you-go-blind]

Close Around the Campfire | Jack / Davey Fanfiction

Davey and Jack were close. It was different, instantaneous kind of close that neither had experienced until this point. Did either of them intend to find the person they were meant to be with forever at counselor orientation day of a summer camp? Never in a million years.

———————————————

Davey had turned 19 less than a week ago. With one year of Political Science under his belt, but a hearty student loan to pay off, he was desperate for a job. With that first application, and a couple of phone interviews later, and he was set for the summer . However, now that he was pulling into the staff parking lot at Blockwood Summer Camp, he wasn’t so sure. He turned the keys of his beat up car and typed a text to Les.

I made it to camp safe. Going to do some counselor stuff for the next few days so probably won’t be able to talk much. I’ll see ya in a couple of weeks for A.R.K. camp.

He slumped in his seat. 10 weeks of leading campfire songs and doing archery and making sure a weekly rotation of kids stay alive... maybe he hadn’t thought about it enough. He opened snap and took a picture of his bags that were crammed into the back of his car. He looked at the photo for a second, captioned it with ‘I believe I’ve made a horrible mistake’, and sent it to the groupchat with his best friends.

He knew he had about ten minutes until he should start making his way to the Mess Hall, as it said in his Orientation Day email. His best friend, Katherine, was trying to call him and he nearly let it ring out. At the last second, he pressed answer and spoke,

“I don’t think I should be here.”

Katherine and Davey had been best friends since diapers. In Kindergarten, their teachers were convinced they were twins just because of they way they acted with each other (and their aversion to all others). In middle school, the two of them sang and did a choreographed dance number at the talent show. They were the Closet Gay prom king and Queen, most representation that their school had ever had. And now, going into their sophomore year of college, they were honest with one another about everything, could joke about anything, and be trusted with the deepest secrets the other had. It’s no surprise that Katherine blurted out,

“I’m sorry, have you seen your co-workers?!”

Davey was taken aback.

“How the hell do you know what they look like?”

Katherine blushed. Her secret was out.

“You gave me access to your email before you left, in case you got anything important.”

Davey nodded and and whispered out an ‘oh no’. Katherine started to send the screenshots as she spoke.

“I saw your orientation email... it wasn’t hard to find their socials from there...”.

Davey couldn’t believe it as he swiped through the profiles of the three other boys who were his new co-workers. Katherine started to narrate each of her discoveries.

“First off, is Harrison “Race” Higgins. Seems fun and all. Also, I’m sure you can see in the profile picture, but Rainbow Flag!”

“Ah yes, Christian church camp is where I’m going to find my b...”

Davey could barely get the words out. Katherine was the only person in his “real life” who knew that the “you two should just get married” comments about him and Kath would absolutely never happen. Katherine just giggled, like a schoolgirl keeping a secret.

“Just you wait, Davey.”

Davey pondered on Race’s profile picture. Seemed cute, a little goofy, a lot like a best friend. Katherine continued.

“Next is Zachary “Spot” Conlon. Don’t tell me why they both have nicknames. But he is...”

“He looks like he could beat me up with a glare.”

Katherine laughed at that.

“They’re dating, by the way. They give me forever together vibes.”

Davey swiped between the two profiles as she talked. She wasn’t wrong, forever vibes were There.

“Huh, noted.”

“And the last one,” Katherine cleared her throat.

“ and I’ll let you narrate this one yourself, is Jack Kelley.”

Jack Kelly was the most attractive boy Davey had ever seen. His profile picture looked like it was him in a painting class for University. He had a little bit of pink paint on his cheek and a beautiful smile. His eyes were the color of a clear blue sky. It looked that his cover photo was one of his paintings as well,... a landscape piece with the initials J.K. in the bottom right corner. His “about me” was a gold mine, and he would be sure to read every detail later.

“Dibs on this one.”

He told Katherine. It had been their thing, that once they’d both seen someone attractive, the first one to call dibs would have zero roadblocks to them. Davey was so enthralled. He just kept staring at the profile picture.

“He’s just...”

“Perfect? I know...”

She chuckled to herself.

“And, there’s one more thing you should know.”

She spoke and sent him the final screenshot. When Davey opened it, he was confused.

A picture of Katherine’s Facebook?

She nearly squealed, but kept composure to say.

“You really were not observant when you pulled into the parking lot. I expected better from you, Davey J.”

Davey was in shock. She couldn’t have made this up! He got so excited and nervous and relieved all at once. Looking around, he saw her car and waved.

“You’re not pulling my leg, right? This isn’t some twisted joke... really?!”

“Yes! Apparently one of the female counselors was Not who she said she was, so they called me last night and I am here for the summer!”

She spoke quickly, Davey could barely understand what she was saying.

“You’re literally my favorite person in the world.”

He spoke with sincerity. He couldn’t believe his best friend in the world would be spending the summer with him.

“I might have to become your second favorite. If I’m not mistaken, Jack Kelly just pulled in the parking lot.”

Davey turned his head to see him and couldn’t help but stare for a few seconds. Photos did not do Jack Kelly justice. Davey’s head was spinning. He didn’t know if he could manage spending five seconds with him. How was he supposed to survive the summer? Davey’s face grew red as he realized Jack was pulling into the spot next to him.

———————————————

“Kath, holy shit.” Davey blurted out as he snapped his head to the front. “Language, Daves. Christian children’s camp...”

Katherine snorted as she laughed at Davey, who was now flustered and red in the cheeks.

“What are we gonna do?”

He asked, his forehead falling on the steering wheel in defeat. Katherine pondered.

“We? No, you. You called dibs! I’m just along for the ride.”

“You’re an asshole. I’m actually going to die. He is... God Kath-”

Davey stopped mid-sentence as he heard a knock on his window. He lifted his head to see Jack Kelly.

“Good luck with that, babe.”

After making a frustrated noise, and trying to refrain from looking like an idiot, he hung up the call, cranked the window down, and smiled, waiting for Jack to speak.

“Hey there. You must be working here, too?”

Davey nearly combusted as Jack leaned back onto the passengers door of his car, which was nicer than his own. Did Davey care about that? Not really.

“Yeah, I’m David Jacobs. Most people call me Davey.”

“Jack Kelly.”

He stuck out his hand, Davey shook it through the window and chuckled. Jack continued.

“It’s nice to meet ya. You’re radiating ‘camp counselor’, but don’t wanna assume.”

Davey’s brain was all but melted. This boy wanted to talk to him. He got out of his car and made the effort to talk to him.

“Yeah, course. I- yeah.”

“What’s got ya so bothered you can barely form a sentence?”

“No, nothing it’s just- did they have other jobs? Not like I would want one but like-“

Jack laughed. This Davey kid was adorable.

“Sure they do, got my buddy Finch running around as a lifeguard, couple of others do maintenance, and I think they brought on Albert to be a ‘activity coordinator’. That basically means when we do archery, he’s in charge of us not shooting each other in the leg.”

Davey chuckled.

“So you’ve worked here before?”

Jack nodded and looked around. This place was a second home to him.

“My ma’s the camp director. Been goin’ here since I was like, 7 and workin’ for the past two years.”

Jack smiled wide and continued on.

“Speaking of workin, we should probably head in. I usually come early to help set up but she insisted I try to be more “normal” this summer. Famous last words, I guess.”

They both laughed quite a bit.

“You’re very friendly, Jack.”

Davey spoke, metaphorically walking on eggshells as to not mess up the friendship that he hoped was forming. He got out of his car and realized he was the same height as Jack, if only a little bit shorter. They were very close to each other.

“Why thanks, Davey. Tell her you said so...”

Jack laughed with him as they made their way to the mess hall. He explained to Davey the in’s and out’s of Blockwood. Most of the people who worked their had gone to camp in their teens and it was just natural to apply for a job there, too.

Before Jack walked in the mess hall, he turned to Davey. Jack had made eye contact every time he spoke with him. It was nice.

“Just double checkin, because ma ain’t always good with hiring ages, ya 18?”

“Oh, yeah. Just turned 19.”

“Good good. I’m about to turn 21, if that matters.”

“It’s good information to have, especially when we’re about to spend all summer together.”

Was Jack blushing? He didn’t know, and it was hot out. Either way, he didn’t care because Jack Kelly was talking to him and adorable.

“Yeah, Davey. For sure.”

Jack opened the door to see Race and Spot all over each other. He snapped his fingers at them and both looked towards Davey. Jack spoke up.

“Hey boys, we got a new one. Be civil, this here’s Davey.”

Race smiled, got up from his seat, and stuck out his hand.

“Name’s Racetrack. You can call me Race or Racer or Sweetheart. It’s good to meet ya, Dave.”

Davey chuckled and shook it. He really was late to the party. They all knew each other.

“It’s nice to meet you too.”

“That shortie there is my pal-“

Race shot a look at Jack, who shrugged. He continued.

“Sorry, are you?”

Race gestured to his rainbow friendship bracelet. Hoping that would be enough. At camp, they tried not to use the word. Some people had gotten very angry when their child had come home saying, ‘my counselor was gay’.

“No, no, no. I am. Not out, but, I guess I am, now. Yes.”

Race nodded and amended his statement.

“I gotcha, Davey. That’s my boyfriend, Spot.”

Davey gave a wave and Spot nodded and waved back. Had Davey really come out to people he met ten seconds ago? Jack looked surprised. At least you’re not obvious.

Katherine came inside soon after. She was immediately swooped up by Race and told to “lose the good girl vibe” from Spot. She laughed with them for awhile about the instant ‘Davey and Jack’ connection. It wasn’t hard to see for either of their friends.

Jack introduced Davey to the whole gang. Finch and Albert were in the corner trying to decide who was right about a candy from the snack shack. Sarah and Chutchie dancing to the approved “Camp Playlist”, and his mama trying to finalize a little bit of paperwork.

He got to Romeo, trying a pick-up line on Katherine, and stopped.

“Hey there, Miss. Don’t believe we’ve met before. My name’s Jack. Jack Kelly.”

He stuck out his hand and she shook it.

“Charmed. I’m Katherine, Katherine Plumber-Jacobs.”

Katherine and Davey smiled at each other and laughed. Jack looked between the two of them and his’s face was turning red.

“What... y’all ain’t married or something, are ya?!”

Davey and Katherine started to laugh without cease. Davey tried to explain through snorts.

“No... she just uses that line because she wants to be my twin. Kath, here, she’s my best friend.”

Romeo spoke up.

“Oh goodness. Well ain’t that the best of both worlds for ya, Jack?”

Jack narrowed his eyes and shot a glare Romeo’s way.

“Now that I know there’s two of ya, I won’t be so scared to let Davey wander. Thought I was gonna have to be glued to his side!”

“Don’t think he’d like me very much if you stopped leading him around.”

Davey was flustered, but Katherine and Jack laughed and laughed. She waved goodbye, going to talk to Sarah instead of interrupting their “together time”, as she called it while recounting the day with Davey. He tried to apologize to Jack.

“Sorry about her.”

“No way, she’s spunky and loud. She’ll fit right in.”

Davey looked around. He wasn’t wrong. It was chaotic and were Romeo and Race arm wrestling? Was Katherine really cheering them on?

“Yeah, she’s... great.”

“You’re great.”

Jack backtracked as his face grew red.

“Oh shit, um sorry about that. That didn’t-”

“Hey, it’s... you’re great, too. Just cut that language out before kids get here in a few days, Kelly.”

Davey smiled and Jack swears that if this was literally any other setting, he would kiss him or draw him a picture or do anything to see that smile every day. Unfortunately, Jack decided to revert to a Jack that didn’t like getting emotional in front of his friends. Chalk it up to force of habit.

“So, you enjoy it here?”

“Is that even a question? It’s awesome, Jack.”

———————————————

It had been a full day of training. Ms. Medda, as Davey had learned was Jack’s mother, and some of the more experienced staff got newcomers ready for camp. She explained how these first three days were training and that there were still things that needed to be done before kids came on Monday. Everyone did some basic first aid and some get-to-know-you games.

Katherine and Davey worked on learning names and people’s jobs. It seemed that when you thought you had it all figured out, Jack or Race would call ‘em a whole new nickname and the pieces would all fall apart. Maintenance (Elmer, Buttons, and Jojo) and lifeguards (Finch and Romeo) had a bit more training to do. Albert and Crutchie, outdoor and indoor activity coordinators, needed to organize some things for the first day.

That left the counselors. Davey, Jack, Race, Spot, Katherine, and Sarah decided to go on a nature walk. That group, of all people, would be spending the most time together. They took them through the woods, showed them the cabins, made sure that Davey and Katherine were somewhat oriented on the camp property. During the walk, Jack took the lead to explain where they were and what needed to be done.

• “Alright, adventure course- never go there without Albert... or me, I’m more fun.”

• “Cabins- good stuff. We can drive down the path to unpack cars later. But Ma’s got me on a tight schedule.”

• “Swimming house- also doubles as a bath house. None of us are going to smell particularly great until Off Days. But please, for the love of our Lord and Savior, make sure your kids shower.”

Race chimed in on this one, acting as if he were passing down an urban legend as Spot started to chuckle.

“They will try to persuade you, tell you they don’t need one. But they do.”

Sarah and Katherine had instantly been drawn to each other. Davey didn’t know how, but Katherine had already managed to be given two friendship bracelets. She would be just fine. He would be, too.

Jack sighed as the timer on his phone went off.

“Sorry gang, walk’s been terminated. But, now it’s time for my favorite part of camp.

Please don’t say hazing. No hazing.

“Building the campfire!”

Davey chuckled as the others wooed. Jack was the leader everyone needed.

———————————————

Over the past three days, Katherine and Davey had melded into this friendgroup seamslessly. They would roast each other and laugh and exist as a family. Neither were quite sure how they pulled it off. Each now had friendship bracelets from fellow counselors, and likewise made them for others. They had swam in the pool and laughed and sang and, Davey recounted, prayed together. It didn’t make sense how it could all be so perfect.

More than anything else, Jack had instilled the need in Katherine and Davey for a ‘Perfect Cooking Fire’. He knew that, of all things, this would have to be the thing they remember how to do. They built it well, only with a little help from Sarah, as Jack filed paperwork for him mom.

He would do that often. Disappear and reappear like a magician. He knew what needed to be done, and did it before his mother even asked. Davey had tried to offer help, but Jack just took out his reading glasses and said ‘No, no. It’s stuff I gotta do, Dave.”

The final night before campers were here, and all the college kids just wanted to drink in the moment. Race and Spot went to get the food for the “Last Supper” as they called it. Hot dogs, of course.

Davey was relived that Jack came to sit next to him after the food was done. The entire staff was sitting around, laughing and chatting and eating. Jack knew that he needed to talk to Davey, just not with everyone around. David blurted out exactly what was on his mind.

“I really like it here.”

“I’m glad, Dave. You did a great job with the cooking fore, too.”

“Thanks, I thought I wouldn’t. Ya know, in the car that first day, I was convinced that I made a horrible mistake.”

“I’m glad I knocked on your window then.”

“Why’d ya do that? Just to be nice?”

Jack looked around as he grew flustered.

“Can we, talk abou that later?”

“Of course.”

The festivities lasted until “Light’s Out” at 11pm. Medda suggested that everyone should turn in soon, as they would all have to be ready by 8am tomorrow. Race asked her, fishing for laughs, as she walked away-

“What if I just never got to bed, Miss Medda?”

“Then you would be unfit for the job, Mr. Higgins. Get some shut eye!”

The entire fire laughed at her retort.

The gang started to slowly disband. Katherine and Sarah were the last to go, hand in hand, except for Jack and Davey. Davey made a comment.

“God only knows what they’re off to do.”

“God is one lucky son of a gun.”

They both laughed at that.

They both sat there, next to the ashes of a once great fire.

Jack looked around and talked in a low tone.

“Davey.”

“Yeah, Jack.”

“I’m ready to talk about it...”

Davey gulped. This was it. He was going to tell him that it meant nothing that they always say next to each other. That talking until four in the morning wasn’t real. That these past few days weren’t an indication of anything.

“I, whew, that first day you were so nervous. Now look at me...”

Jack’s palms were sweaty and he wiped them on his pants.

“Hey, dude. It’s okay. We don’t have to talk about it.”

“No, no I want to. We need to.”

Davey’s stomach turned and he closed his eyes.

“I- shoot. I knocked on your window, because you’s were the prettiest boy I’d ever seen.

Davey opened his eyes and looked at Jack, who was now near tears.

“God, I’m real emotional about this, sorry.”

Jack took a breath and looked Davey in the eyes.

“Just, you’re perfect. And, I know we just met and all, and it’s highly unprofessional to say this but... I really think these three days have been a dream come true.”

“Oh Jack...”

Davey held out one of his hands. Jack took it with his.

“Honest, ya know... I’ve got so many friends and they’re always dating and everything but, you came along and just...”

He put his head on Davey’s shoulder and kept going.

“You’re just really nice and kind and, I don’t know, make me feel a new sorta way.”

Davey couldn’t believe it.

“You, like me, Jack?”

Jack spouted off, sarcastically as ever.

“No, it’s all an act! I caught ya in a gay lie!”

Davey laughed as Jack lifted his head and squeezed Davey’s hand.

“Nah, I do. And, nothing’s gotta happen, tonight or this summer or ever, especially since there’ll be kids and it’s a Christian camp and-“

“Your mom?”

“She doesn’t care. You’ve seen the way some of ‘em hang all over each other.”

“I know that, just wanted to check.”

“Yeah, but- like, God. You’re perfect Davey Jacobs.”

“C-Can I kiss you?”

Davey didn’t mean to say it, but he did. And Jack did. His eyes lit up and he closed the distance. It was warm. Davey had never kissed a boy before. He was certain Jack had, though.

Jack hadn’t. Coming out to himself was one thing, his family and friends was another, but to kiss a boy next to a campfire when you’re about to spend all summer with him? No, he hadn’t. Kissing girls was one thing, but this? With Davey? Was something he could never compare anything to. Jack pulled away for a second, wanting to be frank with him.

“Did you like that?”

“Do that again, Kelly.”

Davey pulled Jack back in. And that’s how they stayed, for a while. Neither could tell if it had been an hour or just a few seconds when they finally pulled away. Davey wanted to be honest.

“I’m not, out-out yet, if that could be an issue.”

“No, nah... and it doesn’t have to, nothing’s gotta come of this, ya know.“

“I know. It’s, it’s nice, though. I want it to.”

Davey leaned on Jack’s shoulder. He was so hesitant, usually. Jack Kelly might’ve been the only boy in the world who could do that to him.

“God, I was so worried I was scarin’ a closeted catholic boy away.”

Davey laughed. Everyone seemed to get that vibe from him.

“One, non-denominational. Everyone gets thrown off by that. Two, you’re not scarin me at all.”

Jack pressed a kiss to Davey’s temple and started to play with his hair.

“This okay?”

“Yeah, this is wonderful.”

They don’t know when they turned in for the night. But, 8am rolled around and camp was in session. Jack came up behind Davey, right before campers were about to enter and spoke calmly, putting his hand into David’s .

“It’s gonna be a good summer, Davey.”

“Yeah, it is, Jack.”

David gave his hand a tight squeeze as Jack walked away to unlock and the door. Upon opening the door, a boy, while looked to be no older than ten, ran to Jack and threw his arms around him.

“Cowboy!”

“Hey there, dude! How are ya?”

Davey smiled and looked at Katherine, who was standing by with the other counselors. He gave her a nod, and that was all they needed.

This summer is going to be great.

[prettyinlimegreenboots]

“Hey, it may take me a couple of tries, but I don’t think there’s gonna be a problem.” for whoever you'd like :))

There’s some cursing and mentions of miscarriages in this section but there’s a happy ending. You might want to have some tissues handy.

His wife had been distracted the last few days. He watched her carefully and noticed the little differences. She was more withdrawn and quiet, not like her usually lively self.

“Kat?” He questioned from his place on the sofa, across from her, watching as she put the book down. “What’s wrong?”

With those words and before he knew it, she was in his arms sobbing. Wrapping his arms around her, he pulled her close, an awkward knocking of her knees with his chest. He ran a hand up and down her back as he quietly hummed, letting her get all the worry and frustrations she was feeling out. “Shhh . . . I got you. You’re safe.”

The next few minutes were filled with cries and soothing noises from him. He continued to run his hand up and down her back as her cries turned to quiet snubs. Before long, she went limp in his arms as sleep overtook her. Maneuvering them, he laid across the couch with her head laid on his chest, body stretched out. He pressed a few kisses to her forehead, listening to the quiet whisps escaping her mouth.

Grabbing the blanket from the top of the couch, he stretched it across them, making sure she was covered, before picking up his book from the table and opening it up. He didn’t plan on reading the afternoon away but if it’s what Kat needed, then he was only too happy to indulge her.

She awoke, startled at the quietness of the house and the warmth she felt. Her eyes fluttered, taking in the scene, as a hand rubbed her back. “Good afternoon sleepyhead.”

Sitting up, she pushed her hair off her face, turning to look at her husband grinning. “Did I fall asleep?”

“After the cry you had, it wasn’t a great surprise that you fell asleep.” Jack smiled, sadly. “That wasn’t a normal cry, Kat. That was a worried and frustrated cry. Why have you been holding that in?”

Sighing, she moved to the end of the couch, putting some distance between her and Jack. She pulled her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them, leaning her head against her knee. “I don’t know.”

Reaching out a hand, he smiled watching her lace her fingers with his. “I felt awful that you were that heartbroken but hadn’t said anything. What’s on your mind, Kat?”

Biting her lip, she sighed. “I’ve been thinking . . . what if we’re never going to be parents, Jack? We’ve been married for almost three years and been trying to have a child for the last 18 months. What if it’s not in the cards for us?”

“Kat, there are other ways to become parents.” He started slowly, not wanting to upset her. “Hell, you want a baby, we could go try right now.”

She giggled, shaking her head at him, watching him wiggle his eyebrows. “It’s been 18 months. I don’t know how many more miscarriages I can go through.”

Pulling her to his chest, he hugged her close, kissing her head a couple of times. “I know this sucks right now but we will be parents, Kat. I will make it happen for you.”

Sighing, she wanted to believe him but at that moment, the feeling of his arms around her was the only thing she could believe. “Okay.”

“Okay.” He agreed. “How about we curl up and watch those Hallmark movies you like so much?”

Nodding, she let him pull her back on top of him, so that her head laid on his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heartbeat. “I love you Jack Kelly.”

“I love you too Katherine Kelly.” He pressed a kiss on her forehead, grabbing the remote and turning on the TV.

A Year Later

With a flourish flick of her wrist, the final signature was on the paper in front of them. Grinning, she looked between her husband and now, daughter, with a grin. “Is that the last of the signatures needed?”

The lawyer and judge grinned at the small family. “It’s official - Hazel Elizabeth May is now Hazel Elizabeth Kelly. Congratulations.”

Jack holding Hazel, pulled Kat close to him before giving her a kiss. “We’re parents!”

“We’re parents.” Kat echoed, reaching over and tickling the 2 year’s stomach. She was rewarded with a string of giggles.

With a couple handshakes, the family of three made their way out of the courthouse and out into the bright September sunshine. The smile on Kat’s face hadn’t diminished since she had gotten up that morning.

The past year was a rollercoaster of emotions. Many ups and downs for the two for them. Another miscarriage before the decision was made to pursue adoption. They were picked as an adoptee family rather quickly and fell in love with Hazel when she was 18 months old. Her story wasn’t one that was easy for Kat and Jack but vowed to love the little girl with all of their heart.

“What shall we do now?” Jack asked, looking between the little girl and his wife. “Get some lunch? Go home? What do you want to do, Kat?”

She shielded her eyes from the bright sunshine, as she looked at the two. Jack was born to be a dad and she fell more in love watching him hold Hazel so protectively. “Lunch . . . mama’s hungry.”

Jack laughed, letting his hand fall to her ever expanding stomach. As the court date was announced to finalize Hazel’s adoption, they had gotten news that they were pregnant. Jack and Kat held their breaths as they went to various doctor appointments, waiting for the shoe to drop. At their 15 week scan, they got the unexpected news that Kat was carrying twins, a very welcomed surprise for the couple.

“Let’s not make mama or your siblings angry, Hazel.” He took Kat’s hand, leading her to the SUV. He quickly buckled Hazel in her carseat before helping Kat into the car.

Getting himself into the car and buckled, he took a moment to enjoy the sounds that surrounded him. Kat’s quiet giggle and Hazel’s babble in the backseat. Feeling Kat lace her fingers with his, a squeeze pulled him back. “You okay?”

“Counting blessings.” He grinned, leaning over and kissing her. “I love you Katherine. Thank you for the wildest ride ever.”

She wiped some stray tears away before smiling softly. “I love you too Jack Kelly. Thank you for always being there for me and being the best daddy to Hazel and our unborn twins. Now can we eat?”

He laughed, nodding, before starting the car. They had made plans with their friends and family at a local restaurant to celebrate. They listened to Hazel babble in the backseat as they made their way across town.

Pulling into the parking lot, Jack got Hazel out of her carseat while Kat grabbed the diaper bag before walking into the restaurant. Thankfully they were in a private room because as soon as they made their presence known, a huge roar of congratulations was yelled.

Hazel buried her head in Jack’s chest, scared from the sudden noise as Jack and Kat both grinned at their family and friends. Hugs were given as they greeted everyone in the room.

Medda, Race, Spot, and Crutchie had all been godsends for the couple as they made their way through the difficult journey. The four were always checking up on Jack and Kat and dropping off food as a way to check in on them.

Lacing his fingers with Kat’s, Jack surveyed the room with a big grin. “Most of you have met her but this is our daughter, Hazel. Hazel, this is your crazy family.”

Turning her head slightly, she cautiously surveyed the room, giving the people that surrounded her a look. Popping her head up, she grinned brightly at everyone around the room before raising her hand in a brief wave, causing everyone to aww at her.

They soon settled down around the table, Hazel in a highchair between Jack and Kat, happily banging on the table.

“You need some help, old man?” Race watched, Jack trying to cut up french fries for Hazel to munch on.

“Hey, it may take me a couple of tries, but I don’t think there’s gonna be a problem.” Jack grinned, returning to his task as Kat chuckled at him.

Dumping a few cut up french fries on the tray, Jack leaned over and kissed Hazel’s head before looking around the table.

“Watch it boys, he’s going to get sappy soon.” Spot grinned, looked at his brother-in-law. “And we all know how Jack gets when he’s sappy.”

Pointing at Spot, Jack shook his head. “Shuddup.”

“Jackie’s a daddy now.” Crutchie piped up, giving Race and Spot a look. “This should be a celebration, not give Jackie a hard time. He’s learning, just like you goons did when you first got Madison and Micah. Now how about you be supportive big brothers and teach him the ropes.”

Jack could have kissed his younger brother for that speech. Crutchie was much more of a sap than he usually was but none of them could wipe the grins off their faces at how happy they were for Jack and Kat.

Medda looked at Jack and Kat before moving her eyes to Crutchie, Spot and Race along with her three precious grandchildren. She smiled at Kat’s family, her parents and brothers as she raised her glass in a toast. “To Jack, Kat, and Hazel - we are so excited for you to welcome Hazel into your lives. May you three have the happiest of all days and here’s to making incredible memories. To Jack, Kat, and Hazel.”

Everyone else raised their glasses in a toast, cheering for the newest member of their family.

Thank you @cutesiewoojin for sending this in!!!