#kevin being like andrew we have a game tomorrow we need to focus

[llanta-flema]

rip andrew minyard you would've loved saying 'womp womp'

[wildflowerwattpad0217]

Avenging Riverdale: Riverdale x Avengers/ Sweet Pea x OC!Tony Stark’s Daughter. My Reaction After Completing it and A Year Of Working On It.

This will include spoilers to my fanfic her is the link if you want to read it:

Avenging Riverdale

Masterlist

One paragraph is one chapter.

(not a chapter) Im going to be honest, in my mind their are two sections of Avenging Riverdale. Before my Brain Surgery and after because if you have read my fanfic all the way though, Author Notes and all, you know that I had to stop writing Avenging Riverdale for awhile so that I could focus on healing from that.

A trigger warning, good. Two part cast. Prologue. Tally is in deep shit. Steve picked her up and took her hungover ass to the living room. To Riverdale she goes. The horrible fake screenshots. I stopped doing that though because I couldn't find one for a group chat. Her and Tony's fights are rough. She snuck out to a soup kitchen. I feel bad for abandoning that. Cap found out. Tony put a tracker on her. Wtf but they are getting along. Now the Avengers are worried tho. They are shook they are getting along. After her dad became Iron Man things went downhill in her life.

Welcome to Riverdale. 'Murcia is Cap's group chat name. Short Stark is Tally's and Deadpool just got in it. His is World's Biggest Cry Baby. Peter's explanation of how he knows Deadpool is the most Gen Z thing ever. MJ is Tally's Slut. Tally is MJ's Bitch. Hello Cheryl Blossom.

Bucky has been eating Tally's cereal. She's acting betrayed. Veronica is surprised she didn't kill him. She heard someone mispronounce her name. She corrected them. Betty Copper. Kevin Keller. Kevin is fan-girling. She has blueberries. Jade Keller. Jade is trying to hate on her and her family. Cat Andrews. Jade is dragging her by the wrist while Cat is acting like this is a completely normal thing. Andre Clayton. Jade and Tally would've made a great couple. God damn my crush on Malachi and Sweet Pea. Andre is questioning why Jade just kidnapped Thalia Stark amd why she's at Riverdale High. Tally is questioning why there are so many redheads.

Betty warning Tally about Jade. Song writing with her new friends, Jade, Cat and Andre. She's allergic to roses. She doesn't want to talk about her family problems. The Welcome Back Dance. Archie Andrews. Jade and Tally are dancing together. I swear to god my gay-dar is broken. She rejected Reggie Mantle.

MJ being possessive on insta. Thalia punched Reggie Mantle. It's so weird looking back and seeing Tally not know what's going on her mom. Bucky trying to be a supportive boo. The first mention of Nick St. Clair. Her telling Jade what happened. Jason Blossom's body being found.

Omg, I published chapter 5 for 100 reads. That seems so long ago now that the book is almost at 45k reads. Tony and Pepper are getting married.... I didn't get them married until Endgame. Tony and Tally are going to Pop's. She is not at liberty to answer the question of whether or not she jacker War Machine's suit just so he would do the macarena without a lawyer. Bucky, it's her job to make you feel old.

Hydra nightmare. She's talking to her dad about the nightmare. Then she was like now that we had a hard time going down to the basement to tinker. Whether she wants to admit her or not I wrote her a lot like her dad. Malachi. Malachi obviously cares about Tally. Malachi knows that Nick St Clair hurt Tally. They had sex. I'll be honest with you, I wasn't sure if in the end she was going to end up with Malachi or sweet pea at this point I was still debating it. Malachi kept her hair brush.

Tony just apologized to her for pushing. Jade just stole her for a minute. Malachi left hickeys. I love Tally and Bucky's relationship. Tally is Pepper's maid of Honor. Tony's cooking?

Jade now knows about Malachi. Veronica brought roses in his school and Tally starred sneezing. Tally telling Reggie I don't need the Avengers to kick your ass.

Kevin knows about Malachi now. Nat as chasing Bucky. I love how tally is a moderator for these little fights. Tony is going to spar with Tally, he's going to get his ass kicked so hard. Bucky that $50 on tally. Cap betted $50 on Tony saying that her emotions would get the best of her. Tally won. But Tony is blowing it off like oh I let you win. Thalia Stark got a pep rally who would ever see the day. Tally thinks her dad's hiding something from her. Jughead expected her to have a stick at her ass. I love tally I really miss writing her. It's because of lines like Tony Stark is my dad, iron Man's just suit that just really make me miss her.

That was really sweet and it almost made me cry I forgot I wrote that part. Cheryl just got arrested for lying. Tally proving her genius. Reggie asked her on a date.

The Avengers just found out she's going on a date, they're not exactly happy well, the male Avengers aren't especially since she punched the guy in the face. Pepper is getting emotional. Cap answered the door. Mantle is shook. After the date, he dropped her at home and closed the door before he had a chance to kiss her.

Reggie mantle trying to slut shame tally. She is pissed, she ran into that boy's locker room. She's threatening to expose his dick pics. Which he thinks that it matters that she's not in New York anymore when she's the one with all the security clearance and she's Thalia fucking Stark. The extra points she got just because Reggie met The Avengers. Everyone keeps reminding her murder is illegal. Tally wants to destroy his car, Nat is like go for it and everyone's like Nat, no do not influence her to do this. Rhodey it doesn't think Tony should be supporting her in this. She got her revenge. Mantle is pissed, just actually wanted it. Her dad had a screaming match with the principal.

Malachi is starting to miss her. Toni Topaz. Sweet Pea. Fangs Forgarty. FP Jones. Beck Oliver. And Sweet Pea's nickname is born, Sunflower. Toni loves her. Mantle tried to apologize, but it was a shit apology so she blew him off.

The drive-in is being bought. Malachi wants me to come over after school. Malachi asked her out. He's giving her time to think about it. Family dinner.

Really bad nightmare. Then she had a panic attack because of the nightmare. Tony got pops burgers for breakfast.

Malachi and tally are officially in a relationship. The meeting of the New York friends and the Riverdale friends. Her dad's wearing an iron Man onesie. Steve is wearing Captain America pajamas. Clint is wearing a big bird onesie. Her dad is leaving from New York tomorrow to present an invention and wants her to go.

She is staying in Riverdale. Her dad asked her to stay away from The lodges. Tally you telling off Cheryl. Steve you fucking snitch. Talking about Tally's pranks. Peter is worried about her.

The accords. Tony wants her opinion on it. She thinks it's the most stupid idea ever. The governor wants her to sign it but she's refusing to. He doesn't want her to sign it either. She knows more about her mother than he's talking about. Honestly it is so weird looking back at this and having her mom not being revealed like this.

The accords meeting. Tally just walked out of school to be there. Tony knows he fucked up.

Rest in peace Peggy Carter my queen. Yes Nick, help her stop the fight in a Target parking lot. Tally is such a mom. When tally even bosses the King around, threatening to reveal his internet browser history. She just compared them all the toddlers. She just met Ant-man. Ruby Lodge is her mother.

Ruby Lodge also happens to be Hiram Lodge's little sister. Tally was born in Riverdale. I really abandoned the UN plot line.

Her and Jade are going to sing at the variety show. Take A Hint for the audition tho with Mantle in the crowd. Josie wants to talk to her alone. Veronica is pissed she didn't her they were cousins. Dinner party at the Pembroke.

Deadpool. After the variety show her and Deadpool are on the roof eating chimichangas. She's helping Betty look for her sister. She's going to go clubbing with Veronica, Kevin, Jade, and mantle. Cap is really easy lie to. Malachi is there and he's cheating on her.

She called Malachi a dirty mouthed whore. She just got a package from the Ten Rings. PROJECT INTERMISSION. right now she's thinking Hydra in the 10 rings are working together. She can't go to Polly's baby shower because she's doing some investigating of her own.

Soup kitchen talking to the serpents. Tony just asked what's the tea. Tony has so much faith in his daughter taking over Stark industries it's so sweet. Her and Cheryl are starting over because tally gave her some really good advice about being a female daughter getting ready to become a CEO.

Another letter from the 10 rings. Chuck is back. Jugheads surprise party. I forgot I put Cat's bibble addiction in here. The ones that watched Victorious will know what I'm talking about. I think Tally's birthday present is the best one he is received for a while. Cheryl wanted to know about the scars on her back during the game of secrets and she even it was like exposed herself basically she really didn't care though. To the Southside with Sweet Pea.

They really want to challenge Tally at call of duty. They're playing never have I ever. Toni knows about what happened.

Her mom was a serpent, and she went to the serpent's for help. Everyone is surprised that tally is a serpent by blood.

Her father told the truth. Jade scares Joaquin. That's cute, Sweet Pea thinks he can be tally in a game of pool.

She won. And sweet pea is confused why she is open about almost everything but her ex. They had sex. Tally is saying that they can't date because of everything that's going on and she doesn't want to put him in danger. Tally is in deep shit.

Tony and Tally had a big fight. Tony's kind of suspicious of tally right now because she's been acting off. Steve heard something about project intermission. Tally is terrified that Hydra is going to kidnap her.

They're still asking about project intermission. FP was just arrested for the murder of Jason blossom. They're holding an intervention for tally because they're worried about her. Malachi what are you doing there I don't remember this.

He regrets cheating on her. Malachi can read her like an open book. The blackmailed him into cheating. Tally just save Fred's life I forgot that's how she gets kidnapped. Alice Cooper is Thalia's godmother. She's dead. I wrote this and I'm about to cry. Someone stole the body. Project intermission.

Tony freaked out at the mention of the 10 rings. She's alive. The Avengers are finding out what happened with Nick St Clair.

Jade really just spilled everything to them I mean I would too if meant getting my best friend back but still. Tony went to go see Malachi. Malachi said he was more afraid of tally than he is of Tony. But he's still told him a lot.

Tally has powers. Thalia is so sarcastic I love her. Tally was able to send a message to them. By the time they got there the Hydra base was in flames and she was walking out of it. They forced her to go to the hospital where everyone was waiting. Tony tried to keep her in her in the hospital room but she was like no❤️.

The sexual tension between her and Sweet Pea tho. Interview by Sheriff Keller. Welcome home party. The Whyte Wyrm. Sweet Pea wants a slurpee. Toni accidentally ate a weed brownie.

Fangs has skittles in his jacket? FRIDAY you sassy AI. Movie night code red. Tangled vs The Conjuring. Nat has Thor in a choke hold. I always forget that Rapunzel's name translates to Lettuce. They all suggest movies and fight it out. First one is Sweet Pea vs Tally. I FORGOT I BROKE THE FOURTH WALL. Tally won. Tony is having a talk with Sweet Pea. Tally doesn't think Hydra is done. Imma be honest I don't remember most of this because the close it get to when I had my surgery the more fucked my memory became.

Reggie is calling her the walking dead. Swalia date. This is going to be adorable.

The memes tho. They ended up watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Things got heated then Tony texted tally. Her and her dad ended up working on the Impala when she got home. Tally told Reggie to fuck off. Her adoption papers came in so that she will legally be Pepper's kid. Archie's an idiot.

I love Pepper. Sweet Pea and Tally are officially dating. Jade and Kevin are freaking out. Her dad is freaking out not like Jade and Kevin. Cat is pissed at her brother. Bulldogs and Serpents showed up. Jade, Cat, Veronica and Tally stopped the fight. She headed to Sweet Pea's.

My fake insta posts were the best. Beck, Fangs and Sweet Pea just got arrested. Nick St Clair is coming to town. Mantle vandalized her locker. Apparently the same thing happened to her mom. She's not going to talk about Nick St Clair.

Tally telling Archie to keep an eye out for Nick St. Clair. Date night with Sweet Pea. He took he took her their hideout. She's contemplating filing a police report on Nick St Clair. They had sex in a treehouse.

Nick St. Clair is back. Veronica doesn't know shit. She finally told her dad. She going to report him. She told Veronica. Veronica confronted him at the party and now everyone at the party knows. She went to SVU. Then she went to MJ's.

They are going to arrest him at the open house. He has been arrested.

No more secrets? Holy shit. She now knows Alice Cooper is her God Mother. Really Tony? Why did you call her out in front of everyone? You could've just talked to her. He wants her to see a therapist. St Clair had a bail hearing. No bail. Southside High was raided. When he only like Sweet Pea because he's taller than Cap. Tally didn't realize it. Drag Race. Malachi vs Tally. Bucky is so chill about it.

(So Chapter 47. Is the where you guys find out that I am having surgery) Sweet Pea finds out about Malachi. Sweet Pea feels betrayed, angered. They're having a fight. Sweet Pea is afraid that because she kept this one secret EX from him the next thing you know she'll be cheating on him. Tally just told him I don't want anyone else. They said I love you. The drag race. Tally won fair and square but Malachi still thinks she cheated. Tony scheduled the appointment.

Apparently you can't teach Thor how to cook. Tally isn't allowed in Asgard. Tally just called Vision a toaster. And in response Tony said don't call your little brother a toaster.

Family dinner. Everyone is there. Sweet Pea just got there. Thalia is the moderator. Nick Fury scares him. They are grilling him. Mario Kart tournament. Cap won.

Sweet Pea sending her bad pick up lines. MJ approves. Jughead asked for a favor. FP is getting out of prison.  Sweet Pea and Tally are talking about their future. (This is the last chapter I published before my surgery)

FP's retirement party. Tally inviting Sweet Pea to the Avenger's Christmas party and New Years Eve party and everyone else.

Her first appointment. Afterwards she went to the Wyrm. FP wants to talk to her. Tally has a spare key.

Social media special.

Trial of Nick St Clair. He lost.  Southside High has been shut down. Jade's period is late. Jade is pregnant. Welcome to Riverdale High Southside Serpents. Mantle being a dick.

The uniforms. Message from Hydra, her mom is alive.

She's known. (Srry, this is when my short term memory was hell so I don't remember it.) Her mother is a hydra agent and was using Tony. She even talked to her when she was kidnapped. FP isn't happy that Ruby lied to them all.

Sweet pea trying to stand up for tally when Jughead was trying to use her Fame for peaceful protest now that's awesome but Tally's okay with this because it's a peaceful protest and something she agrees with and told him it's okay. They bugged his trailer. They have the tesseract from Odin's Vault testing against Tally's blood panel. It keeps calling her name.

Even though they told her not to tell sweet pea she did. Peaceful protest. The statue had no head the next day and tally woke up with a fever, despite the super soldier serum. And she has a fever. Bruce thinks it's because of the tesseract because they have similar energy they're fighting dominance. Next day she's feeling better, and is being questioned by the sheriff.

Foreshadowing much. She's realizing that she was born to her mother just become hydras soldier. Tally's idea is that well her mom's playing chess they have to play poker. Sunnyside is getting evicted.

Her mother is at the Wyrm. Hello Ruby Lodge. That was intense. Tally just thanked Pepper for being her mom. FP trust her.

Veronica's confirmation. Jughead and Betty found the head. Back at the Wyrm. Tall boy was the one who did it. Going to Lodge Lodge.

I think that's an accurate description of Cheryl. Jughead had to reassure them that everything was fine. The Jughead Veronica kiss. They get to stay in Sunnyside trailer park.

Hiram Lodge bought the Riverdale register. The break-in. They decide to go after tally instead of Veronica because you know she's a Stark. That was a mistake because they isolated her and her room and she was able to overpower one of them and take their shotgun away. She also paged her dad. Hiram Lodge owns pops. Ethel dumped a whole strawberry milkshake on Veronica. Reggie being a dick. Ruby Lodge broke into sweet peas trailer talk to him.

Ruby wants to make a deal. Basically what happened with Malachi where he cheated to protect his sister. Ruby said she wants to make sure her daughter is dead inside. Cheryl's missing. Sweet pea has been distant. Sweet Pea is drinking away sorrows. And he cheated to protect his little sister and his mom.

Jade slapped him. Tony is there. Fangs sent her a photo of Sweet Pea cheating. She's questioning everything. The Avengers want to kick his ass. She went to his trailer. Swalia is over until they get their shit together. Carrie The Musical.

She went to Malachi. She went there for help but they ended up sleeping together. They agreed to be one time thing. The plan started, Malachi would pick her up from the musical the opening night. Ruby stopped them, saying she would kill Malachi if she didn't go with her. into which Malachi admits that he still loves her. But she loves sweet pea. The tranqed her and she woke up in a chair. 5 months later she was in Sweden by herself safe and sound. What you saw an article about Archie Andrews being questioned for a murder. And she thought she might have evidence for it or could get it so she's going back to Riverdale. Then flashback 5 months ago Tony's point of view, Malachi showed up to the school after Midge was murdered. Tally is prime suspect right now. She killed a hydra agent. Then 5 months later. Tony is a pops when he sees his daughter walk in with blonde hair.

She got lectured from Steve about running off for 5 months. She wants to tent city. Her and Sweet Pea had a good to talk. Ruby Lodge.

She just wants to talk. Ancient Norse prophecy. Tony asked Thor and he gulped. There is a prophecy and Thor and Loki believe it to be about Tally. Odin agrees. In the final battle she dies. Thornhill.

Ghoulies. Malachi questioning Penny Peabody's motives and then putting the fear of Tally. Jughead wondering what that was about. The iCarly reference though. "If you ever do that again you're grounded for... Till college." "For till college?" "For till college!"

(So the reason I kind of stopped doing the Instagram post was because after my surgery I kind of just lost all creative initiative to do it.) The video tally turned in was ruled of questionable origin. Thalia Stark is under arrest. I don't remember this plot line. They don't have a very solid case. Matt Murdock, Tally's lawyer, wants to push the case to New York. Charges were dropped thanks to Nicholas fury. Archie pleaded guilty, Malachi is leaving. He wants to see her before he leaves. Tally told him he would hold a special place in her heart. Riverdale high, next day.  They want to get Hiram Lodge arrested.

Sweet Pea and Tally are talking about what happened and Tally finally said what's been running through her head. Thalia is Jade's child's godmother. She told Jade about the prophecy.

Tony is acting weird at The mention of a game that hit Riverdale. Ghoulie hideout with Penny and Ruby. She scared the shit out of Penny Peabody. Veronica's grand opening. Tally is willing to let Sweet Pea try to earn her trust back. They kissed... No, they had sex. The manual.

Flashback episode. Secrets and sins. tally roasting her father. Ruby and Hiram arguing. The Ascension party. Tony basically explained everything to his daughter.

Sweet peas playing the game that Tony told her not to and she asked him not to. She said if you can please playing the game the deal is off so he said well done the deal is off and walked out. She's heartbroken. Archie prison fight club. Since tally is the closest thing they have to a trained doctor she is the one that's going to be at the bunker ready to patch Archie up. sweet peas apologizing. Starting Hiram lodges case.

Swedish Mafia. Sheriff Minetta grilling Tally. Casino night. Sweet pea and her hooked up again. Sweet Pea asked her on a date. After good advice my father she accepted it. When he came to pick her up Tony threatened him saying you already cheat on my daughter again I'm going to kill you which I think is Fair. After a good date he asked tally to be his girlfriend again. She said yes.

Cap wanting her to join RROTC. Not tally paying for Fangs mom's hospital bills. According to Pepper Starks are caffeine dependent insomniacs. Tally had cancer. Thor smashing a toaster. Cheryl the bitch.

Tally helping Sweet Pea study for SATs. Hiram got shot. Fangs is back in the Serpents. FP is Sheriff. Ruby Lodge. Half-sister Alicia von Strucker.

Sweet Pea is worried. Alicia meeting Sweet Pea. Jade's water broke. Thalia regrets not being there for Jade. She gabe her sister a nickname. Captain America Fitness Challenge. To the hospital to see her god child. Violet Thalia Oliver.

Alicia is 100 percent Ruby's daughter. Josie tried to ask sweet pea to go to her mom's wedding with her, Sweet Pea denied. Thalia defending her sister to the Avengers. The Pretty Poisons beat up Sweet Pea and Fangs. Tally rushed over to the Jones trailer where she had a run kn with Jughead's mom. She doesn't like Starks. Jughead now knows about her prophecy. Tally meet Jellybean and calls her an adorable human being. Jellybean fangirling. Jughead trusting Thalia with his life.

Jughead's mom being skeptical af. Tally didn't trust her. Chemistry Lab break in. Jughead asked her to help deal with it, as a favor. Kurtz just called her Malachi's ex-bitch. Sweet Pea is pissed but Tally's got it. After a little violence. She's going to go call Malachi. He gave some food advice. She made Jughead promise something. She caught Kurtz trying to kill Fangs. Jughead made her let him go. Sister bonding time.

Alicia's life story. The Gargoyle King sent her a message. Tally is keeping it a secret from Sweet Pea. FPs 50th.

HEATHERS PART 1. Call from Detective Benson, telling her Nick St. Clair is getting released because of 'overcrowding'. The Avengers are pissed, so is Sweet Pea. Tally is playing Veronica Sawyer. Alicia came to see her sister at rehearsal and brought her a red bull. Party. Okay, I'll admit that was a bad pun. Big Fun. She was tipsy for a second because of Asgardian beer. She steps outside, Ruby is there. She threw up on her biological mother's shoes. Tbh I tried to put more references to the musical in here. Dead girl walking. Practice next day. Everyone finding Nick St. Clair got released and them being pissed. Cheryl wants to castrate him, Reggie agrees. Que Nick St. Douchebag's entrance.

HEATHERS PART 2. When I published part 2, Chadwick Boseman passed away. Rest in Power. Sweet Pea and Archie holding her back but everyone who know exactly what happened was ready to beat his face in. Nick called Tally a ticking time bomb. He mentioned the prophecy. Tally threatening him. Tally has some explaining to do. Her going to Sheriff Jones to get a restraining order. Tally shading Steve. Seventeen. Dr Stephen Strange saved her life. Alicia texted her to meet her. She gonna blow up the school. Alicia cuffed her in vibranium cuffs, she called Shuri. Dead Girl Walking Reprise (What a bop tho) Kevin met her at the door she told him to evacuate the building as silently as possible. Boiler room. The fight for the gun. Alicia was dead. She was able to deactivate the bomb. She went outside where everyone was waiting and trying to calm Sweet Pea and Tony down. Then she saw Ruby and saw red. FRIDAY record the convo. Tally just said it's over amd told her mom to fuck off. Ruby is pissed because it's not her ending. Tally just walked away and kept walking. I'mma be honest these are my favorite chapters.

Since the funeral, tally isolated herself in a depression. Now she has a text from an unknown person to meet her at Sweetwater River. Chic. Malachi came to see her. They had a good talk, he made her realize some things.

Cheryl preaching the farm agenda to tally who's just trying to grieve her sister. So she gives Cheryl a verbal SmackDown. Toni being pissed about it. Tally doesn't want to go to prom, so instead she wants to take sweet pea on a date in New York. Betty's dad's prison bus exploding. Veronica being confused on why they would miss prom. I'm telling explains it she's like well I know when that used to be your preferred choice of setting. He's asking him to move on after the prophecy is complete and she's dead.

Veronica's Pop deed is fake. Veronica wants Tally to fight her father. Tally is unsure about it, she could kill her dad with a single punch. Toby agrees the best bet us Tally. Archie taking the ring with Hiram, could possibly get Archie killed. Fight night. He broke her nose. Tally did more damage to him of course. Hiram Lodge has been arrested. When her family and sweet pea find out that she was the reason Hiram Lodge got arrested in the first place. They were starting to get ready to go into business together and tell you didn't want Lodge industries to fuck over Stark industries. When she figured out moves from Avatar to last Airbender and legend of Korra. Her mom escaped from prison.

Avengers discussing protection for tally. Package for tally. Thalia Stank. It was from the gargoyle King but she played it off in front of the Avengers and just left. To go to the hunting cabin of the blossoms. Her mom is there. Time for the final quest. The first one is for Archie the grizzled beast. I love tally. Because when Archie says oh crap, she says I think you're allowed to say fuck in this situation. Archie wins though. Tally had to play Russian roulette to get her in with the swedish Mafia. The next task is for Veronica. All the chalices were poisoned so Betty and Veronica are both poisoned.

Tally's turn. The assassin card. Battle of Blood. Biological mother vs daughter. Thalia killed her biological mother. Jughead's turn. He had won. And finally Betty's turn. She shut off her dad's fingers. After Penelope give the order to kill them all Thalia made a giant barrier with her powers. The farm ascended, leaving Kevin behind. The Avengers were shocked about what happened.

Filler chapter. Therapist appointment. Pop's with her dad. Tally remembering. Sweet Pea checking on her. Sweet Pea wants to run away with her, maybe run away from all of it but tally knows she can't. Then the next week tally knew the prophecy would be complete.

The beginning of infinity war. Dr strange. Wong knows about the prophecy while doctor strange doesn't. Tony just trying to protect his daughter. Tally got knocked unconscious. Bruce woke her up, Tony and Peter Parker are in space trying to save Doctor strange and keep the time Stone out of thanos's hands. At the compound talking about what to do. Tally knows someone.

Tally dreaming of the infinity Stones and seeing Thanos. Shuri. Things have entered the atmosphere. Tally's iron daughter suit. The fight has begun. Cap saying fuck. Thanos is coming for vision. Telling us what's happening to the stones right now. She bloodbended Thanos but the Avengers couldn't get to Thanos quick enough to get the glove off so he snapped. They lost. Tally is gone and so is half of the universe.

Nat is regretting not getting to Thanos quick enough to get to the glove off of him while tally bloodbended him. Tony found out that she's able to bloodbend. Tony passing out. Going to go kill Thanos. Nat and Thor explaining Thalia to Rocket. Thor went for the head.

5 YEARS LATER. Natasha's point of view. Meeting, Barton murdering people, Steve stopping by. She's remembering tally, reminiscing with Steve. Scott Lang. Quantum realm. Tony's point of view. Morgan Stark. Them telling the plan to Tony. Him thinking it's risky. Tony is salty about the fact that if they were close enough when tally bloodbended than Thanos they could have been done they could have won but they lost. Scott's trying to play with his heartstrings, mentioning tally, his first born daughter.

Bruce banner/hulk talking about the time travel thing . Tony's POV. While washing dishes he looks at a photo thinking of his daughter, tally. He decided he has to do it to see her again. He figured out time travel. Pepper finding out you figured out time travel. He's going to do it. Natasha's POV next morning. Scott time traveling going wrong. Steve POV. Walking outside seeing car pull up. Cap getting his shield back. But there's something Tony has to do before he gets to work.

He went to go see Malachi. He want to let Malachi know that there was hope. Malachi gave him a flash drive of Tally's research guy she entrusted him with five years ago. Clint testing the time travel machine worked. When Tony opened the flash drive he realized that a lot of it was mapped out for him already. Tally made a video titled if we lost. Time travel time. New York 2012. Time Stone.

Tony's POV, then Steve's POV. Not Steve saying hail Hydra. Tony's POV. Scott giving 2012 Tony a heart attack. Tesseract sliding to Loki. Steve POV. "That is America's ass" I think that's all I have to say for that part. Bruce's POV. Him telling her that Strange gave it away. She gave him the time stone. Tony POV. Deciding to go to New Jersey.

1970. Tony's point of view. Tony seeing his dad and getting the tesseract. Steve's point of view. Getting Hank Pym to run down the hallway. Tony's POV. Talking to his dad. Avengers compound. Natasha was gone. Grieving Natasha. Making the gauntlet, Thor going to stop his fingers then stop him Bruce snapping his fingers. It worked. Then disaster struck a missiles blew away the Avengers compound. Thanos sat waiting for the Avengers. Thanos vs Steve, Thor and Tony. Tony getting knocked out. Steve POV. Picks up Thor's hammer. Everyone is back. Tally is back.

Tally POV. Tally and Tony reuniting. Female team up without Nat. Tally took the stones before he could snap."You are so fucked." She turned to dust. Tony's POV. She started glowing. He grieved. Sweet Pea is at Stark Tower. He found out she sacrificed herself. The funeral. Tally is alive.

The scene with death. When Tally woke up she didn't remember anything. Everyone is shocked. Wanda jogged her memory. She explained everything. She met Morgan.

Graduation. Tally's POV. She was the valedictorian. She's going to MIT. Sweet Pea proposed. When she graduated, taking on Stark industries, she made sure it was clear the weapons will never be apart of Stark Industries again. When Sweet Pea and Tally got married she found out she was pregnant. Sweet Pea's name is this is Nathan Mantle. In the end they had 3 kids. Nick St. Clair got killed by the Swedish Mafia. She is the Iron Daughter.

Overall, I'm going to admit I don't remember writing half of this story because of my brain surgery and I was working on it during this. I love this story, it is my first time reading it all at once but I am partial to it because I worked on it for almost a full year and is the first Riverdale x Avengers crossover fic on wattpad. There is somethings I was contemplating, like who she was going to end up with, if she was going to die in the first snap or not. I was also going to do a part where she goes into hiding with Harley from Iron Man 3 and works as a waitress in a little diner as a cover, saying she's Harley's cousin, wearing a wig and contacts but I felt that'd make the story too long. But there are a few things I'm iffy about so 9/10.

[raewrites98]

Runaway Train

For @foxeshaveclaws! You wanted long-distance relationships and surprises gone wrong- it's my first time writing for Andreil and this fandom, so I hope this still manages to live up to that, while staying withing the realm of their relationship :) Thank you for your wonderful prompt! Happy Valentine's Day <3 @aftgexchange                                                          *** “Come on, Josten,” Wymack yelled from where he stood behind the plexiglass, “Hurry up.”

Neil grit his teeth. He readjusted his grip on his racquet and swung, fast and hard. The ball sailed across the court, right into Robin’s waiting net as she caught it with practiced ease. He tore his helmet from his head and ran a hand through his sweaty, tangled hair. Fuck. That was the third shot he had missed. (Keep reading here or on AO3!)

“Nice shot, captain,” Jack taunted with a sneer, leaning against the wall. He shared a glance with Sheena, who scoffed in agreement.

It was late afternoon and the team had gathered to practice for their home game against the Breckenridge Jackals this Friday. They had been running drills for the last half hour or so and Neil was suffering. He couldn’t focus. The harsh fluorescent lights stung his eyes and his head pounded viciously. His thoughts kept drifting off into nothing, mind numb from exhaustion. At this rate, Coach was going to bench him.

Wymack blew his whistle, the sharp ring echoing across the court. “Go home,” he said, “You better not pull this shit tomorrow.” He spoke to the team, but Neil could feel the weight of his words as if they were directed at him specifically. He was captain, he should be better than this. He was better than this.

They dispersed slowly, the girls heading to one locker room and the guys the other. Before they parted, Robin brushed a hand against Neil’s shoulder. “Sweetie’s later?” She gave him a half smile. Her wild, curly hair stuck to her forehead, face red and sweaty.

Neil nodded. He went to his locker without a word, sat down and started peeling his shoes off one at a time. Bruises were starting to form where he had been body-checked into the wall several times during their scrimmage. It was a familiar feeling, one that usually offered comfort, but now only made him feel worse. 

A shadow fell upon him. Neil glanced up to see Jack leaning against the lockers, arms crossed. He was still in his bright orange gear, golden hair slicked back. “You better not fuck up this weekend,” he said. “I don't want people thinking the whole team sucks as much as our captain.” A few snickers passed through the room. 

Neil grit his teeth. He undid the Velcro strap of his gloves. Not for the first time, he found himself wondering how Dan had ever managed this- the disobedience and disrespect from players who thought themselves superior. Even as vice-captain, he at least had been able to rely on Kevin’s demanding personality and fame to keep them in check.

But neither of them was here now. Even the cousins were gone, leaving Neil to start the fall semester on his own. He thought after years of running, he was used to being alone, but his time with the Foxes had changed that. He would never admit it out loud, but he missed them. Badly. 

“If you do blow it, though,” Jack continued, “maybe Coach will actually do something worthwhile and give your position to someone who deserves it.”

“Like who, you?” Neil eyed him up and down. Jack was only a sophomore and already thought he was better than everyone else, simply because Kevin recruited him. He started shoving his gear in his locker. “Your defense is weak, you can barely hold your own against the press and, frankly, your personality is shit.”

Jack scoffed. “That’s rich, coming from the guy getting fucked by that psycho Minyard,” he spat, as if the words left a foul taste in his mouth. “Bet the press would have a field day with that.” 

Neil clenched his jaw. Fuck this. His and Andrew’s relationship was never a secret, not with the way the Foxes gossiped, but it was private. He didn’t go around throwing it in everyone’s face, and he definitely didn’t need some arrogant little shit doing that for him. “Don’t,” he warned.

Jack laughed, raising his hands. “What are you gonna do? Make me run laps?” He rolled his eyes.

That was it. 

Neil’s fist collided with Jack’s nose. It gave a satisfying, sickening crack, blood spurting from his nostrils as he stumbled back with a cry, clutching his face. “What the fuck!” He lunged forward. Acting quickly, one of their teammates grabbed him and held him back. “You son of a bitch!” he snarled.

Neil slung his bag over his shoulder. “You want the extra laps too?” Jack glowered at him. “I didn’t think so.” Neil slammed the door shut as he left, the sound of it echoing throughout the gym.

                                                               ***

Neil’s phone rang as he was forcing himself through the last of his math homework. He picked it up without checking the caller ID. All these years and he still had the same ringtone. “Hey.” 

“Hi.” Andrew’s voice was muffled. There was some shifting and crackling through the speaker, until he sounded clearer. “Heard you finally snapped.” 

Neil rolled his eyes. “Who told you?” He chewed the cap of his pen and scribbled down something he thought resembled a logical answer. Tiny inked fox paws and exy racquets littered the margins of his paper. 

“Robin.” Of course. She, along with the rest of the team, had found out during morning practice, when Jack strutted in with a bruised face and swollen nose. To say Coach had been displeased was an understatement.

“He was asking for it.” Neil shoved his book aside and walked over to the bed. He let himself fall backwards onto the mattress, hitting it with a soft huff as the air left his lungs. He balled his hand into a fist, watching the ugly, shiny white scars stretch across his knuckles. A deep purple bruise colored the skin of his hand. He didn’t regret punching Jack. If anything, he wished he had done so sooner. 

“I’m surprised it took you this long,” Andrew remarked dryly.

Neil chuckled. Silence passed. He fidgeted with the strings of his sweater. “How was your day?”

“Long.” After graduation, Andrew had signed a three year contract with Boston’s pro team.  He lived there now, in a small apartment Neil had the only spare key to. It hung on his key chain, along with the ones for Columbia and the Maserati. 

Neil hummed. “You talked to Nicky?”

“More or less,” Andrew said. “He’s as disgustingly happy as ever.” A few months ago, Nicky finally moved to Germany. The wedding wasn’t until next year, but it was all he ever talked about.

“Good.” A pause. “You visiting soon?”

Andrew was silent for a while. “Not for a few weeks,” he said. “Think you can manage that long, Josten?”

He huffed. “I’ll be fine.”

“Sure,” Andrew drawled.

He rolled his eyes. He flipped and laid on his stomach, holding the phone in front of him. “I want to see you,” he mumbled into the sheets.

There was another pause, and for the briefest moment, Neil wondered if he had crossed a line. If he had made things weird. This was their first year apart and learning to navigate this whole long-distance thing was frustrating. They weren’t the most outwardly affectionate to begin with.

“Happy now?”

Neil looked up. A blurry, pixelated image of Andrew appeared on the cracked screen of his phone, glasses sliding down his nose and hair damp. 

He was wearing his PSU sweater, Neil noted. “It’ll do, I guess,” he said with a shrug.

“I could hang up on you, you know.”

“You won’t.” Neil’s smile grew.

He didn’t.

                                                              ***

“You sure you’re okay, Josten?” Robin asked as she chewed at the end of her straw, bending it left and right. Sweetie’s was surprisingly empty for a Monday night. A few people lingered at the bar and an elderly couple occupied the booth behind them, but other than that, it was empty. “And don’t give me that I’m fine crap.” 

Neil pushed his eggs around, watching how the yolk broke and spilled across his plate. “Just tired, I guess,” he mumbled. It wasn’t a lie. He always slept better with someone near him. It used to be his mom, but over time, Andrew had managed to worm his way into that spot instead. In his absence the mattress felt too cold, too empty. It took Neil hours to fall asleep.

“You talk to Andrew?”

“Yeah.” They had called for another half hour or so, before Neil left to finish his homework. It was fine at first, but their conversation had quickly grown stilted, punctuated by one word answers and long silences. He noticed that was happening frequently lately. Thinking about it made him sick to his stomach. He pushed his plate aside.

“Then what’s got you so fucked up?”

“Nothing.” 

Robin gave him a look.

He ran a hand through his hair. “It’s this whole captain thing, I guess,” he said, slumping back in his seat. The leather booth squeaked under his shifting weight. 

“Hey,” Robin said, reaching over to squeeze his hand. “You carried us through the first season. You’re doing fine.” She offered him a reassuring smile.

The gesture was appreciated, but it didn’t make Neil feel that much better. “Yeah,” he muttered, tearing his toast to shreds.

Robin picked up her pencil and started tapping it on her sketchpad. The book was filled with scribbles and quick sketches of him and the team. She carried it wherever she went. “You know what? We should do something fun,” she said suddenly, sitting up. “After the game. Go out for a movie or whatever.”

Neil considered it. He wasn’t a fan of movies, or anything social really, but the idea of spending another night locked in his room alone sounded excruciating. “Sure,” he said with a shrug.

Robin looked surprised. “Okay,” she said. “Cool. Meet me here at eight?”

He nodded. Maybe it would help distract him, even if only for a few hours.

                                                          ***

They ended up losing the game.

Earlier that morning, right before their last practice, Neil sent Andrew a quick text. 

To: Minyard [6:45am] You watching tonight?

From: Minyard [7:25am] Can’t. Plans.

That shouldn’t have bothered him so much. When he was on court, adrenaline pumping through his veins, the weight of his racquet in hand, he couldn’t care less about who was watching. All that mattered was the ball in his net and the goal ahead. Everything else faded into the background.

But Andrew always watched his games. 

And then, when he tried to pry for answers as to what these plans were, Andrew’s replies went from short to nonexistent.

Neil managed to walk the team through warm-ups, but he couldn’t stop the flow of thoughts that forced their way into his mind, whispering of his incompetence as captain, his lack of friends and his possibly dying relationship with Andrew. When the first buzzer sounded and he nearly dropped his racquet, startled out of his spiraling thoughts, he knew it wasn’t going to end well.

It had been a close call in the end though. With thirty seconds left on the clock, Neil soared across court, twisting and turning around the Jackal’s defense until the goal was in sight. He stopped, swung his racquet back and took the shot.

The Breckenridge goalie dove for it and at the very last second, caught the ball with his net. The crowd gave a deafening roar, drowning out the buzzer as it signaled the end of the game. 

Neil’s heart dropped to his feet. He stared at the goal, a cold, dreadful numbness spreading through him. 

“Come on,” Robin muttered, slapping him hard across the back, “Keep it together.” 

The rest was a blur. As captain, he upheld his duty to entertain the press, but didn’t have it in him to bite back against their snarky, provocative comments. Wymack seemed pleased, if not a little concerned with his compliance. 

No one spoke in the locker rooms. Tension hung in the air, sharp and uncomfortable. Most of his teammates slipped out of the room without a word, but Jack stopped in front of Neil as he stood. He towered over him, six feet of anger and misplaced arrogance. “Should’ve fucking known,” he hissed. 

Neil bristled, fists clenched and ready for a fight. 

“Don’t bother, Jack,” one of his teammates said. “He isn’t worth it.”

The door closed and Neil was left alone surrounded by an oppressive, judgmental silence. Sweat trickled down his neck. His chest felt tight with each breath. 

There was only one thing left to do. He had to run.

                                                           ***

The sun was long gone by the time Neil made it back to the Fox Tower. His legs burned and arms ached, but he felt better. Running lessened some of the panic that had held him in a vice-like grip, but their loss still hung over him like a thick cloud. What if Coach was wrong? What if he wasn’t cut out for captain? 

The parking lot was mostly empty, save for a single car parked under the lamppost. Neil crossed the street and kept his head down as he passed. A few steps from the tower’s entrance, he stopped.

He turned. “Andrew?”

Leaning back against the hood of the car, a cigarette in hand, stood Andrew. He was wearing a burgundy button down and black tie, sleeves rolled up to reveal his arm bands. Under the flickering yellow light, his hair glowed a deep gold, neatly swept off his forehead. Neil swallowed thickly.

“Running away again, Josten?” Andrew took a drag from his cigarette and blew the smoke in his direction. His dark eyes flickered over Neil’s sweaty, disheveled appearance.

Neil walked over and came to a stop in front of him. It didn’t make any sense- Andrew wasn’t supposed to show up for another two weeks. What was he doing here? Had he been at the game? Neil hoped not. “Why are you here?”

“Take a guess.”

“I thought you had plans,” Neil bit, shoving his hands in his sweater.

 Andrew looked unimpressed. “Is that your guess?”

“I don’t know,” Neil snapped. “Are you here to watch me ruin my career as captain?” He kicked a stone, watching as it skipped across the parking lot. 

Andrew raised an eyebrow. “One game and you’re ready to jump ship?” He tsked, shaking his head. “I thought you were over the whole ‘flight risk’ thing.”

“I’m not running away,” Neil snapped. 

Andrew stared at him, waiting.

“I just-” He tore a hand through his hair. “I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing, okay?” Once he started, he found he couldn’t stop. The words came rushing out with a single breath, every thought and twisted emotion he had bottled up since the start of the school year. “I’m not Dan, or Kevin. I don’t know how to be a good captain, and I definitely don’t know how to do it on my own.”

“Then quit.” The cigarette glowed bright orange, another puff of smoke drifting in the air.

Neil scoffed and rolled his eyes. “It’s not that easy.”

“Nothing is.” Andrew reached for him, turning Neil’s chin so he was forced to look up. He stared at Neil, stoic and calm, the deep brown of his irises like liquid gold, holding Neil captive. It was in that unwavering apathy he found himself relaxing, shoulders slowly sagging as his worries slipped away. “You’ll manage.”

Neil drew a slow breath. The acrid, sharp scent of the cigarette smoke eased his nerves. He nodded. 

Satisfied, Andrew dropped his hand. He picked up Neil’s wrist instead, analyzing the bruised skin of his knuckles. He brushed his thumb along the row of scars.

Neil’s heart skipped a beat. He cleared his throat. “You didn’t answer my question,” he said. 

“You missed dinner,” Andrew remarked.

A frown furrowed Neil’s brow. “What do you mean?”

“You had plans, didn’t you?”

Fuck. In his sudden and overwhelming distress, Neil had completely forgotten about Robin. She was going to be so pissed.

“Yeah, with Robin,” he said. “Did she tell you that too?” He wasn’t the kind to be jealous, but sometimes he wondered if she spoke to Andrew more than he did. 

Andrew looked unamused. “I can’t believe how incredibly stupid you are sometimes.” He gestured to himself.

“What?” Neil’s eyes flickered over his outfit. Then it clicked. “I wasn’t meeting Robin, was I?”

“Reservations were at eight,” Andrew remarked dryly.

Neil checked his phone. Quarter past ten. He winced. Had he really been gone that long? 

He didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t like Andrew to visit unprompted. Definitely not like this. Not as a ... surprise. 

Something else caught Neil’s eye as he looked at his phone. “It’s February 14th,” he said, a slow grin curling his lips.

“He knows how to read,” Andrew said with mock surprise.

“That’s Valentine’s day,” Neil persisted.

“Really?” Andrew flicked the cigarette onto the ground, stomping it out with his foot. 

“You know,” Neil said slowly, trailing a finger along the fabric of Andrew’s collar, “I wonder what the press would think if they knew Andrew Minyard was a hopeless romantic,” He stepped closer.

Andrew narrowed his eyes. “One hundred and three percent, Josten.”

He leaned in close, lips inches from Andrew’s. “Yes or no?”

Andrew flicked his head but pulled him forward by his collar. “Yes.”

His lips met Andrew’s in a soft, warm kiss that sent pleasant shivers down his spine. All of his worries faded into nothing and when Andrew’s cool, rough hands found their way into his hair, pulling him even closer, he knew that in the end, he was going to be okay.

[youreinit]

Riverdale Rewrite S01xEp 01

Summary: It’s literally just the show’s storyline if you were a part of it, from your pov

Pairing: Sweet Pea x Female Reader

Warnings: Language, severe parental abuse, parental death, mentions of being depressed/suicidal (that’s it, I think? let me know if I missed anything)

A/N: So I decided to do a thing to try and ease myself back into writing. It’s been years since I’ve actually sat down and really written something, so I’m really sorry if this sucks. 

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN RIVERDALE, IT'S CHARACTERS, OR ANY OF THE ORIGINAL SHOW WRITING. I AM ONLY ADDING TO THE ORIGINAL WRITING TO PUT MY READERS INTO THE STORYLINE. PLEASE DON'T SUE ME.

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"Are you excited? Nervous?" Kevin says, lounging on Betty's bed, surrounded by the soft pink and white of her bedding (and walls... and dressers) I glance over to Betty, applying her light layer of makeup in preparation for seeing the boy in question.

"Both. I haven't seen him all summer." Betty glances at us through the mirror. Betty and Archie have both been off doing their own things all summer, so her apprehension is entirely understandable. Who's to say they didn't both change?

"Which is why nerves are acceptable, but we agreed, Betty It's time. You like him, he likes you." I finally speak up, standing to help Betty smooth out her ponytail.

"Well, then why, (Y/N), hasn't he ever said or done anything?" Her shoulders visibly slump as I tie off the signature Betty Cooper look. I can't help but feel bad for the girl. She's been pining after Archie Andrews for years now. They seem like they would be perfect, just like everything else in this town.

"Because Archie's... swell, but like most millennial straight guys, he needs to be told what he wants. So tell him. Finally." Kevin is obviously tired of this back and forth between the two, and honestly I can't blame him. It's so.... expected. She's been waiting all this time for Archie to make the first move, what's to say she's not allowed to be the one to make that leap?

"Well, we'll see. I mean, it depends."

"Oh, my God!" Kevin's outburst catches both of our attention, causing us to whip around to face him. He's looking out the window, face frozen in a look of shock.

"What?" Betty asks moving to look out of the window too. Finally catching up, I see what they're both gawking at. Good God.

"Game-changer. Archie got hot! He's got abs now. Six more reasons for you to take that ginger bull by the horns tonight."

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"Have fun you two!" After meeting up with Archie and seeing the two off, Kevin and I stood outside the Cooper household, watching the two hopeful lovebirds walk off in the direction of Pop Tate's Chock'lit Shoppe.

"You wanna come over for a little bit? My dad's been so busy lately, it's been getting a little lonely."

"Sorry, Kev. I made plans with some of the Serpents. Maybe tomorrow?"

"Yeah, sure. Have fun!" He gives me a smile and a hug, and we head our separate ways.

Throwing my leg over my bike, I start it up and head off over the tracks. The Whyte Wyrm is bustling tonight. Being the last night of summer, many (if not all) of the younger Serpents have decided to get one last good night in before school gets back in motion. Of course, school isn't exactly something that's going to stop them from being out all night, it's really just an excuse to party. Pulling into an empty spot near the side of the bar, I cut the engine and hop off, my boots crunching the gravel under my feet. I unzip the leather jacket around my shoulders, adorned with a snake on the back, allowing the cool air of the night to meet my body. It's a beautiful night, and if I hadn't promised to meet my friends here I would've kept driving, maybe into Greendale, who knows. But I'm here now, so I unbuckle the strap holding my helmet in place and pull it off my head, shaking out my hair in the process.

"Hey, (Y/N)! You made it!" Turning to the back entrance of the bar, I spot Toni pushing herself off the wall to come greet me.

"I said I'd be here, didn't I? If nothing else, I'm a woman of my word." I meet her halfway and throw my arm over her shoulder, turning her around to head back into the bar. "Is your break over?"

"Unfortunately, yes. Just in time to get you your first drink of the night. What's it gonna be?" As soon as the door is open, the smell of alcohol, cigarettes and leather meet my nose and I smile as I step into the familiar surroundings. I look around for the other two people I agreed to meet here, spotting them by the pool tables.

"How many drinks have they had?"

"Four. Each. And there's no sign of them stopping any time soon." She gives a half smile as she watches the boys, sliding behind the bar.

"Great. I'll take Sweet Pea if you take Fangs? They definitely shouldn't be driving home tonight"

"Sounds good to me. Water then?"

"Yeah. And one for Beavis and Butthead over there, too, please." I sigh and tap my fingers on the bar while Toni gets my drink. It's not like this is unusual. We rather frequently have to take those two home after long nights at the Wyrm. Usually, though I'm here early enough that I can get them to slow down a little.

"Here ya go. Good luck." She hands me the three glasses and I turn to head toward the pool tables, balancing the glasses of water as best I can while maneuvering my way through the crowd. When I reach my destination, I find the table the boys had claimed and get my things settled in. Pea and Fangs were so wrapped up in their game that they didn't notice me come up behind them.

"Evening, boys." Fangs visibly jumps, while Sweet Pea just turns, his dark brown eyes meeting mine as a gentle smile graces his lips.

"Jesus, (Y/N), you scared the shit outta me." Fangs laughs, turning to greet me with a hug. I return the embrace, laughing at my drunk friend's jumpiness.

"Wasn't my intention, Fogarty, but maybe you should slow down on the drinks for a while. I mean, I was able to sneak up on you two pretty easily."

"Nah, we're just getting started, princess!" I curl my nose at the nickname that Sweet Pea had sarcastically given me when we first met. He laughs at my reaction, pulling me into his side to give me a hug. "Nice of you to join us, though. Thought you might blow us off for those Northsider friends of yours."

"Sweet Pea." The warning tone in my voice is enough to make him throw up his hands, letting it go for now. We've been through this argument many times over. "Take a break you two, I got you some water." Fangs groans and throws his head back, reminding me of a child about to throw a tantrum. Rolling my eyes, I grab his hand and pull him over to the table, Sweet Pea following behind us, pool stick in hand. I hand the two their waters  and make them drink, Fangs putting up much more of a fight, but eventually giving in.

"You're such a baby, Fogarty." Fangs looks betrayed by his friend's words, looking up to meet Pea's joking gaze.

"Hey, drinking water makes you sober up, and that's the last thing I wanna do tonight."

"I don't know about sobering you up, but I do know it'll help save you from alcohol poisoning, so drink up Fangs. By the way, Toni and I are giving you a ride home tonight. You'll thank me tomorrow when you don't have a hangover for your walk back to your bikes."

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A few rounds of pool later, and several glasses of water practically forced down their throats, Toni's shift is over just in time for Fangs to run outside, just making it out the door before puking his guts out.

"Great. I swear to god, if he pukes on me I'm gonna throw him off my bike." Toni says, gathering Fangs' things.

"I mean, it wouldn't be the first time." I say with a chuckle, only laughing harder when Toni throws a playful glare my way.

"I'd better get him home. We do have school in the morning."

"Yeah, I should probably get going, too. Fred will kill me if I come home at 2 in the morning on a school night. See you later Toni." I give her a quick hug before she rushes out the door. Turning to the Sasquatch of a man, I can already see that he's gonna fight me on leaving, even though he can barely stand up straight without his pool stick to lean on. "Ready to go, Pea?"

"C'mon, (Y/N), it's not even that late." His slurred words make me roll my eyes as I gather his things for him, slipping them into the backpack he had brought with him.

"Do I need to get Hog Eye to help you to my bike?" He sighs, knowing the battle is lost and being too drunk to really fight me on this. I pull the stick from his hands and place his arm around my shoulders, guiding him through the rapidly thinning crowd and to the back entrance, waving bye to the bar staff on our way out. Getting Sweet Pea on the bike was a much more difficult task, seeing as the boy is over a foot taller than me, but with what little help he can give, we manage, me getting on in front of him and forcing him to hold on. The ride to his trailer isn't a long one, but it's always much harder to make it when I'm having to focus on not letting him fall off. Pulling into Sunnyside trailer park, I maneuver through the dirt path as smoothly as I can, pulling up in front of Pea's trailer and shutting off the bike. "Alright, you big oaf, let's get you to bed."

"I got it, I got it." He shoves my hands away, clumsily climbing off the bike and almost face planting when his foot catches on the seat.

"Yeah, you got it alright." I pull him up by the arm and wrap it back around my shoulders, pulling his house key out of my pocket, unlocking the door and stepping in first to help him step up into his home. Thankfully, he doesn't have very far to go to get in bed. Once he's through the door, we basically just pivot and he flops onto his mattress. It's a dance we've done many times, and by now it's practically routine. I pull his boots off, followed by his jacket, and place them neatly by his door before opening his mini fridge and pulling out a gatorade. Placing it and a bottle of ibuprofen by his bed, I sit down next to him, placing a blanket over his form. "You gonna be alright, Pea, or do you want me to hang out for a little bit?"

"I'll be fine." He mumbles, already half asleep and not thinking clearly. "Why're you so good to me?"

"It's what friends do, Pea. We take care of each other." I gently smile at him and brush his curls out of his face. God, do I wish it was more than that.

"You should move back to the Southshide. You could stay with me. It would make this whole thing a lot easier at least."

"You know I can't do that, Sweet Pea. Foster Care placed me with the Andrews, that's not something that can just be ignored. But thanks for the offer."

"Hmm..." He closes his eyes and snuggles into his pillow, sleep coming to him quickly.

"Call me when you wake up so I know you're alive, okay?"

"Mmhmm." I chuckle, standing and heading to the door.

"Goodnight, Pea. Sweet dreams."

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"Archie, come on!" I yell up the stairs, trying to hurry the redhead along. He comes rushing down the stairs, almost bowling me over on his way to the kitchen.

"Sorry (Y/N)! Hey, Dad. First day of school and I'm already late. Hey, Vegas." Grabbing a piece of toast, he rushes to the door, petting the lab on his way past.

"Hey, you, uh, you stopping by the site later?" Fred stops him just before we head out the door.

"Dad, it's my first day."

"Oh, we got to get you going in the office, so next summer you're not on the crew."

"Well, I can't. I've got football tryouts. Or is that not okay?"

"No, it's, uh It's okay. Good luck. You two have good day." Fred walks back into the kitchen, leaving us to (finally) head to school.

"Hey, you need a ride?" I ask, heading to my bike.

"Nah, I'm gonna walk with Betty."

"Alright, I'll catch you later."

"See ya."

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Pulling into my usual parking spot, I hop off and head into the school, preparing myself to face another year of drama and bullshit. Spotting Betty just outside the office, I head her way, trying to place the brunette standing beside her. It's a small town, I know everyone here, she's gotta be new.

"So I usually start out my tours with a little history and context. Riverdale High first opened its doors in 1941 and-" Betty starts, guiding the new girl through the halls.

" And hasn't been redecorated since, apparently. Honestly, I feel like I'm wandering through the lost epilogue of Our Town." I chuckle at the reference, realizing quickly that the brunette is much more sophisticated than a majority of people here.

"Uh-huh." Kevin and I come up on either side of the two, me looping arms with the youngest Cooper.

"So what's the social scene like here? Any night clubs?"

"A strip club called the Ho Zone and a tragic gay bar called Innuendo. Friday nights, football games and then tailgate parties at the Mallmart parking lot. Saturday night is movie night, regardless of what's playing at the Bijou, and you better get there early, because we don't have reserved seating in Riverdale. And Sunday nights Thank God for HBO." Kevin quite succinctly summed up what there is to do around town, obviously leaving out the Southside. The last thing the new girl should be doing is wandering across the track on her own, she'd be robbed in a heartbeat.

"Veronica Lodge, Kevin Keller. Veronica's new here. Kevin is -" Betty introduces the two, motioning to Kevin as she spoke.

"Gay, thank God. Let's be best friends." Veronica jokingly says, placing her hand on Kevin's arm and smiling warmly. She turns to me, still holding the smile and looking me up and down. "And who is this?"

"This is-"

"(Y/N)." I say, reaching my hand out for her to shake.

"Nice to meet you." She says, still smiling while taking my outstretched hand. "Love the whole Devil's Angels vibe you've got going on."

"Thanks." I chuckle, relieved that she wasn't more like Cheryl. "If you like this then you'll love the motorcycle I've got parked out front."

"Is it true what they say about your dad?"  Kevin interrupts our conversation, unable to contain his curiosity any longer.

"That he's the devil incarnate? I stand by my father. Does everyone here know?" We all stay silent, giving her sympathetic looks. "Wonderful. Ten minutes in and I'm already the Blue Jasmine of Riverdale High."

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"Oh, and of course there's the Back-to-School - semiformal dance this weekend." Kevin says, continuing to regale Veronica with all of the upcoming events in the town.

"Oh! There's the hottie we were with last night. The red-headed Ansel Elgort. Is he your boyfriend?" Veronica asks Betty, still pointing to Archie as he makes his way down the hall. I chuckle at her description, knowing just how much of a goofball he really is.

"- No, we're just friends."

"- No, he's straight." Kevin and Betty say at the same time. We all give him a weird look and he just looks at us and shrugs his shoulders.

"In that case, mind putting in a word? I've tried every flavor of boy but orange." Veronica says, going back to staring at Archie.

"Actually, to clarify Betty and Archie aren't dating, but they are endgame." Kevin says, breaking Veronica out of her trance.

"You should ask him to the semiformal then." The brunette turns to Betty, a hopeful look in her eyes.

"She should, but I heard it might be getting canceled. Because of what happened to Jason. They're gonna tell us at the assembly." I say, leading the way down the hall to the gym.

"Who's Jason and what happened to him?" If only we could all be ignorant to what happened this summer.

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"Thank you for that moment of silence. Many of you were lucky enough to have known my brother personally. Each and every one of you meant the world to Jason. I loved my brother. He was and always will be my soulmate. So I speak with the confidence only a twin could have Jason wouldn't want us to spend the year mourning. Jason would want us to move on with our lives. Which is why I've asked the School Board not to cancel the Back-to-School semiformal. But rather, to let us use it as a way to heal, collectively, and celebrate my brother's too, too short life on this mortal coil. Thank you all." Cheryl Blossom finishes her speech to the roaring claps of the school filling the gym. It was very flowery speech, but not very convincing. I don't doubt that she misses her brother, I just don't think she's telling the whole truth about what happened. No one buys it, really, not even her inner circle. As we all file out of the gym to go to class, I catch a flash of orange hair out of the corner of my eye. Where is Archie going in such a hurry?

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Sitting at our usual lunch table, we all listen to one of Archie's songs. I'd heard it in bits and pieces throughout the summer, but I'd never heard it all put together until now. He really is a pretty good musician, which explains why he chased down Ms. Grundy after the assembly today. I just hope he can figure out how to tell his dad before he runs himself ragged trying to keep up appearances.

"Can I join?" Veronica asks, Archie quickly stopping the music and closing his laptop as she approaches.

"Yeah." Betty says, her and Kevin scooting over to make room for her on the bench.

"What are we doing?"

"Listening to one of Archie's songs. I thought we were going to have to pretend to like it, but it's actually really good." Kevin informs her, looking as surprised as he sounds.

"Wait, that was you singing? Something you wrote?" The brunette seems as shocked as the rest of us, eyes a little wide and a small smile on her lips.

"It's rough." Archie says, a little insecure as always.

"No, it's great." Betty reassures him, Kevin and I nodding in agreement as she reaches towards him.

"It's incredible, actually, the little snippet I heard. Is that your thing? Music? Are you doing something with that?" Veronica rests her chin on her hand, genuinely curious and wanting to get to know us.

"Yeah, that's the plan. So how's your first day going? Good?" Archie changes the subject, trying to get the attention off of him.

"Not to be a complete narcissist, but I thought people would be more-"

"Obsessed with you? Any other year, you'd be trending number one, for sure. This year, though, it's all about Cheryl trying to win the Best Supporting Psycho Oscar for her role as Riverdale High's bereaved Red Widow." I laugh at Kevin's description, finding it surprisingly apt in this situation.

"Hey, I should go. I got that meeting with Grundy and then football tryouts, so." Archie gathers his things and begins to stand up, heading off to do exactly what I had hoped he wouldn't do.

"You play football, too? What don't you do?" Archie smiles and shrugs at Veronica, then rushes away, the rest of us watching him leave until we're sure he's out of earshot.

"Before you ask, Blue Jasmine, no, she has not invited him to the dance yet." Kevin says, looking at Betty accusingly as she moves around the table to take Archie's empty spot.

"Not yet, and don't talk about Archie." I follow Betty's gaze and spot the other red head in the school coming our way.

"Veronica Lodge, I'd heard whisperings. I'm Cheryl Blossom, may I sit? Betty, (Y/N), would you mind?" Cheryl doesn't even wait for us to respond, instead pushing her way into the seat, forcing me to press myself into Betty to avoid being sat on. "So, what are you three hens gossiping about? Archie's Efron-esque emergence from the chrysalis of puberty?"

"Extracurriculars. Weatherbee wants me to sign up for a few." Veronica expertly diverts the conversation, throwing Betty a sly smile.

"Cheerleading. You must. I'm senior captain of the River Vixens." Cheryl proudly puffs out her chest and gives her signature 'I'm better than you' smile.

"Is cheerleading still a thing?" Kevin says, trying to say it quietly, but speaking just loud enough to receive Cheryl's spiteful glare.

"Is being the Gay Best Friend still a thing?" She snaps, and then, in true Blossom style, she turns the charm back on and looks back to Veronica. "Some people say it's retro, I say it's eternal and iconic."

"At Spence, I sat at the top of the Elites' pyramid. I'm in. Betty, you're trying out, too." Veronica smiles softly at the blonde, who shrinks into herself slightly at the suggestion.

"Of course, anyone's welcome to try out, but Betty's already got so much on her plate right now and being a Vixen is kind of a full-time thing." Of course Cheryl would fat shame her. Some things never change. "But open to all!" She stands then, allowing Betty and I to move back across the bench. "Follow me on Twitter and I'll do the same. My handle is @cherylbombshell."

"Good riddance, she-wolf." I say quietly as Cheryl walks off, immediately turning back to Betty and putting a hand on her arm for comfort.

"Okay. Go ahead and hate on cheerleading, but if Hipster Prince Harry-" Veronica starts, but Betty interrupts her.

"I'd love to be a cheerleader. It would look great on my college applications. But last year, when I tried out, Cheryl said I was too fat."

"Too season 5 Betty Draper. It was a great line, but not at all true." Kevin backtracks after seeing the look I sent his way.

"Well, you're a total smoke show now. I mean it. As hot and as smart as you are, you should be the Queen Bey of this drab hive." Betty laughs lightly, looking around the table at all of us. "Look, if you want to be a River Vixen, I'll help you prep. I have moves." Betty considers the offer for a few seconds, before perking up suddenly and taking a deep breath.

"Okay. You know what? Show me your moves."

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"We're blue! And gold! We're dynamite! We'll take you down, and fight the fight! Whoo! Go, Bulldogs!" Standing at the side of the bleachers where Cheryl can't see me, I watch Betty and Veronica perform their routine. It's pretty good. I mean, it's.... cheerleading.

"Hmm. Ladies, where's the heat? Where's the sizzle?" For once, I actually kinda agree with Cheryl.

"Well, you haven't seen our big finish yet." Veronica says before whispering something to Betty and reaching for her. Before Betty has time to question her, they're... kissing?

"Check your sell-by date, ladies, faux lesbian kissing hasn't been taboo since 1994. So let's see if you do better with the interview portion of our audition. Betty, how's your sister doing?" Oh no, this is gonna get bad.

"Um, Polly's fine, thanks for asking-" Betty is visibly uncomfortable, wiping lipstick off her face and wringing her hands.

"Veronica, has Betty told you about her sister yet?"

"Uh, no-"

"Go ahead, Betty. Tell Veronica about your sister and my dear brother."

"Polly and Jason dated." Poor Betty looks and sounds defeated as she talks about her sister.

"I wouldn't say "dated"." Cheryl scoffs as she continues to berate the blonde for things that are obviously out of her control.

"It didn't end well." She meekly explains to Veronica.

"In fact, Jason's probably why your sister had a nervous breakdown and now lives in a group home, isn't it? That's what my parents think. What do you have to say about that, Betty? Go ahead, the floor is yours. Whatever you've been dying to spew about Jason and how he treated Polly, unleash it. Destroy me. Tear me a new one. Rip me to shreds. Annihilate me." Cheryl seems to be trying to pick a fight with Betty, and I prepare myself to step in on her behalf.

"I just-" Betty starts, hands clenched into fists and her whole body tense.

"Finally." Cheryl sighs. Betty visibly deflates, forcing herself to calm down.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry about what happened to Jason. I can't even imagine what you and your family must be going through."

"Right. Veronica, welcome to the River Vixens. Betty, better luck next time." Cheryl gives Betty a cold look as the blonde shrinks back having received exactly the result she expected. I push myself off the wall and move to confront the captain of the squad, but before I can even move into sight, Veronica speaks up.

"Wait, what? Why? Because you couldn't bully Betty into being a bitch?"

"I need girls with fire on my squad." Cheryl offhandedly comments, waving off the angry tone in her voice.

"I know what you need, Cheryl, because I know who you are. You would rather people fear than like you, so you traffic in terror and intimidation. You're rich, so you've never been held accountable, but I'm living proof." Veronica is stepping closer to Cheryl with every word, eyes set in a harsh glare. "That certainty, that entitlement you wear on your head like a crown? It won't last. Eventually, there will be a reckoning. Or Maybe that reckoning is now. And maybe, that reckoning Is me. Betty and I come as a matching set. You want one, you take us both. You wanted fire? Sorry, Cherrybombshell, my specialty's ice."

Well damn.

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Entering the girl's locker room, I hear the chatter and giggling of the newest round of River Vixens. It's the kind of excitement and happiness that's so innocent it almost brings a tear to your eye. Scanning through the rows of lockers and showers, I spot Veronica zipping up Betty's new uniform.

"Perfect." Veronica smiles as she smooths out the shoulders and turns Betty around to give her a hug.

"Very Betty Draper, season 1." I speak up and smile at the two, loving the looks of joy on their faces.

"Veronica. Why did... Why did you defend me? I know the crowd you ran with in New York. Why are you being so Nice?" Betty asks, turning back to Veronica and slowly gathering her things.

"When my father got arrested, it was the worst thing ever. All these trolls started writing horrible things about us. We'd get letters and e-mails saying that my dad was a thief, my mom was a clueless socialite, and that I was the spoiled rich-bitch ice princess. And what hurt the most about it was" she sighs and takes a seat on the bench, obviously troubled by the memories. "The things the trolls were writing were true. I was like Cheryl. I was worse than Cheryl. So, when my mom said we were moving to Riverdale, I made a pact with myself to use this as an opportunity to become maybe, hopefully, a better version of myself."

"That's a lot of pressure." I said, placing my hand on her shoulder to try and offer some sort of comfort.

"When Polly and Jason got together..." Betty sits beside the brunette and takes a deep breath, finally talking about her sister for the first time in a while. "It meant everything to her and nothing to him, and..." she sighs "and things got super intense and weird and toxic and my mom turned on Polly. Said Polly wasn't her daughter anymore, said all these awful things to her. Jason hurt Polly, but it's my mom who broke her."

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After the girls finished getting ready and gathering their stuff, we walk out of the locker room and head toward the parking lot, finally done with the first day of school. As we walk the track, the football team passes us, heading to the showers.

"Archie!" Veronica calls, waving him over and clinging to Betty's arm. "You're so doing this."

"What?" Betty's eyes get wide and her cheeks begin to lightly flush.

"Slaying your dragons, Betty Cooper, one by one. Hi, Teen Outlander." Veronica smiles brightly at Archie as he comes to a stop in front of us.

"Hey. Nice outfits." Archie smirks, obviously surprised to see the cheerleading getups.

"Betty here has something she wants to ask you about the Back-to-School dance. Go on, Betty, ask."

"I was wondering if you wanted to come with both of us." Betty was obviously flustered and flying by the seat of her pants.

"Huh?" "What?" The two spoke in unison, mirroring the confusion that was on all of our faces.

"It's your first dance at Riverdale. You should have someone to go with, even if it's just a friend." I gotta give it to her, that girl knows how to cover her ass.

"I mean, I'd love to." Veronica recovers faster than the rest of us, going with the story that Betty had created. "(Y/N)? Care to join us?"

"Uh, that's okay, guys. I was gonna go with Kevin." I'm really not in the mood to be in the middle of that cluster-fuck. Guess I better inform Kevin of this.

"I'm not really in the headspace for a dance." Archie says, scratching the back of his head and trying not to hurt anyone's feelings.

"Oh. That's okay." Betty begins, obviously dissappointed.

"Totally unacceptable, Archiekins. We need an escort. Take a break from being a tortured musical genius and come spend a blissful evening with not one, but two newly-minted River Vixens. We'll text you time and place." Veronica finishes her demand with a radiant smile, leaving no room for Archie to argue.

"Okay. Yeah, okay." Archie says, chuckling and nodding his head before running off to the showers

"Bye." Betty waves.

"Bye."

"Wow, Betty. Smooth. You two have fun with that, I've got some business to take care of. See ya later!" I say, backing away from the two before turning and heading to my bike.

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"Hey, FP!" Knocking on the door to the trailer, I impatiently rock on my feet. FP had me subtly keeping an eye on Jughead for a while now, ever since he moved out and decided to be homeless. The Jones family had been slowly falling apart for some time now, FP unconsciously following in his father's footsteps and picking up the ugly habit of drinking.

"God, stop knockin like that, girl. You'll wake the dead." FP opened the door and walked back into the kitchen, signaling for me to come inside. I do so and close the door behind me, watching as FP pours something from his flask into his coffee.

"Starting off the day right, huh FP?"

"Yeah, yeah. I didn't ask for your judgment, (Y/N). I'm assuming you're here about Jughead?" He takes a seat at the dining table, motioning for me to take the seat across from him.

"Yeah," I sigh, pulling the chair out and sitting down. "and no. Jughead's fine. Still camping out at the drive in, still writing. Though, him and Archie aren't really talking anymore. I'm not sure what that's about, but I'm trying to get to the bottom of it without raising suspicion."

"Okay. That's good work, thank you." We're both quiet for a minute, FP watching me over the rim of his coffee cup. "What else is on your mind, (Y/N)? Somethin's bothering you."

"It's just... this whole thing with Jason. It's bringing up some really bad memories." I blink away a few tears that had gathered in my eyes, not wanting to cry over this again. Before Jason, the last person to have died in Riverdale was 2 years ago. A woman from the Southside killed by her abusive husband. My mother. What people would come to find out is that she died protecting me from him. He had been beating us since I was 3 years old, and got us to stay quiet about it by threatening our lives. That night, he had gotten high and decided he was going to beat me with a baseball bat. By the time my mom got home, he had broken my arm and several ribs, and cracked my skull. It was the worst beating by far. My mother pulled him off of me and told me to run. And I did. I bolted out the door, and ran. Out of Sunnyside Trailer Park. Out of the Southside. Hell, I would've run right out of Riverdale, if it hadn't been for a single truck driving home down the streets of the Northside. When I saw the headlights, I thought it was my father, and I bolted into the bushes of the nearest house, praying that he hadn't seen me. When the truck came to a sudden stop, I thought for sure I was going to have a heart attack. I just knew that that was the night I would die. But then a familiar head of red hair appeared through the bushes, and Archie and Jughead started calling my name, asking what was wrong, yelling for Fred. The rest of the night was a blur, but Alice Cooper's article on it the following week filled in a lot of blanks for me. Apparently, Jughead and Archie got me in Fred Andrew's truck, and they drove me to the hospital. After a lot of coaxing, it was Jughead that finally got me to tell them what happened. The cops showed up at our trailer and found my mom's body. They tracked down my father a few hours later in Greendale, still covered in blood. He went to jail and was only in there for a few weeks before a "riot" broke out, and he was killed in the scuffle. Suddenly, I was an orphan, and Fred and Mary graciously agreed to adopt me. It was only a year later that I went through the Serpent's innitiation, and I found my family again. The support that I found during that time turned my life around. FP, Jughead, the Andrews', Betty, the Keller's, all of the Serpent's. It was more than I felt I deserved at the time. But I would still trade all of it to have my mom back.

"I know, sweetheart." FP sighs, running his hand through his hair before reaching toward me and taking my hand in his. "You know we're all here for you, whatever you need. You should take it easy for a while, just spend time with friends. Try to get your mind off things."

"Yeah, I know. I've been doing my best not to be alone since the news broke. The Serpents have been a huge help, honestly. And having this job to do. It keeps me busy." I smile at him and sigh again. "I gotta get home, I'm going to the Back-To-School Dance tonight, so I guess I gotta get ready."

"Alright, have fun." He says, watching as I head to the door. "And hey," he says just as I'm about to leave. I turn back to him and he stands, taking the two steps to the door and wrapping me in a hug, "my door's always open, remember that."

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When I get home, Archie's on the porch playing guitar, seeming stressed.

"What's up 'Archiekins'" He looks up at me and we both laugh at the nickname given to him by Veronica. "Seriously though, you seem stressed."

Archie sighs, about to answer me when the front door opens and Fred walks out. Archie immediately looks back to his guitar and avoids making eye contact with his dad.

"I, um I got a call from your coach today. He's under the impression that you can't play varsity football because I'm making you work for me. Which is odd, because you made it seem like you couldn't work for me because you were playing football. So my first question is Who are you lying to? Me or your coach?"

"Neither." Archie starts to lie, but stops and sighs, dropping his head before shaking it and finally looking at Fred. "Both. Dad-" He sighs again. "I want to study music, I want to write music."

"Football takes you to college. College takes you to business school-" Fred starts, going through the 10 year plan that he and Archie had come up with over the summer.

"- Business school - Takes me back here. To work for you in Riverdale." Archie finishes, obviously not feeling this plan anymore. I stand there, leaning against the porch railing, hoping that my presence would diffuse the situation a bit.

"Not for me, with me. And eventually for yourself, son. The company would be yours."

"No disrespect, Dad, but I don't want it."

"Three months ago, you did. What happened?"

"I've changed. Everything's changed. This summer-"

"This summer what?" Fred asks, practically begging Archie to explain. When he doesn't, Fred sighs, putting his hands on his hips and facing his son head on. "That's it? We don't talk anymore?"

"Dad-" Archie starts, but at this point Fred's practically fuming and Archie knows that whatever he says will just set him off.

"I would never force you to play football. I don't care if you play football. And you don't have to work with me or for me, ever again. But some advice, man-to-man? These decisions that you're making now, son, they have consequences. They go on to form who you are and who you'll become. Whatever you decide, be confident enough in it that you don't have to lie." Fred turns and heads inside to cool off, leaving me and Archie on the porch awkwardly avoiding looking at each other.

"He's right, you know. And he's not mad that you want to do music. He just thought he knew what you wanted, and now you don't. All he wants is you to talk to him about it."

"I know, (Y/N). I just don’t know how."

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"Oh! There they are!" I say, grabbing Kevin's hand and pulling him towards Betty just as Archie walks off.

"Betty, you will not believe who just propositioned me in the bathroom. Give you a hint His name may be Moose, but I'd describe a certain appendage of his as horse-like." Kevin gushes, dying to tell her all about his drama. Following behind the two to the edge of the gym, I spot Archie at the refreshment table talking to Ms. Grundy again. I mean, that's normal, right? He's trying to get into music, and she is the music teacher. So why does it seem like there's something else going on there? While Kevin tells Betty all about his bathroom ordeal, I keep my eyes on Archie, trying to figure out why the interaction between the teacher and student made me uncomfortable. My thoughts are interrupted by Cheryl walking on stage, demanding the whole room's attention.

"Good evening, friends. Are you all having a good time?" The gym erupts in cheers and clapping. "As honorary chairperson and de facto queen of tonight's semiformal, it is my great pleasure to introduce this evening's main entertainment. To know them is to be obsessed with them. Though they usually perform their own material, tonight, they're making an exception and debuting a cover of the song my parents claim they were listening to the night Jason and I were conceived. This one's for you, JJ. I give you Josie and the Pussycats." Cheryl hugs Josie and walks off stage, giving the Pussycats the floor. Just as the music starts, Veronica runs up and grabs Kevin's arm.

"(Y/N), mind if I steal Kevin for this dance? I need his help encouraging Betty to finally tell Archie how she feels."

"Go for it, I'm not much of a dancer anyway."

"Yes! Thank you." And with that, I'm left alone, moving off of the dance floor and choosing to sit on the sidelines and watch from a distance. I had to laugh at the meddlesome duo's idea of 'encouragement', but I don't get to enjoy the humor for long. The talk obviously didn't go well. Looking away from the awkward scene, I catch sight of Cheryl, also watching the train wreck of a scene before leaning over to her cronies and whispering something to them. Whatever she's planning, I want no part of it.

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"Hey, (Y/N), we're heading over to Cheryl's after party, care to join?"

"No, thanks. Whatever that witch is up to it's not gonna be pretty. I think I'm just gonna head home." I laugh, patting Kevin on the arm.

"Do you want a ride? It'd be pretty awful if your date just ditched you after the dance."

"Thanks, Kev, but I'm good. You go have fun. Keep me updated on the drama."

"Oh, of course." We hug, I say goodnight to everyone, and I begin my walk home, dreading the thought of being alone. As I walk, I pull out my phone and search my contacts, looking for someone I know will pick up. Sweet Pea. Of course. Pressing the dial button, I press the phone to my ear and listen to the ringing. On the third ring, he picks up.

"Hey, (Y/N). What's up?" I can hear the laughing and chatter of a party slightly muffled over the line. He must've walked away to talk to me.

"Hey Pea. I was gonna see if you were up to hang out tonight but it sounds like you're kinda busy."

"Nah, some of the Serpents are hanging out at the quarry. You can come join us if you want."

"I would, but I have to go home and change, and I get the feeling I'm not gonna be in the best state to be driving after that." The disappointment is clear in my voice, even with me trying to disguise it. I can already feel the dark thoughts creeping in, and the last thing I need to do right now is drive a motorcycle anywhere near a river.

"I mean, I could come get you. It wouldn't be a problem." I can hear the concern in his voice. The Serpent's are all very well aware of my poor mental health, and Toni led a crusade to teach all of them how to help me when things get bad. It was more than I ever could have asked for, and more than I ever expected. "I don't want you to be alone right now." I chuckle a little, walking up the steps to my home.

"Yeah, Pea. That'd be great. Just give me, like, 20 minutes."

"Alright. Call me if you want me to come sooner."

"Yeah. Hey Pea?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you." Hanging up the phone, I open the door and head inside, going straight up the stairs and changing into jeans and a t shirt. Grabbing my jacket, I head back downstairs and into the kitchen where Fred is sitting at the island looking over bills and drinking a beer. He looks up at me and smiles, putting down the papers and giving me his full attention.

"Hey. How was the dance?"

"It was alright, just another school dance, y'know?" Fred chuckles at that, nodding his head lightly.

"Yeah, I know all too well. Where's Archie?"

"He went to Cheryl's house for an after party."

"Ah. I feel for that family. Can't imagine what they're going through." He sighs and shakes his head, glancing down and back up at me. "How are you doing through all this? I know it can't be easy for you."

"I'm coping. Having people to hang out with and things to do really helps. Actually, I felt almost normal at school today, so that's a new feeling, I've never actually looked forward to school before." We both laugh at that, the air feeling a little lighter. Once we've both settled, Fred takes on a more serious look and meets my eyes.

"You know, you can talk to me anytime, about anything. I'm here for you, whatever you need." His words bring tears to my eyes once again, and I can't help but wonder what life would be like if my father were more like Fred.

"I know. Unlike Archie I don't feel the need to hide my life choices."

"God, yeah. I don't know what's gotten into that boy. Why would he think he had to lie to me about something like that?"

"Honestly, he's afraid he's gonna upset you. He loves you so much, and he just wants you to be proud of him. He's not going about things the right way right now, but I think he'll figure it out. He just needs time." My phone buzzes in my hand, letting me know that Sweet Pea is here. "Speaking of hanging out with friends, Sweet Pea's here. I'm gonna go hang out at the quarry for a while."

"Alright, be safe. And remember to be back by curfew." Standing up, I move to leave the kitchen, deciding at the last minute to turn back around. I quickly and awkwardly make my way around the island and wrap my arms around Fred, one of the handful of times I've felt comfortable enough to show physical affection to the man that took me in when I had no one.

"Thank you."

"Of course, kiddo." He returns the hug and presses his cheek to the top of my head. "Anytime." He pats my back and we separate, smiling at each other and going back to our respective activities.

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THIRD PERSON POV

"For the record, I'm not gay." Moose says, following Kevin through Fox Forest.

"Obviously not, Moose." Kevin chuckles, looking back at the larger boy. "You're on the football team. But if you were gay, what would you like to do?"

"Everything but kiss." Moose catches Kevin by the waist, turning him so the two were face to face. Kevin right out laughs this time.

"I love a good closet case. So, let's start with skinny-dipping and then see what happens?" Kevin suggests, pulling out of his grasp and moving to the water, stopping in his tracks and yelling a bit at the sight that lays before him.

"Dude, are you okay?" Moose hurriedly catches up, looking first at Kevin, then down to the boy lying on the river bank. "Oh, my God, it's Jason. He was shot." He moves a little closer, only looking back at the sheriff's son when a dim light shines behind him. "What are you doing?"

"Calling my dad."

[wematch]

Avatar: The Legend of Neil

For many years, the four nations lived together in harmony.

Then, everything changed when a conspiracy to start a war began.

Only the avatar, master of all four elements, could stop it, but when the identity of the new avatar was found, he vanished.

Many years passed without anyone knowing where he was. Then he appeared in a farm in the Earth Kingdom, disguised as a firebender named Neil. And although his bending skills were weak when he got there, with practice he grew stronger every day that passed.

Now with a war looming by, Neil must find his own path into becoming the new avatar and bring balance to the world.

***

A huge thank you to @tntwme​ for being an amazing beta! <3

This fic was inspired by this amazing piece of art by @aymmidumps​, go check it out! [here]

You can also read it from the start on [AO3]

Book 1: Air

Chapter 4: Truth

Neil returns to train with Kevin on the following day. He begins to follow Kevin’s instructions but when Kevin orders him to adjust his stance for the fifth time, Neil bites his lip to refrain himself from speaking; he bites his lip so hard that he can taste blood in his mouth. Feeling ridiculous, Neil looks around to try to calm down and he finds Andrew already watching him. Andrew arches his eyebrow and something snaps in Neil. Andrew is right, why is he letting Kevin waste his time with basic things that he already knows? Neil gets up and turns around to leave.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Kevin asks.

Neil spares him a glance and continues to walk away. “I’m done with this. I’m not a child.”

“How am I supposed to teach you if you can’t even master discipline itself?” Kevin shouts but Neil continues to walk. “I told you we’re going to start with the most basic exercises for me to determine where you stand,” Kevin continues and then after a moment he throws a fire punch at Neil.

Neil quickly turns around and blocks the attack. “You didn’t even test my knowledge at all,” Neil bites back. And he sees everyone stopping what they’re doing to watch them.

Kevin nods approvingly, “You know how to defend yourself but can you do anything else?”

Neil smirks. “Go on,” he challenges Kevin. He knows that he’s out of practice and he will not be anywhere near his level, but at least he can truly use fire and show Kevin that he knows something.

Kevin doesn’t hesitate and shoots several fire blasts. Neil blocks the first, redirects the second back to Kevin who easily blocks it, and the third one almost hits Neil sending him to the floor when he tries to block it.

Kevin creates a fire whip and twirls it around to make it bigger. Neil gets up in a jump and fire kicks towards Kevin, who easily blocks it with the whip. Kevin then attacks him with the fire whip and Neil is thrown onto the floor once again for trying to block it.

“That’s enough, Kevin,” Dan warns him.

Kevin looks in Dan’s direction. “He was the one that asked for this,” he replies but lets go of his fire. He takes a few steps closer to Neil. “You’re in terrible shape, you’re too slow and your bending has no strength behind it.”

Neil spits out the dirt from his mouth and sits up on the floor panting. “Will you bring me back into shape?”

Kevin nods with a serious face. “I will start designing a workout plan for you, and tomorrow--”

“Ugh, Kevin you take all the fun of things,” Allison interrupts him, which grants her an annoyed look from him. “And I believe I just won a bet. Everybody pay up, I told you that they would fight before the weekend.”

“Oh come on, this hardly counted as a fight,” Nicky whines. He looks at Neil and mouths “sorry.”

“Just pay up, and stop crying,” Allison mocks.

Neil isn’t entirely sure that he likes the idea of the others making bets about him. “You made a bet saying that we’re going to fight?”

“Not just that, she specifically said you’re going to snap from the ridiculous exercises,” Matt explains.

“They’re not ridiculous!” Kevin protests, “I started to train with those exercises too.” 

Neil gets up feeling done for the night and begins to walk towards his camp. He’s tired and bruised so when he reaches the top of the hill he sits down beneath a tree, exhausted. A few moments later, Andrew appears. He doesn’t say a word, he just stares at Neil.

“That was pathetic,” Neil says, running a hand over his hair. His bending is so weak. He doesn't understand it, he hasn't been using it for a while but before he ran away he was always one of the strongest fire benders in his academy. Bending fire came as easy to him as breathing. Now though, his bending was still there but had no force. He was weak and he needed to fix it.

“Yes, it was,” Andrew agrees.

“Fuck off, Andrew.”

Andrew chooses to ignore him and sits down at a safe distance from him. He slightly tilts his head to the side, studying Neil like he was a puzzle yet to be solved. “Truth for a truth,” he tells him.

“What?”

“I’ll trade you, a truth for a truth.”

Neil stares at him for a moment. Not entirely sure as to what Andrew wants to gain from this. “Okay,” Neil agrees, ultimately because he can’t pass up an opportunity to know more about Andrew..

“Who are you running away from?” 

Neil closes his fists, just thinking about the reason he’s here makes him feel on edge. “My father,” he answers. “Why are you here?”

“I made a deal with Kevin.”

“What kind of deal?” 

“Not your turn,” Andrew points out. “What about your mother?”

“Dead,” he answers without looking away from Andrew. He's not sure why he's answering these questions with the truth but Andrew just accepts his response and doesn't ask for more details or tries to comfort him. He just listens and stores that information away, and for the first time Neil finds someone that he feels it's easy to talk to.

“To answer your question,” Andrew starts, “Kevin said he'd find us jobs if we helped him find this place,” Andrew pauses and looks at Neil’s arm. “Now, who burned you?”

Neil is taken back, he thought he had been careful covering his arm, always wearing long sleeves. But Andrew must have seen the scars at some point on the field. At the end of the morning the sun becomes so hot that Neil can’t help but roll up his sleeves a little. “My father,” Neil answers. “How long have you been staying here?”

“Since spring last year,” Andrew gets up, apparently done with their game and without a word he leaves.

Neil stares at his figure walking away. And begins to think again at the terrible display of his skills as a firebender. He needs to get back into shape and the only way he can do it is if he starts training more. And the only time he can do it is at night.

***

Weeks pass in a blur, during the afternoon he trains with Kevin and at night he continues to practice alone. Neil can feel himself becoming much stronger physically, no longer having to stop to catch his breath after a couple of minutes of hard training. He’s quick to learn everything that Kevin teaches him, so it doesn't take them long to start training more advanced levels of firebending.

Even though he's much better and he knows a lot more complex firebending stances, his bending still has no power behind it. Kevin says that he needs to find his source of power, that firebenders can channel their power from anger or hatred but most draw their power from its source: the sun. Neil tries and tries to feel the sun heating his skin, to focus on it and to try to channel that source of power to no use. 

Neil goes back to the clearing after everyone leaves and continues practicing fire blasts. He sees no improvements, and he knows that Kevin is beginning to think he’s just weak. Neil doesn’t get it, he was so strong when he was younger. Firebending used to be so easy to learn back then. He was so good that his bending was the only thing that his father never complained about him. What would his father say if he saw how weak he was now? After all this time wasting his men to find an avatar that couldn’t even master one element. There would be no use for him, how could he destroy the other nations if he was like this? Lola would be so pissed for chasing after him for so long for nothing. And Nathan...Well, Nathan would make him wish he had died in the same fire that had killed his mother.

Neil begins to feel the panic rise in him. His mother is dead because of him and as long as he’s alive he'll always be running from Nathan, it’s just a matter of time until he gets caught. And as panic begins to settle he suddenly loses track of what he's doing. He's lifting away from the floor but he has no control of his actions. As the power of his fire grows and earth begins to crumble around him he realizes that he’s once again in the avatar state. Only once had he felt this kind of power inside of him, and it had been on his mother’s death. He tries to calm down. He can't let this control him. So much power and strength and he doesn't want anything to do with it. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes to focus, they have yet to catch him and he’s in no immediate danger. He continues to focus on his breathing and after a few moments he feels himself returning to the floor once again. 

Neil gets on his knees, his breathing hard, and there’s tears in his eyes that he cleans with his sleeve. He takes a deep breath and looks around. He didn't even try to do anything with his power, but without even trying he had caused destruction all around him. The grass and plants around him are on fire and if he doesn't stop it now it will expand to the fields. He calls the fire to him and as he calms down his breathing so does the fire around him extinguish. He turns around thinking of forgetting that this ever happened, when he sees Wymack is watching him. 

Neil freezes in his step. Wymack is stunned just staring at him and Neil takes a step back, immediately thinking about running away.

“Does anyone know?” Wymack asks.

“No,” Neil answers while scanning his surroundings for any more witnesses.

“I won't tell anyone, kid,” Wymack says when he notices Neil glancing around them. “You can stay.”

“I can't,” Neil starts feeling panic rise once again. Anyone could have just seen him. How could this happen? He couldn't even control it. He’s lucky that the area surrounding him is already half destroyed otherwise the others would surely notice the damage.

“That's your business Neil, I won't tell,” he reassures. “Have you started to learn the other elements?

Neil clenches his fists and shakes his head.

“I can teach you.”

Neil turns around and starts to walk away. “No, no one can know who I am.”

“No one has to,” Wymack tells him, “we can train at night.”

Neil listens but doesn’t stop walking. He packs his things, mounts his ostrich horse and starts to climb down the hill. He passes the farm and once he's about to pass the lake he suddenly comes to a halt. 

At the far end of the lake where you can see far away into the open road is a figure sitting down on a massive rock formation. The moonlight is giving enough light that after a moment he recognizes who it is. 

Neil's too far away and in between trees for Andrew to see him but after a moment Andrew tilts his head to the side and jumps to the floor. For a moment he just stands there in position, knees flexed, head bowed down. And then he turns towards Neil's direction and stares right at where he is.

Andrew catapults himself into the air. Neil is too stunned to do anything else besides stare at Andrew flying in his direction, in a such a controlled movement that makes him land only a few steps in front of Neil. The force of the impact makes the trees and vegetation around them sway for a moment. 

Andrew pointedly looks up at the bag at Neil's back, “Running away?”

Neil blinks twice, wondering how on earth did Andrew spot him so far away. “I need to keep moving.”

“Because of your father?” Andrew asks. Neil tightens the grip on his bag and doesn't answer. “Do you want to stay?”

“I'm putting everyone at risk if I stay.”

“That's not what I asked.”

Neil should leave, anyone could have seen him in the avatar state. But seeing Andrew watching the horizon, Andrew who has been watching him and questioning everything he tells him has made him pause. He's tired of running and for the first time he wants to stay. He wants to keep practicing his firebending, he wants to keep listening to everyone’s stories at lunch and see them fight just for the fun of it. He wants to stay and learn airbending. If he wants to stop running from his father he needs to master all four elements. He redirects his ostrich horse away from Andrew without saying anything else.

***

Next day comes and Neil walks towards the farm as if nothing had happened the night before. He barely got any sleep, trying to figure out what to do, but he's here. He made the decision to stay. He grabs a fresh baked bread and an apple and starts to eat as he walks to where he finished working yesterday. He knows that Andrew is watching him but he refuses to look at him for now, choosing to focus on his work.

During lunch he searches for Wymack and finds him talking to Kevin at the front of the house, both studying a book. He wonders what the notebook contains that's making them so focused and it’s in that moment that Wymack spots him.

“Need something?” He asks and Kevin immediately closes the notebook.

“I need to speak to you.” 

Wymack then looks at Kevin. “We can finish later.”

“I'll keep working on it inside,” Kevin replies and walks into the house.

Neil and Wymack both watch him enter. Then Wymack sighs, “That kid really doesn't take a break,” he comments. Neil looks at Wymack and he's slightly confused with the proud look the older man has.

Neil looks over his shoulder and talks only after Kevin closes the door to the house. “Will you train me?”

“Of course,” the airbender answers. “We can start later tonight but don't expect any special treatment.”

“I wasn't thinking about it,” he replies and goes back to his work. He never thought that he would learn a second element unless his father had caught him, but now he couldn’t wait to start.

When night sets and everyone goes to sleep, Neil goes to meet Wymack behind the barn.

“I have to be honest,” Wymack starts, running a hand over his beard, “I never thought I'd be the one training the avatar.”

“Where do we start?”

“Sit down,” Wymack tells him and sits on the floor in front of him. “Air is the element of freedom. The key to airbending is flexibility and finding and following the path of least resistance.”

“The best offense is a good defense,” Neil offers.

“Yes, that’s one way to put it,” Wymack nods approvingly. “Now, a good way to see this is to see how a leaf behaves in the wind.” He picks up a leaf and sends it away with a gush of wind. “Airbending is all about spiral movements,” he adds when the leaf begins to flutter down. “When you meet resistance, you must be able to switch direction at a moment's notice.” He sends another gush of air towards the leaf that makes it fly further away. They watch it for a moment longer as it resumes fluttering down to the floor. “You need to let your mind and spirit be free, and that is why I need you to meditate.”

"How do I do that?"

“Just close your eyes,” Wymack does it and after a moment’s hesitation Neil does the same. “Focus on your breathing. In and out. Don’t let your mind wander. When it does, just go back to focus on your breathing. Let's try it for a couple of minutes.”

Neil tries to focus on his breathing but he begins to try to understand what he will gain by just sitting around. He tries to focus again. And begins to wonder if he’s going to actually use airbending or if he’s going to be weaker than he already is with fire. “I don’t think I’m doing this right,” he says, beginning to feel frustrated after a couple of minutes.

“There’s nothing to do. Just let your mind relax from all the stress and away from your thoughts,” Wymack opens his eyes and adds, “You don’t have to close your eyes, I like to watch the sun rise while I meditate, I feel it can be quite relaxing."

Neil nods. “I’ll keep trying it.”

***

Days pass in a blur, Neil works on the farm, practices firebending with Kevin and some nights he meets Wymack to teach him airbending. The nights he doesn't train with them he practices by himself. He's currently sitting down on top of the hill trying to meditate and failing when Andrew joins him.

“What are you doing?” Andrew asks, startling Neil.

Neil uncrosses his legs and looks to the side at where Andrew is standing."Just thinking," he answers, Andrew doesn't look like he believes him but seems to let it pass. "Can I have a go?" After Andrew gives him a short nod, Neil continues, "What were you doing on that hill all those nights ago?”

"I couldn't sleep so I was watching our surroundings." 

Neil nods understanding and looks ahead. He’s too familiar with having nightmares keeping him awake at night. Or waking him up and making him wish he never fell asleep in the first place. For a moment they just stay there, watching the sunset. 

“Have you thought about running away again?” Andrew asks him.

“Why?”

“Just trying to figure you out.”

“I’d like to figure out whatever’s wrong with me too,” Neil confesses.

 “Is that why you’re trying to meditate?” Neil blinks twice at Andrew and he adds, “It was obvious what you’re trying to do.”

“I was trying to meditate but I just don’t get it, it seems like my mind is incapable of stopping.”

“Does Wymack think it could help your bending?”

“My bending?” 

“For the way it is.”

“You don’t think I’m just weak, like Kevin keeps saying?”

“No. I see the frustration written all over your face whenever you use your bending,” he pauses, “something changed that affected it. You need to figure out what it is.”

Neil stares at him for a moment too long. “I never really thought about it that way. Wymack wants me to meditate to help my breathing and--” Neil stops mid sentence, his mind running a mile a minute trying to process what Andrew just suggested. He thought his bending was weak because he hadn’t used it for so long but what if that wasn’t the problem? The thing that completely changed his life was discovering that he’s the new avatar. Of having all that power available to him. What if by being scared of all that power he has been resisting it. Maybe even suppressing his bending as much as possible.

“I think I’ve just figured out why my bending is weak," Neil informs him while he studies Andrew's profile, "but I’m not sure how to fix it.”

“Don’t look at me," Andrew says without turning his way, "it’s your problem, you deal with it.”

***

Airbending is frustrating, mostly because Wymack wants him to meditate to clear his mind every time they meet and Neil isn't a creature to stay quiet for too long. But bending air is all about movement so once he starts to bend air Neil finds learning it to be easy.

“I think that’s enough meditation for today,” Wymack watches Neil for a moment. “Meditation i’s something you master with time, but it will allow you to learn proper breathing technique. And that will be important in any type of bending you’ll learn.”

Neil nods. “What now?

“Now, I think it’s time for a new exercise,” he looks up and points to a tree to their side. “See that tree?” Neil nods. “I want you to climb it to the top.”

Neil looks at the pine tree that Wymack is pointing at. It must be more than 30 feet high. 

Neil turns his attention back to Wymack with his eyebrows raised. So far Wymack has shown him proper foot placement and evasive maneuvers, but nothing that could help him with this. “And how do I do that?”

Wymack propels himself to the nearest tree branch that is taller than Neil. “You have to think as an airbender, we control the air that is all around us, so all you have to do is control the air for a smooth landing and redirect yourself to where you need to go,” the airbender lets himself fall and lands smoothly at Neil’s side. “Now, you try it from that same branch.”

Neil copies Wymack’s movements and when he lands next to the older man he begins to think that airbending is indeed quite liberating. “I think I got it,” Neil says, and turns once again to the tree. He propels himself higher this time and it allows him to jump a few branches up. He pauses for a moment, holding the tree’s trunk to gain balance and jumps again to the next one. On that branch only a small push of his feet is enough to send him further up and in no time he reaches the top branches where he still dares to land. He thinks that at that moment airbending truly seems the most freeing element. 

Neil takes a moment to take in the view surrounding him. It’s dark but the light from the moon allows him to see the shape of the mountains on the horizon, the moon reflected on the lake and Wymack’s house further down. He then takes a deep breath and steps into the air and lets himself fall, using airbending to control the fall and pausing at several branches before reaching the ground. 

Neil easily lands on his feet next to Wymack but the airbender isn’t even looking at him, he’s looking towards his left. Neil follows his gaze and finds Andrew staring back at him. He watches as Andrew tilts his head to the side studying him. Neil doesn’t move, he decides to wait for Andrew to take the first step. He may not know for how long Andrew has been watching him but one thing he does know: Andrew knows that he's the avatar.

[bookish-nerd9]

At Long Last: Chapter 3

Shit, shit, shit, shit, i’m late, i’m soo fucking late Neil though.

“Maaaaaaaatt hurry up i need the bathroom, go do your ridiculous hair routine at Dan’s” Neil shouted.

“Damn Neil don’t insult my hair routine, and what’s soo important that you’re rushing me through it?”

“I told you I’m late!!” Neil answered exasperated as he pushed past Matt into the bathroom.

“Late for what?!”

“That guy that monitors the dorm came by two nights ago and he saw the kitten so i made a deal with him that i will touter him in maths and in return he won’t report about it, and thanks to you now I’m late and if he calls of the deal and the kitten is taken i will fucking kill you!.”

“Okay first off you need to name the damn kitten you can’t just keep calling him “kitten”, and secondly do you mean Andrew Minyard, as in you made a deal with Andrew Minyard!!”

“He has a name and it’s kitten, besides if you don’t like it why don’t you come up with a name, and yes i made a deal with him I’m not sure about his last name but his first name is Andrew”

“I won’t name him because it’s not mine I don’t even like it you’re the one who bought it......” at that Neil rolled his eyes, it wasn’t the first time they had that argument and yet each night when he came back he found kitten safely sleeping on Matt’s chest.

“Wait are you serious!! You actually made a deal with Andrew Minyard.” Neil could tell that Matt was standing now outside the bathroom door and couldn’t get what the big deal was.

“Yes, i said i did what is wrong with that?!” Neil said as he yanked the bathroom door open and headed for his room to pack.

“You mean you don’t know the infamous Andrew Minyard.”

“Well I don’t personally know him but i’ve heard about him.”

“And yet you made a deal with him!” Matt exclaimed clearly amused.

“Yes i did to save our cat so you can just shut it.” Nail yelled as he stormed out of their room.

“Well it’s not my caaat!” Matt yelled back.

Neil was jittery, yes he was running late but that’s not it. Something about Andrew made him actually excited and looking forward to this deal.

The next day after Andrew came to their room and still hadn’t texted Neil on when they would meet Neil got really anxious and his patience was wearing thin.

He couldn’t focus on his homework and kept pacing up and down his room that he almost ran a trail on the rug, kept checking his phone which earned him weird looks from Matt because Neil rarely remembers that he even owns a phone, and finally he almost considered skipping practice and this though has never crossed his mind in all his life which was a testament to his anxious state.

Practice didn’t help that day he was distracted and no amount of drills could get him to focus and that made Kevin furious with him and by their third fight Neil decided to leave and go for a run that always helps him.

Half an hour in his run Neil started to relax and focus solely on regulating his breath when a text alert jarred him, checking his phone it read “tomorrow at 4 in the library don’t be late or the deal’s off.”

Neil stopped in his tracks, breathless, excited, and kinda dizzy. “Okay, it’s happening don’t panic it’s cool, it’s nothing actually we’re just studying just don’t ruin it” he told himself.

Now he was actually headed to the library to meet with Andrew however being late didn’t stop him from grabbing coffee on his way.

“I know i know i know I’m late sorry, Matt was hogging the bathroom and......and you don’t care” Neil finished as he saw the impassive look on Andrew’s face.

“Well i bought coffee”

“Is it sweet?”

“Umm no, I don’t really drink it with sugar so i got yours black too, sorry” Neil said weakly

“Stop saying that”

“Saying what?”

“Sorry, stop saying sorry.”

“Yeah okay sure, should we get started?”

This wasn’t going well, at all, Neil didn’t know if Andrew was angry about him being late or about the black coffee, or if Andrew was even angry at all and that impassive look still on his face was because he just couldn’t care less, it was impossible to get a read on him and Neil was getting anxious again.

An hour into the tutoring session Neil started to be at ease, they started with some basics and even though Andrew didn’t utter a single word that impassive look was replaced with an intent focused look instead and Neil took that as a good sign.

After two hours Neil got up to stretch his legs and starting walking around their desk, “How are you soo good at this?” Andrew asked stopping Neil in his track.

“At what?”

“This maths and teaching it.”

“I don’t know i guess it just makes sense to me.”

“Maths makes sense to you?!” Andrew asked with a hint of disbelief in his voice.

“Well yeah, it’s just rules and equations it’s constant so it makes sense, it’s calming in a way.”

At that Andrew just raised his eyebrows and didn’t say anything else.

“Okay!, we don’t have much left to go through for today about fifteen minutes or so.”

“We’ll go over them tomorrow, i need to eat.” Andrew said as he gathered his things and started to leave, leaving a baffled Neil behind him.

“I’m not waiting for you are you coming or not?!”

“Umm....yeah, yes right behind you.” Neil hurried after Andrew a bit pleased with himself.

“So where are we going?” He asked as they stepped out of the library.

“A Waffle House thirty minutes away from here, get in.” Andrew gestured to a black sleek Maserati car.

“Is that your?!”

“No, we’re stealing it.” Andrew deadpanned

“Damn how can you afford this.”

“Are you getting in or am i going to leave you here?” Andrew asked already bored.

“Fine, fine I’m getting in.”

As soon as Neil closed his door Andrew flew with the car leaving Neil holding on to his door. With the way Andrew drove it took them only fifteen minutes to reach the Waffle House and Neil couldn’t be happier to get out off it.

The Waffle House wasn’t fancy and packed as the ones around the campus, this one was a small almost deserted place with a broken neon sign. Andrew headed for it without a backwards glance towards Neil who followed him silently.

As soon as Andrew opened the door a strong smell of fresh baked waffles greeted Neil and he swore to himself that it wasn’t like anything he’s ever smelled before.

The Waffle Houses around the campus smelled nothing like this they had a stale kind of smell around them that meant that the waffles they served are most definitely not fresh while here you can smell the freshness of the waffles and taste them before they reach your mouth.

They settled in the furthest booth in the place, looking down at the menu Neil found that they’ve managed to include every possible combination of toppings and flavors that anyone can think off, it was confusing to choose as he wanted to try everything.

A young waitress came to take their order as she saw Andrew she beamed and asked him if he wanted his usual, he gave her a nod, when she turned on Neil she smiled sweetly at him, “I’ll just have the regular waffles with chocolate syrup on the side please.”

“Great, you're order will be ready in fifteen minutes.” With that she gathered the menus and left.

“This is a nice place, how did you know about it?”

One, two, three, four blinks was all Neil got in response, he got the feeling that Andrew was bracing himself for something he just didn’t know what it was.

“Was driving around, came across it, tried it, the end.”

“Okay, ummm... so that Maserati how did you afford it?”

At that Andrew leaned forward on the table with a look of clear mischief in his eyes, Neil was kinda startled but intrigued as well.

“How about this, for every question you ask i get a question in return.” Andrew finally said.

“So like a game we each take turns asking questions!”

“Exactly like a game.” Andrew said with a smile plastered on his face that didn’t really reach his eyes.

Neil was speared from answering as the waitress came with their orders, Andrew’s was a monstrosity of a plate, it was a heap of different kinds of ice-cream flavors topped with chocolate chips, chocolate and caramel syrup and strawberries, the waffles where no where to be seen but Neil had to assume that they were somewhere under there.

As soon as Neil took his first bite he was certain that that what heaven would feel like “mmmmmmm, this is soo good!!” He moaned, when he looked at Andrew there was a strange look on his face that he couldn’t quite decipher, “how’s yours?!” He asked but before he could answer Neil’s phone rang and as he fished it out of his pocket and saw the caller he swore

“I know I’m late, I’m on my way.” He said as soon as he picked up then immediately hung up on the caller, “I gotta go, I’m late for practice and Kevin will have my head on a spike, how much do i owe you?”

“Never mind, come i will drive you.” Andrew answered as he threw a couple of dollars on the table and headed out with Neil behind him.

“You really don’t have to, you probably have other stuff to do”

“Get in the car Josten”

The ride back was silent but it was a relaxing kind of silence, Neil really didn’t get the concept of “awkward silence”, it’s like how can silence be awkward it’s just silence.

When they arrived and Neil got out Andrew stayed in the car, “you’re not coming?” Neil asked

“No, if i got in I won’t be able to get Kevin to back off without punching him.”

“Yeah, sure okay” Neil said defeated.

“I will text you when to meet again and next time don’t you dare be late!” Andrew said, raised to fingers to his forehead and gave Neil a mock salute and drove away.

Neil really couldn’t wipe off that stupid grin from his face and no amount of yelling from Kevin did it either.

Here is chapter 2

[markonasurface]

4/50 - “We’re designed to be disposable.”

Fandom: All for the Game Characters/pairings: Neil, Andrew, Kevin, Jack, Dan, other Foxes/andreil, Kevineil friendship Summary: At a mandatory team bonding time night, Kevin remembers something from the first time he met Neil. A/N: I started classes this week and haven’t been able to write anything new. I wrote this so long ago. Parts of it might be a little redundant. Also, dramatized.

Dan designated two nights a month as mandatory team bonding time. The upperclassmen (as they still referred to Dan, Matt, Renee and Allison even though technically everyone on the team from the year before except for Neil were upperclassmen), the monsters (as mostly only Allison still referred to Andrew’s group unless the others were annoyed with one of them), and the freshmen switched off hosting the M.T.B.T. nights.

When the monsters hosted, it was almost a guarantee the others were just allowed to tag along to Columbia for Sweetie’s and Eden’s Twilight. It was hit or miss if Andrew allowed them back to the cousins’ house to crash. The nights he let the freshmen over Kevin slept on the floor in Andrew’s room.

When the upperclassmen hosted, they went out for team dinners and watched movies in Matt, Aaron, and Nicky’s room. Occasionally they planned bowling.

The freshmen were split. Some of them tried to get along with the older members of their team but Jack and Sheena went out of their way to make anyone uncomfortable. Dan scolded them when one of their movie choices sent one of their freshmen dealers into a triggered panic attack. The next week at practice she sent them on extra laps.

“Are you sure the movie is appropriate?” Dan demanded, holding the movie case in one hand and staring at Jack.

He looked mock offended. “Tomorrow is Halloween. How much more appropriate can you get than a gory horror movie?”

She looked unconvinced so he added, “It’s in another language so how bad can it really be?”

“What language?”

“Korean or something.” He was already taking the case back and moved to put the disc in the player.

“It’s Japanese,” Kevin corrected even though he suspected Jack already knew.

He waved him off but Dan waited for Kevin to meet her eyes. She tilted her head, questioning, and Kevin shrugged before going to take a seat on Neil’s left.

Neil hated movies and usually tuned them out or watched half-heartedly. He especially didn’t care to read subtitles.

He noticed Dan and Matt occasionally glancing around at their teammates, probably trying to make sure everyone was okay. Neil slanted a look toward Kevin and saw that he was looking more unhappy the longer the movie played.

He was about to nudge him when he felt Renee go rigid on the couch behind him. He quickly turned his attention to the screen and stiffened as the villain selected a sharp knife and dragged it slowly down his captive’s face from his temple to the corner of his mouth.

Neil’s cuts had healed months ago but he felt his scars burning on his cheek like it was fresh. Under the blanket, Andrew’s hand on his thigh coaxed him from his memories and he leaned his head back with his eyes closed, trying to focus on the feel of fingers squeezing his leg.

Kevin gasped and Neil turned to look at him. Under his breath, he spoke in Japanese. He looked up at Neil, eyes wide and said in French, “We’re designed to be disposable.”

Neil jerked, knocking the open bottle from Andrew’s hand to spill in Nicky’s lap.

“What the hell?” He stood up and whiskey dripped off his sweatpants.

Andrew cut a sharp look at Neil but Neil was looking at the screen now. The villain had an axe and swung it a few times to sever the limb of his captive. The others were murmuring around them but Neil and Kevin’s eyes were glued to the TV.

The subtitles were of course in English, the only language they all could understand, but Neil murmured them in French. He heard his name being called but it was distant.

Suddenly a hand blocked his view and he realized Andrew had moved so he could reach Kevin as well. The room went silent as Dan turned off the TV.

“Let’s go.” Andrew said. He spoke a little louder, “Neil. Kevin.”

He grabbed both of their arms and pulled them to their feet. He stepped between them and turned to give them both shoves toward the door.

“Leaving so soon?” Jack asked, an ugly smirk twisting his mouth.

Andrew pushed Nicky and Aaron, who had gotten up to follow, out of his way and grabbed the front of Jack’s shirt pulling him halfway up between standing and sitting on the couch. Jack’s smile faltered but he met Andrew’s gaze.

“Try something like that again, asshole.” It was more of a warning than a dare and hopefully Jack was smart enough to know that.

Andrew let go and the rest of his group took that as their cue to leave. They heard the beginning of a lecture from Dan before the door was shut.

“Neil?”

He pulled away from Nicky, not wanting to be touched right now. They waited for Andrew to unlock their door and filed in. The last person in locked the door and they settled around the living room.

Neil stayed by the door, wall at his back so he could see the rest of the room, needing the comfort of an old habit.

“What happened?” Nicky looked from Neil to Kevin.

Neil met Kevin’s eyes and Kevin nodded. He swallowed. “When I was twelve, I met Nathaniel -”

He paused when Neil flinched at his birth name. Andrew frowned. “Don’t call him that.”

“Sorry, you guys know the first time we met he was auditioning for his life.” The others nodded but Kevin kept his eyes on Neil, staring straight through him like he could picture the scene from a decade ago. “After, the Master sent for us and we were taken up in one of the towers at Evermore. They made us watch -”

After a moment of silence, Nicky realized Kevin was having a hard time finishing and demanded, “Made you watch what?”

Neil forced a neutral expression on his face and said, “Made us watch the Butcher take a man apart piece by piece.”

“You both freaked out before the guy got his arm cut off in the movie,” Aaron pointed out.

“The man Nath - Neil - the Butcher was taking apart was French,” Kevin found his voice again. “He only said one thing when the Butcher threatened him.”

“Nous sommes conçus pour être jetables.”

Kevin’s face paled and Neil felt his stomach turn. He translated for Neil so the others could understand, “We’re designed to be disposable.”

“Neither of you would’ve spoken French then and the movie is in Japanese.” Aaron was getting impatient.

Andrew looked at Aaron, curious. “You think they’re lying?”

“No,” Aaron was unbothered. “I just want them to hurry up and explain how the movie triggered them.”

“Don’t you ever translate things in your head to German or from German to English?” Nicky questioned.

“That’s different,” Aaron crossed his arms over his chest. “English is my first language. It’s all of our first language. It’s strange he would translate it automatically to French. It’s not even his second language; it’s his third.”

Neil cut in. “When I left Castle Evermore last year, I was surprised when I called Coach that he spoke to me in English. No one was allowed to speak in a language Riko couldn’t understand but most days it was the only way Jean could remind me where I was. Whenever Riko wasn’t around we spoke in French.”

Aaron didn’t look like he fully understood but he moved on. “How did you remember that’s what the man said though?”

An uncomfortable look passed over Kevin’s face and he at last looked away from Neil. “I don’t know. I-I, uh, it was the only thing he said. I had nightmares for years after that and I guess - I don’t know.”

“Your brain put the pieces together,” Andrew stated.

“Makes sense,” Nicky accepted. “Trauma can do that to you I guess. Neil?”

His response was automatic. “It was the last thing I asked my - him. Before my mom and I ran.”

“He spoke French, too?”

“No, there was a translator.” Kevin looked back at Neil.

“Your creepy shared flashbacks are creeping me out,” Nicky said and gave an exaggerated shudder.

Aaron looked around at all of them. “How’d Jack know?”

There was a knock on their door. Even though Neil was right there, he didn’t move to open it. Nicky got up from the floor and looked through the peephole. He opened the door to let Dan and Matt into the room.

“How’s Renee?” Neil asked because he knew Andrew wouldn’t.

Dan and Matt exchanged confused looks and Matt told him, “She’s fine. She’s with Allison.”

“We came to see how you two were,” Dan informed them even though it was obvious.

Kevin was back to staring vacantly at Neil but Neil answered, “We’re fine.”

“Can we ask what happened?” Her tone was cautious.

Nicky looked between the two men’s faces and Neil shrugged. “They were reminded of the day they met.”

“Meaning?” Matt urged them to elaborate.

“Meaning they watched Neil’s - the Butcher cut a French man into pieces.” Nicky said.

Curiosity got the better of Aaron and he took a break from ignoring the upperclassmen to ask, “How did Jack and Sheena know what he said?”

“Hm?”

“The French man only said one thing the entire time Kevin and Neil were in the room and Kevin didn’t even realize he remembered until watching the stupid movie tonight so how did they know it would set him off? The only people who would know that are part of the Moriyama’s circle.”

Nicky jumped in with a question of his own. “And why would Jack target Kevin? He worships him.”

“He was probably just trying to get to Neil,” Dan reasoned.

“The movie was in Japanese.” Neil couldn’t make sense of it all.

Andrew stood up then and went out the door.

“Where are you going?” Dan called after him. They all went out into the hall and watched him pound on the freshmen boys’ door.

He took a step back and waited. One of the boys called over his shoulder, “I think someone’s here to see you, Jack.”

Jack swaggered over to the door. “Can I help you?”

As soon as he was close enough, Andrew pulled him into the hallway and slammed him against the wall. “What’re you doing?” Andrew asked him as the rest of the freshmen rushed to the door.

Jack opened his mouth to answer but only a choked sound came out when his eyes fell from Andrew’s face. “The truth.”

“Andrew, stop,” Sheena begged.

“I was just having some fun,” Jack stuttered. He winced and said, “Stop. Please.”

“I said ‘the truth,’” Andrew reminded him.

Sheena looked wildly around until she spotted Neil. “Stop him. He’s going to kill him!”

The only thing Neil was worried about was drawing a crowd. If Jack was hiding something, Neil and Kevin wanted him dead. “Shut up,” he told Sheena.

Dan stepped forward as a bedroom door opened. “Andrew, let’s take this inside.” She looked behind her and was relieved to see it was only Renee and Allison.

“Please!” Sheena cried and Neil hissed, “Shut. Up.”

The freshmen tripped over themselves when Andrew shoved Jack toward them. Once again the entire team crowded into the freshmen’s suite. Andrew quickly pinned Jack to the wall again and held the knife to his chest.

“How’d you know that phrase would get to Kevin?” Andrew always spoke calmly.

“Kevin - what?” Jack sought Kevin’s face out.

Andrew put pressure on the knife in his hand and Jack squirmed. “The only people that know were in the room that day and at least three of them are already dead. Who told you?”

“I wasn’t trying to get to Kevin!”

“The film was in Japanese,” Andrew reminded him.

“Please!”

“I hate that word.”

Everybody jumped when there was a loud knock on the door. “It’s me,” Wymack called. “Open the god damn door right now or your fucking M.T.B.T nights will be spent running marathons.”

Allison let him in and shut the door behind him.

“What the hell is going on in here?” he demanded. “Andrew?”

Andrew ignored Wymack and said, “Look at me, Jack. If you weren’t trying to get to Kevin, tell me why you chose a movie only he could understand.”

“There were English subtitles!” Sheena screamed and Nicky tried to shush her. “We could all understand!”

“Next time you speak out of turn I will put this knife through his hand. Final warning.”

“I swear! I swear!” Jack honestly looked frightened. “I chose a foreign language movie because I knew Dan was more likely to allow it. It was just a coincidence that it was Japanese and it was just a coincidence that whatever was said reminded Kevin of whatever it did, okay? I swear! I promise -”

Andrew tsked and said, “I take promises very seriously.”

“We were trying to get Neil to freak out! It’s true! If we had finished the movie you would’ve seen. He uses a dull axe to torture his last victim. He cuts off his body parts.” Andrew applied slightly more pressure and Jack said, “It’s not a secret that Neil’s father used a dull axe to torture people as he killed them! I bet everyone in this room has read the reports about how his uncle came just in time before Neil’s father used it on him.”

“Don’t call him that,” Andrew said but let Jack go. Jack slid down the wall and a couple of the freshmen rushed to his side.

Wymack eyed them all. “Freshmen, pack your bags. You’re staying with Abby for a few days. She’s waiting downstairs. Go.” He turned to his older Foxes. “Do I need to separate your two groups as well?”

Dan shook her head. “No, Coach.”

“Go wait for me in Andrew’s room.”

Andrew stretched his arms above his head and said, “Yawn. I’m very sleepy. Time for bed.”

“Don’t you dare,” he grabbed Andrew’s sleeve on his way past. “I will be there in a few minutes. All the usual threats apply.”

“Oh, Coach,” Andrew pulled out of his grip. “You know only Kevin and Neil care.”

Wymack didn’t say that that was enough for Andrew; he didn’t need to. He let them leave.

Because I saw this post and all I could think of was tfc/aftg. Tbh it’s all I think about these days.

http://maelerie.tumblr.com/post/135803922052/send-me-two-characters-or-more-and-a-prompt-and

[philosophiums]

Closing Time - TFCFansgive fic

This is the fic that I did for @curlyhairedneil through @tfcfansgive. Hopefully this turned out alright!! I won’t lie, I really super struggled with the prompt, because we all know I’m not one for fluff writing, but this was... admittedly a lot of fun once I finally figured out where I wanted the story to go.

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

Neil doesn’t know what to do on a snow day. Not that he considers this much of one. There’s barely a dusting on the ground, hardly enough to even call it snow. It’ll be gone by tomorrow morning, if not later this evening. He doesn’t get it. Classes – canceled. The whole school – shut down. Even Wymack, the betrayer, had called off Exy practice for the day. It’s not that Neil doesn’t get that, regionally, this is a lot of snow. It’s not even an inch, but to people who live here, who make a home in the south east, this is an abomination. Neil’s been here for three years – has called himself a Fox for three years, holy shit – and they’ve never called a snow day before. It’s unprecedented.

And yet all Neil can see when he looks out the dorm window is a lack of ice and perfect running conditions.

“We’re not going out there,” Andrew says from his spot on one of the bean bags. Kevin is at his desk doing homework. He’s been grumbling for the past fifteen minutes about stubborn coaches and unreasonable fathers. Apparently, not even Kevin could win Wymack over. The court is closed to them.

He should take a page out of Kevin’s book and get caught up on some homework. His chemistry is falling a bit short, but it’s fine because he’s still managing to maintain his GPA. Neil’s already done the math for that. He’d still be eligible to play even if he gets a low D in the class. And thank god, because Neil doesn’t understand the subject and his tutor is atrocious.

“Do your homework,” Andrew says as Neil drops down onto the sofa beside him, heaving a great sigh of boredom.

“No.” Neil stares at the ceiling and then at Andrew’s lap, debating.

“Yes,” Andrew says, and Neil can’t tell if it’s to maintain their argument or if it’s an invitation, but he takes it as the latter and settles down with his head on Andrew’s lap. Neil likes the way Andrew’s eyes track his progression all the way down until he’s on his back, neck at a bit of an uncomfortable angle, but it’s fine because Andrew is watching, looking. It makes Neil warmer, as if it wasn’t winter outside at all.

Kevin puts in his headphones and turns on an Exy game. Neil had known that the homework wouldn’t last long, especially since it was for his literature class and not any of his three history classes. It’s still nice to know that anything Neil says to Andrew and vise versa will be in confidence.

Neil waits for a staring comment from Andrew, but what he gets instead is a hand in his hair as Andrew returns his attention to the television. Neil doesn’t know what’s on, doesn’t care. He watches Andrew the way Andrew watches the show, taking in the reflection of the screen in Andrew’s glasses only to the extent that he likes the way the colors play on Andrew’s amber eyes beneath the lenses. He hums when Andrew takes to lightly scratching his nails over Neil’s scalp, and Neil likes the way Andrew’s jaw works like he’s trying impossibly hard to restrain himself from looking at Neil at all.

There was a time in his life – a long, long time – when this, here with Andrew, wasn’t even a thought in Neil’s head. It wasn’t even a fever dream. Neil knew his life was running and running and lying, was new identities and his mother’s backhand when he fucked up their backstory. Teenage hormones had gotten him a secret kiss that had turned out in the end to be not as secret as he had thought – and nothing special anyway. It hadn’t been worth the beating, hadn’t set off anything inside of Neil that kissing Andrew had – does.

Kissing Andrew is… different. It’s something Neil is afraid will be taken from him one day, something that could be used against him. Every kiss could be the last, every moment like this could be taken away from him so quickly, so easily. His father is dead, Lola is dead, Romero is dead, but there are so many, many others. And on top of it all, there’s Ichirou. Neil could wake up one day and his life could be in ruins.

So when moments like this come – no classes, no practice, an invitingly comfortable Andrew to lounge against, Neil knows better than to wish for anything else.

Neil tracks time by episode changes. They’re all half-hour segments, short little skits that Neil still finds too long and uninteresting. The tropes are boring, and Neil hates how poor the acting is, how the information is never tied together properly and how most of the “facts” are presented through a screen of bullshit. The plots are predictable, all following the same arch, the same path. The jokes are subpar and bourgeois. He’s never asked why Andrew likes them because it never seemed relevant; there were more important truths to be shared.

“Why do you watch them?” Neil asks during a commercial break. Andrew mutes the television and looks down at Neil. “If I spewed half of the nonsense coming from these shows, you would knife me.”

Andrew gives him a look which clearly tells him to not be so dramatic and then returns his attention to the still-muted television.

Kevin swears into the silence, then mumbles something about the stats of the game he’s watching. Neil picks up on the scribble of a pencil and wonders if Kevin is going to assign him this particular game to watch at a later date – tomorrow, most likely.

“I watched them in juvie,” Andrew says, pulling Neil’s focus where it should never have strayed from. The position of his neck is getting uncomfortable, but he doesn’t dare move. If he pulls away now, Andrew might stop talking, and Neil would rather die. “It was always funny to me,” Andrew continues in a humorless tone, “that the detention center allowed us free range on the television for an hour each day, but most of my foster homes wouldn’t even let us look at their screens.”

Thinking about Andrew’s past is never fulfilling for Neil, in the same way that he would rather never think about his own past. It happened, it was awful, and he doesn’t want it to keep affecting who he is today. Neil was never allowed to watch TV shows either, unless it was the news or it was a requirement for class – and those were usually documentaries. It was only when Neil showed up here, rooming with Seth and Matt, that he was allowed television. And despite Neil never taking advantage of Matt’s open invitation to watch sports other than Exy or Allison’s near-insistence that Neil watch some reality show with her, Neil can empathize with Andrew, with the juxtaposition of gaining a freedom in a place that should have been his prison.

But, for all of the hideous events that they have survived, television is not something worth weeping over.

So Neil snorts derisively and gives his head a small shake. “And of all of the channels available on cable network, you chose this one?”

Andrew blinks quickly enough for Neil to count it as surprise. Of course, Andrew chose the channel in juvie. Andrew has been frightful since day one, and Neil doubts that Andrew has ever allowed himself to be weak. Juvie would have been the perfect opportunity for him to bulk up, to punch someone hard enough to knock a tooth, to gain some semblance of control for the first time in his life.

It’s not surprising when Andrew tugs at Neil’s hair, signaling him to sit up. It’s also not surprising when Andrew immediately stands and makes his way to the kitchenette. But Andrew’s crooked finger is intriguing enough to unfold Neil’s legs and get him off the sofa. He glances just once at Kevin, sees his nose mere inches from the screen, and decides to just let him go blind.

Andrew pins Neil with a yes or no the second he’s in the kitchenette. The answer is yes, always yes, and Andrew’s mouth is a fire trying to fend off South Carolina’s poor excuse for a winter. Neil winds his fingers through Andrew’s hair to tug him along as he backs himself into the counter. He likes being here, something solid at his back and Andrew at his front. It doesn’t feel like being pinned for dissection. It feels… good. It feels like home, like reassurance, like Andrew’s hot breath against Neil’s wet lips as they break apart for a quick grab of air.

They don’t need words, don’t need misguided and ambiguous ‘thank you’s. They don’t even need to trade one calm assist for another.

Andrew kisses Neil once more, just as intense but not for as long, and then pulls away.

“We’re out of ice cream,” Neil says, half-amused when Andrew beelines for the freezer. They haven’t eaten supper yet – fuck, they haven’t even eaten lunch yet – but ice cream is an easy way for Andrew to, well, cool down after a mention of his past. Andrew stops before his fingertips even brush the freezer’s handle. Neil waits for Andrew to open the door, to double check as if looking for himself might make the ice cream appear, but he’s mildly surprised when Andrew instead turns back to Neil. Being the recipient of trust is still a new sensation.

“Who ate the last of my ice cream?”

Nicky did. “I don’t know,” Neil says, and he knows that Andrew knows he’s lying. But Andrew doesn’t call him out except to frown a little deeper. “We could always go get some.”

That suggestion is greeted with indifferent eyes and a simple, “It’s snowing. Everything is shut down.”

“I’m sure Walmart is open.”

“That’s in Columbia.”

Neil shrugs. “Good thing you own a car.”

“I’m not going to drive in this weather.”

Neil has a close call with a humorless scoff, but manages to pass it off as a hitch in his breath. “It’s just a little snow, Andrew. Haven’t you ever driven in snow?”

“No,” Andrew says, immediate and honest. “But you have.” It doesn’t have to be a question.

Once more, Neil shrugs. “That’s not a very interesting story. Just some shitty cars, some grinding gear shifts, and some snowy mountains.” Maybe Neil owes Andrew for the story about juvie, but that doesn’t mean he owes it now. It could be a debt, something to pay later when Andrew needs something from him versus simply wanting something.

“To Columbia, though?” Andrew asks, and Neil gets where he’s coming from. “It’s just ice cream.” And it’s a long fucking drive.

“Not only,” Neil says. “It’s a way to get me out of the damn dorm. I’m dying. I hate being cooped up.”

“So dramatic. Alright,” Andrew says, agreeing just like that.

They don’t bother to say goodbye to Kevin, to tell him where they’re going or what they’re doing. Andrew doesn’t even text Nicky to put him in charge of Kevin. Riko is dead and their deal is off – Kevin needs independence more than he needs protection.

Andrew grabs his jacket and for a half-second, Neil debates shirking his own just to prove a point – but in the end he doesn’t know what point he’s trying to prove, and he, like Andrew, has adjusted to South Carolina’s temperature enough that it does feel chilly outside. He can afford time for comfort, so he puts on the jacket and follows Andrew outside.

The car keys are traded for the cigarettes in Neil’s pocket, and Andrew crosses behind Neil for the passenger side. It takes a moment to readjust the driver’s seat to where Neil likes it, but soon enough they’re on the road.

The snow plows are out. Neil honestly can’t fucking believe it. There’s less than an inch of snow collected on the grass, and the pavement is wet but completely clear. He doesn’t get it, can’t comprehend how an entire campus and surrounding businesses can close down from such a minor inconvenience.

In the passenger seat, Andrew lights a cigarette, but he doesn’t offer one to Neil. More surprised than offended, Neil glances at Andrew.

“Eyes on the road,” is all Andrew says.

“There’s nothing wrong with the road except slow-ass snow plows and the congestion they’re causing,” Neil says. “Can I have a cigarette?”

Andrew seems to debate it, staring stonily out of the windshield. After a moment, he digs out a new stick and lights it. “If we end up in the ditch because of you, you had better pray that the crash is bad enough to kill us both, or you’re paying for all of the damages and buying me a new car.”

“Again,” Neil supplies – unhelpfully, judging from Andrew’s expression.

The interstate is shut down – really? Neil thinks, and flips a U-turn in the middle of the on-ramp – so they take the back roads. It’s freeing, Neil supposes. Peaceful in a way that comes from them being alone on the road, everyone else shut-up inside their homes, enjoying a day off from school or work. Though the snow is melting almost faster than it can accumulate, it’s still pretty as it falls from the clouds, and Neil likes the sheer screen it makes across his vision, something beautifully obscure.

“Do you like the winter?” Andrew asks, and maybe it’s collecting a debt but maybe it’s just curiosity.

“I miss it, sometimes,” Neil admits. “I’ve had a lot of good ones and a lot of bad ones. I’ve seen snow turn red, seen it fall like crisp linens to cover bodies and any traces that my mother and I were there. But I’ve also woken up and seen an inch of frost covering the trees, catching the light.” He wants to say that he’s spent a couple of winters with Andrew, now, and they’ve been the best yet, but he keeps that to himself. “I like the cold. It’s refreshing, makes me feel alive.”

“You have Exy for that.” Andrew digs out the pack of cigarettes, and Neil thinks it’s to hide his bemusement. “I’m not living anywhere that gets constant snow. You’re on your own.”

Neil’s hands relax on the steering wheel as a laugh rolls through him. “Making me choose between you and snow. That’s not fair.”

“I could make it be Exy and me,” Andrew threatens around the cigarette in his mouth, clicking lighter in his hands.

Neil takes the cigarette away and catches Andrew’s eyes for as long as he dares on the snow-wetted highway. “I would choose you,” he says, “without hesitation.”

Andrew looks away. For a moment, Neil thinks he’s lost the conversation, lost their pleasant afternoon. But then Andrew rasps out, “Don’t say that.”

“You think I don’t mean it?”

The slight shake of Andrew’s head would have been answer enough. “You’ve told me once already that Exy is everything to you. Don’t lie to me and tell me you’ve changed your mind.”

Neil puts on the brakes and pulls the car over to the side of the road. He puts the hazards on just in case before he twists in his seat to face Andrew head-on. “Look at me,” he says, and Andrew does. “I mean it. I don’t believe that you would ever make me choose between you and Exy, but if something happened… if the world aligned the wrong way and I had to give up one or the other….” Neil reaches out, stops, and then touches Andrew’s cheek when he nods. “You are the single best thing in my life. That I get to share my favorite hobby – my future job – with you is beyond amazing. But you are worth so much more than that, Andrew.”

They both know what it feels like to not be wanted, to be used and then pushed aside. Neil is not going to let Andrew feel like that anymore, not around him, anyway. But he’s also not about to force Andrew into an emotional conversation so far from home, in the middle of the snow that Andrew seems to loathe. So Neil smiles and hands back the cigarette. Then he shakes his head and pulls back onto the road.

“I’m driving two hours just to get you some damn ice cream,” Neil mutters, as if that should be proof enough. It’s not, but it does what needed to be done. Andrew relaxes and takes a drag, flicking the ash out through the cracked window.

“Stop bitching and drive.” He sounds normal again.

Neil has every intention of bringing up this conversation at a later time, but for now… for now, he’s content to just drive and reaffirm that this is real life, that he’s not dreaming, and that he’ll have Andrew for as long as Andrew will let him.

[fratzombie]

So Bless Me Anyway Chapter 1:  Of Pretty Nurses and Bleeding In Hallways

Summary:

Andrew is dying of AIDS in 1980. Kevin leaves him because he can't cope and Andrew falls in love with his nurse who is Neil. Its the Tony Kushner play Angels in America adopted with the characters from Nora Sakavic's book series All for the Game. You can read it on AO3 here. 

--

“First of all, you call now. Radio silence for months just to tell him this.  No, you don’t get to talk to him. He doesn’t need this. No, don’t call again. Goodbye, sir.”

Andrew’s head was pounding but the corner of his lips quirked almost in a smile. Nicky was shaking as he hung up the phone. But Andrew felt pride swell in his chest, even if he’d rather carve out his liver with a spoon than ever let Nicky know. He’d be insufferable. But Luther was a cancer. A bigoted nasty oozing sore of a person and Nicky was better off without the bastard in his life as far as Andrew was concerned. But the hazy feeling in his head felt way too familiar so who knows if this affectionate nonsense was organic. Oh, boy did he hate being medicated. 

Andrew’s eyes were still closed, he wasn’t quite ready to open them yet. His mouth felt like it had been stuffed full of cotton and his limbs felt heavy. He didn’t hear the coward. He’d bet the fucker was hiding. Maybe with a bottle.  Andrew said he didn’t want to go to the fucking hospital and he meant it dammit. Passing out or not, it was still his choice. Not that the coward ever listened to Andrew.

“Open your eyes, Mr. Minyard, we know you are awake.” A voice Andrew didn’t recognize. Probably a new nurse. It always took awhile for him to care enough to figure out their names. Unamused, he opened his eyes.

”My name is Neil and I’ll be your nurse for today. How are you feeling?” Neil continued. He looked like a model. Wearing dumb scrubs that were at the very least two sizes too big and with a face and hands full of scars. It was incredibly unfair that a man with knife scars down one cheek and a puckered burn under his eye on the other had a face this attractive. And he was asking how Andrew was feeling. No, this was not how today was going to go.

“Hiya Neil. Are you sure you’re my nurse? Who let you out of the burn unit?  Did you steal those oversized scrubs from them? Naughty, naughty. They don’t like it when you get out of your bed.” Andrew smiled sharply, letting his voice bounce up and down in a parody of how it sounded all those months ago. Andrew firmly believed that when life gave you the absurd the only reaction you can give it is an absurd one back. Neil smiled back just as sharp.

“No, not a patient anymore. See the burns all healed,” the nurse said gesturing to his cheek with his burned hands. His eyes laughed as he said it like he was almost amused at Andrew’s lack of tact. ”So how are you feeling?” Neil continued undeterred by Andrew’s games. How was Andrew feeling? Andrew didn’t feel. Feeling went away to fight in the war and never came home as far as Andrew was concerned.

“Just peachy.” Andrew wanted Neil to leave. Neil frowned and the frown did nothing to sour his looks, unbelievable.

“I’m sure you’ll want a minute alone with your loved one. I’ll just go get you some water and some oral meds.” Neil left and closed the door and Andrew let out the breath he was holding and turned to his cousin who was sitting in the chair.

“Nicky, where’s Kevin?”

–

Andrew was standing in the hallway coming back from the kitchen where he had gotten himself a glass of water.  He felt a little dizzy and it was getting hard to breathe but he was still standing and then the pain in his leg spiked white hot and his knee buckled. Suddenly, he was on the floor. He just wanted help to get back up. It would have taken forever if he’d have to crawl to get to bed. So he shouted to get Kevin’s attention.

“Asshole. Wake up. Kevin. Wake up. Fucker. Wake up.” Andrew could feel the sweat cover his forehead and the back of his neck. This was not good. The big idiot heard Andrew at least and ran to his side.

“Kevin, I think something is wrong. My lungs are doing a piss poor job of breathing,” Andrew said lolling his head so that he was facing Kevin even though he couldn’t quite focus on him. He kept on trying to get his eyes to focus by blinking. But the dizziness was getting seriously in the way.  Kevin started to stand up.

“I’m calling an ambulance,” Kevin said. Andrew grabbed his arm.

“No, wait, I-” Andrew began and was interrupted by the big buffoon.

“Wait? Are you fucking insane?” Kevin put his hand on Andrew’s head.  “Oh God you’re on fire, your head’s on fire.”

“No shit, that’s how a fever works.” Andrew rolled his eyes, regretted it, and winced in pain. Jesus this bullshit was making him feel pathetic.

“I don’t want to go to the hospital. I hate hospitals. Get me up so I can go to bed. We’ll call Aaron tomorrow. Just let me go to sleep.” The asshole shrugged out of his grasp. Stupid body, he used to be able to just hold him there. Stupid loss of muscle tone. Stupid disease.

“I’m calling an ambulance,” Kevin said as he left the room. Andrew could always refuse when the thing got there, he was too tired to fight with Kevin right now. Then he felt a pain in his stomach that felt like he was being punched and then a sharp pain lower like in his groin. He had to go to the bathroom, urgently.

“Kevin stop that nonsense and help me up. Fuck, Kevin, I have to go the bathroom. I don’t want to go the hospital. I just have to go to the bathroom.” Andrew’s bowels did not wait and blood and shit poured out of him. In that moment he couldn’t tell what he hated more, his traitorous body or Kevin. Andrew closed his eyes and Kevin entered the room.

“Andrew? They’ll be here in– Oh my God,”  Kevin said as he was instantly by Andrew’s side. “There’s blood,” Kevin said trying to prop Andrew up.

“You’re useless,” Andrew intoned, “Don’t touch that,” he reprimanded and he passed out.

When the ambulance came Kevin rode to the hospital with Andrew. They headed to the hospital where Andrew worked with his brother. The staff admitted Andrew fast and by 1:00 am he was set up in a room with an IV drip of antibiotics and fluids. The nurse working on him was a friend of Aaron’s fiance, her name is Emily. Emily turned to Kevin.

“He’ll be alright,” she reassured him. But it was a lie and they both knew it. He wouldn’t be alright. This was the beginning of the end.

“No he won’t,” Kevin replied unable to hear the lie, not tonight.

“No. I guess not. I gave him something that makes him sleep,” the nurse conceded. But the idea of a sedative perked Kevin up.

“Deep sleep?” Kevin asked with a little too much hope in his voice.

“Orbiting the moons of Jupiter.” Kevin nodded he was relieved. He couldn’t talk to Andrew tonight, couldn’t face him tonight. He knew it was selfish. Andrew hated anything that dulled his senses after what happened to him with the courts.

“Are you his uh…?” She gestured with her hands.

“Yes, I’m his uh,” Kevin said duly. Not being able to look at Andrew with the oxygen mask on and the tubes in his body.

“This must be hell for you,” she said well-meaningly and squeezed Kevin’s shoulder in support.

“It is. A frozen hell,” Kevin said in hollow voice.

“Yeah, well. We all get to break our hearts on this one. He seems like a nice guy. Cute,” Emily tried again.

“Not like this. Yes, he is. Was. Whatever. Will he sleep through the night?” Kevin asked again far too hopeful. Feeling as though he was suffocating in the hospital room.

“At least,” the nurse told him. Kevin grabbed his coat and scarf.

“I have to go. Tell him, if he wakes up and you’re still on, tell him goodbye, tell him I had to go.” With that, the nurse gave him a nod and her mouth tightened and Kevin left to go to the nearest bar. He stopped at a pay phone before entering the bar to call Nicky and tell him what happened. And then entered the bar and drank until he forgot his own name.

[trinhnhattuan93]

5 cuốn sách về khởi nghiệp trong thời đại 4.0 anh em nên đọc

Năm 2020 sắp đến, sắp thêm tuổi mới, vậy mình đọc sách gì cho ch��n chắn hơn chút nhỉ? Tôi xin giới thiệu với anh em 7 tựa sách hay anh em nên đọc trong thời gian còn lại của năm 2019.

1. The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future

From one of our leading technology thinkers and writers, a guide through the twelve technological imperatives that will shape the next thirty years and transform our lives

Much of what will happen in the next thirty years is inevitable, driven by technological trends that are already in motion. In this fascinating, provocative new book, Kevin Kelly provides an optimistic road map for the future, showing how the coming changes in our lives—from virtual reality in the home to an on-demand economy to artificial intelligence embedded in everything we manufacture—can be understood as the result of a few long-term, accelerating forces. Kelly both describes these deep trends—flowing, screening, accessing, sharing, filtering, remixing, tracking, and questioning—and demonstrates how they overlap and are codependent on one another. These larger forces will completely revolutionize the way we buy, work, learn, and communicate with each other. By understanding and embracing them, says Kelly, it will be easier for us to remain on top of the coming wave of changes and to arrange our day-to-day relationships with technology in ways that bring forth maximum benefits. Kelly’s bright, hopeful book will be indispensable to anyone who seeks guidance on where their business, industry, or life is heading—what to invent, where to work, in what to invest, how to better reach customers, and what to begin to put into place—as this new world emerges.

2. Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy and How to Make Them Work for You

Uber. Airbnb. Amazon. Apple. PayPal. All of these companies disrupted their markets when they launched. Today they are industry leaders. What’s the secret to their success?

These cutting-edge businesses are built on platforms: two-sided markets that are revolutionizing the way we do business. Written by three of the most sought-after experts on platform businesses, Platform Revolution is the first authoritative, fact-based book on platform models. Whether platforms are connecting sellers and buyers, hosts and visitors, or drivers with people who need a ride, Geoffrey G. Parker, Marshall W. Van Alstyne, and Sangeet Paul Choudary reveal the what, how, and why of this revolution and provide the first “owner’s manual” for creating a successful platform business.

Platform Revolution teaches newcomers how to start and run a successful platform business, explaining ways to identify prime markets and monetize networks. Addressing current business leaders, the authors reveal strategies behind some of today’s up-and-coming platforms, such as Tinder and SkillShare, and explain how traditional companies can adapt in a changing marketplace. The authors also cover essential issues concerning security, regulation, and consumer trust, while examining markets that may be ripe for a platform revolution, including healthcare, education, and energy.

As digital networks increase in ubiquity, businesses that do a better job of harnessing the power of the platform will win. An indispensable guide, Platform Revolution charts out the brilliant future of platforms and reveals how they will irrevocably alter the lives and careers of millions.

3. Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works

We live in an age of unparalleled opportunity for innovation. We’re building more products than ever before, but most of them fail—not because we can’t complete what we set out to build, but because we waste time, money, and effort building the wrong product.

What we need is a systematic process for quickly vetting product ideas and raising our odds of success. That’s the promise of Running Lean.

In this inspiring book, Ash Maurya takes you through an exacting strategy for achieving a "product/market fit" for your fledgling venture, based on his own experience in building a wide array of products from high-tech to no-tech. Throughout, he builds on the ideas and concepts of several innovative methodologies, including the Lean Startup, Customer Development, and bootstrapping.

Running Lean is an ideal tool for business managers, CEOs, small business owners, developers and programmers, and anyone who’s interested in starting a business project.

Find a problem worth solving, then define a solution Engage your customers throughout the development cycle Continually test your product with smaller, faster iterations Build a feature, measure customer response, and verify/refute the idea Know when to "pivot" by changing your plan’s course Maximize your efforts for speed, learning, and focus Learn the ideal time to raise your "big round" of funding

Get on track with The Lean Series Presented by Eric Ries—bestselling author of The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses—The Lean Series gives you solid footing in a proven methodology that will help your business succeed.

4. The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable.  The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched.

Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business.

The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively.  Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute.

Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs - in companies of all sizes - a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever.

5. Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

If you want to build a better future, you must believe in secrets.

The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.

Thiel begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if we’re too distracted by shiny mobile devices to notice. Information technology has improved rapidly, but there is no reason why progress should be limited to computers or Silicon Valley. Progress can be achieved in any industry or area of business. It comes from the most important skill that every leader must master: learning to think for yourself.

Doing what someone else already knows how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But when you do something new, you go from 0 to 1. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. Tomorrow’s champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today’s marketplace. They will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique.

Zero to One presents at once an optimistic view of the future of progress in America and a new way of thinking about innovation: it starts by learning to ask the questions that lead you to find value in unexpected places.

6. Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future

We live in strange times. A machine plays the strategy game Go better than any human; upstarts like Apple and Google destroy industry stalwarts such as Nokia; ideas from the crowd are repeatedly more innovative than corporate research labs.

MIT’s Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson know what it takes to master this digital-powered shift: we must rethink the integration of minds and machines, of products and platforms, and of the core and the crowd. In all three cases, the balance now favors the second element of the pair, with massive implications for how we run our companies and live our lives.

In the tradition of agenda-setting classics like Clay Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma, McAfee and Brynjolfsson deliver both a penetrating analysis of a new world and a toolkit for thriving in it. For startups and established businesses, or for anyone interested in what the future holds, Machine, Platform, Crowd is essential reading.

7. Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives

Celebrated scientists Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler explain the amazing power of social networks and our profound influence on one another's lives. Your colleague's husband's sister can make you fat, even if you don't know her. A happy neighbor has more impact on your happiness than a happy spouse. These startling revelations of how much we truly influence one another are revealed in the studies of Drs. Christakis and Fowler, which have repeatedly made front-page news nationwide.

In CONNECTED, the authors explain why emotions are contagious, how health behaviors spread, why the rich get richer, even how we find and choose our partners. Intriguing and entertaining, CONNECTED overturns the notion of the individual and provides a revolutionary paradigm-that social networks influence our ideas, emotions, health, relationships, behavior, politics, and much more. It will change the way we think about every aspect of our lives.

8. The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies

In recent years, Google’s autonomous cars have logged thousands of miles on American highways and IBM’s Watson trounced the best human Jeopardy! players. Digital technologies—with hardware, software, and networks at their core—will in the near future diagnose diseases more accurately than doctors can, apply enormous data sets to transform retailing, and accomplish many tasks once considered uniquely human. In The Second Machine Age MIT’s Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee—two thinkers at the forefront of their field—reveal the forces driving the reinvention of our lives and our economy. As the full impact of digital technologies is felt, we will realize immense bounty in the form of dazzling personal technology, advanced infrastructure, and near-boundless access to the cultural items that enrich our lives.

Amid this bounty will also be wrenching change. Professions of all kinds—from lawyers to truck drivers—will be forever upended. Companies will be forced to transform or die. Recent economic indicators reflect this shift: fewer people are working, and wages are falling even as productivity and profits soar.

Drawing on years of research and up-to-the-minute trends, Brynjolfsson and McAfee identify the best strategies for survival and offer a new path to prosperity. These include revamping education so that it prepares people for the next economy instead of the last one, designing new collaborations that pair brute processing power with human ingenuity, and embracing policies that make sense in a radically transformed landscape.

A fundamentally optimistic book, The Second Machine Age alters how we think about issues of technological, societal, and economic progress.

9. The Fourth Industrial Revolution

Ob selbstfahrende Autos, 3-D-Drucker oder Künstliche Intelligenz: Aktuelle technische Entwicklungen werden unsere Art zu leben und zu arbeiten grundlegend verändern. Die Vierte Industrielle Revolution hat bereits begonnen. Ihr Merkmal ist die ungeheuer schnelle und systematische Verschmelzung von Technologien, die die Grenzen zwischen der physischen, der digitalen und der biologischen Welt immer stärker durchbrechen. Wie kein anderer ist Klaus Schwab, der Vorsitzende des Weltwirtschaftsforums, in der Lage aufzuzeigen, welche politischen, wirtschaftlichen, sozialen und kulturellen Herausforderungen diese Revolution für uns alle mit sich bringt.

10. Exponential Organizations: Why new organizations are ten times better, faster, and cheaper than yours (and what to do about it)

"EXPONENTIAL ORGANIZATIONS should be required reading for anyone interested in the ways exponential technologies are reinventing best practices in business.”—Ray Kurwzeil, Director of Engineering at Google

In business, performance is key. In performance, how you organize can be the key to growth.

In the past five years, the business world has seen the birth of a new breed of company—the Exponential Organization—that has revolutionized how a company can accelerate its growth by using technology. An ExO can eliminate the incremental, linear way traditional companies get bigger, leveraging assets like community, big data, algorithms, and new technology into achieving performance benchmarks ten times better than its peers.

Three luminaries of the business world—Salim Ismail, Yuri van Geest, and Mike Malone—have researched this phenomenon and documented ten characteristics of Exponential Organizations. Here, in EXPONENTIAL ORGANIZATIONS, they walk the reader through how any company, from a startup to a multi-national, can become an ExO, streamline its performance, and grow to the next level.

“EXPONENTIAL ORGANIZATIONS is the most pivotal book in its class. Salim examines the future of organizations and offers readers his insights on the concept of Exponential Organizations, because he himself embodies the strategy, structure, culture, processes, and systems of this new breed of company.”—John Hagel, The Center for the Edge

11. The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth

In his international bestseller The Innovator's Dilemma, Clayton M. Christensen exposed this crushing paradox behind the failure of many industry leaders: by placing too much focus on pleasing their most profitable customers, these firms actually paved the way for their own demise by ignoring the disruptive technologies that aggressively evolved to displace them. In The Innovator’s Solution, Christensen and coauthor Michael E. Raynor help all companies understand how to become disruptors themselves.

Clay Christensen (author of the award-winning Harvard Business Review article, “How Will You Measure Your Life?”) and Raynor not only reveal that innovation is more predictable than most managers have come to believe, they also provide helpful advice on the business decisions crucial to truly disruptive growth. Citing in-depth research and theories tested in hundreds of companies across many industries, the authors identify the processes that create successful innovation—and they show managers how to tailor their strategies to the changing circumstances of a dynamic world.

The Innovator’s Solution is an important addition to any innovation library.

Published by Harvard Business Review Press.

12. The Startup Way: How Modern Companies Use Entrepreneurial Management to Transform Culture and Drive Long-Term Growth

Bestselling author, entrepreneur, and Lean startup founder Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, reveals how established corporations and major enterprises can use Lean Startup techniques, energy and saavy to reinvigorate their company and operations, spark innovation, and drive growth. In The Lean Startup, Eric Ries, entrepreneur in residence at Harvard, serial entrepreneur and founder of the lean startup meetups, showed how ideas from the startup world such as constant iteration, minimal viable products (or MVPS), and constantly testing business hypotheses with customers to determine when to perservere, and when to pivot, now turns his attention to established, mature companies and organizations. For the past four years, Ries has been working closely with companies like GE and Toyota and Pitney Bowes to help them become more nimble, and more open to change and innovation, in order to spur growth and produce products and services that customers want. In The Startup Way, Ries shares his insights, lessons, stories, challenges and best practices from his intense collaborations with some of the world's most innovative and successful companies, as they attempt to change their culture and processes to be faster and smarter at what they do. At GE, Ries's ideas are codified under the name FastWorks; each company adapts his basic framework and ideas in their own way, to fit their particular organization and industry, as Ries discusses in the book. For every company that recognizes it needs to embrace agility, change and do so quickly if it is to survive and thrive, The Startup Way is an absolutely critical guide and toolkit.

13. Diffusion of Innovations

Now in its fifth edition, Diffusion of Innovations is a classic work on the spread of new ideas.

In this renowned book, Everett M. Rogers, professor and chair of the Department of Communication & Journalism at the University of New Mexico, explains how new ideas spread via communication channels over time. Such innovations are initially perceived as uncertain and even risky. To overcome this uncertainty, most people seek out others like themselves who have already adopted the new idea. Thus the diffusion process consists of a few individuals who first adopt an innovation, then spread the word among their circle of acquaintances—a process which typically takes months or years. But there are exceptions: use of the Internet in the 1990s, for example, may have spread more rapidly than any other innovation in the history of humankind. Furthermore, the Internet is changing the very nature of diffusion by decreasing the importance of physical distance between people. The fifth edition addresses the spread of the Internet, and how it has transformed the way human beings communicate and adopt new ideas.

14. Where Good Ideas Come from: The Natural History of Innovation

The printing press, the pencil, the flush toilet, the battery--these are all great ideas. But where do they come from? What kind of environment breeds them? What sparks the flash of brilliance? How do we generate the breakthrough technologies that push forward our lives, our society, our culture? Steven Johnson's answers are revelatory as he identifies the seven key patterns behind genuine innovation, and traces them across time and disciplines. From Darwin and Freud to the halls of Google and Apple, Johnson investigates the innovation hubs throughout modern time and pulls out the approaches and commonalities that seem to appear at moments of originality.

15. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant

The global phenomenon, embraced by business worldwide and now published in more than 40 languages.

This international bestseller challenges everything you thought you knew about the requirements for strategic success.

Since the dawn of the industrial age, companies have engaged in head-to-head competition in search of sustained, profitable growth. They have fought for competitive advantage, battled over market share, and struggled for differentiation. Yet, as this influential and immensely popular book shows, these hallmarks of competitive strategy are not the way to create profitable growth in the future.

In the international bestseller Blue Ocean Strategy, W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne argue that cutthroat competition results in nothing but a bloody red ocean of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool. Based on a study of 150 strategic moves (spanning more than 100 years across 30 industries), the authors argue that lasting success comes not from battling competitors, but from creating "blue oceans"—untapped new market spaces ripe for growth. Such strategic moves, which the authors call “value innovation,” create powerful leaps in value that often render rivals obsolete for more than a decade.

Blue Ocean Strategy presents a systematic approach to making the competition irrelevant and outlines principles and tools any company can use to create and capture their own blue oceans. A landmark work that upends traditional thinking about strategy, this bestselling business book charts a bold new path to winning the future.

16. Smartcuts: How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Accelerate Success

Entrepreneur and journalist Shane Snow (Wired, Fast Company, The New Yorker, and cofounder of Contently) analyzes the lives of people and companies that do incredible things in implausibly short time.

How do some startups go from zero to billions in mere months? How did Alexander the Great, YouTube tycoon Michelle Phan, and Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon climb to the top in less time than it takes most of us to get a promotion? What do high-growth businesses, world-class heart surgeons, and underdog marketers do in common to beat the norm?

One way or another, they do it like computer hackers. They employ what psychologists call "lateral thinking: to rethink convention and break "rules" that aren't rules.

These are not shortcuts, which produce often dubious short-term gains, but ethical "smartcuts" that eliminate unnecessary effort and yield sustainable momentum. In Smartcuts, Snow shatters common wisdom about success, revealing how conventions like "paying dues" prevent progress, why kids shouldn't learn times tables, and how, paradoxically, it's easier to build a huge business than a small one.

From SpaceX to The Cuban Revolution, from Ferrari to Skrillex, Smartcuts is a narrative adventure that busts old myths about success and shows how innovators and icons do the incredible by working smarter—and how perhaps the rest of us can, too.

17. The Innovator's Dilemma

Harvard professor Clayton M. Christensen demonstrates in the most revolutionary business hook in years why outstanding companies that did everything right -- were in tune with the competition, listened to customers, and invested aggressively in new technologies -- still lost their market leadership when confronted with disruptive changes in technology and market structure...and he tells how to avoid a similar fate as business races online into the 21st century. The Innovator's Dilemma eloquently demonstrates a shattering paradox -- that the best of conventional good business practices can ultimately weaken a great firm. Over time, mainstream customers will initially reject important breakthroughs or disruptive technologies, leading firms to allow strategic innovations to languish. The solution? Create a subsidiary entirely focused on the emerging market, one that is free to be visionary while courting an unorthodox customer base and staying poised to catch the next great wave of industry growth. Sharp, cogent, and provocative, The Innovator's Dilemma is one of the most talked-about business books of our time -- and something that none of today's executives will dare to be without

18. The Innovator's Dilemma

Harvard professor Clayton M. Christensen says outstanding companies can do everything right and still lose their market leadership -- or worse, disappear completely. And he not only proves what he says, he tells others how to avoid a similar fate.

Focusing on "disruptive technology" -- the Honda Super Cub, Intel's 8088 processor, or the hydraulic excavator, for example -- Christensen shows why most companies miss "the next great wave." Whether in electronics or retailing, a successful company with established products will get pushed aside unless managers know when to abandon traditional business practices. Using the lessons of successes and failures from leading companies, "The Innovator's Dilemma" presents a set of rules for capitalizing on the phenomenon of disruptive innovation.

19. The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators

A new classic, cited by leaders and media around the globe as a highly recommended read for anyone interested in innovation.

In The Innovator’s DNA, authors Jeffrey Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and bestselling author Clayton Christensen (The Innovator’s Dilemma, The Innovator’s Solution, How Will You Measure Your Life?) build on what we know about disruptive innovation to show how individuals can develop the skills necessary to move progressively from idea to impact.

By identifying behaviors of the world’s best innovators—from leaders at Amazon and Apple to those at Google, Skype, and Virgin Group—the authors outline five discovery skills that distinguish innovative entrepreneurs and executives from ordinary managers: Associating, Questioning, Observing, Networking, and Experimenting.

Once you master these competencies (the authors provide a self-assessment for rating your own innovator’s DNA), the authors explain how to generate ideas, collaborate to implement them, and build innovation skills throughout the organization to result in a competitive edge. This innovation advantage will translate into a premium in your company’s stock price—an innovation premium—which is possible only by building the code for innovation right into your organization’s people, processes, and guiding philosophies.

Practical and provocative, The Innovator’s DNA is an essential resource for individuals and teams who want to strengthen their innovative prowess.

20. The Third Wave

The Third Wave makes startling sense of the violent changes now battering our world. Its sweeping synthesis casts fresh light on our new forms of marriage and family, on today's dramatic changes in business and economics. It explains the role of cults, the new definitions of work, play, love, and success. It points toward new forms of twenty-first-century democracy.

21. Business Model You: A One-Page Method for Reinventing Your Career

A one-page tool to reinvent yourself and your career The global bestseller Business Model Generation introduced a unique visual way to summarize and creatively brainstorm any business or product idea on a single sheet of paper. Business Model You uses the same powerful one-page tool to teach readers how to draw "personal business models," which reveal new ways their skills can be adapted to the changing needs of the marketplace to reveal new, more satisfying, career and life possibilities. Produced by the same team that created Business Model Generation, this book is based on the Business Model Canvas methodology, which has quickly emerged as the world's leading business model description and innovation technique.

This book shows readers how to:

Understand business model thinking and diagram their current personal business model Understand the value of their skills in the marketplace and define their purpose Articulate a vision for change Create a new personal business model harmonized with that vision, and most important, test and implement the new model When you implement the one-page tool from Business Model You, you create a game-changing business model for your life and career.

22. Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers

Business Model Generation is a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers striving to defy outmoded business models and design tomorrow's enterprises. If your organization needs to adapt to harsh new realities, but you don't yet have a strategy that will get you out in front of your competitors, you need Business Model Generation. Co-created by 470 -Business Model Canvas- practitioners from 45 countries, the book features a beautiful, highly visual, 4-color design that takes powerful strategic ideas and tools, and makes them easy to implement in your organization. It explains the most common Business Model patterns, based on concepts from leading business thinkers, and helps you reinterpret them for your own context. You will learn how to systematically understand, design, and implement a game-changing business model--or analyze and renovate an old one. Along the way, you'll understand at a much deeper level your customers, distribution channels, partners, revenue streams, costs, and your core value proposition.

Business Model Generation features practical innovation techniques used today by leading consultants and companies worldwide, including 3M, Ericsson, Capgemini, Deloitte, and others. Designed for doers, it is for those ready to abandon outmoded thinking and embrace new models of value creation: for executives, consultants, entrepreneurs, and leaders of all organizations. If you're ready to change the rules, you belong to -the business model generation!

23. Rework

Most business books give you the same old advice: Write a business plan, study the competition, seek investors, yadda yadda. If you're looking for a book like that, put this one back on the shelf.

Rework shows you a better, faster, easier way to succeed in business. Read it and you'll know why plans are actually harmful, why you don't need outside investors, and why you're better off ignoring the competition. The truth is, you need less than you think. You don't need to be a workaholic. You don't need to staff up. You don't need to waste time on paperwork or meetings. You don't even need an office. Those are all just excuses.

What you really need to do is stop talking and start working. This book shows you the way. You'll learn how to be more productive, how to get exposure without breaking the bank, and tons more counterintuitive ideas that will inspire and provoke you.

With its straightforward language and easy-is-better approach, Rework is the perfect playbook for anyone who’s ever dreamed of doing it on their own. Hardcore entrepreneurs, small-business owners, people stuck in day jobs they hate, victims of "downsizing," and artists who don’t want to starve anymore will all find valuable guidance in these pages.

24. Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World

From the coauthors of the New York Times bestseller Abundance comes their much anticipated follow-up: Bold—a radical, how-to guide for using exponential technologies, moonshot thinking, and crowd-powered tools to create extraordinary wealth while also positively impacting the lives of billions.

Bold unfolds in three parts. Part One focuses on the exponential technologies that are disrupting today’s Fortune 500 companies and enabling upstart entrepreneurs to go from "I’ve got an idea" to "I run a billion-dollar company" far faster than ever before. The authors provide exceptional insight into the power of 3D printing, artificial intelligence, robotics, networks and sensors, and synthetic biology. Part Two of the book focuses on the Psychology of Bold, drawing on insights from billionaire entrepreneurs Larry Page, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, and Jeff Bezos. In addition, Diamandis reveals his entrepreneurial secrets garnered from building fifteen companies, including such audacious ventures as Singularity University, XPRIZE, Planetary Resources, and Human Longevity, Inc. Finally, Bold closes with a look at the best practices that allow anyone to leverage today’s hyper-connected crowd like never before. Here, the authors teach how to design and use incentive competitions, launch million-dollar crowdfunding campaigns to tap into ten’s of billions of dollars of capital, and finally how to build communities—armies of exponentially enabled individuals willing and able to help today’s entrepreneurs make their boldest dreams come true.

Bold is both a manifesto and a manual. It is today’s exponential entrepreneur’s go-to resource on the use of emerging technologies, thinking at scale, and the awesome power of crowd-powered tools.

25. Contagious: Why Things Catch On

New York Times bestseller and named Best Marketing Book of 2014 by the American Marketing Association

What makes things popular? Why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? And what makes online content go viral?

If you said advertising, think again. People don't listen to advertisements, they listen to their peers. But why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? And what makes online content go viral?

Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger has spent the last decade answering these questions. He's studied why New York Times articles make the paper's own Most E-mailed List, why products get word of mouth, and how social influence shapes everything from the cars we buy to the clothes we wear to the names we give our children. In this book, Berger reveals the secret science behind word-of-mouth and social transmission. Discover how six basic principles drive all sorts of things to become contagious, from consumer products and policy initiatives to workplace rumors and YouTube videos.

Contagious combines groundbreaking research with powerful stories. Learn how a luxury steakhouse found popularity through the lowly cheese-steak, why anti-drug commercials might have actually increased drug use, and why more than 200 million consumers shared a video about one of the seemingly most boring products there is: a blender. If you've wondered why certain stories get shared, e-mails get forwarded, or videos go viral, Contagious explains why, and shows how to leverage these concepts to craft contagious content. This book provides a set of specific, actionable techniques for helping information spread - for designing messages, advertisements, and information that people will share. Whether you're a manager at a big company, a small business owner trying to boost awareness, a politician running for office, or a health official trying to get the word out, Contagious will show you how to make your product or idea catch on.

26. The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World

Ten years ago, the idea of getting into a stranger’s car, or walking into a stranger’s home, would have seemed bizarre and dangerous, but today it’s as common as ordering a book online. Uber and Airbnb are household names: redefining neighbourhoods, challenging the way governments regulate business and changing the way we travel.

In the spirit of iconic Silicon Valley renegades like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, a new generation of entrepreneurs is sparking yet another cultural upheaval through technology. They are among the Upstarts, idiosyncratic founders with limitless drive and an abundance of self-confidence. Young, hungry and brilliant, they are rewriting the traditional rules of business, changing our day-to-day lives and often sidestepping serious ethical and legal obstacles in the process.

The Upstarts is the definitive account of a dawning age of tenacity, creativity, conflict and wealth. In Brad Stone’s highly anticipated and riveting account of the most radical companies of the new Silicon Valley, we find out how it all started, and how the world is wildly different than it was ten years ago.

[aceaaroniscanon]

MORE HS AU!! (Ily)

SJ IS HERE, SAM IS SLEP, SO PREPARE FOR SHAKY POST-CAFFEINE INTAKE WRITING

this continues from part one

here’s the thing with andrew tutoring neil on weekdays: neil doesn’t actually tell him that he’s always fresh from practice when he pops into the library for tutoring

like, it’s not like it ever came up in conversation. andrew was too busy looking to see how to improve neil’s grades, bc if he’s gonna charge a cute guy $10 per hour, he sure as fuck gotta have to step up his game.

the trick to neil is: he’s not stupid.

in the span of three tutoring days, andrew finds out that neil knows about five languages so well he sounds like he’s local all of them. he also finds out that neil does not need help in other subjects and neil actually lets him know

neil: the maths teacher teaches like he needs everyone to know how smart he is. literally all i do in that class is sleep

andrew: you’re telling me this like i care

neil: no, andrew, listen, he thinks i don’t listen. i’ve never failed a quiz in math since i was nine.

andrew: good to know. not another thing you’ll be paying me extra hours for. the faster we finish the better.

neil:

andrew: don’t stall. the gall bladder. endocrine system. focus, hatford

neil hatford is not stupid, even in english literature. the only reason why he fails english literature is because he doesn’t like what he’s being made to read, and he barely has interest in what he’s talking about.

andrew, being in his second year, knows all about these assigned reading materials. his hypothesis: neil doesn’t actually comprehend how interesting these books are. so, he tells it how it is.

when he starts telling neil, verbally, what happens in these books, neil actually gets interested.

literally, for a week straight, andrew doesn’t ask abt neil’s other classes, and neil doesn’t tell.

until kevin barges into the library that friday.

now, kevin day is a very memorable guy. andrew knows him by reputation alone, and from texts from neil. the guy’s irish, he’s not very talkative, and he’s incredibly popular by looks alone.

looming at around six feet four, andrew can see why.

kevin: do you have tutoring tomorrow too? we have practice at five.neil: AM?kevin: sharp. could you move it?

they both look at andrew at this point, who was perfectly fine just waiting to see if they actually noticed the fact that he was right there.

count on kevin to make a guy feel insignificant the moment he walks into a room, tbh

andrew: whatneil: kevin and i have soccer practice. what time is our session tomorrow?

this was… an incalculable factor. within the past week, andrew knew that neil was fresh out of the shower every time he went to the library in the afternoon, but andrew had been assuming it was because neil was british and was counting on cultural differences

in fact, he was betting on it being that. renee kept saying it was because neil didn’t like meeting people when he smelled like a wet gym sock. aaron bet that it was because neil liked andrew, which was absolutely bullshit.

fuck what aaron thinks

well, andrew always did pride himself as the guy who adjusted to every possible situation.

andrew: just text me when you’re done. i’ll give you the address.neil: alright. well, i think we need to go now?kevin: yesneil: okay. thanks again, andrew

for the second time in two weeks, andrew watches neil walk out of the library, wondering what the fuck has gotten over him.

[badacts]

i have a prompt if that's okay? neil being pissed w/ his tongue untied + "Out of all the people, why the hell would you think Andrew and I would be violent towards each other?"

[exception]

It starts with a bruise.

To be precise, it starts with a hickey - one too high on Neil’s throat to be hidden by his shirt.

He’s a marked man, but the kind of marks Andrew leaves on him are different. They’re the sort he doesn’t have to look away from in the mirror, the kind he can press his fingers to and feel the ache without attendant memories of real and frightening pain. They’re reminders of pleasure, pure, not quite simple but as close as the two of them ever get.

They’re past the point of avoiding them, these days. They’ve evolved a little past careful discussion, too - Neil can say, yeah, like that, I want it, I want you, and have it mean yes, I consent. And Andrew can trust that.

Careful isn’t something they’ll ever grow out of entirely, but there’s room there to stretch.

The Foxes live in close quarters, so it’s tricky to hide everything - kiss-swollen mouths, delicately discoloured finger-and-thumb marks on hips, traceries of scratches nowhere near deep enough to draw blood on backs, and the aforementioned hickeys. Neil tries - he’s a long, long way from shameless - but he also doesn’t want to put them on the same level as the scars he hid to stay alive for all those years.

Neil unbruised is a rarity, anyway. He plays hard on the court, in games and in practice, and Exy isn’t the kind of sport where you can walk away without a mark. He also has Andrew intent on teaching him a few more methods of protecting himself, with rare and precious determination. Neil repays that in spades, but there are consequences.

Andrew looks at him after one bout, Neil panting and sporting forearms that will look faintly blue and green tomorrow, and says, “I thought you were a faster learner than this.”

“No you didn’t,” Neil tells him. “I’m trying.”

“Try harder,” Andrew recommends. It’s not until later that Neil notices how he avoids those marks on his arms, and resolves to improve.

Neil doesn’t think much of it, other than that. It’s not until he sticks his head into Aaron, Matt and Nicky’s room to ask if Matt has seen his spare pair of gloves that it even occurs to him that someone else might.

The three boys are sprawled across the furniture. Neil feels a tiny burst of affection at the sight of them so relaxed together. It fades when Nicky cranes to see if there’s anyone standing behind Neil, and says, “Are you by yourself? Get in here.”

Neil steps inside the door and closes it behind himself without a question, puzzled but not suspicious. Andrew and Kevin are waiting in the car for him to locate his missing gear, Kevin probably still huffing about being ‘late’ while Andrew smokes and ignores him.

Matt and Nicky both shift in their seats, exchanging a quick look. Aaron is the only one who doesn’t move, his focus on the muted television still. 

“Hey,” Nicky starts, brow furrowed. “Is everything okay?”

“It’s fine,” Neil says automatically, and then, “With what?”

Nicky opens his mouth, but it’s Matt who says, “With Andrew.”

“It’s fine?” It comes out like a question, but mostly because Neil is now openly confused. He clears his throat. “It’s fine. Good.”

He and Matt have had this conversation before, but it wasn’t like this - they’d both been drinking, and talking under the cover of blaring music. Then, Matt had looked amused. Right now, he looks deadly serious, in a way that he rarely does.

Nicky, meanwhile, looks nervous. He does when discussing Andrew even now, but Neil supposes he has a reason to. He knows Andrew cares about Nicky, but he’s not kind with it. Nicky is the sort to flourish with kindness and wilt with cruelty - that’s why it’s impressive that he stuck out the twins as teenagers. It’s also one of the reasons Neil likes him: his devotion to draw blood out of stones.

Right now, he wonders if he’s the stone. Especially when Nicky says, “Are you sure?”

Neil frowns. “Why?”

“Because - because of that,” Nicky says, pointing. Neil reaches a hand to his own throat, and then remembers there’s the edge of a mark there, purple and indistinct. Nearly covered, but not quite. He feels his ears heat with a blush.

“What about it?” 

“You’ve had a lot of them recently,” Nicky says. “Bruises. Everywhere. Sorry, but it’s kind of hard not to notice. I thought I got used to them back in your first year, but apparently not so much.”

“I always have bruises,” Neil points out stupidly. Both Nicky and Matt are staring at him like they’re waiting for him to get it. That’s not particularly unusual, but it’s generally a source of amusement for the other Foxes. Right now, they’re the furtherest thing from amused.

“They think my brother is beating the shit out of you,” Aaron says, bored, and Neil could swear the floor tilts under his feet.

He thinks about his father backhanding his mother, bloodying her mouth - Mary Hatford, a queen in her own right, brought low by the Butcher’s hideous temper and utter disregard for her. They are nothing like that, nothing, but the implication turns his stomach anyway.

“Why the hell would you think Andrew and I would be violent towards each other?” he demands. “Don’t you think we’ve both had enough of that?”

Their faces say it’s not Andrew we’re worried about. And Neil has known for a long time what the Foxes think of Andrew, what they’re willing to believe about him, but he never really thought he’d hear it like this.

He waits for one of them to say oh no, you don’t understand, and then explain themselves. None of them do.

And just like that, the taste of bile in his mouth turns coppery. “He wouldn’t hurt me.”

“Do you think no one ever says that and believes it,” says Aaron coolly, without looking up, “Even when it’s not true? People justify getting hurt all the time, if they love the person enough.”

“You would know.” The words come out sharp as the report of a firing gun, rat-tat-tat. Aaron Minyard loved his mother. Neil doesn’t understand why he’s here, saying something that doesn’t apply at all to Andrew and Neil. 

He finally turns to glance at Neil. He looks for an instant like his brother, flat-eyed and bored. It’s an affectation in a way that Andrew’s expression isn’t, blankness pasted on over his reaction. He says, “You’re right.”

“We’re just worried about you,” Matt cuts in. He sounds calm, a furrow between his eyebrows as he watches Neil. “Both of you.”

“You don’t need to worry about me,” Neil says, staccato. “Whatever you’re thinking, you’re wrong, and you need to stop.”

“Okay, alright,” Nicky says, placating, his hands up. “We’re just making sure. It’s our job to worry about you, right? We’re family.”

Neil considers saying I asked for them. Then he remembers his mother saying don’t make him angry and thinks it might sound like someone saying it’s my fault. Maybe he shouldn’t feel like this when they’re just trying to protect him - even Aaron, in his sour way - but he doesn’t owe them all of his and Andrew’s secrets. 

He can’t tell from their faces whether or not they believe him. That makes it worse.

“I’m guessing you haven’t bought this up with Andrew,” Neil says. His voice has taken on a lilt, almost teasing. It sounds familiar, but he can’t place it. “I suppose you thought he didn’t need the same warning as I do.”

“No,” Nicky says. “No, we-”

“Don’t,” Neil says. “You won’t like it if you do.”

It comes out pretty, like a joke, said on a huff of a laugh. Amusement, or a seeming of it, shown as a lie only by the words themselves and whatever expression is in his eyes over the smirk. 

It comes out like it would from his father’s mouth. That’s why it’s familiar. Wesninskis are at their most dangerous when they smile.

He doesn’t slam the door behind him when he leaves. Andrew is waiting in the hall, leaning against the far wall in a slouch which everyone mistakes for insolent.

Neil walks straight past him down the hall. Andrew catches up in time to get into the same elevator car, and they ride down in silence. 

Kevin is waiting in the passenger seat of the Maserati, and he scowls at Neil when they approach. “What the hell took you so-”

The crash of Neil’s door slamming closed cuts him off completely. Kevin jerks, and then for an extended moment they sit in total silence.

Andrew, who has his door open but hasn’t got into the car yet, leans down to look between the front seats at Neil. After a moment where Neil won’t look back at him, he says, “Kevin. Practice tonight is cancelled. Go away.”

Kevin starts to protest, turns to look at Neil, and then stops. Being readable to Kevin is a good reason to get control of himself, but right now Neil doesn’t care to. When he makes to undo his seatbelt again, Andrew says, “Not you.”

Kevin gets out of the car. Andrew gets into it and starts the engine, pulling out of the parking lot. He turns off campus and onto the backroads around Palmetto, a roundabout route towards the highway where there are no cops to see his flagrant breaking of the speed limit.

He heard. There’s no way he wouldn’t have, to have sent Kevin away. Neil curls his fingers into fists and waits in the thrumming silence for him to say something. 

Eventually, he says, “Do you think I don’t know what they think of me?” 

“No,” Neil replies. Monster. The upperclassmen still call him that, and it’s more than a habit. They mean it. Neil doesn’t often correct them, but now he doesn’t think he can hear that word again without breaking something.

“Then you know it’s a waste of time to get angry over it.” Andrew sounds careless, not resigned. That’s because he doesn’t care. Neil isn’t the same - he’s boiling inside, pressure behind his eyes and in his chest like his rage might blind and choke him with its power.

“When they accuse you of hurting me, I’ll get as angry as I fucking like,” he snarls back. He’s sick and tired of resignation, and he’s never been capable of carelessness.

“They think I’ll hurt anyone,” Andrew replies. “Did you think that you would be an exception to that belief?”

“I am an exception.”

It’s true. In every way, he’s an exception to Andrew’s rules - except for the ways where he’s only really an exception in terms of the people in Andrew’s life. Andrew edges him a look in the rearview mirror, the blue glow from the dashboard barely illuminating the impatient set of his jaw.

Neil told him once that he’d fight for him. He meant it. Whether or not Andrew thinks it’s necessary, he will, because he couldn’t live with himself if he didn’t.

Andrew doesn’t disagree with him, which is as good as an agreement. Instead, he pulls over onto the side of the road in a spray of gravel, without indicating. There’s no one else out here, but Neil learned to drive according to the actual laws - mostly to avoid suspicion, but still - and winces anyway.

When they come to a stop in a billowing cloud of silver-lit dust, Andrew says, “I am not your chauffeur.”

Rolling his eyes, Neil climbs out of the back and into the front seat. “Happy now?”

“I have no interest in talking you down from a temper tantrum,” Andrew replies, even though that isn’t an answer, and isn’t even true. As always, he’s here. As always, that alone is enough. 

“That works, because I’m not interested in being talked down,” Neil tells him. Him being there is enough, but his touch is what has Neil swallowing the last of the taste of blood in his mouth. When they kiss, it’s the same old thing he’d kill for. 

[exysexual]

hs au (part four)

(part one)(part two)(part three)(read on ao3)

Neil has never hotwired a car alone before.

It’s different, to look at the innards of a vehicle and rely solely on your own intuition to make it work and to not have the safety net he’s used to. On the run, he never in a million years would’ve expected to miss his mom’s harsh words and harsher hands, but he has to fight to keep his own hands still now.

It’s just…weekends are hard, a shapeless stretch of time until he knows exactly where he’s meant to be again, and this shitty car has been parked on his street for three weeks without moving.

Nobody’s going to miss it, not for a day at least.

He lets out a sigh of relief when he feels it come to life beneath his hands and rests his forehead against the steering wheel.

What now?

All he knows is that he wants to get away from it all. He doesn’t have as many resources as he’d like, doesn’t want to actually up and leave, but still.

He remembers being Chris and Stefan and Nathaniel all too clearly, the fleeting identities that he could discard without a thought. Neil feels harder to shake.

After staring blankly at the dashboard for a minute, he decides to hit up a gas station and go from there.

The gas station by the Jamesons is one of the only places in the surrounding area that sells Sour Punch Straws.

That, at least, is what Andrew tells Cathleen before he slips out of the house.

In reality, the gas station by the Jamesons is the closest place that sells Sour Punch Straws, but it’s also a nice ten-minute walk away and an excuse to get out of the house for a bit.

Kenny and Kendra are home from college for the weekend, and nice as they are, it all gets a bit Stepford-y when the whole family is together.

Also, giving twins such similar names? What’s up with that? It’s like they didn’t even want to give them a chance at differentiating themselves.

Andrew is staring at the candy section, deliberating between Sour Punch Straws and Sour Patch Kids (which will be more artificial? which has more sugar?), when a familiar figure walks into the station and heads straight for the register. Andrew grabs the Straws and hurries as casually as he can to the cashier.

“…yeah, just fill it up, but I’ve only got cash,” Neil is saying when Andrew gets close enough to hear.

Seriously? Why does Neil only have cash? What kind of shady-ass parents does he have that let him drive the car around without a credit card?

The second cashier gestures to Andrew and he saunters forwards, caught somewhere between hoping that Neil will notice him and that he’ll escape without shattering any further illusions.

He watches out of the corner of his eye as Neil slides some money across the counter, gaze fixed out the window. Andrew looks out to find only a pretty shitty car at the pump nearest the station, all scraped up and bare bones.

“Oh, hey, Andrew.”

Andrew turns back to Neil and tries to look surprised as he gives him a nod of acknowledgement. He retrieves his change and candy and follows Neil out of the station towards his car.

“What’re you up to today?” Andrew finds himself asking, stalling out by the front of Neil’s car. Neil shrugs.

“Got the car to myself and just want to get away, honestly.”

Andrew cocks his head. Curious.

“You picking up a teammate or something?”

Neil shakes his head. “I don’t have any plans.”

“What, you’re just going to…drive anywhere?”

Neil nods.

“That sounds nice.”

Neil looks away from the nozzle in his hand and nods at Andrew. “Yeah. It’ll be good.” Andrew bobs his head awkwardly and wonders if he’s supposed to leave now. “What’re you up to today?”

Andrew tries not to feel pleased at the question. “Uh, not much. My family’s having a bit of a bonding day and it creeps me out.”

Neil smiles at that. Andrew looks away instead of trying to memorize it. “What do you mean?”

Andrew kicks at the pavement beneath his feet. How much should he reveal?

“Mostly a lot more prayer than I’m down for,” he settles on. “And too many expectations.”

Neil finishes gassing up and leans on the driver’s side door, a contemplative look on his face.

“What kinds of expectations?”

Andrew swallows uncomfortably. Why had he said anything?

“Mostly Exy stuff,” he shrugs. “There’ve been some college scouts around and it’s getting everybody’s hopes up.”

Neil nods. Andrew clutches the Sour Punch Straws tighter in his hand.

“Anyway, have fun with your…drive or whatever,” he says after a moment. “I’ll see you in school.”

Andrew can feel the other teen’s eyes on his back as he crosses the parking lot. He tries to move smoothly, to not betray how quickly his heart is thumping against his ribs.

Neil drives south because he doesn’t want to recognize anything. He follows the signs on the highway mindlessly, consciously forgets what lies north of Oakland, and tries to lose himself in the familiar motions of driving and passing and signaling.

It doesn’t really work.

Part of the problem is how aware he is of the need to drive inconspicuously. If he’s pulled over, they’ll be able to tell something is wrong with the car, and then they’ll look into it, and then he’ll be investigated–

It seems impossible to remain invisible when you’re trying to be, though. Neil stares at the speedometer, is acutely aware of the speed limit and the cars around him and–

It’s better than thinking about beaches and smoke and fire, maybe, but it’s still thinking of cause and effect, his faked identity and what could happen from there.

Neil tries to focus on what he’s seeing, the clear skies above him and the obnoxious hipsters around him, but it doesn’t work.

He stops at a McDonald’s and grabs some food. He eats in the car, stares at the greasy bag and tries to focus on anything other than his life.

Somehow, he ends up thinking back over Andrew Doe. Andrew Doe, who is overwhelmed by the expectations of his family, who is uncomfortable with their religion.

Andrew Doe, who doesn’t actually seem to take his future for granted.

Doe. Neil doesn’t know much about Does, why somebody ends up with that name– unidentified dead bodies? Unknown arrested criminals?

Abandoned kids?

Maybe, just maybe, Neil has been too quick to write Andrew Doe off. Maybe his quick eyes and incredible hands and sharp mind aren’t being wasted in a comfortable life with a loving family.

Neil doesn’t get back on the road for a long while.

Andrew watches Neil come into class on Monday with a look of casual indifference he absolutely did not practice in the mirror. Neil slouches in, eyes on the ground except a quick glance around the room, and drops into his seat with no acknowledgement to Andrew.

Andrew resolutely does not give a flying shit what Neil Josten does.

After class (a class that Andrew did not pay any attention to, caught between worrying about the Edgar Allen scout coming to their next game and tracing the back of Neil’s head with his eyes), Neil turns to him on their way out.

“Should we start up on the report? We’ve gotten a big enough sample size.”

Andrew shrugs. Two can play at that game, Josten.

“Can we meet after school again and divide it up?”

“Sure, but I have practice.”

Josten nods. They’ve reached the hallway, and Andrew should want to escape to his next class, but he stays rooted to the spot.

“5:30, library?”

Andrew nods, the epitome of cool and collected, and heads off to Bio without looking back.

Neil keeps an ear out for Andrew this time, sets down 1984 before Andrew sits down. Andrew’s hair is damp, part of it plastered to his forehead, and Neil finds his eyes drawn to it.

"Hey," Neil thinks to say. Sometimes he feels like he's pretty good at being a normal high school student.

“Sorry I’m a little late,” Andrew says, and Neil flicks his gaze away, focusing on the clock at the far end of the room that indicates that Doe is 15 minutes late. “Coach is freaking out because scouts will be at the game tomorrow, so he kept us late.”

“It’s fine,” Neil brushes off. He taps a finger against the desk, telling himself not to ask– “What scouts?”

Andrew tilts his head slightly. “Penn State, I think, maybe Berkeley. Oh, Edgar Allen.”

He throws it out there like it’s nothing, like it’s not the top team in the country, like it’s not where Riko and Kevin play, and Neil’s vision narrows to the teen in front of him. His throat constricts, and he forces himself to swallow, but suddenly he doesn’t know how to breathe–

“In and out, with me. On my count, ok?”

Neil blinks open his eyes and he has no idea how he ended up on the ground, or why Andrew is crouching in front of him, or why his throat feels raw and ragged–

“How about you try clenching your fist?”

Neil focuses on his hand, stares as his skin pales and his veins bulge slightly, and the echo in his head disappears. He swallows deeply and then lets out a shaky breath, pushing himself upright.

“You back with me?” Andrew asks, his tone neutral and face blank. Neil licks his lips nervously, eyes darting around the otherwise empty library.

“I’m sorry,” he rasps out, coughing once. “That’s never happened before.”

“Panic attacks are more common than you’d expect,” Andrew shrugs, standing up. Neil hoists himself off the ground, one hand remaining clenched against the back of the chair. He stares at his feet and lets his mind remain peacefully blank for a few seconds before he starts planning again.

“Do you think, um, we could meet some other time?” Neil asks, looking back at the other boy. Andrew is still watching him, his expression inscrutable.

“Yeah, no problem.”

Neil packs his stuff up wordlessly, ignoring Andrew’s movements, and leaves with a tight smile before he starts panicking again where the other boy can see.

Andrew is distracted all through dinner, but the Jamesons don’t mind- Mac had mentioned to them that scouts would be there tomorrow, so they attribute his absentmindedness to that. They skirt around the issue, forcing food upon him and saying a longer grace than usual, but otherwise letting him be.

He flops down on his bed afterwards and stares at the ceiling, his mind replaying the scene in the library on repeat. The casual conversation, Neil’s look of absolute terror, the moment he lost control and dropped to the floor–

It makes absolutely no sense. Panic attacks happen, but some preliminary research tells Andrew that first time panic attacks don’t usually happen to people without anxiety disorders and no triggers.

Berkely, Penn State, Edgar Allen, Exy, college…what is so horrible to Neil Josten? And what could possibly prompt him to look that terrified?

Andrew barely even registers that he’ll be playing in front of them the next day as he spends the rest of the night trying to piece it together. No matter how he looks at it, though, he has only one conclusion: there’s more to Neil Josten than meets the eye.

(part five)