#like there's no way Peter and Elizabeth just let him go HOME after all of that is there Neal showing up at that doorstep being like

[suburbonlegends]

No but can I yap about this for a minute

Firstly both Neal and Peter are in their same clothes, and like given the lighting we can assume it's the next day so they both stayed at the hospital over night waiting to hear news about Mozzie, and then both directly went to work on the case.

Now, I don't believe that Neal would go home and get sleep after this, but he does go home and change and get freshened up so that he could start on the mission to contact all the forgers he knew in NYC and make sure they knew the plan to catch Larssen, so then we get

Pretty boy blue outfit that he's seen falling asleep in in the hospital.

Now I don't fucking know what's going on with this hospital, the architecture feels really weird because the window opens into like more interior, so it's impossible to say what time it is, but we can maybe say Neal canvassed all morning, went back to Mozzie in the afternoon, and then caught a couple of hours, but I doubt it was very restful sleep and more just pure exhaustion.

BUT THEN

ATTACKED

and goes to Peter's

SO JUST. LISTEN. HERE'S (roughly) NEAL'S PAST 36 HOURS

1- He gets dressed and ready to go murder Fowler (and we won't even get in to how well he probably slept that night)

2- He did all the stunts, literally busted through a glass window (whatever injuries that would've caused) and cornered Fowler only to be talked down at the last moment

3- Goes to the FBI to talk to Fowler, the man he almost murdered, then gets sent home alone, you know after almost murdering a man

4- Has an absolute break down that only by the skin of his teeth isn't caught by anyone

5- Is just like chilling, relatively, when Peter and Diana BURST IN WITH GUNS DRAWN to inform him that both he and his best friend are under a hit

6- HIS BEST FRIEND IS ACTUALLY HIT. NEARLY MURDERED. RIGHT AFTER NEAL ALMOST MURDERD.

7- Stays the night in the hospital with Mozzie, Peter, the man who stopped him from doing the almost murdering staying with him too

8- Goes AGAIN back to the FBI to start a plan on how to catch his Mozzie's almost murderer, goes home and changes out of the clothes he almost murdered in

9- Runs all the fuck around NYC. eVerywhere. I'm sure he was going fucking miles that day to hit everyone.

10- Finally gets to go back to Mozzie, passes out for an undetermined amount of time, and Mozzie finally wakes up

11- man just tries to go home and is stalked by Mozzie's almost murderer and they fucking fight in the alleyway, and like we can't even get into all the emotional toll of that conversation that went down with an arm around Neal's throat

12- goes all the way to Peter's house to tell him about the attack from Mozzie's almost murderer in person.

There's just NO way he's not about to drop dead on his feet the moment the adrenaline wears off

Thinking about how exhausted Neal must have been here after everything than happened in "Point Break" and then Mozzie getting shot 🥺

[naughtyneganjdm]

Love's Second Chance: A Holiday Reunion - Chapter 19

Summary: Negan plans something special for Y/N, but they go through a few speed bumps along the way. Joel finds out about it through Elizabeth and he's not happy.

Characters: Joel Miller, the reader (OC), Negan Smith, Elizabeth, Peter, Tommy, etc.

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/60501985/chapters/157954594 Warnings: Swearing, Angst, Small Amounts of Smut (I think?), dirty talking, etc.

Notes: It's been a while since I updated this, I'm sorry. I've just really had a lot going on. I'll do my best to get the final chapters up ASAP.

Wear something nice. That was the only direction that Y/N was given this morning when Negan asked her to meet him at his mother’s home at a certain time today. She listened. Invited Rosita over to help her pick out a dress before Rosita had to take off to go be with Siddiq’s family. Walking up to the door, she felt a little ridiculous wearing this considering how cold it actually was outside. After the storm yesterday, there was so much snow on the ground when she woke up. With the help of Peter, she was able to shovel it all up, but it took a long time. So she was thankful she could even get here today as it was.

Elizabeth was quick to take off as soon as she could this morning and she was very hush-hush about things. When Y/N asked her where she was going, Elizabeth didn’t want to tell her mother. Which was strange because Elizabeth was never really like that. Originally, she expected Joel to come pick his laptop up from her, but he hadn’t and she just assumed that was his way of still giving her space.

The front door to Negan’s mother’s home opened as she made her way carefully up the sidewalk. When her eyes lifted, she saw that it was Elizabeth walking out the door and it had Y/N coming to a quick stop. Closing the door behind her, Elizabeth let out a shocked sound when she saw Y/N, “You’re early.”

“What are you doing here?” Y/N questioned her daughter who looked back at the door like she was looking for some kind of answer. Shaking her head from side to side, Elizabeth threw her hands up and couldn’t think of an answer quick enough. “Elizabeth?”

“I was helping Negan with something,” Elizabeth explained pointing back at the house, her eyes avoiding Y/N. Rocking back and forth on her feet Elizabeth looked guilty of something that she didn’t want to admit to. “Listen, mom…I have to go to dad’s house. Peter and I are supposed to go with dad, Uncle Tommy and Maria tonight to that one subdivision that goes crazy with lights. It’s a tradition for us to walk around it every year. You know that.” 

“What were you helping Negan with?” Y/N was actually curious since this wasn’t something Negan talked to her about nor was it something that Peter seemed to know about earlier when she dropped him off at Joel’s place right before this.

“I…” Elizabeth paused, looking over her shoulder once more and letting out a wince. “I can’t tell you, but after tonight? We can talk about it all you want.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Y/N wondered with Elizabeth moving around her and starting to back step toward Joel’s home. “Why are you avoiding me?”

“Because I have to,” Elizabeth held her hands up causing her mom’s face to scrunch up in confusion. “I love you mom, I just really have to get to dad’s place…”

Elizabeth couldn’t walk away fast enough to get to Joel’s home and it surprised Y/N with the interaction that they just had. It was very odd behavior from her daughter.

Confusion flooded her veins when she started to walk back up toward the front door where she was met by Negan’s mother who looked incredibly happy to see her there. She told her that Negan was in his old bedroom getting dressed to go out with her. Walking down the hallway, things just felt strange. Very strange.

Pushing open the door to Negan’s old bedroom, Y/N saw Negan standing at the side of the bed. His black button-down shirt and his suit jacket were laid out on top of it. Hooking his belt together, Negan looked wet and like he had just taken a shower. Gazing over his shoulder, Negan offered up a weak smile, but that smile slowly faded to a frown with the way that Y/N was looking at him.

“Hello beautiful,” Negan turned toward Y/N who swallowed down hard. His chest was still damp from his shower drawing attention to the lines of his slender abdomen and it had her throat tensing up. “What’s that look for?”

“Why are you wet?” she blurt out with a judgmental expression. Why was that the question she asked? Obviously, she knew the answer.

“I just took a shower,” Negan pointed toward the bathroom that was in his bedroom and clearly he thought that was obvious too. Lowering his hand, he caressed it in over his abdomen dragging his fingertips through the wet curls of hair. Tipping his head to the side, his eyebrows furrowed and the way she was looking at him provoked him to scoff. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Are you fucking my daughter?” she blurt out, letting her worst fears come to light. Immediately a cough escaped Negan’s lips, his hazel eyes growing wide with the mere suggestion.

“Where the fuck did that come from?” Negan seemed both shocked and sickened by her question. That was a relief at least, but it was a question she couldn’t help but ask with Elizabeth acting so weird about things. “She’s seventeen years old Y/N. What the fuck?”

“You can’t blame me with this one. It’s a little shady if you ask me,” she stressed to Negan who laughed uncomfortably as he stood before her. “What else am I supposed to think? This morning she wouldn’t tell me where she was going. I come to your mother’s house to find her sneaking out when I get here. And she can’t tell me why she’s here with you. I’ve never had her avoid answering a question. And then I come in here to find you half naked, getting dressed after taking a shower.”

Pointing to Negan, she held her hand out to draw attention to his body.

“This is the first time I saw some of Joel’s negative personality in you,” Negan snickered stepping forward to reach out to caress his hands in over her shoulders. “I was in the shower so I didn’t stink and my mother was feeding your daughter. You’re welcome to go ask my mother if you’d like. You can also ask her if she was with us the whole day so you know that we weren’t alone. Fuck, I look at Liz like a family member already. How fucking sick do you think I am?”

Embarrassment flooded her body with her face growing incredibly hot that she just accused her boyfriend of sleeping with her daughter. Negan didn’t know whether to be amused or nervous with her questioning him like that, “I’m sorry Negan.”

“No, it’s okay. Mama bear came out and she was ready to go,” Negan swept his thumb in over Y/N’s jawline, getting her to relax before him. “I would fully expect you to beat the shit outta me if I did that. I’d beat the shit outta me if I did that.”

“I’m sorry Negan,” she apologized realizing how stupid that question actually was when she thought about everything. “I don’t know why I got that way. Elizabeth was just acting really weird when I saw her leaving here.”

“It will all make sense later,” Negan assured her with an amused rumble of a sound. Playfully she hit at the center of his chest causing him to snort. “Full transparency? I did have sex with your ex-husband last night though.”

“Makes sense,” she stammered under her breath, shaking her head as she spoke. “I was supposed to see Joel today for him to pick up his laptop and he never came. In fact, he hasn’t interacted with me at all. So I’m guessing he’s panicking about the two of you sleeping together?”

“I don’t think that’s it,” Negan reached for her hands, caressing his thumbs over the back of them. “I think he’s trying to respect you asking for space. And he’s probably waiting for you to tell him that it’s okay for him to come back around. He was upset that he hurt you as bad as he did.”

“Wow. So he told you about that?” she inquired, feeling a lump growing at the center of her throat when Negan’s fingers hooked with hers. Unhurriedly, Negan led her over toward the bed with him so they could both sit on the edge of it to talk. “What did he tell you exactly?”

“Uhm…” Negan licked his lips, tipping his head from side to side. “Everything?”

“Everything?” she repeated, shock flooding into her features. “So you know that…”

“Him and Lucille were sending dirty e-mails and videos to each other? Yeah. He told me,” Negan filled in the blanks for her to let her know that she didn’t have to hold all that in from him and worry about what he did and did not know.

“Wow, I can’t believe he did that,” she admitted, a pain flooding into her chest at the idea that he came to Negan last night to tell him. “I asked him not to tell you about that. Of course he told you.”

“You asked him not to tell me?” Negan repeated what she had said, his head tipping to the side like that of a confused puppy dog. “Why?”

“I didn’t think you’d handle it well,” she was honest, having a hard time looking at Negan when she thought about everything. “Every time I tell him to do something, he does the opposite.”

“In this case, I agree with what he did,” Negan opened up to her about the situation, lifting his hand to grasp her chin between his thumb and index finger. Getting her to look at him, Negan offered up another smile that made a breath escape her throat. “He told me that he wanted to be a better man. I’ve been very open with him about the fact that I tell you everything. And I think that’s something he inspires to be like. Prove that he’s not like he used to be. I respect that. Although, I did hit him really hard. One firm punch to the face. Just to get him back for the other night when he hit me when he was drunk and for that. I do think I might have broken his nose.”

“You broke his nose?” she pushed drawing Negan’s eyebrows to bounce up.

“There is a cut on the bridge of his nose right here,” Negan pointed to what he remembered waking up to this morning. “And a little bit of bruising. I don’t think it was a horrible break, he still looks pretty. Just a little beaten up. He got it after one hit.”

“And he didn’t fight back? I would think Joel would take that as advantage to have an all-out brawl between the two of you,” she knew that Joel would have jumped at the opportunity to fight Negan recently.

“I think he felt bad and thought he deserved it. So he took it,” Negan explained what happened. After Joel got hit, he did bleed significantly which was something that he left out when explaining to Y/N, but it was a nose. That was normal. “Afterwards, we ate some canned ravioli and watched a football game together.”

A silence followed when Negan dropped his hand and let out a long exhale, “I was irritated, but at the end of the day? I was an awful husband for a short period of time. Compared to what I did? They were just being stupid with one another. It was like watching porn.”

“It’s a little bit more extreme than that,” she corrected Negan who simply shrugged his shoulders. “It was.”

“Was it?” Negan responded, biting down on his bottom lip. “They didn’t have sex. They never intended on having sex.”

Shaking her head, she lowered her stare from Negan and didn’t like what she was hearing, “I took a naughty photoshoot that went out to magazines all across the world. Most of the world has seen my ass. And while yes, my balls and my dick were hidden…anyone can find me in just about nothing.”

“That’s not the same thing,” she defended, her face scrunching up when she looked to him again.

“Y/N,” Negan paused, his hazel eyes narrowing when he reached out to brush her hair behind her ear. “If you had showed up at my hotel room while I was married, I would have had sex with you in an instant. Joel isn’t wrong about that. Given the opportunity, I would have had an affair with you. And I would have felt bad, but I still would have done it. Because I fucked people that I didn’t care about. I was no good Y/N. What they were doing was finding comfort in someone familiar. And men love showing their cocks. Trust me. Even if they don’t have something to be proud of.”

“I feel like you’re giving them an excuse,” she stressed to Negan who reached out to place his hand in over her knee. “They had an emotional relationship through these e-mails Negan. He sent her a video of him jerking off for her.”

“Was it hot?” he blurt out, grunting when she smacked at the back of his head. Playfully nudging her, he shrugged his shoulders and couldn’t help but snort in laughter. “It was over four years ago Y/N. And…I really can’t judge. Plus, let’s not pretend we’re entirely innocent.”

“I never cheated on Joel,” she defended herself, placing her hand in over her chest to fight him on it with Negan’s eyebrows bouncing up. “I never sent out naughty photos to anyone. Nor did I have an emotional relationship with anyone.”

“You’re right, you never cheated while you were married,” Negan agreed with her, tipping his head from side to side. “There is one thing both you and I never told Joel. So while I pride myself on being honest…”

“I don’t know what you’re…” she paused, her head dropping down when she realized what Negan was talking about. “Shit…”

“And there it is,” Negan snapped his fingers together, sucking at his bottom lip when he gave her a firm nod. “I’ll set a scene for you. I had been with Lucille six months, you had been with Joel however long you were. It was raining, you crawled out of your window and came to mine…”

“That’s not the same thing,” she suggested, with Negan’s head tipping to the side. “You hadn’t talked to me in a long time. I missed you and I wanted my best friend back. We were teens. And we didn’t have sex.”

 “Because my mother walked in,” Negan reminded her, his head shaking when he pointed toward the door. “If she hadn’t, you know just as much as I do that we would have had sex. You were soaking wet, I gave you some of my pajamas. You were crying, we started kissing, then we had no clothes on and we were in my bed…”

“I forgot about that,” she exhaled loudly, slouching forward resting her elbows on her knees when Negan reminded her of something that happened after their first initial fight. “My parents were watching me like a hawk because they hated Joel.”

“And they called my mom to ask if I knew where you were when you snuck out,” Negan recalled, swallowing down hard with him reaching up to sweep at her jawline. “We already had put the condom on me, I wasn’t balls deep but…”

“You weren’t in me at all,” she corrected him knowing that Negan was trying to suggest that they went further than they did. “Negan, you weren’t.”

“If you say so,” Negan scoffed, grunting when she shoved at his arm. “My point is Y/N, we cheated. We never acted on it or said anything because after my mother came in, you got embarrassed, got dressed, ran out of the house and then we never talked again. So I assumed you wanted to continue to have the relationship that we did previously. It was like a fucking dream. You never talked to me about it. And Joel didn’t kill me the next day, so I knew that it was something we were both supposed to forget. The truth is Y/N…the world would always fucking lead you and me back together. There is something between the two of us. When we’re around each other, we act on our emotions. Was Joel your soulmate and Lucille mine? Yeah. I think so. But I think you were always supposed to be mine and I was always supposed to be yours.”

“That’s very sweet, but at the same time makes me realize I was a shitty person,” she recognized, the ache growing at the center of her chest. “I just made Joel feel awful about everything and I did something worse.”

“You were an emotional teenager,” Negan suggested, shaking his head at the idea. “And so what if we’ve all done shitty things? We’re humans Y/N. We make mistakes. It’s what we fucking learn from those mistakes that defines us. And I made so many fucking mistakes that I can’t view Joel as worse than me. Because he’s not. He’s someone who had been in pain his whole life and that pain clouded his judgement. But do I think he loves you? Yes. Yes, I do. And there is something that happened when he was a teenager with his dad that…”

Negan paused, biting down on his bottom lip, “It’s not my place to tell you. That’s something Joel will have to tell you, but fuck…he’s gone through a lot. And so have you. We’re three severely fucked up people.”

Snickering, she shook her head and lowered it having a warmth flooding into her face, “You have the right to be hurt, but I do think you need to acknowledge that while he may have had impure thoughts he never fucking acted on them. If you and Joel would have sent me one of your sex videos when I was married to Lucille, I would have jerked off to them. And I would have sent you a video back. It’s just something people do to do it.”

“He’s lucky to have you, you know?” she interrupted Negan’s thoughts causing Negan’s Adam’s apple to bounce in his throat. “Because no one defends him harder than you do.”

“No,” Negan shook his head, dragging his thumb across her bottom lip. “He’s lucky to have you, just like I am. Because no one fought harder for us than you have. We’re lucky to be loved by you.”

“Oh, you’re good,” she sighed loudly, drawing a big, cheesy smile from Negan. Leaning in toward her, Negan nudged his nose against hers before bringing their lips together in a passionate sweep. “You’re always making me feel things.”

“Happiness?” Negan stammered, peppering kisses at her bottom lip. Bracing her hand in over the center of his chest, she allowed her fingers to stroke at the tattoo that covered his pectoral muscle. “Horniness?”

“I was thinking more so love, but the two h-words work too,” she chuckled, her laugh vibrating against his lips making him smile. “You know, we never had sex in this room. Which is almost a shame.”

“Is that a hint?” Negan slurred, his right eyebrow arching in curiosity.

“Do we have to be somewhere at a certain time?” she was curious with Negan looking to the clock that was on his nightstand. With a scrutinizing look, Negan muttered something under his breath and then laid back against the bed. Reaching for her made her laugh when he helped pull her in over him. “Is that a no?”

“I mean we have somewhere to be, but the idea of this? Well, I think it can wait,” he slurred, pushing his hands up underneath her jacket to get it down over her body. Bracing her hands over the center of his bare chest, she ground her hips down over his eliciting a deep rumble of a growl from his throat. Taking her time, she unhurriedly rocked her hips over his. It had his head tipping back into the pillows with him sucking at his bottom lip. “You know that my mother is here. So we’re definitely gonna have to be quiet.”

Finding his hands meeting her hips, Negan moaned out at the friction of her rubbing up against him, “Nothing makes me feel more like a teenager again than being with you. I remember we did this all the fucking time. I still don’t understand why we didn’t just have sex. We did just about everything else…”

“Your dad put the fear of God into us,” she reminded him with a smirk undoing his belt lazily and then working his pants open. Lowering his head, Negan’s hazel eyes watched her movements and it made him drag his tongue out across his bottom lip. “I thought one day you were just going to push my panties aside and fuck me.”

“I wanted to so bad,” Negan admitted with a hum, his head tipping back again into his pillows. Moving his shirt and jacket aside, Negan kept one hand settled at her hips and curled his other arm behind the pillow that was under his head. The movement stretched out his long torso and it had her tracing up over his ribs getting him to sigh loudly. “And the times that you would give me a pussy job, my God…”

Reaching into Negan’s pants, she took her time caressing over his body getting him completely solid in her grasp. Adjusting over him, she tugged her dress up over her hips with Negan smirking. Helping push her panties aside, Negan swallowed down hard and licked his lips, “I was…I am addicted to you.”

“Good,” she slurred, considering what Negan had just mentioned from when they were first fooling around together. Taking her time, she allowed the lips of her warmth to rub against his shaft having his long eyelashes fluttering to a tight close. By the time he started moaning, she leaned in over him to capture his lips in a silencing kiss. Allowing herself to sink down over his length had them both moaning out in unison. “There is no way you actually managed to get inside of me that night.”

“And why is that?” Negan hummed, keeping his eyes locked on hers while she took her time to roll her hips over his. The prominent vein at the side of his neck bulged when he sucked in a sharp breath of air.

“Because with the way this feels? I wouldn’t have wanted it to stop,” she explained, her nails digging into the flesh at Negan’s chest evoking a muted moan to escape him. Each movement grew in strength and power forcing him to keep quiet.

Something about the whole thing felt naughty and wrong. Particularly with where they were and their situation. This wasn’t going to last entirely too long. Especially since they both knew at any time his mother could walk in on them. She wasn’t sleeping, she was in the house and they really didn’t want her coming in again like she did when they were younger. At first Negan allowed her to control the movements but had braced himself into a seated position to bring them closer together to help keep them both silenced. This was something they had wanted to do so badly when they were younger, but just never found the right time to do it. Everything felt so right, but it always did when they were together. The hardest part was staying silent when they both had reached their orgasms, but they managed.

“So what happened last night?” she breathed laid out across Negan’s chest with her fingers circling through the dark curls of hair. Negan’s fingertips were caressing over her shoulders while they laid out across the center of his bed. “Between you and Joel? The sex?”

“We were talking about the past. I always kind of knew that Joel was bisexual. Because of…things,” Negan didn’t know what he could or could not say because he didn’t want to upset Joel in the slightest. Faint kisses were being pressed at the center of his chest while he spoke and it made him smile. “And I wanted to make him feel better about it. Show him that it was okay to feel things.”

“And who was in what position,” she tipped her head back to stare up at Negan getting a smile to tug at his handsome features.

“The first time he was the bottom and then later in the night me,” Negan was honest with her, tracing shapes over her shoulder.

“And which does he prefer?” she was curious, her jaw flexing with the way that Negan snickered. “I’m open with you when it comes to this stuff.”

“I know. And I think he prefers being a bottom but I’m not really sure. Because I also think he likes having power and control. It’s hard for him to give that up,” Negan claimed with her starting to press kisses over his chest again. A yelp escaped his throat when she nipped at his nipple which had him arching up toward her with a laugh.

“Do you love him?” she muttered against his flesh causing Negan’s smile to fade when he shrugged his shoulders. “Now that’s an expression I can’t read.”

“I love both of you, but it’s not the same kind of love,” Negan declared, his long eyelashes fluttering as he spoke. “I could find myself loving him in a way I do you with time. But the way I love you? Nothing compares to that. You’re my everything.”

Without saying a word, she crawled up toward him to meet him in a lingering kiss that made him hum. Sweeping his thumb at her jawline, Negan swallowed down hard, “Do you want to have children?”

Laughing, she didn’t know how to answer that one, “I already do have children. Two of them in fact.”

“Well, yeah,” Negan huffed, color growing in his cheeks when he lowered his head down to look at her. Now he felt stupid because he knew that. “I know that, I just meant, with me.”

“I don’t know,” she responded, her voice quiet and her eyes filled with contemplation. That wasn’t a question that she was expecting from him, especially in this moment. “I thought you couldn’t have children?”

“I don’t know if I can or not,” Negan reminded her, with a wrinkle of his nose. “I thought it was me that couldn’t have children, but there is that chance that it was just Lucille. I wanted kids really bad. Like, incredibly bad. I wanted to be a dad more than anything.”

“I guess after I had Elizabeth and Peter, I never really considered it. They are both teenagers so I really don’t think I thought I would have any more,” she truly hadn’t even considered having more children after her and Joel had gotten divorced. “I thought Joel and I would have a lot of children when we first got together, but things ended up the way that they did.”

Instead of saying anything else, Negan just gave her a nod with his Adam’s apple bouncing in this throat. It looked like he wanted to say something, but then reconsidered it, “We should probably get going. We do have some time constraints.”

“Oh,” she felt her face hot with Negan getting up from underneath her carefully. Working his pants back together, Negan was quick putting his shirt and his jacket on. Fixing her clothing, she had grabbed some of the tissue that was beside Negan’s bed to clean herself up. When they were both done, Negan held his hand out to her with a tiny smirk over his handsome features.

Accepting his hand, she allowed Negan to lead her to the front door wondering where Negan’s mother had gone off to. Right as Negan opened the door, a gasp fell from Y/N’s throat when she came face to face with her mother who was holding some kind of dessert in her hands. What had been a smile turned to a disappointed expression when her mother realized that it was her at the door. “Oh, hey mom.”

Right in that moment, it looked like her mother wanted to run away. Avoid her all together, but Negan had moved in behind Y/N.

“Is your mother here?” her mother looked beyond Y/N to make eye contact with Negan who tipped his head to the side. “Your mother brought us over a really nice dessert the other day and I thought I would repay her with this.”

“You know, I don’t understand this,” Negan announced after seeing Y/N’s face flush over with red. Instead of standing up for herself, Y/N had just stepped aside so her mother could interact with Negan. “She’s your daughter. It’s Christmas time and you’re not even going to say hello?”

Silence followed. Her mother didn’t seem to care or have any kind of emotion with what he was saying. 

“Why?” Negan pushed further, throwing his hand up in the air trying to receive some kind of answer for Y/N. “Because she decided to keep her child instead of aborting it? That’s really fucking sad because Elizabeth is an awesome kid that you never even got to know because you wrote your daughter out of your lives.”

“Is your mother home?” her mother repeated once more refusing to give Negan some kind of answer.

“Be a human being instead of a fucking robot,” Negan demanded, the vein at the side of his neck bulging. Rage was starting to grow inside of him and he could see out of the corner of his eye that Y/N just wanted him to stop. “You have two phenomenal grandchildren. They are awesome. And your daughter is a great mother to them.”

“I don’t have a daughter,” her mother was cold in the way that she responded. A broken breath escaped Y/N. Even if she swore she was fine, by her breathing Negan could tell that she wasn’t. “I had one, I haven’t for eighteen years.”

“That’s so fucked up,” Negan rolled his eyes, stepping forward to reach for Y/N’s hand. Urging her back toward him, Negan’s fingers hooked with hers giving them a firm squeeze. “You are missing out on so much, y’know that?”

“My daughter wasted her life on that Miller boy and look at the good that it did for her,” her mother stressed, lowering the pie down and shaking her head. “I knew from the start that he was no good. He never was. I expected my daughter to go to school, get a life for herself. Not hook up with the local poor boy who had nothing living paycheck to paycheck.”

“Wow,” Y/N muttered under her breath, hating that this felt like she was seventeen all over again.

“But no. She had to remain loyal to that boy and refuse to get rid of his spawn,” her mother continued to vent, “and look at what he did to her. Divorced her and left her after knocking her up with two children. It’s exactly the kind of life that I expected her to have getting married to him.”

“You’re something else,” Negan snorted before Y/N could even speak up to defend herself or Joel. “That boy lost his parents at eighteen where he had to take care of his little brother. That boy went from nothing and made himself something. But it’s not even about Joel anymore. It’s about your flesh and blood. Your daughter is still right here. Your grandchildren are living in the same town that you and your husband are. Yet you have no relationship with them. I think Joel’s parents would have given anything to meet their grandchildren. Instead you allowed those children to grow up without any grandparents at all.”

Another bout of silence surrounded them.

“Y’know what though? It was probably for the best. They did much better without you anyways. The last thing they needed was you poisoning them with your hatefulness,” Negan snarled, his blood boiling at this point. “Your daughter became a better parent than you ever could have been. Unlike her, her children know what it’s like to be loved unconditionally. By both their mother and their father.”

“Can we please avoid the lecture?” her mother was dramatic in the way that she delivered her sentence. “Even at this point, I wouldn’t want anything to do with my daughter. Ending up with you now? Being all over the news. Do you know how many people have mentioned it to us at church? God, the rumors that we have heard.”

Snatching the pie from Y/N’s mom had her gasping out with Negan holding it in his free hand, “I assure you that my mother will get your crusty ass pie. Now get the fuck outta her house before I force you out.”

There was an offended expression over her mother’s face when she gave Y/N one final scrutinizing look, but Negan was quick to get her out the door. Slamming the door shut, Negan grunted when he saw that his mother was standing behind him in the hallway.

“Good boy,” Negan’s mother stepped forward to palm in over the side of her son’s face. “You go toss that in the trash where it belongs.”

“Yes ma’am,” Negan smirked heading over toward the kitchen with his mother stepping before Y/N. No words were spoken. She just wrapped Y/N up in a hug. Truthfully? She didn’t realize how much she truly needed a hug from someone that was like a parental figure to her. By the time Negan returned, he came to a full stop allowing them to continue their hug until his mother was satisfied. Leading Y/N back to the door again, this time he was happy to see that no one was there. “We are going to have to blindfold you because I don’t want you to know where we are going.”

“Okay?” she couldn’t say no really in this position. So she let him do it. Wrapping the red fabric around her eyes. Being careful, she allowed Negan to lead her down the sidewalk and to his car. Once he had them both inside and the car started up, she couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re lucky that I trust you.”

“I know,” Negan acknowledged with a snort.

It was hard to focus where they were going with Negan humming the Christmas music that was on the radio while they drove. What made things worse is she couldn’t stop thinking about the things her mother said. After this long? Her parents hadn’t changed at all. But she knew she had to force herself to think about something else. Negan was doing something nice for her and she had to think about that. Not the things that were eating away at her.

It wasn’t a very long drive, but it was far enough that she didn’t really know where they could be headed. When they got wherever Negan was taking her, she was surprised by how quiet it actually was.

“Ready?” Negan’s breath was warm against the side of her neck, drawing chills down her spine. Undoing the blindfold allowed her eyes to flutter to an open. It was dark with lights flooding the large area before her. It took a minute for her to truly realize where they were and it made her laugh when music started playing in the background.

“The skating rink? I don’t think I’ve been here in over ten years,” she turned to Negan with curiosity in her eyes. Loosely, Negan’s arms wrapped around her with his hazel eyes gazing down at her with awe. “You wanted me to dress up nice for this?”

“Yes, yes I did,” Negan answered with a wink, lowering enough to nuzzle his nose in against hers. “Come here…”

Getting her to follow him over toward a table that was already set up at the back of the building had her curiosity growing. On top of it was what looked like the setting for a child’s birthday party. There was a cake that had no writing on it, but it was decorated like what one would look like for a birthday. There was a pizza at the center of the table along with plates and two party hats.

Looking around, she realized there was no one else there, just them. Except for maybe whoever was helping Negan hidden somewhere, “Alright. I’m interested.”

Something sent a line of light across the area they were seated at and it made her smile looking over her shoulder to see that the arcade area had just turned on. Sounds of the games and the flashing of the lights had her smirking.

“Here,” Negan reached for one of the party hats to put it on her. A tiny laugh fell from her lips and it made her smile. Getting a hat for himself, Negan put it on which had her chuckling louder. Curling his finger in underneath her chin, he got her to tip her head back to look up at him. “Do you know what is so special about this place?”

“We were here all the time as young children?” she replied, not sure if that was the right answer. Simply shaking his head had Y/N sucking in a sharp breath of air. “What’s so special about this place.”

“It’s the place we shared our first kiss,” Negan alerted her with his thick eyebrows bouncing up when he closed the distance between them. “It was my birthday. There was a bunch of kids here. More so here for the party instead of being here for me.”

“So, that’s what you’re creating again for us,” she noted looking down at the table that was set up for them. “Do you know how young we actually were when that happened?”

“Very, very young,” Negan smirked, his dimples showing clearly with the amusement that was in his features. “Do you remember where we were when you first kissed me?”

Extending her hand out, she swiped some of the frosting from the cake and dragged her finger down over the side of Negan’s cheek. It had him snorting, but she led him over toward the area of the arcade that she recalled. Just like it was when they were younger, there was ski ball set up and she felt a warmth spreading throughout her body.

“You had just opened presents and eaten your cake. We were playing ski ball together, which you always lost,” she reminded him, turning to him. Grabbing onto the sides of his jacket, she pulled him in closer to her and she nodded toward the frosting that she put on his face. “I let you win and you had frosting on your face. I thought you were the most ridiculous boy in the world because you were so happy that you won.”

“I won fair and square,” Negan suggested with an amused rumble, the bridge of his nose wrinkling.

“In the middle of your celebrating, I tipped up on my toes and…” she gave Negan a quick peck on the lips. It had his eyes closing, a charming smile tugging at his handsome features. “I kissed you just like that. Told you happy birthday and then ran off.”

“I was hoping this time you wouldn’t run off on me,” Negan whispered, his eyes slowly opening. Leaning into her touch, Negan allowed her to wipe the frosting from his face. Depositing it between her lips had him laughing when she gave him a thumbs up. “I figured we could eat some pizza. Play some games and go skating. Eat some cake and then there is a special gift I have for you.”

“You want me to skate in a dress?” she mused, tipping up on her toes while bracing her hands against the center of his chest. “How talented do you think I am Negan?”

“Very,” Negan whispered with another big, cheesy smile. “The most talented woman I know in fact and I think you’ll really like this.”

----

“Why didn’t you bring a friend?” Joel nudged Elizabeth playfully with his shoulder as she walked side by side with him. Looking ahead, Joel could see Peter talking excitedly to one of his friends and in front of them Maria and Tommy were looking on with awe for the spectacular lights that covered each home they were walking by.

“Because this is something we do every year and I didn’t want to leave you out,” Elizabeth declared with a shrug of her shoulders, hooking her arm around her father’s to lean in closer to rest her head against his shoulder. “I thought it would be nice.”

“Every moment I spend with you is nice,” Joel assured her with a wink, a sigh falling from his throat. Stealing a quick look at the house they were passing, Joel knew this was also something that Y/N had started with him and Negan when they were teenagers. It was a tradition that they had done for a long time that had a halt after they got divorced. Yet, he always managed to take the children still every year. “I just want you to have fun.”

“I’m having fun. Contrary to popular belief, I can actually enjoy myself while spending time with my parents,” she smirked, looking ahead at the rest of their family. “Soon, I’ll be going off to college, so I’m going to take every moment I can with you.”

“Don’t remind me,” Joel scoffed hating that his daughter had grown so quickly. “I don’t want to think about that.”

“You know I love you, right?” she looked to Joel, her eyes worried as if she thought that he didn’t.

“Of course. And I love you. Very much,” Joel reached for her hand to bring it up to place a quick peck over the back of her hand. “You’re my beautiful little girl. And you always will be. No matter how old you get.”

Something seemed to be eating away at Elizabeth with her considering her next question, “Daddy? Do you hate Negan?”

“Hate Negan?” Joel repeated with a firm shake of his head. “No, I don’t hate Negan.”

“You seem like you hate Negan,” she countered recalling the way that he had been acting over the last few weeks. “He seems to make you really angry. And I know that your face looks like that because the two of you fought. You both didn’t fall on the ice. Even though you both keep insisting that.”

“Because it’s hard to believe that two ridiculous alpha males could fall on their face during the winter season?” Joel joked and it got a roll of the eyes from her. The last thing that their children needed was to be involved with the drama that was going on in their lives. “I’m sorry honey, but this is because my face decided to take a trip down to meet the sidewalk.”

“You’re not supposed to lie to me,” she frowned and Joel knew that Elizabeth wanted him to tell her everything, but there were some things that he knew should remain a secret.

“I’m not lying to you. I don’t hate Negan,” Joel promised, squeezing her fingers with his. “It’s just hard seeing how perfect he is sometimes when I know I’m not. And I’m not used to seeing your mother…love someone else.”

“Yeah,” Elizabeth was quiet about his response, her dark eyes looking around them, but he didn’t think she was all that focused on the lights. “I always thought I had the best parents when I was little and I do! I don’t want you to think that I think otherwise. But I remember how everybody’s parents were either divorced, or they were split or they were never married. But me? I had two parents that were sickeningly in love with one another. So I was always the person that never saw my parents getting with anyone else because of how much they loved each other when I was growing up..”

“Yeah,” Joel felt guilty. When he asked Y/N for a divorce, the children really weren’t what was on his mind. He never really took into consideration how much it would affect them in their lives.

“When you ended up with Tess, I think you shocked all of us,” Elizabeth declared, her voice faint and unsure since this was someone that her father dated. “I didn’t hate her, she was nice enough. But we all thought you would just go back to mom at some point.”

“It must have really hurt her when I did that,” Joel whispered, his chest aching at the thought. Lately, that’s all he had been thinking of. All the awful things that he had done over the last few years to fuck his relationship with Y/N up so bad.

“Understatement,” Elizabeth stressed, tipping her head from side to side. “Which is why I’m happy she found Negan again. I’m not sure I’ve seen her this happy since I was young and the two of you were in love.”

“And that’s why I can’t hate Negan,” Joel confessed to his daughter, his chest growing heavy at the idea that he hadn’t been able to make Y/N that happy in a long time. “I care about your mother and I just want her happy.”

“Yeah?” Elizabeth seemed to not really believe that.

“I have a lot of thoughts, but they are things I really can’t open up to you about Ellie,” Joel stressed, his brow line creasing with the thoughts that he was having. “I just want you to know that I don’t hate Negan. There is actually a lot I do like about Negan and there are things that I probably would need to talk to you and your brother about at some point. But that’s down the line.”

“Okay,” she seemed quiet, too quiet really. Elizabeth was usually so full of energy, so this was different for her. “That’s good, since I think Negan is in our lives from here on out.”

“I agree with you,” Joel couldn’t deny that now Negan had found his way back into their lives that he would never truly be gone. “He seems to really want to be around all of us now. I think he’s going to make an attempt to be here as much as he can.’

“Especially now,” she seemed to linger on a thought and Joel was curious. The way that Elizabeth was looking at him weirded him out. “You don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?” Joel shook his head leaving Elizabeth looking pale. There was something that she wanted to tell him but was having a hard time admitting it. “Honey, what?”

“Well, I was with Negan earlier today setting up this special date for mom,” Elizabeth began, contemplating if she should really be telling her father this. “At the Christmas Fest the other day, he asked me for permission…”

“For what?” Joel’s eyebrow arched noticing that she didn’t seem to want to elaborate on that detail. “Ellie?”

“He’s asking mom to marry him tonight,” Elizabeth was blunt with her answer, making it quick and short. Showing that she was scared about what his reaction would be. Stopping in his tracks had Elizabeth looking back at him worried. “I thought you said that you were okay with Negan now and you didn’t hate him.”

“He’s asking your mother to marry him tonight?” Joel questioned keeping his voice down enough so that the others didn’t hear him. Suddenly, that jealousy that had been raging inside of him was building up again inside of his body. After last night, he was surprised that this was something that Negan didn’t tell him. Especially after they had all pretty much agreed to this whole poly relationship thing. And that was something he was pushing for big time, so to hear that surprised him. “What the fuck?”

“Daddy,” she stretched out to grab a hold of Joel’s wrist to get him to focus on her. “You said that you wanted mom happy. Right? So that means you should let this happen because I know that Negan really loves mom and she loves him.”

“Don’t you think that’s fast?” Joel snapped, shaking his head at the idea of them moving this quickly. Not even just that, how was their poly relationship supposed to work? She’d be married to Negan and he’d be their side piece? How would that work? “I don’t even think she has truly considered how much all of you are going to be in the media with this. He’s going to be away most of the year playing his last season of baseball.”

“I don’t think she cares what other people think and neither does he,” she pointed out having the knowledge of how much Negan truly seemed to appear to love her mother. “I think he just loves her so much that he doesn’t want to lose her.”

Unexpected rage ate away at Joel. It was important enough for Negan to ask Elizabeth’s permission, but not for him to ask Joel for permission? Hell, Y/N was his first after all. And if they were all together, shouldn’t they have all talked about who would be married to who?

“Where are they?” Joel interrogated his daughter, but she looked uneasy at the idea of telling him. “Ellie?!”

“Dad, come on,” she reasoned with her father seeing that he was unhappy with his expression. “What are you going to do? Run over there and stop it from happening? Neither Negan nor mom will forgive you for that. It’s supposed to be a special moment for them.”

“I don’t think this is right Ellie,” Joel explained, throwing his hands up in the air with his jaw flexing in frustration. “I think there should be more time and consideration put into things. I think we should all get to know each other better and get used to this kind of lifestyle. Let your mom experience it before she makes this big of a decision.”

“I don’t think anything is going to make mom change her mind on Negan, dad,” she tried to calm her father down, stepping forward and holding her hand up to get him to focus. “Dad, they love each other. And Negan would do anything for her…”

“They are in the honeymoon phase of their relationship,” Joel grunted, his mind going in so many different directions. This was something that Negan should have told him about yesterday. Instead they focused on the feelings that he had when he was a teenager and how he felt for Negan. Yeah, he wanted the three of them to be together, but if someone was going to be married to her…Joel thought it should have been him. Not Negan. Not after everything they had been through. “Everything is glorious, but when reality starts to…”

“What’s going on?” Tommy called out to them realizing that they were lagging behind the group.

“We’ll be right there,” Elizabeth assured her uncle, still remaining quiet. There was no hiding that Tommy thought they were fighting and he was now locked on them like a hawk to make sure that everything was okay.

“Ellie, tell me where they are,” Joel begged of his daughter who was battling this whole thing in her mind. “Ellie, please!”

“At the skating rink,” he finally got her to admit to him what she knew. “The one on the edge of town. He set it up really nice and planned something really sweet for her.”

Stepping backwards had Elizabeth throwing her hands up to stop him, “Dad?”

“Tommy, I need you to take the children home after you are all done walking. Okay?” Joel pled with his brother who nodded his head, but appeared to be nervous with Joel ready to take off on them in the middle of something they did every year.

“Let me go with you,” Elizabeth stammered, clearly nervous with whatever her father was considering. “Dad?”

“Just enjoy yourself Ellie, whatever is going to happen will happen,” Joel gave her shoulder a quick squeeze before running off toward where he had parked thanking God that him and Tommy had driven here separately. Getting in the car, he was quick to leave hoping that he wouldn’t be too late for things.

What the hell was he going to say to her? What was he going to say to Negan? Really, he didn’t know what was going to be said. There was just a part of him that felt like if there was an opportunity for one of them to be married to Y/N, it should have been him. Not Negan. 

----

Tonight was fun. And it surprised Y/N how much she actually enjoyed it. Right now? They were standing at the center of the skating rink together. Instead of actually skating, they decided to use the wooden ground of the rink as a dance floor instead. Especially since she was in a dress and his knee was bothering him. It wasn’t something that Negan had thought about at the time, but this was much nicer than that anyways. It had them close to one another, enjoying the warmth of the moment.

For a long time they played in the arcade, shared their meal and cake before ending up here. It was a very sweet moment and she was in awe of the things that Negan was able to set up. Each memory Negan brought back for her was romantic and frankly adorable. It was something nice to think back on and make her happy.

“This was a good idea with the dancing,” Negan stammered with a weak smile when he pulled his head back to stare down at her. Everything around them was dark except for the lights that were filling the skating area bringing the main focus to the two of them together. “I keep forgetting that I’m a gimp.”

“My favorite gimp,” she teased him, stroking her fingers at the exposed flesh that was revealed from the opened buttons of his dark shirt. The dark hair that covered his chest was exposed and it had her letting out a loud exhale. “You’re adorable, you know that?”

“I’d like to think so,” Negan exhaled having her laugh out at his comment, burying her head against the center of his chest. “Have you enjoyed yourself tonight?”

“I have,” she answered him finding that Negan often brought back her youth for her. Pretty quickly her childhood was stolen from her and she had to be an adult faster than most people did. So it was fun getting to relive how things were when they were younger.

The next song started and this one was more upbeat having Negan carefully pushing her out before pulling her back into him. Then there was a spin that had her laughing at how easily he moved her around on this wooden floor. Dipping her had her dropping her head back and he nuzzled his nose in against the side of her neck. Laughter fell from the both of them with them enjoying the moment. It was fun, it was silly and it was just them having moments that they could look back on.

“There is something I want to show you,” Negan motioned her to wait, staring out at the darkness that surrounded them. Spinning his finger around above him had the lights slowly coming on which amused Y/N. Even though this place felt empty, there was obviously someone that had been watching them. Heading over to the side of the rink, Negan grabbed an envelope that had been sitting there. As he headed back to her, he still continued to dance about making her smile at his antics. “I have something really important for you.”

“Okay?” she went to reach for the envelope, but he stopped her holding up his finger. Motioning her to wait, Negan brought up something on his phone and held it out before her. Taking his phone, she brought it closer to her and saw that it was a website that was both her first name and her last name. “I’m confused.”

“I set up a website for you so you can blog about things,” Negan explained, a tiny smirk pulling at the corners of his mouth. Bouncing his eyebrows, he pointed at the phone to get her to look again. “That way you can start having people see your stories and your photos.”

“No one is going to want to read about my life or see my photos,” she thought this was cute, but at the same time it didn’t really make a lot of sense to her. “I mean, I can put things up, but who cares about a random girl that is living in a small town who takes mostly photos of her family.”

“That’s not true. I saw your photos, you’ve got some really good stuff from New York. And you could blog about your food that you make because you have some incredible desserts as well too,” Negan insisted, placing his hand in over the center of his chest. Waving the envelope about had her watching him with curiosity. “There have been some things I wanted to talk to you about. Back when we were at the stadium, Dale was searching for an answer for something from me. They want me to be the coach of the team after I retire. Dale has been talking about retiring for a while and since I was forced to retire with my knee, they thought it would be great to hire me on as coach. I just didn’t know if it was something that I really wanted. Especially after I got to spend time with you and your family.”

It looked like Negan was struggling to explain things to her, but she didn’t know if it was out of fear, “Then I heard you and Joel talking about longing for your life to be the way that you dreamt of when you were younger. The both of you still yearn for that kind of life. You wanted to so badly travel, be a journalist and share your photos with the world. Well, now you can.”

“How so?” she didn’t know what to say and Negan threw his hands up in the air.

“I took the job,” Negan explained, biting down on his bottom lip. “I didn’t really know if I was ready to walk away from the team. This way I can still be with the team and not have to worry about being disabled. But, I also put in a stipulation. I would only agree to take the job if they did one thing for me.”

“And what’s that one thing?” she didn’t know if she should be happy for Negan yet or not because he had all this nervous energy. That was when he handed her over the envelope. Looking down, she accepted it and started to open the envelope. In the light she managed to see that it was a contract with the baseball team that was made out for her. “Negan?”

“I managed to get the team to hire you on. They came to me recently wanting someone to follow me around during the last year of my time on the team. Someone to report on what I was going through, what I was doing. They thought it would bring a lot of attention to the team in a positive light. And it would also put focus on my career ending so people really knew that it was the end, you know? I can’t think of someone I want doing it more than you. So this is their offer. They want you to follow me around and do the segments. Travel with me, report on things. Take photos, talk about the team. The games. I know you know baseball. You’ll get to travel, be with me and take photos. Which is exactly what you always wanted. You can also post about the things you want to post about.”

“Negan, this is a lot of money,” she felt suddenly panicked looking at the numbers that were there. “You got them to do this by saying it was the only way you would be the coach?”

“Yeah,” Negan nodded his head, his Adam’s apple bouncing in his throat.

“But I’m a nobody. You’d think they would want someone who has already made a name for themselves,” she didn’t know how to respond realizing that Negan was right, this was the closest thing to the dream she had when she was younger.

“But you have to make a start somewhere, right? Dale got his job because someone gave him a chance. And that’s what they are doing here with you,” Negan reasoned with her pointing to the papers that were in her hands. “Joel is getting attention for what he did at that bar. I know people that are related to music are actually interested in getting in contact with him. And people are going crazy about hiring him as a contractor. Now it’s your turn to get to live doing some of the things that you always wanted.”

“Wow,” she didn’t know what to say. This was big. Very big. It was a deal that a lot of people would easily accept no questions asked.

“Which really leads me to my next question,” Negan stammered, surprising her when the lights went out. Around her in the darkness she felt something pouring down in over them. By the time that the lights slowly came back to, she realized that there were rose pedals on the ground around her. A video started playing out of the corner of her eye and it was someone projecting what looked like home videos on the wall. Realizing what it was, she turned to look at them. It was their videos together from when they were younger. Videos she assumed that Negan got from his mother of them growing up. It started with them young and with each passing second it led to them becoming teenagers through quick glimpses of clips. There was a gentle tug at her dress and she looked behind her to see that Negan was on his knee holding a black jewelry box in his hands. Even in the darkness that surrounded him, she could see that it was a very beautiful, big ring that was there. “This may be a little cheesy, but I had my mother and Liz help me with this earlier today.”

And suddenly there was her answer as to why Elizabeth was acting strange, “I wanted to give you a beautiful moment because you are phenomenal. Inside and out. You’re fucking perfect. And I’ve loved you my whole life. I always knew it. I still know it. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Proving to you how much I love you. Making all your dreams come true. I want you by my side. Getting to experience the life that you always wanted and then some. I want to spend the rest of my life making you fucking happy. Letting you know how fucking much I love you every day.”

There were tears burning at her eyes when she forced herself to look away from Negan who was exceedingly hopeful with the way that he was staring up at her, “It would make me really happy if you would do me the honors of being my wife.”

Silence followed and Negan lowered his head to get her to look at him. There was a big smile plastered over his features when he shrugged his shoulders, “So what do you say? Will you marry me?”

“I wish you wouldn’t have involved Elizabeth in this,” was the first thing that came out of her mouth and the smile slowly faded from Negan’s features. That wasn’t what he was expecting after asking her to marry him. “I’m a mom, Negan.”

“Yeah?” Negan’s head tipped to the side, his features confused.

“You didn’t think this out,” she whispered, guilt eating away at her that this obviously wasn’t turning out the way that Negan wanted. “I have a daughter that is seventeen and a son that is thirteen. I’m just supposed to take off on them? Leave them? So that way I can live my dream?”

“Of course not, they could travel with us,” Negan was quick to answer, but she gave him a sideways expression. There was a knot growing in Negan’s stomach and his chest started to ache.

“They have school Negan,” she pointed out and he let out a nervous breath.

“Yeah, but they can probably get the best home schooling available,” Negan offered, the vein at the side of his neck bulging that she wasn’t just outwardly saying yes to all of this. “I can afford just about anything and you know that they would love going.”

“But that takes them away from Joel,” she countered, reaching up to wipe at her eyes with the back of her hand. “And I couldn’t do that to Joel. I couldn’t do that to them. Joel is the most important person in their lives.”

“I don’t want them taken away from Joel,” Negan looked to the ring that was in his hand and suddenly he felt incredibly small. “I just wanted to give you the life that you always wanted. I wanted to make you happy. I want to be with you.”

“Baseball season is what? Six months? And then spring training is two months? That means that we’ll always be traveling for eight months out of the year,” she thought aloud having Negan’s arm slowly dropping down beside him in defeat. There was a sense of misery in his eyes that broke her heart to see, but these were things Negan didn’t think about. “What kind of life is that for children? They need some kind of stability in their lives and they can’t be away from their father.”

“I just thought…” Negan slid further in closer to her trying to grab her hand, but she pulled it from him and let out a shuddering breath. “Please? I love you. I love your children. I want to be your husband. I want you to be my wife. And I feel like we could figure something out with Joel. If we get this music thing started for him…”

“I wish I could take off and just go whenever I wanted to Negan,” she whimpered, trying to wipe at the tears that were over her cheeks. It was hard to even look at him right now since Negan was so good at bringing happiness into her life, but she didn’t feel like he thought this out very well. “But that dream left as soon as I became a mom. A mom to children that don’t belong to you. If they were yours, it would be one thing, but I can’t take them away from their dad. I can’t stay on the road six months at a time away from them.”

“I’m sure there is something that could be worked out where…” Negan heard her sob and she threw her hands up in the air. Confusion flooded Negan’s veins that she was acting the way she was about all of this. “I don’t understand. Don’t you love me?”

“So fucking much,” she answered immediately, nodding her head to his question. “More than you will ever understand, but my family has to come first Negan. And this is where their lives are. This small, sad little town. But this is where their school is. This is where their father is. Their lives have to come first. As much as I want to be happy and to live my dreams, I have to put their dreams first.”

“I just thought…” Negan slouched forward with Y/N running off on him toward the women’s restroom. It had him closing the box up and he fell back onto his ass. Burying his head into his hands, he knew that this was not what he was expecting. He did everything he could to make this romantic for her but realizing that she had set the papers and the envelope back where they were originally, he knew that this wasn’t turning out to be the night that he planned it to be.

----

Sitting in the driveway to his home, Joel could feel his heart pounding away in his chest. He’d love to admit that he didn’t go to the skating rink, but he did. And what he saw was Negan and Y/N dancing at the center of the rink. They were laughing, kissing, smiling…doing everything that a happy couple did.

What had originally been courage out of anger and rage stopped the moment he saw them together. Elizabeth was right. They were happy. Negan made her happy. Happier than he had in years. Then again? Maybe it was happier than he had ever.

Instead of breaking things off like he had planned to do, Joel just stood there for a moment. Watched them. They had no idea that he was there. They were just lost in each other. Lost in the moment. And he couldn’t stand to see any further of it. But he also couldn’t break it up. Not with her as happy as she was. So instead he turned around. Walked out of the place. Forced himself to drive home.

Even though he told himself to turn around multiple times, he didn’t. What kind of man would he be if he ruined her special moment? Made her miserable again like he had always done before in the past. This time he had to be the better man that he used to be. The man that he wanted to be and let them have their moment.

If Negan made her happy? Then there was nothing he could do to change that. He had to let her grow up and apart from him. Even if it hurt him. Even if he felt like it was wrong. He had to let her be her own person and find her own way.

Elizabeth saw it, he saw it. Negan was the person that made her the happiest now and Joel would just have to live with that. Whether he liked it or not. There was nothing he could do to change it. No matter how much it hurt. 

----

Tags: @chainsawsangel @fancypeacepersona @violent-darkness @negansbestie @elegantfanficluv

@sanctuaryforthelost @dead-of-niight @dilfsandmartinis @jennydehavilland

[softblesses]

Summer Colds.

In which Neal and Elizabeth suffer, and Peter is there to fix it.

Pretty much another classic sick fic of my favourite hyperfixation rn! Please don’t reblog to non kink/whump blogs. Hope you enjoy!

Part 1.

“You’re sick,” Mozzie stated matter of factly, whilst wandering alongside Neal, in the streets of New York.

“I’m fine.” Neal muttered back, rubbing a knuckle under his nose in an attempt to put a stop to the itch.

“You’re not fine! You never sneeze. Like, ever, so unless you can explain the past ten minutes? I’m staying ten steps away, my friend. Ten. Steps. Away.”

“Mozz, you’re being dramatic. It’s nothing, it’s just —“ Neal stopped walking, bringing his elbow to his face. Mozzie was right, but he was hanging on to the small dregs of hope that this was all random and he wasn’t getting sick after all.

‘Heh’kshu!’ The sneezes told a different story.

“Gesundheit. Now, why don’t we do the sensible thing and double back to June’s instead of breakfast? You can go to bed, I’ll get you some medicine and then I’ll make scarce!” Mozzie took a few steps back towards Neal, rolling his eyes at the sound of his cellphone ringing.

He folded his arms, tapping his foot as he listened to his friend speak. “The suit wants you to work?” He questioned, after Neal hung up.

“Elizabeth’s workplace got robbed,” Neal explained, pocketing the phone. “She’s okay, but Peter wants to investigate. Don’t look at me like that, Moz. It’s just a stuffy nose. It’s probably just… allergies, or something.”

“You don’t get any kind of pollen allergies, wise guy.” Mozzie pointed out. “Let me know if El needs my… expertise. I’ll be at breakfast, while you go and tango with the bureau, Sneezy.”

“Yeah, yeah. See you later, Mozzie.” Neal watched him walk away, checking his watch; Peter would be here to pick him up soon.

After almost ten minutes, Peter was parking by the sidewalk and Neal climbed into the back seat; they were picking up Elizabeth, so he naturally assumed she’d go up front.

“Hey, Neal.” Peter greeted, and it was already obvious he was stressed.

“I’m sure Elizabeth is fine,” Neal replied, buckling his seatbelt.

His handler only sighed, driving off again. “I told her to stay home today,” he continued, without acknowledging Neal’s statement.

“Stay home?”

“Yeah… she’s sick, and she already worked from home for a couple days. I just — well, El thinks I’m being too dramatic. It’s just a cold, but, still.”

Ah. That explains how Neal caught what he has. “You worry a lot,” he confirmed. “But, I’m sure Elizabeth appreciates it. She’ll be okay, and I’m sure she’ll work from home tomorrow.”

There was a long pause, before Peter sighed again. They stopped in traffic, and he took a look in the mirror back at Neal. “Maybe you’re right,” he hummed.

“I’m right? Really?”

“Alright, don’t push it.”

“Are you sure you’re not getting sick?” Neal teased, although unbeknownst to Peter he was the one feeling under the weather; Neal’s throat itched, and so did his ears, and he couldn’t breathe through his nose or he’d sniffle and it would make him sneeze again.

“My immune system is top notch, and you know it.” Peter pointed out. “I’m feeling fine.”

“Even when sleeping with Elizabeth?”

Peter shot him a glare in the mirror, and Neal held up his hands. I meant sleeping as in sharing a bed! That’s a sure fire way to get sick.” He scrunches his nose, trying his best to quell the ever growing itch.

“Huh. And, you’d know, wouldn’t you?” The man jested back, falling quiet as they neared their destination.

Neal rolled his eyes at Peter’s comment, but for lack of energy and realisation that he was about to park the car again, he stayed quiet. Peter told him to stay put, and explained that he wasn’t going in as FBI — Elizabeth had a bunch that the lead thief was one of her colleagues. It was an interesting sounding case, but right now the CI was too focused on holding back a sneeze. And, as soon as Peter had closed his car door and stepped away from it, Neal buried his face into his elbow and inhaled sharply.

‘Hh’sSHhu, k—tch’tcH. Ugh. Shit.’ He sighed, making quick work of blowing his nose into the handkerchief in his pocket, placing it back just in time for Peter to open the door for Elizabeth.

“Honey, I promise, I’m fine — hey, Neal — a little shaken up, I guess, but I feel alright! You worry too much.” Elizabeth huffed a little, waiting for her husband to get in the car beside her. She didn’t sound extremely sick, but Neal could definitely hear the congestion in her voice.

Peter climbed in the car, and leaned across to feel El’s forehead. She didn’t look impressed. “I know, I know. I worry too much! We have to take your statement back at the office, is that okay? I’ll work from home after that.”

Neal’s eyebrows raised a little at that.

“You’re coming too, Neal. You’re not getting out of work that easily.” It was like Peter had read his mind. “We can —“

‘hu’tsh, tch, tshh. . Huh’tcHoo.’

“Bless you,” Peter and Neal rang in sync, whilst the agent continued to rub his wife’s back.

“Sorry,” El apologised softly, pocketing her tissue and leaning back in the seat with a heavy sigh.

“It’s okay, Hon. Neal, I’ll explain everything to you when we get to my place. Let’s get this statement over with so we can all relax.” Peter leaned across to kiss El on the cheek, before starting up the car.

•••

The conference room was dark, with the shutters closed and the lights turned off. It was like a welcoming blanket of calm, and immediately Neal felt the ache in his head dissipate a little. He quietly closed the door, glancing over at El, who was sitting on the couch scrolling through her phone, on low brightness mode.

“Neal,” she greeted softly. “Everything okay?”

“Peter sent me to check on you,” it was only a tiny, white lie. “And, I’d much rather sit in here with you. Peter gets grumpy when he’s worried.” Neal muttered, wandering in and closing the door behind him.

Elizabeth watched him for a moment, eyebrows raised. “Really? No other reason?” She questioned, still watching him.

“No other reasons.” Neal took a seat in one of the spinning chairs by the conference room table, and rubbed his eyes. They were almost as itchy as everything else; his nose itched, his ears felt stuffy as well as itchy. . . He was starting to feel worse, and if anyone was going to figure him out, it was Elizabeth Burke.

“Neal, are you okay? You’ve been acting off since we were in the car.” Elizabeth pressed on, and Neal sighed in semi-defeat.

“If I told you I had a headache, would you stop asking?” Neal muttered, trying not to sound agitated, and somewhat failing.

There was a pause, and El coughed slightly. “No. Does your throat hurt?” She continued, and Neal spun a little in his chair.

“Maybe.”

“Stuffy nose?”

“A little.”

“So, you’re sick. I knew it.” Elizabeth muttered.

“Which means, this is my fault,” she concluded next. “I’m sorry, Neal.”

He shook his head, reaching into his pocket for the silk handkerchief he’d been hiding away. He rubbed at his nose, and sniffled; revealing the oncoming congestion he’d been trying so hard to cover up for the past couple of hours. “It’s not your fault,” Neal finally spoke, pocketing the handkerchief.

“Know anyone else with a summer cold?” El quipped back, and he could imagine the look she was currently giving him.

With a heavy sigh, Neal leaned to rest his head against his arms, on the tabletop in front of him. “Elizabeth B — wait, what’s your middle name?” Neal asked, sitting up again and squinting over at her.

“Why?”

“Just.. humour me, just for a second.”

“It’s Laura.”

Neal inhaled, and stood up. “Elizabeth Laura Burke, why are you so irritatingly observant?” He exhaled, sniffling afterwards.

A laugh fell from her lips at that, which proceeded into a cough covered by a fist. “Marrying an FBI agent might have had something to do with it,” she smiled, patting the space next to her. “Neal George Caffrey, you know it’s alright to let your guard down here, hmm?” El’s voice softened, watching him as he sat.

He shifted slightly, and El could tell that he was uncomfortable. Although, the eventual albeit very quiet “I know,” was comforting. “That’s why I told you so easily.” Neal murmured, leaning back against the couch with a shiver.

“And, because whatever meds you dosed up with this morning are starting to wear off?” Elizabeth teased, gently reaching to feel his forehead. A little warm, but nothing alarming.

“Stop being right.” Neal grumbled, before quickly leaning away and burying his face into the crook of his arm.

‘Hu—ngxT. . . HheisHhhoo—ugh.”

“Bless you,” Elizabeth murmured, rummaging around in her purse for a new packet of tissues, and gently nudging him before offering them out.

Neal practically whined, taking a moment to use one of the tissues, before leaning back against the couch with another little shiver. Elizabeth frowned, about to suggest asking Peter to take them home sooner, when the glass door behind them opened.

“Sorry that took so long,” Peter’s voice announced. “Ready to go?”

The CI’s demeanour was quick to change — he sat up straight, cleared his throat and plastered on a signature Neal Caffrey smile in greeting. “Am I still coming?” He questioned nonchalantly, scrunching his nose and trying his absolute best not to sniffle again.

“Yep,” Peter responded. “We’re working from home today. Which means better coffee and some proper rest for El.” He offered out his hand for his wife, who stood and wandered towards him. She took a glance back at Neal, that was wordlessly saying ‘are you going to tell him, or am I?’ But, the CI simply followed behind them, shaking off whatever discomfort he was currently feeling for now.

Seconds after leaving the comfort of the dark room behind them, both Elizabeth and Neal squinted at the harsh lighting that illuminated the bullpen. Barely seconds later, the pair both paused and comedically in sync sneezes caused Peter to stop in his tracks and turn. “Bless y—whoever just sneezed.” He frowned, watching his wife continue to do so, and Neal turn around to put his back to him.

‘Hhh—ngxXt.’ The CI spun back around, sniffling desperately, and faced with a quizzical look from Peter.

“What, you’re sick too, now?” He questioned, folding his arms.

Neal shook his head. “The lights are too bright, Peter. You should really get someone to — snf — fix that.” He straightened himself up, and glanced sideways at El, who didn’t seem all that pleased with the holdup.

“Right,” Peter muttered, gesturing for the pair to follow him again.

“You wouldn’t understand. Having striking blue eyes isn’t all fun and games,” Neal continued, ignoring the look he got from Elizabeth beside him. He didn’t want to tell Peter he felt lousy, not yet. It was awkward, and he wasn’t used to being so open about vulnerability… besides, he just needed some more meds and he’d be fine to work the case.

On the elevator ride back down, El wrapped her arms around Peter and rested her head against his chest. It was obvious that her meds were wearing off too, although all Neal could do was uncomfortably shift on his feet until they reached the parking garage. He shivered, rubbing his eyes again, and followed Peter and El to the car in silence. Even when sitting in the back, he was uncharacteristically quiet, and at this point Peter wasn’t very convinced that his excuses earlier were true… because, a quiet Neal Caffrey was always something to be suspicious of.

When they got back, El told Neal to wait upstairs and she’d find him something comfortable to wear. Peter waited until the CI was out of earshot, before turning to his wife with a questioning expression. He led her into the living room, bringing her into his arms and waiting a moment before speaking.

“El,” he began. “What’s wrong with Neal?” He figured that if Neal was going to tell anyone, it would probably be El.

His wife faltered, looking up at him with a slightly guilty look. “Why would he tell me?” She replied, resting her head back against Peter’s chest with a congested sigh.

“Because you’re Elizabeth Burke — kind, soft, warm and caring. I can imagine Neal would talk to you, given the right circumstances… you were alone, maybe his guard was down.”

“Well, I kinda guessed. He eventually told the truth.” Elizabeth admitted. “I feel awful about it. I didn’t want to get anyone sick.”

Peter pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Speaking of awful, how are you feeling now?” He asked, leaning back to look at her.

“A little less than awful.”

“But, not great?”

Elizabeth shook her head. “D’you still need me to help with anything in the case?” She asked quietly.

“All I need for you to do is go and change into something comfortable and lie down. We can talk work later, once you’ve rested. I’ll come check on you in a half hour… I guess I should check on Neal too, huh?”

“I’ll check on him before I go to bed. I love you.”

[marirah]

20 questions for fic writers

thank you @vellaphoria for tagging me!

20 Questions for Fic Writers

How many works do you have on AO3?

oof okay it's a lot. i have two accounts, and one of them is over 10 years old so....

metukah (est 2013): 185

marirah (est 2022): 85

for a total of 270 works... oof

What’s your total A03 word count?

metukah: 407,889

marirah: 133,069

total: 540,958

What fandoms do you write for?

DC these days. I started in the one direction fandom, played around with Percy Jackson, the MCU, and Star Trek

What are your top five fics by kudos?

marirah:

Protected - T Sladick. After another blowout fight with Bruce, Dick offers to let his little brothers move in with him. And the mystery boyfriend they've never heard of before. (3.5k)

Daily Planet: Live From Gotham - G Superbat. Clark has an old crush on Batman and a new crush on Bruce Wayne. Lois is merciless. (3.5k)

Red - E JayTim. Jason doesn't know who this Red is or why he's in Dick's apartment, but it doesn't matter in the end. (6k)

Unread - G Jason & Dick. Jason finally caves to the kid's demands that he clear out his inbox. As it turns out, Dick has been writing to him for years. (1.5k)

Loud - G DickTim. Tim finds a little bird in his Nest and takes him home. (1k)

metukah:

Introducing Us - G batfam gen, side StephCass. The Justice League doesn’t know how many bats there are, or where Batman is keeping them all. (1.9k)

Field Trip - G Peter Parker & the Avengers. Peter Parker and his classmates take a trip to Stark Industries. He only spends about half of it wanting to melt into the floor. (3.2k)

I'm (Not) a Mess - G JayRoy. Roy Harper is Neal Caffrey. He's not letting that get in the way of his relationship with his daughter. (4.7k)

Ninjas as a Catalyst - G Birdflash. Peter doesn't like to remind people of how good an investigator he is, but he can definitely connect the dots. (4k)

Double Take - G Birdflash. Several years after Neal Caffrey disappears, Peter and Elizabeth are visiting El’s cousin Wally, who is engaged to Dick Grayson. Who used to be Neal Caffrey. (1.2k)

What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

i'm not really that angsty a writer i think? i thought letter (dicktim, SPYRAL) had an angsty ending but i checked, and... it doesn't really lmao

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

i mostly write happy endings, but my favorite one technically isn't up yet. i'm just really happy with how my joint year of the otp/year of jason and slade series is going.

Do you get hate on your fic?

luckily, i don't really!

Do you write smut?

absolutely (see above lmao)

Do you write crossovers?

i've written a lot of white collar x dc, and i've been playing with dc x marvel x percy jackson recently

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i know of

Have you ever had a fic translated?

i had someone ask once but i don't think anything ever came of it

Have you ever co-written a fic?

i had a co-written series once

What‘s your all-time favourite ship?

right now it's 1000% dicktim! (send me a message to join an 18+ dicktim server!)

What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

i have trouble finishing anything longer than a oneshot, they just rot in my scrivener files forever

What’s your writing strengths?

does fluff count? i like my fluff

What’s your writing weaknesses?

keeping up with things longer than 1k. also i tend to burn myself out

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

i'd feel more comfortable with it if i spoke the language. but i have been known to use pet names from other languages sometimes, namely Hebrew

First fandom you wrote for?

the first thing i ever wrote (in middle school) was technically percy jackson self insert. i just wanted to be friends with percy and annabeth. i still want to be friends with percy and annabeth

Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

oh man. pretty much everything i write, i write for myself, so all of my works have been my favorites at one point. right now, i'm really happy with Negative and Aperature, which are a series with reverse Robins dicktim.

I tag @klarion-the-witch-boy , @the-alice-of-hearts , @ginbenci, and @bittercape

[marvelmaniac715]

This is part 12 of my Chucky transfers his soul into a human at the end of Seed au. This fic doesn’t have Glenda in it, I noticed that I’ve been featuring Glenda in most of these fics and barely mentioned Glen. That wasn’t intentional, but I enjoy exploring the connection between Chucky and Glenda because they’re so similar, but Glen deserves more love, so they’re the only twin present in this fic. As with all of the fics in this au, until they’re fourteen Glen and Glenda will be referred to by he/him and she/her respectively, and in this fic Glen is a baby (around six months old but his age isn’t mentioned). This fic is more about Chucky’s childhood, but Glen is still important, I hope you enjoy it :).

————————————————————-

Something was up. It had to be. Tiffany has been acting suspicious all day, rarely speaking but giving Chucky a strange look whenever he asked what was going on. But now, she was approaching him, carrying a sleeping Glen. Carefully sitting down, she passed the sleeping baby to his father, trying not to wake him.

“How long has he been asleep?”

Tiffany sighed wearily.

“Two minutes. Glenda went down no problem, but you know how Glen is, he needs to be cuddled or else he won’t sleep.”

Chucky raised an eyebrow and smirked.

“So you decided to give me nap duty? That’s very generous of you, Tiff.”

Tiffany laughed quietly.

“You’re taking this better than I expected.”

“Trust me, if Glen wasn’t here I would have said a very different word. Two hints, it starts with ‘s’ and rhymes with ‘city’.”

There was a moment of silence as Chucky began to gently bounce Glen, because that sometimes helped him to sleep. It did the trick, and Glen sighed contentedly, nuzzling into his blanket as he drifted into a deeper sleep.

“It’s funny, I never imagined myself as a father, but now I can’t picture being anything else.”

Tiffany wrapped an arm around his shoulder, suddenly seeming curious.

“Hm, not even the Lakeshore Strangler?”

“That was ages ago, I don’t even remember how to do it properly.”

“What about Chucky the Killer Doll?”

Chucky glared at her.

“By the time the twins are five, I’ll have had enough of dolls to last a lifetime. I dread to think of the mountains of Barbies that’ll clutter the house. Is it possible to convince Glen and Glenda that dolls don’t exist?”

The couple shared a laugh, then looked down at their son. More silence. Finally, Tiffany asked a question she’d been waiting to ask all day.

“You never talk about your own parents… what were they like?”

It all made sense now. The strange looks, the tense way she’d acted all day, waiting until Glen was asleep then making Chucky hold him. She had him pinned down right where she wanted him, he’d usually make an excuse and run away, unable to have this type of conversation. But he couldn’t risk waking Glen up, babies need sleep. So he had to sit there and answer her questions, despite how much it pained him to do so.

“What is there to say about Peter and Elizabeth Ray? Mom stayed at home to look after me, dad had some sort of office job. Can’t remember what, he was gone most of the time. Why do you want to know?”

Tiffany sighed, exasperated.

“I talk about my parents all the time!-‘

“Maybe too much.”

‘-Shut up, let me finish what I’m saying. I talk about my mom and how she raised me and my sister on my own. You know about how I never knew my dad but that he made my mother distrustful of men for the rest of her life. I’ve been open and honest, why haven’t you? I just wanna know more about you, what were they like? What did you inherit from them? Do you have your mother’s eyes? Your father’s smile? Was there anything special you did together? Crucially, did your parents have any illnesses that the twins could’ve inherited? Such as mental illnesses?”

This was gonna be a difficult conversation.

“To start, no, my defective genes won’t mutate our children. And I think that the twins have an equal chance of inheriting insanity and bloodlust from the both of us. I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I can’t remember what they looked like, not really. My mom had  dark hair, I remember that. One of them must’ve had blue eyes, but I can’t recall which one. I was seven, there’s only so much information you retain aged seven.”

Tiffany rolled her eyes and groaned.

“You’re so boring! Is there really nothing? Nothing at all? I know it’s difficult but please try. Let’s talk about your father, what was he like?”

That was a sensitive subject.

“My old man was… nice. He was a fine, upstanding citizen, a strict follower of the law, a Catholic. I can remember the many hours I spent in Sunday School learning about how everything I grew up to do would send me to Hell. He read to me every night. Not just the kid stuff, sure, he read Peter Pan, but he read me more adult literature as well. Moby Dick, Great Expectations, Grimm’s Fairytales, the really dark ones where kids die. Titus and Andronicus, that one Shakespearean tragedy where a lady eats her own son in a pie. Honestly, he was just setting me up for the serial killer lifestyle.”

“Were the two of you close?”

That took some thinking. But after a moment, Chucky had a response.

“He loved me. All parents should love their kids, but there was never a moment that I doubted my father’s love for me. In his last moments he tried to save me. If I’d taken his advice my life could’ve been totally different. I regret that I didn’t try to save him, there must’ve been something I could’ve done.”

Tiffany grinned.

“Finally we’re getting somewhere! Now, how about your mother? Can you tell me about her?”

If Chucky’s father was a sensitive subject, his mother was a minefield waiting to blow up. He tried not to think about his mother, it made him feel emotions that he hated feeling. Guilt, remorse, self-pity. But that chapter of his life had come to a close, he was a father now. It was time to get over his trauma.

“Mom was so kind. She baked cookies when I came home from school, she took me to the movies and played pretend with me when we got home. If J wanted to be Peter Pan, she would be a pirate or an Indian. If I was a knight, she was a dragon, or a damsel in distress. She didn’t deserve her fate, she didn’t deserve to have me for a son.”

Tiffany’s curious look grew tender.

“Do you regret killing her?”

Chucky swallowed a lump in his throat. No, he wasn’t a kid, he wasn’t going to cry. He wasn’t. He wasn’t- he was crying. But he couldn’t help it.

“It was a split second decision, I was panicking and the pocketknife was right there in my hand. She was suffocating me, I couldn’t breathe, stabbing her was the only thing I could think of. I didn’t know it would be fatal. How could I? I was a child. A stupid, barbaric, ignorant child. I had no self-control, I was violent, I was spoiled, I was a little brat and I took out my rage on innocent people. She didn’t deserve to die. It worked out in the long run, but I regret it every day, especially now that we’re parents.”

There was silence, slightly interrupted by Chucky’s quiet sobs. He hadn’t cried in years. Not since he was a child and he’d realised that he’d killed his mother. Briefly before he’d been found, he shed a few tears, barely allowing himself to mourn before he’d been forced to pretend that murder was all part of his plan. In a way, the tears were healing, so he let them fall. Tiffany patted him on the back sympathetically.

“Is that why Glenda’s middle name is Elizabeth and Glen’s middle name is Peter?”

Chucky smiled slightly and looked back down at his son, stroking his soft little cheek with the tip of his finger.

“Yes. I wanted them to live on somehow, and I want to give the twins the life I never got to have growing up. From what I remember of them, I think they would’ve liked it.”

There was more silence, but it was a nice kind of silence, calm and content. Then Glenda cried in the distance and Tiffany sighed.

“I almost forgot. Glenda can’t sleep for more than half an hour without her brother. I swear, they’re inseparable. Should I take him?”

Chucky shook his head and stood up.

“No, I’ll carry him, you get Glenda to sleep and I’ll try and put the little guy down without him waking up.”

Satisfied that they’d made some major breakthroughs, Chucky and Tiffany went into the nursery, mentally preparing themselves to deal with two grouchy, overtired babies.

[cyarsk52-20]

Inside a Vanderpump Rules’ Finale Watch Party: ‘Super Bowl for Women’

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Hot on the heels of a certain highly publicized, certainly suspicious break-up in the Bravoverse, bars, restaurants, and homes across the nation held watch parties Wednesday night for the season finale of Vanderpump Rules. Naturally, I had to attend one, and living in New York City, I was spoiled for choice. However, a gathering at a bar on the Lower East Side, thrown by Alyssa Polinsky—otherwise known as The Bravo Witch + Astrologer—seemed, well, written in the stars.

While most other watch parties likely offered variations on the iconic goat cheese balls, Pumptinis, or Scheana’s enchiladas, Polinsky’s proffered frozen concoctions, an…interesting crowd, and most unique of all, astrological analysis of the entire ensemble cast.

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Now, raise your glasses high. These highlights are for you tonight...or whenever:

7:50 pm: Two women who appear to be in their early twenties walk past me en route to the bar wearing t-shirts that read: “Never trust a Tom” and “Team Ariana.” We make eye contact, so I flash them my toothiest Midwestern grin. But because this is New York City and not middle America, they answer with a scowl.

8:00 pm: I’ve reached my destination, The Skinny Bar and Lounge. The walls are red, the ceilings are dotted with disco balls and multi-colored Christmas lights, and the overall vibe is reminiscent of a teen club of my youth—one that held foam parties, Usher remixes, and a lot of kids whose breath wreaked of Popov and dissolvable Listerine strips.

8:07 pm: I order an Aperol spritz and survey the crowd. As to be expected, the bar is teeming with women. Some have dressed for the occasion (sequins), but the majority—myself included—seem to have arrived straight from work. An even closer look reveals a surprising number of men. 

8:15 pm: “This is the Super Bowl for women,” Polinsky says. “Like, this is something we need as a society.” The host has graciously distributed sachets of smudge sticks, crystals, and an astrology cheat sheet that shows the sun, moon, and rising signs of the entire Vanderpump Rules cast sans Peter because well, no one cares. I’m not surprised to learn that Tom Schwartz—the man who couldn’t find a spine if it were served to him on a plate at SUR—is both a Libra sun and moon.

8:21 pm: I tell Polinsky I’m shocked that so many seemingly straight men are in the space. The optimist in me wonders aloud if they’re an underrepresented species in the Bravoverse. “I don’t know...I think they’re just smart enough to go to a bar with a lot of women.”

8:28 pm: On the way back to the bar, I accidentally bump into a woman wearing a Rick and Morty t-shirt who then proceeds to grip me by my love handles and follow me as if we’re starting a conga line à la Kathy Hilton.

8:33 pm: “Are you an ENFT?” the woman who introduces herself as Hannah* asks. Pardon? My handwriting, she notes  is indicative of a personality type. Or, was it my intelligence? “Smart people have good handwriting,” she says, quickly pulling up a Reddit thread and shoving it beneath my nose as if it were a sacred text. Eventually, she moves on.

8:35 pm: I strike up a conversation with two women in their early twenties—Elizabeth* a long-term fan of Vanderpump Rules, and Sarah*, who until tonight, hadn’t seen a single episode. “It’s relatable to a lot of people,” Elizabeth tells me of the show’s draw. Really? I watch because it kind of feels like a fantasy. Blessedly, my life isn’t so complicated. Sarah nods her head in agreement and notes the elevated fame Madix has managed to achieve post-split: “I mean, when I got cheated on, all I got was heartbreak.”

8:50 pm: I ask Sarah whether she thinks she’ll become a fan of the franchise after the finale. “No,” she answers succinctly. “It’s a one-night stand.” She could have done much worse!

8:55 pm: The sound at the bar is abruptly cut in lieu of a microphone in the corner. “Ladies and gentlemen,” a man announces. “Wait,” he stops short. “What’s it called again?” he prompts a nearby patron. “Oh, the season finale of Vanderpump Rules will begin in five minutes!” 

9:00 pm: The time has come, and it’s punctuated by actual screams—my own, mostly—and then an eerie nothingness. I can’t recall a time a bar has ever become this quiet.

9:07 pm: The showdown between Sandoval and Madix that’s been teased  is in full swing. He asserts the affair had nothing to do with his ego or the fact that they hadn’t had sex in a while. (The latter is too often a topic of conversation this season.) “Oh give me a fucking break,” someone spits just over my right shoulder. Literally, there’s saliva on my cheek. I peek around and find that the voice belongs to a man in his 30s who appears to have attended this watch party by himself. He’ll remain within earshot for the rest of the episode. His commentary is my favorite.

9:10 pm: “KILL HIM!” a woman nearby bellows after Sandoval asserts to Madix that Leviss actually treats him with respect. I concur!

9:15 pm: The bar has now taken the shape of a movie theater playing a horror film. Everywhere I look there are screams, shudders, sloshed drinks, and hands shoved over eyes. And then Madix utters what I will personally ensure becomes an immortal line in Bravo history: “I regret ever loving you.” 

9:22 pm: Danielle Olivera, a member of the Summer House cast, is in the building and a tall gentleman keeps ordering drinks at her behest. 

9:28 pm:  “She could’ve followed me,” Sandoval bemoans of Madix not discovering his cheating earlier. More shrieking ensues because yes, it was her fault for not catching his poorly manicured hands all over Leviss as she mourned the deaths of her beloved grandmother and dog.

9:30 pm: Sandoval becomes emotional. Again. “He’s totally faking it,” the man with the superior commentary over my right shoulder tells me. 

9:33 pm: One of the single—seemingly straight—men I noticed earlier can’t tear himself from the sight of the adulterers basking in the glow of their own gall—and Leviss’ galaxy lights. His beer sits untouched in front of him, his eyes alert and unblinking. Good for him.

9:50 pm: Things are winding down. Hannah is in a state of embrace with a dude that’s either her boyfriend or would like to be. Elizabeth and Sarah are cashing out. The raffle winners will soon be announced. The prize? I can’t be certain but I’d wager it’s a reading from Polinsky. I regret not entering. 

10:00 pm: I’ve now laughed, I’ve cried, and I’ve flipped the flatscreen off. 

10:15 pm: Only a few people have stuck around for Watch What Happens Live. Apparently, even Madix’s first tell-all post-#Scandoval isn’t enough to keep asses in the seats. Frankly, I don’t know what it says that a scandal can more easily fill a bar than a celebration of a scorned woman’s newfound successes. Madix has a hot new boyfriend and heaps of high-profile invitations—but while healing may be aspirational, apparently, it’s not nearly as enthralling as  heartbreak.

Personally, I don’t exactly revel in the very public unraveling of two strangers’ relationship as if it’s a sporting event—not even when it’s a collective experience. But the absolute bloodbath that will surely be the three-part reunion? Well, I’m already at the bar.

Let us help you procrastinate. Sign up for our daily newsletter.Inside a Vanderpump Rules’ Finale Watch Party: ‘Super Bowl for Women’ Hot on the heels of a certain highly publicized, certainly suspicious break-up in the Bravoverse, bars, restaurants, and homes across the nation held watch parties Wednesday night for the season finale of Vanderpump Rules. Naturally, I had to attend one, and living in New York City, I was spoiled for choice. However, a gathering at a bar on the Lower East Side, thrown by Alyssa Polinsky—otherwise known as The Bravo Witch + Astrologer—seemed, well, written in the stars.

Read in Jezebel: https://apple.news/A5R8HReMyQPukCywjeysDRw

Shared from Apple News

Sent from my iPhone

[spooky-fm]

Phantom Thief

Ao3. Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Part 6. Part 7.

Part 8. Neal Caffrey has a bad time

They make their way into the house, Peter following just a few steps behind El. 

He can hear muffled sounds of a conversation, voices speaking in light tones, laughter. Just before they open the door, a silence falls over them, and Jones calls Neal’s name in confusion. El throws the door open, and Neal is already halfway across the room, moving away from any breakable objects on the table.

She freezes up briefly when she sees him, a small oh falling from her lips, and then she is moving forward again, hands outstretched — hugs him tightly. Neal’s hands come up to rest gently around her back. She holds him like she holds Peter every time he gets home after a dangerous op. He holds her like she is something precious, a fragile piece of art, and Peter remembers the ease with which he lifted the heavy shopping cart. There has been no difference in his movements or the way he interacted with the world, no hesitance to touch things before El hugged him. How much control did it take for Neal to make the tea without crushing the cups or to close a car door without denting it?

She leans back slightly, and he drops his arms to his sides, but she doesn’t leave the hug completely, just takes Neal’s head in her hands, places her palms under his jaw, rubs her thumbs gently across his cheeks. Smiles up at him in wonder. 

He draws in a sharp breath. “Elizabeth. Hi.” His voice is a little strangled, barely above a whisper. 

“Hi,” she laughs, lightly tracing one of the glowing constellations. It twinkles brightly. Neal stills, looking like a marble statue. “Is that Ursa Major?” El asks. Neal gives her the tiniest nod in response. Peter is pretty sure that he has stopped breathing. And blinking. And moving in general. 

El notices that too, because she murmurs, “Breathe, Neal,” and lets him go with a light pat on his shoulder. 

That seems to be enough to restart Neal’s higher brain function but not enough to activate his brain-to-mouth filter because his answer is an absent-minded ‘don’t need to’ that causes Peter’s thought process to screech to a loud halt. 

“What?!” Diana’s whisper-shout breaks the spell, and Neal blushes a deep green when he remembers the rest of the room is still there, judging by a small flinch and a frantic look around the room.  

“Oh, I said that out loud, didn’t I?” 

Jones and Diana snicker like a pair of actual school children after Neal turns his face towards them, his expression still set in a confused frown, and Peter herds them all to the couch, deciding that they need something more comfortable than chairs. Neal sends him a half-panicked look, and Peter steers him towards the middle, sitting down next to him and drawing the younger man into his side. 

Neal leans into him slightly, a cool weight against his body, and lets El take his hand from where she has sat down on his other side. Diana sits backwards on a chair, crossing her hands on top of its back and resting her chin on them, and Jones ruffles Neal’s hair when he passes in front of the couch to get to the armchair. Neal ducks his head to hide his grin. 

“Right,” he says when everyone has found their seat and had a moment to sip on their tea. “Guess I can’t stall forever.” His body is still relaxed against Peter’s, and his eyes are sparkling again. He doesn’t react in any way when everyone turns to give him their attention. Just clears his throat and keeps talking.

“I should start by saying that I have never actually told anyone about this before. The few people that knew about me back in my old world, they either knew from the start or figured things out on their own. So this will be a first for me. But you don’t have any actual context to my, ah, species, so I’m going to need to start with the basics.”

He stares into his cup, seemingly collecting his thoughts. “I should also mention that a lot of it is things I grew up with, things that became common everyday knowledge to us, so I am not entirely sure where to even begin. I might forget to mention some things, too.”

Peter squeezes his shoulder in reassurance. 

“Nobody expects you to have a perfectly structured lecture prepared for us.” He catches Neal’s eye. “Are you actually unsure where you should start, or are you afraid of our reaction to the exact nature of your species?” Peter asks with a knowing smile. 

Neal ducks his head down again and huffs. “Both, really. Honestly, it would be easier to just pretend to be an alien.” He grins. “I could totally pull it off.”

“You could have, if you didn’t already confirm that you aren’t one when you were trying to melt our brains on the way here,” Diana pipes up.

“Defeated by my own hubris,” Neal sighs dramatically. 

“There are several starts to the story I could choose,” he continues, “and I am not sure which one is the best to take. And, well. You might already have opinions about people like me, so I am a bit hesitant to jump into it.”

“We promised to keep an open mind, didn’t we?” Jones reminds him. “That promise is still valid. Honestly, it’s not going to expire, ever, really, but it’s especially true in this conversation.” They all nod in support.

“If you want, Caffrey, we can help you along with some questions,” offers Diana. “Like Peter said before, this isn’t an interrogation, and we are here as your friends, but we are not too bad at asking questions and figuring out complex situations. It’s kind of our job.”

“I might take you up on that offer. But, I think I should start the story with the nature of the universe and our place in it.” 

He pauses to take a sip of his tea and Diana grumbles, “This is going to be another one of Caffrey’s ‘3 truths, 1 existential crisis’ games, isn’t it?”

El shoots her a curious look, but Neal starts talking again and she doesn’t interrupt.

“Right, so we don’t need to go into the physics of it too much, but there is basically an infinite number of worlds, some like ours, some completely different, some similar enough in one regard, but completely different in others. Some of the similar ones run on a different time frame, their passage of time slower or faster than others.”

He says these things like they are the most obvious facts, like someone explaining the existence of gravity and the Sun to a preschooler. Peter thinks of a world where he is a businessman, a pro baseball player, a gangster. A world where Neal shot Fowler and a world where he finished serving his first sentence and disappeared from Peter’s radar forever. A world with no Neal at all.

His hand on Neal’s shoulder tightens, and Neal leans further into him, providing silent comfort. He looks like he understands what Peter is thinking about.

“All of these worlds are connected to this … place, let’s call it. A world between all other worlds. Its inhabitants usually call this place ‘The Infinite Realms’, for obvious reasons. It’s pretty much infinite, and it’s not uniform, but has some vaguely distinct areas that keep somewhat stable. They can work a bit like our countries, to an extent, even have their own communities and civilizations. Some of them interact, some don’t. Most of them move around in the Realms, in migratory patterns or just because they feel like going somewhere new. I’m not going to go into details unless you want a ten-hour lecture on quantum physics and my theories on semi-sentient planes of existence.”

They stare at him. “Neal,” Diana whispers. “When in the world did you become a theoretical physicist?”

It’s clearly rhetorical, but Neal grins and answers anyway, “Pretty much at birth really. My parents were very dedicated scientists, and very enthusiastic. They also had no real understanding of what constitutes child-appropriate reading material, so I learned to read from college textbooks and built a working model of a space shuttle for an elementary school science fair, complete with rocket thrusters and analysis probes. My sister and I used it to check our neighbors’ roofs for holes and bird nests.”

Before any of them can ask questions about that goldmine of information, Neal gets back to his explanation.

“So, Infinite Realms. World between worlds, with its own inhabitants, people of mostly the same species, though the definition is a bit stretched and fuzzy because of the variety of different modes of existence. But everyone has some version of the base makeup and the same vital component. It’s a, let’s call it substance, though it can be a material, a wave, solid or liquid, and any number of other states of matter. It’s pretty much what the Infinite Realms are made of.” He takes a deep breath, suddenly tense. “In the part of the Realms I most commonly interacted with, this substance was called ectoplasm.”

The word seems familiar to Peter, something he’s heard before, maybe in a film or read in a book. It was definitely fiction, not a physics textbook or a scientific journal. 

Jones makes the connection first. “Like the stuff ghosts are made of?” He grins. “From Ghostbusters?”

Diana snorts in amusement and exchanges a smile with El, but Neal doesn’t look like he shares their mirth. He’s even tenser than before, head hung low, shoulders slumped inwards, hands fisted in his slacks, wrinkling the expensive fabric. Trying to make himself look smaller, Peter realizes. His chest tightens anxiously.

“Yeah,” Neal’s voice cracks on the word, drops into a whisper. “Exactly like that.”

His words plunge the room into complete silence. Jones and Diana are mute with horror, mouths opening and closing, but unable to say anything. Peter feels like a bucket of ice has been dropped onto his head. His hands are too hot and too cold, head spinning. The room suddenly looks blurry. His limbs refuse to move. 

They are brought out of their shocked stupor by El, who sniffles and whispers ‘oh, sweetheart’ in a voice full of emotion. 

Diana finds her voice next, eyes still wide. “You are a ghost?!” 

Neal seems to shrink even further into himself. His eyes are squeezed shut and the freckles are so dim they are almost invisible on his skin. “Half-ghost, yeah. Not all the way yet.” 

He is shaking, Peter finally notices, violent tremors running through his whole body. That just won’t do. Peter can have his moment later, when his conman is not in the middle of a panic attack. He forces his chest to expand, orders his arms to unfreeze, and puts his free arm around Neal’s front. Then, with some effort, he draws the man into his lap, so that his face is nestled in the crook of Peter’s neck. It’s a good thing Neal is shorter than him, especially in his upper body, or it would have looked a bit ridiculous. 

The sudden change in position startles Neal, and his eyes fly open in surprise, dry but slightly glassy with shock. His hands snake instinctively around Peter’s back. When Peter looks down at him, Neal avoids his gaze, closes his eyes again and hides his face in Peter’s shoulder. Peter accepts the unspoken request and leans his cheek against Neal’s temple, puts his arms on the other man’s back, and lets him breathe through the panic. 

Then he realizes that Neal’s chest isn’t moving and almost slaps himself for his lack of situational awareness. 

“Hey, Neal,” he says casually but quietly, mindful of the sensitive ear right next to his mouth. “I know you said you don’t need to breathe, but could you do that for me anyway?” Small nod against his shoulder and Neal’s chest expands slowly. “That’s it, you are doing great.” His own breathing is still a bit erratic, and he quickly surveys the room. El is crying silently, one hand pressed against her mouth, the other on Neal’s thigh, rubbing small circles into it. Jones is still mostly frozen, gaze locked onto Neal’s form, barely blinking, like the man is about to disappear. Diana’s mouth is set into a grim line, eyes somehow full of anger and sadness. She is breathing in a careful pattern — her favorite meditation technique, Peter recalls. Bingo. He catches her eyes and mouths keep going. She frowns in confusion but obediently doesn’t change anything about her actions. 

“Good job, Neal. Thank you. Now, I’m not the best role model here, but can you hear Diana breathing?” Peter speaks evenly and keeps his eye contact with Diana. He is relieved when understanding shines in her eyes, and she just keeps breathing in the same pattern, slightly over-exaggerating it. Peter smiles in approval. 

There is another nod against his shoulder. Peter’s smile widens.

“That’s great. Let’s both try to match her, can you do that for me?” Ok, he is starting to sound like a broken record — time to dial it down a bit. Neal nods anyway, and dutifully follows Diana and Peter’s now synched breathing. El and Jones soon join in, though it seems that Jones is not entirely aware of his actions.

Slowly, the atmosphere in the room lightens. El wipes her face with a tissue, Jones blinks back to reality, and the shadows in Diana’s eyes recede into the background. Peter shifts in his seat, and moves Neal — who seems a bit too light for an adult man of his build — into a more comfortable position. His CI doesn’t resist, doesn’t make any attempt to move at all, really. 

For the second time in the same day Peter has his arms full of slumped conman, with a consistency slightly above that of jelly. He rubs a hand across Neal’s upper back, cards his fingers through the strands of white hair. Neal sighs tiredly and relaxes further into the touch. 

“Sorry,” he mutters. “I think I overestimated my readiness to talk about this. Kind of thought the main freak-out was behind me.”

Peter just tightens his arms, verbal resources dried up for the time being. He’s been talking a lot about heavy emotional topics in a very short time, so it stands to reason that his tongue would check out on him sooner or later. 

Thankfully his wife is a perfect angel who always knows when to step in.

“Neal, sweetheart, if you’ve never told anyone before, it’s understandable you wouldn’t feel comfortable sharing. And considering what Peter said to me before, I’m incredibly impressed you actually managed to tell us about it at all. That was very brave of you.”

Peter hums in agreement.

“Thank you, Elizabeth,” Neal says softly. 

Peter smiles at his wife. El’s answering smile is a little wobbly, but she winks at him when she realizes his predicament. 

“It seems that Peter’s voice has checked out for now,” he sends her a light glare, but she just grins wider, “and we all could use a moment to collect ourselves, so why don’t I get us some more tea and something to nibble on. I have some absolutely divine goat cheese stuffed dates left over from work.”

Jones perks up at the mention of food and offers his help, but El waves him off. Diana looks at Peter in concern. “Boss?” 

Oh, right, they haven’t really witnessed him like this. He sends her a reassuring smile and waits for El to come back inside. 

Surprisingly, it’s Neal who answers. “He’s fine, Diana.” His voice is muffled by Peter’s shoulder, but it sounds steady. “Peter’s been doing a lot of emotional heavy-lifting today, so his talking muscles need to rest for a bit. He doesn’t usually have to be the anchor of the room’s feelings for so long, and it doesn’t affect him as much when he is in his worksona, so you haven’t gotten to see him go non-verbal before.”

Jones chokes on his tea. He wheezes ‘worksona’ when his airways clear up, and Peter pokes Neal's side gently in admonishment. “Sorry, Jones,” comes from his shoulder, “didn’t see you drinking.” Peter notes with amusement that he says nothing about hearing or knowing. 

“Caffrey, your metaphors are still terrible,” Diana complains. 

Jones gets a hold of himself and pipes in, “Peter has been especially empathetic today. I don’t think we would have been doing so well otherwise.”

Neal snorts. “I’d be either catatonic or halfway across the galaxy already.” Peter reflexively cuts a panicked glare at Neal, who nudges him with his forehead and huffs. “I’m not going to run, relax. It’d be a bit silly to go through all this to just disappear, wouldn’t it?” He presses closer to Peter, somehow. “But also thank you, for stepping up like this.” Peter smoothes his hand across Neal’s back in response. 

“Wow, you got some sort of sixth sense for Peter’s glares.” Jones is grinning, evidently delighted about their exchange. 

“His heart rate spikes every time the word ‘run’ is said by me or in relation to me. Sometimes just in the same room as me. It runs like a clock.” Neal snorts. “Case in point,” he says drily. Jones snickers. 

“You do realize you are the only one who can hear his heartbeat, right,” Diana reminds him. 

Neal shifts like he wants to attempt a shrug, but it seems to be a bit beyond his abilities at the moment. He settles for another huff instead and, just as El comes into the room with her appetizers and a fresh pot of tea, says “Not my fault your puny human ears cannot detect your friends’ micro emotions.” His words startle a surprised laugh out of Diana. Jones seems to be making a valiant effort to drown in his teacup.

Peter sends an exasperated smile at El, who beams at him and ruffles first his, then Neal’s hair. 

Peter feels a bit like a teacher in an elementary school classroom.

AN: I am maybe a bit mean to the characters. But it's ok. They get hugs.

I don't have immediate stuff written down, but there are some chapters that I already have for stuff happening down the line.

[newstodayread]

The worst Christmas movie everyone loves, terrible people and terrible romance novels

From Jonathan Klotz | Published 2 days ago

Romantic comedy used to be a mainstay of theater, and there are many accusations that it is now a life-sustaining genre, but I lay the blame squarely on that Actually love. It was once considered the greatest romantic comedy of all time and one of the best romantic films of all time, but today it is rightly recognized as a terrible film with terrible messages about terrible people doing terrible things to each other. But every year the film lands in the streaming top ten with the same grim inevitability as Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas. There would actually never be love today

Andrew Lincoln in Actually love There are ten different stories throughout Actually loveand admittedly some are pretty sweet and endearing, starting with a down-on-his-luck musician Mack (Bill Nighy) who suddenly has another hit and decides to spend Christmas with his manager Joe instead. It's short, simple and about friendship. If the film had more stories like this or the story of John (Martin Freeman) and Judy (Joanna Page) that captures the awkwardness of a new relationship then it would be a classic film for all the right reasons, but instead there are two stories, who drag the whole thing into the mud. Juliet (an 18-year-old Keira Knightley) and Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) are newlyweds when it turns out that Mark (Andrew Lincoln) is in love with his best friend's new wife. Mark admittedly admits that it's adorable with printed cards and a boom box, but in any other film he would be the villain or Peter would turn out to be abusive, rather than here where he shows himself to be a loving, caring spouse. Actually love However, she manages to go even further and has Juliet give Mark a kiss after his confession. Although she doesn't accept him and doesn't leave her husband, she still kisses her new husband's best friend instead of telling him to get off her lawn. Mark's confession has been considered a sweet romantic moment in dozens of Hollywood montages, but as insidious as it may seem, it's not as problematic as history's most infamous plot twist Actually love. Hugh Grant plays David, the Prime Minister of England who receives the American President, played by Billy Bob Thorntonwhen the President makes lewd comments about Natalie, one of the British staffers. Things get even worse when Natalie lets David know she loves him and they actually give in and kiss, despite the obvious problem of a boss getting involved with one of his employees. These are just four of the ten stories, which also include a brief rendezvous that would fit into any romantic comedy: a British man who realizes he is an exotic foreigner to women in America and ends up coming home from a bar, in which women are played by him January Jones and Elisa Cuthbert to her roommate, Shannon Elizabeth, and a sweet story about a father and son who both discover love. After watching Harry Potterone Actually love The cheating story is fun on one level, and one level only, because Alan Rickman cheats on Emma Thompson. So imagine Professor Snape cheating on Professor Trelawney. Love actually misses the point

Hugh Grant as Prime Minister of England and Martine McCutcheon as his assistant Actually love There is an argument that the purpose of Actually love shouldn't be a feel-good experience romantic comedy but rather a way to show the messiness inherent in all relationships. On that level it's a complete failure, considering the epilogue shows David, again the Prime Minister of England, kissing his younger employee, and Peter, Mark and Julia are all at the airport waiting for a boyfriend, meaning that no Someone told Peter what had happened. Normally I try not to give anything away, but we're only on this planet for a limited time, and to be precise, you shouldn't spend any of it watching this movie. Actually love murdered the romantic comedy and somehow convinced director Garry Marshall, who had nothing to do with the film, that there was money to be made in this format, but referenced other holidays and gave us Valentine's Day in 2010, New Year's Eve in 2011 and Mother's Day in 2016. There are better options out there, although I have to admit that New Year's Eve is probably the best of the bunch, and like most romantic comedies, there are still parts that don't hold up, but nothing is nearly as bad as the 2003 film. If you want to watch Actually love To see how bad the movie really is and how terrible most of the characters are, find it on Amazon Primewhere it has been in the top ten for a few days. Instead, it would be helpful if you stream a better Christmas movie, for example Christmas with the cranks or Four Christmasesboth are better than Actually love. Read the full article

[theorphaninthetardis]

Chapter Twelve

Peter pulls over at the top of the hill, and lets the Time Lord and his companions out of his car. Sophie turns back and leans on the windowsill of the open window, "Thank you, Mr. Warmsly," she smiles. He smiles back at her, then notices something over the hill, and races off.

The Doctor checks the wind direction, and pulls his gadget out of his pocket, turning around in a circle scanning the area. Ace looks in the direction that the Range Rover pulled off in, and her eyes widen, "Professor?"

The Doctor ignores her, focussing intently on his device, "Yes. The transmission's definitely coming from over there."

Sophie rolls her eyes, "Doctor!" she says, and twists him around, while Ace points down the hillside.

"It's a missile convoy."

The Gallifreyan groans, "A nuclear missile convoy."

"How do you know?"

"It has a graveyard stench."

The Doctor sets off down the hill, and they are right on his tail. He has no hesitation, as he ducks under the military barrier. Ace follows right after him, but Sophie hesitates on the other side of the barrier, "I'm all for breaking the law, but is breaking onto a military site really the smartest idea? They're likely to just shoot us."

The Doctor tosses her a look, and she sighs, ducking under the barrier as well. A few more explosions go off, and the Time Lord presses them all up against the side of one of the large trucks.

"Didn't sound like a shell. More like a couple of rockets," Ace says, as the Doctor steps away.

"Close," he responds, and digs into his pockets. "What we need is something to help us." He starts to pull out random devices, toys, and bits of paraphernalia, all of which he deposits into Sophie's hands. "Wait a minute," he says, and then takes his hat off, dumping a couple small leather wallets into his hands, "Ah yes, of course! I never thought I'd need these again."

He passes one of the passes to Ace, who immediately flips it open, "Who's Elizabeth Shaw? I don't even look like her."

The Doctor's hands are full with everything from within his pockets, and his pass is clamped firmly in his teeth, "Oh, never mind. Just think like a physicist," he murmurs.

"And what about Sophie?" Ace asks.

"Don't worry about me, Ace. I'm covered," she responds, and pulls a slightly different wallet out of her back pocket. "Shall we?" she asks the Doctor.

He sets off toward the Mobile Command Post, leaving his companions to trail after him.

***

The Doctor forces his way into the Mobile Command Centre, practically throwing his and Ace's passes at the uniformed woman. Sophie casually flips her Torchwood pass open, and hands it to her as well. The Time Lord strolls over to the wall, looking at all of the dials spread across it. "Now, what seems to be the problem?" he asks.

The woman looks taken aback, "Excuse me?"

"Well, you've had an explosion in your electronics, haven't you?"

"An electro-magnetic pulse effect." Ace states.

Sophie leans against the table, and grabs the nearest file. The woman swats it out her hands, "Make yourself at home."

The Doctor ignores her, "Caused by?" he addresses Ace.

"A nuclear explosion, usually."

The woman shoots a glare in the Time Lord's genuine direction, "I think I would have noticed a nuclear explosion."

"Yes, well, they are conspicuous."

"Okay," Sophie says, pushing herself onto her feet, "If there is no nuke, what caused your tech to fry up?"

"Exactly," the Doctor nods.

"All systems failures were the result of a minor technical difficulty," she replies. Then she holds up the Doctor and Ace's UNIT passes, "I don't know where you two got these from, but I intend to find out." She nods at her subordinate in the room, "Show those two out," she nods at the Doctor and Ace, "But she can stay, I have a few questions."

Sophie stands up a little straighter and squares her shoulders, as the Doctor and Ace are ushered to the door, "I'd just like to say three things," the Time Lord says, and then without waiting for a response, proudly proclaims, "Yeti, Autons, Daleks. Cybermen and Silurians!"

He is then forced out of the Mobile Command. The woman turns her attention to Sophie, who simply meets her eyes, "You're with Torchwood?"

"Yes, ma'am, Torchwood Three, Cardiff Division."

"Then what are you doing here?"

She leans forward, "Same as UNIT, I'm sure. I was sent to check out the weird energy signatures this place is giving off. Wasn't told I'd be working with amateurs, but I'm always willing to give it a shot." She's doing her best to summon Jack's usual confidence and swagger, hoping to pull it off.

The woman makes a face like she's sucking on a lemon, "Certainly sounds like Torchwood. I should have been briefed that one of you pompous know-it-alls would be here."

"Looks like we were both left in the dark, Brigadier. You can blame your superiors when you get the chance."

"No, get out. I'll find you later. I need to speak with my people."

Sophie rolls her eyes, but pushes herself off the table, "Yeah, fine. Just be quick about it. I know that you all are a little slow on the uptake, but this is a time sensitive issue." She turns on her heel, and exits the building, letting all of the tension out of her shoulders.

She steps out and is greeted by questioning looks on both the Doctor's and Ace's faces. "Your pass was different," Ace accuses.

Sophie nods, and takes a few steps forward, "Yep. A different top-secret organisation formed to protect the UK from alien invasions. And I can't tell you anything else, as it personally affects the Doctor's future. Anyway, I got in, so you're welcome."

"Right," the Doctor says, "But I have a feeling Ace and I will be accepted as well."

"Well, I mean yeah, you are on UNIT's payroll after all. Just give them a few minutes."

The trio stand around just outside of the command post, until the woman steps out of the building, and offers them a ride.

***

The Range Rover sets off down the road, the Doctor once again in the passenger seat, while Ace and Sophie are relegated to the back. "We could have walked to the hotel, you know," the Doctor tells the UNIT officer.

"No problem. I thought you'd like to see Vortigern's Lake."

"Vortigern," the Doctor nods, "That's an interesting name."

"Yeah, fascinating," Ace agrees, not having any inkling as to why.

"Speaking of names," Sophie starts, "What's yours?"

"Brigadier Winifred Bambera."

"There are many secrets in names," he muses, "Vortigern is old British for High King."

"Your convoy's stranded by the lake of the High King," Ace laughs.

As Ace makes the comment, the vehicle rolls to a stop at a large building, and the Doctor steps out, offering the Brigadier some thanks. The Time Lord sets off into the hotel, and the other two trail after him. Inside the main building is a bar area, where a woman is reading from a braille book, and a man is clearing some glasses off a table. Looking around the pub, Sophie can't help but think about the last time she was in a small pub, in the Welsh countryside. Shaking her head to try and rid the thoughts, she follows the Time Lord toward the bar. "What do you have?" the Doctor asks, taking a seat on one of the bar stools. Sophie takes a seat on his left, while Ace takes a seat on his right.

"What we have, sir," the man says, stepping behind the bar, "is possibly the finest beer in the area, even if I do say so myself. Perhaps the best in the country."

"Really?" Sophie asks.

"He makes it himself in a converted barn at the end of the garden," a woman of Asian descent says, coming up and leaning on the bar on the opposite side of Ace.

The man looks proud, "It's in the CAMRA guide. We call it Arthur's Ale."

The new woman smiles, "Vodka and coke, Pat."

"Glass of water, please. Ace?"

"Oh, vodka and–" The Doctor shoots her a look, and she sighs, "Lemonade, please."

The man turns to Sophie. "I'll have a Scotch, neat." The Doctor shoots her a look as well, but she ignores him, turning instead to the newcomer, "I'm Sophie, this is the Doctor, and that's–"

"Ace," she says. "I'm Shou Yuing."

"There we are, sir. Seven pounds, please."

Ace's eyes widen, "How much?"

"Man," Sophie mutters, "that's pretty cheap."

The Time Lord shakes his head, and dumps a bag on the counter, digging through the metal pieces. He hands the man some coins, while Shou picks up the piece on the bartop that is wriggling about. The Doctor taps her hand, "Do you mind? It's a very valuable piece of coinage."

Hello Sweeties,

Happy Doctor Who Day! 61 Years of our favourite Timey Wimey Show. 

[steele-soulmate]

Tattooed Wings, CHAPTER 485, Peter Steele & OFC, Soulmate AU

SUMMARY: Mary Claire Bradley meets her soulmate- literally- the famous Peter Steele of metal group Type O Negative. But will obstacles including trauma, stalkers, and toxic family members get in the way of their life?

WARNING: mentions of child rape (nothing graphic) PTSD, milk kink, soft smut, grinding, assault, fingering, hand jobs, blow jobs, 69, P in V sex, blood, noncon rape, violence, death, vandalism, graffiti, attempted kidnapping, break-ins, wild animal attacks, terrorist attack (sabotage) consensual impregnation, bareback, impregnation kink, creampies, terrorist attacks (shootings) neonatal death

WORDS: 1147

I giggled at a story that Slitzy was telling me about a scarecrow, a Christmas tree and a golf cart. The band social media manager was wearing a green and black band t-shirt, black jeans, cat ears and a kitty tail. The babies were happily chasing his kitty tail, giggling and shrieking at the Halloween accessory bobbled and dipped in front of them.

“Mary Claire, I think the babies like my tail!” he whined, turning to look over his shoulder at the spellbound duo.

“Well, the best thing about having kids this young is that anything can entertain them!” I told him as Elizabeth came up and handed to babies a chocolate chip cookie each.

“Yum yum!” yelled little girl before stuffing the cookie into her mouth. Baby Tommy was nibbling at his cookie with a peaceful smile on his face.

“Mommy, wesies bakey bake cookies?” he asked me, finishing his cookie and dusting his hands off. “Pweasies?”

“After Baby Violet Marie is born, okay?” Peter and I had both told the babies that I would soon go to the hospital and deliver Baby Violet Marie via belly button, taking cue from something that Katie had told us a while ago.

The other band members were dressed up- Josh was a werewolf, Kenny was a vampire and Johnny was what could only be described as Oscar the grouch in his trash can home. The kids were all scurrying about, giggling and laughing as they received compliments on their Halloween costumes and being rewarded with candy.

“Mommy? Do you have a reusable shopping bag that we can dump our candy into?” Katie asked me as she chewed on the end of her pigtail. I only smiled kindly at her as I dug out two reusable shopping bags from my backpack and handed them to her.

“Don’t eat any of the candy, wait until your father and I have time to go through everything, alright now?” I mothered the kids, watching as she handed one bag to Elizabeth and then letting the babies dump their fistfuls of candy into the reusable bag.

I rested my hand onto Baby Violet Marie, who was summer salting and twirling around wildly inside my womb, making me need to waddle around to keep her from yeeting herself out of me.

PUNCH KICK KICK PUNCH PUNCH KICK KICK PUNCH

“Tomorrow, you will get to meet your daddy and I,” I murmured to my unborn daughter, looking up as Peter came up to me, the babies’ cradleboard papoose in hand as he asked me to help him get it ready for loading as he changed their diapers first.

“Bum bum bum boo budda bum,” he sang out as he tickled Baby Tommy’s feet and made funny faces at him. “Yabba dabba doo!”

“Yabbie dabbie doo doo!” cackled the giggly little man as little girl laid herself down next to her little brother. “Yabbie dabbie doo doo!”

“Yes yes yes!” Peter cooed as he quickly changed her diaper as well before excusing himself to go and wash his hands really quickly.

“Mama Wen Wen?” little girl asked me as she chewed on her fist. “Wen Baa bee Vi wet Maw ie coming?”

“Baby Violet Marie will be born sometime tomorrow,” I reminded her in a gentle tone, giggling as she rolled over onto her hands and knees and scrambled back up onto her feet.

“Ah can’nt wait!” she gurgled, brightening up as her favorite person in the whole world appeared just then, tossing his hair out of his face as he donned the cradleboard papoose and handed me Baby Tommy first. But before I had any time to even breathe another breath, Elizabeth had taken the chubby little man from me and nudged me out of the way.

“I got it, mommy,” she told me as she carefully slotted the chubby little man into his seat and strapped him in. “Go get off your feet.”

I opened my mouth to say something only to be cut off as Katie came in with little girl in her arms. I gave up and took a seat on the uncomfortable, lumpy couch.

“Hello, Sister Mary Claire!” Josh took a seat next to me. “How are you doing?”

“I’m doing pretty good, though I have pregnancy anxiety right now,” I confessed, my hands on my popped out tummy. I took his hand and pressed it up against Baby Violet Marie.

PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH

“Wow, she’s strong!” he laughed. “Tomorrows, the big day, eh?”

“Yeah.” I looked up and saw Peter on his knee as my handsome older husband chit chatted with the girls, the babies holding his long hair out of his face as they kicked their little feet in the air. “Baby Violet Marie will be born tomorrow. Hopefully.”

“Well, I can’t wait to squeeze her cheeks!” Kenny announced just then, coming over from where he had been pigging out near the pizza boxes.

“I bet she’ll be a miniature Peter!” Johnny chimed in as well, the three band members surrounding me and making my anxiety only skyrocket to a more dangerous level. “All dark black curls and green eyes!”

“Peter isn’t a natural green eyed, black haired beauty!” I reminded him with a giggle. “He actually has dark brown hair and hazel blue eyes. Though now he has silver grey hair.”

“Oh.” He blinked. “Right.”

“I call him my handsome silver daddy,” I keyed them in with a soft giggle, looking up as Peter came in closer, wearing the girls and their look alike dollies on a hip.

“Alright.” he took a deep inhale of air in through his nose. “We ready now?”

“Fuk?” bubbled little girl just then, her big blue eyes literally making hearts swoon and melt.

“LITTLE GIRL…!”

TAGLISTS ARE OPEN/ ASK BOX IS OPEN/ REQUESTS ARE OPEN/ PLOT BUNNIES ARE WELCOMED

If you liked this, then please consider buying me a coffee HERE It only costs $3!!!

PETER STEELE TAGLIST

@rock-a-noodle

@ch3rry-c01a

[the-thieves-gambit]

There had been a moment in time where the thought of not having met him sounded like a dream come true. Now though, a small frown came to her as she couldn't seem to imagine what life had been like without him. "I'm pretty sure Tennessee is top of the list, knowing that Peter knows the area and has family there, it'll be, not easier, but a lot more smoother transition. Then maybe California and seeing how things go maybe New Orleans." A conspiratorial smile sent his way. "Never know what the future holds."

Giving him a small smile as he excused himself, she hoped he knew that it was okay. That she understood and that he could talk to her about it all later. She knew how much this all meant to him. For now she'd enjoy the evening knowing that he was back at the house, but she didn't kid herself, she knew he wouldn't be resting but at least he'd be alone to think things over.

"You better!" Elizabeth giggled as she let the girl take her free hand and pull her along. She also hoped it wasn't full of scares that might trigger her fight response. As his mother kept pace with her, she gave him a small sad smile.

"I just" she thought it over for a moment as she took in the sights one more time, trying to think of the the right way to say what she wanted to. "I know how important what he does is. How much it means to him to make that difference. I just hate that the thing he loves to do is at odds with the people he loves." Moving along with the line she continued. "Don’t get me wrong. I understand why you all worry, I’ve seen first hand the dangers and the obstacles he faces. And how much he misses everyone and just wants to be back home safe with you all. I guess I just want all of you to be happy and safe somehow. "

As they got to the front, she gave her another small smile. "I can also say that you’re not entirely wrong. As long as he works for that person he’ll always be denied what he has worked so hard for and that in itself is another issue. What is it you would like for him to do? Just quit ? Switch departments? " It was an honest question, she was his mother after all, the woman who had always put her children before her. She wanted to know her honest opinion of the situation.

"Tennessee? Wow that is really cool. Peter will have a lot of clientele over there. Kind of funny, that was one of the locations I was supposed to go to. Imagine if I had. You and I hadn't met." Wally smiled and nodded. "What are the contenders now? I can assume you and Charlie have an idea? New Orleans would be fun. Not that I'm bias or anything." His smirk showed that he was trying to be funny.

"That was one time and it wasn't technically," he couldn't even lie at that point. Work had tired him out that he had barely kept awake for round one. "Personal mission of mine to make it to at least round one tonight."

Taking the out Liz had given him he decided he wasn't as useful now and he would only have a miserable time. He did want to go back home to think of his next step or really if he was being honest, to wallow in his failure once again. He squeezed her lower back and put up his best smile. "I'm gonna head on home. I'll meet you guys there with some hot cocoa. Annie, don't tire out my girl too much okay?"

Annie giggled and grabbed her hand. "I promise! Come on if it is haunted I'll protect you!" She pulled her along and smiled now that the tension dissipated. Mama B still felt angry and knew if she followed her son that both personalities would clash. He was afterall the most like her in attitude. So she decided to flank Liz. "Penny for your thoughts?" Not much could go over the matriachs head. "I can safely assume it isn't trouble in paradise between you. You gravitate toward him without even knowing it. So, be like a pez dispenser and spill." Her French accent strong as she smiled looking at the loading of the hayrides.

Getting her phone he sighed and nodded softly as he couldn't wait to check whatever it was that blew up his phone. Checking his email his face felt heartbreak at the fact that he had once again been denied detective. His features stayed neutral but his heart shattered. He had worked so fucking hard and he was still being cockblocked by his worst enemy.

He kicked rocks on his way back to his mother's house and sighed. There was a conversation to be had with Liz. Mostly talking to her about their next steps. He could technically not work again and be just fine being an equal provider for himself and Liz. But he didn't want to break into that bank because being rich without doing anything just didn't give him any sort of meaning. All this was what he needed to talk to his girlfriend about.

[captainmdhridoyhossain-blog]

[ad_1] The most productive factor about subsequent yr's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is that Spider-Guy director Sam Raimi is making it. His go back to directing Marvel movies wasn't at all times a certain factor, despite the fact that, particularly after the heated response to 2007's Spider-Guy 3.Raimi mentioned how a lot the reaction to the movie affected him in dialog with Collider. "I did not know that I may just face it once more as it used to be so terrible, having been the director of Spider-Guy 3. The Web used to be getting revved up and folks disliked that film they usually certain let me learn about it. So, it used to be tough to take again on."Spider-Guy 3 used to be famously criticized for having too many villains, and being tonally asymmetric, with an 'emo' symbiote-infected Peter Parker changing into the topic of memes. Raimi firstly supposed the film to characteristic Sandman – however manufacturers driven for the movie to characteristic each Gwen Stacy and Venom. The end result used to be, tragically, the remaining Spider-Guy film Raimi made prior to Sony rebooted them with The Wonderful Spider-Guy sequence. Nonetheless, the Physician Odd sequel appealed to Raimi as a result of he beloved the nature, and Scott Derrickson's effort at the first film. "However then, I came upon that there used to be a gap on Physician Odd 2. My agent known as me and mentioned, 'They are on the lookout for a director at Wonder for this film and your title got here up. Would you have an interest?' And I believed, 'I wonder whether I may just nonetheless do it.' They are truly difficult, the ones sorts of footage. And I felt, 'Neatly, that is explanation why sufficient.' I have at all times truly appreciated the nature of Physician Odd. He used to be now not my favourite, however he used to be proper up there with the favorites."That is why Raimi mentioned sure. It's possible you'll understand that Physician Odd had a small point out in Spider-Guy 2, when the editors of the Day-to-day Planet had been looking to dream up a reputation for Document Ock.Physician Odd within the Multiverse of Insanity will megastar Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Benedict Wong, Rachel McAdams and Chiwetel Ejiofor. You are able to see it on March 25, 2022. Instead of Spider-Man: No Way Home, it is the Wonder film that is shrouded in probably the most thriller presently – particularly as we are slowly piecing in combination what the multiverse seems like in those films following the Loki finale. No matter took place to Spider-Guy 4 and 5?Spider-Guy 3 is a atypical movie looking back, and the meddling of manufacturers is moderately obtrusive within the completed product. You sense that had the movie solely adopted Raimi's ingenious instincts, it would have lived as much as its predecessors, which arguably stay the 2 maximum influential films of all of the style. Raimi incorporated Venom to thrill the lovers, in the long run, however ended up frustrating them as an alternative. In 2008, Raimi and actor Tobey Maguire signed up to make both Spider-Man 4 and 5 on the similar time, and the fourth film reportedly focused a 2011 liberate date. Raimi pulled out in 2010 as a result of he did not suppose he may just make the discharge date and handle the movie's ingenious integrity, in keeping with a Deadline record. It sounded just like the script had problems that had been by no means really resolved – however they were given some distance alongside sufficient that at one level, Maguire discussed that filming used to be set to start out in February 2010. Raimi sought after John Malkovich to play the Vulture within the movie, whilst studio Sony used to be reportedly pushing for Anne Hathaway to megastar within the movie as Black Cat. When the mission collapsed, Sony made The Wonderful Spider-Guy films as an alternative, which truly had not anything on Raimi's films – despite the fact that Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone had been very good in either one of them.

 All of Spider-Guy's live-action stars are rumored to converge when Spider-Guy: No Method House releases in December. For a very long time, hypothesis has been rife that Maguire and Garfield will each seem within the movie along Tom Holland. Raimi's Physician Odd within the Multiverse of Insanity will mark the following MCU theatrical liberate after the 3rd Spider-Guy movie, which turns out weirdly symbolic. [ad_2] #Sam #Raimi #directed #Physician #Odd #folks #hated #SpiderMan,samuel.roberts@futurenet.com , 2021-10-01 09:07:36 ,

[itsjustfire4]

Marauders as things my friends and I have said.. again (pt. 3)

Sirius: blonde/neg 🙄

Peter: I'M BLONDE?

Sirius: Get well soon

———————————————————————

Peter: what is the gay pirates hell is going on?

———————————————————————

Sirius: what the fuck no gay peopel in bro squad

James: bro homie pal home slice i would never do such non sock behavoir believe me

———————————————————————

James: *panicking over reading something wrong his crush sent him*

Sirius: Tell him you have dyslexia hoes love that

———————————————————————

Sirius: all the great punks be gay with their homies

———————————————————————

Sirius: Man I wanna paint my nails black again but like- i cant do my right hand! If only there was some attractive-person-soon-to-be-my-partner to do it for me! *dramatic sigh*

———————————————————————

Remus: I don’t wanna cry rn I have homework to do!

———————————————————————

*Peter & Sirius plying Mc*

Peter: Hey i found you’re favorite in thing!

Sirius: DICK?!

Peter: Coal?

Sirius: CREEPER AWW MAN

———————————————————————

Remus: Wait can you curse a penis?

———————————————————————

Remus: Why is the past day have i been confessed to by 3 people

James: my boy has bitches

———————————————————————

Remus: do you think i chose to be homosexual??????

Sirius: isn’t homosexuality a choice?

Remus: you’re right, thank you for bringing me to the light of jesus.. quite the light it is

———————————————————————

*Peter finds Remus’s address and threatens to come over*

Remus: IM NOT EVEN HOME ITS JUST MY DOG

Peter: bout to postcard ur dog <3

———————————————————————

Remus: also i’m not in toe of country town so i can be gay again

———————————————————————

Sirius: yay pears woo🍐🍐🍐

i love pears🍐🍐🍐

pears woo🍐🍐🍐

i love pears they the best fruit out there wooo🍐🍐🍐

James: pee

Sirius: i can't keep pretending Prongs i have something really serious to tell you but you have to promise this won't change our friendship

James: ok whats up

Sirius: i dicking hate pears

James: disgraceful

our friendship is over

i hate you

Sirius: Connection terminated. I'm sorry to interrupt you Elizabeth, if you still even remember that name. But I'm afraid you've been misinformed. You are not here to receive a gift, nor have you been called here by the individual you assume. Although you have indeed been called. You have all been called here. Into a labyrinth of sounds and smells, misdirection and misfortune. A labyrinth with no exit, a maze with no prize. You don't even realize that you are trapped. Your lust for blood has driven you in endless circles, chasing the cries of children in some unseen chamber, always seeming so near, yet somehow out of reach. But you will never find them, none of you will. This is where your story ends.And to you, my brave volunteer, who somehow found this job listing not intended for you. Although there was a way out planned for you, I have a feeling that's not what you want. I have a feeling that you are right where you want to be. I am remaining as well, I am nearby. This place will not be remembered, and the memory of everything that started this can finally begin to fade away. As the agony of every tragedy should. And to you monsters trapped in the corridors: Be still and give up your spirits, they don't belong to you. For most of you, I believe there is peace and perhaps more waiting for you after the smoke clears. Although, for one of you, the darkest pit of Hell has opened to swallow you whole, so don't keep the devil waiting, old friend. My daughter, if you can hear me, I knew you would return as well. It's in your nature to protect the innocent. I'm sorry that on that day, the day you were shut out and left to die, no one was there to lift you up into their arms the way you lifted others into yours. And then, what became of you. I should have known you wouldn't be content to disappear, not my daughter. I couldn't save you then, so let me save you now. It's time to rest. For you, and for those you have carried in your arms. This ends for all of us. End communication.

[notasapleasure]

Sunday six...and more

Inchoate

A couple of new chapters

Elizabeth pov, just a bit of characterisation I guess. I'm having a bit of a writing break from Inchoate right now, I need to get my enthusiasm back, but I've not forgotten our boys :') I'll be finishing this eventually, don't worry!

One of the many present band au Lymond wips

Draft of chapter 1(!) of the fic @erinaceina asked for ages ago where the characters celebrate the resignation of Thatcher at the close of 1990 (so about 1 year post-canon). Happy vignettes ended up being hard to get a purchase on though, so expect angst to creep in - these guys have a fair bit of a past after all.

In this chapter: Lymond/Philippa, Adam/Kate, Sibylla, Mariotta/Richard, their son Kevin, Slata Baba the dog, Talus the cat, Will Scott/Grizel, their many ginger children.

---

Anyone who could hold together the kind of career Francis Crawford, the artist known as Lymond, had managed to maintain was unlikely to be troubled by the organisation of a little party. Indeed, with one of Red Wedge's staunchest fundraisers onboard, a stalwart of Folk Against Fascism, a woman who had persuaded Elvis Costello and all of the Attractions to play her benefit shows, the matter shouldn't really have required more than a few phone calls to caterers and the setting up of some speakers.

Reality, however, had a tendency to complicate matters, particularly when friends and family were involved. Such complications were only compounded by the very public, deeply satsifying, disintegration of Margaret Thatcher's stranglehold on power.

The party being prepared had been planned in celebration of Christian Stewart's birthday, but had recently taken on a new mantle, at Christian's insistence, of a celebration of the end of Thatcher's career. All who knew Christian loved Christian and had wanted to help with the party anyway, but now spirits were even higher and St Mary's should have been a hive of activity.

Sibylla was there to decorate, as were Mariotta and Kevin; if Richard Crawford had, earlier that week, tried to suggest that Chris, being blind, was unlikely to appreciate Sibylla's flower-arranging skills, and that Francis and Philippa might prefer to set up the party in peace, he had been swiftly corrected. Chris appreciated the scent of Sibylla's bouquets and wreaths, and Mariotta had promised Kevin they'd make a pinata like he'd seen them do on Blue Peter. It was then universally agreed that Chris would enjoy, and excel at, whacking the stuffing out of a papier-mâché construction.

And then Kate was to be on hand to help prepare the food while Adam set up the sound-system, and Francis and Philippa themselves would not be driven from the kitchen when they had new recipes they wanted to try out on their guests.

Yet it was two hours before the party and the estate at St Mary's was a scene devoid of people, messy with incomplete activities.

The doors of the great grey building were open to the dreich November day, letting turf-warmed air out and inviting mizzle to settle on the tiles in the entranceways. A black cat sat imperious on the front doorstep, blinking at the four wheel drive that had pulled up on the drive and twitching its tail and ears at the sound crunching gravel. The cat's yellow eyes narrowed as the Land Rover decanted its passengers. It did not move when the lanky driver strode towards the front door and yelled for the master of the house, but when the cat noticed the noisy knot of children emerging from the back-seat its fur fluffed up and it turned on the lintel to trot away into the house.

"Talus, fetch Francis for us!" Will Scott instructed the animal as it disappeared. He squinted into the hallway and shrugged at his wife.

"I'll start unloading, will I?" Grizel, a baby held in one arm, gestured to the boot.

"Naw, woman," Will leaned on the doorframe, mindful of his muddy boots in a way Grizel never saw him be at home. "I'll go round back and see if they're in the kitchen."

He tramped round the edge of the building, peering through windows as he went.

In a front room over-stuffed with furniture that had been evicted from other locations in order to make space for recording studios, a project had been abandoned mid-way through. There was a washing basin filled with a murky mix of PVA glue and water, a stack of sacrificial newspapers, and a papier-mâché doll shaped around a part-inflated balloon and some old toilet rolls. Cat hair clung to the drying mix of paper and glue and sprinkled the surface of the liquid in the bowl, and the hand-prints of a small person, sticky from glue and dark from newspaper ink, stained the stone around the fireplace.

At the back door, muddy foot-prints tracked from vegetable patch to patio to kitchen. A bucket of evergreen sprigs, twisted willow branches, and dried teasel heads stood sentinel by the unappreciated boot-scraper; leylandii and pine and rosemary leaned drunkenly against one another, drooping beneath the weight of accumulated mist. Damp newspapers laid down to protect the lino had been crumpled and torn underfoot, and potato peelings filled the sink. Flour scattered on the kitchen table had powdered the floor like a light fall of snow, and cake batter waited patiently for someone to place it into the oven. The counter-top was covered in sprigs of dried lavender and citrus pieces.

"Philippa?" Will bellowed into the house. "Francis?"

A window above him opened and a mop of blond hair appeared, a broad smile beneath it. "Marigold! Come on up - Richard's on the telly."

Will squinted. "I've got whisky from my da' in the boot first, where d'ye want it?" his accent broadened as he hollered.

Francis disappeared inside to consult with someone, and then his head popped out again. "We'll arrange that in a moment, make yourself tea and come up. He's really doing a rather good job..." Francis peered back inside as he spoke, evidently still half-focussed on the TV broadcast.

"I've got the wife and kids..." Will protested.

"Bring them too - d'you hear that, Kevin? Walt, Jeanie, Jack and little Frankie are here!" And with that, Francis disappeared inside again and the window shut.

Grizel rounded the corner of the house with a question on her features, a baby in her arms, and the other three children trailing scrappily after her.

Will sighed and stepped into the kitchen, gesturing for her to follow.

"Tea?"

The room upstairs was the clearest indicator that the house had far too much space for one couple alone to fill. It wasn't a study or a bedroom, nor even a store room or a music room. It was just a TV room - and it could have done with some of the furniture from downstairs moving up to fill it.

Inside, the master of the house and his young wife sat contentedly on beanbags, their nephew and sister-in-law seated likewise to one side, their enormous black dog, newly imported from Russia, to the other. Adam Blacklock and Sibylla Crawford sat in the only two chairs, and Kate Somerville perched precariously on the arm of Adam's seat. A jumble of muddy boots was piled in the hallway outside the room - to which Will added his grubby timberlands - and on the TV set Richard Crawford, MP, discussed the ongoing infighting among the Conservative government with a careful mask of professional amity.

Grizel frowned at something he said as she followed Will in. "But I thought the old witch was gone?"

"To the living I am gone ... To the faithful I have never left," Francis quoted with biting contempt and brittle amusement in his eyes.

"She stood down as leader," Philippa informed Grizel. "And won't run again to keep her place. But she's still PM until they choose a new one."

Grizel made a sound of disgust and waved at Sibylla to keep her seat as the older woman went to rise. She kicked an unoccupied beanbag over the floor to settle by the big dog, who flinched at the unexpected movement and the sound of the stuffing rustling, and got up, tail between her legs, head down, to hide behind Philippa and Francis.

"Och, hound, I'm sorry. But you're a great feartie, look at the size o'ye!" Grizel flumped down, baby Frankie still held close to her ample chest, still blissfully unconcerned with all that was going on around him.

Philippa scratched Slata Baba's ears as the dog settled again with a groan, her enormous head laid between Philippa and Francis and her eyebrows twitching plaintively as though asking her owners why there were suddenly so many strangers in her house. "She's getting better, but I think tonight we'll leave her in the study, don't you agree, Francis?"

Lymond's long fingers stroked the top of the dog's skull and he smiled down at her. "Yes, I think so. She might not be happy to share the house with old Sym."

"I can't believe Chris still has him," Will shook his head, passing Grizel a mug of tea and easing himself down onto a large cushion next to her. The scar tissue in his side pulled stiff, as it always did when he bent or twisted too far. He grunted like Slata Baba had done when she settled, and it did not go unnoticed by his wife who, Will knew, would add it to the dossier of things to bring up should he ever be foolish enough to suggest joining Lymond on tour again.

"I think Chris guides Sym these days," Sibylla said drily. "Mind you, he was never the most accomplished of service dogs."

Kate turned to Adam and some unspoken agreement passed between them. "Actually, Adam and I have arranged to take her to the centre at Tollgate. She's coming to stay at Flaw Valleys after this, and from there we're going to meet some newly graduated guide dogs this week."

"Oh Kate, puppies?" Philippa turned to her mother.

"No...highly trained working dogs," Kate corrected her, hiding her smile badly.

Philippa's enthusiasm was undimmed, and she shot a knowing expression Adam's way. Adam shrugged one shoulder and grinned, resigned to his fate - however many dogs it might involve.

"Da, can we have a dog?" Walt, five years old and more freckle than boy, asked. He stood by Will, his little hands bunched into determined fists and his blue eyes round as marbles as he stared at Slata Baba. Clearly, he longed to go and pet her, but he would not approach unless invited to.

"No ye may not. Ye can play with wee Jock when we go to Grandda's, and ye already have that rat ye don't feed!" Grizel tutted and answered for him while Will grinned sheepishly, pleased to have the decision taken out of his hands.

"Mario isna a rat, Ma, he's a hamster," Walt rolled his eyes petulantly.

"Same difference," Grizel shook her head. "And I hafta clean it out either way."

Sensing the mood, Mariotta sat forward on her bean bag and tore her eyes from the TV screen. "Walt, Jeanie, Jack, do you want to help Kevin make the decorations for tonight?"

It was a thoughtful idea, but Kevin let out a sulky "No!" at the suggestion. He scowled at the TV screen. "Dad's not finished, Mum, and you're not even listening!"

Mariotta's brows raised at his tone and, appropriately chastened, she hid her smirk behind a hand, though no one else in the room bothered concealing their amusement. To think that the press had once tried to suggest this boy was anyone's other than Richard's...

"Sorry, Kev," Mariotta murmured and rubbed his back with her palm, turning towards to TV with elaborately pantomimed interest.

Richard gave his assessment of the situation in measured tones, but stuck a sharp, polite knife into the Tories at every opportunity. The interviewer could barely conceal the glint of amusement in his eyes.

When asked who he thought was the best person to replace Thatcher, Richard allowed himself a small chuckle. "You mean other than Neil Kinnock?"

Indulgent, unctuous, the interviewer echoed his laugh. "We're discussing a leadership contest, not a general election…"

"Well you asked me who I thought best," Richard pointed out, gesturing with a broad palm. "But in terms of Tory leadership candidates it's really like asking me to choose between tetanus and tuberculosis. While both can be treated, I wouldn't want to contract either of them."

"And who's tetanus and who's tuberculosis?" the interviewer didn't miss a beat.

Richard couldn't stop himself from grinning. "Let's see what symptoms we develop."

[white-collar-lawmen-and-conmen]

Future

A/N: Yikes. I cried several times writing this. I'm very proud of how it turned out - I think it's one of my strongest pieces on the entire blog - but be warned: bring tissues. Also, Mozzie's quote is originally from Abraham Lincoln. Requested by @ladykeqing

Summary: In the wake of Neal's death, a regret haunts you.

Word Count: 1,964

Peter sat you down and told you in his home. Well… just June’s home, now. The way Mozzie had trailed behind him, for once wordless… His face looking ashen… A part of you had known even before Peter asked you to sit down.

“He told me to say he’s sorry,” Peter said, barely more than a whisper that somehow felt deafening to your brain. “And that he loves you more than you know.”

The room was suddenly stifling. It was more than just the emotions in the air, layering over each other into a thick, caustic fog. It was the darkening of shadows that stretched in from the glass doors, and the silence of the record player that drove deep into their eardrums to muffle the little sounds of life coming from each other. The penthouse was, in an instant, so tiny and deathly empty, and you wished so dearly that you’d been at your own apartment. Staying the weekend had seemed like such a great idea before you abruptly became the only resident.

For a few seconds, you had a mind to just stay put and let the shadows come and take over. To let the agonizing ache of loss engulf your entire heart and continue expanding until it was bigger than your body and you disappeared forever. All so you wouldn’t have to keep looking at the records Neal would never again play and the table he would never again sit at. So you would never have to spend a last moment in the home of your lover before turning your back on it and, by extension, him.

Without him, there was nowhere to turn. The prospect of your remaining lifetime without your partner made your chest and throat tighten with another round of sobs. It all felt so dim. You tried to hold it back, but couldn’t last long before your hands were to your mouth and a strangled whimper was breaking from your lips.

Mozzie could have fooled you into thinking he hadn’t heard, so resolute he was in boring a hole into the rug with his stare. Peter looked towards you with deep brown eyes, solicitous and pleading at the same time. He was as stunned as you were – but where you were being crushed under the weight of isolation, at least Peter got to go home to El. You didn’t have anyone to go home to anymore. Hell, without Neal, did you even have a home at all?

You envied Mozzie. Really, you did. His Buddhist leanings might be a comfort to him, able to think of Neal’s absence as temporary, or his spirit as remaining around them in some way or form. But when you tried to imagine you could feel him still there, the encroaching shadows and silent record player and empty bed all drew together at once until you were drowning in the lack. It was as if your haywire senses were punishing you for thinking even for a moment that you could feel your loss as anything less than absolute. He was gone and the world was permanently less wonderful.

A gunshot. Neal hated guns so much. Maybe this was why.

Wait. No. Time didn’t work like that. Right? He couldn’t hate something for a reason that hadn’t happened yet.

Laughter that bordered on hysterical bubbled out of your throat as you anxiously covered your face, waiting for the mania to pass. Laughter was easier than sobs. It physically hurt less. Emotionally it was so much worse. You could feel the concerned eyes on you while you waited until your desperate giggles died, just like your partner.

“I never said,” you said, wresting the words out before cries – or worse, more laughs – forced themselves out instead. You looked down with shame and guilt. His last words to you were almost cruel. Tender in their meaning, but cruel in consequence – he would never know how deeply you cared for him. You hoped he did. Didn’t you show it all the time? But that was different from hearing the words out loud, and now not only were you going on without Neal, but you were going on carrying the burden of knowing you hadn’t been able to offer him the comfort of certainty in knowing he had been loved in life and would be grieved in death. “I never got to tell him I love him.”

The mere look that Peter gave you in response would have broken your heart if it hadn’t already been lying shattered somewhere between your stomach and the floor. It was as if he were imagining for himself not getting to tell Elizabeth how he felt, or worse, imagining how alone or afraid she might feel if she didn’t know there were somebody fighting for her and remembering her every day.

Sobs would come any moment now. Your throat was tighter than a string on a violin, and any minute you’d stop being able to breathe. In, out, you reminded yourself. Keep it together just a moment more. And then another moment after that. You couldn’t break down until you were alone. You didn’t know why you couldn’t break in front of Neal’s family, but didn’t have the energy to question it, either, not when you barely had the energy not to scream and weep into your hands.

“He knew.” Mozzie’s words were quiet but startling and said with all the confidence of Neal himself. “You didn’t have to say it.”

“But he deserved to hear.” Knowing it and hearing it were different games and Neal, for all his faults, deserved to hear it, too. “He deserved to come home. I don’t…” You lost your train of thought. Why were you talking about yourself when you weren’t the one whose brilliant life had been stolen? After a small shake of your head, you sniffed and shakily breathed out. “We had an entire future. And now there’s nothing left.”

You could see it passing in your imagination, all the little milestones that you’d come to anticipate. Content days at home, interspersed with adventures to his favorite places around the world, marked by marriage and birthdays and achievements and anniversaries. You’d never articulated them out loud, never even realized fully that you’d started to await those days, but now you saw them vanishing and you realized not only were you having to grieve for the best man you’d ever known, but you’d also have to grieve for the missed experiences and joys that he had lost, and the shared life that you had to give up on, as well.

Mozzie finally looked up to you and you noticed that his eyes were puffy and red behind his glasses. You didn’t even know someone could cry that silently. “The best thing about the future,” he quoted, slow and weighty, probably to keep his own voice level. “Is that it comes one day at a time.”

The comfort was meaningless to you. One day at a time was worthwhile when it was endless days of love and companionship. When that was gone, it was just day after day of being adrift with nothing to hold onto.

You sniffed again and replied in a surprisingly even voice, “My future is laying in the morgue.”

~Future~

Leaving Y/N was one of the hardest things Mozzie had ever done, and he had a lot of challenges and dubious decisions in his past. Leaving her to wallow and suffer rubbed him in every wrong way possible, except for the one where it meant – at least for now – that she would be safe. He didn’t think, if he stayed, that he would be able to hold back from blurting out the truth. He couldn’t even look at her for fear of spilling. Not once her tears started. He couldn’t watch his friend, and his best friend’s love at that, weep with agony she didn’t need to feel.

Neal begged to differ, though Mozzie knew that it tore his heart in two to hear her voice over the long-distance connection. When Mozzie was sure the suit was out of earshot, and that Y/N and June had both stayed inside, he lifted his phone from his pocket and breathed heavily in the cold December air that seemed to burn his lungs.

“Did you hear all that?” He asked, impressively steady and managing to get his criticism and support across with his tone simultaneously.

He took off his glasses, thankful Neal couldn’t see that he, too, needed to wipe his eyes dry. Alive was good. Alive but far away and unreachable – at least for the foreseeable future – was still painful.

“I did,” Neal confirmed, voice and heart both heavy somewhere at least a thousand miles away. “I wish…” Neal trailed off, and Mozzie wholly believed that he also needed a moment to compose himself. Why either of them bothered pretending not to cry, he didn’t understand, but they had already dedicated themselves to the farce. “She’s safer this way. If she looks for me, we’re all in danger.”

“If you let this go on, she will never forgive you.” Mozzie warned, thinking about the broken look on your face. It had been like watching a dropped plate shatter in slow motion to see the cracks begin to appear before your very spirit seemed to splinter. Then he thought about how desperately you wished Neal knew you loved him, and he thought maybe there was a chance that desperate love would override the anger. He amended, “Or, if she does, it’ll never be the same.”

“I know.” Neal agreed readily but with a quiver to his voice. “I want to come home, but not if it means visiting her grave.”

“The cautious way it is.” Mozzie put his glasses back on his face, bravely shoring up his willpower. “I can’t know where you are, and she can’t know you’re out there.”

“Keep an eye on her for me.”His voice was full of sorrow and longing.

“Of course.” Neal didn’t even need to ask. If there came a time when the Panthers were dealt with and Neal could – well, if not return home, at least be reunited with Y/N somewhere without an extradition treaty, Mozzie would be the first to set it in motion. “Be well, mon frére.”

“You, too, Moz.”

The line went dead.

~Future~

Approximately four thousand miles away, on a windy beach, Neal stood barefoot in the dark, watching the light from the moon reflect off the choppy, shallow surf. The breeze drifted through his hair and bit across his face with the sting of northern weather.

He looked down at the open phone in his hand, fighting every feeling in him to turn it back on and beg Mozzie to take the phone back up to his former penthouse. Or, worse, to turn his whole body around and get on a ferry to the mainland, and fly back to New York as fast as possible to hold you in his arms. The heartbreak in your voice had been almost too much for him to bear. It would have been, if not for his terror of being reckless and selfish and letting you pay the price.

He had known you loved him, and because he loved you so unbelievably much in return, he couldn’t go home. Not yet. He would work on it from afar, where no one knew he was breathing, much less could trace him back to his darling. One day, if he were incredibly lucky, he could come home and you would still have space for him in your heart and mind. For now, he would have to settle on replaying your words in his head.

I love you, too.

Neal hurled the phone out into the ocean.

[moonyblackwerewolf]

Back to School Ch. 2 - Sirius Black

Betrothed Ch. 2

Sirius Black x fem!Reader

Word count: 2.5k

Summary: Sirius and Y/N meet at a family dinner and have some fun, later she finds out she is betrothed to some pureblood boy so Sirius comes up with a mental idea to save them both.

Warnings: Kissing, hints of sex, 'aggressive' parents, underage drinking, idk my writing and English? lol

a/n: so this is the second part!! i hope you like it!! :)

Xxxx

Ch.1 Ch. 2 Ch. 2.5 Ch.3 Ch.4 Ch. 5 

When September first finally came Y/N was thrilled, she couldn't handle a single more day at that Hell she calls home, but that didn’t matter anymore ‘cause she was going her to her real home. She was excited to see her friends again, and Sirius too? No she couldn’t miss him, it was a one night thing, and most importantly Sirius Black wasn’t one of falling for someone. He had slept with half of Hogwarts by now, but there was something about him that made Y/N feel butterflies on her stomach when she saw him.

Now, on the train, looking for a place to sit, after she talked with her friends that were in other full cabinets, she saw a familiar face, Sirius’, so she went talk to him, she was nervous because his friends on there too, but she had to go, it wasn’t like her sister would be happy to share her cabinet.

“Hey” she said making the boys’ attention drift to her “Hm, could i maybe sit here with you guys? everywhere else is full, sorry” she said timidly.

“Sure Y/N, sit” Remus answered sweetly patting the sit next to his. He was the only marauder that Elena had talked with before, besides Sirius, given the events from summer break, she liked him, he was sweet, helped her in class when she needed and unlike his friends, was quiet and seemed to avoid trouble. Remus being as observant as he was didn’t miss Sirius’ and Y/N’s glances at one another during the ride and the tension between them, even though Sirius looked more relaxed then her, something had definitely happened.

The ride was fine, Y/N met the other marauders, they talked and laughed. They asked about her friends and about her house, at first they were taken aback about her being a Slytherin but soon brushed it off, Sirius found out her brother was friends with his brother, which he thought was really weird.

“But how did they meet?” Sirius looked confused and quite amused “Isn’t your brother like 5 years older than us?”

“Apparently at an internship in the ministry, your brother worked for mine and they seemed to like each other” she laughed a bit “weird isn’t it?” Sirius chuckled a ‘isn’t it’ as he started making fun of his little brother 

“Young ambitious Regulus, trying to impress the big guys, and he’s only in fourth year”

As the mountains outside started showing and the clouds covered the sky, they knew they were soon arriving at the castle.

“And then my brother looked at me and… BOOM he lift me, hung me up in his shoulders and starts heading to the my father” Everyone laughs “A-And” she couldn’t stop laughing “-so i grabbed his arse and he accidentally threw me in the pool. That was the first time I saw my brother laughing in years, for a change” James was the most amused one with the story.

“Wait, wait” he couldn’t hold his laughter “You’re telling me you grabbed the old Slytherin cocky head boy, your brother’s, ass? And that he threw you in the pool, that’s on my new to-do list, but the pool will have to be replaced by the Black Lake, you Watson, are a genius” Y/N didn’t remember the last time she had that much fun with her friends, it was a good feeling being there with the boys, she wasn’t her usual shy self and she liked that.

  Sirius felt something weird in the pit of his stomach when he heard her laugh, he didn’t know exactly what is was. They had a lot of fun, the boys liked Y/N, at first they thought she was a bit snobby but then realised she was pretty nice when she played along with James’ jokes and teasing.

When they could already see Hogwarts in the horizon, Y/N’s friends Elizabeth Greengrass and Katherine Abbott two tall blonde girls showed up, already on their Slytherin robes. “Come on Elena stop fooling around and let's go, we cleaned up our cabinet, now there is a free space for you” Elena looked at them a bit confused.

“What do you mean you cleaned?” She asked.

“Oh” her friends laughed “we sent that mudblood friend of yours Carla is it? to a Hufflepuff cabinet” The boys and Y/N looked at them in shock as she got flustered by her friends’ words.

“Oh my god?! Look, guys i’m sorry” she said apologetically, turning to the marauders “I have to go, but thank you, i enjoyed spending time with you” She said as she stood up to leave, when she left they could hear her scolding the two girls, before their voices faded away.

After she left, Remus took his opportunity and asked “What was that Padfoot?” Sirius frowned at him, so he continued “Y/N, you two kept glancing at each other when the other wasn’t looking. Please don’t do that to her she’s my partner in DADA and a nice person” he looked concerned.

“Oh, that was nothing” this time remus was the one who frowned, as James and Peter, as observant as rocks listened to the conversation with curiosity, “Relax Moony, we met over summer break at a party at her house, nothing much, you know me” Remus frowned again and Sirius sighted “We ran away from the party and explored the house, that’s it” making Remus run his hands over his face.

“You’re hopeless” 

James laughed hard, clearly thinking his friend’s explanations hilarious “Padfoot we know you don't explore houses without ulterior motives, what’s up with you? Usually you don’t try to hide your one night stands from us” He knew Sirius better than anyone else. “But by the way Pads, she’s hot, nice and all, but isn’t she like, a blood purist like your parents?” 

“No” he gasped “She’s not” he lowered his voice “she’s not like them and well you know, she couldn’t resist my looks”

“Ok, ok, sorry Pads I didn’t mean to insult your girlfriend, I like her, since she’s not a snobby purist” Sirius hit his shoulder and the boys laughed and continued talking until they arrived at Hogwarts. Remus’s suspicions growing at friend’s weird behaviour toward the girl, when he saw Sirius staring at her talking with her friends while getting on the carriage heading to Hogwarts and later on the great hall he stared continuously at the Y/H/C girl’s Y/E/C eyes sitting on the Slytherin table he despised so much, but something about her made him despise it a bit less.

“Quit the staring mate, it’s creepy” James pointed out as his friends brushed him off, continuing to eat his turkey.

Looking up from his plate Remus continues “He just can’t help it Prongs, he thinks he’s brother is quite good looking” 

“Oh yeah his Y/H/C feminine brother, you’re it’s just brotherly affection” Peter entered the teasing now.

“Oh shove it” Sirius mumbled hitting James.

In all the teasing the boys didn’t realise Y/N reattributing Sirius’ glances despite her friends’ scowls.

 ——————————

That week on her way to potions class, the Marauders approached Y/N, Sirius slipping an arm around her shoulders smugly.

“Hello beautiful, Potions too?” Sirius greeted her with a smirk on his face while James slipped his arm on her other shoulder, Remus and Peter stayed a bit back shyly waving.

“Yeah Y/N/N, how are you?” James asked teasingly, surprising Y/N.

She chuckled at the boys “What do you guys want?” James and Sirius put their hands in their chests dramatically.

“Rude. We were just asking” Sirius laughed.

“Ignore them Y/N, you’re free to go” Remus intervened sweetly taking his friends’ arms off the girl.

During the next few months they’d have talks in the corridor, eventually, during classes they shared together and Y/N helped them study, or tried to at least. She was surprised that the marauders started paying so much attention to her, since they never had before, she thought her night with Sirius wouldn’t change anything, but clearly that was wrong. They grew closer, she started helping them in their pranks and the boys loved her, she could handle with all of them, Sirius’ flirting, James’ jokes, Peter’s weirdness and Remus, well he was easy to deal with, the others weren’t but she liked them anyway. 

They later started to sneak her into the Gryffindor common room, they’d have talks about future pranks or just about their days and ideas. She even became friends with a few Gryffindor girls including a certain red head James had a huge crush on, Lily and Y/N bonded immediately, the girls shared a lot of interests, they understood each other perfectly, it was a friendship for life. James obviously always tried to persuade Y/N into getting a date, but she always gave him the same answer as Lily, no.

As Y/N’s Slytherin friends started to realise she was distancing herself from them and growing closer to the Marauders and Lily, they tried to talk her out, which made Y/N furious. However she couldn't just argue with them, it would be a matter of time until her sister realised, Diana usually kept her nose so high she didn’t even see who her sister walked with, she didn’t actually care, unless it involved her, but she wasn’t blind and would definitely tell to their mother. It’s not that she didn’t like her friends, she did, they were nice to her, but you couldn’t say the same for others, they still hated muggleborns, it was wrong to judge someone for their status, Y/N knew that, but even though she was conflicted between what was right and what her family wanted, she was scared of them and what they could do.

“You barely spend your time with us anymore!” Katherine stormed at Y/N “Only at night in our dorm room or when, and that’s rare now, you’re in the common room” she was angry and didn’t understand her friend’s liking for those pricks.

“Or in the classes we don’t share with Gryffindor” Elizabeth added “We miss you Y/N/N, Elijah does too” her face softened.

“I miss you guys too Betty” the words escaped Y/N’s mouth even not knowing if they were true. Nevertheless Y/N wasn’t planning on getting any closer to the girls, her solution to her doubts: just ignoring them.

In fact, after that conversation Y/N started spending more time with the Gryffindors, even sleeping there with them on the red couches by the fireplace after a long day or just talking for so long they would fall asleep accidentally, she and Sirius sometimes would end up cuddling subconsciously in their sleep, Remus would always notice when they woke up a little shocked but then just act like it didn’t happen after Sirius making a flirty comment, since the both friends had agreed to ignore the night they shared at her house, but secretly wishing it’d happen again, but they didn’t, it was just friendship right? but Remus and James saw right through their agreement, James teasing them endlessly.

“Padfoot do you take Y/N/N as your beloved wife” James sang grabbing both his friends’ arms.

“I do Prongs” Sirius joked.

“Brothers and Sisters, does anyone here has anything to say? It’s now or never” James continued.

“You’re such an arse James, why don’t you go look for Lily, so i can marry you with her too” Y/N hissed, laughing at the end.

“I’d love to” James accepted

“Good try” she leaves his grip, strong nails never fail.

She’d never admit but she loved their jokes, teasing and dumb comments, that are actually very smart, they are so funny and make her feel so happy. They were becoming her best friends and gaining her trust, which isn’t easy, as she was gaining their’s. It was a feeling she never had before, like a family she never had, the random talks at night, the real trust, and care, made her feel loved in a way she wasn’t at home.

They were becoming real friends while Y/N’s friends kept drifting away from her, they thought that the Marauders were irresponsible gits who just wanted attention, and would only talk to Y/N when she was alone on classes they didn’t share with Gryffindor or on the Slytherin common room. But honestly Y/N couldn’t care less, the Marauders and Lily had become her true family.

One day at a Gryffindor party, some Slytherins crashed and Lucius Malfoy cornered Y/N and Sirius saw what looked like a heated conversation, Malfoy seemed to be raging with anger and Y/N was almost crying, Sirius’ blood was boiling, what the hell was Malfoy doing with his girl, He had enough of seeing his friend suffer and shoved Malfoy away.

“Are you okay, Y/N?” Sirius asked concerned, as he held her arms, that was it for her, she started crying and he wrapped her in his arms whispering sweet nothings in her ear “Hey, hey everything’s fine love, what’s wrong, what did Malfoy do?” He asked rubbing her back lightly.

“He.. He… He was trying to bring me back to the Slytherin dorm, saying that i needed to stop my ‘rebellious phase’ and go back to being a ‘good girl’ and to stop hanging out with you guys” she said sobbing against his shoulders.

“Hey Y/N, Malfoy’s an arse, you don’t need to listen to him, he won’t take you anywhere, not under my watch” he paused and smirked at her “You know, I pretty much prefer when you’re biting my shoulder rather than to see you crying on it because of that bloke” He smiled as an attempt to lighten up the mood and even made her chuckle a little.

“But that’s not it” she started sobbing again “H-he said that i’ll have to oblige sooner or later, b-because” she stopped, crying harder and Sirius tightened his grip around her “He said my parents are going to send me a letter explaining everything, Sirius and-and i-i’m scared”.

Lily, who had seen Sirius shoving Malfoy away, ran in her best friend’s direction and wrapped Y/N in another bear hug.

Sirius had never seen her like this, and he hated it, but it made him like and trust her even more. From this day on, he knew, he promised himself that he would always protect her if she ever needed him to, he wouldn’t let anyone hurt one of his best friends.

That night the Marauders spent the night in the common room talking until they all fell asleep, that night she felt loved by the group she now called family, it was a nice feeling. 

a/n: i don't know if i like it? idk. What do you guys think? let me know if you want to