#like I had a Twilight marathon two weeks ago with my friend?

[stupidlamb-s]

MIDNIGHT SUN IS GETTING AN ANIMATED SERIES AT NETFLIX!!! THOUGHTS? FEELINGS? IM PERSONALLY VERY EXCITED

AAAHHH, my dear, I couldn’t be more thrilled! Something really lovely could come out of it—I think an animated series is a wonderful format for Twilight. (I can only imagine how excited @kellythepitiablefangirl must be! Lionsgate should hand her the project?? No one could do it better than her.) I’m still trying to process the fact that we’ll get new Twilight content, and that it will be Midnight Sun-based, and that (again) it will be animated. I just really hope it has a cozy vibe to it, and that the music is soft and soul-soothing with lots of piano pieces and rain sounds. I—I don’t know anything about it yet, but I relish it already!

[mercurycft]

𝐓𝐎𝐎 𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐓 — 𝐊𝐌

## katie mccabe x reader !!

hi pookies!! once again i apologise for the lateness.. but i really hope you enjoy this.. my little tattoo-lover heart got a little carried away with this, but i love this concept so much and i hope you do too! its a little different than the original idea for the direction of this, but either way, i really enjoyed this!! happy reading! love always - RG! x

i would also like to say! this is inspired by a fic i saw on my feed about a tattoo artist x alexia (i think) and i loved it! if i find the account i will top the link to their fic here!

contains: tattoo artist reader! shameless flirting! angsty make up sex, cocky!katie, fight for dominance, oral - both receiving, rough grabbing, dirty talk, fingering, useless lesbians, top!katie and brat!reader, foul language.

r's masterlist - requests open!

4.6k words

CONTAINS ADULT LANGUAGE & CONTENT 18+

a knock at your door was a disruption to your night time routine - pyjamas already on, makeup off, hair tied back and your toothbrush hanging from your lips. you slipped on your slippers and headed down the stairs, still brushing your teeth when you pulled the door open to reveal a familiar face.

she was in a similar state. hair tied back messily, loungewear on and no makeup accept for her eyelash extensions. your eyes lifted from the floor to finally meet hers on the other side of the threshold

“katie..?”

“can i come in?”

3 months ago.

a notification past 7pm would usually be ignored.

and it was the first time, then the second, then the third. the fourth, however, was followed by a groan from your sprawled-out position on your sofa. although tempted to put your phone onto 'do not disturb' and continue the twilight marathon you started the previous night, you stretched across the empty space and patted around to locate your phone - simultaneously pausing the tv and shifting to sit with your back against the pillows for a change.

katie_mccabe11 liked your story.

katie_mccabe11 liked your post.

katie_mccabe11 started following you.

you have 1 new message.

"katie mccabe.." you whispered into the emptiness of your apartment, crossing your legs beneath you and clicking on the notification on your screen. "why do i know her.." you racked your brain, pursing your lips. you noted the football shirt in her profile picture alongside the blue verified tick beside her username and used your critical thinking skills to put two and two together, chuckling at the thought of your younger sister losing her mind at another footballer dming you.

you waited a few seconds before opening her message, reading it carefully and silently. "that's how i know her.." you replied to yourself, whilst alone.

last week you had beth mead in your seat at the shop, getting a small paw print behind her ear and chatting yours off in the process. you spoke about a lot of things, you're used to that though. sometimes people just need someone to talk to - and who better than their tattoo artist? you liked beth, she was lovely, easy to talk to. the kind of person you would be friends with. she wasn't with you for long, an hour tops and it flew by. at the end of the appointment you exchanged socials and she left with a 'i'll tell the girls about you!".

you didn't really watch football, but you knew enough - and you would be lying if the thought of your name being chucked around between a very attractive group of women didn't make your stomach twist.

you typed your reply to katie quickly. starting with your usual friendly opening, explaining your upcoming availability and then ending with a single kiss. you had no available appointment spaces for the next three weeks, but you hoped that beth really sold you and your passion enough that she would consider waiting. she read it almost immediately, making your eyes widen and quickly swipe away from the message in an effort to not seem like a total weirdo.

her reply flashed across the top of your screen a few seconds later.

'ill take it x'

—————————

appointment day.

it was appointment day and god were you a nervous wreck. you arrived at the shop an hour earlier than normal to open up and clean before she arrived - she was your first and only appointment of the day and you wanted to make a good first impression. you prepared what you would need, laying your tools out on the table beside you and making a coffee - which would no doubt be freezing cold by the time you actually got around to drinking it.

you connected your phone to the bluetooth speakers around the room and shuffled your playlist just as the doorbell rang from the front of the shop. 7:59. you didn't know much about katie, having restrained yourself from going full-on stalker mode over the last few weeks leading up to her appointment. but clearly she was punctual.

as you unlocked the door and smiled to her through the glass, you couldn't help but realise how strikingly attractive she was. her hair pulled into a tight and slick ponytail at the back of her head, a deep green tracksuit complimenting her tanned skin and bright eyes.

"good morning!" you greeted cheerfully, welcoming her in.

you watched as her eyes scanned around the room, studying the artwork on the walls before they landed back on you and a smile spread across her face to match yours.

"mornin' hope i've not been a fuss this early.." she joked as you embraced each other in one of those awkward-but-friendly-first-meeting hugs, causing you to laugh softly.

"oh it's no bother, serious." you waved her comment off, shutting the door behind you both and leading her over to your station at the back of the shop. you didn't expect her accent to be so thick, but the way her voice sat heavy in the space between you had you clenching your jaw.

the pair of you made small talk as she got situated and sat on the leather bed whilst you pulled up a stall and your phone to take another look at the pictures she had previously sent, grabbed a pen and then pulled a pad of paper onto your lap. laying the phone down so she could see as well.

you sat across from katie, discussing designs and what she would and wouldn't like. she was engrossed in the conversation, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm as you shared ideas and suggestions. you found yourself doodling on the paper, absentmindedly drawing whatever came to mind as she chatted about the specifics of what she wanted. every now and then, your eyes would meet hers, and a playful smile would tug at the corners of your lips.

there was silence between you for a few beats as your pen etched across the paper and completed the first sketch of the possible design. when you finished you looked up and turned the paper towards her before you could ask how she felt about it she spoke up.

"how do you do that?"

"do what?" you replied playfully with a smile.

"how can you just listen and draw? it's so cool.." she sounded genuinely bewildered for a moment and you couldn't help but laugh lowly.

"honestly, it just happens. when someone describes what they want i see it in my head and just let my pen translate it." you explained with a shrug, looking at her again.

"well its sick, i won't lie!"

"thank you.. i'm a woman of many, many talents.." it came out a lot more suggestive sounding than intended, mental cursing yourself and begging internally that she wouldn't see the pink tint you could feel spreading across your cheeks. you looked back down at the page before she could notice, avoiding her eyes.

"oh i bet." she added, smirking across from you.

you both sat like that for another ten minutes, brainstorming ideas and katie watching you bring them to life like a magician until you both finally settled on a design. you couldn’t believe how natural the interaction was coming and conversation flowing. you embraced the shared banter between you and leant into her jokes.

the design she had settled on was small and intricate but you knew you could free-hand it, so decided against using a stencil for the work. “right, i am gonna wash my hands and get everything sterilised, you get comfy and have a think about where you want it. okay?” you said as you stood up and ripped out the page you were using, placing it beside your other supplies so it was easy to use as a reference. katie replied with a small “sounds good to me,” and you heard her shuffle around the bed and as you made your way to the sink you could feel her eyes on you, following you away.

when you returned to her, she was sat more comfortably and had discarded her hoodie. the ribbed vest she was hiding left little to your imagination, revealing her arms and more of that heavenly tanned skin to your prying eyes. you tried not to look, but were made too aware of yourself failing miserably when she caught your gaze and you watched her suppress a chuckle.

once you were situated on the stool again, you took a deep breath and turned towards her. “so where are you thinking?” she sat silently in response, deep in thought.

“either here,” she pointed to the inside of her bicep to punctuate her point “or here..” she added quietly as her thumb hooked into the waistband of her joggers and shimmied them down a couple of inches until you could see the skin at the bottom of her stomach- in line with her hip. perhaps you looked for a second too long, or she heard you gulp, or maybe your fears were real and she could in fact hear your heart rattling against the boney cage of your ribs in your heaving chest - but the way you heard her exhale a humorous breath and tense her stomach muscles snapped you back into reality.

“which one would you prefer?” you questioned, professionally.

“probably my hip.” you nodded in agreement, smiling and internally celebrating at her decision. “and as a bonus i get to watch you gawk at me for however long it takes,” she teased, earning a small smack to the upper thigh and an eye roll.

“i was absolutely not gawking!” you defended with a smile.

“oh yeah, alright then..”

you rolled your eyes again and stood to grab a small bottle of sanitiser and a disposable razor, placing them on the table - once you made sure she was comfortable you sat down again.

“i’m going to pull your joggers down a couple inches, is that okay?” you waited for her reply before making any moves closer to her.

“of course,”

“perfect.”

you got straight to work, dragging them down until the area she had pointed out was revealed again - only this time you could see the band of her underwear peaking out from beneath the fabric and it had you drawing in a careful breath. you circled the skin with your pinky finger lightly and showed her the length and width the ink would cover, double checking that was exactly where she wanted.

the tattoo itself took no longer than forty minutes to complete. once you were finished you sanitised and made sure it was exactly how she wanted before moving to discard any disposables used. she took it like a champ the entire time, only slightly flinching when the needle grazed a particularly tender spot.

you spoke to her about the aftercare and how to take care of it whilst it healed, then covered it with second skin and soothed the area - moving to wash your hands and stand against the counter. “any questions?”

you sat speaking for another hour, and you were sure at times she was stalling so she wouldn’t need to leave.

“when do you finish?”

“whenever you want to go,”

“why didn’t you say! i don’t want to hold you up, love..” she tutted and began collecting her stuff. you laughed at her huffing like a child and led her towards the front desk.

the petname made your stomach jump, twisting and twitching in your abdomen as you studied her. the way she moved and smiled, how her eyes pierced through you like she was reading your mind - how you were so sure she actually could see and read the filth behind your own eyes.

at the front she paid and thanked you another couple hundred times as you let her out the door. she stepped over the threshold and gave you another small hug. “thank you again, i really love it.”

“stop thanking me! i’m just glad i could do your vision justice..” you smiled and shrugged, “you’re welcome anytime, just pop me a message!”

“that’s just because you want to look at my stomach again..” she called, walking to her car and waving.

“shut up.” you rolled your eyes, laughing. “don’t be a stranger!”

—————————

during the appointment you and katie exchanged numbers and for days, weeks, months you texted each other everyday. you met for coffee, went to watch her and the team (who you got along with swimmingly) practice, you even went to watch all of their matches.

you had been inseparable since that first meeting, you shared things about each other previously unknown by anyone, spent evenings and nights at each others homes and got aquatinted with family and friends.

after spending so long together, the pair of you had become incredibly close - often sharing a bed, and clothes. you couldn’t help but feel things for her, for katie. your stomach became a harvest ground for butterflies and your heart rattled with longing for her.

you came close to telling her, to explaining how you felt - until one day, it just stopped.

the meetings stopped,

then the match invites,

then the messages,

everything stopped.

—————————

present day - 2 months later.

over the last months without talking to katie, you threw yourself into work and university in an attempt to distract yourself. you felt like you were going through a break up - could you even call it that? could you categorise this into the break up section? a friend break up? whatever it was, it hurt, and you found yourself still thinking about her.

friday nights felt weird now. usually sat on the sofa with a takeaway, katie sat on the other side with her food in her lap - laughing at some stupid program she had put on. now it was empty in the apartment, and you sat on the sofa alone with a cup of tea watching telly until it was time to get ready for bed.

you showered, careful to avoid putting soap the area of your newest tattoo addition on your wrist - letting the warm water run over the skin. when you were done, you made sure to moisturise and then cover it up again before getting dressed into your pjs.

you brushed your hair, and then began brushing your teeth - staring at yourself in the mirror and studying the ink that now littered your arms and chest.

you were deep in though when a a knock at your door disrupted your night time routine - still brushing your teeth when you pulled the door open to reveal a familiar face. your eyes lifted from the floor to finally meet hers on the other side of the threshold.

“katie..?

“can i come in?”

“uh, yeah- yeah- sure,” you stammered and stepped back to open the door wider for her, stepping away into the kitchen area to spit the froth from your toothpaste into the sink and quickly rinse before running back to shut the door behind her.

it was awkward. she stood in front of you in silence for a few beats, looking down at the ground as if she was figuring out what to say. you stood a few steps away, leant on the wall beside you with your arms crossed across your chest.

"why are you-"

"look i dont know why-"

you both spoke over eachother, breaking the silence that sat heavy between the walls. you shared a smile, it was brief, but it was there as you met her blues and waved your hand - gesturing for her to continue.

"look, i don't know why i'm here. i just got in my car and then i was on the drive and i just needed to speak to you. i just wanted to see you-"

"oh god you never shut up mccabe.." you whispered with an eye roll as you advanced towards her.

one step. what if she doesn't want this?

two steps. what if i've read this all wrong?

three steps. jesus her perfume..

every step you took was narrated by that voice in your head, you know, that one that tells you to shut up in uncomfortable situations and the one that speaks to you when you watch something brilliantly but so stupidly funny. you couldn't stop to think out loud, you couldn't stop full stop. point blank. period.

your feet were moving faster than your thoughts, and your thoughts were moving faster than your logic until you were so close you could feel her soft breath caressing the skin of your face.

"tell me not to, and i won't." you said softly

"god, you've always been too sweet for me."

there was no time to register what she said, her lips were on yours. they were everything you had thought of, they were soft but she kissed you with urgency. breathing heavily as her hands raised to either side of your face, pulling you closer than physically possible. your lips moved together sweetly, full of love.

you stayed like that for a few minutes, soaking each other in until she pulled away. lips swollen, taking a deep breath. there were no words exchanged between you, only eye contact - the sound of breathing shared. then you crashed together again, lips connected for a second time in the space of five minutes.

this time however, was harsher, and fast-paced. she was in control, gagging for it. hands grabbing at whatever fabric they could find on the opposing body, a small moan falling from your lips when her hands squeezed the skin of your waist and her lips broke from yours momentarily to grunt out a "jump." to which you gladly obliged, legs wrapping around her waist and her hands finding the skin at the top of your thighs - she held you like nothing, with no struggle as she passed through the hall and up the four steps to your bedroom.

when she placed you back down onto your feet you were quick to tug your top up and over your head, discarding it on the floor. before you could continue she grabbed your hand, finger tracing gently over the still-fresh tattoo across your wrist.

"this is new," katie whispered.

"i had a lot of time on my hands." you replied at the same volume, shrugging. she chuckled lightly, reading the words now littering the skin. "and you were always saying i was sweet.."

"aye, and you're yet to prove me wrong."

"don't start something you can't finish, katie."

"oh i'm very, very good at finishing, actually."

"shut up."

this time you had her, hands on the back of her neck as you pulled her in. grabbing the fabric that sat at the nape of her neck and pulling it over her head, only breaking the kiss until your path was cleared again. you span around, walking backwards until the back of her knees hit the edge of the bed causing her to lay down. you wasted no time in straddling the top of her thighs, arms on either side of her head.

"behave." she muttered, hands gripping your thighs and switching your positions on the bed, now towering over you, arms replacing yours on the bed. mouth moving to your neck, nipping at the skin beneath your ear. "stop acting like you don't want me to have my way with you."

"stop acting like you've got it in you." you quipped back, smirking when her teeth grazed your earlobe roughly. her hand raising to grip your jaw and forcefully turn your head to face her.

"is that a challenge? hm?" it was rhetorical, her eyebrows raised and voice low.

"prove it."

she didn't need further pushing, lifting herself off the bed and taking a few steps back. you propped yourself up onto your elbows to watch, head tilted when she stared at you blankly. eyes flicking to your shorts before back up to your face.

"take em' off."

"you take them off."

"take. them. off. i won't be asking again."

you gave in with a huff, rolling your eyes and lifting your hips to peel your shorts off. biting down a smirk as you lifted your legs back onto the bed - revealing yourself to her.

"awfully cocky there, love."

"as if you don't love it."

"do you always have such a smart mouth?"

"i have a very lovely mouth."

"oh i bet."

she was on her knees then, face level with you. eyes locked on your gleaming pussy, fingers gliding through your folds and collecting your slick before bringing her digits to slip between her lips - tasting you. she laid her fingers back against you, prints flat against your clit, applying the perfect amount of pressure to make your head fall back on the bed behind you with a desperate moan.

she drew tight circles, watching you throb beneath her fingers. you moaned at the contact, your clit already sensitive. you didn't know how she managed it, but she had you falling apart from the pressure alone - and you could tell she loved every second of it with her lips drawn into a cocky smirk at the sight of your mouth falling agape when you began rutting up into hands as a plea for more.

“does that feel good darlin'?” she asked from between your thighs, her lips pressed against the soft skin of your leg, stopping their sloppy kisses for a second. you whimpered in response, nodding slowly. “use your words, love.”

“yes it feels good..” you whispered, licking your lips, your mouth increasingly dry.

“good girl..” she added, jaw clenched when she attached her lips to your thighs again. you savoured the feeling, the delicious feeling as she dragged her fingers roughly against you. the praise made your legs tense against her lips, sending a rush of pleasure down through the depths of your stomach.

“i want more. please.”

"hm? what was that?”

“i want your fingers..” you confessed, dragging your own teeth along the back of your hand which you were using to muffle the sultry sounds tumbling from your lips - biting down against the skin when you felt your face flush.

“please,” you begged, hips rising off the bed in a desperate act for more friction. she shut you down quickly, using her free hand to pin your hips back to the mattress.

“please what, darling..” she stalled, slowing down to an unbearable speed.

“i need you to fuck me,” your words made you squirm, eagerly waiting as you felt a single finger travel down and tease your hole before she pushed into you slowly. her own thighs clenching at the sound of you gasping as she added another finger, curling them methodically inside of you.

she stretched you out perfectly, her fingers moving at just the right speed to have you moaning with every thrust into you. her pace and pressure increased with the volume of your whimpers, back arched into her touch and face buried in your arms as her fingers pressed perfectly inside of you. she curled her fingers to press against your g-spot, mentally noting how perfect you sounded chanting her name. taking advantage of you being preoccupied by the pleasure, she moved to lay her tongue flat against your clit. fingers still moving inside you as she carefully flicked the bundle of nerves between her lips.

a moan rattled from the back of her throat as you coated her taste buds, the vibrations travelling straight to the fire now raging in the pit of your stomach and coursing through your legs - coaxing out a moan of your own.

she felt you tense and squeeze around her fingers, your clit throbbing against her mouth when she lifted her eyes to survey the scene above her. your eyes screwed shut and teeth gripping your bottom lip so tight it was sure to leave a mark. chest heaving and hands twisting in the sheets.

"you going to cum for me?"

“y-yes,” you stuttered, eyes rolling into the back of your head when her fingers curled a final time and she took your clit into her mouth with a pop.

“thats it. good girl.”

that was all it took for you, your orgasm crashing through your body and shaking through your limbs. legs shaking beside her head and cunt tensing around her fingers. back arched and screaming out her name.

katie let you ride it out, only stilling her fingers and withdrawing her tongue from you when your back finally laid against the bed again - catching your breath. she brought her fingers up to your mouth and slipped them past your lips for a second as she moved to straddle you, climbing up from the floor. her fingers dragged down the length of your chin and were replaced with her mouth, her tongue finding yours - allowing you to taste yourself from her mouth.

"wanna taste you," you managed to croak out through the kisses, gulping and lifting your hands to press against her chest. pushing her back and towards the pillows at the head of the bed until she was laid down. "my turn.." you whispered seductively in her ear, lips pursed and leaving small kisses in your path as you travelled down the length of her body.

her tracksuit bottoms were removed quickly and your fingers were hooked into the band of her underwear, pulling them down her tanned legs until they followed the rest of the clothes to reside on the floor. she was dripping, and the sight alone was enough to have you salivating below her.

the scrunchie in your hair had loosened after the previous events of the evening, and your hair was limp enough for her to slide her hand into the back of your locks. gripping tightly and pulling you closer to her pussy.

"go on, make me feel good."

you needed no further instruction, moving closer to her before she had even finished the sentence. you laid your tongue flat against her, lapping her up. she tasted almost as good as she looked. her eyes focused on you and her hand tight against your scalp, guiding you.

you couldn't look away, allowing her to take you as she wanted. moving your head against the rhythm of her hips - moaning your name when your eyes met hers innocently. her head fell against the headboard when you whimpered against her, her own noises mirroring yours as her legs started to close around your head.

"fuck, thats it. i'm gonna cum," she groaned, both hands on the back of your head as you drank her in. nodding eagerly between her thighs, silently begging for her to cum for you.

and she did. hard. crying your name out into the room around you, followed by a string of curses until she finally released your head from her hands and her legs laid limp beside her on the bed.

"jesus christ."

"nope, just me." you teased, now occupying the space beside her on the pillows. both of your bodies coated in a sheen layer of sweat and your eyes threatened to close with the sound of her steady breathing when her arms moved to embrace you.

"i didn't mean to just disappear how i did," she began, causing you to look at her again. "i just didn't want you to get caught up in the shit show that is my life,"

"katie, you could've just said you needed a bit of space,"

"but i don't think that's what i wanted, i just didn't to ruin what we were doing, and well, making.." she paused, taking one of your hands into her own and bringing her lips to press against the skin.

"you were just too sweet to me,"

[xannytranny]

Blurbs for Paige Bueckers x Caitlin Clark x You

So, I've been going a little feral over certain WBB players, so these are some blurbs I've had stuck in my head. If you guys want, I'll turn it into a two-parter fic. 

PLEASE DONT STEAL (or at least ask first, please)

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

It started with you and Caitlin at a bar with friends. Your friends were giggling over a Paige edit, talking about how attractive the UConn star was. They asked your opinion, and you agreed easily, not thinking much of it past the haze of tequila shots you were in. Caitlin was less than enthused. 

On your way home, she grills you about your thoughts on Paige. You brush her off, giggling. 

When you get home, Caitlin is all over you. She's rough and fast, like a post-game loss. 

When you tell her to slow down, she immediately replies, "You think Paige would fuck you nice and slow, hm? Is that it?" 

You jolt back in surprise, "Cait, wh-" 

She doesn't let you finish before she's on you again. 

Caitlin makes quips about Paige throughout the night. Saying things like, "You think her fingers would reach this deep?" and "Who's fucking you like this? Say my name, baby,"

You're shaking and crying from overstimulation by the time she's finished. 

Once things have calmed down, you reassure her that she's the only one you want. She tells you she knows and apologizes if she was too rough. You tell her you enjoyed yourself and wouldn't mind doing it again.

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

Pt. 2: +Paige 

Caitlin tells you Paige is spending a few days with you for winter break. You agree, completely forgetting about the incident from a couple of weeks ago. 

You had met Paige a few times, and you liked her a lot. She reminded you of Caitlin in a lot of ways. She was a smart, beautiful, and funny girl who turned into a 6 ft beast when she got a basketball in her hands. It was hot, and in Caitlin's case, made you drip. (In Paige's case, too, if you were being honest). 

When Paige got there, you guys settled for a chill night in. Paige and Caitlin let you decide on the movie, so you chose a Twilight marathon (you found it pretty fitting). 

Halfway through "New Moon," Caitlin volunteered to refill the snacks. You get up to help her but get pulled into Paige's lap instead. Things quickly go downhill from there. 

By the time Caitlin comes back, Paige's hand is high on your inner thigh, and you're blushing up a storm. Caitlin scoffs at the sight. "I thought you were supposed to be the 'Ultimate Rizzler,' Bueckers."

They spend the rest of the night taking turns with you, trying to one-up each other. You can barely remember your name by the time they're done.

Bonus: 

Warning- Mommy and daddy kink

"You wanna tell Paige the special name you have for me, baby?" Caitlin asks you with two fingers stuffed in your mouth. 

You whimper around her fingers, blushing. 

"Come on, be good for me and tell her," Caitlin says, taking her fingers out of your mouth and wrapping her hand around your neck instead. 

"M-mommy," You stutter out. 

"That's cute, ma. Does that make me daddy?" Paige asks, grinning up at you from between your legs. 

You whine, keening. "P-Paige, please,"

"Ah, ah, ah." She tuts, stopping her fingers. "That's not my name, is it baby?"

"Daddy...." You say, blushing. Caitlin and Paige share a look before looking down at you. You shiver, knowing it means you're in for a long night. 

[illneverrecover]

TW: Just a heads up, this will be about death and grief. If that's not something you can handle right now, then please skip over this and keep yourself safe 💜

I'm not sure why I'm writing this.

It's not why anyone is here, not why anyone follows me or this page. It's not even the reason I created this godforsaken tumblr to begin with (that honor goes to Dylan O'Brien and Teen Wolf). But I felt like I needed to say something, and I didn't know where else to say it.

One of my good friends that I've known since high school passed away two weeks ago. Not from any sort of underlying health issue, or a sudden, unfortunate accident. But because she was struggling so hard with postpartum depression, and decided that it would be less painful if she went to sleep and didn't wake up.

We didn't know she was struggling, I didn't know she was struggling. She had reached out to me only two weeks prior, telling me that she missed me and we lived too close to each other to never see each other, and proposed a Twilight movie marathon (which I had gladly accepted). She was going to message me dates, we made plans for lunch, and she ended it by saying "yay!! can't wait!".

And then, before I realized, it was too late to say anything else.

Being a mother is hard. Being a mother to two young kids, both under two, while trying to build your career, be successful, and be a good wife is even harder.

But it gets easier. I promise it does.

I have a lot of regrets and a lot of guilt. I have a lot of things I wish I could say to her one more time -- and then I feel guilty for thinking that my words could ever be that important, that they would even matter on that kind of scale.

I know that depression lies. It is a liar. It's nefarious; its call, soft, sleepy and welcoming, comforting almost. It feels easy to lay in its embrace, to let yourself be swallowed by the darkness, let the echo chamber of your worst thoughts sing you a haunting lullaby until it feels like nothing matters. Until you rather just not exist.

But that lullaby is a poison, filled with deception and misdirection. It's intentionally vague, dragging out its notes so that it seemingly doesn't ever end. What it doesn't include is how beautiful the background music can be, when you finally are able to stop and breathe enough to hear it. How relaxing it can be to sing along to the melody, when you are clear-headed and no longer sleep deprived to learn the lyrics. How much fun it is to let go and dance along to the music, when you're able to recharge and take time for yourself.

Those things all come with time. I promise they do. It does get easier. Not always right away, not always all at once, but soon you'll find each breath you take is a little deeper, each step you take a little bit lighter.

If you're reading this, and you have found yourself struggling with similar dark thoughts - please, please, reach out to someone. A trusted friend, a teacher, a neighbor, your physician, a counselor. SOMEONE. Please ask for help, and please utilize the resources available. There is no shame for asking for help, especially in today's climate of fuckery -- it's hard out there for everyone.

But please, please stay. I want you to stay. I promise you there are people out there who also want you to stay, but even if you don't believe that, believe that I don't want to be in a world where you don't exist.

One of the last messages my friend sent to me during our final conversation was about how she was going to send me dates ASAP, because "we're gonna commit to this because that's what I'm doing this year! Committing to happy things!"

I think about those words a lot. I think about what she was feeling in those moments when messaging me, and what she was feeling only two weeks later, when she felt so painfully alone. If I think about it too much, it consumes me and shatters my heart.

So instead, I try to remember that message - it wasn't the last thing she texted me, but it does feel like her final message all the same. To commit to happy things this year. To try and do things that unabashedly bring me joy, because I deserve to.

My wish for you all is to commit to more happy things, this year and every year. To dare to feel joy, to seek out things solely because you want to, and not because of any perceived outcome. And to tell your loved ones how important they are to you, and how much you love them. It's all over far too soon, and the points don't matter, anyway. 💜

[isthisthingeven0n]

volunteering at its finest : s.r

spencer ‘volunteers’ to babysit henry whilst you and the girls have a needed girls night, except the night lasts a lot longer than any of you anticipated (2.2k)

* also i have an etsy shop where i sell some criminal minds tote bags and prints. if you wanna check it out i’ll leave the link here (i’ve also got a labour day sale happening rn til the 8th!) *

“Please do not tell me you’ve forgotten about girls night that I’ve had in my calendar for the last five weeks?” Penelope focuses on JJ through the monitor who slowly lowers her phone before glancing over to you.

“I, I didn’t forget,” JJ starts, causing both you and Emily to hold your laughs as she tries to ease her way out.

“You don’t sound so sure, J.” You comment, quickly feeling a rolled-up newspaper swatting your arm as you head towards the jet.

“It’s not that I forgot, it’s just the first time Will has been away in months and it just slipped my mind.” JJ tries to reason as you board the jet before you sit down opposite her and Emily, awaiting the wrath of Penelope Garcia once you return to base.

“What slipped your mind?” Spencer pitches in as he sits down beside you, a bright smile crossing his lips as you lean against him. “Hey,” He mutters to you, and JJ glances to Emily, still shocked that the pair of you owned up to your feelings six months ago after pining over one another for two years.

Patting Spencer’s arm lightly, you shrug it off. “Just girls night tonight.” You begin to explain, noticing Spencer furrowing his eyebrows together. “What?”

“I thought we were going to watch the Doctor Who marathon tonight?” He questions quietly, watching as a look of guilt consumes your expression.

“That was this today?” You weakly ask back as Spencer simply nods. “Oh, Spence,” You mutter, but Emily kindly butts in to save your ass once again.

“What if you watched it at JJ’s,” Emily begins, and you focus on her with a raised brow. “babysitting Henry?”

JJ scoffs lightly. “Spence, you’ve never babysat on your own before.” She looks over to the Godfather of her son, one of her best friends who could talk his way out of most things, but babysitting is another level.

“What? I could easily do it.” Spencer states proudly, forcing himself to sit taller in his seat as Rossi glances over, lowering the case file from his view. “I’ve watched Home Alone with Y/n, I know exactly what not to do. And I’ve read sixteen books on parenting.” He quickly adds, and Emily quips an eyebrow to you.

“I didn’t know that.” You mutter under your breath, just as JJ laughs playfully at Spencer’s antics.

“Just let the kid babysit, he clearly wants to.” Rossi pitches in, and Spencer smiles brightly at Rossi’s reassurance.

“Think of girls night.” Emily chuckles, and JJ looks over to you with concern before focusing back to Spencer, nodding to the proposition. “It’ll only be a couple of hours.” Emily quickly adds, and Spencer grins brightly.

“What’s the worst that could happen?” Spencer nudges your side as JJ shakes her head, wondering what she’s about to let lose.

***

“I still can’t get over the fact Spence offered,” Penelope states as she brings over your drinks to the table, placing them down as you eye Emily who shrugs her shoulders.

“Spencer is a good guy like that,” Emily snickers, and you nudge her playfully before sipping your drink.

As you swallow, you can’t help but cough and widen your eyes to Penelope who happily downs her cocktail. “Shit, Pen, what is in this? Battery acid?” You remark, sniffing it as JJ sips hers, quickly having the same reaction.

“No,” Penelope shakes her head as a scoff leaves her lips. “but it is called ‘Poison Ivy.’”

You raise an eyebrow, clearly intrigued as Emily downs the last of her previous drink, slamming the glass down before heading back to the bar. “Anyone want another one? I saw there’s a deal on certain drinks.” Emily calls out, not giving any of you a chance to answer before she disappears to the bar.

“God, if Spencer was here he’d happily list off some facts about the DC character Poison Ivy.” You sigh, wondering how he’s managing with little Henry.

“I’m sure he’s doing fine, Y/n.” Penelope reaches out, and you nod. “How’re you holding up Jayj?”

Turning your head, you see JJ finishing off the remainder of your drink as she places it next to her empty glass.

“What?” JJ slurs, lifting her head up as her eyes cloud over.

“Yeah, I think JJ has past worried and is in denial.” You mutter to Penelope who wisely nods in agreement.

Emily quickly returns with more drinks which JJ gladly accepts. “So, Y/n,” Emily rests her elbows on the table, focusing directly on you as you swallow the lump in your throat. “when are you going to tell us about the good Doctor huh?” She jokes and you laugh lightly, taking one of the four shots.

Placing the empty shot glass down, you wince as the burn descends down your throat. “Maybe after four more of these,” You cough, and Emily signals to the bartender to bring a few more rounds.

*

“Come on, we gotta get into the taxi,” Penelope tries her best to take charge as you help JJ to her feet along with Emily who is as much help as Spencer with his gun.

“Pen, can you take Emily? I’ll help JJ.” Despite still being drunk, you can focus on Penelope long enough to see only two of her as she nods and a blur of colour crosses your vision.

JJ’s head hits your shoulder, and you hear her hum. “Y/n?” JJ slurs and you hold her head up as you reach the exit to the bar, seeing the taxi feet away.

“It’s okay, J, the taxi isn’t far.” You rub her arm as she shakes her head and quickly darts out of your arms and hauls her body against a wall as she vomits violently.

“God, least I’m not that bad.” Emily laughs, unaware of who is being sick until JJ lifts herself back up, swaying back into your direction as she wipes her face. “Oh, hey JJ.” Emily waves as JJ groans loudly before climbing into the taxi after you.

“Where to ladies?” The driver speaks up as the doors are finally closed, and Penelope fastens her seatbelt in beside the driver.

You completely zone out as Penelope gives the driver her address, and miss the ringing of your phone. Little do you know, that missed call would become the first of many throughout the rest of the night - not that you’d know until sunrise.

“Thank you, Craig!” Penelope waves the driver off as you laugh hysterically with Emily about something Spencer once did during a date he organised.

“He just, he was so sweet, but got it so wrong,” You wipe your eyes as tears fall whilst Penelope helps JJ up the stairs as you and Emily trail behind. “I just didn’t have the heart to tell him I had no interest in seeing Twilight, only Robert Pattinson.” You sigh, remembering how excited he was to take you to the cinema to see something not only in English but current.

“Spencer means well, I think his big ol’ brain gets in the way sometimes.” Emily comments as you reach Penelope’s apartment, barely having the chance to take it all in before you’re given a wine glass that’s being filled.

“Oh, Pen I can’t.” You whine, feeling a headache already in the works, but Penelope Garcia is not one to take no for an answer- especially on girls night.

“Let me ask you, ladies,” Penelope starts, and now you wish you just kept quiet. “when was our last girls night?”

Penelope watches as you all exchange glances, no one knowing the answer. “Like, a year ago?” Emily guesses, receiving a quick scoff from Penelope.

“Two and a half years ago.” Penelope states. “We’ve had team nights out, but not a girls night.” She adds as Emily collapses onto the sofa whilst maintaining a full glass of wine. “So, I’m making up for lost time,” Penelope lifts her glass up as she looks around at the three of you, just about hanging in there. “to the ladies of the BAU.”

With a cheer, your night carries on with more laughter and embarrassing memories whilst Spencer is having less of an enjoyable evening with his godson.

*

“Y/n, this is the tenth message I’ve left you after leaving fifteen to JJ, five to Emily and twenty-six to Garcia. You better not have died on me as I’ve rung every hospital in the district and have had Kevin hack Garcia’s phone to find her location.” Spencer sighs as he paces around the living room whilst Henry remains sound asleep in his bed.

Part of Spencer knows he’s being irrational, but it isn’t like you to not even answer a text let alone a phone call. He’s so used to you being on hand whenever- especially with the line of work you both do. So when you don’t answer, he can’t help but allow his mind to spiral into the dark depths of misfortune.

Glancing out of the window, Spencer could tell without looking at a clock it was almost sunrise. Approximately 5:37 in the morning and you along with the others were nowhere to be seen.

With a small sigh, Spencer dials your number once more, only to hear movement outside of JJ’s house and he tenses.

Reaching over into his satchel, Spencer grabs his gun as he hides by the living room door, hearing movement of the front door opening as hushed voices sound throughout the hallway.

“God, he’s going to hate me, isn’t he?” You wince at the thought of Spencer scolding you for not getting back to him after you reviewed the dozens of messages and voicemails when you woke up twenty minutes ago.

JJ wraps her arms around you, bringing you into a hug but also to stabilise herself to stop the room spinning. “Spencer couldn’t possibly hate you, Y/n.” She assures you, seeing Spencer peer his head out from the corner of the living room and lower his gun. “That boy loves you more than you realise.”

Pulling away from JJ’s embrace, you sigh deeply into your hands. “I love him J, I just worry sometimes.” You mutter, unaware of Spencer standing behind you as his heart sinks. 

“You should tell him, Y/n.” JJ motions and you tense up, silently swearing before you turn around to face your rather tired looking boyfriend. “I’ll go check on Henry.” JJ mutters, quickly passing you both and heads up the stairs with caution. 

“I could never hate you, Y/n.” Spencer starts, “I was just worried about you and your safety.” He explains as he reaches out, resting his hand on your upper arm. “Did you have fun?” 

A small laugh leaves your lips as you nod. “Yeah,” You chuckle, focusing on the tired look in his hazel eyes. “I, I love you Spence.” You tell him as you fall into his arms, exhaustion beginning to take over your body as Spencer’s chuckle vibrates against your body. 

“I love you too, Y/n. Come on, you need to get some sleep.” Spencer guides you to the living room and you fall down with ease onto the couch. “Did you know the human body requires at least-”

Holding a finger up to Spencer, he pauses. “Spence, as much as I adore you and your facts, they are the last thing I need right now.” 

“Alright,” Spencer gives in as he pulls a blanket over you, ignoring the smudged and dried mascara beneath your eyes and the lingering smell of cocktails on your clothing. “I’ll see you in an hour.” He mutters as he wanders out to make some coffee, knowing you’d need it once you woke back up. 

*

“This is hell.” You state as you heavily lean against the railing alongside the girls whilst voices cheer around you, including Spencer. “I blame you, Pen.” 

Penelope merely groans as she pushes her sunglasses further up her face. 

“A couple of hours! No big deal!” Spencer emphasises as you roll your eyes, burying your face in your hands once again as he carries on cheering for the runners as they pass you all by in a blur. “You weren’t home until sunrise!”

“Why are you yelling.” JJ comments flatly whilst Derek glances over, holding his laugh in as he keeps Jack on his shoulders. 

“Make him stop.” Emily adds, and you nudge your boyfriend as he stops waving his flag frantically and focuses on you. 

“Next time, I’m either joining you in babysitting or you’re joining girls night.” You tell Spencer who smiles down at you before wrapping an arm around you, holding you close as you weakly smile through the pain of your hangover. 

“Deal.” Spencer leans down, kissing you softly before the cheers of your team increase as Hotch reaches the finish line. “Come on, I think breakfast is in order.” Spencer guides you away from the railing as you rely on him heavily as the girls follow behind. 

“Girls night happens every two years for a reason, I take it, baby girl?” Derek jokes as Penelope shushes him as you all gather around to celebrate Hotch’s achievement and block out the blur that last night has left on your memories. 

“What happens on girls night, stays on girls night.” Penelope simply states, refusing to say anymore as you walk ahead with Spencer, discussing more about his latest read, ‘Parenting 101.’ 

[jenoptimist]

you may have only gotten half a pudding cup but you got yourself a real life Disney Prince, so who’s the real winner?

✮ Pairing: kunhang x reader (gender neutral)

✮ Genre: fluff

✮ Word count: 5.8k

♡ Yakult says: hendery!!!!in!!glasses!!!!!!! pls i love him sm 🥲

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

There was a phone number in you calculus textbook that you were one hundred percent sure you never wrote down. Not that you could, anyway, considering that it was a library book. Well, no, techincally you could write it in but you wouldn’t dare. The longer you stared at the handful of digits, the more you freaked out. You absolutely could not afford to be fined! The whole reason why you borrowed it from your college library was so that you didn’t have to spend money in the first place!

After gathering your materials and stuffing them into your bag, you hurriedly left your local library. You fished your phone out of your pocket, scrolled through your – admittedly pathetically short – list of contacts and called the person who you suspected wad the source of your small dilemma.

“‘Sup?” Yangyang greeted.

“Be honest with me,” you said seriously, immediately cutting to the chase, “were you the one who wrote the number?”

There was a beat of silence, and then, “what number?”

“You know,” you urged as you neared the apartment complex that the two of you lived in. “The one in my calculus textbook? I borrowed it from the college library and I don’t want to get into shit if they find it.”

“That wasn’t me!”

“Oh really?” You asked in disbelief as you hopped into the elevator and punched the number to your floor. After what you dubbed as, ‘The Spaghetti Incident of 2018’ you could never be too sure with him. When he replied that he didn’t, you asked him another two times. Throughout your friendship with Yangyang, you found that the trick to getting him to admit the truth was to keep badgering him until he either: got fed up or thought that whatever he did was no longer funny.

“I swear on my Hot Wheels!”

You hummed in consideration. His Hot Wheels collection was his utmost pride and joy - second only to his large sneaker collection - especially since he owned a handful of exclusive and rare ones. They were all displayed neatly on several shelves on one of the walls in his bedroom. They were even color coordinated and everything! Sometimes, when you went to offer him some food, you found him staring at them with a wide smile, his eyes full of admiration.

“Oh,” you frowned as you grabbed your keys from your jacket pocket but before you could slot your key into the lock, the door opened. Yangyang, the dork, greeted you over the phone even though he stood in front of you, a boyish grin displayed on his face. You rolled your eyes, not able to smother your smile as you hung up and stepped inside, locking the door behind you. It was noticeably warmer than usual and the apartment smelled if something toasty, which only meant one thing. “Pizza?” You guessed confidently.

Just as he gave you an affirmative, the oven began beeping to signal that it was finished. As Yangyang brought everything to the coffee table in front of your couch, you slipped off your shoes, dropped your bag and shrugged your coat off. While he cut the pizzas into almost even slices, you grabbed two cans of soda from the fridge.

Although it was still piping hot, you couldn’t help but take big bites. Your slice of doughy goodness was diminished within seconds. Solving calculus problems did thay to you. It was your least favorite module of the semester and brought on a headache whenever you left your lectures.

“This is so good.” You remarked as you took another slice. You loved a good margherita from Dominos but there was nothing like a frozen pizza from your local supermarket—the additives was probably what made it delicious, the cheap price just happened to be a bonus. Yangyang definitely felt the same, seeing as how the two of you devoured both pizzas within minuts, silence taking over the room.

You took a sip of your soda after popping open the top. “I”–you didn’t like the mischief that danced in uour room-mate’s eyes–“dare you to call the number.”

In your haste to swallow it, the soda passed through your throat uncomfortably, as if it were a large stone. “Nuh-uh.” You said with a shake of your head. There was absolutely no way you were going to call that number! You were just going to forget that it was even there. Or maybe you would return the book and hope that the next unfortunate student who will borrow it would be the one to pay whatever fine they had for ‘defacing public property’, as the college liked to call it. You didn’t know how many people had a calculus module in their course but you sure hoped that it was a large number.

“Awh come on, y/n!” At the firm shake of your head, he folded his arms and pouted slightly. A moment of silence passed and then, “I’ll give you a twenty.”

You took another sip of your soda as you mulled it over. “How about a ten and your last mango pudding cup for a text?”

Yangyang sucked a breath through his teeth. “That’s a tough bargain.” You shrugged, he hogged the other five pudding cups for himself so if he really wanted you to call this mystery person, he would have to give up the remaining one. “Okay, what if I give you fifteen and we split the pudding cup.”

“Better than nothing.” You conceeded after a second of thinking it over.

Yangyang’s grin stretched from ear to ear as he held out his hand for you to take. Once you shook it, the two of you quickly cleaned up. Not even ten minutes later, the last pudding cup and two spoons were on the table along with the textbook, opened on the page with the number on it. Yangyang leaned closer to your shoulder, his head practically resting on top of yours as he watched you type in the number and text.

to: 13X XXXX XXXX

hey! i found ur number on a textbook i borrowed from the library so i thought i’d say hi i guess?

“Now we wait.” Yangyang said as he returned to his seat and opened the pudding cup. He handed you your spoon and the two of you dug in, eventually fighting for the last bit.

The reply came when you and Yangyang were watching Into The Spiderverse. Neither of you paused the movie when you heard the notification sound your phone let out—you had seen it countless times; twice when it was in cinemas and every so often whenever it was on Netflix.

You were slightly nervous about the reply, which was silly considering that you didn’t even know the person, but you opened up the text anyway so that it would be over and done with.

from: 13X XXXX XXXX

Hi. My friend just told me he wrote it in there before I transferred. I’d be grateful if you could rub it out or use correction tape to get rid of it. Also, please delete my number.

You pursed your mouth at the response. It wasn’t as if you were hoping to be best friends or anything but the prospect of befriending someone had definitely excited you. You had college friends but that was liferally what they were: friends who you only saw in college. None of them hung out with you outside of college and whenever you did offer, they would either say yes to humour you – which, unfortunately, was blatantly obvious – or came up with an excuse. Which sucked, for obvious reasons but you would survive. The only people you had actually managed to successfully befriend were Yangyang (because he was looking for a room-mate at the time) and his best friend, Dejun.

“Uh-oh,” came Yangyang’s voice. “What did they say?” He was quick to read the text after you turned your phone to show him the screen. “Whoever it is, they’re very, um,” he paused for a moment while he thought of a fitting description, scratching his head, “grammatically correct?” At your nod of agreement, he added, “at least he said ‘please’.”

You shrugged as you typed a quick reply. “I guess.”

to: 13X XXXX XXXX

sure thing

from: 13X XXXX XXXX

Thank you.

The two of you refocused your attention to the movie, the texts completely forgotten once you received his reply. Later that night, you did as you were requested and used correction tape to hide the number—which was written in neat, tiny green ink. You were aware that covering the numbers in correction tape would also be considered as ‘defacing public property’ too, but it was for the sake of the stranger’s privacy. It seemed as though you were the fiest to contact the number but, still, if you were in their position, you wouldn’t like your number to be in public property either.

As for the text, you took a screenshot of it for Yangyang, who asked for it so that he could show Dejun while he typed away in your groupchat, and then erased the number from your phone.

*

Two weeks later, you found yourself sitting at the study desk in your room, staring helplessly at the blank answer boxes of the calculus assignment you had been told to complete and submit before the end of next week. You wanted to cry in frustration as you redirected your gaze down to your notebook where you had been trying to solve the equations. The entire page was a mess and your desk was coverd with eraser bits. It had gotten to the point where some parts of the page had gone grainy, like it always did when you repeatedly erased something on the same area. There wasn’t a single problem that you managed solve—no matter how hard you tried. It was pathetic, really.

With a sigh, you decided to take the break that you had put off, not wanting to take one until you solved a problem (ha!) as a reward. Maybe you would rewatch the entire Twilight saga again (Dejun had managed to convince you to read the series a couple of months back and the movies had become something like a guilty pleasure of yours,) because it was clear that you were going absolutely nowhere.

Just as you had started Eclipse, you heard the door open but didn’t bother moving from your spot. In fact, you hadn’t moved since you started your movie marathon a few hours ago because you were all too comfortable buried inside your fluffy blanket on the couch.

“Perfect timing!” Dejun’s rich voice bellowed, “it just started.” There was the sound of socked feet running towards the couch and then he lifted your legs, sat down and laid them down on top of his lap.

“Hey Dejun.” You greeted, raising your hand for a high five.

When he slapped his palm against yours, he asked, “how’re you doing?”

Just as you opened your mouth to answer, Yangyang spoke up. “Judging from the Twilight marathon that’s going on,” there was a hissing sound of a can opening and the audible sound of him taking a quick sip of whatever canned beverage he was holding, “not very good.”

“Hey!” You exclaimed but your your friend only shrugged, smiling amusedly. “He’s right though,” you grumbled, “I’m really struggling with calculus at the moment.” Struggling was an understatement. You really wanted to pass it because you definitely didn’t want to repeat the exam. That would be a nightmare.

Dejun looked at you sympathetically before he made an affronted noise in his throat, one that you felt deeply in your soul as he turned to face Yangyang. “The Twilight saga is a cinematic masterpiece and you absolutely cannot change my mind.”

“Okay,” the blond replied, clearly up for the challenge. “But it’s not better than Shrek now, is it?”

“Shrek?” Dejun repeated incredulously. “Shrek is an iconic classic but the Twilight saga? Definitely on a different wavelength. The scene in New Moon where Bella just sits on her chair looking out the window soullessly? Perfection! It was a fantastic book to movie adaptation. And don’t even get me started on—”

“As thrilling as your debate is becoming,” you said, interrupting the point that the brunet was about to make, “I’d really love to continue the movie so I can hear young BooBoo Stewart say, ‘newest, bestest, brightest’ to help me feel a crumb of joy.” You were unable to find it in yourself to feel guilty about cutting in. They could take their debate somewhere else while you continued to wallow in your feelings of failure.

The pair read your mood easily and shrugged at one another in concession. Dejun patted your leg lightly in comfort as Yangyang jumped on the couch to sit on your other side, giving you a quick side-hug before focusing on the movie. It was silent up until Rosalie finished telling Bella her the story about her past.

“I’ve been thinking,” Dejun spoke up.

“Uh-oh.” Yangyang muttered playfully to you, his voice purposefully loud. You huffed out a laugh before lightly digging your elbow into his side, knowing that he’s had an awful share of ideas in the past.

Dejun stuck his tongue out at him but continued with what he began saying instead of retaliating. “Why don’t you text that person? The one whose number was in the textbook you borrowed? They must have done the module or something.”

You considered what he said seriously, even pausing the movie so that you could discuss it with him. “What if they didn’t though? What if it was their friend who borrowed the textbook? They did say that it was their friend who wrote it there.”

“Then you could just ask their friend for help.” Yangyang piped up. It was a statement that you couldn’t counter but that didn’t mean that you wouldn’t try to.

“I don’t have their number anymore,” you said to them. “They asked me to delete it, remember?”

“And that’s where you’re wrong,” Dejun told you as he reached into one of the pockets of his jeans and fished out his phone. Yangyang leaned over slightly and the two of you watched as Dejun quickly swiped his finger up his phone. “Here you go!” He said brightly, turning his phone so that you were facing the screen. And there it was: the screenshot that Yangyang asked you to take so that he could send it to Dejun. There was no way you could weasel your way out of this situation now.

“Okay,” you relented, “I’ll text them after we finish this saga.”

“If you text them after this movie, I’ll pay for take-out.” Yangyang bribed, eager for this idea to take place.

You weighed out the pros and cons briefly before agreeing with him. It would be a win-win situation: you would get take-out and a possible tutor. It seemed as if time moved quicker because the movie felt as though it finished within a few minutes. As Yangyang dialed the number for a local take-out place, you slowly typed out a text, him and Dejun watching you with hawk eyes.

to: 13X XXXX XXXX

hi! it’s me again. i know you don’t know me but could you please help me with calc? or your friend, whoever borrowed the textbook. please. i feel like my brain is melting

You flung your phone on the table, laid back down on the sofa and released a long sigh. It would be a lie if you said that you weren’t hoping that they would say yes. You were trying your best but it was as if your brain refused to coorperate with you when it came to calculus. If only Yangyang or Dejun were enrolled in the same course as you. It was often that you thoughr that wistfully, especially during times such as this.

It was when you were about to shove a huge lump of lo mein into your mouth that your phone lit up, indicating that you received a notification. You stuffed the noodles into your mouth and grabbed your phone off of the table, dropping your wooden chopsticks into the rest of your dish.

“What did they say?” Dejun asked as he bit into an egg roll.

“Depends,” you read out. “Would I get paid for it?” You practically exclaimed the last part. It was fair that they were wondering about payment after all, who would want to tutor for free? The thought of the amount in your bank account had you cringing, you couldn’t afford to pay for a tutor at the minute. Although, you couldn’t afford to fail your module, either. So it was a lose-lose sotuation. You sighed before shoving another chopstick full of noodles into your mouth as you thought of a reply, eyes never leaving your screen. “How can I say, ‘no I cant’t but I really need your help’ without sounding desperate?”

“You can’t.” Yangyang replied matter-of-factly, chewing on his mapo tofu.

to: 13X XXXX XXXX

no but u’d have my gratitude forever???????

from: 13X XXXX XXXX

Oh.

[typing. . .]

I’ll have to think about it.

[typing. . .]

Just kidding! I’ll help you out, free of charge. Would you like to do it over the phone or meet IRL?

You cheered loudly when their last text delivered. “I’m guessing they said yes?” Dejun said, smirking smugly. You nodded, grinning widely as your fingers flew on the keyboard in your phone.

to: 13X XXXX XXXX

omg ur a lifesaver!!!!! maybe over the phone?? it’ll probably be more convenient foe the both of us :)

from: 13X XXXX XXXX

Gotcha. We can discuss our schedule sometime tomorrow.

*

Your tutor, Wong Kunhang, was surprisingly really helpful. He was much more friendly than you thought he would be, immediately introducing himself after greeting you over the phone. For the entire three hours that the two of you were on the phone, he was nothing but the epitome of patience. Not only that, but he explained everything in a way that you could easily understand and even cracked a lame joke or two to break the tension whenever he noticed that you were becoming incredibly frustrated. By the end of the session, you felt microscopically better about calculus. While you couldn’t say that you were especially ecstatic for the upcoming lectures and assignments, it was safe to say that, while you had a long way to go, things were sort of looking up.

from: Wong Kunhang (tutor)

Same time next week?

to: Wong Kunhang (tutor)

definitely!!

[typing. . .]

also if ur comfortable with it can we pls video chat instead?? i think it would be much quicker than us sending each other pictures back and forth

from: Wong Kunhang (tutor)

That’s a good idea! I can’t believe we didn’t think of it earlier ahahaha.

*

As you worked through the practice problems that Kunhang prepared for you, you couldn’t help but sneakily stare at your phone to catch a glimpse of him repeatedly. It sure came as a surprise when it came time for the video call and you found yourself face to face with a Disney Prince who came to life. There was no other way to sum up how handsome he was. He somewhat reminded you of Prince Eric—what with his black hair, wide, bright eyes and kind smile. It wasn’t as if you thought or expected that he would he unnattractive. In fact, you hadn’t really wondered about what he would look like at all since you had a long list of priorities. None of which included thinking about whether or not you would find your tutor attractive.

But still. Kunhang was definitely one of those people who were blessed with beauty and brains. One of the Universe’s favorites, if you will.

“You good? Are you stuck on something?” You started at Kunhang’s voice, eyes flying from your phone to your page and back to meet his expectant look. You murmured a negative and resolutely kept your gaze on your work for the next half an hour to avoid a repeat of what had just jappened.

*

After nearly two months, the tutoring session had become a bi-weekly thing. Sort of. Somewhere in between you whining about every question but toughing it out and him encouraging you while also lightly teasing you, you and Kunhang became friends. One of the two sessions somehow always ended up with the both of you chatting, completely abandoning the unsolved equations in favor of getting to know one another, or, mostly recently, switching back and forth between the show that the two of you suggested to one another.

This week you would be tuning into his suggestion, Love Death + Robots. Kunhang would talk every now and again during some parts, especially when it came to his favorites, but you found that you didn’t really mind. Not when he sounded so (adorably) excited about it. The series itself was pretty good so far albeit short – six episodes in total, and the two of you were already on the fourth one – which meant that the you that you recommended (The Office because you were astounded that he hadn’t watched at least one episode) would soon become the primary source of entertainment since the two of you were only on season three.

As you stood in the snacks aisle, internally debating one which type of popcorn you should purchase (salted or buttered? the microwaveable kind or loose kernels? also, which brand? there were so many options, maybe too many,) your phone vibrated in your pocket. Swapping your basket from your non-dominant hand to your dominant one, you pulled out your phone and answered it.

“Hello?”

“Hey!” Kunhang greeted back brightly, “uh, so listen, I know we have our thing later but one of my sisters is moving out of her apartment and she asked me to help. Is it okay if we cancel?” The poor guy sounded super apologetic.

“Yeah, totally! Help her out!”–briefly, you thought about offering your assistance before deciding against it because that would be awkward and weird. Weirdly awkward. Awkwardly weird. Whatever–“I mean, it’s not like what we do is a set thing, anyway. I’ll probably ask the guys to hang out instead.” You eyed your basket full of snacks and made a mental note to grab the particular brand of potato chips that Dejun liked, already predicting that he would agree.

The silence that followed seemed to stretch on for hours on end. You would have assumed that the line dropped or went dead for some reason but you could definitely hear some shuffling sounds on the other side and, in a totally non-creepy way, Kunhang’s breathing.

“Right,” he finally replied, drawling the word out. There was another silence that felt extremely awkward. You wondered what facial expression he was making at the moment. It could have possibly clued you into what he as thinking. “Well that’s all I wanted to say I guess.”

“Oh,” you mumbled and then after a beat, you followed up with, “do you prefer salted or buttered popcorn? I’m trying to choose right now but I can’t decide.”

“Definitely salted. Buttered always leaves my mouth feeling weird.” You hummed while trapping you phone in between your ear and shoulder so that you could grab the generic box brand of microwaveable salted popcorn. The conversation carred on without anymore awkward pauses. You picked up a couple of items that he recommended every now and again, trusting his judgement. “Hey, you know what we should do?” Kunhang said as you queued up for the self-service checkout line, eyeing the items on display. When you hummed in response, he followed with, “we should hang out next week. In real life. We could do it on Sunday so you’ll still have one day of tutoring.”

It felt somewhat embarrassing that you agreed so quickly to his suggestion. You definitely should have played it cool but you had been meaning to ask him the same thing for a while now, so you were glad that he suggested it. “We can meet up at a café or something! Maybe have lunch? I’m paying, though!” It was only fair since he was helping you out for free.

“Lunch sounds good.”

“Great!”

“Great!” Kunhang mimicked, just as enthusiastically. “I’ve got to go but I’ll text you later?”

Both of you said your goodbyes then hung up. After tucking your phone back into your pocket, you made your way to the till that just freed up and began scanning your items. Once everything was paid for and bagged, you retrieved your phone to shoot a quick text in the group chat with Yangyang and Dejun, asking them if they felt like watching a movie franchise with you. They agreed, but only after Yangyang asked if ‘you’re weekly date with Kunhang got cancelled’ which earned him a picture of you flipping him off.

*

“Today’s the big date, huh?” Yangyang asked teasingly as you checked your appearance in the mirror once more, sprawled out on the couch as he made his way through his third mango pudding cup. From beside him, Dejun and Yukhei – the newest addition to your friend group since he and Dejun had to do an assignment together – gave your form an assessing once over.

Dejun, smiling mischievously, said, “obviously, can’t you tell by how nicely they’re dressed.”

You mock glared at the pair while Yukhei lightly slapped Dejun for his comment. Then he, bless his heart, beamed at you and said, “you look great!”

“Thank you,” you replied, smiling sweeting at him before addressing the other two, you firmly said, “and it’s not a date. We’re just hanging out, like the three, now four”–you corrected, glancing over at Yukhei–“of us do on a regular basis.”

“Oh, are they just a friend from your course then or something?” Yukhei asked curiously while Dejun and Yangyang hummed in unison, disbelief clear in their tones.

“No, it’s this guy, he helps me out with calculus. We’ve never met in person but he’s really nice.”

“I should hope so,” muttered Yangyang, peeling the seal off another mango pudding cup. “You’ve been crushing on him for a while now, so it would be a bummer if he wasn’t.” He said through a mouthful.

“Am not!”

“Are too!” Dejun countered for him.

“Am not,” Yangyang mimicked. “So what about all the times you’ve mentioned him then, huh?” And then he placed his pudding cup on the table, clasped his hands together by his cheeks and, in a voice that was meant to sound like yours, said, “‘oh, Kunhang told me this stuff is really good, we should try it out!’, ‘Kunhang is so smart!’, ‘can you believe Kunhang volunteers at the animal shelter and the nursery home as much as he can? Isn’t that so sweet?’, ‘Kunhang has such a Disney Prince smile!’. You gush about him all the time, it’s kinda sickening.”

You threw your arm out at him as you looked towards Dejun, hoping for some back up but you should have known better. They were your best friends after all. Dejun simply shrugged as he snatched a pudding cup from the coffee table and said, “to be fair, you do gush about him a lot. And! Whenever you text him, which most of the time, you get this goofy smile one your face.”

“Huh,” Yukhei mumbled, his tone full of thought. “This guy sounds a lot like one of my buddies.” The three of you looked at him with wide, curious eyes. When he noticed, he added, “it’s probably just a coincidence?” Although his tone suggested otherwise.

“Probably,” you replied as you grabbed your keys and shoved them in your pocket. “I’ve gotta get going or else I’ll be late.” You said as you made a beeline towards the door and slipped on the shoes you thought best suited your outfit. “Don’t wait up!”

“Why?” Yangyang replied just as you were about to close the door, playfulness evident in his voice, “I thought it was just lunch.” The other two cackled at that but you flipped him off and left the apartment, trusting that one of them would like the door behind you.

It was fortunate that you managed to catch the bus on time. After paying the appropriats fare, you made your way towards the back, earphones plugged in so that you could listen to some music along the way. Once seated, you took out your phone sent a text to Kunhang to let him know that you were on your way. His response was immediate, informing you that he was already nearby because his sister had asked him to run an errand for her, and asked you to text him when you were close.

Horizon was a cute little place that served as both a café and restaurant. It was sandwiched between a thrift shop and music store but, surprisingly, didn’t look the least bit out of place among the buildings. As you walked closed to it, you saw Kunhang standing by the entrance, bopping his head as he used his phone.

“Kunhang!” You called when you were close enough, after taking off your earphones and stuffing them into your pocket. Judging from the way he jolted slightly, you startled him. “Hey,” you greeted warmly when he removed his earphones. “You could have waited inside.”

Kunhang shrugged, a brilliant smile etched onto his face, “I thought it’d be easier if we walked in together.”

When you entered, you thought that you would have to find somewhere else to eat due to the amount of people present, but the staff who was waiting by the door only asked if you were eating in and then lead you to a table in the far corner of the room, right beside the window.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, y’know, in person.” Kunhang said as he browsed through the menu.

“You too,” you replied, peeking up from your own menu to find him wearing a hint of a smile. “I can’t believe it took us this long to be honest.”

Kunhang chuckled at that and nodded in agreement.

The meal seemed to fly by even though you left Horizon a little later than expected. You were still laughing as you headed out, thanking the waiter that served you one more time as you passed by him, at a story that Kunhang recounted that took place during his childhood. Although his texting style suggested otherwise, Kunhang was hilarious—which you knew already since he often made you laugh whenever you were on the phone with him, it was just a different feeling compared to the experience in person. You were almost sad at the thought of your time being over with him, until he jammed his hands into his pockets and, rocking back and forth on his herl, asked if you wanted to go get some ice cream since he knew a really good place nearby. And who were you to say no to that offer?

After fighting, again, over who would pay, the two of you roamed around for a bit, slipping into this store and that to window shop. Only when the stores began to close did you realize how late it had gotten. It wasn’t dark out, not yet, and you were surprised that several hours had passed since you first met up with Kunhang.

“Ready to call it quits?” You asked as the two of you began to make your way to where you would wait for your bus.

Kunhang shook his head and pointed somewhere behind you. “Let’s go to the playground over there. Race you.” And with that, he took off, leaving you to stare at him dumbfoundedly until your brain registered what he said and you ran after him.

“Cheater!” You huffed when you reached him, hands on your knees as you caught your breath.

Kunhang did nothing but through his head back and laugh at you. Attractively. It was something to ignore—his attractiveness, that was. But it was awfully difficult and all you could do was hope that he didn’t notice how you were looking at him. You couldn’t help it! Even though his outfit was relatively basic – just some gray-brown sweatshirt, black joggers and a pair of white sneakers – he looked effortlessly good. And it wasn’t just his appearance that made him attractive, either, oh no, because that just wasn’t enough. He also had to have an amazing personality.

“Let’s go over there,” he said after he sobered up, nodding towards the spring riders. “No racing this time.” He added with a wide grin. You weren’t able to suppress your own grin quick enough, rolling your eyes as you shoved his shoulder.

“I’m glad we met up today,” you admitted sincerely as you rocked back and forth on the spring ride. “You’re even better in person.”

Kunhang stopped rocking on his spring ride and looked at you. “I’m glad we met up today, too.” He told you with a smile that turned into one that was more sweet and shy as he said, “we should do it again some time, y’know, when we aren’t flooded with assignments and stuff.”

“Totally!”

“How about, maybe,”–Kunhang’s tongue darted out a sliver of his to wet his lips–“as a date?”

You stared at him in shock which he met head-on, that sweet, shy smile of his still present. You could feel a smile threaten to rise and you allowed it, messing with the hem of your top as you nodded in agreement. “That would be nice.”

“Really?” He asked, his tone both excited and unbelieving. When you assured him that you would be really looking forward to it, he said, “that’s– that’s great! I can’t wait, either.” Then, he jumped of his spring ride, held out his hand and pressed a feather light kiss to your knuckles like the Disney Prince he was when you placed your hand in his.

“We should probably head home.” You said, hand still in his. Kunhang never let go, so you figured he was okay with you interlocking your fingers and swinging your hands back and forth.

Like the gentleman he was, he waited for your bus with you and waited until you got on it, blowing kisses at you through the window. Your smile was so big your cheeks began to hurt as you pretended to catch the kisses.

(Later, after you had told Yangyang about how the day went swimmingly, you received a text from Kunhang and couldn’t help but huff out a small laugh. Your room-mate shot you a curious look so you let him read the text.

from: kunhang 💘

You know Yukhei?!?!?!!!!)

[valkyrieskwad]

here ya go, have some like, awkward college baby gays.

__

when sam planned out her apology, the last person she expected to answer kara's door was lena. as in, lena from the halloween party who she had sex with. but, there she is. wearing nothing but kara's flannel, looking pretty and fucking soft. this is the first time sam's seen her up close in good lighting, not drunk off her ass, and all she can focus on are her eyes. they're different colors.

"hello?" lena says after a second.

right. "is kara here?" sam asks. it's too aggressive, but she feels a little off-kilter looking at lena. she's here to apologize, though, she reminds herself. "can you tell her i'm not here to fight, and i know she hears me."

"she's actually not here," lena says, stepping out of the way to pull the door open wider. "but you're welcome to come in and wait for her. it's good to see you. you look really good."

"you remember me?" sam asks, like a fucking idiot. lena laughs a little. "right," she gushes, scratching at the back of her neck. she steps inside the room and lets lena shut the door behind her. it feels easier talking when she's not making eye contact. "i didn’t mean it that way. it's just that you're—"

"don't say something dumb," lena cuts her off. "i like you, don't ruin it."

sam fights the urge to repeat you like me incredulously. instead, she walks over to take a seat on kara's bed and tries not to think too much about sitting on kara's bed. where kara probably had sex with lena. maybe even right before this. of course, she's still managing to think about it. "so, you and kara. you a thing or something?"

lena shrugs, leans her hip against the standard edition dorm room desk. "or something."

there's a really awkward pause. then, "cool," is what sam finally says.

lena smiles, eyes glistening in a way that makes sam feel transparent. she clears her throat. "i’d love to be, but i’m pretty sure she's holding out for a thing with you, and i somehow got caught in the middle of this."

"what?" sam coughs. the only thing between kara and her is animosity; maybe even hate. she doesn't even think about kara outside of that. in fact, she spends most of her day Not Thinking About Kara. "did she say that?"

it comes out more curious than she intends it, which lena definitely notices. "more or less."

sam can't tell if lena's fucking with her, but the room feels too hot now. "in those words? like, she likes me?"

that one even comes out hopeful. lena's picking up every little nuance; sam can see it on her face. "you can discuss it when she gets back."

"no, i -" she shouldn't go down that rabbit hole, not sure if her heart or brain or soccer season can handle it. "i'm just here to apologize for being the reason we lost today. i can admit when i fucked up."

"you should have passed the ball," lena points out. "she had a clear shot."

"i know." there's another long pause, sam tapping the tips of her fingers together, lena looking content to watch her fidget. sam's the one to break the silence. "i don't like her, you know? we aren't - it's not like that. she doesn't like me. it's just a rivalry."

"she called me sam while we were having sex last week. she told me about you two, what happened first year."

sam's cheeks heat up so fast she doesn't even bother trying to hide she's blushing. she's lost count of the number of times she's gotten off to remembering kara's voice in her ear. she hates herself for it. "we had sex orientation weekend, and then the next day at soccer practice she barely looked at me. she just kept trying to show me up. so i kept trying to show her up, and now we're here."

lena actually laughs, then rolls her eyes like sam is being ridiculous. "that happened three years ago, and you still haven't talked about it?"

"what's there to talk about?"

"i don't know, her moaning your name during sex, maybe."

"whatever," sam mumbles.

"whatever," lena mocks. "i'm pretty sure she's only interested in me because she saw us together."

"don't tell me you actually believe that," sam frowns. "even if she is interested in me, there's no way she's not interested in you."

"maybe," lena says. then the door lock clicks and the handle turns, and suddenly there's kara. too soon and too unexpectedly, with her joggers and her loose t-shirt and the dumb way she staggers when she walks inside a door. she's carrying two bags from the downstairs mini mart and a subway sandwich. hair tied up in a messy ponytail. lips too fucking pink.

sam freezes. she forgot what exactly she came here to do.

"she came to apologize," lena tells kara, and sam realizes, awkwardly, they've just been staring at each other. kara's eyes are so blue, it's not fucking fair. sam feels more undressed now than she did the last time she was on kara's bed. "and, don't get me wrong, i don't think that's a bad place to start, but i told her you two should probably talk about more than just tonight or losing the game. especially since, you know, you can't keep her name out of your mouth."

"lee," kara says, calm, like she's fond enough of lena she's skipped shocked or upset and landed head-first on acceptance. "you didn't."

"i did, and she blushed, now discuss," lena gestures. "this is almost making up for my favorite show being on hiatus."

"we're not entertainment," kara pouts.

"not with that attitude," lena smiles. "but i believe in you. you can do it."

"i'm just here to - i'm sorry," sam says, then she stands up, keeping her eyes on the floor.

she's fucking glad for it, too, because she's pretty sure her string snaps when kara sighs. "sit back down, please. she's right, you know? even though we should talk about which information is not okay to disclose." lena whispers sorry. sam sits back down. she looks up just in time to watch kara glide the couple steps between them and plop down on the bed next to her, so close their thighs knock together. sam tries not to think about it. "i guess lena let the cat out of the bag, so no need to tiptoe around it."

"you still like me, so what?" sam says. she feels defensive.

kara carves right through it, though; first by blinking at her silently, then by opening one of the mini mart bags and offering sam a pint of mango talenti. "i do," kara says, slowly. she glances up at lena like she's checking if that's okay. lena's still smiling so sam supposes it is. it feels like she's in the twilight zone. she just wanted to apologize, but instead, she's doing whatever the fuck this is. she takes the ice cream and twists the cap off. kara relaxes a little. "that isn't to say we should do something about it, just that i don't actually dislike you."

sam wants to do something about it. it's her first thought. she won't say that. "what do you want me to say?"

kara looks at lena again. lena rolls her eyes. "you can say you like her, too. you can say you don't. you can say you want to be friends. anything, really. just don't lie, or worse - say nothing."

"i don't dislike you, either," sam says, fast enough she can't stop herself.

then she ducks her head and eats four scoops of the ice cream while kara stares at her profile. "cool," kara says, and then there's nothing else for a long while again. finally, after what feels like forever, kara huffs and asks, "you want to watch iron chef?"

"what?" sam asks, looking up, halfway to a brain freeze.

"lena and i have been marathoning it," kara explains. "it's what we do after, um. hanging out."

"i know you have sex," sam says flatly.

"is that okay?" kara asks.

it catches sam off guard. her opinion shouldn't matter, so she says as much. "does it matter what i think?"

"it does to me," kara says, then, "since we're being honest."

"i don't mind," sam says. it's not a lie, but it's also not a full truth. she's not jealous of lena; she likes lena. she's mostly just jealous that lena gets to have a piece of kara and she doesn't. "it's not like i can compete with lena."

that one catches kara off guard. she just stares at sam for a while. sam goes back to her ice cream. "you can, but you don't have to," kara says after a bit. "feel free to interpret that whichever way you want."

"i don't know what that means," sam mumbles.

"it means i can stay or i can leave," lena explains. "either way, you two are hanging out tonight. this isn't a competition."

oh, sam thinks. "oh," she says. "you can stay if you're good with that."

so lena stays.

they turn on iron chef then, kara squeezed between sam and lena, their backs against the wall on the twin-sized dorm bed. it feels fucking ridiculous, but sam settles into it, pressed against kara's shoulder. lena's asleep with her head on kara's lap by the time they announce the culinary curveball. sam can't stop watching kara's hand, tracing lena's ear, fingers snaking through her hair.

"does she always fall asleep?" she asks.

"like clockwork," kara says, "but she's not satisfied if we don't watch, then i get so caught up in it i can't sleep."

"that's cute."

"she is."

"i know," sam says, then immediately wants to take it back. "sorry, i didn't mean - i just. i really don't mind you dating, i swear."

"that's good," kara smiles, then moves her free hand from resting on her own thigh to resting on sam's. she doesn't even take her eyes off the laptop screen in front of them. sam feels like she's having a fucking heart attack. "this show is always so intense."

"you're touching me," sam says. she can't pretend it's not happening. "are you making a move?"

thankfully, kara just squeezes her thigh instead of moving her hand away. sam's not quite ready for her to go yet, but she can't sit here with them not addressing it. "should i not?"

it's not even a challenge; it's an honest question. sam wants to give an honest answer, but deflecting feels better. "is she okay with it?"

"yeah, she's fine," kara responds, thumbing over lena's ear as she says it. "pretty sure she has everything she wants right here."

"well, in that case," sam says, losing her thought briefly when kara squeezes her thigh again. "i guess it's fine."

"cool," kara says, so they watch the rest of the episode like that.

when the countdown starts to play another, everything feels tense. they're both tired from the game today, they should sleep, but they can't all fit on this bed. sam will have to go, probably. she's not ready to go. "hey," she starts, settling her hand on top of kara's.

"we can watch another," kara says right away. lena's out hard at this point, face smashed against kara's belly, snoring lightly. sam wants to be that comfortable, but she's jittery just touching kara's hand. "unless you want to go."

"not yet," sam admits.

kara flips her hand over, letting sam thumb over her palm, play with her fingers as the next episode starts up. "good," she says. "i'm not ready for you to go yet."

[hopesbarnes]

Falling for a God

Summary: Everyone still thinks of Loki as the alien who ruined New York. But after getting to know him you realize he's far from that. But is this just harmless flirting or more than that?

Pairing: Loki x Reader

Warnings: Smut, 18+, Curse words, fluff, Loki is really cute in this

A/N: This is a repost of a one-shot originally posted to my AO3 page

The flirting has been going on for weeks now. You’re unsure if this is just a game or if the god wants you as much as you want him. It started when you were training one day. 

You were sparring with Sam to work on your skills in the off chance your powers were impaired. For some reason, it was unusually hot in the training room. So naturally, you took off your top, thankful you put on one of your nicer sports bras this morning. It was one of those zipper front sports bras and it was slightly unzipped. However, it had been a push up one and maybe not the most appropriate one to wear in front of your teammates. But it was what was clean, and you felt confident in it. 

Sam was looking at you, distracted by you taking your shirt off. You took this chance to knock him off balance and straddle him so that he was pinned. “Uh, I think that is enough for today Y/N, we’ll continue tomorrow” Sam managed to spit out as he scrambled to head towards his room.

You decided to go over to the treadmill that happened to be next to Loki rather than ending your session early. 

“You nearly had that poor man panting, Y/N.” Loki snickered at you. 

You looked at him confused and asked Loki what he meant. 

“Are you that naive? How did you miss that he was clearly aroused?” 

There was no way Sam was turned on by you, was there? 

“Oh dear, you are that naive. What did you expect when you took your top off to show that off brassiere that quite wonderfully shows off your breasts. Then you straddled the man and had him beneath your thighs in a way we all dream of having you.” he says nonchalantly. 

“I didn’t mean to do that, I- oh no” you mumble. What if he thought you liked him? “Uh Loki I should go shower, I’ll see you later,” you say as you head towards the showers to clear your head. It wasn’t until later you thought back to Loki’s words and how he admitted to wanting you on top of him.

A couple of days later you find yourself up late unable to sleep so you go out to the kitchen expecting it to be empty. But sitting at the counter is a shirtless Loki with a cup of tea and a Harry Potter book. You can’t help but giggle at this. When he sees you he magically changes the book to one of Asgard’s history but it is too late, you saw the book already. 

“I- uh was just reading this book about history, I couldn’t sleep and this usually bores me enough that I can drift off.”

 "Sure, whatever you say there, Wizard’” you laugh at his discomfort 

“Okay, fine. I may have started this series and can’t go to sleep until I finish this book. I need to know who wins the tournament.” He mutters and drops the spell that turned the book into an Asgardian one.

So he was at book four then. “I’ve read them a few times and seen the movies more than that. It’s okay to fangirl a little Loki.” you smile. 

“There are movies!?” he says way too excited and it causes your smile to get bigger. “Also who is ‘fangirl’?” It takes a few minutes to explain the concept of fandoms to Loki, and then to show him what fanfiction is. The rest of the night is spent with him telling you all of his theories and favorite parts of the books.

The next three nights you talk about Harry Potter and he tells you where he is in the series. The fourth night he finishes the series (you’ve learned that Loki reads really fast) and you guys discuss the ending. You make plans to start a movie marathon tomorrow after you promise to do it in his room where nobody else will find out his love of a mortal book series. 

His room looks as you imagined, clean and very minimalistic. It’s decorated in dark black and green with one wall being taken up by bookcases. He has mostly books from other realms but you notice the last shelf is full of Earth books, mostly fictional novels. You spot the Twilight series and upon learning that he read the first one (he begrudgingly admits to liking it) you decide to watch those movies next. 

Both of you settle into his bed and begin your marathon. You fall asleep during Prisoner of Azkaban and he pauses the movie and naps with you. It takes a couple of days to watch all of the movies as both of you fall asleep a few times. But you learn a lot about Loki and grow closer to him during this time.

A week later a couple of the Avengers decide to go out for the night, mostly looking for a reason to dress up and act like they aren’t protecting all of humanity. All the girls get ready in your room together. 

“Nat can you do my makeup, I want to look hot,” you beg. 

“Looking to impress someone?” Wanda teases and you stay uncharacteristically quiet. 

“Oh my god, you are!” Natasha says shocked. 

��Maybe, I don’t know!” You huff, “I’m not even sure how I feel yet. But he said something a few weeks ago and now I can not get the idea of mounting him like a horse out of my head.” you confess to your best friends. 

They both stare at you, then start asking a million questions, who it was, what they said, and many more. Then they start to guess. 

“Well, it can’t be Vision or Bruce unless there’s something we don’t know” Wanda points out. 

You promise that it isn’t their boyfriends, that is definitely something you would not do. 

“Not Bucky or Steve, those two barely take a moment to look at anything but each other. It’s not Tony is it?” Natasha asks as the two girls running through various team members to figure out your secret crush.

 You laugh, “No definitely not Tony. Guys, I promise if it becomes something I will let you know, but for now, I just want to look good to see if they even were serious.” 

You walk out of the room in a skin-tight black dress, black heels, and dark red lipstick to go with it. Noticing Loki isn’t dressed you go over to him, 

“Not coming out Loki?” you ask. 

“Midgard clubs aren’t really my scene darling,” he says still looking down at his book. He finally looks up at you and his eyes go wide. 

“At second thought maybe I should see what this place is like,” he says while magically changing into black pants and a black button-down. You smile and go to leave. 

“Hey Y/N, save me a dance would you?” he asks and you nod in response.

At the club, everyone is trying to get a picture or dance with the Avengers. Being a lesser-known member you are able to avoid this thankfully. An hour or two go by before you make your way from the dance floor to the bar. There you see Loki with a drink in his hand looking bored. 

“No screaming fans wanting a picture with the almighty God of Mischief? you ask. 

"It seems that once you kill people and try to take over their planet, they do not respond too kindly to you. No Midgard trusts me enough to come near me,” he says and you detect a bit of sorrow. 

“Well I am from here and I trust you completely Loki. What happened before is in the past.” You assure him. “Well then I want a picture with you, it’s not every day you are around royalty, is it?” you tease and move to sit on his lap. 

"Considering we live in the same tower I would say it is but if it pleases you then sure.” You take out your phone and take a few selfies with him and your heart flutters when he grabs your hips. 

“I do believe I was promised a dance.” 

“You were,” you say while standing and he grabs your hand and brings you to the dance floor.

The dancing started as innocently as it could in a crowded club, then he whispered in your ear.

 “I never did compliment this dress, it truly is exquisite.” 

You moved closer to him and continued to sway your hips along with the music. He grabbed your hips and guided them. Loki then begins to place small kisses along your neck making you moan and grow increasingly wetter.

 “Baby, as much as I am enjoying this, we should leave now before I take you here in front of all these people,” he said into your ear. 

In a haze, he took your hand and led you to where one of the Stark cars were. You quickly texted the girls letting them know you left and were okay. Loki couldn’t keep his hands off of you the entire ride back. He started by just rubbing your thigh but his hand kept moving higher up until it reached your underwear. You had to hold your tongue to keep yourself from moaning in front of the driver. He started to rub over your panties and you swear the look on his face was enough to make you cum. Unfortunately, you were already back at the tower and running towards his room like two horny teenagers.

As you entered his room he shut the door and pushed you against it. He pulled your dress up and knelt down between your legs.

 “I apologize for leaving you hanging there Y/N,” he said before pulling your panties down and tossing them across the room. He licked a hot stripe up before flicking his tongue against your clit. You let out a moan that was far more high pitched than you wanted to. He continued to trace patterns with his tongue before pushing a finger into your hot core. It felt like heaven.

 He pumped his finger a few times before adding another finger, then added a third and you felt the start of your high. When he sucked on your clit you felt your orgasm take over and you screamed his name. He continued to lick and lap up all of your juices before picking you up and walking you towards the bed. 

“Wait, Loki.” you stopped him. “I don’t just want to fuck and be done, I want you.”

 He looked startled, “Y/N I want that too, but are you sure. The parts of me you’re asking for are fucked up darling. I’ve hurt people before.” he said.

 “Loki, I told you earlier, I trust you. You’re more than a villain. You get excited by books and cuddle when you sleep. You make me feel whole.” You confess. “But please, right now I need you to take me and show me a little bit of that dark side.”

He lunges towards you and kisses you fiercely. Why have you not done this before? He slips his tongue into your mouth and you moan into the kiss. When you finally need air and pull apart you feel dizzy.

 He starts to kiss you again and you pull at his shirt not having enough concentration to tackle the buttons. Eventually, you tug hard enough to rip it off and hear the faint sound of buttons hitting the floor around you. Within seconds both of you are completely undressed and on the bed. His hands are all over you, from squeezing your thighs, to lightly touching your nipples he explores every inch of your body. You are doing the same thing, scratching his back, feeling his muscles that nobody else would know he has, and softly grinding against his cock while moaning loudly. His hands hold your hips hard enough that you know tomorrow you will have bruises. He flips you over so that you now are beneath him and starts teasing your entrance with his cock. 

“Loki, please. I need you inside of me now. L-L-” you say but are cut off by him slowly entering you. He is by far the biggest you have ever had and the stretch feels amazing. 

“By gods you are tight.” he moans. As soon as you get used to his size he starts to thrust out and back in leaving you speechless. Your eyes flutter closed but open when tweaks your nipples. “Be a good girl and leave your eyes open.” he pleads and you obey. 

After a couple more thrusts he pulls out leaving you whimpering. 

“Baby, I want you to ride me. I want you to use me for your own pleasure and cum on my cock. Think you can do that?” He says breathlessly. 

You nod and climb on top of him before taking him all in one movement. You start to move up and down bouncing on his long thick cock. Loki makes these delicious groans the entire time, and you know he’s close when he starts bucking his hips up to meet your movements. He starts to play with your clit and you can feel your orgasm just out of reach. 

“Come on baby, cum for me.” his words are enough for you to see stars and he shoots his load into you at the same time while yelling out your name. Once you’ve ridden out your high you collapse on his chest and he rubs circles on your back while kissing your forehead.

“That was by far the best sex of my life.” you manage to mumble sleepily. He chuckles and pulls out from you and moves so that you are next to him. He manages to tuck you both in with the comforter and you hear him tell FRIDAY to turn off the lights. 

“Y/N, I think I love you,” he confesses and you smile. 

“I think I may love you too Loki,” you reply before falling asleep in his arms.

In the morning you put on a robe and go to grab coffee for both you and the sleeping god in your bed. A few of the other Avengers are awake talking about last night. Before you can escape back to your room you see Loki enter the kitchen, dressed but missing his shirt. 

Tony yells “Put a fucking shirt on man!” 

Loki replies slyly, “I would have if Y/N didn’t rip it apart last night.” 

The various Avengers all look at you with wide eyes.

 “Wanda!” Nat yells, “You owe me, it was Loki, not Sam!” 

You gasp at the fact that your best friends were betting on who you were trying to impress last night.

 “You bet on me?!” you yell at them. They laugh but you ignore them and take the coffee cups and turn to leave with Loki hot on your tail, ready for another round.

[steves-on-a-plane]

Waiting For You

Words: 1597 Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader Timeline: Not Specific Request: “Omg u are taking requests? Can you write something about Bucky being readers boyfriend and she is just waiting for him to propose they have been together for yearssss and yearsss.” - Anon Summary: Bucky and Reader have been dating for seven years, but after dropping hints about wanting to get married for nearly a decade, Reader has finally accepted that it may not be in the cards for her and Buck. 

You’d  tried dropping hints over the seven plus years that you’d been dating Bucky. They were subtle at first. One time you left a stack of bridal magazines on the coffee table for a week to see if he said anything. Another time You started a conversation asking about which two colors he thought went best together. But over time the hints got less subtle. You talked about how nice your sister’s wedding was and how you couldn’t wait for your own special day. You’d read your friend’s Facebook posts aloud and talk about how they all seemed to be having kids. Every attempt seemed to go unnoticed.

“What are we watching tonight?” Bucky yawned as he snuggled up close to you on the couch. It was time for your weekly movie night and it was your turn to pick the movie.

“Twlight; New Moon.” You said pressing play on the remote. You draped a blanket across you and Bucky as movie started.

“The vampire movie?” Bucky sighed. “Didn’t we watch already?”

“Not this one.” You laughed. “There’s five of them.”

“Five!” Bucky complained. Alright well what happens in this one?”

“You’d know if you stopped talking.” You scolded him. You yawned and leaned against Bucky, your head resting on his chest. After only ten minutes Bucky had more questions.

“So Bella’s upset because she’s getting older and Edward is not? The dude’s 109!” Bucky exclaims pointing at the TV. He starts playing with a lock of your hair, twirling the strand around one of his fingers.

“But he looks seventeen.” You pointed out.

“That dude does not look seventeen!” Bucky argues. “Where’s my phone? I’m gonna Google how old this guy was.” Bucky strained to reach for his phone that was resting far away on the coffee table. He couldn’t quite reach with you laying on him. You handed him your phone without taking your eyes off the screen. “Ah-ha! I knew it!” He remarked a half-second later. “My dude was twenty-three when this movie was made.”

“Okay, but that’s not the point.” You sighed. “From Bella’s perspective, Edward doesn’t want to change her into a vampire at all. She’s thinks he is just going to stay with her until he she is too old for him and then he’d leave and move on. For Bella, it’s only ever going to be Edward, but she’s afraid that she will only ever be an insignificant blip in his life.”

“Why would she think that?” Bucky asked.

“Well, you’re missing the entire set up to the plot.” You whispered to him. “So please be quiet.”

As the movie played on Bucky eventually settled down and watched the movie. You were tired from the long day you’d had. You felt your eyelids grow heavy around the half-hour mark. You struggled to stay awake at first, New Moon was your favorite of the Twilight movies. But the security and warmth from being held in Bucky’s arms had you drifting off to sleep.

Two months past and you’d all but forgotten about that night. Your movie marathon had moved on from the Twilight saga and onto Harry Potter.  You’d given up on dropping even completely obvious hints about getting married too. You’d been together for seven years, at this point either Bucky was going to propose to you or her wasn’t. You were through with trying to force it to happen. It was the morning of your birthday and Bucky surprised you with breakfast in bed.

“Eat up!” He instructed. “I’ve got a full day of activities planned for us!”

“What kind of activities?” You asked, offering him a waffle.

“I already ate.” He waved the food off. He sat on the bed next to and leaned back on his pillow. He kicked his feet up and started listing off activities. “Let’s see, Breakfast in bed was first on the list, so check. Then I was thinking you might enjoy kicking my butt at a few rounds of Luigi kart…”

“It’s Mario Kart.” You snorted, trying not to choke on your food.

“Yeah, but I like Luigi better and there aren’t enough games named after him.” Bucky told you.  “So, we’re a Luigi Cart family in this house.”

“Okay.” You humored him. “And what are our plans after Luigi Cart?” ‘”I thought maybe we could go to the mall, do some shopping and eat at that restaurant you’re always trying to get me to go to but it’s closed on Sundays.”

“I can’t help it that the Chick-Fil-A curse means I only crave it on Sundays!” You exclaimed.

“Then after that I thought we could just come home and relax and snuggle. It’s been awhile since we’re spent the day just the two of us together.” He said.

“That sounds great, Bucky.” You agreed.

The day went mostly as Bucky described. You played Mario Kart for about two hours before heading to the mall. At the mall, Bucky was great about letting you drag him through all of your favorite stores. With your boyfriend’s arms weighed down with shopping bags, you took a break for lunch at Chik-Fil-a. A fast food restaurant that Bucky usually told you charged way too much for a food as cheap as chicken. Once you were all shopped out, Bucky drove you home.

“Just leave the bags in the car.” Bucky told you as he stepped out of the car. “I’ll cary them in later. I wouldn’t want my gal to lift a finger on her special day.” Bucky swoops in and kisses you before putting an arm around your shoulder.

“So movie night next?” You asked.

“Sure.” Bucky nodded. “But first, close your eyes.”

“Close my eyes? Why would I…”

“Humor me, please?” He asked.

“Alright.” You squeezed your eyes shut and let Bucky guide you into the house.

“SURPRISE!” You opened your eyes to see that Bucky had secretly put together a surprise party for your birthday. The house was decorated with streamers and balloons in lilac, your favorite color. There was a large six tire cake on display in the dining room, it too had lilac colored frosting and all of your friends were there, ready to celebrate the day with you.

“Wow! Thank you everyone!” You reached out and held Bucky’s hand. Parties or large gatherings weren’t really his thing so it meant a lot to you that he was willing to endure such a stressful envirement just for your birthday. “Thank you for putting this together.” You said, kissing him on the cheek.

“This is just the beginning, Babe.” Buck promised. “You guys hungry?” Bucky asks the crowd of Avengers around you. They reply with encouraging “Whoop-Whoop!”s and “Yeah!”s.

“We just ate lunch.” You frowned. “I don’t know how much more I can eat.”

“We’ll start with dessert then.” He said leading you into the dinning room. Bucky instructs everyone to gather around the table and with Steve’s help he removed the top layer of the cake. It is the smallest and probably only about four servings of cake.

“Do you remember a few months ago when we watched all of the Twilight movies?” He asked you. You nodded in response. “Well, those movies really got me thinking about something. Most of my adult life I’ve only ever seen myself as a monster. I thought I was destinted to be damned and I sure as hell didn’t think I’d ever catch the eye of a dame half as great as you.” Bucky reach out so that he was holding both of your hands in his. You were facing each other and looking directly into each others eyes.

“In a hundred life times, I’ll never understand how anyone so amazing could love me.” He continued. “And I don’t ever want my anxiety to get in the way of loving you. I don’t want to risk losing you because I was too afraid to let you know how I really feel. Happy Birthday [Y/N].” He sealed the birthday wish with a kiss.

“Thank you, Buck. No candles?” You teased him as you sized up the beautifully decorated but candle-less cake. Bucky didn’t comment as he handed you an ornamental cake knife. “Did you buy a cake knife just for this?” You asked him.

“It’s ours!” Clint shouted from where he stood in the back of the dining room with one arm holding his wife Laura close to him. “Think of it as something borrowed.” He told you cryptically. Holding the cake knife carefully you cut into the cake. You cut a small quarter out of the cake and slid the wedge out.

“I need a plate.” You laughed, completely missing the small silver object glistening inside the cake. “And a fork.” You added as Steve held up an empty plate to you.

“We’ll get you a fork later.” Bucky said. He takes the plate out of your hands and set the piece aside. “This wasn’t how I thought this was going to go but…” Bucky stuck his fingers inside the cake and seemed to dig something out of it. You couldn’t help but gasp when he produced a silver ring with a sapphire set atop it. “Something new, and blue.” He commened before lowing himself to the ground. “[Y/N] [Y/L/N], I’m sorry I made you wait so long, but will you make me the happiest mna on the planet and marry me?”

“I literally thought you would never ask.” You told him. You dropped down onto the ground so that you were kneeling next to him and threw your arms around his neck.

[firesidefantasy]

so last night i realised i had almost hit 500 posts on this account. and then i had the brilliant, genius idea to make a post with 500 facts about monster house for my 500th post.

this was not a genius idea in any way shape or form.

i am not a genius.

but i did it anyway, so now i present to you:

five-hundred-fucking-facts about monster house

enjoy. 

KENZI

1) Kenzi was abandoned as a baby 2) She was adopted by Monster House 3) She does not know when her birthday is 4) Her best friend growing up was Toby 5) Kenzi thought she was a vampire when she was a kid 6) She went around biting people’s necks for weeks 7) Kenzi loves photography, Instagram, and modelling 8) She has ran four marathons and six 10ks 9) She has been dying her hair since she was 14 10) Kenzi’s favourite chocolate brand is Cadbury’s 11) She loves cooking and hosting parties 12) She hates being human and wishes she was a monster too 13) She is almost fluent in French 14) Kenzi has no idea what she wants to be when she’s older 15) She never wants to leave Monster House 16) Kenzi is always chewing gum

HARLOW 17) Harlow dyes her hair black 18) She plays drums because her dad told her it was for boys 19) She plays basketball because her dad told her it was for boys 20) Her mum died three years ago and Harlow has never got over it 21) She lives with her dad, their relationship is recovering 22) Harlow won’t leave the house without a beanie 23) She loves video games like overwatch and call of duty 24) She is absolutely shit at video games 25) Doritos are her favourite snack 26) Harlow has lost count of how many cousins she has 27) If she could be any monster, she’d be a vampire 28) She’s in a college band called ‘4am’ 29) They’ve played three actual gigs so far 30) Harlow wants to be in a famous band 31) Harlow does NOT want to ever get a real job 32) She writes a lot of songs 33) Nobody will ever see these songs 34) She hates the beach 35) The only thing she hates more than the beach is spelling errors 36) She also hates vegetables and weather over 20 degrees C 37) She loves the sound of rain and thunder 38) She hoards TV boxsets and prefers them over Netflix 39) She loves antique stores and charity shops 40) She has an impressive vinyl collection

TOBY 41) Toby is bisexual but prefers guy 42) He’s known he was bisexual since discovering Tom Holland 43) His favourite superhero is Iron Man 44) Spider man is a close second 45) Toby wanted to be a superhero when he was a kid 46) Now he wants to be a super villain (#edgyteen) 47) He’s enrolled in school part time 48) Avoiding sunlight makes school difficult 49) The kids at school joke that he’s a vampire because of this 50) They don’t know why that’s so funny 51) He plays bass guitar but never lets anyone else listen 52) Except Matty. Sometimes he joins in with the ‘drums’ 53) Toby loves going to the skate park at night 54) He once wrote a 500 word essay on why the moon is better than the sun 55) He knows every constellation and loves stargazing 56) He loves sitting on his dad’s balcony and watching the stars 57) Toby doesn’t know who his mum is 58) Metal and rock music is his favourite 59) He chews on his finger to satisfy his desire to bite things 60) Sometimes he’s tempted to see if he could bite his finger off 61) He never has 62) Toby loves tomato ketchup 63) Immortality intimidates him 64) He only wears band tee shirts 65) He starts wearing beanies everywhere after meeting Harlow 66) Toby idolises Harlow 67) His favourite food is pancakes with chocolate sauce 68) Kenzi makes him pancakes to apologise after they fight 69) Toby buys her bars of chocolate to apologise 70) Kenzi and Toby bicker a lot 71) They are also best friends 72) Toby’s favourite period of history is the Roman emperors 73) Caligula was his favourite emperor 74) Toby almost turned Kenzi when they were 14 75) He despises pop music 76) Kenzi and Toby fight over nothing more often than pop music 77) Custard makes him want to throw up

KAI 78) Kai has six older sisters 79) He is one of two guys in the witches coven 80) He speaks French and Italian (almost) fluently 81) He volunteers at the local animal shelter 82) He does not get along with his family 83) Kai tries to fit in but he isn’t very good at it 84) He gets very upset if his hair doesn’t look right 85) He struggles with dysphoria but his parents won’t let him get T 86) Kai loves doing jigsaws and watching reality shows 87) He listens to music to drown out his parents arguments 88) His oldest sister Natalia is his favourite 89) She cut his hair and bought him guys clothes after he came out 90) Natalia plays board games with him and helps with homework 91) Kai loves baking - especially banana bread 92) He hates bananas but could eat banana bread all day 93) Being a witch is hard and he’s really really bad at it 94) Kai once turned a dining room chair into a frog 95) He also turned his mother’s earrings into a donkey 96) They never let him keep the animals 97) Pop music and indie rock are his favourites 98) Kai is scared of the dark 99) Science and maths make no sense to him 100) He plans on leaving the witches coven when he’s 18

PHILLIP 101) Philip is a history professor at Seabrooke University 102) He was born in 1893 under the reign of Queen Victoria 103) He campaigned with the suffragettes - and even broke a window once 104) He is a hardcore liberal and despises the conservative party 105) He attended the 1908 summer Olympics held in London 106) He once had a fling with a maid of George V’s 107) Phillip had entered a competition to be on the titanic 108) He was an engineer during world war 2 109) His nose was broken at a protest for women to be given degrees 110) Phillip has been married three times 111) The first died, the second left him for another man 112) The third was a Vegas marriage about 30 years prior 113) Phillip is straight - but he’s experimented extensively in the past 114) He does the newspaper crossword puzzle every morning 115) He bans TV until after 3pm 116) Phillip moved to Monster House in the 70’s 117) He despises the movie ‘Twilight’ above all else 118) He is the one who decided to adopt Kenzi 119) Phillip is essentially in charge of Monster House 120) He adores barbecues with his family 121) He hates Russia, incorrect grammar, and coffee

MATTY 122) Toby brought a stray dog in one day 123) The next morning, a toddler was asleep in their living room 124) Phillip decided to keep him 125) His hobbies include chewing people’s shoes and phone chargers 126) He has broken exactly seven bones 127) There is no soul clumsier than Matty 128) His face is full of freckles and his cheeks are always red 129) He runs everywhere 130) He wants to be a footballer or an astronaut when he’s older 131) Matty breaks Phillip’s morning TV ban so he can watch cartoons 132) His favourite game is fetch 133) Toby created a machine for him that throws a ball over and over 134) Matty hates it - he likes playing with an actual person 135) His wolf form is small, fluffy and a little too blonde 136) Phillip has been assured that he will get less blonde as he grows up 137) Toby once tried to enter him in a dog competition 138) They won £20 and bought the biggest ice creams they could 139) Matty loves porridge almost as much as he loves shoes and Toby 140) He has an imaginary friend called Boris who he blames for everything

CALLIE 141) Callie is half fae and half human 142) Her full name is Calypso, but everybody calls her Callie 143) She cannot tell lies, but is excellent at talking around the truth 144) She’s introverted and shy - but also amazing at public speaking 145) She wants to be a legal aid barrister 146) Her hair is naturally brown but she dyes it red 147) She plays acoustic guitar in 4am - the same band as Harlow 148) Her roommate is a werewolf but she doesn’t know about it yet 149) She has travelled to France and Italy 150) But she wants to travel the world 151) Her bedroom walls are covered in maps 152) She has an emergency supply of snacks in a room at all times 153) Her biggest dream is to have her own library room once day 154) With a secret bookshelf door, of course 155) Her lava lamp and beanbags are her prized possessions 156) She does not have a good relationship with her parents 157) She struggles with insomnia and rarely sleeps 158) Coffee is her one true love 159) She adores long car rides and she adores driving 160) She works part time at a coffee shop 161) Her car is her other prized possession 162) Callie can devour bags of skittles in an instant 163) She forgets everything in her personal life 164) And remembers everything in her academic life 165) She loves fire and will sit and stare at it for hours 166) Sometimes she goes to the local aquarium to study 167) Change is her worst enemy - everything needs to be consistent 168) She has been a straight A student all her life 169) She goes for a long walk every Saturday afternoon 170) Callie writes songs when she’s feeling bad

MILO 171) Hiding antlers in public is the bane of his existence 172) He is part of a group who want to tell humans about monsters 173) Milo does not particularly like humans 174) He has curly blonde hair that is usually a mess 175) One of his eyes is darker blue than the other 176) He loves blanket forts and fairy lights and hot chocolate 177) He has a part time job delivering pizzas 178) This means he gets a discount on pizzas, which he takes advantage of 179) Percy Jackson is the main reason he’s doing a classics degree 180) He enjoys writing fantasy books in his free time 181) He is reasonably fluent in Ancient Greek and Latin 182) ‘Out of Bounds’ signs are a welcoming invitation to Milo 183) He will explore everything and anything 184) Milo wants to travel to South America the most 185) He has two mums 186) They both adore Callie 187) He goes rock climbing in his free time 188) This is so he can climb trees, fences, and monuments better 189) He claims he’s climbed several mountains 190) Callie does not believe this claim 191) He was not raised in Seabrooke and had few monster friends as a kid 192) Milo is a nymph 193) His father is one of his mother’s best friends - also a nymph 194) His ‘father’ taught him to garden and to bake 195) Milo never called him dad - he was always Uncle Barney 196) He loves growing his own flowers 197) Nymph magic allows him to grow the most beautiful plants and flowers 198) It also allows him to bake exceptional cakes and cookies 199) He adores his younger brother and sister 200) He is double jointed and left handed

KENZI AND HARLOW 201) Making out is their favourite pastime 202) Harlow spends most of her free time at Monster House 203) They enjoy joking about how ‘platonic’ their relationship is 204) Kenzi loves cooking for Harlow 205) They spend a lot of time watching TV shows together 206) Stranger Things and Friends were their last binge-watches 207) Harlow is always invited round for Friday Board Game Night 208) Kenzi constantly steals Harlow’s clothes 209) Harlow loves playing with Kenzi’s hair 210) Harlow loves holding Kenzi’s hand 211) Harlow just loves touching Kenzi as much as possible 212) They both have a years pass to the local petting zoo 213) Kenzi goes to all of Harlow’s band gigs and basketball games 214) She wants to set up a cheer leading squad for the basketball team 215) Harlow just wants to see Kenzi in a cheerleader costume 216) Harlow asked Kenzi to be her girlfriend 217) Kenzi said I love you first 218) They’re planning on getting an apartment together after graduating 219) Also a dog 220) Harlow adores getting Kenzi to play (and fail at) video games 221) Kenzi is a massive flirt - Harlow does not appreciate it 222) Harlow once stabbed Kenzi on the hand whilst cooking together 223) Kenzi and Harlow do not cook together 224) They bicker a lot 225) But Harlow adores Kenzi more than anything else, and vice versa

TOBY AND KAI 226) Toby only got the guts to ask Kai out because his dad made him 227) They are polar opposites in just about every way 228) Toby didn’t know what being transgender meant before meeting Kai 229) Toby calls Kai ‘sunshine’ 230) Kai calls Toby ‘grumpy guts’ for the most part 231) They fall asleep on the phone together a lot 232) They also fall asleep in the same bed a lot 232) Kai’s parents do not like vampires so they don’t know about Toby 233) They met through the Monster House toddler group when they were kids 234) They both went to the Monster House study group as kids/teenagers 234) Nowadays, they ‘study’ in Toby’s room instead 235) Kai drove Toby mad up until very recently 236) It wasn’t exactly love at first site 237) Toby threw up on Kai - the hatred only grew from there 238) Over time, Toby developed a soft spot for Kai 239) Nowadays, Kai still drives him crazy, but in a good sorta way 240) They have every intention of moving in together after school ends 241) Kai has a drawer of clothes at Toby’s place 242) Toby has punched six people in defence of Kai 243) One was an eleven year old. He has no regrets 244) Toby frequently takes Kai stargazing 245) Toby also taught him how to skate 246) Kai speaks French to Toby and he loves it 247) Sometimes Kai takes Toby to volunteer at the animal shelter with him 248) Their biggest fights are over pop music and science 249) They plan on getting a turtle when they move in together 250) Kai loves sitting on Toby’s lap 251) He also loves stealing his sweaters 252) He also loves fixing his hair 253) He frequently picks flowers for Toby and spends hours arranging them 254) Kai also loves falling asleep on Toby 255) Toby kisses Kai’s cheek a lot 256) Toby adores Kai, but he rarely admits to it 257) He took Kai to a Troye Sivan concert in February 2019 258) Kai sends Toby selfies a lot throughout the day 259) Toby saves every single one to his phone - but won’t admit to it 260) Toby’s dad r e a l l y wants him to marry Kai

CALLIE AND MILO 261) They met when they were both searching an abandoned church 262) They thought the other was a ghost 263) For the longest time, Callie was ‘ghost girl’ in Milo’s phone 264) Their first date was in Starbucks 265) But they tell people it was back in that abandoned church 266) They are both too terrified to ever go back to that church 267) They have plants to travel the world together 268) Callie’s phone background is Milo and his messy bed head 269) Milo’s background is Callie in one of his sweaters 270) Callie hoards Milo’s sweaters 271) Milo practically lives at Callie’s apartment so he doesn’t mind 272) Callie only really sleeps when she’s with Milo 273) Milo likes playing with her hair while she reads out loud 274) The sound of her voice calms his anxiety 275) Callie frequently plays guitar and sings for Milo 276) He considers himself her number one fan 277) Callie likes listening to him ramble about history and classics 278) She often falls asleep while he talks - he never seems to notice 279) Callie drives Milo everywhere 280) Milo always makes the best road trip playlists and snacks 281) Milo’s mum’s adore Callie 282) They go for family dinner every other Sunday 283) They are going to Greece together over the summer holidays 284) Their opinions on monster politics differ wildly 285) Callie enjoys teaching Milo how to play guitar 286) Milo grows his own flowers to give Callie 287) He also enjoys cooking for her 288) Sometimes he brings her breakfast in bed 289) He usually gets a blowjob in exchange for this 290) They make a game out of fucking in as many places as they can 291) This has included: the grocery store, a church, the forest 292) Milo’s parents frequently bring up marriage 293) They’re both quite content with how things are 294) One day, they’d both like a small wedding in Europe somewhere 295) Zoos, petting farms, and aquariums are their favourite dates 296) Milo is basically Callie’s pillow 297) Callie writes songs for Milo 298) Her parents do not approve of her dating a Nymph 299) Callie’s roommates adore Milo and love that he basically lives there 300) They fight about how much wardrobe space Milo takes up frequently

BACKGROUND CHARACTERS 301) Callie’s roommate is a werewolf 302) She doesn’t know that Callie isn’t human and vice versa 303) Werewolf roommate (Arya)’s family is originally from India 304) Arya loves escape rooms 305) Callie loves petting Arya in wolf form 306) Milo is the only one who questions why there’s a wolf in the kitchen 307) But Milo still feeds Arya-in-wolf-form blueberry muffins 308) Bruce the Minotaur has lived in Monster House forever 309) Nobody really knows where or when Bruce came from 310) He has a very distinctive Greek accent 311) Bruce makes the best waffles 312) And he knits a damn good scarf and woolly socks 313) Which is incidentally what everybody gets for their birthday 314) Sheryl the Siren is like a crazy aunt to the kids in Monster House 315) She auditioned for X Factor once - she didn’t get in 316) Her vocal inspirations are beyonce and mariah carey 317) Sheryl is married to Mary-Anne the Mermaid 318) Mary-Anne lives in the coves behind Monster House 319) Sheryl loves singing for Mary-Anne 320) Maybe it’s the water-clogged ears, but Mary-Anne enjoys the singing 321) They had a beautiful beach wedding twelve years ago 322) Kenzi was a flower girl, Toby was a page boy 323) There is a ghost living in the attic of Monster House 324) It never seems to come out 325) Bruce sits outside the attic door each night to keep it company 326) Sometimes it likes to play drums with pots and pans 327) Nobody really has a name - it’s just ‘the ghost in the attic’ 328) They leave cookies for it at Christmas - they always get eaten 329) Sometimes Matty gets there first 330) Grace the Gorgon is an interior designer 331) She wears a veil-like head cover to hide the snake hair 332) Most humans just assume the head cover/snake hair is a new trend 333) Grace constantly redecorates Monster House 334) The house usually puts everything back overnight 335) Monster House does not like change 336) Grace is a wanted felon for the murder of a man named Perseus 337) Humans seem to be destined to forever walk past Monster House 338) Thus, Grace has never been caught 339) It is rumoured that she was once called Penelope 340) Nobody quite knows what Perseus did to warrant murder 341) Nobody quite trusts Grace with a knife, either

SEABROOKE 342) Seabrooke is a small, sleepy seaside town in southern England 343) It is the suburban hot spot for Monster life 344) Seabrooke has a population of 4,500 345) Around 250 of these are monsters 346) For some reason, Seabrooke has it’s own university 347) Nobody really knows why - it’s possible Phillip had a role in this 348) Seabrooke has two primary schools, a secondary, and a sixth form 349) It gets a lot of tourists during the summer 350) Everybody hates the tourists - especially Monsters

WITCHES COVEN 351) When Bruce the Minotaur gets sick - he can’t be taken to the doctors 352) The Witches Coven is the main place Monsters go when they’re sick 353) Witches are difficult creatures and the Coven are no different 354) If you get on their bad side, they’ll refuse you service 355) The Witches Coven therefore practically run the town 356) There are three families that make up the Coven 357) Admittance is only to witches with the blood of prestigious families 358) Kai is part of the Witches Coven 359) Kai’s family practically runs the Witches Coven 360) There is a lot of tension between the Witches and Phillip 361) Largely because they both have a lot of influence over Seabrooke 362) Regardless, Phillip still genuinely likes Kai 363) The Witches tend to be high maintenance and spoilt 364) The parents are like the worst white suburban soccer mums ever 365) Regardless, they are excellent at healing magic 366) But also excellent at ruining your life 367) They have definitely killed a few monsters - but it cannot be proved

LOCAL NEWSPAPER 368) The Daily Seabrooke is ran by shapeshifters 369) Nobody remembers when the TDS was started 370) Philip adores it for the crosswords 371) Apparently the crosswords are ‘out of this world’ 372) TDS is ran by a group of crazy looking students 373) Of course, they’re shapeshifters, so they’re probably all 1000+ 374) The shapeshifters behind TDS don’t mingle with other monsters 375) At least not as themselves 376) They report on human politics and news as well 377) Only monsters are sold the copies with monster news included 378) Half of TDS is gossip about the people in Seabrooke 379) Nobody is really safe from their snooping 380) Their methods include being a literal fly on the wall 381) Most breakups, Witches Coven drama, and Vamp/Wolf fights are put in 382) TDS is extremely controversial amongst Monsters in Seabrooke 383) Kenzi thinks it’s fucking hilarious

SEABROOKE UNIVERSITY 384) The University is crawling with monster life 385) Several professors are monsters 386) Most notably are Phillip and Steven 387) Phillip teaches Modern History 388) Steven teaches Medieval History 389) Phillip is a Vampire, Steven is a Werewolf 390) They have a competition for who gets History Professor Of The Year 391) This competition frequently gets out of hand 392) Everybody knows about their rivalry, few knows why 393) Nobody knows how long the two have worked there - most say forever 394) That wouldn’t be far from the truth 395) Steven happens to be Arya (Callie’s Roommate)’s father

MONSTER HOUSE 396) Monster House is practically alive 397) It constantly expands and shrinks 398) There are always exactly as many rooms as are necessary 399) Only the first floor can be seen by passersby 400) And they often walk straight past it 401) Ordering pizza is a nightmare 402) It’s like the human brain cannot comprehend where it is 403) Even though it’s in an incredibly obvious location 404) When they do see it, they see only a normal house 405) The construction of the house makes no sense 406) There are rooms hanging over nothing and stairs leading to nowhere 407) Sometimes bedrooms move and finding them is a nightmare 408) The living room and kitchen like to switch places 409) On Monday’s the kitchen is green and nobody knows why 410) It is black and white the rest of the time 411) It is almost impossible to paint or decorate Monster House 412) It prefers to do that itself 413) Somehow the bedrooms always look exactly how they are wanted 414) At least they save on paint - that shit is expensive 415) Unfortunately, Monster House doesn’t clean itself 416) Toby has registered several complaints about this

LULU 417) Lulu’s full name is Lucifer 418) It has been living in the basement since the beginning 419) It has only been seen by four people 420) Phillip and Kenzi are two of those 421) They call it Lulu because Kenzi couldn’t pronounce Lucifer as a kid 422) The nickname kinda stuck 423) Lulu gets fed raw fish every morning 424) They just dump a bucket full down the hatch in the kitchen 425) Sometimes Toby threatens to feed Matty to Lulu 426) This causes Matty to have nightmares and sleep in Toby’s bed 427) So that one kinda backfired on Toby 428) Nobody actually knows what kind of creature Lulu is

MISC. FACTS 429) Harlow’s favourite song is ‘Lights Down Low’ by Max 430) Seabrooke is not on any map - nobody knows why 431) I really regret this 432) Never ever try to write 500 facts it will not be fun 433) Callie’s favourite kind of law is criminal law 434) Particularly fatal offences 435) She also likes land law because she’s fucking weird 436) Kai got into reality TV because of his sisters 437) One of the arcades in Seabrooke is monster themed 438) Toby works there on Saturdays - always taking the night shifts 439) Kai really wants to own his own bakery one day 440) He tried to get the local bakery to hire him but he’s too young 441) Kai also wants to live in France or Italy 442) He also wants to be on reality shows and get a fake tan 443) (Okay. Toby is pretty sure he was joking about that) 444) Kai always has to wish on a lucky star 445) Milo wants to be a published author one day 446) Kai has tried to run away from home twice 447) His parents put a tracking spell on him and found him too fast 448) Toby wishes he could skate at the park with the other kids 449) But he also secretly likes that everyone finds him mysterious 450) Toby used to have a (massive) crush on Kenzi 451) Now they’re both pretty gay 452) Everyone is gay tbh 453) Monsters have no concept of heteronormativity 454) Kenzi’s favourite colour is pink 455) Callie’s favourite animal is an octopus 456) Kai has a picture of him and Toby stuck on his bedroom wall 457) Kai has had a crush on Toby since they were kids 458) Coming out as trans wrecked Kai’s relationship with his parents 459) It is seen as a disgrace for witches to have male sons 460) Men are submissive in witch culture 461) Kai’s parents frequently misname and misgender him 462) The kids at school are much more accepting 463) Kai came out when he was 14 464) Toby has actually been one of his biggest supporters 465) Natalia has been his main supporter as well 466) Toby likes Kai a lot more since he came out 467) Kai feels more real to him now - and irritates him less 468) Toby doesn’t know how long Kai has liked him for 469) Kai is pretty open about being trans 470) Seabrooke is quite accepting, even if his parents aren’t 471) Kenzi is terrified of being rejected by the monster community 472) She really wants Toby to turn her so she can be an actual monster 473) She wears contact lenses so her eyes look purple 474) She doesn’t really like school and puts the bare minimum effort in 475) Harlow is taking four a levels - a difficult thing to do 476) Fuck this was the worst idea 478) Harlow channels her anger out through drumming 479) It’s therapist mandated so her dad cannot stop her 480) Even though he very very much wants to 481) Harlow’s favourite video game is overwatch 482) Her mains are lucio, junk rat, bastion and rein 483) Harlow despises spelling and grammar errors 484) Matty likes stealing Toby’s tee shirts 485) Between Matty & Kai, Toby barely has any clothes left 486) Which is fine as far as Kai’s concerned 487) Matty is like a little brother to Kai 488) Originally, Callie & Arya were part of a polygamous relationship 489) I cut that out, though, because I couldn’t think of a third girl 490) Seabrooke tends to have mild weather 491) During the summer, the heat can spike to 25-30 C max 492) It rarely snows, but it does rain a lot, and there’s a lot of wind 493) Most of the houses in Seabrooke were built 100ish years ago 494) It has a train station - nobody knows why - it’s the last stop 495) There is a Seabrooke museum ran by a vampire and a Fae 496) There is a secret monster section in the back 497) Idle Town by Conan Gray reminds me of Seabrooke 498) As does This Town by Neil Horan (I think that’s the name idk) 499) Fuck you to @livvywrites for not stopping me 500) I am never doing this again

tag list: @livingthelovelylife, @commasinsidequotes, @4kidsopfan, @thatworldinverted, @livvywrites @ravenpuffwriter @the-writer-turned-procrastinor @livingthelovelylife  (ask to be added or removed more likely after this shit)

[contrivedcoincidences6]

15 from the fictional kiss prompts 😉

Alright so I feel like this is a bit ooc but I feel pretty good about it! Thank you for the prompt :)

15. a gentle “i love you” whispered after a soft kiss, followed immediately by a stronger kiss

It’s the day of Diana Fowley’s funeral and I wish I felt worse than I do. I’m not happy that she is dead but I’m not very sad either. My pain is for Mulder.  He’s already lost so many and I worry that one more will tip him over the edge. What if this is it? I know they were close. Very close. I’ve suspected that they’d gotten back together. And in my darker moments, I imagined pulling the trigger on her myself.

She’s the woman who came in and messed things up. But when I really think about it I know that if it was that easy to draw Mulder away things were already messed up.

We’d slept together twice before her arrival and not once since. All I’ve gotten since she made her appearance is an almost kiss and a meaningful, but not specific declaration.

He’s never made any promises.

Neither did I.

It didn’t make it hurt less when Mulder accused me of taking it personal. Or when she answered his phone while I was in Africa. All of that hurt.

Before this whole mess with the psychiatric ward, I was preparing my resignation.

Diana made a better partner for him anyway.

The strange thing is that he hasn’t shed a tear since I told him of her death. In fact, it was a struggle to convince him to go to her funeral.

I’m driving because I still don’t trust him behind the wheel. He’s sulking because he claims he’s missing a Twilight Zone marathon for this.

“Jesus Mulder, they have Twilight Zone marathons practically every weekend. What the hell is wrong with you? A woman is dead, someone you cared about.”

He crosses his arms and looks out the window, “She betrayed me.”

“She was confused. She did the right thing in the end.”

“And I’m supposed to forgive everything leading up to that?”

“No. But you should at least mourn. She was a big part of your life.”

He makes a strangled sound somewhere between a laugh and a cry, “Yeah ten years ago she was.”

I frown, “And recently. You’re doing her a disservice to just move on so quickly.”

He turns to me, irritated.

“Since when are you her big defender?”

“Since she helped me save you. Since she is dead.”

He shakes his head, “She’s dead because she got involved with the wrong crowd.”

“Dammit Mulder!” I’m suddenly angry and I’m not sure why “How can you be so cool about this? Last week you were fucking her and now you're saying she deserved to die! You can’t just turn off feelings like that!”

Mulder gapes at me, “Fucking her? When?”

I shut my mouth. I don’t want to hear about their relationship. It already hurts too much.

“Nothing… just… I wish you would show just a little respect that’s all.”

“You think we were together? Recently? Scully,” he puts his hand on my arm and I shake him off.

“Scully, I haven’t been with Diana or had romantic feelings for Diana in nearly a decade. You should know that.”

I shake my head hating that he’s lying to spare me. The feeling of humiliation runs deep and I stay silent, hoping we will move on.

“Stop the car.” He says.

“Mulder- no.”

“Stop the car.”

“We’re already running late.”

“Stop the fucking car, Scully!”

And I do. I pull over as soon as I can, put the car into park and stare out the windshield.

“Look at me.”

I don’t.

“Fine. Listen, I had no feelings for Diana beyond that of an affectionate ex and a friend. I still cared for her. I didn’t love her, not anymore.”

I still don’t look at him. And I stay silent, worried that if I talk I’ll say something stupid or start to cry.

“Do you know why?”

I feel the backs of his fingers stroking my cheek.

“Scully look at me.” He says softly and I finally comply.

His face is soft.

I open my mouth to say something, anything, I hadn’t yet decided. But before I can think of anything he kisses me softly.

It’s so tender that I want to cry. It’s not like any of our previous kisses, which had been rushed and passionate. This one is kissing for the sake of it, rather than in hopes of something more.

This isn’t life or death. It’s just the two of us alone and together.

I take in a breath as he pulls away. His hands cup my face and he rests his forehead on mine.

“I love you.” He murmurs and I feel the small puff of air against my lips. I want to kiss him again.

My lips form the words ‘I love you too’ but he’s kissing me before they can escape.

This kiss is urgent. It’s like he is trying to convince me of his words. He wants to imprint them on my lips for the world to see. His teeth bite at me while his tongue plays against my mouth.

Finally, we pull up for air.

“Why would you doubt that?” He asks after a few moments of deep breaths.

“Things changed after she arrived. You never- we never-“ I can’t find the right words but he understands my meaning.

“You never came back for me either. I thought the first two times were flukes that you wanted to forget. And then things got suddenly awkward and tense. When you didn’t mention what happened before Antarctica… I figured you had moved on.”

I shake my head.

“I love you too.”

“Good.”

He kisses me again but I pull away.

“We are still going to this funeral Mulder. We will pay respects to a person who was important to your life. She helped to start the x files after all. And in the end, she did love you. And I can relate to that.”

“The difference is that you’d never betray me in the first place.” He says his good mood disappearing.

“Never.”

I put the car into drive and take his hand.

And finally, for the first time, I do mourn Diana. A woman who loved Mulder.

Kissing prompts

[eternalstereksecretsanta]

love letters straight from your heart

For the lovely @poetry-protest-pornography, who listed one of their favorite tropes as “doing something nice for the other and getting caught.” although this didn’t quite turn out to be that, I hope you enjoy anyway ♥

It seemed like a good idea at the time. How much of Stiles’ life was shaped by those words? But this? This was probably one of the worst decisions he had ever made.

After two years of living in the dorms, Stiles was faced with a choice. Either find some people to get a shitty apartment with, or move back home. Between nightmares and training with Deaton, moving back to Beacon Hills made the most sense. The commute was only an hour and he had managed to schedule his on-campus classes to meet only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Everything else he could take online.

But he just had to go complaining about moving back in with his dad to Derek over the summer. In his defense, he never expected Derek to offer his spare room. Because Derek had a house now. A very nice house. And a job.

Honestly, the idea of living somewhere he could be independent, yet still see his dad whenever he wanted was too good to pass up. But now, standing in the fancy kitchen and staring at the yellow sticky note on the coffee maker, he couldn’t help but feel that he’d made a mistake.

DO YOUR OWN DISHES, spelled out in Derek’s blocky hand writing stared back at him. Stiles sighed, scrunching up the yellow square and setting it beside his mug. It was the fifth note he’d found in as many days. One in the bathroom (PICK UP YOUR TOWELS), one on the refrigerator (DON’T DRINK MY BEER), and several others scattered across the house.

It was infuriating. This was the reason Stiles had wanted to sit down and draw up a roommate contract, but Derek’s only stipulation was ‘pay the rent on time.’ Stiles rinsed his mug and dropped it into the dishwasher. It hadn’t even been a week and he was already worrying about making this work.

—

Stiles was stubborn. He told his dad this was for the best, so he was going to stick it out. And Derek wasn’t a bad roommate, really. He worked odd hours because he was the newest deputy on the force, but he was always quiet and neat. Sometimes Stiles didn’t even know he was home.

After the first month, Derek convinced him to take the Toyota to class. It had much better gas mileage, plus meant less wear and tear on the Jeep. So Stiles parked Roscoe in the garage with the Camaro and hung the new set of keys off of his keyring.

All in all, Stiles though they were doing well. Even if they rarely saw each other. (Which, considering the massive crush he had on Derek, was probably for the best. No need to make it weird.)

It had been two weeks without a damn sticky note, so Stiles figured he’d cleaned up his act enough to make Derek happy. Until one morning he came down to a note reading PICK UP YOUR SHIT. It was stuck to the wall above the pile of shoes and sweatshirts and textbooks that had accumulated in the living room.

Stiles sighed heavily before gathering up the mess to take to his room. “This is why we need the expectations outlined,” he grumbled, not even caring if he woke Derek up.

He dumped everything on the floor, grabbed his backpack, and shut the door a tad bit harder than necessary. KEEP YOUR DOOR CLOSED OR CLEAN YOUR ROOM had been the last message and Stiles tried hard to comply. But hell, it was exhausting trying to remember all of the rules. Maybe he should have kept the notes instead of crumpling each one and throwing it away.

—

For the first two months living together, Stiles could count on one hand the number of times he’d actually spoken to Derek. Part of it was his crazy schedule, with classes and training with Deaton and hanging out with his dad. And the rest was Derek’s apparent preference for night shifts. In fact, it wasn’t until mid-October that Derek finally confronted Stiles about his sleeping habits.

Stiles was neck deep in practice tests when the door to the garage swung open. Derek dropped his work bag on the kitchen floor and slipped into the chair across from him. There were notecards, loose leaf papers, and multiple notebooks spread across the table between them.

Derek took in the chaos and sighed. “Why are you still up?”

“Stupid exam tomorrow.” Stiles didn’t even look away from his screen. The words stopped making sense an hour ago, but there was no way he could remember this many conjugations.

“Go to bed.” Derek gently slid the laptop out of range. “You can’t learn anything when you’re this tired.”

“But…” Stiles’ protest died as Derek fixed him with a look. It clearly conveyed that he wasn’t listening to arguments. Defeated, Stiles leaned back in his chair and yawned widely. Ugh. It was almost four in the morning.

The next day was brutal. Stiles rolled out of bed at eight o’clock to an alarm that he didn’t remember setting. He stumbled down the stairs, trying not to wake Derek with his heavy footfalls. But when he went to pull the milk out of the refrigerator, the sight of a yellow sticky note on the door made him freeze.

In neat capital letters, it said: GOOD LUCK TODAY. There was even a smiley face. Was this the Twilight Zone?

Stiles stared, then blinked several times. But the words didn’t disappear.

He smiled the entire duration of his morning routine, stopping to stick the note to the inside cover of his Latin textbook before he left. Then he hopped into Derek’s Toyota and drove to school.

He aced the exam.

—

Several weeks passed and Derek was already out on his night shift when Stiles shuffled in from school. He’d had an incredibly long day, filled with lectures and labs and finishing a stupid group project. Finding a familiar yellow note hanging from the microwave didn’t fill him with dread anymore. Especially not when it said: DINNER’S IN THE FRIDGE.

Stiles heated up the leftovers, feeling exhausted and content. Derek had even made his absolute favorite because he knew today was going to suck.

It was difficult not to read into Derek’s little acts of kindness, and Stiles was crushing harder with every note. The newest one was going to hang alongside DON’T FORGET YOUR LUNCH, and SCOTT SAYS HELLO, and DON’T WORRY I’LL BUY MORE COFFEE TONIGHT, and HAVE A GOOD DAY. That last note had Stiles grinning like a lunatic, to the point where Deaton asked if everything was alright.

So all in all, life with Derek was good. Stiles just had to keep reminding himself that Derek was a friend and not his co-lead in some rom-com about a werewolf and a spark who live together and fight crime. Although that would probably be an awesome idea for a TV show.

Shaking his head at the thought, Stiles loaded his dishes into the dishwasher and headed up to bed.

—

Halfway through the semester, Stiles’ three accelerated online classes had finals. He was super excited because that meant he’d be down to only two classes. His work load was about to be so much easier, and he might even have time to catch up on Netflix

The only problem was that the exams had to be scheduled at the proctoring center on campus. And because he was an idiot, he scheduled them all back to back. How he was going to survive six hours of testing was a mystery.

But Derek stayed up with him every night for a week, flipping through notecards and quizzing him on what he knew. Plus, he promised to take the night off and have a movie marathon once Stiles got home. Because Derek’s house was ‘home’ now and Derek was one of his best friends.

Sure enough, a yellow square saying: YOU’VE GOT THIS was already in his spot on the kitchen table. Stiles grinned at the note, peeling it away so he could add it to his collection.

—

On a typical Thursday night, Derek tapped at the door and stepped into Stiles’ room. Which he had never actually been in before. It seemed kind of weird, now that Stiles thought about it. He glanced over at the mountain of three week old laundry in the corner that was offensive to even his human nose and, well maybe not.

Marking his page, he set the textbook on his desk. “Hey, what’s up?”

Derek didn’t respond. He was staring at the bed with a slightly dazed expression. Then Stiles remembered the little yellow squares affixed to the headboard in neat rows.

He flushed, not really sure what to say. “Was there something that you wanted?”

Derek tore his eyes away. “I just wanted to make sure you were ready.”

Right. This morning’s note read WE’RE HAVING DINNER WITH YOUR DAD. It was a nice reminder of the fact that Derek was taking fewer night shifts. Sometimes he was even around to hang out with.

“Give me a second.” Stiles glanced down at his ratty sweatpants and stained t-shirt. Man did he need to do laundry.

He emerged from his room in more appropriate clothes and followed Derek out to the Camaro.

They were halfway to his house when Derek broke the silence. “You kept the notes.”

“Yup.” Because, obviously.

—

Stiles rushed home from school. It was the last day of the semester and normally he’d be ecstatic to have his freedom back. But this time, he was too nervous. Honestly he had no idea what he was thinking that morning. Maybe he could still get back in time to take that idiotic note off of the counter.

He parked in the driveway and sprinted to the door, hands shaking as he unlocked it. When the door finally clicked open, he crashed into the kitchen. The shower upstairs was running. Fuck. Maybe he could call it a friend dinner? People probably made reservations at the fanciest restaurant in town for friend dinners all the time. Right?

Stiles’ panicked eyes landed on the note. His hurried scrawl: Dinner at Luka’s? 6pm was followed by Derek’s blocky print spelling out: IT’S A DATE and underlined three times.

Sagging against the counter, Stiles took a deep breath. He knew he hadn’t imagined the last few weeks. Derek was home all the time now, only taking shifts while Stiles was training or at school. Which meant they spent most of their day bickering over recipes and watching crappy television.

It was awesome and domestic and Stiles couldn’t wait to date the hell out of Derek Hale.

—

(And five years later, they visited Luca’s again. But this time, Stiles’ drink came with a sticky note asking WILL YOU MARRY ME?)

[leigh-kelly]

Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot

A little New Year sequel to my Christmas fic Same Old Lang Syne:

It snows in New York on New Year’s Eve. Normally, with the weather like that, you’d lay on the couch all day and watch movies, but not this year. This year, Asha is moving out of the apartment you’ve shared for nearly the last decade of your life, and you’re not sure how to feel about it. It’s not the divorce you’re unsure of. Having seen Santana on Christmas Eve, you’re more certain than ever of the choice you made, but it’s a strange feeling, letting go of someone who’s been your partner and your wife for so long. She packs the rest of her things, belongings divided up, and you watch, because there’s nothing else you can do. She’s found a new place to live, and you’re going to carry on with your life where you were. You feel strange about the whole thing, you’re not sad, but you know that she is. You wish you could have been better for her, because she tried so hard to be good for you.

When the last of her boxes and the divided furniture is out of the apartment, things feel empty. You’ll have to buy new things to fill the space, but when you’ll do it, you’re not certain. You have a few weeks off before the next semester of school starts, and maybe you’ll wander around Crate and Barrel during that time. You’ll be alone in the store, you’ll be alone in your life, and it pangs you, deeper than you know how to express. This isn’t the way things should have worked out, your life shouldn’t have gone this way, but instead of your soon to be ex-wife, you find yourself thinking about the lover that could have been.

Unsure of what to do with yourself, you finally find the couch and your television movies. You flip past a marathon of The Twilight Zone, and you find It’s a Wonderful Life on AMC. You hate the movie with a passion, and you think George Bailey is kind of an idiot, but you watch it anyway. You think this is what loneliness really feels like, even though you’ve been lonely for fifteen years, and you find that you can’t get warm under the blankets on the couch. You’re forty years old, and you don’t know what to do with your life. Everything feels overwhelming, and you figure the best thing to do is worry about the upcoming semester. Work will give you something to do, work, like it always has, will fill the loneliness deep within your heart.

A little after five, the phone rings. It’s a number you don’t recognize, and you consider letting it go to voicemail. You think about how you should be calling your mother, telling her that you’re getting a divorce. You think about how you should probably call Asha, to see if she managed to get everything into her new apartment, since you promised to remain friends. But instead, you pick up for the unknown number. You’re lonely, and even if it’s a telemarketer, at least you’ll have a few minutes of distraction before you return to the despair of utter solitude.

“Hello?” You answer, and there’s a silence on the other end of the line. “Hello?”

“Uh, hey, Brittany.”

“Santana?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“What’s…um, what’s going on?”

“Nothing really. I just got to my dressing room at the New Year’s Rockin’ Eve party. I don’t even know why I’m calling you. I was going to give you a few months to sort out your life before I did, but…” She hesitates on the other end of the line, and you take a deep breath. “I haven’t stopped thinking about you since I saw you.”

“Yeah…neither have I. My w—Asha just moved out today, so…I guess I’m getting to the point where I’m sorting out my life, even though it feels like a fucking disaster right now.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m watching It’s a Wonderful Life, so…”

“I thought you hated that movie?”

“You remember that?” You ask, surprised by the fact that she does.

“You kind of made a big deal about it every Christmas. You said it was the most depressing movie on the face of the planet, and you had no idea why people thought it was a good idea to watch it when they’re supposed to be happy.”

“It’s terrible. The whole thing is a goddamn disaster. I don’t even know why I’m watching it. Maybe I just feel like I’m supposed to suffer today.”

“Because of your…Asha?”

“Among other things.” You shake your head to yourself, and you lower the volume on the television. “It’s just been a rough day. But you don’t want to hear about it, you’re going to perform tonight for like, a zillion people.”

“I am. I shouldn’t have called you, I just couldn’t help myself.”

“I’m glad you did. I wasn’t sure if you would or not.”

“Neither was I.” She confesses. “But yet, here I am.”

“So, you’re performing tonight?”

“I am. Every year for the past thirteen years. It’s been…a dream.”

“I’ve seen you a few times. It was…weird with Ash. I usually tried to avoid seeing you, you know? It kind of put a damper on my New Year.”

“You could have been there with me, you know?”

“Santana…”

“I’m sorry, I’m still a little bitter okay? This was a dream that I wanted so much to share with you. And I have my dream, but I’m alone.”

“I’m alone too. I’ve been alone even when I wasn’t. It’s been heartbreaking knowing that I couldn’t be with you because of what I did. I never wanted anything but the best for you, I just didn’t think being with you was the best for me. I’ll regret that for the rest of my life.”

“New Year’s isn’t the time for regrets, is it?”

“Is it not?” You ask, genuinely curious.

“I don’t know. I guess I have regrets every year. I missed you, Brittany. Everything I did in my career, I thought of you.”

“Never a day went by when I didn’t think of you either. It’s really messed me up, seeing you. I spent Christmas Day a total wreck, trying to pretend everything was normal with Ash for my parents. I still haven’t told them.”

“Are you going to?”

“I have to. I just…my dad was such a wreck after you and I were over, and I hate to do that again. I brought someone into their lives, and now I’ve taken her out.”

“I never thought your dad liked me.”

“My dad loved you. I think he probably owns all of your albums. Asha said she was always trying to keep up with the past. But they loved her too. They knew she was really good for me. I just…couldn’t make it work. She was never you, and she was never going to be you.”

“It’s hard for me to believe that you held onto the memory of me all of these years.”

“Santana, you were always the one for me. I knew that…”

“See me tonight.” She says suddenly, and your face colors, though she can’t see.

“What? You’re performing.”

“See me after. Start the new year with me. Wherever you want. In my dressing room, on a park bench, I don’t care.”

“What about our place?”

“The Waverly Diner?”

“Yeah.” You say, amazed that she actually remembers it. “Have a cup of coffee with me. Say one-am?”

“You hate staying up late.”

“I’ve gotten used to it. I end up grading tests sometimes until two, three o’clock in the morning. I can make it up until you’re finished. I’ll take a nap before you go on, or something.”

“Are you going to watch?”

“This year, I will.”

“Okay, then I’ll have something to say for you. Just…listen, okay?”

“I’ll be listening, Santana. I’ll see you at one. I’ll save the booth.”

You hang up the phone with her, and you go into panic mode. This is the love of your life, the one you screwed things up with so long ago, and you’re seeing her tonight, mere hours after your whole life has changed. You don’t know what to wear, you don’t know how to be, and you turn off that stupid Christmas movie to dig through your closet. You throw everything aside, and you decide on jeans and a sweater. The snow is brutal, and there’s nothing else that makes sense. So you lay it out on the chair in your bedroom, and you busy yourself. You can’t sit around, you need to do something, or else you’re going to go insane. You’ve lived every day with regret, and yet, you can’t regret this. This has to go well. This has to be the new beginning for you. It’s Santana. You broke her heart. There’s no room for accidents.

The whole night, you’re in a state. When you finally settle down on the couch at eleven-pm, fully dressed, after eating takeout sushi in the kitchen, she’s on TV. You think of all the years you couldn’t bear to watch it. The years you’d be at parties with Asha, and she’d watch you leave the room whenever Santana came on. She’s a star, she’s been everywhere, in everything for fifteen years, but this is the first time you’re really taking it in. She sings, and you’re riveted. ‘Cause I’ve been by myself all night long, hoping you’re someone I used to know. You get it, when she said she had something to say for you, and the song makes you a little sick to your stomach. It was just like a movie. It was just like a song. When we were young.

You watch the ball drop alone, and after you ring in the new year, you search for a cab to take downtown. Everything is buzzing in the streets, and the snow still falls as you sit in the back seat of the cab. You feel like you’re moving toward the rest of your life, and moving backward to the life you gave up all at the same time. You’re seeing Santana, in the place you had so many breakfasts, so many lunches when you had class, so many late dinners after she’d get home from traveling. You haven’t been there in fifteen years, and when you walk in the door, you feel like not a day has past, especially when you take the same booth in the corner you always used to sit at.

She walks in only a few minutes later, her face hidden by a hat and sunglasses. It’s a strange thing for you, the idea that the girl you grew up with is so famous that she has to hide her identity, but a long time has passed. She’s someone now. She’s made it to the big time, and you suddenly wonder if you’ll wind up in the tabloids. You hope not, you really hope not. You still haven’t told your parents about your divorce, and you know if they see the two of you together, they’ll know. You think of Asha, how much it will hurt her to see how quickly you wound up back around Santana. But mostly, you think of how you don’t want to try again with her in front of the whole world. You want it to be how it used to, when you had privacy, and you could love her without eyes all over you.

“Hey.” She sits down across from you, and she takes off her hat and glasses. “Sorry I’m late.”

“It’s fine, I just got here, I know the snow and the crowds are bad out there.”

“I know, but I wanted to be on time. It was important to me.”

“We’ll try again next time.” You shrug.

“Next time?”

“I don’t know, is there going to be a next time?”

“I’d like that.” She sighs. “I’m just at a loss as to where we go from here.”

“How about we start with coffee?” You suggest, and she nods.

The waitress brings over coffee and menus, and you study Santana’s face across the table. You can’t help but wonder if she’s had work done, because her skin lacks the lines that have formed on yours. She looks good, she looks really good, and you feel a little self-conscious about your own appearance. You know your hair has the slightest hint of grey in it, and lines have formed around your mouth. You thought maybe it made you look more distinguished, particularly since you’re among the youngest on the faculty in your department, but right now, in comparison to Santana, it makes you feel old. She knew you when you were so young, and she wasn’t there to watch you age gracefully. In her mind, you think, you’re still twenty-five, just like she is in yours, and the whole thing makes you feel strange.

“The show was great tonight.” You finally say.

“You watched?”

“I did.”

“I wasn’t supposed to perform When We Were Young, but I convinced them at the last minute that it was an appropriate New Year song. I wrote it about five years ago, when I came across an article about you in the Times.”

“The Riemann Hypothesis.”

“You solved it. You’d been working on it for so long.”

“Since I graduated high school.” You nod. “I think they thought I’d solve it right away, but it took me more time than I’d hoped.”

“You solved a seemingly unsolvable problem, I don’t think it matters how long it took you.”

“It definitely mattered to my department. They were…really on me about it. If you remember, I don’t work well under that kind of pressure.”

“I know, that’s why you chose NYU over MIT.”

“Partially. I mean, you were here, so it was an easy choice.”

“Do you regret making that kind of choice for me?” She furrows her brow, and you finally notice lines on her face.

“I don’t regret any of the time we had together, I just wish there was more of it.”

“I don’t want to push you, but I’d like to make us have more time. I’m finished with my tour, I’m settling here for a while.”

“And what about your next one?”

“I can’t say there won’t be a next one, Britt. I don’t travel the way I used to, but my career involves some of it. I know that’s something that doesn’t sit right with you.”

“I’m older now, I’m settled.” You shake your head. “I understand that if something happens between us, you’re going to be gone for extended periods of time.”

“Do you want something to happen between us?”

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”

“Even so soon after…”

“It was always you, Santana. Even when you weren’t in my life, it’s always been.”

“I’m concerned about you and the paparazzi. They don’t leave me alone, Brittany. It’s a miracle I made it here without being followed. I’m sure they’re waiting outside my house right now for me to come home. I don’t want to put you through that, especially not while you’re still going through a divorce.”

“It’s something I’m willing to do. I wasn’t, fifteen years ago, but I saw what life without you looked like. It’s like…some kind of fucked up version of It’s a Wonderful Life, or A Christmas Carol, except it didn’t all end in one night. It was my life for too long, thinking about what we could have had if I didn’t leave. I’m willing to make sacrifices if it means I get to be with you again. I don’t want to do another fifteen years where I don’t get to be intimately involved with you.”

“Intimately?”

“Intimately. I mean that in every sense of the word. If there are paparazzi at your place, then we’ll go back to mine. I’ve got nothing but an old doorman named Michael who doesn’t care what I do.”

“You want to go back to your place?”

“Yes…no…I don’t know. My mind is screaming that we should take this really slow, but my heart is just…I missed you, Santana. I missed you more than I’ve ever missed anyone or anything in the world. I don’t want to take it slow, because I want to make up for every minute we lost. I don’t know…”

“I get that. I’m just…so afraid for what’s going to happen. I can’t lose you again.”

“You’re not.” You promise. “I don’t have any plans to go anywhere.”

“Even if it gets hard?”

“Even if it gets hard.”

You sit in that diner and drink coffee until the sun begins to come up. You learn everything you possibly can about the years you were away from her, and you tell her everything about your life. She learns how you broke your arm twice, almost exactly a year apart, because you slipped on ice outside of your building. You learn that her father passed away, and she’s struggled every year since to make sense of the complicated relationship the two of them had. She learns that you’re still dancing, even though it’s hard to fit it into your schedule sometimes. You learn that she’s learned to finally speak fluent Spanish, because hers was so fragmented in the past. You want to know more, more, more, but when daylight comes, she’s afraid she’ll make a spectacle in the diner, and she calls her car to drop you home before she goes home herself.

“Do you want to come up?” You ask, when the car pulls up outside of the building.

“Do you really want me to? You’re not too tired?”

“I don’t want tonight to end. Stay with me, start this year in the way we should have started the last fifteen.”

“Okay.” She nods, and rolls down the partition to talk to her driver. “Robert, you can go on home now. I’ll call you later on, when I need to be picked up.”

“Alright, Miss. Just let me know.”

You get out of the car, and Santana follows you. As much as you’d like to hold her hand in the street, you don’t. If anyone is watching, it’ll be obvious enough what’s about to happen, as pop sensation Santana Lopez goes into the house with a strange woman on the early hours of New Year’s Day, but you don’t need to give any ammunition to the gossip rags that report on her. Instead, you walk a few feet ahead of her, and you hold the door backwards so she can come into the building. You let her into the elevator, and you become a bit self-conscious of her seeing the modest way you live, when she’s probably accustomed to grand opulence. But it’s Santana, so you can’t be bothered much by it as you unlock the door to your apartment, and you let her in, taking her coat.

“Sorry it’s so…empty in here. I have to go shopping this week. Or, like, go on Amazon or something. I don’t know, I haven’t bought furniture in a long time.”

“My place is pretty sparse too.” She shakes her head. “I didn’t really care enough to decorate it, since I’ve spent so much time in hotel rooms. It looks normal to me.”

“Okay.” You nod, glancing down quickly at your phone to see an early morning message from your mother before you toss it away. “Can I get you some coffee? A mimosa? I have champagne.”

“A mimosa would be good. I had no champagne last night, it effects my singing voice, and I try to stay away from it before any performance.”

“Really? I would have thought your lifestyle would be filled with drugs and alcohol and stuff…”

“My life is filled with kale smoothies, yoga, and a personal trainer. I’m pushing forty, and I’m starting to get that…belly thing.”

“Like this?” You pat your own, and she laughs.

“You’re lucky, there aren’t bikini pictures of you on the cover of every magazine the second you gain a little weight. I’d love to eat a giant greasy hamburger and a piece of cheesecake and not have anyone comment on it.”

“I can get you a burger and cheesecake if you want it. I’ve got a great connection called GrubHub.”

“Thanks.” She laughs, sliding out of her shoes. “I might take you up on that…but not at the crack of dawn. Just the mimosa is good for now, that’s enough of a cheat for one day.”

“I don’t think I could live like that…”

“You know I’ve always had a complicated relationship with food. I do miss breadsticks though.”

“One day I’ll buy you a wheelbarrow full of them. Just inhale them all, get a belly pouch, fuck everyone else.”

“Maybe someday…that’s the dream, I think.” She sighs, as you begin making mimosas in your kitchen, glad for the little bit of orange juice you have left.

“Happy New Year.” You hand her one, and you clink one of the two remaining wine glasses in the apartment with hers. They’re cheap ones, since you gave up the Waterford ones when you split your property with Asha, but it doesn’t matter, they do the job.

“What are we toasting to this time?” She asks.

“To new beginnings, maybe?” You suggest. “To not forgetting old acquaintance?”

“We were more than old acquaintances, that’s for sure.”

“It’s true. To the renewal of old love then.”

“So, we’re gonna do this, huh?” She asks you, and you nod emphatically.

“I’m ready to. I’ve been ready for years. Can I get you anything else?”

“No, this is good. Let’s just…sit down?”

“Yeah, totally. Couch is over here…” You point her in the direction, and she sits down, with you close beside her. “Is it cool if I kiss you?”

“I’ve been waiting for it.”

You lean into her, and you press your lips against hers. It feels like so much more than the kiss you shared in the car on Christmas, and you deepen it, putting both of your hands on the sides of her face, and slipping your tongue into her mouth. It’s everything you’ve waited for for fifteen years, it’s everything you’ve needed to feel whole again. When she slips her hands through your hair, you sigh contentedly, and you keep kissing her, until you feel like you can’t breathe any longer.

“Bedroom?” She whispers, and a shiver runs down your spine. You weren’t sure this would happen this morning, but apparently it is, and you just nod, standing up and taking her by the hand.

She lays you down on your bed, and you let her take the lead. It’s not your usual dynamic, but it feels right, and you raise your arms for her to take your shirt off. She hovers over you, and she kisses your neck, the tops of your breasts, your age-softened belly. She looks gorgeous with the early morning light streaming through the window, and you smile up at her, watching as she pulls her sequined top up over her head. She lays over you, and your bra covered breasts press together, making your heart swell with something you can’t quite express. Her body is different, and yet, against yours, it feels exactly the same.

“Gonna go down on you, okay?” She requests, and you feel as if you might explode.

All you can do is nod, and she undresses both you and herself, spreading your legs so she’s bared to you. You can tell by the tentative way she kisses down your body that it’s been awhile since she’s done this, but as if it’s muscle memory, she remembers exactly what it is that makes you tick. Her mouth circles your nipple, and you weave your fingers through her hair, pressing her closer to you. You want her to mark you, you want to be hers again, in every way there is to be. By the time she reaches your sex, you’re arching up into her mouth, and she doesn’t even bother to use her fingers to stroke you, her tongue does all the work, alternating pressure on your clit, before probing inside you. You know that you won’t last long, but you try your best, squeezing your eyes shut so you don’t have to see how gorgeous she looks between your legs. She’s all you’ve wanted for a decade and a half, and you have her, right here in your bed.

“Come for me, Britt.” She husks, looking up at you with her chin damp, and her eyes dark. “C’mon.”

When she lowers her head back down, you do. Your body shakes with pleasure, and she doesn’t stop. It’s like she wants to drink it all in, and you let her. Your thighs lock over her ears, but her tongue keeps moving, in and out, in and out. She’s so good at this, and you forgot about it, having settled for something that didn’t feel right for so long. When she finally brings you down, you push her onto her back, and you dip your fingers between her legs. She’s so wet that it makes you moan, and you bring your fingers to your lips, tasting them, before you do it again, and make her taste herself as well. She loves that, you remember, and she groans deeply, her body shaking as she sees the effect you have on her.

“I’ve been waiting to do this since the last time we did.”

“Brittany…”

“I’m sorry…I just have.”

You pleasure her for as long as she can stand, and when she’s finished, you look up at her, black hair strewn across your white pillow cases. She looks absolutely stunning, and you can’t help but crawl up her body and kiss her lips. You taste yourself on them, you taste her on them, and for the first time in as long as you can remember, you feel this sense of contentment course through your body. She’s here, you’ve made love to her, and you never want to let her walk out the door. You know that you’ll both have to resume your normal lives, and you’ll have to figure out how you’ll even go about resuming a relationship after so many years apart, but right in the moment, you gather her into your arms, and you hold her close.

“I haven’t done that—” She whispers. “Since you.”

“Sex?” You ask, completely shocked by the revelation, but she shakes her head.

“Sex like that. It was…too much for me. Too intimate. I did it other ways, but not like that.”

“I love you.” You murmur, because you’re not sure what else there is to say.

“I love you too, and I can’t let you go again.”

“Please don’t. I feel so…content.”

“That’s the only word I could think of too.” She smiles softly. “It’s going to be hard.”

“I know, but I’m willing to do hard. I want this to work.”

“So do I, Britt. So do I.”

[nyacat39]

So I don’t entirely know why, but I feel like telling this story of how I originally came to hate the anime Vanpire Knight.

So this was like... god almost like seven or eight years ago? I’m bad at remembering dates tbh, but anyways a friend had given me a list of anime recommendations and one of them was Vampire Knight. I promised her I would at least try to watch them over the summer and around the time I was getting to it I went up to my great uncle’s house for about a week with my family.

It was for a family get together, and to enjoy the lake he lived on for a bit but I ended up getting sick. I was feeling nauseous for a while so I ended up staying at the house while they went on a boat ride... except for my Aunt. She stayed behind to keep me company basically, which is fine but well... This is where it leads to a build up.

Basically she was looking for stuff we could watch together on the tv but I just wanted to rest or play video games so I mistakenly said I didn’t care what she put on.... and there was a channel that was doing a Twilight movie marathon. (Also the stations at my great uncles house were limited so I never really watched much up there aside from old Godzilla movies that my great aunt owned.)

She turned that on and I at first tried to ignore it by playing my DS.... did not work for long as she would constantly try to encourage me to pay attention or make commentary that forced me to pay attention... and my battery was getting low and the closest outlet was away from the couch. (Which was also were I was sleeping while up there so yeah...) so I let it charge and try to sleep instead... but I literally can’t fall asleep with the TV on.

My only escape was bathroom breaks but still... I was basically forced to watch the first two movies in a row and it left me in a horrible mood. So when I got back home and was feeling better I decided to watch some anime, and lo and behold I decided to watch Vampire Knight to get the taste of bad vampire romance out of my mouth...

Good god did that fail.

I kept getting Twilight vibes off of the main girl, Yuki I think it was? But was completely sick of it nine episodes in...

Actually I was sick of a lot of vampire stuff for a while after that but hey... I got over it when I watched Black Blood Brothers (underrated older anime in my opinion.) but still... thanks to my Aunt making me watch Twilight I have an intense hatred for Vampire Knight.

If you like Vampire Knight that’s fine, this is just my own personal opinion and a story on how I came to hate it. You’re free to like what you like and hate what you want.

[networkingdefinition]

New Year's Eve Quotes

Official Website: New Year's Eve Quotes

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• A flower is a daisy chain, a graduation, a valentine; a flower is New Year’s Eve and an orchid in your hair; a flower is a single geranium blooming in a tin can on a murky city fire-escape; an acre of roses at the Botanical Gardens; and the first gold crocus of spring! … a flower is a birth, a wedding, a leaving of this life. – Jean Hersey • A happy New Year! Grant that I May bring no tear to any eye When this New Year in time shall end Let it be said I’ve played the friend, Have lived and loved and labored here, And made of it a happy year. – Edgar Guest • A year of ending and beginning, a year of loss and finding… and all of you were with me through the storm. I drink your health, your wealth, your fortune for long years to come, and I hope for many more days in which we can gather like this. – C. J. Cherryh • All of us every single year, we’re a different person. I don’t think we’re the same person all our lives. – Steven Spielberg • An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. – Bill Vaughan • And New Year’s Eve is very, very important to me. – Debbie Harry • And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been – Rainer Maria Rilke • Another fresh new year is here. Another year to live! To Banish worry, doubt and fear, to love and give – William Arthur Ward • Approach the New Year with resolve to find the opportunities hidden in each new day. – Michael Josephson • As a standup comedian, I’ve worked almost every New Year’s Eve of my adult life. It’s the best-paying night of the year. – Elayne Boosler

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'New+Year', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_new-year').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_new-year img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man. – Benjamin Franklin • Calgary wins for my coldest New Year’s Eve gig. That’s when I learned Fahrenheit and Celsius cross at 40 below. I could see callers’ breath coming out of my phone. – Elayne Boosler • celebratin’ New Year’s Eve is like eatin’ oranges. You got to let go your dignity t’ really enjoy ’em. – Edna Ferber • Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. – Oprah Winfrey • Dieting on New Year’s Day isn’t a good idea as you can’t eat rationally but really need to be free to consume whatever is necessary, moment by moment, in order to ease your hangover. I think it would be much more sensible if resolutions began generally on January the second. – Helen Fielding • Do what you do. This Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Eve, Twelfth Night, Valentine’s Day, Mardi Gras, St. Paddy’s Day, and every day henceforth. Just do what you do. Live out your life and your traditions on your own terms. If it offends others, so be it. That’s their problem. – Chris Rose • Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go. – Brooks Atkinson • Each age has deemed the new-born year the fittest time for festal cheer. – Walter Scott • Every man regards his own life as the New Year’s Eve of time. – Jean Paul • Every New Year’s Eve, I have a pact to do something I never thought I’d do. So I created this list. You have to free your mind to do things you wouldn’t think of doing. Don’t ever say no. – Carl Lewis • Every time the ball drop on New Year’s Eve, We toast to more money, we smoke to more cheese. – Prodigy • Every time you tear a leaf off a calendar, you present a new place for new ideas and progress. – Charles Kettering • Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith. – Henry Ward Beecher • For a new year to bring you something new, make a move, like a butterfly tearing its cocoon! Make a move! – Mehmet Murat Ildan • For last year’s words belong to last year’s language And next year’s words await another voice. – T. S. Eliot • For the millennium [New Year’s Eve], you really have a choice to make. You either have to be naked with your head on fire and a shotgun in Bali or else you have to spend time with friends or family around the fireplace. And I’m choosing option B – Tom Morello • For years, I worked seven-day weeks, through birthdays and most public holidays, Christmases and New Year’s Eves included. I worked mornings and afternoons, resuming work after dinner. I remember feeling as if life were a protracted exercise in pulling myself out of a well by a rope, and that rope was work. – Antonella Gambotto-Burke • From New Year’s on the outlook brightens; good humor lost in a mood of failure returns. I resolve to stop complaining. – Leonard Bernstein • Games were moved to New Year’s Eve as part of a plan by college football executives where they want to create a tradition of watching football on New Year’s Eve. – Audie Cornish • Glory to God in highest heaven, Who unto man His Son hath given; While angels sing with tender mirth, A glad new year to all the earth. – Martin Luther • God, do I hate my little fat tits. You ever pinch your little meat tits and wish you were dead? You ever just stand naked in the mirror. “You little fat-titted mediocre failure!” You ever do that for 3 hours on New Year’s Eve. – Jim Norton • Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account. – Oscar Wilde • He who breaks a resolution is a weakling; He who makes one is a fool. – Farquhar McGillivray Knowles • Hope Smiles from the threshold of the year to come, Whispering ‘it will be happier’. – Alfred Lord Tennyson • I always work on New Year’s Eve, no matter what. – Debbie Harry • I don’t even drink! I can’t stand the taste of alcohol. Every New Year’s Eve I try one drink and every time it makes me feel sick. So I don’t touch booze – I’m always the designated driver. – Kim Kardashian • I get myself a gig somewhere, whether it’s in a club, whether it’s in a bar, it doesn’t matter, and I just work on New Year’s Eve because I always feel it’s very symbolic for me for the next year, for the new year. – Debbie Harry • I had a terrible fight with my wife on New Year’s Eve. She called me a procrastinator. So I finished addressing the Christmas cards and left. – Robert Orben • I hate New Year’s Eve. One more chance to remember that you haven’t yet done what you wanted. And to pretend it doesn’t matter. – Gregory Maguire • I have no way of knowing how people really feel, but the vast majority of those I meet couldn’t be nicer. Every once in a while someone barks at me. My New Year’s resolution is not to bark back. – Tucker Carlson • I have spent every New Year’s Eve since 1992 in Lourdes. I spend the hour of my birth every year in the grotto. It’s a place with meaning for me. – Paulo Coelho • I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes…you’re Doing Something. – Neil Gaiman • I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something. – Neil Gaiman • I like to work on New Year’s Eve. It has a nice spirit; a nice feel about it. If you are all about the ‘year-end’ thing at all, then laughing with fellow human beings is a great way to start the new year. – Paula Poundstone • I love watching ‘Twilight Zone.’ New Year’s Eve they do the marathon; I watch it every year. – Gerard Way • I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me. – Anais Nin • I saw Ronnie Hawkins play near my hometown, Port Dover, Ontario, and I saw him play there on New Year’s Eve and the following spring I booked myself to be his opening act on maybe five shows, and he hired me after the first night. – Rick Danko • I think in terms of the day’s resolutions, not the years’. – Henry Moore • I was a total nerd growing up. I’d rather sit home and read a novel on New Year’s Eve and say, ‘Wow, I read the whole thing in one night!’ That was my idea of a big time. – Beth Broderick • I was at a New Year’s Eve party, and someone asked me how was my year, and I said, ‘I honestly think 2011 was the best year of my entire life,’ and I actually meant it. – Dave Grohl • I won’t be going to any New Year’s Eve parties because I think they’re naff. No one over the age of 15 should bother going to parties. – Julie Burchill • i would like to remind the management that the drinks are watered and the hat-check girl has syphilis and the band is composed of former ss monsters However since it is new year’s eve and i have lip cancer i will place my paper hat on my concussion and dance – Leonard Cohen • I would rather receive a Pap smear from Captain Hook than venture out on New Year’s Eve. – Jen Lancaster • I would say happy new year, but it’s not happy; it’s exactly the same as last year except colder. – Robert Clark • If the age of the Earth were a calendar year and today were a breath before midnight on New Year’s Eve, we showed up a scant fifteen minutes ago, and all of recorded history has blinked by in the last sixty seconds. Luckily for us, our planet-mates–the fantastic meshwork of plants, animals, and microbes–have been patiently perfecting their wares since March, an incredible 3.8 billion years since the first bacteria. …After 3.8 billion years of research and development, failures are fossils, and what surrounds us is the secret to survival. – Janine Benyus • If you asked me for my New Year Resolution, it would be to find out who I am. – Cyril Cusack • If you feel compelled to give a New Year’s Eve party, don’t invite people to arrive too early or they’ll go off the boil before midnight. – Jilly Cooper • If you over plan New Year’s Eve it’s going to be a disaster so you have to be alive to changes. – Cate Blanchett • I’m usually at home and in bed by 10 o’clock. I do not want to be out at anybody’s New Year’s Eve party. – Andre Leon Talley • It goes Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day. Is that fair to anyone who’s alone? These are all days you gotta be with someone. And if you didn’t get around to killing yourself at Christmas or New Year’s, boom! There’s Valentine’s Day. I think there should be one more after Valentine’s Day just called, ‘Who could love you?’ – Laura Kightlinger • It was February sixth: eight days until Valentine’s Day. I was dateless, as usual, deep in the vice grip of unrequited love. It was bad enough not having a boyfriend for New Year’s Eve. Now I had to cope with Valentine datelessness, feeling consummate social pressure from every retailer in America who stuck hearts and cupids in their windows by January second to rub it in. – Joan Bauer • It’s hard to say what I meant by “as we know it.” I’m not about to go up on a mountain on new year’s eve and wait for the lightening to strike. – Hunter S. Thompson • I’ve had some lovely extraordinary experiences on New Year’s Eve. – Debbie Harry • Let each new year find you a better person. – Benjamin Franklin • Let our New Year’s resolution be this: we will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word. – Goran Persson • Let the dead Past bury its dead! – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Let this coming year be better than all the others. Vow to do some of the things you have always wanted to do but could not find the time. Call up a forgotten friend. Drop an old grudge, and replace it with some pleasant memories. Vow not to make a promise you do not think you can keep. Walk tall, and smile more. You will look 10 years younger. Do not be afraid to say, I love you. Say it again. They are the sweetest words in the world. – Ann Landers • Let this coming year be better than all the others. Vow to do some of the things you’ve always wanted to do but couldn’t find the time. – Ann Landers • Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Whatever you’re scared of doing, Do it. – Neil Gaiman • Make New Year’s goals. Dig within, and discover what you would like to have happen in your life this year. This helps you do your part. It is an affirmation that you’re interested in fully living life in the year to come. – Melody Beattie • Make your mistakes, next year and forever. – Neil Gaiman • Many years ago I resolved never to bother with New Year’s resolutions, and I’ve stuck with it ever since. – Dave Beard • May all your troubles last as long as your New Year’s resolutions. – Joey Lauren Adams • May the New Year bring you courage to break your resolutions early! – Aleister Crowley • May the New Year bring you courage to break your resolutions early! My own plan is to swear off every kind of virtue, so that I triumph even when I fall! – Aleister Crowley • Maybe this year, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives not looking for flaws, but looking for potential. – Ellen Goodman • My look is always glitzy for New Year’s Eve, even if I am at home. – Gloria Gaynor • My New Year’s Eve Toast: to all the devils, lusts, passions, greeds, envies, loves, hates, strange desires, enemies ghostly and real, the army of memories, with which I do battle — may they never give me peace. (New Year’s Eve, 1947) – Patricia Highsmith • My New Year’s Eve is always 2 July, the night before my birthday. That’s the night I make my resolutions. And this year scares the life out of me, because no matter how successful, how good things appear, there is always a deep core of failure within me, although I am trying to deal with it. My biggest fear, this coming year, is that I will be waking up alone. It makes me wonder how many bodies will be fished out of the Thames, how many decaying corpses will be found in one-room flats. I’m just being realistic. – Tracey Emin • My New Year’s resolution was to stop saying ‘You go, girl’ to myself. – Zach Galifianakis • My parents used to throw great New Year’s Eve parties. They invited such an eclectic mix of showbiz people. All those cool people were always hanging out at our apartment. – Ben Stiller • Never tell your resolution beforehand, or it’s twice as onerous a duty. – John Selden • New Year’s Day is every man’s birthday. – Charles Lamb • New Year’s Eve always terrifies me. – Charles Bukowski • New Year’s eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights. – Hamilton Wright Mabie • New Year’s Eve, we’re going to be doing a concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Symphony Hall. It makes me feel good, because of all the people they could have had, they wanted me! We do have to do a little work with the rhythm section. – Barbara Cook • New Year’s Eve, where auld acquaintance be forgot. Unless, of course, those tests come back positive. – Jay Leno • New Year’s Eve. It’s a promise of a night. Single, married or widowed, in love, loveless or lovelorn, we all leave our apartments and pick through snow in high heels, or descend subway stairs in tuxedos, lured to wherever we’re going–whether we know it or not, would deny it or not–by the kiss of a stranger. – Jardine Libaire • New Year’s is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls and humbug resolutions. – Mark Twain • New Year’s Resolution: To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time. – James Agate • Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. – Mark Twain • Now there are more overweight people in America than average-weight people. So overweight people are now average. Which means you’ve met your New Year’s resolution. – Jay Leno • Of all sound of all bells… most solemn and touching is the peal which rings out the Old Year. – Charles Lamb • On New Year’s Eve he ould make a resolution to recover some his previous scepticism, but until then he would do as the Romans do, and smile at people even if he disapproved of them – Nick Hornby • On New Year’s Eve, my dear friend lost his battle with depression . . . Though he wasn’t the first friend I’ve lost to suicide, I sure hope he’s the last. I wish I had the chance to go back and tell them what they meant to me. I wish I had the chance to beg them to seek help, to keep fighting. I wish they knew that they were surrounded by countless others who struggle on a daily basis. – Jared Padalecki • One of the many reasons I love living in New York is that we get a front row seat to the innumerable thrills that take place here – from conventions and awards shows, to parades and U.N. assemblies. But my favorite New York tradition is the annual New Year’s Eve ball-drop on Times Square. – Marlo Thomas • One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: ‘To rise above little things’. – John Burroughs • Only sad sacks and conformists need things like no kiss on New Year’s Eve to remind them to feel lonely. They’re as bad as the people who need St. Patty’s Day as an excuse to get drunk or Halloween to wear slutty outfits. You can feel sorry for yourself and dress like a hooker all year round: Hallmark never needs to know. – Julie Klausner • Ring out the false, ring in the true. – Alfred Lord Tennyson • Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. – Alfred Lord Tennyson • Shaving my head was a millennium ritual, to not let it pass as just another New Year’s Eve. A lot has happened to me in the last couple of years, personally and spiritually. I wanted to mark it for myself. – Joan Jett • So I started shoveling Bob’s driveway, which is a strange thing to do at a New Years Eve Party – Stephen Chbosky • So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life. – Neil Gaiman • Spend your free time the way you like, not the way you think you’re supposed to. Stay home on New Year’s Eve if that’s what makes you happy. Skip the committee meeting. Cross the street to avoid making aimless chitchat with random acquaintances. Read. Cook. Run. Write a story. Make a deal with yourself that you’ll attend a set number of social events in exchange for not feeling guilty when you beg off. – Susan Cain • St. Patrick’s Day is the fourth biggest drinking day in America. It’s not the biggest. It’s right behind New Year’s Eve, Fourth of July, or any Secret Service party. – David Letterman • The feeling I have reminds me of New Year’s Eve, when the countdown is coming and I’m not quite sure whether to grab my camera or just live in the moment. Usually I grab the camera and later regret it when the picture doesn’t turn out. Then I feel enormously let down and think to myself that the night would have been more fun if it didn’t mean quite so much, if I weren’t forced to analyze where I’ve been and where I’m going. – Emily Giffin • The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. – Eleanor Roosevelt • The last thing I stole was a box of Coca Cola from a parked truck in Adelaide. I was nice and drunk. It was New Year’s Eve. And that was about 28 years ago. – Ronald Biggs • The merry year is born Like the bright berry from the naked thorn. – Hartley Coleridge • The new year begins in a snow-storm of white vows. – George William Curtis • The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals. – Melody Beattie • the object of a new year is not that we should have a new year, but rather that we should have a new soul. – Gilbert K. Chesterton • The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. – Gilbert K. Chesterton • The only way to spend New Year’s Eve is either quietly with friends or in a brothel. Otherwise when the evening ends and people pair off, someone is bound to be left in tears. – W. H. Auden • The proper behavior all through the holiday season is to be drunk. This drunkenness culminates on New Year’s Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you’re married to. – P. J. O’Rourke • This leg will be known as Christmas, and this leg will be known as New Year’s Eve! Ladies…why don’t you all come visit the Big Valbowski between the holidays. – Val Venis • Time is the school in which we learn, time is the fire in which we burn. – Delmore Schwartz • To me, doing a gay pride show is one of the most fun things. My first show that paid more than $10,000 was in a gay club on New Year’s Eve in San Francisco. – Queen Latifah • To shut the door at the end of the workday, which does not spill over into evening. To throw away books after reading them so theydon’t have to be dusted. To go through boxes on New Year’s Eve and throw out half of what is inside. Sometimes for extravagance to pick a bunch of flowers for the one table. Other women besides me must have this daydream about a carefree life. – Maxine Hong Kingston • To this day, on my cheat days from my diet, which are New Year’s Eve and my birthday, I buy luxury foods that are very indicative of my class. – Sandra Cisneros • Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365-page book. Write a good one. – Brad Paisley • Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. – H. Jackson Brown, Jr. • We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives…not looking for flaws, but for potential. – Ellen Goodman • We’ve made mistakes, But we’ve made good friends too. Remember all the nights we spent with them? And all our plans, Who says they can’t come true? Tonight’s another chance to start again. It’s just another New Year’s Eve, Another night like all the rest. – Barry Manilow • What you do for Jewish New Year is you go down to Times Square. It’s a lot quieter than the regular New Year. It’s just a few Jews walking around going, “sup?” – Jon Stewart • When I go, I’ll take New Year’s Eve with me. – Guy Lombardo • When I played the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve, I got to bring Wiley, my 85-pound black lab. He’s responsible for my favorite New Year’s memory of all: At the end of the show, he ran onstage and then out across all the tables in the showroom, sending champagne glasses and gamblers flying. – Elayne Boosler • When I stopped wanting my New Year’s Eve to be perfect, to bring in the New Year right, is when it started working out right. When I was young, I was always looking for the best party to be at, to ring in the New Year, and I always ended up in the car going, “Happy New Year.” – Hilary Swank • Whether we want them or not, the New Year will bring new challenges; whether we seize them or not, the New year will bring new opportunities. – Michael Josephson • Women get a little more excited about New Year’s Eve than men do. It’s like an excuse: you drink too much, you make a lot of promises you’re not going to keep; the next morning as soon as you wake up you start breaking them. For men, we just call that a date. – Jay Leno • Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. – Ralph Waldo Emerson • Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. – Oprah Winfrey • You staying home all alone on New Year’s Eve? Unthinkable. Take my advice the countdown should be shared with someone, or it’s just another set of numbers passing you by. – E. A. Bucchianeri • Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties”.- Helen Keller, American author, political activist, and lecturer “Let our New Year’s resolution be this: we will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word. – Goran Persson Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. -Steve Jobs • Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve. Middle age is when you’re forced to. – Bill Vaughan

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New Year's Eve Quotes

Official Website: New Year's Eve Quotes

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• A flower is a daisy chain, a graduation, a valentine; a flower is New Year’s Eve and an orchid in your hair; a flower is a single geranium blooming in a tin can on a murky city fire-escape; an acre of roses at the Botanical Gardens; and the first gold crocus of spring! … a flower is a birth, a wedding, a leaving of this life. – Jean Hersey • A happy New Year! Grant that I May bring no tear to any eye When this New Year in time shall end Let it be said I’ve played the friend, Have lived and loved and labored here, And made of it a happy year. – Edgar Guest • A year of ending and beginning, a year of loss and finding… and all of you were with me through the storm. I drink your health, your wealth, your fortune for long years to come, and I hope for many more days in which we can gather like this. – C. J. Cherryh • All of us every single year, we’re a different person. I don’t think we’re the same person all our lives. – Steven Spielberg • An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. – Bill Vaughan • And New Year’s Eve is very, very important to me. – Debbie Harry • And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been – Rainer Maria Rilke • Another fresh new year is here. Another year to live! To Banish worry, doubt and fear, to love and give – William Arthur Ward • Approach the New Year with resolve to find the opportunities hidden in each new day. – Michael Josephson • As a standup comedian, I’ve worked almost every New Year’s Eve of my adult life. It’s the best-paying night of the year. – Elayne Boosler

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'New+Year', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_new-year').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_new-year img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man. – Benjamin Franklin • Calgary wins for my coldest New Year’s Eve gig. That’s when I learned Fahrenheit and Celsius cross at 40 below. I could see callers’ breath coming out of my phone. – Elayne Boosler • celebratin’ New Year’s Eve is like eatin’ oranges. You got to let go your dignity t’ really enjoy ’em. – Edna Ferber • Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. – Oprah Winfrey • Dieting on New Year’s Day isn’t a good idea as you can’t eat rationally but really need to be free to consume whatever is necessary, moment by moment, in order to ease your hangover. I think it would be much more sensible if resolutions began generally on January the second. – Helen Fielding • Do what you do. This Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Eve, Twelfth Night, Valentine’s Day, Mardi Gras, St. Paddy’s Day, and every day henceforth. Just do what you do. Live out your life and your traditions on your own terms. If it offends others, so be it. That’s their problem. – Chris Rose • Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go. – Brooks Atkinson • Each age has deemed the new-born year the fittest time for festal cheer. – Walter Scott • Every man regards his own life as the New Year’s Eve of time. – Jean Paul • Every New Year’s Eve, I have a pact to do something I never thought I’d do. So I created this list. You have to free your mind to do things you wouldn’t think of doing. Don’t ever say no. – Carl Lewis • Every time the ball drop on New Year’s Eve, We toast to more money, we smoke to more cheese. – Prodigy • Every time you tear a leaf off a calendar, you present a new place for new ideas and progress. – Charles Kettering • Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith. – Henry Ward Beecher • For a new year to bring you something new, make a move, like a butterfly tearing its cocoon! Make a move! – Mehmet Murat Ildan • For last year’s words belong to last year’s language And next year’s words await another voice. – T. S. Eliot • For the millennium [New Year’s Eve], you really have a choice to make. You either have to be naked with your head on fire and a shotgun in Bali or else you have to spend time with friends or family around the fireplace. And I’m choosing option B – Tom Morello • For years, I worked seven-day weeks, through birthdays and most public holidays, Christmases and New Year’s Eves included. I worked mornings and afternoons, resuming work after dinner. I remember feeling as if life were a protracted exercise in pulling myself out of a well by a rope, and that rope was work. – Antonella Gambotto-Burke • From New Year’s on the outlook brightens; good humor lost in a mood of failure returns. I resolve to stop complaining. – Leonard Bernstein • Games were moved to New Year’s Eve as part of a plan by college football executives where they want to create a tradition of watching football on New Year’s Eve. – Audie Cornish • Glory to God in highest heaven, Who unto man His Son hath given; While angels sing with tender mirth, A glad new year to all the earth. – Martin Luther • God, do I hate my little fat tits. You ever pinch your little meat tits and wish you were dead? You ever just stand naked in the mirror. “You little fat-titted mediocre failure!” You ever do that for 3 hours on New Year’s Eve. – Jim Norton • Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account. – Oscar Wilde • He who breaks a resolution is a weakling; He who makes one is a fool. – Farquhar McGillivray Knowles • Hope Smiles from the threshold of the year to come, Whispering ‘it will be happier’. – Alfred Lord Tennyson • I always work on New Year’s Eve, no matter what. – Debbie Harry • I don’t even drink! I can’t stand the taste of alcohol. Every New Year’s Eve I try one drink and every time it makes me feel sick. So I don’t touch booze – I’m always the designated driver. – Kim Kardashian • I get myself a gig somewhere, whether it’s in a club, whether it’s in a bar, it doesn’t matter, and I just work on New Year’s Eve because I always feel it’s very symbolic for me for the next year, for the new year. – Debbie Harry • I had a terrible fight with my wife on New Year’s Eve. She called me a procrastinator. So I finished addressing the Christmas cards and left. – Robert Orben • I hate New Year’s Eve. One more chance to remember that you haven’t yet done what you wanted. And to pretend it doesn’t matter. – Gregory Maguire • I have no way of knowing how people really feel, but the vast majority of those I meet couldn’t be nicer. Every once in a while someone barks at me. My New Year’s resolution is not to bark back. – Tucker Carlson • I have spent every New Year’s Eve since 1992 in Lourdes. I spend the hour of my birth every year in the grotto. It’s a place with meaning for me. – Paulo Coelho • I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes…you’re Doing Something. – Neil Gaiman • I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something. – Neil Gaiman • I like to work on New Year’s Eve. It has a nice spirit; a nice feel about it. If you are all about the ‘year-end’ thing at all, then laughing with fellow human beings is a great way to start the new year. – Paula Poundstone • I love watching ‘Twilight Zone.’ New Year’s Eve they do the marathon; I watch it every year. – Gerard Way • I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me. – Anais Nin • I saw Ronnie Hawkins play near my hometown, Port Dover, Ontario, and I saw him play there on New Year’s Eve and the following spring I booked myself to be his opening act on maybe five shows, and he hired me after the first night. – Rick Danko • I think in terms of the day’s resolutions, not the years’. – Henry Moore • I was a total nerd growing up. I’d rather sit home and read a novel on New Year’s Eve and say, ‘Wow, I read the whole thing in one night!’ That was my idea of a big time. – Beth Broderick • I was at a New Year’s Eve party, and someone asked me how was my year, and I said, ‘I honestly think 2011 was the best year of my entire life,’ and I actually meant it. – Dave Grohl • I won’t be going to any New Year’s Eve parties because I think they’re naff. No one over the age of 15 should bother going to parties. – Julie Burchill • i would like to remind the management that the drinks are watered and the hat-check girl has syphilis and the band is composed of former ss monsters However since it is new year’s eve and i have lip cancer i will place my paper hat on my concussion and dance – Leonard Cohen • I would rather receive a Pap smear from Captain Hook than venture out on New Year’s Eve. – Jen Lancaster • I would say happy new year, but it’s not happy; it’s exactly the same as last year except colder. – Robert Clark • If the age of the Earth were a calendar year and today were a breath before midnight on New Year’s Eve, we showed up a scant fifteen minutes ago, and all of recorded history has blinked by in the last sixty seconds. Luckily for us, our planet-mates–the fantastic meshwork of plants, animals, and microbes–have been patiently perfecting their wares since March, an incredible 3.8 billion years since the first bacteria. …After 3.8 billion years of research and development, failures are fossils, and what surrounds us is the secret to survival. – Janine Benyus • If you asked me for my New Year Resolution, it would be to find out who I am. – Cyril Cusack • If you feel compelled to give a New Year’s Eve party, don’t invite people to arrive too early or they’ll go off the boil before midnight. – Jilly Cooper • If you over plan New Year’s Eve it’s going to be a disaster so you have to be alive to changes. – Cate Blanchett • I’m usually at home and in bed by 10 o’clock. I do not want to be out at anybody’s New Year’s Eve party. – Andre Leon Talley • It goes Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day. Is that fair to anyone who’s alone? These are all days you gotta be with someone. And if you didn’t get around to killing yourself at Christmas or New Year’s, boom! There’s Valentine’s Day. I think there should be one more after Valentine’s Day just called, ‘Who could love you?’ – Laura Kightlinger • It was February sixth: eight days until Valentine’s Day. I was dateless, as usual, deep in the vice grip of unrequited love. It was bad enough not having a boyfriend for New Year’s Eve. Now I had to cope with Valentine datelessness, feeling consummate social pressure from every retailer in America who stuck hearts and cupids in their windows by January second to rub it in. – Joan Bauer • It’s hard to say what I meant by “as we know it.” I’m not about to go up on a mountain on new year’s eve and wait for the lightening to strike. – Hunter S. Thompson • I’ve had some lovely extraordinary experiences on New Year’s Eve. – Debbie Harry • Let each new year find you a better person. – Benjamin Franklin • Let our New Year’s resolution be this: we will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word. – Goran Persson • Let the dead Past bury its dead! – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Let this coming year be better than all the others. Vow to do some of the things you have always wanted to do but could not find the time. Call up a forgotten friend. Drop an old grudge, and replace it with some pleasant memories. Vow not to make a promise you do not think you can keep. Walk tall, and smile more. You will look 10 years younger. Do not be afraid to say, I love you. Say it again. They are the sweetest words in the world. – Ann Landers • Let this coming year be better than all the others. Vow to do some of the things you’ve always wanted to do but couldn’t find the time. – Ann Landers • Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Whatever you’re scared of doing, Do it. – Neil Gaiman • Make New Year’s goals. Dig within, and discover what you would like to have happen in your life this year. This helps you do your part. It is an affirmation that you’re interested in fully living life in the year to come. – Melody Beattie • Make your mistakes, next year and forever. – Neil Gaiman • Many years ago I resolved never to bother with New Year’s resolutions, and I’ve stuck with it ever since. – Dave Beard • May all your troubles last as long as your New Year’s resolutions. – Joey Lauren Adams • May the New Year bring you courage to break your resolutions early! – Aleister Crowley • May the New Year bring you courage to break your resolutions early! My own plan is to swear off every kind of virtue, so that I triumph even when I fall! – Aleister Crowley • Maybe this year, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives not looking for flaws, but looking for potential. – Ellen Goodman • My look is always glitzy for New Year’s Eve, even if I am at home. – Gloria Gaynor • My New Year’s Eve Toast: to all the devils, lusts, passions, greeds, envies, loves, hates, strange desires, enemies ghostly and real, the army of memories, with which I do battle — may they never give me peace. (New Year’s Eve, 1947) – Patricia Highsmith • My New Year’s Eve is always 2 July, the night before my birthday. That’s the night I make my resolutions. And this year scares the life out of me, because no matter how successful, how good things appear, there is always a deep core of failure within me, although I am trying to deal with it. My biggest fear, this coming year, is that I will be waking up alone. It makes me wonder how many bodies will be fished out of the Thames, how many decaying corpses will be found in one-room flats. I’m just being realistic. – Tracey Emin • My New Year’s resolution was to stop saying ‘You go, girl’ to myself. – Zach Galifianakis • My parents used to throw great New Year’s Eve parties. They invited such an eclectic mix of showbiz people. All those cool people were always hanging out at our apartment. – Ben Stiller • Never tell your resolution beforehand, or it’s twice as onerous a duty. – John Selden • New Year’s Day is every man’s birthday. – Charles Lamb • New Year’s Eve always terrifies me. – Charles Bukowski • New Year’s eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights. – Hamilton Wright Mabie • New Year’s Eve, we’re going to be doing a concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Symphony Hall. It makes me feel good, because of all the people they could have had, they wanted me! We do have to do a little work with the rhythm section. – Barbara Cook • New Year’s Eve, where auld acquaintance be forgot. Unless, of course, those tests come back positive. – Jay Leno • New Year’s Eve. It’s a promise of a night. Single, married or widowed, in love, loveless or lovelorn, we all leave our apartments and pick through snow in high heels, or descend subway stairs in tuxedos, lured to wherever we’re going–whether we know it or not, would deny it or not–by the kiss of a stranger. – Jardine Libaire • New Year’s is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls and humbug resolutions. – Mark Twain • New Year’s Resolution: To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time. – James Agate • Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. – Mark Twain • Now there are more overweight people in America than average-weight people. So overweight people are now average. Which means you’ve met your New Year’s resolution. – Jay Leno • Of all sound of all bells… most solemn and touching is the peal which rings out the Old Year. – Charles Lamb • On New Year’s Eve he ould make a resolution to recover some his previous scepticism, but until then he would do as the Romans do, and smile at people even if he disapproved of them – Nick Hornby • On New Year’s Eve, my dear friend lost his battle with depression . . . Though he wasn’t the first friend I’ve lost to suicide, I sure hope he’s the last. I wish I had the chance to go back and tell them what they meant to me. I wish I had the chance to beg them to seek help, to keep fighting. I wish they knew that they were surrounded by countless others who struggle on a daily basis. – Jared Padalecki • One of the many reasons I love living in New York is that we get a front row seat to the innumerable thrills that take place here – from conventions and awards shows, to parades and U.N. assemblies. But my favorite New York tradition is the annual New Year’s Eve ball-drop on Times Square. – Marlo Thomas • One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: ‘To rise above little things’. – John Burroughs • Only sad sacks and conformists need things like no kiss on New Year’s Eve to remind them to feel lonely. They’re as bad as the people who need St. Patty’s Day as an excuse to get drunk or Halloween to wear slutty outfits. You can feel sorry for yourself and dress like a hooker all year round: Hallmark never needs to know. – Julie Klausner • Ring out the false, ring in the true. – Alfred Lord Tennyson • Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. – Alfred Lord Tennyson • Shaving my head was a millennium ritual, to not let it pass as just another New Year’s Eve. A lot has happened to me in the last couple of years, personally and spiritually. I wanted to mark it for myself. – Joan Jett • So I started shoveling Bob’s driveway, which is a strange thing to do at a New Years Eve Party – Stephen Chbosky • So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life. – Neil Gaiman • Spend your free time the way you like, not the way you think you’re supposed to. Stay home on New Year’s Eve if that’s what makes you happy. Skip the committee meeting. Cross the street to avoid making aimless chitchat with random acquaintances. Read. Cook. Run. Write a story. Make a deal with yourself that you’ll attend a set number of social events in exchange for not feeling guilty when you beg off. – Susan Cain • St. Patrick’s Day is the fourth biggest drinking day in America. It’s not the biggest. It’s right behind New Year’s Eve, Fourth of July, or any Secret Service party. – David Letterman • The feeling I have reminds me of New Year’s Eve, when the countdown is coming and I’m not quite sure whether to grab my camera or just live in the moment. Usually I grab the camera and later regret it when the picture doesn’t turn out. Then I feel enormously let down and think to myself that the night would have been more fun if it didn’t mean quite so much, if I weren’t forced to analyze where I’ve been and where I’m going. – Emily Giffin • The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. – Eleanor Roosevelt • The last thing I stole was a box of Coca Cola from a parked truck in Adelaide. I was nice and drunk. It was New Year’s Eve. And that was about 28 years ago. – Ronald Biggs • The merry year is born Like the bright berry from the naked thorn. – Hartley Coleridge • The new year begins in a snow-storm of white vows. – George William Curtis • The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals. – Melody Beattie • the object of a new year is not that we should have a new year, but rather that we should have a new soul. – Gilbert K. Chesterton • The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. – Gilbert K. Chesterton • The only way to spend New Year’s Eve is either quietly with friends or in a brothel. Otherwise when the evening ends and people pair off, someone is bound to be left in tears. – W. H. Auden • The proper behavior all through the holiday season is to be drunk. This drunkenness culminates on New Year’s Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you’re married to. – P. J. O’Rourke • This leg will be known as Christmas, and this leg will be known as New Year’s Eve! Ladies…why don’t you all come visit the Big Valbowski between the holidays. – Val Venis • Time is the school in which we learn, time is the fire in which we burn. – Delmore Schwartz • To me, doing a gay pride show is one of the most fun things. My first show that paid more than $10,000 was in a gay club on New Year’s Eve in San Francisco. – Queen Latifah • To shut the door at the end of the workday, which does not spill over into evening. To throw away books after reading them so theydon’t have to be dusted. To go through boxes on New Year’s Eve and throw out half of what is inside. Sometimes for extravagance to pick a bunch of flowers for the one table. Other women besides me must have this daydream about a carefree life. – Maxine Hong Kingston • To this day, on my cheat days from my diet, which are New Year’s Eve and my birthday, I buy luxury foods that are very indicative of my class. – Sandra Cisneros • Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365-page book. Write a good one. – Brad Paisley • Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. – H. Jackson Brown, Jr. • We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives…not looking for flaws, but for potential. – Ellen Goodman • We’ve made mistakes, But we’ve made good friends too. Remember all the nights we spent with them? And all our plans, Who says they can’t come true? Tonight’s another chance to start again. It’s just another New Year’s Eve, Another night like all the rest. – Barry Manilow • What you do for Jewish New Year is you go down to Times Square. It’s a lot quieter than the regular New Year. It’s just a few Jews walking around going, “sup?” – Jon Stewart • When I go, I’ll take New Year’s Eve with me. – Guy Lombardo • When I played the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve, I got to bring Wiley, my 85-pound black lab. He’s responsible for my favorite New Year’s memory of all: At the end of the show, he ran onstage and then out across all the tables in the showroom, sending champagne glasses and gamblers flying. – Elayne Boosler • When I stopped wanting my New Year’s Eve to be perfect, to bring in the New Year right, is when it started working out right. When I was young, I was always looking for the best party to be at, to ring in the New Year, and I always ended up in the car going, “Happy New Year.” – Hilary Swank • Whether we want them or not, the New Year will bring new challenges; whether we seize them or not, the New year will bring new opportunities. – Michael Josephson • Women get a little more excited about New Year’s Eve than men do. It’s like an excuse: you drink too much, you make a lot of promises you’re not going to keep; the next morning as soon as you wake up you start breaking them. For men, we just call that a date. – Jay Leno • Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. – Ralph Waldo Emerson • Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. – Oprah Winfrey • You staying home all alone on New Year’s Eve? Unthinkable. Take my advice the countdown should be shared with someone, or it’s just another set of numbers passing you by. – E. A. Bucchianeri • Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties”.- Helen Keller, American author, political activist, and lecturer “Let our New Year’s resolution be this: we will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word. – Goran Persson Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. -Steve Jobs • Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve. Middle age is when you’re forced to. – Bill Vaughan

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