#literally forgot to breathe for a sec

[lerclan]

duct tape | lando norris

type: written + smau at the end

pairing(s): assistant!reader x lando norris

summary: youve been landos assistant for a while now and you were asked to do the most embarrassing thing ever, but it wasnt you that was the most embarrassed in the situation; it was your boss.

warning(s): a funny and POORLY edited photo of lando norris done by me (i was cackling making it 💀)

fc: luisinha oliveira!

---

"you want me to WHAT???" you spit out your drink.

"kiss him." the photographer, elise, says as you stare at your friend, eyes quite literally bulging out, "come on y/n..."

"you act like i kiss random people for fun." you say as you take a proper sip from your water.

"but hes not a random person?" she fires back as you roll your eyes.

"still. hes my boss and looking at the situation in general, thats quite embarrassing to do." you feel your face heat up, "how about we find someone else? i bet i can call someone with really luscious lips." you take out your phone and start scrolling through your contacts.

"no," she lowers your phone as you look at her, "he said he wanted YOU to do it."

"ME???" your jaw drops as elise starts laughing at your reaction, "youre lying."

"no im not!" she puts her pinky up as you intertwine your pinky with hers, "pinky promise."

"why me though?" you asked her curiously.

"i told him about the idea and how the stylist would do the kiss marks but he said he had the perfect someone to do the kiss marks and said your name." she explains as you give her a look, "okay to make it easier for you, hes gonna have duct tape covering his mouth. its for the aesthetics." your look immediately disappears and is replaced with a relieved expression.

"oh, you shouldve told me that earlier." you say as you finally smile, "that sounds a little bit easier to do."

"my bad, kind of forgot about it till i told you the story. woopsies." you laugh at her as she chuckles cheekily, "lets go to the set, its almost time for him to be ready."

you both arrived at the set and you noticed your boss all geared up next to an f1 car.

"i thought the set would be more scandalously themed, but this is so much better than what i anticipated." you let a breath out as elise laughs at you.

"do you think im a pornographer or something? gosh have faith in your friends innocence." she rolls her eyes jokingly and it was your turn to laugh now.

landos head instantly turned to your direction as he heard your laughter. he didnt know if you had agreed to the suggestion, but he hoped that elise didnt bring it up since he was feeling a little embarrassed now for acting impulsively with suggesting you to do the kiss marks instead of the stylist.

with how caught up he was in his thoughts, stressing over his impulsive move, he didnt realize that you guys were in front of him.

"lando? landooo???" you say waving your hands in front of his face.

"oh–yes? hi?" he says as he finally snaps out of it.

"you were zoning out. what were you thinking about this time?" you asked as he smiles.

"nothing in particular, just a little nervous on what to do in this photoshoot." he admits mostly.

"youre gonna do good, boss. dont worry about anything! just do what you usually do, your fans are gonna love it no matter what." you comfort him with a smile as he reciprocates the same expression.

you guys stare into each others eyes for a bit until elise finally interrupted you both.

"ahem! love birds can you guys contain yourselves for a sec–" you slap her shoulder lightly as she laughs at it as landos face turns a bit red, "i was just kidding!! anyways...im just here to tell you that y/n agreed to the idea, so ill be back with some duct tape and red lipstick." she walks off and you were left with lando.

"so...you agreed???" he asks as he feels his face heating up more from the fact that you agreed.

"yeah, at first i thought i was kissing you straight up...which is a very hard task to do considering our positions, but she told me you were gonna have duct tape over your mouth; so its like an indirect kiss. which i can mostly do." you answer his question with a small chuckle as he feels his face heat up more, "are you good, lan? youre looking kinda...red?? ish???"

"yeah, no, im fine. this is fine. im perfectly normal." he says quickly as you eye him out.

you reached for his forehead and noticed it was a little warmer.

"are you sure? you feel a little warm." you say as you start to panic thinking about his schedule for today.

"y/n, i am perfectly fine. its just the suit..." he lies as you look at him with doubtful eyes.

before you could pester him more, elise came back with red lipstick and duct tape just like she said.

"here, put this on your lips and also tape his mouth shut." she says as you grab the items.

"it will probably do us a favor if his mouth is taped shut." you joke as he rolls his eyes at you.

"gosh whats that supposed to mean?" he side eyes you as you laugh.

"it means..." you drag on as he looks at you, waiting for you to answer his question.

"it means wha—" his sentence gets cut off by you taping his mouth, "hmf mhmhf!!" he tries to talk but it comes out muffled.

"what did he say?" elise asks as you both laugh at his attempt.

"he probably said 'you muppet!', to insult me or something." you answer her, mimicking landos voice.

"sounds like him alright. perfect impression!!" she says as you take a small bow.

you put the duct tape down and opened the lipstick so you could put it on, kiss him, and get done with it already.

"you ready, lan?" you ask him as he puts his hands up to rip the tape off his mouth half way.

"no–wait. i need like a drink or something..." he comes up with an excuse as he feels his face get hot again due to the situation he put himself in.

"come on lando..its a quick peck and boom were finished!" you reassure him feeling a little flustered as you realize what youre actually doing, "come here."

he dodges you as you glare at him.

"WAIT. PLEASE GIVE ME A SECOND." he yells out as you roll your eyes getting impatient.

"okay fine." you go back to the spot you were standing in.

you look at him grab a bottle of water to drink and he starts fanning himself.

"are you sure youre good?" you asked as he nods his head quickly.

"dont worry about him, y/n. hes just feeling a little flustered because hes getting an indirect ki—" elise gets cut off by an empty water bottle getting thrown at her, "what the hell LANDO." she throws the water bottle back at him.

you laugh at their little squabble until the water bottle hit you and now theyre the ones laughing at you.

"I ALWAYS CATCH STRAY BULLETS I SWEAR. cant laugh in peace anymore..." you say as they laugh harder, "ANYWAYS, lando come here and let me kiss you." you feel your face heat up as soon as you realized what you really said.

"yeah let her kiss you lando." elise chimes in with a little melody.

"not like that–you know what–gosh whatever come on lando, you have places to be after this." you say finally grabbing his arm as he gets closer to you.

"okay, just do it..." he says as he grabs your arms and puts it around his neck, "WAIT WAIT WAIT AAAAHHHH!!" he yells out as he sees how close you guys are.

"LANDO MAN UP GOSH." you finally grab his face and kissed him on both of his cheeks, his forehead, and his lips. directly. completely forgetting the fact that his mouth was not taped shut.

you both dont notice that you guys were kissing lips directly until you both heard a camera click. you guys pulled back and thats when you noticed his lips completely covered in red.

"OH MY GOOOOSHHHH!!!!" elise squeals out as your eyes widen.

"I AM SO SORRY LANDO. I FORGOT YOU DIDNT HAVE IT ON–" you get cut off by lando.

"no, no. its totally fine, y/n...youre good. simple mistake. im completely normal and youre completely normal." he smiles at you, ready to explode from holding in a scream, as you smile back out of relief.

"also...ELISE DELETE THAT RIGHT NOW." you jump her as shes fighting for her life.

you suddenly feel somebody pull you back, which was lando with a huge grin.

"elise, let me see the photo." he says as you look at him.

elise unlocks her phone and pulls up the photo of you and lando kissing, which was a pretty cute angle and photo. you cursed her photography skills.

"you should totally send me that." he says as your jaw drops, "what? its a cute photo of us." he says not knowing where the confidence suddenly came from.

"before y/n dies from a heart attack, have her kiss you again. WITH the tape on this time." elise says as you felt your eye twitch, jaw still on the floor.

you eventually snapped out of shock and reapplied the lipstick so it was more pigmented and you kissed him again, with the tape over his mouth. you looked up at him and realized that he was smiling. you didnt know why, well you had a hint but you didnt wanna act on it.

lando quickly finished his photoshoot and now it was time to go to another place for an interview. you both entered the car and you were met with silence until he spoke up.

"sooo...do you maybe wanna go out for dinner tonight?" he asks breaking the silence as you look at him.

"arent you hanging out with carlos tonight??" you question him as he cheekily smiles at you.

"not–" he takes out his phone and texts carlos something and looks up to look at you, "anymore."

you laugh at his little act and smiled warmly.

"id love to have dinner with you, lan." you met eye contact as he smiles from ear to ear.

he grabs your hand and intertwines them together, keeping it that way till you both arrived at the interview place.

---

landonorris

Liked by ynnn, mclaren, elise_amor, and 1,272,183 others

landonorris dropping in with a kiss 💋

tagged: eaphotography

View all 21,612 comments

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mclaren our driver has never looked better! 🧡

landonorris thanks, mclaren!!! 🧡🧡🧡

user1 OMG I AM SCREAMINGAHEB

user2 HE LOOKS SO FINE OH MY GOSH

user3 WHY DOES HE LOOK SO SEXY 😻😻😻

user4 real question tho...who gave him those marks? 🤨🤨🤨

user5 probably the stylist or something

eaphotography nuh uh

user5 HUHH???

eaphotography 🤫🧏‍♀️

user6 HELPPPP

user7 im so jealous of the person that did that 😭😭😭

user8 CHAT I WANT HIM SO BAD

carlossainz55 wow is that why you were busy mate?

landonorris no? 🙄

carlossainz55 elise sent me a photo, are you sure? 😒😒

landonorris SHHHHHH

elise_amor LMFAOOO

ynnn MAN WHAT THE FLIP DELETE IT

elise_amor NEVERRRR. YOU GUYS LOOK TOO CUTE.

user9 photo? 🤨

ynnn NOTHING.

user10 what if this was a soft launch or something 😻😻😻

landonorris yeah..that would be totes..crazy...👀

user10 IT IS?!?&2&:

ynnn LANDO SHUT UP.

user11 GUYS LANDO AND HIS ASSISTANT, Y/N, ARE DATING 😳😳😳

user10 I AGREE W YOU

user12 how??

user11 i saw them kiss last night at this one restaurant

ynnn @/landonorris YOU SAID IT WAS A BLIND SPOT...

landonorris woops...cats out of the bag ig ☺️☺️☺️

user11 OH MY GOSH!/!/&2&:

user10 WHAT THE SIGMA

lerclan HELPPP THE PHOTO IS SO FUNNY

---

ynnn

Liked by elise_amor, landonorris, carlossainz55, and 26,173 others

ynnn bro cannot keep his mouth shut. BRING BACK THE DUCT TAPE.

tagged: landonorris

View all 2 comments

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landonorris IM SORRY IM JUST HAPPY BABE 😻

ynnn youre lucky youre cute ❤️

Comments on this post have been limited

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authors note(s): iaheiqhehwjq i hope this was good cuz i absolutely had no plot line 💀

ALSO YOU DK HOW BAD I WAS DYING AT ME EDITING THAT PHOTO OF LANDO I LITERALLY COULD NOT BREATHE 😭😭😭

[stars-and-the-min]

☆ the wrong way to hard launch (8) | OP81

summary : oscar's girlfriend is a walking pr problem for literally everyone (including herself) social media au

pairing : oscar piastri x zhou!fem!singer!oc

a/n all aboard the speculation train

masterlist | last part | part 8 | next part

INSTAGRAM

selinabui

liked by oscarpiastri and 312,294 others

selinabui somehow @.rollingstone thought it would be an amazing idea to slap me on their cover?? anyways may 2024 🔜 it has an exclusive interview with urs truly p.s. whoever came up with that nickname for me deserves a raise ♥️♥️♥️ tagged: rollingstone, shotsbynadia, michealpollard, lilybeehair and jesszhang_

oscarpiastri Forgot how to breathe for a sec ↳ tina_kim @ oscarpiastri ur so real for this

linasgirl4 'the speakeasy siren'??? 😮‍💨

eb_jonno i'm confused by your dress ↳ selinabui @eb_jonno i was confused as well, don't worry about it, just admire how good i look

TWITTER

↳ kayla @luna_apocolypse · 49m fork found in kitchen, we had to wait over three years for a sophomore album, we'll live ↳ kayla @luna_apocolypse · 47m but then again... no 'new' music makes me think that lina is being sneaky again

oscalina real ?! @ emptyginbottles · 28m too many people talking about the 'no new music' bit of the interview and not enough talking about how oscar's going to drive lina to florence after imola ↳ oscalina real ?! @ emptyginbottles · 27m i didn't think it would be possible, but i think i just heard this woman giggle over a man through my phone via a printed interview

amie <3 @mieflrs · 2h it's actually so insane how smoothly the empty bottles pr team buried all the tommy talk. i didn't even notice bc they moved so naturally to 'chris and eb reunion??' and then the rolling stones cover + interview like they just dropped us better things to talk about ↳ amie <3 @mieflrs · 2h slay empty bottles pr team, i really appreciate y'all 🫶

REDDIT

r/EmptyBottles · Posted by u/luckyluna9364 5 hours ago Lina x Oscar Timeline

Has anyone worked out the relationship timeline for Lina and Oscar? I've been talking to some of my F1 friends, and there's so much confusion about how and when they met because these two people have barely been in the same country at the same time. This is, of course, if we go off the common perception that Zhou Guanyu was definitely the person who introduced them.

buisms84 · 4 hr. ago op i was literally just thinking about this!! lina's been pretty much stuck in california since the pandemic and oscar flies around for races all the time, it's pretty possible that they didn't meet first but rather started texting? but then when did they start going out because they clearly look familiar with each other. fantstic013 · 4 hr. ago streets are saying as early as silverstone 2023 👀 but we all know lina is super secretive about her current relationships (bar whatever mess thomas howard was)

summersweettea1389 · 3 hr. ago i think the confirmed timeline is what we've all been experiencing these past few months. like there seems to be no other indicator they were linked, even platonically, before that insane hard launch. luckyluna9364 OP · 3 hr. ago I know that Lina can be really sneaky but she also loves messing with us, so I'm convinced she was subtly soft-launching him and we all didn't notice. But you know what I found most strange? Right before the hard launch, a bunch of different new sites were publishing rumours, I'm not super online, but were there rumours earlier? whatthekermitdid · 3 hr. ago ur talking about the rumors of them over the holiday season when they both happened to be at the same party but that was debunked ages ago - they went with different ppl but they may have met there?

TWITTER

piaa⁸¹ @ papayaeightyone · 5h no, i don't think u understand, i'm actually SCREECHING over oscar's answer to the 'texting the wrong person' question from the never have i ever video

↳ piaa⁸¹ @ papayaeightyone · 5h I'M SO NORMAL ABOUT THEM I SWEAR 🥹

↳ kayla @luna_apocolypse · 2h 'most awkward conversation of my life'??? 'not the best way to confess'??? SELINA WHAT DID U SAY TO THIS MAN 😭 ↳ pookie piastri @op81ln4 · 3h NO I NEEEED TO KNOW HOW SHE REACTED

lina !!! @EB_selina · 48m everyone keeps tagging/sending me the clip of oscar talking about accidentally texting me about me. guys, i was there, i know it happened, and i will be taking my reaction to the grave ↳ Oscar Piastri @ OscarPiastri · 12m She's embarrassed because she ghosted me for like a week ↳ lina !!! @EB_selina · 11m sir why are u lying???

june @linafesting · 2h finding out that oscalina's talking stage was oscar giggling and texting his friends how much he liked her and lina ghosting him after an accidental confession is pure comedy ↳ june @linafesting · 2h oscalina, the couple that keeps on giving us anything but photos together

↳ clovie @ luvyouvie · 57m wait where did lina mention oscar? ↳ li(n)a @meliabelrose · 44m rolling stone interview, she mentions him like 8 times

REDDIT

r/EmptyBottles · Posted by u/luckyluna9364 3 days ago Lina x Oscar Timeline [read new comments]

whatthekermitdid · 5 hr. ago ok so my f1 friend just told me that the never have i ever video was filmed like in february (or earlier) which means that oscalina were going out since at least then BUT (and maybe i'm delulu) i couldn't help but notice that he's v calm about it like it happened a long time ago which is really no help to this timeline

niaphilia283 · 3 hr. ago not to sound clinically insane but have we considered that they've been together for a lot longer than we imagined? thinking logically, selina isn't the type of person to so publically acknowledge a new boyfriend - she didn't even mention tommy until like seven months - and judging by her recent behaviour (the hard launch, the dedicated performance, the birthday instagram post) she's either down so astronomically bad she'll never recover from it OR they've been together for at least two years luckyluna9364 OP · 3 hr. ago if they've been tgt for even longer than ONE year i'd actually lose it bc there's noooo way lina would be that quiet about it niaphilia283 · 3 hr. ago wait i just remembered that two years ago would be around when tommy got engaged and lina def would've made a big deal about any relationship my bad

TWITTER

clara @ zgy24 · 2h these photoshoots have the same vibe and it was the first thing i thought of 😭

lina for elle china zhou for champion

↳ lina !!! @EB_selina · 1h what a copycat @ZhouGuanyu24 😒 ↳ 周冠宇 | Zhou Guanyu 🇨🇳 @ZhouGuanyu24 · 1h I did it better

MESSAGES

from the phone of oscar piastri

TWITTER

lina !!! @EB_selina · 2h been feeling mean lately, how much trouble should i cause? ↳ EB BAR @theemptybottlesbar · 2h selina pls have mercy MERCY I BEG

kayla @luna_apocolypse · 1h it's been an hour since that cryptic ass tweet, i'm shaking lina what do you have up your sleeve

piaa⁸¹ @ papayaeightyone · 32m OH MY GOD WHAT DID SHE JUST SAY????

EB BAR @theemptybottlesbar · 43m We'd like to extend our condolences to @ McLarenF1, we're working on getting her media training, but it doesn't seem to be working ↳ McLaren @ McLarenF1 · 39m We're all in this together 🥹 ↳ oscalina real ?! @ emptyginbottles · 42m WHAT DID SHE DO???? IS IT THE LIVE?? WHAT DID SHE SAY IM AT WORK SELINA HOW COULD U DO THIS TO ME

amie <3 @mieflrs · 29m i just know that pr team has being worked TO DEATH this past week like RIP

INSTAGRAM selinabui started a live video

MESSAGES

from the phone of selina bui

REDDIT

r/EmptyBottles · Posted by u/luckyluna9364 6 days ago Lina x Oscar Timeline [read new comments]

luckyluna9364 OP · 1 hr. ago this thread is getting super active after lina's livestream so i'm doing my best to summarise what ppl are saying: - a much longer relationship than anticipated is highly possible; lina was still pretty vague with the timing all she really said was 'long enough' what long enough is to her is up to debate (most are keeping the benchmark at 7mo) - lina mentioned her aunt (zhou guanyu's mother) has invited them to have dinner in shanghai which means that not only has lina's family known and met oscar but also that lina is stopping over in shanghai for a bit before performing in shenzhen (exciting news for the oscalina stans) - her freezing up suggests that she and oscar were keeping a lot of the relationship private or even secret for a while and it was genuinely a mistaken slip that wasn't at all supposed to happen (one can only wonder how oscar reacted) - a couple people think that EB planned the tour schedule around the F1 calendar (there are quite a few overlaps in races and shows) which would mean that they were together BEFORE tour announcement which was back in november - one user is betting their life savings that they met before oscar's f1 debut, for that user's sake i hope it's true.

✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:

taglist @ririyulife @ashy-kit @fionaschicken @namgification @cherry-piee @urfavsgf

[siren-serenity]

oversized

characters: jake kim, gn!reader warnings: none a/n: - i literally stared at the title for a good five sec before realizing i spelt hoodies correctly - jake is a green flag. prove me wrong (YOU CANT) - feedback is appreciated!

"Wow..."

Jake Kim looked absolutely starstruck. Eyes widened in disbelief, hands frozen in mid-air the moment he entered through the doorway.

You blushed, fiddling with the ends of his overlarge hoodie. It wasn't really a logical decision, you were only in need of clothing since somebody (ahem Jake) forgot to do laundry and you ran out of clothes. Diving into Jake's closet, you were immediately wrapped in his familiar scent and picked out a shirt to dress. It just so happened that the moment you buttoned up the topmost button, Jake stumbled through the doorway and almost tripped and fell over his shoes when he saw you.

"You look great!" He grinned and bounced to you. His body language showed that he was more than delighted with what he is seeing right now.

You bit your lip, shyly looking into the mirror and your reflection looked back at you. You were almost swallowed by his shirt and the collar almost slipped off your shoulders but you didn't want to interrupt Jake's happiness by switching to another shirt.

"Do you like it?"

Jake blinked before back hugging you, pulling you into his warm, muscular chest. You could feel his breasts against your back and your face inflamed with red. Your ears burned as you realized that the only thing separating both of you were mere fabrics.

He leaned in, his warm breaths breezing past your ears.

"I love it."

Jake stepped backward and you immediately felt his warmth disappear, making you internally sigh in sadness. He moved around you before nodding in all seriousness.

"You should do this more often," He grinned and suddenly, he looked more boyish. Younger. Less burdened by the pains and stresses of the world. You wished he looked more like this. "Because you look- wow. Like really beautiful, babe."

He paused, scratching his head. "But what brought this on?"

You playfully shoved him before walking to the kitchen to grab food.

"If only somebody actually did the laundry, I wouldn't be stealing a shirt!"

"Oh shit!" He scurried behind you after facepalming. "So, that was what I forgot!"

[xmads-omensx]

CHAPTER 1 - I SIT HERE AND SMILE DEAR

MASTERLIST

Word Count: 4,091

Content warnings: Swearing, angst, fluff, violence f you squint (pushing and shoving in a malicious way), mentions of alcohol, Ronnie Radke, blood, descriptions of a small wound

Tag List: @concreteangel92 @lma1986 @dragonfly92 @thisis--mj @bloody-delusion-expert @girlagainstg0d

(Please message or comment if you would like to be added to the taglist, or if I forgot to add you <3)

WARPED TOUR 2011 BECCA

My knee bounced up and down as I sat on the leather sofa in the tour bus. We had never had a proper tour bus before. The closest thing we had was Theo’s Dad’s old van that kept breaking down. Nerves shot through my body as I tried to slow my heart-rate and regain my normal breathing.

Warped Tour was by far the biggest tour we had ever done. Sure, we were still supporting other bands, but we weren’t performing in a small, run-down dive bar. This was real. Bring Me The Horizon. Pierce The Veil. Sleeping With Sirens. All Time Low. Motionless In White. Our favourite bands were playing alongside us. We were one of them.

“Quit bouncing your leg Becca, I feel like I’m experiencing a fucking earthquake right now, jeez.” Johnny, our bass player, complained.

The rest of the guys erupted in laughter.

“Calm your tits, Johnny! Leave me alone.” I laughed in reply.

I had never been this nervous for a set before. We only had one album out, Arachnophobia, that had been doing reasonably well, but I was still so nervous. What if we get booed off stage? What if we fuck up the timings? What if I trip and fall flat on my fucking face? Worst-case scenarios flashed through my mind at lightning speed, corrupting whatever positive and confident thought that I still possessed.

“I need some air.” I said to the guys in a small voice.

“You good?” Kevin, our lead guitar player called out to me from his seat at the opposite end of the sofa.

“No. I just need a minute of fresh air.” I tried to reassure him, ultimately failing miserably.

“You sure?” Luke, our rhythm guitar player asked from his bunk.

“Yep. I won’t be long.” I mumbled, just loud enough for them to hear.

I walked around the festival site for a little while. The tents where bands were stood meeting fans and selling merch were absolutely packed. We had been selling merch and meting some fans as well, but nowhere near the scale of any of the bands situated near our tent.

This was our first ever festival. As I said, we were a small band. No one really knew who we were. That could also be said about some of the other bands on this tour as well to be fair. Warped Tour seemed like a brilliant opportunity for new fans to start listening to us when our manager, Nick, pitched it to us. But now it seemed like literal hell on earth. God, what if people left our set?

I tried to push those thoughts down, but nothing worked. As soon as I forced out one doubt, another just popped up in its place. It felt like my mind was the hydra from ancient Greek myth. Equally as venomous and persistent. It was going to be difficult to keep those negative feelings at bay for the rest of the tour. I had always struggled with not feeling good enough, and this tour was just amplifying those ideas. If nobody came to our set, everything would have been for nothing.

My phone started ringing in my pocket after about twenty minutes of my walk. It was Nick. I stared at the screen for a second. Breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth.

“Hey.” I said straight after answering the call.

“Hey yourself! Your set is in five minutes Bex. Get your ass to the stage right fucking now before I either lose my shit or lose my job. Whichever comes first.” Nick yelled down the line over the band who were finishing up their set before ours was due to start. I could hear the smile in his voice.

“Yep I’ll be there in a sec. I lost track of time, sorry.” I replied hurriedly.

“Great. Thanks. See you in a sec then.” Nick finished.

I started running back towards the stage when I bumped into something. It felt like a lamppost or something tall and thin like that. Except there weren’t any lampposts here. I looked up to see a tall, heavily tattooed man with long, black hair looking down at me with a slightly pained smile on his beautiful face.

I didn’t have time for this. I called out a quick sorry as I kept running towards the stage.

By the time I got there, I was doubled over and panting trying to catch my breath. “She’s here!” Luke shouted as I rounded the corner to the side-stage area. I was handed a microphone by Nick

“Good luck you guys. You’ve got this.” Nick encouraged with his arms round mine and Johnny’s shoulders. I took a breath in through my nose and out through my mouth as the rest of the guys walked onto the stage to begin the intro to the first song on our album, Make me Wanna Die, “Give ‘em hell kid.” Nick whispered in my ear with a pat on my back. I closed my eyes for a second then stepped out onto the stage.

The world around me seemed to slow down as I lifted my mic up to my mouth to start the song. My lyrics flew out of my mouth with a natural ease. This wasn’t as hard as I thought. A large crowd had formed at the stage. Not too bad for our first show of the tour. Some people in the crowd were singing along to the song, which filled me with pure joy and unrivalled confidence. I started to move and jump across the stage which excited the crowd even more. By the time we were halfway through our set, the crowd had grown significantly and even began singing even louder to the words that they knew.

I had never experienced such a buzz from the crowd. It felt electric. Looking at the rest of the band, it looked like they felt the same. Wide, beaming smiles were plastered on their faces. I was sure I wore a similar one on my own face. In fact, my face hurt because of the smile that covered my face.

Up until this point, the largest show that we had ever played was to only about eighty people. But now, we were performing to a crowd of about two hundred and fifty. It wasn’t a massive crowd by any means, but it was huge to us. All of our favourite bands started out like this, playing for much smaller crowds. It gave me hope that one day we could be as big as those bands. Someday.

“How is everyone doing?” I shouted into my microphone.

The crowd cheered in response. Holy shit.

“You guys having fun?” I asked.

The crowd cheered in response again. This felt so surreal.

“That’s good. We are too. You guys have been a great crowd.” I began. “This is our first Warped Tour, so thanks for making our first show sop fun because we are having an absolute blast up here.”

The crowd cheered and applauded.

“As you have probably gathered, I’m not exactly brilliant at this whole crowd work thing, but I’m not really used to crowds as fantastic as you guys.” I said with a huge grin on my face.

The crowed roared with cheers and applause.

“So anyway, this song is our last song of the set, and if you don’t mind we would like to play r for you.” I began. “I mean, it’s not like you really have much of a choice, we pre-decided the setlist before we came on stage.”

Laughter erupted around me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a tall, skinny guy with long dark hair cascading over his shoulders with tattoos on his arms, at least I thought they were tattoos. I couldn’t tell if it was black paint or tattoos. Either way, they looked good. He was standing backstage with four other guys who were all fitted in similar outfits. They must be the band following us. The man who caught my eye was the tallest of the group. He looked familiar but I couldn’t place it.

“This song was written by one of my favourite bands and are one of the bands who inspired me to pursue music. We hope you have had a great time here watching our set. We have been The Magpies and this is ‘Call Me’ by Blondie.

The intro started and an immense sense of joy coursed through my veins. Since I was a kid, Debbie Harry had been one of my heroes and I was so proud that we got to play one of her songs to a crowd of people.

And that was the moment that I knew we were going to make it.

 “Holy fucking shit guys, you crushed that.” Nick yelled out at us with an impossibly huge grin  plastered on his face. He clapped us each one-by-one as we came off of the stage. “The crowd fucking loved you guys.”

“That was kickass.” Luke exclaimed with a look that I can only describe as pure joy.

“Dude what the fuck just happened.” Johnny exclaimed.

“Fuck that was sick!” Kevin yelled directly into my ear as he swung his arm over my shoulder.

“Damn I’m pumped!” Theo laughed.

“How the fuck did we pull that off?” I laughed along with the rest of the guys.

“Because we are hot shit Bex. Hot fucking shit.” Kevin shouted back at us as he followed Nick away from the stage and towards the bus.

I paused for a moment and watched the guys, my family, walk ahead of me. I never thought anything like this could happen to us. Let alone at such a young age. I was only 18 when we did our first Warped Tour.

“Come on slow coach we want to go hang before the barbeque.” Nick called back at me. I laughed and followed after them

Every year, there was a barbeque on the first day of tour. It was mainly so that everyone in all the bands and crew could meet eachother. Kind of like an icebreaker night I guess. This was going to be the most nervous I had been so far, including the show. Because now, I had no choice but to meet all of those bands who were practically the reason that I made music. Plus, I was pretty confident in saying that meeting Oli Sykes in person might literally kill me.

The fact that we would be meeting our heroes in such a short space of time was seriously starting to make me freak out. How were we worthy of all of this?

We made it to the bus and all sat down to play some Xbox together before the barbeque. Luke had flung himself onto the black, leather L-shaped sofa opposite the door.

“I don’t give a fuck what the rest of you want, I’m playing Call Of Duty.” He said whilst signing into the game and running a hand through his short blonde hair.

“What the fuck man! We play that all the fucking time.” Johnny complained.

“Let me be play too and you can do whatever you want.” Kevin laughed whilst grabbing the second controller and joining Luke in the game.

“Fuck you guys I’m going to have a nap before we have to go.” Theo sighed with a yawn, tying his shoulder length, curly brown hair into a low bun as he walked towards his bunk.

I sat next to Luke and laughed at their childish bickering as they played their game. Johnny sat shouting commands at the two other boys.

“If you want to sit there and yell at us then you should have joined the fucking game asshole.” Kevin laughed, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose as they had begun to slip down.

“Fuck you, there’s only two controllers dipshit.” Johnny argued back.

I started to block out their arguing as I picked up the book that I had been reading and snuggled further into the corner of the sofa. I had found comfort in books during the very short time that we had been touring. Sure, performing on stage was an escape from real life, for both us and the crowd, but that was still work at the end of the day. Reading, however, had the power to transport you to a different world entirely, a different dimension even if that’s what you wanted to find. It allowed my mind to escape the cage that it was trapped in and explore the endless possibilities that life held. It allowed me to hide from my problems. To escape reality. To run and never stop running, not until I was happy, not until I was free. And that freedom was the greatest feeling in the world.

 Before I knew it, my eyes had started to droop and I drifted off into a peaceful sleep. The best that I would probably have on this tour. My dreams were surprisingly pleasant as I fell deeper into my slumber before a pair of hands grasped my shoulders and began to shake me awake.

“Rebecca…. Beccaa…. Bex…. Beckyyy…..” A deep sing-song voice chanted as he shook my shoulders. My eyes fluttered awake, and leaning over me stood Theo. “There she is.” He said once my eyes had fully opened.

“What?” I mumbled as I rubbed my eyes.

“We have to go in like forty minutes, and we thought you might want to get ready.” He went on.

I stood up and stretched my arms over my head before letting out a yawn and making my way to the bathroom so that I could re-do my makeup and brush the birds nest that had formed in my hair.

I decided not to do anything crazy and to just touch up the makeup that I already had on, which was a more natural look with dark brown eyeshadow lining my upper lash line just a little bit. I tied up the top half of my long, brunette hair into a bun at the back of my head, letting some face-framing pieces hang loosely around my face. I changed into a white tank top with spaghetti straps and some black wide-leg ripped jeans with fishnets underneath. I grabbed an old, red Flash hoodie, that previously belonged to my ex but I liked the hoodie too much to return it, and tied it around my waist just in case it got chillier later in the night.

“Okay I’m ready.” I announced to the guys who were all sat on the sofa arguing over what movie to watch later. Unsurprising as they usually had this argument, then would watch a movie that wasn’t even part of the equation to begin with.

“Great, let’s go.” Nick said as he stood up, rubbing his hands together.

We all nodded in agreement and followed him out of the bus and towards the barbeque. There was an opening in the middle of where the buses were parked in which a large fire pit, surrounded by mismatched deckchairs, had been set up. The barbeque itself was positioned next to a staff bus, that the Warped Tour management team were staying in. They were the ones who essentially ran the tour and wanted to ensure that it went as smoothly as possible.

Straight away, a British accent caught my attention as five guys started approaching us. “Hey! You guys must be the Magpies.” One of the men asked us with a huge grin on his face.

Holy fucking shit. Danny Worsnop from Asking Alexandria was talking to us. THE Danny Worsnop from THE Asking Alexandria was talking to us. Us? We were nobodies here. He fucking knew who we were. Holy fucking shit I must still be dreaming.

“Yep that’s us.” Johnny said with a smile on his face, sticking out his arm to shake Danny’s hand. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to introduce yourselves, we are big fans, Becca especially. But I’m Johnny and I’m the bass player, this dumbass is Theo our drummer, Luke and Kevin here are our guitar players, and this shy bitch is Becca, our singer.” Johnny introduced. We each raised our hands in a wave when Johnny said our names.

“It’s so nice to meet you all. It’s about time a new band joined the lineup.” Ben laughed.

“Well, the Black Veil Brides guys are new here.” Cam said.

“Yeah, obviously, but I mean a band we haven’t met before.” Ben laughed at his bandmate and rolled his eyes at Cam playfully.

“We toured with them last year for a while. They’re great guys.” James said to the rest of us.

“Hey, you should totally meet them later if you’re up for it.” Ben enthusiastically suggested.

“Yeah, totally.” Theo said with a smile. “But let’s eat first, I’m fucking starving.”

“Agreed.” Danny laughed. We all started walking towards the barbeque and Ben fell into step with me. We fell into easy conversation. I could tell immediately that we were going to be good friends.

“So how did your first show go?” Ben asked.

“It went fucking amazingly. We’ve never played to a crowd that big before, and they actually seemed to enjoy our set which was fucking brilliant.” I gushed.

“Yeah, I caught some songs towards the end of your set. You guys fucking crushed it. Andy said he saw the last few songs and thought you guys were pretty cool.” He said.

“Andy?” I asked.

“Yeah. Oh shit you haven’t met him yet. He’s the singer in Black Veil Brides. He’s super cool, I think you’d like him.” Ben explained.

“Cool. It’s weird having this many people on a tour together.” I continued. “It’s only ever really been us supporting another band. Never any more than that.”

“I remember when we started out like that. We thought we’d never make it, but look where we are now.” He laughed. “Once you get used to it, it gets less weird.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” I replied.

Before I even realised it, we had reached the barbeque. People from various different bands and their crew mingled about as they all socialised with eachother. It seemed as though most of the people here already knew eachother from previous tours.

Ben introduced me to his friends on the tour, which was already a shock to be hanging out with Ben fucking Bruce. I tried to push my nerves down as he introduced me to the likes of Vic Fuentes, Kelin Quinn, Oli Sykes, Chris Motionless and Ricky Horror. I surprised myself with how ‘normal’ I managed to act around them. After all, it’s not every day that you meet your favourite musicians. I tried to remind myself that I would be touring with these people, so it wouldn’t be the best idea to fangirl and embarrass myself the first time I met them.

Ben and I grabbed a burger each and sat down on some of the spare deck chairs to eat them.

“Have you just put gherkins in your fucking burger?” I asked Ben in utter disbelief.

“Yep.” He grinned, popping the p. “Do you have a problem with that?”

“Of course I do that’s disgusting! I don’t think we can be friends after this.” I gasped at him in mock offense.

“Wow. You’re one of those?” Ben chuckled.

“One of what?” I laughed at him.

“Someone who doesn’t have taste.” He laughed.

I threw my dirty napkin at him in response.

“EW!” He screamed dramatically, throwing his own napkin right back at me.

I laughed hysterically at him.

“Okay. I’m glad you two are having fun, but I was sitting there, so if you could just move that would be great.” A deep voice tore through the bliss that I was experiencing with Ben.

“Oh fuck off Ronnie, we both know you weren’t sat here.” Ben rolled his eyes.

“Seriously, Bruce? You’re gonna start shit on the first day of tour?” The man, who I assumed was called Ronnie sighed back.

“Just fuck off Ronnie, the no one has to start shit.” Ben said through gritted teeth.

“Seriously man, why do you have to make everything so damn hard all the time!” Ronnie shouted at Ben.

“I’m not the problem here man.” Ben raised his hands in mock surrender.

“Take your pretty friend here, and go suck each other’s faces somewhere else jackass!” Ronnie yelled.

“Woah, woah.” Ben started, raising his voice at Ronnie, “We both know that’s not what was happening here okay. Let’s just move on.”

“Move.” Ronnie said through gritted teeth.

“No.” Ben said with a laugh, as he leaned back in the chair and crossed his legs, relaxing further.

Before I could even register what was happening, Ronnie lunged forward and shoved Ben out of the chair backwards. I jumped up and pushed Ronnie backwards so that he couldn’t lunge towards Ben anymore. Instead, he only stumbled back a few steps before he shoved me backwards too, nocking my beer out of my hand, making it spill all over me. I put my hands below me to try and stop the fall, when I felt a sharp pain in my hand. I lifted my hand up to get a look at it, only to be greeted with a shard of glass poking out the palm of my hand and blood dripping from the wound.

I winced as I slowly tried to pull the broken glass out of my hand, completely oblivious to the fact that Johnny and Luke had ran over and dragged Ronnie away before punching him in the face, knocking him to the floor. The shard of glass wasn’t anything massive, but once it was out of my hand, more blood pooled in the palm of my hand.

From behind me, I felt a pair of arms snake underneath my armpits and begin to pull me up to my feet. Once I was standing again, I turned to see who had lifted me up. I was greeted by a chest clad in a black t-shirt with the Batman logo on. The shirt hung slightly loosely on the skinny frame of the person, who I assumed was a man, who now stood in front of me. I had to crane my neck to see his face, which was obscured by long black locks of hair. I could make out an array of tattoos on his arms that I hadn’t noticed before.

Holy shit. This was the guy that I had literally ran into before my set earlier.

“You okay? That looks deep.” He said, concern plastered all over his face as he took my hand in his much bigger one.

“Y-y-yeah.” I stuttered out, still in shock from what had just happened.

“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.” He led me gently away from where Johnny and Luke were being held back by Asking Alexandria and Ronnie was being dragged away by Jacky Vincent and Ryan Seaman.

The man led me to a tour bus where we met another man, who also had long black hair.

“Hey man, what the fuck?” The new man said with an incredulous look on his face as we got closer to the bus.

“Ronnie is back on his dumbass shit.” The first man, who was still holding my elbow, said in reply.

“Of course he is.” The second man scoffed while going into the tour bus, holding open the door for myself and the first man.

Their tour bus looked pretty much the same as ours did, except there was lots of makeup all over the place and various items that looked like they were made of leather. It was messier than ours too which I liked. It made me feel better about how I left things when I was getting ready.

“This is Jake.” The first man gestured to the second man. “I’m not too sure where the others are though? Probably still at the barbeque. It’s Becca right?”

“Oh, yeah. That’s me.” I said quietly with a weak laugh.

He stared at me for a beat as I looked at him expectantly. It felt like he was looking right into my soul with those blue eyes of his.

“Who are you?” I asked timidly.

“Me?” He pointed at his chest.

I nodded my head. I could tell he wasn’t very good at talking.

“I’m Andy.” He said with a beautiful smile. “Pleasure to meet you.”

[thefuseoftemptation]

THE WHITE NOISE PT.3

PT.I PT.II

THE LOST BOYS X GN!READER

A/N: It’s been a sec since I was here, also so sorry for the late pt. Just a little note for those who forgot, that it’s based on the film but not in the order of it.

WARNING(S): cussing, implied/mentions of taken or missing child. The boys being cunts but what’s new. Lmk if there are more!!!

—

“Laddie?”

—

You could feel tears fleeing from your eyes that had yet to be pulled away from the screen of the television, too stunned to even utter a word.

It might’ve been too that you couldn’t because you thought if you had, he wouldn’t be there any more. Not like he was, literally, but his voice could still be heard.

Your hands shook as they rested on the screen, wavering, your fingers spread, trying to feel for him. Or at least his presence. Lying your forehead up to it, you cry.

But not the type where weeps are released from your mouth, it was more of you just letting the tears shed freely– quietly– while you listened to the static that pervaded through the room. It wasn’t until you heard chuckles, that you stopped. Your form stilled as you listened to the same exact sound that was heard minutes before. 

It couldn’t have been by chance that Laddie had gone missing the same time when you heard them. The same time when you hadn’t been just a few doors down, so if or when he woke, you would be there.

But you hadn’t been. You were pulled away, not even upstairs to begin with. Too busy checking for something that wasn’t even there, and all while that was happening, they took him.

Your hands no longer shook from fear, now it was nothing but fury. Scrunching your nose up and quickly getting to your feet, not even thinking when you pushed the television over and shouted.

“Where is he?!” 

When they got louder, it only provoked you more. It was nothing but humorous to them to see you so fucked up. To know you’re so out of it because you couldn’t keep up with their little stunts. But to you, there was nothing little about this.

Where was the humor in taking a child? Why were they even there to begin with and what was it about Laddie that had them so set on him? It was only when he was there, that they showed up.

“Where is he, huh?! Tell me where he is you fuckin–” 

You couldn’t even finish what you were going to say with them cutting you off with their voices. Trying to listen to where they were, but that was the thing, you weren’t even sure where they were much less where they’re coming from.

One second you hear them by you and the next they’re on the side of the room. After a few short seconds of their repetitive noises, they let up.

“He’s with us, where else would he be, huh?” The tone of voice was clear, singled out so it was simple to understand. And it was spoken in a manner that you got quite too often, one that would come from those who thought they were above others. 

“Well, where would that be? You expect me to know where that is?!” You nipped, venturing slowly as you went. Little had you known or seen the reflection that was shown in the mirror as you left.

“Why?” This voice was new. And it was too close for your liking. He was to your side, and it was almost as if you could feel his breath, hovering by your neck. Scrunching your shoulder and brushing the feeling off. What type of question even was that? Where has this guy been?

“What do you mean why?” You screw your eyes, “because I’m trying to get to the child!”

“He has a name, y’know.” 

How many of them were there? You could basically see this one’s mouth curl up, humored by himself and knowing that he got under your skin a little a lot more than they already were. Because of course you knew Laddie’s name, but he just had to get the point in in order to feel somewhat satisfied. 

“Shut up! Just tell me where he is?!!” Your head kept turning to wherever you heard them. 

“Where’s Laddie?! Give him back to me!” It’s like they were thriving off your suffering because they just chuckled. Only to repeat your cries back to you. And they just kept going and going until you felt yourself spinning.

It was all too much for you to handle but you had to get through it in order to get to Laddie. When you got yourself steady, you went to speak, but just like before, it went silent.

There were no more voices, or chuckles– just the sound of light flickering and your breathing. Maybe it was from them just leaving like that without letting you finish or maybe it was everything you’d been through in general, but you just let it all go. 

You could only guess, or more likely be quite sure, that the neighbors will end up at your door later for the noise. 

By the time you were done, the feeling you once had had settled, and nothing was left but you feeling empty. Sliding down to the floor and staring at the broken frame that lied ‘cross from you.

“Laddie…”

–

It was well into the morning, and you were still sitting on the floor staring. Though if there was a change, it’d be the smoke that was between your fingers that was nothing if not a stub now.

The whole time there, you hadn’t heard a single thing. Not one word. Nothing. And during it, with all the quiet, you thought.

And you thought. And you thought…..

Stubbing out the smoke on the tile, with much more force than necessary, you get up. Stepping over the glass and chips that were littered all over not even phased if they cut your feet.

The door to the kitchen pushed open as you walked through, heading to the counter to retrieve the number you put up when you first moved in. Never forgetting the words he spoke as he handed over the little piece of paper, telling you in case, for whatever it might be.

It rung as you waited, fingers tapping and tongue clicking as you listened for the voice.

Sure, there were others you could go to but while sitting there the whole time, thinking, it came to you to go to the source. The one who told you about it to begin with, who also happened to be the one to sell it to you.

You thought that hearing the boy's voices sent you into a state of utter resentment, but upon hearing his voice, he might have upped them.

“Max?”

—

It wasn’t long that you were on the line with him, you kept it short and then hung up. Holding the rest in for when he got there.

So until then, you begin to pick up. Sweeping and dusting any signs of your previous lash out that happened. Of course too, there were the expected stop by’s of the neighbors about what they heard, but there wasn’t much tolerance for their words, cutting them off with a door shut to their face.

If their house wasn’t cursed, they shouldn’t be talking or even be there. Until the word crossed your head, the thought had yet to come to you. Cursed.

How could you not have put two and two together? Checking the time before quickly heading out the door.

The guy could wait if you get back late.

—

The shelves were full, it was just a matter of finding what you were looking for so you could be on your way. Your eyes briefly flicked through the covers, trying to pinpoint the section the frontdesk suggested you check. And when you did find something remotely close, you pulled them from their spots.

Your head was spinning from looking over the words and repeating them under your breath. Upon that, you left your little spot at the table and headed over to the computers to get further on your search. And what was pulled up wasn’t what you expected.

Sure, you knew it would be something but not to that extent.

The sound of the chair being pushed back echoed throughout the whole library, grabbing your stuff before rushing out and back to the house. 

That bastard knew.

When Max got there, you didn’t give him the time to properly knock, much less greet you. Letting him inside before socking him.

“You fuckin sold me this hole knowing that it was built over a cemetery?!!”

—

A/N: feedback and reblogs are appreciated.

Wasn’t sure for those who requested to be tagged, still would like to be tagged, so just lmk if you’d like me to get you off the list.

TAG(S): @sabrinasaurus @bdudette @billyhargrovedemoness1987 @littlecummerguy

[call-sign-jinx]

Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw - I’m here honey

Summary - Bradley Bradshaw pisses you off to your limit. You lose it with him because of stuff going on back home and end up in his arms.

Warnings - swearing, fluff, making out

Main Masterlist Bradley ”Rooster” Bradshaw Masterlist

A/N - the reader has a manchester accent xoxo

bradley "rooster" bradshaw x fem!reader

Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw. Where do I even begin?

Well, why don't I start off with, he is a cocky arrogant mother fucker. God he makes me want to claw my eyes out everyone time he flirts with a girl. I mean, what do they even see in him? Sure, he's fit n all. But he's just an arrogant prick that thinks he can get what he wants.

He just writhes in it. He loves it. He's just a twat overall to be honest. and he knows just how to get under my skin. Like right now.

Me and the Dagger Squad are at the Hard Deck, and oh my fucking days, he's just showing off as much as he can. And everyone knows how much I don't like pricks like him. People who show off just for attention. Like, why? To some dumb fuckers he's amazing, but to everyone else, he's just a douchebag.

"Hey! Bradshaw!" Hangman shouted across the room to Rooster who just so happened to be chatting up some blonde bird who probably didn't even have enough brain cells to know that he just wanted a shag tonight. "Come have a round of darts with me Rooster!"

Bradshaw bid farewell to the clueless girl and sauntered over to the rest of the Dagger Squad. He gave me an obnoxious wink which earned an eyeroll from me. Phoenix saw then walked over to sit on the stool next to me.

"You know he just wants a reaction from you? He loves the attention and you know it." I rolled my eyes with a smirk. She gave me a knowing look.

"Yeah, I know. But he just aggravates me tha much tha I can't do much bout it. It's jus automatic now init?" Phoenix laughed at my words. Probably cause of my accent. She loves it so much.

"Then try not to give him a reaction. Like every time he says something stupid or that you don't like. Shut your eyes, take a deep breath, and ignore it." Her advice was actually really good. But not for me.

"Easier said than done Nat. I've just grown up to react to every little thing that happens. Probably the household I were raised in." She patted my shoulder and chuckled a bit.

"I think I'm gonna go outside for a sec. For a toot." A toot means vape. I literally had to explain this about 10,000 times to Phoenix.

She chuckles then gestures to the door. I then walked outside to sit on the bench and got my vape out of my pocket. I took a drag then turned on my phone to reply to my little sister's message that I should have answered hours ago. She was texting me, updating me about how our Nana was back in England. She got diagnosed with cancer a few months ago then started chemo a week after. It's been draining for everyone. And I can't even go to see her because I live so fucking far away.

When I opened the text, my heart dropped and my whole body had gone numb.

she's gone Y/N/N, ik u can't come rn cos ur on duty n everything but i jus thought u needed to know. come as soon as u want xxxxxx

I just sat there. Numb. Frozen. No emotion. No sadness. Nothing. Nada. Absolutely fuck all. I couldn't think straight. Why didn't I at least go see her once? I didn't even get to say goodbye to her. Didn't get to tell her I got into Top Gun which has, well had, always been her dream for me. She wanted me to do it to prove all them dumb ass men that a woman could do what they do but better.

And now, she'll never know. She probably hated me before she died cause I didn't visit her. What if she was upset about it? What if she thought I forgot about her? What if she thought that I stopped caring about her? So many thoughts were running through my head. Different things being said in my head. But they all went quiet when I saw Phoenix walk through the door to outside. Probably to come check on me, God knows how long I've just been sat there staring at my phone. At the text.

"Hey Y/C/S, you okay?" She had a trace of worry laced in her voice and expression. I gave her a tight-lipped smile and nodded.

"I'm great thank you." I faked a happy smile as I got up and gestured for her to follow me back into the Hard Deck.

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

It's been about a week since I got the text from Y/L/S/N. I haven't even reacted how someone would normally react to their family member dying. I didn't even reply back to Y/L/S/N. Just left her on opened.

I just acted like everything was okay. No one seemed to notice except one person. Bradshaw. I could tell by the way he looks at me that he knows something is wrong. But he hasn't asked.

Also, I found out I won't be able to make it to the funeral. Which is great. I'll just say my goodbyes another time. Hopefully Nana will understand. She always did.

Right now, we're having a briefing for the day. Which consists of absolutely fuck all, no flying, just some theory work we need to get done apparently.

I came in late so I sadly had to sit next to Bradshaw whose been looking at me like I'm an idiot for the past week. And it's actually quite unnerving.

After the briefing finished, I went straight to the unisex bathrooms to wash my face and clear my head for at least a few minutes. That was until I heard the door open. I looked to the source of the sound to see Bradshaw. Great. Why does he always come near me at the worst times? It's like he has a sixth sense about this shit.

"Hey Y/C/S, are you okay? You seem a bit off." He had worry and concern plastered on his face and in his voice. I nodded by head as I looked at the ground.

"Why? Why do you even care? It's not like we're friends or anything? And it's none of your business anyway?" I only glanced up at him for half a second before looking back down. It's tiring playing this whole "I'm happy and nothing's wrong!" facade. It's tiring keeping a smile on my face. Making the same type of jokes as if nothing has happened. Cause something has happened. And I haven't even reacted in the proper, normal way.

"I just wanna know. Cause I've gotta be honest... I'm a little worried about you. Something about you's changed. You seem a little less yourself." I'm sorry, but how the fuck has Rooster, out of everyone I've been around for the past week, noticed but no one else fucking has?

"Nothing is wrong Rooster. And even if there was, why would I talk about it with you? All you do and seem to like doing is piss me off." I finally looked up at him. Annoyance clear on my face.

"I only do that shit because I thought we were both joking around with each other. And I thought we were friends. But I guess I was wrong about that." He looked me dead in the eye then walked out.

I looked back in the mirror and made myself look presentable before going back outside from the toilets.

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

It's now been 2 months after the funeral. I'm a little gutted that I couldn't be there to say goodbye. But obviously I wouldn't have been allowed to go, I'm on duty still and I hadn't even told anyone about it. Not even Phoenix. And it's gonna stay that way for as long as I can make it.

I was in the changing room having a shower. Luckily, I had made it short cause as I got out of the shower I heard someone come into the changing rooms.

It was Bradshaw. Yet again.

"Alright Y/N, I was going to let you tell someone at your own pace but just tell me now. What has gotten you so upset that you're just acting like a robot? And don't give me any of that bullshit 'nothing's wrong and I'm fine' crap because I won't believe you." After he finished I got right back to getting changed. I didn't even acknowledge his chasing after me when I went into a cubicle for some privacy.

As soon as I had gotten out the cubicle to put my shoes on, Bradshaw was standing right outside.

"For fuck sake Bradshaw! Why won't you just leave me alone about it?" I looked him dead in the eye with nothing short of anger. I've been feeling a lot of that lately. And every single time is because of Bradley fucking Bradshaw.

"Because you're acting like someone's fucking died! You're acting all numb and shit!" As soon as he finished his sentence, I finally broke down. After fuck knows how many months of my body not allowing me to even react in a normal way after finding out my Nana had cancer. I had finally broke down.

I dropped to my knees and curled up in a ball as I leaned against the wall. Tear after tear after tear. I couldn't stop. Even if I wanted to.

I looked up at the ceiling until I felt hands on my arms rubbing up and down on them. I looked down and saw Bradshaw, sat on the ground in front of me looking at me dead in the eyes. Something came over me and I just threw myself at him into a hug. He instantly wrapped his arms around me as he tried his best to comfort me.

He was shushing me like I was a crying baby, which I practically was if I'm being honest, and telling me that it's all gonna be okay and that he's here with me. After about 10 minutes of solid crying, I calmed down and looked up at Bradshaw.

We were close. Like very close. Close enough that I could feel his breath fan over my face and see the little hazel specs in his eyes. and all the scars on his cheeks and neck. I scanned his face as he did the same with mine. Then I realised. We were still in each other's embrace. But neither one of us attempted to pull away.

"Thank you Bradley." I said to him with the first genuine, but small, smile I had done in months. As I looked at him more, I realised how gorgeous he actually was. And how much of my type he was.

"No problem sweetheart." That nickname. That fucking nickname shouldn't have affected me the way it did. It made my whole body feel warm. It made blood rise to my cheeks.

In that moment, I don't know what came over me but I quickly pressed my lips against his. But he froze, at first I thought it was just shock but after a few seconds he was still frozen. I quickly pulled away and pulled myself out of his embrace and stood up.

"Fuck. I'm sorry. I'm so fucking sorry. I don't know why I even did that. By your reaction you didn't like it either." I started to chuckle nervously. Why the fuck did I do that? I've never liked him, not even in a friend way so why the fuck did I choose to do that? I kept on rambling on and on with myself, saying my thoughts out loud for Rooster to hear.

"Y/N." I ignored him and kept on waffling on with myself.

"Y/N." He said a bit more stern at me. I still ignored him and kept talking.

"Y/N!" That finally got my attention. I looked up at him, on the brink of another few tears coming out of my eyes.

"What?" I looked at him softly and looked for any expression other than one that said 'I don't like you, and I didn't like that kiss either so please leave me alone' because that would just make my day worse.

"You shouldn't be sorry. I've wanted to do that ever since we started Top Gun honey. I was just really shocked that you did it because you've never even hinted you liked me. So... could we do that again?" All I did was nod before connecting our lips again.

Bradley wrapped his arms around my waist as I did the same but behind his neck. The kiss was slow, soft. Just the way I liked it. He began to move his hands and caressed the sides of my body. I slid my hands up his neck into his hair and pulled on it slightly, which earned a slight moan from him.

We both pulled away for air. I looked into his eyes and it felt different with him now. Felt nicer. Comfier. He smiled at me as we both came out of the embrace.

“Do you come over to my house? After work?” I asked him as I dipped down to grab my bag. He nodded with a happy smile.

“Yeah, I’d like that. That’s be great Y/N.” I gave Bradley a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek before practically skipping out the changing rooms.

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

After work, I just wanted to drive home, have a shower and go to sleep. I didn’t have any plans anyway, did I? Just to check I looked at my calendar and had nothing. So I just walked back to my car and started to drive home.

As I got to my door, I rummaged through my bag, found my keys, and unlocked the door. I couldn’t even be arsed to have a shower so I flopped onto my couch and lost it again. I began balling my eyes out and shoved my face into my pillow.

I must’ve forgot to lock the door because I heard the door open and quickly sat up, alert. Not knowing who or what just opened my front door. As soon as I saw Bradley turn round the corner, I tried to wipe my tears away without him seeing.

“You okay honey?” I just nodded my head weakly as he came and sat down next to me. I leaned my head on his shoulder as I wrapped my arm around his stomach. He wrapped his around my shoulder and stroked it reassuringly.

“I don’t know why it’s taken me this long to actually react to it.” He looked at me confused with his brows furrowed. Of course he didn’t know, I hadn’t told him and now he probably thinks I’m weird.

“Taken this long for you to react to what?” That’s when the waterworks came back yet again. Why the fuck did they have to start at the slightest mention of my Nana being dead? Gone forever?

“3 months ago my Nana died. I just didn’t react. No crying. No being sad. Nothing. Literally nothing. And then when you said I’m acting like someone died, it flipped a switch. Like it turned my reactions on again. And I- I- I just want her back. I didn’t even get to fucking say goodbye to her Bradley! Imagine that, not being by their side when they’re gone. Let alone being in a whole different fucking country!” I sat up and threw my cushion across the room, angry at myself for not even trying to see her. I guess I didn’t want to. I didn’t want the image of her being up and healthy to go away so I just stayed here. In America.

“Oh honey. It’s not your fault.” I shook my head vigorously. I stood up and looked at his form on the couch.

“But Bradley it is my fault. She had all these plans for me. And when I found out she got cancer, I didn’t even try to go visit her. I didn’t want to. I never made any effort whatsoever.” At that, I dropped to my knees tears coming one after the other.

Bradley was quick to move to hug my and comfort me. “Don’t worry Y/N. I’m here honey. For whatever you need. And it is not your fault. At all. I get why you didn’t want to see her, you didn’t want the image of her being happy and healthy to be replaced by someone that isn’t her but looks like her.” He rubbed my arms then picked me up and sat back on the couch with me on his lap. I tightly hugged him, not wanting to let go in fear of him disappearing.

“Thank you Bradley. Thank you so fucking much. And I’m sorry for being a dick to you.” I apologised profusely as I wiped my tears away and smiled up at him.

He kissed me on my forehead and smiled at me. “Oh honey. It’s alright. And I think I was the dick in this situation. Because all I did was show off to you like a pretentious prick. All because I wanted your attention.” And that’s when it hit me. He wanted my attention.

“W-what?” He chuckled at my confusion.

“I tried to get your attention in every way I could, because the first time I saw you, I just thought ‘wow, she’s fucking gorgeous’ and I couldn’t get you out of my head since.” I looked at him with confusion which then changed to something else that I can’t quite put my finger on.

Instead of replying I just placed my lips on his in a hungry yet soft manner. He quickly reciprocated this and placed his hands on the back of my head to deepen the kiss. After a while it turned into a full blown make out session. Like the ones I used to have back in high school. And probably the same for him.

We both pulled away at the same time, and as I scanned his face, all he did was stare into my eyes with something that looked like love? I don't know, my experience comes from cunts who just wanted a shag so yeah.

"Be my girlfriend." Bradley looked at me with a seriousness I've never seen on his face before. I raised an eyebrow.

"Excuse me?" I gave a questioning look when he shook his head and chuckled to himself.

"I'm sorry- I- I mean, will you be my girlfriend?" He said with the same look in his eyes as before. I pondered on the question until I had my answer.

"Yes, only if you tell and show all them girls that you're now mine." Bradley gave me a cheeky smirk and he lay me down on the couch and placed a chaste kiss on my lips.

"Of course honey. I'd love to do that for you." We both smiled at each other until our lips were connected once again.

[ficreadergirl]

Dangerous Inquiries (ch.34)

"Why would you guys hide all these information from me?" you asked angrily. Dick sighed softly.

"We wanted to protect you from all this madness Y/n. I'm sorry." he said apologetically. "Y/n I know how much you hate being lied to." he added. You stayed quiet for a moment.

"How did he die?" you asked softly. Dick bit his lip.

"I shouldn't tell you that much." he admitted regretfully. "But he got seriously bad beating from Joker himself." he explained and you furrowed your eyebrows. Joker beat him? Why? You didn't want to think about it any further. You decided not to dwell on it anymore.

"Did he kill my father?" you asked quietly. Dick looked down.

"No Y/n. He did not." he said reassuringly. "I know I told you about bullets... but he says truth about not killing him." he explained.

"How do you know that?" you asked. Dick shrugged his shoulders.

"I just know my brother." he replied.

"Your brother? I thought you guys were... not so brotherly brothers." stated curiously. He chuckled.

"Aren't all brothers like us?" he asked smiling gently.

"Not all brothers warn their best friends about their bad boy brother who's a literal murderer." you retorted rolling your eyes. He chuckled again.

"Yeah I suppose they don't." he agreed with a small smile. You both fell silent for a few seconds.

"By the way what does Bruce Wayne's son does here?" you asked curiously. He glanced at you briefly and sighed.

"Did he do something to you or annoy you anyway?" he asked amusedly. You glared at him. He chuckled slightly.

"No. Not really." you lied quickly. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. You looked away from him.

"Are you sure?" he asked raising an eyebrow. You sighed deeply.

"No actually. He called me... 'his girlfriend'." you said with a hint of embarrassment in your voice. Dick choked on his drink, coughing loudly. He looked at you shocked.

"What?" he asked trying to hide his laughter. "He did what?"

"Stop laughing Dick! It's not funny." you said angrily.

"I can't help it Y/n, I'm sorry." he apologized sincerely. You rolled your eyes and huffed.

"You know what? Never mind. Let's just... forget about that kid." you said crossing your arms. Dick smiled at you.

"Sure." he agreed nodding. You both fell silent again until Dick spoke up.

"So... how does he know you you think? Because I don't remember you meeting him." he asked curiously. You shrugged your shoulders.

"I have no idea." you said honestly. Dick frowned.

"Are you sure you two didn't meet?" he asked doubtfully. You shook your head no.

"No. We didn't..." you started but stopped yourself. "Wait a minute. Was he him?" you asked yourself which made Dick raise his eyebrow.

"Was who him?" he asked confused. You hesitated for a second before speaking up.

"Well... when my graduation night were butchered by some... I forgot their names but y'know. When he left me in his apartment for getting groceries some kid appeared." you said explaining. Dick's eyes widened.

"Really? Was that kid Damian?" he asked. You nodded slowly.

"He was wearing dark clothing but I think he was him." you said. Dick raised his brows.

"That explains why he called you..." he paused for a second looking at you "his girlfriend". You blushed and looked away.

"Dick!" you whisper-shouted. He chuckled.

"What?" he asked innocently. You crossed your arms and turned away from him. He laughed louder.

"Come on Y/n. Don't be mad at me. This is hilarious." he said teasingly. You growled and glared at him. He smirked.

"Okay okay. I'll stop." he promised putting his hands up defensively. You stared at him.

"Good." you muttered under your breath. He grinned widely.

"See? No hard feelings right?" he asked cheerily. You rolled your eyes.

"Of course not." you mumbled. Dick smiled and took another sip of his drink. He suddenly froze as if he had seen something out of the corner of his eye. He stood up abruptly.

"Hey wait a sec. What are you doing?" you asked alarmed. He pointed towards the door. You followed his finger. It was Jason.

"Jason? What are you doing here?" Dick asked surprised. Jason ignored him completely and walked over to you.

"Hello Y/n." he greeted politely. You felt your heart skip a beat. You hadn't expected him. Your mouth went dry.

"Hi Jason." you managed to say. He looked at you with his cold blue eyes.

"Can we talk outside please?" he asked quietly. You glanced at Dick who was watching you closely. He nodded encouragingly. You looked back at Jason. His face was expressionless.

"Sure." you answered hesitantly. He nodded and led you outside with him.

Read more

[crowning-art]

TGCF SPOILERS

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

How I'm feeling regarding the entirety of what I have read so far:

THAT IS WHAT THE RUNNING THEME OF THIS BOOK IS T-T LOSING MY MIND RN LIKE THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS!! JUST. ONE. PERSON!

Xie Lian said, quite matter-of-factly, “Didn’t you ask me to believe you? I believe you. That’s it.”

ANOTHER THEME AHHHHHH LITERALLY CANNOT CONTAIN MYSELF RN

Me saving you is just me following my own principles, that’s all,” Xie Lian replied.

HE SAID IT!!! I saw a lot of art and stuff about this and I finally got to read it! It was so sweet thoo lmao Feng xin is so savage tho

Feng Xin piped up. “You said it yourself, you very much wanted to be His Highness’ f-f-friend!

LMAOOOO MU QING HERE!! My man here really said ya, so plan A is DIE and forgot there are 25 more letters of the alphabet 😂

Mu Qing was so full of spirit earlier, but now his face paled. He raised his palms, closing his eyes, looking as if he was going to smash through his own skull first before he got burnt to death, so he could die more straightforwardly.

Xie Lian hastily cried, “WAITWAITWAITWAIT DON’T YOU BE RASH! I-I-I-I-I’VE GOT A PLAN!”

Mu Qing opened his eyes again. “WHAT PLAN?

CRYING IN THE CLUB!! I MISSED THE IDIOT TRIO SO MUCH!! THEY BONDING AGAIN T-T I can't nobody touch me rn I am SOOOO emotional rn

Loool them going from this:

“Will you both not air out each other’s dirty laundry at a time like this? What’s the point in hurting each other…”

To this:

Sweat rolled down Xie Lian’s forehead and he looked back. “Wait a sec, there’s no need to air mine out either?

Goushi leaves NO survivors lmaooo, def my fave dude ever

“I’m sure there’s at least a million vicious ghosts that have paid a visit to Mount Tong'lu,” Mu Qing said.

“DON’T INTERRUPT!” Guoshi exclaimed.

he ascended??? HUA CHENG ASCENDED?!?!? LOSING MY MIND (again) CUZ HE ASCENDED FOLLOWING XIE LIAN'S PRINCIPLES DJDNFJJF I CANT BELIEVE IT OH MY GOOOD

Literal chills at the whole battle going on but especially....

Since every one of Jun Wu’s strikes were aiming straight for Hua Cheng’s right eye!

NO ROUYE!!!

I WILL CRY NOOO PLEASE IM NOT SURE HOW MANY MORE DEATHS I CAN HANDLE PLZ NO ROUYE COME BACK

I-

“Xianle, did you actually believe that something like being pierced by the sword is something I have less experience in than you? Did you think I would care?”

Damnnnn I have no words

WTF?!?! DUDE JUN WU WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU?? OH MY GOD?? I LITERALLY WANT TO PUT MY HAND IN THE BOOK AND MAKE HIM STOP

Jun Wu was expressionless, but his hand was ramming Xie Lian into the rocks like crazy, asking him repeatedly: “Does it hurt? Does it hurt?”

Guoshi exclaimed, “Your Highness!!!”

But, who knows who he was calling for.

AND THEN UGH WHAT A ROLLERCOASTER!! THIS!! IT'S JUST LIKE THE SCENE WITH THE STABBINGBSJDJDJDJF oh my God EXCEPT NOW HE KNOWS WHO HE IS AND IS CONFIDENT IN HIMSELF AND ITS NOT THE SAME AS BEFORE AND I WILL CRY OR SCREAM OR SMT AHHHHHHHHHHGHDHFJ

Xie Lian’s bloody hands pushed against the uneven surface of the rocky wall, gritting his teeth as he roared, “…IT HURTS!!!”

“WILL YOU CHANGE? WILL YOU CHANGE? WILL YOU CHANGE??”

It was as if Xie Lian had gone mad too, and he gripped Jun Wu’s arms, roaring, “I WON’T! I WON’T! I WON’T CHANGE!!!”

Even though the smashing was making him see stars, incomparably painful, he held this breath in stubbornly, refusing to give the desired answer at all, and cried out as he roared. “I JUST WON’T CHANGE! EVEN IF IT’S PAINFUL I WON’T CHANGE, EVEN IF I DIE I WON’T CHANGE, I WILL NEVER CHANGE!!!”

I'm just..... I cant....I love Xie Lian so much..this dude deserves the whole world and I'm just so emotional and proud of how far he's come and who he is as a person and he STILL Goss through trials and tribulations but look at how strong he stays in mind, body, and soul and the-

That!

But Hua Cheng gripped his shoulders. “So what? They’re just millions of fools, they’re all useless trash! But for you, one person is enough!”

One person was enough?

Xie Lian hadn’t yet wrapped his head around it before Hua Cheng pulled him close.

Xie Lian’s eyes widened.

Spiritual power exploded and rushed in.

Those two bands of fetters, that had constrained him for eight hundred years, had burst and shattered!

THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I HAVE BEEN SAYING HUA CHENG IT'S JUST ONE PERSON U NEED

Also

IF SMT HAPPENS TO HUA CHENG I PROMISE YOU I WILL ABSOLUTELY BEAT THE LIVING HELL OUT OF JUN WU I SWEAR TO GOD I CANT BELIEVE THIS HAPPENED

but the way the power of love is what helped them win lmao

BUT I DONT HAVE A GOOD FEELING ABOUT THIS RN I CANT I AM SO EMOTIONAL FOR SO MANY DIFFERENT REASONS I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT THIS SCENE BUT I CANT SEEM TO SAY ANYTHING AAHHH

[neurodivenport]

*screams* I just woke up rn and I have to tell you about my dream! And Chase was in it finally!

Okay okay so I’m trying to remember as much as I can but this is the main thing I remember.

So I had these crazy space abilities and can make portals and stuff and mess with the sky (it was weird but yk I was using it every second in my dream I was so happy😂) Anyways ig me and Chase were already supposed to be together. Anyways we were gonna leave where I was staying, like it didn’t take much convincing I was like “let’s go take me with you”(idk where we were going but we didn’t get far lol). So we were in this truck and I can’t remember this persons face in my dream but I think it was a girl. She just showed up and Chase offered to help her or something so she ended being with us for our very short drive. I got a little jealous while they were interacting and was like “nope nope it’s fine it’s cool” so I just distracted myself by messing with my powers. Then we stopped and had to get out. (I don’t remember why) we were in this open area and you could see the stars (forgot to mention it was night). So naturally I was like ohh let’s show off a little (cause I was jelly, and tried to play it off like I was just messing with my powers). Sooo I was like changing up the sky a little and I shot these pretty little purple space looking portals in the sky. And then something went wrong like I messed up something and everything started to get wacky and windy. It went from 0 to 100 real quick. Chase is looking at me yelling like “why did you do that?!” And I’m just as bewildered cause I don’t know what went wrong. So I’m immediately trying to fix my mess, but I started to feeling really off (I’ve had this in my dream before where I feel really sick it’s weird) and I freaked out a little and thought I was also starting to have an asthma attack (I actually have asthma). So Chase is literally scolding me and I start to mention that I’m not feeling to great and I don’t think he completely believed me. So I stop walk up to this man and I grab his shoulders (I was kicking and screaming on the inside cause I was face to face with him) I’m looking him in the eyes and say “You can scold me later when I can breath right, bring me my inhaler.” I didn’t even yell. Idk but I guess that snapped him out of it and he immediately turned and ran to get it. I don’t remember the last bit but I know I ended up fixing it and when we were leaving I ran into my mom and sister so I made him wait while I talked to them for a sec but then I woke up. Idk I thought the scolding was pretty on point for him😂 but I needed to tell you. I’m trying so hard to remember more of it but this is the only bit so far my brain has grasped lol

FHUSFDFSD aughhhh how are all of yall having chase dreams and i just dream about soup or some shit

[liampaynemysteriousdeath]

Hi, I just found your blog, but I’m finding it a bit hard to navigate. Is there any sort of master post with things in order at all?

These are like most of the major posts.

Theres a search bar.

It depends on how long you've been following the case?

Or if you want to catch up on the basics, you could try checking YT channels such as down the rabbit hole. She has a direct source from argentina that has been helping her since the beginning. Or wax unfiltered. Or harsh on YT. If you're a beginner, try looking at pics of the scene of crime. Read a couple articles to get the basics down,

Or if you don't want to watch full length videos on YT, go on tiktok and watch 30 sec clips of rebmik(?) Idr how to spell her name. Also there's this one other tiktoker that mentions the theory of maya and Roger working together. As well as another tiktoker analyzing the book cover.

maya and Roger have known each other for years. Maya wrote a book about liam allegedly. And there's lots of "coincidences" in that book that seemed to come true this October unfortunately...

A lot of this blog is just screenshots and I know with tumblr you can't search for text inside a screenshot unfortunately.

Or dm me if you have a tumblr account, I can try to answer your questions. Or if you dont have a tumblr, that's cool, you can just ask me on anon. But in future I might have to close anonymous ask box depending on who finds this blog. I get weirdo messages sometimes lol. I just block and delete the trolls though lol. We're too busy looking for justice to feed trolls.

Thanjs for the question and following the case. My inbox is always open for anyone who wants to further the investigation or even just aquestion, comment etc.

I enjoy hearing from other people because sometimes they give me different perspectives or things I hadn't considered.or even new info. There's so much info also on twitter I forgot to mention.

Ravenix or ravenicks. Idr how to spell it.also eternal liam screenshots I posted from her Twitter yesterday mention a lot of stuff and will probably catch you up. I think I posted almost 100 screenshots from her blog, split into 3posts,

Maybe one day when I have more time I can go further and do a full masterpost, but I literally have over 500 posts, so don't hold your breath on that one lol.

[punkscowardschampions]

Tancy pt.3

Nancy: [shaking your head and pulling his pouty lip into your mouth like no I do not lol]

Teddy: [biting her lip like he’s so so offended that she wouldn’t trust him with her life when he’s literally dangling her over a balcony rn in effect]

Nancy: [‘you don’t trust anyone’ like let me remind you, but kissing down his jaw and to his ear to nibble it sweetly like don’t be mad at me as if he truly is]

Teddy: [taking this moment to touch her indecently because he can trust that she’s the most turned on she’s ever been and that’s always true of any moment ™ between them]

Nancy: [‘I’m meant to be thanking you’ like excuse me boy but you are the most turned on that you immediately grind against him without meaning to, cannot help yourself]

Teddy: [another hot lol like oh yeah true I forgot that’s what we’re meant to be doing out here, but obvs he doesn’t stop, instead he just gives her a mischievous grin and goes even harder with it ‘so thank me’]

Nancy: [‘you love making me talk’ with your own can’t deal with this sensation laugh/trying to catch your breath about it, zipping your lips and shaking your head like no, no, I shall say no more which we know won’t last 10 seconds but you know, lean your head back to try and kiss him]

Teddy: [‘it isn’t my fault I loathe talking to her’ in such a stage whisper because Grace is nowhere to be seen so you can safely bitch about her ‘I understand you’ we can pretend he just means doesn’t need the subtitles he said he does for Grace and not on a deeper level BUT, keeping her out of reach so she cannot kiss him and doing the absolute MOST touching her as he kisses over the neck lovebite from earlier to make it more of one like if you won’t talk, you at the very least shan’t be silent]

Nancy: [‘I haven’t talked to her all night’ half smug and fully conspiratorial like ugh me too, so rude when you’ve convinced her you’re fully soul sisters or whatever but such is the name of the game, HMPFHing at him so grumpily when he won’t let you kiss him, which is clearly turning into an actual moan ‘I want you’ as if it’s simply a demand in this moment and not more than that]

Teddy: [‘you’re welcome, darling’ because more than once he has fallen on the sword and kept Grace away from her, the way that moan has him SQUEEZING wherever it is he’s currently holding onto her by, because forever so into all her reactions, but then he’s finally putting her down because can’t undress either of them if he’s still holding her over a balcony with one arm and touching her with the other, the pause feeling so ridiculously long and drawn out even though it isn’t]

Nancy: [smiling at him bashfully ‘you wanted me to have a good birthday, too’ because we remember you doing the most at his and you’ve noticed him returning that energy all night, taking a step back so you can look him up and down in this pause, going to say something but not, absentmindedly playing with a new item of jewellery he got you, whatever it is]

Teddy: [nodding because yes he do, making a noise like mhmm for added emphasis which is unnecessary but he REALLY wants her to have a good bday, taking the step towards her she took back, putting his hand over hers where she’s playing with this jewellery, not to stop her but to have a handhold for a sec]

Nancy: [making a !! noise purely about handholding, giving his hand a SQUEEZE back, holding his other hand too, just because ‘you know I regret just not spending the time with you, right?’]

Teddy: [the LOOK he’s giving her being as !! because clearly he didn’t know that, not fully because they might not be Grace but tancy have their own insecurities all the same, likewise going to say something but not]

Nancy: [shrugging, not enough to unhold hands about it but like it’s casual and not a big deal because heaven forbid ‘you know him’ like Ivo is a massive flop, obviously I regret wasting that time]

Teddy: [letting her hands go meanwhile because he wants her to regret it because of him and her feelings for him etc not because this man is a big flop, though he is, running his hands instead through his hair to fix it from the disarray it’s in as if that makes any of this casual or that was remotely the reason he let go]

Nancy: [me like I knew that would hit like that but you had to pull back because you felt like you’d been too vulnerable on main, you fool, frowning, more to yourself than at him and fixing your own self self-consciously like you just realised where you are]

Teddy: [not looking at her but looking at himself in whatever the nearest reflective surface is, which might be the table she was lying on, as if fixing his hair is all that matters, then lighting up another cigarette like you had to when you were stressed out here with Grace, sitting and basically lounging like a cat even though you couldn’t be feeling less chill]

Nancy: [turning to look out at the view of the city again, sighing because that did not go as you planned ‘I thought you wanted me to’ because out here saying all this for you]

Teddy: [doing his own sigh disguised as an exhale ‘you thought I wanted you to what?’ because yeah agreed, this is not it]

Nancy: [doing an excuse me sort of scoff like how dare you as if you didn’t sigh first lmao, finding your own flask or cigarette pack or something from your bag so you can have your own distraction ‘you don’t know what you want’]

Teddy: [so offended he throws this cigarette away instead of flicking the ash which is how we all know he isn’t this calm facade ‘that’s so untrue’ with all the emphasis ever]

Nancy: [watching it fly through the air with raised eyebrows because okay, at least you aren’t that unaffected bored persona you usually have on right now because that’s what we found most insulting ‘do you want me to talk about it or ignore the [however long exactly in months] we didn’t see each other?’ like tell me because you were trying to apologise in your own way there but then it went to shit so do we just ignore it]

Teddy: [folding his arms which would look adorable in his pjs outfit like he’s hugging himself ‘I’ve got 0 interest in listening to you talk about your ex for the next [same amount of months, as if she would and is that hung up when we all know, him included, she isn’t], Nance’ because forever salty about that man]

Nancy: [shaking your head in disbelief and frustration doing a literal ha about it like um no ‘I’m sorry, he’s too far up his own arse for you to be up there too’ like everyone stop saying I’m obsessed with this man right now challenge]

Teddy: [doing his own ha back but basically GLARING at her, no notes, the almost hating her tension of earlier has returned]

Nancy: [looking slightly taken aback because you don’t get why he is this fuming at all ‘I said something nice to you but fine, I won’t bother again if you’re going to throw it back in my face’]

Teddy: [doing SUCH a scornful scoff ‘Nice?’ said exactly like yeah don’t bother if you think that’s what I want to hear]

Nancy: [when you’re taking that as him mocking you for saying you missed him/wanted to be with him so you’ve got to DRAMATICALLY pull off whatever new jewellery he has put on you and storm off and in to do your own hiding]

Teddy: [one up her by doing a literal diva storm out from this party, he has form and he simply must, soz not soz]

Nancy: [oh boy the drama, the way she will be so beyond fuming when she realises you’ve gone]

Teddy: [he’ll immediately regret it and wish he followed her instead but such is life lol, he’s too stubborn to sneak back and pretend he didn’t leave]

Nancy: [me like it is now so dangerous Ivo is here, please don’t make a complete fool of yourself hun, focus on that one friend because that pissed Teddy off enough]

Teddy: [Winnie says but what if Ivo the tank engine slept with Cara and Nancy at the same party on the same night xo]

Nancy: [I did consider Win and mayhaps but mayhaps he’s on better behaviour so Cara doesn’t realise he’s a total hoe?]

Teddy: [It depends what way we wanna take it cos he is a total hoe and would 1000% if he wasn’t expecting to see her again/anything more to come of this but the vibe could also be that he’s hoping/thinking it will cos we haven’t done them yet so we don’t know]

Nancy: [hmm, I shall do some drunk texts at Teddy and see what the vibe is after that, whether we just stick with his friend or say fuck it and go Ivo because part of her definitely still doesn’t wanna go there and say fuck it completely at this moment]

Nancy: I stayed at your party

Nancy: I was the last one standing

Teddy: You took [the jewellery] off

Teddy: you regret him, not leaving me

Nancy: You laughed at me

Nancy: I told you I loved you, for fuck’s sake

Teddy: No you didn’t

Nancy: I think I’d remember if I’d said that

Teddy: You don’t love me

Nancy: You don’t want me to, that’s different

Teddy: I want you to, that’s different from you telling me you do because it’s being fucked out of you

Nancy: You don’t want it to be true, so now you’re changing how it went

Nancy: I’ll take it back, save you the mental gymnastics 

Teddy: What did you say to Ivo that you’ve since taken back?

Teddy: or Theo, or [her boring bf etc]?

Nancy: You don’t trust me but you want to fuck me over the railing

Teddy: I don’t trust anyone, if you recall

Nancy: Is this revenge, you fuck with my head then leave

Teddy: I couldn’t stay

Nancy: Don’t worry, I won’t invite you again, then you won’t have to waste your time or money

Teddy: I won’t come again, you’re impossible

Nancy: You stormed out

Teddy: You ran off first

Nancy: You rejected me

Teddy: You spent [however long they’ve been apart] rejecting me

Nancy: I knew it was payback

Nancy: I was suffering more than you, let me assure you now

Teddy: It wasn’t calculated, I wish I could be THAT much of whatever your current diagnosis of me is

Nancy: I know the feeling, you fucked with my head

Nancy: you were free to be with whoever you wanted and do whatever you wanted too and I was stuck with him, barely

Teddy: Oh please, you decided to be with him, I didn’t mastermind you two getting together either

Nancy: And you know full well why I had to put space between us in the beginning 

Teddy: You’d already committed the faux pas, you wanted space because you wanted the room to worm your way into his life, nothing to do with me or our barely there age gap

Nancy: It isn’t barely there when it involves a 16-year-old, don’t play dumb on that front

Nancy: We were both working things out, word gets around, however locked away I was, it was still the postcode

Teddy: Don’t lie about your motives, word didn’t get around about you & I

Nancy: By some miracle

Nancy: because when I tried to leave your party, you didn’t let me

Teddy: Because I made sure it didn’t

Teddy: your miracle is me pretending girls were just a phase

Nancy: That’s not why you did that

Teddy: It still protected you

Nancy: but it’s impossible that I was trying to protect you

Teddy: There are 0 downsides for me if everyone found out, I don’t need any protection

Nancy: There’s downsides to being with me

Teddy: I beg to differ

Nancy: Exactly, I was saving you from yourself

Teddy: You were saving yourself for him

Nancy: He wishes his wife was that virginal, it’s one rule for him and another for her

Nancy: that was never going to be me though, no

Teddy: I wasn’t suggesting it was a clever plan nor one which would succeed

Nancy: Why the fuck would I want to marry him

Teddy: How would I know? Brain damage?

Nancy: You are ridiculous if you think that was the plan

Teddy: & you’re laughable for believing he or my brother worthwhile prospects

Nancy: Thanks for pointing out how shit my prospects are, great gift

Teddy: I’m pointing out what should be their blindingly obvious flaws, not yours

Teddy: you don’t have any

Nancy: Even you said I’m not wife material and you’re you

Nancy: I don’t know what I’m even doing

Teddy: Because you didn’t even want the dress, the least of it

Nancy: Because it’s just a game, no one will ask me seriously

Teddy: I’d marry you

Teddy: you don’t take me seriously

Nancy: Because how could you mean that

Teddy: I’m not teasing, I want you too

Nancy: What happens when you change your mind and you’re still young but I’m even older

Teddy: You’ll be even hotter, why would I?

Nancy: Because hot is all that you give a shit about now

Teddy: I don’t care that you’re older, you aren’t old

Nancy: I mean that when you get married you’ll want someone to cook you meals and raise your babies and be nice and boring

Teddy: Darling, those things are what staff exist for

Teddy: & I’d never look for in a fiancee what your ex does, kindly never make the comparison again

Nancy: Okay, you tory

Teddy: Likewise, it’s disgusting of you to suggest I would vote

Teddy: what kind of complete & utter middle-aged bore am I role-playing as?

Nancy: I didn’t have a nanny, or a housekeeper, just a once-a-week cleaner

Nancy: it’s like you forget I’m famously not from here

Teddy: Your parents’ silly notions of keeping you grounded or whatever they were striving to achieve are irrelevant, you can have anything you want

Nancy: Can I?

Teddy: Yes

Nancy: You just want to sleep with them all

Teddy: Go ahead & hire ugly

Nancy: It’s okay, I want you to enjoy your life, not gatecrash parties to get your sad kicks

Teddy: I don’t need to enjoy the staff to get my kicks either, that would arguably be as tragic

Nancy: I suppose but I don’t want to kidnap you

Teddy: Why not? Sounds fantastic

Nancy: Because I want to so bad it clouds my judgment

Teddy: Which is famously terrible, but mine isn’t

Teddy: I’m yet to make a single mistake in life

Nancy: I beg to differ

Nancy: you started an argument instead of letting me blow you

Teddy: You upset me before you could

Nancy: I didn’t say anything upsetting!

Teddy: You made your regret in being with Ivo about him

Nancy: It’s not about him, nothing is, for fuck’s sake

Teddy: I heard you say it!

Nancy: I was only with him because I couldn’t stop wanting you

Nancy: a boyfriend who locked me up was an attempt at a solution

Teddy: The solution was being with me

Nancy: I’m scared of how much I need you

Teddy: You’re trying to fight it, it wouldn’t be if you let it happen

Nancy: You left me

Nancy: I’m so sad

Teddy: You refused my gift, I’m a lot sadder

Nancy: I didn’t, I only took it off

Teddy: To hurt me

Nancy: Your reaction hurt me, I thought you were laughing at me

Teddy: 🥺💔

Teddy: I wouldn’t dare

Nancy: I miss you all over again now

Teddy: Put your [whatever this jewellery is] back on

Nancy: [do and send him pictures to show it]

Teddy: Better?

Nancy: I look it

Teddy: But how do you feel?

Nancy: like yours

Teddy: You are, you can’t run from that

Nancy: I tried

Nancy: I still was yours

Teddy: I insist on no more unless you’re intending to run to me right now

Nancy: I have to stay here

Nancy: but you know I’m tempted even though you left so you don’t deserve it at all

Teddy: Shall I come back?

Teddy: you hardly deserve it either but I’m equally tempted

Nancy: I do so deserve it, it’s my birthday!

Teddy: Oh no, are you going to be a bitch for the whole month?

Nancy: You’re the bitch if you can’t handle it

Teddy: Speaking of, give Gracie my love

Nancy: I will not 

Nancy: your love scared her off, you’re entirely too much for her

Teddy: I am not

Teddy: how dare you

Nancy: It’s obviously not you, I shouldn’t even have to say as much

Teddy: But would it kill you to say I did well?

Nancy: You did a good job, okay

Teddy: Thank you

Nancy: I hate to see it

Teddy: You aren’t entertained? That was very much the point of this

Nancy: I will be 

Nancy: it’s secondary

Teddy: I just want you to be happy

Nancy: I care about your happiness too

Nancy: surprising development, though it is

Teddy: It isn’t, I’ve known for a long time you were all heart

Nancy: And a bitch?

Nancy: how multifaceted of me

Teddy: Don’t allow your cousin to fool you, most people have personalities

Nancy: Now you know how mouldable she is, practically a blank canvas

Teddy: Blank is the perfect description, truly

Nancy: Speaking of, what should we do about Ivo

Nancy: telling his plain wife is a little too easy and runs the risk of ruining further fun to be had

Teddy: What did he say to you? So I have an idea of how vengeful to be

Nancy: Accused me of inviting him because I want him back

Teddy: How repetitive he is, like the wind-up toys he used to play with in his nursery

Nancy: He’s such a creep, that girl is so clearly damaged

Teddy: Her costume definitely spelled it out, even for the horrifically disabled amongst us

Nancy: Misunderstanding a theme so completely probably qualifies her for the title herself

Teddy: Both of them, since he didn’t attempt one himself

Nancy: Why change the habit of a lifetime and cease being a bore for one night

Teddy: Or risk exposing your receding hairline as she’s opted to dress herself as a walking set of fairy lights

Nancy: I hope she’s not staying 

Teddy: Bite back your stubbornness & come stay with me

Nancy: Stay with you?

Teddy: I’m alone in an empty house, as per

Nancy: I suppose I should say it’s what you deserve but

Nancy: you remind me of me and it makes me too sad

Teddy: No sadness until the inevitable lull post-Christmas

Nancy: You best have been serious with your invite because I have no intention to go with my family to Dublin, absolutely 0

Teddy: I’ll send a serious invitation 💌🌹

Nancy: You’re precious

Nancy: even after leaving me here

Teddy: [show her that you’ve done something to tank Ivo’s investments in whatever he’s currently investing in, idk how but you’d have picked up enough financial know how to do something from all these forced shifts at your father’s office and this is the apology we’re giving, him taking such a money hit and not even realising yet cos he’s being messy]

Nancy: 😳😳😳😳

Nancy: fine I’ll come see you right now

Teddy: I can’t stand being away from you

Nancy: I don’t want to do it again

Nancy: we have to stick together

Teddy: Want me

Nancy: I do, you’re who I love being around over everyone else

Teddy: Don’t lose sight of it, or me, again

Nancy: No man is worth what you are, I’ve come to realise

Teddy: You’ve learned your lesson?

Nancy: Yes

Nancy: and what I want

Teddy: Convince me 

Nancy: I’ll stay with you for as long as you want

Nancy: I don’t care who knows

Teddy: I don’t intend to sabotage yours of Grace

Nancy: Your parents aren’t likely to tell her

Nancy: don’t you want me with you

Teddy: If I detained you here indefinitely, someone would

Teddy: which is as long as I want

Nancy: Will you really move in when she’s gone

Teddy: No, but only because we’ll move to [somewhere even boujee-er] together

Nancy: Can I have a dressing room and an office

Teddy: You can have someone to dress you every morning, like a real princess

Nancy: But we don’t have to have separate rooms, do we

Teddy: We’ll keep a spare for all your new pets

Nancy: You can help me pick my next victim, if you like

Teddy: You’re off to a promising start 

Nancy: I see you as an equal, I don’t think you’re just a kid

Teddy: The commitment to earning a second chance is admirable

Nancy: I’m serious about this, about you

Teddy: We’ll see, as I have to trust my instincts over you

Nancy: Why?

Teddy: Because you can’t be, can you?

Nancy: Yes I can

Teddy: So can I, but you don’t

Nancy: I’ll try, it’s not my fault I’ve never been able to trust anyone 

Teddy: I feel like a kid, how much I want to kiss you again, it’s extremely trying not being able to think of anything else

Nancy: Well I’m not going to help you there

Nancy: think of me constantly, thank you

Teddy: I do, you’re welcome

Nancy: I want you because you’re like this, don’t change

Teddy: Your doormat cousin isn’t likely to change me, she’s struggling to cope in my proximity

Nancy: I can’t blame her, but I do

Teddy: She’s the game, not this

Teddy: keep that in mind & what can go wrong?

Nancy: I’m jealous of how much time she gets to spend with you

Teddy: Anything I’m forced to give her, you’ll get more of

Nancy: A bigger wedding?

Teddy: & a renewal on our anniversary, naturally

Teddy: who else in our circles has ever?

Nancy: A 2nd marriage is far more commonplace

Teddy: The lack of a contract drawn up to leave you with 0 of my assets will be a complete first, however

Nancy: I wouldn’t be shocked to hear of your father’s heart attack after though

Nancy: I’ve already seen you tear through so much of his ‘hard earned’ fortune

Teddy: Nothing would make me happier than watching you spend it, with or without me

Nancy: I’ve got plenty of ideas

Nancy: a lot more fun than investments

Teddy: Don’t be shy, darling, do tell

Nancy: I’m too busy getting to yours

Teddy: & you’ve suddenly struck up an unbeatable rapport with your driver at the expense of conversation with me, is that it?

Nancy: You’re funny

Nancy: and you really hate surprises that much

Teddy: What kind of wife would you be, setting such a precedent? 

Teddy: I’m afraid you have to talk to me constantly, as often as I think of you

Nancy: There was so much to tell you that eventually there was too much and I couldn’t say anything

Teddy: It won’t happen again

Teddy: you can tell me everything, I’m setting that precedent right now

Nancy: No need for a contract, I want to

Nancy: your opinions actually interest me, which I’m also not used to from any boyfriend I’ve had

Teddy: We’ve both been unsatisfied for an insane amount of time

Nancy: I’m not sure I’ve ever been satiated

Teddy: I’m quite sure I know every occasion when you were

Nancy: Shh 😏

Nancy: All the time? Who will I be then?

Teddy: You’ll be mine

Nancy: Yours

Teddy: I’ve missed you so

Nancy: It really won’t happen again

Nancy: have me and I’ll be all for you

Teddy: Marry me

Nancy: Okay, it’s a yes

Teddy: [just be here spamming her with the most outrageous rings you can find, obvs]

Nancy: But you’re really not allowed to see the dress, have to put my foot down this time

Teddy: I’ve seen my mother’s, you’ll need to wear something else to surprise me

Nancy: Is it nice?

Teddy: Exquisite

Nancy: I just don’t want to look like a second rate version of her

Teddy: You’re way prettier than her at your age

Nancy: Is that your bias or the truth?

Teddy: [because you’re at home, send her pics of your mum like see it is true, full shade to Amanda]

Nancy: Oh God

Teddy: We look too alike for me to suggest she’s hideous, but anyone who’d think you second-rate is a complete fool, as you can see

Nancy: Maybe you don’t want to sleep with your mother after all

Nancy: she is quite literally flawless, Teddy!

Teddy: YOU’RE flawless, Nancy

Nancy: Nothing like that

Nancy: I can feel your sister’s silent judgment already if I so much as DARED to try that dress on

Teddy: My sister IS the less attractive version, she’s the last person who should pass comment

Nancy: You’ll never understand, you’re flawless yourself and being a girl is so much harder

Teddy: I understand that no girl on the scene, past, present, or future, could be a match for you

Teddy: I’ve slept with most of them in the first 2 categories, I’d know

Nancy: You’re biased 

Nancy: but as long as you’re deluded, then I don’t need to care what everyone else thinks

Teddy: You’re the whole package & that package deserves to be wrapped up in [whatever the wedding dress is made out of]

Nancy: I just know it’s gorgeous

Teddy: You should feel royal for more than tonight or my birthday FOREVER ago, regardless of how many more times you need to be made into my queen, consider it done, I will

Nancy: How are you this nice? 🥺

Nancy: it’s meant to all be an act for her

Teddy: For her, but it isn’t with you

Nancy: I didn’t know you were so full of love to give

Teddy: You must’ve heard I haven’t been inside another girl since [giving not when they immediately broke up cos he would’ve tried for a sec but almost that long]

Nancy: It did reach me that you’d gone fully gay

Nancy: but I didn’t know if the source was reliable or you’d just brushed them off in a creative manner

Teddy: I wasn’t able to perform, an act, or indeed, the required one

Teddy: because of you

Nancy: Honest to God?

Teddy: I’d tell you to ask them but none are saying a word, that I could still guarantee

Nancy: Poor baby

Teddy: It was humiliating 

Nancy: Thinking about me didn’t even make it work?

Teddy: 0 worked

Nancy: Were you scared that you’d not get hard for me either?

Teddy: There wasn’t time, I was as soon as I saw you

Nancy: I went with so many different guys, to try and find someone who could make me feel like you did

Teddy: Me too

Nancy: What was it like?

Teddy: I imagine, what it was like for you

Nancy: I hope you used lube 💔

Teddy: Sometimes

Nancy: Ouch

Nancy: I thought gay guys understood that spit is not enough, one of us could be comfortable that way

Teddy: Not all of them carry handbags, regrettably

Nancy: I see

Nancy: You really embraced the culture

Teddy: As it was that or actually try to fuck my mother, I supposed it to be the wiser option

Nancy: Put like that, how could I disagree

Teddy: [throwing out different dudes like did you sleep with him or him or him]

Nancy: [compare and contrast girlies because I’m sure there’s crossover when we were hoeing before getting locked up by Ivo and after]

Teddy: [you love a kiss and tell always so overshare about any crossover there is and any other experiences you just wanna let her know about]

Nancy: Did you have to dump Bianca for me?

Teddy: Who?

Nancy: Ha ha

Nancy: Your first bride, darling, keep up

Teddy: Oh her

Teddy: I dumped B as much for myself, I assure you, she’d grown utterly insufferable

Nancy: Grown is generous of you

Teddy: True

Nancy: I thought you’d stopped appearing on her socials rather suddenly

Nancy: not before she should’ve grown a backbone but nevertheless

Teddy: I was beginning to feel like my mother, the sudden frequency of my headaches

Nancy: Are you ready to go through it all again?

Nancy: I’ll have to ensure your supply of [whatever drugs are giving pain meds people take recreationally]

Teddy: You don’t make me ill, fake or otherwise

Nancy: Grace does

Teddy: You’ll be there to hold my hand, I’ll be fine

Nancy: So brave

Teddy: It’s only fair, you’ll have to be a big brave girl too

Nancy: Don’t remind me 😒

Teddy: You can be a baby when she’s gone

Nancy: You’ll have to call her that

Teddy: You’ll make me gag

Nancy: Not now you’ve had all your practice

Teddy: A nosebleed instead then

Nancy: If you like

Nancy: you can’t call her Alice too

Teddy: I wouldn’t

Teddy: [a shady disney comparison because I’ve drawn a blank for some reason], perhaps

Nancy: She’s too insecure not to think [whatever disney character] isn’t another girl

Nancy: best to close your eyes and your mouth, so romantic 

Teddy: She doesn’t need a code name, we’re going to be depressingly official 

Nancy: Fine, say her name

Nancy: she’ll only cry about it like you’re being too much again

Teddy: Snap, I may cry too, under the circumstances

Nancy: God, what a pair

Teddy: It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve cried over you

Nancy: Don’t say that

Teddy: Okay, stricken from the record

Nancy: You don’t need to make me feel bad

Teddy: You don’t need to, it’s ancient history

Nancy: You did not, you’re just saying it

Teddy: I did so, why would I say something false which makes me sound pathetic?

Nancy: Perhaps you think that’s my type

Teddy: Ivo was never your type, I told you all along, until you stopped speaking to me, that is

Nancy: I’m pretty sure they sodomize crying out of you at [whatever boarding school we’re saying he went to lol]

Teddy: They wouldn’t break me

Nancy: I’m not sure if that’s a flex or not

Teddy: Nevertheless, that explains his wife pegging him on the few occasions he’s home to share her bed

Nancy: Do you fancy him?

Nancy: You can tell me

Teddy: He looks like the dolls I wasn’t allowed to play with, the most generic Ken fresh out of the box, even Barbie didn’t

Nancy: They are both gay, famously

Nancy: you just seem preoccupied with him, that’s all

Teddy: Because you allowed him to lock you up

Nancy: He could’ve been anyone

Teddy: Precisely, he’s the blandest man in the city

Teddy: how could you?

Nancy: I needed to stay away from you

Teddy: No you didn’t

Nancy: Alright, I thought I did

Teddy: & now you regret him, I remember

Nancy: Would you rather I didn’t and thought he was incredible

Teddy: Obviously I’d rather you hadn’t done it at all

Nancy: You know why, it’s too late for this now

Teddy: Where are you? You’re late, Alice

Nancy: I don’t live in your neighbourhood anymore

Nancy: [tell him how close you are though]

Teddy: 🐇

Teddy: [sending her some money like pay the driver to hurry the hell up]

Nancy: Tell me what your plan is then

Nancy: when are you going to contact Gracie?

Teddy: In a few days I suppose, any sooner & I’ll apparently terrify her

Nancy: and you’re going to propose…

Teddy: Not yet, no

Teddy: but I’ll ask her out for coffee

Nancy: Well done

Nancy: you paid enough attention to figure out it’s all she likes to do

Teddy: I’m simply looking forward to spinning the throwing of a scalding hot liquid into her lap into a romantic moment 

Nancy: There’s nothing down there you can really damage that isn’t already dead so

Teddy: Shopping can follow, to allow her the Pretty Woman scene of her predictable fantasies & I an opportunity not to have to walk arm in arm with someone wearing high street fashion

Nancy: A real 180 from full gay

Nancy: Your parents will think you’re having a breakdown

Teddy: Maybe I’ll room with your ex in [his fancy rehab cos he’s never far from a breakdown clearly lol] if they decide to push the boat out for me

Nancy: Assumedly if you plan to marry Grace, got to do everything to prevent the same mistake again

Teddy: A worse one, when I let slip to mummy she’s barren

Nancy: I don’t think they’re going to let you get anywhere near an altar

Nancy: but it’ll be fun to see how far we can nevertheless

Teddy: What are you betting?

Nancy: What do you have worth taking?

Teddy: What haven’t you already taken?

Nancy: Is it my fault you want me so bad

Teddy: Yes

Nancy: Which is why I stayed away from you

Teddy: A mistake I’ll do everything to prevent you from making again

Nancy: You weren’t ready

Teddy: YOU weren’t

Nancy: You

Nancy: you were literally crying, you said so yourself

Teddy: Why & how are you twisting my strong feelings for you into a negative?

Nancy: I could’ve treated you a lot worse

Teddy: Sure, ghosting me for [however long] in favour of a long-standing family friend should’ve been a picnic, my apologies for caring

Nancy: No, that’s my point

Nancy: you couldn’t handle me, I was protecting you

Teddy: You were protecting yourself because you can’t handle anyone having genuine feelings for you

Nancy: It wasn’t meant to be anything more

Teddy: & before that it wasn’t meant to be anything at all

Nancy: I don’t do this

Teddy: But we did, we are

Nancy: I don’t understand what you want

Teddy: I want you, it’s really understandable to everyone else

Nancy: You’ve had me

Teddy: Which was fantastic while it lasted, sadly it didn’t

Nancy: I thought you’d get bored

Teddy: You & I both, but you continue to fascinate me

Nancy: Like a lab rat, charming

Teddy: Like a [insert whatever stone is in his family ring]

Nancy: I wish it was anyone but you

Teddy: Which is possibly the cruelest thing you’ve ever said

Teddy: & still, it changes absolutely nothing

Nancy: You tried to hate me

Teddy: Tried being the keyword

Nancy: You can keep trying

Nancy: I won’t look at you this time

Teddy: I’ve got 0 interest in hating you

Nancy: We can’t be together, not really

Teddy: Of course we could

Nancy: We can fuck, there’s no need to lie about that now

Teddy: & you can turn your car around

Nancy: You’re going to be like that 

Teddy: Goodnight, Nancy

Nancy: For fuck’s sake

Teddy: [just pay the amount for this car journey and back]

Nancy: [send it back]

Nancy: I don’t want your money

Teddy: Suit yourself

Nancy: I’ll send the rest back in due course, everything you’ve given me

Teddy: & I’d return it to you, it was given, it’s yours

Nancy: Some of it I shouldn’t have accepted

Teddy: Well then throw it away or donate it, depending how charitable you’re feeling, that’s how unwanted gifts work

Nancy: Don’t be stupid

Nancy: auction house would be more befitting, you need to take it back

Teddy: I won’t, go ahead & send it to auction 

Nancy: Be serious or I will

Teddy: I am

Nancy: Suit yourself

Teddy: Always a pleasure, Nance

Nancy: You want to rethink that bold claim

Nancy: I’ve been bored to tears

Teddy: The pleasure’s mine, not yours

Nancy: If you like crying and not being able to get it up, then I guess so

Teddy: I thought it was what you liked, given your insistence J is your type

Nancy: You remain nothing alike

Teddy: Thank goodness

Nancy: 💔

Teddy: 😘

Nancy: Unless you think of an idea to split them up, then we don’t need to do this anymore

Teddy: Splitting them up is of no benefit to me, have fun concocting your own breakup scheme

Nancy: None of it is of any benefit to you, it’s about the misery of others

Teddy: He wouldn’t be very miserable with your readily available shoulder to cry on

Nancy: Said like he likes me

Teddy: When he’s sad he likes anyone female with a pulse

Nancy: So?

Teddy: So, enjoy yourself as I already said

Teddy: & your birthday month

Nancy: Fuck you, you’ve ruined it

Teddy: Because it’s never your fault

Nancy: You can’t just show up after all that time and do this

Teddy: Go away again, I haven’t done anything

Nancy: Haven’t done anything, yeah, fucking sure

Teddy: It’s you

Teddy: you’re fucking impossible

Nancy: You give me all those gifts and that cake and make me say I love you and the rest

Nancy: for what, why do you get a kick out of that

Teddy: Because I love you

Teddy: I’ve been in love with you since your gift & you gave me cake

Nancy: but why would you be in love with me, of all people

Teddy: I wish I wasn’t now, fear not

Nancy: You shouldn’t be

Teddy: Noted

Nancy: I mean, you can and will do better

Teddy: Oh please, I’d rather die than hear who you think I should be with

Nancy: I’ll keep my suggestions to myself

Teddy: Fantastic, spare me the total lunacy 

Nancy: Why would my suggestions be lunacy?

Nancy: It’s not hard

Teddy: I’ve never had this much in common with any other person I’ve ever met

Nancy: You’re meant to get with your opposite, have you not heard the saying

Teddy: I don’t care, I feel completely alone in every room I stand in unless you’re there

Nancy: You’re going to break my heart

Teddy: Good, I hope it hurts, awfully

Nancy: I’ll have to break yours worse

Teddy: It is, you’ve broken your promise

Nancy: I would’ve done it accidentally down the line and then it would’ve really hurt us both

Nancy: I can’t have anything to lose

Teddy: Best of luck with that, darling

Nancy: Thanks, for ruining my life

Teddy: Likewise

Nancy: [not you going to some sketchy ass party at a dealers and posting so everyone at your party is worried about you, just the kind of thing you have to do at times like these, I guess???]

Teddy: [unfollow her even though we all know you’ll follow her back later, but still iconic because he never did even in the Ivo era]

Nancy: [the girls are really fighting tonight and who can even say why]

Teddy: [he’s a heartbroke bitch is why and god bless]

Nancy: [what carnage, Grace cannot got save her from a crackhouse, nor can she get all these people out the house, just giving her a breakdown lowkey but there was no way we were going back]

Teddy: [soz girl but this is only the start of these messy fools putting you through it so buckle up hun]

Nancy: [big yikes baby, what should we do from here]

Teddy: [depends if we wanna carry on with y’all or do any of the other party people]

Nancy: [what are you thinking?]

[minimune-studymode]

[FANFIC] The Hypothetical Lover Of Your Professor

*an modern AU of Antoine and Maximilien

*Maximilien does have the professor vide

*want both of them to have a better life since there is no need for revolution and stuff

*it is actually part of a fanfic novel about my ship

Professor left the office to give us room for discussion. Actually, he was getting coffee for all of us. It was already 10 PM. We only chatted a bit and exchanged with our professor. Although Professor usually left his office quite late at night, but we still felt sorry for having bothered him until now. Professor told us not to worry since he had nothing to do tonight and tomorrow. It was a Friday night, so he could have some rest for at least a day. His tenderness touched us. It was not the first time. When I first met him, he recognized me immediately being his doctorate. Being an international student in Paris was not easy, but professor had helped me go through most of the difficulties. Professor only took five doctorates this year, and all of us in some way have been taken care by him.

We greeted professor, wishing him have a nice evening, and left the office together. The night of Paris in winter was refreshing. It was a mediocre term to describe. It had became a habit for our group to light a cigarette after a day of work. We were leaning against the wall, chatting about the Licence students and the rumours that we have heard from those kids.

Suddenly, Marie grabbed my arm. She raised her jaw, her eyes were filled with delight and curiosity. She was pointing at a direction implicitly. We were confused, but all followed her sight.

There was a man, tall, fit, wearing a coat, standing under the street light. It seemed that he was waiting someone.

"He looks familiar," said Félix, frowning but with interest, "I am sure that I have met him, somewhere."

At that moment, we were the kids gossiping about an Apollo on the street.

"Who could he be waiting for? There was no one except us and professor Robespierre." Cécile held her cigarette between her fingers."

"Has he left yet?" It was Beatrice.

"No, no! He just came out. Wait a sec. That's him! That's him!"

Marie's voice suddenly turned sharp, full of surprise. She moved a bit forward, but hiding herself under the shadow. Then I saw Professor Robespierre, walking towards that beautiful man. The man seemed a bit younger than professor. He took professor's handbag and held his hand.

Our breaths stopped for a second. I could even feel that my heart has jumped out from my lips. I knew that I was not the only one who felt it. We all tried so hard to find out what they were talking about, but we could not hear anything due to the distance. The cigarettes lost all its attraction. We watched professor and the man walking in opposite direction, soon disappeared in the darkness of Paris.

"GUYS! TELL ME THAT I AM NOT BLIND YET! THAT IS OUR PROFESSOR?"

I heard Beatrice's voice shaking. I assured her: "You're not. All of us saw it. That guy just held our beloved professor's hand and our professor did not reject it. And it is a bit weird."

"Bruh, literally who the heck is that guy? No one knows who he is? Is that his brother?"

"Would you hold your brother's hand like that?"

Cecile rolled her eyes: "Stop disgust me. But the thing is, the whole school knew that our professor has no private life. He is so devoted into his studies. I almost thought that he might be asexual."

"He seems like it." I responded, "Felix, you haven't been talking since then. Any idea?"

Felix took a deep breath: "Some, maybe. I have definitely seen that guy, but I forgot when and where."

"You should never forget the day when you saw that kind of creature. Your brain doesn't fonction so well."

"OMG okay, okay! I remembered! Do you guys remember the day that our professor's journalist friend came to visit him?"

"You mean Camille Desmoulin?"

"Yeah, him. And when they left the uni together, there was a guy waiting outside."

"Why haven't we seen him?"

"You guys were just gossiping about what a nice friend Mr Desmoulin is and asked the others to work harder. But anyway, I am a hundred percent sure that was the same guy waiting. Same procedure. So intimate, both of them, but Mr Demsoulin was kinda mad. You guys know that there was no fusion between any kind of romantic relationships and our professor, so I thought probably just another friend of his whom the best friend hates so much."

"Oh yeah, I would hate my bestie's boyfriend, enemy of life."

After a second of silence, we burst into laughter. We did not talk about this discovery after the night. We had thought about the mysterious man who waited for our professor, and indeed we have seen him a few more times after. And years after, on Marie's wedding ceremony, I saw our professor accompanied by that man.

It was the first time I knew his name. And at the moment knowing his name, I was recalled of whom he was.

The top lawyer of one of the top law office in France, Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, also being the husband of Professor Maximilien Robespierre.

[rexlroze]

Ranting Time, and there's a lot to talk about^^ (Late review cuz I'm a lazy mf)

Spoilers Ahead

I finished this at like 7:58am in the morning and I got late for my van for school so yeah. I got scolded because of you:(

While reading this, "The Water Is Fine" by Chloe Ament and ngl, it kinda is similar to R's situation. Js sayin'

When I read that "Shut the fuck up" line I genuinely thought Hobie said that to Gwen for a second💀💀

DUDE. WHEN GWEN GRABBED HOBIE'S COLLAR AND LIKE CALLED HIM OUT OR WHATEVER. YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT SCENE DID TO ME. FUCK GWEN. Bisexual paniking rn but I didn't even know I liked Gwen like that😮‍💨😮‍💨 I was literally PANICKING. I HAD TO CLOSE MY PHONE, HAD A STROKE, LAID ON THE FLOOR AND TOOK SOME DEEP BREATHS UNTIL I COULD CONTINUE.

I love how defensive Hobie instantly got off R the moment the crew was like, "we gotta go, she back at her home now, bitch."

OMFG. I KNEW IT. HE WAS FOLLOWING HER, R ISN'T DELULU‼️‼️

Omg- For a sec I thought the cousins were Hobie and Gwen in disguise💀 I'm fuckin' stupid lol

COCKSUCKERSSSSSSS!!!! (yk who else is one? me for Hobie)

The way I squealed when I read that "May I have this dance?" Cuz I didn't even have to read further to know who it was. You don't know what you do to me, Katy.

SCUTTLEBUTT😭 when was the last time he called her that? I don't remember but it's been a damn while 😭

Now I want to see Finn teaching Hobie how to dance 💀

AHHHH. KISS. SMOOCH!

FUCK YOU, LYLA. WHY. WHYYYYYYYY. Lyla is a terrible wingman omg😮‍💨

KATY. you're such a liar, you said no when I asked you if there was K. You betrayed me and I'll never trust you again😒

When they're going in for seconds, they're better be more than just kissing. Or at least some tongue and passionate making out. Maybe neck bites (on Hobie? Ugh😮‍💨) :3 — I mean they are in bed *wiggles eyebrow.*

Dude, I'm gonna be honest, this was literally 📈📈📈. Idk how to explain how I feel about this cuz I swear to god, I'm going cunty.

This is officially my favorite chapter. My favorite angsty chapter is still... I forgot the fucking chapter number/title but yeah:3

You have cooked and delivered once again like always.

Sink or Swim

Pairing: Pirate! Hobie Brown x fem! Reader

Total Word Count: 16k

Tags: Use of Y/N sparsely, no specific physical description of the reader (except for her clothing), Hobie is mentioned taller than R, CW food mentions, CW suggestive, TW blood, CW injury, CW miscarriage mention, TW violence.

A/N: I've divided this chapter into two because of how long it is and tumblr wouldn't let me draft the post without the app crashing. So sorry for the inconvenience. I'll put the link at the end and on top.

Between the Devil and the Sea Masterlist

Navigation

CHAPTER 13 >>> CHAPTER 13 II

Hobie's throat feels like he swallowed glass. Yet, he screams until his lungs give out, until his body gives out. Fist pounding into steel, skin splitting, blood staining the metal, he continues to call for you. His ears could only hear your frantic yells, his name falling out of your lips, vomited out desperately, asking for him, calling for him to get you out.

He kicks and thrashes at the metal bars, his mind imagines the worst— nails ripped from your fingers, bones breaking, skin scraped and slashed. He doesn't need to imagine how it could feel for he had lived through it all, survived through sheer will alone. But he promised, he promised to you and in that hollow grave that it will never be filled with your body; that your own blood wouldn't spill in between his fingers.

Yet, like the knife that he is, like the one who breaks skin and bleeds everything he touches— he hurt you, shot you where you stood, when he should've protected you, shielded you from the bullet. But how could he do it when the bullet is from him? When he used the same weapon that has ended dozens of lives to protect his crew, to harm you; the only person he deems worthy of telling all his secrets, you, who is worth more than every single treasure in the world.

Maybe he should've listened to you and stayed on the island.

Hobie calls for you once again, in hopes that you hear him too, in hopes that his voice is enough to bring you hope. The lighthouse that guides you home. But he knows, he knows all you could hear are muffled sounds and the creaking from the rocking ship.

Your voice wavers, like you've been forcefully silenced. So he does the screaming for you. It's loud, tone furious, ready to scratch at anyone who gets closer.

“Hobie—” Gwen tries to get his attention as the door opens, revealing the two guards staying in the doorway, keeping their distance.

Guns are strapped to them, knives glinting in the lamp light, armed to the teeth. Hobie knows it's all for him.

“Shut the fuck up.” One frustratingly said, teeth clenched, hands kneading at his temples.

“Keep screaming and you won't get supper.” The bigger one utters, the large scar on his cheek tightens as Hobie taunts them with a grim smile. The smile he reserves to strike fear.

They stiffen in the doorway, shoulders straight, hands reaching for their weapons.

“Do it then.” Hobie says, voice guttural, hands gripping the bars. “End the screaming.” His sheer tone alone sends everyone's hair to stand upright.

No one in the crew dares to stop Hobie. He doesn't know if they're afraid just like the men in front of him or if they're biding their time to scratch and bite too.

“Come closer and end it.” He doesn't yell, and that terrifies the men in the doorway. “And you'll find out exactly what I did to Admiral Kinney all those years ago.” He can still taste the admiral's ichor on his tongue.

The hulking men share a look, sweat dripping off their brows. And with that, they shut the door behind them, returning to their post with their tails tucked between their legs.

“Cowards.”

If it wasn't a grim situation, James would've laughed.

Hobie hears Gwen sigh behind him, the liquid in her hand sloshes as she practically shoves it in his face.

“At least drink some water. For your throat.”

“No, ‘m not drinking that slop.”

Gwen has had enough, she takes him by the collar, eyes bravely glaring at her captain. “If you want to leave this ship and save her, then drink the slop, eat the fucking bread and keep your goddamn energy for when we get the window to escape. Screaming won't help, captain. It's not helping anyone.” Her jaw is set, eyebrows knitted together.

The rest of the crew stand on the side, ready to get between them if it gets physical. He'll never hurt Gwen, never even thought of it. But he can't stand the thought of his family standing against him rather than next to him. So he fixes it, you'd like it that way.

Hobie gingerly takes the cup, chugging it down in one gulp.

“Good, now eat some bread and sit down.”

“Y/N—” he starts.

“She'll be alright, she's a fighter ain't she?” He nods, “you know her better than us, so tell us, cap'n, that she will survive this.”

He roams his red eyes at his sparse crew. For a brief second he sees the ones he lost behind them. For the first time, he's glad he doesn't see you with them.

Returning his attention towards Gwen, he utters the words with the confidence of a captain.

“She'll survive this.”

—

Sitting down in the corner, he rests his poor throat, the dry bread didn't help much. It was shitty to say the least, times like this, he misses Finn. He'd beat him if he ever knew that he let the famous bloodsail pirates into the hands of a former admiral and you into the hands of someone you fear the most.

Hobie shuts his eyes for a second, he swears it's only for a second but when he wakes up with a start and the door opening with a creak, the moon is already shining outside the large boat.

When he sees you appear by the doorway, he thinks he's still dreaming.

“Ten,” He hears you say between gritted teeth. All he could focus on is you, checking for signs of an injury, he starts from your head—nothing, arms, also nothing, save for a few scratches. Then he settles on your bandaged leg, and he remembers what he did, what he did to you. Guilt and grief overtakes his body, he tries his best to hide into the background, into the wooden walls, to become part of the ship, to hide his shame. Because he hurt you, and he'll never forgive himself for what he did.

Hobie watches from his corner, defeated when you tell him subtly that you're alright. And when you called for him, called his name softly like summer wind breezing by, warm and reminding him of home— he couldn't help but oblige.

Who is he to deny the sky?

When you held him in your hands, he felt anew. Apologies spill from his mouth, eyes forlorn at the red spot on your bandages.

What is the tides without his moon?

He feels lighter when you forgive him. But his past action still haunts him, he knows it'll join the long line of nightmares that plague him at night.

“That's my girl.” He says truthfully and proudly, he feels your heartbeat hasten through your pulse.

You tell him your choice, your decision to give up your freedom for him and the crew. He feels like he was back on the revenge, facing Mathias, refusing to let you go as you offer yourself for their freedom.

His heart beats harder as you ask him to read your mother's letter. He's unsure why you would let someone like him read something as heavy as the letter. It's reserved for someone whose hands wouldn't stain the paper with crimson.

“Because I trust you.” You say, and everything aligns in his mind. Like Poseidon shaking him inside out, like the tides itself is splitting him open.

Hobie reads it with trembling hands and broken skin. Like he thought, it turns the paper pink like ink blots dirtying the pristine paper.

He dictates it, heart shattering at every tear you let out. Wiping your cheeks dry, he's careful not to let his split skin touch your softer ones.

“It's real, innit?” He asks like the earth isn't eating him whole.

“It's real.” You answer and the world caves in around him.

Hobie teases to feel the resemblance of normalcy, “little tomato?” He asks.

And you answer with a “I don't want them, just you.” Like you didn't just mend his shattering heart with one sentence. And you break it right after with a “We'll meet again, in this life or the next.”

He's terrified once again. He shakes his head as the door creaks open. “No, Y/N—”

As you kiss his wounded knuckles gently, you ask him something he can't possibly do.

“Don't follow me, please.”

Reaching for you, he should've read the last line in the letter to you. ‘Don't trust anyone’ it said, whatever it was, it's not your burden to carry, so he'll do it for you.

Hobie apologizes in his head for keeping it away from you and for what he's about to do.

—

With the dinner bell ringing, and heavy footsteps retreating, the crew takes their chance. The key opens the door smoothly. They sneak around the ship, only leaving shadows and footfalls that's barely audible.

Climbing up the steps towards freedom, Hobie spots a door at the end of a hallway. Like two hearts beating as one, he knows it's you behind it.

Miles takes his arm before he could come to you. “Don't.” He whispers to his captain. “Don't waste her sacrifice.”

“She didn't sacrifice herself.” Hobie shakes his head, scoffing quietly. “I can't leave her behind, Miles. I can't.”

“I know,” he pulls him away from the hallway. “she asked you to not follow, so don't follow.”

“If this was Gwen—”

“If this was Gwen we'd be doing the exact same thing. She wouldn't ask us to follow and we'll leave because she asked us to.” Miles spares a heavy glance towards your locked door. “I know it hurts, but we'd be in the gallows by morning if we don't leave now. We'll have another chance at saving her.”

“You don't know that.”

“I don't, but it's better to not know instead of being dead. At least we'd have a chance.” Miles tugs him further away. “Do you think it's better for her to think that she caused our deaths just because you took the chance?” His voice is determined.

“Don't hurt her like that, Hobie. It'll ruin her.”

With one last look towards your door, Hobie nods, following the others to the deck then to safety. As the dinghy drops down into the sea, and into the dark night, he hears Miguel curse his name.

He asks for your forgiveness silently.

—

Hobie and the crew finally make it to the docks without being seen by anyone. It was pure luck that no one saw or even heard them, he thanked the early morning and the still dark sky for lending them a hand.

“We need to wait for her.” He says, stretching his stiff hands from rowing the boat.

The sparse pirate crew hides in the shadows, hidden behind the dark alleyway. They lean on the grimy walls, hands cradling their fatigued heads, huffing and groaning at the aches and pains they had from their daring escape. They can still hear Miguel cursing Hobie's name, his voice ringing in their ears.

“Hobie,” Gwen calls for him. “Leave her be.”

“What the fuck?” Hobie turns sharply. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“It means we leave her alone.” Pavitr says forlornly, eyes downcast at the dirty pavement.

“We promised her—”

“That was when we didn't know it was her actual family. Back when we all thought Miguel was a threat to her.” Yuri pipes up, hands braced on her knees. Fatigued and clearly needing rest. “I love her, Hobie, I really do. We all love her, but she's with family now. Let her be.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Miles scoffs, “We're talking about the same person right?” He stands next to Hobie, arms crossed on his chest.

“C’mon, Miles,” Gwen says tiredly. “We all heard their conversation, it's real, she's noble—”

“And what of it?” Hobie snaps back. “You were too.”

“I was.” She scowls. “But she has a home to go to, a family that's waiting for her. We need to let her be until for whatever reason she decides to stay or leave with us.” Inhaling sharply, she rubs harshly at her eyes. “Let's make a compromise then. We're all clearly feeling conflicted. I don't want to fully let her go, we all agree right?”

Everyone nods, tension running high, glares thrown about the small group. Gwen continues, “Then we stay close to her, we watch her like when we used to observe potential crew members. But this time we make sure she is actually safe and not thrown to the wolves.” Her idea reminds Hobie why he chose her as his first mate.

“I'll keep first watch,” Hobie quickly says, "we switch after I say so.”

“And when will that be, Hobie?” Yuri clasps her hand on Hobie's shoulder, comforting the man. “You haven't slept a wink, add the fact that you were stranded on a bloody island for a month, you're not in the right state for this.”

“I'll be once I see that she's safe.” His voice cracks, “I didn't keep an eye on MJ and look what happened. I-I don't want that to happen again. Please let me do it. You can follow me all you want just let me keep watch—”

“It's Y/N,” James whisper yells, he peeks around the alley, watching you slowly walk down the ship.

They all clammer to see you ignore Miguel's helping hand. Pride swells in their chest, they remember now why they can't exactly leave you behind— you're family.

As if fate is pulling the strings, you crane your neck to look in their direction. The crew ducks away, but Hobie stays, staring at you, waiting for your signal, anything to indicate that you want to run away with them.

He sees your subtle shake of your head, and with that, he hides with his crew.

“Did she say something?” Pav asks, concerned for you.

“No, nothin’” He holds his heart in his hand. “She said nothin'”

—

Hobie follows you quietly throughout the day. Hiding from Miguel's watchful eyes and your sad eyes. The crew left to rest in an inn, Miles offered to come with him, Hobie's glad he did for he found an unhitched horse in a street corner. But it could only seat one so Miles, the angel that he is, let Hobie go on without him.

“I'll take care of them.” He promises before he lets his captain go.

They all know your house, they've raided their ships before. Crates upon crates full of luxury, with the same design on your necklace stamped on the wooden sides. Hobie knows them quite well, the favourite of the king, always giving them special treatment. Yet the queen holds them at an arm's length away, but she never left her eyes away from their business. He guessed sacking random ships has its perks, gossip is one of them.

Hobie silently trots his horse, eyes never leaving the carriage you just left. The cemetery sends his nerves alight, with the crows cawing in the background, he strains his ear to listen in. He's hiding behind the chapel, the irony doesn't escape him.

The truth is revealed to you, and unbeknownst to you, he has learned about it too. His head is in his hands as he listens to how broken your voice is, tone splitting at the seams. Then his heart stops when you tell your mother that you want to stay, that you want to find the person responsible for their deaths, that the same flames burning inside him now have spread to you.

Hobie doesn't want you to go down the same path he walked on, to let the embers singe your skin, to let the fire burn you from the inside out like it had with him. You helped him through his, helped him control it. Now it's his turn to do so for you.

He cares for you, loves you for all your soft touches and gentle tone. But he's prepared to love you through your jagged edges, through all the anger that's inside you. He'd love both sides of you, because it's you, and no one else.

His foot accidentally steps on a twig as he sees you leave. Hobie almost ran towards you when you looked at the source of the sound. This time he ducks away, knowing that there's eyes on you, eyes that are prepared to take you away the moment they see him. So he waits, until there's no more eyes on you.

The next time he saw you again was when you stepped out of the carriage and into the golden doors of the palace. He's terrified for what's to come, whether or not Miguel has brought you on a silver platter for the wolves to devour.

With his guns accompanying him, he readies outside the walls of the palace until you leave, until he sees you again climbing inside the carriage.

He can finally breathe again, he doesn't have to kill this time. Not yet anyway.

Hobie tries his best to stay hidden, he bribes and lies to get inside Hazelside. Then he waits, and bides his time just to talk to you.

—

“Hazelside estate,” Miguel says when the large manor looms over the horizon. “Your family has owned it for two hundred years. Passed down to every first born child of the family.”

Acres and acres of land stretch across the vast space. Primed apple trees and oaks line the road, men and women in work clothes walk near the carriage, not even craning their necks to take a peek inside. It seems this was a daily occurrence for them.

“Two hundred years.” You repeat, contemplating how many generations owned it. “So it's mine once the papers are signed? Where would my…uncle and aunt go then?” Your mind goes through a hundred scenarios where you stay and where you decide to leave it all again.

“They have their own house. Granted it's not as big as Hazelside but it's enough for them. Knowing his majesty, he'd take his sweet time from releasing the papers.”

“How well do you know the king and queen?” You ask, eyes scanning your family's land.

Stone houses are standing miles away from the main estate, employees of the house you think. Chimneys billow out smoke whilst the sun is just about to rise. You imagine them having breakfast with their families, sleep still clinging in their lashes, hot tea wrapped in their cool hands. Opening the window, the smell of fresh apples wafts over you. Home, you think. It smells like home. Or it just reminds you of the apple tarts Jessica made for you when you were younger.

“You alright?” Miguel asks, watching you frown.

“I'm fine, just tired.” You lied, in truth, you miss them all.

“You had a hectic day, I don't blame you. You'll get to rest soon, I promise.”

How could you even think of sleeping alone? After being near him? After saying goodbye?

“You didn't answer my question.” You shift your attention from the trees to the man before you. “How well do you know them?”

“I barely know the queen, but the king? Yes, short answer? He's a moron, a buffoon wearing a crown.”

Lyla snickers next to you, head plopped on the carriage wall, seemingly asleep.

You smile, “You have a monkey for a king.”

“Once you're the Hazelside duchess, he'll be your king too.”

“Christ.” You chuckle nervously.

“Don't worry, I'll help you get accustomed to polite society.” Miguel reassures you and you still have no idea if you'll stay long enough to bear the title.

“Polite society.” You say with a scoff, “What I just saw wasn't very polite.”

“Just remember, everything here is political. Everyone here is climbing the ladder, kissing the royal asses. Some are doing it for their families, some are doing it for their personal gain.”

“Which one do you think I am?”

“Neither.” The carriage stops, horses neighing, hooves stomping on the gravel. “You're not like them, Y/N, that's why you'll end up walking all over them.”

The footman opens the door, Miguel gives you a look before coming down the small steps. He reaches towards you, helping you down. You hesitate. You still don't take his hand even with your bad leg.

The wind blows cold, goosebumps appearing on your skin, face worried at the sheer size of the manor. The glinting silvered birds catch the early morning's sun's rays. Beady eyes seemingly blinking when a cloud passes by.

Vines cling to the ancient walls, small purple flowers run along the plant and along the large windows. Strong columns line the façade, laurels carved on the marble, oak doors displaying the house sigil— your necklace bearing a similarity to it. Flower beds cradling violets lay by the foot of the building, blooming and fragrant. The smell hiding your trepidation from the dozen or so people watching you with unreadable eyes.

The staff greets you with a stiff nod, they stand on the stairs leading towards the manor. Their uniforms are perfect, perfectly ironed and clean; perfect white gloves on their hands.

A couple of them help your drunk uncle off their own carriage. He groans, head swirling, eyes rolling to the back of his head. Fancy clothes sweaty and moist, neckerchief lopsided and dirtied by ale. In contrast to his wife, who looks tired with the heavy eye bags under her eyes, she still looks like a proper noble compared to Frederick.

“Freddy—” She groans, kicking her husband's leg, “get up!”

“Darling…” he slurs, “there's two of you—oh wait…now there's three!” His guffaw fills the quiet morning.

Victoria gives up, leaving the man to the care of her staff. She walks off, huffing and puffing. She gives you a glance, “what are you waiting for? Get inside.”

Her eyes flick to Miguel who stands behind you, she immediately clamps down her bitterness. “Welcome to Hazelside, niece.” With a stomp of her heeled foot, she heads inside, no doubt seething.

“Catty.” Lyla says next to you, elbowing your side. “C’mon, your grace, before the sun gets in their eyes and sends them into a murderous frenzy.”

You chuckle, shaking your head. Something flickers in your peripheral vision, when you move your head to look, whatever it was, it's already gone behind the thick bushes.

“Y/N?” Miguel beckons you over. “It's cold out, come inside before you get sick.”

“Coming,” you call back, eyes darting around the thicket.

—

Miguel shows you around to your room in the west wing. Various historical paintings decorate the walls, wooden simple frames around them, showing the true beauty of the art without all the extravagant gold laurels around it.

Sculpted busts of your ancestors wait at every corner, marble eyes staring blankly at what's in front of them. Large windows line the walls, just outside the glass lies an expansive field of apple trees, bulbs of reds and greens adorning the branches of the mighty orchard. You stand in awe at the sight, workers start flocking the trees, picking and plucking at the ripest of fruits. The sun shines directly at the field, apples aglow with its light like red and green stars.

You lag behind Miguel as you gawp at the scenery, hand tucked inside the pocket of your gown, mindlessly rolling the pearl. Wishing the crew could see it too, wishing that he could see it and harvest the fruits with you.

Miguel calls for you, hand reaching but he retracts it back to his side. “Apples are new around here.” You genuinely smile at him, so he continues. “It used to just be hazelnuts, which still grow plenty in the estate.”

“Why the change then?”

“They didn't change, your family merely adapted. Your grandmother was the one who started planting the apple trees. Whenever she had a—” Miguel falters, you can practically see his brain turning.

“Had a what? I'm a big girl, Miguel, I can handle whatever it is.” You encourage him with a nod.

“A miscarriage,” he says lowly, “At the end of her life she planted seven trees. There was only one seed she didn't plant and that was when your mother was born.”

Your heart aches at the story even though the people in it are practically strangers to you. “Apple of her eye.” You murmur.

Miguel chuckles, turning to watch the vast orchard that spans acres upon acres of land. “It’s an understatement. She was spoiled, your mother. But she had a heart, most of her gifts almost always ‘gets lost’ somewhere.” He smiles fondly. “Strangely enough, it always ends up with someone who would benefit from it more.”

“Which one ended up getting lost in your backyard?” You smile at his rare grin.

“A lot, pocket watches, jeweled eggs, there was a kitten once. Only because her mother didn't like it.” He sighs, hazel eyes shining under the sunlight.

“You loved her.”

“I did,” he stares at you with kinder eyes. “She was my best friend, and so was your father. They both were.”

“What did you mean back at the carriage when you told me that they did the same to you?”

He swallows thickly, staring back at the outside of the opulent manor. “My daughter, Gabriella.” he says after a moment, “She was only a few years older than you. Your parents were her godparents, this was before they eloped and had you.” You can feel the strain in his voice. “She got sick…they poured everything into giving her the best doctors the country has to offer. They were at her side while I was drowning my sorrows in the navy. When they weren't by her side, they were with me. But in the end everything was all in vain.”

“I'm sorry,” you say genuinely, “I'm sorry, Miguel.”

He gives you a tight smile and a pat on your shoulder. “Even after all that they were still by my side, even when I pushed them away.” Sniffing, he subtly wipes his eye. “I didn't cross the sea and traveled thousands of miles to find you because I want us to be even. Or to pay the debt, I just wanted to find the last thing they left in hopes that I also find them in you.” His chest heaves. “I couldn't even say goodbye to them.”

There's tears in your eyes as he chokes on his own words. “I lost my friends but you lost your family before you could even meet them. And for that, I'm sorry, Y/N.” His hand shakes. “They didn't deserve what happened to them.”

“Tell me what happened to them.” You stand toe to toe with him, determined to get answers.

“Pirates, I told you they were pirates.”

You shake your head. “Do you really believe that, O’Hara? Or are you still trying to convince yourself otherwise?”

His jaw clenches, “It was pirates, Y/N.”

“Tell that to the former navy medic I call mother.”

He whispers, “the last time I looked further into their deaths I lost my Job, stripped of all my titles. I almost lost my house because of it.”

“Then tell me what you found.” You challenge him back. “Tell me who ordered it so I can live in this house in peace.”

“I don't have definitive proof—”

“Who?”

“Edward.” He says through gritted teeth. “He wanted to marry your mother, even going as far to ask for her hand. But when she refused him for your father—” he heaves. “I think he has probable cause to order the attack.”

“You were answering the man who might've killed my parents and wanted me dead?”

“How do you think that makes me feel, hm? I had my full trust in the navy, trusting the report they gave, trusted them with my whole life, even dedicating my life to them. And the moment I get a whiff of a planned murder on the only family I've ever had they bar me from the only life I've ever known. How do you think that made me feel?”

“I'm sorry you went through that but you could've done something.”

“He is king!” Miguel's voice booms around the hallway. He shifts his voice, pinching his knitted brows. “His word is law, I couldn't have done anything, even if I had proof.”

“You should've started with that instead of telling me lies, then I would've come to you without a fight.”

“There would've still been a fight.” He states matter of factly. “Hobie was ready to fight the moment I stepped below deck.”

“Could you blame him though? We both know not every single pirate crew is as nice as them, he didn't attack because you claimed it was pirates. Or that he was offended, he knows that he has done unsavoury things too. So what did you say that made him lunge at you?”

Miguel shakes his head, refusing to say anything. “It's best that you don't remember it.”

“Fine, be like that, just know that there will always be a wall between us.” Your heels clack loudly against the oak floors as you leave him behind.

—

The room they gave you was surprisingly comfortable, unlike the apartments in the palace that you explored. It's ten times bigger than the inn you were in, complete with your own bathroom and sitting room. It's all wooden walls covered in beautiful tapestries of various scenes from history— the thick cloth helps keep the heat inside. All the windows are wide open to let the cool air in and the moonlight. So you could hear the rustling of the trees outside, so you could smell the crisp apples. It helps, you think as you sit in front of the large stone fireplace with birds engraved in every corner of the stone.

You're already sick of the bloody birds.

You wrap the fur blanket closer to your body, still in your gown, refusing to wear anything else they've provided for you. You've heard of poisoned dresses before, it's far-fetched but you can't risk it now that you're in a more unfamiliar territory where your own family holds a grudge against you just for existing.

Especially now that you're alone in a large room filled with strange things. And with only his dagger to keep you safe.

Anyone would kill to be in your shoes right now, to be pampered and placed in a household that can provide for all your needs. If it weren't for the hunger in you, you would've left all of the gold in this house just to get back to them. Instead, the fire has you in its hold too.

Miguel's information only fueled the glowing embers in you, you're determined to find who killed them. But you're still restrained in this large manor, and until you can get your answers, you say their names to satiate the hunger.

“Edward and Mathias.” You say through shuddered breath, feeling if you could just say it louder, the sky would strike them down where they stood.

The pearl in your hands is warm, the shiny surface reflecting your scowl.

The flames mesmerize you as it dances in the kindling. Orange and reds illuminate your face, it's the only light in the whole room. You exhale and a puff of clouds escape your cool lips.

It's getting colder, and you're missing him.

Just when you're about to stand up to close the windows, a pebble lands near you. It thuds on the wooden floors, the sound gets your attention.

“What the hell?” You say confused. Standing back up, another flies through the open windows and into your room. “Who the fuck?” Speed walking towards the window, you almost get hit by a pebble if you didn't dodge it in time. “Hey!”

Fifteen feet below your window, you see two people dressed in their night clothes, bundled up in fur coats. They look up at you with wide eyes, like they got caught with their hands inside the cookie jar.

“Cousin!” One exclaims, a wide apologetic smile on his lips, showing you his perfect teeth. “Sorry about that! Can you come down?”

“Who in the world are you?” You ask, confused, you lean down to take a better look, hands gripping the sill for support.

“We're your cousins! I guess?” The girl next to him says, eyes shining in the moonlight, hand holding another pebble. “We waited to see you during supper and around the house but you were apparently hiding!”

“Alright, why do I need to come down then?”

“Because we want to properly introduce ourselves! Without screaming at you from below that is.” The girl shrugs, smiling prettily at you. “Please, cousin?”

“...fine.” you grumble, the dagger is still hidden underneath your skirt in case they're planning something nefarious.

They beam up at you, the girl daintily claps her hands. “Brilliant! We'll be waiting at the entrance.”

As you trudge down the unfamiliar sprawling halls, trying your hardest to not get lost in the maze-like structure. You accidentally encounter another painting of your mother.

Her name is etched on a golden plaque just below the portrait. This one was different from the one in the palace, she was stiff there, lips tightly closed into a line, eyes cold and empty. The one in front of you is warm, a soft smile on her lips, eyes shining and alive. Her dress is in lilac, golden stars adorning the bodice. She still wore the same necklace you're currently wearing, it rests perfectly on her neck. In her hand is a closed locket, you wonder whose portrait lies inside.

“Hi, mum.” You whisper into the cold hallway. “Where's dad's portrait?” You ask like she would open her mouth and answer back. With a sigh, you head downstairs.

Walking the ancient floors, the moon shines down at you, the light peeking in from the gaps of the heavy curtains. Silently, you meet with your cousins in the foyer. Carefully coming down the curved staircase, hand gripping the bannister, the boy who is about the same age as Miles meets you halfway. He reaches towards you, giving you a hand.

“I heard about your leg, I thought you'd appreciate some help.”

“You're Frederick's children?” You say, questioning whether or not you should take his hand.

“We are,” he says with a sigh. “Come on, cousin, or you might miss it.”

“Miss what?”

“The birds.” The girl waiting in the foyer excitedly says. “They're migrating.”

“Oh, I don't see why that would be so interesting.” You say as the boy flexes his fingers, beckoning you down.

“You’ll see why. Take my hand please, you look like our grandmother going down the steps.”

“Fine,” with an exhale, you take his hand. You hold his hand, a feather light touch that he barely feels, giving yourself enough time to react if he decides to do something.

“I'm Jonathan, or just John.” He says as he gently leads you down the steps. His stride is slow, waiting for your own feet to keep up. “And this is my sister—”

“Collette!” She suddenly clasps your hands when you reach the last step. “Sorry–” her tone is sweet and genuine, quickly removing her hands from yours. “I got too excited! I'm Collette, my brother and I are twins.”

“Unfortunately…” John says under his breath.

Collette jabs her elbow by his side, earning a groan from him. You see the similarities on their faces now that you're closer to them. From the slope of their noses to the curls of their hair, they look very much alike. Except for their eyes, Collette has emerald eyes that shimmer from the oil lamp she carries. While her brother has brilliant blue eyes that remind you of the sea when the sun shines above it.

You get reminded of him again.

“Who's older?” You ask teasingly, pushing the previous thought away.

“I am!” They both speak at the same time. John looks at her sister with disappointment, while Collette scrunches her nose.

“I'm five minutes older than you, Jojo.” She says with a tone you could only describe as annoyed.

“Father told me I'm the one who's five minutes older. Not you!”

“Sure,” she nods sarcastically, the lamp in her hand sways. “Because father was in the room when we were born.” Her head swivels to look at you, and you almost jump at how fast she moved. “He wasn't in the room.”

“Ah, I think I got it—”

“Like you could bloody remember.” John says with a scoff.

Before the argument could go on, you stop them with your hands on each of their shoulders.

“I need to sleep, so whatever you want to show me, just fucking show me.”

Collette stares at you with a gasp, eyes wide like you just said the darndest thing. Meanwhile, John has the biggest grin you've ever seen.

“Wow, cousin.” He says, amused. “I heard you used to run with pirates but I didn't know you got their vocabulary too. Hazelside would be more interesting now that you're here.”

“Gosh,” Collette exhales, clutching her pearls (literally) “I didn't know that word could be uttered by a woman.”

“You should try it sometimes. It's very freeing.” You chuckle at their reaction whilst you make your way outside. “Before we freeze to death, cousins?”

“The oldest should lead the way.” John takes the opportunity to rag on his still bewildered sister.

She groans audibly. “You're not the one with the lamp.”

You smile, there's a warm familiar feeling in your chest.

—

Leaves crunch under your bare foot, you've got blisters from the uncomfortable heels Miguel gave you. You'd take walking on bare feet rather than wear that torture device ever again. The only plus side of the fancy shoe is that it makes you feel powerful with every click of the heels. Walking along a path, tall apple trees carve a way for you and the twins.

“I like your dress.” Collette says right next to you, you sense her wariness by how she keeps her distance. “The color is beautiful, it's our house color.”

“Thank you, but I've been told that red suits me better.”

“Oh, I think they're right actually.” She smiles, her eyes crinkling at the corners.

“Yeah, I'm slowly getting used to this one though.” You lift up your skirt a bit for emphasis.

“Is it true that you were shot?” John asks in front of you, looking over his shoulder. “We heard from the footmen that you were shot by a pirate when O’Hara rescued you.”

“I was, but that's not the whole story. Miguel didn't rescue me.”

“Really?” Collette's brows are raised in question and surprise. You nod at her question. “Huh, I told you we shouldn't listen to gossip.” She slaps her brother on his bicep, he winces, glaring at her. “It's bad to begin with.”

“That's the thing about gossip, Co, it's not always the truth.” He spits out.

“I knew that, pssh.” She crosses her arms on her chest, annoyed and embarrassed.

“Why are we out here again? If you're planning to ambush me—” Colette gasps loudly, like you've shot her.

“Ambush you? Do we look like we know how to fight?” She stops you from going further down the path just as you see a dark river at the end of it.

John knits his brows with a pout. “We're here to give you a warm welcome, cousin. We heard mother and father didn't even give you a tour, so I guess it falls on us to show you around.”

“At night though?” You gesture around the silence of the grounds, save for a few crickets chirping and the flowing of the lake, you're practically alone in the dark.

“Guess we're just living to our house motto, ‘carpe noctem—’”

“‘Seize the night’” Collette finishes her brother's sentence. “The ancestor who established our house was a gambler.” She shrugs.

“That's our house motto?”

“Nope!” Collette answers you. “It was our house motto.” She gestures to herself and her brother. “Before the crown granted us Hazelside, after—” John elbows her. “I'm sorry.”

“It's alright, what's the actual motto?”

“‘alis volat propriis—’”

“‘She flies with her own wings.’” You translate, the siblings look at you with awe. “There's latin in medicine.”

“You know medicine?!” Collette shrieks, the sound echoing through the dark.

“Brilliant.” John murmurs.

“Oh you must tell us more!” Collette loops her arm around yours, walking side by side. “How and where did you learn it?”

“I—”

“Don't pester her, Co.” John clicks his tongue, “have you cut anyone's arm off?”

“How grim!” She exclaims.

As they lead you towards the sparkling lake, you three chat through the night by the banks of the hazelside lake. They ask about the world outside the capital, they ask about the sea and the pirates you were with. You don't tell them about all the blood and violence, deciding that you shouldn't mar their innocent hearts with stories of death. It's not yours to tell, and you don't want to traumatize the only people who don't look at you with contempt.

“So you're not mad at me or even at least a bit annoyed for showing up and taking the estate from your parents?” You ask whilst the sun slowly rises, bathing the lake in bright blue. The hazelnuts in your mouth is a welcome one since you haven't eaten a single bite since you got to the capital.

“Not really.” John munches on his own pile of hazelnuts. He lounges near the water, hand cradling his head, chewing quietly. “We were surprised at first because there have been a handful of girls who claimed to be you. Who were obviously not you.” You raise an eyebrow at his statement. “But when they told us it was Miguel who found you, we were sure it was really you.”

“Wait— there were people who claimed to be me?”

“Mm-hmm.” Collette hums, sitting close to you, hanging on to every word you utter. “They weren't very convincing.”

“The story of Miguel trying to find you was pretty famous around here. I mean, the guy abandoned his post to find a missing duchess who may or may not be alive. That was a big story back then, so a lot of women threw their daughters and young relatives at the manor's gates to get a chance.” John informs you.

“We were quite young back then, but the fakes dwindled away through the years.” Collette finishes his statement.

“‘Quite young’ she says,” he scoffs, “we were barely out of the womb, Collette.” His sister sticks out her tongue at John.

“Huh, that's probably why I haven't heard of it either, I was still young.” You wonder.

“The sun's almost out!” Collette points at the clear sky. “Get ready, cousin, because you're about to see the most gorgeous thing.”

“The birds here migrate at this time of year,” John helps you both up to your feet. You surprisingly take his hand. “like clockwork. Collette and I used to watch it with our parents before they got all…well, too much. Now it's some sort of tradition for us.”

“Look look! The trees are rustling!” She points, jumping up and down.

“Any minute now.” John smiles at his sister as she half hugs him.

The three of you wait for a sign of the birds, a minute passes, then two, then five. Yet, not even a feather flies overhead. The early morning sun shines brighter with every minute that passes. And with every minute, the twins grew agitated.

“Why aren't they coming out?” Collette asks sadly.

“I'm sure they're just getting ready for the journey.” John reassures his sister with a pat on her shoulder. “My calculations are correct, why aren't they here yet?” He questions no one.

Their slumped shoulders and frowns get to you. An idea pops in your head, and you think it's all Hobie's fault.

“Maybe they're still sleeping.” They look at you simultaneously, “I mean it's really cold out, they probably wanted to stay in bed— or nest to sleep more. I know I would want to.”

“Oh,” Collette gives you a small smile at your attempt to make them feel better. “That's probably it. Thank you, cousin.”

You grin mischievously at them, “what if we wake them all up?”

John makes a face. “How?”

You inhale, putting your hands around your mouth, you scream, “wake the fuck up!” The sound echoed throughout the field and across the lake.

Your cousins let out a loud guffaw, you giggle at their reaction. John joins in, copying your actions.

“Wake up you wankers!” He yells, exhilaration filling his chest. “I've always wanted to say that.” Chuckling, he laughs louder at the face his sister is making.

“Johnathan!” His sister gasps next to him.

“What? Try it out! Come on then! No one's out here to tell us off.” John shakes her shoulder, giving you a wide grin.

“Join us in the dark side, Collette.” You sing song, “the birds need a wake up call.”

“You won't tell mother and father?” She asks the both of you. Wiggling, she’s excited.

Crossing your heart, you promise. “I won't, I'm not a tattletale.”

“Cross my heart and hope to die, Co.”

“Alright.” She exhales deeply before letting loud the loudest scream you've ever heard. “Wake up, cocksuckers!” It's so loud that you swear your eardrums are blown out. Smiling, she turns towards your surprised forms.

Now it's you and John's turn to gasp.

“Cocksucker?!” You exclaim, bewildered.

“Where'd you learn that, Co?!” John pokes his sister.

“I heard it when Mrs. Williams stubbed her toe during lessons.” She said shyly.

“Good on you, sis.” He pats her back. “Good on you.”

Collette looks at you expectantly. “Good show, Co.” You wink at her and she giggles happily.

Facing towards the thick trees across the lake, the birds still don't fly overhead. There's nothing but the wind rustling the branches.

“They didn't wake up though.��� She says forlornly.

“What if we do it at the same time?” Your words have them smiling again.

“Yes!” They say simultaneously.

“Ready?” They both nod, taking in air before screaming their hearts out.

“Cocksuckers!” The three of you let out simultaneously. The canopy rustles and out comes a hundred or so birds from the thicket.

You all jump up and down, arms up in greeting the birds. Their feathers shine in the sun, light filtering through their wings. Iridescent blues and whites glowing, reflecting in your eyes. Wings flapping loudly, beaks held up high as they greet the sky with open wings.

Amidst the beauty of it all, you wish that he was there to witness it.

A tear slides down your cheek. You wipe it quickly before the twins notice. Head staring up at the sky, amidst all the beauty and light, there's a darkness swirling inside you. Amidst all the life around you, you feel the opposite. And you miss him. The worst part is, you see this place becoming your home.

>>> CHAPTER 13 II

[devilish-bloom]

Y’ALL , GO CHECK YUURIVOICE CHANNEL RIGHT NOW - PREMIERE

[cncuwau]

DID ANYONE ELSE VIEW THE VAN SCENE LIKE THIS??? I FEEL LIKE I’M GOING CRAZY BUT I INITIALLY THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD SCENE SETTING UP BYLER AND I EVEN THOUGHT MIKE’S REACTION WAS TOTALLY LEGITIMATE AND ACTUALLY POSITIVE OKAY HEAR ME OUT- 

i actually liked the van scene a lot. i liked the painting. i thought for a sec they were gonna hetero things up when will said el commissioned it. i literally forgot that el had told mike that she hadn’t gotten to see what will was working on, and that she thought it was for someone he liked. and i completely forgot that mike should know that. i didn't realize will was making up a fake excuse. but aside from me being a dumb queer.. during that whole scene, i was just looking at mike. to me, it looked like mike understood that will was (clearly) talking about himself and not el, and that mike was surprised because he finally put the pieces together. i could see mike sitting there, staring at this painting being like “wait.. will LIKES me??? like LIKE-likes meeeee????????? since when?? am i dumb i thought-’’. and while that’s happening for mike the focus for us is on will breaking down, but i don't necessarily think that means mike's a bad person for not consoling him in that exact moment. i thought the reason he didn’t say much was because he understood what will was trying so desperately to tell him, so he couldn’t just ask will why he was crying. he knew why, but he also knew they couldn’t talk about it right at this moment. not with argyle and jonathan there, this wasn’t the right time. not yet. i felt like mike respected that will wanted space, the poor boy had just poured his heart out, but there was an obvious reason as to why will wasn’t more direct, why he couldn’t be, why he felt he had to hide behind the facade that it was el’s feelings he was expressing to mike. so mike asking what was up after will’s monologue wouldn’t have helped. will couldn’t go more into that, and mike couldn’t be the one to open up that conversation when will wasn’t fully ready yet. and i mean mike was also probably in a state of shock too, like heart racing, his mind somewhere else, completely fucking lost in the situation. so confused and surprised, because he never expected will to feel the same. and maybe he didn’t even notice will crying but it doesn’t mean that he didn’t care. i've been crying like that in a car countless times and i never wanted anyone to ask about it right then and there. maybe that was just what was happening here too.

like i couldn’t breathe after that scene, i was really excited. noah's acting was phenomenal and i thought that finn delivered mike being awestruck and secretly in love with his best friend who’s indirectly confessing his feelings to him exceptionally well. the cinematography even makes it a point of the fact that mike can’t take his eyes off of will, even when will's looking away. that was my instinctive reaction to mike's reaction. i think he just didn’t know what to say. he looked so happy tho. like he was just giving will endless heart-eyes while will did his monologuing. i thought it was beautiful. i thought, despite how much it sucked to see will in that position, unable to tell mike his true feelings (but disguising it to find a way) and it ending with him breaking down, i saw it as an emotional release. like at least he got some of that bottled up love out, got to express it to mike. he got to say SOME of the things he needed to. i thought it was building up for a positive coming out scene. probably to jonathan, maybe even to mike. but either way, definitely to byler.

BUT THEN CAME MIKE’S STUPID ASS FUCKING MONOLOGUE AND LITERALLY BURNED EVERYTHING TO THE GROUND. like screw the beautiful subtext they’ve carefully built up over the course of YEARS, but especially throughout THIS WHOLE FUCKING SEASON, am i right???? going back to the scene in the van after that, will's suffering was just that, i guess. endless suffering, not only for him personally, but so that mike and eleven can run off into the sunset or something (even tho they didn’t do that after everything smh). now this scene wasn’t beautiful in its sadness. it was just cruel. it was JUST cruel. they aren’t just putting will through needless suffering, they’re putting the queer audience through the literal goddamn same thing. duffers, i challenge you to make him fucking happy for once, because you’re just hitting the same note over and over and it’s not show-stopping, it’s not groundbreaking. it's only good because the actors are absolutely carrying you and your god-awful writing. the duffers are literally just slapping the characters (especially will) and the queer audience in the face over and over, but still expect us to come back because this is all we’re ever gonna get. we deserve better. will deserves better. hell, even fucking mike deserves better. but that’s what fucking hurt the most. that the first time i watched that scene i saw it as something good, that it was obviously leading to something better, but it didn’t. i haven't watched that scene since because, knowing what i know now, i think it would just hurt too much.. you know, more than it already did. they ruined it. will didn’t get to talk about it more like i thought he would. like it would have made sense for him to. it was implied that he would, but they didn’t even let him fucking do that. i think it could have been so fucking good, hard-hitting and beautiful.. but they literally threw all of the promise from vol 1 and even ep 8 STRAIGHT (lol) OUT of the fucking window.. like they royally fucked up huh..

[noritoshiikamo]

oooh the last idea about sukuna telling itadori what to do, but instead of the feet its just him teaching itadori how to be a dom?

okay i had that thoughts, like its itadori alright but the one moving the body isn't itadori, it's sukuna yall see where am i going with this???

tw slightly dubcon (reader thinks its itadori fucking them but its not), itadori/sukuna x reader, unsafe sex, some spitting, idk i feel like i forgot how to write smut for a sec

tagging @lazy10ieiri and @duskamethyst bcs she was being annoying in the dm

like you love yuuji, but sometimes he treats you like you would break the moment he thrusts too hard. and it frustrated you because you tried to be subtle. you left fingernails marks on his back and when you apologized and said you were into it thinking it would spark a whole conversation about what you are into, but he just laughed sheepishly and brushed it off. saying it would heal and such. being too forward also went over his head. no amount of harder please could change his mind.

"i want you to really fuck me, yuuji. like pull my hair, fuck me like a dumb slut kind of fuck."

your lewdness made his cheeks reddened, "i d-don't want to hurt you."

you shook your head, your palms pressed against his sweaty chest, "you won't. i'll let you know if you hurt me," you pulled him by the neck, your lips met, "you could never hurt me, yuu." he swallowed all your moans as his tip slipped past. you always love the feeling of his shaft splitting you apart slowly, what startled you this time was his urgency. you called out his name, eyes rolled back as he rutted completely inside you. the stretch burned deliciously, it sparked something inside you.

when your eyes met his, your brows furrowed, "yuu?"

but he was in dazed. unknowingly to you, he was mentally fighting his inner demon, literally. "you can't even please your slut, pathetic," the cursed spirit chuckled, dodging the skull thrown by the human.

"she's not a slut, she's my girlfriend."

sukuna's eyes sparkled, "let me show you how."

it startled you when his hand wrapped itself around your neck, your breath hitched as it tightened. "you want it rough?" yuuji grinned widely, "do you know that wishing is dangerous?" the words rolled off his tongue so buttery, it send shudders down your spine and straight to your cunt. he could feel your cunt clenching around its length. he didn't wait for your answer, pulling out and slamming deeper immediately. his other hands gathered your wrists pinning it above your head. his tongue lapped your salty skin, every time his fangs brushed your skin, you let a timid whimpers between your loud moans.

"is this what you want?" he asked, flipping you on all fours "do you want me to ruin you?"

"yes, yes, please, more, yuuji."

you didn't miss the way he smirked when he pulled your head back with the fingers in your hair, hands pressing down on your arching back as he thrusted forward. his pelvic hit yours harsh, the sound of skins slapping echoed the room followed by your loud moans. your scalp burned from the tugging and it started to hurt being pushed on all four but it felt so good. you could feel your own drools dripping down the side of your lips the faster he thrusted into you. your belly tensed as you felt your high closing in.

"you're so fucking wet, you like being treated like this huh?"

"ruin me please," you mewled, meeting his thrusts halfway.

you don't know what snapped in him, it didn't matter as you came, squirting all over his cock. white fluid coated his cock as it disappeared in and out of you, ignoring your cries of overstimulation. you clawed for him to slow down, but yuuji folded your arms on your back, using it to brace himself. the way your walls sucking his length in, refusing to let it go with every thrusts had both itadori/sukuna moaning.

"you see? this is how you please a woman," sukuna's words echoed in his mind.

his hand landed a smack on your fleshy ass, it jiggled in a way that made him frenzy. he grabbed your ass roughly, your little please sounded melodious in his ears as he landed another one on the other cheeks.

"tight . fucking . cunt," he gritted through his teeth, words emphasized by every thrust, he grabbed you by the nape and pulled you up, fingers went around your bruised neck. "do you think you deserve my cum, huh? little slut like you."

"please, yuuji, i-i want you to fill me up," you cried, wiggling your ass against him.

his hand moved to your jaws, the pressure on both side pried open your lips. his saliva dripped down your tongue, mixed with your own as it slid down your throat, "that's it, that's a good girl," he grinned, kissing your forehead, "now move, if you want my cunt, you have to fuck yourself, chop chop, slut." you nodded eagerly, too dazed to even care, all you want right now is for him to fill you up to the brim. you want his bruises and bite marks all over your neck. your thrusts were weak, limited by the position he held you, but it was enough for him to mewl against your ears. you felt his thumb resting on your clit, rubbing circles, throwing you off your thrusts. it was getting drowsier, trying to focus on multiple pleasure at once render you stupid. you were writhing underneath his touch.

"always a needy little cunt huh?"

"has my cock made you dumb?"

"come on, y/n, make me cum."

you nodded blindly to his every words, you want to please him for being so good to you and presenting your hole to be filled is a way to do it. his grips to your waist and neck tightened and you gasped as he pushed himself deep on you, his warmth spurting in your wall. he rested his head against your back, struggling to breath as his hand loosened around your neck. he gave a few jerky thrust, desperately emptying himself in you before stopping. you fell on your side, still attached to the pink haired boy. he quickly pulled you in warm hug, kisses scattering all over your shoulders.

"did i hurt you?"

his soft voice brought smile on your face. you chuckled, shaking your head, enjoying how full you felt with his cum filling you up and cock still buried in you. "where have this yuuji been hiding from me?" you purred, gently caressing the back of his head, tugging him closer for a kiss.

"do you like that? i-i don't if i was doing right."

you pushed him on his back, straddling him again with a wide smile. you could feel the fluid mixing and dripping down your thighs, pooling on his cock. you pinned his hands on each side of his head, your fingers fit perfectly in the space between his own as you gently rocked your hips on his softened cock.

"do you think you got some more for me baby? just one more," your lips jutted forward into a pout as you begged, showing his sweaty chest with kisses.

you couldn't controlled your grin as he gave your hands a little squeeze, the way his eyes darkened in lust so quickly as he tossed you back down on your back, like a predator watching its prey could make you cream instantly. you were almost giddy.

he chuckled, it had became an unspoken agreement between itadori and sukuna, "one more? baby, i could give you the whole night worth of mess," the only time sukuna is allowed to come out to play is when you needed a good reminder that sluts don't get to beg, slut takes what is given to them and say thank you.

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