#making my mother listen to a certain album with me n fun

[buryme--inblack]

Meow

MROWWWWW

[lewisvinga]

because i liked a boy , part ii. | carlos sainz x fem! reader

part one.

summary: carlos sees how y/n is thriving after their break up and he couldn’t help but feel regret, especially after seeing how she moved on.

fc; nicki nicole

warnings; cursing , reader is implied to be a spanish speaker, uhhh idk what else

taglist; @namgification @louvrepool @locelscs

note; requested ! this is set over a span of a couple of months btw ! this is a long one for me icl

masterlist !

liked by lilymhe, carlossainz55, and others

yourusername: por las noches [at night] remix out now!

thank you pesopluma for giving me the chance to feature on this track, had so much fun collabing with you!

tagged; pesopluma

username: OMG MOTHER

username: this song is so….💔💔

username: her voice + peso’s voice 😫

username: yall think it’s abt carlos???

pesopluma: fue tan divertido trabajar contigo, hasta la próxima! 🖤😁 [it was so fun working with you, until next time!]

yourusername: gracias por darme la oportunidad 🥹🖤 [thank you for giving me the opportunity]

username: omg wasn’t she rumored to date him before carlos??

username: they just shared a mutual friend 😭

username: ‘solita me dejarás’ [you’ll leave me alone] was 100% aimed at carlos for not defending her 🙁

username: the emotions in her voice, i just know that break up hurt her

lilymhe: idk what you’re saying but your pretty voice makes up for it 😫🫶

yourusername: love uuuuuu

username: when she said ‘todo lo que yo te di y todo lo que me diste, fue pa' nada’ [everything i gave to you and everything you gave to me, was for nothing] i felt that shit in MY SOUL😖😖

username: omg omg omg carlos liked!!!

username: my roman empire is cary/n

username: carlos still liking her posts and following her 🥹🥹

username: “voy a preguntar por qué todos nuestros sentimientos se quedaron en ayer” [i’m going to ask why all of our feelings stayed in yesterday] has me in my FEELS, miss y/n you ate w that🤒

alexandrasaintmleux: amazing! always so talented 🩷💐

yourusername: thank u alex 🥹🫶

username: my ferrari wags💔💔

username: this song seems like the last goodbye to carlos tbh, like she’s letting alllll of her feelings out before moving on bc in her recents she looks so happy🥹🥹🥹🥹 liked by yourusername !

liked by carlossainz55, carmenmmundt, and others!

yourusername: “ALMA”, my first album, is finally out! and if that wasn’t enough, official dates for ALMA tour is also out! presale link in my bio. 🖤🖤🖤

username: HELLOOOO?????

username: IM SLDKSKDO

username: trust I WILL BE GOING TO MADRID TO SEE HER

carmenmmundt: i better get front row seats in madrid!!

yourusername: i’ll get them for you #trust

username: anybody notice how the opening show is in madrid ??? coincidentally before the start of the season??

username: i noticed too omg, i’m convinced the tour was planned before her and carlos broke up so he could see her🥹

username: carlos liked this post too!

lilymhe: OH EM GEEEEE IM SO EXCITEDDDDDD liked by yourusername!

username: working extra shifts rn

carlossainz55: felicitaciones! [congratulations] knew you could do it! liked by yourusername!

username: cary/n💔💔😭😭

username: IM SO HYPED FOR THIS

username: so you’re telling me we might hear ‘because i liked a boy’ and ‘por las noches’ LIVE???!!

yourusername: maybeeeeeee

alexandrasaintmleux: already ready for when they officially go on sale! making charles also use his phone and laptop😌😌

yourusername: alexxxxx🥹🥹🫶🫶

carlos congratulations on the album and the tour, i know how hard you’ve been working on both.

y/n thank you, carlos. yeah, i have been working hard despite certain bumps in the road 😊

carlos listen, i’m so sorry. i should’ve defended you more. it was my mistake and i was blind and stupid and i lost you. i lost an amazing girl.

y/n yeah! you were stupid

y/n i was getting death threats and i was told that it was ‘complicated’ to make a post!

y/n but it’s fine, i’m over it.

carlos well i’m not over you.

y/n deal with it, carlos sainz. you messed up. you lost me.

carlos just give me one more chance, por favor, mi amor. [please, my love] te lo juro, [i swear to you] i won’t fuck it up. please.

y/n no. i have a tour to prepare for. goodbye, carlos.

liked by carlossainz55, carmenmmundt, and others

yourusername: MADRIDDDDD❤️🇪🇸 thank you for creating happier memories for me in this beautiful city. you’re all so special to me🖤🖤

username: ‘happier memories’ rmbr when she’d always be seen in madrid w carlos 🥹

username: OOMF ON TWT SAID SHE SAW CARLOS THERE W CARMEN AND GEORGE AND A MYSTERY GIRL

carmenmmundt: i think i lost my voice from screaming so much🤣 george is even worse!! but amazing like always 💞💞

georgerussell63: broken spanish and don’t have a clue what you said, but i somehow lost my voice

yourusername: it means sm to me that you both enjoyed 🥹🖤

username: MOTHER HAS MOTHERED

username: buenos días y k vivan los mujeres😍 [good morning and long live women]

username: el mejor concierto de mi vida😫😫 [the best concert of my life]

username: streets are saying carlos was there w another girl????

username: the way you guys stopped hating on her the moment she ended things w carlos, you guys are sick!!

username: literally, she was always that girl but since she was dating their fave……

username: idc i never liked her

landonorris: womp womp!

landonorris: waiting for u to come to england

yourusername: soooooon😁

alexandrasaintmleux: so excited for the monaco concert 🩷🩷

yourusername: can’t wait to see you and charles!🫶

liked by carlossainz55, pesopluma, and others

yourusername: special guest in cdmx [mexico city] tonight 🙈 tqm [ilysm] 🖤🖤

tagged; pesopluma

pesopluma: MI REINAAAAAA😍😍😍 [my queen]

pesopluma: la vida es mejor contigoooooo, tqm❤️❤️ [life is better with you, ilysm]

yourusername: 🥹🥹🥹🫶🫶🫶🖤🖤🖤

username: the way he looks at her, i am unwell

username: she looks so happy w him🙁🙁

username: friends to lovers is REALLL

username: mis faves

username: cdmx concert was the best one

username: POR LAS NOCHES LIVE>>

lilymhe: cuties🫶 2x date next time ur in town??

yourusername: of course 😖

username: not carlos liking 😭

username: wonder how carlos feels realizing he fumbled a bad bitch like y/n for not defending her online

username: the way peso pluma said ‘i’d defend her with my life, that’s how much i love her’ during his lil speech during the concert was so🥹🥹

username: i’m so happy that she looks so happy and relieved, AND THE COMMENT SECTION HAS NO TOXIC FANS!!

username: 😖😖😖😖😖😫😫😫💞

carlos so you’re dating your ‘friend’ now huh

y/n weird i don’t remember asking.🤣

y/n he was there for me when i was getting death threats and being called a slut for nothing. he was there to comfort me when i cried over the thousands of hate comments under every post.

y/n something you never did.

carlos wait until he finds another girl and will dump you. you know how it is when people get that famous that fast. he won’t treat you well.

y/n HA what a joke. very funny, sainz.

y/n weren’t you the one to bring a girl to MY concert?? but i’m the bad guy for moving on and dating someone else???

y/n you’re pathetic, sainz.

carlos admit it, you know i’m right

y/n fuck off, he treats me better than you ever did

carlos sure. sure he does.

y/n move on, sainz. move on.

liked by lilymhe, alexandrasaintmleux, and others!

yourusername: princess treatment only 💞🥹 muchas gracias, mi rey🖤 [thank you very much, my king]

tagged; pesopluma

pesopluma: lo mejor para usted, mi reina❤️ [the best for you, my queen]

yourusername: mi amor 🥹🫶

username: literal goals

username: mis padres

username: a relationship like them pls

username: the way she went from carlos to peso pluma>>>>

username: SHE SAID PRINCESS TREATMENT ONLY ‼️‼️ WE ONLY WANT MEN WHO DEFEND US‼️‼️ liked by yourusername !

username: she looks sooooo happy n free i love it

username: as much as i miss cary/n, peso pluma really does treat her like a queen

lilymhe: ITS WHAT YOU DESERVE BBY!!!!! liked by yourusername !

username: oh i just know lily knows the real shit abt carlos and y/n

lilymhe: i am neither confirming not denying…

landonorris: cool but can u tell him to get on his pc and join the game🙄🙄🙄🙄

pesopluma: on it 🫡

charles_leclerc: WAIT FOR ME

username: wait omg he’s friends w the drivers????

username: duh, she’s besties w the wags , ofc he’s gonna know their bfs

alexandrasaintmleux: gorgeous gorgeous girls date wonderful amazing guys who make them happy💐🩷🩷

yourusername: well that also makes you a gorgeous gorgeous girl! ilysm🫶🖤🥹

username: wonder how carlos feels knowing he lost y/n to a guy who treats her better AND is friends w his friends 😭😭

username: if i was him i’d be sooo pissed 😭

username: imagine if he was begging for her to take him back

yourusername: lol imagine

[psych0-str1ngs]

Tongue Twister || Danny Wagner x Reader (smut)

Warnings: drinking, weed, p in v, unprotected... oral

"I want to listen to this record" Josh barked at Jake, who was holding a different vinyl.

"We're listening to this one," Jake said, putting his vinyl on the turntable and dropping the needle down.

"Well clearly," Josh started, almost falling over. "You just don't have a philosophical truth..."

I laughed, zoning them out. I look at Sam who's got his arm around Hannah, indulged in his conversation with her. I felt the other side of the couch dip, looking over I see Danny leaning against the couch with his arm on the back of it. tbh, I hated parties and stuff, but I love Danny, so it was worth it. Plus josh wouldn't shut up about it. I think he's aware of my crush on his brother from another mother. He always giggles like a little girl when he says Danny's name around me, causing me to blush a little. Danny was the perfect guy, I mean he really is the sweetest.

"Hi Danny," I smile.

"Hey y/n," He smiled back sweetly. "You having fun?"

"I think I'd have a lot more fun if Josh and Jake weren't to bicker with each other," I laughed.

"Me too," He let out a little snort.

I looked at my cup, seeing it was low.

"wanna go with me to the kitchen?" I asked, giving him puppy eyes.

"of course," He got up, holding his hand out to help me up.

We walked across the living room, and into the kitchen. Josh's house had so many twists and turns. (Just imagine the kitchen isn't visible from the lounge room) I opened the fridge, scanning it for another bottle of beer. I grabbed one and turned back to Danny, sitting on counter.

"Here," He said pulling out his bottle opener. "Let me open it."

I handed him the bottle and thanked him. Noticing the little space between us, my face got a little hot. He was slightly in between my legs. He popped the top off and came a little closer, handing it me, then leaning a few inches away from me on the island.

"Thank you Danny," I elongated my sentence. "So how's everything with the new album?"

"Well," He sighed, it's been stressful, you know, there's still a lot to be done. But it'll be worth it in the end.

I tilted my head and smiled, "I'm sure everyone will love it when it's released."

"I hope so," He smiled. "I'm just nervous you know, we haven't put out an album for a moment."

I jumped down from the counter, pulling his hands to be closer to me. I wrapped my arms around his waist and looked up at him.

"Well, you guys are in your primetime," I started "I'm sure you'll have no problem with sales and stuff."

"Thank you y/n," He said, wrapping his arms around my shoulders.

We stood there for a second, he grabbed my chin to make me look at him. Looking into his eyes I was immediately put into a trance. His brown eyes stared at me, love and passion filled them, but there was also a certain, spark in him.

"Kiss me," he whispered.

Stretching onto my toes, I press my lips to his softly, putting my hands on either side of his. He grabbed my hips gently, pulling me closer. He moved away, looking into my eyes once again.

"I really like you y/n," He whispered, tp keep the others from hearing.

"I really like you too Danny," I whispered back, smiling.

"Will you, be my girlfriend," He put his hand on his neck.

"of course!" I exclaimed, leaning to hug him again. This time, my arms were on his shoulders. I got butterflies a little when he wrapped his muscled arms around my waist, pulling me up slightly. He kissed me again, this time, we quietly, and slowly lapped at each others tongue. My hand stayed in the back of Danny's hair, scratching and massaging lightly. His hands slowly moved down to grab my ass, he gripped the fat lightly massaging it. He pulled away.

"Bathroom?" He asked, looking into my eyes with lust, and love, nothing but pure passion.

"Yes please," I grabbed his hand, walking further into the hall of Josh's home, getting closer to bathroom. Finally I found, flipping the switch and locking the door after Danny came inside. He grabbed my hips, lifting me up and setting me on the counter. He laid his hands on my thighs and leaned again to kiss me. I rested my hands on his mid back, running my nails along his skin lightly. Our tongue's danced together like flames from a bond fire. His hands moved up to my hips, gripping them somewhat tightly.

His lips trailed to my neck, sucking and biting lightly. I let out a sigh, and he smirked against my neck. My hand went straight to his hair again, locking my fingers in it. Pushing my unbuttoned shirt off of my shoulders, his fingers pulled on the top of my tank top and bra, revealing my nipple piercings. His expression changed completely, he went from passionate and slow, to animalistic eyes, though it was short lived. Rough sex was another kind of sex, for another kind of day. Right now his main focus was making sure that you received only the best treatment. His hand cupped my left boob, as he did the same with the other.

"May I?" He looked up, silently begging you to let him please you.

"Of course Danny," I smiled, flushing a pale red.

His mouth landed around my nipple, his tongue danced around my nipple ever so lightly, his teeth lightly pulled at my piercing. I arched my back, pushing my chest against his face harder. He looked up for a second, before going back to my breasts. He switched to the other nipple, doing the same with that one. I moaned lowly, careful of the others in the house. I pulled his head up, kissing him. My hands tugged at the bottom of his sweater. He pulled away long enough to take off his sweater, and under top. I stared at awe in a second. His happy trail, his biceps. He chuckled a little bit before grabbing my hips and grinding slightly against my core. I moaned again. I unbuttoned my pants, pulling them down. only leaving me in my underwear. Danny pulled me to the edge of the counter. Making sure my pussy was right over the edge. He got on his knees and moved my thong over.

"You're so gorgeous in every aspect y/n," He said making eye contact, while leaving light kisses on the insides of my thighs.

I blushed deeply and thanked him. His fingers delicately moved to my slit, his fingers running between my lips, brushing my bud. I jolted back a bit, not expecting it. I hear him laugh and roll my eyes. He kisses closer to where I wanted him, carefully watching my reaction. His mouth soon pressed against my clit, kissing it. He licks a stripe and then starts to suck on my sensitive bud. My hips lightly rock against his face.

"Oh Danny," I whispered, my mouth hanging open slightly. He hums, vibrating my pussy. His inserts his middle finger slowly, immediately coated in a thin layer of my liquid. His finger curled inside of me, hitting all the right spots. His eyes still watches me intensely, learning my weaknesses. He continues to suck on my clit while he adds a second finger, pumping at a slow, constant pace. I felt a coil rising in my stomach, my breathing got heavy. I panted, lowly cursing. Just as I was about to come he stopped.

"hey," I frowned.

He got off his knees, dusting them off. Smiling at me, he dropped his khaki pants, and his boxers, his dick slapping onto his chest. I gaped at it, it was bigger than I've ever seen. He chuckles.

"What it is it baby," His voice was low, and husky.

"nothing," I blushed and looked down.

"bend over the counter," He said, stroking himself slowly. I got down and bent over, leaving my ass and pussy vulnerable. His hands rubbed softly on my hips and butt, his lips kissing my shoulder.

"If it hurts, or I get too carried away, tell me okay?" His breath fanned into my ear, his eyes looking at me through the mirror. I nodded quickly.

"Let me hear you say it," He said, slapping my ass lightly.

"I will tell you," I said shyly.

"good girl," He praised, I immediately blushed.

He grabbed his dick, rubbing it in between my folds a few times before slowly inserting himself inside. we both sighed at the same timing, Danny's hands gripped my hips, ready to fuck me. He started slowly, with deep thrusts, my tits jiggled lightly. He moved his hand to my throat, his eyes filled with a lust I hadn't seen yet. His hips start moving quickly, his dick hitting my spot continuously, I whimpered lightly.

"fuck y/n," He moaned out "You feel so good,"

"Thank you my love," I moaned back.

He moved at a constant speed, eventually, he was drilling into me, his hand over my mouth to keep the others from hearing my moans. He moved his mouth next to my ear.

"shh baby," He started. "We don't them knowing that I'm fucking your little pussy do you?"

I shook my head, sweat lightly coming out of my face. His hips faltered, I felt that same coil from earlier begin to rise again. Danny quickly moved me to sit on the counter again, hooking his arms under my knees, he thrusted into me again, my body started to shake. Danny was moaning in my right ear, whispering little nothings. My head dropped onto Danny's shoulder, my nails digging into his biceps, I came, his dick sliding out of me, then drilling back into me. With a few more thrusts he pulled out and came on my stomach. Panting heavily, we both smiled at each other like idiots.

"I'm really glad you told me," I smiled.

"I am too," He kissed my forehead, cleaning my stomach off with a little toliet paper. He handed me my clothes, and kissed my lips. He continued to dress himself, admiring me from a few inches away while I also got dressed.

We heard snickering from outside of the bathroom door and immediately I flushed. Our smiles dropped as we stared at each other wide eyed.

"Oh god...," Danny said.

[xlostinobsessionsx]

Good Girls are Bad Girls that haven't been Caught | Luke Patterson

Pairing: alive! 1995! Luke Patterson x fem! Reader

Warnings: none

Word Count: 4,038

A/N: A big thank you goes to @bass-ic-deaky for proof-reading and making this fic much more vibrant! 💖

This fic is based on "Good Girls" by 5 Seconds of Summer.

Masterlist

Luke and (Y/N) knew each other since they were kids. They had been neighbors since childhood, so it wasn’t uncommon for them to be playing with each other in their adjoining backyards most days. But time went by and slowly they got older. On his 8th birthday, Luke had gotten a guitar and quickly realised his dream of becoming a rock star. After meeting Alex Mercer and Reggie Peters in middle school, the dream slowly became reality. Sunset Curve was born. (Y/N), on the other hand, took on violin instead. 

As time passed, they slowly began to grow apart. One would describe Luke’s style of music and dress as more rock n’ roll grunge. (Y/N), however, looked the total opposite, elegant, poised, which could also be heard through her playing throughout the neighborhood. (Y/N) listened to classical music and took ballet lessons while Luke continued his guitar lessons and went to ice hockey practice. It seemed like after all this time, the two had nothing in common anymore.

Now they were in high school and they barely knew the other existed anymore. The only times Luke saw (Y/N), even though they were still neighbours, was when they ran into each other in the hall or if they just so happened to leave for school at the same time, which these days was very rare. (Y/N) was quite the early riser, and was often already off on her way while Luke was still lying in bed half asleep. Though they had two classes together, they hardly spoke to each other. It was as if their friendship before this had meant nothing.

Sometimes Luke missed the old days. Back then, (Y/N) didn’t seem too different from him. He could still remember them sitting in his treehouse, sharing gummy bears and listening to an old Led Zeppelin album. Now all she ever seemed interested in was studying. But even despite their different paths, they talked to each other from time to time. Their parents, on the other hand, were still very close. Occasionally they met at one of their homes, cooked together, talked about their jobs and even more so about their kids. Luke had learned from his parents that (Y/N) planned to go to Harvard once they graduated. Of course, when they told him that, he couldn’t stop himself from rolling his eyes. He knew his parents wished he had the same or at least similar plans for his life. But Sunset Curve was finally starting to take off. After they played their first gig at a small bar in L. A., more and more bars and clubs were willing to let them perform. Luke had loved rehearsals before, now they were even more fun, especially knowing that they’d get to perform their new songs in front of more people than just Bobby’s parents. Bobby became a part of the band when he moved to L. A. four years after they had formed. With Bobby’s arrival the band not only found a rhythm guitarist, but also a place to rehearse. Before that, they had to rehearse in Reggie’s basement, between boxes and useless junk. Then of course his parents constantly fighting upstairs didn’t make for the best working environment.

Whenever Luke fought with his parents and just needed space to clear his head, there was no better place for him than a small shed in Bobby’s backyard which they had affectionately dubbed their studio. The words from his parents still rang in his ears as he pulled out his bike, guitar case slung over his back. 

“Why can’t you be more like (Y/N)?! She has good grades and a bright future at Harvard!” His mother had wailed.

“Being a rockstar is not a realistic goal, it won’t bring you any money or stability.” His father tried to convince him.

Every time it was always the same. Luke jumped onto his bike and made his way through the backyard towards the gate, when he stopped in his tracks. In the corner of his eyes he could make out a dark figure, running through the yard next to his. At the end of the driveway, he could make out the lights of a car, shining through the trees and the figure running towards it. When the figure finally came into the light, Luke could finally see who it was. She turned around, taking one last look at the house behind her before she opened the car door and got in before promptly speeding off into the darkness. Who did (Y/N) just leave with?

--

Luke was tired the next morning. Despite spending the night in the studio, far away from the trouble with his parents, the young guitarist hadn’t slept a wink. His mind was racing with thoughts of (Y/N) and the mysterious person she had left with. During their lunch break at school, he told his band members of the encounter. “Wait, you mean to tell us that (Y/N), the definition of the perfect daughter, snuck out?” Bobby asked in disbelief. 

Luke nodded. “Yep, got into a car with someone. Can’t say for certain who it was.” The eyes of the four guys wandered to said girl, who was sitting with her friends at a table not far away from their own. 

“I’ll dip into the school gossip and see what I can find out. I’ll deliver the goods.” Alex smirked. And deliver he did at their band practice later that day. “So you know Tori, the girl who sits next to me in chem class and never shuts up? She told me that she heard from one of her friends, who was told by one of his friends that (Y/N) was spotted with Brandon Jones in the back of the library.” 

“Brandon Jones?” Luke asked with a raised eyebrow. 

Alex nodded “Yeah, the captain of the football team who always drives a really expensive car.”

“How do they even know each other? Isn’t he usually on the brink of suspension?” Reggie asked curiously to which Alex shrugged. 

“Well, well, well, seems like your little (Y/N) likes bad boys, Luke.” Bobby laughed, while throwing an arm around Luke’s shoulders. 

Luke quickly shrugged it off with a grimace. “She’s not my (Y/N).” He snapped. “It just surprises me that she sneaks out to meet him. That doesn’t sound like her.” 

“Yeah, ‘cause you know her so well after barely talking to her for years and only making eyes at her from afar.” Bobby countered. 

“I’m not making eyes at her!” The guitarist defended himself much too quickly to be believable. Back in the day when he still was friends with (Y/N), he may have had the tiniest of crushes on her. Luke had to admit that (Y/N) was indeed very beautiful, but he most certainly wasn’t making eyes at her as Bobby had suggested. 

--

A few days passed. Luke sped through the house looking for his jacket so he could get going to band practice, which he was already running late for. “Mom, Dad. I’m going to Bobby’s” He shouted through the house, hoping his parents had heard him. Finally finding his jacket under his bed, he shrugged it on as he made his way through the kitchen. 

He was about to open the back door, when his mom appeared behind him. “Don’t you have a french test to study for? (Y/N)’s father told me about it.” Emily looked expectantly at her son, arms crossed over her chest. 

Luke rolled his eyes and turned around. “Yeah, that’s why I’m going to Bobby’s. We’re gonna study together.” He lied convincingly. 

Emily nodded slowly, a bit skeptical. “(Y/N) studies every night alone and gets good grades. Maybe if you would just concentrate more, you could study alone, too.” Emily suggested. Luke laughed silently. (Y/N) studying every night? That was rich, if only her parents really knew their daughter. 

Luke mentally shook his head out. “Sure, but Bobby is better in french than I am. So he can help me. Work smarter not harder, isn’t that what they say?” He shrugged. 

Emily looked at him thoughtfully. “You could study with (Y/N). She’s nearly fluent in French now.” 

Luke nodded, a slight laugh escaping his lips as he opened the door. “I’ll think about it, alright? Now I really have to go!” He quickly said and made his way outside, slamming the door behind him. He couldn’t be late, after all Sunset Curve was playing another gig tonight. Luke took his bike from its spot against the fence and made his way towards the gate to the front yard when he suddenly saw a figure out of the corner of his eye again. Her hair was flowing in the wind as she quickly made her way through the darkened yard only this time instead of just watching, Luke went after her. Before (Y/N) could reach the car that was waiting for her behind the trees, Luke touched her shoulder. Startled, she let out a yelp of surprise as she spun around. “(Y/N)?” 

“L-Luke...hey.” She laughed nervously. 

“What are you doing out here?” He asked her confused, he was half expecting her to be up in her room studying like the perfect little princess she was. 

(Y/N) clasped at his wrist and pulled him behind the trees, out of the sight of her house. “Don’t you dare tell my parents about this!” She hissed at the guitarist through gritted teeth. 

Luke laughed. “What? That their little princess is sneaking out?”

“I’m not a princess!” She angrily countered. 

Luke shook his head “Nah, you’re right, you’re clearly the living definition of a goody-two-shoes. Such a good girl, eager to please.” 

(Y/N) rolled her eyes “You clearly forget everything you thought about good girls.” 

Luke furrowed his brows. “What do you mean?” 

Suddenly a voice interrupted both of them “(Y/N) you’re coming?” Brandon Jones, cool as ever with a cigarette poised elegantly between his lips, sat in the car beside them, looking with raised eyebrows at the girl in front of Luke. 

(Y/N)’s gaze wandered between the two boys “I gotta go.” She murmured as she opened the car door. But before getting inside she paused and turned to Luke again. “Good girls are bad girls that haven’t been caught.” She winked as she got into the car immediately rolling down the window. “Now be a good boy and just turn around and forget about this encounter, alright?”. With that, she sped off leaving the guitarist standing there dumbfounded. Luke shook his head in disbelief, what had just happened?

When he arrived at Bobby’s, (Y/N) words were still running laps through Luke’s head. He was quick to tell the rhythm guitarist about the encounter. “‘Good girls are bad girls that haven’t been caught’.” Bobby murmured. 

Luke nodded. “That’s what she said. Sounds pretty rad don’t you think?” He looked at the other guitarist who nodded in agreement. “Yeah...” Suddenly it was extremely and rather awkwardly quiet. “Do you think that they-” Luke started.

“Are seeing each other?” Bobby finished his friend’s question, the lead guitarist nodding in confirmation. “Would it matter?” 

Luke shrugged. “I mean, I just don’t want her to see her being pressured into something she doesn’t want to.” 

Bobby laughed quietly. “OR you just don’t want her doing anything with Brandon.” 

“Okay, I am definitely not jealous!” Luke countered, shaking his head.

“I never said you were, but now that you mention it…”

“Oh shut up...besides I’ve barely spoken to her in years!”

“But people don’t really change that much!” Bobby countered. 

Luke huffed dramatically. “Well she did!” 

“I don’t know about that, bro. Sneaking out? Doesn’t really sound like the (Y/N) we know from school.” He paused a moment. “The (Y/N) you knew when you were younger, the one you’ve told me about, that’s her down to the letter.” He shrugged as rose from his spot. “But enough about this. We’ve gotta go pick up Alex and Reggie. Otherwise we’re going to be late!” Luke quickly nodded, grabbing his guitar before following Bobby outside. 

The club was completely packed with people. Luke could hear the audience’s chattering from backstage. “This is so cool!” Reggie excitedly said after taking a look through the club. “There are so many people here from school, too!” 

Luke took a deep breath. Adrenaline was starting to course through his veins. He could practically hear his heart beating in his chest as the band made their way onto the stage. He blinked a few times as he tried to get used to the spotlights. His gaze drifted down through the crowd in front of them as they quickly set themselves up. Suddenly he stopped. At the back, right next to the bar, there she was standing. Their eyes met and a small smile played around her lips. Luke laughed to himself quietly before taking a step closer to the mic. “We’re Sunset Curve!”

After their gig, Luke made his way through the crowd. Everytime someone patted his shoulder to tell him how good they were, she nodded thankfully but his eyes always stayed fixated on (Y/N). When he finally stood in front of her a giggle left her lips “Good show, Patterson.” 

He smirked, leaning against the bar. “Thanks.”

“Just like we imagined when we were kids.” She slightly bumped against his shoulder. 

The guitarist felt his heart beat faster at this. Nervously he rubbed the back of his neck. “I guess.”

“So that’s what you’ve been up to all this time...?” She quietly asked, her gaze drifting through the crowd. Luke nodded in reply. “And soon you’re gonna be famous!” She smiled suddenly much more excited. 

Luke laughed “I think that’s still a long way off. What about you? What’ve you been up to?” He asked her curiously. 

“Oh, you know violin and ballet lessons, the usual. I haven’t told my parents yet that I’m sick of it!” She nonchalantly took a sip from her coke and looked at him. 

Luke furrowed his brows, he was genuinely confused. “I thought that’s what you liked? I mean you got your violin around the same time I got my guitar.” 

(Y/N) shook her head “I practically begged my parents to get me an electric bass so we could form a band but they got me a violin. Said it would be better for me.” 

Luke was surprised at those words. “A band?” He saw (Y/N)’s cheeks taking on a pink shade. 

She shrugged. “Like Led Zeppelin.” Suddenly ‘Whole Lotta Love’ started to blast through the speakers of the club. (Y/N) laughed “That’s creepy. Like they’ve been listening to us talk about it.” 

But Luke barely listened to her. Instead he had been transported back to 1987. He had just found the old Led Zeppelin EP in one of his dad’s boxes he kept into the attic. He had immediately called (Y/N) to meet him in the treehouse. They had been listening to the songs when suddenly (Y/N) had told him about her best female friend (Y/F/N), who had told her that she had kissed Fynn, a boy from their class. “Like a real kiss? On their lips?” Luke had asked with wide eyes. He, of course, had asked her if she ever had kissed a boy on the lips. (Y/N) had admitted that she had never. In her childish recklessness, or could it be her boldness, she had told him that he was the only one who she would have wanted to kiss. Luke remembered how nervous he had been, when (Y/N) had leaned in, ‘Whole Lotta Love’ playing in the background when their lips touched but for a short second. 

Luke looked wide-eyed at the girl in front of him, who didn’t know the memory that was playing in his head at the moment. His gaze fell from her eyes to her lips. Maybe Bobby had been right. Maybe (Y/N) hadn’t really changed that much and maybe he still had those feelings he had for her when he was smaller. He quickly shook his head. He couldn’t have those thoughts. (Y/N) was here with someone else. “So where’s your shadow?” He asked, referring to Brandon. He turned to the bar to order a coke. 

She sighed “Having a smoke.” 

“Already missing him?” He laughed. 

(Y/N) huffed, slightly annoyed. “Yeah, sure.” 

“I thought you were a thing?” Luke asked, turning to her again. 

(Y/N) furrowed her brows “Who told you that?” 

“Nobody. I just thought because you always sneak out to meet him and because you’re here together…?” He shrugged. 

(Y/N) laughed. “No, I mean it’s fun to hang out but I would never...I mean...he’s a player and only plays with girls.” 

Luke looked at her amused. “So you’re just hanging out with him for the sake of hanging out?” (Y/N) nodded. 

“I was just tired of everything. Of my life. It seemed like a good escape, you know? But now...it’s really hard to make it clear to him that nothing will ever happen.”

“Just be careful, alright? I don’t think he’ll let you get off the hook so easy.” 

(Y/N) shook her head “Soon he’ll get tired of me and look for someone else.” 

“And what about you then?”

(Y/N) took a deep breath and turned to him, something obviously weighing heavily on her mind. “Luke, I-” She started, but before she could finish her sentence they were interrupted as an arm found his way around (Y/N) shoulder. 

“I’m back.” Brandon smirked, eying Luke suspiciously. 

“Hey Brandon.” Luke smirked, annoyance evident in his gaze, before turning to (Y/N) again. “It was nice catching up, (Y/N). See ya around.” With that he made his way through the crowd, trying to stop himself from thinking about (Y/N).

--

Days passed. Once again, Luke barely saw (Y/N) apart from their classes. He was sitting in his room, writing down the lyrics to a song that had been stuck in his mind for days, when suddenly the doorbell rang. He ran down the hall of the family’s ranch style home and was met with her beautiful eyes, when he opened the door. “(Y/N)! So good to see you!” Emily greeted with a big smile, appearing behind Luke. “Come on in.” Luke stepped aside to let the girl inside. With a questioning glance, he looked to his mother. “I called (Y/N)’s parents to ask if she could help you in french. I think that would be better than having to go all the way to Bobby’s, right?” 

Luke nodded slowly “Uhm, yeah. Sounds good. Uhm, we could go into my room?” He suggested, looking at Emily. 

His mother nodded “Yes, but leave the door open. I’ll bring you some snacks.” 

Luke nodded in agreement and turned to (Y/N). “Shall we?” (Y/N) nodded in reply and followed him down the hall to his bedroom. “Take a seat, I guess.” He pointed to the chair in front of his desk as he took a seat on the bed. “What are you doing here?”

“Helping you in french.” She laughed. 

Luke nodded slowly, a sly, teasing smirk appearing on his face. “And, uh, is Brandon alright with you hanging out with me?”  

“Who cares?” (Y/N) rolled her eyes at the mention of his name. “Right after your concert I told him I couldn’t see him anymore.” 

Luke furrowed his brows. “Why?”

“As I already told you, at first it was just an escape but...he wanted to do more the entire time and I just didn’t want to...at least not with him.” She laughed. 

Luke looked at her, a playful glint in his eye. “Not with him, huh? So someone else has caught your eye then?” he laughed. 

(Y/N) shrugged, casting her glance downward. “Maybe. But that won’t happen, so…” 

“Why not?” 

(Y/N) sighed, nervously keeping her gaze trained to the ground, before looking up at him again. “Luke...you see...I know we haven’t had that much contact over the last few years, but...I wish it was different and I’m sorry. I thought...well I had hoped...“ She paused, inhaling deeply. “Maybe we could start over? Being friends again?” She asked, hope evident in her voice. 

Suddenly Luke felt his heartbeat just a tiny bit faster. “Friends?” He croaked, before clearing his throat. “You mean like back in the day?” 

(Y/N) nodded. “Yeah, and uhm maybe…” She nervously played with the necklace around her neck. Luke’s eyes drifted to the pendant. It was the necklace he had given her when she had turned seven. Inside it he had put a picture of the both of them. (Y/N) eyes softened when she saw what Luke was looking at. She took the chain from around her neck and slowly took his hand, placing it in his palm. She looked expectantly at it before looking up at him. Luke opened it and found himself looking at his and (Y/N)’s younger selves. In the picture he had his arm slung around her shoulders. Both of them were smiling brightly. 

Luke sighed as he smiled at the memory of that day. “I had a little crush on you back then.” He admitted quietly, staring at the toothy grin of her younger version. 

“You did?” (Y/N) asked. 

He nodded, his eyes never leaving the picture. “I was so sad when we stopped talking, but it...it had just happened, right?” 

“I wish it hadn’t...I uh...I had a crush on you, too.” she murmured. 

Luke laughed quietly, the pieces of the puzzle slowly falling into place. “So if we want to go back to how it was then…” 

“You would have a crush on me?” (Y/N) smiled hopefully. 

Luke shrugged. “Maybe I still do.” He felt his cheeks heating up as (Y/N) clasped at his hands. 

“Maybe I still have a crush on you, too.” 

Luke’s heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest. His eyes met (Y/N)’s and he couldn’t stop his smile from growing wider if that was even possible. “Just maybe?” He asked cheekily, as he slowly leaned in closer. 

“Alright, so definitely.” (Y/N) giggled as their lips connected in a tender kiss. 

--

“Please, you have to come!” Luke whispered into the phone in the kitchen where the landline was. It was already dark inside the house, his parents already having turned in for the night. 

“Okay, fine. But you tell my parents that you have a good influence on me the next time they see us.” She laughed through the speaker, before hanging up. 

They met behind the trees at the back of their yards. He leaned in to greet her with a short kiss. “I missed you.” He murmured, hiding his face into her neck. 

“We just saw each other a few hours ago.” (Y/N) laughed. 

“That’s so long ago!” He countered as Luke got onto his bike and looked expectantly at (Y/N), who stood on the tire spokes behind him. “Hold on tight!”

The venue was filled with people dancing and chattering. (Y/N) followed Luke to the side of the stage. “Stay here so you’ll have a good view of the stage and that way I can see you, too.” He said, looking at her with a wide smile. 

“Knock ‘Em dead, rockstar!” She beamed at him, leaning in to give him a good-luck kiss. 

“Alright, enough of that lovebirds. We gotta go!” Bobby laughed, interrupting the cute moment pushing Luke toward the stage. 

Reggie smiled at them. “Look at all the people! It’s gonna be sick!” 

Alex shrugged nervously. “I hope they like us...” 

(Y/N) smiled at the other band members “You’re gonna rock this, I’m sure of it!” She hugged them and wished them good luck, before the band went onto the stage. 

Luke’s gaze immediately fell to his girlfriend, who gave him a thumbs-up. He winked at her before getting closer to the mic. “Hey, we’re Sunset Curve, thank you for having us.” The crowd erupted in cheers. “Thank you.” He laughed “We directly wanna start with a new song. It’s inspired by a person who means the world to me.” His gaze fell to (Y/N) again, who was smiling at him. “It’s called Good Girls/Bad Girls.”

“She said to me forget what you’ve thought, cause good girls are bad girls that haven’t been caught.”

[maxineswritingcenter]

You Saved Me - Derek Halex fem!reader part 14

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

For the first time in a while, I woke up happy. Sure, the situation we were all in was no reason to be happy, but I would take waking up next to Derek over anything. In this moment anyway. 

Derek hummed in his sleep, nuzzling his face into my neck. I smiled, turning my head a little to press a kiss to his cheek. He opened his eyes that seemed to sparkle when he smiled. 

“Good morning.” He mumbled, pulling his arms away and sitting up. I turned on my back and pouted up at him. 

“Someone doesn’t like cuddling in the morning?” 

He got out of bed, getting dressed, “Any other day, yes. But I have something to do this morning.” He threw a shirt in my direction. I caught it, got out of bed and dressed myself. 

“I’ll remember that.” I took off my clothes that I had worn throughout the night and pulled on Derek’s shirt. It was soft cotton and it smelled like him. It was a little big so it would have to be tied with a ponytail holder. I looked over, seeing my jacket hanging up on the back of his door, “Mind tossing me my jacket?” He grabbed it off the door and tossed it my way. As it flew through the air, an envelope fell on the floor. Derek stared at the envelope and picked it up, looking it over. 

“Oh my god, I completely forgot about that.” I took the envelope from his hands. It had some water damage but the words were still readable on the outside. 

“The Lunar Circle?” His jaw clenched. 

“Yeah, do you know anything about this?” I asked, opening it up. 

“Your parents were a part of it.” 

“Really?” I grinned, opening up the very official looking letter. 

To (Y/N) (Y/M/N) (Y/L/N), 

We send our condolences in the matter of your parents passing, all of us here at the Lunar Circle cherished your family and we think of them fondly. 

As two of our founding members, your parents were meant to travel to our facility to discuss relations between them and the clan of hunters in your area, the Argents. Since they have passed, this duty falls to you - the sole survivor of your clan. 

We will have a messenger arrive soon to bring you to Shetland, in the northern Isles of Scotland. Please pack warm. 

We look forward to meeting you, 

Sincerely, 

Praetor Lachlan McLeod

I read the letter aloud, Derek was becoming more and more stern. 

“I mean, it seems like they want me to go whether I like it or not. But I think they would be able to take the rest of the spell away so I could remember.” I smiled and looked up. The smile dropped, “But you don’t seem as enthusiastic as I do.” 

“Only werewolves who get invited can go. I can’t go with you.” 

"I mean, they probably wouldn't care. You're my partner."

“That’s not the point.” He walked back to his dresser, grabbing his leather jacket that he had draped there. 

“Then what is the point, Derek?” He didn’t answer, walking out the door and into the hallway. 

“Hey, I’m talking to you.” I called, storming after him. 

He stopped abruptly in the hall and turned around, “The point is that I can’t be there with you. I can’t stop any of those people from taking you away from me.”

“Are you insinuating that I would cheat on you?” I glared.

“No.” His face softened, “But they could use the spell against you. A condition that they could have would be to break our bond so you can get your memories back.” He held my face in his hands, making me look up into his eyes, “I want you to remember, but I want to be there for it.” 

“You said I’m stubborn. Maybe I could convince whoever is going to show up that I need you to come with me.” I smiled, “I’m gonna go home and look through some of the stuff from my house.” 

“I’ll call you after I get done here.” He kissed my nose. 

“And what are you doing?” 

“Erica’s getting Jackson so we can test if he’s the kanima.” He started walking again. 

“Uh and what if he is?” I asked nervously, “Listen, I am all for killing him on a good day but you can’t kill him. There has to be a cure.” 

“And if there isn’t?” 

Rubbing my temples, I thought for a moment. Pros: - No more kanima...No more Jackson... Con: Prison for Derek. Regardless of morals, the kanima was dangerous to everyone. 

“Make it look like an accident.” 

As I made my way out of the depot, Erica was walking in, dragging Jackson by his bicep. 

“Erica.” I nodded, smiling brightly. 

“(Y/N).” She smiled back. It seemed like after the kanima attack there was a silent understanding between the two of us.

“Wait!” Jackson called, trying to get out of her grasp, “Wait! (Y/N)!” There was a sick part of me that was going to think about his calling to me for help later and smile. 

-

It was late morning when I got home. Stiles had given me hell through text but that was just how he showed his love. The next thing was to stop staring at the cardboard boxes that held the remaining pieces of my life that had been stashed in my closet. Out of sight, out of mind since I really wanted to distance myself from the memory of my parents death and all of the fact that my parents had unfairly taken memories of my life away. I understand that they did it to protect our family, but at the end of the day... that didn’t seem to make much of a difference. 

Time to bite the bullet. I kneeled down in front of the closet and pulled out the box labeled: (Y/L/N) Evidence #24. I looked over my shoulder to make sure the door was closed, then grew a claw on my pointer finger to cut the tape on the box. Was that lazy? Of course, but I think anyone in my position would. I took a deep breath and opened the box. I wish that I was hit with a wave of nostalgia, the smells of home, but all I could smell was smoke. 

I squeezed my eyes shut, gripping the sides of the box, “Come on, don’t cry.” I sniffled, trying to keep the tears at bay. Blowing out air, I opened my eyes again. Inside the box were photo albums. I took out the one I recognized most, it was a dark teal color with our last name in gold cursive font. I traced the letters fondly. Opening it up, I saw pictures with my parents from when they bought this house, bringing me home from the hospital, pictures of my parents and Stiles’ hanging out. They all looked so happy, they were laughing and having fun. I lightly touched Aunt Claudia’s smiling face. It was still hard to believe that she was gone, but she was sick... She couldn’t live like that any longer. I flipped through the book, watching Stiles and I grow up. Birthdays, slumber parties. Slowly Scott popped up in the pictures until we became a trio. But Stiles and I were always together. Which made me wonder how much of my life was missing if he was the only friend I could remember. 

The rest of the box was documents that had been found in the safe in the basement. It was a miracle that had found the safe since it had been hidden in the wall. Deeds, marriage license, birth certificates, social security. In the next box, there were some of my baby things. But this box has become more interesting. Family heirlooms that I had only seen once when they were being cleaned. At the bottom of the box was a wooden box that I definitely didn’t remember. 

“Jack pot.” I smiled and lifted it out of the box. It was a dark stained wooden box with intricate vines and flowers decorating the borders. There was a stamp burned into the top. My last initial in a full moon, stars randomly placed around it. 

I opened the clasp, lifting the lid open carefully. There was a glass bottle, sealed with teal wax. The neck of the bottle was wrapped in twine with a bronze charm, on the charm was a wolf. It was filled with dried herbs and what looked to be a lock of hair, my hair. I set the bottle aside, wanting to bring it to Deaton to figure out what was inside. But I was fairly certain this was the spell jar that took my memories away. The next thing inside that I pulled out was a scroll, sealed with the same teal wax and this time the crest was more visible, it was the same crest as on the box. 

I carefully removed the wax from the paper to not break the seal, unrolling the papers. The larger of the two was a family tree, more family that I could even imagine that I had, going back ten generations. But the tree got smaller and smaller until I was the last branch. I am the last member of my family. That made me feel more alone than before. 

The next paper was more recent looking and it was addressed to me. 

𝘛𝘰 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘥𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳, (𝘠/𝘕).

𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘰, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘶𝘱, 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩.

𝘞𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯. 𝘞𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 𝘞𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴.

𝘉𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘸, 𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘥 ��𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 - 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘸𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘴. 𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘴𝘰 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭.

𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵. 𝘞𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘶𝘴. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘸𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴. 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦,

𝘔𝘰𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘢𝘥

I wiped my eyes with my sleeve, making sure my tears didn’t smug the ink on the page. They acknowledged that they did wrong and they were planning on reversing the spell. And seeing my mother’s handwriting again? The best. 

In the bottom of the wooden box was a white package that had been faded yellow. The package was labeled with the name of the local pharmacy where you could also get photos developed. I took out the thick stack of photos and gasped. Christmas morning when I was twelve, I was looking up into the camera but my face was hidden by the glare coming from my eyes. Another picture had me with a wrist brace on, a thumbs up and a smile. Then the next pictures lifted my spirits. It was pictures of Derek and I. From the time we were toddlers until six years ago. Smiling, laughing. Some where he was in his basketball uniform, others when I was in my lacrosse gear. It seemed like Derek was just as much a part of my life as Stiles was. There were pictures of me with Laura Hale, we were on the floor cross legged while she sat behind me, braiding my hair. There was another where I was holding a little toddler on my lap, who I could only assume was Cora. There were even baby pictures of me with this woman I couldn’t recognize...but something told me that it was Derek’s mother Talia. Wait, Talia Hale. I never knew that name before. I was starting to remember. But it wasn’t enough. I needed to remember more. 

But these pictures were important to what I needed. I slipped them back into the package and grabbed the vial, putting them in my bag. 

I started walking down the stairs, feeling happier than this morning, but it all went away when Stiles’ text message. The first was a picture of Lydia at the front of Finstock’s class with someone help me written on the board from an hour ago. The next was a message that had come over that minute.

Stiles:

Isaac and Erica are testing Lydia to see if she’s the kanima... And I think she failed. 

I got downstairs and was stopped by Uncle Noah in the kitchen, his arms were crossed over his chest. I was definitely in trouble. 

“Hi, Uncle Noah-”

“Where have you been?” Straight to the point. 

“Busy. With work and stuff.” My lying was not getting better. I tried to walk past him but he called my name. 

“(Y/N)” I stopped, slowly turning around, “I know you’re an adult, but I promised your mom and dad that if anything happened to them that I would protect you. I mean, you’re gone all day and all night. I get vague text messages after hours.” 

“I’ve just been busy with work, that’s all. Believe it or not, Coach puts in long hours-”

“Now, why am I having trouble believing you?” He looked up at the ceiling as if the answer was written there.

Probably because I’m lying, I’m actually a werewolf, one of many in this town and we’re fighting a teenage mutant murder lizard that may or may not be Lydia, you know Lydia, the girl Stiles was in love with?

“I don’t know. Maybe because you’ve been working long hours on four murder cases and overworking your brain.”

“Is this about that Lunar Circle thing you got in the mail? What is that thing anyway?” 

I sighed, “It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing. If it were nothing, you would say that it’s junk.” 

I sighed, “It’s a group my parents were a part of and they want me to go there.” 

“To Scotland? No way.” He shook his head. 

“What? You can’t tell me what I can and can’t do. I’m an adult.” 

“You are apart of an open murder investigation where the murderer is still at large. I can’t in good conscience let you leave the state, let alone the country.”

“That’s not your decision to make.” I glared, “I am a legal adult, I am not a suspect, I can leave whenever I want.” 

“Not true. As a part of the agreement with your parents, if they were to be killed, I am to be your guardian for six months, no matter how old you are.” 

I pulled at my hair in frustration, “That’s ridiculous!”

“Call it what it may, but that’s what your parents wanted.” 

“Screw what they wanted!” I snapped, “They took everything from me!”

“And what is that supposed to mean?” He barked back.  I sighed in frustration, grabbing my keys off the counter and storming towards the door. 

“Hey! We’re not done talking!” I kept going, “(Y/F/N) (Y/M/N) (Y/L/N), you get back here!” 

I opened the door and looked back, “YOU’RE NOT MY DAD! STOP ACTING LIKE IT!” I slammed the door shut and hurriedly got into my car. I gripped the steering wheel hard, the plastic cracking against my palms. I shouted into the wheel, breathing hard to make sure I didn’t turn in the car. After a few minutes and a lot of breathing, the anger turned to guilt. Uncle Noah was just trying to make sure I was safe and what I said wasn’t fair. He treated me like his own and I should appreciate that more. I’m just relieved I didn’t see the look on his face when I shouted at him, I’m sure I would never be able to get his face out of my head. 

My cell phone ringing brought me out of my thoughts, I pressed answer and held the phone to my ear. 

“What do you want?” I snapped.

“(Y/N)?” 

“Jackson?” My eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. 

“Duh.” He said in his usual douchey way. Just my luck, the last person I wanted to talk to was calling me. 

“What do you want, trust fund?” I put the phone on speaker and started driving. 

“Look, we need your help. We need you to distract Derek.”

“No problem.” I hung up the phone, driving the short drive it took to get to the depot.

-

I leaned against the doorway leading into the depot, grabbing Derek’s jacket as he walked out.

“Where ya goin’, Der?” He looked back at me, backing up. 

“I was on my way to see you.” 

I smiled, “How coinvent. I just got into a huge fight with my Uncle which I’m sure you felt and I found pictures of us together that I wanted to show you.” I held up the package of photos. 

We had gone back inside the depot, sitting on his mattress. Derek turned the bottle in his hands to get a look at all the herbs inside, “I can see monkshood, mistletoe, salt. Not sure what the rest is.” He handed the bottle back to me. I filled his empty hand with the package of pictures. He took out the stack. He stared at the pictures for a long time, almost like he was memorizing them.

“I lost all my copies of these photos in the fire.” He smiled as he looked through them, “Did you remember anything?” 

“Just one thing.” I handed him the photo and his mother holding me, “I remembered her name, Talia.” He stared at the photo, his face changing. 

“She’s so young here.” He whispered. I rested my head on his shoulder, looking at the photo. She was smiling at me in an exaggerated way, her dark hair tucked behind her ear. She was so beautiful. Derek looked over at me, then out the window. He set the photos down slowly and stood up. Shit.

“You were sent here to distract me, weren’t you?” He stared down accusingly. He felt betrayed, a feeling I didn’t like giving him. 

“I came here to show you the pictures.” I stood up to face him. 

“That may have been what you wanted to do originally, but on your way here they told you to distract me so I couldn’t kill that monster.” He gritted his teeth, moving towards the door at a determined pace. I caught up to him and grabbed his arm. 

“Derek, it’s not Lydia!” 

“How do you know that?” He spun around, his gaze was menacing, but he didn’t scare me anymore, “She failed the test, the kanima venom didn’t affect her. It has to be her.” He slammed the door of the depot open, walking out into the night with me hot on his heels. 

“And what if it’s something else? You told Scott to trust his instincts and I trust mine, it’s not Lydia.” 

“I’m doing this to keep you safe, keep them all safe. Isn’t that what you want?” There was a growl in his voice. I stopped following him, opting to get into my car and speed to Scott’s house. 

- 

I pounded on the front door when I got there, praying that they hadn’t completely padlocked the door yet. Stiles opened the door and pulled me inside, slamming the door shut behind me. 

“I thought you were distracting Derek.” He whispered. 

“I was. He saw through it.” I whispered back. Stiles looked out the window, a grim look on his face. I looked out the opposite window and saw Derek standing outside, with Boyd, Erica and Isaac behind him. I looked back and saw Allison standing in the hall. 

“You need to tell Scott to get here right now.” I looked back on the window, reaching over and touching Stiles’ shoulder. 

“It’s me. You need to get here right now.” 

-

Allison was staring down at her phone, her other hand occupied with a small crossbow. 

“What are you doing?” Stiles asked. 

“I think...” She paused, “I think I have to call my dad.”

“Are you nuts?” I asked. I mean, what could the pack outside do without drawing the attention of the police, not much. Derek wouldn’t go that far... Or at least I hoped he wouldn’t. 

“But if he finds you here, you and Scott-” 

“I know.” She cut Stiles off, clearly frustrated, “But what are we supposed to do? They’re not here to scare us, they’re here to kill Lydia.” She said the last part a little quieter. Jackson and Lydia were upstairs doing... whatever it is exs did. I wouldn’t know, my ex was dead haha.... I wish there was therapy for people like me. Were there werewolf therapists? 

After staring at the pack for a while, Stiles spoke up. 

“I have an idea. Shoot one of ‘em.” Allison and I looked at him.

“Are you serious?” She asked. 

“Stiles, if they get in, I’ll handle it.” I said, not really believing myself. 

“You can’t take a whole pack by yourself. That’s literally impossible. I think.” He said, “We told Scott we could protect ourselves, so let's do it! Or at least give it a shot, right?” 

“Okay.” She sighed. 

“No, not okay, have you ever heard about how you’re not supposed to poke the sleeping bear. Shooting one of them would be like-like whacking a sleeping bear with a baseball bat.” I said, very not okay with the plan. 

"They don't think we're gonna fight, one of them gets hit, guarantee you they'll take off. So just shoot one of them."  Stiles said. In theory, yes. In practice, probably not. 

She peeked out the window, "Which one?" 

 "Ummm...Derek. Yeah, shoot him. Preferably in the head." 

“Stiles, are you trying to kill me?” I shoved him, having to pull my arm so I didn’t use my full strength. He yelped, holding his arm. 

"If Scott's able to catch an arrow, Derek definitely can." Allison said, looking out the window.

"Okay, um, just shoot one of the other three then." 

"You mean two." Stiles and I stared at her like she had three heads. 

"I mean three." Stiles said. We smushed our cheeks together to look out the window at the same time. Isaac was missing. 

“...Where the Hell is Isaac?" Stiles asked, looking around. Isaac had left his position besides Derek, probably when we were trying to figure out a plan. 

“I’m gonna go protect Lydia.” I backed away from the door and ran upstairs, I got into the room right as I heard the crashing downstairs. Isaac had gotten in. 

“Why are you here?” Lydia said, she breathing was quick and she was on the verge of a panic attack. 

“Me?” I looked around, “Where the hell is Jackson?” I saw Scott’s open window. That slim ball ran at the first sign of danger. I grabbed her hand, pulling her into the bathroom. I closed the door quickly and locked it. 

“What’s going on?” She whispered, tears falling down her face. 

“Someone’s breaking in.” I lied, “Just stay quiet.” I put a finger to my lips. I could hear growling and shouting, a body being slamming into the door hard. I pressed my body against the door, hoping my body could keep it there. 

“Hi-hi- I need the police.” I looked down, seeing Lydia on the phone with the cops. I groaned under my breath, blocking out her phone call to try and listen to what was going on outside. 

“Stiles! It’s here!” I heard Allison shout. My eyes widened. The kanima. It was here, it wasn’t Lydia. I backed away from the door and started to unlock it. 

“What are you doing?!” She shouted. I held out my hand.

“I’m gonna keep you safe. You have to trust me.” She stared at my hand, “Look, Stiles trusts me. And I know somewhere inside of your cold exterior you know Stiles would never let you get hurt. So if you don’t trust me, trust Stiles.” She stared a moment longer before taking my hand and pulling herself up. 

“You will not mention this to him.” She huffed. 

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” I opened the door, leading Lydia through the house and out the front door. And when we got outside, I stared at all of them in confusion. 

Isaac and Erica were both on the ground, Derek, Boyd, Scott, Allison, and Stiles were staring at the roof as police sirens were getting closer. 

“Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on?!” Lydia shouted. 

"It's Jackson." Scott whispered. I stepped off the porch and looked at the roof, the kanima was on the roof, slithering just out of sight. 

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

Read part 15 here!

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[crashdevlin]

Another Second Chance 1- Black Hole

Another Second Chance Masterlist,  Happily Ever Eventually Masterlist

Author’s Note: The final (hopefully) installment of the Happily Ever Eventually RPF series.

Summary: It's been five years since Jensen broke Y/n's heart and she's avoided him completely, but avoidance only lasts so long.

Pairing: past Jensen x Reader

Word count: 2302

Story Warnings: past cheating, little bit of background angst, mostly no warnings.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Things change. Either gradually or in catastrophic leaps, things change. Fact of life, unfortunately. Songs have been sung, books have been penned, movies have been made, all centered around that single inarguable fact.

When I was a younger woman, I thought that nothing really ever changed, that the facts of my life were that I was weak and stupid and I was always going to be in love with people who didn’t want me and were too good for me, that I was going to be miserable and alone forever. I was certain that I was the same person at 26 that I was at 16 and that’s just how things were always going to be.

I can honestly say, at 34 years old, I’m a different woman than I was at 16 or 26 or 30...and I may be alone, but I am not miserable.

I’m successful. I’m happy. I have friends and I have fans. I am well-rounded and, despite a hundred things working against me, well-adjusted. I’ve learned that I don’t need to be dating someone to be happy. In fact, without all the drama surrounding me whenever I do date someone, I’m happier. I have my children and I have my friends and I am happy. 2025 is shaping up to be one of my best years yet and I am ecstatic to see where it leads.

I’m sitting at my computer when my phone goes off. I don’t recognize the number so I Google it. King Woods Private School, the school Jensen wants to send Mav to. Weird that they’d call me when Jensen has primary custody. I answer immediately. “Hello?”

“Is this Miss Y/l/n? Maverick Ackles’ mother?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Hi, Ma’am. I’m Caroline Smith, Dean of Admissions for King Woods Private School. Your son’s father applied to our institution for the Fall semester for Kindergarten.”

“Oh, yeah. He told me. Said his father is very excited to get him in there.”

“His father didn’t tell you?”

“Mav’s nanny mentioned it, too, but...Jensen and I-”

“Had a very public falling out a few years ago, we’ve done our research,” she interrupts me. “But the thing is, King Woods is a very family-oriented institute and we need both parents to participate in all activities like monthly PTAs and volunteer nights. We need to make sure that both active parents can work together amicably. On that note, we have an admissions interview with little Maverick on Friday and we require your presence. Can you make it? 10:30 am.”

“Ten-thirty on Friday? Y-yeah. I can...I can totally do that. I will...see you then, Mrs. Smith.”

“See you then, ma’am. I’m looking forward to meeting you and your son. Goodbye.”

“Goodbye.” I set my phone to the side of my laptop and take a deep breath. Jensen and I haven’t been in the same room since NolaCon 2020. We’ve emailed a few times, but haven’t even spoken on the phone...in several years...and that’s better. It’s better for everyone if we don’t talk because then we don’t argue and we don’t fall into patterns that leave us in bad shape.

But for Maverick’s future, for Maverick’s good, I will have to do it.

I call Misha. He encourages me and tells me it’ll be okay. He supports me. He’s an amazing friend, has been for years, one of the few I got in the breakup. Most of our friends specifically didn’t take sides. Kim and Briana and Misha, they sided with me...the girls a little more vocally than Meesh, but it ended up a small rift between Misha and Jensen. I put an end to J2M and it hurts a bit when I think about it. They still talk sometimes but nothing like they used to.

Jared still talks to me every once in a while, but he sided with Jensen. Of course he did. Jensen’s his brother. But Jared tries to keep me involved in his life, he tries to stay a friend...but he’s Jensen’s first, always has been.

“It’s gonna suck,” I say, shaking my head.

“Yeah. But still. You gotta do it, right?” Misha says and I chuckle. To the point with Mr. Collins.

“Yeah. I gotta do it. It’s just...I haven’t seen him in years. I mean...except pictures on Instagram. It’s gonna be weird.”

“You know what I say about weird, right?”

“Yeah. But this isn’t the GISH and Random Acts kinda weird, this is...a pit in my stomach that feels like a bowling ball and a fear of reversion to the person I was in the past kinda weird.”

“You’ve grown too much to revert and that bowling ball will go away when you get comfortable again.”

“That’s…that’s the problem. What happens if I get comfortable with him again, Misha?” I’m scared of it. “He’s like this black hole that sucks me in every time and the only way I’ve been able to stave off the destruction of my universe these last five years is to keep my distance. I don’t know what to do when I’m in close proximity to the black hole.”

“You can do this, Y/n. You won’t have any problems...and maybe Jensen’s grown over the last five years, too.”

“Well, you’ve talked to him more than I have. You’d know how much growing he’d done.”

“Yeah, but it’s not like we’re spending all our time together anymore.”

I nod. “So...hope for the best, that he’s grown and things will be okay, and keep my distance from the dark vortex.”

“Exactly.” Misha smiles and looks directly at the camera. “You got this.”

Yeah, I do. I got this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wear an embroidered black silk Joanna Mastroianni dress to the interview. Not a lot of makeup, but enough to accentuate my features. I keep my hair out of my face and I wear sensible, cute shoes. I look good, but not like I’m trying to look good. I look like I’m trying to look presentable and classy for the people in charge of my son’s education.

I make it to the school first and I sit in a plush chair in the waiting room and wait with my legs crossed neatly to the side. I pull out my phone and start playing a game of Solitaire.

“Mommy!” Maverick’s voice pulls my attention away from the Seven of Hearts that is stuck behind the Six of Diamonds that is arresting my forward momentum in the game. I smile as he runs at me, full-speed, and I slip my phone in my purse as he throws his arms around my neck. “I missed you!”

“I missed you too, Mav!” I exclaim. I lean back and look into the beautiful green eyes he inherited from his father. “Have you been having fun with Daddy?”

“Yes! All the time!” Mav says.

He turns his head to look at the door to the lobby as Jensen walks in. Holy shit. He let his hair grow out a bit...little longer than when he was playing a demon. It's multi toned, what would be called 'Salt and Pepper' in any other man, but it looks more like 'Walnut and light Roux' on him. He's rocking his ginger beard and it has some actual salt in the color. He's wearing a blue suit...a masterpiece tailored to take away your breath. The man knows how to make an entrance.

He's still gorgeous...and I’m still stuck on him. Fuck.

I stand and take Mav’s hand as Jensen steps closer. I focus on his forehead. I can’t look at those eyes. I can’t look at those lips or those freckles on his cheeks. Forehead is safe. He tucks his hands in the pockets of his slacks and licks his lips. “Hi,” I greet him, and my voice sounds awkward, too high-pitched.

“Hey,” he responds and oh, God, that voice.

Breathe. Stay away from the singularity, avoid being pulled into the black hole. “You doin’ good?”

He nods. “Yeah. You?”

“Just fine.” Dying, being sucked into a vortex in space.

He opens his mouth like he’s gonna say something else when a tall brunette woman in a smart pantsuit walks out of the office. “Mr. Ackles? Miss Y/l/n?” We nod as she drops to kneel in front of Mav and me. “And this must be little Maverick.”

Mav turns and hides his face in my skirt. “Sorry. He’s a little shy around new people. He’ll warm up to you.”

“It’s okay. It’s natural.” She stands and extends her hand to me and then Jensen, shaking our hands. “Good to see you both here. So, we’re going to take Maverick in and watch him play a bit, get a sense of his social and developmental placement and if he’s a good fit for King Woods, then we will make that happen.”

Jensen and I nod, then I gently pull Mav away from my legs. “You’re gonna go with the nice lady and play with some toys, answer some questions, okay? You can rock that, right, buddy?” Mav nods and smiles at me and Jensen.

“And you two will be just fine out here together, right?” Mrs. Smith says. She’s making sure we won’t freak out on each other. Freaking out on each other is not the problem.

“Of course we will,” Jensen answers. “We’re gonna park ourselves right here in these chairs and wait for you to tell us how brilliant our boy is.” He winks at the woman and she swoons a bit...I have to stop myself from doing the same as I step back toward the chair I was sitting in before. She offers Maverick her hand and he looks back at me before he takes it and follows her as she leads him away toward a playroom. I play with the hem of my dress for a few moments as Jensen takes the seat next to me, his bowlegs stretching out in front of him a bit. “So...listened to that cover album you did...with, uh, Rob, Rich, and Mark. It came out real good. ‘A Little Dive Bar in Dahlonega’ was perfect.”

I look down and my cheeks heat up. “Thanks. Uh...you and Steve are working on Volume Four, right? How’s that comin’?”

“Pretty good. Not bad at all, actually.” There’s a moment of silence and I sneak a look at him. He’s biting his bottom lip. Black hole, black hole, black hole. “Oh, and how’s that Shakespeare thing goin’?”

My eyes light up and I look over at him. “Midsummer! Yes. My pet project! It’s coming. Rich has signed on to direct a few episodes and Matt signed up to be my Puck. I’m really excited to see what we can do with that universe. Fairies are so my jam!”

“Are you just producing and writing it, or are you gonna be acting in it?” he asks, leaning forward, showing interest, active listening.

“I’m Hermia, actually. It’s coming along very well.”

“That’s really good. I’m...happy for you.” He smiles and I bite my tongue. God. This is bad. This is so fucking bad. I look away from him. “So, uh, I heard that you RSVP’d to Padalecki’s July Fourth barbecue, but you never showed up.”

I shake my head and sigh. Of course Jared told him I flaked on Independence Day. “Yeah. I was, uh...I was gonna go but-”

“But then you heard my shoot in Georgia got rescheduled and I wasn’t gonna be in Atlanta like I planned so you decided not to risk runnin’ into me?” he guesses.

“Yeah.” I nod and look over at him. “It was fine. I ended up watching fireworks with Nova over Skype.”

“You know...it’s been years. You don’t have to avoid me. We can be adults. Jared misses you.”

I lick my lips and nod. “It’s just hard for me to be around you. I miss Jared too, but I can’t be around you. It’s too hard.”

“This is hard?” he asks. I open my mouth to respond ‘Unbelievably’, but he keeps talking. “Because it’s not hard for me. It's the most natural thing in the world to me.”

I close my eyes and shake my head, settling back in the chair to lean away from him. “This is why it’s hard.” I open my eyes and pull my phone out to finish that game of Solitaire.

He doesn’t say anything else until Mrs. Smith walks out with Maverick fifteen minutes later. “They had a lot of toys in there!” Maverick shouts.

“Indoor voice, Mav,” I say as I stand up. I focus on Mrs. Smith. “So?”

She smiles brightly. “He’s a brilliant child. We would absolutely love to have him here at King Woods.”

“That’s great news!” Jensen exclaims.

“Indoor voice, Jay,” I joke before it hits me that I just called him ‘Jay’ and teased him. Slippery slope. Don’t get comfortable. “Uh, a-anyway. That is great news.”

“We’ll send you the information for tuition and supplies. It was wonderful to meet you both,” Mrs. Smith says.

I bend down and give Mav a hug as she walks away. “You’re awesome, kiddo. I’ll see you this weekend, okay?”

“Okay, Mommy!”

He runs to his dad and I pick up my purse, stepping toward the door. Jensen puts his hand out as he picks Maverick up to hold him on the other side. He pulls me into a half hug and I go stiff as his hand lands on the small of my back. God, he smells so good...and his hand is so big and…

I pull away and lick my lips. “You and Daddy have fun, Mav!” I almost run out of the lobby and into the parking lot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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[sunflowerstache]

Falling

What do you do when the person you pictured your entire life with, suddenly seems to have fallen out of love with you?

Word Count: 2.4k A/N: This is a piece for the wonderfully amazing beautiful @hsogolden​ Fine Line Fic Challenge! Thank you so much for putting this together Bri, it’s been so fun to read different interpretations of the songs! This one shot takes place in my Another World universe (you can find the fit here!) And this will be part 1/2 So I promise there will be a continuation of this hahaha but yeah I hope you enjoy and I can’t wait to hear your thoughts!

~~~

When you’re in the thick of it, surrounded by people chanting your name and screaming back the emotions you’d spent hours - months even - trying to perfectly articulate, making a name for yourself seems like the most important part of life. When you’re standing on a stage, in front of thousands of people who spend their hard earned money just to hear your deepest thoughts and watch you pretend to know how to dance, it awakens something inside you, makes you feel like you were born to entertain. That all the sleepless nights crying over failed attempts and constant rejections were finally worth it once you got to watch your art touch the lives of others. You hear children all over the world talk about it; aspiring to be famous when they grew up. Especially in today’s world where at the click of a button, the lives of any celebrity was at your fingertips.

But when you finally decide to take that plunge and reach for the stars, no one warns you quiet enough of the darkness fame holds. Because sure, people all over the world hold your art close to their hearts and you get awards and your fans love every part of you, but they also criticize, put down, and invade your entire life. No longer are you able to be a person who interests and hobbies; instead, you must fit into whatever size box the world has built for you. You can’t say certain things, wear certain clothes, or be seen with certain people. Because that’s how you end up on the cover of People Magazine with the whole world questioning your personal life.

The photo angirly stared up at you from the coffee table, nearly burning a whole in the side of your face while you avidly tried to avoid looking at it any longer. His familiar glazed over eyes, eyes that you had been on the receiving end of dozens of times, had taken up tracing the patterns of someone else’s cheeks, his fingers learning the curves of her back while they climbed into the dark car. Long gone were the perfectly manicured curls you had given him in the shared bathroom of your home, and instead in their place, the locks you had grown to love over the years, were flowing every which way, from her hands no doubt. If you were in a cartoon, the miniscule moment in time, captured and frozen, would have broken the short table as soon as you placed it down, the weight behind the click of a camera.

“Seems like not even their History together could keep ex 1D members turned lovers Harry Styles and Y/N L/N together. Harry was spotted outside ‘San Vicente Bungalows’ with a mystery woman… who wasn’t his longtime girlfriend and mother of their child, Isabella age 3. Trouble in paradise?”

These were the moments you wished someone had warned you about all those years ago when deciding this was the career path you wanted. You wished someone had sat you down and prepared you for the heartbreak of seeing your personal life being exploited for a quick buck. Sure, you had seen it happen to countless celebrities, but when it’s not happening to you, it doesn’t seem like a real thing that hurts the parties involved. Because if the rumors were true, then they ruin a relationship, and if they aren’t true, then those involved have to overcome the public scrutinizing their decision to stay together.

And Harry had never given you a reason to think this would happen. From the moment you met him, it wasn’t hard to see just how wonderful of a man he was. The morals he lives by and the levels of kindness he tries to spread to everyone he comes in contact with. He was more than anything you ever thought you’d end up with, and the best father to your daughter that even your wildest dreams couldn’t conjure up. But sometimes, things happen, and you can’t control them.

You thought you had prepared enough, but the second the front door opened, the feeling in your fingertips began to fade away. Every word you had strung together in your mind to help you calmly talk your boyfriend, had fizzled into nothing, and you were left with nothing but panic. This had never happened to the two of you before, and figuring out how to navigate this conversation without coming off as accusatory was nearing impossible.

“Hey baby! Sorry, I know I know I said I’d be back like an hour ago, but God, you wouldn’t believe the traffic right now! I stopped by that bakery to make it up to you though, you know, the one with the deluxe muffin things you both love?”

Not once, in all four years of your relationship, had the sound of Harry’s voice made a shiver run up your back in anything less than a pleasurable way. But sitting on the sofa while listening to him move around your kitchen, it only made you want to be sick - and you didn’t know if it was because you truly believed what was in front of you, or because you were so nervous to ask about it.

“Where’s B anyway? Usually runs right up when I open the door.” he laughed.

“With Steph.”

“Oh shit, yeah today was their Universal day, right? Surprised we haven’t gotten any videos yet.”

“Hmm.”

You knew it was only a matter of time before he started questioning your responses. Typically when he got home, both you and Bella wouldn’t leave him alone, hounding him with kisses and remarks about your day to try and make him jealous of what he missed out on. So, you sitting and not giving him much of anything was bound to raise some suspicions.

“You alright, love? Quiet today.”

“Yeah.”

“You sure? Just sound like you’re a little down. We can stay in tonight, just cuddle and watch-”

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know why his words got cut off. The coffee table was in his direct line of view as he made his way into the living room and you’d left the magazine right on top of everything, in perfect eyesight of anyone entering the room. He’d come from a day at the studio with Kid, clad in one of his usual recording getups; loose blue jeans and a colorful sweater. His hair was just getting to a point that you dearly missed, the curls just beginning to cover the tips of his ears and a light stubble growing on the very end of his chin. A true look for a recording rock and roll artist. And you wanted to smile at how cozy he looked, to curl up next to him and love on him while you had the house to yourselves, but when you looked at him, you could only picture her.

“Y/N….”

“Did you sleep with her?”

You never meant for the conversation to start like that. You wanted to ease into it and remind him that you love and trust him, but the little part inside of you, the part of the girl who had been so hurt in past relationships and worried everything perfect you currently had would soon come crumbling down, thought otherwise. The words left your lips so quickly you didn’t even have time to second guess them. But it was almost like he wasn’t surprised by your questions at all. Instead, his shoulders sagged and his attention left you and focused on the floor while he walked to sit in front of you.

But he didn’t respond.

He didn’t even look up from his lap. He just fiddled with his fingers, intertwined and resting on his knees, knees that were brushing up against your own due to the close proximity of your bodies. The lack of eye contact was enough to lead you in the direction you never thought you’d have to think about.

“Harry. Did you sleep with her?” long gone was your quiet question, instead the loud sob of a plea left your lips.

“I - I don’t know.”

Never in a million years did you ever expect to have heard those words fall from Harry’s mouth. He was someone you trusted with every bone in your body and was the only person you could ever imagine a true future with. The person you looked forward to telling all about your day, who you would rather soak in a bath with than go to red carpets or galas. He was your person, yet here he was, demolishing every ounce of confidence you had in your relationship.

“...you don’t….know?”

“I - no.” he sighed, finally looking up at your eyes. “I was out with the guys and we had a lot to drink, we thought we finished the album, and were celebrating. I just - I didn’t stop when I knew I should have and - and I don’t remember the rest of the night.”

“When was this?”

“Beginning of the summer. After we got here from London.”

Rage replaced any former sadness when you heard his words. “That was three weeks ago Harry!”

“I know.” he was acting like a sad puppy with his tail between his legs. If it were any other circumstance, you’d be trying to comfort him and make the painful sadness in his voice go away, but you could only focus on how angry you were at him.

“Three weeks! What, were you just not going to ever tell me? Just pretend it didn’t happen and let me go on thinking everything was fucking fine and dandy?” he’d never seen you this angry, and being on the receiving end of it was sure to be disturbing, but how else were you supposed to act after hearing the love of you life potentially slept with someone else?

“No! No, obviously I wasn’t going to keep it from you but -”

“Obviously nothing, Harry! I had to find out that you slept with someone on a bloody magazine cover!”

“I didn’t sleep with her!”

“You don’t know if you slept with her! There’s a huge difference, Harry!”

How someone could even begin to rationalize what he potentially did was beyond you. You couldn’t fathom spending so long with someone and throwing it all away because of one night out with your friends. How you could disregard not only someone you claimed to love, but also the precious little girl that was created out of the love you shared.

“Five years, Harry. We’ve been together for five years, did that mean nothing to you? Did all the time we spent together mean nothing? The things we’ve seen together and secrets we shar-” you hadn’t cried so hard in a long time, but there was no use trying to bottle it all in. He deserved to see what his choice had done to you, and by the way his head was being cradled in his hands, you knew it was hitting him.

“Maybe that’s just it! We’ve been together since we were eighteen, Y/N! Maybe I’m fucking bored!”

When you woke up that morning, the thought of having to deal with the tabloids wasn’t something you even remotely thought would happen, but you could get through it, you always did. For years, they tore you and the band down, picked apart every decision you ever made and spread blatant lies, but you always got through it. You could get through it because you knew everything was a lie and you had the people you cared about most on your side.

This time, you didn’t even have that.

How were you supposed to combat the media and their hateful words, when the person in question was basically admitting they had fallen out of love with you. That every minute of the last five years meant nothing because they were now bored. Over all the intimate moments you shared and words you can’t take back. That pretty much signified the end, and there was nothing you could do about it.

The shock of what he said must have come crashing down on him, because instantly, he was trying to move closer to you, to grab your hands and make you look at his pleading eyes.

“No! No no no no, listen to me, Y/N, that wasn’t -”

But you couldn’t listen anymore. You’d had your heartbroken more times in the last twenty minutes than you had in years, and you couldn’t handle anymore. It was a feeling you had promised yourself a long time ago that you wouldn’t put yourself through again, and even if the person before you was the man you had given your entire heart and soul to, you wouldn’t wait around for him to feel the same thing.

So, you pushed his hands away.

You pushed away all of his own emotions, all of his pleading for you to come back and listen to him, and you walked away. If being in the public eye for so long had taught it anything, it was that you deserved more than what was given to you at times. Just because everyone around the world seemed to think they had a say in your life choices, doesn’t mean you should disregard what you know is best for yourself. And standing here, listening to the man you loved more than anything, say that he may have fallen out of love with you, wasn’t the best for you.

“Baby please, I’m sorry! You know I didn’t mean that.” the tears on his face were apparent even without turning around, the thickness of his voice doing enough explanation on its own.

“Do I, Harry?” you whispered, turning around so bleary eyes could meet. “Because I thought I knew everything about you, but I never thought we’d end up here.”

Without saying a word, you wiped your cheeks and made the decision to put yourself first. If you stayed any longer, more words that couldn’t be taken back would be said, only burying you deeper and deeper in a whole neither of you wanted to be a part of. You’d never been one for walking away when things got tough, because letting things fester always made it worse. However, this was something you needed time away from.

And there was no one to blame but Harry and his wandering hands

[neo-shitty]

toffee!

hehe glad i could make you laugh, oooh that sounds awesome! yeah id love to be tagged it sounds great :)

YES the differences are so fucking weird. like, they do know they're the same age right? i feel like its just an exagguration of how much the persons role in the group matters, like we see chan being held up as such a mature, old leader while jungkook who is literally the same age, is still babied etc. like enha hyung line is basically the same age (if a bit younger) as chenle and jisung but somehow the rules are different?? as you point out, still legal but still bizarre. hehe yeah, i mean where else are we going to rant? quora lol. mmm, hopefully more people can just write less smut abt people who are barely adults

ah, no prob it didnt take long. yeah i think thats right (i keep forgetting you know my url lol) mmhmm :( i think if that happened irl there would be some major trauma going on. knock wood it never happens to you or me lol (/hj)

hehe same! oooh glad Redemption For Cheese was realised! yess we cant rllycomplain that theyve written/produced too much good music lol. yeah, ive dragged him into being a stay so *dusts hands off* mission accomplished. mmm yeah, they tend to have a certain vibe but tbh it couldve worked if they were any other group but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ahh ur one step ahead of me on the stages of listening to ssick i think, still not convinced but thats okay! hehe, it had to be said. yesss the itch in the back of my brain is very satisfied by sorry i love you, felixs vocals deserve to be appreciated! (side note i feel like hes trying to sing more like his speaking voice, sorta husky, but tbh i wouldnt be mad if he sang like in glow, his sweet honey vocals made my life lol. but i think ive heard him say he doesnt like singing like that cos it makes his normal voice less husky, so what can you do)

> YES SOMEONE SAID IT. seungmin rap KING, he sped thru that rap like it was nothing, he deserves more rap lines. i do like how they gave minho some melodic rap lines this comeback, my guy deserved to show off those skills that made him not be eliminated (flashbacks to stay collectively wanting to murder jyp) and we already know changbin can sing, my man murdered masked singer. hyunjin can obviously sing as can jisung and felix, and i want to hear chan rap more! i feel like he started as part of 3racha (as a rap unit not producing) and then just became a vocalist (which im fine with, but it could be nice to hear him flex his rapping skills) and was partially replaced by hyunjin. anywayyy

back to album talk. lmaooo sad music to twerk to PERFECTLY describes silent cry. yes secret secret is and will always be, a masterpiece. hehe glad i could make you laugh :) i just felt like they have similar vibes. putting off skz stuff bc of not having time to cry IS the kpop stan life summarised. oh my beloved track, red lights. ahh thats okay, we can have different opinions, but by god the lyrics are *chefs kiss*. *banging on table* TWISTED AU TWISTED AU TWISTED AU. yess id love to see ur take on it! sdfghjkl it would have been glorious

no no! not stupid, just able to predict my brainwaves. ooooh thats so cool! makes me want to go there (wherever there is lol) yeah the waves are pretty good here, but none of my familys a surfer, so we dont rlly enjoy the full potential lol. YES moving on to gone away, it is indeed a heartwrenching track, but the vocals and the bloody key change? makes me want to brave being sad just to listen to it. mmm yeah, good point :( i feel like ive just gotten used to overthinking so much so that it doesnt matter what mood im in, ill do it anyway, so might as well just do what i feel like doing anyway.

yeah i think ur right! it is quite comforting knowing that all the tracks will get the love they deserve. i feel like also people assume kpop is just one genre which is utter bs. there are so many different vibes and feels and songs, i couldnt get into kpop (of which i thought only the bright cheerful present day bts stuff existed smh) until i heard gods menu so... idk where i was going with this but yeah. :)

YES FUCK YG, theyre literally on the brink of being kicked out of the big three and they are holding their salvation hostage without letting them do ANYTHING. idek what thought process goes thru their minds but arghhh its so infuriating. yess lisa's cb will be awesome but ot4 is the gold standard here.

hehe, glad u could get to this point. no no! u dont sound like a cult member at all lol yeah, i loooove some of their songs but the whole 23 members thing is getting to me. thats prob a common problem with nctzens but what can i say? im a simple girl with a limit to how many korean boys i can give my money to. atm im just trying to get into ateez and finish memorising enhypen's faces. also kard is kinda sucking me into their fandom atm, as well as eric name lol. ah what can you do? ooh thats good!

hehe i love it too! its exactly like online penpals, that was rlly well put. aww ty! hmm im okay, recovering from a bad case of rsv so thats fun. im doing okay mentally, starting therapy soon (after having to convince my mother that its not just smth i can brush off). physically i wont go into, basically i should be doing stretches to help but they dont completely fix it so my lazy ass doesnt do them, plus i got told recently im going to be stuck with this condition for the rest of my life so thats fun! ah, before you type smth dw abt me ill be fine. the weather atm is cloudy but warm, its been raining on and off today which is good for the garden. uhh i just finished reading sunburnt veils and im in the middle of prom theory which is rlly good. ummm ive got a concert tonight? that i may or may not be able to sing in (bc of the whole rsv thingo) and uhhhh idk. my dog is cute? im drinking tea rn? ive got a school dance coming up?

wbu? hows ur day going, how are you? whats the weather like on ur end? done anything interesting lately? found smth that makes you rlly happy? just any random thing youve been dying to tell someone?

no no! dont apologise, i love these exchanges. i think im happy to continue them for a long time :) on the other hand, if you get tired of them, feel free to just not answer at any time. goodness gracious this was a long ask haha hope it isnt too annoying

<3 w.a. 🐺

sorry it took me a bit to reply, i was fixing my theme ;n;

yeah, i figured it was because of the roles too. my friends and i still get taken aback when 3rd gen idols are the same age as 4th gen ones. in my head it doesn't add up sometimes. PLS THE RANT AT QUORA SKJDK tbh tho it's just going to be normalized as the years pass? esp that the boys are growing older and the amount of explicit fics will just increase. i might have to start blocking tags.

i had to look up the previous ask to remember what we were talking about xd i hope the events in champagne problems never happens to anyone. realistically, it probably happens a lot. damn i really won't wish that pain on anyone. dragging your brother into being a stay i whEEZED JFKSA additional noeasy music enthusiast o.o and ALL I CAN SAY WITH YOU GUSHING ABT FELIX IS AHA WHIPPEEEED OML can't blame you tho, i also want to hear felix sing more in other shades (if that makes sense HAHA) i really hope they'll do the role exchange in the next comeback :( or like in the near future bc i know they can do it :( the day i hear seungmin rapping it i will respectfully pass away. minho was given more lines this comeback thank fUCK i could rmb my irl being vocal abt her frustration. i don't get why minho barely has center time/lines in title tracks??? like the line distribution in the past eras just made me ???? if seventeen can balance lines with 13 members why cant a group of 8 do the same? moving on. i haven't watched the stray kids show simply bc i don't want to cry HAJS but i've seen clips. imagine if skz debuted without minho and felix?!?!? i rmb another irl catching bias feels towards changbin bc of the masked singer only to find out that the man's a rapper. i love how skz's vocals were highlighted this comeback :c there were a lot of mellow tracks! i find it cute when chan sings/raps bc it gets kinda obvious that he's a foreigner? the accent (im not even sure if it's the accent) it just shows. "putting off skz stuff bc of not having time to cry IS the kpop stan life summarised." CORRECT.

abt the twisted au o.O i'll inquire my irl if she wants to write it or not. if she doesn't want to, i'll do it. i miss writing twisted aus <3___<3 and i also miss going to the beach with my friends :' ) but it's starting to get cold here and i don't think i'll be able to enjoy the beach as much as i would if i went beaching in the summer. so maybe next summer? gone away really has an sm-ballad vibe. the thing about skz being a self-producing group, their songs don't sound like typical jype songs? and i just appreciate that bc in all honesty im not a fan of jyp groups at all. PLS the overthinking. i wish i could mute overthinking.

anyone who assumes kpop is just one genre obv hasn't listened to a single track. if kpop was just one genre why do i like some tracks more than the others??? oh you've only recently become a kpop stan? tbh im not a fan of the bright songs of bts either. i liked their older ones *chefs kiss* really matched high school vibes. yg has good artists and they're just wasting the talent ~.~ that strategy they have will get tiring eventually. people will stop waiting on blackpink and move on to newer more active groups ://

HAHAHAH yeah the 23 members is pretty overwhelming! it was the reason i didn't bother stanning before quarantine started. i don't regret stanning tho, met my ult bias in that group <3___<3 i don't really purchase albums unless i like the tracks xd ohhh getting into ateez just in time for the comeback! let me know what you think about them! i was fond of them at some point but grew out of it. good luck with memorizing enhypen! it took me a while to distinguish to people there XD i haven't checked out kard yet but chan plays their songs during lives and they're sexc hype music me likey *u*

i had to look up rsv im sorry. i'm glad you're recovering! please rest more and don't stress yourself out. bro i wish i could go to therapy too bc i have weird issues i can't justify and i need a professional to tell me what's the reason behind it. stuck with what condition btw? what happened? i'm sorry in case i just forgot. yesterday was a bit rainy for me too :(( it's not the type of rainy that makes me anxious so B) oh concert! good luck and i hope you'll be able to sing but i also don't think it's best for you rn :c what's your dog's breed? and yes i just finished drinking tea too. AAAAA i miss school dances :(( the last one i was supposed to have was cancelled bc of covid.

i was less productive today and i'm teetering between being mentally stable and becoming a hermit again. i'm anxious with a lot of things atm so like : D not the best state. today it was a bit sunny but not hot hot which was nice. i changed my theme today bc i couldn't wait for sept. 1st. and no i haven't found anything that makes me happy HAHAHA shit like that's hard to identify. don't have anything to say too, i'm just thinking about why i'm procrastinating too much atm T_T and i'm listening to this rap song atm and one of the rappers sounded like han.

it isn't annoying! i enjoy the long exchanges but i do admit it takes me awhile to type down a reply. so if i get more busy, it'll prolly take a bit longer for me to reply.

[eldritchsurveys]

1004.

Do you have a common first name? >> I really do not.

Do you like your middle name or your first name more? >> I like both of them? I wouldn’t have gone through the process of having my name legally changed otherwise, lol.

What year would/did you turn 21? >> I turned 21 in 2008.

What was popular when you were a kid? >> Er... I’m not terribly sure. I was always out of the loop because of how I was raised.

Do you wear more rings or necklaces? >> I usually wear two of both, but I own more necklaces than rings overall.

Have you ever been engaged? >> Yes.

Can you see your veins through your skin? >> Only one vein, in the crook of my right elbow. Phlebotomists love me.

Do you have a certian song you sing aloud often? >> I don’t think so.

Do you concern yourself with what's in? >> No.

Do you worry about having good grammar online? >> No.

Do you know anyone with a lazy eye? >> No.

Did your parents let you have pets when you were a kid? >> I had a dog. Well, I guess it was technically my father’s dog, because he took care of her, but she was my friend, damn it.

Would you rather live in an apartment or a duplex? >> Duplex, I guess, but really I’d rather not live around other people at all, at this point. Unless they’re a very specific type of person.

Have you ever seen Boondock Saints? >> Yes. I always think about rewatching it but I never quite get around to it.

Do you like spicy chips? >> I do.

Do you have any 'different' keychains on your keys/purse? >> I have an X-Files keychain and... fuck, I’ve flat out forgotten what other keychains I have. Oh, there’s a NOLA one. That’s all I can remember.

Do you collect pins? >> I don’t actively collect them, but I’ve built up a fair amount of them over time.

What band was on the last band t-shirt you wore? >> Blaqk Audio.

Do you wear more pink or yellow? >> Neither.

What's the last movie you watched at a friend's house? >> ---

Have you ever been out of the state you were born in? >> Yeah. I haven’t lived there since I was a teenager.

Do you have any tattoos on your arms? >> On one arm.

Have you ever owned or known someone who owned a black cat? >> I live with a black cat currently.

When was the last time you felt jealous? >> I don’t remember.

What's the last thing you bought besides food/drink? >> CBD.

What album is the last song you listened to from? >> We All Bleed by Crossfade.

Do you know what the word lumiere means? >> Light?

Do you own a tea pot? >> Just a regular kettle.

Who scheduled your last doctor visit? >> My last medical visit was a dentist visit, and Sparrow scheduled it.

What's the last video game you played? >> Final Fantasy XIV.

Do you have anything on your wrists right now? >> No.

Do you have any holiday theme'd socks? >> Yeah, like half of my socks are either Halloween or Christmas-themed. They’re just so fun.

What kind of accent do you have? >> I don’t know. Probably a generic American anchorman type accent.

What's the last funny movie you watched? >> Vampires vs the Bronx.

Can you remember your parents' birthdays? >> I remember my father’s. I don’t know my mother’s.

Is there anyone who you just absolutely cannot STAND being around? >> Well, sure.

What is the design on your shirt? >> I’m not wearing a shirt, just an undershirt.

Do you know anyone who just flat-out fails at life? >> I wouldn’t say that about anyone.

Are you a Ghoulscout? >> I don’t know what that is, but colour me interested.

Do you know someone who's just always wrong about everything? >> No.

Do you make fun of people often? >> No.

Do you read your friend's surveys? >> There are some people in the little survey-taking community on this website that I read the answers of. And if I take a survey from someone, I usually read the answers they put before I delete them to put my own in.

If you had to get a tattoo tomorrow, what would you pick? >> Who is paying for this tattoo and how much are they putting down? That determines my answer.

How do you feel about band tattoos? >> They’re cool? How else am I supposed to feel about them?

Do you know anyone with a glass eye? >> No.

How much are you willing to pay for a pair of sunglasses? >> I don’t know. I’d like to actually have a good pair of sunglasses for once, but I don’t know how much those things tend to cost.

Did you have a GI Joe when you were a kid? >> No.

What is the origin of your last name? >> I’m not sure.

Do you ever use the n-word? >> I used to, because it was a slang term in the social circles I ran in when I lived in the City. I hate that it’s become so ubiquitous with us, because there’s really nothing redeemable about the word (it’s not like “queer”, which is a damn good word and should absolutely be repurposed). But... It is what it is.

What piercing do you like most on the opposite sex? >> ---

What brand of hair dye do you prefer to use? >> ---

What county do you live in? >> Kent.

Did/do you ride the bus to and from school? >> I rode the bus to most schools I went to, but the last school I attended did not have a bus system (students either drove, were driven, or walked), so I walked.

Do you prefer beef, chicken or steak? >> Meh. Also, shouldn’t “steak” be “pork” or another kind of meat, lol...

What is your salad dressing of choice? >> Vinaigrette or Italian in a pinch.

Do you know anyone who's a really funny type of weird? >> ???

Do you make faces at certain people? >> I make faces at Sparrow sometimes, but that’s it.

Is there something you won't let one of your friends live down? >> No.

Are you any good at applying make up? >> I’m passable.

Do you know anyone who's hair looks like a wig? >> No.

Do you misuse commas? >> I assume not, unless I’ve somehow remained ignorant of a whole grammar rule my entire life.

Have you ever bitten your dentist? >> No.

Are you someone who likes to make simple things difficult? >> Er, I don’t think so...

Who makes you laugh the most? >> Can Calah, I guess, by virtue of him being around 24/7 and having more opportunities to make me laugh as a result.

[ficsandcatsandficsandcats]

eyyyyo punk!au girl’s night? (i’ll leave it up to you whether this takes place pre or post sam :3)

Fandom: The Witcher Pairing: Punk!AU Friendships Word Count: 1,425 Rating: G Taglist: @heroics-and-heartbreak​ @whatevermonkey​ @mycat-is-mylove @mynamesoundslikesherlock​ @kemmastan​ @magic-multicolored-miracle​ @writingstudent​ @mlleecrivaine​ @coffee-and-stories​ @amirahiddleston​ @ultracolorfulnerdcollection​ @astouract​ @your-not-invisible-to-me @daydreamer-in-training @morelikebyesexual a/n: Have some pre (but only barely pre) Sam girls night lady love (non-euphemistic)

Aevryn’s fingers trailed the stack of albums as if sensing the right one. Yennefer and Y/N watched with bemused expressions as she frowned and shook her head.

“No, none of these are right. I wanted to go old school but I guess we’ll go digital instead,” she sighed dramatically as she pulled her phone out. Moments later music began to play and she rejoined her friends, sinking into the couch.

“Pizza is on its way,” you announced.

“The mask I brought is in the fridge firming up a bit,” Yennefer said.

“Looks like girl’s night is officially underway!” Aevryn declared, “Finally time for the four of us to get together without any of our respective spouses mooning over us or getting into fights with each other.

“Four?” Yennefer asked. Aevryn’s eyes widened and she pointed at your stomach. You rested your hands against it, still not used to the feeling of your child shifting around inside of you though before long she’d be out and in the world.

“I don’t know if she counts just yet,” you laughed.

“She didn’t mean it, Aevryn Jr.,” Aevryn whispered conspiratorially to your stomach. You rolled your eyes and the doorbell rang signaling the arrival of the pizza. You tried to heave yourself off the couch but it was getting harder and harder to do. Yennefer silently rose and walked to the door and Aevryn turned to you.

“Do you need anything? A drink? I brought ingredients for mocktails,” she offered.

“It’s boring but I’ve just been drinking water with lemon,” you replied, “But I can get i-”

Aevryn was out of sight before you could finish the sentence, scurrying to the kitchen to prepare your glass. Yennefer reappeared with the stack of pizzas, resting them on the coffee table.

“Where did Aev go?” she asked as she lifted the tops of the pizza boxes open to display one cheese, one mushroom and bacon with white sauce, and one all meat.

“She’s getting me water because apparently if I am pregnant I can’t move,” you replied, a slight note of bitterness in your voice. Yennefer considered you for a moment and you felt the question in her silence and sighed.

“Ok you’re right,” You admitted, “It’s not about Aev. And I guess it’s not really about anyone or anyone’s fault I’m just tired of how differently people treat me. Especially since I started showing. I swear this kid is going to be 20 pounds.”

“What’re we talking about?” Aev asked as she bounded back into a room, a large glass with nearly an entire lemon edged into it in hand. You took it from her and smiled appreciatively.

“Y/N is feeling a bit smothered,” Yennefer answered.

“Oh gods, is Jaskier being totally insufferable?” Aevryn asked, flopping back down on her chair and pulling the cheese pizza towards her.

“No… I mean… are there times I wish he’d back off a little, yes. But I know he means well and it’s silly to complain about it because it would be so much worse if he didn’t give a shit but-”

“But you want to throttle him,” Aevryn said, nodding knowingly.

“Kind of,” you admitted, glancing between your friends, scanning for any traces of judgment. They both were nodding now, Yennefer with a small smile on her face.

“Listen, I get it,” Aevryn said reassuringly, “I mean if I have so much as a cold Valdo practically brings in a unit of doctors. Do you know one time he literally flew in soup from Paris because I mentioned offhand one time when I had a cold that it sounded good? It was somehow still hot. It’s bloody ridiculous and I can only imagine how bad it would be if I were pregnant.”

She shuddered visibly, grateful yet again that they had decided not to bear any children and instead just steal the best parts of parenting from Jaskier and Y/N whenever possible.

“Geralt punched an EMT once,” Yennefer said casually. You and Aevryn both looked at her with stunned expressions.

“He felt awful afterwards. It was when I broke my leg on tour that time and the paramedics came and one of them asked me if this hurt and then prodded it and I screamed and Geralt says he just saw white and swung. He felt awful and I never really bring it up except to say I can relate to having an overzealous partner,” she explained.

“Gods yeah that checks out,” Aevryn murmured, shaking her head.

“It’s only going to get worse when she’s born,” you said, resting a hand on your stomach, “We’ve already had the discussion about ponies. Namely that she won’t have any.”

“Uh you may want to have that discussion with Valdo as well,” Aevryn mumbled through a bite of pizza. You rolled your eyes and shook your head, wincing as you shifted just wrong and your back ached.

“He’ll adapt,” Yennefer said reassuringly, “Right now she’s this fun hypothetical and something to be excited about and celebrate, but as time goes on he will adjust.”

“Oh right,” You said sarcastically, “Because Jaskier is known for calming down and getting less enthusiastic about things all of a sudden.”

“Touche,” Yen replied, taking a dainty sip of a mocktail.

“In any case, tonight isn’t about her – sorry little no name – it’s about us!” Aevryn declared, raising her slice in the air like a goblet for toasting.

“Here here,” you and Yen echoed, raising your own pieces and taking a bite in unison.

“Oh! I brought this!” Aevryn said excitedly, jumping up and running to where she’d stowed her coat and bringing back a bright pink plastic box.

“Holy shit is that a caboodle?” you asked, eyes widening.

“Yes! It’s from when I was a kid! My mum sent it back with me when V and I went up to visit! The nail polish is new, though, don’t worry,” she replied, opening it up to show a myriad of colors of polishes from brands that possibly hadn’t even existed in the 90s. After pizza you each picked your colors with Yennefer opting for black, Aevryn choosing a lime green, and you picking a deep burgundy shade. Ever After played in the background though none of you paid attention except to quote along every now and then, too busy painting your nails with the occasional muttered curse as you or Aevryn accidentally smeared more polish on your fingers than your nails. Yennefer’s, you were unsurprised to see, looked perfect and she helped you both clean up the excess polish with q-tips and acetone before retrieving the face masks she’d put together.

“This is really nice,” You sighed through barely parted lips. The mask smelled of strawberries and Aevryn had insisted you each but cucumber slices on your eyes because while she was almost certain it did nothing, it was what they did in the movies and it would make a great Instagram post.

“Mmhmm,” Yennefer agreed, “This won’t end after she’s born you know. Things will change of course, but you’ll still be you. And we’ll still be us. And our girls nights can either expand to fit in the newest member of the band or it can be a refuge where you get time away from being a mother. Whatever happens, though, there will be girls nights.”

“Shut up I’m going to ruin my mask,” you murmured, sniffing and feeling the tears slide across your face, dragging mask into your hair though you didn’t really mind. Aevryn blindly waved her arm around, feeling for you until she reached your hand and gave it a squeeze.

“She’s right, Y/N. You’re going to have so much support and she is going to be so loved! She already is. Hence the need to discuss pony boundaries with her Uncle,” Aevryn said.

“Geralt will be giving her a knife but I think he can be convinced to wait to gift it to her until she’s, oh, 12 or so instead of as a birth gift,” Yennefer said. She sounded amused but you knew she wasn’t kidding.

“She really is a lucky kid,” you mused.

“She was always going to be a lucky kid. You’re her mum and Jaskier, while doting, will be a brilliant dad,” Aevryn said, squeezing your hand again.

The three of you lay in quiet happiness as you imagined the future, the final lines of the movie breaking through the silence.

“And, while Cinderella and her prince *did* live happily ever after, the point, gentlemen, is that they lived.”

[mamaskillerqueen]

Maybe In Another Life - Pt 2 | Roger Taylor x Fem!Reader

A/N: I’m so mad because I had this all set to go and then Tumblr was like “Nah, mate. No go.” Anyways, this is the second part of the angst series. Weeeo. Not sure how I feel about this part but the last part is my favourite for sure. So, have fun! Warnings: Sadness. I mean, what else do you expect from me. (Probably other things...) Word Count: 1,834

The doorbell rang, Y/N was busy at work with dinner so Roger placed his glass of wine on the counter gave his wife a kiss on the cheek and then made his way to the door. He figured it would be one of the guys dropping by anyways. They were hard at work on their next album and no day off was an actual day off. When he swung the door open though, he wished it had been one of the guys. He was pretty sure he was going to throw up. "Hello Roger," The woman on the other side of the door greeted him, her one hand coming to rest on her very pregnant belly.  A calendar ran through his head at that moment, counting following suit. He was definitely going to throw up. "Rog, who is it?"

When Y/N rounded the corner his heart nearly stopped. They had just barely moved past their argument and here was the exact woman he had promised to never see again. His eyes met hers, a silent plea to believe he didn't know about this. "I'm Ala," The woman standing on the doorstep said, gesturing to her belly she added, "This is Roger's baby." The rest of what happened kind of went in a blur. Y/N allowed the woman to step inside their house, not wanting whatever interaction happened to be on display for the public. Roger followed behind both women, nervously chewing on the skin around his nails. They all sat down at the kitchen table, Roger as far away from the woman he'd gotten pregnant as possible. Y/N was adamant about finding out what exactly Ala wanted from them, and then sending her on her way. There was no part of his wife that wanted to deal with this for longer than a few moments. The sight of this woman carrying his child did something to him though.  His wife was unable to have children, it was something they had talked about long before they ever got married. Roger was sure he was okay with that, and if they ever changed their mind they could just adopt. He had promised her that he wasn't exactly interested in having children while the band was touring anyways. If he had a child, he wanted to be in its life, and not just a few months at a time.  Now though, he was here with a child on the way, and he felt as though he needed to take care of it. He needed to be in its life, and not just as a check every month. Whatever the child was, he needed to be known as it's father. He couldn't turn her or the child away. Even if it broke his promise, though he wasn't exactly thinking about that as he offered their guest room to Ala for the night. "She is carrying my child," He insisted, trying to make her understand. She had to understand. "I have to take care of her. Of the child." Roger and Y/N had retreated to their room over an hour ago. She had done her best at whisper yelling, expressing just how angry she was that the woman he had cheated on her with was just down the hall. He could see it in her face that she felt betrayed, and he wanted so desperately to erase that look, but he couldn't. "She'll only stay until the child is born, love. By then I'll have found her a more permanent place to live..." His voice trailed off, wondering just how to bring up the idea he'd had hours ago. "Or, we could bring her in full time? There are a ton of people who have two wives. They make it work. It could be our new normal." There was nothing but quiet resign after that. She was done listening, done talking. He just hoped she wasn't done with everything else. With a curt nod of her head she turned on her heel and walked away from him, moving to their bed and shifting herself under the covers without so much as a goodnight. He followed in behind her, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her to his chest. She didn't fight it, but she didn't sink back into him like she normally would. Assuming she'd have cooled down by the morning he placed a kiss to her head, whispered an "I love you", and then settled into a rather peaceful sleep. Sleep was impossible for her though. How could she sleep after such a conversation? The hours ticked by and slowly but surely the sun began to rise above the horizon. Roger's alarm went off, rousing the man from his slumber. As discreetly as she could, she rolled over and pretended the alarm hadn't woken her... as if she'd been asleep all a long.  Today would be a long day. It was a day she wished would never come but unfortunately it was here. After her husband rose from bed and left for the day, she allowed the reality to set in. That would be the last night she ever spent in bed with him. Today, she was leaving but before her packing began she would allow herself one moment to wallow in the heartbreak that was cracking her chest. She was thankful that Ala was long gone before she ever left her bedroom. The moment of wallow turned to almost half an hour of tears. It was hard to allow your marriage to fall apart, but it was even worse when you knew that in some way, this was entirely your own fault. Perhaps if she was actually able to give him a family this wouldn't have happened. As soon as she stepped out of their previously shared bedroom though, she shook those feelings off. Her things in their bedroom had already been packed into only a few boxes. The rest of the house was stuff they had bought together mostly, stuff she could replace later. So the packing up of the other rooms only took her a few moments. Her plan was to be done and gone before Roger ever even got home. Plans never quite work out the way you want them to though. The front door swung open and her heart nearly stopped. She wasn't sure that she could face him like this. She was leaving before he got there because she was a weak coward. He would beg her not to go, and she would stay. No. She would not stay. She had to go. The dark brown curly hair that popped around the corner to the kitchen was a great relief. Brian offered only a sigh, sadness clear on his face but also acceptance. He wasn't going to try and stop her.  "You're going then?" He asked softly. "Of course, I'm going." He offered her a nod of his head in understanding before stepping forward and wrapping her in a tight hug. They had always been close friends, sharing a best friend could do that to you. When she stepped back she grabbed the very few things she had thrown together, stacking the boxes on top of each other and making her way towards the car. Brian had grabbed what she couldn't and placed them in the boot. "Goodbye, Y/N." "Goodbye, Brian." With that she climbed into the drivers seat, put the car in gear, and made her way down the street. She had a friend she'd be staying with for a short while until she could find a place of her own. It was at the stop sign at the end of the road from her old home that there was a knock on the window, preventing her from going any further. "I don't want you to go," Roger panted breathlessly, still trying to recover from the sprint it had taken to get to her.  "You make a fool of me, keeping her here... I have to go." She told him through the window she had rolled down to be able to talk to him. He knew she was right, knew that she had to go. It had always been one of the things he loved the most about her. She loved herself, she respected herself, and that came above everything else. That included her love for him. He always wondered what that kind of self-love was like. Still, it hurt to lose her, hurt to watch her go knowing that he'd never have her back. The love he had for her would never die, that much he knew as well. He hoped that she still felt the same. When he walked back into the house he used to share with the love of his life, he was greeted by the woman who helped him ruin it all. There was a look of smug victory on her face, and he wanted nothing more than to wipe it off her face and kick her out. He couldn't quite bring himself to do it though. If he did, he lost Y/N for nothing. A few months later, he held his son in his arms as he grabbed the mail from the box. There was a large yellow envelope there and nothing else. Without even opening it he knew exactly what it was. He dropped it on the table and left it there while he put the baby down for a nap. It was in the peaceful quiet he almost never got anymore, that he decided to face the documents. The divorce papers were exactly what he was expecting. What he hadn't been prepared for was her wedding and engagement rings to be in the bottom of the envelope as well. It had been months, he thought he had moved past the pain but as he stared at her rings in his hand he knew that pain would probably never leave him. Fighting the tears in his eyes he signed the paperwork on the spot beside her name and placed the papers back in the return envelope. As the front door opened he quickly stuffed her rings in his pocket and wiped at his eyes. His new fiance would jump at any chance to make a dig about his now ex-wife, and so he did his best to act as if nothing was wrong. He had grown to hate her. Ala was a horrible human being, but she was a decent mother, and so once the paper work had been completed, and he was notified that he was no longer a married man, he changed that. If he was honest with himself, he felt as though it was what he deserved. He lost the love of his life by being a complete idiot, and so he had to live his life in a certain sense of misery. All he hoped was that Y/N had found happiness again. Even if it was without him. It was what she deserved.

[dregstrash]

in another time, in another place

A/N: This very long one-shot is dedicated to @kestrel-of-herran​ who basically encouraged me to write a zoyalai fic based on one of our favorite songs of Bastille’s album ( “Another Place” on Doom Days). Also thank her for this ending, cause I definitely was going to leave it at a different mood.

Also, thought I’d mention, this isn’t rated M, but this has a little bit more sex talk than usual for me. 

Word Count: 4.8k+

-

I am bound to you with a tie that we cannot break With a night that we can't replace I'm lost but found with you, in a bed that we'll never make It's a feeling we always chase

-

There were alternate universes out there. Nikolai was really quite sure of it.

There was a version of himself that was a dashing pirate that only plundered the rich and the dangerous, and gave safety to those who didn’t need any better.

There was a version of himself that was a self satisfied prince who would rule his country with a fair hand, and he would take tours throughout his country where every village opened welcoming arms to him.

There was a version of himself that was a carefree musician.

Or maybe a universe that saw him as a small town librarian.

Or maybe a wizard. Or maybe a dragon slayer. Or just an entire dragon.

There were alternate universes out there, he was almost positive because he refused to believe that the reality he lived in was the only one that existed. 

Surely, there was a timeline where he wasn’t trapped in a loveless marriage that his parents had orchestrated for him. In this alternate reality, his wife treated him like a husband instead of a roommate that she held in contempt 99% of time. He would go home after a long day of being in meetings and making sure his company were keeping everything on the ethical side, and he’d see his wife and drop a kiss on her cheek and offer to cook dinner. He would see her smile and he’d try to make her laugh with some stupid joke he came up with. Her laugh would go straight through him and he’d wrap his arms around her waist and feel her warmth sink into his bones. Because that’s what people who were in love did. That’s what people who were happy felt. 

He had to hold onto that hope that some version of himself had all those things, because knowing that his life began and ended in the shadows would be testing the limit of his optimism. 

As for his current state of existence... he made the best of it.

Like he’s done for most of his life.

When his brother tried to beat him up. He made sure that he knew how to defend himself.

When he found out that his dad may not really be his dad, he laughed through it and was glad that he’d never inherit the receding hairline that was already creeping up on Vasily. 

When Ehri didn’t even look his way the night they got married, he respected her space and slept in the guest room of their loft.

When he realized that she expected him to do that for the rest of their lives, he painted the walls a light blue and moved all his clothes into the room’s walk-in closet. He didn’t shut up about it to Ehri, but she wasn’t in the loft often enough to truly get sick of his light griping. 

When he came home one day and heard through the thin walls of Ehri’s bedroom that she wasn’t entirely alone...well Nikolai tried to make the best of that too. 

There really was no love lost between them. Hell, they hadn’t even consummated the marriage. And he didn’t know her intimately enough to even be hurt by the idea of her sleeping with other people. In all honesty, he almost expected it. 

But that didn’t mean that he’d do the same and sleep his way around New York. He may have had his fun in college, and enjoyed exploring just how far his charms took him, but he was a married man. That had to mean something, right?

He wasn’t his mother or his father. He wanted to be better than them-- wanted to prove that he could keep it in his pants and in his marriage. Even if his wife seemed uninterested in doing so. 

But then Zoya Nazyalensky came into his life-- or well she stormed through his life. An environmental consultant that was inspecting the land that he was planning to to be a homeless shelter. She was all edges and no give. She was a fire that had no qualms about burning him alive. She was a puzzle piece that he wanted to fit into his life. 

He’s not entirely sure how that first time had happened. It had been a late night at the office. He was trying to prolong his departure to his comically empty home, and he had been buried in a new design for a potential boat that could take him far, far away from his life. And it wasn’t until he had heard a knock on his office door that he realized that he wasn’t the only one in the building. 

Zoya had been working late in her borrowed office. She had been pouring over the endless reports and field samples, and had come to ask him a question regarding the type of materials he was going to use as foundation. 

He had lifted his gaze from his sketch and felt like the air had left his lungs when he caught her gaze. IThey had been dancing around each other for months now. 

He’d tease, she’d snap. He’d compliment, she’d roll her eyes. He’d look, and she’d look away. 

She’d suggest something, he’d listen. She’d tease him about his soft-heart, he’d call her ruthless. She’d stand firmly on certain practices, and he’d respect it.

Whatever words that were left unsaid during those months seemed like a cosmic force that tugged them closer and closer together, until they arrived in that moment. The dense air, the blazing stare, the first movement.

It all was a blur when their lips collided together. He could only recall impressions and sensations. Teeth pulling on lips. Hands wandering across bodies. Shirts being untucked. Pants being undone. Backs hitting flat surfaces. Moans and grunts a soundtrack to a night that made Nikolai forget his name and the ring on his left hand. 

That first time was everything Nikolai wanted. That first time was something that couldn’t happen again. 

Zoya could never be truly happy with him-- a man that was tied to another. And Zoya deserved to be happy. So, Nikolai had made some off-hand comment about Zoya’s talents, and she had called him an idiot. They had cleaned up and straightened their clothes, and had tried to part as casually as possible. 

But there really was nothing casual about it. Nikolai felt unmade and he had a sneaking suspicion that he’d always be unraveling. 

-

So lie to me tonight and pretend 'til the morning light And imagine that you are mine 'Cause when the sun will rise with the truth coming out your eyes We'll be good in another life

-

That first time quickly developed into a habit. Because Zoya decided to take more jobs throughout New York. She decided that there was a lot of opportunity in this city, and Nikolai had been one of the only friends she had in a city of millions. 

Nikolai would be a bad liar if he even tried to deny the happiness that danced in his chest when she had texted him about her temporary plans. 

He had planned to keep it as friends. Anything more would be selfish on his part. She couldn’t be just a vehicle for his sexual frustrations. He wouldn’t let her be. Friends he could do. 

But like most of his plans for his life, it failed almost immediately. 

Because as much as he tried to fight the attraction that leapt at him every waking moment of his day, he was one unhappily married man against an incredibly formidable woman. It was a fight he was destined to lose.

He had told Zoya about his arrangement with Ehri. It was over coffee and they had somehow gotten into a conversation over lost loves. Zoya had laughed in her very Zoya-way and claimed that it didn’t exist. While Nikolai had smirked and said that it did, it just didn’t exist in his marriage. They had stayed in that coffee shop talking all afternoon until an emergency at his office had him rushing out of there and completely missing the lingering look that lingered in Zoya’s eyes.

The next time they met up it was supposedly to watch a movie. 

They both knew it was an excuse.

They both knew that the movie they ended up playing wasn’t going to be watched. 

That’s how it was for them. Lies that were passed off as excuses so that they could have a reason to see each other. Some substantial thing to hold onto as they fell into each other’s arms and let the heat of their bodies consume their twin souls. 

It was after one of these nights that Nikolai had lain awake. His body was sated and spent, and he rubbed circles on Zoya’s lower back as her head rested against his bare chest. She had been too tired to put on any clothes, and he could feel every inch of her curled into his side, and his fingers trailed over the scars of her back ( “I got them from a stray cat in middle school. A bunch of kids dared me to poke it.” She said as his hand had trailed over every ridge and bump. “Let’s say, I shouldn’t have turned my back on it. I just tell everyone else I slept with I was a tiger wrangler.” Nikolai had laughed as his hand dipped lower. “I’d say it’s the same thing.”). 

For once, he seemed to be....happy. Or as close as he could get to it. Because his company was doing well, his parents’ partnership with Ehri’s parents were solid, and he just spent the last two hours exploring every inch Zoya Nazyalensky had to offer. There was a lightness in his chest that had never been there before.

So, of course, it didn’t last because he heard the front door to his loft open and shut softly and the gentle pitter patter of feet that could only mean Ehri had decided to grace their home with her presence. He heard another door open and shut, and he assumed that she was in her room. 

It wasn’t until that moment that Nikolai’s situation came crashing back down around him. He was a married man who could offer nothing to the woman who was sleeping contentedly at his side. For all intents and purposes they were fuck buddies. And he didn’t want to be. He wanted to be able to take Zoya out into daylight, and be able to hold her hand without the fear of his parents bringing the hammer down and berating him for jeopardizing a partnership that was funding their need to have five homes and a Fortune 500 company that ran itself. He wanted to be able to have his own feelings and his own life. He didn’t want these stolen moments and casual hook-ups. He wanted a relationship. A relationship with Zoya. He wanted and wanted, but at the end of the day that’s all they were: wants and wishes.

As gently as he could, he pulled away from Zoya and threw on his boxers. There was no way in hell he was going to go outside with the risk of seeing Ehri, but his room did have a balcony. 

And that’s where Zoya had found him. Staring at the New York skyline, half-naked, and on the brink of brooding.

“Pining over lost love again?” She said as she stepped up beside him, wrapped in the button-up he had been wearing.

He managed to pull a smirk onto his face, “I don’t pine, Zoya. Though I think even you have to admit that I look damn good brooding in the moonlight.” 

She smacked his arm, “Fine, you arrogant ass, then why are you out here?”

Nikolai looked down at her, and the sight of Zoya in his shirt and looking at him with that unwavering focus made his heart flip. There were words he wanted to say to her. There were words that he had been wanting to say for a long time now, but they halted in his throat. 

He knew Zoya pretty well now. He knew that commitments and real feelings were topics that held landmines that could blow their strange relationship into ruins. So he swallowed once, and looked back up at the sky.

“Just trying to see if I can read my future in the stars.” He sighed dramatically. “I figure I’d cut the whole psychic bullshit and just do it myself.”

He could feel her skeptical gaze on his skin, and he was glad when she chose to let it go. 

“You’re looking for lies, Nikolai.” She said. He felt her head on his shoulder and like a reflex he put his arms around her smaller frame and cocooned her body in his own heat. 

“I guess, I am. Do you have any for me, Zo? I could use a good lie.”

By the time she started to speak, his eyes had drifted downwards and into the silhouette of her face.

“I used to have an aunt who was clairvoyant.” She said. “So I think I’m more capable at reading your stars. And what I see is good.”

He snorted, “Really?”

She turned her head slightly, and shot him a shut up kind of look, “Yes. I see that eventually, you and Ehri will get a divorce without risking your parents disinheriting you. Then you’ll meet a woman that you actually love and she’ll love you back. You’ll get married for real and have dozens of children and save the world one building at a time. Then you’ll be happy for the rest of your life.”

His heart clenched at every single word that fell out of her mouth. He resisted every urge in him to correct her. I want you to see that it’s you, Zoya. You’re the one who I want to fall in love with. You’re the one I want to save the world with. You’re the one who could make me happy forever. 

But instead, Nikolai laughed and dipped his head down to kiss her temple. 

“Ehri leave me? Me, happy? You are a terrible fortune reader. A better one would come up with something actually believable.” 

Zoya turned to fully face him, and she smirked, “Fine. Here’s another prediction.” She leaned further into him so that the space between them almost became nonexistent, “I can see you kissing me because whatever is going on in your head is driving you insane. And I can see myself kissing you back because for some reason I can’t get enough of that annoying mouth. And then you’ll lead me back into that much warmer bed, and then you’ll kiss me again and again until I can’t breathe. Do you want me to keep going?”

Nikolai’s blood was practically humming, and as a way of replying he leaned down and pressed his lips sweetly over hers. 

The next hours were utter oblivion and bliss. Nikolai let his mind believe with every kiss, each thrust, each languid movement that this could be forever. That when he woke up next to Zoya the next morning her lies would have come true. That he was free from this marital prison, and he could start to entertain the idea of being with her-- maybe even marry her. As Zoya got closer to the edge, so did Nikolai and his mind narrowed down to the lie that there could be an infinite amount of tomorrows with her. 

He felt Zoya’s final muffled cry vibrate into his shoulder, and she fell on top of him in a heap while he followed soon after as she placed one last heated kiss into his mouth. 

His heart pumped from the exertion and his muscles shook from the pleasure that Zoya coaxed out of him. For the second time that night, Nikolai was sated, but he still couldn’t sleep. So he settled for tucking Zoya back into his side, and watching the sun come up in the horizon. He watched the sky lighten and the lies of the night disappear completely with the rising light. 

-

Feels like something's special but it never felt like love Wonder what we could be living in another life

-

Nikolai had to hand it to the universe. When it wanted to tear down his life, it was really determined to raze it to the ground.

At their one year anniversary, Ehri announced that she had enough and she didn’t care about the consequences, she served Nikolai divorce papers (that he was all too happy to sign), and he had very graciously helped move her out of the loft they barely shared. Then he had to go and turn out the news. 

That’s when he saw that his family was the top story in the business world. Apparently, his brother had committed tax fraud and his father had been caught helping him. Nikolai’s eyes widened as the news anchor listed the allegations that were leveling against his family, but he didn’t quite believe it until he saw the familiar figures of his dad and his brother being handcuffed and led away while his mother held onto a handkerchief looking distraught.

Nikolai wasn’t unintelligent. He knew what this meant for him. Even if he barely talked to his family, this meant that all of his assets were going to be frozen. He was going to get interrogated. His files were going to investigated. He was going to get kicked out of his loft. There were going to be fines to pay, people to deal with, and whatever life Nikolai thought he had was gone.

So, he did the only rational thing that came to mind: he went to Zoya.

Unfortunately, by the time he got to her apartment her apartment was ajar and there were boxes stacked against bare walls.

“I meant to tell you.” Zoya said coming out of the master bedroom, not even looking the slightest bit sorry. His whole body went numb as the puzzle pieces started to complete a horrifying picture. His family was gone. His career was probably near ruin. And Zoya was leaving.

In his unusual silence, Zoya started to talk again, “I have this promotion at our corporate office in California, and it was too good to pass up. I don’t leave until next week, but I needed to start packing up. I was going to tell you today, but then I saw the news and--”

“You didn’t know if I had been arrested too.” Nikolai’s voice sounded so strange to him. It was strained and hollow.

“No,” Zoya protested, a frown pulling at her lips, “I just thought you had enough to deal with--”

She was cut off as Nikolai barked out a laugh, “Since when are you ever considerate?”

He supposed he would have winced if he could feel the muscles in his face.

Zoya’s frown twisted into incredulity, and she crossed her arms in a defensive position, “Hey, don’t take that kind of shit to me. I know you’re probably just freaking out about what’s happening, but don’t start projecting on me. I’m your friend not a therapist.”

“Right,” Nikolai felt a smile on his lips, but there was nothing remotely amusing about this situation. He started to pace and pull at his hair. “ You’re my friend. That’s all you are a friend that I have sex with quite a bit.” 

“Exactly.” If it was possible, her voice had turned icier. “Just sex. Granted it was really good sex, but that’s all it was. I thought you knew that, Nikolai.” 

This stopped him in his tracks and he felt every muscle in his body tense. He did know that. He knew that from the very first time they had decided to go all the way. But it wasn’t just sex. There were the in-between moments that they shared too. The moments where he’d make her breakfast or bought her coffee or her visits to the office. The in-between space where there were some nights that they did actually just end up watching a movie and she’d fall asleep on his lap and the other nights that they talked about their day. Though, he had tried to keep his heart from the inevitable fall, it had seemed fated for him. He was in love with Zoya Nazyalensky. 

“What if it isn’t just sex, Zoya?” He almost whispered the words, but he needed his voice clear. He needed to look more solid than he felt, because this was his last chance to feel whole “What if I--”

“Don’t.” She cut him off sharply with a move of her hand. “Don’t make this into something that it’s not. You were lonely, Nikolai. You were lonely and-- and sexually frustrated. Whatever you think you’re feeling it’s not real.”

“And how would you know that!” He hadn’t meant to yell, but he was losing control of his voice.

“Because I’m not lying to myself!” She yelled back. Her face was distant and closed to him, and he wished for all the world to be able to know what she was really thinking, “Maybe in another life, Nikolai. In another time where I was someone you could actually love, and where you aren’t so- so- vulnerable then maybe it could be a possibility for something else. But right now? You don’t-- you don’t love me. Because I don’t love you.” 

Nikolai would look back at this moment, and realize that while Zoya was a good liar there was something about that last sentence that didn’t sound quite right. An untruth buried in her tone. But at this moment, all he could hear was the sound of his entire heart shattering completely. It was a physical pain that tore at his chest when he took one step away from the coldness in Zoya’s eyes. His body flushed with hot then cold. His vision was blurring slightly, and maybe that was the only good thing to come out of this because then he didn’t have to look at her stone-still face.

He didn’t know how he had managed it, but he finally forced his feet to remember how to walk. Just one foot in front of another, that’s all it was one foot in front of another. It didn’t take a lot of brain power, which was just as well because his brain was too busy trying to keep his heart from failing entirely.

-

In another time And in another place

-

It took the better part of a year before Nikolai had managed to stitch his life back together. 

He had given his testimony in court. He willingly gave up his files from his own development company. He tried to look after his mom. He talked and paid for all the lawyers.

And after all of that, his dad and his brother were charged with tax fraud and corporate espionage and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. The FBI found nothing incriminating in his company and was cleared of any suspicion. His mom had run away to be with Nikolai’s real father who lived in Norway. And by the time the lawyers were all paid, he had just enough to salvage the rest of his money in his company. For all intents and purposes, things were beginning to settle down.

Sure, he was now living in a substantially smaller one-bedroom apartment. He’s had some lean months where food came in the form of fake noodles cooked in boiling water. But he’s at peace. He had taken a new partner in his company, and while David Kotsyk was a little eccentric he was a genius. And it seemed like his wife was the one that carried all the conversation and charm, so he had no qualms about hiring her as their official PR director. 

In hindsight, he was almost glad that his half his family was thrown into jail, because it seemed like the universe’s way of giving him a second chance. A way to be a different person. A different life. 

As long as he kept his thoughts from straying to a certain dark haired, blue-eyed woman, he’d say that he was content. 

By the time Summer rolled around, Nikolai’s company was back on the upswing. He was able to buy more buildings in some of the rougher areas in New York and cut a deal with the state that let him rent out the new buildings that were adjusted to the income of the average citizens that lived in the area. He hoped this way, it stopped potential gentrification and let the locals try to live away from the more run down apartment buildings. 

Their annual barbecue was in full force, and Nikolai was sure that Tolya was drink away from standing on a table and performing Shakespeare. Which would have beat his last year’s announcement that he was going to run away and audition to be Hollywood’s first Asian Hamlet. 

“Nikolai!” Genya’s voice cut through the crowd, and he smiled as he caught sight of his friend holding up two beers in triumph. He didn’t know how his favorite drinks were always the first ones to disappear, but he was sure it was some kind of conspiracy. 

“You’re a hero, Gen.” He said as he toasted her. 

She laughed, “Do tell that to David, will you? I think he lost the list of compliments I had given him, and he seems utterly at a loss for words.”

Nikolai grinned as he spotted his other friend reading under the shade of the only tree planted in this saintsforsaken park. 

“That doesn’t seem too out of--” Whatever quip Nikolai was about to say stuttered to a complete stop when he caught the sight of a familiar figure walking regally towards him and Genya.

This must be some heat induced hallucination. Or one of his employees had fed him an edible. Or he was dreaming. Because there was no way that Zoya was here. At this moment, looking like she’d rather be somewhere else. 

“Zo!” Genya waved excitedly at her, and Nikolai felt his mind split into different levels of shock. Genya knew Zoya? Zoya knew Genya? Zoya was here? 

When Zoya reached them, she paid Nikolai no mind, and crossed her arms, “Tell me again why you insisted I be here?”

“Hello to you, too.” Genya sighed. “Like I told you, it’s good to have more than me and David as friends since you’re moving into the city permanently. Anyway, have you met Nikolai? He’s--”

“I’ve had the pleasure.” Zoya’s laser gaze finally landed on him, and despite the utter swirl of confusion that raged inside his chest, Nikolai still managed to pull out a smirk and give a half bow.

“Oh believe me, the pleasure was all mine.”

Zoya was as impassive as always, but it only made him grin a little more. Even if after all this time, he missed her.

Genya coughed beside them, and made a weak excuse to leave the loaded silence that sparked between her friends. 

After a few more beats, Nikolai stuffed his hands into his pockets and offered a friendly smile, “So you’re moving back, huh?”

She sighed and then shrugged, “Got promoted again. They made me the Eastern Regional Director, and it’s pretty permanent.”

“Congratulations, Nazyalensky.” Nikolai exclaimed a warm pride filling his heart, “Though I wonder why you didn’t think to tell me?” 

Zoya scoffed, “I don’t owe you life updates, Lantsov.”

“Fair enough, but like our dear friend suggested, it’s good to have a friend in the city.”

“Friends?” There was no mistaking the scorn in her voice, “Last time I checked, we weren’t friends.” 

That horrible day when Nikolai’s life fell apart replayed quickly in his mind, but he forced it away. That was then. This was now. The course of his life changed because he had the courage to keep going. This magnetic pull towards Zoya was no different. 

He boldly took a step closer to her and was relieved that she didn’t move away. Instead, she just continued to stare at him. 

“That may be true, but I also remember that the last time we talked you also had said that in another time we could be more than friends.” He spread his arms out to the change of weather and the shining sun, “Given that this is a completely different time, is that true too?”

Zoya held his gaze for a long time, and Nikolai waited patiently under her scrutiny. She had haunted too many of his dreams in the last year. She was the biggest what if of his life. Now that she was standing less than a foot away, he’d wait for an answer even if he had to wait another lifetime. 

Without breaking eye contact, she grabbed the beer from his hands and brought it up to her lips. After taking a pull, she glanced out at the party and said, “Ask me out properly this time, Nikolai, and we’ll take it from there.”

[winnipegpatty]

baby just say yes | s.m. one shot

a/n: here’s a cute little one shot, nothing related to the post i made yesterday. just some fun! 

Taylor Swift wasn’t like your idol or anything; she was pretty bad ass though. And you were a sucker for a good concert. So coming to Taylor Swift’s Reputation Tour with your best friend wasn’t exactly a chore for you. Cassy was the true T Swift fan and was, rightfully so, in the middle what she would no doubt call the best night of her life tomorrow morning.

Going to a Taylor Swift concert was never a bad decision, if you catch the drift. She just knew how to perform. She had quite possibly some of the best visuals you’ve ever seen in a live concert, and it was hard not to feel completely engrossed with her and her stage presence. Which is why Cassy hadn’t as much as looked over at you in the 45 minutes that Taylor had been on stage. Her eyes were glued to the singer like her life depended on it. You weren’t much better yourself though. Lights were flashing everywhere, fireworks shot into the sky. And frankly, you felt a little disoriented in the best possible way.

Taylor was singing a shortened version of Style currently, before she finished it out.

“Would you please make some noise for my band!” She screamed, throwing her hands into the air where her band began making their way onto the stage with her.

The tell tale notes of Love Story began playing, and it was suddenly 2008 again. And you were suddenly a middle schooler again, playing on your sidekick phone, listening to your iPod nano.

Despite being eleven years old, this song still had you (and let’s be real, everyone in the stadium) rocking out like you were listening to the greatest hits album of a class rock band. As the chorus of the song came around, it felt like the stadium was literally shaking. Everyone around you was jumping, including yourself. Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone. You and Cassy turned to look at each other, screaming the lyrics at the top of your lungs. I’ll be waiting. All we have to do is run. You’ll be the prince. And I’ll be the princess. It’s a love story, baby just say yes. The energy was unlike anything you’ve ever witness before, and the crowd settled just a bit as the second verse came around.

Taylor was on stage going to town with her band, jamming out just as hard as we were. You could tell, it didn’t matter that the song was so old. She wasn’t tired of it. It were her own words, and she was proud of them.

The second chorus came back through, and the crowd upped the ante. Flashing lights were everywhere, and it felt like you couldn’t even see straight. You screamed the lyrics at the top of your lungs, not caring who heard you. You flipped your hair a bit dramatically just for the hell of it and you were having the time of your life. It wasn’t until half way through the chorus that you noticed the guy next you slowly creeping closer to you, completely unaware of his own surroundings. He was just up and down, pumping his arms in the air with a beer in his hand. He was faced away from you, and you figured it wasn’t a big deal. He was clearly just enjoying the song as much as you were. Romeo save me, they’re trying to tell me how to feel. This love is difficult, but it’s so real. Don’t be afraid we’ll make it out of this mess it’s a —

You felt a elbow jam into your ribcage completely unexpectedly and your breath shot out in a sharp yell.

“Fuck!” You heard the boy say as he swung around to see you.

You let out a breath for completely different reasons. He was beautiful. Like, a greek god sculpture beautiful. He had these perfectly smooth brown curls and rosy cheeks. His eyes were so kind. He grabbed onto your forearm to steady you. He had fucking gigantic hands.

“I’m so sorry!” He shouted at me, leaning in closer to make sure I heard him.

You nodded stupidly for a moment before coming to your senses, “It’s okay, yeah. No problem.”

It felt like a little bit of a problem, considering your rib cage was throbbing, but he didn’t need to know that.

“Jesus, I’m sorry. I should really be more careful!”

You smiled at his second apology, “We’re just all trying to have fun. No harm,” you shrugged it off.

He smiled at your, finally letting go of your arm. “Let me make it up to you. I’ll buy you a drink.” He was still shouting, even though the song had just gone into the quiet bridge, causing Cassy to look over at you in concern.

“It’s really not a problem,” you smiled at him.

“Please,” he asked, quieter this time. His smile was absolutely blinding and you couldn’t find it in yourself to deny him again.

“Well, okay…” You trailed off as he turned away from you.

You expected him to leave to go get a drink. But he only took a few steps away from you, speaking a few words to a tall man in a black shirt. The man nodded before he turned and went in the opposite direction of the stadium’s concessions area. It was weird, but you decided to turn your attention back to Taylor on stage who had just shifted to the song You Belong with Me. You looked at Cassy, who was still staring at you. You just shrugged before you both when back to singing the lyrics along with Taylor.

“Let me see you jump!” Taylor shouted, and again the stadium erupted.

Soon after, the song finished out, screams filling the entire stadium so it was impossible to hear. The lights fell dark, and the stadium full of people quickly went silent. A eerily dark video of Taylor playing remixed clips of old songs began to play in front of you, and you knew something big was about to happen. Next to you Cassy was literally vibrating from excitement. The video ended as Taylor dramatically took her place on a throne, looking like a mother fucking badass queen and she winked, just as the beginning of Look What You Made Me Do came to life.

You felt a hand reach onto your lower back, and you quickly looked over to your friend with spastic elbow, smiling lightly. He handed you a Corona, which you thanked him for before you both returned to looking at Taylor. As the lights came up, and Taylor came through the floor of the stage. The boy dropped his hand from your side, but didn’t make any move to step further away from you.

Deciding to ignore the obvious move to stand closer to you, you simply sipped on the beer and continued to enjoy yourself.

It surprised you every time the boy got hyped up for certain lyrics. Throughout the concert, it was clear that he knew most, if not all, of the lyrics to her songs. He wasn’t drug along to this concert against his will, but was certainly here for his own enjoyment.

“Look at the stage, you’re gonna miss it!” Shawn shouted to one of his friends, right before a giant fucking snack crept in behind Taylor.

“Oh, god, Brian!” He shouted at one point to his friend, “I love when she does this! Watch! Watch! Watch what she’s about to do. God it’s so fucking epic!”

“Listen to the note change, ugh.”

It was odd, he somehow knew what was going to happen before it happened. Like he’d seen it before, but not just once. Like he had to know...more.

About half way into the concert, your curiosity had peaked. He still stood close to you, and you were close enough to touch. You lightly bumped your shoulder against his, and he looked over at you with that blinding smile. He bent down a bit so that he could hear you when you said, “How do you know everything that’s about to happen?”

He looked at you confused for a moment before realization seemed to set in.

“You’ve seen her before, I’m assuming?” You questioned again.

He laughed at that, his head falling back, and hand coming to his chest. “Try over thirty times.”

You eyes blew wide, “What? How is that even possible?”

Shawn laughed again, “I opened for her 1989 tour, hun.”

You stared at him, and then looked back at Taylor. Then you looked over at Cassy, who was completely unaware of these proceedings. Surely she would have recognized a famous person standing next to them, right? She was always up on the latest celeb gossip and stuff. That was her scene, not yours. You turned back to Taylor who was now standing in a beautiful black dress singing a song called Dress. Finally you looked back at him.

“You’re shitting me right?”

His eyes gleamed, “No, I swear to god.”

“Who are you?” You finally asked.

“Shawn Mendes,” he reached out his hand to shake yours. You slowly reached out, in complete shock.

You didn’t know who Shawn Mendes was, if you’re being honest. Not based off pure facial and name recognition, but maybe you’d heard his songs before in passing?

“Nice to meet you,” Shawn said sweetly. “What’s your name?”

You told him your name, still completely lost for words.

“So, you like...sing?”

He just nodded, beaming with pride.

You turned to Cassy, tapping her. She looked at you, and you leaned over to her. “Do you know this guy?” You kind of shouted at her over the music.

Cassy leaned past you to look at Shawn. She smiled and waved before turning back, “Yeah dude, that’s Shawn Mendes.”

You’d never seen Cassy so calm in her entire life. She was feet away from a celebrity and couldn’t care less. It was so out of character for her, but you figured she must have been more interested in seeing Taylor Swift sing than care about some boy singer standing next to you.

You turned back to Shawn, “Guess I’m the only person who had no fucking clue who you are.”

“That’s okay,” Shawn smiled. “I’m nobody special.”

You highly doubted that just based off what little interaction you’d had with him, but you let it slide anyway. Returning your focus to Taylor, you did your best to forget about the utterly gorgeous famous man standing next to you. Shawn, however, seemed to be doing the exact opposite. Instead of saying things to his friends, he now spoke to you randomly. Saying cute comments about something Taylor did on stage to you. His arm was pressed fully against your own, and his heat radiated off of you. People jumped and screamed around you, but the two of you stood still. Connected in some odd way.

“Oh, this is a good song!” You told Shawn as Taylor started singing This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.

“Oh yeah, and she totally kills the stage aspect of it too. It’s absolutely epic.”

And he was right. Taylor completely destroy the stage for the last song of the concert. It was the perfect energy to go out on. Shawn, standing next to you, was singing along with Taylor, his head bobbing up and down. You took the moment to just look and admire him. His jawline and rosy cheeks. The cute hoop earring that you’re just noticing in his left ear. He was a site to see, and his voice was heavenly. So you understood why he must have fans.

Shawn eventually turned to you, smiling when he saw you looking at him. You quickly looked back towards the stage, hoping it wasn’t as obvious as it seemed like it was. He bumped your shoulder lightly, chuckling as he did. You looked up at him, and he looked down at you. You could feel the smile across your face, and frankly your cheeks were starting to ache.

“You know, I’m glad I elbowed you earlier,” Shawn laughed.

You laughed with him before responding, “Well it hurt, so I mean...maybe next time just say hi?”

Shawn nodded, “I can do that.”

Taylor finished her show only minutes later, and you started to feel a sinking feeling in her stomach. A tightening in your chest formed, thinking about how this was the end. The end of a concert always sucked, and post concert depression was always sure to follow. In the moments after such a huge high, a rush of excitement and adrenaline, the low point sucked. But you were thinking about a different end. The end of a night spent with the boy standing next to you. Who still had moved, despite people hustling out of the concert quickly trying to get out before the rush of cars. Cassy was crying next to you and you and Shawn stood completely still for a moment, before he finally turned to you.

“It was really nice meeting you, Y/N. I’m really sorry for elbowing you,” He smiled shyly. He paused for a moment, tugging at a few of his curls. “Uh, would you? Could I maybe, give you my number?”

You felt your heartbeat quicken as you smiled at him, “Yeah. I’d really love that.”

tagged: @peacedolantwins2 @fourtristattoos @rosecth @unhealthyobsessionwithmarvel 

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[pengychan]

[Coco] Mind the Gap, Pt. 13

Title: Mind the Gap Summary: Modern Day AU. Tired of Ernesto’s snide remarks, Imelda decides to put him in his place and her husband is more than happy to help. It was supposed to be a one-night deal. Things quickly get out of hand. [OT3, mostly porn and humor. Plenty of instances of Ernesto being Dramatic, Imelda getting Sick Of His Shit, and Héctor trying to be the peacekeeper. Don’t expect anything serious.] Pairings: Ernesto/Héctor/Imelda Rating: Explicit.

Art by Dara.

[All chapters are tagged as 'mind the gap’ on my blog.]

A/N: Not much smut, lots art. And also Dante. I hope you enjoyed things going smoothly in these past few chapter, because that’s not gonna last. 

***

“You know it’s just for a few days, right?”

“Sure.”

“They’ll be back home by Sunday.”

“Mhhh,” Ernesto grumbles, looking away from him to fix his jacket, and Héctor rolls his eyes. Oh, of course he’s gonna be like that: he’s always like this when he’s denied something… or in this case told that no adult fun is going to be happening in his and Imelda’s apartment for a bit, due to Imelda’s brothers visiting. 

It’s not like we can let them know of this arrangement, Imelda told him the previous day, practical as always, and Héctor agreed… though somewhere in the back of his mind he did wonder if they’d really take it so badly. They’re young, both much more open-minded than their parents would be, and would know better than babbling; still, he understands and shares her decision to keep it under wraps. 

Part of him feels as though the arrangement works as long as it was kept in a bubble, only the three of them in it, no explanations needed or given. If asked to explain it to someone else, and put it into words… Héctor isn’t sure what he might find himself saying. Nor is Imelda, and Héctor suspects it worries her more than it worries him. 

As long as no one else knows, they don’t need to explain a thing. Not even to themselves. 

Héctor chases away the thought and glances over at Ernesto, who’s still frowning at the mirror. “Think you can stop pouting anytime soon?”

“I’m not pouting, I--”

“Héctor, Ernesto!” Armando’s voice rings out from behind the door, followed by a knock. He opens the door without even waiting to be told he could come in, a clipboard in his hand. “The room is almost set up. A few rehearsals, then we start recording.”

Ernesto makes a face. “Do we have to?”

Armando raises an eyebrow at him. He has unusual, dark green eyes, and Ernesto muttered once - thankfully out of his earshot - that there is no way he’s not into men and that, under different circumstances, he could get him in his bed within a week. Héctor laughed, but was very careful not to ask what he’d meant with that about circumstances. 

That, too - Ernesto has slept with no one else other than them for several months now - is something he knows, but chooses not to dwell on. It’s for the best.

Entirely unaware of his thoughts, Armando is speaking to Ernesto. Slowly. “... Recording is generally an important step in putting together an album.”

“I mean the rehearsals.”

A sigh. “We’ve been over this. The answer is yes,” Armando says, and gives a light pat to the clipboard, like a judge slamming down the gavel after uttering a sentence. “Don’t pout like that, I’m certain you’ll enjoy yourselves. It’s our best recording studio. We start in fifteen minutes,” he adds. 

As he leaves, Héctor is unable to hold back a grin. “You do pout.”

“Chingate.”

“Oh, you wish you could do that,” Héctor replies, gaining himself a shove - but by the time they start playing to warm up, the pout is gone. Then they start recording and Ernesto plays with so much energy, the kind he only has before huge crowds, and it’s enough to chase any lingering shadows away from Héctor’s mind as he follows suit.

***

“... Huh. What’s that cabrón doing in the courtyard?”

“You’ll need to be more specific,” Imelda mutters without looking up from her tablet. She’s having a look at potential places to rent for a proper shop - best to think ahead and look at the options, now that things are looking so good for Héctor and Ernesto’s venture - and has already bookmarked a few interesting ones, all pretty close to home. “What cabrón? Could be Chicharrón, Gustavo, the guy from the fifth floor with the sweaty hands--”

“Gustavo,” Ernesto replies, still peering out of the window.

As though summoned, Héctor peers in from the kitchen. He’s been cooking - he can cook very few dishes, but they always turn out amazing - and Ernesto’s chihuahuas are following him around, eyes huge and pleading for scraps. Imelda wonders when was it, exactly, that she lost the battle to keep them out of at least some rooms of the apartment. 

“Cheech is not that bad,” he protests. “He’s a good guy, deep down.”

“He threatened to beat you with his prosthetic leg last Tuesday,” Imelda reminds him.

“Very deep down.”

“Couldn’t one say the same of Gustavo?”

“No,” Héctor and Ernesto say at the exact same moment. 

“Gustavo is a jerk,” Héctor adds, and looks at Ernesto. “And you say he’s in the courtyard? Like he actually lives here? The horror!”

Ernesto rolls his eyes. “No, I mean, what is he doing-- he’s… setting up a cage?”

“... He’s what now?” 

Within a moment they’re all at the window, pressed together to fit. It reminds Imelda, briefly, of one time they all perched on the same branch outside a window to listen to Padre Edmundo’s drunk-like singing after root canal treatment. 

But back then, they had seen nothing other than the drawn curtains. Now they can see what Gustavo de la Jerk is doing, and he is… setting up a cage, just like Ernesto said. Before Imelda can even begin to wonder why, Héctor opens the window and leans out. 

“Oye, Gustavo! Decided to camp out?” he yells. That causes Gustavo to turn up, and scowl. 

“Oh, ha ha. You should thank me!”

“And why? For ruining the flower bed?” Imelda asks, raising an eyebrow. A few steps from him, the flower bed in question is a trampled mess. 

“That wasn’t me, I’m trying to solve the problem here! Some stray Xolo dog keeps getting in somehow--”

“A Xolo dog?” Héctor repeats. 

“Oh, of course you didn’t notice, señor Head Stuck In Clouds! It comes in, sniffs around, makes a mess of all the plants. It’s worse than the rats your amigo brought in! Yelping all the time!”

“They have to be loud, pendejo,” Ernesto snaps back. “Someone has got to be of service and cover the noises you strangle out of that violin.”

A furious glare, but as he and Héctor just so happen to be the ones with a record label contract under their belt, he clearly decides not to argue. Instead, he points at the cage. “Well, at least I am trying to solve the issue with that thing. I’m catching it and calling animal control. Which is something the administrator should be doing,” he adds with a scoff. For a moment, Imelda can almost sympathize: Chicharrón is the worst possible choice for an administrator, and to this day she has no idea how he ended up with the role. She doubts he remembers it, either. 

Of course, her sympathy vanishes the next moment he speaks. 

“And besides, I haven’t seen you trying to solve a problem. Remember when you nearly set everything on fire with fireworks?”

“It was just Roman candles,” Héctor mutters, but he does look slightly sheepish; to be absolutely fair, the celebrations for Ernesto’s birthday got out of hand. Mostly because they had to make up for having… completely forgotten about it. 

It hadn’t been their fault, not really. Héctor was hopeless with dates, and Imelda… well, to be fair she had never really needed to memorize it. Ernesto would always start babbling about his upcoming birthday weeks in advance, bragging about the size of the party he was putting together and which would usually result in a lot of drunk people with very few memories of the previous night. 

This year, however - before they got the call for an appointment with the representatives of a record label, when it had looked like their career in music might never take off the way Ernesto had dreamed and that he was about to turn thirty without knowing real success - he just… hadn’t brought it up. At all. And neither her nor Héctor had remembered it until they were on the other side of Mexico City to buy some supplies for her workshop; only then had Héctor realized, in a sudden burst of clarity, that it was Ernesto’s thirtieth birthday.

He’d felt so bad they had returned sooner than planned, with cake and some Roman candles, only to meet Ernesto at the gate looking absolutely distraught, with four cranky chihuahuas in their carriers who wouldn’t even look at him. He’d been about to have a chocolate cupcake, he’d admitted, when he’d left to get a lighter to light up the lone candle on it and the dogs got to it.

He didn’t know which one of them had actually eaten it, panicked, and taken them all of the vet where they were made to vomit it all out before it got into their system. Which had made for four healthy but angry Chihuahuas, and an even more depressed Ernesto.

Who, however, significantly perked up at both the cake and the Roman candles. Especially when Héctor held up the candles with a wide grin.

“Shootout?” he asked, causing Ernesto to finally grin back.

“You’ll regret asking.”

What followed was a full-blown fight, with fireballs flying everywhere, yells and protests - “not my hair!” - as well as grumbling from several people with windows facing the yard. Imelda wasn’t supposed to join it, but of course she had in the end and of course she had won. 

They returned to Ernesto’s apartment laughing like idiots, clothes and hair just slightly singed, to finally have the damn cake. And a sandwich, later. An Ernesto sandwich specifically, a birthday present he seemed to appreciate very, very much.

And all along Imelda pretended not to have noticed, on the small table by his couch, the letter his mother had asked Héctor to give him - still sealed, but not destroyed as he’d said he would. Maybe at one point, when it wouldn’t be such a touchy subject--

“-- And anyway it’s not like anything caught fire!” Ernesto is yelling, bringing her back to the present and to the situation at hand, before he slams the window shut. “Cabrón,” he huffs. 

Héctor, on the other hand, looks thoughtful. “A stray Xolo,” he mutters. “Maybe the one who followed me in the park?”

“Not impossible, I guess.”

“Maybe it’s looking for me.”

Both Imelda and Ernesto turn to look at him, taken aback, and Héctor seems to shrink a little, as though embarrassed by what he just said. “I swear it’s the one I saw in Santa Ceci-- ow!” he protests when Ernesto rolls his eyes and smacks the back of his neck. 

“Come on, we talked about this. There’s no way a dog followed here from Santa Cecilia.”

“That’s it, pendejo, that’s the last you touch me this week,” Héctor grumbles. He glances at Imelda, clearly looking for support, but this time she can’t really give it.

“Lo siento, but he’s right. Santa Cecilia is much too far for any dog to have just followed you,” she says, and her husband sighs, deflating a little. 

“True,” he says. “I guess it’s impossible.”

*** 

“Well, today didn’t go too badly.”

“You almost let them drive our car.”

“Almost being the key word.”

“Only because I was there to stop you,” Imelda points out, and Héctor grins, leaning in to kiss her nose before leaning his head down on the pillow. 

“Story of our life,” he mutters, and pulls her in his arms. She rolls her eyes, but rests gladly against him, closing her eyes. A couple of doors away, in the guest room, there is a yelp and a loud thump. They both ignore it, because you learn to ignore a lot of things when Óscar and Felipe are involved. 

“You’re not doing too bad at all,” she murmurs against his skin. “My brothers are a handful.”

“They’re fun.”

“They’re a health and safety risk.”

“But the fun kind.”

A chuckle. “You didn’t grow up with them. I have seen things.”

“I grew up alongside Ernesto, though.”

“Fair,” she mutters, and yawns. “Is he still pouting?”

“He didn’t pout, Imelda,” he protests, then sighs when she pulls back to raise an eyebrow at him. “... All right, he pouted a little. He probably got so used to spending the night here, I wonder when he last even changed his bedsheets downstairs.”

“A little too used to it. He could use a reminder that we are the married couple and he’s--” The third wheel, Héctor thinks, but Imelda doesn’t say it aloud. Still, there is something guarded about her tone now. “This was meant to be a one-time thing, and-- temporary.”

For a moment Héctor is sure she’s about today they went too far, that they must call it off, and it’s like a weight has been dropped on his stomach-- a sense of loss that is much like pain, and dread of what telling Ernesto will be like. But then she speaks again, and she… doesn’t say that.

“The arrangement is… unorthodox. However long it lasts, it must stay a secret.”

Well, no arguing there. “I know.”

“And my brothers are quite terrible at keeping secrets.”

“Like when they decided to dab into being magicians but couldn’t resist telling everyone what the trick was?”

Imelda laughs. “Sí,” she says, running her hand through Héctor’s hair. “Something like that.”

They say nothing more and lean down against each other, skin on skin, their breathing quiet. But Héctor doesn’t fall asleep for another while and, he can tell, neither does Imelda.

***

It isn’t that Ernesto is having trouble sleeping. It’s just that-- that-- fuck it, he’s having trouble sleeping.

He picked his bed king-sized for two main reasons: firstly he often had guests to entertain and, secondly, he just plainly liked having space in the occasions when he’d sleep there on his own. Now it feels… too big. He can stretch out his arm and meet nothing but the mattress, and it irks him in a way he can’t put into words.

This is stupid, Ernesto thinks, knowing full well keeping their arrangement from her brothers or… anyone else is simply the smart thing to do. I’m having a crappy night and I bet they are too. I bet they’re getting nothing done without me. 

At least he hopes so, because if it turns out they took advantage of his absence for fun he’ll be distinctly annoyed. 

His dogs being there with him - mostly on top of him truth be told, one of them sprawled across more mattress than he had any right to occupy - helps to some extent, he supposes, because Imelda doesn’t allow them in bed with them and you know what, her loss. 

This isn’t too bad at all, he tells himself, and he finally falls asleep late at night. Only to be awakened, much too early for a Saturday morning, by screams.

“Mierd--” 

Thud.

“Ow!” As he lands on the hard floor, his dogs starting to bark hysterically, he can tell that the screams are coming from outside and not, as it seemed, from right next to his ear. Trying to ignore the way his heart keeps beating somewhere in his throat, Ernesto throws his window open and looks out. 

Inside the cage Gustavo left in the middle of the yard, there is a howling, hairless dog biting at the bars and bouncing around, rattling the metal. Well, look at that-- he managed to catch the stray. Problem solved, now it would be for animal control and… and… aaand apparently Héctor had some objections to it, because he was already running out of the block and into the yard, followed by two gangly teenagers who could only possibly be Imelda’s brothers. 

“Ah-ha! I finally got you! I-- hey! HEY! What are you doing, Rivera??”

Oh, of course, he should have known this would happen. With a sigh, Ernesto looks up to see Gustavo’s head poking out of his own window, looking constipated as always. Before he can yell something at him, he disappears from the window-- only to reappear half a minute later in the yard, running up to the trap right as Héctor and the twins manage to set the dog free. 

“Stop that! I have to call animal control!” Gustavo barks, only for Héctor to turn and glare at him. The dog is in his arms, tail wagging and ridiculously long tongue lolling. 

“Well, good news!” one of the twins exclaims.

“We got this sorted!” the other continues. 

“So no need for animal control! Isn’t that lucky?”

Gustavo looks moments away from a stroke. “You can’t--”

“Adopt a stray dog? I believe I can,” Héctor replies, and walks back to the block, dog in his arms and twins at his heels, leaving behind a fuming Gustavo. His triumphant smile, however, wavers when he gets beneath Ernesto’s window and meets his gaze. 

Ernesto raises an eyebrow. “Looks like you got a dog,” he says, his own chihuahuas jumping up against his legs. “Congrats.”

“Er… thanks.”

“It’s not coming anywhere near mine, to be clear.”

“Look, I haven’t thought it that far. I haven’t thought a thing, really. And-- ay, Imelda. I have no idea how I’ll tell Imelda this,” he goans. The dog wriggles in his arms, licking his face, and Ernesto smiles. 

“Hold on a minute, I’m coming,” he says. 

A relieved smile. “Ah, thanks! I could use some help--”

“I’m not going to miss the scene.”

“... Cabrón,” Héctor mutters, and Ernesto laughs, getting back in to reach for his trousers. He can hear, faintly, the twins talking. 

“Maybe if you tell her he saved you from that guy...”

“Or a pack of rabid coyotes…”

“Rabid coyotes, in the middle of Mexico City?”

“Oh! I know, he pulled you out of the way of a road accident!”

“If you tell her we were driving, she’ll believe it.”

“You could argue she has a cat, so you get a dog.”

“Would be fair!”

“If we wash it really well before she comes home and put a bow on him…”

“Didn’t work with the fox, though.”

“Well, it did eat her parrot.”

“But we’ll think of something!”

Ernesto can hear his best friend sighing as they moved to the entrance. “Thanks, muchachos,” he says, “but maybe it’s best if you don’t.”

*** 

“... Héctor.”

“Sí?”

“What have you got there?”

Héctor’s eyes shift to the plastic glass in his hand, the other still holding onto the makeshift collar to keep a very excited dog from jumping up to Imelda and cover her in slobber. Like he’s already done to everyone else in the room, Pepita included, leaving muddy pawprints on… everything. “Horchata,” he finally says. 

Imelda says nothing, but her own eyes shift to the dog. Then to the pawprints. Then on the smashed vase by the window, the victim of an enthusiastic tail wag. To the door leading to the bathroom, where - she can guess - a very much unwanted bath resulted in some noteworthy devastation. Eventually, her gaze pauses on the three faces peering at her from the doorwary. 

Two immediately disappear in a well-timed retreat. Ernesto stands his ground. 

“I tried to stop him,” he declares. 

“No,” Imelda says quietly, and with utmost certainty. “You did not.”

“I told him I don’t want that mangy thing anywhere near my pups. Counts as trying to stop him.”

“He’s not mangy,” Héctor’s protests. “He’s naturally hairless.”

“And very, very itchy,” Ernesto retorts. With the dog furiously scratching himself, and then starting to bite his own back leg, her husband knew better than to argue otherwise. 

“Well-- we’ll take him to the vet and get him checked over,” Héctor mutters.

Imelda smiles, a sweet kind of smile that never fails to make Héctor’s blood run cold. “Good idea. And what’s the plan after that, mi amor?” Her voice is rotting honey. At the doorway, she can see Ernesto is shifting uncomfortably and shrugging his shoulders.

You’re on your own, amigo, that shrug says. Her brothers are, of course, still gone from sight. Smart boys.

Héctor tries to answer with a sheepish smile. He looks far too nervous for that to work. “Uh, well. I mean, he’s purebred. Maybe he has an owner, the vet can check if he’s chipped.”

That could be a good point, Imelda almost concedes, but she shakes her head. “If you believed that, you would have let animal control handle it.”

“Well-- I didn’t want to let Gustavo win this one!”

Another good one. Imelda has to give him that. “... All right. We will take him to the vet. If he’s chipped and missing, good. If he’s not, it’s out of our hands and this is final.”

*** 

“A fungal infection. Really.”

“It’s not his fault! And-- look, we only need to take a few pills. It’s not like he has rabies.”

“Could have fooled me, with all that drool.”

“You’ve never seen a rabid dog, have you?”

“And I don’t plan to. Hey, if my hair starts falling off--”

“It won’t. It’s not mange, Ernesto. Just annoyingly itchy.” Héctor scratches his arm. “Anyway-- no microchip. That means no owner.”

“And that means he has nowhere to go!”

“And that means the pound!”

“And then death, of course!”

“He could very well be adopted--”

“And he needs medication!”

“For the fungal thing.”

“Will they keep up with his medication at all?”

“I bet they won’t bother.”

“Other dogs will bully him!”

“And steal his food!”

“And he’ll starve!”

“But no pressure.”

“None whatsoever.”

“... Thank God the two of you are going back to Santa Cecilia tomorrow.”

No reply, just two identical smiles. Behind them, Ernesto is almost sticking a fist in his mouth not to laugh - good for him, because if he does laugh he’ll never get back in the same bed as her. Héctor is smiling at her as well, tilting his head to the spot where the dog is sleeping, skinny legs sticking out in all directions and, most puzzling of all, with a purring cat over his chest. 

Traitor, Imelda thinks, but with no venom.

“Pepita likes him,” Héctor points out the obvious, delivering the lowest of low blows. Imelda draws in a deep breath. 

“... A week at most,” she finally says. Héctor smiles even more brightly and ah, damn him, he knows how much she loves that toothy smile of his.  

“A week,” he agrees. 

“And in that week, you’ll find him a home.”

“I will.”

“A home that is not ours.”

“Of course.”

“And you will not name him.”

“Aw, but--”

“No buts. If you name a street dog, you never get rid of it.”

“All right,” Héctor agrees, placing a hand on the dog’s. “No name.”

*** 

“Paco.”

“What?”

“He looks like a Paco.”

“He does not.”

“Loco, then.”

“That’s marginally more fitting, but too similar to Lobo’s name.”

“Who’s Lobo?”

“One of my-- do you just forget their names?”

“I known them collectively as the Chihuahua Pack.”

“... Fair.”

“How about… Perro!”

“And here I thought songwriters need to be creative.”

“Pelón? Or Tonto.”

“Both fit.”

“How about--”

“Dante.”

“Huh?” Both Imelda and Ernesto turn to glance at Héctor, who has just wrestled something out of the Xolo’s jaws. He holds up a chewed-up case of some old videogame he’s been re-playing recently, the title - Devil May Cry - barely readable. He grins.

“I say we call him Dante.”

*** 

Officially, they never decide to adopt Dante. It just sort of happens. If asked, Imelda will say they are waiting for a good home to come up for him - never mind they’re actually doing nothing to find it. So Héctor makes sure no one asks. 

The threat ‘if he eats one single shoe so help me’ remains a threat, because he never does go after shoes - the few times he got into her workshop, Pepita jumped on his head and led him into a chase, and he lost interest. He chews plenty of stuff - including a hair product Ernesto left at their place once - but never shoes. He never quite learns how to walk on a leash and pulls like a train, but Héctor can handle it without flying off after him. Most of the time. 

The fungal infection clears up, he is allowed to play with Ernesto’s chihuahuas, and the empty box of the medication they all used is thrown away, along with the instruction booklet full of details they didn’t really read.

Because really - who bothers with those?

***

“I had an idea.”

Héctor’s voice is little more than a gasp as he lays on the mattress, still panting, Imelda’s head on his shoulder and Ernesto’s arm across his chest. It causes Imelda to lift her head to glance down at him - her hair tickles, making him squirm.

Ernesto, on the other hand, groans. “Whatever it is, I’m spent. So can we discuss it--”

“You two should sing together!”

“... Right now? We can barely talk and--”

“No, no, not now! For the album!” he protests. Ernesto lifts himself on his elbows, and exchanges a baffled glance with Imelda before looking back down at Héctor. He rolls his eyes.

“There still is that song-- we could still use a female voice for it? And Armando’s idea to do a cover of La Llorona to have among the songs, you and Imelda could do it!”

She blinks. “You’re joking, right?”

“I’m not! You sing well together. I’m sure Armando will agree!”

“Last time we tried, it didn’t work out,” Ernesto points out, like he wasn’t there to see it.

“Because you tried to sing over each other! Now you have--” he trails off before the words - come a long way - can leave his mouth. It is true, he knows that, but it would still feel like saying too much. Part of him fears what they have will be soured and lost if they speak of it, if they put too much thought in it. 

The part of him that longs to turn everything beautiful in his life into music aches, but he knows it’s not to be. Best not to look for words. 

“... You have a chance to try again,” he finally says. He runs a hand through Imelda’s hair, shifts a little in Ernesto’s grip. “Third time’s the charm.”

“This would be the second time.”

“So, one step closer to the third,” Héctor grins, gaining himself a roll of the eyes and a flick on the nose. “Come on, we’ll try here. Just the three of us. If you suck, no one else will find out.”

Imelda gives a small smile, then she glances at Ernesto, and it turns into a grin. 

“If he can keep up,” she challenges, and of course it is the only push he needs.

*** 

“Ay de mí, Llorona, Llorona Llorona de azul celeste…”

Ernesto isn’t sure who between the three has moved to dance first - they were not supposed to dance, just to play and sing - but at the moment he finds it doesn’t really matter. They dance easily across the living room, he and Imelda singing and Héctor playing his guitar, dodging furniture, the dogs and cat and all their toys strewn about in Imelda’s once-pristine living room. 

“Y aunque la vida me cueste, Llorona No dejaré de quererte No dejaré de quererte…”

Imelda steps forward, chin tilted and eyes ablaze; he meets her with a stride forward of his own,  Héctor twirls with one last strum, and as they come to a standstill. As the last notes of the song fade, the words - no dejaré de quererte! - echo in his mind for a long, long moment. 

Then Héctor lets out a grito, Imelda laughs, and Ernesto only joins her a moment later. He didn’t like Imelda getting involved with music last time - she’d been invading, he felt, what should have been something only he and Héctor shared. But now, he finds he doesn’t mind.

If things stay this way forever, he won’t mind. He won’t mind at all.

***

[On to Part 14]

[Back to Part 12]

***

Also by Dara: Doggie May Cry. 

[still-we-go-pumpkins]

An amazing fan tribute to Weiki. Unique facts compilation 👌🎃

I've just found the post on DeviantArt. As great Weiki fan also, I can confirm that he's really that marvelous just as the author describes him. This will make you feel warm and will set smile on your face as well as you will check Helloween vids/lives while exploring this facts. So, here we go.

Further credits : SamWeiki

100 Reasons I love Michael Weikath

Possible – scratch that, definite – Fangirling ahead (I tried to keep it to a minimum and I probably failed)

1. He has the most gorgeous blue eyes. [right off, I told you – Fangirling]

2. The songs he writes are so unique and AMAZING. Most of them mean quite a lot to me, as well. I’ve always been drawn to them. They just have a certain special quality to them that I love.

3. He wrote “Keeper of the Seven Keys” for cryin’ out loud!

4. His “thanks” section in the Unarmed booklet.

5. He’d pick Judas Priest over Iron Maiden in an instant.

6. The way he sometimes answers questions. For instance, he was asked about what fans could expect from The Dark Ride and his response was: “Well....hmmmm you can expect that it will be standing in stores and it’s very likely you can buy it when you find it there! hahahahahaha apart from that I don’t know if it’s going to say anything but you can go there and buy it, listen to it, and use it, because it’s a CD and it usually makes a lot of sound if you put it into a CD player......but probably doesn't work if you put it into a toaster.....hahahahahaha.”

7. If he wasn’t a musician, he says his life would be dedicated to cartoons.

8. He dedicated the Hammond version of “Burning Sun” to the great Jon Lord.

9. He’s an artist. His little skull and pumpkin drawing is beautiful.

10. He makes the best faces in concerts.

11. I love watching him in the High Live video, especially during “Steel Tormentor”. [I did not just say that]

12. He made the frog noises at the end of “Nothing to Say”.

13. So many people have blamed him for things over the years, when he did nothing wrong, just because they feel it's easier to blame him. I experience that quite a lot and have for several years, so I understand what it's like but he seems a lot stronger than me about it, as it's very hard for me to get over a lot of that stuff. He's sort of my hero about that because it seems like he hasn't let that really stop him.

14. How he totally told off that Phantom guy. His responses were awesome.

15. A part of “Do You Know What You Are Fighting For” is Deep Purple’s “Stormbringer” backwards. There’s actually a lot of Deep Purple in that song. Makes me love it even more – both songs.

16. He played on Uli Kusch’s cover of “Eyes of the World” from the Rainbow tribute album and he played all the guitar on that song. “Yeah I played on Eyes Of The World. So I did all of the guitar work on it. Uli told me that he did not expect me to have the guitar work as close to the original song as I had it.”

17. The seven pronged star on the cover of 7 Sinners was his idea. And what a damn fine idea it was because it makes a freaking sweet album cover! It was a lot of fun for me to draw, as well.

18. When writing “LAVDATE DOMINVM”, he called upon his old Latin lessons from school and actually got to work with his old Latin teacher on the lyrics. Weiki hadn’t worked with Latin for a bit, so he had to relearn a few things and he even managed to correct something his teacher had written.

19. His response to what animal he would be: “A lion, 'cause I could be lyin' round lazy and have my food brought to me by other people.”

20. Helloween would not be Helloween without him, plus Markus and Andi wouldn’t let him quit in 2000/2001.

21. He drew the logo and original pumpkin.

22. How beautiful the lyrics to “Windmill” are. Example:

"Don't feel alone and depressed

Someone will come, at last

To soothe your storming mind

To keep it away from the evil storms."

23. You can clearly hear the man singing in “White Christmas” and he’s the most fun to listen to.

24. “Introduction” never fails to make me laugh very loudly, especially the lyrics to “Rock n’ Roll All Day”.

25. He likes Spinal Tap.

26. The way he sang “Gorgar will eat you” in the Keeper Legacy interviews.

27. He was asked what his motto in life was and his response was: Be as friendly as it comes; have fun, make money and spend it on charity to help people. ~Sei so freundlich wie es geht; Spaß haben, viel Geld verdienen und es für wohltätige Zwecke ausgeben, um Leuten zu helfen~ (it was originally in German)

28. His black and white outfits in the ‘80s and ‘90s, especially those awesome star-printed pants.

29. The entire story of the Keeper of the Seven Keys and Master of the Rings.

30. The Jacuzzi scene in the Keeper Legacy Road movie.

31. He likes Aphrodite’s Child, Nektar, and Camel. He’s cool.

32. I really don’t think I’ve heard him say anything bad about anyone.

33. The moment when he switched his guitar off and “played” a solo after he was introduced in The Legacy concert.

34. “All right… That’s enough! Now, I want to hear Dani’s drum solo!” *rapid fire – BLAMBLAMBLAM!* The first time I watched the “Smoke On the Water” bit from Hellish Rock, I nearly fell to the floor laughing.

35. About the time Pink Bubbles Go Ape came out, in an interview, Michael Kiske said something about they weren’t Metal, they didn’t do that “Heavy Metal” thing and Weiki says, “I thought we were Heavy Metal”. And Michi completely just stopped talking for a second.

36. The way Weiki messed around with Michi and Roland during the interview mentioned above.

37. How much fun he looked like he was having in the “Kids of the Century” video.

38. Every time he dances around on stage.

39. His love for Gibson Les Pauls.

40. He was reading “A Hat Full of Sky” and even recommended it.

41. He says that his writing “Keeper of the Seven Keys” kept him alive and he considers it a major turning point in his life to have come up with the idea for it.

42. The hairspray scene in the Hellish Rock road movie.

43. He actually got involved with the DJ game when they were in Japan (Keeper Legacy road movie) – the whole arcade scene was great.

44. The way he just looks at a camera sometimes and doesn’t say a word – he just starts making faces and looking off in different directions. He can be funny without saying a single word.

45. His guitar solo in “Back On the Ground”.

46. He played most of the guitar on the Better Than Raw album.

47. Weikath Syndrome is the coolest thing to catch.

48. During the German Top 6 video (1993), he was drinking a Capri Sun. I think it may have even been Wild Cherry.

49. A Gibson Les Paul looks absolutely perfect on him. I also love the way he holds the guitar.

50. How his hair has always been shoulder length (at least) since the late ‘80s (and beautiful).

51. He thinks of the younger viewers/fans.

52. All the love for him in the Hellbook.

53. I don’t how much of the lyrics to “Dreambound” he wrote, but he has a credit on that song and OH MY GOD, is it flipping incredible! I must make special mention to how amazing “the Saints” is, too.

54. He wanted to talk to Michael Kiske when they met at a festival in 2012/2013, so they could try and work things out a little.

55. He wanted “Livin’ Ain’t No Crime” to be a single.

56. His song “Number One” and how uplifting and positive the lyrics are, especially the chorus.

57. When they were on the Ferris wheel, they didn’t start REALLY laughing until Weiki did.

58. How he introduces himself as “de Michael Weikath of Helloween” and he even got Dani to do it with him.

59. He contributed a guitar solo to the German Rock Project’s “Let Love Conquer the World” (the long Metal version) but went all incognito with it and is credited as “a member of the Seventh Key”.

60. The fact that he wanted a flute in “Raise the Noise” and it sounds totally awesome!

61. The sexy witch on the cover of Better Than Raw was Weiki’s idea.

62. His makeshift rocking chair.

63. His spoken part of the Dezperadoz song “First Blood” (and “Echoes of Eternity”, too).

64. How funny was in the two Nuremberg interviews from the ‘80s that are on YouTube.

1987 – He lights a cigarette, he passes it Ingo, Ingo passes it back, and Weiki passes it back to him. Ingo then proceeds to throw it on the ground and Weiki attempts to lightly hit him but only manages to hit his hair. xD

1988 – The FUNNY one! He was so frickin’ funny in that one. I won’t give away the end of it if you’ve never seen it, but it involves a balloon and a cigarette. (by the way, Michael Weikath takes his sunglasses off and puts them back on 13 times, 10 of which are in the first three minutes).

65. After an interviewer thanks him for being there, “Ja, that’s not so much I can do about it, because somebody put me on this Earth and I went out of my mother and suddenly I was there and now I have to deal with this crap.”

66. During the Indianapolis Hell On Wheels concert, during “Halloween”, Michi passes the mic over to Weiki and Weiki does the “I’ll show you power and glory” part. Michi then makes a disgruntled face at him and rubs the mic with his shirt, causing Weiki to make a face back at him!

67. Also from the same Hell On Wheels concert, during “A Tale That Wasn’t Right”, he was stepping on the skeleton and making Ingo laugh.

68. Speaking of “A Tale That Wasn’t Right”, that song is incredible and very powerful.

69. He let the other members of the band help out on “Mission Motherland”. That song is very quickly becoming my favorite song of theirs.

70. His backing vocals in the “Sea of Fears” demo.

71. All of his little pins that he wears: the pumpkin, the W, the stars…

72. This comment he made about the Hellbook: “With the hardcover you can better smash your naughty brother... and you can with the regular as well, just maybe not as effective.” I have actually made that joke to my brother before. xD

73. Someone at a meet-n-greet in 2008 showed the band an old picture of the guys, which they all signed. It was an old picture. Kai was stunned, Markus laughed his ass off, and Michael actually said he remembered where it was taken and when. The picture was taken in 1986, so that is kind of impressive.

74. He helped me become a big fan of Deep Purple. Yes, I will admit to only becoming a major Deep Purple fan after becoming a Helloween fan - and it was all because of Weiki. And now I'm really happy because I never realized how awesome Deep Purple is. Same thing with Wishbone Ash.

75. He’s given me several phrases to use whenever applicable.

- “Impressive, isn’t it?”

- “You have to listen with your ears.”

- “It’s nice, cold, windy, sunny weather.” (which pretty much describes Florida in the winter sometimes)

76. He can still sing with a cigarette in his mouth and not drop the cigarette.

77. The intro to “Halloween”. I’m not sure if he played it on the original recording, but when he plays it live… OH MY GOD.

78. His guitar solo in “First Time”.

79. He’s fun to watch in the “When the Sinner” video when he’s shown, especially when he’s playing those power chords in the beginning (even though he played no guitar on the song) and the part in the saloon.

80. How amazing “Les Hambourgeois Walkways” is.

81. He’s written a couple songs that he has dedicated to groups of fans ~ “LAVDATE DOMINVM” for the Latin speaking fans, and “Born on Judgment Day” for the people of Brazil.

82. How he’s so easily able to make Sascha laugh behind the camera.

More here 💜

[lovelycheollie]

Equally, Just Like Him (Jun)

“It was only a sunny smile, and little it cost in the giving, but like morning light it scattered the night and made the day worth living.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald

Words: 2545

SEJUN=JUN’S CHILD

Hello everyone! This a requested made by an anon, and I personally had fun writing it. Somehow I was motivated and stuff and I imagined how adorable it might be. Anyway! Please be reminded that Sejun is the name of Jun's child for this one idk I wanted to use Jun's name for the child's name as well

I hope you like it!

"Jun," you mumbled under your breath, eyes still closed and dozing within the covers. Your body shifted to the side as Jun stepped out of the bathroom with only a towel covering his lower torso. He rested his sight on your slumbering state. His hair was damp from the morning shower, droplets sliding on his nape one at a time and his skin smelling like jasmine with a musky touch in it. A warm smile grew on him as he walked closer to the bed and palmed your face.

"Hey, Y/N wake up," he whispered to your ear, making your shoulders jerk a little from the tickling sensation. But you didn't budge, instead you continued to dance with him in wonderland.

"Wake up sweetie."

"Ssh, it's too early to get out of bed," you replied with a falling tone on the end and covered your face with another pillow. Jun was sure you weren't in your usual self yet, and he was very fascinated by it.

"Too early? It's 8:25 Y/N."

Shocked upon hearing the time, you rose, sitting straight with bed-ridden hair and grabbed the alarm clock on the night stand. 8:25, he was right, and it was the horrible truth.

You heard him chuckle as you rushed to fix your bed and lock yourself in the bathroom. You had no time to scold him and ask about his laughing fit. "What's the rush for sweetie?"

"I have to drive our son to your mom's house by 9:00!" You grabbed the knob, opened the medicine cabinet and eyed its contents. You took out the tube of minty toothpaste and toothbrush and busied yourself with thoughts. One minute to brush, thirty second to rinse, then two minutes to wash your face, it'll be fine.

Jun calmly opened the closet door and strolled inside to see what he could wear on the fanmeet today. He was humming with rhythm on his feet, and the grin on his cheeks never faded as he took out a dark blue turtleneck shirt and black oversized coat. He knew you'd swoon on your toes at the sight of him wearing such, just like how you did when he kneeled in front of you.

"Is Sejun awake? Please, at least tell me you woke him up," you cried as you rinsed the foam off on your face. Your silk shirt became heavy as water seeped into it, and some of your hair got wet as well. You cursed in a very soft manner, grabbed the hair blower in the drawer and styled your hair into natural waves.

"He's awake, I served him a bowl of cereal and milk, toast on the side. He's probably watching some cartoons downstairs," a snicker echoed outside the bathroom once more. "But seriously, how can you oversleep on the day you'll visit mom?"

The door opened to the side, exposing a somehow fresher version of you in curls and in wet silk. You dashed forward to him, and Jun prepared himself for the worst. Your sight was away from him though, you were scanning the closet for decent clothes. Luckily for you, the white long sleeves and black pair of slacks were still available for today.

As you were to step outside the walk-in closet, Jun blocked the doorway, extending his arms right to the other side. "You shall not pass!"

"Good reference, but I'm in a hurry, so move aside."

"Nope, nuh-uh. You're not passing Y/N."

"Jun, come on! I have to leave before 9."

His fingers pointed at his right cheek as his face went closer to you. He winked, and like the fangirl you were, your heart took a leap and your cheeks were blossoming with a bright shade of red. "Give me a kiss first. You're my wife after all. Care to give a farewell kiss before I hit the road."

"What? Oh, right. You're having a fanmeet today. What time is it again?"

"What's up with you and the time? It's 10:30 a.m. but I have to meet up with the others by 9:30, so I should go, but I can't."

"And why is that?"

He pointed to his cheek once more, putting emphasis with the look on his eyes and the pout on his lips. Jun was clever. Charming. Cleverly charming, and all you could do was roll your eyes and plant your lips on him. As soon as you did, he was beaming with joy, his smile was a virus and it lightened up your mood.

Remembering the state you were in, your dearest husband moved to the side to make way for his beloved wife. The two of you were a couple of smiling idiots, him helping you out with your accessories and leaning for a kiss as he bid his goodbye.

So you went downstairs, your attention in a sweet trance as your heels clicked on the wooden floor. The red handbag dangled on your arms while you strolled to the living room. Your son Sejun was sitting in the middle of the sofa, in his striped shirt and pants, together with the stuffed panda his father gave him last night. He was the spitting image of Jun, and you loved them both equally.

His ears perked up as you went nearer to his side. His small head turned, and the straight, curious look turned into the warmest smile you've ever seen. The kid bounced up and down, showing you that he was ready for today's adventure.

"Mama, mama! We're going to grandma's house today right?" He said between breaths as you turned the TV off and sat across him. You settled the empty glass and bowl on the tray and walked towards the kitchen. Your child trailed from behind, still holding on the stuffed toy.

"Yes Sejun. I see you finished your breakfast. I'm proud of you."

He then showered you with his loving grin, the smile glittering with the rows of his pearly whites. "You should eat too mama."

"Oh I ate already Sejun, now hold mama's hand. We're leaving now,"you told him and he obeyed. His little hand rested on your own, walking to the garage as the maid opened the gates for you. Sejun climbed to the back, his 6 year-old self wearing the seatbelt on his own while staring at your reflection.

You turned to your wristwatch, 8:45 a.m., you still had 15 minutes to spare. You thanked the heavens for giving you some time, and your husband as well for waking you up that early. The car's engine hummed in the hushed state of the morning, and soon the two of you were driving on the main road.

Seventeen's music was showcased in the morning radio as your child listened attentively and looked at the passing scenery outside. Sejun's gaze fell on the empty passenger's seat in front, then to you. "Mama, where is papa?"

"Oh, well, he has to be with your uncles for today. They're meeting their fans."

"Fans? The one that papa calls carats?"

"Yes Sejun, and he has to spend a day with them since they are his friends."

"Oh, can we go too? I want to see papa and the carats!" You took a glimpse of your child on the mirror and back to the road again.

"Sejun, papa is going to be busy today. Plus grandma is waiting for us-" a ringtone excused itself within the talk and you figured that your mother-in-law was trying to reach you. Your thumb pressed answer and turned it to speaker mode.

"Hello?"

"Yes mom, it's me Y/N. I'm with Sejun now, we're on our way."

"Oh my, where are you?"

"In the main road, why mom?"

You heard some sighs on the end of the line. "I have to cancel today's plans. I have to go to the mall and buy some furniture because this dog of mine tore some leather again. I'm so sorry dear."

"It's okay mom," you looked at your son once more. He wore a sad pout on his lips, eyes a little bit teary and all. You knew that look very well from a certain man, and he just had to pass it on to his son. "Sejun wanted to go and visit someone today anyway."

"I see, then we'll just see each other around some other time. Goodbye Y/N, take care."

"Yes mom, see you soon," as you pressed the red button on the screen, you drove to the nearest u-turn and turned to your son's delight. The sparkle on his eyes appeared again, the kid turning into a whirligig of energy.

"Mama, are we going to see papa?"

"Yes Sejun, but first we have to make a short stopover."

The thirteen men sat on the edge of their seats, smiles plastered on them and giggles were heard here and there. They were dancing and singing together at the center hours ago, showing off their talent, laughing together with the fans and making them giddy and excited. The hall was filled with melody and stunning visuals as the relationship between Seventeen and carats bloomed.

They took a breather from the fun-filled chaos for an hour and filled their stomachs, giving them enough energy to last for the whole afternoon. Soon, they were back to the front again, sitting in one line and holding on to their markers to greet their loyal fans.

Jun was the first in line since it was his job to properly thank the carats, or he believed that it was his task. His grip on the marker was firm, grinning and pleasing every carat with his soothing yet sexy voice. The glitter in his eyes never wavered as he wrote his messages and posed for the cameras. He was a professional at these kinds of things. He'd send them off to the next member beside him, aiding them while holding their hands like how a prince would. But he figured that if you were there, he'd never let you off with the others.

As he thanked and guided the fan to Wonwoo who sat beside him, a little boy wearing a Jun headband presented their album and gave him a box of his favorite doughnut. What made Jun's heart flutter more was when he learned that the kid was no other than his own little Sejun. His eyes became watery as he looked lovingly to his son. The kid was on the tip of his toes, offering the album with a grin, just like his father's. "Hello papa!"

"Sejun! Is this for me?"

"Yes it is. Please sign this album for mama!"

"What are you doing here?"

"Well," he shifted his foot to the back of his other leg and fiddled with his stuffed toy. "Grandma had to go somewhere today, so I asked mama if we could come and visit you!"

"Where is mama?" He motioned his hands in a way to tell his son to come to him. Sejun followed his father, and was awarded by letting him sit on his lap as he signed the album. Fans were head-over-heels with the duo, squealing and taking pictures of the two. The fansite noonas focused their lenses to the young boy and his father who took their sweet time.

The kid then pointed at the far back of the crowd, directly to you who smiled along with the managers. "Mama is over there. Hi mama, I'm with papa!"

"Oh, it's little Sejun!" Wonwoo exclaimed and took the attention of the other members. They waved their hands to him, fascinated by Jun's carbon copy. Jun settled the child on the floor to greet his uncles and pose with them. And as you watched the others having fun onstage, you heard a ring and checked your phone to see Jun's text for you.

The managers beside you hooted and cheered, saying that your family was perfect and such, enough to make you flustered as you accepted their compliments. You saw Jun in the middle of the stage and carried his son with the microphone on. "This is my son Wen Sejun, isn't he handsome like me? My wife is over there! Y/N! I love you, thank you for visiting!"

Everyone's eyes were on you, grinning and applauding as you turned into a blushing mess. Carats knew that the man was married, and even before you introduced yourself as his wife to the public, they knew Jun was in good hands, and that he was going to be happy. In fact, he was lucky to be married to you and to be called as your husband.

After the fanmeeting, Jun quickly ran to you, together with Sejun and the other twelve. You were still taken aback from earlier, and being the center of attention was still new to you and made you nervous. The kid ran to you and hugged your knees while hiding from his father who carried the stuffed toy and the signed album.

"You know you could've just asked me to let the others sign this album right? Did you really have to make Sejun fall in line?" Jun asked as he pinched your reddened cheeks.

"Sejun wanted to surprise you, plus he wanted to experience the feeling of waiting and falling in line."

"Did we surprise you papa?" Your child asked, and all that Jun could do was carry him once more and press his cheeks to his own.

"Yes, you and mama did. Thank you for visiting Sejun, papa loves you and mama too," he looked at you and winked, the members whistled as he locked his hand with yours. "Now let's go and eat! Uncle Woozi said he'll treat us today!"

And so, the fifteen of you celebrated the success of the event in a private karaoke room, chomping and eating to your heart's content together with the child you called your treasure. Sejun was charming and talented, attracting the hearts of all especially his parents'. As he sang his father's favorite song with his grown uncles, you and Jun shared a quick peck, hiding from Sejun's wandering eyes.

"You took me by surprise earlier Y/N. Really, you always keep on making me love you more."

"Oh geez, it's all Sejun's idea. But if he's happy with it, then I'm happy as well."

"You're too good to be true, Mrs. Wen. I'm lucky to have you as my wife."

You looked and stared at his brown orbs as you felt the same. You sneaked another kiss on his lips once more before making a satisfied sigh. Oh how lucky you were to have this man as your child's son and your husband.

"The feeling's mutual Jun. And I'm thankful to have you as well. You're not a bad father after all."

"You have to be kidding me-."

"And I love you."

He chuckled and rested his head on you. Another afternoon was perfect because you and Sejun were right beside him. And within his thoughts, he wished that the day didn't have to end. But if it was to end, he wanted to see the hues and the setting sun with the two people he loved the most.

"I love you too, and Sejun too. And I'll never stop loving the two of you."