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bad-moon--rising · 3 months ago

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Cinema History:

Opened in 1982 under the ownership of Mrs. Andrea Marsh, a Gifted Magick transplant from London.

Taken over by Mr. Godfrey and his late wife Beverly in 1987.

Aside from some revisions and repairs after various disasters, the theater hasn't had any major renovations since the Godfreys bought it.

Shows movies primarily from the 1930s-1950s (this will be subject to change when the theater is revamped later in.)

Theater Prices:

Adult Ticket: £8.00

Child Ticket: £5.00

Pride U Student Discount: £7.00

Other Discounts (military, senior, etc.) - £1.50 on price.

Business Hours: (will be subject to change/open on Sundays when the theater is updated later)

Thursday thru Saturday: 10:00am - 11:30pm

Tuesday & Wednesday: 11:00am - 10:30pm

Movie runtimes:

Thursday thru Saturday: 11:00am - 10:30pm

Tuesday & Wednesday: 12:00pm - 10:00pm

Job Info/Employee Info

Cinema NPC Info

Cinema Pinterest Inspo Board

Cinema HCs

Overall the place has that old movie theater vibe; the red carpet, red chairs, brown tile floors. But one distinction is how, while the exterior of the building is concrete/brick the interior walls are wood paneling and the lights are track lighting so it does give a bit more of an older, glamorous look to the place. The appearance has been well maintained, it just isn't very modern.

The building has two floors, it's not a multiplex but it is a large space; the first floor is the business itself, upstairs is a large unused space and the apartment the Godfreys built there, now occupied by Lucky and Scott.

Honestly the place seems bigger on the inside than it should be for the space but people don't question it much and when they do nobody gets a real answer.

There is an ancient, huge popcorn machine that doesn't work but has been around so long nobody wants to get rid of it. So it just takes up a corner of the concessions area and everyone calls it a decorative piece. (It can be fixed but we haven't gotten that far yet.)

Employees have noticed on occasion when they lock up the lobby for the night if they happen to miss one of the doors and go back to check they're always locked. And oddly some have said when they've accidentally let the backdoor shut behind them taking out the trash it seems to stick for some reason so they can get back in.

Sometimes lights around the screening rooms and lobby will turn off when an employee is closing up before they can get around to it. Everyone who has been around a while jokes that it's just Mrs. Godfrey looking after the place.

Event Information

The cinema will host events on occasion; interested parties are encouraged to contact the manager to set up a time to discuss plans. These events can be as small as birthday parties to larger town events because the lobby space is large enough to accommodate fairly well. (please give events to host at the cinema, thanks)

Event coordinating should be handled at least a month before the event. Use of screening rooms, the kitchen/concessions area and the overall lobby space is open to plans. (IC note: if you want to have something small like a birthday just give me a heads-up, bigger events please DM just to sort out the hosting situation/that's the only part I'll be involved really unless you want more involvement from the cinema staff)

Technically since the second floor has a large amount of open space events are possible there too, if you want to plan something large.

Concessions Info

I just took most of these prices from a few current cinemas in the UK and purposely made them lower because Mr. Godfrey hasn't updated things in years.

Basic:

Popcorn (sm/med/lrg) £4.00/4.50/5.00

Typical movie popcorn w/butter, in paper cartons or standard white and red striped refillable plastic versions.

Sodas (fountain drinks) (sm/med/lrg) £2.00/2.50/3.00

Again, just typical in either disposable waxed paper cups or plastics refillable. Behind the counter, employee-served.

Sodas (bottled) £2.00

Kept in a standing glass cooler next to the counter, self-serve.

Water (bottled) £2.00

Kept in the standing cooler with the bottles of sodas.

Candy (Pre-packaged) £3.50

Kept behind the glass counter, various prices, various types because I'm not going to list all of them.

Ice Cream (Pre-packaged) £2.50

Small standing freezer by the counter, various types, self-serve.

Kitchen:

Ice Cream (Machine) £3.00

Cones or bowls, not particularly exciting (vanilla or chocolate) with toppings of various candy, chocolate sauce or caramel.

Nachos £4.00

Basic nachos with the option of jalapenos or not.

Pizza £4.50

Cheese, veggie or pepperoni, those single serve microwave frozen type.

Pretzels £4.00

Large soft pretzels that come frozen and are kept in a warmer in the kitchen, comes with butter or cheese. Also not overly exciting.

Town Disaster Protocol

Whenever safe to do so, evacuation of the cinema to nearby safe spaces is encouraged, this includes both customers and staff. The cinema is not a magic warded safe house currently. When possible staff should lock up before evacuation but if it's a question of safety this isn't an issue; it's always better to leave things unlocked and evacuate from a dangerous situation.

When evacuation is impossible or not advised shelter in place; screening rooms one and two are used for this purpose as they have direct access to restrooms but are still a contained space away from windows, but do include exterior exits if needed.

In case of flooding or other issues where higher ground is safer, evacuation to the second level of the theater will be open to everyone; emergency supplies are stored both there and the first level to shelter in place for extended amounts of time. (But you're going to be eating a lot of candy and popcorn.)

During a shelter in place situation if staff isn't on hand emergency supplies (bottled water, first aid supplies, nonperishable food, blankets, flashlights) are stored in the staff break room, kitchen, and upstairs; notices that explain these locations are posted in the kitchen and break room.

Cinema Floorplan (ignore my awful scaling here):

Ground Floor:

1. Ticket Booth

Standard front window enclosed booth with registers and information about movie times on the back wall.

2. Concessions Area

Tile countertops and glass front cases with prepackaged candy and snacks, equipment on the back counter includes a sink, popcorn poppers, soda machines and a heating case for warm food. The kitchen to the right is fully functional for heating/preparing food.

The kitchen also holds first aid supplies.

3. Staff Break Room

Has tables and a couch, a staff fridge and access to the kitchen if the staff wants to use it. Not anything overly unusual about the space, just a place for breaks/meals.

4. Main Lobby/Event Space

Open space most of the time but it's large enough to host events and does from time to time.

5. Back Restrooms

Basically just what it says. Male/female/gender inclusive areas.

6. Front Restrooms

Same as the above, with the addition of a family/accessibility inclusive restroom.

7. Screening Room One

Smallest of the screening room; 30 seats total in the space.

8. Screening Room Two

Slightly larger screening room; 50 seats total.

9. Screening Room Three

Largest screening room in the cinema; 110 total seats.

10. Screening Room Four

Standard screening room, 90 seats total.

11. Screening Room Five

Standard screening room, 90 seats total.

12. Projector Booths

Situated in the back of each theater and accessible by the staircase in the hallways between rooms for the larger screening rooms and directly in the back of the smaller ones, overlooking the screening room itself and where the projectors are kept and run.

13. Cinema Office

Mr. Godfrey's office next to the back stairwell upstairs.

Upper Floor

1. Upstairs Apartment

Accessible via the stairwells inside the theater. Was formally the living space of the Godfrey family since buying the theater but now Lucky and Scott live there since Mr. Godfrey has moved to Castle Suites. Most people (for plot sake this means anybody not specifically told) aren't aware the apartment is there and just think it's a separate storage area. Although it is listed as a residential area with the town board like the other business-linked apartments in town.

2. Storage Area

Mostly general storage for the theater, also where film reels are kept between seasonal runs.

3. Storage/Open Space/Future Plot Things

Yup. Potentially a business collab space after the theater is revamped.

4. Storage/Open Space/Future Plot Things

Once again these are future plot points. (But pls offer suggestions if you have an idea!)

#cinema tag #Swynlake cinema #lil info page #might as well post it on Lucky's birthday

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leonard-snurch · 5 years ago

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hey my blog is @inverted-what and my discord is sink pisser#2635

#marsh please contact me if possible #anyone who knows marsh contact me #anyone who wants to be friends contact me

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jaekaicx · 3 years ago

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Marshall loves being held, the way it makes him feel safe. He loves when they wrap their arms around his stomach, the way it makes him feel needed. He loves laying on his partners' chests, the way it makes him feel loved.

So when their partners need to be held, they understand.

Part (2/2) different day, still tired. It's got a sloppy ending so beware.

// tw blood mention

He woke up to very spaced out knocks from the wall they shared with Everett. There was no rhythm, no practiced pattern for emergencies so they knocked back a short and simple pattern for 'here.'

The knocks didn't stop so he stood up, pulling the edge of their sleep shirt down as they entered the hallway. They tiptoed down the hall, softly knocking on Everett's door. There was no response but he heard another knock, quieter than before. They returned to their room to find the key to Ev's then went back, knocking again to be safe.

"Ev?" They didn't yell, but they knew she should've been able to hear. "I'm gonna open the door."

He unlocked it and pocketed the key to put back later. "Ever... rett?"

As he opened the door they saw his partner curled into the wall, asleep. They stepped over jacket and jeans to sit on the mattress beside him. They looked over her, confused until she rolled over and hit the wall. As he faced them, it revealed his now bloody scar that she sleepily continued to scratch.

"Ev!" Marshall snatched his girlfriend's wrists, pinning them above her head before they both tumbled to the floor with Ev straddling his waist and gripping his wrist. "Everett!"

His eyes shot open and he threw herself back. His brain ran a mile a second as she almost reached for her knife. The only thing stopping her was-

"Marsh?" Her boyfriend held their wrist to their chest as Everett's mind slowed. "Are you okay? What happened..?"

"I didn't mean to scare you." Marsh sat up and scooted towards him. They reached out but stopped a few inches from her scar. "Your face..."

Everett reached up to touch her cheek, pulling away as his fingers felt the fluid. He used the hallway light to see the red on his fingertips. "What…?"

"...C'mon…" Marshall stood up, his hurt wrist in his pocket, the other held out for their boyfriend. She looked up at him, silently taking his hand. They pulled him to the bathroom, making her sit on the counter while he wet a rag. "I'm so sorry."

"Wha- Augh!" She flinched back as the rag hit her open wound. Her lip trembled but no tears fell. Other than that the only sign of pain was his shaking voice. "Marshall…"

"I'm right here." Marsh held her chin as softly as possible, but kept it still so he could clean the blood. Afterwards he gently kissed the side of his lips before rinsing the rag and wiping her blood stained hands. "I can't get under your nails… Your face is gonna scab."

"Let me see your wrist."

"Later." Their eyes met and Marshall smiled to hide their minor discomfort. "Why don't we go lay on the couch?"

Everett glanced down at Marsh's hands."I'm texting Anne so she can come wrap it."

"In the morning." They held her jaw, forcing her to look at him. "Let her sleep."

Everett got down from the counter and pushed past to his room. They met in her doorway as Ev pulled up Anne's contact on his phone. "I'm texting her, if she wakes up, then she wakes up."

"Ev, come on…" They reached for his phone.

"No!" She pulled it back accidentally bumping Marshall's hand. They tried not to show it, but it hurt. They winced and Ev grabbed their elbow, pulling the sleeve from their wrist. "Oh."

The bruise went around his wrist. It was the same size as her hand. He left them there, going to the kitchen to make an ice pack. His brain screamed as she made the ice pack and told Marshall to sit on the couch. When he got there they were laying down holding their arms out for her.

"Please?"

She handed them the baggie of ice and sat on the floor against the couch.

"Ev? C'mon…" Marshall used his good hand to gently touch Everett's shoulder. "Please, Ev. Just for tonight?"

When she looked up at him her eye was glossed with unshed tears. Silently, she waited for their arm to move again and crawled onto their stomach.

Neither bothered to turn the tv on. Marshall's good hand rubbed circles on her shoulders while the hurt one rested on her lower back.

Everett didn't cry. His face buried in his partner's chest, the thought of soiling their shirt with tears stopped her.

They laid in near silence till morning. Marshal wasn't sure if he helped, but Ev didn't blame herself as much so he likes to think he tried.

holds them gently

(READ ANNE’S VER)

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ponderinqs · 5 years ago

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Pushed Away || JJ Maybank

pairing: jj x reader

warnings: swearing, mentions of abuse, underage drinking, angst, SLOW BURN!!!

word count: 2.4k

summary: you’re best friends with jj, but something happens one day, leaving you and the rest of the group confused and worried about him. what happened to him? did you do something to hurt him? or maybe, there’s something rather... emotional going on inside him. something he’s never felt for anyone before in his life.

a/n: this is part 1 of a hopefully 4 part series. i’ll try to update as much as possible! please bare with me, my motivation has been terrible lately :/ the other parts will be linked here once i update!! :) also i didn’t edit this so if there’s any typos just ignore them

comment if you want tagged !! :)

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

——————————-

“Put me down you dick!” You squirmed, trying to escape JJ’s strong hold on your waist. JJ just laughed before he jumped into the water with you still in his arms as the cold water engulfed the two of you. He let go of you as both of you hit the water, the warmth of his touch still lingering on your skin. You ignored the butterflies growing in your stomach as you came out of the water, getting a good breath of air.

“Seriously? Fuck you!” You yelled jokingly at JJ as he was getting up onto the boat. “You would.” He winked at you as you swam over to the boat. You flipped him off and splashed him, accidentally getting John B wet as well. “Oh it’s over now.” John B pulled his shirt over his body and jumped in, pulling at your ankles so you would go underwater. Water shot up your nose as you breathed it in, the action taking you by surprise.

When you emerged from the water, you began coughing so much that your throat burned. “Yo, hey, you good?” JJ leaned over the boat, concern filled in his eyes. You smirked and spit water you gathered in your mouth onto his face. He scoffed, jumping into the water yelling, “Cannon ball!”

John B emerged from the water, splashing you one more time before he got onto the boat. Suddenly, a force grabbed your shoulders and pushed you down, causing you to go under the water yet again. When you came back up, you were furious. “Oh, it’s war now!” You went under water and grabbed ahold of JJ’s calves, pulling him underwater. With your eyes closed, you couldn’t see anything. The two of you bumped heads as JJ got pulled under, both of your yells muffled by the water.

When you both came up from the water, you both rubbed the top of your heads, wincing at the pain. “That was your fault, Y/N!” JJ chuckled, getting onto the boat and then helping you up afterwards. You rolled your eyes at him, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around your body.

Kiara passed you a beer as you dried off, the refreshing cold alcohol feeling good as you gulped it down after you immediately opened the can.

The sun was high in the sky, your wet skin dried very quickly from the heat. JJ was currently lighting a blunt as you tried to catch some sun by the front of the HMS Pogue, your bright pink bikini contrasting your summer tan. You laid your arms over your eyes and you tanned, peeking every so once and a while at JJ while he smoked.

Kiara, sitting next to you, noticed the peeking and nudged your shoulder. You glared at her and got up to get another beer. “Hey, pass me one.” JJ smiled up at you with his red rimmed eyes. You tossed him one but he didn’t catch it as it landed next to him, bursting open. You clutched your stomach as you began uncontrollably laughing, falling on your butt and continuing to laugh. JJ flipped you off as he licked his arm that had beer on it. The rest of the group was laughing along too. You walked over to JJ and fell down in his lap, lightly tapping his cheek with your palm.

“You’re a mess.” You shook your head as you continued to laugh. A wave of emotion flickered through JJ’s eyes, and for a second there he looked like he was about to kiss you, but you shrugged it off. You tapped his nose before getting off of him and sitting on the edge of the boat, your feet dipping in the water as John B drove back to his place.

You only drank two beers before you stopped, considering you had to go home today anyway and you did not want your mom finding you drunk, because you know what happens if she does. It’s happened before. You got locked in your room for a whole three days. It was terrible. She knew who you hung out with, and ever since she caught you drunk, she resented your friends for being terrible influences. You weren’t supposed to be hanging out with “those broke lowlifes” as your mother calls them. But you could care less.

The boat made it back to the Chateau right as the sun began to set. You had stayed out on the marsh all day, getting sun burnt and bonding with all of your friends.

JJ was quiet the rest of the way home, growing suspicion from the rest of the group. He was never silent, ever. He never stops talking, like ever. Everyone got off of the boat quietly, leaving you and JJ alone. You made a mental note to slap everyone later. As JJ began to get off the boat, you caught up to him and grabbed him by the arm.

“Hey, are you okay?” You stared into his blue eyes filled with something you couldn’t register. JJ nodded slowly. “Yeah. I’m fine.” He broke the eye contact and walked off, away from you. “JJ! Wait!” You jogged up to him. JJ stopped in his spot, turning around to you with furrowed brows. “Come on, seriously. You’re never this quiet.” You grabbed his hand with yours, rubbing the top of his hand with your thumb. He retracted his hand in a swift motion.

“Just stop.” He said, looking down at this ground. You have never been this confused in your life. “JJ…?” You stared at him, worried about his current state. “Just leave me alone!” He snapped, clenching his jaw and stomping off, away from you.

When he walked past the Chateau, John B saw and caught up to him. You slowly made your way over to everyone. “Dude, what the hell is going on?” John B went to grab his shoulder, but JJ pushed him away. “Get the fuck away from me!” JJ shouted, his fist colliding with John B’s nose.

“JJ! Stop!” You yelled at him as Pope ran up and stood in the middle of him and John B.

You ran over to John B, turning his jaw to look at you. You watched the blood trickle down from his nose, a cut on the bridge of it from JJ’s fist. You looked over at JJ as he stood there, breathing rapidly. “JJ, what’s wrong?” You asked him again as you walked up to him slowly.

“Didn’t I tell you to leave me alone?” He raised his voice at you as he ran a hand through his hair, frustration evident in his eyes. “You shouldn’t just punch John B because you’re mad, JJ!” Kiara yelled from the front porch, now walking over to the rest of you.

“Leave, JJ.” John B spoke softly, careful not to raise his voice. “Excuse me?” JJ looked over at John B. “You heard me. Leave and come back when you’re not acting like an asshole. Got it?” John B pointed a finger in JJ’s face.

JJ scoffed. “Fine.” He turned around and began walking away, just like that. “Wait, JJ!” You yelled after him, but he didn’t turn around or anything. Just kept walking. “Let him go. He needs to calm down.” Kiara gave you a hug while you watched JJ disappear behind the trees.

---

You came home after about an hour of JJ’s antics, right as the sun had completely set on the horizon. You sat next to your window in your room, looking out at the water. You couldn’t get JJ out of your head.

Why was he so upset? Where did he run off to? Did you do something to make him mad? Was he mad at you?

Suddenly, you heard a knock coming from your front door downstairs. Your mom was out with friends, so you were home alone. Panic rose through your body as you walked downstairs, staring at the front door the whole time.

You approached the door softly, your footsteps quiet as a mouse. You unlocked the door and opened it slowly, closing your eyes. When it was dead silent, you opened your eyes to see JJ walking away from your door. “JJ?” You called out as he stopped dead in his tracks. He looked over at you, and you tilted your head in confusion.

As he got closer to you, you saw the gashes on his cheek, his eyebrow, and his lip. You gasped as he got closer to you. You helped him inside and up the stairs to your room. He sat down on your bed and hid his face in his hands as he leaned over the bed. “What happened, JJ?” You sat next to him, your hand on his shoulder. He shook his head.

“Was it… was it Luke?” He flinched at the name and that’s when you concluded that his dad did this to him. Tears brimmed your eyes as you saw the fragile boy sitting next to you. “I’ll go get something to clean them.” You spoke softly, scared to frighten JJ.

You rummaged through your bathroom cabinet, finding peroxide and a washcloth. You returned back to your room, finding JJ spread out on your bed, looking up at the ceiling.

You sat on the bed next to him, looking at him. “‘Kay, can you sit up so I can help you?” You tapped JJ, his entire body flinching with your touch. It broke your heart to see him in such a broken state, and you couldn’t even cheer him up.

He slowly sat up, avoiding eye contact with you. “I shouldn’t have come.” He spoke, trying to get out of the bed before you grabbed his wrist and tugged him back down. “Don’t be like that, please. We’re friends, I just want to clean your wounds.” You insisted as JJ gave in, sitting across from you.

You dipped a bit of peroxide on the cloth, beginning to wipe the gash on his cheek. JJ winced, gritting his teeth from the pain. “I’m sorry.” You frown as you move to his eyebrow.

The damage his dad did to his face was insane. You never understood why he does this to JJ, and it hurts you to realize that you can’t do anything to stop it.

After you finished cleaning his lip, you washed the cloth in the sink and returned back to the room. JJ looked over at you, and the two of you shared a moment of just staring at each other, unsure of what to do next.

“I can go now, if that’s what you want. I won’t bother you anym--” You cut him off. “Really, JJ? Stay here. Rest up.” You grabbed a blanket and pillow from your closet and set it on the floor next to your bed. “I’ll sleep on the floor, and you can have the bed. Please get some rest. Do you need water or anything?” You stood up and sat down on the bed next to JJ.

“You take the bed. It’s yours anyway.” He spoke softly, looking down at his lap. “JJ, please. I know you need to rest.” You laid your hand over his, squeezing softly. His eyes shot up to you before he looked back down. “Just sleep, okay?” You stood up and hugged him from behind for a few seconds before making yourself comfortable on the floor and turning off your lamp.

Moments of silence passed by, and you couldn’t seem to fall asleep. “Y/N?” JJ’s voice came out softer than it ever has been to you. “Yes?” You questioned, propping yourself up on the floor with your elbow as you waited for a response.

“Nevermind. It’s nothing, really.” He muttered, and you rolled your eyes. “Just spit it out, Maybank.” You laughed lightly.

“Can you uhm, can you come up here?” He whispered, just loud enough for you to hear it. You smiled to yourself and you got up and got under the covers with JJ. “There. Satisfied?” You turned to face him, the two of you inches apart from each other. He nodded. “Thanks. For this. And for helping me. I didn’t know where else to go, really. John B probably hates me now.” JJ laughed awkwardly.

“He doesn’t hate you, JJ.” You patted his forehead before turning over and allowing your back to face JJ.

“Goodnight, JJ.” You said to him before your eyes slowly shut.

---

When you opened your eyes, the sun pierced through your window, blinding you momentarily. You groaned and covered your eyes. When you looked over to your left, you saw JJ sleeping away, a strand of blonde hair covering his eye. You brushed it out of his face, smiling down at him.

A loud banging on your bedroom door startled you as you removed your hand away from JJ’s face. “Y/N!” Your mother yelled from the other side of the door, rattling the doorknob. “Shit. JJ. Wake up.” You whisper-yelled at JJ, shaking him violently. He slowly opened his eyes, holding out his hand to shade himself from the sun.

“Get in the closet. My mom.” You pointed to the door. JJ’s eyes widened as he got out of the bed and made his way to the closet. He sat down and shut the door just as your mom came in.

She was holding a pair of boots. JJ’s boots, to be exact. “Who’s shoes are these?” She held them up as she entered your room. Your eyes widened. “They’re JJ’s. He asked me to wash them but I never got around to it.” You tried to come up with a believable lie, but your mother saw right through you.

“Where is he?” She shouted, dropping the boots on the floor and searching around the room for JJ. “Mom, he’s not here!” You yelled right as she opened the closet door, looking right down at JJ.

“Oh, hey Ms. Y/L/N.” JJ waved at your mom, as if he didn’t just get caught by your mom for staying here overnight. “Out! Out of my house! You lowlife!” Your mother shouted at him, causing you to stand up and go over by your mother. “Mom! Don’t talk to him like that!” You shouted at her, standing in front of JJ who has now come out of the closet with his hands up in the air.

“Okay, then. Both of you get out.” Your mother crossed her arms over her chest, pointing out the door. You gasped. “Are you kidding?” You yelled at her, clenching your jaw. “Y/N, let’s just go.” JJ tugged at your wrist, grabbing his boots before he dragged you down the stairs and out of the house.

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petite-ely · 4 years ago

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Afraid // JJ Maybank

two - the calm after the storm

Pairing: JJ Maybank x fem routledge! reader

Warnings: bad language (as usual), underage drinking, fear of drowning and deep waters, mention of a hurricane, probably some mistakes too lol

Description: After the surge hit the island, the pogues decide to enjoy a nice day out on the hms pogue, until they find something unusual hidden in the marsh.

A/n : hey there buckaroos, I know I just posted the previous part but I felt so bad for not updating sooner. So here ya go. Hope you like it :)

Previously next

Afraid masterlist

Song recommendation:

There was always something really weird about the day right after a hurricane. It was like that feeling when you know something isn’t right but can’t quite put your finger on it, at least that’s what it was like for y/n. She found those days both extremely stressful and relaxing at the same time. As a child she never had to worry about the stressful part, but as someone who lived alone with two teenage boys and no adults, it was pretty nerve racking. She used to wake up really late on those days, enjoying the silence and comfort that reigned inside the Château. It was not something she did anymore.

When big John disappeared, John B and her had to learn how to take care of themselves. And that also meant becoming more responsible. So here she was, at 9:30 in the morning, standing in the fruit aisle of the grocery store, debating whether to buy cherries or peaches.

Fuck it, she thought putting both in her shopping cart.

You see living without parents at 16 also brought a thing called learning things the hard way. For example, if ever there’s a big storm or hurricane hitting your town and there’s a chance of the power being cut, you have to go grocery shopping before. Otherwise you have only two options. Either wake up at the butt crack of dawn and hunt down which grocery store is still open (and that’s only if no one else raided it before you ). Or you have to survive on the only things still good in your pantry - probably molded bread and peanut butter- until the nearest store opens.

Y/n being the intelligent teenager she was, decided to go with option one. So she woke up super early, wrote a note for her brother - which he probably wouldn’t even see, carefully attached a cooler to back of her bicycle and made her way into town. It was now almost two hours later. She had finished buying the necessities for the next few days and had already put all the perishable things inside her cooler and taped it shut so it wouldn’t spill its content onto the road.

She looked at her phone quickly. The hurricane had not only taken away the power but also the cell service towers. Which meant she couldn’t contact any of her friends at the moment. A sigh leaving her lips, she made her way to Kie’s house, hoping the other pogues hadn’t already picked her up.

“Hey, girlie,” her friend greeted as she turned into the driveway. “Hey, cutie,” y/n responded, placing her bike against the side of the house. “The pogues haven’t come by yet?”

“Nope, it’s just you and me for now. Come, we’ll go chat one the deck until they come.” Kiara motioned to the dock further away. “So, how bad is it at the chateau?”

“Oh you know, the usual,” she sat down beside Kiara, “no power, leaking roof, the yard is pretty dirty too, oh and I think a tree fell down.”

“Yikes.”

The two girls looked away in the distance as they heard the sound of a boat engine approaching them. “I think that’s our ride.”

Y/n saw her brother nudge JJ’s arm and point at her. “See, I told you she’d be here.”

“I left you a note, dumbass, didn’t know you couldn’t read anymore,” she put her cooler and her backpack onto the boat before getting in. “I went to get food for the week so we wouldn’t, you know, starve.” JJ snickered at her comment.

“Well, good morning to you too, y/n/n.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Here’s your breakfast, you greedy cow.” She tossed him a breakfast burrito. It was still warm and fresh, bringing a tasty smell in the air as it flew from y/n’s hand to her brother’s.

“Hey, no need for such words, I was only being polite.” Stated John B. “Thank you, for feeding me, my dearest sister.” Y/n cringed at his horrible impression of a British accent.

Just as she was going to make a joke about it, she noticed something sticky on her arm. Turning her head to the front of the boat, her eyes landed on JJ. He was, once again, trying his stupid beer trick, which failed and only resulted in splashing alcohol everywhere but in his mouth.

As she heard all of her friends complain about his behaviour, she decided it was enough and got up. She was about to take the bottle out of the blond’s hand, when the boat crashed into something. The impact had been hard enough to eject JJ out of the boat and make him fall right into the marsh.

“Ugh,” y/n groaned loudly. Since she had been standing when the boat stopped, she had tripped and fell into a very uncomfortable position. She had landed butt first on the hard metal edge of the boat, hitting her thigh at the same time.

“Jesus, Pope!” Kie said from where she was seated.

“You okay, JJ?”

“I think my heels touched the back of my head.” Usually, this kind of remark would have made y/n laugh, or even smile, but right now, she was not in the mood for laughter.

“Is everyone else okay? Y/n? Kie?” John B offered his hand to his friend. “Yeah, I’m good.”

“I think I broke my ass,” y/n winced as pain shot in her leg. “God, I never knew I was that flexible.”

The girl untangled her legs from the unnatural position they were forced into and reached for the cooler, taking a beer bottle inside. To minimize the pain she walked in a penguin-like way, taking very small steps. She must have looked very ridiculous doing so due to the weird look Pope gave her. She hissed as the cold of the bottle hit her leg. “What even was that?”

“Sandbar. The channel changed .” JJ swam back towards the hms. “No shit.” “Ugh this is probably gonna mess this whole place up.”

Pope approached the end of the boat, looking down with confusion painted on his face. “Guys,” his eyebrows scrunched even more, his eyes focusing on something hidden in the depth of the water. “I think there’s a boat down there.”

“Shut up.” “What?” “No way.” “Uh?” Y/n furrowed her eyebrows and looked down at the spot where Pope’s gaze was fixed. To her surprise there was actually a boat there, sunken and stuck into a pile of sand.

“Oh my god.” She looked back at her friends behind her. “He’s right!” She focused her attention back to the boat, trying to catch details of it. A thought crossed her mind. Could it be? No, it couldn’t. It wasn’t possible. There was no way that was her father’s boat down there, right?

“Guys.. Is this?” Y/n looked at her brother, he had thought the same thing as her. “It’s a boat!” Pope shouted with excitement.

“Holy shit he’s right, let’s go!”

Y/n’s friends all rushed to remove their clothes and jumped into the water. They seemed so excited. A small feeling of anxiety grew in the pit of her stomach. She felt left out, but at the same time she was scared. She practically knew the marsh like the back of her hand and yet she couldn’t help but worry. She looked down at the boat, it was way too far, she could never swim that deep.

The girl winced as she sat on the tip of the boat. She was looking at her four friends, their figures slowly shrinking as they swam deeper. When she looked at them it seemed so easy. Here they were swimming so carelessly. Why couldn’t that be her. Maybe one day she’d get over her phobia, but for now, it seemed impossible.

She let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding when the heads of her friends reappeared at the surface. She could hear them talk with excitement, but they were too far for her to understand exactly what they were saying. Clearly, they had found something.

“You guys found anything cool?” She offered her hand to Kie. “It’s a Grady White,” JJ shook his wet hair. “A new one of these is like 500 Gs easy.”

“It’s a primo rig.”

“Yeah, that’s the boat I saw when I surfed the surge.” JB added, making his sister’s smile disappear. “Maybe it hit the jetty or something.”

“You surfed the surge?” Kiara’s tone dripped with worry. “What the heck.” Her voice lowered down as she spoke those last few words. “That’s my boy! Pogue style!” JJ encouraged, giving a slight pat to John’s back.

Y/n frowned at his words. “Please don’t encourage him, J.” She crossed her arms on her chest. “It was a very stupid thing to do.”

“Wait, wait. Do we even know whose boat it is?” “No, but we’re about to find out.”

“Wait ,” y/n gripped her brother’s arm, “ are you sure it’s safe?” “Yeah dude, it’s too deep.”

John B bent down to pick up the anchor from the compartment where it was kept. “Only for the weak and feeble JJ.” “Well, I’m not resuscitating you I’m just making that clear.”

“That’s fine.” He turned to his sister, who was looking at him with worried eyes. “Please be safe, okay bird?” She was using the nickname their father had given him when they were younger. She barely used it anymore, so he knew she was really worried.

“I promise,” he nudged her shoulder softly, “little bug.” “Diver down, fool.”

“Diver down.”

Taglist

@drewswannabegirl @kaelyn-lobrutto24 @poguestyle17 @im-a-stranger-thing @lasnaro @thoughtsofthestars @briandaflores19 @lunaposey @allycat449-blog @ifilwtmfc

This means it wouldn’t let me tag you :(

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ammonitetheseaserpent · 3 years ago

Note

I HAVE QUESTIONS ABT THE DOUBLE AGENT MARCY AU!!!!!

Does Andrias not keep in touch with her??? How long is Marcy supposed to be in the Boiling Isles???? Why does Belos just invite and accept her into his ranks???? Does he know she is human??? If not, what does he think she is??? If he does, why is he so chill with that and not figuring out how she got there???? Why is the Owl crew so trusting??? Like there is doubt but they accept her kind of fast. Will Marcy be telling them about Amphibia??? Why she was sent there??? The coming invasion??? What happened to her??? What she did??? If she does, how do they take it??? If she doesn’t, how do they learn all that??? How do they take it???

O.O Ogosh, this caught me off guard - I’m really glad you’re interested in these AUs! These are all really good questions, and I’ll definitely keep these in mind when it comes to refining this story. Let’s see here…

1. My original thought is that Andrias does implement some sort of way to contact her and keep them under his thumb, but it ends up getting destroyed in some way.

2. She gets there a few weeks before the events of Agony Of A Witch, and from that point, it follows the same timeframe as the original episodes do.

3. I had an idea that something went wrong with the whole Grimwalker project, so Belos needs to find a new coven head on short notice. His coven have been keeping a close eye on Marcy, noting that, though she seems fairly new to the Isles, she also seems to have a lot of potential. This catches Belos’s interest, figuring that, since Marcy’s new here, they won’t be to hard to sway toward his point of view.

4. Marcy tries to keep her ears hidden as much as possible, and once they get their Marsh Mystic outfit, she ties their hood securely over her ears. Belos is led to believe that she’s some sort of demon or creature not from the Isles.

5. That’s a good question! I originally figured Luz would be more sympathetic (and a lot more curious) towards Marcy after finding out that they’re human like her. I also think that, after the events of Eclipse Lake, once Amity realizes that one of the core problems is that Marcy doesn’t believe they can get away from Belos (added to the people-pleasing student ideal/complex they have), getting in the way of their actual intentions, she’d communicate this in some way to Eda, King and Luz - as well as the fact that she outright offered to let Amity keep as much Titan’s blood as she needed. I figure this would make them more willing to help Marcy out. I’m definitely gonna explore this arc more that you’ve brought it to my attention. 👍

6. I wanted to explore Marcy’s potentially doubling down on not wanting to dwell on or talk about her past, due to their experience with opening up about those elements of her life - so, even when they do reveal things about her past, it takes a while to get to that point, and they have a tendency towards vagueing. She ends up telling Luz that she was in a dimension different from the demon realm at some point, but only to give context about Joe and their axolotl features.

7. Andrias stabs her and puts her in a tank so he can add axolotl features to them and do a little strategic memory tweaking. He wants to use her as a scout/test dummy of sorts, to scope out the other worlds he takes in conquering - a chunk of this AU’s premise is admittedly just my crossover brain taking the “I will not just rule this world, but all worlds” line and running with it. The axolotl DNA is for the stem cells, to heal Marcy’s physical wounds, and give them other benefits such as gills - all to make her more resilient and effective at what he intends to use her for.

Thanks for the questions - this was really fun and insightful! 👍

#askeroonis #amphibia #amphibia marcy #marcy wu #tidesoul sunbeam #amphibia au #marsh mystic/double agent marcy au #long post #moot fren people

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outrbanxs · 4 years ago

Text

uncovered - jj maybank

summary: ”where jj see’s you uncovered for the first time”

warning: mentions of body insecurities, unworthiness, slight smut ;) (and typos more than likely)

notes: okay so this is my first every writing piece! Not too sure how I went but I did get a bit carried away (oops). I just wanted to say that all the mentions of feeling a certain way about appearance were all based off of personal experience. I’m sorry if I portrayed it in the wrong way, as I know that body confidence and insecurities is something which everyone experiences differently. If you ever need somebody to talk to, please, please, please feel free to dm me at anytime <3

wc: 2573

is this my first fic? sure. but i still made a taglist, so click the link if you wanna join :)

gif by: anakin-skywalker

You always wondered how you got so lucky with him. Between the rest of the pogues, you were clearly different in your appearance. Your friends had the classic Outer Banks body. Thin, tan, looks absolutely stunning in a bikini. You weren’t like that. The rest of your friend always tried their hardest to make you feel included and loved; they knew that you didn’t like how you look and that you compared yourself to them - it was hard for you not to.

But out of all the pogues, JJ was the one who adored you the most. He was the most aware of the way you were feeling and did everything in his power to make you feel as beautiful as possible. There were times when he could see how you were feeling before you even did. Like the times when you all went swimming in the marsh, but you were hesitant, with a towel wrapped around your body. He gave you a kiss on your head, gently unwrapped the towel from your body and then jumped into the water, with your hand in his. He was constantly giving you small kisses all of your face and hugging you in ways which you knew made you feel safe.

The thing was, that this always happened while you were swimming, while you had a bathing suit on. When you first started developing feelings for JJ, you tried to suppress them, for many reasons. But the reason you were most afraid was JJ having to see you naked. The thought of you being naked in front of someone else made you want to crawl out of your own skin.

But when JJ and you shared a kiss one night at the chateau, you couldn’t believe that he felt the same way. You thought that maybe he was just really drunk and had mistaken you for a random touron, but this wasn’t the case. You made sure that nothing went further than kissing that night, scared of what may have happened if you did. But when you two went back inside, you found a bedroom, and JJ sat down, patting his lap with his arms open, intending for you to climb on top. You froze in your spot. You knew that you couldn’t do it, sit on him and crush him. He could see the worry in your eyes. His heart broke at the sight of you being insecure. In his eyes, you were the most beautiful person in the entirety of obx.

“y/n, come here” he spoke, gently.

Your eyes moved to his eyes, where he looked at you with nothing but care and love. You moved to sit down next to him on the bed, with your eyes facing down to your hands in your lap. He moved one of his hands to intertwine with yours, squeezing it. Neither of you spoke, you could tell what he was saying by his touch. His thumb moved back and forth on your hand, which made you feel more serene. You let out a sigh and rested your head on his shoulder. He moved closer to you than he already was and you could feel the worry leave you. Being so close to him made you feel more safe and secure than you had felt in your whole life.

“You have nothing to be afraid of, you know that, right?” He said softly, resting his head on top of yours.

You paused for a few moments.

“I know, sometimes I just feel…” you trailed off.

“I know. I can tell. I hate that you feel the way you do.”

“I’m here though,” he continued. “I know that it takes time to break down the image that you have of yourself. I know that it’s not easy just to disregard the way that you feel. It might take some time, but I want you one day to look at yourself and see you the way that I see you.”

That night, JJ asked you to be his girlfriend. But what you didn’t know was that that night, JJ made a promise to himself. He wanted to do absolutely everything in his power to make you feel like a goddess. It broke him to know that you don’t like the way that you look, and he wanted to change that.

From that night onwards, JJ was forever trying to make you feel loved. He would compliment the way that you looked, no matter what you were wearing. He would say sweet nothings to you, which made you feel wanted and cared for. There was nothing that JJ could have done more to make you feel beautiful, and you did, for the first time in a very long time.

But you knew that you wanted to take things further with JJ. You knew that him going this long without sex was probably agonised for him, considering he was always getting with anyone with a heartbeat. But you admired the fact that he was waiting for you.

You two had spoken a few times about sex. He told you at the start of your relationship that he wanted you to be completely open and honest with him, no matter what it was about. He wanted to be 100% sure that you were okay with it before agreeing. He didn’t want you to feel like you were only doing it for him because he wanted to. But you were ready. Did the thought of it scare you? Yes. But you knew that there was no one else in the world you would want your first time to be with.

So one night, when your family was on the mainland for the night, you invited JJ over. You made sure that everything was perfect. There was no mess anywhere, the bedsheets were freshly washed and most importantly, you were wearing lingerie which made you feel beautiful. You had learnt that in order to believe anyone else when they called you beautiful, you had to feel that way. And wearing this did make you feel beautiful. You knew that you were ready.

When he arrived, you wasted no time getting to the bedroom. It was odd to you that you were this eager to do this, but something in you had sparked. JJ was surprised by your sudden eagerness but nonetheless carried on.

You sat down on your bed, with JJ next to you. You took a deep breath before continuing.

“I know that you have been patient with me, waiting until I was comfortable enough with myself to do this. But I’m ready now.”

“y/n…” he trailed out. “If you’re only saying this because you think I’m just eager for sex, you’re wrong. I promise that I’m fine with waiting for you. I know that this process may take a long time, but I’m okay with it. I promise you I’m fine. Please don’t-“. You cut him off.

“JJ, I promise; I’m ready.”

He studied your eyes intensely, with his eyebrows furrowed and a slight smirk on his face. I made you crack a smile, which made him laugh too.

“What?” You asked.

“I’m looking to see if you’re lying”

“JJ! I promise I’m not” you spoke over the top of your chuckle.

“Believe me, I’m ready” you spoke more softly, looking into his eyes with reassurance.

“Well, what are we waiting for then?” He spoke jokingly, suddenly hovering over you without breaking contact with your eyes. You had this sudden feeling of lust inside of you, something which you had never really felt before. But whatever it was, you liked it.

He lent down and began to give you gentle kisses all over your face, agonisingly missing your lips. He then trailed down to your neck, kissing everywhere, trying to find your sweet spot. You let out a slight moan when he kissed just below your ear, near your jaw. He let out a slight chuckle at your reaction, proud of himself. He continued to kiss over your sweet spot until a nice red mark was formed. You knew that it was going to be very visible the next day, but you didn’t care.

JJ trailed his kisses back up onto your face, still missing your lips. You were growing impatient with the lack of contact where you craved it so much. You let a groan pass your lip, and JJ knew exactly what you were asking for. He decided to give in, kissing you square on the lips. You both skipped the part of gentle kissing which you two normally did, and skipped straight to the part where JJ’s tongue was inside your mouth. You two had never kissed this deeply before, this intensely and with this much emotion. You were starting to understand why JJ would hook up with anyone he could - this was addicting.

After a few more minutes of intensely making out, JJ trailed his lips down to your chest. Your shirt was still on, scared to take it off. You were excited, however, to see JJ’s reaction to what you were wearing underneath.

“JJ, you can take it off” you breathed out, anticipating what was coming next.

He looked back up at you and locked eyes. You knew that in that very moment, he had nothing but love and care for you.

“Are you sure about this? We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to” he asked carefully, both of you guys still panting from the kisses before.

You nodded assuringly. “I’m ready.”

He nodded briefly, trailing his hands down to the bottom of your shirt. You sat up slightly so that he could take it off more easily. He ripped it off in one motion, but as soon as you felt the cold air hit your bare stomach, you felt sickening. You suddenly lost all feeling of lust and crave, that was now replaced with anxiousness and doubt. JJ didn’t notice straight away though, his eyes were fixated on the lacy red bra that was underneath your shirt. His eyes widened, definitely not expecting to see what he saw. He looked back up and you, but your eyes were shut tight, now brimming with tears.

JJ’s attitude changed the moment he saw the way which you were feeling. He felt his heart literally break into two.

“Hey, hey, hey,” he repeated, making his way back up to the same level as your face.

“y/n, it’s okay, we don’t have to do this.”

“No.” You said abruptly, with your eyes still closed.

“I want to do this, trust me I do,” you said, with your breathing still all over the place. “I wanted to and I thought I was going to be okay. I worked myself up to do this, and I wore this bra and everything to make me feel beautiful and I genuinely thought I was going to be able to do this. But as soon as I felt the air hit my chest, I-I..” You trailed off. You were trying not to make yourself cry; you were trying to hold back the tears, knowing that if you let yourself cry, you weren’t going to be able to continue. And God, did you want to continue.

“I know this is scary,” he said, holding both of your hands and rubbing his thumb along them, the same way he did the first time the two of you had this conversation. “I know this is going to be challenging for you to do. I understand that it’s going to hard to let down some of the walls which you have built up, but know that I still think that your body is perfect just the way that it is. It makes you, you. The same y/n who I adore, the same y/n who I want to make feel as loved as possible.”

You knew that at that moment, there was nothing that was going to stop you from feeling connected to JJ. As much as it scared you, you did believe that JJ saw you differently to how you saw yourself. And you know that it is going to take some time to overcome the way that you currently feel, but you also know that you want nothing else than to be close to JJ.

“Okay, you’re right. I’m sorry” you apologised quietly. You opened your eyes, only to find a pair of blue eyes already looking at you.

“Don’t apologise,” he said softly.

“You’re right, I want to do this. I just need to get over the initial fear. I didn’t think it would actually be this hard,” you commented, with a breathy chuckle.

“Everything takes time.”

You continued to look at each other's eyes for a few more moments. You still couldn’t believe that a man as gorgeous as JJ would be your own.

When you knew that the moment was right, you nodded at JJ, giving him permission to continue. He looked back at you, weary about if you were being honest. You smiled back at him truthfully, knowing that he would do his absolute best to make you feel the most loved.

He moved away from the level of your face, turned around and threw his legs over the top of yours, straddling you again in the same position that you were before.

“Know, let’s talk about this,” he said eagerly, looking back down at the bra that made him speechless before, making you laugh. You knew that you were head over heels for this man.

He continued to kiss every inch of your stomach. He especially took his time over your stretch marks. They weren’t the ‘cute’ white ones which every person seems to get. Yours were purple, large and evident everywhere on your lower half. Although you had never mentioned this, JJ knew that you were especially insecure about them.

After more kissing, he focused his attention back towards your bra. His hand grabbed onto one of your boobs, the other he had his mouth over, kissing it. It was at that moment where the lust returned and the moment was heated again.

For the rest of the night, JJ did everything in his power to make you feel and beautiful as you could. He caressed you so passionately, full of love. He took extra time making you feel secure with yourself when he moved to the lower half of your body. When he took your shorts off, he laid kisses all over your thighs. Even throughout the most intimate of moments, ones where JJ would usually be going all out, he made sure to keep himself in line, never stopping from caressing you and kissing you.

After you both had reached your climax, JJ walked over to your bathroom, grabbed a towel and dampened it with warm water and came back to bed to make sure that you were clean. He laid gentle kisses over every part of your body that he cleaned, commenting something unique about each part of your body, something positive. Afterwards, you two cuddled up with each other, content in each other's arms. You started to believe JJ and the things which he said about you. You started to think that maybe one day, it would be possible for you to love yourself the way that JJ loves you. And that was all that JJ could ever ask for.

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that-blue-vault-dweller · 3 years ago

Text

The End of the World

Primary Relationship: (Platonic) Piper Wright & Female Sole Survivor

Characters: Piper Wright, Female Sole Survivor, Dogmeat, Cait, Curie, and Danse

Genre: Angst/Comfort

Rating: T

Word Count: 6889

Summary: When Piper and Nora follow a distress call, they find something that shakes Nora to her core. Of course, this incident does not help at all with Nora's state of mind as she finally puts together the teleporter to the Institute and tries it out. When Nora comes back from the Institute, she is just a husk of herself. It is up to Piper to help her best friend heal.

A/N: It’s been forever since I’ve written anything, and this fanfic has been pure heck for me because of my struggling motivation and the fact that my Microsoft Word program just decided it’d delete a good 700-900 words of this the other day, lol. So if it’s a little less than perfect, please keep that in mind 😅💙💛

“Every once in a while, you guys should really consider offing yourselves before we have to take the time out of our day to do it,” Piper called out, aiming and managing to land several headshots from behind the safety of her cover. She grinned, pleased with her marksmanship, as she downed a few more raiders. She glanced over at the blue-clad woman nearby her, making sure all was well.

To her relief, Nora seemed to be doing perfectly fine, raising the auto laser-rifle barely above the top of the fence as she blasted various men in a repetitive barrage of relentless fire.

So Piper then returned to attempting to shoot the incoming guys while Nora chucked grenades in their direction.

They had made their way down to the marshes heading out on a mission that Preston had asked Nora to go on. Nora had been helping Sturges set up the teleportation device to get into the Institute, but Preston had said his mission was urgent—of course, it was always urgent, Piper could not help but think to herself—and Nora had headed out after ensuring that Sturges would be fine working on his own.

It was on the way back from that said mission that Nora had picked up a distress call and took it upon herself to check it out. Personally, Piper had been strongly under the impression that it was either Pre-War or a trap set up by greedy raiders, but Nora still insisted on checking anyway.

Welp. Turns out Piper was right. It was certainly, most assuredly raiders.

However, Nora seemed to have her eyes fixed upon a certain part of the house where the raiders were coming out of, and she appeared to be quite focused indeed. Unlike other times when she was taking on raiders, Nora seemed to be driven by something deeper than just a will to live.

Of course. Nora was likely still concerned that there was someone actually in the house that needed saving. Nora always had such everlasting hope and perpetual innocence despite how many times she had been scalded by the burning hand of reality.

But before Piper could worry with this much longer, a bullet whizzed by her head and she jerked a bit, ducking. Her heart raced, beating almost painfully in her chest as she felt the quick wave of fear wash over her.

“Jeez!” Piper yelped before leaning around her cover and shooting several more of them.

Their numbers seemed to be reducing, and Piper grinned with relief, realizing that they were almost finished with the battle before them. As a small group of raiders gathered around the door of the house and were about to exit, Piper withdrew a grenade from her pocket, pulling the pin out of it and prepping for throw.

“NO, PIPER, DON’T!!!” Nora cried, and Piper gaped at the blue-clad woman, just halting before she threw the grenade. Nora was completely panicked, and Piper just stared at her forgetting about the weapon she had just fired up.

“Why not?!”

“There’s someone in there! If you throw, it could blow up on them!” Nora desperately proclaimed, and it was then that Piper conveniently remembered that she was holding a grenade of all things in her hand.

“Well, where in the heck am I supposed to chuck it then?!!! It’s about to go off, Blue!!!” Piper screamed, and Nora shook her head swiftly before rushing forward, shifting covers. The bullets immediately flew toward her, and just barely missed her form. She slid over beside Piper, snatching the grenade and throwing it as far in the opposite direction from the house as she possibly could.

It landed in one of the muddy waterholes of the marsh, and after several moments, it exploded, water and mud shooting up into the air in a geyser-like fashion.

Nora grinned in slight relief, but that moment was short-lived in light of the bullet that suddenly shot by her face. Nora furrowed her brow, her hand instinctively reaching over to Piper’s back as she tried to keep the other girl in cover. Piper ducked easily and leaned to the side as she angled her 10 mm to help Nora fend off the remains of the group.

Between the two of them, they soon took out the entire lot of them. Nora wasted no time in hurrying toward the house, knocking on the door and calling out before gently opening it with her hands up in a surrendering gesture.

Piper looked down, looting a few grenades from the fallen men to make sure that the both of them were well-equipped in case they had drawn the attention of other undesirables. After a moment, she looked up from her task and noted that Nora had completely disappeared.

Piper presumed that the older woman was in the house just judging by the fact that the door was wide open, but Piper still hurriedly stuffed the grenades in her pocket so that she could ensure that this assumption was correct.

The reporter strode through the doorway, looking around for Nora and stepping over the fallen raiders. From what Piper could see of the house, it was completely devoid of anyone— living or dead except for the bodies at the front door.

“Blue?” Piper called cautiously before realizing that there was an upstairs area to the house. Piper turned and started up the stairs, withdrawing her 10 mm in case that there was something up there other than her best friend waiting for her.

She edged up the stairs until she finally made it all the way up. She slowly lowered her gun at the sight that she beheld. Piper could hear the low volume replay of a distress call coming from Nora’s Pip-Boy, and there was Nora, bent down there on the ground next to a small pile of skeletons.

Piper had apparently not been entirely correct in her belief that the distress call had been to attract people into a raider group’s trap.

The reporter sighed deeply as she put her gun away, slowly ambling over to where Nora was. As she grew closer, she quickly realized that the skeletons were not just in a pile, but they were sitting in a very specific formation. There were two that appeared to have been a couple, one with a tattered dress and the other with a shredded suit. And there between them was a sickeningly small skeleton that they both were resting their hands on.

The younger girl wrenched her gaze away from the sight there on the ground in favor of looking at Nora.

Nora’s face was completely blank as she looked at the three. Piper swallowed slightly and knelt down beside the vault-dweller. Her heart suddenly squeezed painfully as she saw the watery sheen forming in Nora’s eyes.

Piper sighed deeply, reaching a hand out and placing it on Nora’s carefully. The blue-clad woman flinched slightly at the contact, but it did not take her too long to recognize the gloved hand. As soon as she realized who it was, she turned her hand in Piper’s grasp and squeezed Piper’s hand.

Piper quickly knew why the sight was so horrifying for Nora in particular. The three skeletons quite obviously reminded her of her old life, and it was apparent that it was greatly affecting the vault-dweller. It was honestly bothering Piper herself on a very deep level. Piper just surveyed the situation, mostly keeping her eyes on Nora as she tried to gauge the older woman’s reaction.

As soon as Nora blinked and a lone tear streamed down her cheek against her will, Piper slowly got to her feet, deciding that they should not be there any longer.

“Blue?” Piper spoke aloud, and Nora looked up at her. It killed Piper to see that lost, sorrowful expression on Nora’s ordinarily so upbeat and optimistic face.

“Whaddya say we head out? Y’know, get some fresh air?” Piper questioned, holding out her hand to the older woman in a silent offering to help her up and out of here. Nora gave one last, lingering look to the small family before turning her gaze to Piper with a slight nod. Nora reached her hand out, taking Piper’s own, and Piper helped her up.

“C’mon, Blue,” Piper told her softly, and they left the remnants of that old life behind.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

It had been several days since the incident, and they had both returned to Sanctuary since then. However, despite her hopes that it would disappear from the older woman’s mind, Piper unhappily noted how Nora seemed so terribly sad. Even Dogmeat’s enthusiastic, wagging greeting as soon as Nora set foot on the bridge heading to Sanctuary was not enough to bring that famous grin to the older woman’s face.

Nora was still helping the people around Sanctuary with anything that they could need, but there was a sort of lackluster in her eyes instead of that spark of interest that she normally had when she heard Curie excitedly prattle on about her experiments. She had even lost that typical look of tenderness that she had when she looked at Cait and gave her usual motherly-esque advice and reassurance that Cait always so needed.

Piper would have already been on her way back to Diamond City by now since it had been three days— and Piper never stayed more than three days after a journey with Nora since she knew Nat needed her. But since Piper had noticed the strangely melancholy mannerisms of the vault-dweller, Piper felt it necessary to stay and try to help or talk to the blue-clad woman.

However, despite her best wishes, things were moving rather quickly with the teleportation device since Sturges had finally been able to put the machine together and all of Nora’s time was composed of trying to help him to get it running. Therefore, Piper had not had a chance to talk to Nora so far.

And before she knew it, Nora was stepping into the machine on the teleportation pad that she and Sturges had somehow assembled by some miracle of work in duct tape.

Piper crossed her arms over her chest, biting her bottom lip as she watched the entire scene unfold before her. Cait, Danse, Curie, and Dogmeat were all gathered about, and Dogmeat had not stopped pacing and whining the entire time. It was as if he sensed something big was happening and all of the nervous energy around him was affecting his own reaction to the entire ordeal.

“I don’t think that you are qualified to be in control of such complex machinery,” Danse commented aloud as he alternated between glaring distrustfully at Sturges and gaping at Nora in something between desperateness, love, and fear. Piper could easily pick up on the normally so stoic man’s secret crush on her best friend, and she honestly felt quite sorry for him.

“Don’t worry about nothin’. I’ve got this,” Sturges assured him, and Danse happened to meet Piper’s eyes in the midst of his gaze shifting about. Piper looked at him worriedly, silently conveying her skepticism. Danse’s gaze slightly softened in something akin to kindred understanding. It was something that her and Danse had never shared before, and even that could not make her feel any better about this entire situation. In fact, it just made her feel worse.

“I don’t like it,” Cait added her verdict, just as irritated and unhappy as Danse seemed to be about the entire thing. However, Cait’s emotions were accompanied by an additional irritableness and the frequent clenching of her fists.

“No disrespect intended, but I’m not too sure you like anythin’,” Sturges good-naturedly joked, and Cait set her jaw. Piper could easily see that the redhead was frighteningly close to stomping the mechanic into the ground.

“Monsieur Sturges, I would feel much better if I could help you with this. I am rather worried about the success of this experiment, especially considering that you could be risking dear Madame Nora’s life,” Curie fretted aloud, hovering about the machinery.

“Don’t worry your pretty little head about it now, I’ve got this,” Sturges assured her. Curie worriedly looked up at Nora, who was standing on the teleportation pad. Nora offered her the first real smile since the morning of that fateful day.

“It’s okay, Curie. It’s okay,” Nora assured her, reaching out to cup the girl’s cheek in a hand fondly, and Piper could see something strange in Nora’s eyes. It was something that Piper had never seen and was not quite able to recognize. She had seen it in quite a few hopeless wastelanders that they had met, but this was somehow different in Nora. Curie sighed and backed away a little with a small sniffle.

“Nora, I don’t feel comfortable with this,” Danse expressed, stepping only a bit closer to the vault-dweller to express his feelings in a hushed voice.

“It’ll be fine,” Nora told him simply, and Piper just studied her as the attraction toward the former paladin flickered in her eyes for the barest of moments before replacing itself with that strange unidentifiable emotion.

“Ye stay in one piece, ye hear?” Cait told the vault-dweller as she stepped near the older woman, and Nora nodded as she extended her hand to gently touch Cait’s shoulder in a loving gesture.

“I will,” Nora nodded, and Cait sighed slightly, leaning into Nora’s touch ever so slightly before backing away.

“Alright, y’all, I think it’s crankin’ now!” Sturges called out, and all of them except Piper stepped away from the group. Piper swallowed hard, taking in the sight of the blue-clad woman standing there in the contraption.

“Blue, are you sure about this?!” Piper finally asked desperately, and she felt her heart racing in her chest with the scariness associated with the entire situation.

“I’m as sure as I’m going to get, I guess!” Nora replied with a slight shrug of surprising nonchalance for someone who could very likely die in the next few moments.

“Hold onto your hats, folks!” Sturges called out and Danse took Piper’s shoulder in his hand, pulling her to a safe distance from the device.

Nora smiled, waving to all of them and Piper could feel Curie trembling next to her. Danse was just staring at the device as it was shuddering with the power surging through it, his brow furrowed sternly but his eyes telling an entirely separate story. Cait was standing as stiff as a board, but Piper saw the unadulterated terror in the other woman’s eyes as she watched the scene unfolding before them.

And as Nora suddenly dematerialized in a startling flash, Piper realized what she had seen in Nora’s eyes.

It was the acceptance and welcoming of death with open arms.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Piper had been sitting and waiting for a while now in Sanctuary Hills, scribbling a few small doodles on her notepad as she looked around nervously as if Nora would pop up randomly out of nowhere. She was genuinely terribly sick and worried about what had happened earlier.

The machine had destroyed itself as soon as Nora disappeared, and Piper honestly had no idea what that meant for the vault-dweller. Did the machine work long enough to send Nora to the Institute? Were Institute agents standing there waiting for her if Nora had made it through?

Piper’s stomach was churning, and she felt absolutely horrible about the entire ordeal. Piper easily knew that, realistically, the chances were not looking good for Nora.

But Piper could not bear to consider that side of the situation. She refused to think about it. There was no possible way that anyone could have hurt the invincible Blue. Her invincible Blue.

So she just sat and waited, having no idea what had become of Nora, but hoping for the best.

However, she did not have to dwell on this thought too long, because before she knew it, there was a bright flash of light that was practically blinding. Piper brought a hand up to her eyes, covering them as she tried to shield herself. After a moment, she slowly opened her eyes, still squinting and readjusting after the light that suddenly invaded her space.

After only a moment, her eyes made out a very familiar form. She immediately knew who it was with only the barest glimpses of the person.

“Blue!” she cried before quickly getting up and hurrying to the other woman, hugging her tightly.

The first thing Piper noticed was how strange the woman smelled. She was much cleaner than she was when she teleported away and she had this scent of antiseptic and something foreign. But she still had that Nora smell to her, and that is what reassured Piper that they indeed had not replaced Nora with a synth lookalike.

The second thing Piper noticed was how Nora slowly brought her arms up around Piper and hugged her with a gentleness and a defeat that Piper had never seen in the other woman no matter how bad things got.

Piper furrowed her brow as Nora leaned into the hug, ducking her head down to press her head into Piper’s shoulder. The reporter rubbed Nora’s back gently, thoughts running through her head at the speed of light.

Piper did not say anything, finding herself at a complete and total loss as to what to say as her mind began to settle on a certain conclusion about the entire ordeal.

It must have been too late for poor little Shaun.

Piper immediately felt a little sick to her stomach at the thought of the child that Nora loved so dearly being gone from the world. She could not stand it, and the thought somewhat made her feel like crying for Nora’s sake. However, Nora seemed way too okay for that to be the case.

Maybe she was still in shock.

Reality came washing back to the reporter as a happy bark sounded off, and she felt Dogmeat jump up and lick Nora’s face, snuffling happily as he leaned his weight against the two girls. Piper pulled away hesitantly, and she quickly spotted Curie and Cait hurrying over. Piper could also hear the heavy footsteps of Danse’s armor stomping quickly behind her.

Nora chuckled just barely, sounding terribly forced as she received Dogmeat as warmly as she could muster at that moment. As soon as Curie was within arms-length, she latched onto Nora as tightly as she could, nearly in tears as she sniffled and blubbered.

“Madame, you are alright! Thank goodness Monsieur Sturges knew more about what he was doing than I feared!” Curie whimpered, clinging onto Nora as tightly as she could. Nora hugged the girl in return, rubbing her back carefully as she comforted her.

“I’m fine, Curie,” Nora replied, and Piper painfully noticed the emptiness in her tone that replaced the ordinary warmth that she always without fail addressed Curie with. Piper crossed her arms. After a long moment of Nora just rocking in place with Curie in her arms, the poor girl finally released the vault-dweller, wiping her eyes pitifully.

“Oh, goodness… I am a mess!” Curie announced, and Nora just reached out her hands, wiping Curie’s tears away with her thumbs as she cradled her cheeks in that motherly manner in which she regarded so many people.

“It’s okay,” Nora assured her, only the smallest hint of smiles on her face. Curie pulled herself together after a moment, furrowing her brow only slightly as she hiccupped and watched Nora move to embrace Cait comfortingly. Curie looked over at Piper, her blue eyes shining with an unspoken question that, knowing Curie, would no doubt be a very much spoken question after a moment. Piper just shrugged, shaking her head in an attempt to dissuade Curie from asking just yet. Curie furrowed her brow, looking quite concerned as she clasped her hands to her chest while occasionally reaching up to wipe away her tears as they came coursing down her cheeks as per her usual emotionality.

Cait stiffened as soon as Nora hugged her, quite obviously self-conscious of everyone around seeing the display of affection, but soon enough, her fondness for Nora and her relief won over as she hugged Nora bone-crushingly, her somewhat taller form hugging onto the vault-dweller with all she had.

After a moment, Nora released her and looked to Danse. She smiled at him softly, the expression not meeting her eyes whatsoever. He had left his power armor during the time that she had been interacting with the others and he was looking quite out of place as he gazed at her in relief.

Nora walked up and hugged him quickly, the side of her head pressed to his chest and he hugged her back, obviously not sure what to do but more than willing to try to express his feelings.

After a long moment, Nora released him, and she looked at all of them, that small smile faltering as the pure hopelessness in her started to shine through.

By this time, everyone had caught onto the mood, and they were all looking at her with deep concern and worry. Nora just swallowed hard, glancing away as she sighed deeply.

“I’m… I’m going to go for a walk, okay?” Nora informed them, and they all nodded carefully.

“Do you need company, Madame?” Curie questioned in that sweet manner that she always possessed. Piper immediately knew the answer that was coming before Nora even uttered a word.

“I appreciate it, but I think I need a little bit of time… By myself,” Nora explained, and Curie nodded slowly, her brow furrowed with worry as she looked at the woman.

“I’ll be back, guys,” Nora told them with a slight smile, her eyes suddenly looking very tired and weak as she started off in a direction. As soon as she began to walk off, Dogmeat hurried along beside her, frequently looking up in her direction as he gently nosed her hand. She looked down at him as she went, wordlessly reaching her hand out and petting his head as they walked together, his body pressed against the side of her leg.

The group gathered shared a concerned glance, and Piper swallowed a little. Cait suddenly spoke up after a few moments.

“I think the trip didn’t turn out so well…”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Piper, ye need to do something,” Cait spoke, her jaw clenched and her eyes focused on the ground.

The journalist looked over to the redhead, her brow furrowed as she took in Cait’s oddly forlorn expression.

It had been two days since Nora had returned from the Institute, and Piper had asked a minuteman heading to Diamond City to go and give Nat a written message explaining everything and why she had not yet returned home. She knew that she had to have been worrying her younger sister, but she did not feel like she could leave Nora in her current state.

The woman was even more mopey than she had been when she saw the family of skeletons. In fact, at this point, Nora was downright worrying Piper sick. The woman refused to speak to anyone, and she only emerged from her old house occasionally to take the odd walk or to go fetch something to eat before quickly retreating to her hiding spot within her old home.

Everyone had been bugging her periodically since she had gotten home, and she was always terribly distant and dismissive. She was never rude or hurtful, but she always seemed miles away and did her best to keep to herself. Cait had been in the house five times, Danse twice, Piper three times, and Curie ten times. Dogmeat had consistently and steadfastly remained at Nora’s side throughout all of it, and he was the only one that Nora did not try to drive away from her.

“I… All of us… can’t help her. She needs you,” the redhead told her sincerely, finally meeting Piper’s eyes. Piper huffed lightly, looking away from the other woman.

“The last time I saw her, she told me she’s fine and not to worry about her,” Piper quietly said. Cait shook her head, slightly annoyed as she wrinkled her nose and furrowed her brow.

“That’s the same line she’s been running us, too,” Cait scoffed in irritation squeezing her hand with her other one as she uncomfortably attempted to deal with her negative emotions in a better manner that she likely would have ordinarily. Piper looked away into the distance in thought.

Cait sighed and Piper could hear the immense exasperation. “Listen, Piper, I know we don’t see eye to eye on most things and that we both ‘ave our moments of actin’ out. But do this fer Nora. She needs help and I,” Cait paused, and Piper could practically feel the redhead’s emotions of pure humiliation, helplessness, and hurt rolling off of her in waves.

“I think that yer the only one that can do it,” Cait ground out. Piper’s gaze immediately shifted to the fighter seated on the crate. Cait set her jaw and glared down at the worn concrete almost as if she were attempting to drill holes in it by sheer willpower.

“Yer less pushy than Curie and ye ain’t as bad at emotions as Danse. And ye ain’t so lost as some of us,” Cait admitted, clearly referring to herself with the last description as she wrung her hands almost aggressively, her jaw tightening as she clenched her teeth.

Piper glanced back over at the broken-down house. She sighed deeply, knowing it was certainly meaningful when Cait actually expressed such sentiment as she had to Piper of all people. Piper pushed off of the wall that she was leaned against and slowly started her way over to the front door of the place.

Allowing her hand to gently brush the doorway, she carefully walked in, the old floor creaking beneath her feet and the leaves rustling a bit as they were pushed out of the way as she walked.

Piper slowly wandered through the hallway of Nora’s old home in all of its destroyed glory, absently taking in the remnants of Nora’s life gone by as she slightly dreaded the encounter she was about to have with her best friend. It was not that she did not want to spend time with her or help her. It was just that she was somewhat afraid that the woman would try to push her away.

She stopped at the door to Shaun’s bedroom, looking in at the forlorn sight of the woman crouched in front of the blue crib. Her best friend was bent down on the floor with Dogmeat close at her side, his chin resting on her leg, and there was the definitive sound of Nora’s Pip-Boy rewinding a recording. Piper paused before entering, listening carefully as an odd playback that Piper had never heard before began.

“Hi, honey… Listen…

“I don’t think Shaun and I need to tell you how great of a mother you are… But we’re going to anyway.”

Piper felt her mouth go dry. While she had never heard the man’s voice, she knew precisely who this person had to be. And it genuinely hurt her heart to know that Nora had quite obviously been listening to this recording for quite some time.

“You are kind, and loving,” Nate explained and Shaun giggled. When Nate spoke back up, his voice was warm and filled with mirth. “And funny. That’s right.”

“And patient. So patient. Patience of a saint, as your mother used to say,” he explained and Piper allowed herself a small smile. Piper wholeheartedly agreed with the man, despite not ever being able to see the Pre-War version of Nora. Of course, Piper was mostly sure that she had seen the closest resemblance to this Pre-War person that anyone else could have. But nevertheless, Nora’s patience persisted even today.

“Look, with Shaun, and all of us being at home together… It’s been an amazing year. But even so, I know our best days are yet to come,” Nate continued, and Piper felt a dagger stab into her heart as she completely lost any happiness that she may have had. They were best days that were never to come for Nora.

“There will be changes, sure, things we’ll need to adjust to,” Piper could not help but mentally note all of the many things that Nora had to adjust to all by herself. “I’ll rejoin the civilian workforce. You’ll shake the dust off your law degree…”

“But everything we do, no matter how hard… We do it for our family,” Nate told her, and Piper felt her heart rip out of her chest as Nora allowed a small sob to wrack her frame. Piper wanted to step forward and at least attempt to comfort her, but she was not sure if it would be too large of an intrusion. Luckily, Dogmeat stepped in and nudged her hand, whimpering as he stared up at her.

“Now say goodbye, Shaun. Bye, bye? Say bye, bye?” Shaun just laughed joyfully, and Piper saw Nora raise her hand and gently touch the Pip-Boy’s screen.

“Bye, honey. We love you,” Nate expressed before the recording shut itself off. Piper bit her bottom lip slightly, feeling a pit growing in her stomach as she tried to keep away the pain.

Piper honestly could not even begin to imagine how horrible it would be to lose one’s son and one’s husband all at the same time. Nora had some hope with Shaun, but now Piper had no idea if Nora had actually managed to find Shaun or if he was alive at all. All she knew was that her best friend was in a deep and terrible pain, which, very unfortunately, implied that something horrible had happened.

“Piper.” The reporter was jolted from her reverie by a hoarse, husky voice that was altogether completely unlike the ordinarily so strong woman that Piper knew. Piper felt her stomach twist, and she swallowed a little.

“Blue?” Piper questioned, her voice barely above a whisper.

Nora did not say anything else, so Piper tentatively stepped forward, starting to approach the older woman. Piper slowly came around her, noting how her face was tearstained and her face looked like a ghost. There were dark circles under her eyes, and she seemed so terribly unhappy.

Piper carefully lowered herself to the ground next to Nora and sat down, just looking over at the blue-clad woman and not saying anything. Despite her instincts that really wanted to push a little to encourage a somewhat swifter response, Piper knew that Nora needed some time.

It was after a terribly long time that Nora finally spoke again.

“It was all for nothing,” Nora told her in a gravelly voice. Piper felt her heart sink further if that was even remotely possible.

“All this time, I’ve been fighting to find my son,” Nora spoke aloud, her voice wobbly as she evidently fought for the strength that she normally possessed. Her fists were clenched so tightly that her knuckles were turning white. Piper started to reach out and rub them gently, but she decided she would let the woman finish.

“But my son… He’s dead,” Nora admitted, her voice cracking with the last word. Piper frowned, but something in Nora’s voice was strange. It was something different than the way that one would ordinarily speak of someone’s passing.

“And I found a sixty-year-old man named Shaun leading the Institute,” Nora admitted, and Piper gaped at Nora, now realizing precisely why Nora had sounded so strange. Piper almost gasped, but she somehow managed to keep it under control so that it only sounded like a small, quick intake of breath through her nose.

Nora’s son was the leader of the Institute.

Piper could hardly fathom that idea. There must have been so much more time passed than just ten years. Piper felt her stomach flop uncomfortably as she looked over at her best friend.

“And it was all for nothing,” Nora finished, sounding strangled as she finally sobbed miserably and shook all over.

Piper wasted no time in reaching over and grabbing Nora in her arms tightly. The vault-dweller quickly clung on as if Piper were her lifeline. Dogmeat whined pitifully, trying to get as close to the two as their position would allow.

“I almost wish I had been vaporized in that machine a few days ago,” Nora admitted pitifully, and it was all Piper could do to keep from breaking down crying with her at that confession. She knew that life was hard for Nora, and while Nora was not suicidal, Piper knew that sometimes, moments of weakness came to play where the woman would not exactly mind an accident coming along.

And Piper knew why Nora had those moments of weakness. Life was not easy, and moreover, everyone that she used to know and love was gone from this world. Piper knew Nora loved her and all the rest of the weirdos running around, but Piper also knew that the loss of Nora’s husband and family weighed heavily upon her, too.

Of course, now that she found him and knew that he was the very evil that she had been so strongly fighting against, Nora was quite obviously devastated. And understandably so. Piper found that she herself was blown apart inside even if it was mostly on Nora’s behalf.

“It’s okay, I got you,” Piper whispered, honestly not having any idea how to make things better but deciding that reassuring Nora that she was there with her was the best route to take. Nora leaned into her heavily, and Piper held her tightly as the reporter felt all of Nora’s weight—physical and mental— pressing against her.

As she held the blue-clad woman in her arms, Piper could not help but notice that Nora felt human for the first time. Right now, she was not that infallible figure of hope, optimism, and love that she so often portrayed. Right now, Nora was a sniveling ball of pain and weariness, and Piper had to take the role that Nora so often took with everyone else.

And it somehow only endeared Nora more to Piper.

“And that poor family in the marshes… That could’ve been us,” Nora admitted, her voice breaking as she spoke, and Piper was whisked back to the three skeletons that the two of them had found.

“It wasn’t, though. It’s okay—”

“I almost wish it was us,” Nora told her, and Piper clenched her teeth, a lump in her throat as she tried to hold herself together.

“I understand why you feel that way… But I think a lot of people like you here, Blue,” Piper expressed quietly, and Nora just nodded, acknowledging Piper’s words.

“I know… I’m sorry,” Nora apologized, and Piper shook her head.

“Don’t be sorry. Talk it out,” Piper told her, warmth in her voice as she tried to wash away the inevitable hurt that was prickling a little with Nora’s admissions.

However, Nora stayed quiet for a moment before some ugly thought must have washed up in her mind and her shoulders started to shake once again. Piper just sighed quietly, feeling her heart break a little more.

Piper then gently began to rock on the floor, trying to offer the best comfort that she could for the vault-dweller as she referred back to her best techniques for soothing Nat.

“Hey, it’s alright, it’s alright,” Piper murmured, softly humming some tune she had heard Nora play on her Pip-Boy millions of times. She knew she could not sing like Cait did— Piper had secretly eavesdropped once when the redhead was not paying attention— but she thought she would at least give it a try. She found that vibrations of a voice tended to soothe Nat, so it would perhaps work for Nora as well.

She scooted over to the wall nearby in order to better support the both of them. Dogmeat crawled closer, keeping a close eye on the both of them. Piper just held her in her arms, trying to keep her humming as smooth and calming as possible. She also tried to keep away from sad tunes.

Soon enough, it seemed to help her best friend and Nora had actually come to relax somewhat in the hug, her muscles slackening a little. However, there was a certain amount of tension that remained and the sobs had not totally halted.

“I have to stop him,” Nora ground out after a few moments when she had calmed down only just enough to speak. However, the words launched another round of tears.

Piper had a strong inclination of what exactly stopping the man entailed. He likely would not just easily give up his ideals and let Nora take down his idealistic world in favor of keeping alive a world that he obviously wanted to terrorize and destroy for whatever reason.

Piper shook her head, stroking Nora’s hair carefully as she breathed in deeply.

“I know, Blue… It’s okay. It’ll all work out,” Piper assured her, even though she herself was quite uncertain of that fact. Despite this, she tried to maintain the confident façade. Nora just shook her head in reply, negating the statement wordlessly. Nora was not stupid, and they both knew the truth. But Piper knew it was best to just forget the truth for a little while.

“All of us… I’m here. We’re here. We’ll always be here… So it’ll be okay,” Piper spoke, her words much more assured. This time, she truly believed her promise. She would always be there for her best friend no matter what.

“Promise?” Nora asked after a while, her voice a little thick.

“I promise. You’re stuck with me and all of the rest of those goofs outside, too. You couldn’t get rid of me even if you had a ten-foot pole with a mirelurk on the end. I’d get Cait and stick her on the end of a ten-foot pole of my own and let her fight the thing. And then while the mirelurk on your stick was distracted, I’d run to you and you’d be stuck then,” Piper proclaimed, and she happily noted that Nora’s body was shaking a bit with laughter with only a slight inclusion of sobs. Piper, greatly encouraged by Nora’s mirth, continued in her monologue.

“I mean, wonderglue has nothing on me. Wonderglue takes one look at me, says ‘I can’t even’ and then gives up and goes home because it could never cling on like I do,” Piper persisted, chuckles affecting her now, too, as she made a funny voice to further emphasize the wonderglue’s supposed statement.

Nora snorted slightly, burying her face in Piper’s shoulder as she shook her head. Piper pressed her cheek to the side of Nora’s head, laughing with her a little.

“Y’know… You remind me of my little sister, Piper,” Nora muttered under her breath after a long silence.

“Yeah? What was her name?” Piper questioned, not sure what to say but taking the sudden subject change in stride and figuring she’d go with it. After all, whatever it took to make Nora feel better, Piper was willing to jump for it.

“Carol,” Nora answered shortly, her voice getting a little tight once again, and Piper felt her heart sink a bit in her chest.

“Huh. What was she like?”

“Well… She was more irritating than you by a long shot but had just as much guts and was just as kind-hearted. Ironically, she had been aiming to be a reporter, too,” Nora explained with a wet chuckle, a small sob shaking through her.

Piper swallowed, feeling the raw emotion roll through her. She could not imagine what it would be like to speak from Nora’s point of view about a younger sister passed away. It made Piper horribly sad for her best friend.

“But she just didn’t have the chance to be a hero like you,” Nora expressed, and Piper paused a little before making a small negating noise.

“No, you’re the hero here,” Piper replied immediately, feeling tears start to creep up in her eyes.

“Maybe… But you’re my hero,” Nora confessed, her voice so clear and genuine that Piper felt several tears escape. What in the world had she done to deserve someone that was so wonderful to her even when that someone was in pain?

It was just another thing that made Piper willing to do absolutely anything for Nora.

Piper just squeezed Nora even tighter, not knowing what else to say or do. What could Piper say to even remotely respond to those words correctly or appropriately?

It took her a moment of sitting there in silence with her best friend, but she finally was able to get her thoughts together well enough to reply.

“Blue… You’re my hero,” Piper told her quietly, her voice growing wobbly with the words. Nora raised up a bit, shifting in the embrace and hugging Piper at a bit more even of a level as they just sat there together, holding each other tightly.

Nora would get through this one way or another. But one thing was for sure.

Piper would be there every step of the way.

18 notes · View notes

bxthharmon · 5 years ago

Text

Never Go Home Again, Pt. VI || JJ Maybank x Reader

Words: 3527

Series Warnings: violence / talking about abuse / toxic relationships / talking about nudes sex tapes and sex tapes / drugs / underage drinking

Pt. Warnings: boats in bad weather??

Series Summary: A new girl, a shoebox of old memories, a past she’s trying to forget coincide with a hotheaded, but selfless, boy. teenagers getting in way over their heads

Pt. Summary: The group make headway with an underwater drone, while Y/N seeks closure from her family.

A/N: time for some insight into y/n’s history!!! also i have to go into school tmrw and i am NOT here for it

Chapters linked in my masterlist.

“masterlist”

“Alright, keep a lookout.” JJ reminded you as you pulled up to the hotel,”We’re behind enemy lines.” he pulled out the gun, ignoring how John B argued with him as he loaded it, in full display. “Can never be too careful.” JJ reminded you.

“Hey, I predict bringing a weapon to a four star hotel will likely cause more problems than it solves.”

“Thank you, Pope.” John B sighed.

Kie leaned forward, her head sticking through to the front of the VW, “I swear to God, I’m gonna throw that gun in the ocean, JJ. Put it back.”

You reached through the window and snatched the gun off him, leaning over and handing it to John B, glaring at JJ as you pulled back out of his van window.

“”You can’t grab a gun like that!” he leaned forwards to argue, but at the look of your face when you turned around, he sighed, hopping out of the car, “Can’t forget my badge - professional bus-boy.”

“So where are we going now?” Pope inquired, following JJ to the doors.

“We’re getting the internet because only rich people have electricity right now.” JJ explained, leading you through the crowded, steamy kitchen and trying to grab some bits of food as he did, calling a greeting to a guy named Andrew. “See they got the backup generators going? Kooks don’t miss a beat.” he led you to a door, which opened to a load of computers.

“Sweet Lord, the internet!” Pope ran to the computer, sitting down, “I’ve missed you.”

“Let me get in there,” JJ spoke, “gotta check on my insta models.” you rolled your eyes, walking to the window and watching the ant’s nest of rich people thrive. You heard Pope type in the coordinates, and walked back to see what was going on. After the discovery of it being only 900 feet, and JJ telling you about the drone-camera-thing and his dad’s redundancy, you left again, not wanting to stick around for long.

“Pope, we’re not stealing the drone, we’re… borrowing it.” John B tried to justify.

“‘Humans are the only animal that can’t tell fantasy from reality.’” said Pope vaguely.

“Did you come up with that?” John B asked.

“Albert Bernstein came up with it,” he clarified, “but it applies to this whole treasure-hunting thing. So, which is it? Fantasy, or reality?”

“Why’re you so weird, Pope?” JJ asked, concentrating on rolling his blunt.

“It’s fantasy, but possible reality.” Kie suggested.

“Reality.” John B looked around at the group.

“Virtual reality.” JJ muttered, flicking his lighter on and going to light his blunt. You snatched the spliff off of him.

“The smell’s doing my head in.” you said, ignoring his hurt expression.

“Keep the signal clear.” Pope agreed.

“You know what your problem is?” JJ piped up, glaring at you.

“You?” You quipped, raising your eyebrow as if to say ‘I dare you’.

“No!” he shook his head, holding your gaze, “It’s that you take everything so seriously! And you don’t bother to find out what really happened. You make an assumption without knowing the full story.” he didn’t break eye contact with you. John B stopped the van, and you inhaled, holding your anger in.

“My problem,” you seethed, “Is that there is only one way to take most things. I don’t need to know the full story, because the message came through - loud and clear - regardless.”

“Well maybe,” JJ started, the pair of you ignoring the faces of your fellow pogues as your voices rose, “if you knew the other side to the story, you would know that that’s not how it was meant.”

“Really?” you laughed incredulously, and you could tell he knew he was entering a danger zone, “Because there’s only one way to take it JJ! Please, please, enlighten me on literally any other way I could have taken it!”

“Okay,” John B said, overpowering your argument, and drawing your attention to the shocked and confused faces of your friends, “Y’all need to sort your shit out, in the meantime, JJ, Pope, the gate’s open, let’s go, and Y/N, get ready, getaway driver.”

You moved to the driver’s seat, grumbling about being a getaway driver as you watched the three boys run through the gate, which was crawling shut.

You waited for about ten minutes, bored out of your mind as you held a hardly engaging text conversation with a girl from your old school. Your bored brain’s trance was interrupted by the cutting sound of a dog barking. You looked through the wire gate, seeing that the guard had left the car. You jumped out of the car, slamming the door as you ran to the gate, pulling yourself up and over, jumping down the other side in a well-practiced manner, running towards the barking.

You scaled the rows of boats until you saw the guard, calming the dog down as he shouted to a boat. From your angle, you could see a rucksack. JJ.

“Excuse me?” you yelled, and the guard turned his attention to you as you walked towards him. “Uh, sorry, Officer, you left the gate open.” you lied, racking your brain for a lie to distract the man. “There was a girl with a flat tire.” Please, Kie, be there.

“I know.” he responded gruffly, and you nodded.

“Well, Sir, she’s like, panicking ‘cause you ran off, and she has to get to the ferry. You should probably help her out.”

He looked you up and down suspiciously as you played with your hair, battering your eyelashes lightly. He sighed, walking away, the dog in tow. You waited until he was out of sight, and earshot, to call out to JJ. His head appeared over the side of the boat, and then he stood and jogged down the steps to face you. You barely spared him a glance, heading towards the impound yard at the back.

“C’mon, shithead.” you murmured, hearing his footsteps follow you, catching up and joining your stride.

“Y/N,” he attempted, trying to catch your attention as you stared straight on.

“JJ,” you mocked, “I don’t want to talk about it. It should never have happened, and I’m sorry it did. Can we move on?”

You didn’t wait for a reply as you stormed off, towards the others, leaving his heart breaking in the dust.

“Kie,” you sighed, collecting glasses from one of the tables, “I told you, okay? He pushed me away. I mean, message received, loud and clear.”

“But you were drunk, maybe he just didn’t want to take advantage of you?” she offered, and you put the tray of glasses down, sighing and looking over to her.

“He just kind of, walked off.” you reminded her, “He just pushed me away and walked off. I felt like such an idiot - it was so humiliating, I mean he flirts with me, he asks me about all the right things, he wants to know about me, and who I am in a way that no guy ever has before. And I guess I got so caught up in my feelings that I didn’t realise they were one-sided. He pushed me away, and there’s only one way to take that. Besides, you saw how he acted at the yard.” You dropped your head into your hands. “How do I face him Kie?” you could feel her rub your back, “How do I face him, and the boys - he’s definitely told the boys - after I embarrassed myself like that?”

She sighed, taking your face in her hands, “With your head held high, like a fucking a boss, because it’s his loss.”

“You’re a poet and you don’t even know it.”

You had dined at the Wreck, still ignoring JJ and agreeing to reconvene at the Chateau in the early morning to test the drone, which was what you were now doing, as the sun began to creep over the marsh, dawn only having been an hour ago. Pope and JJ stood next to you, checking the camera, with Kie and John B in the water and you sat on the side of the pontoon.

“God bless geeks, Pope, truly man.” JJ said, looking at the screen. “What would we do without you to control the drone?”

“It’s not a drone,” you pointed out, “It’s an ROV.”

“Shut up, shut up.” He said, looking out at Kie and John B, “It’s too early for that right now.”

“Hey, once we get footage of the wreck, we’ll bring it to a lawyer in town and file a claim.” said John B.

“It’s such bullshit, why do we have to do that?”

“Well there is maritime salvage law.” You pointed out.

“You can’t just go to the bottom of the ocean and scoop a bunch of stuff up.” confirmed Pope.

“I know, I know, it’s just, lawyers aren’t cheap, bro.”

“JJ, we’re about to get our hands on 400 mil, and you’re worried about being cheap?” you snorted.

“And as soon as they see the footage they’ll work for a comp.” John B explained.

“How do you know all of that?” Kie asked.

“‘Cause my dad said it. Like, a million times.”

“This tether is like, really long.” Pope pointed out, “In the wrong weather it could get pushed around.”

“Then we’ll go in dead calm.” you shrugged, glancing at the storm clouds above you, “So not today.”

“So now we just gotta wait around for the right weather.” You pulled up the weather app on your phone, “Or tomorrow, thank God.” You stood up, “I gotta go anyway. I’ll be back tomorrow evening, so see you guys then.”

The pogues looked confused and you shrugged, “I have a ferry to catch.”

“A ferry?” Kie asked.

“Yeah, my brother’s driving from college to Florida to meet his girlfriend so he’s passing through, I said I’d meet him on the mainland until he leaves tomorrow.” you explained, grabbing your bag. “See you later.”

“Do you ever think about Mom?” you asked, taking a scoop of ice cream, making Lewis look at you, nodding slowly. “‘Cause I feel shitty, like yeah, she did some fucked up shit, and is one of the major factors as to why I’m now living in some islands on the other side of the country, but, she keeps calling me, and I want to pick up. Does that make me a bad person?”

“No.” Your brother shook his head, “She’s our mom, you’re still allowed to talk to her, even if you can’t see her. Besides, we deserve some closure, so if you can get it off her, then do.”

You nodded. “I miss her. And I miss how happy Dad was when he was around her. How happy we all were. It hurts that she did that to us.” you looked out to sea, watching the islands in the distance.

“Me too, little sis, me too.” he leant against the bollard next to him.

“So, you have a girlfriend.” you grinned at the way he blushed, “How long you been together?”

“Eight months, since the start of college.” he smiled.

“I’m happy for you.” you smiled at the thought of him finally finding the right girl, he deserved it.

“Thanks.” he grinned, “How about you? Any guys in the Outer Banks catching your eye?”

You thought about lying, but you decided you’d done enough of that for a lifetime. “There was, but I don’t think so anymore. Things are… weird.”

“Oh yeah, what’s his name?” he nudged you.

“JJ. I thought we had something going on, but I guess he made it clear that that was fabricated.”

“How so?”

“We were like, hanging out everyday, and flirting and shit, but he kinda rejected me when I kissed him.”

“It’s his loss, any guy would be lucky to have you. But if you need me to kick his ass, I’ll get on that ferry with you and do it like, as soon as I can.”

“You’re so extra.”

“You got friends?”

“What do you mean? You think I’m a loner or something?”

“It’s a simple question!”

“Yes. Yes, I have friends.”

“Good friends? They look out for you?”

“Yeah. I’ve known them a month and they’re already better friends than any of my old ones were. They’re the one reason I’m glad I live in the Outer Banks now. I love them, weird as it sounds. And they love me.”

You went back to the motel he’d rented you rooms in, and sat on your bed, opening your phone and staring at the many missed calls from your mom. You tapped the call button, holding the phone to your ear.

It rang twice, then the line opened with a small crackle.

“Hey Mom.”

“Sweetie,” you could almost hear her relieved smile, “How are you?”

“I’m… uh, I’m good. I’m settling in. How’s Chris?”

“That’s great! He’s good, we’re good. Thank you. For calling back.”

“Why did you call, Mom?”

“I wanted to apologise. I’m so sorry. What I did - it tore us apart, and it was unforgivable. And now I see the situation you’re in and I wish I could take it back.”

“But you can’t, Mom. You destroyed my life, and you called to kill tow birds with one stone - pretend to seem like the caring mom you proved yourself not to be, and to clear your own conscience. Well fuck you. You really wanna know how I’m doing? I haven’t talked to any of my close friends from Cali because you made us move so suddenly that they thought I’d hid it from them. They all think I’m a slut, and I couldn’t win the fucking court case because of you! You left Dad high and dry, for a rich dude you’d known for a month!”

“Y/N,” she sighed through the phone, and you noticed that your cheeks were wet and stiff with tears.

“No, Mom. Don’t call again. Don’t try to contact me. I thought this would help get me closure, but your apology is just an excuse! I - I don’t ever wanna talk to you again.”

“I love you.”

You hung up, falling back onto the motel bed, and letting the sobs shake your body with such force that you couldn’t breathe.

You got back late the next day, when the sky was falling into darker hues every minute. You were tired, but you missed your friends. You dropped your bag off in the hallway and headed straight over the road to the Chateau. You found them in the hammocks. “Hey.”

Kie squealed, jumping up and tackling you in a hug that made you stumble back.

“Missed you,” she smiled, “had to deal with these shitheads by myself.”

“Sorry.” you smiled, climbing into the hammock with her as the boys protested to her insults.

“You missed some good waves.” John B commented.

“You guys know I don’t surf.” You chuckled. “I’m sure they were great though.”

“But you should surf.” JJ said, sitting on the other end of the hammock, both of your feet thrown over his. “How’s your brother?”

“I’m good without that hobby.” you laughed. “He’s good, enjoying college. What were y’all talking about?”

“How JJ believes in the gold.” Kie smirked.

“Oh my God, JJ, do you really believe?” John B joked.

“Totally. Wait, are we talking about four mil?”

“Four hundred mil.” You corrected, speaking softly, your anger at him seemingly having dissipated.

“I’m gonna dream about shipwrecks.” he rolled onto his side, as you and Kie giggled.

“Goodnight, Bird!” You laughed.

“Goodnight, Birdshit!” Pope mocked, making you all laugh.

“I love you guys.” You muttered, feeling Kie cuddle into you.

You stood at the bow, sunglasses on as you watched the waves roll out in front of you, and the wind bite at your skin, whipping your hair out behind you.

“Alright JJ, pin it here.” John B called, and you turned around, hopping off the front of the boat as JJ responded.

“Roger that, x marks the spot.” you walked to Kie, helping her with the wire.

“Alright, ladies and gentlemen.” John B pulled out the ROV, “To going full kook.” he plopped the drone in the water, high-fiving you as he walked back to Pope. Kie started feeding the wire through, and you sat down next to JJ in the cockpit, watching how he pouted when you stole his seat. “Alright, JJ, we’re right over it, ten seconds northwest.”

“Got it!” he repeated the instructions as he followed them. “Why are you in here?”

“I wanted to sit down.” You countered, swivelling the chair from side to side.

“One hundred feet!” Kie called.

“You could sit down outside.” he nodded to the benches outside.

“But then you wouldn’t get the pleasure of my company!”

“I wouldn’t call it a pleasure.” he joked.

“Two hundred feet.” Kie’s call came.

You put your hand to your chest in fake offence, “C’mon man, you’re breakin’ my heart!”

“Sorry, bro.” he said, adjusting the steering.

“Three hundred feet.”

“JJ why did you push me away when I kissed you?”

“Y/N, while I would love to have this conversation, now is not the time.”

“Four hundred feet.” Kie looked down, “The tide’s turning.”

“Hey JJ?” John B called out.

“Yup.” You responded for him, swivelling the seat towards John B.

“Ten seconds, easy. South-southeast.”

You swivelled back around, repeating the instructions and ignoring the “Yeah, Y/N, I heard.” as he turned aggressively, and you shuffled the chair back.

“JJ, twenty seconds midspeed alright? South.” John B called.

You stood up, the sudden change in weather and instructions causing anxiety to gnaw at your stomach. You grabbed a sweater off the side, pulling it over your head to keep the wind from giving you hypothermia. You went to Pope and John B, hoping to make yourself useful.

“What’s going on?” You asked, looking at the storm clouds.

“700 feet!” Kie called, and Pope turned to you.

“A little bad weather, we’re fine.” He assured you, and you nodded slowly, knowing he could see you were still anxious.

You stumbled to the side as the waves crashed into the boat, JJ looking back at you, concerned. “This is not ‘dead calm’.” you mumbled as JJ peered out at the clouds.

“JJ, hold it steady!” John B called.

“900!” Kie called.

“JJ, we’re gonna turtle in this storm.” You said, watching the panic in your friends, as you fumbled with the sleeves. “Can I help with anything?”

“Sort the speed.” He said, moving so you could control the meter.

“920!” Kie yelled.

“Crank it north by northwest! Ten seconds!” John B called, panic clear in his voice.

“John B there’s too much current, we’re gonna lose it!” Kie yelled.

“South southwest JJ! Hard!” John B yelled, and you pushed the meter, turning quickly, working in tandem with the blonde boy.

“Half speed! Steady at this bearing, JJ!” He steered by his instructions as you slowed the boat.

“960!”

“980!”

You heard Pope yelling that you were at the bottom, and John B yelling for JJ to be steady, calling for quarter-speed. You slowed the boat again, both you and JJ looking at where the others crowded around the monitor.

“See anything?” JJ called.

You could see them mumbling, and their faces falling. They had found the boat, but came up empty. You helped JJ steer as they swept the wreck twice more, before running out of battery. You could hear Pope trying to bring the optimism back, but you knew it was futile.

“Guys, we’ve been through it three times, there’s nothing there.” you called.

“Shut up!” Kie shouted back, and you sighed, dejected.

“What? She’s right!” JJ backed you. You pulled your hand through your hair, taking the speed controls back off JJ.

“The gold could be buried, we don’t know!” Kie shouted, searching for something hopeful to say.

“If it was there, it would have been found on the metal detector, okay?” John B turned to face the group again. “Somebody beat us to it.”

You could see JJ getting frustrated, the sight of his best friend in pain clearly getting to him. “Or it was never there.” he muttered. You sighed, turning to check on your friends, who were riddled with frustration and anger. Eventually, you decided to go home.

When you eventually got back to the island, Kie pulled you aside.

“Are you and JJ alright again?”

“Honestly? I don’t know. Even if he doesn’t see me like that, I don’t wanna lose him. I talked to my brother about it, and I just feel like we should at least try to be good again.”

“You know we all love you either way right? And JJ cares about you, you guys have got to sort it out, you may have only known each other for less than a month, but I honestly can’t imagine how he’d be if he fucked things up with you.”

“You sure about that?”

“‘Course. Anyway, you’re coming out with me, Pope and JJ, maybe JB, tomorrow anyway.”

“I am?”

“Movie night down in the Kook Green.”

Tags: @tangledinsparkles @jellyfishbeansontoast @lolitstiana @ilikealotofpeople-younotsomuch @teamnick @thoughtsofthestars @obxmxybxnk @jjmaybankswife @kaelyn-lobrutto24 @sxcretinhuman @alexa-playafricabytoto @angvelics @badwolf00593

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outrebanx · 5 years ago

Text

Dragonfly - Chapter 5

JJ Maybank x female!reader series

Summary: Things are weird between you and JJ for a few days, but all is forgotten when he turns up on your doorstep, covered in bruises again

Word Count: 3k

Warnings: ANGST - mentions of abuse and death, injuries, maybe some swearing I cant remember

A/N: I love writing angst as I can relate to it so much more and it helped my mood today isn’t great but I hope the chapter flows well enough and people like it - and as always feedback is appreciated :) (little flashback in italics)

Catch up: Chapters 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -

You woke up to the sun shining into your room, turning over you were met with empty space, you opened your eyes to see nothing where JJ had been laying the night before. You had agreed to go to John B’s together, why would he leave without telling you?

You sat up, not understanding why you felt so hurt at him leaving, you had helped him, and him you last night, but I guess now he was sober, he didn’t want your help. You couldn’t spend too much time thinking about this though, you needed a shower desperately and then you were still going to head to John B’s, whether JJ was there or not.

Only once you’d got into the shower, did your mind finally focus on the pain you felt in your arms, the one Rafe had grabbed now had a dark purple bruise covering a lot of the forearm, and the hand you had punched him with was also swollen and it ached. This was possibly the worst way you’d woken up in a while, but in all honesty you didn’t want to deal with your injuries or spend anymore time thinking about JJ. So you quickly finished your shower, wrapped a bandage around your hand, took some painkillers and got ready for the day ahead.

John B’s house was quiet when you got to it, most likely John B (and the others if they crashed there) were still asleep, and you didn’t want to wake them, so you made your way to the end of the dock where you sat and looked over at the water, lost in thought.

You had been looking out on a calm water, similar to the marsh you were looking at now, your mum at your side, sitting in silence whilst you both listened to the sounds of nature around you. The birds in the trees chirping their songs like they do every morning, the wind making its way through the trees, rustling the leaves as it went, and the early buzzing of the insects around you. This had been the lake where you’d had your moment with the dragonflies, it truly felt like a magical place to you, as if it was out of a fairy tale.

Your mum and you had spent many mornings like this, enjoying the calm before the day revealed what it had in store for you, it gave you a chance to breathe.

This particular morning, your mum had dragged you out of bed to go here with her, neither of you ever bothered getting your dad to come as he was the opposite of a morning person, and you kind of liked the ritual staying between the two of you.

You had been sat there for around 10 minutes before your mum started speaking, “No matter what happens in life never forget this place or what it means to us.”

You looked at her in confusion, “what?”

“Promise me, please, that you won’t forget this Y/N.” Her eyes seemed pained enough that you didn’t ask her anymore questions and said instead, “Of course I promise.”

At this response your mum had just wrapped her arm around you and kissed the top of your head, not realising you had felt a tear fall onto the same spot a moment later.

You were shaken from this memory when you heard someone call your name, their footsteps heading towards you. You cursed yourself for allowing your thoughts to move towards that memory, still not ready to face some of the pain you felt, especially in a place where someone could see, so with the footsteps getting closer you quickly wiped away the couple of tears that had fallen without you realising and turned to see John B approaching you.

You smiled at him, “Morning sunshine, how are you feeling today?”

“Better than expected actually,” he sat down next to you, “how about you? How’s the hand?”

“To be honest it aches a little,” you moved it in front of him, showing him the bandage, “but maybe worth it if Rafe feels worse this morning.”

He laughed, “God let’s hope so, I’m not sure his ego will easily recover from being hit by a girl in front of other people.”

You two fell into an easy silence for a minute or two before John B got up, clapping his hands together, “Right, I think it’s time we tried to wake up the others,” he held out a hand to help you up, “come on.”

You grabbed his hand with your good one and made your way back to the Chateau, falling back slightly when he first went inside, but you took a breath and went in.

The sight you saw made you smile, Pope was in an unnatural position asleep on the pullout with Kiara half off the other side, also sleeping peacefully.

John B was heading to what was probably the spare room, most likely for JJ, when you said to him, your voice hushed, “What’s the best way to wake them up without being killed?”

“No method I’ve ever tried has really worked so do what you want, but good luck and don’t let them kill you.”

You laughed, put your hand to your forehead and saluted him, “Yes sir.”

He was still laughing when he disappeared into the room, you looked down at the pair in front of you, assessing how you could wake them up. In the end you decided to risk their annoyance, as with the awkward way they’d been sleeping, there was room in the middle for you to jump.

You launched yourself onto the bed, falling down between them and jolting the bed enough that Kie fell off in shock and Pope managed to smack himself in the face. The anger on their faces didn’t last long as the cackle you’d let out at the scene you’d just witnessed was just as funny to them, so soon you were all sat there, Kie still on the floor, just laughing together.

“Why the fuck are you all so loud?” You heard JJ from the door, the silence died down, on your part it was from shock at how rough he looked this morning, you’d frozen when you’d seen the number of bruises on his face, and you dreaded to think what his torso looked like under the shirt he was wearing.

You made eye contact with him, before he could do or say anything though, you looked away, instead looking at John B who had given you a thumbs up for your method of waking up Kie and Pope. You gave him a big smile and bowed slightly, causing him to chuckle.

The rest of the day went by quite quickly, at first it was quite calm, the others recovering from the hangovers they had, luckily you’d always managed to avoid hangovers somehow, and then for the rest of the day you were all out on the boat.

Throughout the day you had felt JJ’s eyes on you, probably waiting for you to talk to him, but you avoided his eyes, still not sure you wanted to talk to him, especially with how your emotions had broken through your barriers that morning on the dock. On days that happened you were usually careful in avoiding any sort of emotional situation, and you felt like talking to JJ about why he had left without saying anything could become emotional, so even if it made you look a little bitchy, you did your best to avoid him.

Unfortunately Kie had picked up on how you were acting and pulled you to the side, away from the boys who were chatting at the wheel of the boat.

“Hey, what’s happened between you and JJ?”

“Nothing, I’m just not in the mood for his antics today.”

“Bullshit, you’re actively avoiding him, he has a face of a hurt puppy, the boys haven’t picked up on it cos they’re idiots, but I’m not.” She crossed her arms waiting for your answer.

“I don’t know why he looks like a ‘hurt puppy’ as you say, all I know is I let him stay round mine last night because I didn’t want him walking home in the state he was in, and when I woke up this morning he had already left, not even leaving a note.”

Kie was about to speak but you continued on, “and I’m being truthful when I say nothing happened, I’ve just had a difficult morning, and talking to him might make it worse, so I’m helping myself instead of him today. Okay?”

She gripped your hand, squeezing it slightly, “I can talk to him if you want?”

“No it’s honestly fine, I just don’t want to deal with him much today.”

“Okay then, we will relax together, and have a JJ free day.”

You smiled at her, thankful you’d met someone like her, someone who didn’t push too much and understood your wishes.

The rest of the day played out smoothly, JJ didn’t try and approach you, but the group as a whole had a good day out. Good enough that you were exhausted by the time you got home, quickly saying hi to your dad and avoiding him seeing the bruise on your arm, then heading to bed where you fell into a deep sleep very quickly.

—————

The next few days you were back at work, and you almost never saw anyone from the group, apart from Kie obviously, who you had a couple of shifts with, but you still hadn’t really spoken to JJ since the night of the Kegger. You now wanted to though, and it annoyed you slightly that he hadn’t tried speaking to you, probably thinking you’d still be slightly distant with him - but this whole situation was more due to him than you, you thought.

You decided that as you had a day off tomorrow, and were probably going to see the Pogues, you would try to talk to JJ then - at least try to get things back to how they were before the other night. The plan now made out in your head, you began to relax slightly, no longer feeling the awkward pang in your chest when you thought of him.

The rest of your work day went by without any issue, and by the time you’d had a pizza with your dad for tea, you still weren’t that tired, so instead of laying in your bed for another night in a row, you decided to go surfing.

The beach was quiet when you got there, nobody really out at this time, and you liked it. The night sky was reflected on the water, the sounds of the waves calmed your mind and heart, but it was only when you were about to step into the water that you realised the water might be too calm to surf. You didn’t want to go back home just yet though, so you left your board on the beach, and dove into the waves.

After being under the water for a minute, you resurfaced, treading water and keeping an eye on your position so the currents couldn’t move you too much without you realising; you stayed like this for a while, every now and then going back under water for as long as you could manage. Eventually your body began to tire, and you swam back to shore, grabbing your board from where you left it and got back into your car to head home.

—————

You were unlocking the door to your house when you heard movement behind you, you tried not to react, instead thinking about what you could use to protect yourself if needed, unfortunately all you had were the keys in your hand, so you turned around, ready to see what was behind you.

The sight was not what you expected, it was worse, you were frozen as you looked at JJ, blood running down his face, new bruises already forming over the ones from the other night, he wasn’t putting much weight on one of his legs and he had tears in his eyes.

Quickly shaking yourself out of the shock you had felt, you rushed towards him, “Holy shit JJ, what’s happened? Are you okay?”

His voice was gravelly, as if he’d been shouting, or screaming you thought with a shiver, “I went to your window but you weren’t there, so I waited here - I can go if you want.”

“Absolutely not,” you took his hand, already pulling him in the direction of your house, “I’ll clean you up again, yeah?”

You had turned to see if he was going to answer, but all he did was nod slightly, a tear falling down his cheek. The sight broke your heart and it took all your willpower to not cry as well.

He was silent - silent when you indicated for him to sit on the counter like last time, silent whilst you cleaned out his cuts and put ice on his wounds, silent when you led him into your room and sat him down on your bed. The only noises he ever made were sniffles or a hiss of pain when you cleaned out a bad cut.

You didn’t know what to do, whether you should ask him if he wanted to talk or to leave him alone completely. You crouched down in front of where he was sat, eye level with him, “Hey, will you be alright if I leave you for like five minutes? I’ve been in the sea so I kinda need a shower, but I don’t have to if you want me here with you.”

He looked at you, and shook his head and pointed back to the bathroom, showing he was fine with you leaving. You weren’t used to this quiet version of JJ, it unnerved you and made you want to break down in tears, but you couldn’t, at least not in front of him. So in the few minutes you were in the shower, you allowed a few tears to fall, heartbroken at the sight of him like this, but by the time you were back in your room, there was no sign of the emotions you’d let out, you were just ready to help him in any way you can.

He had settled down into your bed when you got back, the bruises on his chest obvious even in the dim light of your room, you made your way into bed next to him, laying on your side so you were facing him.

“You obviously don’t have to talk about it, but if you do want to I’m here for you.” He looked at you and the hand you’d held out for him to hold if he wanted it.

He put his hand in yours, still not saying anything, so you squeezed it and waited.

After a minute or so, he began speaking, “Um my dad did this to me,” you couldn’t help but let out a gasp at this, “he does it to me quite a lot actually, it’s why I spend so much time at John B’s - tonight it was because I wasn’t in the best of moods and didn’t get him a beer when he asked, so he told me how worthless I am, and that he wished I was dead.”

He sniffled, avoiding looking at you after what he said, completely unaware of the tears that were falling down your face, no longer contained by your resolve.

You squeezed his hand, “I may not have known you for a long time, but I know for a fact you’re not worthless, and the world would be an awful place if you were dead.”

He looked at you, likely still not convinced about what you were saying, so you continued, “You were one of the first people I met when I moved here, and because of my mum’s death, I wasn’t in the best of places, but everyday I have spent with you and the Pogues since have made my life a happier place again, you have especially had a part in that.”

You smiled at him, and to your delight, he smiled back.

You two lay like that for a while, holding hands in a comfortable silence. To your surprise it was JJ who broke the silence, “I’m sorry.”

“What for?” You looked at him confused

“For leaving the other day without telling you, I just panicked because you saw me vulnerable and you were being so nice, I didn’t want you to see me differently or something, so I thought I’d leave.”

Just as you were going to respond, he continued talking, “and then you wouldn’t even look at me the next day and I thought I’d really messed up, and I was going to talk to you, but I don’t know, I just couldn’t bring myself to.”

Before he could continue rambling, and making himself feel worse again you interrupted, “Hey, you hadn’t messed up or anything, yes I was a little annoyed at you leaving without telling me, but I knew you must of had a reason, and I was having other issues that day so I wanted to avoid emotions and stuff if that makes sense.”

“Yeh it does, maybe you can talk to me about that stuff sometime if you’re up for it, and I’m really glad I haven’t messed anything up because I think I might like you Y/N.”

You couldn’t help the smile that spread across your face, “That’s lucky, I think I might like you as well JJ Maybank.”

He pulled you closer, you put your head on his chest, careful not to hurt his bruises too much, and fell asleep like that, happy and content at the idea of being with the person beside you.

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#jj maybank x reader #jj maybank x y/n #jj x reader #jj maybank imagine #jj imagine #outerbanks fic #Outer Banks #obx fic #john b x reader #kiara carrera x reader #pope heyward x reader #john b routledge #jj maybank #pope heyward #kiara carrera #outrebanx #outrebanx dragonfly

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kafka-ish · 5 years ago

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crying my heart out for you | b.d.

y/n’s boyfriend, bill denbrough, breaks it off with her but y/n just can’t seem to figure out what she did wrong.

word count: 1,809

warnings/included: inference of sex, angst(?), fem!reader

a/n: loosely based off of this song. also pls enjoy my attempt at an angst fic

“I j-juh-just think we sh-shu-hould take a break. Th-tha-that’s all.” Bill’s stutter had gotten exponentially worse as he tried to voice his thoughts. He never intended for this to happen, but y/n knew that phrase was bound to fall from his lips sometime. Whether it be when they both were headed off to different colleges or right now.

y/n had no difficulty processing the scene taking place in front of her; the situation made to be crystal clear. But before her, stood what was once a daydream. Her daydream. Which was now shattered; the sound of her breaking heart was what brought her back to reality.

The two stood in silence for a while. A certain tenseness persisted between the two and y/n’s brain was still racking up different ways to say ‘i love you’ to a boy who didn’t feel the same.

A tear raced down her cheek and that was the last thing she needed. y/n wanted to stay strong and look just as unbothered as Bill did. But it was no use. A shudder possessed her being. Her heart thumped rapidly despite the fact it felt like it would never work again.

“Hey...” Bill reached out to grab y/n’s hand but she quickly yanked it away. “This is- this is ha-hard fo-for me too, y/n.”

“You like someone else.” y/n’s words were venom. She couldn’t stand to look at the boy who broke her heart anymore. Her eyes drifted to study the soft overgrown grass at her feet, a sorry replacement for Bill.

“Wha-what muh-makes you say th-that?” A look of skepticism washed over Bill’s face. He squinted in disbelief at the girl standing in his presence.

“I see the way you look at her.” y/n tried to swallow the sadness apparent in her voice.

“Who?”

No response.

“Wh-who’s her?” Bill grew impatient at the lack of response but before he could ask again, y/n finally spoke up.

“Beverly Marsh.” y/n sucked in a deep breath then proceeded to erupt in a pool of tears.

“Why wuh-wuh-would... Why would yo-ou assume th-that?” Bill’s pressing questions that somehow felt like an interrogation didn’t help.

“I should go.” y/n’s voice was a whisper.

And at that, she left, not giving the boy she still loved an answer.

Quite frankly, y/n didn’t know how to reply. All she knew was that Bill loved someone and it wasn’t her. And whether Bill knew it or not, y/n did.

The last few days were spent in y/n’s room. Occasionally, she’d leave for a meal or two. Otherwise, she’d stay locked in there like a vampire in its coffin during daylight. Every day a memory of her and Bill replayed in her head. Regret and doubt clouded her mind as the scenes repeated themselves.

Bill’s breath tickled the shell of y/n’s ear and her heart thumped out of her chest at the sensation.

He lay bare in front of her, her the same. y/n admired his toned chest and pale skin. Her fingertips traced the outline of his skin conscientiously. Her mind screamed at her. Go faster, faster, faster. But her motions kept at a slow and steady rate.

“Ar-are you shu-sure you wuh-wuh-want this?” her boyfriend asked. He looked deep into her loving eyes, reading her like a book. His hand reached over to brush a strand of loose hair that fell in the way of her face—he wanted to see every edge of her features.

“Of course.” y/n gazed back at him with the same adoration. “Anything for you.” At these words, Bill enraptured her lips in a romantic kiss, leaving her breathless and craving more.

y/n’s eyes puffed and grew red at the thought of them. How they used to be. She wanted everything to forget him but, at the same time, she couldn’t stand the thought of losing him.

“You can’t keep yourself locked up in here forever,” Ben Hanscom said. The edge of the bed dipped slightly from where he sat. His attempts to comfort his friend were frantic, but he was unsure if she was even listening. “I know what it’s like when the person you love doesn’t feel the same way,” he continued. “It sucks at first..”

y/n clung to every word Ben had to offer. Shallow breaths left her stilled figure as she laid buried under the covers.

“...But you’ll get over it, y/n. I know you. You’re strong. You’re beautiful. You’re-”

y/n cut him off. She shoved the covers away from her figure and pressed an abrupt kiss to his lips. But it wasn’t the same with Ben.

He pulled away fast and stared at her blankly.

“Sorry,” y/n squeaked. Her demeanor was small and she wanted to curl up into a ball until she became one with the air.

“I know you’re hurt, y/n/n.” Ben gave her a sad look which resonated with her. “What do you want?” Sincerity graced each word, but y/n assumed he already knew the answer.

A shaky breath left her lips and all y/n could do was lean into the boy; staining his oversized sweatshirt.

A week had passed when y/n eventually conjured up enough courage to face Bill at school again. Whenever she passed him in the halls, her stare lingered and a bubble formed in her throat.

Whenever she looked his way, Beverly’s fiery red hair also struck her eye line. She always saw the pair together. Bill’s arm either wrapped around her or he’d be caught in a laugh while looking wistfully into her eyes.

Once, their eyes interlocked with each other, but the contact ended just as fast as it happened. y/n could only hope that he still remembered the times they shared together.

y/n waited outside of the Aladdin theatre. Her posture was slightly hunched and she was nervously fiddling with her thumbs. This was her and Bill’s first date. They planned to see some cheesy horror movie that y/n had already forgotten the name of and the girl was downright anxious.

Sweat stuck to her palms which she rubbed off on her floral sundress before checking her watch. 3:42. The movie started at 3:55.

“H-hey!” Bill shouted at her from a few paces away. y/n lifted her head and smiled at the sight laid out in front of her. He was jogging towards her and waving his hand to get her to notice him.

“Hi!” y/n’s voice was filled with the same enthusiasm. The two had only recently confessed their mutual likeness for one another, but Bill made y/n feel as if she were on cloud nine with every simple action.

Bill paid for both of their tickets and offered his arm for her to hold onto before walking into the building. “R-ready?”

Her heart swelled at his gentleness. She leaned closer into him only to be met with the faint scent of his deodorant and the fabric softener that stuck to his flannel.

y/n still knew Bill’s scent just as well as she knew the back of her hand. But while she watched Bill who was now replacing the books in his locker, she could only hope Beverly made him happy. She hoped Beverly gave him the same joy Bill used to bring her.

The draft that enveloped her felt balmy against her chapped skin. y/n’s feet dangled at the quarry’s edge. She hadn’t planned on swimming today; just admiring the shine of the water as it reflected against the sun.

“y/n.” Goosebumps formed at the sound of the voice.

“Hi, Bill.” She swallowed the lump forming in her throat.

“I wuh-wan-ted t-to talk to you.” What could Bill possibly want to say? And how did he know where to find—

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” y/n said, interrupting her own thoughts.

“y/n, puh-please.”

“What could you possibly have to say to me?” y/n was barely able to croak the words out. The sentence sounded pitiful against the warm air surrounding the two.

Bill sat down next to her. Just his presence warmed her body. No matter how hurt she was, she still felt a sense of comfort from him. His shoulder brushed hers and his stare seared her skin. y/n couldn’t bring herself to face him regardless of how much she longed to. She continued to examine the water down below them, not having the audacity to give in to her desires.

“I doh-don’t like Beh-Beverly.”

“And it took you this long to realize?” y/n wondered incredulously. Disbelief crossed her face, contorting it into an expression of anger and confusion. She wanted to get the message across that she was mad. Furious. Heartbroken. But the girl stayed silent and still didn’t let herself face him. “Why did you want us to go on a break in the first place?” The harshness in her words had softened and her shoulders slumped even more.

“To muh-make sure—”

“Make sure of what?” y/n shot back. Annoyance manifested itself into her speech, but Bill’s reply was only calm and considerate.

Bill’s eyes watched her carefully. He placed his fingers under the girl’s chin, forcing her to look at him. y/n could almost dissipate at the sight of his pupils; glossed over and blown with admiration. She relaxed at his touch, the way she used to, and things almost felt like how they once were.

The boy leaned in, placing a tender kiss on her rosy lips. It was light, barely brushing against hers, but y/n could still tell how soft they were even from under his faint touch.

“I love you,” he whispered into her mouth. The murmur was barely audible and if y/n weren’t so close to him she may not have heard the declaration.

y/n was too enthralled at his confession and enamored in him to notice he spoke without a stutter.

She pulled away, looking at Bill with the same fascination and wonder in her eyes just like the night they had explored each other. Her eyes were wide and concentrated on his every move. Her skin glowed under the sun’s sweet rays. And her features seemed to be brighter under Bill’s fixed stare.

“I love you too.” She spoke in a breath just as soft as his when he was the one uttering the words. “I’ll love you until the end of time.”

Bill removed his hand from her face. It found its place holding hers instead, and he rubbed circles against her cool skin that he wanted to feel against his forever. He was sure of it.

#it 2017 #it 2019 #it chapter 1 #it chapter 2 #it x reader #it imagine #it fanfic #it fic #bill denbrough #bill denbrough x reader #bill denbrough imagine #bill denbrough fanfiction #bill denbrough fic #bill denbrough fanfic #bill denbrough angst #bill denbrough fluff

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ladypogue · 4 years ago

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Used to this (part 4)

Summary: Ella hangs out with pogues and JJ is caught off guard. They both admit their feelings to themselves, but things get messy at a boneyard party when Ella’s friends try to set her up with a guy.

Word Count: 3.9k

Warnings: the slightest little bit of swearing, maybe some angst??? but other than that none :)

A/N: hello all! I am still eternally grateful for you if you are reading this story. I am terribly sorry for the late update, I started my first big girl job since graduating college so now I’m working full time so I’m limited on time to write (especially cause I do most of my writing at the late hours of the night) but i still love you and as always feedback is greatly appreciated! :)

Part 4

JJ and Ella’s relationship was starting to slowly blossom. The pair found themselves drawn to each other, even though both were terrified of what could come between the two. JJ was spending more time at the Wreck, keeping Ella entertained during slow periods of her shifts. When it got busy, he would sit back and just admire how she handled everything so smoothly. To most, sitting and watching someone work would be boring, but for JJ he found himself tuned her every movement, his eyes attentively trained on the way her lips curled into a smile as she talked to a customer and how her hips sways ever so slightly as she walked to and from the kitchen with trays of food. They usually hung out after Ella’s shift was over, at the least JJ would walk her to her car where they would stand and talk for half an hour before parting ways, just to text each other not even two hours later. The more time she spent with the Maybank boy, the more Ella found the walls she had built up around her heart, slowly breaking down. As for JJ, he had no idea how to process this and he was in a state of denial, telling the pogues that Ella was a just a friend and that was it. The pogues would roll their eyes at him, as they all knew that JJ was developing feelings for the girl, and deep down he knew it too.

It was a Friday afternoon and Ella decided to walk to the Wreck to pick up her first paycheck, luckily having the day off and the weather was nice so she figured she might as well enjoy it. Walking to the building and grabbing her check, she was greeted by her coworkers who were currently busing tables or bringing out food. Ella was grateful that she got along well all her coworkers, and that she had fit in nicely. She more nervous about that than she was about not being good at her job. Ella was standing in the kitchen talking to Mr. Carrera when Kiara came in a grabbed her hand.

“I’m just gonna borrow her real quick” Kie said, smiling innocently while looking from her dad to Ella. Ella was confused as she was pulled away from her boss, stumbling she turned around to face Kie as her father just laughed at the two, happy that Kiara had another friend that wasn’t the three hooligans she usually hung out with.

“What are your plans for the rest of the day?” Kie asked, her face lighting up excitedly.

“Nothing that I know of. Why what’s up?” Ella asked, still skeptical since her and Kie had never hung out outside of work before.

“We’re going out on the boat today and I want you to come with. Sarah can’t come and I do not feel like being the only girl today, plus it will give us more time to bond. So? Will you please come?” Kie was giving her best puppy dog eyes and it was hard for Ella to resist. Besides it’s not like she had anything else to do today.

“Alright I’ll come, but we gotta stop by house so I can grab proper boating attire” Ella laughed as she looked down at the clothes she slept in, consisting of sweat shorts and a large t-shirt. Nodding fervently, Kie grabbed Ella’s hand dragging her outside so they could make their way to Ella’s house and then head down to the dock where the boys would pick them up.

A short walk later, they make their way into Ella’s house and up to her room, Ella started rummaging through her drawers looking for a bathing suit to wear. Finally settling on a blue tie dye bikini, she went to change in her bathroom. Walking back out into her room to grab clothes to cover her up, she heard Kie whistle from behind her.

“Damn Ella, you’re hot. And I mean that in the most non-creepy way possible.”

At this Ella just chuckled, “Oh sush! Have you seen yourself?” Ella couldn’t help but admire Kiara’s natural beauty, subconsciously comparing herself to the girl, though she graciously accepted the complement.

“I’m serious! JJ’s not going to know what to do with himself today.” Kie said smirking. Ella felt her neck heat up at the mention of his name. She knew he would probably be there today, but was she ready for him to see her so exposed? Not saying anything, Ella just smiled to herself and pulled on a tank top and some shorts, sliding her feet into her sandals and grabbing a bag that she usually brought along to the beach, she looked back at Kie, “Ready to go?”

“Yes!! Let’s head down, I’ll text John B and tell him to come pick us up.”

The duo made their way down to the dock, laughing the entire time. Their friendship coming easy, making even the lulls in conversation comfortable. Growing up together, it’s a surprise that the two were never great friends before. They were always friendly with each other, but they never really spoke unless they needed to, maybe it was because the year Kiara took her kook year was the same year that Ella met Grace and Sophia, or maybe it was just out of the fact that growing up Ella was shy and reserved. But now, they both felt that their lives were better with the other in it. They were becoming best friends and they welcomed this new friendship with open arms.

Five minutes go by when they hear the sound of the HMS Pogue pulling up. Parking the boat at the end of the dock, John B held his hand out, helping both girls onto the boat.

“Ahoy ladies!” John B said once they were both safely on the HMS Pogue, making sure to salute them.

“Boys this is Ella, Ella that’s John B, Pope and you know JJ already.” Kie said, introducing you to her friends that she considers family, hoping that you’ll end up as a part of the group too.

“It’s nice to officially meet you.” Pope said extending his hand for you shake, John B following in his footsteps.

Smiling at the two boys, you shake each of their hands, “Likewise. I’ve heard so many stories of the infamous pogues so I’m excited to experience it first-hand.”

“Well I hope we don’t disappoint” John B laughed before starting the boat up again and heading out into the marsh for a day of fun.

JJ had been oddly quiet from the moment he saw Ella standing on the dock with Kie. He was caught off guard that she had managed to infiltrate his friend group without him, and he was a little upset at that. It’s not that he didn’t want Ella to get along with with his friends, but he just wasn’t ready to introduce her to them quite yet. Obviously Kie would know her as they worked together, but John B and Pope, they were something else. Both of them like brothers to JJ, but that doesn’t change the fact that they were both good looking guys with great personalities and JJ feared that Ella would like them more than him. It was a dumb fear because Ella didn’t seem like that type of girl, but it had happened before, which is why JJ wanted to make sure Ella liked him, and only him, before he brought her around. Now that was ruined.

He sat at the back of the boat, watching her joke around with his friends, sulking. She looked so happy and carefree, that made him smile slightly, knowing she was comfortable in this setting. Sipping on a beer and admiring her from a far, JJ was certain she would become a pogue. The other three already seemed to love her and she them. Ella had barely looked at JJ since arriving, they made eye contact when she first boarded the boat but since then she’s only sent him a glance here and there, whereas he could barely take his eyes off her. But that was Ella’s personality, she gave her undivided attention to whoever she was talking to, a characteristic about her that JJ loved and admired. Looking back at the blonde, seeing him sitting alone, Ella smiled and made her way over to him, smiling and shuffling so she was sat next to him.

“Hi,” she smiled while looking down at her lap, suddenly the strings on her shorts very interesting.

“What are you doing here?” JJ asked, tipping his beer back and finishing it. It came off ruder than he had intended but he had to keep his armor up even more now that he wasn’t in control anymore.

Taken aback by the sudden attitude and shift in JJ’s demeanor, Ella replied cautiously, “Kie invited me. Said she wanted to hang out outside of work. Plus, I was excited to see you.” She mumbled the last bit under her breath, hoping he didn’t hear and think she was clingy.

Even though she mumbled, JJ still heard her, and he felt his heart swell. The fact that she was excited to see him put him slightly at ease, but he was still on guard. Not replying, he just nodded his head and grabbed another beer from the cooler in front of him, propping his feet up on the closed lid.

“Do you not want me here?” Ella asked, JJ could hear the sadness in her voice at the thought that he didn’t want to be around her. Which was a stupid thought because JJ would be more than willing to spend every moment with her, but that alone terrified him. Besides Kie, he had never felt this close to a female. Never had he had a connection with any of his hook ups, they were all superficial relations that only went surface level and never lasted more than a night or two. But with Ella, it felt different, even different from Kie. He felt like he could tell her things and there would be no judgement, that he could trust her with his life. Around her, JJ forgot any problem he had going on around him. She was his entire focus, it was like she put up blinders and all he could see is her. He wanted nothing more than to keep her happy because the sight of her smile and the sound of her laugh made JJ happier than he’s been in a long time.

“Of course I want you here. I just wasn’t expecting to see you and now I’m caught off guard because I wanted to be the one to introduce to my friends, not Kie.” He replied to her question, not sure if that was necessarily the best thing to say as he sounded like a control freak, but he was trying to be honest.

“Okay good, I was nervous that maybe you were getting tired of me” she smiled over at him gently. In which he simply glanced at her, taking in her beauty as the light reflected off of the water and onto her golden skin and replied, “never.”

Around three that the afternoon, the Pogues and Ella had returned to shore. Parting ways with promises to hang out with them again soon, Ella started her trek home. Ella only lived about 10 mins from John B, but she was going to go see Grace and Sophia and they lived on the cusp of Figure 8, so it was closer to 25 mins.

Hoping in her car and heading to where her friends were, she pulled into their driveway and walked into the house. Knowing her friends were most likely in Sophia’s room, she made her way up into her room, and plopped on the bed where her two friends were already laid out.

“Hey where have you been? I feel like we haven’t seen you in forever!” Grace exclaimed, while rolling on top of Ella and pulling her into a hug.

“I’ve been working like crazy, but I have the rest of today and tomorrow off so I thought we could do something together.”

The three hung out on Sophia’s bed for majority of the evening, happy to be together again. They laid there laughing, sharing stories of their days and plotting their next outing. Sophia, the partier of their little group, informed them of another boneyard party happening that night. Wanting to let loose and have fun, they decide to go. Getting ready in record time, they arrive with the party already in full swing, with more and more people arriving by the minute.

Instantly getting drinks from the keg, the three stood around and scoped out who was there. Sophia and Grace were not only looking for themselves, but earlier in the week they had planned to hook Ella up with someone at the next party, they just weren’t sure on who. What they didn’t know was that Ella was still talking to JJ Maybank. As far as they knew, Ella had heeded their warning and had left it alone. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Ella was hanging out with JJ almost daily and while they were looking at guys to take home, Ella was looking at one blonde haired boy standing in a circle laughing with his friends, not a care in the world.

Smiling to herself, Ella let her mind wander to what could potentially become of her and JJ. She pictured them in a relationship, her standing in that circle with his arm around her waist, her leaning into his side and using him to keep her standing as they laughed at something Pope said. She imagined them curled up on her couch on a rainy day, her playing with the rings on his hand as she laid against his chest with the tv playing quietly in the background. She imagined his lips on hers, and how she would be able to feel them anytime she wanted. She pictured him standing on the dock, looking out into the water and her coming up behind him and wrapping her arms around his waist from behind, resting her head on his back, peppering kisses along his spine. She thought about spending every afternoon like they had today, laughing on the HMS Pogue with John B, Pope and Kie. She could truly picture them being happy together.

Lost in her daydream, she hadn’t noticed that Grace and Sophia had picked a friend group they were going to infiltrate. Feeling someone nudge her arm, she looked up to see that her friends were starting to walk over to a group of three boys. They were definitely attractive, Ella had to admit, however they were no JJ. Ella was very surprised when Sophia and Grace hugged the three boys now standing in front of her as she had no recollection of knowing them.

“Ella, this is Jake, Eddie and Pat.” Sophia said pointing out each one respectively, “Boys this is Ella.”

“It’s nice to meet you.” Ella said smiling, but then glancing curiously at Grace, as if asking ‘how the hell do they know them?’

Graced laughed at her friends confused facial expression, explaining that her and Sophia had met the boys while out in town running some errands one day while Ella was working. Grace and Sophia didn’t have jobs, so they spent their days running around doing god knows what, though it seemed to be spent flirting with boys. Nodding her slightly and turning her attention back to the group, Ella fell into conversation with Eddie. They talked about anything and everything, jobs, hobbies, pet peeves, anything they could think of they discussed. Conversation flowed effortlessly between the pair; as they laughed and joked Sophia and Grace internally high fived thinking, they did great in setting their friend up.

Eddie and Ella broke away from the group of their friends, opting to walk around the crowded beach. They drifted towards the edge of the water where they sat on a branch staring out into the dark. A comfortable silence fell over them as they sat there, both lost in thought.

“Can I ask you a question?” Ella inquired, looking over at the boy.

“Sure, go ahead.”

“How do you know if you love someone?”

“Well, for me, I know I love someone when I’m able to look at them and feel at peace. Just their presence alone gives me comfort, a stable feeling. There could be a storm going on around me, but as soon as I look at that person, I’m grounded, I’m safe. Also, when I genuinely enjoy being around them, but not just hanging out as friends. More like when we hang out, I don’t care who else is around because just knowing that person is there makes the whole time better. It’s hard to explain, but deep down you just know, if that makes any sense.”

Ella nodded, taking in every word that Eddie spoke, “have you ever been in love?” she asked quietly.

“Once.” He replied, not making eye contact with her, just staring at the waves breaking in front of them.

“What happened if you don’t mind me asking.”

“Nothing happened, I’m still in love with her. I know she’s the one for me, I knew it on our second date that she’s the girl I’m going to marry.”

Surprised to hear that Eddie was in a serious relationship, Ella spoke, “I didn’t know you had a girlfriend.”

“I do, we’ve been together almost a year.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, sorry if I lead you on.”

“Oh, you didn’t, the reason I asked was because there’s this boy and my friends don’t like him, but I think I’m falling in love with him. But we haven’t even gone on an official date, so I was just looking for some insight.”

“The best advice I can offer you is just tell him how you feel. Life is too short to not know and succumb to the ‘what ifs’. If you really want to know, you just gotta go for it. And as for the friends not liking him, if they’re really your friend, they would see how happy he makes you and learn to like him.”

“You are very wise beyond your years.” Ella stated smiling over at the boy, hoping they would stay friends as she very much enjoyed their time talking together.

“As are you young grasshopper.” Eddie chuckled, lightly shoving Ella with his shoulder, the pair laughing and continuing on with their conversation, both telling stories about the people that hold their hearts.

Standing not too far away, JJ saw the girl he was falling head over heels for laughing with some guy sitting by the water. He would recognize her smile anywhere and it pained him to see someone else be the reason for it. Seeing the guy she was with bump his shoulder with hers broke a little piece of JJ’s heart. He knew it was too good to be true. Why would she actually want to be with JJ? He was nothing short of a fuck up and had more issues than he could count. But what hurt the most is actually thought she liked him back. She laughed at his jokes even though he knew they weren’t funny. She smiled at him when she caught him staring, always staring back. She never told him to leave her alone when he bothered her at work, and never objected to hanging out after her shift. But maybe she was just being polite and didn’t want to hurt his feelings. Seeing Ella and the mystery guy get up and start to walk towards him, JJ quickly shook himself off and went to find someone who could distract him from his approaching heartbreak, not knowing that Ella had spent most of her time with the boy talking about JJ.

Rejoining their friends, Ella and Eddie had made a mutual agreement to stay friends but let Sophia and Grace think something could become of them until she could find a way to tell them about JJ. Thinking of the boy for the thousandth time that night, she looked around for his mop of hair and shining blue eyes, that she knows would probably be red rimmed from being under the influence. Finally spotting his golden locks, she smiled until she saw the brunette girl tucked under his arm. The girl had her hand pressed against JJ’s stomach as she stood talking to her friends. He looked unamused, tipping his drink back and taking a big gulp of it before looking straight at Ella and pressing a kiss to the top of the girl’s head.

Her heart ached at the sight, realizing her friends were right and that JJ was just using her. She had hoped that they had been wrong, and that JJ was actually as decent guy who would give her her first taste of love, not heartbreak. But her she was, trying to hold back tears and act like everything was fine as to not concern her friends. Sophia and Grace had drank more than Ella so they were oblivious but Eddie noticed her change in demeanor. Following her stare to the blonde boy, he whispered to her, asking if that was him. She nodded her head slightly, to which he then asked if she was alright. With a tear slipping from her eye, she shook her head no and started to walk away from the group.

JJ was not impressed with the brunette who was pressed against his side. He wished for nothing other than that it was Ella he had pulled close instead of the girl he couldn’t remember the name of to save his life. Ashley maybe? Or perhaps it was Kate? Either way it didn’t matter to him and he wouldn’t bother to learn it. JJ wasn’t paying attention to the conversation in front of him, instead he continued to watch Ella from a far. Watching her laugh with her friends, not even seeing the boy who couldn’t help but let his wander to her every chance they could.

Finally making eye contact with the girl he couldn’t get off his mind, he panicked. He did the only thing he could think of to show her that he didn’t need her, and that was place a kiss on top whatever her name is head while making eye contact with Ella. Upon doing that he realized what a mistake that was because he watched Ella’s heart break in front of him. He watched the way her smile fell, and her eyes seemed to well up with tears. His heart shattered even more knowing he might have overreacted and fucked everything up. He watched as the guy she was with earlier bend down and whisper in her ear after looking at JJ and her responding with a few motions of her head before running off. Not even thinking twice about it, JJ dropped his arm from the girl’s shoulder and started after Ella.

As he walked by the group she was just standing in, the guy who Ella had spent most of the night with grabbed his arm; “don’t fuck this up. She really likes you dude.” JJ just nodded, pulling away to go find Ella and beg for forgiveness.

Taglist: @ilikealotofpeople-younotsomuch @agirlwholovescoffee

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mitchmarnier · 5 years ago

Text

make my way back home [when i learn to fly]

pairing: eddie kaspbrak/richie tozier [reddie] w/ stanley uris/patty blum [stanpat], mike hanlon/bill denbrough [hanbrough] & beverly marsh/kay mccall [mcmarsh] word count: 3,398 chapter 2 of 10 summary: He stiffened for a moment, thinking it was Coach Henderson coming over to yank him to his feet, but the touch was much too gentle. “Hey, Richie. Come on.” Eddie Kaspbrak’s voice whispered in his ear, and Richie had to wonder if the fall had knocked him completely unconscious. He let Eddie pull him to his feet, and mostly just stared at the other boy as Eddie helped him gather up the loose- and now slightly damp and dirty- Chemistry notes. ⤹ class scholar richie tozier and school track and field icon eddie kaspbrak rekindle their childhood friendship loosely based off the art concept by @caliceal

read on ao3

perma taglist: @jwilliambyers, @stebbins, @kaspzier, @s-s-georgie, @chaotickaspbrak, @eddiefuckinkaspbrak, @edstozler, @emgays, @anellope, @thorn-harvester-ven, @wheezyeds, @vipertooth, @tozierking, @billdenbrough, @itfandomprompts, @loserslibrary (let me know if you want added!)

Audra Phillips rushed up behind Kay McCall and wrapped her arms around her best friend’s waist. She leaned close to her ear and giggled into it. “Don’t look now, but I think you’ve got yourself a fan.”

Kay, of course, looked. She glanced over her shoulder while Audra was still wrapped around her waist. Sitting on the bleachers behind their practice was a scrawny boy with thick black curls and glasses perched on his nose. Truthfully, the only time people ever sat on those bleachers outside of games were to watch the cheerleaders practise but Audra frowned to herself. “Who? Richie Tozier?” She asked with a chuckle. “I doubt it.”

Audra frowned and narrowed her eyes at the nerdy boy, letting go of Kay’s waist and walking over to him. It took him a moment to recognize that she was approaching him, but once he did, his eyes blew open wide and his cheeks began to turn pink. Kay almost felt a little bad for him as she noticed him beginning to nervously pick at the skin around his nails.

“Hey! Nerdy!” Audra called out to him, making the boy jump though he’d clearly been aware of her approaching. Kay sighed and moved over to them slowly, catching the eye of her girlfriend, Beverly. Beverly stood immediately and came to join Kay where Audra was currently standing above a scared looking Richie Tozier.

“Do your little friends know that you’re skipping out on studying to gwauck at the cheerleaders?” Audra teased.

If possible, Richie’s cheeks seemed to glow an even deeper red. “I’m- uh. They, uh, they. No.”

Audra raised one eyebrow. “No? No, what? No, they don’t know you’re here? Where do they think you are then?”

Richie’s mouth opened, but he seemed unable to make any words come out. Beverly rolled her eyes and dropped down beside him on the bleachers, tossing her arm around his shoulders. “Lay off, Auds. I promise you- Richie wasn’t interested in you guys cheerleading.”

It was almost scary how quickly Richie’s face lost colour, considering how flushed he had been a mere second earlier. His eyes flickered out towards the field- a quick, fleeting things, but enough that Audra and Kay noticed. Audra turned around, her shoulders lowering as she caught sight of boys doing their own warm ups and cool downs. The soccer team was starting to flood onto the field as the track and field kids were rushing themselves off and towards the showers. At the center of the field now, pushing brown hair that had curled from sweat away from his face, was-

“Eddie Kaspbrak?” Audra asked, turning back to Richie with her defences now lowered completely. “You’re here to watch Eddie Kaspbrak? He’s cute.”

Richie swayed slightly on the spot, looking like a small animal about to make a break for it before something larger and stronger could eat it. Beverly squeezed his shoulder, and made eye contact with Kay. “Don’t worry, Tozier. We won’t tell anybody. It’s okay.”

Richie loosened his shoulders a minor bit, but still seemed tense and on edge. “Please. I know- I know it’s stupid and it’s wrong but please don’t-”

“It’s not.” Kay said firmly. “It’s not stupid or wrong. So, don’t sweat about it. We already said we won’t tell anybody.”

Audra nodded along and suddenly seemed thoughtful. She crossed her arms over her chest and smirked. “We would never tell, but if you want- we can help you get his attention.” Kay and Beverly blinked at each other while Richie looked at Audra with scared, yet curious eyes. Audra kept smirking. “We do have a free spot on the squad, you know? Didn’t have enough good bitches at tryouts. You can have it if you want it. Worst case scenario, Eddie doesn’t notice you but you get a real front row seat to his practises and games.”

Richie swallowed audibly and Beverly chuckled, rubbing his back gently. “But I- I’m not a cheerleader. I’m a boy-”

“That doesn't matter.” Audra said. “Boys have been cheerleaders here before, there’s no rule against it. People might be assholes, but aren’t they always?”

Richie scratched at his face and looked almost a little- hopefully. “I don’t know how.”

“We can teach you if you’re actually interested in learning.” Kay pitched in, giving him a small smile. “From what I can tell, you’re a pretty quick learner, Richie Tozier.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Richie smiled a little bashfully for a moment, but it dropped almost as quickly as it appeared. “Wait, I can’t. The decathlon, I can’t let my team down! It’s really important and-”

“Everybody else can do more than one extra cuccuraliar, Tozier.” Audra pointed out. “Why can’t you?”

Richie swallowed and glanced between the two cheerleaders for a moment before his eyes finally landed on Beverly. Beverly, with her dark eye makeup and ripped up jean jacket over faded Salvation Army clothes. “It’s no longer a jock date jock world,” she said, lips quirked up in a smile. Kay pressed a hand to her mouth to cover her own smile. “But if you really want to spend more time with Eddie, it might be a nice boost to exist in his world with him.”

Richie pursed his lips and Kay suddenly felt a weird, almost mother-like protectiveness come over her towards the awkward boy. “You can do both. You can miss a studying session every once in a while, right?”

Richie obviously still held some hesitation, but Audra rushed forward and grabbed his wrists. She pulled him to his feet. “Don’t answer now then, chicken.” She said with a laugh. “Let’s just… see what you can do. Are you flexible?”

Richie flushed up to the roots of his hair.

Eddie knew he was the only person on the track team who’s cool down took this long. Half his team mates hit the showers as soon as practice was over, not even bothering to cool down at all. He was certain that’s why his times were much better than the rest of the runners, though he would never say something like that. Though, Eddie could admit that he was dragging out this cool down a little long even for him. Avoiding going home would do that to a person, he supposed. His mother was always unbearable when he’d come home from practise, often going as far as to try dragging him to the hospital emergency room to make sure he hadn’t injured himself in any way. Despite how obvious it was that he hadn’t.

Eddie pulled himself back up to stand straight, stretching his arms above his head, when something across the field caught his eye. The cheerleaders. Now, Eddie was never distracted by the cheerleaders and their practises. He remembered when they’d first started practising part way through the track and field meetings, it had been an issue. Eddie’s male teammates had been distracted by the presence of the girls, and had even neglected their own responsibility to flirt (and annoy) the cheerleaders. Though they’d eventually gotten used to sharing the space, Eddie had never been one of them.

He wasn’t distracted by them now, either, except that he was. It’s just that he’d never expected to see Audra Phillips trying to help Richie Tozier make a high kick while the rest of the cheerleaders sat around and giggled in amusement. Eddie pulled his leg up to his chest, balancing on one foot and stretching a muscle that didn’t need any more stretching, while he watched Audra push Richie’s leg higher into the air with her hands.

Eddie was so caught up in the image in front of him that he didn’t notice the shout coming from behind him. There was a dull pain in the back of his head, and he found himself face down in the grass. Groaning, Eddie rolled into his back and threw an arm over his eyes.

“Oh shit, Eddie!” Mike Hanlon crouched at his side. Eddie rolled his eyes internally. Of course Mike would hit him in the back of the head with a soccer ball, making it obvious to everybody on the field that Eddie was watching the cheerleading practise. “I tried to warn you, guess you couldn’t hear me. I’m so sorry.”

Eddie pushed himself up onto his elbows and glowered at Mike. It didn’t hurt, truthfully, Eddie’s ego was bruised more than anything else. Suddenly, two pairs of knees dropped down beside him and to his horror, Eddie looked up to see Richie Tozier and Beverly Marsh looking down at him in concern.

“Oh man, Eddie.” Richie said, hand hoving out like he wanted to comfort Eddie but he wasn’t sure how he could. “Are you alright? That looked rough.”

“We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” was Eddie’s only response. Richie looked caught off guard for a moment, before letting out a sharp laugh.

“Yeah, I guess we do.” Richie gave Eddie a smile. It was a weird smile, Eddie pondered. Small, almost private somehow. Like something between two close friends, but Eddie wasn’t sure that applied to him and Richie anymore. Or was that sort of bond something that never went away?

Eddie let Beverly and Mike help him to his feet, and brushed himself off. He was going to have to wash this uniform himself, because if his mom saw how dirty it was now she’d know he’d fallen and would drag them to the emergency room so fast Eddie wouldn’t have a chance to argue with her. Without even knowing he’d been hit in the head.

“So,” Eddie cocked his brow at Richie and grinned. “You’re a cheerleader now? I did not see that coming. Never took you for the athletic type, Rich.”

“Well, I’m not-” Richie started saying as his cheeks turned red, but stopped suddenly as Mike’s hand came down and clasped him on the shoulder.

“You’re a cheerleader, man?” He asked, and Richie’s shoulder stiffened like he thought Mike might deck him directly in the face for such a thing. But Mike just broke into a huge grin. “That’s sick! Congrats man! Hey- my man Bill is having a party at his place today. You should come.”

Eddie and Richie looked at Mike with matching looks of surprise and horror on their faces.

“I should?”

“He should?”

A smile of pure amusement slid across Beverly’s face.

“For sure!” Mike said happily, grabbing the offending ball that had nailed Eddie in the back of his head. He glared at it angrily. “And bring your friends? Patty and her boyfriend? The more the merrier!”

Mike took off at a run, kicking the ball back towards his mates, and Eddie quickly excused himself from Richie and took off for a long, long shower. He felt a little bad for wishing that Richie would decide not to show up that night.

⋆ ⋆ ⋆

“So let me get this straight.” Stan said as they walked down the dark streets of Derry. It was only a little after nine, but winter was quickly approaching and Richie had already noticed them getting less and less sunlight everyday. “Mike Hanlon invited you to a party. The Mike Hanlon. Jock king Mike Hanlon. Vegan angel Mike Hanlon-”

“Okay,” Richie tossed an arm around Stanley’s shoulders and let out an awkward little laugh. “Put that man boner down, people are gonna start thinking you’re using Miss Blum and I can’t allow that.”

Stan punched Richie’s in the side, causing his best friend to double over slightly. Richie had put some sort of effort into this outfit this night- pressed black jeans and the tamest button up he owned, simple red and black plaid. He’d even attempted to tame his black curls by piling them up onto his head. Stan, however, aws wearing the same pale green polo shirt and khaki pants that he’d worn to school that day. Richie supposed it was lucky that Stan always looked well-put together.

“Bringing up Patty just reminds me that I could be hanging out with my girlfriend instead of being dragged around by you.” Stan said dryly as Richie wheezed from his punch. “Or literally anything else, actually. Do you care to explain what the hell we’re doing here?”

Richie rolled his eyes. “I’ve told you a million times- I’m not sure how it happened. I was just sitting around the field after school-”

“Creeping on Eddie Kaspbrak after school. Got it.” Stan said.

Richie glowered at him. “Shut up.” He said, “And then I was just talking with Audra and-”

“No, okay, this is where you lose me.” Stan waved Richie’s story to a stop. “Because you sitting there drooling over your lost sandbox love I can believe. But Audra Phillips willingly talking to you? Mike Hanlon inviting you to a party? No, sorry. Sounds like a bad cliche.”

“Okay well..” Richie cleared his throat. “They did start talking to me because they thought I was watching them. Being a creepy perv or-”

“You’re still a creepy perv even if you’re watching the athletes and not the cheerleaders.” Stan pointed out with a grin.

Richie stopped walking and turned to glare at his best friend. “Would you stop interrupting me? I thought you wanted to hear the story. Jesus. And cheerleaders are athletes, asshole, have you seen the shit they can do? Don’t be sexist, Stanley.”

Stan let out a highly impatient sigh. “Alright, you’re talking to the cheerleaders and then Mike Hanlon comes up all god-like and asks you to come to a party tonight at Bill Denbrough’s.”

“Yes,” Richie said. “You’re missing the part where he hit Eddie in the head with a soccer ball, but yes, that’s what happened. And then I asked you to come with me as emotional support and you agreed because you’re actually a good best friend.”

Stan scowled at him as the music booming from the Denbrough house became audible down the road. Stan groaned. “This is already insane. The police are going to be called for sure. My parents will kill me if we get arrested. Then they’ll kill you for dragging me here.”

Richie shrugged. “It’s all part of the high school experience, Stan my Man. Lemme go introduce you to your man crush.”

Stan mumbled vague threats under his voice while Richie rushed up ahead towards the crowded house. Beverly Marsh was seated on the railing of the front porch, a poorly rolled joint between her fingers. She broke into a grin when she caught sight of Richie and Stan coming up towards the house. “Richie Tozier…” She drawled, lips turning up as she blew out a mouthful of smoke.

Stan wrinkled his nose up as Richie skipped up towards her. He leaned over the railing beside her, and she leaned into him. Stan stood slightly off to the side, eyes narrowed and arms crossed. Beverly looked him up and down and smirked. “You brought a friend. Interesting.”

Richie glanced between them, eyes going slightly wider and cleared his throat. “Oh, yeah, Bev this is-”

“Stanley Uris.” She finished for him, holding the joint out towards Stan. Stan looked down at it in disgust and waved it away. Shrugging, Beverly handed it to Richie who held it awkwardly between his fingers. “Mr Future Valedictorian. I know who he is.”

Stan’s cheeks pinkened and scratched at his cheeks. “Lots of people could still be valedictorian. There’s lots of time for things to happen.”

“That’s true.” Beverly agreed with a small nod. “Grades aren’t everything, and now that Richie here is gonna have some sports under his belt-”

“What?” Stan snapped. “What sports, Richie?”

Richie quickly brought the joint up to his mouth and took a deep heavy inhale for something to avoid answering his best friend. Much more than he’d ever bargained for, as per usual with Richie. He felt his throat and chest tighten and begin to burn as coughs dragged themselves from his body as though they were being ripped right from him. His entire vision was blinded by tears as he folder over at the waist.

“Jesus!” He dimly heard Beverly saying as two pairs of hands grabbed at him. Richie felt as though he was coughing for hours, before any actual air found its way back into his lungs. He straightened up slowly, aware of Beverly rubbing soft circles into his back.

“Are you trying to kill him?” Stan snapped at Beverly.

Beverly laughed. “I didn’t make him take his first hit of a joint like he was drinking a milkshake through a straw.”

Beverly and Stan continued to stare at each other down as Richie rubbed at his chest. Before Richie could even bring himself to speak, Bev and Stan started bickering and throwing insults at one another.

“Are you serious?” The sudden, piercing voice of Eddie Kaspbrak broke through Stan and Beverly’s bickering, and another pair of hands suddenly landed on Richie’s back. “Did you invite him here to kill him?”

Beverly made some sort of retort but it was drowned out by Eddie helping Richie stand up straight and his head spinning. “Oh my God,” Richie said, pinching his eyes closed. He was suddenly reminded of being a kid, eyes closed in the back seat of his parents car with his head pressed against the window as streetlights passed him by. He wondered if he was swaying the way he felt like he was. “Jesus.”

“Come on, Rich.” Eddie said in his ear, and Richie was pretty sure he was being guided inside. He kept his eyes closed, enjoying the way he felt lighter than ever before. There was still a sharp burning in his chest that he knew he was feeling, but he was able to push it away from his mind.

He was sat down on something soft, and there was a bottle being thrust into his hands. He took a sip from it, realizing to himself that he was putting a lot of trust into Eddie Kaspbrak for somebody he’d barely spoken to in years. He chugged the water, suddenly parched, and let his eyes open.

It wasn’t like movies, or tv. Richie saw everything normally. Though being light headed, it wasn’t like the world was foggy or distorted. He could see just as clearly as he could any other time, though he thought he liked it better with his eyes closed. He didn’t realize that his thighs were twitching, or that the party goers in the room were giving him and Eddie weird glances.

“You alright, Richie?” Eddie asked, kneeling in front of Richie. His hand was resting on Richie’s knee, as it occasionally twitched underneath his touch. “They should have given you more warning to what it would be like before you took some stupid massive hit of a joint.”

Richie giggled, and crinkled up his face. “Eddie… Eds…” Richie reached out and rested a hand against the top of Eddie’s head. “Eddie, why didn’t we stay friends?”

Richie closed his eyes again as he registered the look of hurt and awkwardness on Eddie’s face. It was quiet for a moment, and Richie let himself go back to the feeling of being in the backseat of his parents car. He wished that he could really be there, really be a kid again. Things were so much easier back then. He voiced as much, not really giving Eddie any sort of chance to answer Richie’s question from before. Truthfully, he didn’t know why he asked- he didn’t want an answer.

“Yeah.” Eddie said, sounding like he was smiling. Richie opened his eyes again, and found that Eddie was smiling. He took Richie’s hands in his. “But hey, you know what? It’s alright, Richie. Maybe we stopped being friends when we were kids, but we can be friends now.”

Richie chuckled. “I like you, Eddie.”

Eddie grinned. “I like you, too, Richie.” He took Richie’s hands in his and he pulled Richie to his feet. Richie swayed slightly but managed to keep himself standing straight and not fall directly into Eddie’s chest. Though maybe that would have been nice. “Now come on, you just got here. You’re not allowed to be down and out yet. Let’s get some caffeine in you, then get relaxed enough to get a little crazy.”

Richie grinned as Eddie held onto his hand to guide him towards the kitchen.

#reddie #reddie fic #my writing #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #ttmmlmo

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