#me and one of my siblings were hanging out when our other sibling submitted the character that contained the first thing

[arolesbianism]

Me and my siblings made a toyhouse world together recently and it's been going great

[mytheoristavenue]

TMNT 2012 Raphel Hamato x Reader - Give Me a Chance

This was a commission from @virtualdonutenemy, thanks for the work! For any questions regarding commissions, go here.

Summary: After Raph watches your date with a classmate go south, he makes sure not to waste you getting all dolled up.

Warnings: Inuendo, angst, fluff, lime, possessive!Raph, overprotective!Leo, sheltered!Reader, rebounding, lust, sad/desperate!Reader, perv!Raph

You weren’t capable of letting down your smile. There was just no way, you were too excited. After months of subliminal flirting, bashful compliments, and loaning pencils, the cute guy in your comp sci class had finally asked you out and you couldn’t be happier. 

Carefully, you drug the felt tip of your lipgloss wand across your bottom lip, pursing and puckering to spread the shimmer evenly. Glancing down at your phone, you read the time and beamed again. You’d have just enough time to put on some earrings and shoes before having to leave. After doing so, you did a once-over in the mirror, twirling and giggling at the way the hem of your dress flew outwards. Suddenly, as if to rain on your parade, your phone began to buzz, shimmying around in its spot on your bed.

You were expecting to see the name of the gentleman you were meeting tonight, probably calling to cancel your evening plans. The name of your ‘eldest brother’ scrolling sideways across the screen brought you little relief, though. If the boys found out about your date, no doubt they’d try to interfere.

“Hello?” you answered cautiously, pacing through your living room.

“Where are you right now?” Leo’s stern voice rang out through the speaker.

“Home, why?” you asked, secretly impatient as you checked the time. Now you were definitely going to be late. 

“Hang tight, I’m on my way.” The announcement was so sudden that you hardly had time to react but blurted out a flustered opposition.

“N-No, I have a date!” Silence befell his end and you began to wonder if the line had gone dead or he’d maybe lost signal somehow. 

“A date?!” Leo furiously sprang back to life. “With who?!”

“The guy I told you about the other day…?” you murmured, hoping he could recall the conversation well enough for you to avoid elaborating.

“You didn’t tell he’d asked you out!” He pressed further, irritated at your lack of communication. 

“I knew you’d freak out!” you reasoned, a distressed tremble in your voice. “And besides, I didn’t think it was your business!”

“Your safety is our business,” Leo argued, stony as ever. “(Y/N), you know the rules.” The ‘rule�� in question forbade you from doing most things that required you to leave your home unless for school, or to visit the lair; on the few occasions you were allowed to, you were to wear bland clothes. Nothing attention-grabbing like the low cute, crimson red spaghetti strapped cocktail dress you now wore. “There’s no way you can be discrete in that dress, what if someone sees you and follows you home or worse-”

“Please, Leo!” you suddenly interjected. “I rarely ever leave get to do anything and I really like this guy! Please just let me do this one thing!”

The eldest sibling paused for a moment as if taken back, before finally sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose. “Do you promise to be careful? Call us if anything- and I mean anything- goes wrong?”

“I swear, Leo!” You promised, holding your fists tightly to your chest, likely to keep your heart from beating out of it as you waited for his response. 

“Fine,” he reluctantly submitted, shaking his head on the other end. “Have fun and be careful, okay?”

“I will, thank you so much!” You squealed, excitedly stomping in place before abruptly hanging up, presumably to be on your way.

Rolling his eyes and pivoting to return to his training in the dojo, Leo froze when he noticed Raph standing in the doorway to said room, peridot eyes zeroed in on the exit. Before the older knew it, he was being passed by as the other turtle prepared to leave. “Don’t follow her,” Leo warned knowingly, crossing his arms as his younger brother bustled about the room to gather his things. “This is a terrible idea and you know it.”

“Leo’s right, Raph,” Don piped up, exiting the lab and trekking to the kitchen, empty mug in hand. “You know how she gets, there’s no way this is gonna end well for you.” The first pair both glanced up at the new player in the conversation before going back to it. “I’m just sayin’ I speak from personal experience,” the brainiest turtle continued, pouring his umpteenth cup of coffee for the day and stirring additives into it. “Give her some space, man.”

For just a moment, the hotheaded brother halted, taking his family’s advice into account, before ultimately deciding that, he wouldn’t heed it. “Yeah, whatever. You guys don’t know what you’re talkin’ about,” he grumbled, continuing his descent down the stairs toward the exit of the lair. 

Obviously, the others didn’t know you the way he did, he thought. They didn’t know how clumsy and gullible you could be, how badly you needed his guardianship. That's what he told himself anyway, it would be much too embarrassing for him to admit that the real reason he was following you out on this date was to pretend that the guy you were going out with was him.

—--

You stifled a giggle, kicking your legs beneath the table and clenching the rusty satin of your dress in your fists, all in an attempt to calm yourself before your date arrived. Admittedly, you were a tiny bit disappointed to find that your date was nowhere to be seen, even though you were five minutes late yourself. Nonetheless, you got a table for the two of you, ordered a pair of waters and an appetizer, then waited. The tantalizing smell of garlic bread enticed you as it sat untouched in the middle of the table. You thought it was probably bad etiquette to start eating without your date.

Minutes ticked by as your throat became more and more parched- no doubt a product of your constant nervous swallowing. Surely, it wouldn’t be too rude to sip your drink while you wait. Before you realized it, your glass was nearly empty and a waitress was at your side offering a refill. She glanced down at you with a sympathetic smile that you didn’t quite understand at the time before turning and hurrying away. Another check of the time revealed your gentleman caller to now be nearly fifteen minutes that, though to you it felt more like thirty. Screw this, you were hungry.

One basket of bread and another refill later and you found yourself obsessively checking your phone for any word from him, only to find yourself sorely disappointed every time. You were very rapidly beginning to lose hope, when suddenly, your phone vibrated, dancing about on the table. You hastily checked it to find a text from the man of the hour:

“Sorry, can’t make it tonight. Sick.”

You hadn’t even noticed the tears well up in your eyes until you felt them roll off your chin. Even though he’d excused himself as ill, you still felt so…unwanted, so cast aside. Shuddering, you instantly flagged down the waitress, desperately trying to conceal your hurt. You just wanted to pay out and go home.

—--

From a nearby rooftop, Raph watched the entire scene unfold with glossy eyes. It almost reminded him of the pilot to a show you’d made him sit through last summer, only this wasn’t a sitcom. This would likely have a lasting effect on your self-esteem. 

He was a little relieved when you finally stood up and stormed out of the restaurant, frantically wiping tears away with your wrist. You were a bullet train now, racing down the avenue needing to get home as fast as possible. Startled, Raph jumped to his feet, seeing his time to intercept you being diced into seconds. In the blink of an eye, he was on the wet pavement of a sketchy alleyway, stalking behind as your figure darted between cars and tall structures. 

Suddenly, he halted in his pursuit of you- what would you say if you found him following you? There was a good chance you wouldn’t just fall helplessly in his arms like he hoped you would. Was there a way he could surprise you and sweep you off your feet without letting you in on his possessive tendencies?

—--

Wailing, you barged into the lobby of your apartment complex, face hidden in your shoulder as you blew past the doorman, cutting his greetings short. Too embarrassed to sit in anyone’s presence long enough for the elevator to arrive, you burst through the stairwell door, clumsily speeding up them, tripping all the while and crawling back up yourself. After falling up four flights, you finally reached your floor and bolted for the exit, fantasizing about the way your plush bedding would envelop you in security. Still sniveling, but with sanctuary within reach, you shoved your key into the lock and threw the front door open, only to fall forward into the apartment dramatically, catching yourself before gravity could take over.

Exhausted, you haphazardly tossed your belongings onto the floor, shedding layers and accessories as you traversed the space. Heels in the hall, purse on the couch, and earrings on the kitchen island, you finally reached the bedroom in only your red cocktail dress, dainty necklace, and smudged makeup. As your fingers gripped the door handle you stopped, smelling something smokey, possibly with a floral hint. Alert to a possible intruder, you raised your guard and prepared for the worst before gently pushing the door and letting it creak open on its own.

Beyond the door, Raph lounged on your bed, waiting for you to arrive home. Surrounding him were throw blankets and pillows, an open take-out box with a steaming pizza, piled with your favorite toppings, and a rose-scented candle burning on the nightstand. Illuminating it all was your television, set on the menu screen of your favorite childhood film, the remote control resting on his chest. “Welcome home,” he said cooly, voice full of gravel, but a languid smile speaking volumes. You couldn’t hold back the sobs that poured from your throat as you lurched forward, collapsing against him.

Raph went rigid beneath you, having been concealing his anxiety about your reaction for quite a while. As you heaved and wept against him, he eased back into you and slowly wrapped you in his arms, hushing your woes. “Dollface, what’s the matter?” he asked carefully as if he didn’t already know.

“Leo was right,” you shuddered. “I never should have gone out with that stupid prick!”

“A date, so that’s where ya been?” Raph asked lightheartedly, pushing you away by your shoulders so he could see your face. “No wonder you’re all prettied up.” Your heart skipped a beat at his words and blood rushed to your face. “Now tell me who that asshole is and what he did to you.” 

“H-He…” you sniffled, sitting up fully on your knees and in between his. God, you looked so vulnerable in that position, and the way the ruching of your dress pulled your waist in- That wasn’t the point. “He just never showed up…” you muttered weakly. “He didn’t tell me he was sick ‘til way after he was supposed to be there…” You couldn’t keep yourself from crumbling again, falling back into his arms. 

“Shhh…” he cooed, scaly hand caressing your shuddering back. “I got ya, babe, it’s okay.” What seemed to be hours passed with him simply holding you as you cried when you finally spoke again, albeit in a quiet and broken tone. 

“R-Raph, do you think I’m pretty…?” 

“My God, babe, is that even a question?” he suddenly snorted, prompting you to erect yourself to gain distance from him. He could plainly see the hurt in your eyes as you loomed over him, though his eyes were elsewhere- darting all over your body and eating you up. “Like seriously, how honest do you want me to be, 'cause we’ll be here all night.”

“I don’t want you to lie…” you answered, anxiety bubbling up in your blood. 

“I mean where do I start?” he laughed, hands ghosting over your hips, but never actually making contact. “You got these perfect hips and that pretty face, tight ass,” he smirked as you flustered more and more above him, eyelids becoming heavy with want. “You’re a total fox baby.” he dazzled, finally laying his hands on you. “I always wanted to make you feel pretty, just give me a chance baby and I swear, you won’t ever doubt yourself again.” You felt dizzy under all his attention. You’d always had a feeling Raph had a crush on you, but you never would have thought him so passionate. Gradually and instinctually, you leaned closer to him, hazily sealing your lips against his, humming lightly. Kissing him felt so natural, and so necessary, neediness taking you whole.

“(Y/N), I love you,” he confessed, eyes trained on your lips as he parted from you. You weren’t entirely sure whether or not to believe him, as everything around you moved so fast but you felt so special… “So whadaya say, dollface? We got food, your favorite movie, and all night…” he persuaded you, pulling you closer into his lap. “I can help ya get changed into something a little more comfy if ya want...”

Finally, your painted lips curled into a beaming grin and tears pricked your eyes once more, this time for overwhelming joy. “Okay, let’s do it.”

Taglist: @sunshinesdaydream @helpyaw @thelaundrybitch @momii @camillahorne26 @turtle-babe83 @fyreball66 @sharpwindow @roseygardenfan @witchofthenorthstar @pheradream15 @post-apocalyptic-daydream @hyunonion @killmewithafanfic @virtualdonutenemy

[apothe-roses]

I Wanna Ride

modern Aemond Targaryen x reader

Part 2

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Summary: You go to your first biker meet with Aly and Cregan. After witnessing a bit of that classic Targ family tension, an opportunity arises. One that may require you to spend more time with your least favorite Targaryen.

Fic Contains: swearing, family tension, Aemond being a prick (again), sexual tension if you squint

Word Count: 2034

The sun has just set over the gathering in the heart of King’s Landing’s steel district. The air is alive with the sound of purring engines, shouts, and rock music playing. You look around, trying to take everything in at once.

You and Ally likely would’ve been swallowed by the crowd had it not been for Cregan serving as your personal buffer. With his height, he easily cut a path through the crowd for the two of you. One of his hands reaches behind him to hold Aly’s. Her other arm is linked in yours.

“Isn’t this fun?” Aly shouts.

“Yeah, I wish I’d gone to one of these sooner,” you respond just as loud.

“Really? Even the countless times I asked you to come with me?” Aly shoots back playfully.

“I was busy!” you argue.

“Excuses, excuses,” Aly retorts. “You were scaared.” She drags the last word out mockingly.

You elbow her playfully. She laughs and elbows you back.

“Well, at least you’re here now. Right, babe?” She directs the question to her boyfriend.

“Yeah, sure!” Cregan shouts over his shoulder. You’re pretty sure he wasn’t paying attention to your conversation at all.

Suddenly, Cregan raises his free hand and starts waving madly.

“Jace! Jace!” He shouts. He picks up his pace, dragging you and Aly with him.

You come to a less crowded area with picnic benches scattered about. Cregan makes a beeline towards one, letting go of Aly’s hand to engulf another guy in a bear hug. Cregan breaks the hug, ruffling his friend’s curly brown hair. You presume this is “Jace.”

“Aly! How’ve you been,” Jace asks, embracing her.

“I was doing great til I saw your ugly mug,” Aly teases, copying Cregan and ruffling his hair. Jace waves her off, laughing. Then he notices you.

“Hi! I’m Jace! Nice to meet you,” Jace says happily.

“My boyfriend’s boyfriend,” Aly explains over Jace’s shoulder. Jace turns to retort, but Aly takes refuge behind a laughing Cregan. Jace turns back to you, shaking his head.

“Come on. I saved us a table,” he said with a smile. He leads you all to a table where another boy—his brother Luke—sits. You all fall into easy conversation. You tell Jace and Luke about your new dragon, and they tell you about the new models they’re having a hand in developing.

“I thought only Targaryens were allowed to submit designs,” you say, confused.

“Oh, they didn’t tell you? Our mom’s Rhaenyra Targaryen,” Luke explains. Your mouth falls open.

“We take after our dad. Our little brother Joffrey is the same,” Jace adds in. Looking at him, you could see the resemblance to his father, Harwin Strong.

“Oh, wow,” you stammer, unable to find a response. Luckily, you didn’t have to as something catches Luke’s eye.

“Oh no,” he says, shrinking in his seat. You turn to where he’s looking. Walking through the crowd are none other than Aegon and Aemond Targaryen. Both Targaryens have ditched the coveralls you initially met them in. Aegon opted for a navy sweatshirt and jeans, a gold chain hanging around his neck. Aemond was wearing all black, from his leather jacket to his combat boots. His hair was only half pulled up, leaving the rest to hang down his chest.

They were accompanied by two people you immediately recognized as their siblings Daeron and Helaena.

The four siblings spot your group and start to make their way over. Well, three of them do. Aemond immediately turns and stalks off in a different direction. Helaena looks like she’s going to stop him, but Daeron shakes his head at her. You watch as Aemond disappears down an alley. When you turn back, you immediately lock eyes with Aly, who raises a brow and smirks a bit.

You scowl back at her, thinking back to the conversation you two had after getting your bike back.

“You didn’t mention he was hot!”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware the hotness of the mechanic was of any relevance!” Aly shot back sarcastically.

“You also didn’t mention he was…”

“Rude?”

“Yep.”

“Yeah, Aemond’s always been more on the antisocial side. Apparently the rudeness came in after the accident,” she whispers that last part (even though they were the only two people in the room).

“Accident?”

“Yeah. Something to do with his nephew. Never got the full story. All I know is that it really divided the family and they haven’t been the same since.”

That tension is evident in the strained smiles the remaining Targaryen siblings give your group.

“Hello nephews,” Aegon greets Jace and Luke. “And friends,” he finishes, sending a wink your way.

“Mind if we join you?” Helaena asks softly.

“Of course,” Jace answers, noticeably less tense with his aunt. Aegon and Daeron squeeze in on either side of Jace and Luke while Helaena takes a place on the edge of the bench next to you. You notice she has brightly colored earplugs in.

“I don’t think we’ve met before. I’m Helaena,” she says softly. You tell her your name in response.

“The one who put Aemond in his place,” Aegon adds from his seat at the table.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset him,” you say

“Don’t be. Aemond’s funny when he’s mad,” Daeron laughs. You furrow your brows.

“We didn’t even interact for that long. I didn’t think I would make much of an impression on him,” you ponder.

“Oh, Arm’s not used to people talking to him at all. People tend to give him a wide berth when they come to the garage,” Aegon explains. “And you not only tried to make conversation but called him out on his bullshit. Honestly, I’m impressed.”

“It’s a shame, really,” Helaena muses. “He’s really nice once you get to know him.

“Everyone is nice to you Hel,” Daeron drawls.

“Still,” Helaena huffs.

The topic is dropped as the table makes meaningless small talk with each other. You tuned most of the conversation out til Aegon clasped his hands together.

“Look, nephews,” Aegon starts, leaning in. “Word on the street is that you know the location of the next Dragon Rally.”

“How do you know we know?” Jace asks.

“Because you don’t shut up about it,” Aly responds, causing Cregan to snort. Jace frowns at her. “Didn’t Grandpa tell any of you about it?” He directs the question to his relatives.

“Of course not,” Daeron scoffs. An awkward silence falls over the table.

“Aaanyways,” Cregan drags out. “You gonna come with us?” He looks at you over his girlfriend’s head. Aly turns to look at you as well.

“Oh, I don’t know,” you reply. The Dragon Rally was a rather secretive event despite its popularity. All you knew was that it involved a grueling ride to whatever location was picked that year and that it was sponsored by the Targaryen family.

“I don’t think I’ll have quite gotten the hang of riding by the time it rolls around,” you continue.

“Oh, Aemond can teach you!” Helaena exclaims. Everyone at the table turns to look at her as if she’s grown a second head.

“What? Vaghar and Meraxes are similar enough models. Plus, it could help patch things up between them.”

“As much as I’d hate to throw you to the wolves, she has a point,” Aegon says. “If anyone’s got the stuff to whip you into shape in a short amount of time, it’s Aemond.”

You look down at the table, thinking on what they said. You’ve spent a long time on the outskirts of this community, wanting to join on the fun but never finding the opportunity—or the courage. You didn’t want to miss out on any more.

“Why doesn’t Aly do it? They’re friends after all,” Jace asks.

“Trust me, Aly couldn’t teach a fish how to swim,” Cregan laughs, earning an elbow in the side from his girlfriend.

“I’m a great teacher,” Aly snaps at Cregan, who laughs and kisses the top of her head.

“Of course you are, love,” he says softly. Daeron pretends to gag, causing Helaena to scold him.

“You know I’d help you,” she says to you. “But my nephew and his gremlin friends are coming into town.” You nod sympathetically. You’ve met Benji Blackwood before. He’s a nice kid, but if he and his friends are in town…Aly’s brother’s gonna need all the help he can get.

“And before you ask, I won’t have the time to lend my expertise. And neither will you,” Cregan explains to Jace.

“Come on, there’s no harm in at least asking,” Aegon teases. You look up at him.

“Alright,” you say simply, rising from the bench.

“Wait, I didn’t mean right now!” Aegon shouts as you walk off in the direction Aemond disappeared in earlier.

Aemond leans against the brick wall, a cigarette dangling from his lips.

“You know that’s bad for you, right?”

Aemond’s eye lands on you. He gives you a once over before removing the cigarette and letting out a puff of smoke.

“Oh. You,” he said flatly.

“Yes. Me,” you parrot back, matching his flat delivery. You swear you see a slight twinkle in his eye.

“I didn’t think events like this were your thing,” you say, folding your arms across your chest.

“They’re not,” Aemond responds curtly. He takes another drag. “My siblings practically kidnapped me. They think I don’t get out enough,” He scoffs.

“Based on the mercifully brief interaction we had, I’d wager they’re right,” you quip.

“Did they send you to drag me out there,” he asks, taking another puff.

“No, actually. I wanted to ask you about something.”

He raises an eyebrow at this. “Did you fuck up your bike already?”

“No,” you huff. “Though if I had, I could probably fix it myself.”

He angles his body towards you, his shoulder braces against the wall. “Could you now?”

You thought he was mocking you, but the look in his eyes…he looks more curious than anything.

“I brought her to you ‘cause I hit a dead end. Thought it would be good to get a second pair of eyes to look her over. Oh!” You mentally kick yourself for your poor word choice. “I didn’t mean—“

“It’s fine. Happens all the time,” Aemond interjects, though you see his jaw clench. “So, what did you want to ask me?”

You took a deep breath. “The Dragon Rally is coming up. I want to go with my friends,” you start.

“That ride is brutal,” he says, frowning. “You’d have to train hard to be ready by the time it rolls around.”

“I know. Which is why I want you to teach me,” you finish, bracing yourself for his response.

He doesn’t say anything, only gapes at you as if you’d spouted the most ludicrous idea in the world. “Why on earth would you want me to teach you?” He asks.

“Your sister suggested it,” you reply shyly. “And Aegon seconded the idea.”

He lowers his gaze with a hmm. You shift from foot to foot, waiting for his response.

“It’s going to be a lot of work. To start from absolutely nothing—“

“We wouldn’t be starting from nothing!” You interrupt.

“Wouldn’t we?” He quips back.

“I know the basics,” you explain.

“The basics,” he scoffed.

“And what’s wrong with that?” you ask incredulously. His lips curl into a smirk as he leans in close enough for you to feel his breath on your ear.

“Riding a dragon,” he purrs, “is anything but basic.”

You weren’t sure if he meant for that to come off as seductive as it did.Gods, why does his voice have to be so sexy?

“So will you do it?” You ask tentatively.

“Hmmm. I’ll think about it,” he responds.

You nod your head. At least it wasn’t an outright no. Not wanting to push your luck, you turn to walk away.

“But if I do say yes, I’ll want something in return,” he calls after you.

You freeze, looking back at him over your shoulder. “And what exactly will that be?”

“Haven’t decided yet,” he replies. “Don’t worry, I won’t make you do anything you’re not comfortable with.” You let out a small sigh of relief.

“But you’ll owe me,” he finishes. “And I never forget a debt.”

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[fuckingfinwions]

Maedhros smiled as Maglor slipped into his room. Maglor was far too old to be frightened by thunderstorms, but he still spent more nights cuddled in his big brother's arms than in his own bed. Maedhros enjoyed it as well, knowing that his favorite sibling was happy, some part of his alpha hind-brain relaxed at having his pack close. The two of them spent a lot of their time awake together as well, Maglor composing or researching, while Maedhros penned letters and embroidered, to the point there was now a second desk in Maedhros's study.

So there was no reason for Maglor to look nervous to intrude.

Maedhros held out his hands for a hug and Maglor willingly went, nearly tackling Maedhros to the bed.

"What's wrong?"

"Alphas don't cuddle with other alphas, do they?"

"It's not like it's forbidden, it's just that we get territorial. You're still a kid though, I like having you here."

"Not when I mature though."

"It will be awkward, but I'll get past it. We're more than our instincts, we are the Noldor, the wisest and most cunning beings in all Arda."

"Is the thing about not liking someone watching out for you true, or just a stereotype?"

"I don't mind someone watching out for me, but someone overseeing me and directing me itches. It doesn't come up much though."

"It would for me though, if I'm an alpha and keep hanging out in your room."

"I suppose."

"And alphas can't kiss each other. We couldn't even give familial kisses on the cheek, in case we slip."

"We could take turns, with one person holding very still. And one accidental kiss isn't enough to Change someone."

"Still, I don't want to be alpha."

"You have to grow up sometime, and the healer has known you were an alpha since you were a child. You're even called 'Commanding Finwe', I'm sure you'll get used to it."

"I have to grow up sure, but why does that mean I have to be an alpha? The healers are wrong sometimes."

"They get it wrong perhaps one time out of two dozen. You should accept and plan for being an alpha, not hope for a rare chance that you can't do anything about."

"I can do something about it though! I want to be an omega, and I can make it happen."

"No one has a way to let an undeveloped child pick their presentation."

"If the healers had said I was an omega and I wanted alpha, than sure, I'd be out of luck. But there is one very well known way to Change an alpha into an omega." Maglor moved his thigh between Maedhros's, rubbing against Maedhros's cock.

"What - you can't be serious!"

"Why not?"

"You're just a kid, way too young to make such a decision. The only people who Change are centuries old and deciding to follow their partner."

"I'm not that young. I've been waking up hard the last three days."

"That's no evidence of maturity, and Mom and Dad will never let you get fucked by a stranger just because you don't want things to get awkward between us."

"Oh, I agree we shouldn't tell Mom and Dad, and I'm not gong to find a stranger."

"Good."

"I want to suck your cock every morning until I go into heat."

"What??"

"You heard me quite clearly."

"I must not have, because it sounded like you wanted to Change by committing incest!"

"Maybe. Or maybe this is just my natural omega instinct to submit to a strong, loving alpha."

"There's nothing natural about his, Maglor. You're confused."

"Am I? Then why are you turned on?"

"It's a purely physical reaction to stimulus."

"The stimulus of having a young omega in your bed."

"No!! Just of having someone touching me there."

"Would it be so bad, really, to touch me? Am I so hideous that it's such an imposition?"

"That's not-"

"Come on, you said for yourself that just one kiss wouldn't hurt."

"A kiss, not a blowjob."

"Still, give me a chance to prove I want this."

"That's not the question!"

"Oh? Then what questions do you have for me, alpha?" Maglor looked up through his eyelashes at Maedhros.

"There's no questions, because there's no argument you can give that would make this a reasonable action."

"Sure there is. I could say that I'd go find someone else to Change me. Ecthelion's just a year older, and handsome enough. I don't think he even knows I'm not an omega yet, he'd have no reason to suspect I'm anything more than an eager slut."

"Don't you dare!" Maedhros held Maglor to him tighter as if Maglor might leave and seduce the other student right now. Maglor wriggled closer so his ass was under Maedhros's right hand.

"No? Why shouldn't I, as it wouldn't be incest?"

"Ecthelion isn't good enough for you."

"Oh, it wouldn't be anything serious, not bonding or even letting him fuck me. Just playing with his cock until I get what I want."

"You are still far too young to Change your body so entirely."

"I told you, I'm not sure I'm an alpha. My dick doesn't have a knot as far as I can tell, not that I've seen one in person."

"Maglor, we've gone swimming together often. You've seen my dick."

"Not when it's hard and your knot is full and throbbing. It's not as noticeable when you're soft."

"You're just trying to get me to take off my clothes to show you my cock."

"I could show you mine instead. You'd have to touch me though to be sure, I won't accept a glance from across the room as proof that I'm already doomed to life as an alpha. You could look at my hole as well, see if I'm starting to get slick." Maglor reached one hand between them to begin unlacing the tunic, brushing against Maehdros's hands as he did so.

"Keep your clothes on! You can look at my knot and see if it resembles yours, but you may not touch."

"Thank you!" Maglor kissed Maedhros on the cheek, a quick familial press of the lips an no more. Then he stood back and looked expectantly.

Maedhros stood as well, feeling self-conscious, but unfastened his pants. Really, he thought it's the best way to dissuade Maglor. To show him that his body is that of a normal alpha, and quickly before he has any more foolish ideas - or worse, acts on them.

Maglor knelt down in front of Maedhros.

"I said-"

"I know, I'm not going to touch you! But I can't see the base well standing up, I need to be closer."

"You ought to get more sleep if you can't see what's five feet in front of your," Maedhros grumbled, but he held still.

Maglor turned his head to one side and the other. He leaned down to view Maedhros's knot from below, then stretched up to see the tip, bracing himself with one hand on his brother's hip. Maedhros stood stock still, not daring to move a muscle.

"Thank you for letting me look," Maglor said, still so close his breath hit Maedhros's cock as a warm wind.

"So now you've seen an alpha's knot, and we can be done."

"Yes, I've seen your knot and it's highly impressive. I don't have one though."

"What? But you're an alpha!"

"Maybe I'm not. Maybe I'm an omega all along, and I'm supposed to take a knot rather than have my own."

"Maybe it just hasn't expanded yet, wait a week or two and I'm sure you'll have a nice girthy knot."

"I suppose," Maglor sighed, and his lips nearly brushed Maedhros's shaft. "It seems such a waste though, if I get one and don't want it, meanwhile you have a gorgeous cock and don't do anything with it."

"I'm sure I'll find someone to marry someday," Maedhros responded a bit nonsensically.

"Perhaps. But that's a long time away, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Can I please suck you? Even if I'm an alpha, I want to know every part of you."

"You've just spent several minutes staring at my dick, you won't learning anything more by touching it."

"Maybe not with my hands, but I am a singer. My mouth and tongue are how I shape my craft, can I not practice my art with you?"

"Why are you so insistent?"

"Like I said, I want you. And If I'm really an alpha, this might be the last time in a while you're comfortable letting me this close."

"I'll always let you hug me, Maglor."

"Sure, but it will take effort. Can't I do this for you just once?"

Maedhros sighed. "How Can I say no to you? Once, and then we never speak of it again."

"I promise, I won't mention it if you don't," Maglor said. He leaned forward and licked the tip of Maedhros's cock.

[roleplayhonestybox]

hey I’ve never done submitted like this before so I hope I’m doing this right. Something happened recently and It’s been eating up at me for the past day and I can’t think and I genuinely need advice from the roleplay community. i can go by apple anon if it’s easier. This is long so sorry in advance

well, I run a roleplay server on discord that’s mostly come one, come all for a single fandom (1x1s, group rps, SFW or other etc). it’s been up and running for a long while now, and it’s gone pretty smoothly. Some hijacks but what server doesn’t? Well, yesterday a close friend (banana) of mine informed me that I accidentally hurt another friend’s (grapes) feelings and I didn’t mean to. I want to take responsibility and apologize but I’ve been advised to leave Grape alone until they come to me on their own. Which I understand.

For a little bit more context: me and my best friend (Cherry) run the server. Cherry and I have known eachother for years, never met in person but FaceTimed, mailed stuff. We’re pretty much siblings now. Cherry and I do a ton of roleplays together and we click together as roleplayers. Cherry and I recently have been roleplaying with someone we have clicked with also (Kiwi). So the three of us have been pretty much rping and hanging out a lot. We don’t know Kiwi that much - met a few months ago. this server is younger than we’ve known Kiwi.

The reason I mention Kiwi is that. Kiwi and I ship out two muses together in that server as “canon”. They’re like married. This is where Grape comes in. Grape’s muse is shippable within the fandom with both my and Kiwi’s character. I actually enjoy the ship and have shipped with Grape in the past. However, Grape enjoys another ship more than the one we were doing and started up another to prioritize. (Which is completely fine with me as these roleplays in the server can be separate and unrelated).

Well, a week? Ish ago, a huge in character groupchat was made for the muses in a specific fandom location, doubles welcome (doubles meaning people who play the same muse but different interpretation). Well, Kiwi and I have been looking to poly ship our muses, and a new person, Mango, has the same muse Grape did. I foolishly assumed Grape was too busy with the other ship, so I asked Mango to be involved instead.

And so I made the groupchat with me, Kiwi, Mango and another friend (Coconut) for this four poly.

And it was going great, we had fun. Some laughs.

Until the next morning, Grape told me they were leaving the server temporarily. I was confused but I respected their decision.

And then Banana told me that the groupchat I made seems to have opened some old wounds for people as a way of exclusivity and favoritism. And I was confused and honestly a little hurt because I was completely unaware of this. I didn’t mean to give off the feeling of clique. I have a roleplay with almost every active member in the server, some are more frequent some aren’t. I give people interactions because I know how it feels to be ignored and be excluded from chats. That’s why the server was made. In the general groupchats, I make sure people are replied to. But I guess because Grape’s muse wasn’t chosen, it hurt their feelings and now I feel paranoid that maybe it was favoritism? But I have not known Mango for all but a couple or weeks. Definitely less than Grape. I’ve roleplayed with Grape many times.

But in addition, Grape’s muse partner, Strawberry, was also hurt in addition to the creation of the groupchat also because their muse was overlooked when considering who would be in the poly. (Strawberry plays the same character as Coconut).

I didn’t choose these two only because I thought they would enjoy their own roleplay separately? But knowing it hurt them both has made me feel torn up so badly. Almost nauseous about it. It also seems the issue was that most of the planning was done in dms and not the server’s roleplay channels, which I do get.

I will admit, some roleplayers in the server I don’t click with roleplay wise but I NEVER ignore them in general. I try to make everyone feel welcomed.

I guess, this is all to ask: was I wrong for not choosing someone I’ve known longer? Was it really favoritism/excluding? I’ve been paranoid and scared to roleplay with Cherry, Kiwi and everyone in close with ever since Banana told me. How do I make things right? Banana told me not to go to Strawberry and Grape first, but I’m hurting because they hurt for so long. How do I avoid cliques/favoritism in big servers?

Sorry for all the fruit names. But just wanted to get this all off my chest.

.

[taeyamayang]

FALLING FOR YOUR BROTHER'S FRIEND

bokuto, suna, sakusa

↬ CHARACTER: Bokuto Koutarou x fem!reader

↬ GENRE: fluff! | romance | love at first sight | high school

↬ wc: 2k~ including bonus snippet

a/n: a random idea,, i remember my older brother bringing home his two friends from hs and both were shockingly good looking. one was the smart quiet type and the other is popular among the girls. it had me thinking "are you really friends with my bro??" kidding but those were the days man~ this random idea made me feel nostalgic lol anyways! i was thinking of making this into a series so let me know if you have a specific hq character in mind that you want me to write for. thanks ☆

part two

Bokuto Koutarou

you are well aware of your brother's friend, the captain of volleyball team

but you have never met him

you are only familiar of how he is mainly through your brother's stories over the dinner table

he frequently hangs out in your house but you never have seen him because whenever he stays over you are either:

out late at night because of club activities

or you never come out of your room when he's at your place

but today could finally be the day you meet him

"just do it."

Your eyebrows furrow at the text message sent by your sibling. Now that summer has started, your brother has his hands full with responsibilities as the student council president of Fukurodani. Generally, you are happy about his absence because it guarantees you peace within the household. You have every space and corner of the house to yourself, and you can live your daily life without him pestering you. But ironically, right now, you wish for him to be here with you. Your phone dings as another message from him pop.

"actually, you don't have a choice. We made a deal. A favor for a favor."

If only you didn't ask your brother to get you the weekly comic from the convenience store the other day, then you wouldn't be worrying right now. you pace back and forth in your room, contemplating whether to pretend you didn't see his texts and toss your phone beneath the mattress of your bed or just simply get over it. As an indecisive overthinker, you're lost with what to do. Your phone vibrates again.

"stop leaving me on seen."

You scowl at the screen of your phone.

"it's not a big deal. Besides, my friend badly needs it. Just get whatever shirt I have in my drawer, toss it in a bag, then give it to him. you know, if only you had the initiative to leave your room and meet him whenever he comes by at our place, then you wouldn't be as anxious as you are right now."

The wrinkles on your face deepen as you read the text message in your head with your brother's scolding voice. Your brother knows you well. He knows that you are the polar opposite of him. He's the typical first-born son that every parent holds pride in. He's good at socializing, he gets commendable grades, and on top of that, he's leader material. On the other hand, you are satisfied living your life on a low profile.

"please?"

in sibling rivalry, saying please is equivalent to submitting to your sibling. so, him saying please to you now makes you think of his urgency. perhaps, his friend really needs it. with a sigh escaping from your lips, you type in your message.

"fine. What is his name again?"

As you hit send, not a minute passes, your brother replies.

"Bokuto Koutarou. Captain and ace of the volleyball team in Fukurodani."

Seeing your brother describe him as the captain and ace leaves you an impression of him.

"what does he look like?"

"he stands out. you'll know when you see him."

your lips curl at the vague description your brother sent.

"whatever."

You reply before throwing your phone on your bed, watching it bounce before finally pushing yourself up. You grabbed an empty string bag from your closet, then you went straight to your brother's room. you pull whatever shirt he has in his drawer, folding it neatly and shoving it inside the bag. Once you are done, you head out and lock the house's front door behind you before pulling your bicycle out of the garage.

This year, the school where Fukurodani and other visiting schools are handling their summer volleyball training camp is a few miles away from your home. so, riding the bike would be more convenient than taking a bus and paying for the fare. Besides, you would instead let your vision be fed with the city lights and nature than sit in a crowded vehicle.

soon, you reach Shinzen High. you swiftly parked your bicycle in front of the gym, where the security guard directed you at. from outside the premise, you can already hear the squeaking sound of rubber shoes scraping across the waxed floor. subsequently, the sound of balls hitting the ground and colliding with the player's hands resonate from where you are standing. as you near the gym entrance, the echoes from the voices of the players get louder, each calling out for a toss or cheering for a player in their team.

you shake the bag off your shoulder and tightly wrap your arm around it, securing it in front of your chest. you step inside the gym, and the first thing you see is an orange-headed boy in the air, his arm drawn back as he anticipates hitting the ball with the expanse of his palm. A loud thud reverberates within the gym, followed by the cheers of his team.

"nice spike, Hinata." a boy with short brown hair and wide shoulders taps the orange-headed's scapula.

"Thanks, captain!" the other boy responds. hinata's mention of captain reminds you of your purpose. you grip tighter on your string bag, and watch the captain with short hair interacts with his teammates.

he's amiable and down to earth but the way he carries himself is enough to know that he is, in fact, the captain of the team. he reminds you of your brother. he's simple. Still, when he speaks or stands among his comrades, he holds the perfect image of a leader. usually friends belonging to the same group emit the same vibes.

so, maybe, he's your brother's friend?

you look around and immediately spot a girl with a small face and midnight blue hair. she holds a clipboard between her hands as he watches hinata's team play.

"excuse me." your voice is low, but somehow, she manages to hear you.

"hm?" she purses her lips as she glances at you.

"can you give this to the team captain?" you point to the string bag you're holding.

"Sawamura Daichi? sure."

"eh? " was the only sound you managed to utter when you heard a different name from her. she was about to take your bag but when you flashed her a confused look, she drew her hand back and over to her mouth, the tip of her delicate fingers touching her rosy lips.

"who are you looking for?" she asks. her doll face mirroring your puzzled expression.

"Bokuto Koutarou. The captain and ace of Fukurodani." right after you said his name, a loud voice thunders inside the gym. both you and the manager turn your gazes at the source.

"AKAAAAASSSHIII!!!" a boy with silver hair and black streaks calls for the setter. he has his hand in the air asking akaashi to throw him the ball. his voice commanded attention, and quite naturally everyone was instantly drawn to him. you can't tear your eyes away from him as he welcomes the ball with a powerful strike. hence, breaking a three-wall block from the other team. despite the loud scream of the boy, the manager you are talking to giggles.

"that is Fukurodani and this team is Karasuno." her finger points at the team playing at the farthest side of the court before pointing back at the team playing near your side.

"i'll assist you there." she smiles at you, her eyes disappearing. A sudden relief washes over you as she leads you to the other side of the gym. now that you have a better view of the whole area, you noticed how packed the gym is. There are four teams, and each group is clad with a numbered vest. there's no way you'll know who bokuto is among the sea of volleyball players.

"yukie, kaori." the manager's tender voice brings your focus back to her. "she needs bokuto."

"okay." the girl with long hair nods as she chews mint gum. the girl with midnight blue hair bids you goodbye as she walks back to her team. the girl with long hair speaks again.

"i'm kaori, and she's yukie. we are the managers of Fukurodani." she introduces herself and you did the same. she continues. "you're right on time since the players will switch sides, so during that break, you can talk to bokuto." both girls smile at you.

"thanks." you mutter, holding the bag on your chest tightly as you hear your heart pound louder.

"Bokuto!" yukie calls. you spin around to face the court and the same boy from last time turns his head to the managers.

"yes?" he says, eyes wide and as bright as the summer sun. his wild hair is pushed up from his face complimenting his arched eyebrows. his figure is no doubt of an athlete; towering height, fit torso, thick thighs, and muscular biceps. he's completely different from the initial image you have of him. But in a good way.

"someone is here for you." kaori explains. the moment bokuto locks eyes with you, a smile on his face creeps up. the sound of his feet jogging to you is synchronous to your beating heart. when he stops right before you, a call from the other team saves you from starting the conversation.

"BOKUTO!" your eyelids peel open at the sight of a ball flying towards the two of you. bokuto quickly turns, and by instinct, he spikes the ball back to the court. a loud thump resonates as the ball hits the ground.

"oya! flexing your spikes to your girlfriend, huh?" a tall boy with raven black hair bickers. you feel the warmth of your body travel to your cheeks.

"kuroo, you're embarrassing her." a blonde boy with dark roots says after meeting eyes with you.

"bokuto! kenma implies that you as a boyfriend is embarrassing!" kuroo clutches onto his stomach as he laughs like the hyenas from the lion king.

"shut up i didn't say that!" kenma mutters under his breath. bokuto turns to you brushing them off.

"sorry, they're teasing me." he smiles. "what is it?"

"it's fine. here are the clothes my brother asked me to give you." you bring the string bag near him.

"WOAH!" startled with the sudden increase in his voice, you freeze. his orbs rounds as he rallies his eyes between you and the bag.

"SO YOU'RE HIS SISTER!" he pulls his hand out for a shake, bringing your senses back to reality. you grab onto it, his large hand engulfing your tiny ones.

"nice to meet you i'm bokuto!" he grins.

"i'm (y/n)!" you greet him back with the same enthusiasm.

"how did you get here?" he asks after untangling his hands with you and taking the string bag from your grip.

"i rode my bike after packing you clothes." you are not the best with small talks but thank god, bokuto is a natural conversationalist.

"in this dire heat of summer?!" he exclaims, and you nod 'yes' sheepishly.

"geez, if only i picked up the right pile of clothes and not my sister's, then i would have not bothered you coming here." he scratches the back of his head.

"that's okay. i should leave now." you point at the exit.

"no! stay!" his gentle yet calloused hands wraps around your forearm. the contact made your knees weak. "at least stay for watermelons. we're taking a break after this."

he looks at you keenly, lowering his back so his eyes would meet yours. he holds hope in his orbs, expecting you to say yes to his offer. albeit, you give in.

"okay." you bob your head.

"GREAT!" bokuto cheers in excitement. he finally lets go of your arm, but you can still feel his grip on you.

he takes you by surprise when he playfully ruffles your hair before speaking.

"i'll make sure you'll enjoy this match. keep your eyes on me." he genuinely pulls the corner of his lips, but something about what he said made you stop breathing. you bite the insides of your mouth as you stare back at him, his eyes never leaving yours.

"i like your smile," he says under his breath, making your whole face burn. Afterward, he pulled his back straight up like nothing happened, then jogged back to the court to meet with his teammates. Consequently, sweat begins to form in your forehead, and each heaves of air is heavier. your heart would beat faster whenever you replay the last words and sentences he said to you in your mind, picturing his rugged bearing and prominent gaze.

what the heck is happening to you?

bonus:

after days, you lie on your bed attempting to push the memories of your interaction with bokuto each time he crosses your mind. you feel perplexed with the way the insides of your body would react by just thinking of him. you turn to your side, cupping your face with your hands as you try to bury the image of your brother's friend at the back of your head.

soft raps sounded from your bedroom door cuts your train of thoughts.

"coming." you are quick on your feet, eyes dejected and distracted from the image of the captain and ace lingering in your mind.

"hey!" a voice greets you upon opening the door. you have his voice recorded in your head to know exactly how it sounded. to your horror, your sight welcomes the boy you dread the most to forget.

"b-bokuto?" you stutter. you stop the urge to slap your face to wake you up in you slumber.

you must be dreaming.

"i brought you cookies as a thank you for being my angel at the summer training camp." bokuto speaks. after blinking repeatedly, you tip toe to see past his shoulders.

"where's my brother?"

"oh, i asked him if i can come over to give you this and he said yes. he left right after i arrived. he's a busy man." bokuto chuckles. you take the box of cookies from his hand.

"thank you for this." you gesture to the box of sweet delights.

"sure." he nods at you. silence lay dormat between the two of you. you both share awkward glances before he decides to break the ice.

"your brother is a busy man but i'm not."

"huh?" your eyes widen in confusion. you don't know where he's getting at.

"i'm free today!" he rephrases, leaning on the doorframe of your bedroom door. you are not sure what he is implying to you but his eager eyes gives you a wild hunch.

"do you want to stay over and watch a movie?" instantly his orb shined brighter and his smile shows his teeth. he displays happiness innocently like a kid excited over small trivial things. he nods at you avidly like a child making you burst into laughter.

"you're cute." you accidentally blurt out. you cover your mouth as you catch yourself off guard. bokuto looks at you with endearing eyes before uttering,

"i'm glad we're on the same page."

continue reading to part 2?

Masterlist | HQ Masterlist

[cotton-myeon]

Been Through [08 - The Ignorance]

Genre: non-idol!AU, chaebol!AU, angst, drama, slice of life, friendship

Characters: OC (Choi Seoyeon), Oh Sehun, and many others.

Word count: 2.9k words

Ignorance [/ˈiɡnərəns/] : lack of knowledge or information

Home Prologue 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Jongdae had finished his final revision for the thesis, and officially finished with his studies a week after his defense. He officially left Kyunghee, leaving me all alone in Suwon. Sehun also left Suwon on the same day as Jongdae as it was his last day of internship, but it was not like I felt that Sehun was in town for the past few weeks anyway. Yet one week after that, Sehun texted me out of nowhere, saying sorry because he was indeed busy during the last weeks of internship, and he had just submitted his internship report, thus was only able to text me then. However, it was not even the same anymore after that. We still kept in touch, still contacted each other sometimes, but it was so rare- it was almost as if the past few months after he broke up from Aeri was all in my dream. He also never brought up the topic when he told me that he would come to Suwon just to have a meal with me and I would not feel alone- which he never did even up until when I finished my internship two months after him.

On the other hand, in that two months when I was somewhat alone in Suwon, Jongdae took me out for a meal whenever he dropped by Kyunghee to settle some final documents for graduation- which was quite often, and had me wondering if he really had that many documents to finalize. On other days, either my sister or my brother would come too, some days only one of them, and some rare days they would come together- which usually meant they had a business to do in Suwon. I figured then that Jongdae had told my sister what happened between me and Sehun, and my sister in turn told my brother, because I never really talked about the topic with my siblings- I did not even know what exactly was going on between me and my so-called best friend anyway. And I think they did not tell our parents, to which I was thankful for. While it would not jeopardize any business relations with Kia as my family was not that petty and can separate personal and business matters well, I just knew that my parents would probably went extra and made sure that Sehun and I would have very little chance to meet- seeing that forbidding us to meet was definitely impossible as we went to the same university, in the same major, and even in the same class.

However, there was someone else that I did not expect at all to hang out with me in Suwon; Kim Junmyeon. We were quite close, but it was nowhere near my closeness with Jongdae, so what he did was a surprise for me. On some other days when my siblings and Jongdae did not come to Suwon, Junmyeon would call me, saying that he was on his way to Suwon, and asked me to have either lunch or dinner with him, depending on what time it was when he called me. Most of the times though, we would have dinner on Friday nights, and it all ended up with him driving me back to Seoul, and one of my siblings drove me back to Suwon on Sunday night, and if neither were available, my parents would. Due to their impeccable schedule, at one point, I suspected that both my siblings, Jongdae, and Junmyeon had a meeting or something, or at the very least worked on some sort of a schedule to accompany me in Suwon- because more often than not, when they came to Suwon, they did not have any business agenda and only hung out with me for a bit, which spoke a lot of things. I was really thankful to them of course, it was clear they did not want me to feel sad nor lonely, especially with Sehun literally out of the picture- but on the contrary, what they did only reminded me of what Sehun did- or did not do. At that moment I honestly did not know who he was to me anymore, I did not think he could be called as my best friend anymore.

I could finally relax a little bit around two weeks after I finished my internship. It was the day I submitted both my internship report and final draft of my thesis, which meant that all that I have left was to prepare for thesis defense, which would be in another two weeks. It might be a short preparation time, but at the very least I could relax after months of squeezing my brain out. On that very same day when I submitted both papers, was also the day when Junmyeon departed for the US. I was very exhausted due to pulling an all-nighter the nights before to finalize all revisions for both papers, but I also would not miss sending Junmyeon off for the world. I really appreciated what he, my siblings and Jongdae did in the past months, and this was just something small I could do to repay him. Of course, he scolded me upon seeing my tired face at the airport, but like I said, I would not miss it for the world.

Junmyeon was going to fly with their private jet, obviously, so that night, his parents, Jongdae, my sister and I were gathered at Incheon Airport’s VIP Lounge to send him off- we were the only ones he told about his flight schedule. Oh, my brother too, but unfortunately, my brother could not come since he had an urgent meeting at the office just when we were about to go to the airport. My sister should be attending the meeting too, but they decided that just one of them was enough, because they would not let me drive that night for my very apparent exhaustion. I could not even bring myself to protest, which would have happened in normal occasions.

It was about an hour before Junmyeon was supposed to board the plane, when a yawn escaped my mouth. I was sitting with my sister, a few feet away from the Kim-s, who seemed to be having a serious conversation. “I’m going to Starbucks,” I told my sister, “I’m going to need a cup of coffee to last until we get home,” I yawned again. “Ok, let’s go-”

“It’s fine, I’ll just go myself,” I stopped her, “Anything you want?” I asked. “You sure?” she pursed her lips and raised a brow at me, to which I nodded my head. “Fine, just get me hot Caffe Mocha.” I nodded again and started to walk away from her, “Got it.”

Stepping out of the lounge, I immediately spot where the Starbucks was. Thankfully midnight flights were comparatively less than day flights, so the line was not that long. I was already sitting down and playing with my phone while waiting for my orders to be done ten minutes later.

“Choi Seoyeon?” a very familiar voice called out. I looked up, and surprise, I did not expect him to be the one who was standing in front of me, “Oh Sehun?” He smiled and I felt my heart skipped a beat. “I didn’t think I would meet you here, what are you doing?” he sat down on the chair across mine. I subtly gulped, hiding my nervousness and hoping that my voice would not come out shaky. “I’m just sending someone off,” I smiled back. “And you?”

“Picking a relative up,” he leaned back on his seat. “I see,” I hummed in reply. “I haven’t seen you in a while,” he started again. I shrugged my shoulders and leaned back on my seat too, “Well, both of us have been busy lately, I mean, I also just finished my internship not too long ago.” Sehun raised his eyebrows in surprise, then licked his lips, “Right, your internship was six months.” I hummed again, “Yeah, just finished two weeks ago.” He looked so guilty then, for what I did not know, but I decided to just spare him from that feeling.

“How is your thesis by the way? Have you submitted them?” I asked, starting another topic. “Uhh, yeah, I submitted them about a month ago,” he bit his lips, and the apology was still present in his eyes. Well, now I knew why he seemed so apologetic. And also why I did not see him when I submitted my thesis earlier today- all of my classmates were there, even Yoo Aeri, but not him. I felt a pang in my heart, but I smiled it off, “Glad to hear that, so when is your thesis defense?”

“It was this morning,” he said quietly, and I could not stop the disappointment showing on my face. “Oh,” I replied. Sensing that he was about to apology, I quickly asked again, “Did you pass?” He nodded his head, then licked his lips again. “Look, Seoyeon, I’m so-”

“So fast,” I scrunched my face at him, trying my best to look nonchalant and playful about it. It seemed to work, because he heaved a relieved sigh, but he did not know how my heart ached even more upon thinking that he thought it was not a problem to me. Well, seemed like I had to get rid of this feeling I had toward Oh Sehun. And possibly forgot about what happened the last few months too.

“How about your thesis?” he asked now. I gulped to swallow down my feelings. “Just submitted it today, and my defense will be in two weeks,” I answered. “Morning or afternoon session?” he wondered. “Afternoon,” I told him. “Oh, same as Joohyun then,” he hummed, making me raised my brows in surprise. “Bae Joohyun?” I voiced out loud in confusion. Because one, since when did he speak so casually about Bae Joohyun? And two, how was it that he knew first before me? But I suppose it should be the same, I mean I did submit my thesis with Joohyun earlier in the morning, while the date for my defense was just revealed later on after I returned back home, and I have not asked nor tell Joohyun about it. But it still made me wonder, how did Sehun know?

“Ah right,” he licked his lips again, and the guiltiness was back in his eyes. “I think I haven’t told you about it yet...” he trailed off. I raised a brow, “What, you guys are dating?” My heart thudded painfully against my chest, wondering on why in the hell did I say that, and not wanting to know the answer at the same time. I saw Sehun bit his lip and gave me a sheepish look. And if one looked closely, they could also see how his cheeks pinked a bit. I thought I heard my heart cracked, especially after hearing what he said next.

“Uhm... I think I might like her; so thank you, really, for introducing us-”

“Seoyeon-ah!” a voice called out, cutting Sehun off and saving me from the heartbreak even more. Well not really, it was already broken anyway. Sehun turned around too, and we both found Samsung’s now inactive President standing there. He gave a tight-lipped smile after seeing who I was conversing with. “Oh Sehun,” Junmyeon nodded his head in greeting and walked toward us. “President Kim,” Sehun nodded back. “Your orders are done, it has been waiting at the counter for a few minutes now,” Junmyeon proceeded to sit beside me and put my cup of coffee on the table. “Oh, thank you Oppa,” I told him and took my cup. He seemed to notice that my hand was trembling a little, and the worry was now very visible on his eyes, “You’re taking too long, we’re worried, you know,” he held my other hand underneath the table. From the corner of my eye, I saw Sehun furrowed his brows. “Sorry, I didn’t notice the time,” I squeezed Jummyeon’s hand back, both trying to reassure him that I was fine, and also trying to get a grip on myself. He did not buy it, obviously, his lips were still tilted down in a frown.

“Oh right, how about Eonni’s order?” I asked Junmyeon, trying my best to seem casual and what Sehun said before did not affect me at all. He raised his other hand that was holding onto a paper bag, “In here, along with Jongdae’s and my parents too,” he answered. “You’re not buying one for yourself?” He snorted at that, “I’d like to sleep tonight thank you very much.” I quirked a smile, our light conversation managed to distract me, even if it was only for a short while.

“So, uhm...” Sehun cleared his throat, both of us turned to look at him. “You guys are sending someone off together?” he asked. “No,” Junmyeon answered for us, “Seoyeon is here to send me off.” Sehun let out an intelligent “Oh,” then nodded his head while glancing between the two of us. I tried to ignore his look though, still feeling that heartache. I really should avoid Sehun after this. I would not want to cause trouble for my two friends; especially if Joohyun liked him back.

“You are really close with each other huh,” he finally said. “Yeah, we are,” I heard the resolution in Junmyeon’s voice, an indicator that his protective side was coming out. I just knew that he was going to guilt-trip Sehun. I looked up at the guy in alarm and squeezed his hand that was still holding mine, trying to warn him to not say anything stupid. But of course, Junmyeon ignored me, “I went to Suwon often to make sure that she doesn’t feel lonely, especially after a certain someone left after promising to not leave her alone.” He even had the audacity to smile at Sehun- a very cold and sinister smile. I warily glanced at Sehun to see his reaction at Junmyeon’s accusation, but the younger male seemed clueless.

“Oh, I was talking about Jongdae,” Junmyeon waved a hand dismissively before Sehun could say anything. Sehun leaned back on his chair with wide eyes. “Wait, what do you mean he left Suwon? I thought he’s doing his master’s degree in Kyunghee?” he turned his head to look at me, “And why didn’t you tell me anything anyway? I could’ve gone there to spend time with you sometimes.” As much as I wanted to facepalm at his painstakingly obvious stupidity, I could not because his words hurt me even more. I was reminded of the time when he said that exact same empty promise months ago. I could not help the scoff that escaped my mouth, I did not know that Sehun’s obliviousness can reach a new level. Junmyeon squeezed my hand in warning to not rashly lash out in rage at the younger male in a public place. Well, Sehun should thank Junmyeon for saving him today.

“Jongdae was done with his master’s degree before Seoyeon finished her internship. It was unexpectedly faster than his original plan, when they were supposed to finish at around the same time,” Junmyeon made up reasons on the spot, although the sarcasm was clearly there, if one paid attention. But then again, Sehun was just so dense that he did not notice the sinister smile Junmyeon was aiming at him when he said that. “Ah, I see...” Sehun nodded his head. Then, he frowned, “You should’ve told me, you know.” My eye twitched at stupidity.

“Oh, look at the time,” Junmyeon interrupted before I could blow up at Sehun and caused a scene. He stood up, “Come on Yeon, my flight is about to depart,” he reached a hand to me, and I took it without hesitation, not wanting to face Sehun now, or maybe ever again. “Oh, okay-” Junmyeon did not let him continue as he pulled me away and I complied, not wanting to be anywhere near Sehun any longer. “Please excuse us,” Junmyeon greeted Sehun while I kept silent and spared him no glance. Before we got out of the store and away from Sehun though, I stopped on my tracks and gave him a side glance only, “You’re unbelievable, Sehun,” and we both walked out of Starbucks, leaving him there in confusion.

“I’m not going to say sorry,” Junmyeon started once we were out of Starbucks and made sure that Sehun was out of hearing range. I scoffed again, trying to mask my anguish with anger to Sehun, “No need, he was so dense you can just spit out the real reason and he might still not know what he did.” But the tears did escape my eyes, and I wiped it out before Junmyeon could see it. But then again, I could not hide anything from him. Even if my tears did not come out, Junmyeon would still know what I was feeling, and so he released his hold on my hand then proceeded to hug me. I could not hold my tears back anymore then, and just let him pat my head in an attempt to calm me down.

“He doesn’t worth your tears,” Junmyeon kept on petting my head. “He doesn’t even deserve you as his friend, at all,” Junmyeon muttered. With my face pressed onto his chest in order to stop my sobbing, I did not notice that Sehun was not too far behind us looking as confused as ever, nor how Junmyeon was giving his deadliest glare toward Kia’s only heir.

Home Prologue 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Taglist: @layzfeelit @valentinazeravla

A/N: Does the scene here seems familiar to you? They were at the airport... and Sehun's words... 👀

[imagineaworlds]

I Love You (Part Fifty-Nine) -- Aaron Hotchner

Written By: @desperately-bisexual

Request: None.

Warnings: SMUT!! Cursing. Unprotected sex. Wrap it before you tap it, ladies, gentlemen, and nonbinary sibs. Dom/sub relationship. Bondage (ropes and handcuffs). Spanking. Sex toys (dildo and vibrator). Edging. Impregnation kink. The reader does go by they/them pronouns, however, Hotch refers to them as female when saying “good girl”. Revenge pornography. Non-consented photographed pornography.

Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x Greenaway!Reader

Word Count: 4564

Timeline: Right after part fifty-eight.

Criminal Minds Discord Server

When Sean left, Hotch saw him out, leading him downstairs and hailing a cab on his behalf. I watched from the window all the way up on our floor as Hotch waved goodbye to his brother. And then I raced to the living room. I waited in front of the door, tapping my foot anxiously, watching the doorknob until I saw it twist.

Hotch stepped in, silently closing the door behind him before he even looked up to see me standing there. And then our eyes met. My shoulders fell when I saw how disappointed he looked, and how upset he seemed about the whole situation. I didn’t need anyone to lay the details out for me. Knowing what Sean did, and knowing Hotch, I knew that Sean was now on his way to go turn himself in for illegally selling the alcohol from his old job—including the spiked bottles. For Hotch, the thought along was probably torture. But the fact that he was the reason that his own sibling was going to prison… that was unbearable, I could tell.

“I’m so sorry, my love,” I whispered, carefully approaching him. He slid his palms onto my cheeks. “It’s going to be okay.” I leaned up on my tiptoes to kiss him. When he didn’t kiss back, I asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”

He shook his head. “Honestly… I just want to forget about it for now and continue where we left off before this whole mess came about. Can we do that?”

“Of course.”

Hotch leaned in this time, kissing me with a desperate and fiery passion compared to my light and gentle kiss prior, and I kissed back. It took a few minutes for us to slide into Dom and sub space. We were stumbling around the house, hands wandering around each other’s bodies, breathless kisses stringing one after the other, moans escaping us every so often as he got hard and I got wet. And then we made it to the bedroom.

I tried to jump up and into his arms, but he held me down, Dom space finally setting in. I watched him, trying to gauge if it was worth being a brat right now or not. I couldn’t tell. Honestly, when Hotch was stressed by outside pressures, he had a tendency to lose his cool and take it out on me—not that I ever minded—but since he has a tendency to Dom drop after intense scenes, I was worried that me acting up would make his temper worse, and while it would be fun for the next few hours, he was ultimately going to crash hard, and I didn’t want to do that to him now.

“Whatever you want,” I whispered to him. “I’m yours.” I looked over his shoulder to see the black box still sitting on the dresser from where we left off earlier. “Black box?” He nodded. “I love you.” I moved to kiss him, but he wrapped his hand around my neck and squeezed until I stopped moving. “Sir,” I quickly added. “I love you, Sir.”

He was still glaring at me slightly as he moved his hand from my neck up to my chin, holding me still so that I had to stare directly into his eyes as he pressed his thumb against my lips. I knew what he wanted. Since Halloween, he had discovered just how much he loved it when I would suck on his thumb because it wasn’t enough for me to know that I was getting him off, but it reminded him of what it felt like to have my mouth around his length. In a way, I supposed, it was some kind of punishment. It was like telling me that I wasn’t worth his cock, and I fucking loved it.

“Down,” he said gruffly, his thumb pushing on the soft patch of my mouth under my tongue. I moved with the pressure, slowly laying down on my back while he towered over me. “Suck.” I closed my lips around him and sucked on his thumb like he asked. “I think…” He hesitated as my tongue maneuvered under his thumb and licked. “I think I need to do more.”

I knew what he meant. We were rough, but there was always an extent with him. He never, ever wanted to hurt me, and I, of course, appreciated that. But I could see how stressed he was. I could tell that he needed to somehow get his anger out about Sean. If he needed to, he could do more with me. He could be different with me. If there was ever a point that I thought he was going too far, I’d stop him. He had to know that. I trusted him wholeheartedly, and I needed him to trust me.

I slowly slid my mouth off his thumb. “I’ll use Colors.”

“I won’t gag you, then.”

I nodded. “I’ll be fine.”

“I love you.”

“I love you,” I repeated lustfully.

He quickly grabbed the hem of my pants and panties together. With one smooth motion, he pulled them down and off my legs entirely, then threw them somewhere else in the room. I hissed at the feeling.

Hotch flipped me onto my stomach roughly, making sure to lean back in time so that I wouldn’t accidentally kick him. I gasped as he did so, trying to bite back any questions or retorts running through my head. After a moment of watching me get settled, Hotch slapped my ass. I yelped and tried to crawl away somewhat, but Hotch grabbed my thighs to hold me still. With his grip still on my left thigh, he raised his right hand again and smacked me. I yelped again.

“Shut up,” he demanded.

I whimpered before biting down on the sheet. When he knew that I was ready, he switched which hand was grabbing and which one was in the air. I tensed up, waiting for the next smack, but it didn’t come. I shifted around somewhat, trying to get a feel of where he was, and the second my guard was down, he slapped my ass again. And then he did again even harder. My teeth grabbed the sheet harder as I suppressed a moan.

“Good girl.”

Both of his hands were off of me now, hanging somewhere up in the air. I tensed again as I waited, but Hotch was playing a game. He was waiting for an appropriate amount of time to pass before I would subconsciously relax, and then he’d ruin it by spanking me again. Just as predicted, both of his hands came down on me when I let out a breath and released my hold on the sheets slightly.

“Fuck!” I cried out.

“Color,” he said after hesitating for a moment.

“Green, Sir.” Of course, it was green. I didn’t hate it. I didn’t want him to stop. If this was “more”, I wanted to know what absolutely losing control was, because this was hardly more. But maybe that was just the difference between me and Hotch.

“Good girl,” he cooed happily. After a moment, while I still expected him to spank me again, but I didn’t tense up to keep playing along with his game, he surprised me when two of his fingers dragged up my slit from my clit to my entrance.

“Sir,” I moaned, falling limp against the bed.

“I told you to be quiet, brat.” He spanked me with a little more force than before. I nearly moaned again, but I held it back by biting on the sheets again. “I don’t want to gag you, baby, but you’ve gotta be quiet for me.” I nodded. “Good girl.” He shifted off the bed and I heard him sifting through the black box. “Blue or purple?” he asked himself quietly. “Blue.”

I whimpered and cringed slightly, trying to pull my body together like that would somehow make me disappear. But it didn’t do anything. Hotch still noticed me, and he was still excited to toy with me. So, when I felt the mattress sink behind me as he crawled back onto the bed, I prepared for the worst.

Hotch grabbed my left ankle and bent it backwards up to my thigh carefully to make sure it wasn’t too painful for me. When I didn’t say anything, he kept going. I felt the sting of rope dig around my ankle and thigh as he expertly tied them together. He asked if that felt alright once I was secured and I couldn’t even wiggle my calf away from my thigh. After I told him it was fine, he moved to do the same thing with the other leg.

I didn’t even realize Hotch was capable of doing a Shibari leg tie— especially one like this. I hadn’t taught him how to do it, that was for sure. Yeah, there had been mentions of it over the course of a few different cases over the years, but that always seemed like Reid and Rossi’s thing. I never thought that Hotch would go out of his way to learn how to do it. This kind of bondage wasn’t at all “vanilla” compared to what he was used to. He liked simply tying me to the bed with knots or using handcuffs if he needed. But Shibari took skill and time. This one wasn’t the most complicated of ties, to be fair, but still. The positioning and the spiraling ropes and knots around my thighs and calves was impressive. That must have been the “more” he had been referencing.

“Color, baby,” he whispered while admiring his work. He leaned down to kiss my shoulder blade and I bit back a moan when I felt his clothed erection press against my core. When I told him that my color was still green, he smirked against my skin and grinded against me, probably leaving a wet spot on his pants. “You’re so wet, baby, and all I’ve done is spank you.” He sat up straight again, and in an instant, he started spanking both of my cheeks again and again as hard as he was willing to go with me. My thighs squirmed and my toes wiggled around, but that was the extent of how far I could move now. “Look at you,” he chuckled. “At my mercy.”

I turned to puddy under him in response. It didn’t matter how hard he was continuously hitting me, his words never failed to make me swoon and submit. Then, when he suddenly leaned down and licked a single strip up my slit, I floundered again. It felt so good, and I was desperate for more of that, but he had already pulled away because he knew that it felt too good.

“You taste so good, baby,” he complimented before lightly spanking me one more time. We both sighed when he stopped, but obviously for different reasons. As he rolled off the bed again, I slumped and tried to catch my breath. “I like watching you squirm. It’s my favorite part when I tie you up. But you know what’s even better— the real cherry on top, if you will.” It was a rhetorical question. “I like watching you fall apart when I don’t give you permission to cum. I like how it becomes almost painful for you to keep edging and holding your orgasms back.” He approached the bed once more. “Hands back.” I did as I was told, stretching my arms behind me, and pressing my wrists together. The freezing metal touch of handcuffs slapped against both of my wrists and he tightened both ends as much as possible. My face fell into the mattress when I felt the tip of a toy press against my clit. I knew that it wasn’t him. I could tell the difference between cold, soft rubber and his warm, hard cock. “It’s the blue one,” he explained.

I only had two different dildos. A purple and a blue one. Before, when Hotch was whispering to himself, I thought he was debating between rope colors, but I soon realized that he was planning ahead for the real torture to come. The purple one was slimmer, but it was more Hotch’s length. The blue one, his favorite, was only a few inches shorter, but it was much thicker. He liked watching it stretch me whenever he’d thrust it in and out of me at an unrelenting pace. He enjoyed watching how the first few seconds of insertion made me tense and cringe as I tried to accommodate the toy. He liked imaging that it was him doing that to me while still enjoying how it tortured me that it wasn’t really him.

“Do you want it?” he asked wickedly. I nodded. “Say it.”

“I want it, Sir. Please, Sir.”

Hotch slowly slid the dildo in, listening to me moan as I was stretched and filled by every inch. The rubber feel was an obvious difference in comparison to Hotch’s dick, but it still felt good regardless. “Don’t push it out,” he ordered once I had all of it inside me. I gulped and nodded. I squeezed my walls around the girth of it, making sure to hold it in place. “Good girl.” And then he pressed a working vibrator to my clit.

“Sir—” I gasped. My fingers stretched out, trying to reach for the toys I clearly wouldn’t be able to move away.

“I want you to beg for more.”

My eyes shot wide as I glanced up at the headboard. “Sir?”

“I won’t gag you; so, I want to hear you beg for what you want, knowing that I won’t give it to you. Maybe then I’ll think about letting you cum.”

“Please—” I immediately stopped when I felt him turn up the speed on the vibrator and hold it steady so that it was pressed directly on my clit. “Please, Sir. Please. Please. Please—”

“You’re going to have to do better than that, slut,” he hissed as he spanked me with his free hand. I tried to hide my face in the mattress again, but Hotch fisted his hand around my hair and pulled me to look up at the headboard. “I told you to beg.”

I took a moment to collect my thoughts while my eyes were screwed shut in response to my hair being pulled and held. “Sir… Please fuck me with the toy. Please make me cum—” My breath sputtered as Hotch released my hair, and grabbed the end of the dildo, then slowly and barely fucked it in and out of me. I fell forwards against the bed. “Just like that, Sir— Fuck! Yes— Please, Sir. Don’t stop. Please make me cum. Please let me cum.”

“So needy,” he hummed happily.

“I’m gonna—”

“No.” He caught me before I could even say it. He stole the vibrator away from me, ensuring that my peak could subside before it could even really build in the first place. I whined and squirmed. “Hold fucking still, whore.” He spanked me again, and I obeyed. He started moving the dildo again, making sure that its pace and strength wasn’t hard enough to wind me up again. “Color.”

“Green, Sir.”

“My good girl…” He slapped my thigh. “Do you want it again?” he asked when the buzzing of the vibrator echoed in the room again.

“Yes, Sir.”

He pressed it to my clit, making me squirm around the dildo. “Hold still or I’ll take it all away.” I whimpered. “I’ll just leave you like this while I cum in you and plug you full.” I whimpered again. “And then I’ll use you whenever I want.” I moaned. “You want me to use you like that, whore?” I moaned. “Speak.”

“Yes, Sir.”

He chuckled to himself. “You’re so predictable.” He lifted the vibrator away from me again. “I can see you tensing around the toy every time you get close. You’ve gotta work on hiding it better.”

“Sir, please, I’ll do anything. Just let me cum. Please.”

“No.”

“Please.”

“No.” He pressed it to me again, holding it there until I was at the very edge again, at which point, he took it away again. “How many is that now?” I was too frustrated to answer. “That wasn’t rhetorical, slut.” He spanked me again.

After I jolted and whimpered, I said, “Three, Sir.”

“Aw… Just three? You’ve done more before and you’ve never complained this much.”

“Well, you did leave me hanging earlier after a hard edge—”

He grabbed my hair again. “And I told you I would make it up to you. Am I not doing that now?” Now I was too scared to say anything. “If you’re not careful, I’ll just ruin you, then fuck your mouth so you don’t get anything out of it, then I will plug you full and leave you here. Got it? That isn’t rhetorical, either.”

“Yes, Sir,” I answered as quickly as possible. “I understand, Sir.”

He let go of my hair so that he could start fucking the dildo in and out of me again while pressing the vibrator back against my clit. I let out a defeated moan. I wasn’t going to escape this. Hotch was going to keep torturing me, and I the only choice I had was to accept it.

Another few edges passed, and every time they did, it got harder and harder to hold them back. Hotch wasn’t showing any remorse. But I could feel him getting antsy behind me, with how he was groaning and obviously palming himself while watching me squirm, cry, and scream. He was enjoying watching me suffer. After a bit longer, though, he couldn’t hold himself back any longer, just like on Halloween, and he had to have me.

Hotch pulled the dildo out of me and dropped it on the mattress, ignoring the way I whimpered when my walls clenched around nothing. He waited for another edge to approach before pulling the vibrator away. I whined.

“You never shut up,” he hissed, lining himself up with my entrance.

“Fuck, Sir…”

“Shhh… Just take… all of me…” He roughly thrust into me, holding me still my grabbing onto my hips.

“Fuck!”

“You’re so wet, shit—” It was like he couldn’t process any coherent thoughts either, because he stopped talking and just focused on fucking me as fast and hard as he could. “I love you.”

I wiggled my fingers behind my back for a second before I felt him hold my hands with one of his large palms. “Sir… Sir, please—”

He chuckled wickedly, knowing exactly why I was pleading, and he gave me what he wanted. Still fucking me from behind, he somehow managed to get the vibrator right against my clit, immediately tipping me over the edge. He hissed again when I tightened around his cock.

“I’m gonna cum, baby,” he growled into my ear. I moaned lightly. “Fuck—” He tightened his grip on my hips as his thrusts sped up and got harder. “Fuck, princess.” Holy shit. I melted at the name that wasn’t at all common for us, and I felt another orgasm already crashing through me without warning because of it. He snapped his hips forward, staying there as he came inside me, making sure that I took every single drop from him. I moaned into the sheets. “Fuck…” He was breathless now. After a second, he slowly slid in and out of me again, making us both whimper because we were so sensitive. “You did so well for me.” He ran his thumbs over the sore spots on my ass. “So well…” He finally slid out of me. “Are you okay?” I nodded. “Words.”

“Yes, Sir. I’m okay.” I collapsed onto the bed again, unable to keep myself up any longer.

Hotch chuckled. “I told you I’d break you.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

He found the end of the Shibari tie on my left leg and carefully started undoing it, holding my ankle to make sure that the second I had wiggle room I wouldn’t try to stretch and end up hurting myself. I let him kiss his way up from my ankle to my hip bone once the rope was gone from my skin, giving him a chance to slowly and safely stretch out. When my leg was completely extended and relaxed, he moved to the other one. I waited as he did the same thing.

When he was done, I rolled over to watch as he cleaned everything up. He wiped the toys down, putting them back in the black box, along with the ropes and handcuffs. After that, he disappeared to the bathroom. I smiled when he returned with a towel to clean me up since I was too weak right now to go do it myself. I moaned when he passed the towel between my thighs—but it wasn’t a sexual moan. I was just relaxing.

“You still okay?” he asked, tossing the towel to the side and climbing onto the bed with me. I nodded.

“Are you gonna drop?” I asked him worriedly while turning over to hug him. He hugged me back and hummed a “no” while kissing the top of my head. “You sure?”

“Yes. I’m sure.”

“You’re not lying?”

Hotch chuckled. “I’m not lying. Are you dropping?”

I shrugged. I wasn’t quite sure yet. It didn’t feel like dropping, but I didn’t feel entirely right either. I was probably just exhausted. I needed some food and some sleep. “I don’t think so. Maybe? I don’t know.”

“Let’s get ahead of it before it happens, then.”

Even though it always helped to be in his arms and to just feel his love, Hotch escaped my hold for a short moment to race to the closet to grab something. I watched the doorway suspiciously. When he came back out, he was wearing grey sweatpants, and he was holding a pair of his checkered blue pajama pants and an old college t-shirt. I smiled while sitting up in bed.

“I found this hiding somewhere the other day,” he told me, handing the clothes over. “I figured you’re probably getting bored of all the other clothes you’ve stolen from me—”

“I didn’t steal them. I’m just borrowing them long term. You can take them back any time you want.”

He shook his head while crashing back onto the bed with me. “Nah. I like that they’re yours now. You know how much I love watching you walk around wearing my stuff.”

“Yeah, because you can’t wait to tear it off of me again.” I pulled the shirt over my head and immediately felt safe and comfortable once it was settled around my body. I smiled and hugged my body.

“Or because I see that look on your face and I fall in love you all over again.”

I looked at him. “What face?”

“The one where you try to suppress a smile, so you close your eyes while deep in thought, and your nose scrunches, and your lips curl up, and then you look so… at peace…”

I rolled over to lay my torso on his, propping my head up on his left peck while staring at him. He brushed his fingers through my hair. “You have a look, too.”

“What is it?”

“You’re wearing it right now.”

He tried to change his expressions, but it didn’t matter because it didn’t do anything. The “look” was when he would fall in love with me again, just as he said he always did. His wrinkles would fade somewhat—but not my favorite smile line on his cheek—and his eyes would soften to the point that they had cartoonish heart reflections in the corners, his eyebrows would pout, and a toothy grin would slowly grow on his face. Every time. I had noticed it every day since we first met. Even when we were just acquaintances at work and he would continuously pass my desk just to see me, I could see that look on his face. Back then, I didn’t know what it meant. When I joined the team, the look faded away altogether because he was trying to hide how he felt about me, but ever since that day when we saved Elle on that train down in Texas, I had noticed that look was back, and I knew exactly what it meant. He loved me. He truly, infinitely, wholeheartedly, no doubt about it… loved me.

“You’re a sap, Agent Hotchner,” he whispered to me.

“I could say the same about you, Agent Hotchner.”

His fingers withdrew from my hair so that he could grab my hand and intertwine his grasp with mine. We smiled at each other. “I love you…” He kissed my knuckles. “Thank you for… Well, for tonight.”

I tugged his hand back to me, kissing his knuckles this time. “You are so very welcome, my love.”

Just as Hotch’s phone started ringing, we both groaned, and he rolled somewhat to answer. “Garcia, please tell me we don’t have another case.”

“No, sir, it’s not that. You remember how you and Section Chief Strauss asked me to keep an eye on that thing that no one else was supposed to know about and I’ve done a really good job so far of not telling anyone, even though more and more stuff keeps happening, and it’s getting really hard to not tell Morgan—”

“Garcia, breathe.”

She sucked in a shaky breath. “Okay.”

“What happened?”

“The thing you told me to look into… The Replicator…”

“Who’s The Replicator?” I asked.

Garcia stumbled. “I—Sir, I didn’t know I was on speaker.”

Hotch looked at me. “He’s an Unsub we’ve been tracking. I’ll tell you about it later. Garcia, what happened with him?”

“He, uh, he hacked my system. He… He went to my house, and he… He got everything.”

“How do you know that it was him?”

“He, um…” Garcia hesitated, choking back a sob. “He sent these pictures of you guys… You guys, um… in bed... and he had pictures of Scarlet, Jessica, and Jack when Morgan was with them at the park the other day.”

My heart sank. I didn’t even care about the first part. He had pictures of our babies. He had been watching them like he was watching us. “Aaron—”

“Garcia, send a team to our house, have them brought back to the office again. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir. Right away.” She hung up as quickly as she could so that she could reach out to Jessica and Will—just to make sure that he and Henry would be safe, too.

I felt my breath hitch and stay like that, as if I couldn’t breathe at all. My babies. That monster had pictures of my little man and my lil’ bug… No… Anyone but them. They didn’t need to get dragged into our messes like Foyet had dragged Jack into it. But then there were the pictures of us. Garcia said that we were in bed in the photos—I looked out the large window of the bedroom to see all the other windows on the building just across the street from ours. He could have been anywhere.

-----

criminal minds family: @peggy1999 @gorgeousdarkangel @alex--awesome--22 @oceaneblu @brithedemonspawn @absolutemarveltrash @bshelley322 @rousethemouse @sunshinepower17 @weexinling @pettttyyyc​ @Braty-angel @Braxdix

[thetravelerwrites]

Dr. Mael Halvorg (Part 2)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Relationship: Male Part Fae/Female Part Fae Additional Tags: Exophilia, Monster Boyfriend, Fae, Naga, Reader Insert, Anthropology, Genetics Content Warnings: Children, Pregnancy, Incubation, Infertility, Birth, Oviposition, Egg-Laying Words:

Commissioned by @ivymemnoch​! The reader and Dr. Halvorg discuss his lingering infertility problem. Amai lays her final clutch of eggs. Please reblog and leave feedback!

The Traveler's Masterlist

“Good morning, class!” You said on the first day.

“Good morning!” Fourteen bright voices responded.

All of the children except for baby Yenu were sitting on their tails behind desks in a room that had been set up as a classroom by the staff.

“So, every day each week we’re going to work on a different subject,” You began. “Mondays are reading and language comprehension, Tuesdays are maths and sciences, Wednesdays are social studies and economics, Thursdays are geography and history, Fridays are fun days with arts, crafting, music, and educational games. Today is Monday, so we’re going to start with reading. You should each have a workbook appropriate to your developmental level in your desks, so please take out your reading workbooks.”

As the children shuffled and searched for the right book, Dr. Halvorg stepped inside the classroom with a clipboard. You raised an eyebrow.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?”

“I’m observing the children in a school setting to see how they adapt,” He replied.

You narrowed your eyes at him. “And I’m also assuming how I teach, correct?”

He dipped his head sheepishly. “I was curious. And it’s for my research.”

You raised an eyebrow at him. “Mm.” You turned back to your students and fell into your teacher’s voice. “Keenai, if you would begin reading the first sentence, please?”

Keenai picked up his workbook and started reading. “The small dog lives in a red house.”

“Can you tell me which of these words are verbs?”

“Um…” He looked at the sentence, frowning.

“To remind you, a verb is an action word, something someone does.”

“Uh… lived?” He replied slowly.

“Very good.” You said, and he smiled in relief. “Tani, you’re next. Read the next sentence in your book.”

“The red house was built on a wed… wedeness…”

“Wednesday,” You said. “That’s a hard word, I know. Can you tell me what the noun is in that sentence?”

“House?”

“Good! A noun is a person, a place, or a thing. I’m a noun, you’re a noun, the room we’re in is a noun.”

“Is Nenish a noun?” Jinsa asked.

“Yes.”

“Ha ha, you’re a noun!” Jinsa said, pointing at Nenish.

“So are you!” Nenish interjected.

“Hey, hey! Settle down, please!” You called over them, sitting on the edge of your desk. “Fuma, you next.”

Fuma read from his book, and then Amaia. Next, you went down the line of the four-year-olds, having them read a sentence and find colors, shapes, numbers, or sounds in the sentences. The three-year-olds were next, and they simply read small sentences. You then had the one-year-olds spell and say three-letter words.

Their quick development was normal for nagas, as they tended to age quickly until they hit puberty, when their aging progress slowed to accommodate for yearly hibernation, but it was also startling in conjunction with the developmental levels of similar creatures. You had never studied the advancements of a species’ young so closely before, and you had to admit, it was fascinating. You could see why Dr. Halvorg found it so interesting.

You set the children writing tasks appropriate to their learning level and took a moment to talk to Dr. Halvorg, who was scribbling quickly in a notebook.

“They have computers now that you can write on, you know,” You told him, amused.

He looked up over his glasses at you and quirked an eyebrow. “I am aware of that, thank you. I’m not quite so old-fashioned as I seem, regardless of what Amai might tell you.” He looked back down and continued scribbling. “I’m a chronic note-taker. A bad habit I can’t seem to break, though with my profession, it’s often a strength rather than a weakness.”

“Hmm,” You hummed. “And what do your notes say about my teaching?”

“Adequate,” He replied, still scribbling. “Don’t misunderstand, that’s not a criticism. I hold everyone to an extremely high standard. If you hadn’t met expectations, I would have dismissed you.”

“So I meet your expectations?” You asked sardonically.

“At the moment,” He said, snapping his book closed and standing up. “I still want to observe your other classes before I’m completely satisfied.”

“Hmm,” You said again.

True to his word, Halvorg attended every class that week, observing you interacting with the children. Other than a question or two about your future curriculum, he stayed quiet. At the end of the week, he asked that you submit a weekly progress report until you either found a replacement or were dismissed.

It seemed excessive to you, and you were beginning to wonder if he still saw the children as an experiment. He seemed to care about them, but how much of that was genuine and how much of it was his own self-interest? You were starting to feel leery of and disconcerted by him.

Perhaps he picked up on this, because he seemed to go out of his way to avoid you. He had you direct all of your questions and reports to his assistant and rarely picked up his phone. Any conversations were brief and succinct. He did send you notes on your curriculum, making suggestions for each child. If you weren’t already suspicious of his motives, you might almost have though it sweet.

“I think Halvorg is avoiding me,” You told Amai when the two of you went to lunch together. Now that the two of you could hang out after all the years, you made it a point to set time aside for each other and had lunch at least once a week.

“What makes you say that?�� Amai asked, drizzling dressing over her starter salad.

“Ever since he watched me teach classes, he’s barely spoken to me. He seemed excited to exchange research notes when I first arrived, but now he seems to have no interest in speaking to me since he finished observing class.”

“He could just be busy,” Amai suggested. “The four year old’s birthdays are coming up. He always does something special for the kids on their birthdays.”

“Are you concerned that he only sees your children as test subjects?” You asked her. “He seems obsessed with them.”

Amai laughed. “I thought that way in the early days, but he genuinely loves kids. If anything ever happened to me or Yenuno, I’m confident Halvorg would take care of them.” She took a sip of her mineral water. “Are you coming to the kids party? You’re invited, obviously.”

“Will there be clowns? I hate clowns.”

She snorted. “Nothing so gauche. I think Halvorg set up a treasure hunt. The kids always love whatever he plans. Honestly, I know I complain about him, but he does make it easy for me sometimes. I haven’t had to plan any major events since the kids hatched.”

“Hmm… I don’t know. It’s strange to me how involved he is.”

Amai sat back in her seat and eyed you shrewdly. “Did he ever tell you about his son?”

You looked up in surprise. “Son? I thought you said he had no children.”

“He doesn’t… technically.” Amai set her fork down. “You didn’t hear this from me so don’t repeat it, but he had a wife nearly a hundred years ago who cheated on him. He raised a boy, thinking he was his son, but the child was actually fathered by the other man. His wife left him and took the boy with her and he never saw him again. I don’t think he ever got over that.”

“Oh, god,” You replied, horrified. “I can’t imagine what that’s like.”

“He’s spend the last several decades saving dying races from the brink of extinction. In a way, he thinks of those children he helped bring into the world as his children, too. And every time he has to let them go, it’s like losing his son all over again. I think the fact that he gets to help raise our babies is something of a gift for him. Trust me, it’s not something he takes for granted.”

“I guess I hadn’t thought of it like that,” You said in dismay.

“Halvorg is stuffy, strict, and a stickler for protocols, so he can be difficult to read, but I assure you, he loves my children as if they were his own. It may have started as research, but he has a family now and I think that’s what he wanted all along. Try not to judge him to harshly.”

You conceded with a nod. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

The following Saturday, you attended the kids birthday party as requested. The kids were excited and zooming around the receiving area, shrieking and laughing, all of them wearing party hats and nothing else. Amaia was piggy-backing on Dr. Halvorg, her tail wrapped around his waist for stability and her arms hugged around his neck. Dr. Halvorg walked around completely normally, as if this was a typical action and he was used to it. He watched the children playing with a wide, fond grin on his face.

You walked over to Amai and Yenuno, who were watching from the refreshments table with Yenu, feeding her crackers.

“Nothing like a little bit of chaos in the morning,” You said.

They laughed.

“You’ve never seen them after a group kill,” Yenuno said. “They’re uncontrollable after they’ve taken down an elk together. It’s pretty incredible to watch for me, personally. Nagas in the wild typically don’t work together and they especially don’t hunt together, not even siblings.”

“They are very close and friendly, for nagas,” You remarked. “Markedly different to most snake-related species I’ve met.”

“It’s Amai’s blood and influence that’s doing it, I’m sure,” Yenuno said, kissing his wife’s cheek. “She’s the most friendly and cheerful person I’ve ever met.”

“To be fair, sweetie, you haven’t met all that many people,” Amai said, laughing.

“That is fair,” Yenuno conceded. “My point stands, though.”

“Alright children, gather ‘round!” Halvorg called, and they flocked to him, swirling around him like a whirlpool. “Now, you guys are going to split up into teams to help Nenish, Tahara, and Sadji find their gifts. Nenish will have Tani, Jinsa, and Keenai on his team. Tahara will have Amaia, Osan, Ishni, and Dashu on his team. And Khuzho, Chidil, Fuma, and Itheti will be on Sadji’s team.” He handed a small leaflet to each team. “Follow the clues to find the treasures! Go!”

The kids scattered, giggling madly.

“Come get something to drink and rest for a minute, Halvorg!” Yenuno called. “I think you’ve earned it.”

Halvorg grinned boyishly, an expression that brightened his face and made him look… well… rather handsome. He jogged over to the table and had a ginger ale. Elves have hypermobile ears, and his ears were high and wiggling slightly, a normal indication in elvish peoples of happiness and excitement.

“I think they’ll really enjoy their gifts this year,” Halvorg said, taking sips of his soda. “And the treasure hunt is half the fun. It’s challenging, but not too difficult. If they work together, it should be no trouble at all.”

“You didn’t get them history books like last year, did you?” Amai asked with her eyes narrowed. “You might as well have burned the money you spent on those for all the use they got out of them.”

“No, I learned my lesson,” He said defensively. “I bought toys.”

“Educational toys?” Amaia asked shrewdly.

He stopped mid-sip and looked at Amaia with an eyebrow raised. “…maybe,” He said into his cup.

Amaia rolled her eyes. “At least Yenuno and I ordered some stuff the kids will like.”

“You don’t know that they won’t like them,” I said. “I loved educational toys.”

“Yeah, but you’re a nerd,” Amaia said, poking you playfully.

“So what? Your kids could be nerds, too. I’m pretty sure Osan is going to be a Star Wars fan. He’s been talking my ear off about the Mandalorian.”

“It’s so strange,” Amaia said, ignoring your response and looking off in the distance. “I thought that because the kids were hatched in clutches, they would be like twins or triples or the like and have similar interests and personalities, but they’re all so different. Different likes, different traits, different styles. It’s amazing.”

“It amazes me, too,” Yenuno said, staring into his drink with a wistful expression. “My siblings and I separated when we were young, so I don’t know what they were like or if we had similar interests. Honestly, until recently, I never gave them a thought. Watching my children work together… it makes me wonder what my own siblings were like, and if they’d still be alive today if we had helped each other.”

There was a contemplative silence for a few minutes, broken by excited voices reentering the receiving area.

“We found it!” Tahara said, holding up a wrapped gift. The other four were carrying smaller treat bags that had their names written on them. “Uncle Maël, look!”

“Excellent! Well done!” Halvorg said, bending to give Tahara a hug. “Now, let’s wait until your brothers return with their gifts before we open them, okay? How about you five play tag until then?”

“Okay!” Tahara said.

“I’ll play with you,” Yenuno said. “I’m starting to get fat, preparing for the incubation period.” He patted Amai’s belly, which carried his three eggs, likely to be the last clutch they’d have together.

“How soon?” You asked Amai as Yenuno took off to chase with his children.

“Any day,” Amai said with a weary sigh. “And I’m ready for it. These little guys are heavy.”

“Boys or girls?”

“We won’t know until they hatch. It’s too hard to get a clear picture with the ultrasound, and besides, even if it could, both the male and female genitalia are internal, so it’s nearly impossible to tell.” She took a sip of ginger ale. “We’re really hoping for at least one girl. Don’t get me wrong, we love the boys more than anything, but we’d like Amaia and Yenu to have some sisters.”

“I’d like to be present for the laying, if that’s okay,” You said.

“For your research?” She asked.

Your head rocked back. “No, because you’re my friend and I want to be there for you.”

Amai smiled fondly. “Oh. Of course, thank you.”

Dr. Halvorg had not added anything to the conversation with you and Amai, and instead went to the table and made a plate of snacks. You gave Amai a look and a cocked eyebrow, and she nodded understanding, slipping away from her spot to watch her husband and children play.

“Dr. Halvorg?”

He flinched and looked up, glancing around furtively and noticing that the two of you were alone. “Yes?”

“Why are you avoiding me?”

He opened his mouth and closed it again before responding, “I’m doing no such thing.”

“I’ve requested at least three meetings with you this past month, and you’re always too busy,” You said dryly.

“Well, I am,” He said, turning. “If you’ll excuse me…”

“Are you avoiding me because I asked you out?” You asked bluntly.

He missed a step in his stride and stopped.

“I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I should have realized from your professional demeanor that you wouldn’t be open to interoffice dating. I apologize.”

Halvorg sighed and turned to face you. “It’s not that. Not exactly, I mean.” He set his plate on the table and looked you full in the face for the first time in weeks. “I haven’t given a thought to dating in…” He rubbed his forehead. “Gods… decades. The question took me off guard, of course, and I actually had to sit down and give it some thought. I’ve been wrapped up in my work, of course, but I think I was just distracting myself.”

“From what?”

He sat on the edge of the table and crossed his arms. “It’s hard to talk about. I don’t even really talk about it with Yenuno, and I would consider him my closest friend.” He sighed heavily and avoided your eye. “I’ve ignored my personal life in favor of spending my career and fortune in this century helping races achieve something I want for myself.”

“Children?” You guessed.

He nodded a little morosely. “Not just that, but that is a significant part of it. I’ve been following the reproduction rates of Celtic fae since the fae were originally integrated and it’s decreasing year by year. I live in constant fear that my own race will be extinct in my lifetime.” He quirked his head at you. “Your race still seems to be fairly prolific, is that correct?”

“Oh yeah, I have a bunch of brothers and a truckload of cousins. No problems there.”

He sighed. “I don’t know what the problem with my race is. I’ve studied genetic traits, magical impediments, marriage and divorce rates, and ratio of coupling to conceptions.The numbers are terrible and I don’t know why. That’s what drives me crazy. I hate not having an answer.”

“Have there been miscarriages?”

“No, that’s the crazy thing, the rate of conception is extraordinarily low. I think there have only been three live births of Celtic fae blood in the last year.”

“Oh, jeez,” You said, sitting against the table next to him. “I didn’t realize the problem was that severe. Have you considered whether it might be a physical problem?”

“How do you mean?”

“Have you ever done a sperm count? Or had an MRI of the area to see if there’s a blockage? That kind of thing can be genetic and men tend to be shy about stuff like that.”

He tilted his head and frowned. “No, I haven’t. It actually hadn’t occurred to me. Honestly, I’ve been so focused on my work to distract myself, it may have worked too well and I ignored such things.” He looked at you and smiled. “You’ve given me something to think about.”

You smiled back. “Good. I wonder if the females of the race have a similar issue. It may have been something bred into the people over time, over centuries.”

“That’s possible,” He said. “There’s certainly a precedent; some creatures have been bred to extinction. Remember the pug?”

“That tiny dog breed with the squashed face?” You said. “Yeah, they died out a while ago, didn’t they?”

He nodded. “That was human interference, though. Yenuno’s people were dying out due to antisocialism; too reclusive to even propagate their own species. Yenuno was the only one of his kind to take up this project, and even he was reluctant.”

“He seems happy now,” You remarked.

“Yeah,” Halvorg said softly, watching Yenuno laughing and chasing his kids with a sad kind of jealousy. “He does.”

You watched his face, the deep, deep sadness creasing his face and making him look older than he was.

“Follow up, Halvorg, see a specialist. This may have a fix that didn’t exist the last time you tried.”

He nodded, smiling at you, though it didn’t reach his eyes. “I will.”

As you stood up, you bumped his shoulder lightly. “Thank you for talking to me. I appreciate that you trusted me enough to discuss such a sensitive subject. I get the feeling that you don’t share yourself with many people.”

He laughed. “No, not really.” He looked up with a smile that seemed more sincere. “Thank you for listening.”

Amai went into labor three days later. She was taken to the laying room, where both Yenuno and Dr. Halvorg were present in addition to the interspecies OBGYN. You were suited up in scrubs and the paper gowns that surgeons wear, as was everyone else in the room besides Amai, who was completely naked, and Yenuno, who never wore clothing. There were natal heart monitors on her belly and an EKG hooked up to her chest.

Amai was sitting on a specially designed chair that would allow her to pass the eggs through her birth canal and into the waiting arms of the doctor. She was already sweating and panting by the time you arrived. The OBGYN and Dr. Halvorg were having a quiet conversation. You went to the other side of Amai and took her hand, trying not to wince when she nearly crushed your fingers.

“Is she okay?” You asked in alarm.

“She’s not fully dilated yet,” Halvorg said, pulling his braid into a surgical cap. “The eggs are getting impatient, it seems.”

“Yeah, well, so am I, so they can settle the fuck down!” Amai shrieked at him.

He bore the abuse with no reaction other than a wry smile. Yenuno wisely said nothing and simply wiped Amai’s forehead with a cloth.

“It won’t be long,” the OBGYN said. “She’s almost there.”

“Just saw me open and get them out,” Amai moaned. “It would hurt less.”

Yenuno tried to kiss her cheek, but she swatted him away weakly.

“No,” She said peevishly. “No touching ever again.”

“You said that last time,” He said, smiling fondly.

“Yeah, but I mean it this time,” She said sulkily.

“Of course you do, darling.” He patted her head. She scrunched her face up at him in annoyance. She was always adorable when she was miffed.

“I’ll make you into shoes,” She said sourly. “And a matching purse.”

It took a while for Amai to dilate fully, and by then she was very tired. Yenuno was looking worried; she’d laid several eggs over the years and never struggled this much before. Perhaps this being their last clutch was a good idea.

“Okay, I think we can start pushing now,” The doctor said, getting ready to catch the eggs. “Amai, when you feel the next contract, hold your breath, bear down, and push.”

“Okay,” She breathed. “One’s coming.”

We all braced for the push. Amai took several quick deep breaths and held it, her face pulled tight in pain and effort, doubling over in the chair as she did. You and Yenuno held her hands and patted her back and murmured encouragement. Halvorg was waiting with a soft cloth to take the eggs for cleaning, after which they would be laid in a specialized incubating carrier to be taken to Yenuno’s cottage.

The first egg came slowly and with much screaming. The doctor caught it and handed it off to Halvorg. The shell of the egg was soft and needed extremely delicate care, but Halvorg was well practiced by now and got the egg washed and into the carrier under ninety seconds and returned for the next.

The second egg came more quickly, but Amai screamed the whole time. By the time the third and final egg was laid, her voice was raw and she was too exhausted to scream.

But it was over. She fell back into the recline of the chair as if boneless and breathed in shallowly, her eyes barely open.

“You were amazing, darling,” Yenuno said gently, kissing Amai’s face. “Rest. I’m taking the eggs to the cottage. The children will visit you when you’ve slept.”

She turned her head slowly to look at him and touched her fingertips to his face, tracing down his cheek, chin, neck and chest before letting her hand fall back to her side, and her eyes closed. Nurses came to whisk her away to a recovery room, the OBGYN following behind. Yenuno and Halvorg left to take the eggs to the cottage for the incubation, and you were left alone in the laying room.

As you were shedding the paper gown and surgical cap, you noticed a small book lying on the ground. It looked to be one of Halvorg’s research journals, though it was smaller than his usual ones. He must have dropped it out of his back pocket when he was disrobing. You picked it up and took it with you with the intent on returning it to him in the morning.

And of course, you’d completely forgotten by the time you woke up.

Amai recovered enough in a few days to be up and walking around. She and the children took turns keeping Yenuno company, as he grew morose if he was left alone too long. You had declared half days until the new babies hatched so that they could have more time with their dad.

One afternoon, after the children had left class for the day, Dr. Halvorg came in and sat on the edge of your desk.

“Hello,” You said pleasantly, closing the folder with their latest work for grading. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”

“I wanted to let you know I took you up on your advice,” He said, looking a little bashful. “I went and saw a specialist. They’re going to be doing some tests soon. Sperm count, blood tests, an MRI. Any test that can be done will be done.”

“Good!” You said, swinging your chair around. “I’m glad. Maybe you’ll finally get an answer.”

He sighed, looking pensive and anxious. “I’m trying not to get my hopes up, but I still wanted to thank you for pushing me to do it.”

“I didn’t push you to do it, Maël,” You said. His eyes narrowed at your use of his first name, but he didn’t say anything. “I just brought the subject up. It was your decision to do it.”

“Well, thank you all the same,” He replied. “I admit, I’m nervous about it. I could either get wonderful news or have my worst fears confirmed. I don’t know how I’ll react to either option.”

“Would you like me to come with you?” You asked him.

He looked at you in surprise. “You… you don’t have to do that.”

“I know I don’t,” You replied. “But this is the kind of thing you need friends for. And since Yenuno is tied up with the eggs, I could be a good substitute. You don’t even have to think of me as a friend, if you don’t want to, just an emotional support associate.”

He was quiet for a moment. “I think of you as a friend.”

“Well, thank you. I was hoping we’d get there eventually. So? What do you think? Want some support for this?”

“Not for the tests, I can do those by myself perfectly well,” He said, adjusting his tie nervously. “But… for the results… perhaps… a friend would be nice.”

“I’ll be there for you, then,” You said, standing and patting his arm. “Does Yenuno know about this? Have you talked to him about it?”

“No,” He replied. “I didn’t want to tell him while he’s dealing with his own new babies. Besides, if the news is not good, I don’t want people feeling sorry for me. If the news comes back positive… I don’t know… I think this is one thing I’d rather keep to myself.”

“Except for me, you mean,” You said.

He nodded concedingly. “Besides you.”

“Let me know when the results come back and I’ll go with you. We’ll make a day of it, go to a spa, get a bikini wax together, eat some overpriced salads, buy something ridiculous we want but don’t need. It’ll be a blast.”

He actually laughed a little. “Sounds like a plan.”

Since my work is no longer searchable, please do me a favor and reblog this story if you enjoyed it. Help me reach a wider audience! To help me continue creating, please consider buying me a Kofi, becoming a Patron, or donating directly to my PayPal!

Thanks for reading!

My Masterlist

The Exophilia Creator’s Masterlist

[xxwritemeastoryxx]

Let It In

Gif for the celebration, my thought process is maybe instead of Niklaus being in Elijah arms it’s the reader. Maybe she switched her humanity off so Lijahs forcing her to turn it back on. I hope that all makes sense

Author: xxwritemeastoryxx

Pairings: Elijah Mikaelson x Reader

Word Count: 1.3K

Warnings: Mentions of character death. 

Author’s Note: Here’s some angst for you. I’m still working on my 1500 gif drabbles. But even then it seems I can’t really keep anything under 1k XD This was submitted by the lovely @xxqueenofgamesxx​

Feedback gives me life and motivation for future things. ♥

“Stop trying to save me!” You yelled out as you turned to face Elijah. “I’m not some broken toy you can just glue together with your words.”

For the last year, Elijah had been trying so desperately to get you to turn your humanity back on. Any time he’d come even a fraction close to getting you to flip the switch back, you’d take off not wanting to deal with it. A trail of bodies left in your wake as you left.

This time he had you cornered, no doubt with the help of his sister. The barrier spell surrounding both of you in this small space was one of her specialties. And at that moment, you hated Freya even more than you had since you flipped your switch.

“I have never thought of you as some toy, Y/N.” Elijah said keeping his voice calm as he took a step towards you. “You are my wife and I made a vow to not only love you but help you and keep you safe. That includes getting you your humanity back.”

A dark chuckle passed your lips as you shook your head. “I have been safe. No danger has come to me in years. If I remember correctly, I asked you to join me on this side of things, but you turned me down.”

You hadn’t missed the fact that he had been closing you in even more. You hated that he was and that you couldn’t get away from him. Elijah knew why you had asked him to switch off his humanity. He was the only one that could get you to flip it back. Especially since he was the only one who shared the pain you shut out.

“You had your reasons for shutting it off, Y/N.” He said shaking his head. “It was a hard time for both of us. But you were the one that was hurt by it the most and I didn’t do anything to help you or to stop you from making that decision and I regret it.”

You huffed. “I’d say since then, I’ve been doing just fine. Better even.” You said as a smirk pulled at your lips.

“We both know that isn’t true.” He said as he took one final step towards you, having you stuck in the corner of the room with the wall against your back. The space between you minimal as you looked up at him. “Once you let your humanity back in, Arick’s death would consume you-”

“Shut up, Elijah.” You said cutting him off as you narrowed your eyes at him. “Neither of us has spoken his name since that night and I’d prefer it that way. Might as well let that memory go with all the hurt, right?”

At your words, it was Elijah’s turn to narrow his eyes at you. “Arick was our son, Y/N. You cannot just erase him. Yes, his death was tragic and I have done everything in my power to ensure those that killed him were killed by my own hands. But you will not be the one to make it seem like he does not exist.”

Elijah had tried to keep his voice calm as he spoke to you. But he couldn’t stop the anger that came out of his words towards the end. You hadn’t missed it either. And that part of you that was hanging on to that off switch couldn’t help itself.

You kept yourself calm as you leaned up and brought your lips right next to his year. A devilish smirk pulled at your lips. “It’s your fault he’s dead in the first place. If only you cared less for your brother, our son would still be alive.”

The moment Elijah pushed you back, you couldn’t help but chuckle. You saw the hurt in his eyes and it didn’t bother you one bit. His eyes searched yours the moment the chuckle subsided. All he could see within them was emptiness. The flicker of hurt he saw moments before at the mention of your son was gone. But that didn’t stop him from trying again.

“What would he say if he saw you as you are now?” He asked.

Between the three of you, you always assured each other that facing the pain was a lot better than flipping the humanity switch. Especially for immortals such as yourselves. Unfortunately, Arick wasn’t an original vampire.

While born before both of you had transitioned, it wasn’t until Arick was older that you turned him. His first several years of life had been hard for both you and Elijah when it came to your bloodlust with turning. But you somehow managed to control yourselves a lot better than his siblings had.

Arick hoped that he nor his parents would become bloodthirsty as his aunts and uncles. It was a promise that the three of you had made after you turned him. And if Arick had seen you now, he’d be disappointed.

You rolled your eyes as you pushed him back, attempting to get some room between the two of you before walking around him. His arms came around you and his hold tightened as you tried to fight him off. The strength between the two of you making it difficult for either of you to win against the other.

“You loved him, Y/N.” Elijah said as you struggled against his hold trying to block out what he had been saying. “Yes, it was my fault you two were in that position in the first place. You shouldn’t have watched our son die.”

A memory that you had longed to forget had made its way into your mind. The way you had watched as your son struggled to get himself free from his captors. But the vervain that had been running through his system had made him weak, just as the very thing had done to you. But watching as the enemy had staked him right in front of you, had broken you in ways that you hadn’t believed you could ever be.

“Let go of me, Elijah.” You said through clenched teeth as you fought against him.

His hold had tightened, and part of him believed because it had been because you were breaking. “I will not let go.” He said as keeping his own emotions in check. Bringing up his son’s death wasn’t the easiest thing. And while he would be willing to express those feelings, this was all about you. “I will never let go.” He promised.

You shook your head trying to get the thoughts in your head out. But no matter how much you fought, Elijah’s hold on you tightened. And at some point, he moved his hand on top of your arm, just enough to allow a connection between minds.

Memories flood your mind. The memories of Elijah seeing you with their son. The way you cared for and protected him. Everything up until he turned he brought it to you. And the last thing he showed you was how broken you looked when he found you holding your son’s body. There was hurt and hatred in your eyes as you looked up at him. Through the memories, the pain being relived though it.

A cry of pain left your lips the moment Elijah stopped. You had stopped fighting against him and you slumped against him. He never once removed his arms from around you, wanting to comfort you as you let in every emotion that you refused to acknowledge.

“I’ve got you.” He promised as he held you, wanting you to know he wasn’t going to leave your side any time soon. This was the first step in getting you back and he was going to make sure that you wouldn’t find yourself wanting to go back to the numbness you had sought out.

Always & Forever Tag: @taylordrunkonwhiskey​ @thewolf-and-thesheep​ @wayward-dan​ @neeadinghugs​ @fafulous​ @kenmen02​ @elizamonet​ @dora-the-grownup​ @mschellehitt​ @xanderling​ @fandom-princess-forevermore​ @buckysarm4​ @hi-my-name-is-riley​ @helenasingers​ @alka16555​ @hellotvshowtrash​

Stag Tag:   @elejah-wonderland​ @xxsovereignsarayaxx​ @asiaaisa77​ @astudyoftimeywimeystuff​ @marvel-at-stucky​

The Originals Tag: @zillahvathek​ @obsessedwithvampires​ @alien-sida @mikaelson-emma​

[waiting-for-motivation]

of numbers and names

summary: Some would say that the Umbrella academy and the Sparrow academy are complete opposites. But they are more similar than some would think.

request: SPOILER ALERT FOR THE LAST EPISODE OF SEASON 2! Alright, so I’ve had this idea for a Diego Hargreeves fanfic but i never have the motivation to write it myself so imma submit it. The reader is a part of the Sparrow Academy and one day the umbrella academy just pops into their living room. Ben and the others are obviously not very welcoming but the reader feels sympathetic for them and convinced Reginald to let them stay for a little while. Eventually all rooms are taken and the reader has to share her room with Diego. (Obviously lmao) Just lots of fluff. (And maybe being best friends with klaus, because who doesn’t want to be best friends with klaus. He’s amazing) Hope you like my idea! I couldn’t get it out of my head since i finished season two! ~ @jannieka394

pairings: Diego Hargreeves x Reader

warnings: SPOILER, angst, fluff, Reginald (!?)

words: 1546

a/n: I hope you like it because I don‘t want to disappoint you. You are such a lovely person!!

MASTERLIST REQUEST RULES

“Each of you will stay with one of my siblings. That was one of dads conditions. The other one was a dinner at 6 pm“, the strange female explains to the members of the Umbrella Academy. They follow her upstairs and to their rooms.

“This house has enough rooms for all of us. Why should we share a room with you or your siblings?“, Five asks and the moment these words leave his mouth, the female turns around. She has a sweet smile on her lips.

“Because he doesn‘t trust you.“ She turns towards Diego. “He trusts you the least. That’s why you stay with me.“ The female opens the door to her room and nods at her siblings behind the Umbrella academy. Immediately, they go to their own rooms followed by the strangers.

Diego takes a deep breath and follows the female. He realizes that they are now in his old room. It looks different but it still reminds Diego of his childhood. His brown eyes widen. The female lives in his room must mean that she is the replacement for him. She is number two of the Sparrow academy.

“Why are you helping us?“, Diego asks confused. The female was the first one to speak up and even wanted to have a word wtith her dad in privacy. After thirty minutes they came out of his office and the female led them through the academy. And now they are here, in Diegos old room, in her room.

The strange female sits down on her bed and looks at the man in front of her.

“Because I felt sorry for you. I can read minds and yours were filled with so much anger, fear, confusion and sadness that I had to help all of you. Besides, if one of you plans anything I know it right away“, she explains and starts fiddling with her hands.

In truth, she doesn‘t know why she helped these six people. Maybe because she was raised to help. Maybe because she felt a certain connection to them.

“Thank…you“, Diego whispers. He leans against the wall next to a window and looks outside. It looks normal, not like he is in an alternative timeline.

“I‘m going to get you new clothes. I don‘t think dad will like the grungy look at dinner“, the female says, sits up and leaves her room without another word. The door closes silently behind her.

Diego takes his time to look at the room he is in, his room. A shelf is filled with books, just like he had one. The mirror is smaller. No knives are either sticking in the wall or laying around.

On the desk filled with papers and more books, Diego finds a box full of money. He raises his brows because that was the first thing he did to escape this hell of a home. As a seventeen-year-old boy he saved as much money as possible. The strange female seems to plan an escape too.

A thought fills Diegos mind as he looks in the mirror. He remembers his mom helping him with his stutter in front of the mirror. Maybe she is still alive.

The door opens loudly and gets closed as quickly as it was ripped open. Klaus is standing in front of Diego, staring at him with wide eyes. He looks as if he went through hell.

“Diego! I‘m so happy to see you! This alternative Ben is scary and cruel and so unkind. Can we please change roommates? She was so friendly…“, Klaus says as he walks back and forth through the small room.

The moment Diego wants to say something, the door opens again and the alternative number two is standing in the door frame. She stares at the two men with a pile of clothes pressed to her chest. Slowly, she closes the door again.

“Who is Ben?“, she asks as she places the clothes on her desk. Her eyes focus on Klaus, and she finds the answer to her question. “Number one? Why would you call him Ben?“

Klaus and Diego look at each other.

“What do you call him?“, Diego asks and watches the female raise her eyebrows.

“Number one“, she answers and walks past the men to sit on the windowsill. She looks as if she saw a ghost and that’s probably the truth. A small glimpse of Diegos memories showed her a loving mother she never had.

“You‘ve got no names?“, Klaus asks in shock and looks at his brother then to the female.

“Of course. They have no names because mom gave us ours. They only have dad. He gave us the numbers“, Diego realizes and swallows hardly. He can only imagine how hard it must have been for the female and her siblings to grow up without love and affection, only with cold numbers and a heartless dad.

One single tear escapes the females eyes. As quickly as possible, she wipes it away and stands up.

“You have to go back to number one. He will give you clothes for the dinner“, she says with a slightly shaking voice. Klaus nods and leaves the room, even though he wants nothing more than to give this poor soul a hug.

The female presses the clothes to Diegos chest and returns to the window, sitting on the sill. She stares out of the window, wanting to give the man his privacy while changing.

“It’s a good idea to leave the academy, believe me“, Diego says while he takes off his harness full of knives, then his jacket and shirt. The female on the sill wants to look at him with anger and confusion in her expression, but she doesn‘t want to hurt his privacy.

“What would you possibly know about that?“, she asks with an annoyed voice.

“For a person who can read minds, you ask a lot of questions“, Diego states with smile on his lips and number two can‘t stop herself anymore. She stares at him with anger in her (e/c) eyes. Only incidentally, she notices his muscular chest.

“But if you want to know. When I was seventeen, I left my family and this hell of an academy behind. I started my own life and it was the best decision I ever made“, the man explains while he buttons his new shirt. The female stares out of the window once again.

“But you need a name out there, in the real world“, Diego states and starts to think of a name that would suit the pretty female on the windowsill while he puts on the black trousers. “I‘m going to call you (Y/n).“

A smile forms on her lips, and she looks at the man in her room once again. For some time they stare and smile at each other.

“I‘d like that. Thank you, Diego“, (Y/n) whispers.

It’s midnight when Diego returns to their shared room. (Y/n) is waiting for him in her bed, holding a notebook as well as a pen in her hands.

The Sparrow academy ate dinner together with the Umbrella academy. But then their father told them to go to their rooms. He wanted to talk to his alternative adoptive children alone.

Diegos gaze is lowered and his shoulders are hanging. The female on the bed could swear she saw tears shine in his brown eyes. But the moment Diego actually looks at her, his sight is clear.

“How did it go?“, (Y/n) asks, although she is pretty sure Diego will ignore her. There is no way he is going to open his heart to her.

“This dad is even worse than the one I know“, Diego says as he sits down next to the female, grabbing the sheets. There is so much anger, sadness and rage inside him.

(Y/n) sits up so that she is seated next to the man, the notebook and pen in her lap. Hesitantly, she takes one of Diegos hands.

“I know. Sometimes I believe he is an alien, so heartless and cold“, the female says with a small smile on her lips. Diego laughs and makes her heart swell because she helped him forget the cruelty of their father for once.

“I don‘t understand how you could stay here for more than thirty years. What convinced you to stay?“, Diego asks confused.

“Family.“ (Y/n) smiles at the man, holding his hand tighter. “I might not have a loving mom like you had, but I have my siblings. They are grumpy and unfriendly and stupid sometimes, but they are my sisters and brothers. I don‘t know where I would be without them. They are my family.“

Diego nods because he understands her. After fighting the end of the world twice and traveling through time, he is closer to his siblings and would do anything for them. Because they are his true family now.

They say nothing for some time. (Y/n) lets herself fall onto the mattress, her legs dangling over the side of the bed. She closes her eyes and feels the weight of another body next to her.

“Technically, you are my family too, you and your siblings. So I‘m going to help you. If dad decides to banish you from the academy, I will follow you.“

[esperantoauthor]

Senior year Klaine!!! Applying for colleges! (Or you could just put some headcanons of how that year would go).

Hi Jas! This ask is literally 7 months old but I have every confidence that you still remember sending it because that is kind of your thing. I finally got inspired to pick back up the scene I had written and finish this off. It was a joy to write in this universe again for a little bit; thank you for sending this in when I invited people to send in prompts for scenes from the Express Yourself Verse. Without further ado...

Title: Applying to College [bonus content for the Express Yourself Universe] Author: Esperanto Length: 1,404 words 📚 Read it on Ao3 or below 📚

“You and Kurt talk much about college?” Burt asked conversationally as he handed Blaine a tire iron.

Blaine grasped the handle of the tool. “Some. I, uh, uh, I —don’t want to influ—to effect his de-de-decision so I haven’t shared my list yet.”

“Oh.”

Mr. Hummel looked disappointed. This confused Blaine, whose own parents had given him stern lectures about not throwing away his dreams for some high school boyfriend who, statistically, wasn’t going to be his forever partner anyways. Yes, his father had research to back up his point, as always.

“It’s irresponsible to choose a college based on where your boyfriend is going,” his father had lectured him.

“But he’s the love of-of-of my life,” Blaine had countered.

“Then your relationship will be strong enough to survive a little separation.”

His mother, always with the softer touch, had added, “You are just so young, sweetie, that’s all. You don’t want to limit yourself. It’s the responsible choice.”

They had worn him down in the end. He didn’t always agree with his parents but he knew they had his best interests at heart and as much as he was loath to admit it, he was young. There was a lot he didn’t know about life. College was a big deal and he didn’t want to screw it up by making an irresponsible decision.

But now, it seemed that following his parents’ advice meant disappointing Mr. Hummel. Blaine felt like he couldn’t win.

“So, how many colleges are you applying to?”

“I’ve got, uh, five applications —submitted but I’m not d-done yet.”

Blaine hoped his answer was good enough for Mr. Hummel. What if Kurt has applied to way more? Do I seem behind? I haven’t missed any deadlines.

“Is that, uh, a lot to apply to or… what’s the usual number?” Kurt’s usually confident father looked at Blaine with uncertainty in his eyes.

“Oh, I mean it, uh, it depends but I think like —five to eight is good.”

Burt fell into a plastic lawn chair and made a frustrated grunt. “I knew it!”

“Uh, you kn-knew what?”

“That Kurt doesn’t know any more about this than I do. I thought they had guidance—that’s what they’re called, right?— counselors at that school of yours. Aren’t they supposed to tell him this kind of stuff?”

“Um, they-they-they do, b-but no one has to talk to them. I...what do you m-mean he doesn’t know any more than, uh, y-you do?” Blaine asked, feeling deeply confused. Mr. Hummel was an adult, of course he knew more than them.

“Never went.”

“I...I ne-never realized. Not-not-not that it m-matters, of course!” Blaine felt his cheeks start to flush with embarrassment. Way to assume, Blaine!

“Got a job right out of high school, did the certification course at the junior college, and then I got real lucky that my boss decided to retire and wanted to pass on the business to someone he trusted. Can you do me a favor, kiddo?”

“Of course,” Blaine replied earnestly.

“Talk to Kurt about all this college stuff. He needs your help.”

“Um, o-okay.”

“Good.”

—

Blaine wasn’t sure how to bring up the topic without being heavy-handed but an opportunity presented itself to him just a few days later.

Kurt and Rachel strode into the cafeteria with their arms linked and matching smirks of self-satisfacts plastered across their faces; it was times like these that Blaine thought they could be siblings.

Blaine leaned in to accept the cheek kiss Kurt offered and then raised an expectant eyebrow, knowing that neither Kurt nor Rachel needed much prompting to spill when they were this excited.

Tina was not as patient. “Well?”

Kurt and Rachel turned to face one another before saying in unison, “We found our college!”

“It’s called NYADA,” Kurt added, face glowing with excitement. He pressed a colorful brochure into Blaine’s hands. “Please tell me you’ll apply too, Blaine!”

“Oh, I, uh… l-let me take a… look but, I mean, I p-p-p-probably, sure.” Blaine felt a bit flustered at being asked such a big question on the spot. Kurt’s gaze softened, clearly realizing what was happening and he gave Blaine’s thigh a comforting squeeze under the table.

“The deadline isn’t for another six weeks, so there’s plenty of time. Here, you hang on to this; I have more copies.”

That night, Blaine dutifully read through the brochure and researched the school online. His boyfriend, as always, had impeccable taste; it was clearly a top notch performing arts college. But the more he read, the more worried he became

He needed to talk to Kurt.

—

“Kurt, can we, um, um, well, can we talk about… about NYADA?”

“Sure! Did you read the flyer? Isn’t it just perfection?” Kurt clapped his hands against his thighs and bit his lip in excitement. Blaine swallowed thickly, thinking about how to do this without completely taking the wind out of Kurt’s sails.

“—Totally. The list of-of-of famous alumni alone was enough to, uh, convince me. Kurt, I would—I would love to go there.”

Kurt threw his arms around Blaine’s neck and kissed his cheek. “We’re going to New York! This is going to be perfect!”

“I, uh, I hhhope so. But Kurt… did you see that-that-that they only, uh, only accept 20 st-st-st-students a year? I… I think it would be a good… a good idea to have a backup, uh, plan.”

“You don’t think I’m good enough?” Kurt sounded hurt.

Blaine quickly leaned forward, gathering Kurt’s hands in his and drawing his gaze.

“No, no, sweetie, no, of-of course I do. But… e-e-everyone gets rejected from a-a-a-at least one or-or t-two colleges, Kurt. My…my father went to Harvard Law but even he didn’t get in everywhere.”

Kurt’s nose wrinkled in concern. “He didn’t?”

“He didn’t,” Blaine confirmed. "He was re-re-re—he didn’t get in to-to Colum-Columbia. And he got a-a-a-a-a perfect score on the SAT. He’s the one who —told me how important it is to-to-to apply to several schools, including a few ssssafety choices.”

Kurt sat back in stunned silence. “I thought the hard part was choosing the school… I had no idea. How many schools have you applied to so far, Blaine?” Panic was starting to creep into Kurt’s voice.

“Um, five so far.”

“So far?” Kurt’s voice cracked on the second word and he ran his fingers through his hard, something he only did when he was highly stressed. Blaine felt a sympathetic pang in his chest. “Well, which ones? Is it too late for me to apply to them too?”

“N-no, I don’t—I don’t th-th-think the deadline has-has-has —passed for any of them yet. I, um, let me think. I… applied to CUNY, NYU, Cornell, Northwestern, and-and-and Ohio State.”

“You want to go to Ohio State?” Kurt looked mildly scandalized.

“N-n-no.”

“Then why did you apply?” Kurt asked in befuddlement.

“It’s a-a-a…it’s —called a safety, um, school. It’s just in—just in c-c-c-case I don’t, I don’t get in anywhere, um, else. I’d r-r-rather go there than-than n-nowhere, you know? —Besides, my father said you-you-you-you can al-al-al-al-always transfer after a year.”

“Oh. Well, I guess there’s no harm in that.”

Well, that could have gone a lot worse. Blaine let out a contented sigh. He had managed to talk to Kurt about this delicate topic without embarrassing him.

“I, um, I-I-I can help you with the, uh, uh, um, the, uh, the research if you want.”

“That would be amazing, actually. I’m suddenly feeling very overwhelmed by this whole thing.”

“Happy to help. It is our fu-fu-future, after all. That’s always worth p-p-p-putting in a bit of work for.”

Kurt’s worried expression melted into a fond smile.

“Th-th-th-there’s this one program, actually—“

Suddenly, Blaine was flat on his back, looking up into Kurt’s mischievous eyes.

“Tomorrow, Blaine. We can start tomorrow. Tonight, I have other plans.”

Kurt didn't have to tell him twice.

[secretlynestaarcheron]

ANGSTMAS DAY TWO

Nessian AU // “I fucking love you” “hang up, and tell me this when you’re sober”

word count: 1753

TW: mild swearing 

Nesta pulls her books to her chest as she leans against the lockers, her eyes scanning the crowded hall until they land on their target. Cassian Valeris. He was across the hall from him, pulling books out of his own locker as two of his teammates joke loudly around him. 

“What are you looking at?” Mor asks, turning to face the same direction as Nesta, as her eyes land on Cassian she scoffs and turns back to her locket. “Seriously, you're still on this? You’ve had a crush on him for way too long, it's time to throw in the towel.” 

Nesta turns to face Mor, leaning her head against the locker as she watches her friend intently. “Maybe you’re right,” she mumbles, but Mor wasn’t right. At the beginning of the term Cassian and Nesta had been paired together for a lab assignment. They would meet together in the library to work on the project and the meetings just continued after the project was submitted. 

Mor turns to give her a pointed look. “He doesn’t even look your way,” Mor retorts. Nesta smiles sheepishly, hiding it behind her books, she wonders what Mor would say if she saw how Cassian looked at her hidden in the shelves of the library. How he looked at her before they kissed. “What about Tomas?” 

Nesta’s eyes moved to the other side of the hall where Tomas was talking to a friend, he would look over at her occasionally. Nesta rolls her eyes. “No thank you,” she replies. “Tomas is a creep. He flirts with freshmen.”

“I am just trying to get you to live a little. You graduate in two months and you haven’t even had a boyfriend yet,” Mor replies, closing her locker with a loud snap. “I want you to head to college with some experience.” 

Nesta shoves Mor lightly as the bell rings. “I have a free period, see you at lunch?” Nesta asks. 

Mor waves her hand. “I’ll have three more candidates by then!” she yells as she moves up the stairs. 

Nesta pulls on the strings of her hoodie as she makes her way to the back of the library, she sits down at the table dropping her backpack on the seat beside her as she pulls out her phone and mindlessly scrolls through instagram. She couldn’t help but think about what Mor was saying earlier. 

She liked Cassian and he seemed to like her, but why hadn’t he asked to take this a step forward? He started texting her more, he would leave notes in her backpack for her to find, and they would sit together every free period. They were basically dating. 

She feels his large arms snake around her waist as he leans over to kiss her cheek. She pulls away from him to turn towards him. “What’s wrong?” he asks, his eyes questioning as he pulls away from her enough to look at her face clearly. 

She shrugs, setting her phone on the table. “I’ve just been thinking,” she replies. He moves to the other side of the table and sits down across from her, looking at her expectantly. “What is this?” she moves her hands around. 

He looks around before looking back at her and giving her a small smile. “This is a library,” he retorts sarcastically. She gives him a look and he chuckles. “You mean, like what’s you and me?” she nods. He stops for a minute, fiddling with the straps of his backpack. “Is this not enough for you?” 

Nesta pauses, “Hiding in the back of the library is enough for you?” she asks. 

He gives her a crooked smile, “Being here with you is enough for me,” he replies reaching over to grab her hand. She looks down at their intertwined fingers and glances back up at him. She pulls her hand back towards him. “We’ve been sitting here every monday, wednesday, and friday for six months. I told you about my mother dying and my biggest insecurities. You call me after practices and tell me about how you’re scared about getting injured and losing your scholarship because that’s the only way you can afford college.” 

Nesta pauses and Cassian stares down at the table. She grabs her backpack. “You leave me notes in my backpack that tell me the things you admire about me but you can’t take me out on a date? You can’t hold my hand in the hallways? You can’t even look at me outside of this library,” she snaps. “Why?” 

He swallows the lump in his throat and looks up at her. “I-,” he begins and Nesta holds her breath as she waits for what he’s going to say. “I am sorry, Nes.” 

She doesn’t bother to ask what he’s apologizing for. He’s sorry that he can’t give her what she wants, a relationship. She knows it’s because of who she is and who he is. The star captain of the football team and the girl who no one will remember at the reunion. 

She doesn’t see him for the rest of the day. She doesn’t see that charming smile or those bright eyes until she stumbles upon an instagram post with him. They had won their game tonight, she didn’t even realize they had a game. 

She throws her phone under her pillow and walks back over to her desk. She had two months left at this school and then she’s off to an IVY league school where she would find like minded people. She just needed to get out of this town. 

She mindlessly flips through her history textbook, scrawling out a few notes every now and then. Her eyes are heavy with sleep. The light on her phone fills the room and she feels the vibration of someone calling her. 

She reaches over and grabs it, seeing a pic she snapped of Cassian in the library fill her screen. Her finger hovers over the accept button, she finally pushes and brings the phone to her ear. “Hello?” she asks weakly, biting her thumb nail as she waits for what he is going to say. 

“Nesta?” he yells, she can hear music and laughter behind him. “Nesta!” he exclaims again. “I didn’t think you would pick up!” 

She frowns when he hears the slurring of his words. She remembers the hurt she felt this morning, he only called her because he was drunk. “How much have you had to drink?” she asks, falling against her bed and staring up at the ceiling. 

He laughs a little too loudy. She hadn’t heard him like this before. Maybe he wasn’t the sweet boy that would whisper her kind words to her in between the shelves. “Nesta, come on, don’t be like that,” he retorts. 

She cringes. Don’t be like what? “You’re the one drunk calling me, Cassian. What do you want?” she asks, slightly annoyed now. 

A door shuts and the music and laughter stops. “I’ve been thinking about our conversation earlier,” he replies, his words slurring together and she rolls on her side waiting to hear what comes next. “I fucking love you Nesta. I’ve never been able to open up as much as I’ve opened up to you.” 

She pauses, biting her bottom lip. Her heart fluttered at the words, she had been waiting for this for months. She shakes her head, “Tell me this when you're sober, Cassian. I don’t care for drunk confessions.” 

He groans, “Don’t be like the Nesta. We know each other.” 

She sits up and runs a hand through her hair. “Do we know each other? I never thought you would be the kind of person that would need to get drunk to tell me how you feel,” she replies. 

“Nes, Nesta, Nessie,” he begs. She cringes. “Did you hear what I said? I love you. I don’t want to lose you. You’re the only one I trust at that damn school.” 

She plays with her hair as she absorbs his words. “So we can go on dates? Walk through the halls together? I can come to your games and wear your jersey? I can tell the world that I am yours and your mine?” she questions. 

There’s a long pause. “I can’t-, you know I can’t, but we can still meet at the library and maybe talk more on the phone,” he says. “I need to be focused on football, I have to be focused on football. You know that.” 

She did know that, more than anyone she guessed. He told her worries almost every night. “Then perhaps you should stick with football and not bother about having a secret girlfriend,” she says her voice stern. She could feel the regret burning in her chest. Her heart wanted her to say yes, that even a small piece of him was enough for her but she knew deep down she wouldn’t be happy long term. She wouldn’t be able to tell those girls that fawned all over him to back off. She wouldn’t be able to go to the movies with him or out to dinner. 

“Nes, don’t be like that, do you not love me?” he asks. 

She rolls her eyes, “This isn’t about if I love you, it’s about if you love me enough to be seen with me in public, I am not about to be your dirty little secret.” 

“Haven’t you enjoyed being together?” he asks. She's quiet, she didn enjoy their meetings but she wanted more. She craved more. “Please don’t do this. Nes. I need you. I need us. I can’t do this without you.” 

It was the alcohol talking, he didn’t actually care about her, he cared about losing something he had control over. She was his little secret, something that was only his, he didn’t have to share with the team or his foster siblings. She was his. She wasn’t anyones but herself. “You’ve been doing it just fine for three and a half years, you’ll be fine,” she replies and with that she hangs up the phone. 

The rest of the night, her phone buzzed every few minutes with apologies from Cassian, but she couldn’t bear to respond. She would be hurt for a while, but she would go to school not as innocent as Mor once thought. She would go to school with a newfound respect for herself and what she deserves. 

[samwritesforyou]

Booked

Diego x reader (the whole family is present at the beginning but as time goes on becomes more Diego-centric)

Summary: You have a summer house that is far away from any big cities, you’ve inherited it from your great-great-parents and you want to prove to your friends that you cannot possibly make an income out of it. So you submit the house at booking dot com for the lowest price possible. Your plan was working for years and you’ve been happy and content just by growing your own food and participating in the village’s community, completely forgetting about the offer you presented on booking. Until one day, seven siblings arrive at your place, saying they reserved themselves the whole house for the eternity of summer.

Warnings: gender-neutral reader, swear words (? but just a couple, mainly from Five)

Wordcount: 3.7k

A/N: settling is post s2, so everyone looks accordingly. umbrella academy gets back into the timeline where no umbrella nor the sparrow academy exists, yet the world is still ending. mostly written out of nostalgia for my own summer house that my family sold years ago and i will never come back there, so i want it to live on at least somewhere

Summers were always hot in this little village that you lived in, especially with the climate change looming over humanity’s ignorant heads.

So you were actually relieved that you finally persuaded a local technician to help you fix the fridge that stopped freezing its insides for good two weeks already.

You just handed her the cash and waved her goodbye, also giving the lady a basket with apples and peaches that grew in your garden. You don’t have enough people eating your fruits and most of it goes into jams anyways.

You waited a little until her car disappeared into the horizon of the bumpy road near your house, seeing as it even got blurry in the end, as the air was literally melting the reality in front of your eyes.

With a swift movement you adjusted a cap on your head, went out of the creaky gate - which green color was peeling off into the original black metal that it was made with - and closed it behind yourself with a happy hum.

It was a twenty minutes walk to the nearest convenience store and it gave you just enough time to ponder about the recent weird thing that happened to you.

About three days ago you just got a random payment come to your bank account.

15 Euros. That was it.

No note, no name.

You decided to let it be, even though it did stir your mind in various ways.

Normally, when something like this happens, the bank realises the mistake in the recipient and takes the money back within 24 hours.

Either the person who sent it didn’t care that it went to the wrong place or bank decided to be generous with you.

Whatever the reason was, those 15 Euros could be used now to buy yourself a little more sweets than you usually do.

You never had to complain about how little money you actually have from living here and being more or less self-sufficient, but some random extra cash will make anyone smile in this capitalistic hell that you tried so hard to escape from.

.

.

After you came home you started sorting out groceries that you’ve bought, putting them into the right places.

Upon finishing you just plopped yourself on the bench near the big abandoned table in the room, looking around.

This house used to be alive. With a lot of your family members running around, making noise, sometimes fighting, but always generally just enjoying the good time at this place.

At the end of the extended room was a window, showing you the rest of the garden that you lovingly cared for every single day.

Under the window was a spacious kitchen counter, with a fridge and shelves for ingredients next to it. Then there was the entrance to one of the unused bedrooms with one bed pushed against the wall, which in turn was covered by a red hanging carpet. On a wall, yes.

You stopped tracing the room around with your eyes as you heard some rummaging coming from the outside.

After easily springing to your feet you saw black dots in front of you and your head was spinning. Damn you, iron deficiency!

A few seconds passed and you were collected again, rushing out towards the gates to the property.

You stopped in your tracks as you saw five people literally barging through your piece of land with suitcases and bags, bickering with each other.

Oh, nope. They were six, actually. A very tiny figure closed the gate after all of them made it in and started clumsily going forward on a tiny tartan road that lead all the way to the summer house.

“Klaus, stop fucking pushing around and help me with the bags, maybe?” said a man with longer curly hair and a goatee, clearly agitated at another person, who wasn’t holding anything except some bottle in their hand.

“Oh cut it, you two! We’re almost in the house, come on,” said a woman with straight black hair in the flowery dress and then she noticed that someone blocks their way.

Her eyes landed on you.

“Um... hello?” she said with an awkward smile, attempting a wave in your direction and continued, “are you the owner? We booked your house until the rest of the summer like.. a few days ago.”

Your eyes widened and your mouth hung open in the “o” shape, trying to grasp the reality.

So.... someone really booked your summer house after several years of no traction from booking and you had no clue.

That’s what the payment was for!

But..

“Oh,” you said, not knowing how to proceed about the situation, “well, you see.. um... I have nowhere to stay? This is my only home,” you started timidly, rubbing your hands together.

“Oh,” the woman seemed surprised and confused but quickly collected herself, “well, if you have enough beds to keep us all in then it’s no problem, I guess?”

“Yeah? Alright, great!” You smiled at the whole “squad” and looked at them all.

“Uhm.. my name is y/n! Welcome to my summer house, I guess,” you put your hands into the back pockets and shook your head a little into the direction of the house.

“Allison, nice to meet you,” the woman you talked to said, smiling invitingly.

“Diego,” almost spat the guy with the goatee.

“Klaus, darling,” said the person with the bottle in their hand, widening his arms in an invisible hug.

“Luther,” mumbled a big man in the back of them all.. he looked like he’s been through something.

Actually, they all do.

“Vanya,” chirped a girl behind the big- Luther, the corners of her lips lifting ever so lightly.

“Five,” said a child in the front, looking unusually angry, suddenly shortening the distance between the two of you, “as long as you’re out of our business you’re good to stay,” he literally sneered at you, pushing past you and going inside.

That left you kinda shook, but then Allison just apologised for “their brother”, so you decided to ask another question:

“So you’re all a family?”

“Yes, we’re all siblings. Adopted,” she said, actually following you inside, not as the little guy before who let himself in without even knowing the place.

“I think my place is not the best for so many people to sleep at though..” you said quietly, biting your lip.

“That’s why it was so cheap..” Luther wondered, looking around.

You had to calm yourself so you didn’t snap at your guest. You didn’t even know anyone would ever book your house, damn! What were you supposed to do?

In the end you spent some time showing them the rooms, starting with the first one that contained an old-fashioned sink and the water tank near it, which you needed to manually fill up with water, and the drain led to the bucket under it.

Very simple.

In the back of the room there was a dining table, on one side surrounded by the bench and the other with some mismatching chairs.

From this space you proceeded into the extended “hallway” that you stared at before your peace and quiet was ruined.

There was also an ancient literal furnace, on top of which you could actually lay on, you know, as in all the fairytales.

After that, there was another room entrance that contained two beds on each side (one of them pushed under the window), similar to the other room and a coffee table in the middle of the area.

When you all went back to the first place, there was a wooden staircase that led to the second floor.

There were two rooms. One had a king sized bed in the middle of the space, with a closet and various tables around the whole area.

The other one had a working table and a bed in the corner.

“And that is the end of the tour!” you proclaimed, as everyone got seated by the big table in the extended room, while you were making everyone tea and preparing some snacks.

“Great, I sleep on the furnace!” Klaus exclaimed, putting his hands in the air animatedly.

“I guess we can fit all of us in here, actually,” Allison was clearly thinking aloud, counting the members of the family and available sleeping places.

“You’re gonna take one of the beds, right?” she said, pointing at you.

“Uh.. yes! Upstairs, I think. The one with the small bed and a table,” you smiled at her and she nodded.

“Then I’ll be sleeping with Vanya in the king-sized bed and you guys can fight for who’s going to end up sharing the room,” Allison concluded, clearly enjoying herself.

“Funny of you to think I’ll have enough time to sleep, in our situation,” said Five, suddenly coming out from the doorframe into the room.

You didn’t even mention that he wasn’t there when you were explaining the plan of the house.

“What situation? There should always be time to sleep,” you chipped in, carefully smiling at the boy.

“Stay the fuck out of our business, I said,” he gritted through his teeth at you, which left you blinking in surprise as he went away again, out of sight.

“How... old is he again?” you asked with the confusion that a kid would be so rude to a stranger like this.

All of them kind of nervously laughed or mumbled something that you couldn’t understand.

“It’s complicated,” said Vanya, smiling at you reassuringly.

How the fuck an age of your own brother is complicated?..

You heard the fancy-looking woman - Allison - sigh heavily and turn to you, shrugging.

“It’s just.. when our parents adopted him, he freshly got into the orphanage so he didn’t even have any documents about his birthday, blood type or anything. Apparently, he was really abused by his biological parents. Or whoever else, we don’t even know.”

“Oh.. I’m sorry,” you apologised quickly, biting your lip. Didn’t expect to poke into any painful subjects.

“It’s okay, really, we’ve learned how to take proper care of him,” Allison said, putting her hand on your back with a smile.

When you excused yourself to continue with gardening and went outside, Allison just shook her head.

“Who says ‘it’s complicated’ when someone asks you about their sibling’s age, Vanya?” said Allison in disbelief.

“I’m sorry, I thought it would settle the matter..” she muttered, playing with her fingers anxiously.

“It’s okay..” she smiled at her sister and then looked around the whole table, “look we’re here for the whole summer, so I think it would be better if we somehow told the owner at least partially about our powers so we’re not hiding all the time. We came here to have a safe space where we could train after all, am I right?” she looked expectantly at Luther who immediately started nodding along, agreeing.

“Or maybe,” started saying Klaus, already getting up from his seat and trying to crawl onto the furnace, skinny legs already dangling in the air, “we can just tell them we’re the umbrella academy, don’t you think?” he concluded, facing a wall with his face.

“But we checked that the umbrella academy doesn’t exist in this universe.. nor any other replacement of us,” reminded her siblings Vanya, fingers still intertwined on the table, firmly put together.

“I’m sure we’ll tell them one way or another,” said Diego, getting up just like his brother, making his way a bit further though, his objective clearly being the fridge.

He opened it and smirked at the beer present there, taking one can with him. His eyes then wondered to the window at the end of the room and he stepped closer, inspecting what is outside.

Apparently it was still their new home’s property, as he saw y/n working in the garden, repotting some plants under the tree.

His gaze stayed on them as he thought about various topics in his head, but then he decided to go out of the house, jumping down the wooden stairs leading to the tartan road, framing the whole garden.

You heard steps behind you, turning your head away from the the plants, only to meet a tall man in front of you, with a can in his hand.

“Hey, uhm..” he nervously put his hand on his neck, scratching it, “I just wanted to ask if it’s cool if I take some beer from the fridge?” he lifted the other hand with the mentioned item, giving it a little shake.

“It’s cool,” you replied, smiling softly at him, and then getting back to work, grabbing the plant by the root, moving it to another hole in the ground.

“Okay..” he retorted, biting his lower lip and scanned the area with his dark eyes.

There was an abandoned greenhouse with broken walls, greenery growing all around it, just next to the fence of the property. To its left was a wooden toilet booth with a typical round-shaped hole in the higher part of the door.

“I’m really sorry, by the way,” you started talking again, now finally done with your objective of the day, now plopping yourself next to Diego on the bench that he was chilling at, the surface creaking from the added weight, “I really thought nobody would *ever* rent this place,” you shrugged with a smile, now looking in front of yourself, closing your eyes and letting sunshine illuminate your face.

“Well.. uh.. then why did you put up on that website anyways?” he asked, clear confusion in his voice.

You sighed, shifting your body a little, getting into more comfortable sitting position, “It was a bet I made with my friends back in the day. A few years ago they told me I could actually rent this place and get income from it, not having to work a day in my life! Yet i told them that it’s not possible, and I wanted to prove that I was right by putting the advertisement,” you finished, finally opening your eyes, tilting your head at your new acquaintance.

You caught him staring at you, so he quickly turned away, now getting quite a violent sip out of the beer can.

“You should’ve put some timing on that bet then.. Let’s say, if it doesn’t get traction after two years you’ll finally delete the posting,” he said, after gulping some liquid.

That made you laugh and you couldn’t look away from him. His features were so.. delicate.

“Yeah, you’re actually right!” you admitted, slapping your thighs in excitement.

“Diego, my precious brother!” you two suddenly heard from the entrance to the house.

You lifted your eyes and saw a slender confide getting closer to you both, the man walking barefoot.

“Five said we’re all needed for a ‘family meeting’,” the guy literally put an air quotes with his free hand that wasn’t holding a glass, saying it in the mockingly serious tone, “so you better come with me and stop bothering this lovely person, alright?” he then proceeded sweetly, extending a hand towards Diego with a wide smile.

“God.. alright,” he answered and to your surprise took his hand, now brothers going away into the house, Diego briefly looking back at you, “Let’s talk later.”

You just nodded, finding yourself still smiling long before they were gone.

What is this funny feeling in the pit of your stomach?..

And why is one of their family members called by a number instead of a name?!

.

.

It was only the second day of your coexistence with the Hargreeves but it was already a wild ride.

Normally your morning looked like this;

You would wake up at a reasonable hour, maybe like.. 9am. You would go down the stairs from your room and make yourself some breakfast. While eating you’d either read a book or just listen to some music from your phone.

Then you’d do daily tasks, so taking care of the garden or some house maintenance, or both.

Then you’d do everything special that needs to be done only once in a while: a meeting with a friend, grocery shopping, attending a meeting with your neighbours where you decide on further upgrades of the village.

Then you’d draw some commissions, if there were any and after all of this you’d have late lunch that normally turned into dinner, concluding your day with doing your hobbies or rarely taking out your laptop and browsing the internet.

“Rise and shiiine!” you heard somewhere from downstairs, for some reason that person was also ringing a bell, making you immediately sit up in your bed.

You turned your head towards the mirror that hung across your sleeping space on the wall and you could see your hair standing up in different directions, cowlick upon cowlick.

You also felt tired, kind of not used to that feeling and shifted your half-closed eyes to the alarm clock near you.

It was... a bit past 7am. Who are those people to wake up that early?!

You lazily got up from the bed, yawning and stretching your arms up, feeling a few cracks here and there.

“Good morning!” first half of the sentence was muffled by the closed door to your room, but that quickly changed as it burst open, Klaus marching right in, his voice now uncomfortably loud for your sleepy ears, “I thought it would be nice to have breakfast all together and make you feel a part of the family, wouldn’t it?” he said with a genuine smile, looking at you.

You were sitting on your bed in pyjamas, hair all over the place, most unamused expression on the face, eyes half opened.

“Not a morning person?” he mused, tilting his head at you, “well, feel free to join or sleep more, I wouldn’t judge,” he continued and you saw in literal slow motion as he lifted his hand with a bell in hand, shaking it hard as he marched out of your room just in the same manner as he came in just seconds ago.

“BREAKFAST!!” he yelled with at least two octaves lower at his siblings, still ringing the bell that now was resonating in your brain in a highest pitch possible, making your head hurt.

Great morning.

But despite the general morning grumpiness you did find it endearing that Klaus decided to include you in their activities, making you feel less alone and - quite funnily - welcomed in your own house.

You slowly went down the stairs, hearing the lower floor full of different voices and it made your heart clench. You immediately thought of your family that made it feel alive like this in the past and a warm smile appeared on your face, as the Hargreeves huddled up around the smaller table in the room you descended from the stairs into, all making your appearance feel natural.

“Good morning,” you passed Luther that nodded in your direction alongside the phrase, as you went into the bigger room, seeing Allison cooking by the stove, window open.

“Oh hey, you’re up,” she said with a smile, “can you pass me some milk?” she asked, extending her hand into the air, already expecting said item.

“Sure!!” you hurriedly opened the fridge, giving her the thing she requested and she continued cooking.

You slowly looked around, seeing a blanket and some different things like cigarette boxes and teddy bears on top of the furnace, which made you realise that someone from the family has clearly claimed it to be their place for sleeping and you found it adorable.

“You can go sit with the others, I’ll bring it all in when it’s ready, Allison said, adjusting her black hair so it didn’t get in the way of preparing food.

“Oh.. okay!” you chirped, with a smile going back to the first room, and finding an empty seat between Diego and Klaus.

You almost sat already when Klaus sprang to his feet and took you by the shoulders, making you freeze on the spot, eyes wide.

“Klaus?” you asked, confused, “is that seat taken?”

“By Allison,” Diego quickly responded before his brother had any chance to and then the skinny man sat back on his chair, nodding with an awkward smile on his face.

“Yes, exactly. Sorry y/n,” he sighed and shrugged, clearly playing along Diego’s words, but you just let it go.

Instead you sat next to Luther, whom already opened his mouth but Vanya looked at him with a forced smile, raising a brow. At that, the big guy closed his mouth again, without making a sound.

Something.. is weird here. You shifted a bit in your seat, biting your lower lip.

The kid wasn’t here at all, you just noticed.

Then finally Allison came with the food and your anxiety lessened, as everyone started cheering for wonderful pancakes that she made.

She already wanted to sit on the seat that the guys told you was reserved for her, when suddenly Klaus did the same to her as he did to you.

“Klaus,” Diego hissed in a low voice.

Allison just looked at her brother, expression just as confused as yours was.

“What?” Allison deadpanned, putting a hand to her hip.

There was a brief second of silence until Klaus just burst into an emotional speech.

“Look, I know we’re all pretending that we’re normal in front of y/n but you all know that Ben always sits next to me and he’s sitting here right now, yet you all wanna make it seem like he doesn’t exist? I’m sorry that he’s a ghost, I’m sure he didn’t want to die either!” then after a moment he added, “Right, brother dear?” looking at an empty space near him.

Your brain clearly wasn’t catching up to what was just being said.

Pretending to be normal?..

“Great. Just fucking great, Klaus. I bet Ben would move, understanding the situation!” Allison waved her hands at him and the chair next to him with an annoyed voice.

“We just blew our cover, guys,” said Diego with pursed lips, looking absentmindedly at the table filled with food.

Soon enough they all started arguing and only when there was a sudden blue light in the room, and the kid appeared literally out of the thin air in front of your eyes, everyone fell silent, looking at him.

“Guys, I just did a search around the neighbourhood and—“ his blue eyes met with yours, full of shock and denial of what you just saw, “shit.”

He clicked his tongue and frowned and that was positively the last thing you remember before losing consciousness, everything around you turning black.

Too much of supernatural for one morning, that’s for sure.

Precious taglist:  @radcloudenthusiast​,  @spacenerdpascal​

NEXT PART→

[seasonsofeverlark]

Operation Push Katniss Over the Cliff of Love

Author: @mega-aulover​

Prompt: The crunch of frost when the mornings first start to become crisp ❄️❄️❄️  [submitted by anonymous]

Rating: T

A/N: There are no games. The districts won the war and the seat of power rested wherever the District Tribute won the candidacy for President.  The current president is from District Eight. Katniss takes Peeta out to see nature on a dare or is it a dare? - special thanks to my beta and best friend @norbertsmom who is more than just a beta, she’s amazing.

KPKPKPKP

The light from the Everdeen front porch spilled outside, lighting the three figures that huddled together near some trees. It was safe enough for them to gather outside and talk about their important subject: getting Katniss Everdeen married. Each one had their own reason for being present. One other member, Delly Cartwright, had sent word she would be late. She was roped into planning a fall festival with Effie Trinket, the district liaison. 

Delly wanted Peeta and Katniss to get together. She was the one who inadvertently brought the group together. Gale wanted to prove that Katniss was human, Rigel Everdeen, Katniss’ father, wanted Katniss to be happy, and Prim, her sister, had her own selfish reasons. She’d recently turned sixteen and she wanted her own room. Katniss was always in her business. Prim loved her sister and wanted her to be happy, so when Delly mentioned Peeta had the hots for Katniss, and that they should do something about it, it didn’t take Prim long to realize there was a way to satisfy everyone’s needs.  

“It’s cold outside,” Prim whispered.

The chilly air indicated winter was finally on its way. They had had an unusually warm fall. It kept the trees from uniformly turning right away. Some trees in the district were now displaying the bright beautiful colors, while some of the trees toward the edge of the district were bare. It was as if nature was warring with itself.

“You sound like your sister,” Gale snickered. 

Prim’s pale blue eyes gleamed in the darkness.  “Mama always said never trifle with an Everdeen.” 

“Careful Gale, Prim is sweet and lightness until provoked,” Rigel said, winking at his youngest. He leaned on his cane.  “Now how are we, as Prim said, pushing Katniss off the cliff.”

All three of them had been trying to figure out how to get Katniss and her secret crush, Peeta Mellark together. Peeta worked everyday at the bakery from sunup to sundown since his sixteenth birthday. His father was slowing down. He had had a massive heart attack last year, and Peeta took on more responsibilities at the bakery. 

Katniss not only traded the game she caught, but she also made it into jerky and sold it down at the Hob. Both she and Peeta were very busy people. 

“If Prim hadn’t clued me toward the Merchants I wouldn’t have figured it out,” Gale said stuffing his hands in his pockets.

“I knew she liked someone in the Merchant quarter,” Prim rubbed her arms. “Whenever you guys go to Merchant quarter to sell, she always stops here to wash her hands and change. Katniss isn’t one for dressing up unless she has too.”

“I can’t believe I never picked up on that,” Gale rubbed the back of his neck.

“That’s because you, too, were getting gussied up for all of the ladies,” Prim said. “You take longer than Katniss to get ready. Also, let’s talk about your abuse of the orange extract in your aftershave.”

Gale turned bright red.

“That’s enough Prim,” Rigel admonished. “We’re getting off topic. How are we getting them together?”

A loud ruckus could be heard as Delly speedily walked toward the group. “Sorry I’m late!”

“Shhh…Katniss is a light sleeper. She’ll hear you and want to come downstairs and find out why you are here,” Prim admonished.

“Sorry,” Delly whispered, but in reality Delly didn’t know how to whisper. Her version of whispering was using her inside voice. 

“Okay where were we, how to get those two together?”

Delly shot her hand up in the air. Her blue eyes sparkled and she hopped with barely contained excitement. 

“What?” Prim rolled her eyes. She couldn’t understand why Gale was so smitten with Delly. She was like that annoying little lap dog Effie had. Delly was sweet, but sometimes her exuberance could be annoying. Though Delly was loyal and kind. And if anyone said anything about her, Prim would be the first to defend Delly. 

“Well you know how Katniss hates the cold,” Delly said smiling. 

“Yeah,” Rigel said.

“And you know last week Gale and Katniss were bickering about Katniss being late.”

“She claims she wasn’t late,” Gale said, taking his gloves out of his jacket pocket and putting them on Delly’s hands. 

Delly smiled at Gale.

“I remember. She was spitting mad and she’s made it a point of going to bed early,” Rigel said.

“Well,” Delly said, looking at all three of them as if they understood where she was coming from. “You can use Katniss getting up late to get them together.” 

Prim’s mind worked quickly. “Delly’s right, we can use this to our advantage. Delly, you said Peeta uses nature as one of his inspirations right?”

“Yeah,” Delly responded.

“Well, what if we make Katniss take Peeta into the woods.”

“She can take him by the lake. When it’s cold enough, the water condensation freezes and it latches onto the trees and leaves.” Rigel grinned. “I took your mom up there once when we were courting. She called it a winter wonderland.”

“Peeta would love that.” Delly sighed. “A romantic trip into the woods with the girl he’s had a crush on forever.”

“I can goad her in front of Peeta,” Gale said. “Make her angry enough to fall for a bet. She takes Mellark out to the forest if I win, and I have to do something dumb if I lose.”

“Yeah, you know how to push all of her buttons at once,” Prim snickered. She turned her focus onto Delly. “When is the best day for Katniss to take Peeta?”

“Sunday. Sometimes he closes down early or doesn’t open at all.” 

“Okay, Gale do you think you can switch out one of your days off on Thursday?”

Gale gave Delly a look. 

“Gale!” Delly exclaimed, and the others shushed her. “Sorry,” she whispered, then continued, “You can switch, it’s not like we’re going to do anything romantic other than hanging out with your mom. You can switch your Monday for a Thursday.” 

Haymitch Abernathy from District 12 had won the Presidency after the explosion that Gale’s father caused. One of the things Haymitch did when he was President was make the working conditions in the mines better. He also ensured all miners got two days off, as well as yearly pay increases and a paid time off. They also had paid holidays off and they also promoted within. Gale was poised to move up in the mining company. He was pretty smart and had a lot of ideas. 

“Fine,” Gale muttered.

“Thanks Gale, I am proud of you, son,” Rigel said, patting Gale on the shoulder.

Gale looked up to Mr. Everdeen. They had developed a bond, especially since Gale helped his mom raise his three younger siblings. 

“Gale, you can use that you don’t get up early argument,” Prim said.

“Katniss will fall for that. When she gets angry she forgets about being shy,” Rigel chuckled. 

“Right, but how are we going to make sure Katniss is late?” Gale asked, frowning.

“Easy,” Prim grinned like her cat Buttercup when he’d trapped his prey. “I put sleep syrup in her favorite drink.”

“I will distract her enough to make sure she’s really late,” Rigel said. 

“Great, then next Thursday operation push Katniss over the cliff of love, begins.”

Thursday Morning Katniss was surprised when Gale showed up to hunt with her. He said he switched days with his buddy George, who needed the day off. His eldest was Toasting. 

They were approaching one of their last trading stops. Katniss nervously tugged on her shirt sleeve.

“You like him,” Gale said out of nowhere.

Katniss nearly tripped on the stairs she was climbing up. “Woah…”

Gale easily reached out and caught her.

Katniss straightened up and firmly gripped her game bag. “What are you talking about?”

“You like him,” he pointed to the bakery back door right before he knocked.

Katniss was left speechless, her mouth hung open. Her face felt hot from all of the blood rushing to it. She wanted to refute it, but she didn’t have a chance. The ‘him’ Gale spoke of opened the door. Gah, Katniss thought as her heart thumped against her chest at the sight of his flour covered forearms, and sparkling blue eyes that rivaled the color of the lake in the woods.

There were no words to describe why Katniss found Peeta Mellark so appealing. 

He was freakishly strong, with gorgeous blue eyes, broad shoulders, large hands. She shivered when she thought of those hands. Supple hands that were strong enough to rip apart timber and yet delicate enough to create the most intricate of frosting flowers for the cakes he decorated. Katniss recalled the day she caught him ripping wood in half by hand to take out his frustrations at something his mother did. She had stood by the fence staring at him, her mouth ajar and drooling.

“Hi, Gale and Katniss, here to trade?”

Even his voice did funny things to her. His voice was not soft or hard, it was smooth and she died a little when he said her name. Her palms became sweaty and her ability to think rationally went out of her head. Katniss couldn’t even formulate a ‘hello.’ 

Next to her, Gale cleared his throat. Glancing up at him, she saw his shoulders shake, and his lips formed a mocking grin. She realized what Gale said was a trick to get her to show her true emotions. 

Katniss wanted to punch him in the arm. 

“Yeah, Katniss caught some fat squirrels for you,” Gale’s voice taunted. 

Katniss wished the ground would open up and swallow her. How in the hell did Gale know that she had a thing for the baker’s youngest son?

“Oh, great. You guys want to come inside? It’s getting chilly out.”

“Sure,” Gale said.

No sooner did Peeta turn his back than Katniss punched Gale in the arm, hard.

“Ow!” he grunted.

Katniss scowled at him.

“You didn’t have to hurt me,” Gale said with a grin while rubbing his arm. 

“You deserved it, you big oaf!” 

Ever since Katniss turned down Gale’s invitation to run away into the woods a few years back, he’d been trying to get her to admit that there was someone else she liked. Gale had been methodically trying to eliminate the possibilities. He tried several guys from the Seam, then he turned to their own group, the Covey. 

The Covey lived on the outskirts of the district. When the war began the Covey, a group of traveling minstrels, settled in District Twelve. Katniss and Gale’s families were descendants. One of their own became the tenth President. During her brief stint as President she fell in love with a man from the Capitol and ran off. It caused a huge uproar, thankfully her vice president, Undersee stepped in and took the spot. 

The Covey had a tradition of singing and dancing. They mostly lived on their own. Katniss had family that were touring throughout the other districts singing. Katniss had been invited because of her voice, but she turned it down. Firstly, her family needed her, and secondly, she didn’t want to leave because of him. She couldn’t leave Peeta behind. There was a bond between them, an electrical force that drew her to him. 

It began with the bread.

When her father got hurt in the mine explosion, Peeta came over with a basket of bread for her family. The mining company’s compensation toward the injured miners ran out quick. The only source of income was from her mother’s healing business. But with her father’s medical bills, they were drowning and necessities became expensive. They were living off of meager rationings when Peeta brought them a basket of bread and canned goods. 

Peeta must have done it behind his mother’s back because she hit him so hard he missed two days of school. It was this act that caused Mr. Mellark to petition to divorce his wife. Peeta had risked it all to help her family. Katniss could never forget what he did, nor could she repay him for the kindness he bestowed upon her family. 

Through the years she looked for ways to repay him, but one day it dawned on her, she was keeping track of him for more than just the repayment of the food. The more she saw him interact with other people, the more she liked him. She nearly swooned when she saw him in those darned wrestling tights. 

Katniss thought her secret was safe. Until her sister, the little traitor blabbed one New Year’s Eve that Katniss wasn’t into the Seam look. Gale was surprised, but then began trying to look at all of the men in the Merchant side, including the Peacekeepers. He often said Katniss had a hankering; someone she would give her eye-teeth for, like a miner lusting for a cool breeze in the mines.  

Katniss wasn’t sure what he meant by eye-teeth, but using his analogy made her think it meant hungry for Peeta, which in a way she was. 

“Look, just admit you like him,” Gale whispered, elbowing her.

“Grr,” Katniss growled with all of the fake venom she could muster. 

“Why don’t you get all of those juicy squirrels you hunted for him.”

“Gale,” Katniss whispered. “Stop.”

She wanted to pummel him with her fist but he walked into the bakery. 

“GALE,” she squeaked. “Come back here!”

Katniss wondered why the hell they were friends. He was annoying, angry, petty, and infuriating. His one redeeming quality was that he was a good hunting partner, and those were hard to come by. Before partnering with Gale, she had tried to hunt with another hunter named Jed, but it was disastrous. A lynx attacked her and Jed did nothing. He didn’t warn her nor did he try to stop the lynx from attacking her. Katniss was lucky she was such a good shot. She got it in the eye as it leapt in the air. 

Gale saw her shoot the lynx and approached her about joining up with him. Leery, she wasn’t sure she should. His dad was the reason the mine collapsed. He drunkenly set some TNT on fire, blew himself up and caused many miners to be injured, including her dad.

Her dad told her that Gale’s family was hurting. Katniss didn’t want to give in, but then she saw one of his intricate traps and slowly they became friends. Now she wished she’d never accepted his request for friendship.

“Aren’t you coming? Your bread boy is waiting.” Gale winked at her.

Katniss stomped inside, furious at being found out. Gale was going to pay, she hadn’t decided how, but she was going to make him pay for his betrayal. 

“So I know how much you like our nut and raisin bread,” Peeta said good naturedly. 

“Yeah, she just loves your bread,” Gale said.

“Do you?” Peeta settled his eyes on her and Katniss didn’t know where to look. By the heat that was radiating off of her cheeks, she was sure she was redder than a ripened tomato. 

“Yeah, she loves your buns,” Gale kept on talking and Katniss wondered if a court would convict her for killing him. “Your cheesy ones.” 

“You mean my cheese buns?” Peeta’s eyes brightened. “I didn’t know. I’ll add some into the pack.”

“Delly told me you decorate all of the cakes.” Gale changed the subject and Katniss was grateful.

“I do.” Peeta was busily packing things. Katniss took the opportunity to take out the squirrels she shot for him, and then she added a rabbit. 

His brothers moved away to other districts, leaving Peeta as the sole owner of the bakery. Since his parents were divorced, Peeta lived in the bakery with his dad. His father favored rabbit meat. 

“Some of those cakes are complicated,” Gale said.

“Yeah, a cake can take me up to a week to decorate.”

“When are you and Delly going to toast?”

Gale hesitated, turning pale while looking at a dozen leaves in different shades of red, green, gold, and orange before changing the subject. “Do you get the inspiration for the cakes from nature?”

Katniss noticed Gale never answered the question. This was a bone of contention between Peeta’s best friend and her hunting partner. Gale wanted to marry, Delly wasn’t ready. She wanted to date a little bit more before settling down. 

Gale and Delly were such an odd pair. She was this round faced plush girl. She wasn’t beautiful like Madge, who Katniss thought he would have gone for. Before Delly, Madge and Gale used to flirt. It was a little gross to witness. It’s so funny how life worked. When Gale and Delly were introduced Gale couldn’t stand Delly’s bubbly nature. He said she grated on him like a tone deaf canary. Though slowly her generosity won Gale over. Gale told Katniss Delly crept up on him.

“Yeah. I always walk around with my sketchpad and pencil. Though, as you can tell, ever since my brothers left I don’t have time to walk around and observe as much as I used to.”

“Man, you should go to the woods,” Gale said. “The woods get frosty. It’s unlike anything you’ll ever see.”

“Frosty?” Peeta said with wonder.

“Yeah, the frost in the woods is amazing, like a winter wonderland. Katniss here doesn’t appreciate it.” Gale shook his head. “It’s a struggle to get her up on cool mornings.”

“Gale, the animals are still sleeping when you want to go out there,” Katniss grumbled.

“You know that’s not true. The early bird gets the worm. Nature’s teeming with life. They get busy living while you’re all wrapped up warm in your blanket.” 

“You know I get up plenty early to hunt and make ends meet for my family.” Katniss forgot for a moment she was in the bakery. She was still upset with Gale over his trick. 

“Sure you do,” Gale said. 

“I’m there before you are,” Katniss growled. Gale was a foot or more taller than her, but Katniss stood up to him.

“You want to make a bet?” 

Katniss poked Gale’s chest, “I can handle anything you can dish.” 

“Fine,” Gale said. 

“If tomorrow I don’t get up on time,” Katniss wasn’t going to let Gale get the best of her. “I’ll…”

“Take Mellark out into the woods.”

“What!” Katniss sputtered, disbelieving what Gale was proposing in front of Peeta.

“What, you didn’t hear me?” Gale smirked.

“You guys don’t have to-” Peeta said. 

“Mellark, wouldn’t you like to go out there in the woods, and see nature in its purest form?”

“Well,” Peeta said, sneaking a furtive glance at her.

“See, he doesn’t want to,” Katniss harrumphed. The prospect of having to take Peeta into the woods and talk to him was frightening as hell. Anyone who knew her knew she was awkward with people. District Twelve’s old President, Haymitch Abernathy, claimed she had the personality of a dead slug. 

“I didn’t say no,” Peeta said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“He didn’t say no, so what’s it going to be, Everdeen. If you wake up early and are in the woods before me, I lose.”

“And you have to tell everyone we trade with I’m the better shot,” Katniss said, narrowing her eyes. She knew Gale hated to admit it. He liked to boast how handy he was with a bow.  

She saw the nerve in his jaw tick right before he answered, “Fine! But if I’m right and you get to the woods late, you have to take Mellark here to the woods to observe the frost.”

Confident she wasn’t going to lose the bet, she came home from trading with Gale, convinced she was going to be fine. Yet out of an abundance of caution, she went to bed early after sharing a cup of tea with Prim. Katniss made sure she was dressed so all she had to do was slip on her boots and get out the door. But when she woke up the following morning, the sun was already in the sky. 

“Crap,” Katniss said. She jumped out of her bed, grabbed her boots, quickly combed her hair with her fingers and put her cap over her head.

“Good morning, Katniss,” her father said from the table.

“Hi dad.” Katniss sat down briefly to put on her boots.

“You’re late today,” her father said as he wrote something in his plant book.

“Ugh, I don’t know how. I know I went to bed early.”

Her father coughed. “Maybe you were tired.”

“Ugh,” Katniss groaned. She didn’t catch her father’s smile. 

“Don’t you want some toast, Katniss?” Her father asked. 

“Sure,” Katniss said, taking a slice of bread from his plate. “Thanks daddy. I’ll see you in a little while.” 

“Sure, Kitten,” her father laughed, shaking his head.

Katniss left and headed to the woods, not noticing her sister Primrose hiding in the corner laughing. Katniss was more concerned about beating Gale. She climbed over the gate to the fence. It had a sticky latch and she didn’t want to waste time fidgeting with it to open the gate. She ran to their spot in the woods, pausing only once to grab her hunting gear. She saw Gale sitting on the rock with a piece of grass in his mouth.

“Darn it!”

“You’re late, Everdeen,” Gale said in a singsong voice.

Katniss wished very much she hadn’t let her anger get the best of her yesterday. Now she had a date with the boy she’d fancied since the tender age of eleven.

KPKPKPKPKP

Sunday morning Peeta nervously slipped on his jacket. His hands shook. He was nervous about meeting Katniss this morning. He thought her to be the most beautiful girl in the district. Katniss was also the most courageous and strongest person in the district. When her father was injured, Katniss went out into the wilderness to hunt. There were a lot of qualities that he admired in her. It made him fall deeper for her. 

This opportunity to actually have the time to speak to her was unforeseen. Peeta wanted to make an impression on her. He wasn’t sure what was out there in the woods and he didn’t want to act like a fool in front of her. Peeta didn’t consider himself a tough guy like Gale; he was more of a pacifist. He could fight if he had to, but he preferred to talk things out before resorting to hurting people. His mother had often called him soft.

There was a point in time he was bullied for being pudgy as a boy. Peeta learned how to talk his way out of situations, and in doing so he learned that a physical altercation wasn’t always the right course of action. He was worried he wasn’t good enough for someone as dynamic as Katniss Everdeen. 

“Stop quakin’, chicken legs,” Delly said.

“Dell’s this is Katniss. What if I act like a total doofus and say something wrong and make her not like me>” Peeta said in one breath.

“Nonsense,” Delly said, packing up a thermos. “Believe me, you can’t screw this up.”

“It’s Katniss,” Peeta insisted.

“I know, I know. it’s the girl you’ve had a crush on since the Valley song way back in grade school.” Delly grinned, “Believe me Peet, Katniss has noticed you.”

“I don’t know,” Peeta doubted it. “She’s never talked to me.”

“What if she’s shy?” Delly asked.

Peeta blinked.

“Do you know how hard it is to walk up to a guy you like and say ‘I think you’re cute, do you want to go on a date’?”

“Well…”

“When was the last time you saw a girl do that?”

“Never.”

“Exactly.” Delly said triumphantly. “Now let’s look at the evidence. She went to all of your wrestling events.”

“Yeah, but those were mandatory.”

“You and I both know your brother’s matches were mandatory, and she skipped all of them. She also went with the Mayor’s daughter to see you practice. I’ve caught her hanging around the train station on delivery days.”

“She could be trading,” Peeta said.

“Nonsense,” Delly said. “You and I both know she shows up magically every time you have to unload the stuff from the train station. The girl doesn’t ogle every guy in the district.”

“Speaking of ogling.” Peeta turned to Delly. “What’s going on with you and Gale? I asked him when you and he were going to have a toasting. He looked wounded. He actually turned pale.”

Delly made a face. “He wants to get married.”

“So, isn’t that what you want?” Peeta was confused.

“It is, it’s just…” She sighed. “Gale is such a womanizer. I am the only girl who has refused to sleep with him. I want to make sure he loves me and is willing to settle into a committed relationship. It took me forever to make him understand that intimacy meant more than just sex.” 

Peeta understood. 

“Okay, so I packed a few blankets and the food you made. You are all set,” Delly said.

“Thanks Delly.” 

“Go out there have a great time, and just be yourself.”

Delly watched him leave. She quickly ran over to the Hob where Gale was waiting. 

“He just left,” Delly said, giddy. 

“Great, then it’s all up to Prim and Rigel now.” Gale nodded.

KPKPKPKPKP

In her home Katniss slipped on her warmest jacket. She wasn’t sure if she looked alright. This meeting was more than just a scenic walk through the woods. She frowned and then it melted into a scowl. No thanks to Gale’s big mouth, she had to take Peeta into the woods. 

What could she, Katniss Everdeen, talk to the most popular boy in school about? When they were in high school Peeta was always surrounded by his friends. 

“It’s kind of late for you to be going out into the woods with Gale,” her baby sister said from the bed.

Katniss had hoped to avoid speaking to her sister. She knew Prim would have all sorts of questions Katniss wasn’t sure she had answers for. “I’m…”

Prim sat up, her blonde hair cascaded down her shoulders. “You’re not wearing your normal smelly hunting shirt and pants to go out into the woods.”

“Prim, go back to bed,” Katniss said, turning around. She hoped that her sister would listen. At sixteen her sister was strong willed.

“What’s going on here?” Prim walked over to her, her eyebrow shot up. 

“Ah,” Katniss said nervously.

Prim sniffed the air and gasped, ‘You’re wearing perfume!”

Katniss felt her cheeks burn. There was nowhere to hide.

Prim cornered her. “Katniss Everdeen, you tell me what’s going on this instant!”

Katniss sighed, “I’m meeting someone in the woods, okay.”

“You are?” Prim clapped her hands.

“Shhh,” Katniss said, grabbing her sisters hands. “You’ll wake mom and dad up.” 

“Okay, okay,” Prim whispered. Then her face looked horrified. “Katniss you can’t go out into the woods looking like the bride of a sasquatch!” Prim turned to their dresser. “Let me see, what do you wear for a clandestine meeting in the woods. How does one look pretty in the woods?” She muttered to herself. Then began the questions, “What are they like? Are they tall, handsome? Where do they work? Are they young or is it someone older?” Her sister waggled her eyebrows.

Katniss groaned this was one of the things she was trying to avoid. “Prim. He won’t care what I look like. Look I’m showing him the wooda so that he can use it for the bakery.”

“Eeewww,” Prim exclaimed. “You’re going out on a date with Mr. Mellark?”

“What?” Katniss grabbed her sister before she flew off the handle. “No, that’s just ew, no. It’s Peeta. I’m going to show Peeta the forest. I’m ah…going to show him what the frost looks like.” Katniss let her sister go. She looked down. “He’s not, well, he’s a nice person and…”

“And?” 

“And…he’s cute.”

“Cute?” Prim’s eyes danced. Her grin was wider than the lake in the woods.

“Okay, okay,” Katniss said, lifting her hands in the air. She might as well let Prim make her look pretty. Her sister did have a way with clothing. “What do you think I should wear?” 

“Ohhh, this is going to be great. First off those pants are way too baggy. Lets get you into dark jeans, oh and one of mom’s grey sweaters…” 

Katniss allowed her sister to dress her up. When she finished she was wearing one of their father’s old orange checkered shirts underneath their mother’s knit grey sweaters, dark jeans, and her boots. Prim gave Katniss her navy coat instead of her own. Prim was taller than Katniss and it hung loosely around her frame. She had to admit she looked nicer than before.

They both snuck to the door. Once outside Katniss looked to the path that led to the meadow.

“Okay remember, just let the conversation flow. Don’t try to force small talk. You’re not great at that. One more thing, he’s probably more nervous of you than you are of him.”

“Why would you say that?” 

“Katniss, you do know you’re known as the huntress around here right?”

Prim words caused Katniss to take a moment and think about what she was saying. “What does that mean?”

“Besides the fact that you have the ability to shoot someone through the eyes?” Prim joked.

Katniss blanched at the idea of killing someone. 

“It means you’re a legend in our district. Dad’s super proud of you. When he got hurt and couldn’t work, you stepped up and helped out our family. Believe me, he knows you’re not someone who can be easily swayed or impressed with dumb pick up lines. Peeta knows he’s got to work hard to get into your good graces. He probably has a crush on you but is too shy to tell you. Not to mention, you’re always with Gale and he’s pretty intimidating.” 

Katniss hadn’t thought of that. “You think he likes me?”

“Oh Katniss, I know he does.” Prim smiled warmly. “You’re great.”

“Thanks Prim,” Katniss breathed. 

“Now get out there and show him the forest.” 

Katniss smiled and walked away.

“So did you plant the seed?” Rigel said quietly when Prim re-entered the house.

“Yup,” Prim sat down. “She’s going to meet him with the knowledge that he likes her. That should help Katniss warm up to him.”

Katniss reached the meadow in good time. She waited for Peeta to meet her by the gate. It was a cold morning outside. Her breath came out in puffy little clouds. Katniss gazed up at the heavens, the clouds were gathering, a storm was brewing. 

Prim’s words circulated in her head. What if he did have a crush on her, but didn’t know how to articulate it? She could imagine how it looked to Peeta with Gale hanging around her all of the time. 

She heard his heavy steps approaching before she saw him. The crunch of his boots set several sparrows into the air. 

“Hi,” Peeta said. 

She waved shyly. 

He wore a dark orange knit hat. His wavy blond hair peeked out from the sides and he looked adorable. He also had a knapsack with him.

“There’s frost on the ground,” Peeta said, coming up to her.

“A sure sign winter’s on its way.” Katniss looked at the meadow. There was frost on the ground. It was pretty, but it was nothing compared to what lay in the woods. It was colder today than in the past days.

“Ready?” 

“Sure,” Peeta said.

Opening up the gate they made their way inside. They stopped only once to get her bow and arrows from their hiding place. 

As they walked deeper into the woods, she couldn’t help but smile. The woods was her home, she felt alive here. In the woods, Katniss did not have to worry about society’s demands. Often people found it strange that at the age of 20 she hadn’t married or had a boyfriend.

Her close-knit family and friends accepted her decision to stay alone. Those outside her circle often talked behind her back. Everyone was expected to have a companion. Everyone would be shocked to know Katniss did have someone in mind and he only walked a few feet away from her. 

She snuck a quick look at him and her heart fluttered and her stomach flipped. There could very well be someone that Peeta Mellark was seeing and kept quiet about it. Yet even as she thought this, her sister’s words played in her head. People also gossiped about him. Katniss couldn’t understand why he wasn’t taken. Peeta was compassionate, smart, funny, and selfless. He was perfect, but none of the women in 12 wanted him, and that was okay by Katniss. Peeta never had a girlfriend and by the looks of it, he wasn’t going to get married anytime soon. Maybe he did like her in secret. She wished there was a way for her to know for sure.

“It is very cold out here. I can understand why you want to stay in bed a little bit longer.”

Katniss shrugged. she didn’t intend to talk to him, but then it dawned on her this was the perfect situation for her to get some answers about questions she had. “Gale is so over dramatic. I’m usually awake before he is and waiting for him. What about you, how early do you get up?”

“Well to be honest, I’m downstairs in the bakery before four in the morning. Ever since my dad had his heart attack, I’ve had to do the morning prep work.”

Katniss whistled. “Why don’t you take on someone, an apprentice?”

“Because it’s expensive. We were finally making a profit when my dad had his health scare. His medical bills cleaned us out.”

Katniss understood where he was coming from. “When my dad got injured we had the same thing. Thankfully my mom was his caretaker. I can’t imagine what you must have gone through.”

“I had to hire a nurse to help my dad recuperate. Thank goodness your mom helped out, with all of those free resources and the menu for a lower salt diet.” 

“I’m glad my mom could help.”

“She did it for next to nothing, for that I’m eternally grateful.” Peeta stopped walking, he took a look around the forest.

“I’m glad to hear your dad is feeling better.” Katniss stopped moving. “It must get really hot in the bakery. How do you deal with the heat in the summertime?”

“I sleep with the windows open.”

“Oh,” she said. Katniss didn’t imagine it would be such a simple solution.

Peeta stopped walking. “Wow! Look at all of these colors.”

Katniss saw a tree with red, gold, and yellow leaves. It was warmer closer to town, and the woods that surrounded the perimeter still had some of their leaves. The heat from the mines and the factories warmed the area. The further they got away from the district the colder it got. 

“I can see why you love it out here.” 

They were having an unusually warm autumn. 

“What’s your favorite color?” Peeta asked her.

“Green. Why, what’s yours?”

 "Orange, not like an in-your-face-orange, but muted, like that leaf over there, or your orange checkered shirt.“

Katniss couldn’t help but smile. It occurred to her that talking with him was easy. She thought whoever Peeta dated was a lucky girl. Her curiosity about whether or not he was with someone grew. They walked some more. He asked various questions about how she knew the direction they were heading, and other things that to her came naturally, but that someone who had never been to the woods would be curious about.

“So,” Katniss was working up the courage to ask if he had a girlfriend. 

“Yes?” Peeta asked. 

“Ah…” Katniss closed her eyes momentarily before blurting out, “Do you have a girlfriend?”

She watched him turn red before answering, “I don’t.”

“Really?” The word slipped from her mouth before she could stop herself. 

“You sound shocked.”

“It’s just that,” Katniss stopped to face him. “In high school you were so popular, I was sure there was a girl that you fancied.”

He rubbed the back of his neck, then shyly said, “There is this one girl I like.” He looked her in the eyes. “She’s amazing and I draw her constantly. But I’ve never had the courage to tell her anything. There was a time I thought she liked someone else, but it turned out they weren’t a thing. I guess I chickened out after that.” He shyly said, “I don’t think I’m good enough for her.” 

Katniss felt like she was suddenly a fire that was doused with torrential rain. Of course there was a girl he liked, an amazing girl he held a torch for. “Oh. Okay.” 

“What about you, is there anyone you like?”

Katniss couldn’t smile, she couldn’t even formulate words. Mutely, she nodded.

“Are you thirsty? I packed some hot chocolate for us.”

She looked toward the path. “We really should get going.” Moving was the only thing she could do. Katniss kicked herself the entire route. Of course there was someone special. Why did she have to listen to her sister? Prim was sixteen. Prim knew nothing about affairs of the heart. Katniss wanted to cry for the loss of hope. She held it together the rest of the trek. 

When they came to the lake Katniss stopped walking and Peeta gasped.

Everything was coated in little ice particles. The cold breeze here was noticeable. The condensation from the lake had frozen and latched on to the areas surrounding the lake making it look like freshly fallen snow. Ice crystals hung from the branches, crawled up the tree bark, coated the tall grass. A mist floated up from the center of the lake making it look mystical. 

“It’s beautiful, amazing.”

Katniss smiled watching Peeta get up close to a tall blade of grass. “It’s like they’ve been brushed with ice. It has little ice particles.”

“My dad calls it silver thaw.”

Peeta examined the fallen leaves on the forest floor. His face was flushed and his eyes glowed with excitement. “I never get to see this. I mean, I am sure this happens on the inside of the fence, but I’m inside the bakery most of the time.“

“My dad says no two snowflakes are alike.” 

“Wow,” he said. Peeta whipped out his sketchpad and pencil, and quickly drew what he saw. Loose papers were sticking out between the pages of his sketchpad.

Katniss was amazed by how quickly and accurately he could draw. He was unrivaled; there was no one in the district like him, and she quietly mourned for the loss of what could be. His curiosity and childlike glee at the majestic picture nature presented him would be one of her favorite memories. 

“Do you think we’ll get snow soon?”

“Possible,” Katniss shrugged looking up at the sky. “It’s getting colder out. When it gets really cold out here the lake makes snow. It gets pretty dangerous out here. The snow can accumulate quickly.” 

As he stood up, pages fell from his book. Peeta tried to contain his sketchbook, but various pictures fell down. One of them floated over to her. 

Peeta dived to get it, but was too late. The drawing fell at Katniss’ feet.

Picking it up, she was curious as to whom he had drawn. What she found drawn stole her breath away. The girl in the picture was gorgeous. Then Katniss saw the long braid, the cap she wore on her head. She looked to the other pictures and they were all of her. Peeta had drawn a picture of her, as if she was beautiful.

“You drew this?”

Peeta tucked his sketchbook under his arm and stuck his hands in his pockets and couldn’t look up at her. He shyly gave her a nod.

Her heart thundered in her chest. “Is this me?”

Peeta’s eyes widened and his mouth hung slightly open. He cleared his throat. “I ah…”

She picked up another one. There were pictures of her laughing, others of her eating, one of her sitting by Madge in school. Another showed her with Prim, another with her dad. It dawned on her he said he drew the girl he liked constantly. But she needed to be sure. She didn’t want to make assumptions. Maybe this girl looked a lot like her. 

“Katniss,” Peeta said. 

 “Can I keep it?” she asked.

Her questions seem to baffle him because he gave her a look of wonderment and at the same time puzzlement. “You want to keep it?”

“I mean, if this isn’t me?”

Peeta walked up to Katniss and stared longingly into her silver eyes. As if he was looking for something. Finding it, his face broke out into one of his legendary smiles. “Of course this picture is you. You’re the only girl that I’ve…well…liked.”

“You like me?”

“Ever since we were in kindergarten, when you sang the Valley song. I was a goner then and I’m a goner now. You’re the girl I was describing. I just didn’t know if you felt the same way about me. I was afraid I was projecting what I feel on you. You don’t have to feel any which way about me. I’m okay with that, I just can’t help the way I feel.”

Katniss didn’t know whether she wanted to jump or laugh or run. Instead she took his hand, leaned up on tiptoe, and kissed him on the cheek.

His smile was crooked and his cheeks were flushed. “I think we better get you out of the cold.”

Katniss nodded. It wouldn’t have mattered to her if it was 30 degrees below zero outside. All she knew was she was on cloud nine.

Together, hand in hand, they made their way back to the bakery. They sat down in front of the fire to snack on the cheese buns and hot chocolate he packed for them. They talked and laughed, and for Katniss it was like finding a kindred spirit. It was the start of a beautiful relationship. 

As she left the bakery Peeta held her hand, “When can I see you again?”

“Silly I’ll be back in the morning to trade with you.”

“No I mean,” he shyly gave her a smile, his fingers brushed over her knuckles and Katniss thought she would melt. “When can we spend more time together.”

“How about we have lunch tomorrow? We can meet here at the bakery.”

“Great, we can stroll in the meadow afterwards. It’ll be nice to see the daylight. I’m always stuck inside of the bakery.” He smiled and kissed the back of her hand, and Katniss knees wobbled at the contact of his warm lips brushing up against her skin. Katniss couldn’t wait to see him tomorrow.

When Katniss finally came home she was grinning from ear to ear. Her mother was out attending a birth with Prim.

“Hello,” her father said. “Where have you been?” He was carving a cane for one of her mother’s patients. 

Katniss froze. She wasn’t sure what to say to her father.

“You look like Buttercup when he gets a bowl of cream.”

The heat rose to her face. There was no way she could keep this away from her father. “I was meeting with someone.”

“Oh,” her father said, putting his knife down. 

She sat down. Katniss and her father were close and if she wanted to see Peeta, she needed to sit down and talk to her dad about the boy, no, scratch that, man, she’d had an unbreakable bond with since forever. Squaring her shoulders, she said, “Dad, I was with Peeta Mellark. I took him to the woods and we had a fine time.” Katniss sighed. “We spent the rest of the afternoon at the bakery talking. His dad was an earshot away.” Her eyes pleaded with her father’s matching silver eyes.

“You were with Buck Mellark’s youngest son?”

“Yes.”

“And do you like him?”

Katniss didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

Her father smiled. “I have only one piece of advice Katniss. Just follow your heart as you take the metaphorical leap off the cliff of love. If your heart tells you to stop or you have doubts, just walk away. All I want is for you to be happy.”

“Thank you, dad,” Katniss smiled and walked away. She didn’t know her father gave her baby sister a detailed report on their conversation. Nor did she know Prim was determined to make sure her sister took that final leap and toasted with Peeta Mellark.

Prim and Gale were on chaperon duty, to make sure the lovebirds stayed in love. Katniss for her part went to lunch with Peeta. Each time she and him were together, she did just as her father said. She and Peeta took it slowly. As she and Peeta grew closer Katniss fell deeper in love with Peeta, while the relationship of others cooled.

Katniss stood with Peeta watching Delly slap Gale in the face.

“Delly, I swear I didn’t kiss her!” Gale ran after Delly.

“I saw you!”  Delly cried and ran inside. Her brother stood by the door arms crossed not letting Gale enter the house.

“What can we do?” Katniss whispered.

“I don’t know Katniss,” Peeta answered back. Gale rushed past them in the direction of the meadow. Peeta held her closer. “What we can do is promise each other to be honest and talk to one another.”

Katniss nodded, what Peeta said was true. Delly and Gale weren’t communicating with one another. Her parents talked all of the time, even about trivial things. Communication, as Prim pointed out one time to her, was the key to a successful relationship. She vowed she would talk to Peeta. And so she did, when she got angry at him, she let him know why. When they didn’t agree, they still talked.

It helped them get to know the other. Adversity could do one of two things, draw couples apart or bring them together. The intimacy between their words caused her hunger for Peeta to grow. They abstained and strained from physical intimacy but it was getting harder for Katniss to walk away. Peeta always seemed to be able to hold himself in check, it was Katniss who craved more.

It was hard for her to keep her hands off of Peeta. It was during this time Katniss decided to take the leap. Though she waited for the right moment, it never came. So she contented herself with simple things like taking long walks. There were many trips to the lake. Many trips to behold the wonder of the woods and it’s majesty. When it got cold and the snow coated the earth they walked hand in hand together facing each new adventure together. Slowly, the cold air became warmer and spring kissed the earth. The snow melted and Katniss and Peeta’s relationship heated up.

They were at her father’s cabin, lying in each other’s arms. 

“Are you okay?” Peeta asked.

Katniss was warm and blissful. Her body still coming down from the flight of pleasure she had within Peeta’s care. “Yes.” 

Peeta pushed tendrils of hair away from her face. “I love you,” he whispered.

Words of love and adoration were no longer hard for her to express. “I love you, too.”

He sat up and reached into his pack. He took out a small necklace that had a silvery gem on it. “It’s a pearl.”

“It’s beautiful.” Katniss had never seen such a beautiful thing before in her life. 

“It reminded me of your eyes.” Katniss sat up and he slipped it around her neck.  As he fastened it he said, “Marry me, be my partner in life. I pledge my love and loyalty to you. I promise to honor, obey, and love you with my heart and soul. I know there will be hard times, but I’ve found that when faced with things together, the burden becomes easier.”

Tears streamed from her face. “Of course I’ll marry you!” She rushed at him and they fell back into bed, a tangle of arms and legs.” 

On the day they married, Peeta made a cake that looked like the wintry wonderland of the forest.

It was as they toasted that Prim and Gale and her father were looking all too much like the cat that got the cream.

“What are you three grinning about?” Katniss asked.

Her father coughed, but said nothing. Gale avoided looking at her. It was Prim who spilled the beans.

“Katniss, don’t get mad at us, but we were tired of seeing you make moon eyes at Peeta. So we came up with a plan. Gale was supposed to get you to make a bet to take Peeta out into the woods. I was in charge of slipping you sleep syrup that night, and in case you woke up on time, dad was in charge of making sure you were late getting to the woods.”

Katniss couldn’t believe what Prim said. She wasn’t sure if she should be angry, but then a strong pair of arms wrapped around her middle and she didn’t care. This, after all, was the happiest day of her life.

When Gale walked away Katniss turned to Peeta and together they asked, “Okay Prim, how do we get Gale and Delly hitched?”

Prim grinned, “Well I have a plan…” 

The End….well maybe? 

[hadtochangemyurlquick]

it’s work in progress wednesday so here’s a little goodfoe one shot that i can’t decide if i like and is mostly just me exploring leah and shelby’s relationship. also there’s some religion in there that i’m sure i fucked up.

Shelby doesn’t remember the dream, but she wakes to Toni’s arm thrown over her, reaching for Shelby’s phone as she attempts to hit the snooze alarm.

She spends most of the morning feeling queasy, a little nauseous, as Toni spends most of the morning exchanging grunts with her and muddling through coffee. It’s half past nine when Toni is awake enough, presses her arms around Shelby, kisses her neck. Toni’s arms have always, instinctively, made Shelby relax, like her body knows it’s safe.

Her skin feels like its falling off in awful flakes and she can barely breathe when she pushes Toni away.

“Um—”

“Would you give me some space? Jesus Christ, I can’t have a minute to myself?”

“Uh—” Toni reaches out a hand and Shelby finds herself in a corner, rock and a hard place, burning up.

“Don’t touch me!”

Toni flinches, “I just—”

Shelby pushes past her, eight steps to the bathroom in this tiny damned apartment, and upchucks in the toilet.

“Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.”

She is only spitting up bile now, Toni is calling her name. The door is locked.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

She’s trapped, she’s trapped, she’s trapped. She made the wrong choice, everything is falling apart, her skin is flaking off.

"But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.”

Shelby leans against the wall, closes her eyes as she feels her stomach gracefully settle, now empty. The bitter taste along her mouth lingers, and she doesn’t realize she’s praying.

“For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever.” And ever. And ever. And ever.

She is trapped here, and it’s ruined.

The pounding at the door has stopped, Shelby gets to her feet.

Toni almost falls through the door when Shelby opens it, her eyes are wide and red rimmed.

“I’m going out,” Shelby tells her. “Don’t follow me.”

“Shelby wait—”

The apartment is so small Toni doesn’t have time to finish her sentence before Shelby makes a jailbreak, she’s wearing house shoes, and it’s freezing outside but what should she expect it’s Minnesota?

God, what in the world is she doing in a tiny ass town in rural Minnesota?

Her skin is baked, she’s so hot, it’s flaking off, joining that mushy gray slush on the ground that Toni told her will stick around through March.

“Hey girl hey! You’re on speakerphone with Dot in the car, because I am driving because that is all you fuckin do in LA,” Fatin answered on the first ring.

“My skin is flaking off,” Shelby says. And then, to specify, “I can’t breathe and I’m dying and it’s too hot and I think my fingers are turning blue.”

“Hey, breathe with me okay, it’s going to be—”

Shelby hangs up.

The entire world is falling apart, she’s trapped and she’s nothing, and she’s going to die and die alone for ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and

“Hey,” Leah picks up on the fifth ring.

“Leah,” Shelby sobs, the name a prayer, a lifeline. “It’s ruined, everything is ruined, I’m trapped and my skin is flaking off and I’m dying and I can’t breathe and—and—and—and—”

Someone sobbing interrupts her and she’s relieved to realize it’s not Leah.

“Are you around anything sharp?” Leah asks.

Shelby blinks, she looks around, “No.”

“What about a body of water?”

“No.”

“Any motor ways?”

“Maybe a five minute walk?”

“Okay, are you sitting?”

Shelby nods, realizes Leah can’t see that, “Yes.”

“You need to stand up,” Shelby stands. “Stand in the opposite direction of the road, and start walking.” Shelby starts walking. “Your skin isn’t falling off, you aren’t dying, you’re breathing, nothing is ruined, you aren’t trapped.”

“My skin isn’t falling off, I’m not dying, I’m breathing, nothing is ruined, I’m not trapped.”

“Stop running,” Leah tells her and Shelby hadn’t realized she had started. “Nothing is chasing you.”

“Nothing is chasing me.”

She doesn’t believe the words but she and Leah have played this game before, the only way to win is by playing the game again, some different day.

“Did I wake you up? The time difference—I always forget.”

“No,” Leah says. “I haven’t slept since I got the restraining order.”

Shelby nods. “I want that man in prison for you, Leah.”

“I know you do.” And every time someone says something like that to her it always sounds like Leah comes a little closer to believing the sentiment herself.

Shelby is still walking, she might walk until her feet hurt, or her bad ankle feels like it wants to fall off.

“Was it a nightmare?” Leah asks.

“You know I still pray,” Shelby says. “I prayed so often for so long it’s like—it’s instinct, it’s like my brain just goes there when I’m struggling like a reflex. Only sometimes I’ll be praying and repeating the words and I don’t even believe them. And I’m just sitting there in my prayer wondering where the hell I go from here. Maybe I do go to hell.”

Leah hums.

“I don’t think I’m okay, Leah,” Shelby confides. “I still felt safer than I ever have on that damn island.”

“I hate my therapist, I hate that it’s working, that I don’t obsess over things in the same way, that I can feel myself changing and I’m afraid of this new person. At least I knew who I was on the island.”

“That’s not who you are,” Shelby argues. “This is who you are. This person, who I’m talking to right now.”

Leah is quiet for a long time, she always is. She always plans her words a million years in advance, especially during these calls.

“Do you really feel trapped?”

Shelby wants to cry again, “No.”

“What do you feel?”

“Like I’m on the edge of a cliff and I don’t know which side is solid ground.”

“Was it a nightmare?” Leah asks again, because neither let the other get away with anything for very long.

“I think so.”

“You’re not gonna die if you fall off the cliff,” Leah tells her. Shelby swallows hard. “I’m telling the truth.”

“You promise?”

“Train wrecks unite,” Leah tells her. “Now call Toni.”

She hangs up, and Shelby opens her phone to a million missed calls from everyone. She blocks them all and calls Toni.

“Hey,” Her voice is breathless. “Where are you?”

Shelby looks around, “I don’t—” her voice breaks, she tries to muffle a sob, “Toni, I don’t know.”

“That’s okay, hey that’s okay. I’m coming. I’m coming.”

Toni keeps talking to her as Shelby hears her leave the apartment, start the pickup they bought from Martha’s mom for cheap, drive down that old highway with the potholes from the winter the city refuses to acknowledge. There’s some breaking of branches, before Toni is behind her. Toni comes up slow but Shelby falls into her, terrified.

“I’m sorry.”

She’s shaking in Toni’s arms and Toni just tightens up on her,

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done—

“Sometimes I feel like I’m the worst person on the planet,” Shelby whispers, “just for loving you. Sometimes I feel like I’m cheating God, just because I’m happy. Sometimes I feel like there is no God and I’ve been cheated, and whoever I am just crumbles into nothing. I don’t know if I am anyone anymore, I don’t know why you’re with me.”

—on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

“I feel like the whole world is spinning on one axis, and I’m spinning on the other,” Shelby finishes.

Toni finally pulls away, hands still on Shelby’s biceps, Shelby still shaking under them.

“I’m with you because I love you,” Toni says. “What else is there?”

And there’s nothing else, is there?

When it all was stripped away, their hygiene and the fluoride in their water supply, their history and their secrets and their family and their responsibilities to everything but basic survival—all that was left was love. Love for each other, and their lives back home, and for the dead, and the world, and a hundred other things they hadn’t loved since they were little. Like the way the sky looks just before sunset, or the way it smells after it rains, and chocolate chip cookies their mom made for them after they got home from school. Like old people struggling to carry their grocery bags, or the kids with cancer when those ads came on the TV to donate, or the homeless man that always smiled at them.

That was all that was left, that love. And the love for each other.

There is no intrinsic reason why Shelby should love Dot and Fatin, or Rachel or Leah. There is no reason why she should love Nora and Martha. There is no reason why she should love her parents, her siblings. There is no reason why she should love Becca Gilroy.

There is no reason why she should love Toni Shalifoe.

But there is a reason, isn’t there? She loves Toni because she loves her.

Maybe Leah was right, that falling off a cliff won’t kill her. That’s faith isn’t it? Trust, blindly, openly, love because you love.

“I can’t walk home,” Shelby says. “My ankle it—”

“I’ve got you,” Toni says.

She does.