#my best friend and i tried to get tickets and they sold out

[seresinhangmanjake]

From Two to Four

Single Dad!Jake Seresin x Single Mom!reader

Summary: a trip to the movie theater with your son becomes more eventful when you meet a man and manage to save his daughter's birthday from being ruined.

notes: this is going to be a mini series from @rosiahills22 request :)

warnings: none.

Words: 841

----

PART 1:

Your arm is being yanked on but that isn't unusual. With the way your son is, you're surprised you've not had a trip to the hospital to have your shoulder shoved back into its socket. He's strong for his age, and with the handful he is already, you just know you're in for more surprises as he ages; ones you can only hope you'll know how to tackle on your own.

Jamie pulls you through small crowd after small crowd in his effort to make it to the treats. Only when you're in line does he drop your hand so he can press his nose against the glass shelf displaying every variety of candy he could possibly want. A sugar-high child was not in your plans for the day, but you refuse to dull his excitement.

"Mommy, can we get rainbow gummies?"

His voice blends with a sudden cry, and you turn your head to find a small girl leaning against one of the theater's decorative pillars. Her blue tutu is scrunched in her little hands, and the bedazzled tiara on her head is beginning to slip sideways. Softly brushing away her tears is a man crouched in front of her. He tries to right her crown as her finger shoots directly toward the large movie poster behind the man's head.

"Daddy!"

"I know, baby, I know. But it’s sold out," he sighs. "We'll come back tomorrow, OK? I'm sorry."

He stands straight and takes her hand, a look of utter heartbreak marring his handsome features when he begins to lead her past you toward the door. 

"Excuse me,” comes out of your mouth without a thought. 

When he pauses, the little girl nearly bumps into the back of his calf. His eyes meet yours, and the tenseness tightening his brow and the line of his lips soothes. 

“I don’t mean to bother you, but I have two extra tickets to the same movie if you want them."

A dark blond brow raises. “You’re going to see The Dragon Princess of Amethyst Mountain 2?”

“Well, the first one had such a gripping storyline." You chuckle at the amused expression on his face. “My son is with me,” you say and look behind you at the boy all but licking the glass case in anticipation. “Jaime, come here, sweetheart.”

Candy magically forgotten, Jamie bounds over to you with the widest of grins, stopping right beside you to stare up at the man.

“Hi!” he says loudly and clearly, with a certain confident authority only a four-year-old could possess. “I’m Jameson “Jamie”.

The man laughs. “Hi Jameson “Jamie”, I’m Jake, and this is Olive.”

Jamie’s eyes immediately go to the girl. His head tilts. “Like the snack?”

“Jamie, honey, don’t say–”

“Yea,” the girl pipes up, her tiny fist rubbing at the dried tears below her eye. 

Your boy's eyes light up, and you know what he's about to say before it exits his mouth. “I love olives!”

"Really?"

"Yep yep!"

Jake chuckles, releases his daughter's hand, and moves to stand beside you so he may join you in watching your children form an instant bond. 

"Just so you know," he says, leaning closer, "I didn't name my child after a food, intentionally."

You don't care what and why he named his child as you watch Jamie take an immediate liking to her. He needs a friend, and you've never seen him invested quite so quickly. 

"Hey, I don't judge," you reply, making the man laugh again. You're starting to like it. It's deep and husky and has an intoxicating element that wants to lure you into your own fit of giggles. 

"I'm Jake," he formally introduces, sticking out his hand for you to shake. You do so as you offer your name in return. "So how did you end up with extra tickets to the best movie in town?"

"I've got a sister who's a flake and a brother-in-law with a missing backbone," you say before clicking your tongue. "Which is a shame, honestly, because I think he really wanted to see it."

"Well, I hate to say I'm thankful for that, but you've just saved my daughter's birthday, so…"

"Daddy," Olive calls, her entire mood having taken a complete shift, "can we get rainbow gummies?"

"Sure, baby."

Jamie and Olive jump up and down, their hands tightly clasped together. Then your son hurriedly leads the girl back over to the candy case to show her everything she's about to enjoy.

"How old?" you ask.

"Four."

"So is Jamie."

As if on cue, Jamie looks back at you. "Mommy, and cookie dough bites?"

"Your boy's got a good appetite," Jake says, crossing his arms and nodding his head Jamie's way. 

"Oh, just you wait. He'll want–"

"And popcorn, Mommy?"

You snort. "See?"

Jake's eyes travel over your face, pulling forth a light blush that you can already feel heating your cheeks. His wide open lips display pearly whites, and there is a glint in his gaze when he says, "Well we better get them their snacks then."

---

A/N: More to come for this little series! I hope you liked it :)

tags: @wkndwlff @sagittarius-flowerchild @dempy @kmc1989 @oliviah-25 @xoxabs88xox @matisse556 @hardballoonlove @ssa-sadboi @lynnevanss @pono-pura-vida @tgmreader @amgluvsbooks @ravenhood2792

[patriwoso]

are you flirting with me?

lena oberdorf x reader

“Pick up” You grumble, the facetime ringtone going on longer than you liked.

“Hey baby” She spoke, your favourite sound. “Sorry I left you hanging, my mom was on the phone.”

You bite you lip softly, fiddling with the drawstring on the hoodie you were wearing, her hoodie.

“Don’t worry, your here now. I missed your face.” You smirk softly.

“Are you flirting with me Miss Y/L/N” She gasps.

“Maybe I am, Miss Oberdorf.”

-

The next morning, your alarm wasn’t much help.

“Y/N!!” Gio shouts, barging through the door. “Wake up!” She throws a pillow at you.

“Fuck Gio” You groan, throwing the pillow back but completely off target.

“Spent too much time on call to you lover girl eh?” She teased.

You stuck your finger up at her then flopped your head back onto your pillow.

-

“What are you moping about?” Gio slumps beside you, trying to look at your phone to see who you were messaging.

“Hmm, nothing.” you quickly turn your phone off, not wanting her to see. “Why are you still up anyways, you said you were going to sleep.” You raise an eyebrow slightly.

Gio shrugged. “Got bored, came to make a drink.”

You fiddle with your phone case, eager for your own space to continue your message conversation.

“I went back to claim what was mine.” Gio looks at you.

“You what?” You look at her, confused.

“You used my face wash.. I just went to get it back. And i saw the polaroid on your cabinet.”

“Of….” You tried to act dumb but you knew exactly what she was talking about.

“You and.. Lena” She looked at you with an expression to tell you that you can let her know anything.

“Hmm” You hummed, blushing slightly.

“There was one of you kissing. Are you guys.. you know”

“Yes, well done detective Gio. Lena and I are dating.” You huff, admitting defeat.

“How long?”

“A year”

-

L x

I miss you ❤️

You

Miss you too pretty girl. Hope your flying over for my game at the weekend. I know your schedule is free 😉

L x

I’ll see what I can do x

-

You walked through the tunnel and out onto the pitch, standing beside Caitlin and Rafa as the UWCL anthem played throughout Emirates Stadium.

Wolfsburg had been knocked out of the competition at the quarter final stages by Lyon which meant Lena was able to fly over for your semi final game against Barcelona.

You didn’t know where about she was sat but you knew she was in the stadium. A member of the coaching staff managed to get you a couple tickets for the boxes for Lena and her friends.

When the whistle blew you played you absolute heart out. A sold out stadium against the best in the world and you dreams in the champions league all fell on this game.

You managed to score yourself a goal at the 27th minute but the enjoyment had been zapped right out of you when Aitana got an equaliser at the 34th.

Jonas’ half time team talk was simple. Keep possession and attack on the left, their weakest side.

You got out again, the ref blew the whistle and the second half began.

Foul after foul and finally the ref was on your side, giving Arsenal a free kick.

Frida took it and you got your head on the end, getting it past Paños.

You started celebrating, jumping onto your teammates, making it 2-1 at the 90th minute.

The ref blew the whistle and you looked up, confused. Then you felt your heart drop. 3 letters on the screen. VAR

“What!” You looked around, Lia’s hand falling onto your shoulder.

Lena was up in the crowd, her phone in hand and taking a video of the scene in front of her. When the ref confirmed the goal, you ran round the pitch. She smiled to herself, your jersey under her jumper.

“Well done, my girl.” She whispered under her breath.

-

The full time whistle blew and you had beaten the spanish side. You did a lap of the pitch and signed a few things for some fans.

A young boy asked for your shirt but you had to tell him you’d promised it to someone else. That someone in the crowd too.

You made your way up to the box Lena was in with Jule, Jill and Lynn.

“MVP MVP MVP” They started chanted.

You blushed and told them to shut up, embarassed as everyone looked at you.

You slipped your arms around Lena’s waist and buried you head into her neck. She whispered in your ear. “You are amazing, talented, a special girl.”

“Are you flirting with me, Miss Oberdorf.” You giggled softly.

[boldlyvoid]

Love Story

Spencer Reid x Fem Reader

Summary: About a week into knowing her, Spencer knew he wanted to marry her one day. So, for her birthday, at The Eras Tour, he kneels to the ground and pulls out a ring...

Warnings: allusions to sex, stupid couple fights, Spencer spoiling her, roadtrips, food and drink mention, talks of the future (future kids) proposals.

a/n: this fic is for my best friend in the whole worlds birthday. @reidsbookclub, i love you, i hope you have the best time at your concert tonight <3

Word Count: 6k

Set in the Sweet Nothing Universe

He’s been in Reno for 3 months and dating Y/N for 3 months now, too. 

They practically live together now that it’s summer vacation for her. She took on some kids for tutoring, and she sees them a few hours a week whenever they have time. She mostly goes to their houses or meets them at the public library, which is right next door to his work. She brings him in a coffee or a snack whenever she’s in town, they have lunches together and she even stays a little longer in town so she can drive him home afterwards. 

It’s been wonderful. 

Everyone at work knows her, they call her Mrs. Reid as a joke and she thinks it's cute… Spencer, on the other hand, wishes she was his wife so, so bad. It’s way too early to ask her, even if he knows in his heart that she’s the one for him. So he’s waiting. He’s not sure how long he’ll wait. He doesn’t even know if she wants to get married one day. He still has some things to learn about her. 

Her birthday is coming up, soon, he knows that much. He actually learned about her birthday when Penelope was first telling him all about her. August 4th, making her a Leo, the lion sign, even though she’s as gentle as a flower. 

They haven’t planned anything for her birthday yet, it's still a couple of weeks away. He knows she’s told her kids that she’ll be busy from the 3rd to the 6th, taking 4 days just to herself, she wasn’t planning on doing anything. Spencer wants to treat her to something so bad. Be it a nice dinner, a gift she wants or a trip somewhere. So he takes those 4 days off too, he books it in advance with his boss, it’s approved and now he just has to plan something. 

During one of his lunch breaks that she isn’t sitting in on, he takes out his phone and calls up Penelope. Having known Y/N longer, she’s the perfect person to discuss ideas with. 

“Spencer my lovely! What are you doing calling me at 3pm on a weekday?” She answers full of cheer. 

“Y/N’s birthday is coming up, I need your expert advice on what to get her,” he heads right into it, skipping all the niceties, he only cares about her. 

“Taylor Swift tickets, duh!” 

“I tried that months ago, they sold out way too fast,” he complains. “We missed the Vegas show 'cause I obviously didn’t know her in March, all she has left are the Seattle and California shows… but again, they’re all sold out and the resale tickets are insane.” 

“Hey, six grand for 2 tickets with the love of your life is so worth it,” Penelope teases. “I might have a connection to the Inglewood show… maybe I can see if they have any last-minute tickets?” 

“How do you have a ticket connection?” 

“My brother's wife works for Ticketmaster, she said they save some tickets for important people until the last minute and if they’re not taken, they get released to the general public and you can get better deals if you call Ticketmaster instead of going online,” she explains. “I’ll give her a call, I’ll see what she can do.” 

“Okay, call me back when you know more?” 

“Will do, Spence-roo,” she says before hanging up, making him smile. 

—

He goes home to Y/N’s apartment that night, they have a home-cooked meal together and they settle down on the couch to watch something on TV and just relax for the rest of the night. 

She’s cuddled into Spencer’s side watching TikTok on her phone. She scrolled and scrolled and scrolled, barely watching anything for more than 30 seconds and then she stops on one. Spencer can hear the music and the cheering, it’s a tour video. He peeks over to it, watching as someone proposed to their girlfriend in the middle of Love Story. 

She likes it, opens the comments and congratulated them. The next words out of his mouth are barely in his control. They just tumble out. 

“Do you ever think about getting married?” 

She smiles up at him, “To you? Absolutely.” 

He pulls her in for a kiss. She locks her phone and tosses it to the side so she can climb into his lap and kiss him some more. His hands migrate to her hips, and she runs her fingers through his ever-growing hair. Making out with her on the couch, she lightly grinds against him, he hums into the kiss, breaking it to kiss her jaw along to her ear. 

“I’d want to marry you too…” 

She cups his face, staring him down, “Ask me whenever you’re ready.” 

“It’s not too soon?” 

She shakes her head, “No… I mean, people will probably think you knocked me up because of how fast we’ve moved but, it’s been 3 months. We know everything about each other, we sleep beside each other every single night, and I never want to break up with you. The next logical move would be to get married.” 

He steals another kiss, “I think,” he kisses her again on her jaw again, making his way down her neck, “You’re right.” 

She smiles, letting him go down to her boobs, “about people thinking you got me knocked up?” 

He laughs against her, “I mean, we fuck so often—

“No, don’t even joke,” she pulls his attention back to her. “You can’t get me pregnant just randomly, I don’t have enough money to pay for my substitute. You’d have to knock me up so I can have the baby in the summer…” 

He laughs, “You’re not serious, right?” 

“I’m completely serious. I don’t get maternity leave, I have to have summer babies if I want to keep my job.” 

“I have money,” he reminds her. “If we get married it becomes our money, you’d never have to worry about anything ever again.” 

She settles slightly, her shoulders drop again and she stares at him so softly, “I’d still worry, you know me.” 

He kisses her again, reaching up to brush her hair back, “I’m going to take care of you for the rest of your life… and if we ever had kids, you know I’d do the same for them.” 

“Do you want kids, like genuinely?” She asks. “Cause I know you love Henry and you said that you thought about having them with Maeve but—

“I want you to have my babies… whenever you’re ready,” he tosses the phrase back to her. 

That does it, she dives back in for another kiss, heating it up tenfold, he cradles her head and back, leaning down against the couch so he can hover over her. Working the button on her jeans open, he starts to tug on them when his phone rings. He wants to just let it ring, but it’s Penelope's ringtone. He hasn’t changed it, no matter how long he hasn’t worked with her, it’s still the same thing. 

“Hold on,” he whispers, trying to pull away. 

“Leave it,” she tugs him back in. She gets a few more kisses in and then he pulls back further. 

“I can’t, I’m sorry, I have to take this,” he reaches out to grab his phone off the coffee table and walks out of the apartment to take the call. 

“Hello?” 

“Hey, sorry, I know it’s late,” Penelope answers. “But I have good news. We were able to pull some strings and I got you 2 floor tickets for the 4th.” 

“No way?” He’s gobsmacked. 

“Way!! I gave her your information, the tickets are in your name and they’re being mailed to you so you’ll have physical tickets. You can just pay me back.” 

“What was the damage?” 

“they were $1800 each…” 

“That’s a lot better than the resale price,” he’s so glad. “Thank you, Penny, really, she’s going to love this.” 

“Hey, she was my friend first, I’d do anything for her,” Penny teases. “Now go back to hanging out with her, I’ll talk to you later, okay?” 

“thank you, we love you,” he reminds her. 

“I love you too!” And then she’s gone. 

He heads back inside and she’s no longer on the couch. The tv is off, all the lights are out, and she’s retreated back to the bedroom. He knocks before he enters, “Hey… sorry about that.” 

“It’s fine,” she says, clearly a bit upset. “I get it, works more important that me sometimes.” 

“No, no it’s not… and that wasn’t work.” 

“Is that supposed to make me feel better? Cause it doesn’t.” 

He timidly walks towards her, “Hey, hey, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have walked out on you like that. I know. But it was important… it’s for your birthday, that’s all I can say.” 

She bites back a smile, looking him dead in the eyes. “Really?” 

He nods, “You still have from the 3rd to the 6th off, right?” 

She nods, “I do… why?” 

“I’ll tell you more when the day gets closer, just, don’t plan anything, I want to make this special. This is our first birthday together, I want to celebrate you.” 

“Okay, you’re forgiven,” she gives in, she rushes over to him and tosses her arms around his neck. “But next time it rings and you’re about to go down on me, it can wait.” 

“It definitely can,” he agrees, picking her up, he tosses her onto the bed. “Let me make it up to you.” 

—

She watches the era’s tour live streams on TikTok every weekend, she favourites outfits that she’d want to wear and she tells Spencer all about the surprise songs that she’d want to hear live one day. 

What she doesn’t know is that Spencer has memorized everything she’s said and he’s been using it to his advantage. He’s found her Pinterest board with eras tour dream outfits, and he’s made a playlist of her favourite songs so he’ll be able to sing along no matter what surprise songs happen. And he’s started to buy tour outfits for himself too. 

He puts a lot of work into her tour outfit, too. It’s midnights themed, he got her a denim jacket with the back panel cut out and replaced with a starry lace pattern. He bought iron on paper and printed out her favourite lyrics to iron onto the arms and put stars on a pair of dark blue Converse. He’s even been making friendship bracelets while on his lunch break at work. He just hasn’t been able to decide on what to get her to wear under the jacket and with the shoes. Nothing seems to be perfect enough. 

He’s walking home from work one night when he passes a window display full of sparkly dresses. He just doesn’t want to get her the wrong size. So he has the bright idea to take one of Y/N's dresses with him to the store to compare sizes. Trying to steal one of her dresses… that’s going to be difficult. 

“I have a question for you,” he asks that night at dinner. “But you can’t ask any follow-up questions or anything, okay?” 

“Alright..?” 

“Can I have one of your dresses to compare to a dress I want to buy you for your birthday?” 

She swoons, “Yeah… or you could take my measurements?” 

“Either way, I just want to make sure it fits.” 

And so that night she gives him one of her favourite dresses. She tells him the size she prefers in different fabrics and he makes a mental note of every single thing she says. 

-

The next day, he brings the dress to work with him, people want to ask questions but they don’t. He makes it through the day, walks out of work with the dress and right into the store he saw yesterday. 

The shop owner clocks him right away, noticing the dress, she thinks he’s making a return. 

“Hi, how can I help you?” 

“I’m surprising my girlfriend with Taylor Swift tickets for her birthday and I’m trying to plan her outfit, too, and the dress in the window is perfect! I brought in one of her other dresses, just to compare sizing so I get it right,” he explains. 

“Oh my god, aren’t you the dream boyfriend?” She teases. “Can I see that?” 

He places it on the counter for her, she takes a look at the tag and holds it up, “I think I have the window dress in this size… what era are you going for?” 

“I made her a jacket in the Midnights aesthetic and her shoes are evermore,” he shares. “The dress in the window is kinda mirrorball-esque, I like it.” 

“You know your shit,” she can’t believe it. “Do you have an outfit picked out?” 

He shakes his head. “No, I can’t decide if I want to do fearless or lover…”

“You could do both, get a puffy Romeo shirt and some pink pants, that would be cute?” 

“Yeah, yeah I like that idea… you know the Lover album cover, the heart she has around her eye? How would I do that?” He asks, he hasn’t had someone to talk to about any of this, so he’s taking a chance and asking everything. 

She’s really helpful, she’s able to get him the dress in the right size, show him where he can get adhesive sparkles for the face, helps him plan his own outfit and even get some accessories too. He spends a fair bit of money in her store and he thanks her. 

“I’m going to bring her back here after the tour, maybe she can get her engagement party dress here,” he suggests. 

“Wait, are you going to ask her to marry you at the show?” 

He nods, “During love story.” 

“She’s one lucky girl,” the shop owner swoons again. She’s overjoyed for them. “If you bring her back here for that I’ll give you a discount, that’s the sweetest thing in the world. I really hope she says yes.” 

“Me too.” 

—

He stole a piece of her costume jewelry when she wasn’t looking, a ring she typically wears on her right ring finger and brings it with him to all the jewelry shops he goes to. Finding a ring that feels like Y/N is hard. He wants it to be perfect, he wants it to be big and pretty and something she’ll show off to everyone. He wants it to be a ring that will stay in style for the next 50 years, he wants it to last. 

He’s looked at a million styles, every colour and cut imaginable… but nothing seems right. He knows the kind of rings she likes from her Pinterest, but even they don’t seem to fit what he imagines for them. This ring is supposed to symbolize their love and their relationship. It has to be perfect. 

He finds the ring on Etsy of all places. It was his last chance to get a ring. There were only 2 weeks until her birthday and he had to make sure the ring was in his possession before they took their trip to LA. 

The ring comes in two parts, one ring for the engagement and the other for the wedding. The wedding band perfectly encompasses the engagement ring, making the main ring look like it has little leaves coming out from around it. 

He gets them in white gold, the main stone is a man-made, oval-shaped diamond and the stones around it are man-made opal, 4 on each side to be exact, shaped like little diamonds. The wedding band also has man-made stones, in green. Together, they look perfect. He has them expedited, he pays the artist top dollar to make sure they’re at his house by August 1st and he prays they make it. 

—

She picks him up after work on July 31st and when they arrive at his house, there’s a package sitting on his front step. Part of him is furious that they just left it, they didn’t leave a drop-off notice and take it back to the UPS store for safekeeping, the rest of him is relieved that it made it. Y/N on the other hand, is nosey. She wants to know what he ordered. She’s curious as to why he didn’t want to open it in front of her, but she doesn’t bring it up again once he hides it in his room. 

They’re in the middle of cooking dinner when she wraps her arms around him, stands on her tip-toes and rests her head on his shoulder to watch him stir around the pan. “Can I ask a question about my birthday?” She pries slightly. 

“Depends on the question.” 

“Do I have to pack a bag or anything?” She asks the first question. 

“Yeah… I got us an Airbnb for the few days we’re taking off work,” he explains, not giving away too much.

“Okay, and what should I pack?” 

“Underwear, pyjamas, comfy clothes,” he lists off a few things. “Makeup and whatever you want to do with your hair… I’m going to tell you what’s happening the day of, you’ll have a few hours to plan for each event.” 

“Each event?” She picks that out. 

He just nods, “You’ll find out more later.” 

“Fine,” she sighs, resting her chest against his back now, she holds him tighter. “I’m going to go all out for your birthday too, you know.” 

“I know… we’re kind of obsessed with each other,” he teases. 

“I think it’s called love,” she reminds him. 

“You’re right… I do love you a lot,” he says as he spins around in her grip and hugs her close, kissing her neck gently. “I love you so much.” 

She hums happily, “I love you too, sneaky man. It’s killing me that I don’t know what’s happening but I trust you.” 

“Good,” he pulls back and cups her cheek. “How would you feel leaving late on the 2nd instead of early on the 3rd?” 

“We can do that, I know you prefer driving at night,” she knows him well. “We can pack after work and leave once we’re done.” 

“I will be packed the day before,” he teases. “I’m not a last-minute man.” 

“Oh, I know, you don’t do anything lightly, but I might need help packing,” she reminds him. “You can help me pick out accessories and shoes to match whatever you got me.” 

“You think I didn't get you shoes and accessories? Have you seen me?” He teases, that’s one thing she loves about him. He’s always matching.

She just laughs, “Of course you did.” 

—

Spencer walks from his apartment to hers with 2 suitcases, one for his own things and one just for their eras tour outfits. He has her second key fob, so he unlocks her car when he arrives and puts his things in the backseat and heads up to her apartment. He knocks once but ultimately lets himself in. “Babe?” 

“Bedroom!” She calls back, letting him know where she is. 

“Hey…” 

“So I’ve played out a bunch of outfits, what ones will be good for what you have planned?” 

“Anything is good, I have your outfit for the main event planned, the rests are dinners, brunches and us driving to and from California.” 

“We’re going to California?” She can’t believe it… but then she clues in. “Oh my god, Spencer, why are we going to California?”

He shrugs, “I don’t know, you tell me?” 

“I’m going to lose my mind if we’re doing what I think we’re doing,” she explains, rushing to his side, she places her hands on his shoulders, “I’m going to go nuts.” 

“I have no idea what you’re referring to…” 

She can’t believe him, she just hugs him and holds him there, “Oh, you’re so cute when you try to lie to me, I love you so much.” 

“I love you,” he hugs her back, kissing the top of her head. “Now, hurry up and pack, we can check into the Airbnb after 10pm tonight, if we leave now we could be there by midnight?” 

And so they pack her up, they check the apartment to make sure everything is off and all the widows are closed and they head out. She locks the door, he brings her suitcase down to the car and she lets him drive. He’s a lot more comfortable on the road at night, he takes them out of Reno, down Highway 695 towards Carson City. They see Bridgeport, Willow Springs, Mammoth and Crowley Lake, Big Pine, Independence, Long Pine and then they stop for gas and a snack. He drives from Long Pine to Ridgecrest and then they pass through Mojave around 11:30. 

They’re in the home stretch now. She knows exactly what’s happening when they go through Santa Clara.  She can see on their GPS that by taking the 405 south they’ll end up in Inglewood in just a few minutes. 

He got them a cute little Airbnb just a stone's throw from the stadium, they’d be able to walk to and from if they wanted to. Once he parks outside of it, she turns to him with tears in her eyes. “How did you manage to do this?” 

“Penelope,” he says with a smile. “She knows someone at Ticketmaster, they got me really good tickets for the 4th. I bought you an outfit, I made myself one, too… I know how badly you wanted to see her so I made it happen.” 

“You really are the man of my dreams,” she swoons. “Thank you.” 

“I’d do anything for you,” he reminds her. Meaning every word. 

“I know… now let’s get all our shit inside so I can give you a proper thank you.” 

—

They spend their first day there just looking around. They have brunch at a cute little spot she’s always wanted to try, they visit the National History Museum and Exposition Park. It’s a lovely day where they just get to hold hands and be together. They order dinner to their Airbnb and eat while watching TV and then they spend another night in bed together. It’s perfect. 

When they wake up on the 4th, Spencer smothers her in kisses and wishes her a happy birthday… they don’t leave the bed for a while after that. 

He orders her breakfast and while they’re waiting for it, he shows her the outfit he has picked out for her. The dress, her jacket, the shoes, a cute little clear purse for the stadium and a lot of sparkly makeup options for whatever she wants to do. 

“Spencer, this is perfect?” She’s amazed by it all. “How did you know?” 

“I found your Pinterest,” he shrugs. “and you always show me cute outfits on TikTok, I took a lot of inspiration from what I knew you’d like and your favourite songs to make this… and these,” he pulls out a ziplock bag full of bracelets. All handmade. All perfect.

She spreads all the bracelets out on their bed, and she reads each and every single one. He has sent titles, lyrics and abbreviations, even quotes from Taylor that he’s memorized from how many times she’s watched Miss Americana on her days off. “Spence, how am I going to part with these?” 

He shrugs, “Don’t trade your favourites? Maybe leave any special ones here?” 

“Yeah, I guess I could do that… I can’t believe you went through all the trouble of making these just for me, seriously, when did you have the time?” 

“On my lunch breaks,” he laughs to himself. “I had no idea what I was doing and then Keesha, our undercover girl, showed me how to make them better.” 

“Everything is perfect, Spence,” she stands and wraps her arms around him, holding him close. “This is going to be the best night of my life.” 

She really had no idea. 

“I was thinking we could maybe go get our nails done,” he says as she pulls away. “We don’t have to be at the stadium till 6, I think it would be nice to get some eras nails done? I might even get some colour?” 

“Yeah, that sounds amazing!” She agrees, not thinking anything of it. 

He really just wants her to think her nails are pretty when he slips the ring onto her finger later tonight. 

He already made the appointment with a local nail salon for 1pm, giving them enough time to head back to their Airbnb and get ready for the show and maybe even get something to eat before they go. He’s such a planner. She loved every second of it, it made her less stressed to know that he already knew everything that was going on and he was confident about it too. 

He gets his nails done as well. He’s always wanted to but never had the chance to. He gets just basic gel while she goes all out with a shorter acrylic shape, she gets sparkles and stars all in the 10 different album colours and she loves them. She keeps staring at them the whole walk home, she loves how they sparkle in the light and how pretty the shape makes her hand look. 

The ring is going to look even better on her hand now. 

They shower together back at their place, Spencer watches in awe as she does her hair and her makeup and it’s not until the end that he hands her the adhesive sparkles and asks her to help him put the lover heart around his eye. 

“What did you plan for your outfit?” She asks while carefully sticking each sparkle to his face. 

“I got some bright pink pants, like, highlighter pink, bright,” he smirks. “I also bought a puffy shirt like Romeo… I wanted to go for Lover Story.” 

She laughs, “Oh you’re going to look good.” 

“I also bought cowboy boots…” 

“You didn’t,” she can’t believe it. “What colour?” 

“Pink.” 

“Oh my god, Spence… really?” 

“well like you said Lover and Midnights go together like they were planned to be back to back and you’re my other half so I wanted us to match… and then I’m partly fearless which came after Evermore which is on your shoes, so, it all matches.” 

“I love you,” she cups his face gently, “like it’s insane how much I love you.” 

“It’s not insane. It’s the perfect amount,” he teases, pulling her in for a kiss. 

—

She doesn’t know they have front-row seats until they’re at the stadium getting their tickets checked. The best part of her reaction at the gate is that she thinks this is the last surprise… she’s so overjoyed with the thought of being that close to Taylor Swift that she can’t even fathom him proposing tonight. 

From all the Tiktok's that she’s watched since March, she knows that the best time to go to the merch stands isn’t before the concert. It’s during. So, on their way to their seats, they simply buy some overpriced drinks and trade a couple friendship bracelets before heading towards their seats. She looks around with her mouth agape, amazed at how big the place is and how much of the stage takes up the floor. 

At their seats, she shakes her head and lets out an exasperated laugh, “I can’t believe you got these?” 

“Only the best for my girl,” he teases, wrapping his arm around her, he brings her in and kisses the top of her head. “I love you, Happy birthday.” 

“I love you,” she smiles up at him. “Thank you for this, really. I’m going to thank you a million times.” 

“You don’t have to,” he waves it off. “I wanted to come too, you know, she’s a big reason we’re together in the first place.” 

“If only we could tell her thank you,” she laughs. 

“We should’ve made a sign,” he teases. 

“We should’ve…” she agrees. “Maybe I can just put big text on my phone and hold it up to her?” 

“That could work.” 

So that’s what she does, sitting in her seat, waiting for the opener, she drafts a few things to say while the stadium starts to fill up. 

It takes a while before someone behind them actually shows up. Spencer worried there for a moment that the seats behind him didn’t sell and thus part of his plan for tonight would be ruined… but then a couple girls, in their teens, show up just before HIAM comes out to play. 

Spencer takes something from his pocket, pretends to reach between their seats to the floor and turns back to one of the girls. “Um, I think you dropped this,” Spencer says to the girls behind them, he hands them a note and a $5 bill. Y/N watches him hand it back to them and then turns right back to watching the openers play. 

“Oh thanks,” the girl says with a smile. She opens the note and her eyes widen as she reads it. 

‘Can you please record me and my future fiancé during love story? I have an important question to ask her and I want to remember it forever.’ And his number at the bottom. 

She looks at Spencer with her eyes full of tears and nods, mouthing “I can do that.” 

He gives her a thumbs up and turns back to watching the show. HAIM are a band he’s heard Y/N play before, he’s surprised how many words he knows just from being around her. They’re amazing and he knows that because they’re on the tour now, that means their song with Taylor has been added to the setlist. He really likes that one, even if it is about premeditated murder. 

He knows the setlist like the back of his hand. It starts with Lover, the intro is a remix of all her eras names over top of the song Miss Americana and The Heartbreak Prince, the dancers wear these big sheets of fabric, peacocking around the stage and then they cover the middle of the main diamond stage. Once they lift the sheets back up, however, Taylor emerges onto the stage and the crowd goes wild. 

He’s seen the show on Tiktok live so many times that he’s okay with missing it in person, instead, he watches her. He watches the way she stares at Taylor like she hung the stars and the moon herself. Like she’s some sort of god and everyone here is blessed to be in her presence. She cries, shaking her head in disbelief, she chants the words back to her and doesn’t even realize Spencer has been staring at her the whole time. 

“Look how close she is,” Y/N bumps his shoulder and points. “She’s literally right there.” 

“I know,” he smiles, so in love with her he couldn’t even pay attention to Taylor. 

When Cruel Summer starts, she screams so loud, Spencer’s sure she’s going to lose her voice tomorrow. He finally starts paying attention to the show now. Singing along, he knows all the words. He actually really loves this song. And the man. He loves everything from Lover simply because he’s so deeply, deeply in love. 

Post-lover, Taylor heads in for a costume change and thats when Spencer starts to feel anxious. He’s 2 songs away from his big moment. He checks his pockets, he still has the ring, in its box staying safe, it’s right there and ready to go. He almost blacks out for most of Fearless, he snaps back into it for You Belong With Me and the first note to Love Story gets his heart beat racing a million miles a minute. 

He looks back at the girl behind him who has her phone out already she smiles at him, nodding like she’s ready to go and he takes a deep breath. Taylors walking down the catwalk, she’s going to be literally right in front of them when he gets down on one knee… he doesn’t think she’s seen a proposal this close and in person yet on this tour? Maybe she’ll notice them? 

He sings along, genuinely loving the song and it steadies him a little. Y/N is singing too, jumping up and down and pointing at Taylor during all the best parts. She’s having the time of her life… she has no idea what’s coming.

The second chorus comes and he reaches into his pocket, he’s holding the box in his hand and his heart is in his throat. 

“And I got tired of waiting… wondering if you were ever coming around, my faith in you was fading! When I met you on the outskirts of town!” Y/N sings along. “And I said Romeo save me I’ve been feeling so alone I keep waiting for you but you never come is this in my head I don’t know what to think, he kneels to the ground and pulled out a ring and—

She notices then that he’s dropped to one knee, following the song, he holds open the little black box and she screams. Everyone in their section is screaming. “Marry me, Juliet, you’ll never have to be alone I love you and that’s all I really know!” Spencer sings along to the song.

She’s frozen, can’t believe this is happening and real but she looks at the ring and then at him, her eyes full of tears. “Yes!!! Yes, I’ll marry you!!” She gets down to the ground with him and pulls him into a kiss, he smiles into it, happier than he’s ever been in his whole life. 

When she pulls back he takes the ring from the box and slides it onto her ring finger. He helps her back to her feet and all she can do is stare at it. “Holy shit?” 

“I love you!” He shouts, loud enough for everyone to hear. “I want to love you forever.” 

She pulls him into another hug, not even noticing that Taylor did see it. She pointed at them, she got excited and there was footage of it from a million different angles that she’ll get to see later. She finishes the song, running back to make her mark and then she disappears once again to get ready for Evermore. 

Y/N snuggles into his side, her left hand resting on his chest, she keeps pulling her hand back to look at it. There’s just enough quiet between eras that she asks, “Where did you get it? It’s beautiful.” 

“Etsy,” he says with a smile. “It was on my doorstep the other day when you came over.” 

“No way?” She laughs, “how long have you been planning this?” 

“Since I asked you how you felt about getting married one day,” he admits. 

She stands on her tiptoes and leans in for another kiss, “I Love you.” 

“I love you,” he reminds her. “Forever and always… but I actually mean that.” 

She laughs, “god, you really are the number 1 fearless stan, aren’t you?” 

He’s about to reply when the girls behind him poke him in the back, “Hey!” They both turn around. “I texted you the video and my friend got the other angle of Taylor's reaction!” 

“She saw it?!” Y/N freaks out. 

They nod, freaking out with her, “Yeah!! She pointed at you guys and she was so happy!!” 

“Holy shit!” Y/N shouts for the second time. “This is the best day of my fucking life, how does it keep getting better?” 

“I don’t know man, but congrats!” The girl says. “You guys are so cute together.” 

“Thank you,” they say at the same time. 

She looks at him this time like he hung the stars. If you told him just 4 months ago that he’d find the love of his life and get engaged to her at a Taylor Swift concert of all places, he would’ve laughed… now he can’t imagine his life going any other way. 

This is where he was always supposed to be. 

General Taglist 

@ncsls0515 @stevesmunsons @reidsbookclub @sweetyyhippyy @manuosorioh @mrs-dr-reid @k-k0129 @squishyturtle @katsukis1wife @babybisexual @marsmunson86 @buckleyhans 

[johanna-swann]

I still wanna know at what point Tommy became "interested" in Buck because I've tried to narrow it down to a precise moment, but it does not make any sense.

So they met during the cruise ship rescue after which some of them in which ever combination exchanged numbers. Then Tommy befriended Eddie and invited him on a private flight to Vegas and got them great tickets to a fight that had been sold out for a while. Just the two of them. Which is an insane thing to do for someone you've only known for a few days and aren't close to at all tbh.

In the meantime Buck reached out to Tommy for the tour which went well, but I want to emphasise again that Buck initiated this and Tommy gave Buck a rain check on those beers without trying to figure out when their schedules might line up next. I mean. If at that point Tommy had already been interested, really interested, he'd either have tried to find a suitable date then and there or he would've reached out to Buck in the next couple of days after the tour.

He didn't reach out to Buck at all. (If he had Buck would've been less panicked about being excluded.) Tommy and Eddie kept hanging out after that though and neither of them at any point thought: "You know what, since we all met at the same time we could also invite Buck along." Not before Buck was aware of all their hangouts, not after.

All that makes sense from Eddie's point of view because he's already Buck's best friend. They see each other all the time (they didn't spend much time together outside of work during the week(s) in question, but they still saw each other for hours and hours at work), Eddie knows Buck doesn't care about cars and mma and basketball. He got caught up in meeting a new friend who he can do hobbies with and that's that.

And Buck himself didn't know what was going on period, he didn't know he liked Tommy, he didn't know why it bothered him so much that Tommy invited Eddie to all those activities yet still hadn't got back to him about those beers. He was absolutely clueless.

But what was up with Tommy here? He knew Buck wanted to spend more time with him. We also know Tommy's not usually shy about getting to know and inviting out new people because he did exactly that with Eddie. (It can't have all been initiated by Eddie; Tommy flew them, Tommy got the tickets, Tommy has the garage/muay thai set-up, Tommy has this karaoke trivia thing.) We know he's not shy about making his romantic interests known, he kissed Buck as soon as he suspected Buck might like him and almost in the same breath asked him out on a date. Where was that initiative between the cruise ship rescue and the basketball incident?

Because the only explanation that makes sense to me is that Tommy didn't really notice Buck at first. Buck did not leave a lasting impression during their first two meetings. Tommy also got caught up in the shiny new friendship with Eddie and only belatedly realised: "Wait, that other guy also exists." It was only the conversation and kiss in Buck's loft that opened his eyes to the fact that Buck actually seems like an interesting guy, too. Why else would he have basically ignored Buck yet hung out with Eddie every opportunity he got?

(Maybe, fair enough, Tommy wanted to play it cool and wait a few more days before he texted Buck after the tour. But he did nail down that dinner date immediately after the kiss and the date was only two days later. That doesn't scream "playing it cool by stalling a little".)

So yes, my theory is that he was not that into Buck at first (maybe he thought Buck was cute or whatever, but he wasn't instantly smitten or anything). I wonder what about Buck in that kitchen scene it was that eventually made him think "this one, I wann get to know this one".

(Personally I think it was the way Buck was open about his emotions. He openly admitted how he got jealous and that the basketball incident was on him, he put himself out there about wanting to get to know Tommy and he was embarrassed, but not ashamed about any of it. If Eddie and Tommy clicked because of their similarities, Buck caught Tommy's attention by being different. Tommy often plays his cards close to his chest to keep that image of the cool guy alive, Buck just put all his cards on the table in that loft. I think Tommy admired that. Didn't necessarily understand it, but it pulled him in.)

[cazzyf1]

My favourite quotes from the book 'Mon Ami Mate'

This took me a few months to read this book and I wrote down a lot of quotes so be prepared for a long read - but definitely worth it to learn more about Mike Hawthorn & Peter Collins

"Two years later, the World War Two fighter airfield at Westhampnett became Goodwood racing circuit and, as it was just a few miles south of the Farnham area, the Members (Mike's friend group) soon found their way there. 'Mike would never pay to get in' says McNab, 'He would climb over the fence, scrounge a couple of tickets and then pass them through, so we all got in for free'" - p8

"Nick Harrison remembers a dinner party for ten or a dozen people at The Sally Lunn restaurant in Bagshot when Mike left the table at the end of the evening, climbed out of the toilet window and went home, rather than pay his share of the bill. 'That was typical of him' says Nick, 'Not because he was mean, but because loved to get away with it - it was a sort of challenge for him'" - p8

"Mike and McNab once counted twenty-four pints of light ale disappearing down the Hawthorn gullet during the course of an evening" - p8

"We became great friends, but if he didn't like you he would tread on you and I know people who felt that he was a most unpleasant young man. There was a very dark side to Mike and although he was tremendously popular I would say that twenty per-cent of the people who came into contact with him couldn't stand him" - p9

"Mike found Merridale (his house) a very lonely place, so the McNabs (best friends family) took him under their wing and he stayed with them for some six months. Although clearly upset by his parents separation, Mike never discussed it - even with Neil, whose bedroom he shared. He loved both his parents dearly and refused to allow their break up to alter his feelings towards either" - p9

"Here Peter went underwater swimming, or snorkeling, then a new sport rapidly becoming popular. He hired flippers, helmet and spear-gun and caught many good size fish, which he sold to pay for more swimming lessons" - p18

"He could be a very serious young man, especially where his cars were concerned. He was dedicated to them and if I wasn't out with him some nights he'd go to Ron and Mary's house and talk with them for hours. They were his closest friends and I don't remember Peter ever having a particular man friend at all" - p21

"On the home front, Peter adored his mother and had established good fraternal relations with his sister Trisha (now nine), who naturally hero-worshipped her dashing brother, the racing driver. There was a certain distance, however, between father and son, who were occasionally not on speaking terms" - p21

"Throughout 1951 Mike had raced the Rileys dressed in his everyday clothes, which included a tie. However, if the weather was warm and he wasn't wearing a pullover the tie would flap about in his face, which could be very disconcerting, so he began wearing one of his bow ties for racing" - p33/34

"He was driving into an Italian village at a fair clip when he and co-driver Chips Chipperton spotted a large sign saying 'Adagio', which means 'slowly'. 'Isn't that where the dancing girls come from?' Asked Mike, without lifting his foot, and promptly crashed into a stone bridge" - p39/40

"Mike went to Val d`Isere, in Switzerland, for a skiing holiday with fellow-member Mike Currie. It was not a great success, as first of all Mike got involved in a serious party after a smallpox inoculation, which combined with his alchol intake to lay him out for four or five days. When he was able to stand up again he tried skiing for the first time, only to fall down constantly. He quickly decided that various parts of the lanky Hawthorn frame were liable to snap in this dangerous endeavour and made for the comparative safety of the bar." - p44

"Having learned that his days with a green Ferrari were over he decided to add a dark green, zip-front jacket, or wind cheater, to his racing uniform. "If I can't drive a green car," he told Neil McNab, "at least I can wear a green jacket!" - p47

"The young British driver stood for the British National Anthem with tears of emotion running down his cheeks while the crowd audibly gasped with amazement when he took off his helmet and they saw his obvious youth, after a drive in which he matched every champion on the circuit with courage, speed and racecraft." - p50

"Mike spent the festivities in London with his friends, Pat and Jill Hume-Kendall, who were now the proud parents of a four month old baby boy named Simon. On Christmas morning Pat and Mike took Simon (Mike's godson) to the pub, leaving Jill to prepare lunch. "On their way home, Mike decided to demonstrate a four-wheel drift with the pram and tipped my beautiful baby onto the pavement, scraping his little head" recalls Jill, with a shudder. "I was absolutely furious, of course, and it completely ruined our Christmas lunch"." - p59

"'The night before the rally I went to bed' says Adams 'But Peter was out on the town, chasing girls' (He would chat up the maids at every hotel we went to)" - p75

"Early in 1953 Peter went to live in Paris. 'He went there to escape National Service' says John Wyer. 'There was no argument about that. He talked about it quiet openly later and at dinner one night we had a long argument with Pat Griffith, who had already done his stint. George Abecassis was there too, and he said he had throughly enjoyed his time in the RAF, in spite of spending part of it as a prisoner of war. Peter thought the whole thing was a complete waste of time and asked Pat, 'What good did it ever do you?'" - p81

"Peter also learned to speak French fluently by engaging in intercourse - social and otherwise - with countless pretty Parisiennes!" - p81

"Peter acquired an Alsatian at some stage and if he intended it to be a guard dog it appeared to be an utter failure, welcoming anyone who came to the door with its wagging tail and slobbering chops. Then one day it mistakenly proved it's worth. Peter went out, leaving a plumber and an electrician to do a couple of jobs in the flat. Many hours later he returned, to find them still there and extremely agitated. The Alsatian, which had let them in without a murmur, had refused to let them out once they had finished their work." - p82

"As soon as we arrived Jean Lucas told Mike that someone had called him from England two or three times and left a number. It was the man from Reuters Press Agency and when Mike phoned he asked if he was going to England to see his father. Mike said, 'No. I am going to Le Mans. Why should I go to England?' Then the Reuters man told him that his father had crashed and was badly hurt. Naturally, Mike was in a terrible state, but I took him to Orly and the journalist Bernard Cahier managed to get him a seat on the last plane for London. While we were waiting Mike called the garage at Farnham and was told that his father was dead." - 87

"Romolo Tavoni was present in Ferrari's office one day when he (enzo) was discussing a recent race with Mike. 'Why did you have difficulty in that race?' Asked Ferrari, "My people tell me the car was fine.' 'The gearbox was no good,' said Mike, 'It was impossible for me to change gear properly'. Ferrari (who's cars were always 'fine') flew into a rage. 'You say my gearbox is no good? My gearbox is the best and if you say it is no good a second time, you can leave!' 'Goodbye!' Said Mike, and walked out. Ferrari quickly called him back and all was forgiven. He liked people to stand up for themselves." - p103

'Another who remembers his strong, anti-German feeling is Moi Kenward, one of his few, really serious girlfriends. 'We were upstairs at the 1955 Earls Court Motor Show when someone told Mike that Sir Jeremy Boles was buying a gullwing Mercedes.' She recalled. "He's not buying a fucking German car! Come on - let's get down there" He said, he grabbed me and we hurtled downstairs and there was Sir Jeremy writing out his cheque. Mike stormed onto the stand and said, "what the hell are you buying a bloody Kraut car for? Why don't you buy a Jaguar from me, you silly bastard?" - p103

"For several years, Mike had been troubled by severe pain in his kidneys, which frequently left him feeling very low indeed. He told one or two close friends that when he went to the toilet it was 'like peeing grit' and that often, having started, he couldn't finish the job. The resulting 'off days' did not go un-noticed in the racing world, but Mike kept very quiet about the reason behind them." - p104

"The treatment involved the insertion of a small tube into the abdomen and the restoration of the balance of the fluids going through his kidneys. Visitors such as Bill Cotton and Moi Kenward remember that Mike was "full of tubes" afterwards, and, as Moi recalls, painful though his condition was, he could still see the funny side of it. 'He had a tube up his old man, draining into a bottle, and he told me it was very painful "because every time you walk into the room I get an erection. It's agony!" 'One evening I was asked to wait outside for a few minutes while the doctors examined him. They cane out roaring with laughter and Mike said, "I told them what the problem was and they're going to take it out tomorrow." - p104

"Mike was never short of visitors and Moi was one of the most frequent. 'I had long hair in those days and Mike would spend hours brushing it while I sat beside his bed. That was the very gentle side of him few people saw.' Others went not to have their hair brushed, but to have their whistles whetted, although not when Mike's mother was present. Malcolm Richardson and some friends turned up one day and when Mrs H discovered that their raincoat pockets were crammed with bottles of beer she threw them all out." - p104

"The first thing I saw Mike Hawthorn running around, white-faced and absolutely distracted. He was alone, running through the caravans behind the pits. Just running around. He must have just got out of his car" - p127

"As this was sinking in, a Jaguar mechanic appeared and asked Lance to go to the Jaguar pits and talk to Mike 'he's having hysterics and says it's all his fault...he says He's never going to race again' Macklin refused 'because he bloody nearly killed me too, and, I'm not feeling all that happy towards him'. A few minutes later, Mike appeared 'He was tottering. He stood behind me at the table, put his arms on my shoulder and said, 'Oh my God, Lance. I'm terribly sorry. I bloody near killed you and I killed all those people. I'm really sorry. I'm certainly never going to race again.' My anger evaporated, Macklin recalled" - p127

'Rob's memory of Mike's arrival is still vivid. "His first words - and I'll never forget them - were, 'it's all my fault! It was all my fault! I wanted to get into the pits before Fangio came by"' - p127

'Mike returned to England and appeared on the BBC-TV to talk about the disaster with Rudolf Uhlenhaut of Daimler-Benz. The telecast was an unhappy experience for Mike, as Moi Kenward recalls. "He had to face the music. He came round to my flat afterwards and he really was in a terrible state - he was in floods of tears"' - p131

'The weather was fantastic for Aintree, sunny and extremely hot, and I began to feel the effects, so In handed the car over to Castellotti.' wrote Mike later. This is certainly true, but as is often the case with Mike's books, it is not the whole truth, which was that Mike was suffering from a giant hangover! The previous evening he had had a blazing row with Moi Kenward, after which he became drunk as a skunk, leaving him in no state to do any serious motor racing the next day. The row continued after the race, with the result that a furious Moi went out to dinner that evening with Eugenio Castellotti. This did nothing to ease a very jealous Mike's hangover.' - p132

'Recollections of what followed are obscured by a heavy, alcoholic haze, but at some point in the proceedings, Peter Collins, Roy Salvadori and Pat Griffith were seen rolling Rob Walker down 46th Street in a large, wire litter basket' - p138

'About an hour out of Paris we were stopped by a very nice gendarme, who asked us to please drive slowly through his village. Peter pretended he couldn't speak French and the guy was very polite and let us go, but as we drove away, Peter said' "Tous les flics mangent le merde!" (All cops eat shit) when we got to the next village I thought we were going right into clink! Our nice gendarme had obviously phoned ahead and his pals were waiting for us. Peter thought it was a hellava lot of fun - until they hit us for abour fifty bucks. He was a bit subdued for a while after that'- p139

'We(Pat Griffith & Peter Collins) slid off the road and down the mountainside for about fifty feet and I ended up in Peter's lap. "Pat" he said, "I never knew you cared!"' - p140

"Ol' Pete had a very genteel streak in him and would go out of his way to be friends with the new members of the team" - p141

"John Wyer had given us strict instructions not to dice with each other and whatever order we were in at the end of the first lap was to be maintained. I made a better start than Pete, but within a couple of laps he was right with me and we had a most God-almighty dice. All round the circuit we were passing and repassing, pushing each other through the corners and having a wonderful time. Peter was laughing and waving at me, (giving me two fingers, that is!) and we were really going terribly quickly but we always got our positions right as we went past the pits, with me in the lead.Then I lost it coming out of Arnage. I spun right round, Peter went past and from then on he had every right to stay in front. He could have told John that I had spun and said, 'What was I supposed to do wait for him?' But that's exactly what he did he gave me two fingers and let me go by again. He never mentioned it to John and neither did I, because that was exactly the kind of thing he was trying to avoid my spin could have involved Pete and we could have lost both cars. That was how nice a guy he was." - p152

"Peter took his Governorship very seriously and visited us several times that year. He liked to wander round the classrooms, chat to the kids and look at their work. They were all between the ages of five and thirteen, so although they knew he was famous they didn't really know much about him, but he was so charming and interested in what they were doing that they really warmed to him and looked forward to his visits. And he so obviously enjoyed coming down and being associated with something so different from his normal life. Unfortunately for us, he joined Ferrari in 1956 and from then in we saw very little of him, as he was seldom in this country, but he remained a great of friend of the school and myself. I often sought his advice, as he was a well-travelled young man and very intelligent, helpful and loyal." - p153

"Being a great party man and a wow with the ladies, Peter could very easily have made Brooks feel uncomfortable. Instead, he took a rather surprising attitude towards him. In those days we always had a small party the night before a race and when, on the evening before the Nine Hours, Tony said he was going to have an early night, much to everyone's surprise Peter said, 'Right - my man Brooks is going to bed and so am I.' He sunk his last half pint and off he went. That sort of thing happened on more than one occasion" - p155

"He was utterly charming and when I told him that I had to get back to work he said, 'Come back tomorrow, it won't be so busy then.' So I did and despite our age difference and the fact that he was a famous racing driver and I was a trainee salesman we struck up a good - friendship. That year many races were cancelled after Le Mans, so he was often at home and we used to meet frequently, until at the end of the year I had to go off and do my National Service. On my last night at The Black Boy (a pub) he bought me one hundred Players cigarettes and said, 'Keep in touch and come and see me at the meetings when you can get away.' Luckily, I was able to get to quite a few in the next two years and whenever he was there he would invite me into his crowd saying, 'This is my young mate, Trevor, from Kidderminster. He's in the RAF, poor bastard!' Peter never changed" - p161

"Although there was a nine-year age difference, Peter and I were always very close. He was a really terrific older brother and such a happy person, always laughing and joking. Needless to say, I hero-worshipped him and, with Mummy and Daddy, took a great interest in his career which seemed to dominate our conversations at every meal. He still didn't get on with Daddy and Wherever he came home I would say, 'How long are you here for?' and he'd say, 'It depends on the old man.' Ifthings went wrong Peter would high-tail it back to London and stay with Vick Vickers at the Washington Hotel." P161-162

"I remember once when Stirling stayed the night he left his shoes outside his bedroom door to be cleaned! My schoolfriend Sue Pridmore was staying with me and we were so incensed we filled them with sand" - Peter's sister, p162

"I was an unwilling boarder at Malvern Girls College. It was a very strict school and we were not allowed out-even with family - unless prior permission had been granted. This didn't bother Peter, who arrived one day with Stirling, sweeping to a halt in front of the school with a great swirl and flourish of loose chippings on the drive. When I told my housemistress that my brother and Stirling Moss had come to take me home for lunch she immediately phoned my parents, not knowing Peter or Stirling from Adam. "Is this young man your son?" she demanded. 'And circle who is this Stirling Moss person? Are we to release your daughter in their care?" "Mummy managed to convince her that Peter was indeed my brother and as we left he took my school hat inter off my head and in front of this very self-important pudding, plonked it on his own. Her face as we walked out.......As soon as we had gone she called my mother Berm again and said, 'I don't want those two young men to bring your daughter back, I don't like the way they behave at all." - p162

"Mike and Duncan soon found ways of keeping themselves amused.

One day they were in the lobby of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel when a member of a visiting ladies convention saw a man in a blazer and decided that he must be an attendant. "Boy! Where's our convention?" she demanded.

The 'boy' was Mike, and he was naturally unable to answer her question, whereupon the lady was very rude to him. Instead of telling her 'where to go', Mike told her where to go. "Try the eleventh floor, M'am" he said politely.

It then dawned upon the Englishmen that they had a good thing going here and in the following fifteen minutes they directed numerous ladies to the eleventh floor before taking the lift there themselves for a look- see. To their huge delight they found that things were going magnificently awry, for their ladies had walked into the middle of an all-male convention. Not all the ladies were there to attend the same ladies' convention, so the confusion was total. After a gleeful appraisal of their handiwork, Mike and Duncan walked innocently away." - p164

"Watching the race from above the BRM pits was his old schoolfriend, Bill Cotton who saw - and heard - Mike's reaction. "He threw his crash-hat across the pit and said, 'If I want to commit suicide I'll do it without your help, thank you very much indeed!' He then stormed out and went straight to the beer tent in the Paddock, where I joined him. 'That whole fucking car is an absolute time bomb!' He told me. He was livid!"" - p171

"The tyre problem clearly played on Peter's mind, as Ken Gregory remembers - "Peter and I shared a room at the Palace Hotel in Milan and two or three times during the night before the race I was woken up by his voice crying out 'The tyres! The tyres!!' As he thrashed unhappily through a nightmare. Just what mental torture he was going through at the time, I don't know, neither could he remember in the morning but, like the test of the Ferrari drivers, he was obviously terribly worried about tyre position'" - p194

'At the end of the 34th lap there occurred the most stirring things in this most exciting of races for many, many years. Peter Collins, lying in third place, came into the pits for a tyre inspection, and voluntarily handed over his car to Fangio - thereby giving up any possible chance he might have had of winning the World Championship. It was a truly generous action, and one which gives the lie to the cut-throat tactics which one or two people have alleged against motor racing.' - p195

'Despite this, Juan Manuel Fangio won the World Championship for the fourth time, thanks to the generosity of Peter Collins. "I was astonished when he handed over the car," he said afterwards, "but I did not stop to argue. In fact, Peter pushed me into it, although he still had a great chance to win the Championship himself at the time. I know how much that renunciation meant to him. This is one of the things that make a friendship really great. I do not know whether in his place I would have done the same. Collins was the gentleman driver.' - p195

'"It's too early for me to become World Champion - I'm too young." Was the 25 year old's reply, "I want to to on enjoying life and racing, but if I become World Champion now I would have all the obligations that come with it. And Fangio deserves it anyway!" - p195

'He told me, "If I'm good enough I'm automatically going to be number one, so I want to learn to be good enough," which I thought was a beautiful attitude," - p195

"Peter just loved to race," says Ken Gregory, "He did it for the sheer enjoyment it brought him. I don't think he was too concerned with money because he wasn't a big spender - he was very casual with it, really and didn't need an awful lot. He was a very popular character and was always being invited here, there and everywhere. He wasn't extravagant, he wasn't flash with cars - he had a Ford Zephyr and then I arranged for him to have one of the new Sunbeam Rapiers - and he didn't have a palatial residence anywhere. Money was not high on his list of priorities," - p197

'Peter....interestingly, he was certainly the most friendly of the three and probably the best personality, there was an absolute warmth just emanating from him. At the same time he was absolutely impossible where appointments were concerned. If you made a commitment for him you had your heart in your mouth, not knowing whether he would turn up - and frequently he didn't. On the other hand, he also had the ability to smooth ruffled feathers immediately with his charm, which was overwhelming.' - p198

"I was in the foyer, talking with Peter, who had just come back from Modena." Recalls Sir David, "Mike Hawthorn appeared with a beautiful girl on his arm and Peter rushed up to him and said, 'Mike - you must get on a plane and go to Modena. Ferrari wants another driver and you can be the captain of the team." Quite why Peter should offer Mike the 'captiancy' when he had already been given the position is hard to fathom. Nonetheless, Mike was on the phone to Modena the next day and on the following Monday he flew to Italt to talk with Enzo Ferrari. That brief conversation in the foyer of the Leicester Square Theater proved to be the starting point for the great friendship that grew up between Mike and Peter, a friendship that was soon to be adorned with the phrase, 'Mon Ami Mate." - p198

"It was while making his way there with Umberto Maglioli that he heard of his father's fatal car crash. Two days later, Basil Cardew ran a front-page story in The Daily Express revealing how - just hours before the crash - Leslie Hawthorn had spoken to him in the Goodwood Paddock and blamed himself for all of Mike's National Service troubles. "Will you help me about Mike?" He asked Cardew. "The boy is miserable and we have got to settle this call up trouble. Will you write an article in The Daily Express and let people know the whole story?" "Blame me for the mess," he went on, "I advised Mike all along from the time he was sixteen. The boy was always keen to do his National Service, but I have spent my life in racing - motorcycles in the TT and sports car races - and I thought his future lay in that direction, rather than driving lorries for the Army." - p203

"He used to come and stay with my family at Biella frequently," adds Maglioli, "He didn't go home to England because he didn't want to have to give up racing for two years and join the Army. He didn't like living on his own in Modena, so he came to us," - p204

"Mike put up with Italy because he had to in order to avoid the call up, but he badly missed his parents, the Members and the pubs. On his rare visits home he would make a bee-line for the Duke of Cambridge. "There's nothing like the green grass of England!" He would exclaim to Charlie and Marjorie Bishop as he supped his first of many pints for months, and for which he seldom, if ever, paid." - p204

"Peter's lifestyle and attitudes were somewhere in between those of Moss and Hawthorn. He loved parties and girls but was no great drinker, preferring wine with a meal (like moss) rather than downing great quantities of beer in a pub (like hawthorn)" - p211

"Mike was never his teammate (fangio) and they had no common language, so their friendship was very much at arms length, but the Englishman clearly thought the world of him and they enjoyed some unforgettable duels. Peter, on the other hand, had established a very strong rapport with him during their season together at Ferrari in 1956. By that time Fangio had a smattering of French (which Peter spoke fluently) and Peter was quick to learn some Spanish, so a genuine friendship grew up between them, one that was set in stone by the younger man's selfless behaviour in the Italian GP. And, along with everyone else, Juan Manuel came under the Collins spell and held him isn the same sort of paternal esteem as did Enzo Ferrari," - p216

"Stirling Moss had been writing for us (writing car reviews for the Sunday express) and when he left it was Harold Keeble, the Editor, who suggested that Mike should take his place. Mike agreed, with one stipulation - he had to have a slap-up meal with every test. I think his fee was £20 a week - a pittance! We used to pick up the test car at the Express building in Fleet Street and drive to Silverstone, occasionally putting in the report how long it took us to get there - fifty-seven minutes or thereabouts in a quick motor. Often we'd stop for lunch first, usually at The Bell at Aston Clinton, which was a very fine place to eat. We always started with oysters, caviar or snails (Mike was passionately fond of snails - the car used to reek of garlic afterwards), and we always had a bottle of Clos de Vougeot, a very fine wine. After lunch we'd go to Silverstone and belt the car round and then, as often as not we would sit and watch the Circuit Manager, Jimmy Brown, do a few laps in it. In the spring, Geoff Duke would often be there testing his motorbike and sometimes Mike would have a go. He would go crazy about motorbikes and would belt round with no leathers or helmet - no protection at all! In the summer, when we got bored with Silverstone we'd go to the seaside - always somewhere with a Big Dipper. Mike loved Big Dippers. He never knew what was in his Road Tests until he read the article, and next time we'd meet he'd say, 'That was a bloody silly thing I wrote last week, wasn't it?'" - p222

"Mike Hawthorn accompanied his great friend's beautiful, grieving widow back to England. At London Airport he bravely faced the Press and TV cameras and gave his eye-witness account of the crash, the tears running down his face, as The Daily Mail recorded.

"There was a little dip." he said, "We went into that. There was a sharp, short right-hand bend and Peter took it a little too wide and didn't turn into it soon enough. His car hit the bank and turned over. I don't know how fast he was driving. There was just a bunch of us. Tony Brooks was in front. Peter was second. As a driver he was the best, definitely. As a friend....he was my best friend, and that is it."

The Daily Express quoted him as saying, 'Pete and I raced as a team..... We were both chasing Tony Brooks, the eventual winner, and that was fair enough. The idea was to catch Tony and try to blow him up. But we were not racing against each other. I was just waiting behind Pete as he touched the bank."

'Hawthorn could hardly speak. He was asked, "Will you race again?" "If Ferrari wants me to I will. I am due to race in the Portuguese GP in two weeks, but personally I am not very interested." 'Massive, fair-haired Hawthorn crammed a handkerchief against his mouth. "Damn silly of me." he said, "So sorry...."

'He walked blindly along the corridor, took Louise Collins by the hand and drove away.'" - p227-228

Mike described the first part of the trip briefly in Challenge Me The Race:

We landed at Toussus le Noble, got a taxi into Paris, which cost about £3, and stayed the night with some friends. It was a late night as sometimes happens in Paris and we were late getting up next morning."

Well, yes and then again, no; for while this approximates the truth is far from being the whole truth, which is much more entertaining. Neil McNab spills the beans:

"Before we left I was severely lectured by Raymond Mays to the effect that on no account was Mike to be let loose in Paris, as BRM wanted him to be in condition to drive at Monaco. We landed near Paris and grabbed a cab to Fred Payne's bar in Rue Pigalle, where we immediately got stuck into champagne. "In those days, half-bottles of bubbly were about ten bob each and we got through an astronomical number. Fred's place was next to a brothel and there were always several tarts in the bar, having a drink and looking for business. The more we drank the better-looking they became and we got very pissed, eventually going next door with two of the girls, who were by now looking very good indeed. "A while later, Mike suddenly appeared in my room stark naked and said, 'I'm getting bloody bored with mine. Why don't we go and see what else is going on? We might find some better-looking girls than ours.' "We were both very big blokes and pretty fit, so we went into some of the other rooms to see if we were missing out on any good crumpet. We'd just lift the bloke off his tart, have a good look at her and drop him back on again. What a furore that started!" A furore, indeed. The brothel was full of Algerian workers out for a night of horizontal dancing and they were not amused at having their coitus so rudely interruptus by the two giant Englishmen, who were naked, rampant and not a pretty sight! There was, as the saying goes, uproar in the house, and Hawthorn and McNab were lucky to escape with all their bits and pieces still attached." - p229

"Because Rouen was a road circuit, practice started at 6 am and was over by 8, leaving the drivers with the rest of the day free. I had joined up with Peter and Louise and Mike suggested that we all go to Deauville, so we piled into the Gull, had a delicious lunch, wandered about a bit and then flew back. As we came towards Rouen Mike was chatting away merrily and I thought we were approaching the runway rather too fast for comfort. At the very last minute he suddenly zoomed up and away and did another circuit, roaring with laughter. 'This air speed indicator of mine is absolutely up the creek!' he said, 'I must try again." - p230

"Terrifying!" he recalls emphatically. "He (Mike) wasn't the greatest map reader in the world and he used to follow railway lines to where we were going. Once we set off for Le Mans and when we got to Salisbury he realised we'd followed the wrong line out of Woking! He was definitely a 'seat of the pants' flyer. He was a good pilot in that he had a feeling for the thing, but there was very little theory involved in his navigation."

When Mike joined Peter at Ferrari in 1957 he asked Ken Gregory to look after some of his racing interests where they blended with Peter's. When they were in England, the Scuderia would cable Ken's office and ask for one or both to go to Modena for some testing. Ron Smith recalls:

"I'd phone Pete in Kidderminster to tell him that he was wanted in Modena on Tuesday, or whenever, but he'd say,

'Oh, we're going to be on the boat in Dartmouth. Give is Mike a ring.'

"So I'd call Mike in Farnham and he would say, 'What's Pete doing?'

""He's on his boat.'"

"Well, what's Taffy doing?"

"I don't know what von Trips is doing. Ferrari has asked for one of you.'

"Eventually, one or both of them would set off in

Mike's Vega Gull and, as likely as not, after a couple of hours I'd get a phone call.

""We've had to jack it in at Lydd, Ron. Can you get us on a flight from London?'"

So much for navigation. And Neil McNab says that - having retired from the circuits, Mike was planning to take up air racing. The mind boggles........." - p230

"During 1956, Peter's personal transport was a Ford Zephyr, which sported a bumper sticker proclaiming, I LIKE GIRLS!". If nothing else, this should ensure Mr Collins a place in the Guinness Book of Records, under the heading, 'Great Understatements of our Time.'

Peter and Mike simply loved the company of ladies and pursued them constantly, with vigour and lustful intent. Both men had a great deal going for them in this endeavour, being undeniably handsome, charming and charismatic to a degree. Mike was 6ft 2ins, so blond he was almost albino and possessed of a 'bowl-`em-into- bed' smile which seems to have been inherited by Jack Nicholson. For his part Peter was slight, straw-blond and so full of devastating charm it should have been illegal. Just as important is the fact that they were blessed with the gift of laughter and doubtless tumbled many a lass, giggling, between the sheets" - p241

"Before he joined Ferrari, Mike shared a flat in Chelsea with his newly-married friends, Pat and Jill Hume- Kendall. "He had a room which must have been a larder, or something, originally, because it had no widow." recalls Jill. "He called it Little Hell and it saw a lot of action - he used to bring different girls back there all the time. When we moved to Neville Terrace in the summer of 1953, Mike would often stay with us when he was in England and by then our son had arrived. I was always trying to keep his hands off my au pairs - that was my prime occupation when he was around! He also had affairs with most of my friends, the unmarried ones anyway." - p241/242

"It was at the end of that year the Mike met the first of his serious girlfriends, Moi Kenward. "I was working for Michelin Tyres at the Earls Court Motor Show and one of the reps who knew Mike brought him onto the stand for a drink. I'd just finished my stint and was about to leave when he said, 'Where are you going?' I told him I was going home and he said, 'No, you're not you're going to come and have a drink with me.' No invitation - just an order! "We went back to my flat, where I changed. He made no attempt at a pass and then we went to a sherry bar near the Michelin Building in the Fulham Road. It was all terribly innocent and I didn't go to bed with Mike for a very long time, which surprised him. Eventually, he took me to see a French film, The Ripening Seed', which did the trick and he always used to tease me afterwards. I had to take you to a sexy French film before you would go to bed with me!' I remember nothing about the film, but I do remember that Mike bought tickets for the cheapest seats in the house and immediately marched me up to the most expensive ones! That was so typical of him." - p241

"At the end of 1954 he won the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona. I was terribly broke and living in a little flat in Earls Court. On the evening of the race I listened to the radio on the news and heard that he had won. I was so excited, but then I thought, I wonder if I heard correctly?' so I had to wait for the next news bulletin. My radio was plugged into the mains as were the lights and I had to put shillings in the meter. I was so short of money I turned out the lights and read a book by candle- light, to make sure I had enough electricity for the radio.

"Gregor Grant of Autosport told me that Mike didn't go to the post-race party as he was so anxious to fly back to me. He brought me a beautiful belt, which I still have. He was extremely generous in this respect and was always bringing me scarves and belts and things and later when he went off to a race he would as likely as not put £100 in my bank account before he left, which was a ■lot of money in those days."- p241

"On the other hand, he was incredibly jealous. When he was in hospital with his kidney problems I visited him constantly and whenever I popped out to the loo he would empty my handbag onto his bed and go through the contents. He had a key to my flat and I'd often find that he'd been through my chest of drawers and everything to see if I'd had a letter from some other man. He often said, 'If anyone else goes out with you I'll bloody well kill him!' and we weren't even engaged! And he would never introduce me to any of the other drivers because he was so jealous" - p242

"Robert Glenton (Mike's friend and ghost-writer on The Sunday Express) recalls that he was completely smitten by Cherry. "He seemed to take girls or leave them until she came along, but he lost a lot of sleep over her - he really became moon-struck. Cherry was Mike's great love. He really wanted to marry her and when Mike wanted something really badly he went at it like a bull at a gate. We were in the Steering Wheel Club at about 10 o'clock one night when he heard that she was going out with Peter Twiss, the test pilot whom she later married. I dropped him off at her mews flat and according to Cherry he broke the door down and they had a stand-up row. Mike was impossible and I can't imagine any girl being married to him - he was so overwhelming. When he fell in love he wore his heart on his sleeve." - p244

"He certainly had a million girlfriends when I knew him." says Cherry. "He was not what I would call the world's most faithful boyfriend and that must be putting it mildly. It was pretty heartbreaking at the time. Yet he was very puritan in many ways; he was a good, middle- class boy and he didn't really like too much hanky- panky. I remember him telling me that he and Fon de Portago once went out with two beautiful girls and just when Mike was wondering which of them was going to be his for the night, Fon announced that they were not going to participate, they were going to watch! Michael was not at all impressed.

"All men who have a lot of women are, basically, men's men. Michael loved his men friends and he loved going to the pub with the boys. He liked women for the other things they could give him, but he loved the company of men. He tried to be very sophisticated about women and was quite incapable of being faithful to any one of them. Even so, I am very pleased that I had my relationship with him when I did, when I was young and impressionable. I knew him at the height of his glamour and that was lovely. He was a golden star of a man." - p244

"The young drivers in question were, of course, Peter and Lance Macklin and HWM's Chief Mechanic, Frank Webb, recalls that, "Their first aim at every practice was to compare notes after a few laps - not on how the car was going, but what the birds were like on every corner. Once they had formed some sort of consensus, the chosen ones were in our pit within a quarter of an hour and from then on we didn't see a lot of them......." - p244

"Roy Salvadori, however, is more generous in his appraisal of Peter's lady friends. "They weren't terrible looking at all. He had one or two crackers, but more often than not they were unusual - attractive in a weird way. And it was never the same girl twiice running. He was a very attractive and popular guy - it wasn't that difficult to date Peter!" - p245

"I saw Collins with the girl in the passenger seat! I got him in the morning and said, 'How did you get on?' ""Fine,' he said. 'she was inexperienced but enthusiastic. We started off on the bed and finished up in the wardrobe!'- p245

"Tears don't come easy to Eleanora Herrera, 21 year- old heiress and member of one of Argentina's grandest families.' 'wrote Peter Hahn in The Daily Mirror 'But her eyes were brimming when she told me: PETER COLLINS JILTED ME." - p245

"Immediately after the wedding, Peter denied that he had jilted Eleanora, as she had claimed. 'The report is ridiculous.' he told the Daily Sketch. 'I was engaged to her but we decided to break it off. Our engagement was never made public. Neither was the break-off. I couldn't be more sorry Eleanora is so distressed, but its entirely wrong to say I jilted her. I can't believe she misunderstood me' - p246

"Mike's inability to pass by a pretty face got him into trouble on occasion, too. His friend Nick Syrett recalls one such incident.

"We'd been to the presentation of the Ferodo Trophy at the Dorchester Hotel in Mayfair and had arranged to meet a couple of girls at The Steering Wheel Club at 8 o'clock. By the time we left the Dorchester it was 8-50, so we set off down Park Lane on foot and where the Hilton Hotel now stands was then a gathering place for ladies of the night. We noticed one in particular who was absolutely astonishingly beautiful and as we walked by she said, 'Hallo darling - want to come home with me?'

"This, of course, was irresistible to Mike! I tried to get him to move on as we were now almost an hour late for our date, but he was having none of it and protracted negotiations began. The girl wanted £4 (then the going rate) for her services and Mike - tight-fisted as ever - tried to beat her down to £3. After a lot of haggling the deal was abandoned and we finally made it to The Steering Wheel, where our ladies gave us a pretty frosty reception, having been kept waiting so long.

"We had a couple of drinks and then walked back to the Dorchester to collect the car and go on somewhere for dinner. The aforementioned lady was still on her patch and as we approached she looked Mike's girl up and down, then looked at Mike and said, 'See what you get for three quid!'

"The temperature between Mike and his girlfriend was already pretty chilly, due to our lateness and it now became very frosty indeed as she demanded to know the meaning of that remark. Mike tried to laugh it off, but by the time we reached the restaurant the temperature was well below zero and I insisted that our table for four was changed to two tables for two! Throughout the meal Mike was making frantic 'help me!' signs, but I just let him get on with it. My date and I eventually joined him and his friend for coffee." - p246/247

"Mike's last serious romance began in the Spring of 1958, when he started going out with 21 year-old Jean Howarth, one of London's top fashion models who worked for Hardy Aimes and John Cavanagh, among others. "I'd known Mike on and off for a while," she recalls, "because I had a boyfriend who lived in Farnham and we used to meet Mike in the local pubs. Our relationship started to get serious at the Goodwood Easter Monday meeting. "Behind the scenes with his mask off he was a very nice, quiet, loving homebody. He wanted to marry, settle down and have a home and children of his own and he was emphatic that he was not going to be a married racing driver - that would not be fair on the girl, who was going to be me. When he wasn't racing he liked to get up late on a Sunday morning, go to the pub for a few drinks and then come home for Sunday lunch. Afterwards he would put his feet up in front of the fire and watch the telly." - p247

"He was a very sensitive man and could cry easily. He was shattered by Peter's death and that made up his mind to retire at the end of the season. But smaller tragedies upset him too. He had a boxer dog called Grogger and one day during the 1958 Motor Show (or just after) we were having a drink with some friends at the Barley Mow at Tilford when Mike gave someone a run in his Ferrari demonstrator, leaving Grogger with us. When he heard the car coming back, Grogger ran in front of it and was killed. Mike was very upset about that and cried a lot." - p247

"Mike had proposed to Jean while they were driving from London to Farnham in his Jaguar.

"He asked me to marry him and, of course, I said, 'Yes!' says Jean, remembering that joyful moment with absolute clarity. With equal clarity she recalls how Mike - always the great romantic - then lobbed a king-sized rock into his new fiancée's placid pool of happiness.

"Now tell me." he said, "Do you have any skeletons in your cupboard?"

"No." said Jean, puzzled, "Why?"

"Because I do. I have a four year-old son in France." - p247

"He (Mike's son Arnaud) had fleeting memories of meeting him (Mike) on a couple of occasions, and of meeting Mrs Hawthorn not long after Mike was killed - but her interest in her grandson did not, it seems, last very long. Arnaud had not heard from her since he was a small boy and did not know if she was still alive. I was able to tell him that she was, but would not talk to anyone about her son, let alone her grandson." - p252

"It must be said that the fact that the Tennis Club was (and still is) private does not mean that Mike would have needed an invitation. He might have required one, but needed it....? No. As his old drinking buddies, the Members, well recall, Mike was adept at inviting himself to parties. If he saw some pretty girls through a window and heard the sound of clinking glasses, he was quite capable of walking in off the street and joining in the fun, his tremendous charm and that dazzling smile obviating the need for the formality of an invitation. It is quite possible that he was invited to the soirée, but he was for a few more days, anyway - completely unknown to the average citizen of Reims and so hardly likely to be there as a celebrity." - p253

"Jacqueline was enormously attracted to Mike at once, and vice versa." says Monique. "They spent every single moment together and Mike invited us both to be his guests at the race on the following Sunday. We told him that we were already going, with our father, so we agreed to meet afterwards. Of course, we had not the slightest idea that he would win. When we got home from the Tennis Club Jacqueline was terribly excited about Mike and talked about him non-stop." - p253

"By this time Cherry Huggins was Mike's girlfriend. She had recently learned to fly and Mike asked her to bring his Fairchild Argus over to Reims for him, which she did. 'I remember that there was a lady about who had Mike's son.' She recalls, 'I thought it was very irresponsible of him and I gave him hell about it. By that time he certainly had some pretty strong paternal feelings towards the boy,'" - p255

"From 1956 he visited Jacqueline every time he raced in Reims. Arnaud remembers seeing his father briefly in his aunt's house behind the cathedral. "My mother wanted me to be there to say hallo, but I refused at first as I was busy playing with my toy cars. I also recall meeting Mike at the circuit behind the pits, probably in 1958, and my mother told me that we went to England once to see him. We had a ride in his Jaguar, but I don't remember anything about that." - p255

"Stirling Moss suggested that as he was going to Miami, he should look up an actress of his acquaintance while he was there.

"I had met Louise with Donald Healey during the Nassau Speed Week the previous December." says Stirling. "She was a very beautiful girl and great fun, so I told Peter he could find her at the Playhouse."

On Monday, February 4, Peter duly called Louise and arranged to meet her that evening in the bar after the show. Little did Stirling know that he was playing Cupid in what was about to become a great romance! Naturally, Louise recalls that meeting as if it were yesterday.

"When I walked into the bar, Peter was already there and talking to Bob Said, whom we both knew. He obviously thought that Peter and I knew each other, too, because no introductions were made. We had a drink and then Bob suggested we all go out to dinner, but Peter said he couldn't leave yet, as he had to meet someone. I found this puzzling, as I thought he was there to meet me. 'Who are you meeting?' I asked.

""Louise King.' he said.

""You're crazy - I'm Louise!'

'We got over that and went out to dinner.' The following Wednesday afternoon I went to the motel where Peter and Mastern were staying and we were all sitting by the pool - Masten on my right and Peter on my left - when Peter asked me to marry him! I said 'yes' and we made plans in a couple of minutes of whispering and Masten never heard a thing.'- p260

"On Tuesday morning, Masten was in Kansas driving to his bowling alley, when he heard on the car radio that Peter Collins had got married. He thought that was a hoot - Peter had been out with me the previous week and now had obviously married someone else. He was furious when he learned that he'd been right there when Peter proposed" - p261

"As events turned out," says Gregory, "he was absolutely right. The marriage was a very good thing and Louise was a great influence on him in many ways. She was of a similar temperament and personality, free as the wind, full of fun and a very good-looking girl! I think she had a sensuous aura which attracted Peter - she was a very compatible and equal force and together they formed an even better force." - p261

"Their marriage in Miami was a joyous occasion, but for Peter it was marred by the stoney silence that emanated from his home. It was very clear from that dreadful transatlantic phone call that his parents (and his father in particular) were very unhappy about the union, but naturally, Peter had hoped for a congratulatory cable, at least, on his big day, It never came" - p264

"For the first time in my life I am able to realize what it means to really have someone for whom I have so much love, respect and tenderness that I'm afraid of things that may in any way spoil the happiness that we have found together.

I know that when you both meet Louise you will realize that she is not only a wonderful person but also so obviously right for me and I for her and I am sure you will both come to love her, not as much as I do because I don't think that is possible, but as a new and very fine member of our family." (Peter Collins letter to his parents) - p264

"I would like to say now that there is nothing more in this world that I would have rather had at our wedding than you and Mum but, well, I only wish I could put into words how much Louise means to me and now, after one week together even more so, if that is possible." (Peter Collins letter to his parents) - p265

'Just two months later, Stirling announced his engagement to Katie Molson, saying, "Of course I realise this is a foolish time to get engaged because Peter Collins has just got married and released a flood of crumpet onto the market and now I can't do anything about it!" - p266

'The Caribbean island was in ferment, as Fidel Castro was leading his rebel forces against the government and causing all kinds of trouble, so the Principal drivers Fangio, Moss, Collins and Castellotti - were all assigned heavily-armed bodyguards, Castellotti being informed that they were to keep the women away.... Peter and Stirling shared the attentions of an amiable giant named Chico, whose English was as fluent as their Spanish. On their first night in Havana, they managed to give him the slip and went to a boxing match. They had just taken their seats when a number of Castro's friends began firing their guns into the roof and in the ensuing panic several people were crushed to death. Moss and Collins made it to safety and were glad of Chico's company from then on' - p266

'At that time Tavoni had been working as Enzo Ferrari's personal assistant for seven years, so Ferrari had absolute trust in him and this more than made up for his complete lack of any racing experience.

He also lacked a proper knowledge of English, which was, of course, the lingua franca of motor racing. Mike Hawthorn welcomed his old friend to Sebring and decided to help him out.

"Mike said, 'Romolo, you must learn English with me, listen - Rosie, Posie, Pinkey, Pink, Shitty, Farty, Poopie, Stink. Repeat, Romolo!'

"So I repeat and he said, 'Good, now you explain to this gentleman's wife.' But Phil Hill was there and he said, 'No, no, stop Ferma!' It was the wife of Mr Alec Ullmann, the head man of Sebring!"

Just one of Hawthorn's little jokes......' - p267

'Louise remembers that dinner for a remark de Portago made at one point. With hindsight, he might

have been dictating his own epitaph. "Life has to be lived to the full." said the Spanish nobleman, who always did just that. "It is better to be wholly alive for thirty years than half-dead for sixty." The next day he was 'wholly dead' at thirty-one.

"Portago was a fascinating character," says Louise, "but I didn't find him attractive in the way that I found Taffy von Trips, Olivier Gendebien and Jo Bonnier attractive. He always seemed rough and unkempt to me - scruffy. Yet he attracted all these unbelievably beautiful women available women and lots of supposedly unavailable women too! He really was extraordinary in the way he got in and out of bed with an amazing number of females without others knowing about it. That man was so busy with women I don't know how he had any time for racing." - p271

"Phil Hill recalls that while Mike called Peter 'Mon ami mate' almost as a matter of course, Peter used it less frequently. At one time on the Saturday afternoon, Mike surely must have said the words with a hard edge to his voice, for Peter crashed his car!

Mike had been dissatisfied with the steering of his Ferrari on the Friday, so it was changed overnight. On the Saturday afternoon he found that the change made a marked improvement, but he was still not happy with the car's performance and asked Peter to have a go in it. 'Mon ami mate' promptly stuffed it at the chicane, piling head-on into a bollard on the very edge of the harbour and coming within an ace of emulating Alberto Ascari's diving exhibition of 1955. Mike was distinctly unchuffed at this, because that was his special, long chassis car and, clearly, it could not be repaired in time for the race.' - p278

'Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips was a handsome, charming, 29 year-old Count whose film biography - had it ever been made - could only have starred Robert Redford, who bears him a striking likeness. He started racing in 1950 and proved to be very fast, but wild, having numerous accidents. After a spell with the Mercedes sports car team in 1955, he drove for Porsche for most of '56 until invited to share a Ferrari with Peter Collins in the Swedish sports car GP at the end of the year. The two quickly became great friends and it was Peter who gave von Trips the nickname Taffy, "Because you look like a Taffy.' What the young German made of this irrefutable Collins logic is not on record, but the name stuck and Taffy von Trips went on to become a very popular member of the Ferrari team.

He lived with his parents in their ancestral home Wasserschloss Burg Hemmersbach in Horrem, not far from Cologne and, as he was back on his feet after his Nürburgring crash, Peter and Louise invited him out.

"He joined us for dinner with a beard!! Which makes him look about a million years old.'wrote Louise to her parents. 'He is feeling quite well but has to wear a big plaster cast all round his middle for about two more weeks. The beard came from lying flat on his back for a while and everyone tells him how terrible it is so it shall probably be removed shortly.

After dinner he took us to his house and showed us the films he took on his trip to the Americas this winter. We spent the night there and the next day met the family and took a look around the house and grounds. His home is a huge affair surrounded by two moats and parks, gardens, etc. During the war all the furniture and everything of value was stolen so its still in rather sad shape, but they've fixed up part of it to make it quite pleasant. Now we're at the Nürburgring again and getting back to our "routine weekends"!!' - p293

"He loved cottage pie, mince-meat, rissoles - never anything fancy," said Marge. "He used to sit with his knife and fork in his hands and say, 'flying start, Marge' and I would just put the plate in front of him and off he would go. Whenever he went abroad to race he would say, 'I'll be back on Monday for roast beef and Yorkshire pud.' He hated to be away for long' On rare weekends when he wasn't racing he would get together with Nick Syrett, who lived locally (and who would become Secretary of the British Racing and Sports Car Club in 1958). 'We had a Saturday routine." says Nick. "I would pick him up at the garage, we'd go to The Bush for a couple of pints and then on to Deeley's café in West Street for sausage, egg, chips and baked beans. Deeley's was a real 'greasy spoon' run by a Mr Wackett and Mike used to bring him matchbox labels from all over the world.

"After lunch we'd go to the cinema, irrespective of what was showing and then it would be back to the Duke of Cambridge for a few pints and a game of darts while we decided what we were going to do in the evening. Mike kept on devising these new games of darts which nobody but he understood. That was the whole idea, because it meant that he always won!" - p297

'Peter is now going through a change of life, or something, because he is talking more and more about stopping racing and building houses and raising little Peters and Louises. We've been searching the American housing magazines like mad and cutting out things, etc. I think we want to build a modern American-type house near Peter's home (and that's unheard of here). We have a piece of land about three minutes walking distance from Shatterford Grange that's on top of a hill, with a view both ways that goes for miles and miles.' Louise letters - p298

'It was an eventful journey. They arrived over Milan to find it covered in thick fog, so the plane was diverted to Turin, where they had to wait nearly three hours for a coach to take them to Milan. The coach driver clearly had something of the Kamikaze in him, for he kept trying to overtake huge lorries in the fog, which frightened the life out of Ken and Mike (one of the world's worst passengers).

After a death-defying trip they arrived in Milan to find there was no transport to take them to the railway station, where they were to catch a train to Modena. After walking a fair distance with their luggage, Mike spotted a taxi outside an hotel. They leapt inside, only to find that it had arrived to collect one of the hotel's guests. As they got out, Mike revealed that his years with Ferrari had taught him enough Italian to be able to question the taxi driver's parentage. The taxi driver replied in the same vein and Mike was all set to indulge in some serious fisticuffs until the driver produced his car's starting handle and the engine was already running.... Mike and Ken continued their walk to the station, eventually arriving in Modena just before midnight.' - p300

'Mike left the circuit early, to avoid the rush and - more important - to enjoy a couple of beers at a bar Ivor had found. Later, Mike returned to the motel where he, Peter and Louise, Taffy von Trips and Wolfgang Seidel were staying. He walked into the Collins' room and, finding that Louise had just run a hot bath for her tired, but victorious husband, stepped into it.

"He didn't say a word." remembers Louise. "He just got in, fully clothed and I'll never forget the sight of him lying there, tired and dusty, his clothes ballooning around him and his bow tie askew, as usual.

"He hadn't noticed that Paul O'Shea's wife, Robin, was with us. She burst out laughing and went into the bathroom to tease him. He pulled her down to him for a kiss and turned the shower on at the same time. She got completely soaked! Then Mike got out, carefully negotiated his way around the furniture and squelched out of the room. And he still hadn't said a word!" - p305

'A furious Hawthorn set off to walk back to the pits, only to be diverted by the sight of a beautiful blonde looking out of a window of the Station Hotel. Never one to miss such an opportunity, he asked her for a drink of water and she invited him in, so he clambered through the window, later returning to the pits in a much happier frame of mind' - p310

'Monaco marked the first anniversary of 'mon ami mate' and Mike and Peter continued to read the Four D Jones strip in The Daily Express avidly. Over the past year their friendship had become very close and an acknowledged feature of the racing circus, but what brought it about? In some respects it was clearly the attraction of opposites, for although both were bright, fun-loving personalities, Mike was very much the extrovert, who could be brash, loud and bloody rude when he felt like it, whereas Peter was somewhat introverted - quiet and with a much gentler character.

As their team-mate in 1957-58, Phil Hill became a close friend of both. "Peter was a great guy and always very helpful and friendly to me when I first joined the Scuderia in 1956, although our friendship had started in Argentina in 1954. I felt that he was a better-adjusted person than Mike, who seemed to have a defence mechanism built into his personality that Peter didn't have at all. He didn't find it as easy as Peter to open up to someone he felt he might be able to be friendly with. He wasn't nearly so approachable and he had a real temper! Mike could get really pissed off by something and become angry and irrational and darn near get physical. I remember leaving Monza one time and we were on the grass, driving past a line of stationary cars and there was an old lady on a bike in front of us and she just would not get out of the way. This infuriated Mike, so he gave her a push and she fell in a heap. She wasn't hurt and we drove on. Mike often got away with things like that." - p310

'The constant travelling meant that we were living in hotels, so our room became a home away from home for Peter and me, and for Mike, too. We had a refuge that he also enjoyed, so he would come and sit with us and he and Peter would get stuck into the endless supply of mystery paperbacks they had bought in Reims in 1957.

I became the den mother, constantly making tea for them, doing their ironing and sewing on buttons while they read their books. Occasionally I would cook for them, so I would be sent out to do the shopping. When we were in England or Europe I always had to buy The Daily Express, so they could catch up on Four D Jones. They called each other 'mon ami mate' and I became 'mon ami matess'.

"Their friendship never imposed on our marriage. Peter and I were really fantastically close, there was this tremendous bond between us and in the eighteen months we had together I don't remember anyone - certainly not Mike-interrupting that bond. The love we had for each other was so terrific and we were so close - physically all the time that no-one could come between us. It was not as if Peter went off to work every day.

"The three of us had a very nice, easy relationship. Mike was dear and we really enjoyed being together. His rudery was never directed at us usually at someone who got him a little off-base. He was boisterous and always funny, like the time when he climbed fully- clothed into the bath I had just run for Peter. I'm sure - that was just his way of releasing the tension of racing, which none of the boys ever wanted to talk about.

"Mike was always being pursued by various females and, of course, he did a fair amount of pursuing himself. When Peter and I were on 'Mipooka' in Monte Carlo harbour, Peter would often point out a pretty girl on the quay, saying, 'Don't you think Mike would fancy her?" For his part, if Mike met a girl he thought an old married couple like us would approve of he would introduce her, but if he found someone he thought we wouldn't like, he would go to enormous trouble to avoid us!

"I think our marriage made the relationship between Peter and Mike even closer than it would have been otherwise, because I was always there and I did accept Mike as Peter's very best friend. It was good for me, too, because I didn't have any close girlfriends during that time. I never got to know Katie Moss well at all, we were in different camps, but Harry Schell's wife, Monique, became a good friend. In the Ferrari team I was surrounded by delightful fellas like Phil and Taffy and Olivier, but next to Peter my closest relationship was with Mike, although he was never my confidant - I would never speak to him about a personal matter 1 wouldn't discuss with Peter." - p310

'Roy Salvadori liked both men enormously, but in his opinion, "They were possibly the worst pair of drivers Ferrari ever had! They were so friendly they weren't doing their best for the team. You used to see them following each other around, taking it in turns to lead, or tackle somebody, and you won't get results that way in Grand Prix racing. Can you imagine Peter sticking his neck out to beat Mike? It never happened, because it didn't matter to him whether he was quicker than Mike in practice or the race. They were so friendly they wanted to share everything, so they never pushed each other.' - p310/311

'The most important thing about Peter was that he had such an engaging personality. He could be infuriating, but it was literally impossible (even for me) to be annoyed with him for long. He could get away with anything just by turning on the charm, which never seemed to be forced or insincere. It seemed to illuminate everything he did and I never met anyone who was impervious to it." - p317

'By the time Peter arrived in Modena, Dino was also suffering from nephritis and his life was slipping away. Peter went to see him and the two young men born scarcely a couple of months apart formed an immediate rapport, as Romolo Tavoni testifies.

"Peter was a very good friend for Dino, because he was very sympathetic and understanding. Dino would say, 'Peter - are you going to the movies tonight?'

'No. I will stay here with you. Why?'

'Because if you go to the movies, tomorrow morning you can tell me all about it. I cannot get out of bed. I am like a small bird in a big cage.'

"So Peter would go to the cinema and the next day he would describe to Dino the movie he had seen. Naturally, this kindness created a very good impression with Enzo Ferrari and the Signora, although Peter did not do it for this reason." - p318

'At the end of June, Dino died. Enzo Ferrari and Laura were devastated, but at the same time they seemed to find in Peter a surrogate son and lavished kindness and affection upon him. Dino had had the use of a flat above the Ristorante Cavallino and not long after his death Ferrari insisted that Peter leave the Reale Hotel and move in. It is said that Signora Ferrari often made his breakfast and even took care of his laundry on occasion.' - p318

'"I got the distinct impression that the Old Man was looking to Peter to replace Dino in a sense - in an emotional rather than a family way. Peter learned to speak Italian well and often joined Ferrari for meals. He had arrived on the scene almost at the moment of Ferrari's greatest grief and I think the Old Man liked the fact that he was probably the least serious of all the drivers he ever had. He had this wonderful boyish, infectious sense of humour and he was always laughing. Ferrari was clearly very fond of him and they had a very good relationship." - p318

'Bernard Cahier is even more emphatic. "Ferrari fell in love with Peter and after Dino died he looked upon him as a second son. Peter enjoyed this relationship and spent much of his time at Maranello, but when he married Louise the Old Man became very jealous - he didn't like drivers' wives or girlfriends around at the best of times. A few years ago he told me that Peter was his favourite driver of all, but added, He would have had a wonderful career had it not been for that donna - that woman!"

Jabby Crombac has the same impression. "When Peter first went to Ferrari he was the darling of Enzo and his wife, Laura and when Dino died, Peter became the son they had lost, but when he married Louise, the climate changed immediately." - p318

'Throughout that year, whenever they were in Modena the Collinses would dine frequently with the Ferraris and Peter would spend a great deal of time with the Old Man. "They were certainly parental figures in both our lives." says Louise. "It is said that Ferrari didn't like it when Peter and I got married, but he never showed it to me. They were both very kind and always showed great warmth towards me."

Due to her lack of Italian, Louise's relationship with the Ferraris hardly extended beyond smiles, nods and gestures, but Peter arguably got closer to Enzo than any other driver, before or since. This intimacy brought fourth a remarkable result late in 1957, shortly before the Italian Grand Prix.' - p319

'Peter decided it was time to put their special relationship to the test. He went to see the Old Man and gave him a severe talking to.

"He felt that the root cause of Ferrari's unhappiness was the loss of Dino." says Louise. "He told him that he had done enough mourning; that he should stop living in the past (which he never did otherwise) and that he should pay attention to the racing programme and get it going again.

"Ferrari just sat there and said nothing, and I remember Peter coming back to me looking very worried. 'I don't think he'll ever speak to me again.' he said, 'I'm probably out of a job!"

What happened next astonished Peter and Louise. Ferrari summoned them both to his office, where he thanked Peter profusely for his advice and then made them a remarkable offer, as Louise excitedly informed her parents a few days later.

Ferrari has decided that he would keep us in Modena more if we had a nice place to live, so he has given us his villa near the factory at Maranello to use for as long as we want, They haven't lived in it since the war, so the day before yesterday we opened it up and started to clean the place. Its quite modern and we're thrilled to death with it. All we had to do was to open the windows and peasant-type people came screaming in to help. Peter has been getting some exercise getting weeds out of the driveway and I'm working miracles with soap and water inside. On the first floor we have two big rooms and a huge hall - both with marble floors - a small john and kitchen, and on the second floor three bedrooms, very big modern bathroom, a small room which will be a bar and a balcony that runs the full length of the house.' - p320

'Peter and Louise were in for another surprise. Enzo and Laura Ferrari arrived and presented Louise with a big three-diamond ring! 'We're still not quite sure why they gave it to me,' she wrote to her parents, 'but believe me, they got thanked good and proper. WOW!' - p320

'for a couple of weeks later Peter and Louise closed up the villa in Maranello and moved on board their new boat in Monte Carlo harbour.

That move was the beginning of the end of the special relationship. "Ferrari actually became jealous because Peter had escaped his clutches." recalls Jabby Crombac. "By leaving Maranello, Peter had deserted the family. He had become a traitor!"

So why did Peter leave? "He had become unhappy living under the Ferrari yoke at Modena." says Phil Hill.

"No matter who you were, when you lived there you had to toe the Ferrari line and like so many other people Peter became uncomfortable at always having to please Ferrari - for everything to have to go his way. Ferrari did everything he could to make Louise and Peter happy in that little house down the road from Maranello. He felt good having Peter nearby and he was not at all pleased when they went to live in Monte Carlo," - p320

'On their return from Le Mans, Peter and Louise stayed overnight at the Frensham Ponds Hotel, near Farnham, and spent some time with Mike and his mother in their house at Folley Hill, before heading North for Kidderminster. "The funny thing about that" says Louise, "was that Mike had complained bitterly about there being no headroom for him on our boat in Monte Carlo, yet in his own home he had to duck through every doorway!" - p321

'Peter was very upset about being dropped from the Grand Prix and that evening there was a pretty heated meeting between himself, Mike, Tavoni and Ken Gregory in the Collinses hotel suite at the Lion d'Or. "Mike took full blame for wrecking the clutch at Le Mans," says Ken, "but I was never sure that Tavoni believed him. Eventually, we persuaded Tavoni to talk to Ferrari on Peter's behalf and he phoned him the next day, with the result that Peter got his drive in the Grand Prix, as well as doing the F2 race." - p325

'Tony Rudd was there with BRM and he recalls having lunch at the Lion d'Or with Harry Schell. "He told me that he was going to have a good steak and a bottle of Beaujolais, then he was going to take his wife, Monique to bed for one of the best experiences of her life! During the meal, Mike Hawthorn passed by and whispered to me "Keep him talking!" Later, I learned that when Harry and Monique got to their room they found that absolutely everything had been removed, there was just a large vase of flowers in the middle of the floor. Then they found that they had been locked in.

"Harry kicked up such a spectacular row that next day the perpetrators carried his little Vespa car in off the street and up the stairs to the card room on the second floor, where they left it with a 'For sale' sign on top" - p325

'Despite the tragedy, the Grand Prix circus carried on as usual. That night Tony Rudd walked into everyone's favourite watering hole, Bridget's Bar, to be greeted by Mike.

""Glad you've come.' he said, and proceeded to wind a hosepipe round and round my waist before sticking the nozzle down my trousers. I managed to remove it just before he turned the water on!" - p326

'For his part, Peter apparently resolved to help Mike all he could in his quest for the Championship, as Sir David Brown recalls. 'Peter and Louise came aboard my boat in Monte Carlo several times before the British Grand Prix and I remember a discussion when Peter suggested that instead of hanging back and driving to finish at Silverstone, he should go flat out and tempt the opposition to chase him and blow up. He would either blow up, too, or slow down and allow Mike to go through and win. He asked me what I thought and I said, 'Its all right if it works.', but it didn't work. He led from the start, but his car did not blow up and he won!" - p327

'The Collins family returned joyously to Shatterford Grange, taking with them Tony Brooks and his fiancée, Pina Resegotti, whom he had met when the Aston Martin team was racing at Rouen in 1956. Peter booked them into a nearby hotel and was astonished when Tony asked for separate rooms. Pina laughs at the memory. "He was so impressed by that. To think that there were still some people who did not sleep together before they were married! He joked about it almost in amazement but in a very nice way. He respected our decision, although he obviously thought we were crazy. Peter had such tremendous charm and savoir faire. That weekend he spent some time trying to persuade Tony to join Ferrari - 'You will fit in so well with Mike and me.'" - p329

"Racing weekends in general were very social," recalls Louise "and when we went to the hotel lobby or restaurant it was always a time of high energy. Mike spent a great deal of time with us and I can't remember the first occasion I woke up to find him in our bedroom, looking down on Peter and me saying, 'Where's the tea?' Invariably he would join us for breakfast and he and Peter would bully me - there was never enough tea and while I was ringing Room Service for more they would drink up all the milk." - p333

'Meanwhile back at the start and finish area the racing fraternity was in a fearful state of uncertainty, as American journalist Denise McCluggage recalled in Auto Week:

'We didn't hear anything. We didn't know anything. There had been a helicopter, we were told. They had taken Peter to Bonn. And time stretched on.

'I don't remember whose room we were in at the Sporthotel under the stands, nor exactly who was there. Eight or ten others. We were waiting an understood but acknowledged waiting. Anyone close to racing is familiar with it. And in the meantime we talked and laughed. I was cutting Jo Bonnier's hair.

'Jo and I were the only ones facing the open door and we saw Mike first and froze and then everyone else turned and froze.

Mike Hawthorn was big and square-jawed and fair- haired. So fair. One of those English schoolboy faces that said "Goodbye, Mr Chips." to Robert Donat. He was still in his driving clothes - his dirty white pants, his green battle-jacket. His face was streaked. And tired.

'He didn't have to say anything. Slowly in his hands he turned a shattered brown crash hat we all recognised as Peter's.'

Mike went to his room and packed his belongings. He was then told by Artur Keser of Mercedes that Peter was seriously hurt and had been flown to Bonn. He packed Peter's and Louise's things and then, with Harry Schell, set out for the hospital in the Mercedes Peter and Harry had hired at the airport a couple of days earlier.' - p336

"They wanted to see Peter, so I went to the Reception and said, 'I am Tavoni of Ferrari and I want to see Peter Collins, who has been brought here by helicopter.'

"But you will see a dead man!' said the receptionist.

"I told her his wife is here and she wants to see him."

Louise was adamant. "I needed to see him, otherwise I wasn't going to believe he was dead." she says. "I think Mike and I probably still had a strong feeling that it was all a mistake. I remember going into the room and he was on a table of sorts. I just saw one foot and it was absolutely white. It could have been anyone's foot, but I finally knew. I didn't need to see anything else."

Tavoni remembers vividly that "The doctor pulled back the sheet and there was Peter, like he was asleep. Mike took one look, turned and went out into the corridor, where he leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor. He just sat there, saying nothing. I looked at Peter. There was a bruise on one arm and the skin at the back of his neck was very red, but that was all." - p336

"There were hundreds of people waiting to see us get off the plane." remembers Louise. "The observation platform at Heathrow was absolutely packed and the Press were everywhere. There was a special Press reception area and when Mike and I walked in it was like going through a tunnel of people. Mike spoke to them briefly and then someone produced a car for us and we drove up to Kidderminster. When we got there we were in such a state that we couldn't remember how to get to Shatterford, so we found The Black Boy at Bewdley and Alistair Wilson looked after us."

"They arrived here at about 7 pm in Mike's Jaguar." recalls Alistair. "Louise was in a bit of a state and stayed outside the pub having a couple of brandies. As Pat and Elaine were still on their way back from Dartmouth, she had arranged to pick up some keys for Shatterford Grange from the Lodge to the house, but neither she nor Mike could remember how to get to Shatterford from Bewdley. I led them over in my car and once they had got the keys I left them there to wait for the others." - p337

'Mike was absolutely shattered by the death of 'mon ami mate'.

"It really floored him." says Bill Morgan, who was still running the TT Garage with Mrs Hawthorn. "He talked about it frequently in the following weeks and it affected him very badly - he nearly finished with racing right there and then. On more than one occasion he sat with me in the office and said, 'Bill, I'm giving up. I'm getting the twitch."

He said much the same thing to Jill Hume-Kendall.

"He was in floods of tears and very shaky about the whole thing. He wasn't at all sure that he could go on racing." - p338

'I have never seen Ferrari as upset as he is now over Peter's death. He said that since his own son died he regarded Peter as his son and wanted to give us the villa and to give Peter part of the Ferrari factory. He was so much like Peter's father with so many plans for his future and now all that is just finished. Well, its wonderful that Peter did have that marvellous relationship with Ferrari.' - p338

'Mike decided to continue racing, feeling a deep obligation towards Peter, who had been trying so hard to help him win the title. His earlier decision to retire at the end of the year, however, was now set in stone as a result of Peter's death.' - p339

'The evidence that cleared Mike came, remarkably, from his great rival Stirling Moss.

"I spoke up for Mike because it looked as though they might disqualify him and I didn't want to win the Championship by default. I had seen him stall the car and I told him to go down the hill and re-start. But he wasn't on the circuit - he was on the escape road, so there was no question of him going against the traffic and I felt that he should not be disqualified.

"It cost me the Championship, but so what? It depends on which way you want to win it. I liked Mike so I volunteered the information. If it had been someone else I might have waited to see if I was asked." - p340

'Mike was staying at the Palace Hotel, in Milan, as was Louise, who realised with a jolt that the great friendship she and Peter had shared with him was virtually over. "With Peter gone, his attitude towards me changed completely." she says. "It was probably the simple fact that we were not three anymore. I went to his room on the morning of the race and we had tea together. It was a mistake. Later, we went to the circuit with some friends of his and after the race I saw him only very briefly before he was gone."

The friends were Michael and Noreen Irving Swift, who lived near Mike in Farnham and were holidaying in Italy, having arranged to go to the race with him. "When we arrived at the Palace Hotel it was about mid- day and he was still in bed." says Michael. "He wasn't looking forward to the race at all the Championship was really getting to him. Eventually five of us set off for Monza - Mike, Jack Dunfee, my wife and I and Louise. We all piled into Mike's Lancia Aurelia, which had no brakes as such, so it was quite a ride. Louise was holding together quite well in the circumstances, for not only was this her first race since Peter's death, but certain charming sections of the Press were trying to make out that she and Mike were having and affair, which was nonsense." - p343

'A week or so later, he took his girlfriend Jean Howarth to Paris, where he first admired the curves of the cars at the Salon and later those of the girls at the Saloon (Crazy Horse).

"There was one who did a reverse strip-tease." says Jean. "Mike found that very interesting! It was a great relief for him to get away from England for a few days. The long gap between the races made him very nervous and people would keep asking him silly questions about the Championship."' - p346

'Previously he had never come to my bedroom the night before a race, but he did in Casablanca. Most unlike Michael!' - p347

"You did it, you old so-and-so." said the gallant loser, who must have been bitterly disappointed to have won four races and still failed to secure the title.

An ecstatic Romolo Tavoni clapped Mike on the back.

"Next year we will do it again."

"I won't be racing next year." said Mike, "I'm going to retire."

Tavoni didn't believe him.

For the man who had just become World Champion, Mike was decidedly lacking in excitement immediately after the race. "He was quite strange - he didn't want to know anyone." says Jean Howarth. "He walked me away from the circuit with everyone trying to get him back. He just wanted to get to the hotel for some peace and quiet and he was worried about Stuart Lewis- Evans, for the news of him was not good. And Olivier Gendebien had had a big accident, too." - p348

'What should have been a glorious day of victory for Mike ended in a pretty downbeat manner, with everyone deeply concerned about the condition of the very popular Stuart Lewis-Evans. Mike, Jean and some friends decided to have a couple of drinks in their hotel room before turning in, but then Ralph Martin of Shell arrived and suggested they all go to a nearby night club and join up with John Cooper, Roy Salvadori, Graham Hill and Cliff Allison.

They went, but not before Mike had sent a cable to Louise, who was playing in 'Romanoff and Juliet' at the National Theatre in Washington, DC. Deeply conscious of the part Peter had played in his success, Mike gave Louise the good news:

'WE HAVE DONE IT MON AMI MATESS. WILL WRITE SOON. LOVE MON AMI MATE. MICHAEL.' - p348

"He walked into a wall of something he never expected all the fuss that went with the title. His idea of the end of season was to go splashing about in the mud on his motor bike, chasing girls and drinking in pubs, but now he was virtually under arrest from the time he became World Champion. He didn't have a moment to himself and he had no agent, no organisation to deal with it." - p349

'Mike and Jean spent Christmas with Mrs Hawthorn at Green Fields, on Folley Hill. It was not the most enjoyable of Christmas Days for Mike, as his kidneys were giving him considerable pain and he spent the day in bed. He recovered in time to spend New Year's Eve with Jean at nearby Wanborough Manor, but New Year's Day brought him something of a slap in the face Britain's first World Champion was not included in the New Year's Honours List! Nor was Tony Vandervell, whose Vanwalls had done so much for Britain's prestige and had won the Constructors' title. However, Stirling Moss, who had not won the World Championship, was awarded the Order of the British Empire.

The racing world was delighted for Stirling, who thoroughly deserved his honour, but the omission of Mike Hawthorn and Tony Vandervell from the list seemed like a calculated snub by someone. Nick Syrett phoned his friend to commiserate.

"I see your mate won the OBE, then." he said, with some sarcasm.

"Yes," said Mike, "Order of the Bald Ead."

And that was the end of that conversation.' - p352

"When Mike asked my father's permission to marry me he had not - understandably - said anything about his illegitimate son in France." says Jean. "I went home to explain that situation and the following weekend Mike was going to Paris to see his French lawyer and make some kind of settlement on the boy." - p353

"I'd been staying with Peter's parents at Shatterford Grange, and on my way to London I stopped and called Mike to confirm the time of our date at the Westbury. He sounded marvellous and said he would meet me at 3 o'clock. I'd hardly seen him at all since Peter died, so I was really looking forward to that afternoon." - p354

'Mr James Marks saw the crash from his house. He told The Daily Express; 'When the two cars passed me they were going at such a speed I knew something must happen at the bends they were approaching. They were neck and neck as they went by my house. I opened the window to watch. The Jaguar, approaching the bend, just could not get far enough over to the far side to negotiate it. It shot across the road and ended in a ditch.' - p354

"The car was on its side, wrapped around a tree....Hawthorn was barely breathing. He had no pulse. He was deeply unconscious. He possibly breathed twice, but it was too late to do anything." - p355

'John Coombs also called Bill Morgan at the TT Garage.

"He told me that Mike had had a spill and would I come down straightaway. I went to find Mrs H and we joked about it. 'Hope he hasn't done any damage. Then Coombs called again and said, 'Don't come here, they've taken him to the Guildford Hospital.' When we arrived there, someone came out to meet us and before he could say a word, Mrs H said, 'My son is dead, isn't he?'" - p355

'Not long after the funeral the surgeon who had operated on Mike in 1954 wrote to Bill Morgan to say that while his death was very sad, it was really for the best. He had died in an instant and without suffering, whereas had he lived it would have only been for another year or eighteen months, as his kidneys were deteriorating rapidly and would have caused him a great deal of unpleasantness before they failed completely. Their condition was incurable. Duncan Hamilton was told the same story by the man who had conducted Mike's autopsy.' - p359

[theamityelf]

Speaking of underrated Yandere characters... what about Makoto? What would he be like as a Yandere? Can we even yan-ify the lad? I imagine the amount of power he has as Ultimate Hope (if this is post-everything) could be wielded in a real scary fashion... but at the same time, Makoto has so little malice in his body I'm really struggling to think of actual harmful yan-yan activities he could do that wouldn't just make me want to pinch his cheeks and go, "You're adorable!" ....Maybe that's a skill issue on my side, though. Since I find everything Makoto does to be babygirl

OKAY, let's do this. 🤩

As you've kind of observed, this needs to be divided into Pre-Tragedy Yandere Makoto vs. Post-THH Yandere Makoto. (There's a gap in there, between the Tragedy and the end of THH, because anything he does as a yandere while locked in Hope's Peak would be less interesting and so I'm ignoring that time period.)

I'm trying to keep this as in-character as possible, so I should say, before I begin, that it's also possible to go a "Makoto's canon personality is a front to cover his creepy yandere side" route, instead. That just wasn't my choice for this post. There are a lot of ways to go with this, and I'm kind of zeroing in on one interpretation.

(You can read this as x Reader; the best canon character to use as the darling for this is probably Hajime or some other non-Ultimate character.)

Pre-Tragedy Yandere Makoto: The yandere side doesn't kick in until they're in an established relationship. Makoto is pretty great at pining and having unrequited feelings for people; pre-Tragedy, I'm willing to say there's a generous off-ramp where the person doesn't return Makoto's feelings and nothing comes of it.

Pre-Tragedy Yandere Makoto, the trap only closes if he starts to date the person or get close to them in a way that is understood to be romantic, at which point his behavior is...extremely considerate. Or I should say, extremely thoughtful; considerate implies there are robust boundaries.

It's like, he's constantly giving his darling things they'll like, or things that remind him of them.

He of course doesn't announce to his classmates that he's dating someone; they notice the change in indirect ways (since he still doesn't talk about himself or his life that much). They notice he's often in a noticeably good mood, and he's often going above and beyond to accommodate his darling's needs. (The more true this is, the worse it'll be later.)

If his darling likes a certain musician, he's finding a way to get them sold-out concert tickets. (Maybe it's Ibuki's old group, and he has to do her homework for a week to get her to call them to get him tickets.) If his darling is home sick from school, he's making sure he has their notes for the day and doing favors for Teruteru to get them some soup and just generally, the vibe is, "Wow, Makoto really likes this person; he's going all out. They're so lucky. He's so great."

So, if the person ever tries to break up, some of Makoto's less scrupulous friends are going to be a serious obstacle.

Something like, Byakuya ordering them to take Makoto back, like, "His birthday is coming up, I didn't know what to get him, so I bought the bank that owns your house. Take him back, or I'll evict you."

Kyoko doesn't blackmail them, but she does some standard detective-ish stalking, enough to be like (if it's Hajime), "I wondered why you would break up with him, but then I found this [Kamukura Project signup sheet]. Needless to say, I think he'd like to know that the reason wasn't anything to do with him. I'll be taking this with me."

Mondo not explicitly threatening them but cornering them and asking a bunch of questions. "So, what gives? There's no way he fvckin' cheated; he was practically doodling your name in hearts 'n sh!t. So what's the problem?" (And Fuyuhiko might pull a similar thing. Makoto makes a lot of friends.)

If his darling tells him what his friends are doing on his behalf, he'll just smile sheepishly like, "Oh, sorry about that," and do nothing to stop them. He didn't tell them to do any of it, because he doesn't have to, and he kind of knows that and lowkey uses it.

Post-THH Yandere Makoto: Post-THH, the opt-out isn't there; if he's spending enough time with someone to develop feelings for them, his friends notice the change in his mood and that's pretty much a wrap, whether they start dating or not. "You can't leave. I haven't seen him this happy since before the killing game." "With everything the world is taking from him, he deserves one thing."

In either case, he's a very persuasive yandere. It's easy to explain away any clinginess or off behavior he shows. Anything he does personally (as in, not via being-sad-around-his-friends), he does for a reason. His yandere self is a weird parody of normalcy, where keeping tabs on the person he loves makes sense for a lot of reasons that seem obvious when he says them in that simple, innocent way, but he'll look away shyly if the person he loves were to take their shirt off.

Anything he can't explain away, he'll just apologize for. He's a really easy person to get along with. He adapts to people very well, and he has molded himself around his darling.

He catches them in a lie– even just a normal lie, like exaggerating what time they got back to their room after school, work, or whatever else –and gladly accepts any reasoning for it, and it always seems like he's the one being taken advantage of, because he's always so eager to accept his darling's excuses, but hey, why were you able to point out the lies in the first place, Makoto? And why did you?

Example:

"Yeah, sorry I didn't answer your text. I didn't get out of my study group until, like, 9pm, and by that point I was just too exhausted to check my phone."

"Really? That's weird. Chihiro told me you got out at about 5:45. And I heard that you were scrolling Instagram on your way to your room."

"...Yeah...Well I just...I accidentally checked my texts during study group, so by the time I got out, everything was marked as read and I forgot to text back."

"I figured it was something like that. No hard feelings! It's not like it was an emergency or anything. Hey, I got you something from the school store...!"

[berryhobii]

Hurry Home (pjm x reader)

Pairing: fiancé!Park Jimin x black!female!plus size!reader

Word Count: 3K+

Warnings: established relationship, fluff, Smut(18+ but I don’t control what you consume), reader sends Jimin naughty photos/videos, oral(f receiving), unprotected sex(don’t do this unless you’re absolutely sure), fingering, squirting, breastplay, doggystyle, begging, creampie, slight praise kink, Jimin and reader are super in love and it’s adorable

A/N: I’m back with this smutty, fluffy piece about Jimin being the best fiancé who’s obsessed with reader. I feel like that’s kind of a trend with me but black women are so beautiful. Who wouldn’t be obsessed? 🩵🩵As for reader, I described them as a darker shade of brown with coily hair, stretch marks, and of course plus sized. I hope everyone enjoys this and please feel free to check out my other works! Much love💜💜

~

Lover❤️

Attachment

Jimin smiled at the sight of your name on his phone. He hasn’t heard much from you since he left to hang out with his friends earlier in the evening. He knew you didn’t care about him spending time with his friends—you got plenty of his attention and you also had a social life of your own. You two were in perfect sync in your relationship, you prided yourself a lot on being the best partner and so did Jimin.

That didn’t mean you two didn’t like spending time with each other. When you weren’t at work or with friends, you two loved lazing around with one another; playing video games or cooking or your most recent hobbies of trying to complete a 10,000 piece puzzle. Jimin had impulsively purchased it online and roped you into doing it with him. So far, you’ve only managed to complete a corner of it but you were getting there. You had even gotten a table big enough to hold it.

Date nights were every Saturday and you took turns planning each one. Last time was your turn—you ended up getting tickets to one of Jimin’s favorite artists. He had tried to get tickets himself, spending hours on every device in the house to try and snag a single ticket. Unfortunately, they sold out and even the resale tickets were much too expensive. However, thanks to a few of your connections, you managed to get 2 tickets in a pretty good section. Jimin could have cried when he told him to get ready one night and drove both of you to the venue. Needless to say, he had a wonderful time and surprised you the next week with the biggest bouquet of flowers you’ve ever seen and a shopping spree at your favorite store.

You two were perfectly in sync.

He opened the message as he sipped on his beer, promptly spitting it back out when he saw what popped on his screen. A cough racked his body, leaning over to put his beer on the coffee table.

Taehyung who was sitting next to him, clapped the distressed man on the back. “Whoa Jimin, are you okay?”

After his bout of coughing was done, his eyes watering and throat burning, he sat himself back up. He was handed a bottle of water by Taehyung, gratefully taking it and chugging down the majority of the drink.

“Thanks.” He breathed out. “Must have went down the wrong pipe.” He gave a pretty convincing smile to his friend. Taehyung just shrugged and turned back to the soccer game they were watching.

After making sure no one was paying attention to him, Jimin turned his phone over, holding it super close to his face. He did not want anyone seeing what was on his screen.

It was you, positioned in front of the large full length mirror in your shared bedroom—you were on your knees, sitting back on your heels which made your plush thighs look even thicker. With one hand holding your phone up, your other was holding up the end of the shirt you were wearing. That revealed your light pink thong that practically disappeared into the plush of your hips and thighs.

You had recently washed your hair, the coils now up in a puff that you often wore. He always thought it made you look sexy and adorable.

Right now, you looked like straight seduction personified.

Just as he was about to type a response, a video popped up and he swore his cock screamed at him. He turned down his volume before hitting the play button. He’s been burned one too many times in public when you’ve sent him naughty videos. You were thoroughly punished when he got home from the grocery store.

The video started. It started with you adjusting the camera, propping it against something. Probably the mirror since you were still in the same spot on the floor. You turned away from the camera, giving him a full view of your juicy ass. He gripped his so phone hard that he could have broken it, crossing his legs to try and contain the boner that was growing in his pants.

What really sent him over was when you started shaking your ass, the fat rippling and moving like god damn water. That insulting piece of fabric you called a thong was working hard to cover your pussy. He cursed the stupid underwear. Why did you even bother?

Then you leaned forward on your shoulders, reaching back to slap at your own ass before spreading your cheeks. You did that a few times before lifting and retrieving your phone to stop recording.

Another message popped up just seconds later.

Lover❤️

Hurry Home💋

He watched it a couple of times, each time getting him more and more horny. He needed to go home.

“Uh I have to go guys.” He said to his friends, awkwardly standing up to try and hide his raging boner.

“What? Why? You’ve only been here for 2 hours.” Taehyung asked, eyebrows furrowing. Guys night normally lasted well into the night and to tomorrow. They’d get so wasted sometimes that they’d all just crash in Namjoon’s living room. That and Namjoon would probably skin them alive if they even thought about drunk driving. He knew Yoongi, Jimin, and Jungkook would be good since they could hold their liquor but the remainder of their group weren’t as lucky. Also, he didn’t get his law degree for nothing. The lawyer in him would never allow them to break the law.

Jimin ran a hand through his hair. “It’s y/n…..” He silently hoped they’d just take that excuse without any teasing.

“Is she sick?” Yoongi tilted his head.

Yeah sure. Let’s go with that.

“Yeah! She’s been taking a new medicine and it gives her headaches.”

Yoongi squinted his eyes. It was a special talent of his to be able to point out when someone was lying. Easy enough when he was a conniving ass liar as well. Yoongi could lie his way out of a lie detector test.

After a few painfully long seconds, Yoongo shrugged. “Oh okay. Wish her well for us and call us if you need anything.”

Jimin let out a sigh of relief, grabbing his jacket and his car keys before bidding the others goodnight.

“I hope y/n’s okay.” Hoseok said after Jimin left. Hoseok was actually the one who introduced you to Jimin. He’s known you for a long time so he worried about you like a big brother.

“She’s fine. Jimin was lying anyway.” Yoongi hummed, sipping on his beer.

Seokjin groaned as he landed yet again on one of Jungkook’s properties, unhappily handing over his $200. “Stupid railroads. Huh, how do you know he’s lying?”

“Did none of you see how he was standing? He obviously had a boner. She’ll have a headache alright but not from some medicine.”

~

Jimin almost tore the door off its hinges. You had sent yet another photo on his drive home—a tasteful flick of your breasts, your t shirt held between your teeth.

His spotless driving record didn’t mean a damn thing to him tonight. As long as he didn’t get arrested.

He rushed to pull off his boots, stripping himself of his jacket and shirt on the way back to your bedroom. He almost tripped over the rug and slammed his forehead on the closed door, grabbing the handle to open it.

And there you were.

Laid on your belly, your feet swinging in the air, playing a game on your Nintendo Switch. The lights were dimmed, the warm glow of a lamp illuminating the room enough so he could see.

You turned your head at the sound of him opening the door.

“Ducky, you’re home.” Sitting up and moving your game console to the side, you held your arms open, ready to welcome him in your loving embrace.

If his cock wasn’t so hard right now, he’d think the sight of you grinning and waiting for a hug would be totally adorable.

3 wide steps was all it took to get him from the doorway to the bed, his body falling into your arms and knocking you back on the bed. Your giggles were pleasant, sugary sweet and like music to his ears.

Desperate pecks were scattered all over your neck and jaw, his hands already digging bruises into the plush of your hips and thighs.

Your short manicured nails ran through his hair and down his bare back, his warmth seeping into you.

“Did you have fun with the guys?”

He scoffed out a laugh against your throat, hand coming down to sharply slap at the side of your thigh.

He leaned back a bit to make eye contact with you, dark hair hanging in front of his siren like eyes. “You little tease. Did you think that was cute?”

Your eyes danced with mirth without a hint of feeling scolded, shoulders shrugging.

“Cute? No. Worthy of unbelievable sex? Yes.”

He could feel the cool band of your engagement ring as you stroked the back of his neck. For the thousandth, maybe millionth moment since he met you, he had one thought.

I want to spend the rest of my life with you.

“Mission accomplished.”

Your legs wrapped around his waist, pulling him closer until you could feel his erection pressing into your barely clothed count. “Getting ahead of yourself, eh?”

His lips graced over yours, the smell of gum on his breath. “Never.”

His mouth left hot trails down your throat, hands lifting the large shirt you were wearing to reveal your breasts. No photo could compare to seeing them in real life.

He hissed as he took both of them in his palms, running over your dark nipples with his thumbs. You sighed at the feeling, finally getting a little relief from being pent up all day. You didn’t mean to pull your fiancé away from boys night but you started watching some of the naughty videos you saved in the Hidden section on your phone and you couldn’t contain it. It wasn’t until you reached a video on your engagement night that a sneaky little idea popped in your head. Sending pictures and videos were commonplace in your relationship. It derived from Jimin and you starting off as friends with benefits all those years ago. Despite being together for such a long time now, you just never stopped.

And you wouldn’t. Not when it made your fiancé fly home this quickly.

His tongue ran over your breasts, pushing the mounds together to be able to suck at both nipples.

“A-ah….Jimin….” You moaned.

He hummed against your heaving breasts, sucking purpling hickies into your chestnut skin. You were so soft, your skin fragrant with your body butter and the lightest traces of your perfume. The scent of your skin changed often since you loved experimenting with new lotions and perfumes but you always felt the same no matter what. Your hands still caressed him the same way, your eyes still held the same light, and his heart still pounded in his chest regardless.

After deeming your breasts marked enough, he whispered, “scoot up.” You did so that you were fully on the bed. He kissed his way down your soft belly and to your cunt, his hands never leaving you. Pushing your legs up so that he had full view of your fat pussy lips, he swore he saw heaven. It had practically swallowed your thin underwear, the fabric disappearing between your folds. He breathed out a curse at the sight of your already glistening heat. Just how horny have you been?

“Pussy’s so pretty, baby. You’re so pretty.” He hissed, massaging at the insides of your thighs, fingertips tracing your stretch marks.

You squirmed at the feeling of his hot breath against your aching cunt. You needed him so badly.

“Please….honey….” You felt breathless despite him not really doing anything yet. He just got you like that—desperate and needy.

He smirked. He should tease you but doing so would tease himself and his cock was way too hard for that right now.

He shushed you, pressing light kisses to your outer lips before finally, finally running his tongue up your slit. He moaned at the taste of you, never ever getting tired of eating you out.

His fingers hooked in the front of your thong, prying it from your soaked folds and off your legs. Tossing it somewhere he didn’t care about, he adjusted himself to be more comfortable between your legs. He wrapped both of his arms around your thighs, pulling your cunt closer to his mouth before diving in.

Your back arched, hands finding his soft hair.

His plump lips latched around your sensitive clit, sucking the little nub before flicking the tip of his tongue all over it.

Your head rocked back and forth against the pillows, the pleasure overwhelming but not enough at the same time. You needed more.

“Jimin……fingers, please.”

His hooded eyes glanced up at your from between your legs, taking in your heaving breasts and face that was twisted in pleasure. Just the sight made him want to give you even more, to see you when you completely fall apart.

Two fingers ran up your slit, his mouth still slurping and nipping at your throbbing clit before pushing them both inside. The slight stretch made you moan, your toes curling.

Jimin’s been made fun of for the size of his fingers for years but you never complained. Those things could still bring you to orgasm, sometimes faster than his cock could.

Pressing the pads of his fingers upwards, he expertly located that special spot against the top of your pussy. He knew he located it when your hips jumped.

Adjusting himself so that he was leaning on his arm that wasn’t knuckles deep, he began fingering you. His pace was slow but calculated, making sure he was rubbing against that spot every time.

Stars danced across your vision as sparking hot pleasure radiated down your body. With each press of Jimin’s fingers, you could feel that familiar and immense sensation prickling at you.

Your high pitched moan alerted Jimin as well. He knew your body like the back of his hand of course.

He popped off your clit, sitting up slightly to lean over you. His plump lips kissed at your collarbone before trailing up to your lips.

“You wanna cum, sweetheart?” His voice was saccharine sweet with a hint of teasing in it.

You unashamedly nodded your head, blurry eyes blinking at him. Your hands cupped your own breasts, tweaking the nipples.

Adjusting himself, he pressed his hand into the area just above your pussy, the fingers inside pressing even harder into your sweet spot.

“Hold your legs.” He demanded and you obeyed, gripping both of your calves to hold your legs open.

Inhaling a deep breath, Jimin began thrusting his fingers in and out of you in a blurring pace. A loud moan rang from your throat, your nails digging into your skin but you couldn’t even feel the pinch. His arms bulged with each stroke, a slight strain in them that he ignored.

That feeling grew from the base of your spine around to your belly, swelling and swelling until you were ready to burst.

The tell tale clench of your walls and the way your eyes crossed let Jimin know that you were close. The sounds of your cunt were loud and wet, arousal dripping down between your ass cheeks and staining the blankets.

When he pressed particularly harshly, one of your hands flew down to hold his arm that was pistoning in and out of your squishy walls.

“Ooohhhh my godddd-uhhhh! Jimin!” You cried.

“Cum baby.”

You were way ahead of him.

That dam burst, the clenching of your walls forcing Jimin’s fingers out of you, a clear spray of liquid following. His fingers went to your clit, rubbing it back and forth to help you through your orgasm.

His grin was wide. “Yessss, good girl. Good job.” He patted your clit and few times, splashing the remaining droplets around as you came down.

You deflated against the bed, ears still ringing and pussy clenching at the aftershocks. You were so out of it that you didn’t even hear Jimin unbuckling his belt nor did you feel him turning you over until he landed a slap on your ass.

He was almost at his limit. He’s been hard since he left Namjoon’s place and he needed to be in your cunt right now or else he’d combust.

“Up on your knees.”

You huffed but rose up on your knees, keeping your chest and head down on the bed. You brought a pillow under your chest to hug and bite down on because you both knew how loud you got from doggy. And your neighbors were definitely tired of you by now.

Jimin took a brief moment to admire the plushness of your ass and love handles, running his hands down your sides before gripping your hips. Hands free, he slowly slid into your awaiting cunt.

You moaned into the pillow as his girthy cock penetrated your walls. Jimin was just the perfect length and girth for you—not too long were it hurt and just thick enough to really make you feel it.

Once he was all the way in, pausing to take a breath, he slowly slid back out to give you an experimental thrust. You hummed before adjusting your knees slightly so that he could press into that spot on the next slide.

He leaned down to press a kiss to your shoulder. “You okay, baby?” Your heart pounded at his sweet consideration. He knows you’ve had uncomfortable sexual experiences in the past so he always made it a point to ask if you’re okay. While you’ve insisted you’d tell him if you were ever in pain, it still made you feel all fuzzy to know he’d still ask.

“Yeah.” You croaked out. “You can move.”

Sitting back up, he dug his fingers into your hips before starting to move his hips.

Deep and long thrusts that took your breath away, his balls slapping against your clit and sending tiny shocks through you. He perfectly jammed into your sweet spots, your belly tingling as pleasure overtook you once again.

“Fuck…” he cursed, head hanging low and eyes never leaving where you two were connected. “You feel so good. So tight.”

You moaned in response. “Faster baby.”

His hips clapped against your ass, the fat rippling as it bounced off him. He could watch this sight all day long and never grow tired.

You buried your face into the pillow, letting out pornographic like moans as your fiancé stroked you just right. He knew just how to move to melt you into a puddle.

Arching your back and spreading your knees a little more, you began throwing your ass back on him in a way you knew would drive him crazy.

He groaned, halting his hips to let you take over. “There you go. Throw it back baby. That’s it.” His right hand slapped both of your ass cheeks, loving how they jiggled under his force.

You lifted your head slightly from the pillow to moan out, “Your cock feels so good. I love it so much.” And you did.

His right hand gripped your left hip, starting his hips back up to meet each of your bounces. He couldn’t stop staring at the way your cunt began to cream around him, a thin ring forming around the base of his already arousal shined cock.

“I love you. Love this creamy fucking cunt.” He tossed his head back as your walls clenched around him. He was close.

Little “ah ah ah’s” came from you as Jimin practically carved his cock into you. His fingers hurt from how hard he was holding onto you, as if you could disappear if he let go.

He leaned his body down onto you, your legs spreading even more until you were almost pressed completely into the mattress. His fists moved to rest beside your head, lips sucking and nipping at the skin of your shoulder and neck.

Your sweat slicked bodies moved against one another, his chest pressed against your back as his thrusts became more erratic and fast. You moaned loudly, forgetting all about your neighbors. Jimin was hitting your spot just right, every fiber of your being on fire.

Everything just felt so hot and heady—the room low on oxygen and your bodies desperately chasing orgasm.

“Jimin….Jimin….Jimin….” You chanted, one of your arms unwrapping from the pillow to grab at his wrist that was by your head. Your other arm snaked under your body to rub quick little circles into your clit. “Right there baby. I’m so close.”

He grunted against your shoulder. “Me too. Cum baby.”

A few more rubs of your clit and your body was locking up as your orgasm washed over you. Jimin wasn’t far behind, a few more strokes and he was releasing inside of you.

Your legs completely gave out, body flopping against the bed. Jimin let out an airy groan before rolling over to lie next to you.

Both of you sat in silence for a moment trying to regain your breathes.

You stretched your body before rolling on your side to face your fiancé. His eyes were closed, chest moving up and down to calm himself. You moved to straddle waist, your cheek resting on his shoulder. His fingertips traced up and down your back, goosebumps popping up on your skin.

It was your turn to ask, “You okay?”

He hummed. “I’m fine. And you?”

“Good. Sorry I made you leave boys night.”

His laugh made his chest jump, a smile spreading across your face at the melodious sound.

“No you aren’t but it’s okay. Jungkook was beating Seokjin’s ass at monopoly so it was bound to be ruined anyway.”

You believed him. Seokjin was kind of a sore loser. Pair that with some alcohol and he had probably already flipped the table.

You chuckled, snuggling closer to his throat to place some light kisses there. “Guess I did good then.”

“Very good. I probably broke multiple traffic laws though.”

“You? My goody two shoes? Impossible.” Your sarcasm was thick and playful. He rolled his eyes, slapping your ass, your giggles joyful.

“I love you.”

You lifted your head to gaze into his tired eyes. “I love you too.” You pressed your lips to his in a slow and intimate kiss. “Round 2 in the shower?”

He smiled against your lips. “You read my mind.”

[enluv]

love spill !

PAIRING! - rockstar!jay (enha) x fem!reader

wc: 1.3k+

warnings: angst-ish but not really + fluff later !!, reader is stressed/exhausted, profanity, slow burn(?)

coco’s ♡ note: this came from a mini game I answered once and literally could not get over because I need rockstar bf jay so badly, I might make more with this jay too so let me know if you like it or have any rockstar!bf jay thoughts because I will indulge and write them !!! literally adore this jay so much ahhhh!!!

Finally.

Finally some piece and quiet away from the shared apartment you live in with the three younger boys.

Perhaps living with your younger brother and his university friends wasn’t the best idea, especially when you had a ten page journalism report due by three pm the next day.

That’s why you find yourself here on a hot summers day sitting in your favorite cafe, it’s not busy on Fridays and is hidden enough so the boys won’t find you for a while, but they will come looking eventually.

The bell of the cafes door rings to signify it being opened but this report is due tomorrow and you can’t stop to look up, but maybe you should have. Maybe you should have because now as you watch the hot brown liquid seep into your laptops keyboard you become painfully aware of the boy in front of you who’d walked in early wearing the most guilt ridden expression. His words muffled as you watch your screen go black.

“Oh fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I’m so sorry. Wait here let me get something to clean this up.” He’s fumbling with the other drinks in his hand as he tries to reach for napkins to clean the spill he’s made.

Where else would you go really? Right now you’re just waiting for the ground to swallow you whole. Had the program even saved the other three pages you’d written? Was your hard work gone just like that? Would your professor even believe you if you told him what happened? Even if it sounded straight out of a movie?

“Just leave it, I’ll clean it myself. Please leave.”

He stills at your words, no malice or emotions within them just exhaustion. The tone of your voice makes his heart ache, and he swears to himself that he’s going to make up for this for the rest of his life.

“I’m sorry for this really, I need to leave because I have a schedule to get to but I promise I’ll make this up to you. Can I have your number?”

Your stare makes him feel small, then he realizes how his question sounds after a minute passes between you two.

“Wait I didn’t mean it like that. I’m not asking you out. Not saying I wouldn’t ask you out but I’m not doing that right now! I just need it so I can text you to pay you back, or I can pay to get your laptop fixed. I’ll send you the money or even if you want buy you a new one.”

Jay can’t tell what you’re thinking but somehow he’s walking out of the cafe with your phone number and an assortment of drinks for his members. Dreading having to explain to them just what happened in the cafe.

unknown (2:46pm):

uh hey this is jay, I’m the one who dropped my coffee on your laptop, really sorry about that by the way!! um i want to give you these so I can say sorry again in person because my mom always said to apologize face to face or you don’t mean it and also that way we can figure out the laptop money thing together.

unknown (2:47pm):

four attachments sent

just stop by tomorrow and have some fun and then after I’ll come find you and we can talk!! what’s your name by the way?

you (3:12pm):

it’s y/n. thanks, I’ll see you tomorrow.

“I cannot believe some random dude gave you tickets to see downfall, like this show has been sold out for months and I mean months, talking eight months and he just gave up four tickets to see them? He must be loaded! Tell him you want a new computer and game console, I want the newest version.”

Jungwon’s excited rambles bring a smile to your face, sure just yesterday you’d cried almost all the water out your body until Jungwon had called your professor and explained in detail (along with sticking the phone in your room so he could hear your cries) the situation, but he’d also somehow gotten you an extension on your paper for the next week. He seriously deserved the random concert tickets the stranger, Jay, had sent you.

Receiving them was odd but he’d convinced you with the promise of fixing your laptop and that’s honestly all that mattered, so if you had to sit through a three hour long show next to some stranger who spilled coffee on your laptop then so be it because you’d be getting it fixed no matter what.

Except instead of said random stranger sitting next to you, an actual random stranger stood beside you excitedly yapping with her friends and the random stranger you had expected was perched on stage with a guitar in hand, microphone stationed in front of him like it belonged to him, and soon enough you’d realize from the crowds hollers that it did belong to him.

“ARE YOU READY FOR TONIGHT?” He’s met with screams all around the arena.

“That’s what I like to hear, alright let’s go.”

The shock of who Jay was really didn’t cease even after the show had ended and the four of you began to walk out the packed venue, it doesn’t really go away until a large man comes to escort you backstage.

“Hey buddy I think you have the wrong people, we’re just here still because my sisters waiting for someone.” Jungwon’s voice breaks you out of your shock and the man nods as if he knew what he was going to say.

“Yeah he’s backstage, just follow me.”

Jay fidgets with the bag he has in his hands, earlier he’d dragged the boys along with him to pick you out a new laptop and even threw in a new case and holder for it. He really wanted to get the image of your exhausted eyes out of his mind, he wanted to see you happy and healthy.

“Y/N you didn’t tell us the guy who spilled coffee on you was one of the members of downfall,” the voice he hears is failing to whisper as you get closer.

“Are we about to meet one of the members? What if it’s just like a staff or something like why would an actual member be getting their coffee and oh my god that’s the lead singer Jay.”

He laughs shyly at the boy who’s mouth is now wide open pointing excitedly at him, but he quickly shuts up as he spots you. You look so pretty, completely different from when he’d last saw you drenched in coffee and exhaustion all over your face. Right now you looked content and really really pretty.

“Hey Y/N, I know I said I’d give you the money to fix your laptop but I thought you should just have a completely brand new one, I’m really sorry for spilling my coffee on yours, I’m sure you were busy and needed it, I hope you can use this new one well,” his breath hitches as he holds out the bag to you and your fingers touch briefly, “and I hope you liked the show, I see your friends did.” He sends a wave their way and laughs when they all excitedly wave back.

A smile begins to develop on your cheeks and his heart races. This is exactly how he’d like to see you, happy and smiling.

Later that night as you pull out the new laptop determined to finish your nearly complete paper, a small card flutters out with it that reads —

“I wrote this to say not only sorry again, but to also ask if you’d like to go out with me sometime? and I mean it this time, as in I am actually asking you out unlike last time when I, you know accidentally asked you out unintentionally, this time I promise it’s intentional. Please let me make up the god awful first meeting we had, I promise it’ll be worthwhile. You have my number so if you want to then just shoot me a text but if not then that’s fine with me too! – Jay”

A smile forms on your face as you set down the card and get to working on your essay, the answer to Jay’s proposition already clear in your mind. Yes.

coco’s love note: i am so terribly down bad for jay it’s crazy. he’s so just perfect like I adore him so much!! and I’m the biggest rockstar!jay enthusiast like I just had to write something about it, plus I think it’s so adorable how he’s clumsy in this fic but a crazy rager on stage & only mc gets to see both sides of him fully! I hope you enjoyed this fic! As always, feedback & reblogs are appreciated! Thank you for reading <3

enhypen taglist?! @en-fvr @bloom-bloom-pow @nikis-mum @yourlocalhotgf @kyublr @spoooooooooooon @enhacolor @yoongimooni @blaqpinksthectic @gyuuss @eternallyhyucks @dinosdance @simpforsung @misschubswrites @junityy @jjunry @jwonsgirl @fxckingshame @stealanity @haoreo @jxp1t-3r @chaerybae @bobariki @vatterie (bold can’t be tagged!) Wanna be added to the taglist? – Check out THIS post!

[zambehnation]

so this came about because S2 Jaskier looked a little emo and my brain was like S1 Jaskier= romantic, breezy, alt-folk music think The Lumineers and S2 Jaskier= MCR and I was listening to "I dont love you" and thought what if Jaskier veered into the black eyeliner, dark reds and black clothing emo musician phase of the 2000s after a "break up" with Geralt?

Geraskier Modern AU prompt:

Jaskier and Geralt met in college. Jaskier was a double major in musical theory and theater with an alt-folk band that played in that one hipster cafe across campus that catered to art students in the late afternoons and held dnd nights for the nerdy kids every tuesday evening. He knew everyone on campus, was well liked, was invited to every party by every kind of student from the goths to the frat boys and one friday evening after midterms- when everyone else was out getting plastered and making bad choices and he, himself was drunk off his ass, thinking the library would be a decent place for a nap, he'd come across Geralt looking miserable and lonely and studying what appeared to be a giant tome with numbers and drawn figures on a friday evening!!! And he'd just felt bad and Geralt had pretty white hair and he couldnt help the clawing need in his gut to adopt this person like one of those grumpy stray cats he sometimes feeds outside the dorms. Ofcourse, Geralt had hissed and clawed when Jaskier slid into the seat across from him and tried to strike up a conversation. Ofcourse, Geralt eventually ran out annoyed but Jaskier was nothing if not a persistent little shit that kept showing up, unexpectedly until Geralt begrudgingly gave in and they became friends.

Ofcourse, they also fall in love at some point, because why not? but neither of them want to destroy a good thing and Jaskier thinks Geralt is straighter than an arrow and Geralt thinks he couldnt possibly compete with all the beautiful people Jaskier falls into brief and intense situationships with and though Jaskier flirts he'd never be seriously interested and really theyre both just morons.

Fast forward 10 years into their unlikely friendship, Geralt with a not exciting but stable job as an engineer, met Yennefer at some company gathering and he and Jaskier have a falling out because Jaskier doesnt like Yennefer but he was trying so hard not to show it and come off as a jealous bitch and Geralt wants to try with someone else because 10 years is a long time to be in love with someone who was unable to be serious about anyone and he thought he wanted normal- white picket fence, and a kid, kind of love not the wait for your messy bestfriend to get his shit together and actually see you kind of love and yes, they're morons.

Fast forward, a kid, a divorce, 5 years later and Jaskier becomes a successful musician and Geralts teenage daughter Ciri loves him and Geralt, wanting to make his adopted daughter happy is on a mission to get tickets to a sold out concert for her birthday. Only, can he really just slide into the dms, hope for the best and not reopen old wounds?

And what if, after all this time, there's still something there?

[pjsk-headcanons]

breaks knuckles we're doing akinene ( •̀ ^ •́ )✧

Context for later stuff: In my mind, WxS have a game where they yell out random parts at each other and do their best to play it for the next five minutes. Mizuki is fully in on this and even participates. (Mizuki theater kid canon TO ME)

Akito didn't realise he was into Nene before she got all confident, and now he's just down bad. Unforch for her, Nene has a thing for Loser Boyfails, now that she is no longer a Loser Girlfail. (To the same extent, at least...) She takes one look at this guy, sighs very heavily, and starts taking notes on how to become his friend. (In a very neurotypical fashion.)

They're bi4bi but lean in opposite directions and are so used to being percived as gay that all of their friends are Very Confused when the resident lesbian and chronically gay guy start making out holding hands - and I say holding hands because they are both embarrased to hell and back. This does not mean they're going to lay off the PDA though. Making your partner embarrassed is the highest form of love.

Before they got together, Nene attempted to act (Y'know. given she's an actress.) like Akito's friends to try and win him over, which means being bubbly and listening to the entirety of both RADder and GLaP days' catalouge trying to figure out how to start a conversation. Eventually she gives up and tries talking about her intrests, specifically a game she knows Toya also likes (Slime Rancher). This is exactly what she needed to do from the beginign because, as stated, Akito is down bad and will just sit there staring in awe while she infodumps.

Nene shows up to a VBS performance in full theatre kid attire and Akito proceeds to buy her an entirely new wardrobe.

Akito is forced to go to WxS performances. Nene begs him not to but Kohane and Toya had already bought tickets and An cant make it so he kinda has to. Half the performances are Nene doing the stupidest shit imaginable (She fills in for Tsukasa on the human canon one time and now Rui thinks it's acceptable to do literally anything to her-) or she's playing the villan and holy shit is he gay straight bi.

Nene unironically says "unforch" and it's begun rubbing off on Akito. Which means Kohane and Toya and Kotaro too. An is sobbing in a corner.

Ena is the last person to find out about this. She thinks Akito just has some random girl on his arm or whatever but she goes to the Shinonome Household one time and Ena's impression shoots up instantly when she finds out Nene is not just a girl, but a Gamer Girl (who listens to n25).

Mizuki jokingly threatens to kick them out of Kamikou's Pride Club for being too straight. An actually threatens to kick them out but bc of the aformentioned WxS game - Rui keeps giving her slutty parts intentionally and boy howdy does Akito fall for it.

Rui: Nene! Kinky assassin! Nene: What gender? Rui: A guy. Nene: On it. (To Akito) Wow I've, um. Dropped my assassin killing gun. Into your dick. D'ya mind if I fish it out? Akito: (Spluttering) An: (Groaning) Toya: (Chuckling) Everyone Else: (Roaring Laughter) Mizuki: Okay, now do it for real. That means not on your boyfriend. Nene: Sure. (Walking over to Rui and holding a Finger Gun below his neck) Wow... Sure would be a shame if I had to feel up your insides, removing any trace of life, raw and bleeding, so all that was left was a variety of products to be sold... (Shrugs) Too bad you wont be awake to feel it. (Shoots Finger Gun) Akito: (Has not said anything and we're not sure he can.) An: (Bemused Laughter) Everyone Else: (A Light Smattering of Applause) Nene: (Mimicking Tsukasa) Now back to talking about that policy that wants to make our existence illegal. Tsukasa: How dare you mock me, a future world star??!! Nene: Yeah, you can't be a star if you get hatecrimed, dude.

They stay up all night playing Splatoon! <3 I love me some gamer gays. They did almost break up over Mario Kart, though...

formatting this on my phone was a mistake... but yah i think thats it for now!! i'll probably think of something else in ten minutes though... from 🎲 anon!! (˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧

.

[cowboywritersworld]

"Are you actually blushing?" "No! Shut up!"

With Daniel Garcia 🙏

It's so difficult not to be attracted by you

General Masterlist | AEW Masterlist | Daniel Garcia Masterlist

Characters: Daniel Garcia, Reader

Prompt: "Are you actually blushing?" "No! Shut up!"

Resume: you are a huge fan of Danny and whenever AEW is in your town or not too far away, you attend the shows. Danny shouldn't fall in love with a fan, he shouldn't get distracted, but there is something in you which makes him want you.

You are a fan of Daniel Garcia ever since you can remember seeing him in a Wrestling Federation. As a fan, every time All Elite Wrestling is in your city, you attend to the show and if you can, you buy the meet and greets as well.

You have got some tickets for tonight's Dynamite as a Birthday gift, what your best friend hasn't told you though, is that she got you passes for the meet & greet as well.

"I can't wait to be there! Front row seats... A dream." You say as finish braiding your hair into a high bun. "Danny is in the main event!" You say dreamily.

"Have you bought the meet and greet?" Sarah asks you, watching at you amused.

"They were all sold out, I would have loved to... I wanna meet Danny in person so bad." You sigh as you sit on the couch, waiting for your best friend to be ready.

"Who knows what might happen, maybe he'll fly at you, or he'll dance right in front of you." Sarah chuckles, while your cheeks turn a bright red.

"I would die in both scenarios and you perfectly know that!"

You both get in the car when you are ready, the drive to the Arena being short. You are wearing your Daniel Garcia t-shirt, and as you enter the Arena, Sarah makes you close your eyes, leading you somewhere.

You can only hear people talking, but don't understand where she is taking you, until you can hear a familiar voice. You could recognize it everywhere and you bring your hands to your mouth, shocked and in awe.

"Sarah... You didn't!" You are so sure that voice is Danny's, you have no doubts about it.

"I did! This is your last birthday gift."

She chuckles and allows you to open your eyes only when you are called next. Your heart beats hard in your chest when you and your best friend approach the table Danny is sitting at. When he finally looks at you in the eyes, you swear you could melt right there, in front of him.

Daniel's eyes get wide as soon as he sees you: it feels like a lightning strikes him, because he can't take his eyes off of you. Your blue eyes are very intriguing, your curly hair almost make him want to touch them.

He notices how your hands tremble as you hand him a photo to sign and he can't help but smile at the sight of your merch T-shirt.

"My best friend would love if you could do your dance." Sarah dares to say, while your cheeks turn red.

"She does? Got no problem with that."

Danny stands up after signing the photo you gave him, getting in front of you, starting to dance. You chew on your lower lips, trying to keep your cool, while Sarah films it all.

"Are you actually blushing?" You faintly hear Danny ask you this, but can't really say the truth: after all you are just one of his fans and you have no possibility with him.

"No! Shut up!" You say, turning your face around, to hide how much you actually are doing it. You gulp as you realize how you answered him, but he doesn't seem offended; instead... He is smirking.

"Make sure to watch me out there, will you?" He says, almost flirting with you.

"I will."

You can just promise him, before letting other fans chat with him. It feels so surreal, but Daniel Garcia has just smirked at you and he tried to flirt with you.

He dares dancing another time in front of you and you still blush, but he has to focus on his match. Still... You have the impression that he keeps looking at you most of the time. It feels like you are interesting to him, but you barely know each other, so it's really impossible.

[thelittlestseal]

Sooooo Lpscon 2024…

I'm happy I went, but the best parts of my experience were the sweet, memorable interactions I had with vendors and other guests.

A few of my grievances:

1. I didn't have a CC pass but still went upstairs multiple times and attended workshops because they just let my dad sign us up without checking out tickets??? We didn't know the higher floors were closed off for general admission until 4:00pm (well into the con)

Communicating that did not happen. I'm so sorry for the people who spent extra without getting the perks ://

2. We knew beforehand that you needed to sign up for the fashion show and kahoot AT ADMISSION. They advertised it as first come first serve and knowing that, wanting to partake in both we tried to sign up AT ADMISSION and were told (paraphrasing here) "Yes it's definitely first come first serve. Come back in 15 minutes because we want to get everyone inside first. We will sign you up after admission" 15 minutes later it's sold out. This seriously put me off and was extremely frustrating. We kept up with their socials, planned ahead, came with the notion sign up would work the way they said it would, did everything right and missed out anyway. This was on them. Awful, awful experience. The whole first room was seemingly set up to maximize cramping and confusion.

3. The looping video/announcements made the first floor unbearably loud.

4. The raffle was an HOUR LATE and stretched out far, far too long. Vendors were packing up and they still hadn't finished!! It seriously killed the vibe and probably left a lot of people on a sour note.

5. I might not know much about convention planning but there HAD to be a better layout than this ://

This was my first con ever and despite the constant malarkey I made some really special moments and came away with a ton of rad goodies, customs, pets and friends. I got to meet Prescott hill in person and show him my work, see so many breathtaking customs and exist in a room with thousands of Ips (heaven)

After all that I’m really interested in starting a local small scale meetup just to rectify the mess of a management team Lpscon had. It's very "if you want it done right you gotta do it yourself" pfafaffa

[cuntydreamgirl]

hi beloved how are you?

hi bff !!!! i’m actually upset this morning because i tried to get zayn tickets and they sold out :/ but me and my best friend are convinced we’re going somehow so it’ll be fine

ANYWAY i’m so happy it’s finally getting cold. we had an intense heat wave the past two weeks and this week it’s been cloudy and slightly colder at night. it makes me so excited for the holidays

how are you??? <3 has college been keeping you too busy?

[rachel-of-autumnbow]

Day 10 of @fanovember: Online Dating

Vax is surprising his online girlfriend by watching her performance (and her) for the first time irl.

Vaxleth. Fucking cute i almost died writing this shit. Soft Vax. Feat Korring being the best dad. Probably grammar mistakes. Enjoy.

10. Online Dating

Vax put his phone back in his inside pocket and straightened the jacket lapels for the millionth time. He hated formal robes in general, but suits were a special kind of hatred for him. He had a comfortable set of clothes back in the motorbike chest. “Only a couple of hours,” he thought. “Then back to moving freely.” He waited until the theater doors opened and tried to sneak inside. It would have been easy, if it wasn’t for the flowers he was holding.

Kiki: im so nervous i think im gonna puke 🤮

Vax: itll be fine, its not the first time you do this

Kiki: it’s not the same today, my dad came

Vax: im sure he’ll be very proud of you

Kiki: i hope i don’t mess this up

Vax: you wont you’re a great actress

Kiki: you never saw me on stage

Kiki: or ever

Vax: yet

Kiki: anyway, i should get ready

Vax: go break a leg

Kiki: thanks babe 💚

“Hey, you, I will need your ticket, please.”

“Oh, sorry.” Vax pretended to look for his entrance ticket he didn’t have in his pockets. “I must have left it at home.”

“Sorry, sir, no entrance, no show.”

Vax nodded. “Alright, at least could you make sure to give this to Keyleth by the end of the play? Please.”

The doorman sighed. “Fine, but get out.” Vax turned around and pouted as he examined the hall for a different way to get in.

“Excuse me, young man.”

Vax looked at the man behind him, “yes, sir, I was about to leave…”

“Oh, no, it’s not that. I couldn’t help but hear you’re an admirer of my daughter?”

Vax blinked. His mind quickly showed him the pictures he had seen him in. Pictures that Keyleth had sent him or posted. “Yes, that can be said.” The man smiled in the same way Keyleth did in their facetimes. ‘I can’t believe I’ve met my girlfriend’s father in real life before even seeing her’.

“May I know your name?”

“Vax’ildan, sir.” The man stared at him for a second as they shook hands and he ended up laughing.

“Oh, so you’re that Vax! It’s a pleasure to meet you. Keyleth talks a lot about you, and now I can see why.” Vax cleared his throat and felt a hand on his shoulder. “Does she know you’re here?”

“No, sir. I had a surprise planned.”

“And you left your ticket at home.”

“Actually… The gas and the flowers took all my savings. I was going to, well…”

“Sneak in?” Vax sighed and nodded. He never felt sorry or ashamed of the things he had to do due to his lack of money, but at that moment, he would rather Kiki’s dad not know any of it. “Then consider this your lucky day, come with me.”

“Sir?” The man didn’t say anything, just went to the doorman and gave him a ticket, pointing at Vax. The guy nodded and let them both in with a gesture. Vax followed Keyleth’s father through a corridor, then up a bunch of stairs and a door that led to a box, right in front of the stage. Probably the best seats in the theater.

The man invited him to sit in one of the front seats. “I always get two tickets for Keyleth’s performances, just in case me and my wife happen to be in town to come. I could make it this time, but she didn’t.”

“Thank you, sir.” Vax sat by his side. He had never been in a box before. He could see people under him moving like a sea of heads, slowly finding their place.

Keyleth’s father, Korrin, as it happened to be his name, talked to him while they waited for the play to start. They talked about their families, friends, and how he had met Keyleth. His pocket buzzed.

Kiki: i thought they were kidding about the sold out but they werent!

“Is that her?” Korrin asked.

Vax nodded. “Yes, she’s quite anxious about today.” He was tempted to say something like ‘yeah, i can see that’, but  he didn’t want to spoil the surprise.

In that moment, the lights faded as the off voice started saying the welcoming. The play was fun, all of the actors were indeed amazing. Vax knew some of them, he had made friends with Keyleth’s circle during their relationship. He was aware, although he didn’t really care, of how dumb faced he looked when Keyleth made her first appearance.

Vax: that means there are so many people that want to see your brilliance.

Kiki: most of these are Scanlan admirers.

Vax: i refuse to believe none of them came for you

Vax: its mathematically impossible

Kiki: i thought you hated math

Vax: thats not the point

Kiki: i know 😁

Kiki: i wish you were here 😞

Vax: be careful what you wish for, it could come true

He had seen her in pictures, he had heard her in voice notes and calls, but none of that did justice to her. He imagined himself jumping out that box, running to the stage and kissing her right that moment, but he didn’t want to mess the show. He stood there, mouth half open and heart pining and longing.

Vax didn’t part eyes from the stage until the end, when the doorman entered the scene during the final bows with his bouquet. He handed it to Keyleth, who read the note and started scanning the crowd. Vax stood up and thanked Korrin for everything before heading out.

He waited in the hall for quite some time, he saw everyone go out and half an hour later, even Korrin waved at him when he was heading out. “I didn’t tell her a word. She’ll be out soon.”

Vax smiled, although he has a bundle of nerves. “Thanks.”

Ten more minutes passed and he heard steps in the hall. "Vax?" He turned around and he felt his heart splutter.

"Hey, Kiki." He could only catch her and spin around in a hug. Her hair smelled like freshly cut grass and her laughter was probably the most beautiful sound he'd ever heard.

"I can't believe you're here." Keyleth pulled away to look at him.

Vax put a lock of her hair behind her ear. "I told you to be careful what you wish for."

Keyleth's smile became even brighter. "Did you watch the show too?"

Vax stroked her face, unable to believe he was actually doing what he had been dreaming of for so long. "Yeah, you're amazing, you know?"

"I-I mean… you came all the way to see me."

"Yeah… I also came to do something else."

"Really? Wha—"

Vax didn't hold the kiss anymore.

[docholligay]

BOY ARE YOU TWO ABOUT TO REGRET GIVING ME THE MILDEST POSSIBLE ENCOURAGEMENT.

I love Phil Ochs. He is easily my favorite of the protest folk/folk revival whatever you care to call that style and time in history. Bob Dylan is a better poet (but I mean, Jesus who can live up to Bob Dylan?) Joan Baez has a much better voice (A reviewer once said Phil had a 'nasally effective range of about half an octave' and given how many times he brought up/joked about it, i assume it stung), nearly everyone was easier to get along with, and yet with Phil Ochs it is love for me. I love the way he sings, it's simple and straightforward and sometimes plaintive in these ways that go beyond vocal theatrics. I like his patter, I like his humor, I like that he is willing to fight with Bob goddamn Dylan, I like the way he moves, i don't know. Fucking mess of a man. Love him. Do not get me started when i've had a few unless you're prepared to not get a word in edgewise for the next 20 minutes.

To the point, that a lot of the time I won't put anything of his on a mix album I make for someone! How stupid is that? I don't know, some things feel personal even thought they very decidedly are not. It's stupid. It's human. Whatever.

ANYWAY, SOME OF MY FAVORITE PHIL OCHS SONGS FOR THE UNINITIATED I THINK YOU SHOULD ALL LISTEN TO THEM. BUT I ONLY WANT TO KNOW IF YOU LIKE IT SO I THINK YOU ARE BETTER THAN OTHER PEOPLE.

The Power and the Glory: When I said Phil Ochs, man with a huge fucking FBI file on him by the time he died at only 35, wrote my favorite patriotic song, this was it. Beeb even knows part of this song, because when I walk her to the Y, I sing to her part of the way, and this is on the playlist.

There But For Fortune: This actually became a minor hit for Joan Baez! (Adding to his frustration about his own life) It's a really beautiful song about not thinking you're above anything.

I Ain't Marchin Anymore: I included this because if you've heard a Phil Ochs song in an American History class or something like that, it's this one. I do like it! It had an immense effect and I would be wrong to exclude it. It's much more of a straightforward protest song than anything else on this list.

Outside a Small Circle of Friends: I think about this song all the time, a cheerful rag about indifference to the suffering of others. Don't put yourself out! Remember, you need to think about what makes you comfortable!

No More Songs: This song always makes me so sad. I love it, but it does. After this song, he would only ever record about 5 more tracks. He never had another album. He had massive writer's block, he was disillusioned by the way the world was going, he was an alcoholic, he was very clearly starting to lose it*. And seemed to realize he was losing his grip. I love this very sad country-folk song, and I think a lot about the line, 'Is anybody home? I only want to say, I'm sorry."

*and boy did he. As in, for awhile he assumed a new name and said that person had killed Phil and replaced him lost it. Ranting about the Cia and the Fbi trying to kill him lost it. Getting into intentional barfights with patrons over nothing lost it. I feel bad, because as much as a pain in the ass as he could be, reportedly, he also clearly had a lot of people who felt a lot of affection for him. His brother tried to have him committed. His sister wrangled him from off the streets to live with her. His friends tried to help and encourage to record. Even Bob fucking Dylan talked to him about doing a tour together, and when Phil put together a benefit concert that was in danger of being canceled for lack of ticket sales, Dylan was like, 'I'll play" and it sold out immediately. Lots of people tried really hard to pull him out of it. But it was just...he felt like a political, personal, and artistic failure, he was out of his goddamn tree, and it was one of those situations where I just want to be like, "You tried your best, everybody! I'll accept literally any emotion about this from any of you but guilt." I feel bad for everyone.

[wheelin-after-midnight]

51.

1. What’s one of your worst bad habits?

Negative self talk or worrying/overthinking.

2. Have you ever gone back to someone who was really bad for you?

Yes.

3. What written faux pas annoys you the most (maybe an incorrect spelling or forgetting to capitalise certain nouns, for example?

I have a lot bigger problems to worry about than how someone else wrties or types. It's not something I focus on or judge people for unless I'm being asked for help or it's within a context where something like that actually matters.

4. What’s the worst effect that social media has had on you?

I can't think of anything, because I'm not so addicted to it that it causes issues like that.

5. What colour would you describe yourself as if you had to and why does that colour fit?

These days, blue/grey/black. Because everything in my life is completely fucked and I'm tired. I'd rather be dead. :/

6. Who do you miss from your childhood or teen years? Did you just slowly pull apart or did something else happen?

My Nan. That lady was my best friend and everything I don't get from my mother, I got from her. She knew me better than any and everyone. She died. There never would have been any drifting apart otherwise.

7. What do you feel people criticise you most for? Do you tend to ignore them, defend yourself or take a different tactic?

Fucking everything about me they don't like or understand. There's no point defending myself anymore. I keep it all inside.

8. Do you have a certain person in mind that if karma was coming for them, they’d not be in a good spot?

Hah, there's a few, but I'm not totally sold on the idea of Karma anyway.

9. What similie would you use to describe yourself?

Lately something like fragile as glass.

10. What’s show that most people you know like do you have no interest in?

Bob's Burgers.

11. In what way would you say you’re unique and one of a kind?

I don't feel that way about myself. All of us are this way, though. No two humans will ever be the same.

12. Have you ever had a teacher or a professor who really came across that they didn’t like the people he was teaching?

Yeah, twice. One in fifth grade, and one in both 9th and 11th grades in high school. 13. What toxic behaviour in others have you let slide because you cared for them? Did you eventually come to your senses?

Basically anything my mother does almost any time we interact. I'm a lot less tolerant of things and will speak up for myself whether she likes it or not, but it doesn't change anything. My situation doesn't allow for complete no contact, but it's as minimal as it can be. Sometimes I miss her and extend olive branches for the contact to be more, but I almost always end up feeling stupid for trying.

14. What’s your least favourite month? Is there a particular reason for this?

January, because it's long and miserable and cold and I hate winter.

15. Would you say you’re quite capable of asserting yourself?

I'm absolutely capable, but I don't always do it as much as I should, depending on the situation.

16. How did your first serious relationship come to an end? Did you end up staying in contact or seeing them at a later time?

I stopped trying to hide the fact that I'm gay. We tried to stay friends after some time of processing things, but in the end he just didn't respect boundaries and started treating me like shit when I wouldn't compromise on said boundaries, so I cut him out.

17. Have you ever got a speeding ticket?

No. I can't drive.

18. What social issue at the moment isn’t receiving enough attention in your own opinion?

Issues pertaining to the disability community never receive enough attention, in my opinion.

19. What’s the best piece of advice a grandparent or elder gave you?

I can't think of groundbreaking advice that stuck with me at the moment. The best thing she ever gave me was her unconditional love and support and endless hours of time when no one else was there to help me and hold me up. I learned how to love people correctly and selflessly because of her.

20. How easily do you get dizzy?

Only really badly when I get migraines.

21. When did you last see a phone box?

It's been a while. I wish those would come back, honestly.

22. Have you ever been around people intoxicated on drugs?

Yeah. I think most people have at one point or another.

23. What’s tasks do you find an absolute bore?

There aren't many you'll hear me complain about. It took me years to get to a point where I was able to even do basic tasks of daily living on my own. Not having that ability and the freedom it comes with is depressing and isolating as fuck.

24. What’s your favourite type of coffee?

McDonald's, but I rarely buy their grounds to percolate at home anymore because it's expesnsive. Generally I prefer light to medium roasts. 25. Is there one person who has been there for you more than anyone else?

If we can count deceased people, then Nan. If not, then my girlfriend.

26. What’s was the reason you were last sad on a birthday of yours?

Being alone with no one coming by or checking on me. 27. Have you ever drunk texted an ex?

Yeah. 28. What was your favourite childhood game?

Playing with barbies and baby dolls. Playing office with old phones and keyboards that didn't work anymore.

29. What do people go to you for help with?

My friends come to me for support when they're struggling or hurting. I wish I could do more as a friend, though. Like, drop everything and go help take care of their kids or clean their house or bring them a meal when they're grieving, overwhelmed, whatever. But I'm not in that position and stuck here and it makes me feel terrible. I can offer my words and my ear and things like that, but it doesn't feel like enough. Makes me feel like a totally garbage friend. They'll insist I'm not, but the feeling is tough to shake.

30. What movie have you been meaning to watch but you’ve just not got around to it yet?

The Wild Robot.