#my man kurt said anything huh

[sunset-bridge]

drain you - nirvana

id in alt

[cryscendo]

11. Travel!au

7. Childhood friends

23. You know your book is upside-down, right? (If this is duplicated then my backups are au 14, trope 9, prompt 34)

this one was incredibly cute and fun to do! it gave me an opportunity to write flustered blaine, which i love doing!

Word Count: 736

If anyone else would like to send in a prompt, you can do so here!

Fic can be read under the cut!

~~~

“Attention, everyone. Flight 283 to New York is now boarding.”

“Blaine, c’mon! We’re boarding! We don’t wanna be late!”

With an unmatched eagerness, Kurt directed them towards their boarding gate. Though it should certainly be said that there was absolutely no way they were going to be anything less than punctual if Kurt was the one who was in charge of making sure they got where they were supposed to be.

Blaine couldn’t blame Kurt for his excitement, however. He knew Kurt loved New York more than anything. He also knew that if it weren’t for his dad’s health taking a surprising decline, Kurt would still be living there and not back in Ohio. Blaine feels for Kurt in many ways, though he had to admit, at least only to himself, that he liked having Kurt back in Ohio with him. It felt incredibly selfish, but it was the truth.

He and Kurt have been friends since elementary school. And even back then, Blaine knew that Kurt had no interest in staying in Ohio. That was kind of where the two of them differed. Blaine was quite content where he was. Kurt was not. The few years that Kurt was away in New York was the hardest few years of Blaine’s life. He truly could feel the distance, even if they had Skyped frequently. He would never tell Kurt that, though. He never wanted to be the reason why his best friend couldn’t live to his fullest potential.

But Kurt is back now! And not only that, but they’re taking a trip to New York together. Kurt was looking forward to showing Blaine all his favorite parts of the state. Blaine was mostly just looking forward to having Kurt to himself for two weeks. 

Because as much he hates it to be true, he never did shake his stupid, fat crush on his best friend. And these days, that has only been amplified. During childhood and even into their teenage years, Kurt was always incredibly reserved about being perceived in any way that was even remotely sexual. Nowadays, however, he’s a changed man. New York changed him. He’s confident, alluring, and if Blaine were to be so bold in his word choice, sexy.

Blaine can’t stop himself from staring at him.

Once they were seated on the plane, he and Kurt adjusted their belongings to get comfortable. Kurt pulled out a sketchpad and opened it up to a design that he had been working on. Blaine wishes that Kurt could have continued working for Vogue, but obviously the high fashion market doesn’t really reach Ohio.

Blaine took a book out that he had been reading and opened it up. He was trying to focus on the page, but he was finding it hard with Kurt sitting right next to him looking immaculate. No matter how hard he tried, his attention kept being pulled away from his book and towards the line of Kurt’s jaw, or the slope of his nose. It was unbelievably distracting.

“Uh, Blaine?”

Blaine’s attention was fully on Kurt immediately. “Yeah, Kurt?”

Kurt nodded down to the book in Blaine’s hands. “You know your book is upside-down, right?” 

Huh. It sure is. Blaine flips the book the correct way around, a blush spreading across his cheeks. “You’re right, th-thanks.”

“You feeling alright?”

“Yeah!” Blaine replies, already knowing that he sounded far too energetic to be convincing. “Just a bit nervous about flying is all.”

Kurt gave him a look of genuine concern, and damn it, why does he have to be so caring? “I didn’t know you were afraid of flying.”

That’s not the only thing you don’t know about me, Blaine thought, a bit pathetically. “Yeah, a little, but I’ll be fine!” He offered Kurt a smile that he hoped came off as believable. “Once we get past take off, I’m sure it’ll be easy-going from there.”

“If you say so.” Kurt then patted his knee in a way that Blaine was sure was supposed to be purely friendly, but all he could think about was the heat of Kurt’s touch and how it somehow managed to warm his whole body. Once a silence fell back between them, Blaine forced himself to look back down at his book (which was now turned the correct way), but he couldn’t focus on the words at all.

This was going to be a long trip.

[werewolfbansheelove]

Bad Reputation (Glee Kids)

I'm excluding the adults parts

Some glee members were laughing at a video of someone dancing to Olivia Newton John's Physical. Finn (enters the room): What’s so funny?

Rache and Jesse enter the room. Rachel: You aren’t watching the video of me falling off stage at my first Tiny Tots beauty pageant?

Kurt: That was Carrot-Top funny compared to this comedic tour de force.

Jesse: That’s Olivia Newton-John's "Physical." It was pretty groundbreaking subject matter at the time considering its depiction of fluid sexuality.

Mercedes: (Laughing) Oh, my G- Wait, wait.

Finn then realized: That’s not Olivia Newton-John. That’s -That’s Sue Sylvester.Where did you get this?

Kurt:  I can tell you that I certainly did not steal it from her locked file cabinet yesterday when she sent me back to her office to get her hormone replacement injection during Cheerios practice. (Laughs) 

Artie: Wait. Did she just do the Cabbage Patch?

 [Mercedes Laughs]

Finn: I’m posting this on YouTube.

Rachel: No, no, wait, wait. Do you think that’s a good idea? She might kill us.

Mercedes: Oh, let her get a taste of some of the humiliation she put us through.

Jesse: I’m with Finn. You guys need to stop being such asses and start being badasses. 

Finn smiled at Jesse as he took the laptop. Finn: Ten bucks it goes viral by lunch.

–—––—

Will held up a list with some names on the list. Will: Who did it? This is serious. Principal Figgins is threatening to disband the club.

Santana: Why are we playing this game? We all know it was Puck.

Puck: Back off. I didn’t do squat.

Tina: Then why is your girlfriend first on the Glist?

Rachel: And why am I last? Aside from the fact that I refused to put out for you. 

Will: Okay, enough! No one is accusing anyone of anything. Puck, seriously, did you do it?

Puck:  I said no. I’m a delinquent, sure. I like setting stuff on fire and beating up people I don’t know. I own that. But I’m not a liar. 

Will: All right, here’s the important point. Between this and posting Coach Sylvester's personal video on YouTube you guys are getting a pretty bad reputation.

Artie: Why is that a bad thing? Maybe if we seem more dangerous, people would stop flushing my glasses down the toilet.

Will: Look, things are hard right now. I get it. You’re under a lot of pressure with regionals coming up. I know that winning sectionals hasn’t had the positive effect on your popularity... that a lot of you thought it would. But becoming what you despise is not the answer.  (Hands papers to the members) 

Mercedes: Man, this song is wack.

Will: No, it’s not. It’s a terrific song on a long list of top hits that, because of time or some bad press, has become a joke. And like you guys, it’s time to start rehabilitating its bad reputation. The assignment for the week is for all of you to find songs like thi mine them for what works and make them great again and then, hopefully, you can apply this musical lesson to your own lives.

Jesse: This song should be arrested for the crime of sucking. (That served a lot of laughing.)

Will: You wanna bet?

Artie: Oh, no, he didn’t! 

Will: Yo, VIP Let’s kick it

New Directions: Ice ice baby, ice ice baby.

Will (with New Directions): All right stop, collaborate and (listen) Ice is back with a brand new invention. Something grabs ahold of me tightly Flow like a harpoon daily and nightly. (Will it ever stop?) Yo, I don’t know. Turn off the lights, huh, and I’ll glow to the extreme I rock a mic like a vandal. Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle (Dance) bum rush the speakers that booms. I’m killing your brain like a poisonous mushroom(Deadly) When I play a dope melody, anything less than the best is a felony. (Love it or leave it) You better gain way, you better hit bull's eye (The kid don’t play). If there was a problem, (yo) I’ll solve it. Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it. 

New Directions: Ice Ice Baby, vanilla, Ice Ice Baby. Vanilla, Ice Ice Baby, Vanilla, Ice Ice Baby.

Will (with New Directions): Take heed, cause I’m a lyrical (poet) Miami's on the scene just in case youdidn’t (know it). My town, that created all the bass sound, ennough to shake and kick holes in the ground. Cause my style's like a chemical (spill), feasible rhymes that you can vision and (feel). Conducted and formed, this is a hell of a concept, we make it hype and you want to step (with this). Shay plays on the fade, slice like a ninja Cut like a razor blade so fast, other DJs say ("Damn") If my rhyme was a drug, I’d sell it by the (gram). Keep my composure when it’s time to get loose. Magnetized by the mic while I kick my juice, if there was a problem, (yo, I’ll solve it), check out the hook while DJ revolves it.

New Directions: Ice Ice Baby Vanilla, Ice Ice Baby. Vanilla, Ice Ice Baby, Vanilla, Ice Ice Baby Too cold, too cold, Ice Ice Ice Ice

Will: Yo man, let’s get out of here, word to your mother.

Will: This song is officially paroled! Right, Jesse? You got me? (Jesse nods, agreeing.)

–—–—

Rachel walked beside Artie. 

Rachel: I need to enlist the services of the A/V Club.

Artie: What did you have in mind?

Rachel: My shame at appearing so low on the Glist has made me reevaluate my image at this school and beyond. I've realized that in today's culture of bad boy athletes and celebrity sex tapes a good reputation is no good at all.

Rachel stood or leaned down to Artie.   Rachel: Artie, you know how our Glee Club assignment was to find a song with a bad reputation and rehabilitate it? Well, mine is going to afford me the worst reputation in this school. Rachel Berry is going to get a little down and dirty.

Artie: I’m gonna stop you. You had me at "sex tape." How can I help?

Rachel: Hold on to your hat because Rachel Berry is going to become musically promiscuous.      She smirks and walks away. 

–——–

Kurt, Artie, Tina and Mercedes were in the choir room around the piano.   Kurt: Fellow Glee Clubbers, I have called this meeting because our free-falling reps have reached terminal velocity. We are at DEFCON 1. 

Mercedes: We’re such zeros, they didn’t  bother putting us on the Glist.

Kurt: What does a C-lister do when their tiny star is about to fall off Perez Hilton's radar screen? They cause a scandal so extreme they can no longer be ignored.

Artie (raising a hand): Um, excuse me. Why is she here?

Brittany was in the room but they didn’t notice her until Artie said something about it.  Brittany: I’ve been here since first period. I had a cold, and I took all my antibiotics at the same time and now I can’t remember how to leave. But I also don’t know why I’ve only made fourth on the Glist. I made out with, like, everyone in this school girls, boys, Mr. Kidney the janitor. I need to do something to get into the top three. 

Kurt: Fine, you’re in.

Mercedes: In what? We don’t even have a plan.

Kurt: What is the worst thing a student can do at this school?

Tina: eat in the cafeteria?  (Making Mercedes and her laugh) 

Kurt: No, be a disruption in the library. I’m not talking about trying to check out a reference book. Uh-uh. I’m talking about full-on chaos including getting your Glee on in the stacks.

Artie (amused): Genius!

—–——

Rachel was at her house in her rom.   Rachel: Do you know that when we dated, the rest of the school gave us a nickname? Puckleberry.

Puck was in horror wearing a mask that was from Phantok of the Opera.  Puck: That’s humiliating.

Rachel: The fact is that slumming it with me actually improved your reputation. It gave you a sense of humanity.

Puck takes off the mask.  Puck: Wait. Do you want to date again? I was wondering why you invited me here.

Rachel: As you know, I’m taken, but I can be of some assistance. Help me with my song for Glee Club. I-I might be the last chance you have to salvage what’s left of your reputation and stay in Glee. Besides, you need a song that’s gonna help you to express your inner pain.

Puck: What song do you wanna do for your assignment?

Rachel: I’ve chosen David Geddes's fantastically terrible '70s Top 10 hit, "Run Joey Run." It’s a story song, so we get to play parts. I’m gonna play the role of the tragic heroine who dies in the end la Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge and you can be the hunky, heroic male lead.

Puck: Do I get to kill you?

Rachel: N-Actually, my dad shoots me with a shotgun.

Puck (Sighs): Do you think I made that Glist? Honestly. (Sits down on Rachel’s bed)

Rachel (follows): Well, it does sound like something that you would do.

Puck: God, I’m so tired of people judging me for a few mistakes I’ve made. I try to be a good guy. I go to school and I say, "Be cool, Puck. Be nice." But by second period, I’ve got a fire extinguisher in my hands and I’m spraying some dweeb with it, and I don’t know how I got there.

I understand. Yeah. I sit in Glee Club and I watch a couple of imperfect performances and a litany of criticisms just start building up inside of me like a volcano and I keep telling myself to hold it in, and then it just comes bursting out. Granted, generally, I’m right  but doesn’t do much for my reputation.

Puck: It does suck when you do that.

So, uh, how do you think

we can get people to see us differently?

Puck: I don’t know.   (He leans in but Rachel stops him) 

Rachel: I ca- I can’t do this.

Puck: You know, whoever made that Glist is gonna put you at number one when they find out you cheated on that Jesse kid with me. Besides, Jesse will never fully understand what it means to be a Jew.

Puck leaned in again, but Rachel stops him again. 

Rachel: No, I-I’m ironically turned on by your bad boy image but I think we should just keep this professional.

Puck (scoffed): All right, I’m out. Why should I stay if there’s no chance of us making out?

Rachel: Uh, Noah... (takes his hand) Please come and sit down, and let’s work on the project. Okay? It’ll help us both, I promise.

–——–

Artie, Brittany, Kurt, Mercedes and Tina entered the library wearing bomber jackets and colorful pants. 

Mercedes: Looks like we got a full house, y'all.

Artie: I’m kind of getting cold feet here.

Brittany: Can you even feel your feet?

Librarian: Shh!

Kurt: Team, listen up. If we pull this off, we will be legends at this school. We’ll rocket up the Glist. We’ll be top five, easy. Artie, pump up the jam. It’s about to go down.

Artie: U can’t touch this 

Artie (The Group): My-my-my-my (U can't touch this) music hits me so hard makes me say, 'oh my lord thank you for blessing me, with a mind to rhyme and two hyped feet. It feels good. When you know you’re down A superdope homeboy from the Oaktown. And I'm known as such and this is a beat-uh! U can’t touch

Artie with the Group: U can’t touch this

The librarian came out from her seat and approach the teens. Artie: Here it comes.

Librarian: That was very cute. I'm gonna talk to my pastor and see if I can't get you kids to perform that for our Sunday service.

That didn’t work. 

–——–

Will: Look, I don’t like doing this any more than you do but if I don’t find out who made that Glist and stop another one from being published the whole Glee Club's going down, and I can’t let that happen.

Will was investigating the members and the first one was Finn. 

Finn: Look, I know I’ve been kind of angry lately, and sometimes I kick over chairs and stuff but I didn’t do it.

Will: All the pieces fit. You have a very big ax to grind with several people on that Glist. Quinn broke your heart, Puck betrayed your friendship you’re dealing with Kurt's dad dating your mom. And I happen to know you’ve had your ups and downs with Santana and Brittany.

Next up was Mercedes: 

I have nothing against Santana, and I like Brittany. Quinn's the one that has a beef with them.

Will: Well, there are an awful lot of Cheerios on that Glist. Isn’t  it true that you still feel like an outcast in that group?

Mercedes: I don’t know what you’re  talking about. I like being a Cheerio. And why does everyone just assume I’m  angry all the time? It's called being sassy, Mr. Schue.

Next was Artie.

Artie: It’s simple math, Mr. Schue. The Glists are posted at a height of five and a half feet, comfortably out of my reach. It could not have been me. And I have it on good word that....

Tina was next... 

Tina: I saw Puck putting up the Glist in the hallway.

Then Puck... 

Puck:  I was moving it! Somebody put it on Rachel's locker, so I moved it. I was being a man, doing the right thing.

Will: At some point, Puck the lies are gonna stop, and you’re gonna start to sing.

Puck: If I did it, why would I put myself at number three? As far as badasses go, I'm number "wha." I’ll say it again, I didn’t do it!

Then Brittany but....

Brittany: I don’t know how to turn on a computer.

Quinn was next. 

Quinn: Rachel did it. Think about it. I stole the guy she's in love with then stole the guy she dated to get over the guy she’s in love with and I’m a bitch to her.

Will: Just doesn’t seem like Rachel.

Quinn: She’s gone behind your back before. And I mean, who's to say that there's only one culprit?

Will slams his hands on the table. Will: Look, I know you know something! So we’re not leaving here until I get some answers!

Kurt looked at him oddly.    Kurt: Mr. Schuester, may I be blunt?

Will [Sighs]: Shoot.

Kurt: Ever since you separated from your wife you’re spent a lot of late nights watching reruns of Law & Order, haven’t you? (Will looked down) Hmm. Thought so and no, I didn’t make the Glist.

Will: [Sighs] Right.

Kurt: We’re as menacing as Muppet Babies which means our squeaky-clean reputations are still very much intact.

Artie: We have to do what we’re been dreading something more terrifying than Rachel's personality. We have to go to Sylvester and admit that we posted the "Physical" video.

Tina:  But we’ll get suspended.

Kurt: It will be worth it. Finally, the entire student body will see us as badasses.

—–—–

The School Bell Rings, as the five Glee kids were on the hallway. Artie: Remember, if Sylvester hits you in the face after you cop to posting the video don’t scream like a woman.

Mercedes: You’re so brave for doing this, Kurt.

Kurt: I know. Thank you.

Mercedes: Oh, my God!       Alarming Kurt. 

Kurt (approached her): Coach Sylvester, can I have just a minute of your time?

Sue: What do you want, lady-face?

Kurt: You’re aware a tape was leaked onto the Internet causing you to become a national laughingstock? We stole the tape from your syringe-and-pill drawer. We posted it online. We’ll accept whatever punishment you see fit.

Sue:  So it was you. I can’t thank you enough.

—–—

Later, the five were in a classroom looking up on the laptop. Artie: She wasn’t angry at all. It was weird.

Tina: Maybe the comments online have gotten so mean, and people have started to feel sorry for her. She’s finally getting some sympathy, so she’s in a forgiving mood.

Kurt found a link that got his attention. Kurt: Wait a second. Take a look at this.

Mercedes: Isn’t that... 

It was Sue Sylvester and Olivia Newton-John doing Physical together. 

Mercedes (letting out a breath): Phew!

Mercedes + Tina: Again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again! Banging the table. 

Artie:  I need to learn to do this verse.

Brittany: All day. 

–—–—

It was someone's project for Glee Club. Will: All right, guys, listen up. Another week has almost passed. If a list goes up again later today, this issue is out of my hands and it becomes Principal Figgins's jurisdiction.

Finn: Seriously, Mr. Schue, whoever made that list is not gonna come forward. We might as well just bend over and take whatever's coming.

Will: Fine. Okay. Well, then, uh, let’s get to it. Rachel, how 'bout you show us your bad reputation project?

Rachel: I’d like to say a few words first, though I understand that a motion picture should stand on its own I do realize that some of you are not well-versed in the complex vocabulary of the filmic arts. I expect that this video will go over some of the heads of our less-cultured teammates. So let me just say I hope you enjoy my bad reputation. Lights. Okay, go.

The film started with Santana and Brittany as angels. 

Brittany and Santana: Aaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaah, Aaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaah.

Rachel appeared as the main protagonist.

Rachel with Brittany and Santana harmonizing: Daddy, please don’t , It wasn’t his fault. He means so much to me, Daddy please don’t. We’re gonna get married

Rachel: Just you wait and see

The video starts out in Puck's room, with Puck starring as Joey.

Puck: Every night, the same old dream, I hate to close my eyes. I can’t erase the memory, the sound of Julie's cry. She called me up, late that night She said, "Joe, don’t come over". My Dad and I just had a fight and he stormed out the door. I’ve never seen him act this way, My God, he’s going crazy

Puck with Brittany and Santana harmonizing: He said he’s gonna make you pay, for what we’ve done, he’s got a gun. 

Puck with Brittany and Santana: So run, Joey run, Joey run!

Rachel with Brittany and Santana harmonizing: Daddy, please don’t , It wasn’t his fault. He means so much to me, Daddy please don’t. We’re gonna get married

Rachel: Just you wait and see

The scene was outside in a red car with Jesse as Joey #2.

Jesse: Got in my car, drove like mad, Til I reached Julie's place. She ran to me, with tear-filled eyes and bruises on her face.  All at once I saw him there, sneaking up behind me (Rachel: Watch out!) Then Julie yelled, "He’s got a gun!"

Then Finn was Joey #3. Sandy Ryanson was Julie's dad with a gun up.

Finn: And she stepped in front of me. Then, suddenly, a shot rang out and I saw Julie falling. 

Finn with Brittany and Santana harmonizing: I ran to her; I held her close, when I looked down, my hands were red!

It was fake blood on Finn’s hand.

Finn: And here’s the last words Julie said:

Rachel: Daddy, please don’t. It wasn’t his fault, he means so much to me. Daddy, please don’t We’re gonna get married.....

Brittany and Santana: Aaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaah

Julie dies.

Jesse with Brittany and Santana: Run, Joey, run, Joey, run,

Finn with Brittany and Santana: Joey, run,

Puck with Brittany and Santana: Joey, run,

Finn, Jesse, and Puck (with Brittany and Santana harmonizing): Joey, run, Joey, run.....!

Rachel: Well, why don’t we just, um, take a moment to really absorb what we’ve just watched?

Finn (angry): This is garbage!

Will (coming to defense): Finn!

Puck: No, he’s right. I need to trust my instincts more because I had a feeling when we were shooting that it was not gonna be good.

Will tried to speak up but Jesse cut in. 

Jesse: Why didn’t you tell me they were in this too? I thought you and I were going out. Being triple cast with two other guys to play opposite your girlfriend- it’s mortifying.

Rachel: It was an artistic statement.

Finn: No, it wasn’t!  It was you trying to look like you had a bunch of guys fighting over you so you could stop looking like some kind of outcast and be seen as some hot, slutty girl singer! (Finn then stood in front of her.) How could you do this to me, to all us guys? Is your stupid reputation more important than your relationships?

Jesse left the room. Rachel: Jesse, wait.

—–—–

Will walked out of Emma's office and saw how Quinn was behaving. 

Will: I know you’re behind the Glist.

Quinn:  You have no proof. I can’t believe that you’re gonna pin this on me. I’ll be expelled. I mean, it makes sense. Everything else has been taken from me- my popularity, my body. Might as well throw away my education.

Will: You know when I realized that you did it? The moment I felt what it was like to walk in your shoes. I mean, it takes years to build a good reputation but only seconds to destroy it. Couple bad choices, and you go from the top to the bottom. (Got on his knees) You have lost so much, Quinn which means you had the most to gain from the Glist.

Quinn (cries): I never meant to hurt anybody.

Will: I know.

Quinn (scoffs): I was captain of the cheerleading squad, president of the Celibacy Club. I had Finn. People would part like the Red Sea when I walked down the hallway. Now I’m invisible.

Will: And you think being seen as a cheap tramp is better?

Quinn: A bad reputation is better than no reputation at all.

Look, I know that high school feels like your whole life right now but it’s going to end. You’re gonna give that baby to a family who really wants it, who’s gonna love it and then you are gonna go on to do amazing things, Quinn.

Quinn: You really think that I can get it all back one day?

Will [Exhales]: No. I think you can get something even better. I mean, come on! You're Quinn Fabray, right? [Quinn Chuckles] Those people didn’t part when you walked down the halls, you moved them with your attitude.

Quinn: Thanks, Mr. Schue. You’re a really good teacher even if everybody is calling you a man-whore.

Figgins (enters the choir room): You wanted to see me, William? I trust you have come up with the perpetrators of the Glist.

Will: I, um-I grilled every single one of my students and, uh, no one no one copped to making the Glist. They all closed ranks and wouldn’t rat out who did it.

Figgins: That’s poppycock, Will. I will not let this school be held hostage by juvenile shenanigans.

Will: I know, but I mean, your point has been made. The Glists have stopped. I think we should just call this a victory and move on.

Figgins: Fine. I’m still praying for you, Will.

Quinn: [Whispers] Thank you. 

–——–

Rachel opened her locker but then Jesse stood beside it. Rachel: Hi. Are you still mad at me?

Jesse: You know, before I transferred here to make you my girlfriend I asked around about you, found out your rep, what kind of girl you were.

Rachel: What did they say?

Jesse: Most of them had no idea who you were. The ones that did said you were kind of sneaky hot but that that quality was canceled out by a compulsive need to be right and a strange affinity for sweaters with animals on them. The most interesting part was that even though no one particularly liked you they all said you were a person who could be trusted.

Rachel: I still am! I have this pathological need to be popular, okay? I- I just want people to think I’m cool so bad sometimes that it just clouds my judgment. As a fellow star in the making, I’m sure you can understand that.

Jesse: On that level, sure. As the guy who gave up everything to be your one and only I just can’t see past this. I should have been enough for you, Rachel.

Rachel: I knew you’d break my heart.

Jesse: Well, that’s the funny thing about reputations. Everyone thinks I’m the big heartbreaker but the fact of the matter is you broke mine first. Do me a favor. If we end up next to each other on the bar at Ballet Club this week just do your arabesques and piqués in silence. Don’t talk to me. (Walks away from her, completely hurting her) (But who cares.)  

—–—–

Time for one last performance from Rachel since eshe hurt Finn and Jesse but Puck didn’t care that much. 

ᴺᴼᵂ ᴾᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ : Total Eclipse Of The Heart BY Bonnie Tyler

Finn: Turn around

Rachel: Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you’re never coming round

Puck: Turn around

Rachel: Every now and then I get a little bit tired of listening to the sound of my tears

Jesse: Turn around 

Rachel: Every now and then I get a little bit terrified and then I see the look in your eyes

Finn: Turn around bright eyes

Rachel: Every now and then I fall apart

Rachel with New Directions harmonizing: And I need you now tonight And I need you more than ever, and if you only hold me tight. We’ll be holding on forever and we’ll only be making it right, Cause we’ll never be wrong. Together we can take it to the end of the line, your love is like a shadow on me all of the time (New Directions: All of the time) I don’t know what to do I’m always in the dark. We’re living in a powder keg and giving off sparks (with New Directions: I really need you tonight) Forever's gonna start tonight (New Directions: Forever's gonna start tonight)

Once upon a time there was light in my life

Rachel with Finn: Now there’s only love in the dark, nothing I can say, Total eclipse of the heart

Jesse: Turn around bright eyes

Rachel: Every now and then I fall apart

Jesse: Turn around bright eyes

Rachel: Every now and then I fall apart, 

And I need you now tonight And I need you more than ever, and if you only hold me tight. We’ll be holding on forever and we’ll only be making it right, cause we’ll never be wrong. Together we can take it to the end of the line, your love is like a shadow on me all of the time (New Directions: All of the time) I don’t know what to do I’m always in the dark. We’re living in a powder keg and giving off sparks (with New Directions: I really need you tonight) Forever's gonna start tonight (New Directions: Forever's gonna start tonight)

Everyone started to leave the room, with Finn going first and Rachel didn’t like it. 

Rachel: Once upon a time I was falling in love

Rachel with Jesse: Now I’m only falling apart There’s nothing I can do

Rachel: A total eclipse of the heart

Jesse: Turn around bright eyes

Jesse was the last one to leave the room, leaving Rachel all alone. 

[porcelainxxx1x1]

Kurt's face lit up with glee. "A party in my honor? Would you that for me, Daddy? Oh my gosh- That would be amazing! Of course, I get to have a word in planning it for it to be completely perfect!" he said with a soft giggle, then he bit his lip down slightly, th epad of his thumbs caressing the other's strong cheekbone. "A perfect co-star, huh? Hmm, well... Maybe now it'd be the precise time to maybe say yes to one live show." He looked down, blushing a bit. "I mean, it can be scary for me, because I've never done anything like it, but I would just focus on you, and tune the world out. Then I know I'll be completely fine." He shuffled a bit on Alan's lap, purposely pushing his ass down on his crotch. "Mm... A tad older, and that makes you completely irresistible. My older man, who gets to give me everything I've ever dreamed, and more."

He smiled fondly while Alan went on describing how their vacation would be, and he could practically picture the whole thing in his mind. "That's sounds absolutely perfect, Daddy. And I get to wake up in your arms every day, to the gentle sound of the waves kissing the sand on the beach... How romantic. Of course, after spending a whole night with you pounding me into oblivion" he said, then looked up and wink at him. "Um- I don't really know? I mean, such a place sounds like it could be found more in the Caribbean than in the States, don't you think?"

Alan was grinning wickedly just watching Kurt, the man being so open and playful was such an incredible sight. He had always been open with Kurt and tried to encourage it in his boy so getting to hear him open up like this was something special. "Well I'll have to make sure I get you to one... or hell, I'll just throw one in your honour and invite a bunch of the co-stars I know you've seen once or twice, make it a special night in your honour" he retorted, biting his bottom lip just thinking about it. "Honestly I don't know why I turned it down, I guess it just never felt like the right combo of co-star. First live shows are a big deal and I wanted it to be with the perfect co-star... looks like I got that now". Grinning, he moved around a little in his seat so there was room on his lap for Kurt, his arm slipping around that tiny waist so easily just holding Kurt against him. He let his large fingers trail tenderly up and down the small of Kurt's back "Your man... who is just a touch older" he joked "A beach vacation sounds fantastic, and not just because I'd get to see you in a tiny swimsuit looking perfect. We need some time away and we have got a fair bit of savings built up, I think we could afford a weekend or more away" he whispered, nuzzling his forehead against Kurt's as sweetly as possible while his hands moved lover to gently cup his son's cheeks and fondle them a little 'Just you, me, a nice little beachside view. I'll make us some mimosas every evening, we sit on little beach chairs overlooking the ocean without a stitch on... just a nice relaxing time for the both of us" he whispered, kissing Kurt as tenderly as he could while he kept fondling his boy "Any where in particular you have in mind baby or should I just find the first beach place with an open booking?"

[poetandwolf]

Which labels do you use? Trans, Ace/Aro, Pan, Fictoromantic.

Do you like to use the term queer for yourself? Or just LGBT, etc?Queer because my mouth is too small and my tongue is too big and I have a chiari malformation so some words are hard to say and rolling out the LGBT+ out makes me mumble and stumble over my words, and I have been made fun of for it by my own community so I just say “queer”.

Which pronouns do you use? he/him or ‘they/them (for system reasons)

Are you "out" to your family and friends? Yes.. my family knows for the most part. My dad doesn’t really ‘get’ the ficto thing I don’t think but my brother and mother are smart enough to piece together Aubrey = Alhazad.

Are you "out" publicly? Uh, stealth usually on the trans thing. People at work think I’m gay/in a same sex relationship- which is kind of true.

(If you're out) do you wish you came out sooner? Later? Or was it the right time? Yes. I wish I said something to my dad when I was 16, it may have made it easier for him to accept why I was the way I was. But I don’t regret growing up as a ‘woman’ from 16-26 because I learned a lot. It’s the journey, not the destination. I wish I knew I could be ficto and that it was okay and stood up for myself instead of being afraid of the backlash and people forcing me into things or ignoring me and over stepping my boundaries.

Are you the "token" Yeah..

Describe your gender without using any words traditionally related to gender: Kurt Cobain and Van Gough’s love child with Yog Sothoth.

When did you realize you weren't cishet? When did you realize you *were* cishet? I was always the way I was. I didn’t figure it out, I just knew I was different from everyone else around me.

Something that gives you gender euphoria (whether you're cis or trans): My goatee, or when ever someone calls me sir ;A; <3.

Favorite (or just one you love) piece of LGBT media? I don’t think I really have one..?

Name some queer artists/bands or songs you like most: I don’t really have any, maybe besides Garbage but I wouldn’t call them a favorite band.. Nirvana and the Foo Fighters could be because what they had was def kind Bi energy.

Do you choose to reclaim slurs, why or why not? I will use the F-word but weird kind of hyperbole.. “Gay” as an insult like in fun like *claw spin*. At work it kind of gets hilarious like someone will be popping off about someone else and call them the F word, then look at me “no disrespect” and I’m like “none taken.” I mean it’s probably problematic but dude, there’s this butchy lesbian who drops the F word on everyone.

How do you think other factors like neurodivergency or upbringing have impacted your identity? Uuuh yeah, like. I dunno.. Probably. It’s hard to explain because I have a hard time relating to transmen irl who aren’t on the spectrum.

How has your identity changed over time? Hmm.. first I thought I was bi because I loved my best friend and liked boobs but then I also loved Aubrey/Alhazad... and then it was weird because I never liked anyone like I loved Aub. I was constantly stresses about being trans as I got older and buried it due to trauma. But if that shit never happened things may have been different. I think it was like Bi>Pan>Ace/Aro>Ficto then Gender fluid>Trans-male>Transmasculine?Gender fluid...? Being on different hormones for this fiborid has made me give less and less fucks about my gender outside of work/around the kids (we don’t want to confuse them and they don’t need to know what I was ‘born as’)

Do you attend Pride in person every year? No.. I hate crowds and I am not a fan of the flare and ... loud of it all. I know it’s very important to people but I can’t take all that energy and exaggeration of personalities (like I don’t like drag, either. I mean it’s cool of people do but I can not take the loudness of personalities my autistic brain melts down and I just want somewhere quiet. Can we have a Pride fest where we hike the PCT and little talking???)

Have you ever attended Pride in a big city/ large metro area? Fuck no I would die.

How old were you when you got to attend your first Pride? Who did you go with? N/A.

Do you feel safe and accepted in your local community?Yes, for the most part no one gives a shit. The super market who watches me transition and various other places and the pizza shop that knew me when I was 19 and on wards just.. don’t even question it and it’s very much “Oh, huh. Well that makes sense.”

Do you feel like you "fit in" with the queer/Pride community overall? No... I feel like I don’t fit in at all and I’m not whatever level of fabulous that they want me to be...

What message would you give to your younger self? You’ll be happier as man, That bitch is a lying piece of shit and Aubrey LOVES YOU no matter what the fuck you are. Now beat the dog shit out of that bitch while you’re under 18.

How do you usually celebrate Pride month? I make a mental note draw my ocs with their flags then I forget to do it. But usually at work we hang up pride related things and such. I don’t really do anything but I do make a toast on the 28th for those who fought for our rights.

Do you prefer loud parties or quiet? I don’t do parties.

Do you practice any religion, if so how does it play into your LGBT identity? Do you feel welcomed by your spiritual community? I struggled a lot when I was a child because I did want to believe in ‘God’ and like my own version of it- but I thought what I felt and how I felt about girls was ‘wrong’. It’s.. weird. It sucked. But I stopped believing in all of that when I was 15-- for god. And I had happen realize that I did like my best friend, but also Alhazad the same year. Al was just so much deeper. I don’t really practice any religion anymore outside of some Buddhist things but nothing really serious. If there is a higher power it is so far above what we can comperhend and I don’t think it gives a shit about who we love as long as we’re happy because gender is a human construct.

What queer discourse frustrates you the most? I don’t care anymore. As long as I can shoot T in my ass and ruin the men’s room at a Costco when I get IBS from being around crowds I don’t care. Leave me alone and get off my lawn.

How do you feel about the term partner rather than husband/girlfriend/etc? We should normalize the term partner in all relationships. Period. cishet or other wise.

What gender-neutral terms for yourself or others do you use (i.e. joyfriend)? lmao what? Alhazad/Aubrey ID’s as a man and has huge BDE and while his Japanese pronoun isn’t really gendered he prefers male ones so I call him either my husband or my partner. He will call me his ‘wife’ or ‘his love’ or ‘my husband’ it all depends on the context and what personality is out and where we are at the time.

Do you experience both romantic and sexual attraction? No, my romantic attraction is only for one person and one person only and that falls under ficto with Alhazad. Now sexual attraction? I have to have some kind of connection with the person to sleep with them, it’s a very ace-spec thing. But before T I didn’t have any sexual attraction at all. So honestly I don’t know. I had to quit T while I’m on lupron and other hormones for my hysto and my sex drive is a dead cat fish in a bucket right now. Do you experience them the same across any gender(s) you are attracted to? I never had sex with anyone with a penis so I am kind of wondering what that feels like after I have my hysto. Am I answering this right?

Are you currently partnered, or if not are you interested in having partner(s)? Yes *points to Aub*.

Are you monogamous or polyamorous? Monogamous as far as romantic love. I.. guess rn I have one FWB when there was a time I had about 3 but it wasn’t anything deep about it. Sex for me was like.. when you have an itch and then it gets scratched and you’re good for a few weeks.

Post a pic in your pride gear (or it can just be a selfie or anything else lgbt): Alls I have is the Magic Gay sticker plastered all over my work shit.

Do you do arts and crafts? yes, I draw and make things Post a pic of a project you've done: https://www.deviantart.com/ifoundawayout find stuff there

What about your LGBT identity do you feel proud of/ want to recognize/celebrate? the fact I am a thriving trans dude and I am very happy with my ficto/spirit husband :)

What are you needing most right now (what would make your life easier or more fulfilling in regards to existing as queer)? A promise I can continue to have my HRT and use the bathrooms I need to use, because it would be so fucking awkward if I was forced to detransition with out my fucking ovaries that are being taken out in July. I don’t have the mental horsepower to change my name and do that shit all over again like please don’t make me do that I don’t want to and it’s going to be a huge headache for everyone involved...

Anything else you want to ask during Pride: .... I dunno I kind of wish I could go to a Pride event with my husband (likely high or on a tranq to find stuff we could do and maybe support local GLBT artists?? I can’t think of anything. OH I know! How come they haven’t made a huge farting unicorn that farts glitter!! HR said if I could find one they’d buy it as part of our Pride Month decor.

[no-one-fuck-a-man]

Berry Blues

Season Two

Part Eight - (Furt) It's a Nice Day For a Black and Blue Wedding

Quinn Fabray x Reader

Summary: Things come to blows, and a wedding ensues. Why are feelings so much?

Word Count: 11,358

WARNINGS: Kinda graphic descriptions of violence and the aftermath of it, anger, bullying, angst, a small argument.

(A/N): Enjoy!

-----

"So... listen..."

You didn't like where this was going.

"You better not have gotten my sister pregnant," you stated, deathly calm to your friend as you leaned against the lockers, watching as he put his books away.

"No. No," Finn rushed to say, "It's... it's about the Sam and Quinn thing."

"No." You shook your head vehemently.

"We have to talk about it sometime."

"Do we?" You knew you did. "Because I really don't want to do this."

"You never want to do this."

"I wonder why."

Finn cleared his throat just as Kurt walked up, flanked by his dad and Finn's mom.

"Oh," the tall boy said, drawing your attention to them, which you were thankful for, just so that you didn't have to continue having this conversation with him, "What's going on? Is this one of those interventions, 'cause..."

"If it is, it's for the both of us. They bombarded me and forced me to bring them to you."

You gasped. "If it is, can I join? That seems like it would be fun. "Finn. Please stop making out with my sister where I can see"."

"No, it's not an intervention," Carole told you, making you 'aww' in disappointment.

"Okay, come on. Tell them," Burt waved her on excitedly.

"No, no, no. You-"

"We said in the car-"

"Come on. You. Please."

"All right," Burt relented, "So, you know how I drive Carole to work every Tuesday?" The boys nodded as you just stood there confused. "Well, today, I drove here, and we snuck into that classroom where Kurt introduced us, very romantic of me, I might add, and I-"

"He proposed!" Carole exclaimed joyfully, "He proposed!"

"You stole the punch line!" Burt laughed, "Come on!"

You and Kurt had gigantic smiles on your faces.

Meanwhile, Finn looked like the world was crashing down upon him.

"Wow, this just happened?"

"Oh, dad," Kurt gushed while looking at the ring upon his soon-to-be stepmother's finger.

"Congratulations, you guys," you said, patting Burt on his shoulder. Receiving their thanks and a head bow from Burt in return.

"We wanted the two of you to be the first to know. And Y/N," she added.

"Really intruding on a family moment here, aren't I?"

"Don't sweat it, kid," Burt pat at your shoulder, just like you had his, "And yeah, after the kids in that homeroom."

"Bet they got the shock of their lives, huh?"

"You bet. Now, come on. Family hug."

You tried to slide back, to give the four their space. But Burt's hand was still upon your shoulder, and he felt your movements.

"Nuh-huh, you're in this, too." The man pulled you in to join the hug. "You spend enough time 'round our place. You're basically family."

"Does that mean I have three dads and a mom now?" you joked.

"You bet it does!"

Everyone, minus Finn, laughed as they pulled away.

"I'm so excited and- And nervous," Carole said.

"Oh, don't be. Don't be."

"Okay."

"This is just what I needed. I will take care of it from here," Kurt said, "I have a trunk full of wedding magazines hidden under my bed. I'm thinking of an, uh, russet and cognac theme. Those are colours, Finn. Fall wedding colours. Autumnal."

"Sounds nice." You nodded.

"Nothing too extravagant. Okay?" Burt told his son, "We're gonna use whatever savings we have. We are spending it on the honeymoon. That's right, we're going to Waikiki. We're gonna go to the hotel where they put up the guest stars on 'Lost'."

"Bring me back a Hawaiian shirt? I love those things."

He chuckled, "You bet 'cha, kid."

You made a 'yes' movement in celebration.

"Finn, you- You've- You haven't said anything," his mother pointed out. Peering up at his dopey far-off face.

"Yeah, dude, you okay?"

"Uh, uh, I'm- I guess I'm just kinda stunned." He shook his head.

"Hey, don't worry," Burt told him, "I'm already looking for a bigger house. One where everybody's gonna get their own rooms."

"Come on, honey. Be happy for me," Carole almost begged.

"I am, mom," the boy conceded. Pleasing his mom immensely.

"All right. Now listen, Kurt. As the wedding planner, I want you to take care of one thing. I don't care about the food or the booze at this party, but I want one heck of a band. I've been eating right, I've been exercising. And I want to boogie with Carole at this wedding. And I will boogie," he finished, dancing as a white dad does.

"All right. It's already taken care of, dad," Kurt told him excitedly, "I'm gonna hire the New Directions as your band. Right? It won't cost you a cent. They're cheap. They're available. Long story short... you're having a glee wedding."

Punching your arms into the air, you yelled, "I'm coming." In reference to the wedding, then not a second later, "That is a bad thing to yell in a school hallway!"

---

"Hey, Y/N."

Looking over your shoulder, you spotted Sam jogging up to you in the hallway, trying his hardest to avoid the rest of the students as he did. All the while digging into the pocket of his jeans, fishing for something.

"Hey, Sammy." You smiled once he had caught up to you.

"What do you think of this?"

Looking down at the object in his palm, you spotted a dainty gold ring with a diamond in the centre.

"Uh, dude, I like you and all, but I ain't gonna marry ya', you're not my type."

A soft laugh poured from him as he shook his head.

"It's for Quinn."

That got you to stop in your tracks. Shock flooded your chest as you stared down at the ring, then back up to the boy. Repeating the action once more, when your voice finally returned to you.

"What? Don't you think it's her style?"

'No, it's perfect for her'

"You're not gonna ask Quinn to marry you, are you?"

Sam scoffed, shaking his head, amused, once more. "No. This is a promise ring. I'm gonna ask her to be my girlfriend. I think she might say yes. Do you?"

The boy was so excited that you didn't have the heart to tell him "no".

But, you were hurting too much inside to say what you really felt.

'She'll act like she hates the gesture, but secretly she'd love it more than anything. Quinn is truly a hopeless romantic at heart. I'm sure, if there's nothing -superficial or not- stopping her, she'd say "yes" right away'

So, instead, you chose to be the supportive friend.

"I hope it works out for you, man." You nodded. "When you planning on doing it?"

"Right now, actually. I asked her to meet me in the geometry classroom. I just wanted a second opinion beforehand."

"Well, good luck, buddy." You pat him on the shoulder, and with a quick "thank you" your way, he was off.

Leaving you in the middle of a student-filled hallway, feeling like you had lost the girl all over again, in a fight you had no way to be a part of.

That's when all those buried emotions came back. The ones you had spent weeks pushing down and avoiding, ever since the duet competition.

Anger. Betrayal. Sadness. Heartbreak.

It was not gonna be a good day.

---

As it turns out. It wasn't a good day.

It hasn't been a good three days.

Your father's have noticed.

Your sister especially has.

Rachel was confused beyond belief at your attitude towards her once more. She thought you were over this. She thought she was forgiven.

But she had no time to dwell on that. She had a 'Glee Girls' meeting to hold. At least those of whom who have boyfriends.

And you had some being dragged around by Santana to do.

"Uh, why didn't you tell me we were having a glee girls meeting?" Santana asked, affronted, towing you behind her into the choir room.

"Stop pulling me around." You tugged your arm free from the cheerleader's grasp. "Why didn't you guys tell me Santana was being a heinous bitch today?"

"Like you can talk, you've been a heinous bitch all week," she bit back, throwing her arms into the air. Causing you to roll your eyes and shake your head at the girl.

"Anyway, this is a meeting for glee girls with boyfriends."

'She said yes to him then'

Quinn noticed your reaction to your sister's words. The way your jaw clenched tighter, the shake of your head once more, the way you couldn't look towards the seated girls. The waves of energy that rolled from you were dark and brooding, not unlike the feeling you get when you know a terrible storm is coming.

She knew why you had reacted so.

You thought she and Sam were officially dating.

Part of her wanted to correct your sister again. A pretty big part of her.

But another part of her wanted people to keep believing she and Sam were together. If only just to further hide the truth within her. Even if that meant hurting you.

She just hoped you didn't end up doing something stupid.

"We're gonna make them stop Karofsky from bullying Kurt," Rachel finished.

Your head raised at that, peering directly at your sister with an unreadable look upon your face. Knuckles straining under your skin as your grip on the strap of your backpack grew tighter and tighter.

Quinn didn't like where this was going.

"What did Karofsky do now?"

All but the head cheerleader ignored your stone-cold words.

"I'm dating Puckerman," Santana said, raising her hands to her chest.

But Quinn also heard that.

"You're getting naked with Puckerman," she clarified.

You were so angry, the rage boiling within your stomach, that you didn't even make a witty comment about that.

"Besides," Tina spoke up, "Puck can't mess with Karofsky. He's on probation. If he gets in a fight with him. He'll be sent back to juvie."

"What did Karofsky do?"

Once again, ignored. Only heightening the fear and worry in Quinn's eyes.

"Yeah. So now, if you'll excuse us," Rachel kicked the Cheerio from the room.

Santana scoffed in return. "You're so on my list, dwarf."

You heaved a slow breath as the girl exited the room, your sister pointedly looking at you. Obviously, wanting you to follow in the Latina's lead.

But you weren't about to go anywhere without any answers.

"I'll ask one more time," you stated, a dangerous blaze beginning to shine behind your eyes, "What did Karofsky do?"

"Uh-"

Tina cut off Quinn's warning with a sad shrug and said, "He just really terrified of him. He's always scared now. Mr Schuester even took him to the principal's office because of it. He was crying."

'Oh, that was not the right thing to do, Tina', Quinn thought.

The four girls watched you silently, expecting a reaction from you. Calling the football player everything under the sun and back. Anything at all.

But you just stood there.

No reaction.

Nothing.

That was until you spun on your heel and began striding towards the door you came through.

Pulling your backpack off and flinging it to slide across the floor and land up against the wall right by the door, seconds before you passed through it.

"Y/N-" Quinn tried to stop you. She really wanted to, but you were not hearing a single thing she said.

Only one thing ran through your mind as the girls scrambled behind you.

'Gotta find Karofsky'

It didn't take you long to find the bully. Surrounded by his like-minded jock friends. Not that you noticed and cared.

Lucky for you, however, the girls never exited the threshold of the choir room, having been called back by Rachel to finish their private meeting. Much to Quinn's objections. But still, the blonde cheerleader was convinced -against her better judgement- to stay. So they didn't have to see this.

Karofsky and yourself went sliding across the floor from where you had tackled him.

Manoeuvring the furious and confused buy onto his back, you gave him a good look at who was the perpetrator of his sudden position before you began to pound your fists into his face.

Chants of "Fight! Fight! Fight!" Lined the halls, signalling that soon there would be a teacher whizzing up to stop the commotion.

The boy had managed to push you off of him and give you a few good punches of his own.

"I told you to leave him alone!" you yelled, pushing him into the wall, punching him a few more times.

You were quickly pulled off of the boy by Mr Schuester. Who stopped the boy from advancing on you.

"What is going on here?!"

"They just tackled me out of nowhere!"

"Yeah! And I would do it again!" you admitted in a yell, shocking the teacher by your sudden act of violence, trying to push your way back to the boy, "You deserve everything coming to you, you homophobic piece of sh-!"

"Y/N, principal Sue's office! Now!"

With a firey huff, you turned and walked down the hall, feeling the glares of Karofsky and his jock friends following you.

Maybe that had been a bit rash.

Your dad's were gonna kill you.

Your sister was gonna kill you.

Oh, God.

Quinn was gonna kill you.

'Shit'

---

"What, in your right mind, made you decide to randomly fight him in the middle of a hallway. Is what I don't understand."

You had been silent ever since you first arrived at principal Sue's office, battered and bruised. Blood drying on your face.

A father on either side of you, as Sue sunk down into her seat across the desk. And Mr Schue. Who leant into the bookcase with his arms folded across his chest.

"He's had it coming for a long time."

"What's that supposed to mean?" LeRoy asked.

"It means he's a douche, dad."

"Why did you tackle him?" Sue asked, getting straight to the point, "Why did you hit him?"

"Because he's a homophobe," it burst from you suddenly. A breath and you continued, "He's been harassing Kurt for, God knows how long, and no one has done anything to stop it. I have repeatedly told him to leave Kurt alone, but he never listens... when I walked in on my friends trying to think of a way to stop the bullying from happening, I snapped, okay? I know that it wasn't right to just randomly attack him, and I'm sorry for that, but I'm not sorry for standing up for my friend."

"You did it because he's been bulling your friend. Because he's gay?" Hiram asked, to which you nodded.

"Why didn't you tell a teacher, Y/N?"

"The same reason why you didn't notice," you sassed back to your Spanish teacher, "They all say that they mean well, and that they're here to help. But when you go to them about something like this, what do they do? Nothing. That's what."

"I would have done something," Mr Schue argued softly, pointing at his chest, "I would have spoken to the principle-"

"Just like you did this morning when Kurt was scared out of his whits? What happened then?"

"There was no evidence that anything had happened," the cheerleading coach said, drawing your attention back to her, "And anything that had happened before could be excused on Mr Karofskys part."

"So, what? He's the bully, and I'm the one in the shit? I mean, I know I started the fight, but to not have the reason to be taken into account-" You cut yourself off with a shake of your head, anger beginning to grow inside of you once again, no longer able to look at your blonde principal.

"Principle Sylvester, there has to be something we can do," LeRoy began, a soft, pleading look in his eye. One that made you ashamed to have even put him in that position, "Y/N is a good student, they get good grades, take part in extracurricular activities, they've never been in a fight like this."

Hiram piped up next.

"We just ask you to take everything into account before you make your decision."

"But that's not strictly true." Sue shook her head, pointing a lone finger at LeRoy.

"What?" was asked on behalf of his husband.

"Your child has quite the reputation of fear in this school. I should know, I have one myself."

Mr Schue rolled his eyes at her as your voice burst from you once again.

"Do you know how many homophobes roam these halls? It's not just Karofsky, you know. And this whole town is worse. Ever since I was younger, I made people scared of me, intimidated them so that they wouldn't have the chance to bully me. I have never started a fight before. I stop bullies when I can. Yes, with more intimidation, but to stop them. My reputation is built on nothing but confidence, sticking up for myself and others, and finishing fights when they start against me first. Not starting fights."

Sue Sylvester took your rant in as she leaned back in her red chair, evaluating your now silent form.

"I am going to impose a minimum of two weeks suspension-"

"But, Principal Sylvester, Sectionals is next week."

"Should have thought about that before you started a fight. I would find myself lucky that it wasn't a minimum of two months."

"Mr Schue, can't you do something?" you asked, turning to the teacher.

The man opened his mouth to speak, looking almost like a fish out of water. But was soon cut off before he could utter any words.

"Oh, I'm afraid William has no power over my decision."

"Isn't there any way that they could be allowed to compete in the competition, then continue with her suspension?" your father, Hiram, asked.

Sue shook her head. "I'm afraid I can't do that. If I start giving one student special treatment, then I'd have to do it with all of them."

"Please, Princip-"

Your face contorted in pain as you pushed yourself to sit straight in your seat, hand tensing in its grip upon the armrest. Other arm coming 'round to hold against your ribs, trying to ease the pain there.

"What was that?" the principal asked.

"What was what?"

"Don't play stupid now with us, Y/N," Hiram told you, "Why are you holding your ribs?"

"It's nothing. It's-"

"Did you know about this?" Sue turned to Mr Schue.

"No," the man denied, with a shake of his head, "They were standing fine when I found them."

The cheer coach turned back to you then.

"Lift up your shirt."

"I think that's a legal problem, Miss Sylvester."

"Y/N," LeRoy said sternly, "Show us your ribs."

Realizing you were fighting a losing battle against the four adults, you heaved a sigh and slowly drew your shirt up past your toned stomach, all the way until your ribs were showing.

Red marks and grazes littered your torso. Faint indentations of shoe prints glowing against the deepening bruises. Causing shock waves to flow through the adults in reaction.

Glancing down at your injured stomach for the first time, you saw just how bad it was for yourself.

"Oh, well, would you look at that. I may need to go to the hospital for some X-rays."

"Did he do this to you?" Sue pressed, voice taking on an almost dangerous tint. Only making you scoff in return.

"Karofsky? He could hardly do anything to my face." You grew quiet, deciding it was best to tell the truth. "No. This was thanks to his football buddies, who were there when I fought him. They ambushed me on my way here."

"His friends did this to you?" LeRoy asked sadly. You nodded in confirmation after swallowing harshly against the lump in your throat at seeing your father so upset. Watching as he swiftly turned to face Sue once again, "These are the people this boy hangs around with, he has shown himself to be a bully against the LGBT, and yet our child is the one to be punished?"

Her voice sounded forced the next time she spoke, like she had to force herself to say her next sentence, "There's nothing I can do. My hands are tied, there are regulations for this sort of thing."

"And what regulations does this Karofsky kid have?" Hiram asked, "What regulations do the kids who kicked the hell out of my child have?!"

"Trust me, I will be filing a formal complaint about all of this to the school board as soon as you leave my office. And will be keeping a much closer look at Mr Karofsky and his friends."

"So, what now?" you asked softly, voice low after a few long seconds of silence passed.

"Now... your suspension will begin for the rest of the week." Relief filled you at the principal's words. 'You would be able to compete with your friends', "You are permitted to pick up your work and nothing else. And this will be going on your official file."

"Thank you, Principal Sylvester," Hiram thanked, as your dads stood from their seats, hands hovering dangerously close to your arms as you rose up yourself.

"Enjoy the rest of your day," she bid you all goodbye.

The rest of your day was only mildly enjoyable.

Rachel was waiting outside with your backpack, worry-stricken face turning upset at the sight of your injured features.

"Don't worry," you had told her, as tears welled up in her dark brown eyes, "He got way worse."

Your father's quickly filled her in as you made your way to the exit.

Leaving her to be the one to fill the Glee Club in about your absence.

You didn't know what to say, sat in the back seat of LeRoy's car as he drove. Head bowed and glancing all around, watching the scenery fly by.

'They must be so disappointed in you'

That was the last thing you ever wanted. To disappoint your parents, who you loved so much.

Finally finding your voice and dissipated courage, you spoke up.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't," LeRoy told you sternly, making you think he was so utterly angered by you and your actions, "Don't you dare apologise for this."

"What?" you breathed, utterly confused now.

"Do you know how proud of you we are?" Hiram asked from the passenger seat, turning to peer at you in the back.

"You're proud of me for starting a fight against a homophone?"

"No." LeRoy shook his head. "You know how we feel about fighting-"

"At least starting fights."

"Even against homophobes. But we are so proud of you for sticking up for your friend this whole time, even though it came out wrong this time."

"So... does this mean I'm not getting punished?"

"No, you're still getting punished," LeRoy corrected, "You're grounded for as long as you're suspended, and you're not allowed to play your games with your friends during the time you're in detention."

"That seems like a pretty good deal."

"We can make it worse, it that's what you really want," he said playfully.

"No, thank you."

"We're also getting you ice cream from that place you like," Hiram added.

"After we've been to the hospital."

"You know, you're sending really mixed signals with this whole punishment and reward system you've got going on," you remarked playfully.

---

It wasn't long later that the next Glee Club lesson commenced.

All the while, you were being checked over by the numerous doctors at the insistence of your fathers.

Unknown to the -less so- injured boys sat within the choir room.

Your sister could hardly stand looking at the boyfriend she loved as Quinn held an ice pack to Sam's eye, and Tina and Brittany took care of their respective boyfriends.

No one yet realised your absence from the room, some assuming you were just running late, most others too distracted to realise you were missing.

"Dude was a wild animal," Mike said, telling the tale of Karofsky's second fight of the day.

"'Manimal'," Artie said, proud of himself for coming up with that pun.

"How bad does it look?" Sam asked the girl holding the pack to his reddened eye.

"It's pretty hot, actually."

"Now, Karofsky looked rough," Mike told the blonde, drawing her attention from her maybe-boyfriend, to the gossiping boy behind her.

"Yeah, he looked like he got jumped," Artie said, "Wonder who got to him first."

The girls -Well... the girls, minus Santana and Mercedes- shared knowing looks.

Dread filled Quinn as she realised you weren't in the room, and the bell had long since passed.

But before she could voice her worry, hoping that Rachel knew where you were right now, Puckerman spoke up.

"You have no idea how hard it was for me not to jump into that beat down."

"Where were you, Finn?" Santana, cynical as ever, asked.

"I was still out on the field, okay," the boy defended, a bit too strongly for it to seem sincere.

And even though she was pissed at him, Rachel still nodded with a condescending smile for her boyfriend.

"I totally would have given him a beat-down if I'd been there, though."

"The fact is, it shouldn't have gone down without you, Finn," Mercedes spoke up, "You should have been leading the charge."

"Lay off Finn, everyone," Kurt told, shaking his head, "It isn't his problem. It's none of your problems, actually. But, thank you for what you did. Especially Sam."

"Serious. An epitome of a leader," Mike complimented the boy, practically in awe of him, as Sam smiled to himself.

"You might want to thank Y/N, too," your sister spoke over to Kurt.

The boy didn't know what to say to that, never expecting you would go through with it and fight for him.

Quinn took the short silence as her chance to speak.

"So they did fight Karofsky?" she stated more than asked Rachel in a breathless voice.

At her nod in reply, she could think of only one thing: She never should have let you leave the choir room.

"That's what happened to Karofsky's face?" Artie asked, astounded.

"Baller," Puck said, in the same way, speaking the first nice thing about you in, well, ever.

The head cheerleader had no more time to ask the smaller Berry any more questions as Mr Schue entered the room, voice tinged with worry.

"What's going on? What happened to Sam's eye?"

"He stood up to Karofsky," Quinn told him, still holding the icepack to the other blonde's face.

Tina added, "All the guy's did. Not Finn."

"Is everyone okay? Do we need to go talk to Principal Sylvester?"

"No," Sam rushed to deny, "I got in a few good licks too, so we can just call it even. And maybe this will send a warning to Karofsky, telling him to back off Kurt."

Quinn had lost her patience after the Spanish teacher moved over to check on Kurt, growing desperate to know where you were and what had happened to you. Unable to stand the sickly, knowing feeling building up in her stomach with every second that she was left alone with her worry. She'd sooner rather have morning sickness than this.

"Mr Schue, where's Y/N?" she asked, hardly keeping her voice from begging.

"That's... actually something I needed to talk to you guys about." Taking a deep breath, the man continued, "Y/N got into a pretty heavy fight with Karofsky. They started it. So they have been suspended."

"For how long?" Finn asked, seemingly worried about the wrong thing. The upcoming competition, over his friend's wellbeing.

"The rest of the week." That gave the room a breeze of relief. "We're lucky that Sue didn't suspend them past Sectionals."

"Are they okay?" Quinn asked, everyone, holding their breath as they waited for the man to answer.

"They... they're okay. Injured. But okay."

That was another relief off of the clubs' shoulders.

You were okay.

Trying to move on from the hectic day, Mr Schue moved on with the lesson itinerary, "All right, guys. Let's take our places. We got a wedding to prepare for."

And Quinn had a Y/N to prepare to yell at.

---

You had been put on bed rest.

By your fathers' orders.

The doctors advised it, but they enforced it.

You had a bad case of bruised ribs and some superficial injuries. Mainly telling you one thing: You were going to be sore for a while.

And your face wasn't all that much better.

Butterfly stitches placed over the cut above your brow, the eye underneath darkening into a serious black eye. While your other cheek was scraped up, redness hiding the bruise underneath. And to top it all off, a split lower lip stinging with every movement they made.

You thought you would be spending the rest of your day in bed, watching some TV, probably doing some of the work your sister said that she'd bring home for you.

You didn't expect this.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Quinn yelled as soon as she entered your room, glaring down at your laying form as you painfully pushed yourself up into a seated position. Hiding it behind the shock and slight fear on your face at the girl's sudden outburst. "You tackled him?! You seriously tackled a football player?"

"He went down like a piece of paper."

She jabbed a pointed finger your way, face furious, "Don't joke with me right now!"

Your eyes widened at her reaction, watching as she paced the space at the foot of your bed.

Both of you were unaware of the three Berry's huddled up outside your bedroom door, pressed against the wood to listen in.

"Do you not remember what I told you?! When I said you were worth more than this- Than him!" she cried, pointing at the air as if he were standing right there, in your bedroom, "Than to throw your life away-!"

"I haven't thrown my life away. It was one fight!" you cut her off, face scrunched at her words, finding them to be idiotic.

"You're suspended, Y/N!" she decided to shout now, changing the route for her anger, "Do you really think he's worth that?!"

"I'm sick of this, Quinn!" you roared back at her, surprising her this time, "What gives him the right-? What gives him the fucking right to go around treating people this way?!"

You waited, watching, for her to answer, but got nothing in return.

"Don't worry," you said, rationalising why the blonde had been yelling at you so passionately, "I'm gonna alright to be in the competition."

Apparently, that was entirely the wrong thing to say.

"I don't care about a stupid Show Choir Competition! I care about you! I care if you're safe! Do you know how worried I was about you?" You were shocked to see the pain behind the blonde's eyes, watching her fight tooth and nail to keep her tears at bay. Hand's coming down to cradle her flat stomach, "I felt sick with it. Like I was gonna crumble into pieces if I didn't find out what happened to you." She gasped, looking away from you as the tears finally welled up in her eyes. "I can hardly look at you right now."

"Listen, I get that you're probably disappointed in me-"

"I'm not disappointed in you!"

You didn't understand what you were seeing.

Quinn Fabray was standing in front of you, looking about ready to let the tears stream down her cheeks, posture tight, as flames raged behind her wet eyes.

"I can't stand to see you hurt. I don't want you to be hurt." The girl had grown closer to you as she spoke, resting her hands upon your aching ribs, making you flinch instantaneously. "Y/N-? What-?"

Taking initiative, she weaved her fingers into the soft material of your T-shirt, pulling it to bunch up your body, showing her the bruises underneath.

"What the hell happened to you?"

"Karofsky's football buddies got the jump on me as I was going to Sue's office." You shrugged your shirt back down. "It's nothing. I'm fine."

"That's not nothing. How many were there?"

"Like four, maybe five. I don't really know."

"Did you-?"

"They know. Everyone knows. You're not the only blonde who saw my abs today," you joked, referencing what had happened in the principal's office, slight smile falling when you noticed her sullen face, "Seriously, Quinn, I'm fine. Just sore."

"Why can't you believe that I care about you?" she randomly asked.

"Can you really blame me?" you muttered, almost sneering as you couldn't meet her eyes.

The blonde caught on easily, sighing as the memories flooded her.

"Just because of what happened over the summer doesn't mean I don't care about you, you big dumb idiot." You squinted over at her soft spoken name-calling. Quinn leaning closer to you to hiss to you, as if the room were crowded and didn't want anyone hearing, "It's the opposite. I care about you, so much, that it's insane. But you know the reason behind everything. You know that I can't- I can't-"

"I know." You nodded solemnly. "I'm sorry for bringing it up again."

"It's okay. Just... just focus on getting better. Can't really dance with bad ribs."

The blonde moved to exit the room then, opening the door only to reveal the three eavesdropping Berrys. Looking back at you with a pointed look, as you watched your family the same way, their faces bashful in return.

"Excuse me," she muttered, cutting through the huddled group and making her way to leave your home.

"What the hell, guys?"

"We just..." Rachel began, "Wanted to make sure you were alright."

You eyed her suspiciously, knowing that she was lying and clearly showing that on your face.

Hiram moved to try and excuse their position, but you cut him off before he had the chance.

"Don't even try." With a groaned sigh, you flopped painfully back onto your bed. Turning to face LeRoy, you asked, "Dad. Would you- Would you drive her home? She's too upset to."

"Of course." He nodded. Moving to follow after the girl who had just left, quickly catching her before she could drive herself home.

'What a fucking day'

---

It was the end of the day when you went back to school the next day to pick up your held work. Thinking it best so as not to run into Karofsky and possibly get into another fight with the football player.

Meandering the hallways slowly, trying not to pull against your aching ribs, when you passed by the choir room on your way out, only to spot Kurt standing before a seated Burt and Finn, with his hands upon his hips.

"-And if uncle Andy's fortieth birthday party was any indication, you're gonna need some work."

"What are you talking about? My moves were great. Okay?" Burt shrugged, trying to excuse himself from that night. "It was that damn sangria-"

"Okay." Kurt stepped forward, pulling his father up from his seat, "We dance to the beat, not the words."

"-Affected my coordination."

"Oh, I believe that," you spoke from the doorway in Burt's defence. Shocking the three with both your sudden arrival to them and your battered appearance, "Sangria really messes you up. My dad's not allowed it."

"What happened to you?" Burt asked as the two teens stared at you in shock, mouths agape.

A shrug. "Got into a fight. Face is gonna be a little jacked up for your wedding, though."

"I don't care." The man shook his head, worry pouring from his eyes. "Are you okay? Do I need to come with you to sort this out?"

"No, it's fine. Everything's been settled. I'm suspended. But it's not as bad as it could have been."

Kurt looked at you sadly before clearing his throat, "Y/N, would you mind helping me teach these two boy's how to dance?"

"I'm kinda only allowed to be here to pick up my work," you told them sheepishly, shrugging your shoulder.

"I doubt five minutes would hurt," Burt tried to convince, "Come on, I think we need the most help we can get."

With a sigh and a nod of your head, you gave in, stepping forward to place your papers on the piano. As Kurt got his father started.

"Look at me. I'm dancing, huh?" Burt announced happily, "Look at that."

"You sure are, Burt."

"Yeah. Okay, okay. Y/N, will you come over here and dance with my dad?"

"Sure thing."

You stepped up to the metaphorical plate, taking the man's hand in your own, placing your hand on his shoulder as he called over to Finn.

"Okay, no chickening out. I did it. You gotta do it too."

"We'll have to go a bit slow. My core's a little messed up," you told the man as you began walking him through the moves, just as his son had, "This feels really weird."

"What? Dancing with a man?" Burt chuckled.

"No, it's not that that's the problem. Just, usually, I'm in the leading position."

Your back was turned when Karofsky walked by the room, silently making fun of Finn and Kurt dancing together. Finn dropped his soon to be brother's hand out of embarrassment, more so than anger towards the bully.

You didn't see it.

But Burt sure did.

Pulling away from you randomly, the man asked, "What the hell was that?"

"It's nothing, Dad," his son tried to brush it off.

"What? What happened?" you asked, spinning to see for yourself.

"That's not nothing," he carried on, walking closer to the two boys, still peering through the door the boy had just strutted past, "That guy was making fun of you. What the hell is his name?"

"Tell him, Kurt," Finn uttered softly.

That was all it took for you to figure out what had happened.

"Tell me what?"

"Tell him, or I will."

"Yeah, you'll do this, but you won't defend him," you bit, referencing what your sister had told you about her boyfriend's whole attitude towards the situation and the fact that you weren't blind to how he was acting.

Finn looked at your hardened eyes and clenched jaw, his mouth agape. Unable to find the words to say to you.

But, in the end, he didn't have to.

"His name's Dave Karofsky," Kurt told his father, "He's been harassing me for a few weeks now."

"Harassing you how?"

"Just shoving me, and..." At once, you and Burt looked over your shoulders to see a bruised up Karofsky walking by another set of open doors, "Giving me a hard time."

"There's more," Burt assured, reading his son clearly, "There's something else you're not telling me."

Kurt bit the bullet and finally shared the thing that had been weighing him down for weeks.

"He threatened to kill me."

"What?!"

That was all that was needed for Burt to take off after the boy. With you following him, after your angered yell, leaving the two boys behind.

"Burt! Y/N!"

Finn and Kurt quickly chased after you and the man, passing you by when you had stopped a few feet from Burt pressing Karofsky up against the bulletin board, with his arm against his neck, thanks to the aching in your ribs, your whining of, "Ow, ribs. Ribs. Ribs." Following them.

"What the hell, dude?" the bully asked, fearful of the man.

"You like picking on people?"

"What?"

"Why don't you try me?"

"Burt, stop!" Finn yelled, trying to ease the man away from the bully.

You would have spoken a remark about "don't tell him to stop" or "get him, Burt!" but couldn't as you were panting, trying to breathe against the pain in your ribs.

But it was Kurt's begging that finally drew the man away, allowing the bully to leave down the hall in the opposite direction. "Please, you're sick. Come on."

"What the hell have you been doing while this is all going on, huh?" Burt asked Finn, pointing towards a retreating Karofsky as he looked at you, still bent over, bracing yourself against your knees, "He do that to you? He mess your ribs up?"

"No." You shook your head, raising to your full height. "He's buddies jumped me after I fought him."

"Has he been bullying you too?"

"No, he's too scared to. I tackled him because he terrified Kurt."

The man nodded at you, eyes showing his gratitude for you sticking up for his son, along with the squeeze of your shoulder he gave, as he made his way to the principal's office.

You had meant to leave the school after picking your work up from the choir room.

However, with the anger of Kurt's revelation, your feet lead you astray and right to the gym attached to the boy's locker room. Finding Coach Beiste, sitting there writing out more plays on her notebook.

"Y/N?" the coach called over, "Are you okay? You're not supposed to be here. Is everything okay?"

"I uh... I know I'm only allowed to be on school premises to pick up my work." You gestured the papers in your hand. "But, I uh, I've got a lot of anger in me right now, and I don't want to drive like that. You think I could use the punching bag for a little bit?"

She evaluated you for a few moments. Deciding whether or not to let you do as you asked.

Quickly, you caught the hand wraps the coach had thrown at you.

"Have at it."

You didn't box for long.

Your torso in far too much pain for you to handle by the end, after you had pushed through it for so long, with every jab.

At the sudden halt of hits echoing through the gym, Beiste turned her attention to you. Watching as you panted, hands holding the sides of your ribs. Seeing the conflicting thoughts and feelings flash across your eyes.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah," you nodded breathlessly, "Ribs are aching, you know?"

Beiste nodded. "What about up here?" She tapped her temple.

"Just Kurt stuff. He's getting bullied pretty bad."

"Anything else?" the coach pressed, "I can tell there's a lot going on in your mind."

"I-" It was gonna burst from you. With Beiste's caring nature and all the feelings swelling inside of you, you knew that you couldn't hold it off anymore. You couldn't push them away. "Do you have a sister?"

Finding the question strange but assuming that it would lead somewhere, she answered, "I do."

"She ever betrayed you? Like..." You tried to find the right words to convey what was happening without spilling the whole truth. You wouldn't do that to her -after everything- you couldn't do that to Quinn. Not only was it not your place, but you understood her reasonings for everything, "Has she ever gone behind your back to stop you from doing something you wanted to do?"

"Something like that," the woman nodded.

You were sick of feeling like this. Sick of pushing it away. You just wanted it all to stop.

"What did you do to get over it? If you did."

"It takes time," Beiste told you honestly, "You've gotta let the anger settle and talk it out. It will eventually get back to how things once were." Then she tried to reason, "How do you know she wasn't doing it to protect you?"

You scoffed harshly at the coach's question. Shaking your head.

"This wasn't to protect me. This was just to keep someone around. I mean, she's supposed to be my sister, and she didn't care how I would feel. She went behind my back and got in the way of me doing something that I wanted to do. It felt like things were finally starting to feel alright again. But not only did she interfere, no, only to make it all worse, but she also went around and convinced other people to do it instead. To tell me that it wasn't gonna happen. Just to make sure she got what she wanted." Thinking back to the duets week, you remembered all that had happened, and where it had led to now. How the blonde had ambushed you in the hall with a ring, going on about asking Quinn to be his girlfriend. "And now, everything's falling apart." A huff left you as you plopped down onto the bench across from her. "Again."

If there was one thing to be said about Coach Beiste. It was that she was a good listener. Taking in your ranted words intently.

"So, you've dealt with this before and have come back from it?"

"Yeah, I have." You nodded. "But this time is different. It's worse. Rachel wasn't involved the last time. There weren't other things-" 'Sam' "-In the way. It was just me and... the situation," you had decided to call it. Other than, 'that time Quinn Fabray broke my heart over the summer because she couldn't come out'. Anyway. That would have been a mouthful, "That I could handle. That I understood. But this." A shake of your head, looking to your feet. "She didn't care that she would disappoint me, as long as she got what she wanted. Why didn't she care about how I would feel?"

"I'm sure she cares," she comforted, "You should really talk to her about it. Sibling relationships are complicated. You could be like a moose and a turkey in the same pen. Mistakes and issues come and go, but you still love each other, just the same."

A confused smile drew across your face as you stared at the woman.

"I don't understand what that meant. But thank you, Coach Beiste. You're pretty cool."

"Anytime, kid. Now get." She gestured to the door. "You're only supposed to be here for your work. You don't wanna be in any more trouble."

---

"You know, most of the guys have pre-tied ties?"

From the open doorway, you heard a chuckled voice, one that you could never forget, bringing a smile to your face.

Peering up into the mirror, you spotted Quinn Fabray. Looking as pretty as ever in her red dress to match the rest of the girls in your club. Hair styled in such a way that it would be up and away from her face while it still could be considered down.

But it wasn't how beautiful she looked that made your breath get caught in your throat.

It's the fact that she was smiling at you.

The way she used to before everything happened.

With pure unadulterated affection.

With an amused but still attractive half-smile, you looked over your shoulder, and if it were even possible, she looked better than her reflection.

"Is that right?"

"Yep." She took that as her permission to enter the threshold of the room you were given to get changed in. "Most of them either can't or never learnt how to tie a tie."

A scoffed laugh jostled your body as you continued to fold your tie into its knot.

"Can't relate. I learned when I was seven."

"Where were you going wearing a tie when you were seven?" the blonde laughed, stepping up beside you as you focused on the mirror, wanting to get your Windsor-knot perfect.

"There's a lot of weddings and bat mitzvahs in my family. My parents were more than happy to let me wear a suit if I wanted."

"So, what you're telling me is that there are pictures of a little Y/N wearing tiny suits?"

Hastily, you rose a finger at the girl, looking at her pointedly.

"Don't you dare ask my dad's to show you those pictures."

"But that sounds so adorable," she cooed, her hands coming to hold your bicep, tugging lightly as if to convince you.

"Yeah, and I know you'd think so. Which is exactly why you're not seeing them."

"You're no fun."

You laughed loudly at her sulking words before turning to the blonde, showing off your tie.

"What do you think?"

Quinn brushed her hands down the lapels of your suit jacket, licking her lips as she evaluated your tie, soon looking up into your eyes, nodding her head.

"You look very handsome."

"Well, thank you." You gave a slight bow. "And you look extremely beautiful."

"Don't try to one up me in compliments," she teased, her focus now upon the small bag at her hip as she routed through it.

"I would never," you joked in a fake voice, sounding as if you were outraged by the accusation, "How dare you insinuate such a thing?"

"But we need to do something about those bruises."

"Okay, now how dare you?" your voice took on a more serious tone, albeit still joking, proceeding to move into overly fake weeps, "Do you no longer find me attractive?"

"Honestly?" the blonde inquired rhetorically, as she gazed up at you, moving her eyes to yours as she dabbed some cream onto your skin, "It's kinda hot."

"Oh, really? Might have to get into fights more often then."

"Don't you dare."

Things were left in comfortable silence for a while as she continued to caress your face with her fingertip, dusting the cream over your bruises.

"What?" she asked, a light blush coating her cheeks when she realized you were staring at her.

"You're just really pretty," you whispered back.

"And you're just being charming."

"No, seriously." You gripped her arm, stopping her movements against your face, making her hazel eyes snap to yours as you pressed, "You're beautiful."

"Do you really think so?" she asked, almost timidly.

"Are you kidding? You're like one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen. It's almost crazy how-"

You had failed to notice how close you and Quinn had drawn together. Noses almost brushed together as you talked, sharing every breath. Which was why it was so easy for the girl to press her lips harshly against yours, her hands holding your neck in place as you kissed, ignoring the sharp throbbing pains of your still healing split lip.

Just as soon as it had started, it stopped. The blonde pulled away from you, fingers coming to her lips, looking mortified at what she had just done.

But still, you apologised.

"Quinn, I am so sorry," you rushed to speak, arms jutted out towards her in hopes of calming her down, "I shouldn't have kissed you back, I know how you feel about everything, and then there's also Sam."

At the sound of the other blonde's name, Quinn broke out of her shock, taking deep breaths to calm herself further.

"I can't do this with you, Y/N."

"I know, that's-"

"Sam asked me to be his girlfriend, and I haven't even given him an answer."

"Wait. So you're not-?"

"I just can't be here right now. I'm sorry," was the last thing she said before she rushed from the room, with you calling after her.

'Shit'

---

After the whole performance and you escorting Sanatana down the aisle with Puckerman, you were stood with the rest of your group watching the ceremony.

"Please be seated," the reverend told the attendees, making you wish you could after all that dancing. Your ribs were killing you. How boxers did it, you'll never know, "We usually start with a prayer... but a certain young wedding planner, who shall remain nameless-"

Silently, you reminded yourself to thank Kurt after the ceremony was over.

"-Was afraid that some in attendance might fall asleep."

You and Mike had to stifle your snorts as you watched Santana nudge a drowsing Brittany standing across from you.

"So, instead, I'm going to let Burt and Carole tell you in their own words why they've invited you here today."

Taking that as his queue, Burt turned to the audience to speak first.

"I'm not really known for having a way with words... you know, when you're a kid, adults will tell you a lot of things. But one thing they neglect to mention is how sad life can be... I lost somebody I loved very much. But Kurt- He lost his mom."

"Oh, fuck," you breathed to yourself, trying to push away the burning threat of tears.

"And that killed me. You know we got by, but looking back, I-I want to apologize to you, Kurt. What we were living just... wasn't living. You know that saying that when uh, 'God closes a door, he opens a window'? Well." He chuckled. "Sometimes, out of nowhere, he'll do you one better, and he'll kick a whole wall down. He grabbed me by the shoulders, and he pointed me towards this woman right here."

With a quick glance over your shoulder, you found Quinn already looking at you, a sad tint to her eyes, the boy beside her too focused on the ceremony to notice the quick look between the two of you.

But there was one person who noticed.

"And he said, "there she is. Go get her". You're everything, Carole. Words can't describe you. You're everything. And I will love you 'till the day I die."

Carol gave a heavy sniff at her -very- soon-to-be husband's words.

"I'm lucky," the woman began her own speech, "Most women, when they get married, they get one man. I get two. One of you saved me from my wardrobe... the other one just saved me. Kurt, you are an amazing person. I'm not only getting a son. I'm getting a friend. Finn, I know you were resistant at first, but I am so proud of you. I've watched you grow into a man. But I think I'm most proud that you've become a brother to Kurt." The boy's face fell at that. Finally realizing that he hadn't been doing what he knew he should have. "We are four people... becoming a family," she said. Both parents, taking their child's hand to show their unity.

"Okay," the minister said, taking that as the end of Carole's speech, "Burt, do you take Carole-?"

"You bet I do," he interrupted the man loudly, gaining a chuckle from all watching.

"And do you, Carole, take this man-?"

It seemed both adults had a thing for cutting the reverend off as she said, "Oh, yes, I do. Yes, I do." Making the room erupt in more laughter.

The newlyweds soon kissed, claps and cheers sounding as they did.

And so lead to the reception.

Which you were thankful for, seeing as you finally got to sit down.

Your arm was draped across Santana's chair while you leaned back in your own. Watching as the newlyweds danced their first dance as a married couple, with Mr Schue singing ‘Sway’ for them.

The girl moved closer to whisper to you, "How are your ribs holding up?"

"Still killing me whenever I do too much. Why?"

"So, I guess I'll have to be on top tonight then?"

Looking down at the girl under your arm, you licked your lips when you found her smirking up at you. Quickly, you returned it, turning away from her, telling her all she needed to know.

A vibrating sense to the back of your neck allerted you to the the feeling of somebody watching you.

With a glance over your shoulder, you spotted one Quinn Fabray, staring you down. Eying the arm over the back of Santana’s chair. Hazel eyes connecting with yours, was all the blonde needed to see to know that she had been caught.

Your smile was smug when you turne back around to your table, a self-pleased feeling welling inside of you, at the knowledge that you could still make her jealous.

When Santana shimmied her shoulders, you laughed, leaning in real close to her ear to mutter.

"Your boobs look great in that dress."

"Thank you. They cost a lot."

Your laugh was covered by Mr Schuester speaking into the microphone.

"And now, I'd like to introduce one of the best men. Finn Hudson."

"He can't drink that!" you called over when the waiter offered him a flute of champagne, gaining a whole laugh from the reception hall. Everyone knew that it was only for tradition's sake and that it was non-alcoholic.

"Hi, uh, thank you, Y/N. And thank you, everyone else," he referenced the clapping that had just finished for him, "Best man. Right. Uh..." he tried to remember what he had to say, "Well, I want to propose a toast to my mom... who is so awesome. Uh, I mean, somehow, even without one in the house, you taught me what it means to be a man. In Glee Club, uh, whenever two of us got together... we got a nickname."

"Most of them are weird as hell," you mumbled, making Santana smile beside you.

"Rachel and I are 'Finnchel'."

"Disgusting."

"Rachel and Puck were 'Puckleberry'."

"Even worse."

"And today, a new union was formed. Furt."

"What the hell is a Furt?"

Raising a hand, the brown-eyed girl by your side covered your mouth so that you wouldn't make any more sassy comments for at least a few seconds before she dropped her hand back on her lap. The action reminds you far too much of Quinn, who used to do that same thing to you.

"You and me, man. We're brothers from another mother. And quite frankly, no one else has shown me as much as you about what it means to be a man. And over the past few weeks, uh, some stuff's gone down, and I haven't manned up like I should've. But, from now on, no matter what it costs me, I got your back. Okay? Even if it means getting a slushie in the face every now and then." The crowd chuckled, but only the Glee Club laughed with the knowledge of how true it was. "You put this entire wedding together by yourself, Kurt. So, as a thank you, I had the Glee Club put together a little number in your honour. You're gonna dance with me, dude."

As you rose from your seat, you saw the boy shaking his head, mouthing the word 'no'.

"Hey," you leaned over to speak to him as your club started singing, "If I have to dance with Satan, you can dance with him. Ow. Ow. Ow. I meant 'Santana'. I meant 'Santana'," you tried as the Latina grabbed your arm, squeezing it in punishment. Before she pushed you away to join the boys in the performance.

At this rate, and with what was going to happen later that night, your ribs were never gonna get better.

---

It was after the wedding, and you had one task. Sneak Santana past your sister's room.

Seems easy enough.

But so did a lot of hard things.

"Hey," you said, entering the threshold. Watching your sister, sitting at her vanity, still in her red dress, taking off her earrings.

"Hey." Rachel turned to face you, surprised you were even talking to her if you didn't have to.

This may not have been the right time to follow Coach Beiste's advice, with the situation and all, but you found that you just couldn't avoid it anymore.

"Why did you do it?"

She knew what you were talking about instantly.

Of course, she knew.

"We just wanted Sam-"

"To stay in the club, I know." You nodded, having heard it all before. "But the thing is, I don't think you realise is that I doubt he would have left if he didn't win. Sam just doesn't seem like the person."

"We didn't know that then."

"I did." You shrugged. "I could tell. You really hurt me by going behind my back, Rachel. You literally worked against me just singing a song with someone. I mean, you're my sister. You're not supposed to do this type of stuff."

"You like her, don't you?" Your eyes grew fearful with Rachel's random question, the shorter Berry unnecessarily moving to clarify, "Quinn. You like her."

You looked away, swallowing the lump forming in your throat.

'You couldn't let her find out the truth about Quinn'

"All right. Yes," you admitted, turning back to your sister, "I like her, okay? And before you say anything, I know it's never gonna happen. I know that. It's just... over the summer, something happened between us- I didn't tell her, before you ask," you answered the question that was on the tip of your tongue, as soon as she opened her mouth, "It was just some stupid fight. And well, at the beginning of school, things were slowly getting back to normal. It was like we were becoming friends again. And then when you butt your way in. Whatever you said to her, made things go back to how they were at the end of summer." With a final shrug, you finished, "I just wanted my friend back."

It's not like it was entirely a lie.

But it wasn't entirely the truth, either.

You know what they say, 'if you tell a lie, build it on some truth'.

They also say 'liars never prosper'.

But you had a valid reason for it.

"I'm sorry," Rachel uttered meekly, finally understanding your whole reaction to her betrayal.

With a nod, you turned to leave, knowing that she would fill Finn in, so that was one less thing you had to do.

"Wait-"

"I accept your apology." You paused at her door with a hand on the frame, looking back at her. "But I'm not ready to forgive you yet."

And if you stayed any longer, Santana would not be so forgiving either.

---

"Hey, guys," you said, walking up to the two blondes talking by Sam's locker after Quinn had just given him something, "Please entertain me while Mrs Willis finishes her class, so I can get my work."

"This is what you get for being suspended," the cheerleader sassed.

You hummed at the girl, dismissing her words, as you looked down at the tube she had just given the boy in his hand.

"What's that?" you pointed to it. "It looks like haemorrhoid cream." Quickly turning to Quinn, you asked, "Did you give him haemorrhoid cream?"

"It's not haemorrhoid cream."

"It sure fuckin' looks like haemorrhoid cream."

"It's 'Arnica'," she clarified, as Sam held back his chuckles beside you, "It helps with bruises."

Leaning towards the blonde boy, you whispered, "I think it's haemorrhoid cream. Wait," your voice clear now, "That's the stuff you put on my face. Did you put haemorrhoid cream on my face?!"

"It's not haemorrhoid cream."

"Oh my, God, you put haemorrhoid cream on my face."

Quinn sighed heavily, throwing her head back at your continued assault of annoyance upon her. Sam smiled along with you in amusement.

"Can you leave? We were having a conversation here." She waved a hand towards Sam.

"No. I think I'd rather be a part of it, thanks."

"Y/N."

At her stern tone, your hands rose in defence, beginning to move around the two, sassing the girl with more jokes as you did.

"Okay, I get when I'm not wanted. I'll leave you two be. I just wanted to spend some time with my friends, but I guess I'll go fuck myself then. Sam. Enjoy your handful."

You were halfway down the hall when you turned back to the two, only to see Quinn holding her hand against the door of Sam's locker. A familiar piece of jewlery sitting upon her ring finger. The one Sam had shown you earlier that week. Your heart plummeted at the sight.

'She had accepted his proposal to be his girlfriend'

The only good thing about this week was the wedding.

And oh yeah, settling the dust with your sister.

But mainly the wedding.

About ten minutes later, your eyes were assaulted with the disgusting image of Quinn practically leaning her whole body into Sam. Her back pressed against his chest from their seats at the back of the choir room, looking absolutely lovey-dovey.

"Hey, Mr Schue," you called out to the man, surprising him with your presence in the school.

"Y/N, what are you doing here?"

"Where's my Spanish work?" you smiled, stepping further into the room but still staying close to the door.

The teacher sighed at himself, "Y/N, I'm so sorry I totally forgot."

"I'm on suspension here, man," you replied in jest, as he dug through his bag to find the work he had printed out for you, "If Sue catches me, she'll have my head." You gained a laugh from the group as you popped your head out the door as if looking out for the woman.

"Here you go." You stepped forward, taking the papers Mr Schue held out, stuffing them in your backpack, along with the others you had collected. Just as Kurt walked in behind you.

"Kurt. Good. Oh, I wanna talk to you about this amazing idea I had for a solo for you at Sectionals."

"Can I make an announcement first?"

"Yeah."

"Y/N?" You hummed, looking up when the boy called your name just before you could walk through the door. "Will you stay? You need to hear this too."

"Okay..."

The boy turned to speak to your gathered group.

"First, I wanted to thank everyone for what you did at my dad's wedding, especially Finn. It's nice to know that I have great friends here, as well as a true brother... which is why it's so hard for me to leave."

Your shoulders dropped at Kurt's saddened words, backpack hanging in your hand.

"What do you mean 'leave'?" Quinn asked with urgency, pulling herself from her boyfriend to lean over her knees as the boy delivered the rest of his news.

"I'm transferring. To Dalton Academy. Immediately. My parents are using the money they saved up for their honeymoon to pay for the tuition."

"Kurt, you can't leave," Tina said.

Finn got up, moving closer to the boy. "What the hell, dude? How about you talk with me about this first?"

"I'm sorry, Finn, but there's nothing to talk about." The boy shook his head. "Karofsky's coming back tomorrow, so that means I won't be."

"We can protect you," Sam tried to reason. Followed by Puckerman.

"Seriously. We can like, form a perimeter around you, like the secret service."

"Yeah."

"The only thing that can protect me is what they have at Dalton, a zero-tolerance no bullying policy. It's enforced."

You hadn't said a word the whole time, which was unusual for you, to say the least. Not even at your sister's words did you utter anything.

"Um, does that mean that you're gonna be competing against us at Sectionals?"

Mercedes spoke next with a sad voice as she gained nearer, "Kurt."

"I'm sorry. I... I have to go," the boy replied to her silent question, on the verge of tears. Backing up to exit the room, turning, only to be face to face with you. A silent you. "Y/N, I... I'm sorry that you fought for me for no reason."

He was surprised when you suddenly pulled him into a comforting hug.

"I'm just happy you're gonna be safe."

At your words, tears finally fell from Kurt's eyes, his fingers digging into your back, hugging you closer to his body. Thankful for how good of a friend you were.

When you pulled back, your arm was still draped over his shoulders, looking intently into the boy's eyes. Unable to see the way the head cheerleader looked at you.

You had never been more attractive to her than at this moment.

Not when you were fighting, acting all confident, or when you were bruised up.

When you were caring about your friend.

"Come on," you pulled the boy closer to your side, "I'll walk you out."

-----

Prev Part | Next Part

[quicksilverownsmysoul]

Sparks Pt. 5

It has taken me forever but I finally updated Sparks! I’m sorry for making y’all wait so long but I’ve been busy with other stuff and I keep starting series before I finish the first one (I need to stop doing that). I know it’s been a while, if you need to reread the old ones they are all linked in my masterlist, it’s pinned on my page! Anyway I hope y’all like it!

You can read Part 4 Here 

Summary: 

Warnings: None, this is pure fluff

Word Count: 2298

The ride there was an experience to say the least. Scott drove which meant Jean got shotgun, the rest of you were piled into the backseat. Kurt kept hitting Jubilee in the face with his tail, her hair blew into your face every time the breeze hit, and you were so cramped that you were practically sitting on Peter’s lap. Peter was thankful you couldn't move to turn around, or else you would see how red his face was. He was sitting extremely still too scared to even move. Because if you moved even an inch over, he knew his leather pants wouldn't hide what would form. Scott looked at you guys through the rear view mirror, flashing you a cocky smile. “You guys comfortable?” Jubilee flipped him off while the rest of you grumbled out a no. He laughed and turned back to face the road. 

Scott pulled up to a diner and parked, hoping out to open the door for Jean. Kurt wiggled his arm free and opened the door causing you guys to fall out of the backseat. Jubilee fell onto Kurt’s back and Peter ended up falling on you, he caught himself with his hands, you guys inches from one another. You watched his eyes dart down to look at your lips before glancing back up to meet your eyes. You smirked up at him. “If you’re going to pull something like that, at least buy me dinner first.” 

Peter felt his face heat up and he started to sputter. You laughed at his flustered state and after a moment he did as well. He liked how casual you were about this and how you were able to joke to ease the tension. He smirked back down at you. “Well maybe after I do buy you dinner we can continue this.” It was your turn to get embarrassed. 

“Really guys?” You both looked up to see Jubilee standing with her arms crossed. “Right in front of Kurt.” Kurt was covering his face out of respect for you two and shielding himself behind her. You both turned red and scrambled to get out of the car. Peter let you get up and then hopped out of the backseat behind you. Jubilee pulled you to the back of the group with her and gave your arm a squeeze. “He likes you.”

Peter glanced back at the two of you in between bugging Scott and Jean. He saw you and Jubilee talking in hushed voices and giggling with one another. He felt himself gulp, something told him you guys were talking about him. He caught your eye and whipped his head back around, hoping you didn't catch him staring. 

Scott made his way to the front of the group to announce where you were but Peter hip bumped him out of the way. Scott cussed and Peter just sent him a wink and a smile. He turned back to face the group, his eyes locked on you. “Welcome to our favorite diner, Gus’ Games and Grub.” Peter stood at the front of the group his arms held wide open, showing off the diner. You felt yourself smile as you looked around the place, there was an arcade attached to the restaurant, with a prize cabinet and about a million blinking lights and sounds. 

“This place is awesome.” Peter watched as you took it all in, his heart swelling at the fact he was able to impress you with his favorite diner.

“So do you guy wanna do for dinner, do you wanna split a pizza or get-”

“Let’s play.” Peter said, cutting off Scott. 

“The whole reason we came here was for dinner.” 

“No, it was to have fun.” Peter smirked. “Something you wouldn't know anything about.” 

“Ooooo.” Jubilee responded as her eyes darted back and forth between the boys. 

Scott surged forward but Jean used her powers to stop him, pulling him back towards her by the collar of his sports jacket.

“You guys are acting like children. There is an easy way to decide this.”

“You’re right Jean, battle to the death it is.” Jean rolled her eyes at Peter’s comment. 

“Let’s just take a vote. Who wants to eat first?” Jubilee, Kurt, Scott and Jean all raised their hands. “Who wants to play the arcade first?” Peter's hand shot in the air, he sent you a wide smile when he saw you agreeing with him. “Sorry Peter, looks like we’re eating first.” Jean turned toward the counter and Scott sent him a condensing smirk behind her back. Peter stuck his tongue out in response. He didn't care that he lost the vote, he had you on his side. 

Dinner was filled with easy conversation and stolen glances. You and Peter kept trying to catch each other’s eye from opposite sides of the booth. He had wanted to sit next to you but Jubilee had beat him to it and she refused to move. As soon as you finished eating Peter slid into the booth next to you as Jubilee got up to throw the trash away. He slung his arm behind the booth and you scooted closer to him, making him blush. He leaned down and gently moved his hand to cup the back of your neck. “Wanna go have some fun.”

“What kind of fun is Maximoff?” You teased, loving the way it made him flush red. 

“The best kind there is.” Peter sped off you with you, ditching the other guys as you made your way to the arcade. Peter stood near a dancing machine game and held his hand out towards you with a slight bow. “May I have this dance?”

You curtsied back at him. “Of course.”

You hopped up on the dance floor as Peter put coins in the machine. He used the buttons to scroll through the songs, he stuck his tongue out in concentration trying to find just the right one. He made his selection and joined you on the mini stage. The music started playing and you felt your smile widen. “Oh my god I love this song!”

“Me too!” 

You guys turned back to the screen and started to dance, doing your best to coordinate with the colorful arrows on screen. But it was hard to pay attention when you both were too busy looking at one another and singing the lyrics back and forth. You saw Jubilee approaching the machine out of the corner of your eye. She leaned on the bar behind you, Kurt and the others not too far behind. “I was wondering where you guys went.” 

“We went to totally dominate this game.” Peter bragged as he scored three bads in a row on the game. 

“I can see that.” Jubilee watched as the song ended and the screen showed off your guys' score. It was ranked a D- with a 22% accuracy. 

“Man you’re bad at this.” Scott said.

“What like you could do better?”  Peter scoffed as he hopped off the stage offering you his hand. You took it and hopped off as well. 

“Watch me.” Scott and Jean took your guys places on the game and inserted the coins to play. You and Peter watched with your mouths hanging open as they scored perfect on every step. The song came to an end and they stared at you guys with matching smirks. 

“Okay you so totally did better than us.” You admitted. Peter just grumbled out an agreement. 

“Because we are better.” Scott remarked. 

“Wanna bet?” Peter asked as he crossed his arms across his chest. 

“What kind of bet?”

“Not again.” Jean muttered. 

“Whoever wins the biggest prize by the time the place closes gets the keys to your car for the rest of the week.” Peter smirked.

“What do I get?” Scott asked, hesitation in his voice. 

“I don’t know what do you want?”

Scott scrunched his face up in concertation for a moment before he answered. Knowing exactly what he wanted if he won. “If I win I get your pac-man machine.” 

Peter’s eyes widened, you could see him weighing the risks in his mind. He glanced over at you. He wanted the car so he could ask you out on a date, he wanted to do it right, with a car instead of speeding you somewhere. You gave him a smile and that made up his mind. He turned back to face Scott, a challenging look in his eyes. “I’ll take that bet.” 

“Okay so how are we going to do this? Teams?”

“Sounds good to me.”

“So it’ll be me and Jean, you and (y/n) and Kurt and Jubilee.” 

“What? Why are we playing? And why do I get Kurt?” Jubilee asked with her arms crossed. 

“Hey!” Kurt whined. 

“Sorry.”

“It’s more interesting if we all play.” Scott said. 

“Plus it’s not like you guys are going to win, it’s either going to me or Scott.” Peter joked and Scott nodded in agreement.

“Really?” Jubilee narrowed her eyes. “We’ll see about that. Come on Kurt.” With that they were gone. Now it was time for the games to begin. 

Peter and you sprinted over to the skeeball machines. He put a coin in each one and sped back and forth throwing the ball down the lane, getting the highest scoring points each time. You collected all the tickets, your heart pumping full of adrenaline. You played all the games you could while Peter ran around the arcade beating all the games and winning all the tickets. They made an announcement over the loudspeaker that they would be closing in five minutes, so you and Peter finished off your games and made your way to the counter. Jean and Scott were already there, their ticket pile paled in comparison to yours. Peter opened his mouth to mock them but Jean held up her hand and pointed to the right. You turned and saw Jubilee and Kurt sitting on top of the prize counter. She had three different pairs of sunglasses on and Kurt had about a million scrunchies wrapped around his tail. They were both drinking slurpees, a giant stuffed pink gorilla by their feet. Jubilee lowered her glasses as she took a long sip of her drink. ‘’’Sup losers.” 

Peters was gaping at them, glancing back and forth between the giant gorilla and them. “I- huh.. How? WHAT?”

Jubilee held her arms out and slung one around Kurt. “We won.”

“How?!?” Scott asked. “You guys only played like two games!”

“Yeah we won 67 tickets!” Kurt said excitedly. “That’s how we got the sunglasses and scrunchies!” He held his tail up showing them off. 

“That still doesn't explain how you won.” You asked with an amused smile on your face. 

“My cousin is the manager, I bribed her into giving us the biggest prize.” She pointed down at the stuffed gorilla. “Meet Barbara.” Scott and Peter stared at her with huffy faces getting ready to protest her winning. ‘Hey you never said we couldn't cheat.” Jubilee took another sip of her slurpee. 

“Yeah but you still cheated.” Scott argued.

“What like you guys didn't?.” She pointed at Scott and Jean. “I saw Jean using her powers on the basketball machine.” She motioned towards Peter. “And don’t even get me started on this one.”

“Damn you go Jubilee.” You cheered her as she gave a little bow. 

“So we win!” Kurt cheered. 

“Indeed we do.” Jubilee stuck her hands out in a grabby motion “Keys. Give me.” Scott reached into his pocket and begrudgingly tossed the keys to Jubilee. She caught them with a smirk. “I’ll see you guys in the car, I’m driving.” 

You cheered her on as she left. “Never underestimate Jubilee.” 

“Agreed.” 

“So what are we going to do with all these tickets?” You asked. 

Peter took them from you and came back a second later, arms full of prizes. “We can take them home to the kids at the house.” 

“That’s so sweet Peter.” He smiled at your praise.

“I uh.. I also got something for you.” Peter set down the prizes in his hands and riffled through them. He pulled out a stuffed turtle from the pile and nervously brought it over to you. You took it in your hands, heart swelling at the action. “His name is Mister Dibbles.” 

You looked down at the gentle face of the toy, smiling at it and then back up at peter. “I love him.” Peter gave you a wide smile. 

As you guys made your way out of the diner Peter fought with himself back and forth on whether he should still ask you out. By the time he got to the car he had made up his mind. He opened his mouth to ask you but Jubilee grabbed him by the arm and pulled him off to the side. 

“You can have the car after tonight.”

“What?” He asked, shock evident on his face. 

“You can have the car.” She shrugged. “I know you wanted it so you could take (y/n) on a date.”

“How did you know that?”

“You’re pretty easy to read.” Peter smiled and rushed forward crushing Jubilee in a hug. “Stop that, put me down!” She giggled out. 

“Thank you so much.” 

“Mhmm and don’t worry I’m not going to take your pac-man machine. But you owe me.” 

“Anything.”

“I wanna style your hair.”

“Anything but that.”

“Ugh fine.” 

Jubilee and Peter made their way back over to the car. You smiled as you saw Peter getting closer to you. He returned it. “Hey can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Would you maybe… like to.. I don’t know...go out with me?” You felt your face split into a wide smile. 

“Of course I would.” 

Taglist: @chiswritingandreadingcorner @enemy-of-wonkru @xxspqcebunsxx @coffeeandteaintheevening @kitwalkerangel @xmaximoffic @livingmybestfictionallife @evanmybeloved @kaismessiahbb @bugboy-and-icegirl

[katyobsesses]

Clueless. Completely oblivious.

written for @gleeadvent 2021 day 3: Clueless Finn goes to Kurt for advice regarding Rachel and Kurt realises that his brother is absolutely clueless when it comes to feelings. Set in my barolebeth AU (which is still a wip but this came to me so i'm writing it and posting it) - basically all you need to know is that Carole met Burt and Elizabeth and they were a throuple before Elizabeth’s death. Finn and Kurt have been brothers for like, 12 years and Kurt is in the year above Finn in school because he never had to be held back a grade (my headcanon for why he’s a year older than everyone in his year, he was held back due to his mom’s death)

“Oh my god, you’re actually an idiot.” Kurt said with disbelief, watching as his brother blinked confusedly at him.

They were sitting in Kurt’s basement room, diagonally on his bed, legs criss cross applesauce with a plate of freshly baked cookies between them. Finn had already shoved one whole cookie into his mouth and was now picking apart another, while Kurt was still savouring his first. He was glad he’d developed the habit of putting a cloth down first in situations like these, but after being brothers for over a decade now it was practically second nature.

“What? Why?” Finn asked, frowning slightly as he leaned forwards, elbows on his knees. “Am I reading into this wrong? Does Rachel not like me? Like, like me, like me.”

Kurt wanted to laugh, but he held it back because of the honest obliviousness in Finn’s eyes.

“Dude,” He said with as much seriousness as he could muster, “She has looked at you as though you hung the moon for as long as I've known you, like since before mom died! I’m honestly surprised it took you so long to notice, I thought you knew and weren’t saying anything to spare her feelings.”

“Huh,” Finn huffed before falling onto his back and staring up at Kurt’s ceiling. Unlike Finn’s room the ceiling was bare. Finn still had the glow in the dark stars they’d put up when Finn and Carole first moved in and his room had been theirs before Burt had converted the basement when Kurt turned 14 and the boys had started to beg for privacy. Sometimes Kurt missed them and their glow as he nodded off to sleep, but they wouldn’t work with his interior decorating, would totally throw off the vibes of the room.

“Has she really?” Finn asked, after a few beats of silence.

“You’re actually clueless.” Kurt laughed, moving the plate of cookies to his bedside table and poking Finn in the knees. “Completely oblivious.” Finn kicked out his left leg, his foot knocking into Kurt’s knees as he laughed back.

“Bro, I’m serious!” Finn said, sitting back up abruptly, almost over balancing in his haste but catching himself from falling off of the bed. “Are you sure, because I swear she’s only just started, like, actually coming onto me and it’s weird. Like, I like her, of course, but I dunno if I like her, like her, ya know? We’ve been friends for so long, and at first I totally found her annoying, and then she was kinda like a sister to me, but lately… I dunno, man.”

“How do you feel when you guys sing duets together?” Kurt asked, “Or when she sings to you.”

“The same as I’ve always done, I guess.” Finn answered quickly, but Kurt waited a beat, two, three, letting him stew over his answer for a few seconds, because sometimes Finn Hudson just answered things without actually thinking about the answer. He usually could figure out the answer someone expected from him and gave that, and usually people took it without diving deeper. But Kurt had figured that out quickly, when he and Kurt first met - over a decade ago now, back in late 1999 when they were both barely out of diapers - and so usually gave him a moment to actually think.

“Or not, actually.” Finn continued, frowning in concentration. “I guess I kinda like it. Like we’ve always sung songs together at like sleepovers and stuff, but we hadn’t really done that in ages before Glee started, not in the same way, and when we sung that Grease song-”

“-You’re The One That I Want -” Kurt supplied, and Finn nodded.

“- yeah, that one. When we sang that it definitely felt like old times, but also she gave me this look, ya know? Like she was surprised? Which was a bit weird, but I guess she hadn’t really heard me sing outside of, like, singing along to the radio for a while, so maybe she was surprised?”

“It’s because your voice no longer breaks every second word like a child.” Kurt teased him, but Finn just smirked back at him.

“At least my voice actually broke.” He teased back, and Kurt scoffed in mock-outrage, jostling him in the shoulder playfully.

“I’m helping you out with girl troubles, Dude.” Kurt reminded him, “A subject in which I am decidedly not an expert. So maybe keep the insults to a minimum, little brother.”

Finn shot him his trademark half smile and Kurt smiled back.

“She likes you, Finn, has for years, but it seems like she likes you enough now to not be scared to let you know she likes you. You just have to figure out your own feelings.”

“I just… she’s one of my best friends.” Finn sighed, “She’s one of your best friends. What if we, like, try this, get together, but it goes horribly wrong? What if we do this but have a massive falling out like Quinn and I did last year when she realised I couldn't help her be more popular and we can no longer stand being in the same room as each other?”

“I know Rachel, and obviously she thinks you're worth that risk. The question is if you think she’s worth that risk.”

Finn sighed, bowing his head with a look of deep concentration. In any other situation Kurt would make some comment about how he looked constipated, or not to hurt a muscle straining his brain with the amount of thinking he was doing, but he refrained.

“Yeah, I think she is.” Finn said finally, and Kurt couldn’t help the smile that stretched across his face, Finn looked up with a matching grin of his own, before it fell away to uncover a look of pure fear.

“How the fuck am I meant to ask her out!?” He asked, and Kurt closed his eyes and gave a huff of a laugh before launching into an elaborate idea - the auditorium at lunch, a couple of candles, a picnic in their wicker picnic basket and fresh flowers from the garden.

Kurt hoped Rachel would appreciate the effort he was putting into helping his clueless brother ask her out. She would totally own him a solo after this.

[drainthehero]

Superman’s Shame, Ch 1

Superman floated above a remote shack on the outskirts of Metropolis, his bright red cape streaming behind him as he hovered. He scanned the dwelling and confirmed the single occupant. A quick look with his x-ray vision confirmed that the man inside was indeed Kurt Fendall. Kurt worked at a bank by day and was relatively inconspicuous otherwise. But Clark Kent had been able to trace numerous leads and deals back to Kurt which involved a huge amount of illicit drugs entering Metropolis and flooding local streets.

Clark was confident that Kurt had managed to kill or buy over half the local drug dealers and he therefore had a stranglehold on the trade. By bringing him to justice, Superman would be able to disrupt drug trade for months and give the police a chance to reign in the recent explosion in drug sales.

Superman glided down gently, his bright red boots making a soft knocking sound as he landed on the porch. He was tempted to break the door down, but that was not really his style – and he had to leave open the possibility that Kurt was innocent. So instead he knocked.

After a moment, the door opened to reveal Kurt standing there. Kurt was the kind of person who would fade into any background, having no particular features that would stand out to an observer. When he saw the Man of Steel standing at his door, he initially reacted with wide-eyed surprise and disbelief.

“What… why…?” he trailed off, before saying. “Are you really… him?” The look of incredulity was almost genuine. Kurt stumbled a few steps back from the door into a fairly basic looking living area. “How, uh… how can I help you?” He further asked with a confused look.

Superman had to give Kurt credit for his performance. He was definitely pushing his act of innocence. He moved into the building, crossed his muscular arms over his large chest and said, “I have been watching your activities for a while now, Mr Fendall, and it is clear to me that you are operating a sizeable drug importation and sale racket here in Metropolis.” Superman had a very serious look which brooked no argument.

“I… err… no. Huh?” Kurt looked dazed, giving Superman momentary pause. “I don’t understand,” he blurted out. “No, I couldn’t, I wouldn’t.” He was shaking his head emphatically at this point.

“Come now Mr Fendall, the evidence is strong and I have prepared it all to bring along with you to the police. If somehow I have miscalculated then you will be free to go.” He paused for impact, “but I strongly doubt I am wrong.”

Kurt was shaking with nerves, “can I please just sit a moment?” he asked as he sank into a nearby seat. “I need to catch my breath.”

“Just a moment.” Superman looked around the room, wanting to avoid watching Kurt too closely, lest his confidence in his investigations waver. After about a minute, Superman could see that Kurt’s heartrate was returning to normal. “Ok now, I think it is time for us to head off.”

“Ok, ok,” Kurt nodded numbly. But then seemed to remember something and said, “Oh can I get my medication? It helps with my nerves.” Kurt gave the muscled hero a pleading look.

Superman thought for a moment before nodding slowly and saying, “Tell me where and I will get it?”

Kurt pointed at a cupboard in the kitchen area. “Just there, bottom shelf, my name is on a label on the bottle.”

Superman strode over and looked for the bottle but could not see anything. He moved a few things around searching but assumed Kurt had moved it without recalling. As he turned around to check, he felt a strange feeling wash over his body. When he turned around, he saw that Kurt was standing directly before him, holding a chain bearing a rock of a familiar green hue.

The effect on Superman was profound and rapid, as he felt a lump of dread form in the base of his stomach. “Ughh… ahh… how?” murmured the spandex clad superhero softly. “Ohhh. I… feel… so weak.” His breathing became ragged and he was swaying on his feet, his mighty muscles barely able to hold him upright. He put a hand out on the bench to steady himself. “Strength… all gone… can barely stand. Ugghh,” he repeated. He looked at the fearsome green rock, beautiful blue eyes wide and filled with fear. “No, please… get it away,” he begged, raising his other hand weakly.

He stood there in defiance momentarily, swaying on his now unsteady legs as he struggled to find strength in muscles which would normally be able to bend steel with ease. While he swayed on the spot, Kurt lifted the chain and draped it slowly and carefully around the muscular neck of the Man of Steel, leaving the kryptonite to nestle comfortably between the ample pecs of the superheroic hunk.

The play-acting was nowhere to be seen and Kurt was now a tower of confidence before the Man of Steel.

As the chain went around his neck and the rock sat against his chest, the Man of Steel sank slowly to his knees. There he kneeled before his captor, his head and shoulders slumped in weakness, the appearance of a supplicant. “Ugh, so… weak..” he moaned again. “Can’t… move… can’t… lift…” he trailed off.

Superman managed to lift one hand toward Kurt in a feeble attempt to push Kurt away from himself. But without his iconic strength his hand was batted away easily by Kurt, who instead planted one foot on the might chest of Superman and pushed him backward to land prone on the floor, the kryptonite sliding down the valley of his pecs to nestle on his neck. His calves were now wedged under his thighs, forcing his super groin and red clad bulge upward while his back arched down to the ground. “So… weak… how… why…” he moaned again. From this vantage he was able to see Kurt clearly.

“I wondered how long it would take you to work out my network and piece together my clues.” Kurt said from his position above the Man of Steel. He knelt down while he spoke to appreciate his prize more closely. “I was impressed at how quickly you worked it all out, so credit for that at least.” Kurt flashed a smile devoid of any humour. “Now let’s see what we have here.”

With that Kurt reached out and began to rub and massage the muscles of the Man of Steel, wanting to feel first hand just how magnificent he was. “No, please… you… can’t,” Superman uttered weakly. He tried to bring one hand up to ward off the approach by Kurt, but the attempt was as feeble as the previous.

“How weak you must feel, Superman.” Kurt’s eyes and hands explored every inch of the bright blue spandex covering the Man of Steel. “Those huge sexy muscles of yours, draping your arms, legs and chest – and what good are they now?” he taunted. Kurt took the hand Superman was using to defend himself and instead manipulated the weakened fingers of the Man of Steel to twist his nipple. Superman groaned in response to the treatment. “Can’t even stop an average guy like me from taking advantage of you, heh.”

Superman could only whimper from the pain and weakness caused by the kryptonite as he writhed under the assault on his nipple.

Kurt stood up and dragged Superman over the rug in the lounge, to have more space to play with his new captive. “I’ve always wanted to see more of you close up Superman. You are truly a magnificent specimen.” The lust was clearly evident in Kurt.

Kurt grabbed four 5kg dumbbells and quickly bound the wrists and ankles of superman away from his body. “Shouldn’t be a problem for you Supes. They are only 5kg each! Feel free to slide them out of the way whenever you want.”

The taunt from Kurt dug into the psyche of Superman. He looked at the dumbbell and willed his muscles to respond and throw it from him. Normally, he could easily handle weights many hundreds of times these, but now he could only thrash weakly as the tiny little weights held him effectively pinned. “Ughh… can’t even lift these weights.”

Kurt quickly arranged a camera to record the next events. When he was set up he returned to Superman and once again felt the mighty muscles of the Man of Steel. “Now Superman, I have many plans for you, but first I must have that super rod of yours.”

Superman looked even more shocked at the words from Kurt, but could only protest with words. “You can’t… I’m straight…” and as Kurt appeared to ignore his protests, “please… don’t. I’ve never been touched by a man.”

Kurt was indifferent to the pleading by the Man of Steel and used one hand to grope the package protected underneath those bright red briefs. With his other hand he removed the yellow belt and forced a liquid drug down the mouth of the Man of Steel.

“Thanks for the tip about being straight, Superman.” Kurt explained as he poured the contents down the throat of the Man of Stell. “This is an extremely potent and fast acting drug that will get you horny and hard for hours.”

Superman was well and truly powerless under the control of Kurt. His arms and legs were pinned by the tiny weights and he was starting to feel the effects of the drug. “Ohhh. Ahhh… what are you going to do to me?” Superman already felt his cock throbbing and hardening under his red briefs.

Kurt ignored the question and proceeded to lower the red briefs. For the benefit of the camera, he pulled them down slowly. First he showed the close trimmed pubes sitting just under the line of the briefs, then the shaft was revealed, before finally the briefs were lowered completely and the Cock of Steel was released in partial wood.

Kurt could not control his reaction. “Oh god. Wow.” He started laughing when he saw the puny size of the cock on Superman. “I did not expect to see that.” The stiffening cock was around 2.5 inches so far. Despite the wishes of the Man of Steel it kept growing until it was pointing directly toward the pecs of steel. At full mast it was maybe 3.5 inches long!

Superman blushed furiously as Kurt unleashed. “Oh wow. That is so disappointing. Here you are, the Man of Steel. Paragon of strength and all things manly. Who would have thought you had a tiny dick?” Kurt chuckled and reached out a hand to play with the little member while he continued. “Here I was expecting a monster befitting the name Superman, but this poor little thing would even embarrass a superboy!”.

Of all the gifts possessed by Superman, his tiny dick was the one thing about which he felt conscious. Lois regularly reassured him, but he knew that he was not able to fully please her with it. “You fiend, that’s… not… how dare…” he trailed off and then tried weakly, “the kryptonite.”

But Kurt would have none of that and revealed a milking tube he had brought for the occasion. “Well I guess this won’t be any good to me today!” And gave a hearty laugh. To ride home the humiliation Kurt placed the tube over the cock of steel and showed that he couldn’t even get a side to touch. Kurt shook his head, “I certainly expected more.”

This humiliation was definitely showing on Superman. He writhed weakly thanks to the kryptonite and dumbbells and was even fighting back sobs as Kurt mocked his manhood for all to see one day.

“Looks like I’ll need to do this the old fashioned way, hey Superman?” Kurt got a gleam in his eye and started to jerk off the Man of Steel.

Superman had not believed that Kurt would go through with this added humiliation and begged. “No, please… you wouldn’t.” Those big sad blue eyes begged for mercy from the criminal mastermind.

“Continue begging Superman, maybe I’ll stop. Tell me how weak you are. Tell me how I have defeated you.”

Superman looked a little confused, but he was desperate. “Ugh. I’m so weak. This kryptonite has sapped my strength. I can’t even move my arms. Please I’m begging you.” Kurt continued to jerk Superman’s cock and was being rewarded with pre-cum.

“Oh, yes” said Superman, losing himself briefly in the moment. “I can’t believe you’ve defeated me. I am completely at your mercy. Laid out, bound and unable to free myself. You can do whatever you want to me and I am helpless.” Superman hoped that this performance would earn his freedom from this terrible humiliation.

Instead, however, Kurt was more turned on than ever and he was determined to drag the seed from those balls of steel. “This little cock of yours is making my job more difficult Superman, but I’m determined to extract your seed,” he said with a glint in his eye.”

Superman finally realized the truly helpless situation he was in and that he would not be escaping any time soon. He felt the friction made by Kurt jerking him up and down and felt the throbbing in his cock starting to build to a crescendo. “Please, agh, urgh. Stop, please” the begging grew softer and more faint.

Kurt could see the signs building in the heroic muscle hunk. His balls had moved up, his legs were twitching and his eyes were glazing over. Kurt continued longer and was rewarded with several thick ropey strands of cum erupting from the mini dick of the Man of Steel. “Arghhh, oohhh, awwww,” moaned the Man of Steel has his cock spurted forth his seed.

Kurt kept jerking until he was certain there was nothing more for the balls to give.

Kurt then stood up and whipped out his own very hard cock. It was easily 7 inches and it was the first time he had been truly proud of any part of his body. “Superman, this is what a cock should look like. Not that sad excuse trapped in your briefs.”

With that Kurt proceeded to pump his own cock while standing over Superman. He was already very close so he knew it wouldn’t take long.

Superman could only choke out a startled plea as he understood what Kurt was about to do to him. On him. “No! No! Please,” begged the Man of Steel. “Why?”

“Because I can Superman. You’re my bitch now and if I want you to be my cumrag then that’s what you’ll be.”

At that point Kurt felt his orgasm explode from his excited cock. There was cum everywhere and it rained down on the Man of Steel as he lay there helpless, arms and legs pinned to his sides. Cum landed on the S on his chest, on his abs and dick. Some even landed on his face and mouth.

When Kurt was finally finished he looked at his handiwork.

There lay the Man of Steel, bound by weights which even a child could lift but unable to move himself. The glowing green rock now sitting beside him, sapping his strength even now.

And across most of his costume, face and hair, could be seen globs of cum, staining his once pristine suit. Superman had the look of a man defeated. Never had he experienced such defeat or known such humiliation. He could feel the still warm cum and it burned him with a deep humiliation. This was crowned by the still raging erection on the Man of Steel, highlighting his inadequacy.

[another-emotional-wreck]

Title: Movie Night

Pairings: None except for a hint of Monica x Peter cause they're cute imo I'm sorry

Summary: Movie night with the Hex trio and Peter... until it's not. Also, metallokinetic Peter.

Warnings: No warnings as far as I know, but there's angst and a decent amount of fluff

Word Count: 2.2k words

Author's Note: This is my first fic for anything Marvel/Xmen related. Kinda nervous but mostly excited. Feedback is really appreciated as there's a pretty good chance a lot some of the character's actions could be pretty ooc.

*******************************************************************

“Wait… what?” Peter asked for what had to have been the millionth time. For a guy who could run fast, it was seriously taking him way too long to get this.

Darcy sighed again. “Alright, so you have to press this button--”

“The little sideways bow thing?”

“Uh, sure, why not. So you press it and then you’re gonna see a lot of different names. The one you’re gonna pick is called ‘Peter’s earbuds’.”

“Okay. Wait how does it know my-- oh wait, it beeped! The lady said it’s… paired? Now what?”

“Now you can pick a song to listen to.” Darcy pressed an icon of a square with a black background and a green circle in the middle. “Anything in particular?”

Peter was silent for a moment. "What do people listen to these days?"

Darcy took the phone from Peter before typing the name of a band into the search bar. His face lit up as Darcy handed it back to him, the screen filled with different songs to choose from. After a moment of scrolling, the opening chords of Dumb by Nirvana filled his ears, and for just a little while, his mind was calm. It was quiet.

“It’s nice to know at least music hasn’t changed since the 80s."

“I wouldn't say that exactly," Darcy mumbled.

Before he could question her statement, Monica spoke up.

"The 80s." She and Jimmy walked through the front door, both carrying grocery bags in their hands. "Is that where you're from?"

Monica placed the groceries on the counter before sitting down on the couch across from Peter.

He squinted at something in the distance. “I think so. I uh…” fuzzy images filled his mind. Laughing at jokes next to a boy with the strangest glasses. Playing in the snow with a woman with red hair. Sharing popcorn in a cold room with a girl with a mohawk and a blue devil.

A serious conversation with a man who meant a lot to him.

Peter winced at the sudden sharp pain behind his eyes. “It’s kinda… kinda hard to sort through.”

“That’s cool,” Darcy shrugged. “I felt the same way during English class back when I was in high school.”

Kurt Cobain’s voice rang in his ears. My heart is broke, but I have some glue. Help me inhale, and mend it with you. Peter nodded his head as he hummed along clumsily, not quite getting the tune right.

Once the pain faded from behind his eyes, Darcy noticed the way Peter’s face seemed to brighten at the sight of a certain someone.

“Guess what!” In less than a second, Peter had moved from his spot next to Darcy onto the couch beside Monica. “Darcy showed me how to get these little pods to play music--”

“They’re called earbuds--”

“And I can listen to whatever I want. How do you feel about this band called Nirvana?” Peter offered an earbud to Monica.

She laughed. “Right now, Jimmy has his heart set on this Lord of the Rings marathon.”

Jimmy shook his head as he took two bags from Monica and placed them all on the counter. “I stand by my claim that Lord of the Rings was and will forever be the best trilogy to ever exist.”

“Sure, Jimmy.” Darcy crossed the room to inspect the groceries. “Popcorn, sherbet, and Sprite? You got orange sherbet?”

Jimmy raised his palms in surrender and pointed at Monica. “Take that up with her.”

“Orange sherbet is the best flavor and, no, I will not be taking any questions.”

Darcy scrunched her nose. “And you’re sure powers were all you got from going through the Hex so many times?”

“You mean aside from having superior taste?” Monica joked. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

*********

“Frodo didn’t deserve Sam,” Monica stated as the movie played on screen.

Shoving another handful of popcorn in his mouth, Jimmy responded. “He was under a lot of pressure! The corruption from the ring only got worse the closer they got to Mordor, so you can’t really blame Frodo for everything.”

Monica wrinkled her nose at the kernels that flew out of his mouth as Jimmy spoke. “Whatever you say. Plus it doesn’t matter cause Darcy’s on my side anyways.”

“You say that as if she didn’t fall asleep the second the movie started,” Jimmy snorted as he gestured to Darcy, who was snoring rather loudly on his shoulder.

Peter chuckled at the banter between the two and at Monica’s annoyed expression, catching her attention.

With Darcy practically on top of Jimmy yet somehow also managing to take up half of the couch, Peter and Monica were seated rather close together.

“Unless you’re laughing at Jimmy, that noise shouldn’t be coming out of your mouth,” she joked, having to turn her head to look Peter in the eye.

“It’s really not my fault that you always seem to be wrong.”

“That’s a lie, actually, but alright.”

“See?” He snorted. “Wrong again.”

Monica glared at Peter who just chuckled and adjusted his position.

After no more than twenty minutes of the movie playing on screen, the sound of Monica snoring told Peter that he and Jimmy were the last two awake.

“They never stay up for my movies,” Jimmy muttered.

Peter turned in his direction. “They never what?”

“We try and do this movie night a couple of times a month. So far, they’ve fallen asleep on every single movie I’ve chosen. I mean that’s obviously just because they don’t appreciate classic media--”

“Right,” Peter mumbled. “That’s why.”

Jimmy paused as he shoveled another handful of popcorn in his mouth. “But I don’t mind it. I mean, everyone’s been back for a little while now, but there’s still this… this underlying fear that it’ll happen again. This nagging feeling that people are gonna be taken away from us, but this time they won’t come back.”

He looked at Darcy, still completely unconscious on Jimmy’s shoulder, and Monica, who was curled up under Peter. “They feel like family” Jimmy admitted. “We haven’t even known each other for that long, but I’d do anything for these two, and I’m comfortable saying they’d do the same for me.”

“I’m happy for all of you, really.” Peter sighed, feeling the clasp on Monica’s necklace dig into his side. “But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous. I have a few memories--”

Taking a look at the confused look on Jimmy’s face, Peter continued. “Well, you all know that I’m not from here. Wanda just pulled me out of my own time and brought me here. ”

“I mean we know it wasn’t intentional--”

“That’s not the point!” Peter did his best to rein in his anger. “The point is, some random lady took me away from my time. Away from my home, my friends, my family. And I’m not even saying that I blame her, but why did it have to be me?” When Jimmy didn’t respond, Peter continued. “I get these… flashbacks. Fuzzy memories of home. They used to be pretty rare but lately, I’ve been getting them more often. One of them keeps showing up.”

“You think you can try and remember?” Jimmy suggested.

After a moment of silence, Peter decided. “Yeah.” He adjusted Monica so that her head rested on the arm of the couch instead of his side, and something strange happened to his chest at the sight of her sleeping so peacefully.

Jimmy pulled out a notebook and pen. Peter cleared his throat as Jimmy nodded for him to begin, ready to jot down whatever he could.

“It was me, a little girl. An older woman, could’ve been my mother? And--” Peter furrowed his brow as a dull pain began to form behind his eyes and a white noise began ringing in his ears. “Someone… someone else. They, uh-- a man. I think.”

“If you can’t remember who, try to focus on where.”

“No no, I’ve got it. They uh. We--” It was beginning to hurt. “No. Wait. Younger people… friends, they had to be.”

The pain became more intense. The noise in his head was getting louder. It hurt. Different images flashed in his head, all fuzzy and difficult to clear up. His mind reached out to grasp one but just as his fingertips brushed the surface, it was gone.

A patient teacher bound to a wheelchair.

A charming blue devil.

A shapeshifter with a warm heart.

A man who could shake the earth itself.

“They keep moving,” Peter said through gritted teeth. “They… t-they won’t sit still.”

“Alright, man,” Jimmy closed the notebook. “If you need to take a break we can--”

“No! I wanna do this. I need to do this.” Peter’s voice cracked. “I don’t-- I can’t forget them.”

“Okay. Alright, that’s fine but you-- uhh…” Jimmy furrowed his brow at the sight of the pen in his hand beginning to twitch. He took one look at Peter and his eyes grew wide the moment he began to understand. “Peter. Hey, you’ve gotta take a breath. You gotta-- shit.”

Jimmy took in Peter’s current state. Pale and shaky with droplets of sweat forming on his forehead. His eyes wide and panicked. “Uhmm, shit, Monica! Darcy! I really think now would be an appropriate time for the two of you to wake up, given the circumstances.”

As he moved to shake the two women awake, Peter’s struggle grew more intense. The pain had now spread throughout his entire head and turned into a pounding sensation. The noise was deafening as it bounced around in his skull.

Monica woke quickly to see Peter pale and in distress. “Jimmy, what’s happening?”

“I don’t know! We were trying to clear up the memories in his head when he started shaking and--”

“I can see that, but what’s happening?”

“Uhh…. I think stuff is about to start floating…”

Darcy’s eyes fluttered open. “Huh?”

“Yeah,” Jimmy continued, still trying to wake Darcy. “Cause, my pen was shaking and your necklace is moving a lot, and Darcy, I think your glasses are about to fly off of your face.”

Monica looked down to see her necklace float away from her chest, then watched in what seemed like slow motion as each object Jimmy mentioned flew towards the same source.

Peter.

Seconds later the tv in front of them crumpled in on itself. “That was expensive,” Darcy sighed, now fully awake.

Monica cocked her head, her gaze flickering from Peter to Jimmy to Darcy. “Is he--”

“Yep,” Darcy said loudly

The three sat in awe and terror as Peter sank to the floor in agony, screaming as he drew his knees to his chest. His hands pressed over his ears.

Darcy looked into her kitchen and her eyes grew wide. Locking eyes with Monica and then Jimmy, they all spoke at once. “The knives.”

Monica scrambled to Peter’s side while Darcy and Jimmy ran to get as many knives as they could out of the house.

Darcy turned towards Monica. “You, uh, sure you got this?”

At Monica’s shaky nod, she followed Jimmy into the kitchen.

“Okay,” Monica began. “Peter… I’m gonna, um. I, uh-- okay I actually have no idea what I’m gonna do, but I need you to just, try and, uh, I don’t know, breathe?”

“I can’t.” he panted. The breaths he took were uneven and rapid and his face was stark white. He wasn’t responding to her. “I can’t forget. I-- no, no no I don’t want to forget. They’re slipping. I can’t reach them. Help me.”

She knew he wasn’t going to be able to calm himself down. Monica called the other two in there.

Jimmy ran into the living room first. “We weren’t-- oh.”

Darcy quickly followed. “Holy shit.” she looked at Monica. “You know what to do?”

Monica nodded. “But I haven’t exactly done it before and there’s a good chance I’ll pass out after.”

“I mean, if it means he stops screaming bloody murder, I feel like it’ll be worth it.” Jimmy looked at Darcy with wide eyes, who just shrugged.

“Right,” Monica shook the nerves out of her hands. “Okay. Alright.”

“Y’know, there are still knives and other extremely sharp objects in the kitchen so--”

“I got that, Darcy!” Monica snapped. She took a deep breath before turning all of her attention to the man in front of her. “Okay, Peter? I’m sorry, but none of us have any idea what to do, and so, this was the next best option.”

She closed her eyes and placed both hands to his temple, struggling to keep them there as he twisted in pain. When her eyes opened again, a bright blue shone in place of their usual brown.

His energy came through in tendrils. The super-speed feeling like electricity itself, sharp and cold, while his metallokinesis was slow and warm and heavy. It was new and painful and in that moment Monica understood his pain.

While his powers had come to a pause, his memories were a different matter.

“I gotta keep going,” Monica slurred. Her eyelids were heavy.

“Yeah that’s what we’re not gonna do,” Darcy said.

“He’s still in pain!”

“And now so are you! We can find something to sedate him but, right now, you can’t--”

Monica responded by placing her hands on Peter’s temple once again, this time taking out smaller amounts of energy. Just enough to put him to sleep for a little while.

She then promptly collapsed.

“Energy absorption,” Jimmy stated. “Impressive.”

Darcy sighed. “Please just help me get them to bed.”

“Right. Okay.”

[anagentinwriting]

Lifeline - Part 10

Summary: (First Responders!AU) Moving to Los Angeles and living with your brother, Thor, was never part of your plan nor was being a 9-1-1 dispatcher, but plans change when you are faced with your own emergencies. In your case, it was leaving behind a relationship that wasn’t as perfect as it seemed. Will this be the fresh start you were hoping for or will your past find a way to catch up with you?

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Odinson!Sister Reader

Word Count: 3800+

Warnings: Angst, fluff, language

Lifeline Masterlist / Main Masterlist

Thor walked up to the gate to your condo to find a couple of guys installing a camera and a gate lock mechanism. “Hello, gentlemen. Who are you, and what are you doing to my sister’s gate?” Thor asked, crossing his arms across his chest. 

“Whoa, big guy.” The guy on the ladder held up his hands. “I’m Dave, and he’s Kurt. We’re from X-Con Security Consultants--” he pointed to his shirt with the name stitched on it “--and we’re installing a new security system update for Ms. Hill.”

“The lady asked for an installation, and we do it,” Kurt mentioned with a Russian accent.

“Huh, okay then, as you were, gentlemen.” He nodded, continuing through the gate and going to your front door. 

You were making a batch of your mom’s cookies when you heard an unexpected knock at the door. Setting down your cookie scoop, you wiped your hands clean to answer it. “Hey, Thor. Whatcha doing here? Thought you had a shift today.”

“I do, an overnight shift,” He pointed over his shoulder. “Why are their strange men at your front gate?”

“You’re one to talk, ladies man,” you scoffed, rolling your eyes. You turned away from the door, allowing him to come in as you returned to the kitchen. “If memory serves me right, you had plenty of strange women over at strange hours of the day.”

“Come on, they were my friends,” Thor reasoned, following you to your kitchen. “I love women, but you know, not in a creepy way.” 

“Fine, if you must know, I mentioned to Maria about updating the front gate’s security system with a code and buzzer mechanism, and she thought it was a good investment for the property. The other tenants thought it was a great idea, too, so we're all going to pitch in and help pay for the upgrades. Plus, it will help me sleep better at night.”

“Oh, so it’s an investment. It’s not because you almost hit Steve with the bat the other day.” You averted your eyes to the cookie dough bowl, chewing on your bottom lip.  “This is what I didn’t want to happen, YN. I knew you would move out, and you wouldn’t feel safe and…”

“I know, Thor,” you interrupted him, your eyes connecting with his. “But, it’s going to take time for me to adjust and feel safe. This new gate code system will just help me sleep better at night because I will know who is here before I let them in.”

Thor nodded, keeping a watchful eye on you. “I understand, but why didn’t you tell me Billy contacted you?”

“I can’t rely on you every time,” You sighed, shrugging your shoulders. “I have to learn how to fight my own battles again, and you have to be able to trust me.”

“I DO!” He raised his voice, making you flinch, then he immediately dropped his voice. “It’s Billy I don’t trust, and if he thinks he can hurt you, again, he’s got another thing coming.”

“I know, I know.” You shake your head, pinching the bridge of your nose. 

“I just want you to know you're not alone here. You have me, Nat, Carol, and everyone else at the station.” He reached out, giving your shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “You have improved so much since you arrived, and I don't want to see you revert back to your old ways. You have no idea how proud of you I am, and I trust you with whatever you decide to do. I want you to know I’m here for you.” You nodded with a small smile. “On another note, I’m glad you finally talked to someone about Billy.”

“You mean Steve.” You eyed him over, not missing the side grin appearing on his face. “Why did he tell you about what happened?” 

“He was worried about you and thought I should be aware of what occurred,” Thor replied, scratching his head. “When we work these long shifts together, we learn many things about each other; Stories are told, secrets are shared, and we learn to trust one another. Although he never did say why he stopped by that night?”

“He gave me a housewarming present.”

“Is that what they call it these days?” He winked with a carefree smile on his face. 

“Oh my god, STOP.” You felt your cheeks grow warm, throwing a ball of cookie dough at him. He caught it, chuckling and popped it in his mouth.

“You should see your face right now. All flushed and agitated.” He motioned to his face as you covered yours in your hands. “Your hands aren’t stopping that blush color coming through on your face. If I didn’t know any better, I would think you got a sun-burn, but let’s get to the real reason, you have a crush on Steve.”

You removed your hands from your face, staring him down. “Okay, sure…maybe I do. He’s a great guy with a caring personality but…but I’m not ready for a serious relationship.”

“Neither is he, that’s why you two are perfect for one another,” he grinned, making you shake your head. 

_____

Steve startled awake from something crashing to the floor in the communal kitchen. He sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes, and let out a long yawn. The last twelve hours have been a blur from the restaurant fire to a car accident to an ax-throwing competition. It felt like call after call came in with little to no recovery time in between. Steve glanced at his watch as he sat up and pulled on his boots. He sighed, realizing he only got about four hours of sleep, but lack of sleep comes with the territory. He ran his hands through his hair, walking into the kitchen, taking a seat at one of the stools by the island. 

“You’re up early,” Carol commented, sweeping up a broken dish.

“A crashing sound startled me awake,” he smirked, forcing her to roll her eyes.

Carol dumped the remnants of the ceramic dish in the garbage before grabbing two coffee mugs from the cabinet. She poured coffee into each of them and handed one to Steve. Steve nodded to her as a thank you and blew the steam off the top of the hot liquid. “Did you want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or oatmeal with some peanut butter to go with your coffee?”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh please, don’t act all innocent. I know you’re the one who’s been eating Sam’s peanut butter, not Bucky.” Carol narrowed her eyes at him, and he raised his hands in surrender.

“Guilty,” he smirked. “It’s so good, though, especially in oatmeal. I’m still surprised they haven’t figured it out yet.”

“Those two share a deep tolerable dislike for each other that even I can’t explain how it works. They get along but don’t get along, but somehow work really well together. It shouldn’t work, but it works. I don’t know; it still baffles me. I’m sure if you confessed, Sam would think you were only covering for Bucky anyways.” She shook her head, and Steve nodded his head in agreement. 

“I wouldn’t expect anything less from those two,” Steve chuckled, taking a sip of his coffee. 

“YN told you, didn’t she?”

“Told me what?”

“I might have overheard you and Thor talking about it, but she told you about Billy the douche?”

“Oh...um...yeah.” He shrugged. “I went to her house after she got a call from said douche, and she almost hit me with a bat.”

“Good,” Carol chirped as Steve snapped his head to her. “Well, not good she almost hit you, but good that he doesn’t have that control over her anymore.”

“I agree.” He stared down at the contents in his mug. “Billy sounds like a real piece of work.”

She hummed in agreement. “I know you’re a good guy, but I want you to know if you hurt her, I’ll kick your ass.”

“Oh, trust me, I would never hurt her like that, but I’m not ready for a relationship.” 

Carol smirked at his response, remembering you saying this whenever she tried to find you a new man. “What? Don't you like her?”

“No, no, it’s not like that at all. She’s…she’s great. It’s just…” Steve fumbled over his words.

“Oh, he hesitated,” Sam added, taking the stool next to Steve. Steve glanced at him, seeing a huge, gap-tooth smile on his face. “He’s into her.”

“It’s not that I’m not, it’s just that I have been through some things, and I know she has been through some things, very recently. I don’t want to push her if she’s not ready.”

“Well, you’re getting pushed into the friend zone, Steve,” Bucky added, taking the other stool next to him.

“Come on, don't say that...it's just...it's…”

“Called the friend zone,” Sam finished for Steve.

“Okay, fine, then why am I planning on hanging out with her later.”  

“Keyword is hangout as in not a date so…” Bucky dragged on.

“Friend zoned,” Sam and Bucky said in unison.

Steve shakes his head, letting out a big sigh. “You two are unbelievable, but at least you two finally agree on something.” Sam and Bucky both looked at each other with a slight shrug and nod. 

“Who are we speaking about,” Thor asked, patting Steve on the back.

“YN,” Carol smiled, forcing Steve’s eyes to meet hers.

“It’s not what you think. We were…”

“Steve wants to ask her out on a date,” Sam added, getting off the stool and walking over to the cabinet where his peanut butter was.

“Is that right? You--” he gestured to Steve with a slight smirk on his lips “--you want to date my sister.” Thor shook his head, letting out a soft chuckle, grabbing a mug from the cabinet and filling it up. “I like you, Steve, I do, and out of all these morons, I find you are the most suitable to date her. I think Loki may even approve of you, too, but he may be skeptical of you. He might even mock you upon meeting you, but he means well.”

“Thanks, but I wasn’t asking for your permission to do anything.”

“OOOOH, Thor, are you going to let him talk to you like that,” Sam hollered, pulling his peanut butter from the cabinet and unscrewing the lid.

“I didn’t mean it to come out like that.”

“Sure you didn’t,” Thor joked with a carefree smile. “Sure you didn’t,” he stated more seriously this time, eyeing Steve over, taking a sip of his coffee.

“GODDAMMIT, BUCKY! Why do you always eat my peanut butter? It wasn’t this empty the last time I opened it,” Sam shouted, giving Bucky a stern look as Carol shot Steve an all-knowing smirk.

_____

You stepped into Jabari Tribe Training Center, hearing the whirls of the jump ropes hitting the mats and the punches hitting the heavy bags. Everything in this gym was nerve-racking to you at first, but now it excited you. This gym was a little more run-down than most and could be unpleasant to some, but you found the dedicated atmosphere inspiring. 

You went to the locker room to get ready for your session, feeling your stomach tingling with nerves. Val had a last-minute schedule change at the station, so she wouldn’t be training you today; instead, she scheduled you with M’Baku, who in the ring was known as the Great Gorilla. You’ve watched him coach a few athletes, and he was intimidating. He stood tall and broad, and he’d always do his signature gorilla bark to get himself or his trainees fired up. He was a scary dude! Val knew your movements and boundaries, but this guy wouldn’t, and you weren’t sure how this session was going to go. 

You grabbed your boxing gloves and walked out to find M’Baku by the ring talking to one of his athletes. “Hey, M’Baku, I’m YN. Val mentioned you would be helping me with my session today.”

He looked at you with a stern glare and nodded to his trainee that they were finished. He looked back at you with a snarl on his lip before a smile broke out across his face. “Yes, you were told right. She told me about where you are, and I will say it’s impressive since you only started a few weeks ago.”

“Oh...um, thanks,” you smiled, feeling a warmth rush to your cheeks.

“Ready?” You nodded. “Okay, we will do some warm-up exercises, hit the heavy bag, ring work, stretch it out, and call it a day. Does that work for you?”

“Sounds great.”

“And if there is something you are not comfortable doing, or you don’t know what something is just ask. I won’t bite...hard.” He let out a deep chuckle, making you crack a smile.

“I will.”

“Let’s get started.”

It was a quick warm-up with some basic stretches, squats, jump ropes, and rowing. There were a few stretches you didn’t know what they were, and M’Baku showed you what to do and explained what muscles it was stretching. He couldn’t stress enough how stretching and warming up helped reduce injury and how it would improve your recovery time. M’Baku was knowledgeable, and you could tell he loved what he did.

Every time you worked on the heavy bag, it intimidated you because it was a constant mind game with yourself. You had to think about every punch you threw, making sure to hit it with your knuckles; otherwise, you could sprain your wrist, or worse, break it. You had to move around the bag with quick feet while throwing jabs, hooks, and uppercut punches. It wasn’t a natural feeling you had with the bag like many others did; this is why you preferred sparring in the ring.

You could feel his eyes watching you as you hit the bag with your straight and hook punches. The bag moved slightly as you switched positions and hit the bag from a different angle. 

“Okay, stop,” M’Baku called out, and you dropped your hands to your side. “I am not getting anything from you. You’re too quiet, stiff. Loosen up, girl, let out a grunt, roar, or better yet, bark. Do the…do the gorilla bark.” He raises his eyebrows at you, and you shake your head. 

“I’m not doing the gorilla bark,” you whizzed with your hands on your hips, taking deep breaths. He stared at you, narrowing his eyes before he started barking. “Still not doing it.” He stepped closer to you, barking louder as he walked circles around you. You rolled your eyes, taking a deep breath, and finally let out a bark.

His face broke into a smile, and he nodded. “Thata girl. Now get into it, have fun with it, don’t be so tense, loosen up, and jump around. I’ll demonstrate.” 

He takes his position at the bag, tapping it with his glove before doing a set of punches. It was almost like watching a dance. As it swayed, he would be quick and move and then attack with a series of different shots. He looked so relaxed that it didn’t even seem like he had to think about it. It was like second nature to him. 

“Alright, your turn,” He breathed, looking back at you.

You shake your head. “I got tired just watching you. You make it look so natural and easy.”

“It comes with practice, and it doesn’t help you're scared of the bag.” You nodded, giving him a half shrug. “Don’t be scared. Being scared only makes you feel weaker, so you won’t give it your all. Think of it like--” he paused, thinking “--taking a call at dispatch. If you’re afraid, you’ll overthink the situation and make a mistake. If you’re confident and think fast on your feet, it will lead to a better outcome. The more confident you are with yourself, the stronger you will become. Understand?”

“Yes,” you replied with a nod. “Thank you, I needed to hear that.”

Sparring in the ring was your favorite. It was the chance to learn how your opponent moved and how to throw a hard punch. With Val, you knew how she moved in the ring and could time when to throw a punch. With M’Baku, you didn’t know what to expect.

“We are not going to spare,” M’Baku stated as you both got into the ring. He had punching mitts on, and you had your boxing gloves on. “You’re not ready for this,” he chuckled, motioning to himself as you smirked in his direction. “We will do combo drills with your punching technique, watch your stance, and I'll give you a few pointers. I might even show you a few moves, so when you spare with Val again, she’ll wonder where you learned them.”

“I’m ready.”

You throw a few punches at his mitts. “You’re doing something wrong. Do you know what it is?”

 “Am I lifting my feet?” You heaved, wiping the sweat off your forehead. 

“So you do know,” he smirked, dropping his hands. 

“Val is always on me about that.”

“Do you know why she wants you to keep your feet planted?”

“It keeps me more grounded and gives me better balance. It also helps me hit my opponent harder. If I don’t plant my feet, I will be off-balance making me more vulnerable to my opponent's punches.”

“Good, yes. I’m glad my coaches are teaching their trainees.” He let out a deep chuckle. “Also, remember to breathe as you throw your punches. The worst thing you can do is forget to breathe.” You nodded.

After a few more rounds of drills and a lot of great advice from M’Baku, he ended the session.  You went to the side of the ring to get a drink of water. 

“YN, is there a reason you wanted to learn to box or did you wake up one morning and go, ‘I want to fight.’” He asked with curiosity in his eyes. 

You chuckled. “No, not really. I wanted to try something new for once instead of doing the same boring workouts. A friend of mine mentioned Val’s self-defense class, so I tried it out, and it was fun. Then, I asked her about boxing, I was sort of curious about it, and she offered to train me. Plus, it’s a good workout.”

“It is a great workout,” he chuckled. “Val is a wonderful coach and does a great job teaching that class. I’m glad you gave boxing a chance, and you like it so far.”

“It’s been fun,” you smiled with a nod. “And thanks for coaching me today.”

“Anytime,” he said, waving it off. 

M’Baku's other client showed up, so he told you what stretches to do to cool down and to drink plenty of water. Good hydration leads to better recovery. It was really different working out with M’Baku, but it was a good different. He came off as intimidating and cold, but he was the complete opposite. He was knowledgeable and helpful, and you couldn’t wait for your next session with Val to show her the moves he taught you. 

______

“Anyone have any exciting plans for the evening?” Thor asked, unloading the duffle bags from one of the hatches of the truck.

“Have a drink or two, and fall asleep on the couch,” Val stated, patting him on the back and walking over to restock the ambulance.

“Going to dinner with my girl,” Bucky winked with a smile on his face. 

“When are we finally going to get to meet this woman? I would like to have a conversation with her about what she sees in you.” Sam joked from the ambulance, earning an eye roll from Bucky.

“Why don’t you ask her yourself.” Bucky pointed to the door, forcing Sam to get out of the back of the ambulance and see Nat at the door.

“Good one, Bucky, but I’m being serious. When do we get to meet her,” Sam questioned, looking back at him. Bucky shook his head as Nat went over to Bucky and kissed him on the lips.

“Does that clear everything up, boys and girls? Bucky and I are dating.”

Steve smiled at them and got back to work reorganizing the hatches while Thor nodded, giving them a thumbs up.

“How...wait...when did this happen?” Sam narrowed his eyes at them.

“We have been dating for a couple of months now,” Bucky smiled down at Nat beside him.

“Way to go, Buck. Didn’t know you had it in you to handle her,” Val saluted him from the back of the ambulance.

“Nat, what the heck? I thought we shared a common enemy.”

“Sorry, Sam.” She shrugged with a tight smile. 

“And here I thought you two were going to keep it a secret,” Steve hinted. 

“Wait, you knew?”

“Yeah. It’s kind of old news these two.”

“Congratulations, but can everyone get back to work, so we can head home,” Carol redirected everyone, earning mumbled replies. 

______

You laid on the couch, turning a page in your book, when there was a buzzing sound at your front door, signaling someone was at the front gate for you. You got off the couch and looked at the new little monitor installed by the door to see Steve waving at the camera. You smiled, buzzing him in. You quickly glanced down at your worn-out t-shirt that had a few holes in it and decided to run up the stairs to find a sweater to cover it up. You were a hot mess, but you didn’t want to look like a hot mess. He knocked on the door as you came down the stairs to answer it.

“Hey, Steve! What's up?”

“I was in the neighborhood, and Thor told me about the security upgrade, so thought I'd check it out.”

“I didn't know you were into security systems,” you smirked, crossing your arms across your chest, leaning against the door frame.

“Oh yeah,” he huffed out, nodding his head. “I am very tech-savvy; whenever I don’t know something, I just Ask Jeeves.”

“Wait, Ask Jeeves?” You narrowed your eyes and burst out laughing. “That search engine with the Butler?” He nodded with a slight shrug, putting his hands in his front pockets. “That’s still around? Isn’t it ancient!”

“Is it?” He chuckled, his signature smirk tugging at his lips. “I’ve used it since high school, but I think the butler retired because it's called Ask now.”

You shook your head, laughing at his subtleness. You glanced over your shoulder at the blank tv screen and back at Steve, biting your lip. “I was actually gonna watch a movie if you wanted to join me.”

“Ahh--” he shifted back and forth on his heels “--yeah, sounds fun.” You nodded, opening the door and inviting him in.

____

Thanks for reading part 10! Looks like her and Steve are finally having a little date/hangout night?! Do you think Steve is getting friend zoned like Bucky and Sam suspect, or do you think he will finally make a move? Or will it be her? I thought it would be funny to throw in that old search engine, Ask Jeeves, some may remember it, some might not have any idea what it is. But I thought it would be a funny throwback and a joke about Steve's age! It's like using map quest and printing out directions instead of using the GPS these days! 😂😂 And what about Thor showing up and being the supportive brother after finding out what happened. He is definitely trying to be better, and he still has no problem teasing her a little bit! Haha! We also found out who the real peanut butter thief was, thanks to Carol for being the observant one! Haha! And isn’t M’Baku the best!! Anyways, comments, likes, and reblogs always welcome. Thanks again! 

[darriness]

Fic A Day - July 2021 Edition - Day 1 - Benevolent/Bow

Author: darriness

Word Count: 753

Summary: Matty's quitting

Author's Note: (this AN is long, but they aren't always this long - or even there at all!)

If you're new to Fic A Day here are a few things to keep in mind: - Each fic is inspired by a word - The title of each fic is the word that inspired the fic - The series is nonlinear which means I jump around the timeline depending on what the word for that day inspires - I sometimes connect or do sequels/prequels to events but for example one day Kurt and Blaine's kids may be in the fic and the next the kids may not have even been born yet

If you're new to the Life In A Year verse here are a couple of the important details: - Kurt and Blaine have two kids (Elizabeth May (Lizzy) and Matthew Devon (Matty)) - Lizzy is biologically Blaine's and is four years older than Matty (who is biologically Kurt's) - Both kids came from the same surrogate/egg donor (Lizzy is born when Kurt and Blaine are 26 and 27 respectfully) - Kurt works in fashion and Blaine is on Broadway (though he eventually retires and goes into teaching) - Rachel is married to Jesse and they have a son named Nash who is Matty's age and Matty's best friend

This month all the inspiration words come from the Tan Hands and Tan Lines event! As often as I can I will try to incorporate both words from that event every day into these fics (if I'm able to the title will be both words) if not I will only use one! I think that's all for now - Enjoy!

AO3 Link

“I quit this family!” Matty all but growls as he stomps his way into the kitchen. He throws his backpack against the wall where it lands with a thump on the floor, before making his way to the fridge. He opens it, glares inside it for a few moments, before huffing and slamming the door closed.

Lizzy watches the whole interaction from the kitchen table, her homework out in front of her (though her Instagram account is getting more of a work out then her pencil), and smirks as her little brother crosses his arms over his chest and literally pouts at the fridge like it offended him.

She waits for a second, curious if Matty’s tantrum will continue, before sighing, “Nothing pains me more than to ask this, but why are you quitting the family?”

Matty’s glare turns on his sister, “Like you care.” The twelve-year-old grumbles.

Lizzy shrugs, “I’m not saying I’m going to try to change your mind. You can think of my question as...a general curiosity. At this point, I’m up for anything that will keep me away from reading about Charlemagne.”

Matty seems to consider her offer, pouting his lips, before huffing and sitting heavily in a chair across from his sister.

“Dad and Papa grounded me because I got a D on a test!” He explodes.

Lizzy raises an eyebrow, “And…?” She prompts.

Matty’s eyes go wide, “And that’s totally unfair!”

The sixteen-year-old stares at her brother for a moment before bursting out laughing. Matty scoffs before pushing up from the table and heading to the door.

“Wait, wait, wait.” Lizzy says, calming her laughter and making a calming gesture with one outstretched hand, “Come back.” She says.

Matty seems skeptical, but eventually drops back into his chair.

“Okay, so why did you get the D?” She asks.

Matty shrugs, “It was a hard test.”

Lizzy shrugs in response, “So you studied really hard and tried your best? It was just a really difficult test?”

Matty goes to answer but then stops and slumps against his chair with a sigh, “Not...exactly.”

Lizzy tilts her head, “So you didn’t study at all and played video games with Nash instead.”

Matty splutters the beginnings of a few sentences before saying, “It’s not fair! Dad and Papa are being dictators!”

Lizzy laughs softly, “Dictators, maybe. But I have always found them to at least be benevolent dictators.”

Matty stares at her, “What does benevolent mean?”

Lizzy sighs, “It means that they may tell us what to do but at least they’re nice about it.”

Matty considers her words before sighing, “I guess. Nash got punished WAY worse.”

“That’s because there is nothing benevolent about Aunt Rachel.” Lizzy says knowingly, “But don’t tell her I said that.” She warns with a point.

The front door opens and closes down the hall from the kitchen and both Matty and Lizzy turn in its direction.

“The dictators are home.” Matty grumbles, “I should have been practicing my bow.”

Lizzy smirks, “Study next time. And leave the video games for after the test.”

Matty gives a reluctant nod as Kurt and Blaine enter the kitchen with grocery bags in their hands. They stop short when they notice Lizzy and Matty sitting at the kitchen table, “You’re sitting in the same room and there isn’t yelling.” Blaine says.

Kurt looks around the room, “And nothing is broken.”

Lizzy and Matty roll their eyes at the same time, “We can be civil.” Lizzy says.

“Uh huh.” Kurt says, not convinced, as he and Blaine put the groceries on the counter.

“Matty, do you want to help put this stuff away?” Blaine asks.

Matty’s chest puffs out in anger, about to ask why Lizzy doesn’t have to help (is he being further punished?), when he realizes that Blaine is smiling at him and that with Lizzy doing homework, it makes sense for them to ask the child currently not doing anything.

He deflates with a sigh, “Sure.”

Blaine’s smile widens, “Good man. And then you and I are going to study for that make-up test together.” He says, extending a bag of celery toward Matty.

Matty takes the celery with another sigh and a nod, “Okay.” He says, making his way to the fridge.

Kurt and Blaine strike up a conversation about weekend plans and while Matty listens to the conversation, participates some, and puts more groceries away, he figures he doesn’t ACTUALLY want to quit his family. Though he DOES want to quit math...

[365days365movies]

February 18, 2021: The Danish Girl (Review)

Before I go into ANYTHING else...let’s talk about the actual Danish Girl, Lili Elbe, or Lili Ilse Elvenes.

Oh, uh, full warning, this is gonna be LONG, so skip to the bottom if you’re just here for the Review! OK, history time!

Now, what the film The Danish Girl notes about the beginning of the transition is pretty spot-on, from what I can tell. After marrying portrait painter Gerda Gottlieb in 1904, the two lived in Italy and France before moving to Paris in 1912. Yeah, that’s over 14 years before they’re shown doing so in the movie. Inaccuracy #1. In 1908 (here comes number 2), Elbe (Einar at the time) painted this portrait of trees along a fjord in Denmark.

Yeah, NOT in 1926, as the film says. But, yeah, that’s a nitpick, I recognize that. Anyway, the revelation came when model Anna Larssen (not “Ulla”, which is Inaccuracy #3) was late, and Gerda asked Elbe to fill in. When Larssen eventually showed up, she suggested the name “Lili”. Basically, this scene from the movie was pretty goddamn accurate.

Except for the dates, anyway. Because while the movie mostly takes place around 1926 and afterwards, this probably happened closer to 1920, in Paris. So, yeah, Lili spent a LOT more time as Lili in real life. Additionally, Lili was pretty goddamn public about the whole thing, inviting guests and hosting parties as herself, rather than as Einar. At the same time, Gerda was getting pretty goddamn famous for her paintings of Lili, like this one.

Which, yeah, are really good! Also, they were considered lesbian erotica by many! YEAH! And here’s a fun fact: Gerda may not have been straight-up straight. Yeah, the film and the book (we’ll get there) kind of ignored the fact that their marriage was annulled by the Danish government, not by the two of them. Inaccuracy #4. Now, obviously, their relationship ended, and Lili ended up getting together with a man (we’ll get there, too), but there are a LOT of unanswered questions about Gerda’s sexuality, and views of sexuality (which is barely hinted at in the “male gaze” speech in the beginning).

After the annulment, the two just...drifted apart. Their relationship dissolved, and the details on that are fuzzy. By 1930, Lili was headed on a completely different path. She wasn’t a painter like Einar (and it turns out that she thought of them as two entirely separate people, like two souls living in the same body, which the movie got mostly right), and she was mostly unsatisfied with her career, life, and other things. And that is where Drs. Erwin Gohrbandt and Magnus Hirschfeld come in, NOT Kurt Warnerkros...yet. He’d come in for the other five (YES FIVE) surgeries, but wouldn’t be involved with the first. Inaccuracy #5, and also #6, while we’re at it! See, the film would make you think that Lili was the first complete gender reassignment surgery, but she was actually the second. The first would be Dora Richter, in a procedure that was performed by Dr. Hirschfeld from 1922 - 1931. YEAH. BIG-ASS INACCURACY THERE. Here’s Dora, by the way:

Anyway, Lili had her first procedure, to remove the testicles, performed in 1930. In the same year, the divorce between Lili and Gerda was finalized, and Lili legally changed her name. Two more procedures were performed, the first to implant an ovary, and the second to remove the penis and scrotum. Inaccuracy #7, by the way. And, hey, let’s go for number 8! Let’s talk about Henrik, a dude who didn’t exist. He and Hans were both very loosely based on an art dealer named Claude Lejeune.

Claude was an art dealer (there’s the Hans part), and was indeed in love with Lili. They got together around early 1931, and he’d actually been in love with her for a good, long time. He proposed to marry Lili, and she accepted, also hoping that the two would be able to have children together. But to do that, it was believed that Lili would need a uterus. And, obviously, having children would be MILES more complicated than that in basically EVERY way, but this was early in medical science’s understanding of some of that biology.

In any case, however, Lili would need both a uterus and a vagina to feel whole. And so, the fourth surgery was scheduled. And she had that surgery in 1931, a couple of weeks after Dora Richter successfully had the same surgery performed. But, sadly, Lili wouldn’t be so lucky.

Lili’s body rejected the uterus, and while transplant rejections of any kind wouldn’t necessarily be fatal now, they definitely were back then. They attempted to remove it, but that subsequent 5th surgery caused infection, which caused a fatal heart attack three months later. Lili Elbe died on September 13, 1931, at the age of FORTY-EIGHT. Yeah, Inaccuracy #9.

By the way, you may be wondering: what about Dora Richter, the first successful person to get these surgeries? Well, she disappeared...in Germany...as the Nazis were coming into power...yeah. Fuckin’ YIKES.

And so, that’s the true story of Lili Elbe. And there are far more differences than that, I’m sure, but those 9 inaccuracies aren’t insignificant, that’s for sure. Although, it probably doesn’t help that the movie was based on a fictionalized book.

Oh, uh...did I not mention that? Yeah, this movie is based on The Danish Girl, by David Ebershoff, which means that this film is essentially a cinematic game of telephone. Which, uh...not great. Granted, Ebershoof made some other...interesting changes, which the film didn’t inherit. In the book, for example, Gerda is named Greta, and is American? Um...why? I dunno, it’s kind of weird. Oh, and that’s not including one more issue with the movie. But, you’ve waited long enough, huh? Recap of the film is here and here if you wanna check that out! Let’s get to the Review already!

Review

Cast and Acting: 8/10

I am...conflicted. So let me start here by saying that the acting in the film in and of itself is fantastic, all-around. Not a weak actor in here, that’s for sure. Let’s start with the side-roles, for once. Ben Whishaw, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Amber Heard are all good. Heard’s accent is a little shaky, but they’re still all solid performances. OK, how about Alicia Vikander? She’s great! And she won the Oscar for...Best Supporting Actress. Um...wait...Supporting? But not Best Actress? Uh...OK. That’s a little weird, let’s be honest here. But, Alicia Vikander did deserve that win over...oooooooh, Rooney Mara in Carol? Maybe not...damn.

And OK...let’s get into the elephant in the room, huh?

Eddie Redmayne is fantastic as Einar Wegener/Lili Eber, and I genuinely think he had a great shot to win Best Actor...but, yeah, Leonardo DiCaprio definitely deserved it, I think that goes without saying. Hell, that year had a SOLID line-up for best actor. And Redmayne had even won it the year before for The THeory of Everything, another biography where he played Stephen Hawking. But ALL of that said...HNNNNNNNNNG, there should have been a transgender actor cast in this role, ideally. Now, I’m fully aware how difficult that would be, as Hollywood isn’t extraordinarily diverse in terms of including trans actors in massive mainstream projects. It’s better now, but it’s nowhere near ideal. But if anybody knows an actor who would’ve fit this role and performed it well, I’m DEFINITELY interested. So, despite that controversy, Redmayne was pretty goddamn great in this role. But, uh...that doesn’t mean everything is perfect...

Plot and Writing: 5/10

OK, that seems low, I know. But it’s pretty goddamn damning that this movie was based off of a heavily fictionalized book instead of the actual life story of Lili Eber and Gerda Gottlieb. And because of that, there are not only some missed opportunities, but some straight-up damning inaccuracies. That’s a set of pretty poor decisions, I tell you what. Not sure why Lucinda Coxon came to that decision when adapting this screenplay, but it wasn’t exactly nominated for Best Screenplay. And the writing certainly isn’t bad, but it is...overly saccharine sometimes, especially for a film based (loosely) on a true story. I dunno...just not the best set of choices here, sorry to say.

Directing and Cinematography: 8/10

Tom Hooper shouldn’t direct musicals. However, since this wasn’t a musical, directing and cinematography here is pretty damn good! Real talk, this is a gorgeous looking movie, and the way shots are framed are fantastic. Perfect? Weeeeeeeell...given the fact that painting is a main focus of the film, for both Gerda and Einar, there should’ve been more painter-quality shots in here, I think. And while the cinematography by Danny Cohen is pretty fantastic, I can’t say that it’s perfect. Still, in terms of lighting and general skill, it’s still quite a good looking movie.

Production and Art Design: 10/10

But the deficiencies in the direction are EASILY compensated for by the production design! Like, hot DAMN, this is a good looking movie, like I said! That goes from the construction of the sets, to the gorgeous outfits all over the place, especially Lili’s outfits. Some iconic pieces of wardrobe there, that’s for sure! But if I have ONE complaint...this movie never once felt like the 1920s. Yup, good old anachronistic complaints from me again! Yeah, I’ll change the record one of these days, I promise. But even with that, it’s hard to ignore just how good this movie looks, to be honest. It’s just...gorgeous.

Music and Editing: 8/10

As I type this, I’m listening to a track of the film on YouTube, and it is a beautifully delicate tune. I’m not sure that I’d be able to associate it with the film if presented to me on its own, but it’s definitely a nice track to listen to by itself. Playlist worthy? For somebody, almost certainly, but not for me. One of these days, a film like that’s gonna pop up, I swear. But for now, Alexandre Desplat and his score are gonna stay off my iPhone. This really is a nice score, though, I promise. Editing by Melanie Ann Oliver is pretty good as well, and I’ve no complaints about it, to be honest. Overall, this side of things was quite nice, if not the most notable thing I’ve ever seen or heard.

I might have been a little harsh, but it’s still got an 78%.

This is a good movie, but...I dunno, the inaccuracies do bug me. Hell, there are WAY more than what I’d mentioned, and I mentioned a lot. Not to mention the other glaring issue: no trans people at any stage of the production? Really? No script consultants, no writers, no NTOHING? That’s...egregiously bad. Like, holy shit, guys. And, yes, this includes Redmayne, because even though he performed admirably in the role...I dunno. I’m no expert on ANY of this, as a cissexual dude with cissexual experience, but it feels a little...reductive, is all. Like I said, if any other actors have been suggested for this role, I’d love to know. The whole thing feels...I don’t know, just not great. 

And by the way, that’s without even TOUCHING the question as to whether or not this film is authentic to the trans experience. Again, I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA, but I’ve also heard that this film isn’t universally acclaimed in the trans community, so to speak. And I’m definitely interested in the reasons for that. All I know is this: from the perspective of a complete outsider, I was intrigued by this films view of the transgender experience, specifically as seen in the earliest days of those realizations happening and being publicly known and reported on. And that’s all I can really comment on, in truth.

WHOOF. That was a goddamn topic, huh? And now, I’m going to continue on the the month of romance with...wait, the 19th is my 5-year anniversary with my GF, pictured here:

Ravishing. Anyway, I think I’ll let her pick from my choices for this next one. Hold on a sec...OK, then. Sing it with me now! AND DO I DREEEEEAM AGAAAAIN, FOR NOW I FIIIIIIIIIIIIIND...

February 19, 2021: The Phantom of the Opera (2004)

[birdsaesthetic]

A Hell of a Day

Summary: Kurt is accused of being an abusive jackass to Jane? (I’m sorry but I had to write this one.) On fanfaction.

Jane was right behind Kurt as they chased the fleeing suspect, but with an unmatched urgency Jane caught up to the woman first, who managed to get in one good swipe with her knife before Kurt knocked it out of her hand reach. The suspect put up a fight with the two then, actually landing a punch right to Jane's left eye and knocking Kurt across the room before Jane finally pinned her to the ground and paralyzed her movements to end the fight there.

Some time later, after the suspect was handcuffed then taken to custody, Jane could still feel the sting of that woman's fierce punch to her eye, and the burning sensation there, and knew she was probably already developing what would be a quite impressive black eye. Goddamnit.

In the ambulance vehicle Kurt went, and found Jane sitting with an ice bag being pressed against the left side of her face. "Sorry for that," he murmured as he tucked the mess of her hair behind her ears.

She looked up at him with her non-swollen eye and put up a small, forced smile. "I'm okay. It barely hurts, I promise."

The tips of his fingers had trailed down her neck by now, and he said, "That's because of the 600 milligram tablet of Brufen they had you swallow."

"Well, then that's good!" She drew a deep breath and lifted her free hand atop his own. "Our date still stands, huh? We're still going to have that dinner at the French restaurant, right?"

"No. Another time," he sighed, and his heart felt as though being physically stung at saying that.

"Kurt…but we made a reservation this time!"

His blue eyes bore into hers, full of pity and fear and exhaustion, and love—always love. "Doesn't matter. Your injury is no joke. We're going home so you can rest."

"I said I'm okay! And I'm starving."

"I'll make you something to eat at home," he promised, his thumb brushing against the tender skin of her neck.

She put the ice bag aside, lowered her head, and blinked several times to lose the burning sensation and get the tears under control. After a moment she surfaced, a frown clung to her face. "You know, we've been saying 'another time' for the past two weeks."

"I know, Janie… We've been unfortunate. I'm sorry. But the headache will be tenfold worse if you don't rest. So, just let me help you out of here and take us home."

She said nothing when he secured a protective arm around her back and walked her the paces to their car then helped her get comfortable in the passenger seat. The first half of the drive home went quiet, save for the hisses Jane occasionally let out, at which Kurt's heart sank. In the second half, she was feeling completely numb, all over her body, and might as well have fallen unconscious if the bag of ice she'd been holding to her swollen eye hadn't agitated her when it started leaking drops of iced water all over her neck, chest, and jeans.

"I think that…I need another ice bag. This one is leaking," she said between gritted teeth, and Kurt immediately nodded, offered some reassurance by patting her on the upper thigh. "Alright. Alright. I'll get you that. Right now. Hold on."

He made a stop at the nearest drugstore, though before he hopped out of the car, he asked Jane, "Need anything else besides that?"

"No. No. Just that."

Only when she heard the door being slammed by Kurt did she let out a loud groan she'd be holding back, and threw the broken ice bag to the dashboard. The pain was getting worse by every passing second; it was the kind of pain that time seemed to stop. She steeled herself for a minute, two, three, and then thought, how am I supposed to keep up with this pain for the rest of this damn day? God. If she was to survive it, she'd need numerous ice bags to cover her whole face with them, and a package or two of Brufen—which she should've told Kurt to bring with him, but… She released another loud groan, and the urgency she felt afterward made her get out of the car and into the store Kurt was at to get everything she needed herself.

There, she stumbled across Kurt about to grip what seemed like a package of painkillers? And were these two or three bags of ice in his other hand? She couldn't quite tell, and so she went straight to him.

"Worraya doin' here? You okay, Jane?" he blurted, leaving whatever he was about to grip and gripping her arm instead. Oh, love. There were also bruises already forming right below the purple skin of her swollen eye.

"Did you need anything else?"

"Yeah. Just a… Some more Brufen, please, and lots of ice bags. Lots of them." She fumbled in her words, and Kurt regripped her even harder by the arm his knuckles turned white only so he could keep her still—because by now she was shaking, her eyes fluttering.

"K. K. I've got that for you. Now go back to the car. Can you go there by yourself?"

She nodded, and as he loosened his grip around her arm, Kurt noticed that there was a woman glaring at him so intensely with an apoplectic, contorted face. Though once he glared back, she pretended she was busy and walked the same way Jane had just passed by: to the gate.

Weller had never been this fast as he gripped the nearest two packages of Brufen, dealt with the cashier in three seconds, and jogged to the gate, where he saw the same damn woman speaking to Jane face-to-face.

"Ma'am, stay away from my wife!" Kurt shouted, willing himself for an ambush or something even worse at the scene before him, as common and mundane as it was. He stopped between Jane and the woman, who jerked back.

"What the hell do you want?" he said in a voice that spoke volumes about how heated he was.

"Kurt…," Jane tried to say.

"You're an asshole. A piece of garbage. I hope you die right here and now," the woman snapped at Kurt, and then pointed an index finger at Jane, who was shaken and in a total agony and could barely hold herself together, and said, "And you…you don't deserve this! I've been in your place once. I've been just like you. But thank God I got away, and you can, too." The woman was seconds away from bursting into tears. But then she hastened on her way without a glimpse back at them then was no longer seen.

"What the hell was that?" Jane asked with a puzzled look. He looked down at her and raised his brows in exhaustion. "Let's just get in the car."

Once back in the car and out of the parking lot, Jane blurted, "What just happened back there, Kurt?"

His eyes on the road, Kurt mumbled, "Well, that woman thought that I'm a jackass and abusive to you."

"What?" Her eyes widened. "That didn't even cross my mind!"

"Well…"

She took a new ice bag and pressed it against her swollen eye, then stared at Kurt with her fine eye for a full minute as he drove. "You're upset now?"

"I'm."

"Kurt, since when do we care what people think of us?"

"Since they start seeing me as that type of man. I never want to be seen as that type of man."

"We know the truth, Kurt. And so does everyone we care about. You are not that type of man. Are you hearing me?"

He only nodded.

"Everyone who knows you knows what kind of man you really are. And that's what matters. You're a good man, Kurt. A great husband. An incredible father."

"Thanks, love."

"I'm just saying facts here!" She tried a smile when she saw his faint smile. "And that woman, she was absurd."

"I feel deeply sorry for her. She must've really been traumatized by an abuser before. Hence why she seemed impulsive and hateful of me when she saw your injury, and couldn't interpret our case other than the way she did."

"If that's the case, then I'm deeply sorry for her too. And I'm sure, if she'd known what happened behind this black eye, how we literally saved Manhattan from blowing up today, and had to postpone our 'special date' because of all that, she'd would've been so, so sorry for us, too…"

Kurt sniggered then, and Jane fought between laughing and groaning.

"It's not like I wanted to postpone our special date earlier today, you know. We're still going. But not until you get better."

"Yeah, I know. And, I'll admit, my headache is getting the best of me at this point…"

"It'll get better, Janie."

"It better get better…"

Note: Let me know what you think of this :)

[wiypt-writes]

Stark Spangled Banner

Ch 5: You Make It Easy

Summary: Steve finally takes Katie out on a date.

Pairing: Steve Rogers X OFC Katie Stark

Warnings: Language! And a whole heap of fluffy fluff fluff.

A/N: Once again, a huge thank you to @angrybirdcr​ for her lovely little edit.

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please respect this and do not read if you are underage. I do not own any characters in this series bar Katie Stark and the other OCs. By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.

Chapter 4

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist // Main Masterlist

The elation Steve had felt about actually getting a date with Katie soon evaporated the next morning when he realised he hadn’t the first CLUE about where to take her, what to do or what to wear. He wasn’t naïve, he knew dating had changed since his day but the fact he had no reference point to even start from, having never been on a date before, wasn’t helpful either.  So he sought some advice

“A nice shirt and jeans.” Peggy smiled at him, the old woman elated he had finally done it. “Nothing too flash, and pick a restaurant. It doesn’t have to be fancy, women are more impressed by a man who’s paying them attention instead of simply paying for the meal.”

“Okay, right.”

“You know her, Steve.” Peggy looked at him. “What type of food does she like?”

“Italian, Chinese, but we do that all the time.” He shrugged, before he stopped, suddenly remembering something she had said to Evans a couple of weeks back in exercise, “You know, come to think of it she has mentioned a new place in town. La Placa I think it’s called.” “See, there you go.”  Peggy patted him on his arm before she smiled at the look on the young man’s face “Just be yourself Steve, that’s who she wants. No one else.”

“Thanks Peg.”

“And make sure you kiss her goodnight…” She grinned, a twinkle in her eyes. “Us ladies do like a bit of passion every now and then you know.” He rolled his eyes at her cheekiness, running his hand through his hair which was in desperate need of a cut. He stayed with Peggy whilst he googled the restaurant number, made his reservation and then text Katie to tell her where he had booked.

Can’t wait xxx

He grinned to himself, and then pushed his phone away and turned back to find Peggy watching him, a sly grin on her face.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this happy before.” she remarked, somewhat wistfully

.He smiled “Been a long time since I felt this good.”

“It suits you.” On his way home he swung into the barbers and stepped in. As he sat in the chair the man asked him what he wanted doing, and he was about to say trim when Katie’s voice stirred in his mind.

“Trying to imagine what you’d look like with shorter hair and a beard…” “Shorn back and sides please,” he said as the man asked him what he wanted, “and take it a little shorter on top.”

******

Katie woke suddenly on top of the comforter on her bed, fully clothed. She’d fallen asleep!  She sat up, thinking back to the last thing she remembered before her nap, piecing her train of thought together. Ah, yes, Steve had messaged her to tell her he’d booked a table somewhere which had prompted her to start looking for an outfit. She’d realised she had no idea what to wear so had been debating calling Pepper to ask for advice, but had decided it wasn’t a good idea because she didn’t want Tony to know she was dating yet, let alone who.

But there was someone she could call. Desperate times called for desperate measures, right?

Biting her lip she sighed and picked up her phone, scanning through to the person she was looking for and the cavalry arrived an hour and a half later in the shape of a red-haired deadly assassin.

“There has to be something in here that’s first date suitable…” Natasha mumbled, as she continued to search through the various items in Katie’s closet. Half Katie’s clothes adorned the floor of her walk-in-wardrobe and bedroom as they had discarded everything she’d tried so far. “It would help if I knew where you were going.” she sipped her beer thoughtfully.

“La Placa.” Katie told her after a pause, “Tapas place, but if you turn up I swear to God…”

“I got better things to do with my spare time.” “No you don’t. And I wouldn’t put anything past you.”

“If you don’t trust me why did you ask for my help?“ Natasha drawled, still rifling through the clothing racks. “Because Pepper is a four hour drive away…”

“Well that’s just rude.” Natasha mumbled and Katie grinned, shaking her head as Nat placed her beer down on the top of a set of drawers and moved to a rail “Ok, try this.”

She pulled out a knee length navy blue Balenciaga dress with a fitted top half, scalloped neck line and three-quarter length lace detailed sleeves. As Katie shrugged it on, Natasha hunted in the shoe rack, pulling out a pair of mid-height nude Kurt Geiger courts with a stiletto heel and matching bag.

“Not bad.” She mumbled as Katie stepped into the heels and gave her a twirl.

“Better than the grey one?” “Definitely.” Natasha nodded approvingly “I think we have a winner!”

Katie gave her a double Hi-Five and Nat picked up her beer as Katie stripped out of the dress and pulled on her T-shirt and shorts, before she glanced around the large bedroom, sighing at the mess.

“Better tidy this up in case things go well.” Nat smirked, before she pondered “Huh, actually, do you reckon Captain America puts out on the first date? Mind you, knowing Roger’s he’s probably a virgin…”

“I’m pretty sure people had casual sex back in the 40s too you know.” Katie rolled her eyes. “He was on the USO tours surrounded by dancing girls, there’s no way he didn’t do the old horizontal tango.”

“Yeah but…its Rogers.” Nat pressed giving a snort “Imagine if you are the one to pop his cherry.”

Katie groaned, shaking her head. “Shut up Widow.”

She smirked “Okay, so how long have we got?”

Katie glanced at her phone “An hour and twenty. And what do you mean we?” “You asked for my help, right?” Natasha shrugged, “Thought I could do your make-up and hair too…” Katie looked at her for a moment and smiled “Thanks.” She shrugged then drained her beer before turning Katie round and pushing her towards the en-suite “Go shower then we’ll start the transformation.”

An hour later Katie was ready. Her hair was curled in soft waves, and her makeup was done, a bit heavier than normal, but still subtle enough to avoid looking like it had been applied with a trowel.

“Perfect.” Nat gave her an appraising look. “Right, I trust you can get dressed without me?” “I think I’ll manage.” Katie said, standing up as she made her way out of the walk-in wardrobe and followed her into the hall where she picked up her jacket.

“Oh and if you need me to bail you, just give me an SOS call…” Nat made a phone sign with her finger and pinkie by her ear. “I think I’ll be ok.” Katie smiled, “but thank you, for all of this.”

“Have fun…” Nat grinned and then added with a smirk “And don’t do anything I wouldn’t”

“That doesn’t exactly leave a lot…” Katie quipped

“That’s my point.” Natasha intoned as she walked into the hall and pressed the button for the elevator.

“Nat, you won’t tell anyone will you?” Katie asked, “I mean, it isn’t that I don’t trust you, just…” Nat paused turning back to the brunette to find her chewing her lip with nerves. She shook her head “I won’t tell a soul. I know how much you two like each other, you’ve been dancing around it for months, so… just enjoy ok? Have a good time. You both deserve it.” “Thanks Nat” Katie smiled. The two girls shared a quick hug and then Nat left

***** Steve had to admit, he liked his new hair. It was much more like the style people sported now, but in a way it also reminded him of how Bucky had worn his back in the Howlies. He picked a light blue shirt, his dark navy jeans and then pondered before settling on a pair of brown boots that matched his jacket and belt. He was ready with plenty of time and found himself pacing as he thought about how the night could go. There was no doubt it was going to be way different to how he had imagined his first date to be. Back in his day it was movies, dinner and a dance. Now there were no dance halls, and they watched movies all the time. But, as Peggy had advised, for once he was going to “go with the flow” and just see where the night took them both.

Finally, after an agonising fifteen minutes during which he had pretty much paced non-stop and drained a good measure of scotch, even though it did nothing bar give him a comforting burn in his throat on the way down, he headed to the cab that was waiting and they set off to pick up his date.

Jesus Christ she looked amazing. Her hair was cascading in waves over her shoulders, the smoky brown eyeshadow she was wearing made the green in her eyes even more noticeable. And her dress…navy blue, knee length with a detailed neckline and sleeves that finished halfway down her forearms. The top half clung to her body where it flared out slightly from her hips and her heels accentuated her shapely calves to perfection. As Steve looked at her he found himself imagining various crude scenarios where said delectable dress ended up on the floor, but that wasn’t gentlemanly. Nor appropriate.

Katie felt her breath catch when she saw Steve. His light blue shirt was tight enough to accentuate his ridiculously well-built top half, and a brown belt with a gold buckle adorned his toned waist. And he’d had a haircut. Gone were his longer locks and side parting, and in its place was a short back and sides with slightly longer strands on the top, tousled into an exceptionally modern style. He looked incredible.

Steve broke the silence between the two, clearing his throat gently.

“You look beautiful.” He leaned down to give her a peck on the cheek.

“Thank you, you look pretty good yourself, you do something to your hair?” Katie teased.

“Thought it was time for a change.” he shrugged it off casually as his cheeks warmed. “Still getting used to it.” “It looks great.” she assured him.

He beat her to her jacket as she reached up to take it off the peg and held it out so she could shrug her arms into it. Once they were in the elevator, he reached out and took her hand and she laced her fingers into his. He glanced down at her, his eyes meeting hers and she flashed him a smile.

Yeah, he’d lucked out, big time.

******

The restaurant was busy but not packed. They were seated at the back in a little booth in the corner. Steve had never had tapas before, but Peggy had explained it to him before.

“So the idea is we pick, what, three or four dishes?” he asked, looking at Katie

“Yeah, they’re like small portions and you share.” Katie nodded. “Although you eat like a horse so we should probably order more.”

He grinned and looked back at his menu.

“You choose.” he placed the card back down eventually, beaten by the list of items. “I literally have no idea…”

“Alright.” Katie grinned. “But you have to try everything…”

“Deal.”

The waiter returned with their drinks and took their food orders. Katie ordered a large enough selection along with a side order of olives and different breads with dipping oils before flashing the waiter a smile and he scuttled off.

“I think this is normally the part where we ask each other questions,” Steve said as the waiter disappeared. “You know, get to know each other a bit more.”

“Yeah… think that ship already sailed though.”

“True,” Steve nodded bashfully, there wasn’t many things that they didn’t know about each other, although as he watched Katie was biting her lip, almost as if she wanted to say something, but at the same time didn’t.

“What is it?” he asked, reaching out for his drink.

“Something Nat said before…” Katie flushed, caught out. There was no way she was asking that question.

“Why does this worry me slightly?” He paused, beer raised halfway to his lips.

Katie looked at him and shook her head, the flush continuing to rise up her neck “Yeah, I’m not, it’s not first date conversation.”

He cocked his head to one side. “Now I’m extremely worried, and a little intrigued.”

“You really want to know?” Katie cocking her head to one side and when he nodded she shrugged. “Alright, you asked for this…” she straightened up in the seat as he did the same, bracing himself. “Are you a virgin?”

Steve groaned and screwed his eyes shut. “No, I’m not.” He sighed shaking his head before he looked back at her. "After I first got the serum there was suddenly all this attention on me and I didn’t really know any better…” “There was no one before?” she frowned slightly, almost as if she was surprised.

He shook his head again. “Girls weren’t exactly interested in me before hand, Bucky was the one who had the looks and the swag. He had a different girl every weekend. I guess when they finally did start looking at me that way I just, I dunno…” He stopped and took a breath. “God, this makes me sound like a right jerk. There weren’t that many”

Three to be exact. And none of them had been anything to write home about. He got the distinct impression they hadn’t particularly enjoyed themselves either, not past the fact they could boast about having bedded Captain America. Plus, he was infatuated by Peggy at that point as well and found he craved the tenderness that was supposed to be associated with the act, not merely the physical bliss. As corny as it sounded, he genuinely wanted someone to be with him intimately that wanted him, not Captain America.

As he watched, he noticed Katie was watching him intently and he swallowed a little as she simply shrugged. .

“We all have a past Steve.”

“I haven’t been with anyone since I came out of the ice.” He added softly, feeling the need to explain that he wasn’t that type of man.

“I haven’t since Grant.” she eyed him. “One night stands are overrated.”

“I wouldn’t know.” He shrugged, locking eyes with her. “That’s all I ever had.”

Katie studied him for a moment. She had no idea why, but to learn he hadn’t had a girl that way before he became some kind of war time celebrity, and knowing that the ones he had been with were probably chasing nothing but the kudos of being able to say they fucked Captain America, made her kind of sad. No wonder he was always so self-doubting.

She smiled and reached across the table, giving his hand a squeeze.

“Well, personally, I think all those girls that picked Bucky over you were dumbasses. I’ve seen the photos of you before all this happened…” she raised her free hand and held out her index finger, and gestured up and down his torso. “You were sweet”

He chuckled and took a drink of his beer. “You know I heard that a lot…you’re really sweet and all but…“

“Like I said…”she leaned back in her chair slightly, “Dumbasses” Steve was aware that her ankle was brushing against his slightly and he felt the warm flush in his cheek at her forwardness, but soon found it disappeared and was replaced instead with simply enjoying the fact she wanted to be so close to him.

As tactful as ever, Katie swiftly moved the conversation on and it took a natural turn to Tony’s renovation of the tower and then New York in general, how much Brooklyn in particular had changed since Steve had left it behind to go to war.

It was through this conversation Steve discovered that in all the time Katie had spent in New York she had never been to Coney Island.

“Maybe I could take you one day, down to the fair.” He suggested.

“I’d love that.” She smiled and his chest swelled even more.

Their food arrived and they continued to talk. And, considering they had started the date off thinking there wasn’t much more to find out about each other, both of them were surprised to see exactly how much trivial stuff there was to learn about the other. For instance, Steve knew that Katie enjoyed baseball but what he didn’t know was that whilst Tony was a Yankees fan, she actually supported the LA Dodgers, having grown up in Malibu. Suddenly her teasing about the fact they had moved made perfect sense. And in turn, Katie knew that the Dodgers relocating was a bug bear of his but, since he would rather go into the ice all over again than support the Yankees, he had started watching out for the Mets results, but apparently it just wasn’t the same and as such he hadn’t been to an actual game since he came out of the ice. Both of them found out the other preferred dogs to cats, cats making Katie sneeze and their ability to hiss and scratch you with no damned warning whatsoever made Steve not trust them as far as he could throw them. 

“I can just read the headlines now!” Katie chuckled after Steve had added that if he wanted to he could probably throw a cat quite far. “Captain America killed my Cat.” Steve let out a low chuckle, shaking his head as he picked up his beer. “Don’t cats always land on their feet?” “I dunno, depends how hard you’re intending on throwing it.” “I’m not intending on throwing any cat anywhere.” Steve shook his head “As much as I don’t like them I couldn’t deliberately harm one.” “Tony did. Well not deliberately, and he didn’t so much harm it as kill it…” “Oh you gotta tell me this story!” Steve grinned, leaning forward, topping up Katie’s wine glass from the bottle that was in the ice bucket in the middle of the table.

Katie grinned, “When we were kids, the first place we lived in was down this huge, posh road  with like 3 other houses on and we had this really eccentric neighbour, Mrs Livesy her name was. She had like 18 cats or something ridiculous and one morning, Tony was reversing the car out of the garage and he flattened 2 of them.”

Steve nearly spat his beer back into his glass. “He ran them over?” “Yeah…” Katie said, and by now she was full on laughing “But the best bit is, she comes round asking Dad if he’s seen the cats, dad’s got no idea what’s gone on right as Tony’s moved the cats and bribed me to keep quiet with the biggest ice cream you could imagine, so dad is all like ‘I’ve got no idea Mrs Livesy I’ll be sure to keep my eyes open…” Katie took a deep breath, wiping at her eyes “So then Tony comes back, Dad mentions that Mrs Livesy was looking for 2 of her cats and Tony’s like ‘huh, well you know what they say, curiosity killed the cat’ and me, being the little shit I was at the age of 4 pipes up ‘no that was you this morning, remember?’”

Steve laughed, and watched as she carried on giggling. “He never forgave me for that, Dad made him go round and apologise. And he had to attend a memorial for Mr Whiskers and Bagpuss…”

Eventually after desert and a few more drinks it was time to leave, Katie tried to split the meal bill with Steve but one stern look stopped that in its tracks. This was a date, he was paying. Thankfully she didn’t argue too much. Steve then asked her if she wanted to go for a drink, she gleefully accepted so he took her hand, gently leading her across the road, holding the bar door open for her. They both sat at the bar, Katie turning her seat so she was directly facing him, the pair of them leaning closer to one another as they talked. And the conversation just continued to flow, as did the odd but subtle display of affection, moving their chairs closer together, her hand on his shoulder. Steve was surprised to find how easy the whole thing was. He had no nerves, no awkward moments. The chemistry fizzled and there wasn’t a single moment he was stuck for anything to say. It was for that reason he was disappointed when the bar tender called time and reluctantly stood up as Katie drained the final bit of gin from her glass.

As Steve held out her jacket, his hands gently brushed her shoulders as she shrugged it on, sending a tingle down her spine and the hitch in her breathing didn’t go unnoticed. She turned to face him, all green eyes and pink lips, blinking as her eyes locked onto his and before he could stop them, his hands connected at the base of her spine as she moved closer to him, not moving her gaze from his, hand resting on his chest.

“I’d really like to kiss you again…” Steve said, shyly.

“You know you don’t have to ask.” she replied. Smiling softly he leaned down and connected his lips with hers, the kiss growing slightly deeper until Steve remembered they were in the middle of a public bar. He pulled away gently, resting his forehead against hers briefly, blushing like an absolute moron as a small smile tugged on the corners of his mouth.

“You know, for someone who said they’d never taken a woman on a date before Rogers, you’ve done amazingly well.” she blinked up at him, grinning.

“That’s because you make it easy to be around you.” He shrugged, honestly. He took her hand, curled his fingers round hers and made their way out into the street to hail a cab.

All too soon they pulled up outside her apartment block and both of them found themselves wishing the night would never end. Steve told the driver to wait whilst he hopped out and walked her into the lobby, their hands still twined together. There was a part of him that wanted to follow her in, and a part of her that almost invited him to, but they both wanted to do this right, take their time.

“I think now is the part where I’m supposed to ask you if you had a good time.” Steve turned to face her as they stopped by the elevator door.

“I did.”

“And if you’d go out with me again?” “I already said I would, Coney Island remember?” she replied cheekily, leaning closer to him.

“I meant before that.”  He rolled his eyes.

“I’d love too.” She muttered, and then his lips were on hers again and they were kissing, exactly where they had left off in the bar, only this time they were alone. Steve’s hand snaked into her soft hair, angling her head slightly and she parted her lips, their tongues tangling easily as once more the fireworks erupted deep in Steve’s belly.

“Always leave ‘em wanting more Stevie…” Bucky said, nudging him on the arm, winking as they crossed the fairground towards the girls “That’s the trick…”

Steve couldn’t stop himself from smiling he pulled back. Their night was at an end, it was a perfect place to leave it.

“I really did had a great time tonight, thank you.” Katie whispered as he pressed his forehead to hers, giving her lips another quick peck before he stepped back a little and she reached into her bag for her key card, pressing it to the pad by the elevator.

“Me too.” He smiled as the elevator doors opened. She stepped inside, turning to face him and flashed him another grin.

“Night Stevie.”

“Night, Sweetheart.” He replied as the doors shut. With that, he turned round and grinning to himself he walked back to the cab. Date 1 down, and it had been a roaring success.

**** Chapter 6

**Original Posting**

[bellasweetwriting]

Fix His Broken Heart

Jess Mariano x f.reader

(not my gif)

masterlist

request: Hiii, i want a jess fic🥺 theres not enough jess mariano fics here, how about after rory goes to visit him at truncheon he meets the reader and she helps him move on from rory and he falls in love with reader. 💞💞

requested by: @beautiful-thinking

note: I’m a big literati shipper so this was hard but also fun to write I really love this

warnings: movie references, drinking, gilmore girls s2,s3 and s6 spoilers, some fancy vocabulary, Logan hate

word count: 1,7k

reading time: 7 min

And he saw her walk away to his arms. She found comfort in another guy. She moved one.

He hated himself for realizing that after all these years of knowing this person, still, it isn't enough. He and Rory evolved separately, they don't have the same goals or the same resources. As much as they try, it seemed like destiny didn't want their paths to cross one another.

He realized that he lost her as soon as she walked out of that door. She was gone. What now?

He'll probably see her again at Luke and Lorelai's wedding; hell, he'll even see Logan there also. The way he despited that guy. He cheated on her, and still, there she was, madly in love with him.

Logan is better than him in Rory's eyes, and he couldn't do anything to change that. He was a forgotten part of her story, an item locked inside a box that she opens when she feels lost. She probably doesn' think of him anymore like she used to.

But he thinks of her at least once a day. When he walks through the bookstore and notices the new edition of Dawn Powell's My Home Is Far Away, or when his friends bring coffee and offer to him, reminding him of her slight coffee addiction. Who's he kidding? There's nothing "slight" about Rory Gilmore's coffee addiction, it's concerning.

Any little thing reminded him of her and the fact that now he's sure she doesn't think of him anymore... saddens him.

Everyone was celebrating the success of the event that day, while Jess drowned his sorrows in a cold beer, also glancing over the girls that walked past him.

"I should warn you that if you are planning to Kurt Cobain on my bar, don't." That expression provoked an immediate reaction on Jess's face. "Not a fan of dark humor?"

"Not when it comes from the mouth of a stranger, not," he replied, making the girl chuckle. "Do you always attend your costumers like that, Rick Blaine?" Asked Jess naming the main character of Casablanca, who happened to owned a bar/restaurant in the 1940s.

"Rick Blaine? Don't tell me you are one of those guys who listen to The Clash on repeat and think they are better than the rest of the world because they know references from black and white movies and have read at least one book by Bukowski in the last three months." Jess drank from his beer, making the girl opened her mouth widely. "Oh, God, you are! A living Danielle Steel novel main character drinking alone in my bar." He laughed.

"I used to be that guy," Jess corrected her. "I've changed."

"A girl?"

"A breakup with a girl, to be fairer. I work at a little bookstore called Truncheon. We are all independent writers, and to give you some credit, some of us do look like Danielle Steel's characters. Not that I have read anything by her, though."

Jess wasn't like that. He didn't tell people he doesn't know about himself or his personal life, but for some reason, probably the effects of the alcohol in that beer were making him loosen up a bit with this complete stranger. Yeah, a significant event has happened in his life. The girl he thought he was going to be with forever decided to be with someone else rather than him, and he hasn't thought of anyone else romantically. He's so used to being alone, so used to not having anyone to actually talk to, that, maybe, liberating his internal thoughts and regrets with someone he isn't going to see again is probably for the best.

Not a therapist or a friend, just, someone external who isn't going to dig dipper in his subconscious to understand his situation and actions or someone who is involved in the story; someone who just―listens.

"You read one, you read them all." She commented. "Independent writers, huh? Have you published anything I have written?"

"Probably not," he said with that typical modesty he has earned through the pass of the years. "I just have one book out, is a self-published, so..." She nodded. "I actually did a little road trip, trying to make independent bookstores like mine to put them in the store. Probably, by the end of the month, I'll have twenty bucks and a sticker that says: «keep trying, champ.»"

"How poetic," the barista murmured, and both chuckle.

"Do you have a copy of your book?" She asked, and he nodded, giving it to her. "The Subsect, by Jess Mariano. Truncheon Books," she read before turning it around and reading the back cover. "«A self-published, prominent and dark-humored coming of age short novel following the unique life of J., a seventeen-year-old with no place to call home.» That's dark. How much for it?"

"Twenty bucks and a sticker," she chuckled, "or, a free beer."

"Sounds like a fair deal, Jess Mariano." He smiled at the mention of his name. "I'm Y/N."

"Nice to meet you, Y/N." She placed the book inside her apron with a tiny smile. "So you work here."

"Oh, you said that because of the apron and the fact that I'm behind the counter? No, I'm just a big fan of... college bars in Philadelphia." The sarcasm in Y/N's voice made Jess grin. "My brother owns the place. He lets me live upstairs while I go to college, and I pay rent by working here. The books you see behind me are mine. I study on my break."

"What are you studying?"

"English. I want to be a screenplay writer." He sighed before shaking his head. "What?"

"A film writer? Why?"

"I love films. I love watching them, reviewing them, analyzing them. I want to write masterpieces. What's wrong with that? At least I'm not writing coming of age short novels."

"It's not a coming of age novel, that's just the hideous synopsis that my poet friends come up with for the book. It's actually a lot deeper than that."

"The only way of finding that out is reading it, right?"

"Right."

Both looked at each other for a few seconds before she asked for his glass to refill that free beer she offered him.

"How about... if I come tomorrow, take you out, and you buy me that beer? How about that?" Y/N chuckle before agreeing.  He didn't believe it actually worked. He had tried to ask girls out in the last two years, but they've always said that they weren't interested. But there was something different and intriguing about Y/N that had caught the young writer's attention. "At what time do you finish class?"

"Pick me up at eight here, I'll wait."

"Cool."

"Cool."

...............................................................................................................................

He was nervous.

A date. Jess has never even been on one before. Not even with Rory. He never took Rory on a date like a dinner or a movie before they started going out. He used to tease her, and she fell for him, God knows why.

He took Rory on dates when they were dating, although if you count the car ride as a date. No, it wasn't a date. She was Dean's girlfriend at the time, and he crashed her car.

Why did she even like him? He crashed her car for God's sake. If he was Rory, he would have hated himself.

He hated himself already.

It wasn't like in books. Girls are complicated, and the male writers he is so used to reading about usually don't talk about dates and how to get a girl; the girl is already in love with the main character.

She did mention Danielle Steel. Did she read that kind of dramas, like Nicholas Sparks and John Green, where the characters just die in each other's arms like a shoddy Shakespeare tragedy imitation? Did she like that? He didn't know how to be a "romance" kind of guy. He still used the "bully her because you like her" technique, and maybe that's the only part of him that hasn't changed with the years.

He still didn't know how to communicate and express himself. He still wasn't used to talking about his emotions or being in a healthy relationship where there's no such thing as privacy. He wasn't born to assist to cotillions and balls, wear tuxes like James Bond and use fancy words gentleman-like, such as "Farewell," "Luxury," "Eloquent," and "Hope you had a marvelous evening, thanks for joining us in our humble and splendid gathering."

But that was Rory's world. Probably Logan used words like that without even knowing the meaning of them.

He quickly noticed that thinking about his ex-girlfriend before a date wasn't a good sign.

Maybe he should stand her up? No, that is an old Jess move. He is a changed man, he doesn't treat girls like that anymore. He is better, he is more mature, he wants to achieve something, actually becoming a better and selfless person who thinks about the consequences before acting. He wasn't going to stand Y/N up.

By a quarter past eight, he was standing on the bar's entrance, making eye contact with the barista from the previous day. Y/N smiled at him before saying goodbye to the guy next to her, grabbing her purse and walking towards Jess.

"Thought you wouldn't show up, Romeo."

"Can't believe you took me for a coward."

"In my defense, I saw you drinking your problems away yesterday." He nodded before putting her coat on her shoulders for her, making Y/N smile. "What a gentleman."

"There are so many things you don't know about me. You would surprise yourself."

"Oh, let me guess: you've never been on a date before."

"What? Why would you say that?"

"Well, because we are walking instead of driving."

"I have a dark past with cars and girls. You wouldn't want me to be behind the wheel while you are inside the car after you hear it, believe me."

"Good to know." Both laughed as they walked under the streetlights of Philadelphia. "I've never been on a date either," she admitted, taking him by surprise, but not as much to make a comment about it.

Jess has never felt more comfortable. Next to her, he felt like he was free of judgments. Starting a new story, blank page, blank notebook. He felt safe, and he hasn't felt safe in another person's arms in such a long time.

This was good for him. To finally... move on.

And who better than her to fix his broken heart.