#n looking into daniella's eyes asking if she wants 2 make out

[shoujoegg]

im never doubting the power of ya adaptions again this dumb british orientalism cartoon has me kicking my feet n giggling over the most banal interactions between sum actors who dont even remember the books properly (i am a jesper/unfulfilledcrushonkaz truther!) and fantasizing abt being cast as some rando asian just so i can become their bestie in budapest next season i am NOT free !

[puckinghell]

The Plus One Pact | William Nylander | Part 3

Summary: Your ex is getting married, and you don’t have a date, which means the unavoidable “why don’t you have a boyfriend” question is about to haunt you for the rest of eternity. But then there’s Will, who could be the answer to all your problems. A simple business pact, no feelings involved: that won’t be hard for you, because you really don’t like him anyways. Except pacts were made to be broken… or something. Right?

Note: This is part 3. Click here for part 1 | part 2

-- 

You’ve never seen Will nervous.

And, okay, you know he gets nervous. You asked Zach once, if his teammates still got nervous before big games the way Zach himself does, and Zach said yes, especially the younger guys; Mitchy, Willy, Matts.

“There’s more pressure on their shoulders than you or I could ever understand,” he’d said with a pointed look.

You think Zach carries a fair amount of pressure himself, but to be fair, he rarely seems to be bothered by it.

So, you know Will gets nervous before big games, but you don’t really ever see him, then, so you’ve never seen him nervous. That’s why it’s so weird now.

“Are you afraid of flying?”

Willy’s head snaps up as he looks at you with a puzzled expression.

“Of course not. I fly for work all the time.”

You’re sitting in the plane to Calgary, which Will, at the very least, paid for. It’s your second event together; Will’s cousin’s baby shower slash gender reveal party.

“Well, you’ve been fidgeting.”

At your words, Willy’s hand stills from where it’s been plucking at the thread of his hoodie for the past 20 minutes. He’s also been pulling his bottom lip between his teeth and digging his teeth into it, the way he does with his mouthguard sometimes during games.

“I’m a bit nervous,” Will admits. He’s refusing to look at you, now, staring out of the little plane window as if there’s anything to see there except white puffy clouds that reach as far as you can see into the distance.

“Why? You love your family.”

It’s a fair question, because if there’s one thing you know about Willy, and kinda like about Willy, it’s how vehemently and outwardly he loves and cares for his family. He’s always talking about his siblings accomplishments, and he never lets a call from his mom or dad go unanswered. Whenever Alex is around, he’s beaming with happiness, all bright smiles and laughter, and one year he was over at Zach’s Christmas party because he couldn’t make it home to Sweden that year for Christmas, and he was so miserable you couldn’t feel anything but really sorry for him.

However, the question gets Will’s hackles up. You see it immediately in the way his face hardens, emotion carefully tucked away beneath the mask.

You hate it, when he gets like this. You didn’t used to ever see it, but then the contract stuff happened and people started asking dumb questions and you saw it more and more.

To be honest, you always thought it was born out of arrogance, a how dare you question me – attitude, but it hits you now that it’s just a shield, designed to protect himself.

You don’t know what to think of the fact that apparently you know Willy enough to see that, now.

“Of course I love my family,” Will says, and his voice is sharp. “I just know I’m going to have to answer questions I don’t wanna answer.”

“About me?” you hazard a guess. The way Willy looks at you tells you you’re right.

He sighs. “About me bringing someone, yeah. They worry about me a lot, and after what happened with my last girlfriend, they don’t really trust me to make good decisions when it comes to relationships, anymore.”

Your frown must be questioning enough, because he continues.

“She broke up with me during the contract negotiations. Apparently, if I wasn’t Toronto’s favorite anymore, I couldn’t be hers, either.”

Despite everything, your heart breaks a little, for him.

“So I’m gonna have to convince them I’m not after fame and good fortune, huh?” you try to lighten the mood, keeping your voice cheery. You even go as far as to bump your shoulder into Will’s, because that guy thrives on physical contact – you didn’t make that up, Zach actively makes fun of Willy for it all the time – and he looks like he could use some support.

It works a little, because Will smiles, but the smile is tinged with sadness so it doesn’t work as well as you’d hoped.

“Don’t worry, they won’t believe you are. Dating me will get you the opposite of that in Toronto, nowadays.”

For the first time since you’ve known Will, you really want to tell him that’s not true.

The conversation in the plane kinda throws you, a little bit, to the point where the cab ride from the airport to Willy’s cousin’s house is so quiet that Will grabs your hand and squeezes when you get out of the car.

“They’re gonna like you,” he mumbles. “I promise you don’t have to worry about that. I’ll worry about the questions, you just go eat some cakes and look at baby clothes with my sisters, or something.”

It’s nice, that he’s trying to put you at ease like that, but to be honest that’s not what you’d been thinking about.

You’d been thinking about him.

Will can be loud and boisterous and there’s almost always a cheeky twinkle in his eyes that makes you feel like he’s not taking anything serious. He’s hot, and everyone thinks so, and he knows everyone thinks so, and you always kinda assumed he thought he was the best thing since sliced bread.

This side of him, the vulnerable side, is something you hadn’t expected to ever see from him, because you didn’t think he had it. Zach has told you, of course, over the years.

“Willy’s not like you think” and “he’s different when it’s just him and his close friends.”

“So he’s acting?” you’d challenged. “As if that’s better.”

“Not acting, really,” Zach had answered, unbothered by your bad mood at the time. “He really can be like that, fun and impulsive and he loves people and being around people. But he has a vulnerable, insecure side. He just keeps that side closer to his chest than most.”

You hadn’t really believed Zach. You thought you were a good judge of character, and William Nylander, to you, was nothing but another rich privileged handsome male who assumed life would simply work out in his favor because he’d never known anything else.

Now you’re doubting that. And it’s messing with your head.

Because if Will really cares about what people think of him so much… Well, let’s just say you’re suddenly feeling a little guilty about all those thoughts you’ve had behind his back.

You don’t say any of this, though, because it’s time to turn on the charm the way Will had for you, at the wedding.

“I’ll try not to flirt with your cousin’s husband,” you mumble, and Will’s laughs sounds a little more like himself, before knocking on the door.

“William!” The door gets opened by a beautiful blonde woman with a massive belly. Willy’s cousin, you assume. Her eyes immediately catch on you, and her smile is laced with surprise. “You brought someone.”

“Hey, Alice.” Will leans in, kisses both her cheeks the way Europeans do, sometimes. “This is Y/N, she’s my plus one for today.”

You notice he doesn’t call you his girlfriend, per se, but for some reason you expect that’s the conclusion his family is going to reach anyway.

“You didn’t even tell me you were bringing a plus one,” Alice scolds, but there’s nothing but fondness in her voice. “Luckily we have enough cakes.”

She ushers you into the house and suddenly you’re surrounded by beautiful blond people all yelling Will’s name.

“Calm down,” Willy giggles, as he starts kissing people’s cheeks and ruffling little kids’ hair.

You get introduced, but it all goes so quick and there’s so many people, you forget their names as soon as Will says them. The only ones you make sure to remember are the names of his siblings; Alex, of course, you’ve met before after games, and then there’s Jacquline, Michelle, Stephanie and Daniella. The girls especially are all over you right away, but not in a bad way; they’re asking you about your shoes and compliment your hair, and what do you do for a living and have you ever been to a Swedish baby shower before?

“They’re not any different from Canadian baby showers,” Will rolls his eyes at that, but there’s nothing but fondness in his eyes when he looks at his siblings. 

His hand lands on your lower back in protective fashion, as he starts guiding you out of the house. When some of his sisters follow, he shoots them a pointed look, then barks something in Swedish.

You kinda like how melodic his voice sounds in Swedish.

His sisters talk back, but then they all disappear.

“What did you say?”

“I told them that they couldn’t steal you away from me before I even get you a drink,” Will answers, something cheeky laced in his voice. “So, blue or pink lemonade? Depending on whether you think boy or girl.”

The garden is bigger than you expected based on the size of the house, and it’s beautiful, flowers blooming everywhere. There’s standing tables with people everywhere, and a buffet table where the drinks are.

“Have you looked around?” you giggle. Almost all of the kids are little girls. “Pink.”

“Nah, no way.” Will hands you a pink one, and takes a blue one himself. “With this many girls in the family, we have to get a boy now.”

“That’s what we said when we got Daniella.” The voice is tinted with accent, light and welcoming. Will’s face lights up when he hears it.

“Mom!” They hug, and you can see how Camilla squeezes her son tightly. It pulls a smile out of you; loving family dynamics have always been foreign to you, but it’s nice to see. “This is Y/N,” Will says, when they break apart, and Camilla shakes your hand with a smile.

“So nice of you to come,” she says. “Will didn’t tell us he was bringing someone.”

“Uh, that’s on me,” you lie through your teeth. “I wasn’t sure I could make it.”

“We’re all glad you did.” Camilla looks at Will, and you can see the question in her look, but she doesn’t ask it. “I’ll go tell your dad you’re here.”

As soon as she’s off, you turn to Will.

“You didn’t tell her I was coming? They’re all gonna think this is so weird!”

Will’s eyes glitter with mischief. “Yes, and that’s why the plan works.” You must look confused, cause he laughs. “If they’re all busy speculating about who you are and why I brought you, they’re not gonna ask me about my ex, my lack of a love life, or the fact that I haven’t given them any grandkids yet.”

He looks smugly proud of his idea, and you can’t stop the eye roll.  

“Right, no, perfect plan,” you snide. “I’ll just take all the hits and have everyone looking at me as if I’ve got two heads all day.”

“Don’t be dramatic.” Will waves in the general direction of the garden. “Soon they’re gonna announce the baby’s gender, and then nobody is gonna care about you anymore.”

“Gee, thanks.” But you’re teasing now, and it’s clear Will gets that because he leans a bit closer and winks.

“Except for me, of course.”

--

You shouldn’t have worried. The Nylanders turn out to be a friendly bunch and they immediately include you in every conversation you happen to stumble upon. To their credit, they don’t ask you even once what you’re doing there or what Will is to you.

You suppose he’s having less luck, because you look over and find Camilla talking to him intently in Swedish, and him staring at the floor like a scolded toddler.

You’ve been barely standing alone for two seconds when Alice appears next to you.

“You’ll have to excuse everyone’s curiosity,” she says. “Will didn’t tell us he was dating anyone.”

“Uhm.” What the hell are you supposed to say to that. Luckily, it doesn’t matter, because she keeps talking.

“We’re all glad that he is, though. We were all a bit worried about him. Anyway, can I ask you a massive favor?” she asks. “We’re about to let out the balloon to reveal the gender, but it’s in the garage and I kinda don’t wanna squeeze in there.” She laughs and motions to her massive belly. “Could you go get it for me?”

You immediately say yes, not only because she’s nice but because you’re glad for the opportunity to do something useful. You haven’t seen Will in a while, and you suppose that’s fair enough because you kinda left him to his own devices at the wedding last week, too, but Will is good at socializing and you aren’t, so you’ve been feeling a bit out of place.

Besides, if Alice starts asking more questions, you don’t think you’ll have the answers. Damn, this is harder than you thought it would be.

The garage is filled with boxes, bikes, and even a washing machine, so you have to squeeze through a pretty tight fit to get through the boxes that say balloons on them.

You hadn’t really expected there to be so many of them.

Everything happens way too fast and simultaneously in slow motions, then. You realize there’s no way of knowing in which box the massive balloon is, so you open one of the boxes. There’s nothing in it.

“Y/N, are you in here?” Willy’s voice calls.

You open the second box at that exact moment, and before you realize what’s happening, there’s a blue balloon floating out of the garage, up into the sky.

“No,” you breathe, and Will’s eyes widen almost comically as he realizes what just happened.

It’s a boy! the balloon reads, and then it floats too high to even read anything at all.

“It’s a helium balloon,” Will deadpans, as if you hadn’t noticed that by now.

“Oh God.” You just ruined their entire party. “Oh God oh God oh God.”

You’re starting to panic, and it’s not funny at all, but then Will starts laughing, uncontrollable giggles as he clutches his stomach, and you can’t not laugh with him.

Even if you’re on the brink of crying.

“I told you it would be a boy,” Willy giggles. “I can’t believe you messed up so much worse than me!”

“Will, stop.” You manage to quiet down your hysterical giggles only to clutch at Willy’s arm. “We have to fix this! Imagine what Alice is gonna say.”

That stops Will’s laughter, too, although he’s still smiling.

“I’ll stop laughing if you stop looking like you just murdered the baby. It’s just a balloon, Y/N.”

“Yeah, but…”

Will shushes you by wrapping an arm around your shoulder and carefully leading you out of the garage. He must feel that you’re on the edge of a mental breakdown, because he keeps his arm there, heavy and steadying, as he starts leading you back into the house and up the stairs.

It’s kinda nice.

“I’ll fix it,” he promises, and he sounds an awful lot like Zach, suddenly. “I’ve got an idea.”

You would hope his ideas are better than Zach’s, but unfortunately they seem pretty on par, because Will grabs a regular, non-text blue balloon from the study where they’re all stored, and a waterproof sharpie.

“This is so not gonna work!” you protest. “I should just come clean.”

Willy pulls a complicated face. “After I’ve just had to listen to twenty minutes of my mom telling me that you’re amazing, and she has such a good feeling about you, and if I let you go I’ll not only disappoint her but set myself up for disappointment for the rest of my life? No thanks.”

He turns the balloon so you can see it, and you decide to focus on it because you can’t unpack all of that right now. 

“I think the balloon company might get a pretty angry email, but that should be it.”

On the balloon, there’s written It’s a boy! Except in Willy’s scrawly handwriting it looks a lot less good than the balloon that’s currently floating somewhere in space. In fact, it looks a little like it says It’s a 6oy!

However, you also don’t fancy Camilla’s disappointed face, so you allow Willy to shove it in a box and bring it outside.

The entire family gathers around, and Alice and her husband Otto are standing with their arms around each other in front of the box, when Willy’s hand reaches out and grabs your, lacing your fingers together.

And you’re totally gonna ignore the dumb little skip your heart does at the contact, because that’s not how you and Willy work; surely he’s just trying to sell the story of you dating to his family.

Even though nobody is looking at you. 

Either way, you are grateful to him for saving your ass, there.

“I’m sorry,” you whisper, soft enough for only him to hear. “About the balloon.”

“Don’t be.” Willy’s smile is genuine. “I’ve never laughed so hard at a baby shower before. And my entire family has come up to say that they love you, and nobody has asked me when I’m gonna get serious about my life. So I should be thanking you, if anything.”

You’ve barely talked to half the Nylander family, and you wonder how awful his previous girlfriend was that they’re all fawning over you, now, but you can’t think about it too much because then someone is counting down.

3, 2, 1…

The box opens. The balloon floats up. There’s silence for one beat, two beats, and you swear they’re gonna call you out, but then someone cheers and suddenly Alice is crying and Otto is being manhandled by some other guys and everyone is clapping, and Willy grins.

“It’s a boy,” Alice calls out.

“I’m so glad she could read that.” Willy’s voice is deadpan but the twinkle in his eyes is still there, and suddenly you’re laughing.

“I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much at a baby shower, either,” you tell him truthfully, and it probably shouldn’t make you feel something that Will looks quietly pleased, at that.

[layce2015]

The Last of Us Part 2 (Joel x Reader)

Chapter 10: I Know You Wish Things Were Different

Chapter 9

*2 Years Earlier*

"She hasn't changed the strings." Joel said as he looks over the guitar. "I'm sure she didn't know." I said as I stir the stew in the pot, keeping it from burning. "Hmm, maybe..." he mutters and I give a small smile at him. 

We were out in a cabin, just for lookout and patrol. It was just me, Joel, Tommy and Ellie out here, Aiden and Ethan were back at Jackson with Maria, who wanted to watch over them. Right now, Tommy took Ellie out to find any infected around while Joel and I got back in the cabin from our patrol and I decided to cook dinner as it seemed we might be out here for awhile.

"I just don't know about her." He said and I look back at him. "It just...it seems she doesn't want to talk to me anymore. Has she talked to you?" Joel asked me. "No, she hasn't. But in all honesty, honey, she's at that age where kids don't want to be around us old people anymore." I explained then we heard some gunshots off in the distance and both of us look out the window, towards the mountain.

"Must've found some infected nearby." I remarked and I lower the heat on the small portable stove and let the stew simmer. I look over at him as he looks a bit sad while he strums his guitar.

I go over to him then placed an arm around his shoulder, lean down and kissed the top of his head. "She'll come around. I promise." I said then he looks up at me and gives me a small smile. I smiled back at him then I lean in and kiss him on the lips, he places his right hand on my neck then he slides it to the back of my head so he could hold my head in place as our kiss became deeper and passionate.

"I love you. You know that, right?" Joel said, softly, once I pull back from the kiss. "Of course I do. I love you as well." I said as I smiled, gently. I stand up and he removes his hand off of me and I make my way over back to the food.

"I mean, who else is gonna deal with your grumpy ass." I said, teasingly, and Joel chuckles as he strums the guitar. I went back to stirring the stew again when Joel starts to play a song that I recognized. A song that I remembered we danced to so many years ago at our wedding.

I turn to him and see him smirking at me as he starts to sing the song.

You may think that I'm talking foolish

You've heard that I'm wild and I'm free

You may wonder how I can promise you now

This love that I feel for you always will be

But you're not just time that I'm killin'

I'm no longer one of those guys

As sure as I live, this love that I give

Is gonna be yours until the day that I die

Oh, baby, I'm gonna love you forever

Forever and ever, amen

As long as old men sit and talk about the weather

As long as old women sit and talk about old men

If you wonder how long I'll be faithful

I'll be happy to tell you again

I'm gonna love you forever and ever

Forever and ever, amen

"Joel..." I said, my eyes tearing up a bit, and his smile grew wider at me when we heard footsteps and voices. I wipe away the oncoming tears, just as Tommy and Ellie come in. "That was y'all shooting out there, right?" Joel asked them. "Oh, just some stragglers. Ellie got to try out my scope." Tommy said as he and Ellie go to sit down at a table near us.

"Really? How'd you like it?" I asked Ellie. "Yeah. Feels good." She said, rushed. She sits there and looks away while Tommy sits down and starts to kick back. 

"I see you, uh...haven't got around changing the strings yet." Joel said as he stands up and walks over to Ellie, still holding the guitar. "I didn't know I was supposed to." Ellie said as she looks up and chuckles, awkwardly. "See? I told ya, Joel." I said. "Well, we'll get you some new ones." Joel said and he leans the guitar against the table and walks over next to me as Tommy picks the guitar up.

"There's that music store down there. I bet they got guitar stuff." Tommy suggests and Joel, Ellie and I all exchange awkward looks. "I mean that area is long overdue for a sweep anyway. I can keep watch." Tommy said as he looks over at us and Joel looks over at Ellie.

"What do you say, kiddo?" He asked her. "Sure." She said, shrugging, then Tommy begins to play the guitar. "And that's our que." I said as Joel and I walk out while Tommy chuckles.

Joel and I go to one horse while Ellie follows us. "Alright. Let's go." She said. "Okay. Follow us, kiddo." I said and Joel gets on his horse and helps me up as I sit behind him and Ellie mounts her horse. Then we began to gallop away. 

"So, you and Tommy cross anything when you was out?" I asked her. "Just a few we saw from the ridge. You?" She said. "Uh, you know....found two runners in a house." Joel said to her then it went silent again.

"Jesse tells us you're handling your own quite well on the group patrol. He's even recommended you for paired patrols." I said. "Though I still think you're a bit young for it." Joel said. "I'm a better shot than almost all of them. And I have more experience than most of the new recruits who've..." Ellie started to argue but Joel talks over her.

"Look...if you think you're ready, (y/n) and I trust you." He said. "Okay. Thanks." Ellie said, a sound of relief in her voice. "Just do us a favor and start with the shorter routes for awhile, Y'know. See how you handle them." I said to her as I turn to her and see her smile. "Alright." She said and we keep trotting on.

"You remember those Savage Starlight comic books that you're into?" Joel asked her. "Yeah?" Ellie said. "Tommy, (y/n) and I found some when we were moving through that school the other day." Joel said. 

"Did you guys like 'em?" Ellie asked us, curiously. "Oh, you know, it's not really my cup of tea. But (y/n) seemed to enjoy them." Joel said and I rolled my eyes. "Hey, what can I say? My inner child came out when I read those books." I said.

"I didn't know you were into that kind've stuff, (y/n)." Ellie  said, shocked. "Oh yeah. When I was a kid, a bit younger than you, I was really into reading comic books, science fiction being the big thing for me." I explained.

"Really? What made you stop reading them?" Ellie asked. "Life, honestly. It just started to get really hectic once I hit 18. Got a job, having to help my mom out while my brother was in the army, trying to decide whether I wanted to go to college or not, went out with a few friends." I explained and Ellie nods.

"Then I met this weird guy, who came in at my workplace one day, fell in love and married him." I said and Ellie chuckles a bit. "Yeah and I married a clumsy waitress that spilled iced tea on me." Joel said and my face heats up in embarrassment. "That was one time!" I exclaimed while Ellie laughs outloud at this and I hear Joel chuckling.

"Anyway...Dr. Daniella Star, I mean, she's pretty..." Joel started to say before Ellie talks over him, after recovering from laughing. "She's a savage." She said. "Yeah, what she does to Captain Ryan in that Death Match..." I said, chuckling, and Joel nods at this.

"Yeah, I mean, he definitely deserved it but..." Ellie started to say but she stops before Joel talks. "Well, it was a nice twist on how they escape, though." He said and Ellie giggles. "You're funny." She said and I smiled at her just as we make up to a fence and the old motel building. 

"Music story's up that way...we're gonna have to leave the horses here." Joel said as we come up to the fence. "Yeah...sounds good." Ellie said and we stopped then got off of the horses and jumped the fence.

"There's that music store." I said, pointing at the tall sign a few miles up ahead. We walk up to two large vehicles blocking the road before Joel turns to Ellie. "Need a boost?" He asked her. "I got it." She said and she climbs up the old moving truck and gets on top of it then gets on the other side.

"Uh, I don't think we can go this way." We hear her say. "What?" We said, confused, and Joel and I climb up on top of the truck and see that the area was dried out and the road was sunken in. "Well, damn. Used to be able to swim across this...." Joel said, disappointed. "So now what?" Ellie asked us and I looked at the motel building next to us.

"Well, if you're up for it, we can try cutting through that hotel." I said and Ellie nods. "I'm up for it." She said as she climbs back up on the truck then we head over to the hotel building.

We make it to the front door and Ellie tries to open it but it wouldn't budge. "Damn it." She grumbles and I sighed. "Of course." I said. "Oh, that might be something." Joel said and we turned and see him staring at a crawlspace under what looks like a collapsed roof.

"Think that you girls could fit in there?" Joel asked as I kneel down to look at it. "Hmmm...maybe. Worth a shot, though. I'll go first and then Ellie can follow me." I said and Joel nods then picks up part of the collapsed rubble and I crawled through into a room then looked around.

"I'm through, come on, Ellie." I said then I hear her crawling through and I turned and hold my hand out to her to help her up. She takes my hand and I help her stand up. "Made it!" She said. "Hang on, big guy. We'll let you in." I called out. "All right." He said and both of us walk out of the room and look around to make sure no infected were nearby then I see the front door.

"Ellie, keep an eye out. I'll go let him in." I tell her and she nods as I head to door and began to unlock it. I open the door to see Joel standing there, leaning to the side as his left hand was braced against the doorframe. "Well, hey there." I say to him and he gives me a small grin. "Howdy." He said, making my heart flutter.

Even after all these years, he still knows how to make me feel this way. Make me feel like that young woman he met all those years ago. Then an old memory came to me and an idea popped in my head and I smiled.

"Damn, if being sexy was a crime, you'd be guilty as charged!" I said and Joel lowered his head and shook it as he chuckles. "Cheesy pick up lines? Really?" He asked me as he raises his head up to me, but with a smile still on his face and his cheeks were turning a bit red.

"Why not? I mean...we used to share cheesy lines when we first got together." I said and he chuckles then he starts to walk pass me. "I'm too old for this cheesy shit..." he mutters and I rolled my eyes. "Uh-huh...sure you are." I said, sarcastically, and he chuckles then he pushes a strand of hair away from my face, leans in, then kisses me.

"Hey, guys. I think I've found a way through. But there are spores". Ellie said as Joel and I break the kiss. We smiled then we head over to Ellie as she stands in front of a snack machine, that was covering a giant hole.

"Okay, well girls, put your masks on." Joel said and we started to put ours on but Ellie looks over at us, annoyed. "Do I have to? It's just us." She said. "What if we run into someone?" I pointed out to her and she sighs. "Okay. Fine." She said and she pulls out her mask and puts it in while Joel pushes the machine aside.

He goes through the hole in the wall then me and finally Ellie. "You gotta be smart about this. You stop wearing that mask, kiddo, and eventually you're gonna slip up in front of someone you shouldn't." Joel tells her. "I never slipped." Ellie said, firmly, as we walked through some rooms. "You haven't told anyone new, have you? Like Jesse or Dina or --" Joel started to asked but Ellie shakes her head. "Of course not!" She said. "Okay, good." Joel and I said and we continue on.

"You guys ever been in here before?" Ellie asked us after climbing through a hole and landing into another room. "No. We've just patrolled the streets." I replied. "Feeling like a bit of an oversight now..." Joel said. "Maybe." Ellie mutters and we see a dead Clicker that's stuck to the wall.

"Looks like it was shot here awhile back." Joel pointed out as he looks at the Clicker. "When'd did the last patrol go through here?" Ellie asked us and I shrug as Joel said. "Not sure."

"Is it one of us?" Ellie asked and I sighed. "Only people went missing from Jackson are them teenagers from last year. This one's too old. Probably just roamed in." I pointed out then Joel stands up and we continued through until we come up to these large double doors.

Joel opens the door, slowly, and we could hear some infected and Clickers inside. "We are on patrol, right?" Ellie said and Joel and I share a look before I nod. "Alright. Let's take 'em out." He said and we head in what is the lobby area and, quietly, take out the few infected and Clickers inside.

"Guys, I think we did it." Ellie said after a few moments of silence. "Yeah, I think so, too." I said, breathless, and Joel nods. "Good job, kiddo." Joel congrats and Ellie nods. "Yeah, you too." She said. "So, what do you guys say we give up on those strings for today?"

"Couldn't said it better myself." Joel said as I look around the room. "I think our only way out is forward now." I said and we go through another set of doors then through some more rooms.

"This looks like something." Joel said as he comes up to a crawl space in the walls. "Following you." Ellie said and Joel squeezes throught then me and Ellie. Joel and I duck down under this pipe and kept going when we heard something break. 

We look over and see that the pipe broke and Ellie stared at it for a moment and we stopped moving, looking towards the wall. We could hear a noise and then a roar before there was a crash and a Bloater burst throught the wall and grabs Ellie. "Ellie!" Joel and I screamed and we get out of the crawl space just as the Bloater tossed Ellie on the floor. 

Joel and I pull out our shotguns and fired at the monsters. "Leave her alone, you sonuvabitch!" I shouted and the monster started coming at us but we back away. Ellie threw a molotov at it and it roars in pain then turned to her. The flames died down in it and more infected started coming at us.

I went and shot at them while Joel shot at the Bloater until it grabbed Ellie. It pulled off her mask and tried to grab her face until Joel pulls out his machete and sliced at it's arm, making it let Ellie go, then stabbed it, repeatedly, until it died. I run over to Ellie and help her up to her feet.

"Shit." She whispered, shocked. "You okay?" I asked her and she nods. "That was too close." Joel said. "Sure....but we fucking did it." Ellie said and Joel and I chuckle a bit. "We sure did." Joel said and we started to continue on. "You guys good?" Ellie asked. "Other than being really old, ain't nothing a solid night of sleep won't shake off." I said and Joel nods. "I wanna get outta here." Ellie said, exasperated, and we agreed and continued on.

We make it to another set of doors and Joel and I move the couch that was barricading the door. "Wait, what if there's like two Bloaters on the other side?" Ellie asked, worried. "It'll be fine." Joel assured her as we move the couch out of the way then we opened the door, our guns drawn and we look around to see nothing, not even spores.

"Spores are clear." Joel said and Ellie shuts the door behind us as Joel and I take off our masks. "Quiet the fight we had back there, huh?" Ellie said as we walked down the hallway. "Not often we get a Bloater around these parts." Joel said.

"Yeah. Jesse and Dina are going to lose their shit when they hear about this." Ellie said. "What's the deal with them two, anyway? They're dating, right?" Joel asked her as walked through the old kitchen area. "Uh, on and off. Why?" Ellie asked. "(Y/n) and I hear the way Jesse talks about you." Joel said to her.

"No. Jesse and I are just friends." Ellie said. "Now, now, now, I've got a pretty keen eye for these sort of things." Joel said and I rolled my eyes. "Not so keen with this one." Ellie said and Joel chuckles. "We'll see." He said and I scoff.

"Keen eye, huh? Remind me again, honey, who was the one that took months to ask who out?" I asked him. "Well, I had to make sure...get you warmed up to me and then I'd ask you out." Joel said and I snorted. "Really? That was the plan? And not, Sarah coaxing you to ask me out after you were too nervous to ask?" I asked and I hear Ellie chuckling under her breath. "Yeah, that's exactly right." Joel said and I scoffed. "Mmmhmm, okay....Whatever floats your boat." I said, sarcastically, and we head up to this door and Joel goes to open it but it only opens a few inches.

"Think you can squeeze through there?" Joel asked Ellie and she nods and goes through the door. "See what it is?" I asked her. "Yeah." She said and I hear her move something. "Okay." She said and Joel opens the door wider and we walk into an old coffee shop as Ellie walks to the middle of the room and sees a dead body.

I hear a noise then look over to see a Clicker, with no legs, start crawling towards Ellie. "Ellie!" I shout and I run over to the Clicker, put my foot on it's back and shoot it in the head, killing it. "Thanks." Ellie said and I nod at her as Joel comes up to me. "You okay?" He asked me. "Yeah." I said.

"Hey, guys. I think it's them. The couple that ran away last year." Ellie said as she points at the dead body. Joel and I kneel down to the body and look it over. "Think you're right." Joel said. 

"Jackson is a wonderful place....but we got tired of hearing the stories of people suffering everywhere else..." Ellie said and we look up to her to see her holding a note. "We wanted to save lives, we had good intentions...we didn't make it an hour before running into a horde. Now we're bitten. We've decided we're gonna end our lives instead of turning. Please tell our family and friends that we're sorry. Love Adam and Sidney." Ellie said and I lowered my head, closed my eyes and shook my head at this.

Joel and I stand up and look back at Ellie as she flips the note to the back and reads some more. "I shot her. I can't take my own life I'm a fucking coward. Adam." She reads and I place my hand over my mouth in shock. "Jesus." Joel mutters, horrified. 

"If only they were immune, right?" Ellie said as she sets the note down and looks at the body. I lower my hand and Joel and I exchange a nervous look before Joel clears his throat. "Well, let's...let's go get Tommy, and we can take thse bodies back to Jackson." He said and he pats my arm and we start to walk towards the front door.

"After you guys took me out of the Firefly hospital...you two said that there were dozens of people like me." Ellie said, making us stop in our tracks then turn to her. "Yeah. Yeah, that's what they told us." Joel said to her. "I've never met another immune person before. Have you?" She asked us then Joel and I share a quick look before I turn to Ellie. 

"They could be hiding it. You do." I said, shrugging. "Do you guys believe that?" Ellie asked, questioning, and I raise an eyebrow at her. "Is now really the time for this?" Joel asked her. "We traveled across the entire country to bring me to the Fireflies....I had so many questions for them." She said and I could tell she was getting angry.

"Why did you guys pull me out of there while I was still unconscious?!" She asked, loudly. "Because we let them run their tests, and when (y/n) and I saw that they were useless, both of us got all three of us out of there...." Joel said.

"How do you know they were useless? Maybe if you guys woulda given them more time, they could have figured something out--" Ellie yells as Joel walks over to her and stands in front of her while I was standing behind him.

"Ellie. There was no cure." Joel said to her, firmly. "There's nothing that could've helped these people or anybody else. I know you wish things were different--(y/n) and I--we wish things were different. But they ain't." He said and the two stare at each other, my heart beating like a jackhammer, before Ellie, her eyes welling up, looks away then down.

"We need to get these kids back to their families." I said and they look over at the bodies before Joel looks back at Ellie. "Is there something else you like to rehash?" Joel asked her and Ellie looks back at him. "No." She said. "Good. C'mon." Joel said and we start to head out.

That night, we made it back to Jackson and brought those bodies back for the families, which of course they were sad about, then we made it back home. Ellie was in her little shed in the backyard and I had already tucked Aiden and Ethan into bed for the night.

Joel was already passed out but I couldn't sleep so I sat up on the edge of the bed and ran my hands through my hair.

This lie we keep telling Ellie just tears me up inside the more time goes on and the more times she keeps questioning it; I know she knows that we're lying, she just doesn't know exactly what it is.

"(Y/n), honey?" I hear Joel groan behind me and I turn to him to see him waking up. "Everything okay?" He asked, softly, as he rubs the sleep out of his eyes. "Yeah...just couldn't sleep." I said and he starts to sit up then sits down next to me and places an arm around me. "What's wrong?" He asked me and I sigh. 

"I'm...I'm just thinking..." I replied. "About what?" He asked and I bite my lips. "This lie we're telling Ellie." I replied and I hear him sigh, heavily, at this. "Oh Lord, not this again." He grumbles. "Joel, she's already questioning our story. Whether you like it or not, she's gonna find out. She's a really smart girl..." I said and Joel looks down.

"She's not gonna find out." He grumbles. "Yes, she will. And that's what's heartbreaking, Joel. Cause I can see this go either way. Either we tell her and she has her heart broken about it, maybe lose her trust or she finds out herself, still has her heart broken and not only we lose her trust, but also we lose her forever." I said.

Joel frowns at this, knowing I'm right about the potential consequences of holding back the truth from Ellie. He sighs and pull me close, resting his chin on my shoulder. “I know honey...but it’s for her own good.” he said and I frown then sigh as he kisses my shoulder.

"I know it's for her own good...it's just...I'm just worried and scared of what's to come. I don't want to lose her." I said. He pulls me closer to him, his arms wrapped around my shoulders, and I place my hands on his arm as tears rolled down my face. "Neither do I." He mutters and we sit like this for awhile before both of us get tired and fall asleep.

@fangirl-inthe-us

[justahopelessssromantic]

Chapter 2

A/N: Hey guys here’s another update of this story for y’all! Sorry I haven’t been posting much I promise I am working on updates and your requests that you have kindly given me. I’ve just been in a little rut but I promise I’m trying my best to work through it. Thank you so much for reading and your patience ❤️

Warnings: Mentions of drugs and violence

Daniella followed Angel into the scrapyard. Her nerves only increased the closer she got. She held Hope tightly to her, the little girl nuzzled against her shoulder. Her palms were sweaty and her body felt like it was shaking internally, all normal sensations for Daniella when she was nervous. She didn’t understand why she was making such a big out of this. He didn’t care about her so why should she care what he thought? Still she couldn’t shake the feeling of him wanting to be proud of her. To show him how well she turned out without him, without anyone. Even though it was hell to get there.

Composing herself, she followed Creeper and Angel into the clubhouse. She immediately looked around taking in her surroundings. A habit she had developed over the years.

“He’ll be out in a minute.” Creeper said before leaving her and Angel alone in the room.

Angel smiled looking down at Hope. “She looks just like you. You’re gonna be a little heartbreaker like your mother, huh?” He asked tickling Hope with zero reaction from the girl besides her squirming away from him and closer to Dani.

Daniella rolled her eyes as she looked around the small space. The place was littered with Mayans memorabilia making the place seem more homey, but that seemed to be the purpose of the clubhouse. A home for the members of the club. Daniella knew enough about MC’s to know they were much bigger than just a club, they were a family.

She could relate, she had her own sense of family away from blood with the women she worked with. They were more of a family to her then she ever had, always looked after. They had her back just like she would always have thiers.

Many people looked down on them, like they were less than because of their line of work. Thinking of them as only an object to get off too, a warm body at their disposal, but they were so much more than that. Those women were the strongest, most incredible people she had ever met. As fucked up as a situation that it was that got Daniella into prostitution it was one of the best things for her. Another step in the right direction that led her to where she was now, who she was now.

“So, is her father in the picture?” Angel asked.

Daniella turned her attention back to Angel actually welcoming the conversation as a distraction for her bundle of nerves about meeting her own father. “No, it’s just us. Her dad is kind of a piece of shit anyways, it's better this way.” It wasn’t a lie.

Angel nodded, tucking that information away. At least he didn’t have competition with that douchebag. “Anyone else?” He asked. He had to know if there was any man whatsoever in the two girl’s lives, had to know if there was an opening for him.

“Nope, just us.” She repeated, “And before you say anything else no, we aren’t looking for anyone else.” Well besides Bishop Daniella thought. “And we don’t need anyone else.” She wasn’t here to flirt, or find love, or any of that shit. She was here for only one man. He was her top priority. She couldn’t afford any distractions and Angel was just that, one tall, attractive distraction.

Angel went to speak up again only getting cut off once more as Daniella’s attention was immediately drawn to the Templo’s door opening.

Bishop and Taza came out of Templo to meet their potential new girl. With Taza just behind him Bishop momentarily froze in his place when he met the eyes of the young woman. Eyes he knew so well, eyes he never thought he’d see again. The eyes of the love of his life staring back at him. It was like seeing a ghost or being shot back to his past. His heart clenched in his chest at the memory of what was lost to him, of what he tried to bury all those years ago when he gave up all hope.

It was all so surreal.

She looked just like her mother. Being in the same room with both her and Bishop the likeness couldn’t go unnoticed by Taza either.

Bishop composed himself quickly, looking cool on the outside as he approached her, his daughter.

He just knew it was her.

“Bishop Losa,” He introduced himself with a smile. He was so caught up in his own thoughts when he saw her that he almost didn’t notice the small child in her arms.

Daniella was praying he wouldn’t notice her trembling hands as she kept her grip on Hope. One thing for sure the two had in common was being able to remain their composure on the outside despite the rushing thoughts and emotions running through them.

“Daniella,” She said with a smile, “and this is my daughter, Hope.”

Daniella, Bishop thought to himself, and Hope. His daughter Hope, now went by the name Daniella and ironically named her own daughter Hope.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Daniella.” Bishop said. “Why don’t we have a seat,” He suggested nodding over to a table in the back. “Angel can take your daughter. “ He saw the uncertainty in her eyes as she contemplated his suggestion. “They’ll stay close, won’t go out of sight.”

“Okay,” Daniella agreed, passing Hope over to Angel. She tenderly tucked a strand of Hope’s hair behind her ear. “I’ll be just over there, okay?” She told the young girl, “I won’t be far.”

“I’ve got her.” Angel reassured her before taking Hope over to the bar and setting her on top of it. He watched as she kept her eyes on her mother, sucking her thumb before turning her head to look up at him, her big eyes melting his heart.

Daniella stole one last glance at Hope before taking her place across from Bishop at the table. It was crazy how in just the few days she had known Hope she had become so attached to her. She couldn’t imagine being here alone anymore. Deep down she needed Hope maybe more than Hope needed her.

“So, Daniella.” Bishop started, “Where are you from? We haven’t seen you around before.”

“All over the place, really,” Daniella said with a friendly smile. One that anyone during an interview would have. “But most recently Stockton.”

“Stockton?” Taza spoke up from where he was standing behind Bishop. “What were you doing there?”

Rowena suggested she stick as close to the truth as possible that way she would be less likely to slip up so that was exactly what Daniella was going to do. “I’m going to be honest with you,” She started. The way the two men perked up at those words and how they were observing her rather carefully was not unnoticed by Daniella.

At the same time, she was doing the same thing to Bishop. She took in every detail of him that she could. The way he spoke, how he held himself, and any little movements he made.

Bishop was waiting for her to tell him she was his daughter. He tried to plan out what he would say to her, what he should say to her. What do you say to your daughter who was taken from you so long ago? Who probably did not have an easy life, who you loved with all your heart but was not there for?

“I just got out of a luxury stay I had booked at Stockton State Prison.”

That was not what the two men were expecting to hear. Taza smiled to himself, like father like daughter. Both were clearly trouble makers.

“I was booked for possession of heroin with intent to sell, being under the influence of heroin, and resisting arrest.” She watched the men, mostly Bishop trying to read any reactions. “The heroin wasn’t mine, it was my step dad’s.” She explained. Leaning down on the table she clasped her hands together. “Look, I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of but I’m clean now and just want to start fresh not only for me, but for Hope.” 

“I appreciate the honesty, Daniella.” Bishop said. He wanted to reach over and grab her hand in his but didn’t. To hear what she had been through broke him. His baby girl was never supposed to have that life, but it’s the life Joselynn had so it was no surprise that she had been dragged under with her. He wanted to kill Joselynn for what she did, and kill fucking Billy too because he was almost certain the scumbag was involved as well. “We believe in second chances here. I can see you are trying to start new, that’s admirable.”

The warmth practically radiated from him making Daniella almost forget every horrible thing she knew about him, almost. She knew better than to let his act fool her though.

“What about any of your other family?” Bishop questioned. Daniella couldn't really see how that would pertain to the job but kept listening regardless. “Is your mother around? Or your father?”

“No.” She said plainly sitting back in her seat.

“What about her father?” Bishop asked nodding back to the little girl on the bar who was staring back at them waiting patiently for her mother to be done paying no mind to Angel who was trying to give her his keys.

“Not in the picture. It’s just us.”

Bishop nodded. Whoever the prick was did not deserve her time or to be in the young girl’s life in his opinion and he really hoped to never meet the man. “Okay, well we will of course have to do a background check.” He informed her. Now was her chance to speak up.

“Of course,” she smiled that fake smile again, that smile her mother used to give to anyone she was not too fond of. To anyone else it looked like a normal polite smile but Bishop knew better. “I don’t have anything to hide. I’m an open book.”

“Well, Daniella, find a sitter for your kid and you can start as soon as tomorrow. I think you will be a great addition around here.”

“Great,” her smile became more genuine. She was not expecting it to be so easy to get a job. “I already have a girl. You won’t regret this, I promise. Thank you so much, Bishop.”

Bishop smiled at her shaking her hand before she headed back towards Hope scooping the girl up in her arms and exciting the clubhouse with Angel behind her.

Stepping forward Taza set his hand on Bishop’s shoulder giving it a squeeze. “She's finally home, hermano." Taza said looking at the door where they just disappeared from. "Do you think she knows?"

"She knows." The way she was carefully watching him during their interview was what really gave her away. She knew who he was, he was certain of that. Maybe she didn't know he was her father but she definitely knew of him. "There's no way her showing up here is a coincidence."

"Are you going to tell her?"

“No,” Bishop shook his head. “I want her to come to me. She’s been through enough already. Who knows what lies Joselyn filled her head with. Now is not the time. I just got her back," Bishop's voice softened as he thought of losing his daughter once more. "I don’t want to push her away already.” More than anything he wanted to learn more about the woman she had become.

Taza understood where his brother was coming from. He never personally met Joselyn but as one of Bishop’s closest confidants he had heard the story of how he lost his love and his daughter in the same night. Bishop would not often talk about it but he never truly gave up looking for her either, even after all these years. None of them could have expected that she would be the one to find them first.

“So how does it feel, grandpa?” Taza teased.

Bishop shook his head with a smile. “Fuck off.” Standing up from his seat he passed Taza with a pat to the shoulder before making his way back to Templo. Taza watched his brother head in and close the door behind him before heading outside with the other’s to give him a moment alone.

Sitting down on his chair at the head of the table Bishop pulled the old diamond engagement ring out of his cut where he had kept it since the day he lost his family. It was nothing fancy, a simple small diamond on a silver band but his Evelia would have loved it. She was a simple woman who only needed two things in her life, Bishop and their daughter, her family.

As much as he missed her he was thankful that she did not have to live with the pain of losing their daughter like he had. At least she was spared that much. She would not have survived that.

Brining the ring to his lips he gave it a small kiss before placing it back into his pocket just over his heart. He rested his hand on top of the leather where he could just barely feel the delicate jewelry as he thought about his family and how he now had a chance to know his daughter. “She’s home, amor. She’s finally home.” He murmured. “I promise I won’t lose her again. I won’t fail her or you this time.”

Carrying Hope, Daniella headed back to her vehicle in a bit of a daze trying to fully wrap her mind around the interaction. She finally met him, actually talked to her father. She wasn’t sure how to feel in this moment and Angel walked beside her going on and on about who knows what was not helping. She could only faintly hear his voice as he talked her ear off, his words sounding muffled as her mind was elsewhere. She wasn’t listening to him but he didn't seem to notice or care. He could be telling her his deepest darkest secrets and she would never know.

“Yo. Earth to Dani.” Angel said, sticking his phone closer to her face until she subconsciously reached out and took it. He was just talking about getting her number for work which she had nodded along to but now it was like she had not listened to a single thing he had said.

“What?” Dani asked looking over at him. They were now stopped in front of her black ford focus.

"Your number?" Angel nodded down at his phone in her hand. "For work."

She shifted Hope on her hip as she looked at Angel’s bright screen with the beginnings of a new contact with her name across the screen. “Is this your way of getting my number? Man you really don’t give up. You’ve hit on me what, three times now in one day? That’s gotta be some type of record.”

Angel licked his lips leaning against her car annoying her further. She wanted to play hard to get than that was fine with him. He liked the chase. “Just for work purposes, I swear little mama." Angel smirked.

Daniella was more irritated now as she glared back at him. “So you’re telling me you aren’t going to use it as a way to send unsolicited dick pics of your,” Daniella paused to glance down at the crotch of Angel’s jeans before back up to his face with her own smirk, “less than impressive package?”

“Trust me one night in my bed and you won’t be saying that.”

Danielle chuckled, unlocking the door to her vehicle. “Trust me,” she said opening her back door nudging Angel out of the way. Bending over she set Hope into her car seat making sure she was secure all while feeling Angel’s gaze directly on her ass. Once she had Hope fully situated and buckled she turned back to face Angel. “That won’t be happening.”

Now that sounded like a challenge to Angel. “We’ll see about that.” Walking backwards he smirked as Daniella glared at him. Looking past her he waved to Hope. “Bye Hope,” He said before meeting Dani’s eyes. “See you tomorrow little mama.” Smirking Angel left her with that turning around heading back to the scrapyard. The car door slammed behind him before the vehicle started up and headed down the road. He wanted to turn back around and give her one last look but he was not going to. He was exactly where he wanted to be, under her skin.

****

Daniella shot up in bed clutching her stomach as the pain pierced through her abdomen so vividly. She was drenched in sweat and consumed by panic as she tried to come to her senses. Looking down she found her shaking hands free of blood bringing her some comfort as she came back to reality.

It was just another nightmare.

“Fuck,” she breathed out running her hand through her hair. Reaching over she grabbed a scrunchy from the bedside table and piled her hair on top of her head securing it loosely. Looking over she found Hope sound asleep and sprawled out across the other side of the bed, her hair sticking to her face from the heat that radiated from the young girl while she was asleep. She brushed the strand off her forehead before slipping out of bed in hopes of not disturbing her.

Padding down the hall she made her way effortlessly through the dark apartment snatching her pack of cigarettes and lighter from the coffee table on her way to the window. She unlocked it and slid the pane up. Daniella situated herself on the windowsill, one leg dangling out the edge with her back resting against the side. Lighting up a cigarette she took a long drag holding it a moment before blowing the smoke out and into the night. She leaned her head back and stared out at the full moon. They say strange things happen during full moons. Maybe that was the reason behind the violent nightmares. But if that were the case she wouldn’t have so many so often. No she knew that wasn’t true and didn’t believe in all of that anyways.

No matter how many times she had the nightmares they always seemed to shake her up, feeling just as real as when she was in prison. Most of the time it was just flashbacks of her time inside, more often than not the day she was jumped in the hall. She would never forget that moment, the rush of adrenaline when they grabbed her, the piercing pain, the metallic smell mixing with the sickeningly strong aroma of bleach from the cleanup that happened just prior.

Two women grabbed her and held her tightly in their grasps against the wall as the third, some woman with red hair and the most sinister smile on her face pulled out the shiv and waved it in front of her face, teasing her with the sharp object. “With love from Billy bitch!” The woman sneered. Before Daniella could really register what was happening the shiny metal was pierced through her abdomen, not once, not twice, but three times before they finally let up, releasing her. She clutched at the open wounds, the blood coating her hands as she collapsed onto the cold hard tile, one hand reaching out to catch herself but slipping across the floor doing nothing to lessen the impact. Leaving her with a swift kick from each the last thing she remembered is watching the women be let out by the guard as her vision clouded around her.

But this time the dream was different. Instead of being in the prison she was back in her childhood home and this time it was Billy holding a knife as he sneered down at her, her mother watching on from behind, encouraging him to finally rid her of the worthless, ungrateful reminder of what she lost, of what she’d never be.

Daniella caught the brief movement from the side of her eye and looked over into the living room almost slipping out the window. Her heart leapt into her throat as she reached out catching herself before she could go anywhere. “Jesus Christ.” She muttered with her hand on her head. Daniella looked back into the brown doe eyes staring at her. “We really need to get you a damn bell or something.”

Hope sucked on her thumb as she stared at Daniella wide eyed with Mr. Bear as Daniella called him held tightly against her chest.

“Can’t sleep?” Daniella asked, putting the cigarette out and sliding back into the apartment. She pushed the window back down, latching the lock securely before closing the curtains. Crouching down in front of Hope she ran her thumb across her face, caressing her skin where a stray tear had found its way down her plump little cheek. “Me neither. How about we put on a movie, yeah?”

Standing up she walked with Hope to the couch helping boost her up onto the leather sofa. Bending over in front of Hope Danilla caressed her face. "This is our fresh start, okay? They can't hurt you anymore. No one will ever hurt you again." Kissing Hope on the forehead she gave the girl a small smile. She meant every word. She would do anything for Hope.

Stepping back to the entertainment center Daniella sat down on her knees looking through the various titles on the shelf. Unfortunately when Rowena set everything up it wasn’t with a toddler in mind. She ran her fingers across the spines of the many DVDs before pulling out Stranger Things. “How about this?” She asked holding the case up for Hope to see. “Ro said it was the first thing I needed to watch once I was out and there’s kids in it so that means it’s kid friendly, right?” Hope stared back as always snuggling into one of the purple pillows on the sofa. “Yeah, we’ll try it.” Daniella decided, popping the disc into the DVD player and grabbing the remote before sitting down next to Hope.

The show began playing the theme song quietly as Daniella stared ahead watching the colors flash across the screen. Her mind wasn’t on the show however but her meeting with her father just hours before. “I know I should have told him, but we don’t even know the guy Hope. Right now we have the upper hand, the chance to see just who he really is before we give ourselves away.” She explained. Maybe she was a coward but she had been burned too many times in her past. She wasn’t about to open herself up to him leaving herself and Hope included vulnerable to him or anyone for that matter.

She chewed on her bottom lip as she replayed the meeting over and over in her mind. “He wasn’t what I was expecting Hope.” Daniella said, turning to look at Hope. “He didn’t seem like the shitty person mom made him out to be.” She pulled her legs up onto the couch sitting criss crossed. It was weird seeing Bishop in person to Daniella. He seemed nothing like what she had envisioned from the few details her mother would give her. He seemed like a good guy and she craved to get to know him better, craved the love she didn’t receive growing up but she knew better than to get her hopes up. “But first impressions don’t mean anything, Hope.” She explained to her as Hope listened intently. She was a good listener at least. “Most people won’t show you their real colors until they’ve already sunk their claws into you. You can’t trust anyone. It’s just you and me against the world now. We gotta look out for us.” In time he’d slip up and show her the real him, it was really only just a matter of time.

Tagging: @everyhowlmarksthedead @cind-in-real-life @ifoundmyhappythought @woahitslucyylu @briannab1234 @carlaangel86 @sammskellington @chibsytelford @mheart27 @scuzmunkie @vsfavs @starrynite7114 @gemini0410 @whyisgmora

[unfortunate-arrow]

The July Ball (pt 3)

[Part 1] [Part 2] [ Featuring Tessa & Gracie Chiva from @danceworshipper , Sydney Phoenix from @hufflepuffs-honor , & Henri & Genevieve Rys from @daniella-gisele-rys.]

Part 3: Dinner & Dancing

“So, I think we should go around and introduce ourselves. Say our name and house,” Sara said, breaking the silence. “I’ll start. I’m Sara O’Donnell and I’m in Hufflepuff. As all of you are sure to know, I’m a quadruplet.” 

“Alright, alright. I’m Cara O’Donnell and I’m in Slytherin. I’m Sara’s older sister.” Cara smirked at her sister. 

“By twenty-one minutes! Plus we’re all older than Conor!” 

“H-h-hey!” Conor exclaimed. 

“Anyways! Who wants to go next?” 

“I’ll go. I’m Sydney Phoenix and I’m in Hufflepuff with Sara,” the dark haired girl waved at the group from her spot next to Ryan. 

“I’m Genevieve Rys and I’m in Ravenclaw with my twin brother,” another girl with dark hair said. 

“I’m Henri, Genevieve's twin brother and I’m also in Ravenclaw,” the dark haired boy said. 

“I’m Ryan O’Donnell and I’m in Gryffindor. I’m the oldest!” Ryan said, placing all his emphasis on the word “oldest.” Conor leaned over and flicked Ryan on the ear. Ryan retaliated and very quickly, the two brothers were flicking one another. 

“My god! Can you two go ten minutes without attacking each other?” Sara demanded glaring at her brothers. 

“Uh, I’m Barnaby Lee and I’m also in Slytherin,” the boy interrupted before the three siblings could start in on full fledged bickering. 

“I’m Tessa Chiva and I’m in Slytherin as well,” a third girl with dark hair said. 

“I’m Gracie Chiva. I’m Tessa’s twin sister and in Slytherin, too,” the white haired girl said. 

“I’m Conor O’Donnell. I’m in R-R-R-Ravenclaw,” Conor said, trying to ignore the heat that was making its way up his cheeks. 

There was a lengthy swell of awkward silence before food started to appear on their plates. There was roast chicken, mashed potatoes, slabs of beef, green beans, mac n’ cheese, and, in the center of the table, a large bowl filled with rolls. The kids filled their plates and let the sounds of forks and knives fill the silence.

“Suck it!” Ryan exclaimed, smacking Conor’s hand away from the rolls on his plate. 

“No way, you suck it!” Conor snapped back, reaching a second time to steal a roll, only to get smacked again. 

“Three, two, one! Suck it!” the two boys exclaimed in unison, glaring at one another before dissolving into a whisper argument, where the phrase “suck it” could be heard every three words. 

The six occupants of the table who were not acquainted with Ryan’s and Conor’s behavior stared at them. “Are they always like this?” Gracie asked. 

“Yeah,” Sara answered. Cara smirked and added, “You’re just lucky they didn’t decide to sing it. I can’t tell you how often we have to deal with those two dumbasses yelling or singing ‘suck it’ at one another.” 

“Wow. I think I’m glad I only have one brother if that’s how brothers act,” Sydney said. 

“I think it’s only because we’re all the same age. I’ve never seen another set of brothers act like those two,” Cara said. 

“Ry, Con, knock it off. Oh, and Conor, just take a roll from the bowl, not Ryan’s plate,” Sara exclaimed, exasperatedly. 

“He’s j-just h-hoarding them!” Conor snapped, glaring at his brother. 

“Am not! There are plenty left!” Ryan snapped back.

“Guys! Uncle Doyle,” Cara hissed, effectively ending any further argument on the issue of rolls and whether Ryan was hoarding them or not. 

They fell into another awkward silence. 

“So, uh, why did your uncle look at my step-mom so weirdly?” Sydney asked, breaking the silence. 

“Oh. Is she muggleborn?” Ryan asked. 

“Yeah.”

“That’s why. Our dad is a ‘filthy mudblood.’” 

“He’s like my parents,” Barnaby said. 

“If by that you mean a jackass, then yes,” Ryan said, earning an elbow to the gut from Conor this time.

“Let me apologize for my brother, Barnaby. He doesn’t think before he speaks,” Sara said, offering the Slytherin boy a shy smile as Ryan faked a hurt gasp. 

“It’s okay. He’s not wrong.” Barnaby returned Sara’s smile, his cheeks turning an unnoticed pink. 

Once dinner had finished, gentle, orchestral music began to fill the ballroom. The adults began to pair off and soon, the ballroom was filled with dancing couples. The kids stood up and moved to the wall, as the tables began to move themselves out of the way. They looked at one another uncomfortably, none quite sure what they should do. 

“Uncle Doyle sh-sh-should have ch-chosen The Who,” Conor muttered under his breath. 

“He wouldn’t touch The Who with a fifty foot pole for two reasons, Con. Firstly, it’s not dancing music,” Cara said. 

“Y-y-you could dance to ‘Bargain’ or ‘Love Ain’t For Keeping.’” 

“Sure you could, Con. Secondly, and most importantly, The Who are a muggle band. Uncle Doyle despises anything muggle-related.” 

“Well, we should probably get on with dancing,” Ryan said interrupting his siblings. 

The kids awkwardly paired off and quietly made their way onto the dance floor. Ryan locked his hands together as his arms wound around Sydney’s neck. The two kids swayed together, with Ryan leading the best he could. 

“So. What are you looking forward to next year?” Sydney asked. 

“Uh. Care of Magical Creatures sounds fun,” Ryan said. 

“Yeah, I think that class will be really fun, too. I love creatures and animals.”

“Yeah, they’re alright. I really like my toad, Lir. Plus, the four of us share a cat, Duchess, and an owl, Archimedes.” 

“Why’d you choose those names?”

“Lir’s a sea god in Irish mythology, but he’s also a king, whose kids were turned into swans. Duchess is from The Aristocats while Archimedes is from The Sword in The Stone. They’re muggle movies.” 

“Ah.”

Meanwhile, Conor was awkwardly dancing with Tessa. Ninety-nine percent of the boy’s concentration was on his feet. He did not want to step on Tessa’s feet. He also had no sense of timing which made it hard to do anything fancier than swaying. 

“Do you like quidditch?” Tessa asked, and Conor looked up from his feet, frowning. 

“Huh?” His cheeks felt warm, but at least this time it wasn’t because of his stammer. 

“Do you like quidditch?” 

“Oh. Y-yeah. I play s-s-s-seeker.” His cheeks burned even more. 

“I play chaser. Are you on your house team?”

“Y-yes. After R-R-R-Ryker got h-hurt and quit. Ryan and Cara both play ch-chaser.” 

“What team do you support?” 

“Oh, we s-support the Kenmare Kestrels and the Ballycastle Bats.” 

“You support two teams? Most people only support one.”

“Well, the Bats and Kestrels are the only Irish teams. The Bats are N-n-northern Ireland, which is the UK. The K-kestrels are the R-r-republic. Mum’s mum was from Northern Ireland, while the m-majority of the f-f-family is from the R-r-r-republic.” 

“Wow. You’ve really thought about it.” 

“Eh. Not r-r-really.” 

Meanwhile, Cara had forgone all traditional ideas and had ended up dancing with Gracie. At least, after she had danced with Henri, where the two had also discussed quidditch and classes for the next year. 

“Why didn’t you stare at me like I had two heads?” Gracie asked after a few moments of silence. 

“Well, we’re used to getting stares all the time. We are quadruplets, and Conor stammers. I figured that you wouldn’t want to be stared at. I know I hate it when we get stared at,” Cara answered. 

“Oh. I’ve seen you around the common room and in classes, but nowhere else.” 

“I’m usually hanging out with Ryan, Sara, Conor, Ash and Rowan Khanna, Ben Copper, Penny Haywood, and the two Weasley boys after classes.”

“Oh. So you don’t spend much time in the common room?”

“Nah. Although, Sara will probably pester me to get to know Barnaby better.” 

“He’s not the brightest, but he does have a kind heart.”

“Yeah, he can’t be too bad if Sara likes him. Then again, I’m not sure how many people Hufflepuffs instantly dislike.”

“They are probably the most likely to give people a chance.”

The two girls grinned and kept dancing. 

Meanwhile, Sara found herself with her arms wrapped around Barnaby’s neck. There was something thrilling about being so close to a cute boy. They swayed gently to the music, neither having danced much before. 

“I’m sorry if I step on your toes,” Barnaby said. 

“I’m sorry if I step on your toes, too,” Sara replied 

“Doyle, I don’t know why you invited mudbloods,” a woman said suddenly, her voice carrying throughout the whole ballroom.  

Barnaby groaned, his eyes sliding shut. “That’s my mother.” 

“Come dear, it’s well known that many pure-bloods must interbreed with the less clean. That includes you, Doyle,” a male voice added. 

“My father,” Barnaby groaned again. 

“Yes, I’m aware of my blood status, Lyra, Cygnus.” Doyle’s voice was very intense and nearly every person in the ballroom had frozen. 

“Yes, well, we do all remember that your father had been disowned and only gained this manor because your grandfather was arrested,” Cygnus Lee said. 

“There was no solid evidence that Tadhg Lynch was murdered by my grandfather,” Doyle replied, his voice infused with venom. 

While the loud conversation had started, the ten kids had all drifted back to the chairs against the wall. As it grew more heated, a couple appeared and beckoned Sydney to come with them. The girl waved at the other kids and said, “It was nice to meet you. Hopefully we’ll see more of each other.” It wasn’t long before the Rys twins joined their parents in leaving. It appeared that the loud conversation about “mudbloods” had cleared out nearly half the guests. 

“Well, not everyone can be a part of the sacred twenty-eight,” Doyle snapped. 

“Well, we don’t have any mudbloods in our recent heritage. Your mother was one as was your brother-in-law,” Cygnus said. 

Cara groaned and sighed. “This is why Slytherin has such a bad reputation.” 

“Yep,” Gracie agreed, as both Tessa and Barnaby nodded. The seven remaining kids sighed and listened to the heated debate about blood status. 

“Is he going to hex someone?” Ryan asked, his leg bouncing. 

“My parents may,” Barnaby muttered.

“I hope not,” Sara said. 

“Wait. Did we know that our great-grandfather was arrested for killing his own brother?” Ryan asked. 

“N-no,” Conor answered. 

“Damn. Mum’s side is messed up.” 

“Not as messed as our mother’s side. She’s a Black,” Gracie offered. 

“Yeah, we’ve got Cain and Abel though.”

“Who?” 

“Cain and Abel are from a muggle religion, Christianity. Basically, one brother murdered the other.” 

“Oh.” 

The kids fell back into silence, only interrupting to have a few odd chats here and there. 

“Girls, we’re leaving now,” the paranoid man from before said to the Chiva twins.

“It was nice to meet you guys. Maybe we’ll see you around Hogwarts,” Gracie said, before she and Tessa waved and followed their parents out of the ballroom. 

It was nearing eleven when Doyle finally allowed the quadruplets to head off to bed. Most of the guests had left by then, and all four siblings were dead on their feet 

Ryan grinned, his arms draped over Conor’s and Sara’s shoulders. “Well, at least Uncle Doyle won’t hex us.” 

“That’s ��cause he was too busy trying to impress all those rich and powerful dudes to notice our bickering,” Cara said, rolling her eyes. 

“Well, he still won’t hex us.”

[lawandorderforevercsi]

Their Children

Disclaimer: I don't own FBI, Dick Wolf and CBS do.

Author's Note: Hey everyone! Yes I changed my penname to reflect my current shows. Hello, fanfiction readers! I am now ForeverJaggedCSI85. I changed my penname to reflect my favorite shows Forever, CSI: Miami (and still reflect CSI And CSI: NY), and JAG.

A/N 2: So here is a follow up to the Isobel/Jubal story that I posted a few weeks ago, enjoy! Not beta'd so all errors that appear are my own!

August 2022

It finally happened. Following a long fifteen hour pregnancy, their twins made their loud debut. She knew the statistics that older women were more likely to conceive twins and lo and behold it happened.

She remembered the day they received the pregnancy news.

-Six months earlier, February 2022-

Isobel couldn't be happier. The honeymoon and their lives were perfect, and it was going well. When they returned from Bora Bora it was back to leading the team, which she loved more than ever. However, one morning, everything wasn't working right. First, she couldn't keep food down, and then she couldn't stand the smell of coffee and wanted tea instead. Jubal noticed, but he might have an idea what it might be but decided not to ask Isobel yet as he thought it could be stress.

Then they had the case where a child was taken from her parents in broad daylight. From there it got worse. This case was particular grueling and heartbreaking. There were no leads, and it seemed as if the perp disappeared into thin air. But they had Kristen and Ian, and they were working hard. As the day wore on, she was always nauseous and had often run to the restroom to throw up. That OA, Scola, and Maggie, Emily, and Kristen all noticed how she wouldn't even touch coffee anymore, that seemed extraordinarily fatigued or the fact that the foods she once loved she stayed far away from.

Just as they were making progress on the case when Isobel swayed and OA saw it first. OA asked, "Isobel, are you okay?"

Isobel shook head (which only made her dizzy again) but said, "I am fine, Agent Zidan."

Right when OA stepped when she fainted and fell backward. This time Jubal shouted out, "Isobel!"

Everyone reacted, and Scola managed to catch Isobel just before she hit her head. OA went to get water while Ian called for the paramedics. When she came to, she was in the hospital, and Jubal was right there with her ob-gyn, Dr. Daniella Cobb.

Dr. Cobb said, "Agent Castille, you're awake as you gave your husband and co-workers quite a scare."

Isobel asked, "What happened?"

Jubal took Isobel's hand and asked, "What do you remember?"

Isobel thought and said, "I remember telling Agent Zidan I was fine, and then I blacked out."

Doctor Cobb said, "As you were brought in, I heard about some symptoms you have been having from Agent Valentine. Once we were sure that you had no brain or internal injuries, I had my hunches began running tests."

Isobel asked, "And?"

Dr. Cobb added, "Congratulations, Agents Castile and Valentine, or should I say, mom and dad?"

Both Isobel and Jubal's eye bugged out. Pregnant? This is the best news ever. Doctor Cobb went opened the door the technician wheeled in the sonogram, and they proceeded with the exam. From there, they heard the heartbeats two times over. As the tech continued moving the wand around, Dr. Cobb said with a smile, "Well, it seems you are pregnant with twins."

In shock, Jubal and Isobel exclaimed together, "Twins?!"

Dr. Cobb nodded, "Yes, they are healthy and strong."

The tech labeled on-screen Baby A and Baby B. The doctor, added, "I think you should also know that you are eight weeks along, so your babies will be due late July or early August."

Isobel looked at Jubal, and they realized they conceived their twins the last time they made love before the wedding. Seeing the love between the two agents, the doctor said, "I will give you two a minute while I go and get the sonogram printed and get your discharge papers and rest instructions ready to go."

Once the doctor had left, Jubal looked lovingly into Isobel's eyes. They knew their lives were only going to get better.

It didn't take them long to overcome the shock of Isobel being pregnant with twins, and they began to plan for the arrival, all their co-workers were thrilled when they found out. The only thing was that she became very emotional and hormonal, which caused Jubal to become overprotective and hovered-a lot. But it was all worth it when their children were born.

Isobel was brought out of her deep thoughts with Jubal saying, "Jubal, we need to think of names for our children."

Isobel said, "You know I have always liked the names, Zoey and Zachary."

Jubal thought about it and ran it through his mind matching with Valentine, hmm Zoey and Zachary Valentine. Its got a nice ring to it and fitted well.

Jubal smiled, and Isobel knew the name choices were settled. It wasn't long after when their co-workers came by with presents and hugs.

Their children made their lives even more blessed than they could have ever thought.

A/N 2: Thanks for reading "One and Only Children". Reviews greatly appreciated!

[ccwastaken]

Hanahaki au part 2 electric boogaloo

Warning for blood n some swearing

Rollie's throat burned and ached. It always felt difficult to breathe and he hated it. Not to mention the coughing fits that would make him almost keel over from how bad they got, and the pain...sweet lord the pain. Coughing up flower petals isn't fun, not even slightly. Not to mention it set off his allergies.

Still, he ignored it and kept walking, listening to Daniela talk. He wanted to take her to see the zen garden uptown, then go to a teashop. The weather was sunny, a little windy yes, but still warm enough. He was kind of wishing he hadn't worn such a thick sweater-

"So there's just all around silence, right? We're both staring at this freaking rat that's just sitting in the pie like it's no big deal, and then this guy across the restaurant suddenly fucking RUNS into the dining area, calling out for the rat-" she paused, grinning at him as she told the story. Rollie laughed. "And guess what the rat was named?"

"What was the rat called?" He asked, smiling wide.

"PASTRAMI! FUCKING- PASTRAMI- I couldn't even take it seriously I wheezed and the poor waiter guy is just standing there staring at the rat-"

Rollie laughed loudly. "Oh- oh my- hahaha!" He giggled at the thought of the scene. He suddenly felt his breath hitch in his throat and he broke into a coughing fit. He buried his face in his elbow, choking out the flower petals buried in his lungs. Daniela looked at him.

"You okay?" She asked. Rollie held up a hand and continued to cough and hack. "Rollie?" She rubbed his back comfortingly. "You okay? Where's your inhaler?"

Oh god he wished this was an asthma attack. His eyes widened and he gagged, coughing and choking on something way, way larger than a few petals. Tears sprung to his eyes. God he hated doing this. It hurt so bad, and the gagging- oh lord the gagging. He choked, feeling the urge to vomit. His legs trembled and he doubled over, coughing violently as he tried to get the enormous thing from his throat.

"Rollie?!" Daniela moved to grab his inhaler from his pocket, then noticed the petals falling to his feet. Poppies and orchids and cherry blossoms all fell around him like some demented bouquet. Rollie whimpered weakly, wanting it all to stop. "Rollie...oh my god..." She grabbed his shoulders and carefully pulled him down until he was kneeling, still coughing violently. "Sorry about this-" she said quickly before delivering a swift slap to the back. Rollie yelped and fell onto his hands and knees. He gagged once more and spat out the thing.

A whole entire lilly. He coughed weakly, a few leaves falling from his mouth. He trembled, staring at it. Blood was splattered on the petals he'd spat out.

"Rollie...what the actual fuck..."

Daniela's voice made him wince. She yanked him up to face him. He yelped in surprise and stared at her in fear.

"D-Dani-"

"Why did you let it get that bad?" She asked. Her voice was soft and sad. Guilt sunk into Rollie. "It could- it could kill you, Rolland. Don't you know that?"

"I-" Rollie began. He closed his mouth and looked away. He couldn't face her. Not like this. "I know..."

"Well who is it?" She asked. Rollie curled his hands into fists.

"I-" he pursed his lips and sniffled. "I can't say."

"Rolland." Daniela grabbed him tightly by the shoulders. He winced. "You'll die, don't you care about that?!" She snapped. "You can't just- just go dying on me!"

He didn't look at her. He just sat there, slowly crying. He sniffled. Daniela continued to yell at him about how stupid and irresponsible he was being.

"Why can't you tell me...?" She finally asked after her anger had mostly subsided. She still glared at him, mad that he was being so uncooperative.

"...they wouldn't love me back. There's no point." He finally said. Daniela stared at him.

"You don't know that-"

"Yes I do. She's so- so much better than me and I know I'm not good enough-"

"...she...?"

Rollie tensed. He stared at her. He'd been found out he knew that already. "I-I-"

"Who is she?" Daniela pressed. Rollie stared at her.

"I-" he trailed off. "I-It's-" he inhaled sharply. What could he say? He didn't know anyone else, and he certainly couldn't tell her it was her because the guilt would destroy her. 

"Rolland," she reached out and cupped his cheek in her palm. "Please...?"

He stared at her. He didn't want to cry- he really didn't- but- the tears burned at the corners of his eyes. His breath hitched and he sobbed, sniffling and gasping. Daniela pulled him close, hugging him against her. "Shh," her voice was so soft and comforting. He gripped her shirt tightly, wanting to just stay there forever. Her body felt soft and warm and oh so welcoming- he buried his face in his chest, fighting against the urge to vomit out more petals. "Shh, it's okay, I'm here, I'm here."

Eventually, his sobs subsided. Rollie sat there, hugging Daniela tight as he could. She rubbed his back comfortingly. He loved her, he loved her so so much. He felt his chest pang in pain and he gasped. He coughed and spluttered, bloody petals spewing onto her shirt. She moved away, staring at him as petals and leaves fell from his lips.

"...you're getting worse." Her voice was faint and full of panic. Rollie couldn't say a word. He just whimpered and closed his eyes tight as another entire flower made its way up his throat. Daniela stared in horror at her friend. "It's- it's...me."

Rollie would've protested if he weren't choking on the stem of the flower. He coughed, and it dislodged itself. His aching, tired body barely had the energy to spit the blood stained lilly out.

"Rolland-" she cupped his face in her hand. "I'm-"

"You don't...have to li-like...me." he murmured weakly.

"But- but I do..." Her voice was strained, full of sadness and on the verge of tears. Rollie could've cried all over again.

"Do-on't lie...to me..." He panted.

"I-I'm not!" She yelped. "I swear I-"

Rollie coughed and groaned. He fell onto his hands and knees again as another flower was expelled from his throat. "D-Dani..." He panted weakly.

Daniela could only stare in horror. Tears pooled in the corners of her eyes as she could only watch helplessly. Rollie stared at the bloody flowers on the ground. "F-fuck..." Was all he could groan.

Daniella bit down on her lip. "Rolland." She said hoarsely. "I love you." There was silence. Rollie didn't look at her, his chest just continued to heave. He spat out another bloody lilly. She grabbed him by the shoulders and yanked him up. Rollie yelped weakly in surprise. Daniela's lips crashed into his.

His body tensed, breaking out in goosebumps. He'd never kissed anyone before- this was his first kiss- his first kiss with Daniela- Daniela was his first kiss.

His chest heaved in shock as she kissed him. The pain suddenly got worse than it had ever been before, then subsided. For the first time in weeks his chest and throat didn't hurt. He shuddered, his wide, shocked eyes slowly drifting closed. She felt so warm and welcoming as her lips kneaded gently against him. Rollie reached up shakily and cupped her face in his hand. His other hand went over her shoulder, gripping the back of her shirt.

This- this couldn't be real, surely. There was no way she was kissing him now- with so much passion and love- Rollie shivered as the kiss deepened. He really, really didn't want it to end- but unfortunately, it did.

Daniela moved away, chest heaving, a few stray tears trickling down her face. They stared at each other for what felt like forever.

"O-oh god-" it suddenly hit Rollie what they did. All the bacteria that just got spread, not to mention that he'd gotten blood on her mouth! He wiped at his mouth with gloved hands, spitting a bit like that'd expell the bacteria.

"Uh- that bad?" Daniela asked. He looked up.

"Oh! Oh no- no no no-!" He explained quickly. "It's not that at all! Just- bacteria-"

Daniela stared at him for a few moments, then cracked a smile. She chuckled, and then began laughing hysterically. Rollie stared at her. "OH- OH MY GOD YOU'RE A FUCKING MORON ROLLIE." She looked at him, smiling wide. "First you almost get yourself killed and then you're worried about getting sick..."

Rollie cracked a shy smile. "Well- can you blame me?" He asked. Daniela looked at him and giggled.

"Fucking hell why do I love you-"

[hornsbeforehalos]

Forever, Sweetheart: Part 2

Pairing: Rob Benedict x OFC, past Norman Reedus x OFC

Warning: Smut, Language, RPF, mentions of violence and sexual assault, mentions of miscarriage, recreational drug use (weed), drinking, Rated E for EXPLICT A/N: TRIGGER WARNING: Mingus and Ky talk about the baby in this chapter. If you have triggers regarding subjects such as infant loss, please be cautious. 

As per usual I mean no harm or offense to anyone referenced or mentioned. this is a work of FICTION and no all your favorite people will be your favorite people in this. They’re characters.

Please do not read this if you are under the age of 18. Please do not copy or steal this and put it somewhere else. I will find you.

I do not own anything related to Supernatural or The Walking Dead or any other shows mentioned in this work of fiction. I am not affiliated with AMC or CW in any way.

MASTERLIST

Tags: @coffee-obsessed-writer @sandlee44 @wildefiction @sorenmarie87 @through-thesilver-lining @runekisses @pink1031 @zelda2248 @kazzieglove @journeyrose @his-paradox @docharleythegeekqueen @beffyblueeyes  Please let me know if you want to be added to the list!

My eyes drifted open the next morning as my senses kicked in, the strong scent of coffee wafting through the small hotel room. I could hear Rob in the shower, the sound of him singing while washing himself coming from the bathroom and making me smile.

I let out a groan as my body stretched itself out, the stiffness in my shoulders making me roll my neck back and forth for a moment before I climbed out of bed. Walking past the mirror on the wall, I let out another groan, this time as I observed the giant rat’s nest that resided itself on my head from falling asleep with it wet.

Lovely way to start out the morning.

I heard the shower shut off and the curtain be pulled back as I sifted through my clothes for the weekend while sipping on the cup of coffee Robbie had set out for me, selecting a Gishwhes t-shirt from the pile as well as a pair of shorts. I was pulling my pajamas off as I heard Rob open the bathroom door, my butt bent over in his direction as I stepped into my denim shorts.  

A low whistle sounded as he pressed his denim-covered groin against my ass as I straightened myself, earning him a giggle from me as his fingers dug themselves into my waist when I turned around in his arms.

“Don’t even say a thing,” I grunted as I watched his eyes widen as he took in the state of my hair, “Not a God damned thing, Benedict.”

Rob chuckled but made the gesture of zipping his mouth, patting my butt before shaking his head as he released me to select a shirt for himself. I made my way into the bathroom after getting the rest of my clothes on, sighing deeply as I stared at the heap on my head.

It took twenty minutes and Rob’s help to get the shit to cooperate, and I was grateful when I was finally able to get it tied into braided pig-tails. I was just done pressing the false last eyelash to my lid when the Richard’s unmistakable rap sounded at the door.

I exited the bathroom as Rob pulled the door ajar to let Rich inside, the poor man already looking flustered.

“Kay, Mish is looking for you. He’s on the war path already.” Rich warned, raking his hand through his hair as he turned to Rob, “Me and you gotta skedaddle, buddy, Daniella is having issues with the sound check guy.”

“Jesus, okay,” Rob sighed, shaking his head again as he pulled a flannel over shirt on. He walked over to me and wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me into a hug before kissing me, “I guess duty calls, my love. I’ll come find you later?”

I nodded before giving him another kiss, waving to Rich as I watched them leave.

It took about thirty seconds before my phone’s ringtone blared. I slide the answer button across Misha’s face, putting it on speaker as I pulled on my converse.

“Whaaaat? I’m on my way, damn. Let me get my fuckin’ shoes on.”

“Hurry your ass, woman! Did you know Marvel people are here too?” Misha asked excitedly. I could tell he had already made his way downstairs to the green room from the noises in the background, Bri’s unmistakable laughter sounding through the phone, “Sebastian fucking Stan even!”

Giggling, I strapped my laptop bag around my shoulder and grabbed my phone, taking it off speaker and pressing it to my ear as I made sure I had everything, “You’re such a nerd. I’m on my way.”

Misha hung up the phone without a good bye, and I placed it in my back pocket as I headed down to the convention.

The majority of the day had been hectic yet uneventful, and it was easy to slip back into the routine of convention life. As I had expected, I didn’t get to see Rob for most of the day, save for a couple of seconds here and there in between dragging Misha from one area of the hotel to another. I had hoped to at least be able to have a moment to go to his panel with Rich and Matt, but Misha wanted me to make sure the Random Acts information desk had everything they needed. I was talking to one of the past Gish contestants when Mingus approached with a couple of his friends.

“Hey Ming!” I beamed at him after the girl left, rounding the corner of the table I was behind to wrap my arms around him, “Glad you could come.”

“This shit is so cool, Ky,” He smiled, folding his lanky limbs across my shoulders as I pulled away to look up at him, “I’ve never been able to actually walk around one of these types of conventions before.”

“It has his moments of being cool,” I chuckled, turning to see two the two guys that came with him staring at me. They both looked familiar, and I remembered seeing them from the time when Ming had stayed with me.

“You guys remember my step mom, Ky, right?” Ming introduced with a wide grin.

Rolling my eyes, I smacked him in the chest with the back of my hand, “I’m like 7 years older than you, dude, don’t call me that.”

“Whatever,” He chuckled, “This is Matt and Kyle. You got time to go with us to get some food?”

I pulled my phone out and checked the time, noting that Rob’s panel was going to be ending soon and he’d texted that he wanted to meet in the green room afterwards.

“I can’t really leave, but ya’ll can come to the back with me if you want, they’ve got hella food piled up back there for everyone.” I replied, placing my phone back in my pocket, “Jensen and Jared should be headed there soon, too.”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Mingus nodded, watching as I gathered all my things before following me.

I pushed the door to the green room open so the four of us could enter, my eyes instantly finding Robbie perched on the side of the couch with my brother’s guitar, strumming the chords as Jensen hummed. He looked up to me as he felt my approach, his grin faltering slightly as he saw Mingus behind me.

“Mingus! Dude! What’s up?” Jensen said joyfully as he stood up to hug the kid, Jared following suit before moving so everyone could sit down.

I turned to face Rob as Mingus spoke with the others, not missing the glint in his eye as I slotted myself between his legs in front of the guitar. His eyes moved back to the instrument, and he thumbed a few chords before returning his attention to me.

“How was the panel?” I asked sweetly, running my fingers through the thick curls on top of his head. Rob stopped playing and closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling of the scratch of my fingertips against his scalp.

“Mmmm, it was okay. Couple people asked about you.” He answered, his eyes opening and shifting up to look at me as I stopped my ministrations.

“Anything interesting?” I wondered out loud, watching as Jared and Jensen lead Ming and his friends over to the food table. I pulled the guitar from Rob’s grasp as I sat on the couch beside him, my fingers finding the frets effortlessly.

“Nah, just asking if you were going to start doing conventions again, how you were doing, stuff like that.” Rob replied, a smile on his face as he looked down at me playing, “If you were gonna sing with me tomorrow.”

I looked up at him knowingly, my lips pursed together in a straight line as I rolled my eyes at him and sighed through my nose, “Maybeeee.”

“Maybe means yes.” Rob snorted, his grin splitting his face into a  full blown smile, “What song are we gonna do?”

Shrugging, I looked down at the strings of the guitar, “I don’t know, probably just one ya’ll always do or something.”

“I’ll figure out the details and let you know, ‘kay?” He promised, his hand curling around my shoulders as he leaned down to kiss the top of my head. Glancing at his watch, he stood up, “I gotta get back out there, but I’ll see you in a little bit.”

“Kay,” I replied, looking up at him as he leaned down again to kiss my lips, his hand cradling my head and stroking my cheek, “Love you, Rob.”

“Love you too, babe.” he replied before waving to the others, Jared and Mingus rejoining me with his friends as Rob and Rich left the room.

“Mingus said he could join us for dinner after karaoke,” Jared announced as him and Jensen squished themselves onto the couch next to me, tossing a wrapped sandwich my way, “We’re going to that one place we went last year.”

“Cool,” I smiled, letting Jensen take the guitar from me as I unwrapped the sandwich, my stomach growling loudly, “I’m glad you get to hang out, dude.”

“I’ve got the photo shoot tomorrow and I’ll be busy for the rest of the weekend, so I wanna see you as much as I can. We never get to hang out anymore.” Mingus stated, a sad tone to his voice as he took a sip of his drink, “I miss my super awesome cool step mom.”

“Stop calling me that!” I groaned, rolling my head back and huffing as everyone chuckled, “I’m not your step mom!”

“Anymore!” Ming contested before taking a bite of food, playful grin on his face.

“Not never!” I huffed, tossing a piece of lettuce at him, “So weird, dude.”

“I wish my step mom was as cool as you,” Kyle snorted from beside his friend, “Mine’s a cunt.”

“She’s not as cool as you think, kid,” Jensen chimed in, his hands instantly rising up to defend him against a flying piece of food.

Everyone laughed, and I shook my head at Mingus, “Doesn’t he have a new girlfriend or something anyway?”

“Eh. I mean not really I guess. I’ve seen him hang out with that chick Keagan a few times, and he was dating this one chick for a while, but I don’t know what happened to her.”

Nodding my head, the mention of Keagan’s name brought a flood of memories to the forefront of my mind. She’d been my friend, but had let Jeffrey manipulate her into being the reason for Norman and I’s separation. I had no ill will towards her, though, I was extremely over Norman and extremely happy with Rob, but I still wondered from time to time if things would have been different with the baby if she hadn’t done what she did.

Sensing the change in mood, Mingus pulled the subject away from his father, “We need to hang out when we get back to the states. I’m going to be spending the summer in LA with Matt.”

“I’m down dude, I just work all the time so you gotta let me know.”

“I’m sure we will get it all figured out,” Mingus grinned as the door to the room opened, Misha entering, looking rather stressed.

“Kylin! There you are! I’ve been looking all over for you!” He urged, throwing his hands up into the air, “You gotta come to autos with me.”

“Uhhh, why?” I asked, quirking an eyebrow at him and tilting my head curiously, “There’s no reason for me to be there.”

“Because I said so,” Misha stated, his own eyebrow lifting itself, “Now come on.”

Sighing as I wrapped the uneaten portion of my sandwich back up, I turned to Mingus and the guys, “Sorry, my boss is a dick.”

Chuckling, Ming responded,” It’s fine, we gotta go meet my dad anyway for something with Ride, I’ll text you later for the dinner details.”

After telling them bye and showing them the quickest way to get to the exit, I followed Misha down a different hallway towards the autograph room.

“You know I wanted you to come with me so I could spend some time with you, right? You’ve been so busy, I’ve barely seen you.” Misha complained as he threw his arm around my shoulders.

“You’re the one that asked me for the help, dude,” I rasped as I wrapped my arm around his waist, “Runnin’ me ragged.”

“I know, I’m despicable” Misha chuckled, squeezing me close for a moment before releasing me as we neared the area, “I’ll give you a raise.”

“Ha. I doubt it.” I snorted, rolling my eyes and jabbing him in the gut with my finer as he held the door open for me.

I took my seat behind him as he got situated, pulling out my phone to scroll through social media while we waited for the fans to be allowed through. I had been tagged in numerous things on twitter and Instagram, and I ignored most of them as I usually did until one from Mingus caught my eye. He’d taken a selfie with him and his friends and Jared, with the caption ‘Supernatural in Rome, thanks step-mom!’ Followed by a winking emoji.

Stop fucking calling me that! I typed back in a comment quickly, adding a few laughing emojis myself as the room started to fill up. I pocketed my phone again and stood up, moving beside Misha to help the handlers take the tickets.

“Um, Kylin? Would you mind signing this too?” A woman asked shyly, about fifteen minutes into the session.

“Um, sure, I guess. What’s your name?” I replied, startled.

“Megan.”

I gave her a smile and signed the board she’d placed in front of us before handing the metallic marker back to her, “Here you go, Megan.”

“Thank you so much. It really means a lot. I’m sorry about what happened to you.” Megan smiled sadly at me, her eyes kind and gentle, “I lost a pregnancy myself not too long ago. I don’t know your whole story, but it was devastating for me.”

I could feel the crack in my chest try to reopen again as I gave her a small smile back, looking down at my hands before over at Misha, who wrapped his arm around me and kissed the crown of my head.

“Thank you, and I’m sorry for your loss as well. I don’t know where I’d be without my family.” I replied, my voice low in attempt to conceal the emotions threatening to bubble over. The girl got her hug from Misha and moved on, not realizing she’d broached a tender subject.

“You okay?” Misha asked as he watched me sit back down in the chair behind him, my arms crossing over my chest protectively.

“Yeah, I should’ve been expecting someone to talk about it.” I exhaled deeply, “I think I’m gonna go get a cigarette, okay?”

“Sounds good, after I’m done here I’ll meet you upstairs to figure out dinner plans before you leave for karaoke, yeah? I might just go with Ruth and Briana, Jensen and I are arguing today.”

“Just let me know, I’ll kick him in the nuts for you” I snorted, grabbing my purse and double checking I had everything I needed, “Grab my bag when you leave, please.”

“Got ya.” Misha replied with a wink, throwing a thumbs up in my direction as another fan approached and demanded his attention.

I found the side exit quickly, happy to be able to finally get some nicotine into my system. I exhaled the strong smoke as I scrolled through my phone again, trying to forget about the woman’s words. I jumped as the door I’d just came out of opened, but smiled upon seeing Rob crook his head around it, like he’d been looking for me.

“There you are,” He smirked, verifying my suspicions as he let the door close behind him. “You okay? Misha texted me that a fan had upset you.”

Letting one side of my mouth fall, I shrugged, “Not really, just threw me off guard I guess. I should have been expecting it though. It’s why I haven’t been coming to conventions.”

“I’m sure seeing Mingus doesn’t help either, huh?” Rob asked, leaning up against the wall next to me as I took another drag.

Shrugging again, I exhaled, “I mean he doesn’t really bother me, besides with the stupid step mom shit, but I don’t know. This woman decided it would be a good time to share her story with me, and... like I said, I don’t know.”

"I get it,” Rob nodded, reaching over to grasp my free hand, “I’ve had fans do that stupid shit too.”

He leaned his head over and onto my shoulder, chuckling as he said, “That step-mom stuff is definitely pretty weird.”

“Right?” I snorted, a smile breaking across my face that turned into a full blown laugh, “Kid is out of there, man. I’m so glad Calvin and Audrey aren’t like that.”

“That’s because they hate me.” Rob replied, the tone in his voice instantly shifting as he pushed himself off the wall to stand directly in front of me, our hands still entwined.

“They don’t hate you, Rob,” I argued, looking at him before taking another hit from the cigarette, exhaling quickly, “They’re going through a lot right now.”

“Feels like they hate me,” He mumbled, looking down at his feet and kicking at an imaginary rock, “They barely ever call me anymore.”

The kids had taken the divorce a lot worse than Rob had expected them to. Worse then I think they even expected to. They always knew the divorce was eminent, but their mom had them moved all the way to San Diego before the papers were even filed, making them leave behind everything they’d ever known. In their anger they blamed Rob, his inability to work things out with Mollie uprooting and destroying their whole lives.

“Hey,” I said, tugging on his arm to get his attention and make him look at me,  “They’ll come around, alright? Give it some time.”

He smiled weakly, pulling me to him to kiss my lips. I pulled away for a second to flick the butt of the cigarette into the parking lot before turning back to him and pressing my mouth against his.

Curling both my hands around Rob’s neck, I parted my lips to taste his tongue with mine, a soft encouraging noise coming from his throat as he tightened his grip on me. We kissed for a few moments, my skin growing heated under his touch as I moaned into his mouth before he pushed me back into the wall, the brick biting into the back of my thighs as he ground himself into me.

Panting when he finally pulled away, he rasped, “I love you, Sweetheart.”

“I love you too, babe.” I replied, small smile playing on my lips as I gazed up at him lovingly. “Forever.”

“Forever, Sweetheart.” He grinned before kissing me again.

After karaoke, Rob and I met up with the boys and Mingus, his friends having something else planned for that evening. Jensen and Misha were still arguing apparently, something Jensen ‘didn’t wanna talk about’, so he’d gone with Ruth and Bri and the rest of the band. 

We got a ride to the quiet restaurant the boys had been to the year before, the lighting low and music soft as we sat in the back corner and conversed between ourselves. Mingus was taking full advantage of the nonexistent drinking age, knocking back shots in between beers at a pace that would rival even his father’s.

“Mingus, you need some water or something?” Jared asked, concern lacing his voice as the boy finally started to sway back and forth.

“I’mmm...okay.” Mingus sighed, leaning his temple against my shoulder as he sat next to me.

“You sure?” I whispered, tilting my head to peer down at him. There was a sad look on his face, and I brushed a piece of his hair off of his forehead as his eyes met mine for a moment. There was definitely an emptiness there, and my heart broke for him. Poor kid was probably still in the grieving process himself.

“Mind if I bum a cigarette from you?” He asked lowly, up-righting himself on the seat, “I think I need some air.”

“Yeah, I’ll come with you.” I replied gently, giving him a small smile as I watched him stand up. He steadied himself by gripping the table, a goofy grin on his face suddenly as the alcohol started moving through his body again.

Shaking my head with a small chuckle, I turned to Robbie on the other side of me and excused myself, kissing him on the cheek and reassuring him I’d be okay. I looped my arm into Mingus’ elbow, my own slight intoxication making me lightheaded. We exited the building and turned down the narrow alleyway beside it, finding the small private smoking area dimmly lit by a street lamp down the way. Leaning against the cool brick, I passed Mingus a cigarette from my pack before placing my own between my lips and lighting it.

“You alright?” I drawled cautiously, my eyes scanning him as he looked down at his feet.

He stayed silent for a few moments, his eyes never leaving the ground before a silent tear rolled down his cheek, barely visible in the lighting.

“Hey, sweetie, you’re okay,” I instantly soothed, reaching my hand out for his and pulling him to me. His long limbs encased my shoulders, a muffled sob retching through him as he pushed his face into my hair.

“Shhhh, Ming, it’s alright,” I cooed, rubbing his back with my free hand as I flicked the accumulated ashes with the other, “Come on, let’s sit.”

I pulled away from him and tugged him towards a nearby bench, making him sit beside me as I helped him wipe his tears away while his breathing slowed.

“Sorry, Ky,” Mingus rasped, his voice still cracking with emotion, “It’s just…this year has sucked so fuckin’ much for me.”

Nodding my head as I exhaled smoke from the drag I’d finally taken, I placed my hand in his, “I know, babe. It’s been hard for everyone.”

“I have dreams about him, you know? Nax. I see him.” He mumbled, his words slightly slurred.

“I do too. Except I won’t ever know for sure if it’s really him I see.” I replied, my own voice shaking as I fought back the tears that were threatening to spring forth.

“What do you mean?” Ming asked, his brows furrowing in confusion. “Dad didn’t show you a picture?”

Shaking my head, I brought the cigarette to my lips for the last time before tossing it, “He never talked to me after the day I woke up. There were no pictures taken of him that I know of.”

“What a dick, are you fuckin’ serious?” Mingus cursed, swaying to the side slightly as he shifted to pull his phone out. Before unlocking the screen, he looked up at me, his eyes meeting mine, “Do you want to see?”

Nervousness pin pricked throughout my bloodstream, stinging my skin as my stomach dropped. I couldn’t stop the moisture from rolling down my cheeks, a sob gasping from me as I nodded my head.

It had been over a year, and I never once had seen a picture of my son.

Exhaling sharply, Ming sniffled before wiping his nose. He unlocked the phone and scrolled for a second. Finding what he was looking for brought a small smile to his face, his watery eyes looking up at me before asking, “You sure?”

Nodding again, I held my breathe, closing my eyes for a second while he turned the phone around. When I opened them again, I was peering into the most beautiful blue eyes of the most beautiful baby I’d ever seen.

My chest cracked open as a sob wracked through me again, but it was accompanied by a smile spreading across my lips as I took the phone from him. Lucian’s perfect face was was right there, looking up at me. I noted the nasal tube that curled around his cheek, the only thing besides his obvious size that made him appear any form of weak. My shaking fingertips drifted over the screen, tracing the lines of his little nose and lips. I felt strong arms wrap themselves around me from behind, the scent of my brother encasing me instantly. I’d been too absorbed in staring at my son that I hadn’t even heard him and the others approach.

“He was beautiful, sissy,” Jensen croaked, eyelids blinking back tears as I turned around to look up at him, “Just like you.”

Sniffling as I attempted to compose myself, I handed the phone back to Mingus, prying my eyes away from the little thing on the screen.

“Thank you, Ming. Can you please send it to me?” I sniffled, exhaling the tension from me as foot steps could be heard approaching.

I turned my head to see Norman’s silhouette, the looming figure unmistakable.

“You alright, kiddo?” He rasped, his voice husky as he took in the sullen expressions on our faces.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Mingus snapped, pulling hisself unsteadily to his feet.

“I sent him a text when ya’ll hadn’t come inside for a bit. Figured you needed a ride,” Jared spoke, clearing his throat uncomfortably.

“I’m fine.” Mingus spat, glaring at his father, “I’m so fucking pissed at you, dude.”

“What the hell did I do?” Norman questioned, confusion twisting his face.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, Dad, huh? You were so wrapped up in your own asshole that you couldn’t even let her have a fuckin’ picture of her child!?” The boy’s towering figure stepped into Normans personal space, his chest puffed out in fury, “Not only did you fucking blame her, you couldn’t even give her closure for that? And you never fucking told me?”

Mingus shoved his father back, Norman stumbling before catching himself before he could fall. Jared instantly shot his hand out to Mingus’ chest as the boy attempted to advance again, rage flicking in Mingus’ pupils and encasing his irises.

“Enough, Ming,” I begged, my hand wrapping around his wrist and pulling as Jared and Jensen placed a barrier between the son and the father. I could see Rob helping Norman to his feet over their shoulders, hushed words with a sharp tone being spoken between the two.

“Fuck you, Dad, seriously. I hate you!” Mingus continued, fighting against the bodies surrounding him, “I fucking hate you.”

“Ming, you don’t mean that.” I argued, continuing to tug on his arm until he looked at me, “Come on, I’ll get you back to your mom’s hotel.”

I turned to lead him towards the parking lot, when I heard Norman’s voice call out to me.

“Just know I’m sorry, Whiskey.”

[morbid-mary]

What A Furry Ride

TEEN WOLF - Season 1

Author’s Note (PLEASE READ)- This particular story is based on the MTV tv show, Teen Wolf. Each chapter will be each episode. My OC for this story is none other than Scott McCall’s older sister, Daniella “Dani” McCall. A senior at Beacon Hills High School. I’m starting this story in episode 2, which is Monday, January 17th. I figured the boys would hold off on telling her for a little while considering they were already freaked out enough. Especially when Scott gets a date with the new girl who’s father tried to kill him the night before. Yes, it’s a big project, but I’ve been daydreaming about this FOREVER and I think it’s about time to put it into words, don’t you think? 

Chapter 1 Set in Episode 2

The morning bell rings and everyone is moving through the halls to get to their classes. 

“I’m sorry, man. I can’t believe I tried to kill you” Scott says. 

“Dude, it’s fine just forget about it already" Stiles says as they walk down the hallway. “Do we really have to tell your sister?” He asks for the millionth time. 

“Yes! Stiles we tell her everything, I can’t keep this from her!” 

“Okay, but do we have to tell her now? At school?” 

They turn a corner heading back to the locker room. It’s most likely empty right now.  

“Yes, now. The sooner the better” Scott reaffirms. 

"Alright fine. Did you text her?" 

"No, I forgot" Scott says and pulls out his phone. 

‘Come down to the boys locker room now’ Scott sends. ‘It's very important’

 "Okay I told her" he says. 

"Awesome, this is going to suck" Stiles says. 

They make their way down the steps and turn into the locker room to wait. They set their stuff down by their lockers out of habit. 

"Hey did you see Derek at practice this morning?" Stiles asks. 

"He was there?!"  

"Yeah I saw him watching us from the bleachers when you shifted on me- oh God." Stiles cuts himself off when Derek comes around the corner.

"What do you want now?" Scott asks. "It doesn't matter you have to get out of here, my sister is coming down here!" He adds. 

Derek holds that stony expression. "You shifted during practice. That is exactly why you can't play on Saturday, you'll hurt someone" Derek states firmly. 

"Yes, we know! Now get out of here. We're telling his sister about the whole werewolf thing and we don't need you scaring her on top of that" Stiles says.

Before Derek could respond the door opens and in comes Scott's older sister. Daniella McCall. Senior and loving big sister to both Scott and Stiles. "Hey Scottie," she says and ruffles Scott's hair with a smile. 

Scott pushes her hand away with a grunt. 

"Hey Dani" Stiles says, raising his hand to wave. 

"Hey baby, who's this?" Dani asks, gesturing to Derek.

"Derek Hale, I'm a friend of Scott's" he says and extends his hand. 

"Daniella McCall, it's nice to meet you" Dani says and shakes his hand ignoring Scott's "no he's not" comment. 

"He's not a friend" Scott says flatly. 

"Then why is he here" Dani says in an equally flat tone. 

"We don't know" Stiles huffs and gives one of his flat, uncomfortable smiles.

"Well let's just focus on the reason I'm here instead" she says, eyeing the boys. "What was so important?" She asks. 

"He's a werewolf" Stiles says, pointing at Scott. "Well both of them are werewolves, but your brother was 'turned' the other night" Stiles adds. 

Dani folds her arms trying to process, "What?" She says. 

The boys explain everything to her including Derek's unwanted input here and there.

Scott shows his sister his gold eyes. 

"Holy crap" she says. She hooks her finger under his chin, tilting his head up. She stares at his eyes and the more prominent canine teeth. She steps back. 

"Do you believe us now?" Stiles asks. 

Dani drags her lip between her teeth and looks at Derek. "This is real, right?" She asks. 

He nods shoving his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket.

She runs her hands through her hair "Wow, this is-" 

"Crazy we know" Stiles interrupts. 

"Do you believe me?" Scott asks. 

Dani gives a soft smile and nods, "Yeah, I guess I do". 

Both Scott and Stiles let out relieved sighs. 

"You're not gonna tell anyone are you? Especially mom" Scott asks. 

"Oh God no, I promise" Dani says. She looks over and Derek wasn't there. "Where'd Derek go?" She asks. 

"Away. Don't worry, he does that a lot" Stiles says flatly.

~~🌻~~

That night, Scott gets home late and flops onto his bed. He was glad he had his sister to talk to about everything. Having someone besides Stiles to help him with his new werewolf abilities. He filled her in on everything that had happened, including the part about Allison's dad being a hunter. His mom, Melissa, comes in and tells Scott that she is taking Saturday night off to see his big game. she lets him know that she’s working tonight and that Dani is in charge as usual.

After she leaves for work, Scott gets a Skype call from Stiles. Stiles shoots his Nerf gun at the camera and flashes that lopsided grin. 

“What did you find out?” Scott asks. 

“Well, just that Jackson has a separated shoulder” Stiles informs. 

“Because of me?” 

“Because he’s a tool” Stiles corrects. 

“Can he play?”

“We don’t know yet. Now we’re just counting on you for Saturday.” 

Scott shakes his head letting out a sigh. He sees Stiles looking closer into the camera, as if he seeing something. “What?” Scott asks. 

Stiles swallows and has this unnerved expression. Stiles sends a message displayed on the screen “It looks like someone’s behind you”. 

Scott turns around and Derek is right there. Derek grabs him and pins him against the wall. 

“I saw you on the field” Derek growls. 

“Wh- what?” Scott manages to say between his labored breathing. 

“You shifted in front of them!” Derek reminds him. “They find out what you are, they find out about me, all of us!” he adds.

“They didn’t see anything! I swear!” Scott says. 

“And they won’t! Because if you even-” Derek stops. ‘Someone’s coming” He says, letting go of Scott. 

Three knocks on the door. 

“Scott? did you put all the laundry in your room again?” Dani calls through the door. 

Scott’s eyes go wide, “Hide!” He whispers to Derek . "Uh..Yeah I did, sorry. It’s in my chair” He calls and shoves Derek toward the wall. 

Dani opens the door and Derek slides behind it just in time. “You okay? You look a little flustered” Dani says, frowning at her little brother. 

“I-I’m fine” he manages and sits on the bed. 

Dani walks past the door over to the chair that had the laundry piled in it. 

Scott’s eyes go wide again, glancing at his sister’s bare legs then to the door where Derek was. “Where are your pants?!” Scott asks. 

“Somewhere in this chair,” Dani says as she digs through the mound.

Scott glances at Derek again who was staring at Dani. A flare of protectiveness ignites in his belly. 

“My leggings! Thank God” Dani says and tugs on the black fabric. 

Scott glares at Derek for a second. 

“I’ll grab the rest of my stuff later. Dinner is almost ready by the way” She says and turns around. 

Scott tenses, afraid of her seeing Derek. 

She eyes Scott for a moment “Okay seriously, Scotty what’s wrong?” She asks again. 

Scott swallows hard, “N-nothing, I’m fine” Scott stammers. 

She takes in a breath deciding to accept the response. She walks past the door pushing it closed, “Hi Derek.” 

Scott freezes and Derek just looks at her. 

“Hey” he says slowly and moves away from the wall. 

“Why were you hiding?” she asks, folding her arms over her chest. 

“Ask Scott” He says. 

Dani looks over to Scott “Is it a gay thing?” she asks. 

“No!” Scott says, completely appalled by the insinuation. 

Derek had this look of disgust on his face as well. 

Dani laughs moving closer to Scott. “Then why were you hiding your friend?” she asks softly. 

“He’s not my friend” Scott groans. 

Dani rolls her eyes, “Oh God, not this again.” 

Scott starts getting defensive, “I practically hate him!” 

Dani glares at her younger brother for a moment. “Yes...he saves your life from your girlfriends daddy and now he’s the worst person in the world. I definitely understand the reasoning behind your ‘hatred’ for Derek Hale” she says flatly. 

Scott scoffs and plops down on his bed, shaking his head. “Whatever” he spits out, bitterly. 

Dani growls for a moment before turning to Derek. “I’d rather you use the door the next time you come visit.” she says. 

Derek simply nods. 

“Have you eaten?” Dani asks. 

“He is not staying for dinner” he states. 

Dani focuses back on Derek, ignoring her brother. 

“No I haven’t yet, but I wasn’t planning on staying” He says. 

“Come on, I made lasagna. You’ll love it” Dani says and smiles. 

“I am not sitting at the table with him!” Scott says and sits down at his computer again.

Dani sighs and bites her lip. “Scott...” she says gently. 

“No” he says and pulls up a homework assignment. 

She looks at Derek and gestures to give her a second. Dani walks over to the aggravated little werewolf and runs her hands over his shoulders. She leans down, kissing his hair and she wraps his arms around him. 

Scott lets out a sigh. “Can you get off me now?” he asks. 

She smiles against his hair. “No” she says gently. 

“Are we okay?” She asks him as she rubs his arms. 

“Yeah, I guess so.” Scott replies. 

She kisses his hair again and lets him go, “I love you.” 

He glances over his shoulder, “Love you too” he mumbles. 

Dani smiles and ruffles his hair before leaving him alone. “Come down and eat when your done” She says and watches Scott nod. 

Derek moves out of the room, “I’m just gonna-” 

“No no no, you’re eating here” Dani interrupts. She grabs his wrist pulling him down the hallway. 

“You don’t have to do this” he says. 

“Come on, it’ll be nice” Dani says and smiles at him over her shoulder. 

Derek sighs and lets her pull him down the stairs. 

~~🌻~~

Dani finally got Derek talking by the time the lasagna was ready. “-Scott is an over-emotional whiner and Stiles is a sarcastic...spaz” Derek finishes. 

Dani laughs as she dishes out two servings of lasagna. “Honey, you are just getting a taste of what I’ve had to live with for the past eleven years” she says. She hands him his bowl and leads him over to the couch. 

“They’ve known each other for that long?” Derek asks. 

“Yeah, it’s crazy, huh?” Dani says and sits on the couch. 

Derek follows, “No, it actually makes sense.” 

Dani giggles a little more and Derek tries not to smile. 

“How did they even meet?” Derek asks. 

“Oh gosh, um...okay I remember-” She shifts, folding her legs and turns sideways facing him. She places her bowl in her lap and continues. “We were having a family beach trip, Scott was about four years old at the time and I was helping him build a sand castle. The Stilinski’s were visiting the same beach, too. Anyway, we had just finished and Scott was very proud of himself, he couldn’t stop smiling. Then Stiles walks over and pees all over his little sand castle.” 

Derek smiles shaking his head and Dani just laughs again. 

“They’ve been joined at the hip ever since” she adds and shifts back forward. Dani turns on the TV and finds ‘That 70′s Show.’  

Derek takes a bite of the lasagna and leans back against the couch. 

“You like?” Dani asks. 

“This is really good” He says, making her smile.

Dani and Derek spent the rest of the evening watching TV and chatting. They talked for a while about Scott and the up coming game. Scott came down stairs from time to time getting more twitchy with each visit. Once dinner was over Stiles had come over and the both of them were getting twitchy about Derek hanging out with Dani. 

“Thanks for dinner” Derek says and shrugs on his leather jacket. 

“Your welcome, you can come over any time” Dani says. 

“No, he can’t” Stiles calls. 

Dani walks over to the stairs and sees the boys sitting at the top, clearly eavesdropping. “Why do you care? You don’t even live here” she says. 

“It’s Derek!” Scott whisper yells from the top of the stairs. 

“Really?” Dani says sarcastically, “I hadn’t noticed.” She waves them off before they could get all huffy and puffy. “It was nice handing out with you” Dani says and opens the front door. 

Derek smiles grabbing his keys. 

“Goodnight” she says and smiles. 

“Goodnight” he says and steps out to his car. 

Dani waits for him to climb in his car before waving and closing the door for the night.

~~🌻~~

School was almost over and Scott hadn’t figure out a way to not play the following night. He got read into by Lydia which made everything so much better. During class change, Stiles grabs Scott, “What?” he asks. 

Stiles points at his dad talking to two other officers just up the hallway. “Tell me what their saying. 

Scott uses his hearing ability to listen in. “Curfew because of the body” he says. 

Stiles pats his arm and leans back “Unbelievable! My dad’s off looking for a rabid animal while the jerkoff who actually killed the girl is just hanging out, doing whatever he wants.”

“We can’t exactly tell your dad the truth about Derek” Scott points out. 

“Yeah, but I can do something” Stiles says. 

“Like what?”

“Find the other half of the body” Stiles says with a shrug before leaving. 

“Are you kidding?” Scott calls after him. 

Scott finds Lydia introducing Allison to other lacrosse players like she said she’d do. While he was talking with Allison afterwards, he sees her holding the jacket that was in the woods with him a few nights ago, thinking it was from Derek. This was all getting more and more unnerving for Scott by the minute.

~~🌻~~

Scott rushes to the Hale house on his bike after school lets out. Once he’s in the front yard he jumps off his bike. “Derek! Derek!” He yells. He smells blood and sees a fresh grave to the left of the front porch. When he looks back, Derek was right there. “Stay away from her! She doesn’t know anything!” He shouts.

“Yeah?” Derek says. “What if she does?” he asks, walking up to Scott. “You think you and your little buddy Stiles can google werewolves and think you got all the answers? Is that it? You don’t get it yet Scott, but I’m looking out for you.” He says, getting closer. 

“How? By getting cozy on the couch with my sister?” Scott fires back. 

Derek’s jaw tightens and he ignores the comment, “Think about what could happen. You’re out on the field, the aggression takes over, and you shift in front of everyone.”

Scott’s glaring at Derek, beyond frustrated. 

Derek picks up Scott’s lacrosse stick, “Your mom, your sister, and all your friends. And when they see you-” Derek pokes Scott with the net of the stick and Scott slaps it away. Derek looks at the net and rips through it with his claws. “-Everything falls apart.” Derek tosses Scott his stick and was gone.

~~🌻~~

Later on, Stiles comes bursting into Scott’s room. “What did you find? How did you find it? Where did you find it?” Stiles asks very quickly. “And yes, I’ve had a lot of adderall” he adds. 

“Stiles” Dani groans in disappointment. 

“It’s not that bad!” 

“Where was it?” Stiles asks Scott again. 

“Oh my God, you found the body?” Dani asks. 

“Yeah, it’s right by the house. I could smell the blood” Scott confirms. 

“When we find it, your dad nails Derek for the murder and you gotta help me figure out a way to play lacrosse without changing because there is no way I’m missing that game.” Stiles cheers and Dani storms out of the room. 

“Where are you going?” Scott asks. 

“To visit Jackson” Dani says. 

“Again?” Stiles asks. 

She glares at him and leaves.

~~🌻~~

Late that night, The boys ride out to the Hale house in Stiles’ Jeep. They for Derek to leave before pulling up to the house. They climb out with their shovels and flashlights looking at the house.

“Somethings different...” Scott says. 

“Different how?” Stiles asks. 

“I don’t know” Scott says as they get closer to the side of the house. “Let’s just get this over with” he says and they start digging.

They had been digging for a long time and Scott was starting to get worried. “What if he comes back?” he asks. 

“Then we get the hell out of here” Stiles says. 

“What if he catches us?” Scott asks and stops for a moment. 

“I have a plan for that. You run one way, I’ll run the other. Whoever he catches first, too bad.” Stiles says with a shrug and goes back to digging. 

“I hate that plan” Scott says.

Stiles digs for another scoop of dirt and hits something hard, “Whoa, stop, stop, stop.” The brush the dirt away finding a large bag that was knotted with rope. they untie the knots and open the bag uncovering the upper half of a wolf. 

“AAAAHH!” they scream, jumping out of the hole. 

“What the hell is that?!” Stiles asks.

“It’s a wolf!” Scott says. 

“I thought you said you smelled human blood!” Stiles says. 

“I told you something was different!” Scott says. “We gotta get out of here.”

“Yeah, help me cover this up” Stiles says. 

They start covering the body when Stiles sees something. 

“What?” Scott asks. 

“You see that flower?” Stiles asks. 

“So what?” Scott asks. 

“I think it’s wolfsbane” Stiles says. 

“What’s that?” Scott asks. 

Stiles looks at Scott, “Haven’t you ever seen ‘The Wolfman’? Lawn Janie Jr.? Claude Rains? The original, classic werewolf movie?” he asks. 

“No, what!” Scott says, getting impatient. 

Stiles shakes his head, “You are so unprepared for this.”

Stiles goes over and uproots the purple flower. I pulls on it and the root seems to trail around the grave. Stiles keeps pulling and pulling uncovering the root that had grown in a spiral. 

Scott looks down in the hole and stands up, “Stiles..” Stiles comes over and looks. 

The wolf had turned into a woman. 

~~🌻~~

The next morning, Scott watches the police lead Derek out of his house in handcuffs. Scott can’t even make eye contact with Derek who was glaring at him. Derek climbs into the back of the squad car and the officer shuts the door. Scott’s eye’s widen as he watches Stiles walk up to the squad car. 

Stiles climbs in the front seat, “Just so you know, I’m not afraid of you.” 

Derek glares at Stiles like he’s going to eat him. 

“Okay maybe I am�� He says. 

Stiles’ father, Sheriff Stilinski, snatches him out of the squad car. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” The Sheriff asks.

“I’m just trying to help!” Stiles says. 

“Uh-huh, okay well how about you help me understand exactly how you came across this?” He asks. 

Stiles sighs, “We were looking for Scott’s inhalator.” 

“Which he dropped when?” His dad asks. 

“The other night” Stiles says with a shrug.

“The other night when you were looking for the first half of the body” His dad says. 

“Yes” Stiles says. 

“The night you said that you were alone, and Scott was at home” he says. 

“Yes! Wait no- ah crap” Stiles lowers his head realizing he gave himself up. 

“Get the hell out of here” Sheriff says. 

“Absolutely” Stiles says rubbing his head and leaves quickly.

Dani is waken up by her phone ringing. She rolls over looking at her alarm which reads, “WED  10:30 AM” Dani’s stomach drops, realizing she’s extremely late for school. Her mom must be puling a double shift over at the hospital, because if she was home, she’d never let Dani sleep in on a school day. The blaring ringtone of her phone reminds her of the incoming cal and she groans, grabbing it off the night stand, “Hello?” She says groggily. 

“Wow, your sleepy voice is kinda hot.” 

“Stiles?” Dani sits up running her hand through her hair. 

“Yeah, sorry for waking you up, but we got a problem.” 

She climbs out of bed grabbing some clothes from her closet, “What is it?”

“Scott wolfed out in my car and took off and now I don’t know where he is.” 

Dani tugs on some jeans, putting him on speaker, “What happened” she says. 

“Okay so I had a bunch of wolfsbane in my car-” 

“Like from that old werewolf movie?” 

“Yeah! It was really messing with him and he wolfed out.”

 “Stiles where did you get the wolfsbane?” 

“From the grave we dug up last night that had the other half of the body  the police found the other night in it,” he says uneasily. 

There was a pause as Dani tugs on a cardigan and tries not to get upset. “Where was the grave” She asks. 

“Derek’s yard.”

“Why were you there this morning, skipping school, if you dug it up last night?”

There was a pause on his end this time. 

“Because we pinned it on Derek and he got arrested for the murder...” he says carefully.

“Oh my God” Dani says. 

“Dani-” 

“I can’t believe you guys! You are obsessed!” she says tugging on her shoes. 

“He killed her! He murdered that other werewolf!” 

“Just shut up and find my brother while I clean up your mess, again” 

Dani hangs up. She growls as she ties her dark hair up in a messy bun and stomps out of the house. 

~~🌻~~

Down at the station, Derek was handcuffed to the bench in Sheriff Stilinski’s office while he was being processed. The sheriff was sitting at his desk looking over Derek’s file. Voices were heard outside the office. “Ma’am he is busy you will have to- ma’am- m’am please!” A deputy says just before Dani pushes past her and into the Sheriff’s office.

 “What the hell are you doing?” he asks. 

“Stiles called me” She says, clearly agitated. 

“Ah geez, don’t tell me you’re involved in this too” he says and leans back in his chair. 

“I’m about to be” she says. 

“How about you calm down and we’ll talk then” he offers. 

“No sir, we’re doing this now” she says. 

The sheriff looks at her and sighs “What is it Dani?” 

Dani looks at Derek handcuffed to the bench and sighs. “Are you seriously convicting him for this ‘so called’ murder?!” She says. 

“The body was in his front yard” He says. 

“That’s enough to bring him in for questioning but not arrest, sheriff” she says, pointedly. “I’ve seen the first half of the body you found and with the wounds and marks on it, there is no way he did it.”

He eyes her for a moment, “You are not legally able to see that body, how did you manage to do that?” he asks, firmly. 

“My mom’s worked at that hospital since I was tiny. I know that place like the back of my hand, are you really that surprised I got into the morgue?” She asks. 

He sighs rubbing his face, “No...” 

She sits down in one of the chairs in front of his desk, “There’s no way he did it.” She says again.

“Prove it” He says. 

“You’ve seen both halves of the body. That poor woman was chewed up and clawed all over both halves of her. He’s a human being, he doesn’t have claws and teeth like the thing that killed that girl. Does he look like he could claw and chew out someone?”  

 The Sheriff runs a hand over his face and looks over Laura Hale’s file again. He pics up one of the pictures of half of her mauled body. Dani’s right. “I should’ve stuck with the rabid animal theory.” He rubs his face and groans. 

“And definitely shouldn’t have listened to Stiles. Yeah he found a body, but come on, look at the facts. It’s humanly impossible for Derek Hale to have done that to that woman.” Dani finishes and leans back in the chair. 

“I’ll run the release paperwork through, you sign him out” he says and stands. 

Dani smiles and spins around giving Derek a thumbs up. Derek just stared at her. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking since he had the fixated look on his face. 

“Can you drive him home?” the Sheriff asks. 

“Yes sir” Dani says. 

He nods and walks out with the paperwork. 

“I can’t believe that worked!” Dani says. 

“Why are you helping me?” Derek asks. 

“Derek, sweetie. Did you really think I was going to let you get convicted for murder?” she says.

She grabs the keys off the sheriffs desk and unlocks the handcuffs. “We all know that a werewolf killed that lady. They boys obviously think it was you. I don’t think you did. They only thing you did was bury her and I bet she really appreciated that.” Dani says. 

He stands and looks her over. “You didn’t have to do this” He says, pulling on his jacket. 

“You keep saying that” She says. 

Derek shoots Dani a look and she smiles. 

“I know” Dani says. “Come on, we have a lacrosse game to get to.”

~~🌻~~

The game was just about to start and players were getting ready. Family members and friends filled the bleachers ready to cheer on each of their boys. Mr. Stilinski comes and sits next to Dani and her mom, Melissa. 

“I hope we do well tonight” He says. 

“Me too...” Dani mumbles and bounces her knee, nervously. 

Dani had looked around the bleachers several times and Derek was no where to be seen. She thought he would be here. She hoped that he’d show up in case Scott has a ‘moment.’ 

The first play was about to start and each player was in their ready position. Scott had his eyes squeezed shut, “Please let this be okay. Please, please,-” The ref blows the whistle and everything kicks into gear.

Scott and Jackson see the ball in the open and they both run for the ball. Jackson does a cheap shot and slams Scott out of the way. He scoops the ball, throwing and he sores. 

“Oh God” Dani says as he mom grabs her hand. 

“Is he okay?” she asks. 

“Shake it off, Scott! Shake it off!” Dani yells. 

“You got this Scott!” their mom yells.

Dani turns around and sees Allison and Lydia holding up a ‘We Luv U Jackson!’ sign. 

Scott sees the sign as well and Stiles turns looking at it too. 

“Brutal..” Stiles grimaces. “Oh this is not gonna be good.” 

Scott starts listening and he hears his sister. “Shake it off sweetie, shake it off... come on, I believe in you,” he hers Dani whisper to herself. 

He calms down a little until he starts hearing what’s being said in the huddle. 

“We will win” Jackson says. 

“But-” 

“What did I say?” Jackson snaps. “What did I say” Jackson repeats, slowly. 

“Don’t pass to McCall..” Danny says. 

Scott’s eyes turn gold as he grips his lacrosse stick. It’s on now.

Everyone was setting up on the field for the next play and Scott was bent over, breathing heavily. 

“Oh my God” Dani whisper and bites her lip. 

The whistle blows and the ball ends up being thrown up into the air. Scott snaps to attention and jumps, pushing off another player with his foot, catching the ball. He makes a run for the net, sidestepping and ducking around opposing players. He throws the ball and scores, bringing the score up to 4 to 5. 

"YEAH!” Dani and Melissa shout as the crowd around them cheers. Everyone was going nuts except for Jackson. The next play, Scott bares his teeth at the opposing play with the ball. The player freaks and passes Scott the ball allowing him to score again and tie the game. People were starting to notice that Scott wasn’t really alright. 

In the middle of the final play, Scott has the ball again and is surrounded my opposing team members. His vision is bright red and he’s completely shifted now. All of a sudden, he hears Allison in the stands, “You can do this Scott, You can do this..” Her voice brings him back and he throws the ball, scoring at the last second.

The crowd goes wild. Scott throws down his gloves, seeing his claws and he ditches the field. He makes it to the locker room to try and calm down. He gets more and more angry as it gets harder for him to breathe and he smashes one of the mirrors. “Scott?” Allison calls. “You in here?” She calls again.

Scott had hidden above the lockers. Allison becomes afraid and flattens against the lockers. “Scott?” She calls again. She slides down the lockers, hearing something over by the showers. She walks toward where the noise was and finds Scott leaning against the shower wall. “Scott are you okay? You scared me” she says.

“Yeah, sorry, I just got kinda light headed for a sec” He says. 

“Maybe it was the adrenaline” she says and smiles. “You were pretty amazing out there” she adds. 

After a moment he moves closer to her with a little smile on his face. He leans in and kisses her. They pull away after a short moment and smile at each other before sinking into another kiss. Stiles walks in finding them there. 

“I gotta get back to my dad” Allison says with a smile. 

Scott smiles and nods, ”Okay.” 

She kisses him on the cheek before leaving, waving at Stiles on her way out.

 “I kisses her” he says. 

“I saw” Stiles. 

“She kissed me.” 

“Saw that too.”

“I don’t know how, but I controlled it.” 

“Yeah” Stiles says and sighs. 

“What’s wrong?” Scott asks.

“Derek was released earlier today. apparently it was proven to be an animal attack and Derek is a person not an animal.” 

“Are you kiding?”

“No, but here’s an even bigger kick in the ass. The girl that was killed. Her name was Laura Hale, Derek’s sister.” Stiles says. 

~~🌻~~

Everyone had gone home and the field was empty except for Jackson. Scott had left his back by the bench and one of his gloves on the field. Jackson picks it up, looking at the finger tips. There were holes in each tip. Jackson frowns and looks around feeling like he was being watched and his eyes meet Derek Hale’s. 

“Hey Jackson!” A voice calls from behind him. He turns around and sees one of his best friends. 

“Daniella, what are you doing out here? The game is over” he asks. 

Jackson was the one person she let call her by her real name. Being fellow seniors, they had grown up together. She was the one person he was truly nice to and the one person he let himself be Jackson around. 

“Scott left his bag and one of his gloves.” She says and points at the glove in his hands. 

“Yeah, here” He says and hands it to her. 

“Thank you darling it’s very much appreciated” She exaggerates, but it was just enough to make him smile. “Don’t be so hard on him..I know he’s taken part of you spotlight, but don’t let it ruin your season. It’s your last one Jackson. I’d hate for you to waste it over my little brother of all people.” 

He laughs and lowers his head for a moment. “It’s hard, you know?” He says. 

She gives a sympathetic smile and nods, “Go home sweetie, get some rest...” 

He nods and gives her a hug. “I’ll text you later” he says before leaving the field. 

She watches him go and sighs. She focuses on the glove in her hands and finds the holes. “Jesus, Scott..” She whispers. She looks up and sees Derek Hale standing off by the bleachers. 

She lets out another sigh pulling her beanie down more before walking over to him. She stops in front of him and hands him the glove. There was a silence between them while he glanced at the glove. “He doesn’t listen to you, but he listens to me...” She says softly. 

Derek looks at her as she takes the glove back and hands him a piece of paper with her number on it. 

“I think the best way to get to him is if we work together...call me, okay?” she says and gestures to the little paper in his hand. She zips up his leather jacket before walking away “And buy a scarf, it’s cold.” She smiles as she looks back at him. What a furry ride this will be...

[werenzki]

William Nylander #2

Anonymous said: Could you make one where you met William nylander family for the first time?

Anonymous said: I LOVED YOUR WILLY IMAGINE. MAKE MORE WHEN YOU CAN PLEASE CAUSE I GOT ALL THE FEELS.

A/N: apologizes for any spelling or grammar errors, as usual i wrote this at some god awfully late time. but hope you all liked it!! :)

Word Count: 2,759

If your boyfriend thought you were just casually going to up and meet his family then he was crazy. And after walking into the suite you normally sat in during Leafs game, it was confirmed - William Nylander was freaking crazy. Cause staying around was his entire family, visiting from Sweden, and looking at you as if you had two heads.

Willy and you have been dating for almost five months now. Nothing wild by any means, but you’d definitely say things were slowly getting serious in the relationship. He had met your parents just last week, with you by his side of course, at a cute lunch date. He had been prepared and had you to do introductions and all that jazz. Unlike you right now with all four sisters and his parents staring back at you. 

Thankfully, you had met Alex one month into you and Willy seeing one another, so as he turned and saw you standing there hopelessly, he stood from the stool he was sitting on and walked towards you. A smile curled up on his lips and he gave you a hug. His hands rubbed up and down your back before pulling back to look at your nervous facial expression. 

“Don’t be scared, the family’s excited to meet you,” he stated. 

“I’ve been avoiding coming here for like twenty minutes,” you admitted before he turned to reveal the fact his sisters were all still staring at you. 

Willy had mentioned the fact his parents have heard so much about you by now that they already liked you. His sisters on the other hand made you a little bit scared. As someone who had siblings, any time they stared seeing someone or anything, you were twenty times more judgmental than usual. You caught the narrowed eyes of Michelle - the eldest of the Nylander girls. 

“Y/N?” Camilla took the few steps to meet you and Alex half way in the suite. She had a grin on her face that made you smile as well. And she was stupidly beautiful. You nodded and then she spoke up again, “its so nice to finally meet you!” She exclaimed before wrapping her arms around you.

“You too,” you said and returned the gentle embrace. 

“William has been trying to get us down here and meet you for weeks now,” she stated. 

“He’s in love that’s for sure,” one of the younger blondes said. Her voice was squeaky but so freaking cute. 

“Oh,” you were blushing at the pre-teens words. With every Nylander’s blue eyes on you, you couldn’t help as your cheeks heated up. It was only just a couple weeks ago that Willy and you said the words ‘I love you’ to each other. Hearing it come from his little sister kinda shook you a bit. 

“I’m Michael,” Will’s dad stepped up then with his head extended for you to shake. You smiled and shook his hand, then he pointed at the youngest blonde that had just spoken to you. “This is Daniella, and Stephanie,” he said while the two girls smiled back at you. 

“Jacquline,” Alex suddenly called out for the one sister that had walked off to the end of the suite that looked over the arena. You guessed she was more interested in her brother warming up rather than staring at you - unlike the rest of the family. 

“That’s Jacquline,” Michael said as she waved from where she stood, “come meet your brothers girlfriend,” he ordered. The teen didn’t hide her eye roll while she walked up the few steps and stood beside her father. 

“Hi,” she said. 

“Hi,” you said while mirroring her smile. “I’m Y/N," 

"And then you know Alex,” Camilla stepped in now with the introduction. “This is our eldest, Michelle,” she said while brushing a hand down her hair. Michelle didn’t seem bothered, instead she just kept staring at you before breaking a small smile. She made you the most nervous, there was no doubt about that. “And I’m Camilla, but we sort of did the whole name thing over the phone one day,” she chuckled. 

“Right,” you recalled the day. Willy was on the phone with his parents, you were sitting on the bed beside him while he mentioned you to his mom. It was a weird introduction of just your names while you said hi as Willy held out the phone. 

“I like your shoes,” Stephanie commented with a grin. 

“Thank you,” you smiled down at the boots you had on. They were just a pair of black heeled booties, but you wore them constantly and appreciated the compliment from Willy’s sister. 

“Yeah, your sweater is really cute too,” Michelle said as she pointed at the turtleneck you had on. It was a thin white material which you paid way too much for, but it went with pretty much anything. Like your black booties, black jeans and your jean jacket that you wore today. 

“Thanks, I like your shirt too,” you smiled. Her shirt was a simple black long sleeve with a hoodie too. You’d probably wear it every day honestly, it screamed comfort. 

“Thanks,” she smiled. 

“Want to sit?” Alex asked, he had grabbed a drink and was nodding his head to the seats. He obviously didn’t want to just leave you on your own, which you thought was really sweet. 

“Sure,” you smiled. 

“I want to sit beside you, Alex,” Daniella said while following you two down the few steps. You heard Camilla chuckle at her youngest. 

“You’ll get to know it, Ella loves her brothers more than anything,” Camilla said while leaning over the bar that was just behind your seat. Daniella took the seat on Alex’s right while you sat on his left, another free seat was on your left which you knew would be taken as soon as the puck dropped. You smiled up at Camilla. Willy had mentioned Daniella on several occasions, she’d even go out of her way to call her big brother some days. You thought it was adorable. 

“Yeah,” Michelle said, “and me and Jac are pretty tight and Stephanie is the classic weird middle kid,”

Stephanie immediately frowned at her teasing older sister. She looked anywhere but at her family, instead watching the team finish up their warm ups. You smiled and heard Camilla say something in Swedish to her eldest, Michelle sort of rolled her eyes and shook her head in response. 

“It’s alright, Stephanie,” you paused while her eyes fell to you now, “I’m the weird middle child too,” you said and shrugged. 

“Really?” She asked. 

You nodded, “yeah, I always end up on my own most the time during family stuff," 

"Do you come from a big family?” Camilla asked. She was sitting comfortably in one of the stool at the bar above you, while Stephanie was slowly making her way to the free seat at your left. You noticed Michael was on his phone further in the suite now. 

“I thought I did, then Willy told me about how big your family is,” you chuckled and so did most of the blonde around you. “I have two older brothers and a younger brother. And he’s only like a year younger so the older ones took him in, instead of me,” you explained. 

“Brothers? Only girl, wow,” Camilla said. 

“Yup,” you smiled. 

“Will must’ve loved knowing he’d have to meet older brothers,” Michelle said, “I know that Alex and Will are going to rip any guy these girls talk to to shreds. They tried to be the crazy protective brother role to me, but it just didn’t work," 

"Oh yeah,” you chuckled, “all three of them are insane about me dating. Same with my dad. But my dad met Willy before the boys so I’m hoping he tells them to back off a little," 

"I heard that went well,” Camilla smiled. You crossed your legs and turned to looked up at her, a smile on your face as well. It was cute that he had told his mom about him meeting your parents. 

“It did,” you agreed. 

“Game’s about to start!” Jacquline shouted. She was mostly trying to get her dad’s attention as she turned away from the ice and looked for him. 

“Can I sit beside you?” Stephanie asked while pointing at the free seat. You grinned and patted the seat. 

“Of course,” you said. 

Once the anthems were all said and done, the face off went down and then the first period was under way. Michael had taken a seat at the bar with his wife, while Jac sat eagerly at the edge of her seat in front of you with Michelle on her phone to her left. It was obvious who was really into watching hockey and who was tired of it by now in the family. During the first period, Steph and you got talking about her schooling and such. Turns out she’s pretty smart and already knows she wants to be a nurse. 

Just as you two were chatting about her liking for Tennis, the arena started to get excited. Then the horn was going off and the suite started to cheer along with the rest of the Leafs fans. Looking down at the ice, you saw Auston doing his classic celly. Then Zach, Mo, Jake and Willy were embracing him before going down the line of their excited teammates. 

“That Matthews kid really can play,” Michael said above you. 

“He’s cute too,” Michelle said shamelessly. Alex rolled his eyes dramatically while you just chuckled along with Stephanie. 

“Willy got the assist,” Alex said just as you too were reading the alert on your phone. Yes, you had Leafs games notifications sent to your phone, and you weren’t ashamed. 

“I know,” you smiled. 

And the pride in your boyfriend only got bigger as he scored the game-winning-goal during the third period that put the Leafs ahead by one. Suddenly the horn went off and the Nylanders were all getting ready to leave while glancing at the ice for the 3 stars to be announced. You knew Willy would be the first star, and as he skated out his family cheered loudly - it made your heart hurt it was so freaking cute. 

“We were thinking about going out and getting something to eat,” Michael said as everyone got closer to the suite door. “Did you want to join us?“ He asked with a smile. 

"You should come,” Alex smiled. 

“Yeah, please,” Stephanie pleaded. You chuckled and shrugged your shoulder. 

“Sure, I’ve got nothing else planned for my night,” you admitted. The girls all smiled and Alex was quick to put his arm around you while you followed the family downstairs to the dressing room. 

You all waited off to the side as you waited for Willy. Everyone knew the drill, he’d take a bit longer due to the fact he had such a good night and the media would be eating it up. You smiled at Kappy walked out the dressing room doors and towards the Nylanders. Each one of them hugged Kappy before he got to you. 

“How’s it going?” He asked. You knew he meant with the family, he and Willy were roommates and you had mentioned this to him just last night. 

“Good,” you smiled. 

“I knew it would,” he grinned before hugging you again. 

“You should come for some drinks and eats too, Kaps,” Michael said while putting his hand down on his shoulder.

“Sure, Mike,” Kappy smiled. You saw little Jac blushing beside her dad. Someone had a little crush. You related to Jacquline, on more than one occasion you had crushed on one of your brothers friends. And Kappy was a cutie. 

Alex and Kappy started talking then as the rest of the Leafs left the dressing room. Mitch came by to say hi to you too, and Auston too - which made Michelle go wide-eyed as you introduced him to the family. The rest of the boys waved to you before leaving, then finally your boyfriend made his way out of the dressing room. He looked good in the light blue dress shirt, as he carried his suit jacket in one hand and walked towards his family. 

You let him hug each one of them, getting more than enough congrats from the proud family. You were smiling as he turned to you. 

“Hey,” he muttered in your ear while you hugged. 

“Hey,” you giggled. When he pulled back he planted a kiss right on your lips in front of his whole family. Your stomach twisted up and you ended up breaking the kiss to laugh as Daniella faked gagging noises. 

Michelle gave her a smack on the arm, which caused her to wined and then Camilla had to step in. You chuckled under your breath but then caught Stephanie talking to Willy. 

“She’s cool,” she said. 

“Yeah, I know, Steph,” Willy chuckled. 

“I’m just saying, I’m upset you didn’t introduce us sooner,” she shrugged and then we were all walking to the parkade. 

Willy grabbed your hand and you leaned into him as you walked side by side. He kissed your temple softly while waiting for the elevator. You had attended plenty of games, waited for this elevator more than enough times, but never with all the Nylanders and Kappy with you. But you loved it, you loved his family. They were all so kind and welcoming already to you. 

“Where are we thinking of getting something to eat?” Willy asked. 

“Made a reservation at that place down the street from our hotel,” Michael stated. 

The family kept a buzz of conversation on the walk to the parkade. During the drive in your car with Willy and Kappy, you gave a brief run-down on your night with the family. Willy seemed happy, holding your free hand while you drove down the street. Then him and Kappy talked about the game of course. 

“Who’s betting tonight?” Michelle questioned. You were all standing outside the restaurant waiting for Michael to park the car. Your eyebrows pulled together, what in the world was she talking about? What family gambles during dinner? 

“I say two,” Daniella said. 

“Four,” Jacquline shrugged. “Three for Kappy,” she added shyly. 

“I’ll say, one for them both and then two for Willy,” Stephanie said while pointing at both her brothers. “Oh and two for Kappy too," 

"I think,” Camilla paused, “one for your father and three for Willy and Kappy both," 

"Alright, and I’ll bet three for Will and only one for Kappy,” Michelle smiled. She had taken notice of your more than confused look. 

“What is going on?” You asked. 

“It’s a game they started this season,” Willy stated, “they bet how many fans come up to me while we’re out and ask for an autograph,” he explained with a smile. 

You chuckled, “oh I love it, I’m in," 

"Yes!” Stephanie cheered. You smiled at her and thought for a moment. Out of them all, you’d say you had the most experience with Leafs fans noticing Willy and approaching them this season. 

“I say, six for Willy and three for Kappy. Maybe one for Alex too,” you smiled. 

“High numbers,” Michelle noted. 

“Busy place,” you said while jabbing a thumb behind you at the bustle of the restaurant. The girls all nodded and then you looked down as Willy threaded his fingers through yours again. 

He leaned down to whisper into your ear, “I love this,” he said. You turned and gave him a 'what’ face in reply. “You and my family, they love you,” he smiled. 

“Well,” you sighed, “I’m glad," 

"Me too,” Willy smiled before placing his lips to yours and leaving a sweet short kiss on them. You felt yourself blushing again as you saw his younger sister watching you two. Embarrassed, you leaned into Willy and watched as Michael ran across the street toward you all. 

“Did we already make the bets?” Michael asked, slightly out of breath from his jog. 

“Yup,” you replied. 

“What’d you’d say?” He asked, an eyebrow raised. 

“Six for Willy, three for Kappy and one for Alex," 

"I say one lower than all of hers then,” he nodded. 

“Alright,” Michelle nodded, “now let’s get in there I’m starving," 

"Me too,” Willy agreed while grabbing his stomach. You chuckled and shook your head at him. Although, seeing him interact with his family made you smile like an absolute idiot, and you didn’t really care. The Nylander family was so freaking cute.

[band-blogging]

I Hate That I Love You p.1

Requests: Hey , do you think you could do an imagine where , the reader is Josh’s best friend , and despite how long they been friends she is scared to talk about it with him ? Maybe get some rain action ? And a sappy ending ? I l or sappy endings with kisses ☺️❤️ this would be great , love your work .

Hey! I was wondering if you could write just a SUPER fluffy imagine with Josh. I need some good fluff rn before midterms.

Characters: Josh Dun x Reader, Tyler Joseph

Warnings: Underage drinking, cursing

a/n: I know the requests ask for fluff and I promise part 2 (and maybe 3 if I want to make it longer) will be fluffy!

(part 1) (part 2)

You are tired of high school being so sickeningly cliche.

It’s not like everything is horrible. Just the important things. The really important things. 

Going into high school, you didn’t expect a picture perfect four years. And that’s not what you got, but you’re okay with that. You’re okay with the insane amount of homework and the judgmental students and the insufferable teachers. 

But, as selfish and petty as it might sound, what you can’t stand is seeing your best friend, the boy you’ve had a crush on for almost five years, with someone else.

But you’ve learned to deal with it. You’ve learned to deal with her. You’ve even tried to be her friend. That attempt, however, went horribly wrong. 

As you’ve learned, she doesn’t want anything to do with you, and after attempt number three of trying to be friends with her, you gave up. It was a lost cause. 

She ignored you and you ignored her and everything was fine. You were okay with it and you thought she was too. She, apparently, was not. 

It went from glares in the hallway to a few harsh words pointed your way to spreading rumors, then back to harsh words. 

But she could be petty and jealous because her boyfriend is best friends with you, it didn’t bother you nearly as much as she hoped it would. 

But, of course, he didn’t catch wind of any of these problems. He didn’t hear the rumors, he didn’t hear any of her insults and attacks aimed at you. Yet, it still didn’t bother you. 

You could fall to the floor in front of him, begging him to break up with her because oh, she’s just not good enough for you and she hates me and-

She’s just a jealous teenager. And, even though she may take it a bit overboard at times, she’s feeling things that are perfectly normal.  And, as far as you know, she makes him happy. And if she makes him happy, then you can deal with her bitchy side. 

You can deal with those uncontrollable surges of jealousy whenever they hug or kiss. Whenever he looks at her like she’s his world. For now, being friends is enough. 

Being friends is enough. 

“Y/N, hey,” you hear a familiar voice say behind you. You smile, turning around to see Josh’s familiar face, a warm smile greeting you.

“Hey,” you say, “you ready for the physics test?”

You laugh as Josh’s smile turns into a frown and his eyes widen.

“Test…test,” he says, “we have a test today.” 

“I’m aware, yes.”

“But…shit, I didn’t study,” he groans, crossing his arms. He looks at you with hope in his eyes, his lips involuntarily forming a pout. “Help.”

You laugh, linking your arm with his and leading him towards your class.

“Everyone I’ve asked has said it’s really easy, so if you payed attention in class and understand the main points, you’ll be fine,” you tell him, making him relax a bit.

“Okay…alright, thanks.”

You give him a nod and smile at him, the smile quickly turning into a frown when you hear a voice calling Josh’s name behind the two of you.

Josh turns, taking his arm from yours and reaching out for his girlfriend, Daniella, who is running towards him with a grin. He opens his arms to her and she runs right into him, wrapping her arms around him.

The thing about Danielle is that she’s perfect for Josh. And what’s annoying is that she doesn’t have the incredibly high, annoying voice all the girls in the movies have when they’re dating the guy that the main character is pining for. She doesn’t dress in incredibly revealing clothes every day and she doesn’t bully people for fun behind Josh’s back (except for you). And it’s irritating because if she had these traits, it would be a lot easier to dislike her. 

The only person she’s bitchy around is you, which is understandable. 

She looks at you from over Josh’s shoulder and glares at you slightly, making you roll your eyes and turn away, saying a quick goodbye to Josh before you start walking towards your class. Daniella has the same physics class as both you and Josh, but you’re almost positive she won’t want you to walk with her and her boyfriend.

One year. It’s been the same routine, you always coming second to her. And you’ve tried hard not to think about it that way, you really have. Because you don’t want to be that girl.

You don’t want to be the girl that’s always upset because they aren’t the first priority. Which is why you never voice your thoughts about the topic. You keep it to yourself, trying hard not to see the situation that way.

She’s his girlfriend, of course he’ll spend most of his time with her.

“Y/N!” a voice pulls you out of your thoughts and you smile when you see who it is.

“Hey, Ty,” you say, stopping when you finally reach your physics class.

“Ready for the test?” he asks as you both walk in, taking a seat at the table you share with Josh and Daniella. You nod, sitting down and pulling your books out to do some last minute studying.

You hear the loud laughs of your best friend coming closer and closer to your table. You sigh quietly, not loud enough for anyone else to hear. You let yourself wallow alone and in peace, keeping you head glued to the words painted on your textbook.

“Y/N, you okay?” Tyler asks you. In your current table arrangement, Tyler sits next to you and Josh sits across from you, Daniella taking her place next to Josh. You used to sit in Daniella’s spot, but she made a very convincing argument as to why you should switch with her.

“Yeah, I’m good,” you say, giving him a weak smile. He nods, the worry in his creased brow and stretched lips giving away that he doesn’t believe you.

You and Josh met Tyler your freshman year and the three of you instantly clicked, one of you never doing anything without the other two. But, recently, the group of three has slowly started fading to a group of two. Of course, Josh still spends time with you, but Daniella is always there, which makes it hard for you to have fun since she’s either attached to Josh or glaring at you. So you and Ty have started doing some things on your own. It’s fun, it really is, but you both know that there’s something missing. 

The rest of the day goes by as it normally does, Josh and Daniella talking about this and that while you and Tyler talk about music.

“Y/N,” you hear on your left, surprising you. You look to Josh and see him smiling at you, his hand still in Daniella’s but her attention on one of her friends that has just approached her.

“What’s up?”

“I was wondering if you wanted to go to the party tonight…with me, Daniella, and Tyler.” 

How could you say no to that. Josh knows that you can’t say no to his puppy eyes and he always takes advantage of that. 

“Yeah,” you sigh, giving him a tight smile, “yeah, I’ll go with you.” 

People say three’s a crowd, don’t they? 

So if three’s a crowd, then one-hundred might be considered a riot. 

But, you guess another word for riot would be high school party. 

You have never really been one for parties. There are so many people and there’s so much noise and too many drinks and drugs and-

There are just too problems and so many things that could go wrong. 

Josh and Tyler often tell you that you need to loosen up and have a little fun. That conversation led to them dragging you to your first party, which was about as bad as you thought it would be. 

There were the kids that offered everyone drugs, not letting up until they made some money. There were the drunk assholes. There were the drunk hormonal assholes, please take note of the differences between the two. Then there were the sober ones that just wanted to have a good time. You, Tyler, and Josh fell into that category. You danced and avoided people that needed to be avoided and talked to people that you thought would be fun to talk to and everything went smoothly. 

Josh and Tyler stuck by your side the entire time, which you appreciated. It wasn’t like you couldn’t take care of yourself, they just wanted you to have fun since they knew you weren’t very enthusiastic about the party. And you did end up having fun because you had your best friends there with you. 

That was before Daniella came into the picture. You know that she likes going to these parties and drinking with friends, but you’re not one of those people. 

You also know that Josh will stick with her, which will leave you and Tyler to be the sober ones. 

“Ready?” Josh asks you, smiling as he looks at your outfit, “you look really nice.”

“Well, you don’t look too bad yourself.” 

Josh and Tyler met you at your place and would be meeting Daniella at the party. You decided to go in a nice, loose shirt and complimented your body and black skinny jeans while Josh is wearing jeans and a t-shirt, his usual outfit. 

Tyler smiles at the two of you as you approach the door and the three of you walk to the car, Tyler in the driver’s seat, Josh in the passenger seat and you in the back, listening to their conversation about whatever they’ve decided is “sick.”

You get to the party a bit late, so most of the students are already there and about half of them are drunk. It looks a lot more crowded than the first party you went to and you can’t help the small feeling you have that you should go home and marathon Criminal Minds. But you follow Josh and Tyler into the house, cringing at the strong smell of alcohol as music floods your ears. 

“Josh!” a voice calls. “Hey, babe.” 

Daniella wraps her arms around Josh and pulls him in for a kiss. You immediately turn away, taking Tyler by the arm and pulling him in the opposite direction. 

“What do you wanna do?” you shout over the music, trying to get out of the main crowd of people dancing. Tyler shrugs, looking around to see what options the two of you have. 

“We could go outside. It’ll be quiet and less cramped.”

You nod, taking his hand and letting him lead you outside. Once the two of you are out of the crowd, you feel like you can breath again. You send Tyler a grateful smile and sigh, looking around to see empty red cups strewn across the yard, spotting a few people making out behind trees.

“This is…better,” you chuckle, turning back to Tyler. 

“Definitely,” he nods, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets. 

The two of you stand in a comfortable silence for a while, watching everyone around you do stupid drunk stuff that stupid drunk people usually do.

“Look, I know that…I know that you like Josh and it must hurt to see him with Daniella and I’ve been wanting to tell you that if you ever want to talk about it, you can talk to me,” he rushes out, his eyes genuine. You stand there, your mouth opening and closing as you try to think of the right words to respond. 

“Thank you,” is all you say, a soft smile on your face. 

“It’s no problem.” 

The both of you smile and you suddenly feel so angry at Josh because, now that you think about it, he hasn’t asked you how you’ve been for about a month now. You made a promise with him and Ty to check up on each other. Look where that’s gotten you. 

And it’s not like you don’t want Josh to have a girlfriend. That’s not the point. You don’t want to be replaced. That’s the problem you have with all of this. 

Looking around again, the yard has cleared up a bit, more people finding the party in the house more interesting than the mostly deserted front yard. As your eyes travel across the grass, you catch sight of a familiar face leaving the house.

“Speaking of…” you say to Tyler, nodding towards Josh and Daniella, who have taken a seat against a tree, talking and laughing and drinking. You sigh as you watch Josh lean in, capturing her lips and putting his arms around her. You know you shouldn’t stand around watching them kiss, so you don’t. You turn around sharply and walk towards the house, hearing Tyler following quickly after you. 

“What are you doing, Y/N?” he shouts over the music that has once again flooded your ears.

“Finding something to drink!” you shout back, not stopping in your search for a beer. You spot one and immediately head towards it, ignoring Tyler as he tries to stop you. 

You’ve never actually had more than a few sips of alcohol before, so this is all foreign to you. The feeling of the cold beer in your hand is unfamiliar and the smell of it is a lot worse than it was before, now that you’re the one about to drink it. 

The taste, however, is probably the worst part. You hesitate for half a second, staring at the drink in your hand. You want to put it down and walk away, but you don’t. You think back to Josh and Daniella, probably still kissing against the tree and take a drink of the beer. 

It burns your throat as you force yourself to swallow it and immediately after it’s all in your system, you feel like throwing up. Everyone says that the first time is the worst and it gets better after. You get used to it. 

They’re wrong. Very very wrong.

The second taste is just as bad and the urge to throw up gets worse. But you want more. You want to drink until there’s nothing left in the bottle, then drink another. 

You are about to take your third drink when someone puts a hand on your arm, forcing the beer away from your mouth. 

“Y/N, stop,” Tyler says, trying to get the drink from your hand. “Stop, this isn’t good for you.”

You shake your head, forcing your arm from his grip and reaching for the beer in his hand. 

“I can make my own decisions, Tyler,” you say, your tone harsher than you intended. At this point, you can’t find it in you to care. 

“Y/N, please. Please stop,” he pleads, holding the beer farther away from you. “This isn’t you.” 

You sigh and stop trying to reach for it, going to get a new one instead. You take it and run towards the crowd, trying to get as far away from Tyler as you can. 

“Y/N!” you hear a faint shout, but it’s barely audible over the music, that has changed from something slower to a more upbeat song that has people raving. 

You make your way to the door and push it open, not looking in the direction the Daniella and Josh were in. You go straight to the back of the house and sink down against the wall, opening the beer and letting yourself get lost for one night. 

You manage to sneak past Tyler, who is frantically searching for you in the house, and grab a few more drinks after you finish the first one. You go back to your little corner and drink all three of them, your thoughts getting more and more jumbled with each one. Eventually, you decide to find Tyler since you can’t really remember why you aren’t with him in the first place. 

You barely see him since everything is fuzzy, but there he is, talking to Josh and Daniella with a concerned expression on his face. Your thoughts are jumbled, but a lot goes through your head before you are spotted by Josh.

If parties are so great, than why does Tyler look so upset.

Daniella is my least favorite person in that group of three people.

Josh looks nice in those jeans.

“Y/N? What happened?” Josh asks, reaching out for you. You stumble a bit and laugh at yourself for being so clumsy. 

“Silly, silly Y/N…” you mumble to yourself, laughing some more.

“Y/N, are you-”  

“Tylerrrr,” you, slur, turning away from Josh. Tyler turns to you and his eyes widen. He reaches out to steady you and you practically fall into him, your feet giving out under you. 

“Y/N, what the hell did you do?” he asks, earning another round of giggles from you. You hear him sigh and before you can stop him, he picks you up and carries you towards the door and out of the house. Josh and Daniella follow close behind, closing the door once they’re both out of the house. 

Tyler takes you to the side of the house and sets you down, keeping an arm around you to steady you. 

“Y/N, how much did you have to drink?” he asks, his brow furrowed in concern. You shrug, going through the nights events as you try to remember how many drinks you had. 

“I don’t know, three or four…” Josh and Tyler both sigh while Daniella just stands there, trying to fight the smirk off her face. 

“Josh…” you mutter when his face comes into focus, “you know, your girlfriend isn’t a very good person,” you say absentmindedly. 

“What?” 

“Mhm, she spreads rumors about me and insults me. It’s mean,” you pout looking up to see Daniella’s glare pointed towards you. 

“Daniella, is that true?” 

“She’s drunk, babe, she obviously doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

“Oh, I know what I’m talking about,” you say with a scoff, “and I tried not to say anything, because it didn’t…didn’t bother me. I thought she was just jealous. But, now that i think about it, it does bother me.” 

Josh is staring at you with wide eyes and you know that Tyler has the same expression on his face. 

“But I didn’t do anything about it ‘cause you were happy. And before you guys started dating, I tried to get your attention. But all I’ve ever been is Josh’s best friend. I’m not good enough, and I’ve been able to figure that out by now, and it’s okay.” 

“Y/N, no-” 

“But I’d appreciate it if she didn’t harass me just because I’m your best friend. Can you tell her to stop? Because it’d be a lot easier to accept…this,” you say, motioning to Daniella and Josh, “if she was nice.” 

You finish with a sniffle and lean into Tyler, who doesn’t say a word. No one does for a while. 

“I’m…going to take her home. She’s had a long night,” Tyler says eventually. 

“Wait, Ty, I’ll go with you,” Josh says immediately, following him to the car. 

“No, Josh, Maybe…that’s not the best idea. I think the two of you have some things to sort out,” Tyler mumbles to him and Daniella, turning and guiding you the rest of the way to his car.  

You lean into him and sniff a few more times, wiping your eyes in an attempt to see straight. 

“Y/N, are you okay?” Tyler asks softly once he gets you in the passenger side of the car. You nod, leaning against the window and looking out at the party. You can barely see Josh and Daniella talking, both of them occasionally glancing in your direction. 

“Tyler, I don’t think I like beer. It makes my head all…all weird?” 

“Are you asking me if it makes your head weird?” 

“No, I’m trying to think of the word. What’s that word, Ty.” 

“I don’t know, Y/N.”

You giggle, forgetting about Josh for a moment as you rack your brain for the word you’re thinking of. 

“Y/N, was what you said true? About Daniella?” 

“Yep.” 

“And…what does she say?” 

You shrug, leaning your head against the window.

“She just tells me not to talk to Josh and stuff. Calls me names.”

Tyler is silent after that, knowing that you’ll be asleep in the next thirty seconds. 

 “Tyler, you’re awesome. Have I ever told you that? You’re the best.”

“Thanks, Y/N. You’re awesome too.” 

“Whoa.”

“What?” 

“You’ve never told me that before, Ty. That’s so nice. You’re really nice, Tyler.”

Tyler chuckles and shakes his head, glancing over at you to see you absentmindedly playing with your hair.

“So are you, Y/N,” he says with a sigh, leaning back in his seat. “So are you.” 

(x)

[northofsomewhererp]

Your Name, Age (17+), & Timezone: Ari, 21, EST

Your Birthday: June 27th 

Halie Binder turned 16 years old on May 11th. She’s a student in Greensville. Her face claim is Sabrina Carpenter.

Bio (10+ sentences, include brief history, personality, potential plots):

Halie will always remember the day her mom decided to ditch her and her dad so that she could travel the world doing what she wanted to do. Her mom never came back, never called, never sent letters. As far as Halie knows, her mom could be dead and she’d never know it. But she has her dad. Her dad who provided for her, cared for her, and was her best friend. Halie would definitely describe herself as a daddy’s little girl. But she takes care of him, in a way that isn’t necessary. Her father has it very much together, but Halie always thought he was a little lonely, so she stepped up to the plate, to make sure he smiled and laughed every single day. Now, that personality characteristic is embedded in her. Halie is the kind of girl who will always try to make someone who’s upset turn their frown upside down. She tries to keep her own life stable and she’s an overall positive person. But she always wonders why her mom left her, and how her life could’ve been different with a better mom present. 

Activity (1-10): 7

Have you read the rules?: removed

Would you like to be paired with a buddy to have character connections with (For new applicants)? N/A

In the event that you leave, can we keep your biography for future use? Nope Any comments/questions?: Nope

Sample( 2+ paragraphs): 

The house was quiet. Elsie had been put to bed and his father was already asleep. Sammy sat wide awake on the couch in the living room. A box of photographs had been taken out and he was looking through them. Dozens of pictures were stacked in this box, hundreds in boxes in his parents sitting room. Pictures of him, his brother and sister with his parents. He stopped at a few that were of his mother, reveling in how beautiful she once was, and the pain that came with knowing he had to refer to her now in the present. 

He stopped at one of his mother hugging him at five or six years old. Even through all the loss his mother had went through, her smile was still as radiant as the sun. His hands started to shake and he noticed the photograph become wet with droplets of tears. A wet nose hit his cheek and he pulled Sebastian into his arms. He didn’t hold anything back. At least he had his best friend here to cry into. 

About two hours later, Sammy put the box away and headed upstairs to bed. He was about to get into his pajamas, but noticed something on his bed. He went over to see what it was, picking it up in his hands. It was a 3 year old level drawing of a stick-figure Sammy guessed was himself and a stick-figure Sammy guessed was Elsie. On the page was written in, he was able to tell, James’ writing “I love you Daddy, and I hope this makes you smile. Love,” and Elsie signed her name in her adorable little scribble. Sammy needed to sit down, his legs grew wobbly and weak. More tears fell down his face and Seb jumped on his bed to comfort him. But this time, as the tears fell, a smile lit his face. 

He took a few minutes to regain his composure before he stood up and went to Elsie’s room. He quietely opened the door so as not to wake her up and went to sit on her bed. He did this every night, he knew by now how to be as gentle as possible to not wake her up. He lifted her tiny angelic body into his arms and held her, rocking her delicately. With his hand, he brushed the hair away from her eyes, then caressed her tiny sweet face. 

He hummed It’s Time To Say Goodnight as he watched her delicate closed eyelids, her thin beautiful mouth, and pet her long, soft hair. 

The fear gripped him and tugged at his chest. The idea of anything happening to his precious little girl. The horror of losing her forever. It wasn’t the first time he ever thought like this, and he was sure it wouldn’t be the last. This worrisome torture always lasted in the back of his mind. 

“Is it supposed to hurt this much? Am I neurotic? Am I crazy? She’s fine, but, I cant…I cant stop thinking what if…what if something…” 

“Samuel Alexander,” her gentle albeit fragile hand covered his own. “That gut-wrenching feeling? That’s the strength of the love of a parent.”

“Does it ever go away?”

“Over time, you learn to put it to the back of your mind. But it never goes away. It’s always there. That’s…that’s what drives paternal instinct.” His mother smiled at him. “That’s why a child can never truly love a parent the way a parent loves the child. The parent will always love the child more. Always.”

“……..G-D. I never talk to you anymore. And I never ask you for anything anymore. ….But please………Please don’t ever take my little girl away from me. Please. I can’t bear to think of it……Please keep her safe. Keep her healthy. Keep her with me…Dont ever take my little girl away from me.”

He kissed his daughter’s forehead, his lips lingering on her smooth face. He then put her back into her bed, rose the covers and tucked her in. He watched her for a few more moments. It was as if he never wanted to leave this room, in fear of something happening the moment he was out of sight, and simply the longing to watch her innocence in the night. But his tiredness took over and he made his way to the door. 

He stopped at the doorway and looked back at her. “I love you my princess,” he whispered. “Thank you for making me smile.” With a daughter as remarkable as Elsa Daniella, how can he have not seen her before as the light within the dark?

[band-blogging]

It’s Always Been You p.2

Requests: Hey , do you think you could do an imagine where , the reader is Josh’s best friend , and despite how long they been friends she is scared to talk about it with him ? Maybe get some rain action ? And a sappy ending ? I l or sappy endings with kisses ☺️❤️ this would be great , love your work .

Hey! I was wondering if you could write just a SUPER fluffy imagine with Josh. I need some good fluff rn before midterms.

Characters: Josh Dun x Reader, Tyler Joseph, Daniella (OC)

Warnings: Cursing, violence (but not really)

a/n: This is going to be the last part. I hope you guys like it!

(part 1) (part 2)

The next day at school is horrible…for obvious reasons. 

Things are…tense between you and Josh. You do your best to talk to him, but you can tell he’s trying to avoid you, so you eventually give up. It does hurt, but it doesn’t hurt nearly as much as it does when you see him with Daniella, his hand in hers. 

He has yet to say anything about the words that were exchanged between the four of you the night before, so, because of the context you had been given, you assume he had believed Daniella when she explained to him that you were just drunk and had no idea what you were talking about. 

“Babe, you heard her. She said she would never be good enough.”

Josh sighs and puts his head in his hands. 

“Daniella-” 

“She’s jealous, Josh! She’s obviously trying to break us up.” 

“I’ve been her best friend for years. She’s never done anything like that. It’s not like her.” 

“Well, you said it was her first time being drunk, and some things probably slipped out because of her state.” 

“Y/N…Y/N doesn’t think of me like that. We’re just friends-” 

“God, Josh! How can you not see it? She likes you, she has for a while! Even I can see that. She probably liked you before I came around and she still likes you now.” 

“So that stuff she said you did to her…none of it is true?” 

“No, baby. You know I wouldn’t do anything like that.” Daniella says, taking Josh’s hands. “Do you believe me?” 

Josh sighs, but squeezes Daniella’s hands and nods, a small smile making it’s way to his lips. 

“Yeah, babe. Of course I believe you.” 

You, however, had no idea what was said between the two of them. You had no idea that Josh now thought of you as a liar. Not that he wanted to, because he knew you were drunk and when you’re drunk you say things you don’t mean, but it still changes things for him. 

Tyler, on the other hand, is sticking with you on what you admitted. He honestly believes that Daniella would do the things you said. 

Tyler has never been too fond of Daniella. He didn’t like her when Josh introduced her and that hasn’t changed. 

If he had realized that Daniella was basically bullying you, he would have told Josh and Josh would have believed him. 

But it’s convenient for Daniella that you were drunk when you said the things you did because she could tell Josh that you had no idea what you were talking about, which is exactly what she did.

But Tyler thought that Josh would walk into school the next day a single man, having a million apologies for you. He thought Josh would dump Daniella’s sorry ass and beg for your forgiveness for being so oblivious. But he hadn’t. Because if he had, he and Daniella wouldn’t have walked into the school hand in hand and Tyler wouldn’t have had to calm you down in a janitor’s closet because you thought you had lost Josh’s trust. You thought you had lost your best friend. 

And maybe you had.

“What the hell, Josh?” 

Tyler had managed to get Josh alone for the first time two days after the party and he was absolutely fuming. He had grabbed Josh by the arm and dragged him outside and to the back of the school so that no one could hear him if the conversation got loud. 

“What are you talking about, Ty?” 

Tyler couldn’t hold back. Josh was being a dick and he was going to get what he deserved. 

Tyler balled his hand into a fist and swung at Josh before he could think about what he was doing. 

“You abandoned your best friend, that’s what I’m talking about, you ass!”

“I didn’t-”

“Shut up, Josh. You and I both know you did.” 

Josh steps forward and shoves Tyler against the wall, but Tyler immediately pushes him away. He’s not going to let himself be pushed around because of something Josh did. 

Josh stays back this time. He glares at Tyler and shakes his head, trying to sort out his thoughts.

“Y/N lied about-”

“About what? About what she said at the party?” Tyler scoffs and shakes his head. “Whatever shit excuse Daniella came up with, it’s not true.” 

Josh is surprised at how much Tyler is cursing because it’s very uncommon for him. The only other time that he’s cursed this much was when someone told you that you should think about losing some weight so you could fit into a better dress at homecoming last year. Josh had cursed more than Tyler had. 

“Look, I know you don’t believe me, but Daniella wouldn’t do that. She knows how much Y/N means to me. I told her when we started dating that if she wanted to be with me, then she would have to deal with how close I was…am to Y/N.” 

“Well, she was lying then and she’s lying now.”

“She’s not lying.” 

Tyler seriously considers punching Josh again.

“Alright, since Daniella is obviously not lying, you think that Y/N, your best friend, who you have known for five years longer then you have known Daniella, must be lying. That’s your logic here?”

“Look, she was drunk. She didn’t know what she was talking about. And…” Josh trails off and purses his lips looking away from Tyler for a moment too long. Tyler furrows his eyebrows and takes a step closer to Josh. 

“What? And what?” 

Josh let’s out a breath and braces himself, knowing that he risks being punched again because of his next question. He’s beginning to think he may deserve it.

“Does Y/N like me? In a, um…romantic way?” 

Tyler let’s out a puff of air and closes his eyes, his anger growing. 

“You have no right to ask that. Not after what happened.” 

“Tyler, come on, that’s not fair.” 

“Not fair? Not fair? Do you wanna know what’s not fair, Josh? What’s not fair is what you did to Y/N. She spilled her guts to you and told you everything that your girlfriend has been doing to her then you come in the next day like everything’s fine!” Tyler says, getting louder and louder by the second. “Josh, I don’t think you get how much your trust and friendship means to Y/N. When she saw the two of you together this morning, she disappeared. Do you know where I found her?” 

“Tyler, just listen-” 

“She was curled up in the corner of a janitor’s closet crying her eyes out because she thinks that you don’t trust her anymore. And you think she’s lying.” 

Tyler shakes his head and turns away from Josh, done trying to explain the situation. If Josh cares about Y/N, he’ll realize his mistakes and give her the apology that she deserves. 

“If Y/N was telling the truth, she would have told me about it.” 

Tyler scoffs again, going against his better judgement as he turns back towards Josh, pulling his fist back and letting it slam into Josh’s other cheek. 

“You’re a dick, Josh, you really are.” he says, turning around and leaving his best friend with two bruised cheeks. “I hope it works out with Daniella.”

Tyler walks away and Josh stands there, thinking over everything that was said. He doesn’t know what to think…he hasn’t since the party. And now he’s worried that he’s been wrong about the whole situation. 

But he’s confused and has no idea how to approach you. So he doesn’t. 

One week later…

“Hello?” 

“Can we talk? I just…I’m really confused about, you know.” 

“Daniella told you everything, didn’t she? Isn’t that all you need to hear?” 

Josh sighs and puts his head in his hands as he tries to think of what to say. He’s felt the guilt of what he did for the past week because if you really are telling the truth, he knows he might have lost the most important person in his life.

And he’s been an idiot because he’s waited to talk to you about it. He’s been colder towards Daniella and she’s definitely noticed, but he hasn’t officially broken up with her. He’s just tried to pretend that the problem doesn’t exist and he’s a ass for doing that, even he knows that. He can see the effect it’s had on you.

“I just…want to talk to you. Please, where are you?” 

He hears you sigh on the other end and leans back against the wall of the school.

“I’m at my locker.” 

“I’ll be right there.” 

“Alright, I’m really confused.” 

“You and me both.” 

Josh does feel a pang of guilt when you say that. The two of you had gone out to his car so that you could talk. He immediately wants to tell you that he’s sorry because deep down he knows that Tyler was right. He’s an idiot and should’ve believed you.

But he wants to hear the story from you. When you’re sober.

“What’s going on, Y/N? With Daniella?” 

“What happened to your face?” 

“I asked first.” 

You purse your lips and stare at Josh, watching as his eyes grow sadder and sadder. 

“It wasn’t bad at first. She just told me to back off a few times because I was getting a little too touchy with you, according to her. I guess she didn’t like seeing you with your arm around my waist or seeing us hug all the time. That’s what I’ve always assumed.” 

You sigh and lean back in your seat, staring at your hands as you continue. 

“Then she started telling me that I would never have a chance with you anyway. She said I wasn’t good enough and that I should just back off. I wasn’t sure if she meant don’t try to break you and her up, which I wasn’t trying to do, by the way, or stop being friends with you altogether. I assumed the latter.”

Josh is staring at you and the guilt in his eyes is so evident that you can’t meet his gaze. 

“And that went on for a while. She told her friends how awful I was and they started hating me. Thought I would steal you away from her.” 

“Why didn’t you say anything?” 

“I wanted to, I really did. But…I knew you were happy with her and I didn’t want to screw that up.”

Josh looks at you and realizes how much this must have hurt you. How much he must have hurt you. He’s been so oblivious to everything that’s been going on and it may have cost him your friendship. 

“Y/N, I’m so sorry. I believe you, I promise…I should’ve believed you before but I just-” 

“It’s okay, Josh. I get it.”

But it’s not okay. He knows that because your words may tell him one thing but your tone…your eyes…tell him another. They tell him that he waited too long to talk to you. They tell him that you have been beating yourself up even though none of this is your fault. 

They tell him that you are going to need time.

But he nods because, knowing you, the last thing you want is all of the apologies he is prepared to give you.

“So…what happened?” 

Josh chuckles and touches the bruise on his cheek that is barely there, but is still visible. 

“I fell.” 

It’s not convincing and both of you know it, but you let it slide. 

“Do you want me to give you a ride home?” he asks. You shake your head, already starting to open the door. 

“I’m going home with Tyler,” you say, giving him a small, weak smile.

“Alright,” he says, “I’ll see you tomorrow?” 

He doesn’t say it, but asks as if he needs permission. 

“Yeah, Josh. I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

The next day is better between you and Josh, but things between Josh and Tyler are still tense. They have been for the past week. 

“Tyler, what going on?” you ask him when the two of you are alone. “I thought we figured this out.” 

“We did. But he’s still a jackass.” 

You sigh and purse your lips, shaking your head. 

“Look, can we just talk about it? All three of us? Because this is ridiculous.” 

Tyler sighs and nods, smiling at you. He throws an arm over your shoulder and the two of you start looking for Josh after agreeing that now would be as good a time as any to talk things out.

The two of you head towards his locker, swerving around people and turning corner after corner until you finally turn down the hall that leads to Josh’s locker. 

You really wish you hadn’t. 

In the movies, people always seem to show up somewhere at the wrong time. At exactly the wrong time. Because that’s what it takes to keep the story interesting. 

But that kind of thing doesn’t happen in real life. It’s like…like a rule. A really stupid, subconscious rule. 

A rule that you just broke.

You turn the corner and look down the hall that Josh’s locker is in. You see him talking to Daniella and they both look up when they hear you. 

Daniella looks upset and a little angry while Josh just looks happy to see you and Tyler standing there. 

But before you can do or say anything, their lips are locked and feel your heart shatter. 

You don’t stay around to watch. You turn on your heel and walk towards the front of the school, not stopping to tell Tyler you’re fine, because you’re not. 

You’re sick of this. Your sick of your stupid emotions. You’re always telling yourself that you might have a chance with Josh. Maybe he likes you. Maybe he’ll want to be with you one day.

You’re always getting your hopes up.

Then something goes wrong and you lose that chance and your hope hits you in the face when you least expect it. It knocks you off balance and you have no idea how to pick yourself back up. 

And you’re just so done with your damn feelings. 

You’re tired of it. All of it. You’re tired of pretending to be happy for Josh. You’re tired of watching him wrap his arms around someone else, leaving you to wonder what it would be like if it was you in his arms. 

And that’s all you can do. Wonder. 

And it’s not enough, but it has to be. You have to make it enough. 

You want Josh to look at you the way he looks at Daniella. To hold you and kiss you and tell you your beautiful. You want to be the one he waits for in the morning so he can ask how you are and how your night was.

You just want to feel good enough. 

Josh had gone to find Daniella and confront her about the information you had given him. 

“Daniella,” he says when he finds her. She had been waiting by his locker, her thumbs flying over the keyboard on her phone. 

“Josh, you didn’t answer my texts. I was worried.” 

She walks up to him and wraps her arms around his waist and pulls him closer, trying to attach her lips to his. He pushes her away and she looks at him as if he had threatened her.

“Josh, what-” 

“It’s true, isn’t it? Everything Y/N said is true.” 

She freezes and looks like a deer caught in the headlights. Josh scoffs, her expression giving him the only answer he needs. 

“We’re done.” 

The conversation went exactly as he thought it would. And it was supposed to end there. He walks away and that’s the end of a relationship. 

“Josh, wait, of course it’s not true-” 

But Josh just has to stick around a little longer.

“No. Don’t bullshit me, Daniella. When we started dating, I told you that Y/N would always be a part of my life. If you didn’t want her around, then you shouldn’t have gone out with me. We’re done.” 

Daniella grabs his arm before he can walk away and pulls him back, trying to catch his eye. 

“Look, just let me explain-” 

“What is there to explain? You hurt Y/N, my best friend, and I’m not okay with that.” 

Daniella is about to defend herself further, but both of them look over at you when you and Tyler turn the corner. Before Josh can pull his arm out of his ex-girlfriend’s grip, he is pulled closer to her. He doesn’t see it coming, so he can’t stop her when she attaches her lips to his. She clings onto him, making sure to hold on long enough to make it look like Josh is kissing her back. 

When she lets him go, he pushes her away and turns back towards you, but you’re gone. 

“Why would you do that?” he yells, turning towards a smirking Daniella. 

“You really think she can be any better then me? Please, I was doing you a favor.” 

Josh shakes his head and runs in the direction you went in, hoping that he gets one more chance with you. One more chance that he probably doesn’t deserve. 

Tyler was right. Josh Dun is a complete jackass. 

“Y/N, where do you want to go?” 

Tyler had taken you back to his car and is waiting for you to say anything that will tell him that you’re okay. 

“Can we just go back to your place?” you ask quietly. He nods and starts the car, not saying anything else. 

The whole ride is tense and neither of you know how to start a conversation about what you saw. You had explained to Tyler before that you and Josh had talked it out and the wound that had been created was starting to heal. 

But it has opened up again and you can’t seem to find anything to stop the bleeding. 

Tyler pulls into his driveway but doesn’t make any move to get out of the car. He looks over at you and sighs, taking your hand and rubbing your knuckles with his thumb. 

“Do you want hot chocolate? You look like you could use a huge cup of hot chocolate.” 

You smile and let out a small laugh. Tyler knows you can’t resist his hot chocolate. He makes the best cocoa and has always offered to make you some when you don’t feel good, whether it be physically or emotionally.  

“Do you have marshmallows?” 

“It would be a crime if I didn’t.” 

“Then yes, I would love a huge cup of hot chocolate.” 

Tyler smiles and you both get out of the car, walking to Tyler’s front door. 

“My mom isn’t home so feel free to do the stuff that she usually tells you not to do. Sit on the counter, don’t wipe your feet on the welcome mat. If you want to get really crazy, you can walk through the house with your shoes on.” 

You laugh and Tyler smiles at you, going to the kitchen and pulling out his mom’s homemade hot chocolate mix. 

“Do you think they’re still together?” 

You don’t know why you asked. The answer is obvious because of what you saw.

Tyler sighs and looks at you to see that you are sitting on the couch, your legs pressed against your chest and your eyes fixed on the wall in front of you. 

“I don’t know. If Josh has any brains at all, no, but-” 

“But it looks like they are. Because of…you know.” 

Tyler sighs and purses his lips. He’s known that you’ve liked Josh since he met you, which was in sixth grade. And he’s been trying to hint to Josh that he should ask you out, but Josh is so oblivious to everything that he’s never noticed.

“Josh doesn’t deserve you, Y/N. If he can’t see how amazing you are, he doesn’t even deserve to be your friend. You are one of the best people I know and any guy would be lucky to have you.” 

You smile at Tyler, looking away from the wall to meet his eyes.

“Thanks, Ty.” 

He smiles, his gaze turning towards the door when someone knocks. He puts the hot chocolate down and walks over, opening the door to reveal Josh, rain pouring behind him and his hair wet because of the short walk from his car to the house.

“Tyler, I know this seems bad-” 

“Get out.” 

You purse your lips and sink into yourself, hoping that Josh won’t see you. If he sees you, he’ll want to talk, and the last thing you want to do right now is talk to Josh.

“It’s not what you think, Tyler. Just let me explain. Please.” 

“Get out, Josh. Leave. You can wait until tomorrow to explain, right now you can go home or to go Daniella’s or go where ever the hell you want, as long as it’s not here.” 

Josh sighs and is about to fire something back, but he looks past Tyler and spots you. You look down and try to focus on anything else, but that proves to be very difficult. 

“Y/N, please let me explain-” 

“Josh, stop. Just go, alright? We can deal with this tomorrow,” Tyler says, trying to push Josh out the door. 

“Tyler, come on, you don’t know what happened!”

“I think I do!”

“Y/N is my best friend, you can’t keep me from talking to her-” 

“STOP!”

Your voice creates a deafening silence in the house and both Tyler and Josh turn to you. You stare at both of them with a desperate look in your eyes. 

All you wanted was hot chocolate. Is hot chocolate really too much to ask?

“Just…just stop. This isn’t how this is supposed to go. We’re supposed to be best friends. We’ve known each other for six years. A-and all of those memories, everything that’s happened between us…I won’t let all of that fall apart in a week.” 

You take a deep breath and shake your head, standing and walking closer to Josh and Tyler. 

“So here’s what’s going to happen. Josh is going to drive home and come to school tomorrow with his side of this and I’m going to go home and sleep all of this off. We’ll come to school tomorrow fresh and talk everything through.”

You know that tears are running down your cheeks and maybe you’re overreacting about this whole thing. But you’ll be damned if you let this friendship fall apart because a few mistakes. 

“Do you want me to drive you?” Tyler asks quietly, walking away from the door, a step closer to you.  

“No. My house is a mile away, and I‘ve walked before,” you say, pushing past both of them and walking out the door, immediately getting soaked by the rain. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” 

“Y/N, c’mon, just let me drive you home.” 

Hearing Josh’s voice, so desperate, makes you feel guilty for walking away before you talk this over. But it also makes you so angry. He’s the one who kissed Daniella, he’s the one who didn’t believe you, and he’s the one who is making you hate yourself because you believe that you’re the problem in all of this.

“No, Josh. No, you know why you’re not driving me home? Because then we’re going to talk and you’re going to tell me that it was all a mistake and you shouldn’t have done it and you should’ve believed me.” 

You take a deep breath and close your eyes, wrapping your arms around yourself. 

“Or…you’re going to tell me that Daniella is too important to let go. And you’re going to give me a fake apology and tell me that Daniella would never lie. And I don’t want to hear either of those things right now so, no, you can’t drive me home.” 

You turn without another word and, as you expected, you hear someone coming after you. Before you can get another few steps towards your house, Josh pulls you back, his bright, yellow hair matted to his forehead and his clothes already soaked. 

“Y/N, this is insane! It’s pouring, you can’t walk home!” 

“Well, if it bothers you so much, go back inside!” 

Josh shakes his head and walks closer to you. And the closer he gets, the more you want to turn and run in the opposite direction. 

“Listen, alright. Please, just listen to me,” he says. He finally gets close enough to where he can put his hands on your elbows and pull you just a little bit closer. 

“I believe you. I promise, I do. I went to find Daniella so I could break up with her, and that’s what I did. We’re not together anymore.” 

“But I saw you-” 

“You saw her grab me and force me to kiss her. She kissed me. I promise I would never date someone who doesn’t accept you. You mean more to me than she ever did and I’m an idiot because I believed her.” 

You sniff and feel more tears fall down your cheeks, but Josh probably doesn’t notice because of the rain. 

“Everything I said at the party…you didn’t say anything about it for a week. A week, Josh.” 

“I know. And I’m sorry, Y/N. I know that an apology won’t fix what happened, but I’m so so sorry and I won’t forgive myself for not listening to you for a long time…but you mean so much to me. I hope you understand that. Nothing that happened changes how much I care about you.”

You feel yourself start to shiver and wrap your arms around yourself. Josh notices and slips his jacket off, wrapping it around you. He slides his hands off the jacket and onto your hips. It’s like he thinks that if he lets you go, you’ll run away and he won’t be able to get you back. 

“It’s not going to be the same.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“I mean…you know. I told you everything. I told you that…” 

You trial off and pull away from Josh, out of his grip. You back away a few steps and he looks at you with desperation in his eyes. 

“What do I know, Y/N?” 

“You know that I have feelings for you,” you whisper, wrapping your arms around yourself again. “So, now it’s going to be different and awkward…I’ve ruined our friendship. I screwed up my relationship with one of the most important people in my life and I have no idea what to do. What…Josh, what do I do?” 

Your voice is desperate and Josh can see the tears running down your cheeks, even though the rain makes it hard. He walks closer to you. Closer and closer until he closes the distance that you created. He puts one arm around your waist and the other on your cheek, wiping away the tear that has just fallen. 

“Kiss me.” 

You’re eyes widen and you automatically look at Josh’s lips. Of course, you’ve thought about what it would be like kissing Josh and how good he probably is at it. He’s the only person you’ve wanted to kiss for a long time, and now that he’s saying it, you forget about everything else that was said. Because this is the last thing you expected Josh to tell you. You expected him to say that he doesn’t think things will be the same either but the two of you can work through it. You expected him to nod and agree with you. 

You didn’t expect him to feel the same way as you have for years.

“W-what?”

“Y/N, I’ve wanted to ask you out since sixth grade. But I thought you didn’t like me, and every time I was going to ask you to go on a date with me, I chickened out. I asked Daniella out because I didn’t think I had a chance with you. I thought that I could develop feelings for her, and I did for a while. In the middle of our relationship, it was genuine. And it was good with her, but the problem was…”

He trails off and his arm tightens around you, pulling you closer inch by stupid inch. 

“The problem was she wasn’t you. Which is why I knew it couldn’t last. My feelings for you were always stronger than my feelings for her. And I think she knew that, which is why she did everything that she did. And I should’ve noticed and broken up with her a long time ago. I should’ve broken up with her when you told me what she did the first time. But I didn’t and I’m an idiot and I may have ruined any chance with you. But, if there’s a chance that you can forgive me, if there’s a chance that we can be together…I want you to kiss me.” 

You stare at him and try to respond, but he’s not done with his speech.

“This isn’t…this isn’t how I pictured it. In the pouring rain after a fight. But I guess now’s as good a time as any, right? Isn’t this how it usually happens in the movies-” 

“Shut up.” 

It slipped out, but you say it with just a little bit of hope in your voice and Josh catches that. 

“What?” 

“Josh Dun, you’re an idiot.” 

You say it with a grin on your face and you wrap your arms around his waist, pulling him against you. 

“Just shut up and let me kiss you.” 

He smiles and you stand on your toes, tangling your fingers in his hair. He takes his hand away from your cheek and wraps it around your waist just as you press your lips to his. It’s better then you had ever imagined. His lips fit perfectly with yours and his arms tighten around you as he pulls you impossibly closer. 

And in that moment, you’re the sixth grader who has just realized she likes her best friend. You’re the eighth grader who almost admitted that she liked him when he started talking about another girl. You’re the tenth grader who wanted to scream, but instead smiled and said “that’s great” when he told her that he was dating Daniella. 

You’re the eleventh grader who never wants to let go of her best friend.

When you pull away, you put your head against his chest and hold him in a hug. He holds onto you, the rain not bothering him nearly as much as it would if you weren’t in his arms. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispers, pressing a kiss on your head. “I’m so sorry.” 

“I know.” 

He pulls away and smiles at you, stroking your cheek with the back of his hand. 

“You look beautiful in the rain. Have I ever told you that?” 

You laugh and shake your head, both of you smiling like idiots as you stand in the middle of the rain. 

“I’m still pissed at Josh,” a voice says from behind you, “but that was the most cliche thing I’ve ever seen.” 

(x)