#patch notes: pictures now have alt text

[aussie-bookworm]

THE KING IS BACK

[set-phasers-to-whump]

the snow isn’t all that cold if you’ve got someone to hold

prompt: freezing (leftover from yesterday, used as kind of an alt prompt)

whumpee: eddie diaz

fandom: 911

hi! this fic is technically for day 1 i guess, but there are a couple days this month where neither prompt is really my thing so in those cases i will be using a prompt from a different day. there will still be 30 days of whump, but not 30 separate pairs of prompts used! anyway this fic is a bit softer and fluffier than my usual stuff but there is still whump! it’s just more gentle i guess lol. that’s just how it happened. i hope you enjoy! (title from heater by little car)

Buck opens the front door of the little cabin and steps aside to let Chris enter first. Chris walks inside, looks around for a split second, and promptly makes a beeline for the bedroom he’d claimed as ‘his’ the second he’d seen it on the website. 

“Buck, come see!” he calls excitedly, and Buck smiles to himself and follows Chris inside, glancing briefly back at Eddie, who is struggling up the path with the bags that he’d insisted upon carrying inside himself. 

“Look at that lamp!” Chris says, pointing to a bear-shaped lamp sitting atop the bedside table. He turns to Buck, smiling so widely that Buck thinks it must hurt his face. “This is gonna be the coolest weekend ever,” he continues, and Buck nods in agreement.

“What do you wanna do first, Superman?” he asks, and Chris shakes his head. 

“Buck, I gotta read my book for that,” he says, very seriously. The front door slams shut, and Chris immediately calls out to Eddie: “Dad! I need my book.”

Eddie comes into the room a second later with Chris’ bag, his beloved Guide to Sequoia National Park sticking out from one of the side pockets. 

“Thanks!” Chris says, grabbing the book and sinking down onto the bed. He flips it open and begins studying it intently, paying no mind to the other two people in the room. 

Buck and Eddie therefore leave Chris to it and step out into the living room to grab their own bags, which Eddie had evidently simply dropped in the middle of the floor as soon as he’d gotten inside. Buck sets his bag down next to the couch and flops down onto it.

“Buck, are you sure- ” Before Eddie can finish his sentence, Buck interrupts him with a stern glare. 

“Eds, I already claimed the couch, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“But- ”

Buck shakes his head, and Eddie, apparently sensing that this is a fight he is not going to win, flings his bag over his shoulder and makes his way to the cabin’s other bedroom, muttering something about at least flipping a coin for it. Not that Buck would’ve let that happen. He already can’t help feeling a bit like he is overstepping, although both Chris and Eddie had absolutely insisted that he come on this little trip with them, and there’s no way in hell he’s stealing the only other bed in the house from his best friend. So the couch it is. 

It’s silent in the cabin for a few minutes, until Chris comes out of his room and sits on the couch next to Buck, guidebook in hand. 

“Buck, I can’t decide which thing we should do first,” he says miserably, extending the book. Buck takes it and flips it open, looking through messily highlighted passages and various sticky notes covered in the handwriting of himself and both of the Diazes. 

“What about this?” Buck suggests, pointing to a picture of a person standing underneath a tunnel in the roots of a massive tree. 

Chris makes a noncommittal sound, so Buck continues looking through the book. Chris leans into his side and looks along with him, occasionally pointing out things he thinks are contenders for their first activity tomorrow. 

Eddie startles them both when he comes into the room, and he chuckles softly as they both turn to look at him. “I’m gonna go find some wood so we can have a fire tonight,” he says. “Sunset’s in about an hour and it’s supposed to get pretty chilly.”

Chris nods in agreement and asks if they can make hot chocolate later, to which Buck and Eddie simultaneously reply yes; and Buck jokingly tells Eddie to be careful with the ax (which is about half the size of the one they regularly use in the field), and then Eddie heads out into the forest and Chris and Buck return to their very important activity of scouring the guidebook. 

About twenty minutes pass pleasantly, with Buck and Chris slowly figuring out their plan of attack for the two days ahead. Then Chris looks up from the book and gasps. 

“Buck! Look, it’s snowing!”

Buck turns to look out the window, and sure enough, snow is pouring down from the sky. “That’s weird,” he says, half to himself. “It wasn’t supposed to snow this weekend.”

Chris suddenly looks very concerned. “Will we still be able to go and see the trees?”

“I think so,” Buck says reassuringly. He can’t imagine that this snow is going to last very long. He’d done a lot of research into the weather up here in the past couple weeks, and it’s really not supposed to snow this early into November. He figures that this snow will probably melt by midday tomorrow, which should still let them do everything that they’re planning on doing. 

“Good,” Chris says, and then he gets up and looks out the window, leaning against the pane, breath fogging up the glass. Buck wonders if he’s ever seen snow before, and he’s about to ask whether Chris would like to go outside and see it when he thinks of Eddie, and decides to shoot him a quick text to see whether he’s almost done with gathering wood. 

Eddie’s phone dings on the kitchen counter, and Buck sighs. He looks back out the window, where the snow is beginning to fall harder. It’s already a couple inches deep, he can tell, and Eddie hadn’t been wearing a coat when he’d gone out. He gives Eddie two minutes, in case he’s on his way back, and then starts putting on his own coat and the snow boots that he’d brought, just in case. 

“Are you going to get Daddy?” Chris asks, moving to stand next to Buck. He sounds a little worried, and Buck puts a soft hand atop his hair. 

“Yep, and then we can spend all evening with a nice, warm fire and some hot cocoa and maybe even a movie,” Buck says, zipping up his jacket. “In the meantime, why don’t you keep looking through your book and see if there’s anything we can do that’s inside.”

Chris nods and makes his way back to the couch, and Buck steps outside onto the front porch.

It’s cold. Really cold. Buck tries not to think about all of the many terrible things that could’ve happened to Eddie in the twenty minutes that he’s been gone as he makes his way out into the snow, calling out Eddie’s name. 

He walks for maybe ten minutes, slowly circling outwards from the front door of the cabin, continually calling for Eddie. The sun is starting to set, and the snow is falling faster still, and he is really trying not to panic now. He’s about to get out his phone and call 911 when he hears a voice, faint but unmistakably Eddie’s. 

“Hold on, Eddie, I’m coming!” he shouts, and hurries off in the direction of Eddie’s voice as fast as he can. 

He skids to a stop in front of Eddie, barely managing to stay on his feet as he hits an especially slippery patch of snow. “You okay?” he asks, even though Eddie is clearly freezing his ass off and definitely not okay.

“Slipped,” Eddie says, through chattering teeth. “Not hurt, don’t think, but it was too slippery. Couldn’t get back up.”

Buck can see how that might’ve happened. “I almost slipped too,” he says. “Lucky I didn’t, or we’d both be stuck out here.”

Eddie gives a soft laugh, then sucks in a sharp breath. “‘M really cold, Buck,” he says.

“I know,” Buck replies, carefully bending over and grabbing Eddie underneath his arms. “We’re gonna get you back to the cabin and warm you up as soon as we can, I promise.” He hauls Eddie to his feet, keeping an arm firmly wrapped around him to stop him from slipping again. This close together, he can hear Eddie’s teeth chattering, can feel the coldness of his skin and his clothes. Buck unzips his jacket and maneuvers his way out of it without letting go of Eddie, then tugs the jacket securely around Eddie’s shoulders, guiding his shaking arms into the sleeves and zipping it up. 

“‘S nice,” Eddie whispers, leaning a little more heavily into Buck.

“I bet,” Buck says, sympathetically. “But try not to lean on me too much, okay? The last thing we need is to both end up on our asses in the snow.”

Eddie nods and pulls away slightly, and then the two begin a very slow, very careful trek back to the cabin. 

Halfway there, the sun dips completely below the horizon, and the temperature feels like it drops another ten degrees. Eddie starts shivering harder, despite Buck’s jacket, and Buck throws caution to the wind and pulls Eddie closer, taking smaller steps and shining his phone’s flashlight onto the ground ahead of them.

“Is Chris okay?” Eddie asks, suddenly, stopping in his tracks and nearly causing the both of them to fall. 

“He’s okay,” Buck says, gently pulling him along. “He’s looking through his guidebook and finding some things to do indoors tomorrow, if this snow doesn’t let up.”

This answer seems to satisfy Eddie, who lapses into silence as they walk along through the snow. 

“Look, there’s the cabin,” Buck says, gesturing to its lights glowing through the darkness, even though he knows Eddie can’t see his hand. “We’re almost there.”

Eddie only hums in response, and Buck tugs him along a little faster, very anxious to get him inside and warmed up before this cold does any real damage.

A minute later, they’re stumbling through the front door, dripping melting snow onto the floor. Chris hurries up from the couch, guidebook tumbling to the floor. “Dad!”

Eddie turns to look at Chris, and Buck can see him trying to act okay for his son, but he’s shaking so hard that Buck doubts Chris is buying it for a second. 

“Is he okay?” Chris asks Buck, and Buck so desperately wants to wrap him in a hug and tell him that yes, Eddie’s going to be okay, but that would mean letting go of Eddie, which is not an option at the moment, so he settles for a nod instead. “Your dad’s going to be just fine,” he promises. “But he’s really cold right now, so I need to go and get him warmed up. And you know what he’s going to need most of all?”

Chris shakes his head. 

“He’s going to need to curl up on the couch with you and me and some hot chocolate and a movie. So, while we’re gone, we need you to pick out a good movie to watch, okay?”

Chris nods and adds, “I think maybe we need some blankets, too. Should I find some?”

“Yeah, buddy, that would be perfect,” Buck says, smiling. Chris smiles back, then steels his face into a look of pure determination and sets about on his very important task of finding blankets and picking a movie. 

Meanwhile, Buck leads Eddie into the bathroom and turns on the shower. He starts it off at a lukewarm temperature, not wanting to shock Eddie’s system by forcing him under hot water immediately. While the water warms up, he helps Eddie out of his freezing clothes and tries not to think about how much worse their situation could be right now if he hadn’t found Eddie when he did. 

Once the shower heats up, Buck opens the door and Eddie steps inside, flinching back as the warm water hits his freezing-cold skin. 

“Is it too hot?” Buck asks, but Eddie shakes his head. “Nice,” he says. 

“Once you feel like you’re used to that temperature, you can start warming it up in small increments,” Buck directs. “In the meantime, I’m going to get you some warm clothes and a towel, but you just yell if you need me, okay?”

“Kay,” Eddie agrees, and with that, Buck heads out of the bathroom. 

He takes a quick glance into the living room, where Chris sits on the couch, surrounded by at least five blankets. He’s flicking through movies on the TV with intense concentration, and Buck smiles at the back of his head. God, he loves this kid. 

He then gets back to his task and heads into Eddie’s room, where he locates Eddie’s bag and digs out his pajamas, which consist of a threadbare white t-shirt and a pair of flannel pants. He’s got a sweatshirt at the bottom of the bag, but Buck decides to go back out into the living room and grab one of his own sweatshirts instead. It’ll be bigger and hopefully cozier than Eddie’s own (not to mention the fact that he’s been wanting to give Eddie one of his sweatshirts for...too long). 

“How is he?” Chris asks, while Buck is digging through his bag. 

“He’s taking a nice warm shower right now,” Buck says, tugging his sweatshirt free of his other clothes. “Then we’ll come and join you out here with -” he looks up at the TV, where Chris has chosen the movie Frozen. He laughs out loud, and Chris giggles. “With Frozen, and I’ll make us some hot cocoa, and we’ll get nice and warmed up.”

“Okay,” Chris agrees. Buck makes his way back to the bathroom with the clothes in hand, stopping along the way to grab a towel from the linen closet. He throws all of the items into the cabin’s little dryer and lets them spin for a few minutes, during which time he checks up on Eddie, who seems to be shivering considerably less under the now-steaming water. 

When the clothes and towel are nicely warmed up, Buck brings them back into the bathroom. “You might wanna get out now before these all cool down again,” he suggests, and Eddie reaches up to turn off the water. His hand trembles a little, but for the most part he looks quite a bit steadier, and Buck breathes a sigh of relief. Eddie’s really going to be fine. 

He gives Eddie some privacy to dry off, and a few minutes later, he emerges from the bathroom, hair still wet, the sleeves of Buck’s sweatshirt covering his hands, which hold onto the damp towel. Buck takes it from him and uses it to dry off Eddie’s hair a bit better than Eddie had managed to do. It sticks up from his head when he’s done, and makes him look way cuter than Buck thinks he has any right to. He quickly squashes down that thought and hangs the towel up in the bathroom, then tells Eddie to go sit down on the couch while he makes some hot chocolate. 

Buck watches Eddie walk slowly out to the living room, and hears him laugh softly at Chris’ choice of movie. He smiles to himself, wonders briefly how in the hell he had gotten so lucky as to have these two wonderful people in his life, then gets busy making some hot chocolate. While he stirs the milk in the pan, he thinks about what they’re going to do if their activities end up being impossible due to the snow. He knows Chris might complain for a moment, then accept whatever fate they’re handed, but they had spent a lot of time planning this trip, and Chris had been so excited to come and see the trees he’d learned so much about in school, and he can’t let the kid miss out on that. Privately, he resolves to bring the Diazes back to the park in the summer, when they can be assured it’s not going to snow. 

Buck finishes up the hot chocolate and distributes it across three large mugs, which he balances precariously in his arms as he makes his way into the living room. He sets the steaming mugs carefully onto the coffee table, pulling it closer to the couch so that Chris can easily reach it, then sits down on the couch with Chris and Eddie. Chris is curled into Eddie's left side, a large blanket covering them both. Eddie’s still shivering a bit, but there’s a tinge of pink returning to his face, and he turns and smiles at Buck when he sits down on Eddie’s other side. 

“How you feeling?” Buck asks softly, as Chris presses play on the remote. 

“Better,” Eddie whispers back, reaching out and grabbing one of the mugs. He wraps his hands around it, and Buck wraps his left arm around Eddie’s shoulders, tugging him closer in the process and letting his hand rest on Chris’ shoulder. 

They watch the movie in comfortable silence, and by the time it’s halfway through, Chris is almost asleep and Eddie is no longer shivering. After another fifteen minutes, Chris is solidly asleep, leaning against the side of the couch, and Eddie’s head has dropped down to rest on Buck’s shoulder. 

I really don’t wanna do this, Buck thinks, but he also doesn’t want Chris and Eddie to sleep all bunched up and uncomfortable on the couch, so he gently pushes on Eddie until he sits up, blinking around confusedly for a second until his eyes land on Buck.

“Sorry,” Buck whispers. “Couldn’t let you fall asleep out here.”

Eddie nods, resting his head against the couch cushion instead, and Buck stands up, circling around the couch. He carefully picks up Chris, trying his best not to wake him, then carries him to his room and tucks him into bed. He presses a quick kiss to Chris’ forehead, then gently closes the door and returns to Eddie. 

Who is again half-asleep. “C’mon Eds, let’s get you to bed,” Buck says, grabbing Eddie’s hands and pulling him to his feet. Eddie leans forward, pressing his head into Buck’s shoulder and making an mmph sound. 

“It’s not that far,” Buck promises, and Eddie reluctantly starts walking. Buck follows behind him, arms full of several of the blankets from the couch. 

Once they arrive in the bedroom, Eddie immediately flops down onto the bed, not even bothering to crawl under the blankets. Buck sighs and untucks them, pulling them out from underneath Eddie and then draping them over his already-nearly-asleep form. He piles on several more blankets, until Eddie is fairly buried in them. That done, he turns to leave. 

“Buck.”

“Yeah?” Buck turns around in the doorway. 

“Stay.”

Buck doesn’t even pretend to try and fight. Instead, he simply crawls into the bed beside Eddie. His skin is still slightly colder than it should be, and Buck tells himself that this is the only reason why he pulls Eddie in closer to his chest, tucking Eddie’s head beneath his chin. They fit together like that easily, and Eddie sighs contentedly, tugging one of the blankets completely off of Buck and pulling it closer to himself as his breathing slows and deepens. 

Buck is all of a sudden very glad that it’s dark and Eddie is turned away from him, so there is no chance of him seeing the ridiculously fond grin that spreads across his face. I think maybe this is what it’s supposed to be like, Buck thinks, and then he closes his eyes and lets sleep take him, too.

thanks for reading this! i hope you liked it :)

[pakseoexpert01]

What is SEO Friendly Web Design

Web progression website configuration is the way toward making areas that web documents can creep, record and comprehend.

Web searcher crawlers can't 'read' and 'talk' with a site page like a human. Or on the other hand perhaps they get to a site's HTML code and mission for signs to assist them with understanding the structure of a site and the hugeness of the substance.

Why Is SEO Friendly Web Design Important?

Following SEO services Pakistan pleasant course of action rehearses is critical considering the way that you need a site page that keeps the two clients and web crawlers merry.

On the off chance that web crawlers can't fathom what a site is about, by then this will unfavorably impact your traffic and web search instrument rankings.

Web improvement Friendly Web Design Principles

Immense Note: SEO site piece isn't about how your site looks or what colors you use. This is eager and not something that Google considers. What is basic is the strategies by which a site is created and how well it can offer the correct indications to fulfill the unmistakable web search gadget arranging factors.

A SEO chivalrous website page can be completely recorded by methods for web crawlers with no issues.

That is the fundamental guideline of SEO expert plan, and an enormous one.

To ensure that your site and substance is recorded reasonably follow these techniques:

Use ALT Text for Images

Making pictures available to web records is in like way a standard of good SEO website building.

Pictures make a page considerably additionally enchanting and less mind boggling to investigate, yet web searcher crawlers can just with significant effort comprehend what a picture is about.

To make their development less troublesome and expansion your odds of getting traffic from Image Search, you have to update your photographs.

The most basic picture SEO factor is obliging a real and critical ALT Text.

You can look at the Image SEO services in Pakistan Guide for rules on the best way to deal with overhaul your photographs for most conspicuous SEO.

You can analyze this guide: Best site structure for SEO for logically normal tips on the most skilled method to refresh your site structure.

3. URL Structure

A decent URL structure should match and bolster the site structure.

By URL structure we mean the plan of your permalinks (regardless called slugs).

A SEO all around organized URL structure has the going with qualities:        URLs are short and informative for example reliablesoft.net/become-a web design improvement expert         It solidifies SEO watchwords in the URL (consider the To be of this post for instance)

It avoids dates in the URL

It focuses direct to the page for example reliablesoft.net/webpage plan improvement business beside if a page is a touch of an envelope for example reliablesoft.net/courses/web design update

4. Inside Link Structure

Remarkable SEO rehearses show that the pages of a webpage page ought to be interlinked together to plot a little web.

There are several reasons concerning why this makes a site SEO Company  Friendlier:

5. On Page SEO Optimization

Any page coursed on your site ought to be redesignd for web search instruments.

You can tap on the above relationship for express data on the most competent procedure to redesign each page at any rate the general on-page SEO standards you ought to dependably follow are:

Work on your page titles

Improving your pages titles is maybe undeniably the most basic SEO factor.

A general streamlined title helps both web records and clients comprehend what the page is about and this makes an interpretation of to more snaps to your page and higher rankings.

Site Speed

Both Google and clients need districts that heap energetic.

I don't get our significance by fast districts? A site that stores in under 3 seconds on adaptable utilizing a 3G alliance.

On the off chance that you have attempted to improve the stacking velocity of your site, you comprehend that it's incredibly difficult to get it down to 3 seconds. In a little while, you should intend to make your site as energetic as could be typical considering the present circumstance.

It's a particular subject and you will require the assistance of a developed designer or site master at any rate it totally worth the exertion.

You can utilize the patch up page speed experiences report (a contraption gave by Google to help site overseers makes the site speedier), as your beginning stage.

It is inconvenient, you have to discover exceptional site specialists that can do this, in any case it will certainly make the experience of your clients better.

On the off chance that you beginning at now have a site, by then assurance that your goals breeze through the smaller especially organized assessment with no issues.

Next, utilize a mechanical get together like optimizely or Hotjar or some other relative programming to screen how clients band together with your adaptable site and make the huge updates.

How is this related with web creation?

Precisely when clients like a webpage page it proposes that they are placing essentialness in a page, examining the substance, partner with the site page and visiting more pages before they exit.

On the off chance that that isn't the situation, by then there is no uncertainty a critical issue with your site and you have to discover what and fix it.

Making an improved site is undeniably SEO expert in Pakistan not a set it and overlook it task. It's a propelling technique that needs solid assessment and testing.

Regardless, you ought not begin prompting changes on what you 'to acknowledge' is better.

Or on the other hand possibly, you ought to pick changes dependent on trained choices by isolating the client lead on your site.

End

Web smoothing out website designing is associated with making goals that the two clients and web crawlers love. Put forth an attempt not to place all your imperativeness in the visual bit of a site at any rate base on the client experience and ease of use.

[ethicallysourcedhumanmeat]

Practically Impractical

[Previous part][Next Part][Masterpost]

Part 2

“Don’t get me wrong,” Seven starts cautiously once they’ve packed her gear in the car, “that was like, really cool. But what was it, I mean what happened there.”

“Nothing,” she says coolly and buckles her seatbelt. “It wasn’t anything.”

Seven tries to drop it, he really does, but he can’t help it. “I mean, no it was nothing, but I mean, you definitely rap battled that guy.”

He catches her look reflected in the window and for a minute he wishes he was anyone else, someone who could keep their mouth shut, maybe Jumin, but then her mouth twitches and he can see her suppress a smile.

“It wasn’t a rap battle, I didn’t rap and I didn’t challenge him.”

“No you definitely challenged him, my girlfriend, palms sweaty, Yoosung’s spaghetti—”

“Luciel, I’m concerned that you don’t know what rap is,” she laughs.

He smiles, she’s relaxed laughing, job done. It bothers him though, whoever that man had been he had known her and done something to her. Something she didn’t want to talk about, and he was the king of not talking about things.

“Okay, okay. So you didn’t rap battle, but you sang at that guy. I mean don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind filling my baby with your gear and playing roadie, and I really dig being your sound guy but if you’re gonna start assaulting strangers with acoustic alt rock can you give me some warning, do you know how many hits I could have gotten on a video like that?”

She smirks but it’s fake and Seven is quiet. Alright Saeyoung, he thinks, let it go for now. He watches her in his peripheral. She takes her phone out and he sees the colours of the RFA app reflect off her glasses, she switches between a chat and FB for a while and he thinks maybe he sees a picture of the guy from the sidewalk. By the time Seven pulls into his garage she’s stuffed the phone back in her pocket and is staring out the window.

He can see her mouthing the words to the song that plays on the radio and a lump forms in his throat. Normally she’d be pumped from rehearsal. The last time they’d drove home she’d pulled out her Ukelele and played the strangest rendition of Enter Sandman he’d ever heard. But here she was withdrawn, not even singing out loud to the ridiculous sad song playlist she’d started.

They sit in the car for a few minutes before the radio turns itself off. She doesn’t make a move when Seven gets out of the car. He stops for a minute, it wouldn’t be the first time she came out to the garage to clear her thoughts. He moves on, he’ll give her some time, make them a snack and find something really terrible to watch before she has to pick Max up from school; but he doesn’t make is more than 3 feet before he hears her.

“Hey,” she says softly. Her big orange eyes are watery on the other side of the window.

“Hey,” he smiles, 3 big steps and he’s kneeling on the other side of the door forehead pressed against the glass. “I didn’t mean to pry you know? You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to.”

“I know,” she says, still quiet.

“I don’t even care who that guy was, you know. He looked like a douchebag. I hate his face and his shoes were really stupid.”

“You know how I have a kid,” she starts.

“WHAT?!” He gasps. “She’s a Kid? I thought she was just like Santa’s least helpful helper. Kid? Wow, I guess that makes sense.”

“Saeyoung,” she taps the glass. “That was her Dad.”

He’s quiet for a moment, it felt like the air had been sucked out of his lungs. “I thought he was overseas.”

“Me too.”

“He didn’t tell you he was here?”

“It might be R&R, I don’t know, he doesn’t tell me anything. He just pays support and I pretend he doesn’t exist until he likes a couple pictures on facebook or owes me money.”

He’d known the situation with her Ex was complicated. He suspected there was more to it than she wanted to talk about, the kid didn’t ask for or about her Dad and in the month Callie and her girl had lived with him they’d barely mentioned him. Until today he’d been such a non issue that Seven hadn’t even been concerned enough to look him up.

Which was exactly what Seven was going to do now. He pressed his lips against the window in an exaggerated kiss that made her laugh and stood up. He heard the door open and Callie still laughing.

“Hey,” she called.

He waved her off.

“Luciel, what are you doing we have to unload.”

“Important defender of justice business!”

“No, Seven, you’re not hacking my ex-husband.”

And there it was.

“Saeyoung,” her hands wrapped around his middle and he felt her cheek against his back.

“Oh no!” he gasps. “An unknown assailant! How will I escape.”

“Saeyoung,” she says, firmer this time but he can feel her cheek tense with a smile. “You can’t hack my ex-husband ok?”

“No one will know,” he reasons.

“Seven he’s in the military.”

“I’m a pretty ok at hacking.”

“No, it’s not. It’s not that I think you’ll get caught or, that I don’t want you to hack him.”

“WAIT!” Seven spins in place and bends over until they’re nose to nose. “Did my Queen just ask me to hack someone? Did an Angel just says that I Seven Zero Seven, Defender of Justice, am the single best hacker, capable of infiltrating Militaries?”

“That’s not, Seven, this isn’t a silly challenge, this is my life, our life.”

Shit.

“Saeyoung, don’t look up his schedule, or what he’s doing. I don’t want to know. I mean, I do but—”

“Wouldn’t it be easier? No one will know if I just find out how long he’s here.”

“You don’t understand. I’d know. And on the off chance he does ask to see her I’d have to worry about if I let on that I know his schedule... Saeyoung, if I ask too many questions about where he is he thinks I’m obsessed with him. He thought when I didn’t date I was obsessed him. When he’s lonely and bored he wants me to hang out. It’s hard enough not to think about him every day when I don’t know if he has time he could be spending with his kid.”

“Oh.”

“Fuck, no. Not like that.”

“No, it’s ok. I mean you were married. It’s, you know. It’s fine.”

“God no, Saeyoung, not like that. Shit. No. I mean I fucking hate him ok? And I have this awesome fucking kid and I hate that he doesn’t want to hang out with her. He hangs up on her if her mind wonders on the phone, or she’s out of view on skype for more than a few seconds. And when she’s telling me about things that excite her it’s hard not to think about how hurt she must be that he doesn’t want to share that.

And it’s hard not to think about him when you tell me I should replace my worn out patched up hoodie because for 10 years I couldn’t even buy myself clothing without worrying it would start a fight. So sure, I’d love for you to fuck his shit up. I’d love even more to ghost him. Just forget he exists but I can’t and as nice it would be to anticipate his bullshit I’d rather not have to think about him that much.”

Seven is quiet, his expressive eyes are considerate and he kisses her on the nose. They unload his car in comfortable silence and he does make her a snack. Strange to have fridge full of real food; he contemplates whether to go healthy or convenient and settles on Honey Buddha chips with cheese and grapes. She eats it sitting on the floor, her head resting against his knee while he plays video games. She listens to the audio he took during the rehearsal and makes notes, which songs worked, where she was flat, sharp, where her time was off. She fires off texts and picks up her daughter from school.

He decides to work at the kitchen table while the girls make dinner. Max is smiling at him whenever he looks up. He closes out his work without finishing and watches them.

“Hey,” he says. “Can I help you?”

“I don’t know,” Max says sceptically. “Can you cook?”

Callie laughs. Seven shrugs.

“Why don’t you teach me.”

“There isn’t really much left. Mom just has to turn the oven on.”

“Oh.”

“Why does everyone call you Seven.”

“Do they?”

“Mr. Han calls you Luciel but your name is Saeyoung, because that’s what Mom calls you.”

“Your name is Maxine, why does everyone call you Max.”

“Max is a name, Seven is a number,” she makes a face at him.

“I didn’t say it was a very good nickname,” he laughs.

“Were you coding before?” She asks.

“I was.”

“Really?” And before he knows it she’s run off and returned with a bunch of little toys and a small computer he recognizes as some form of raspberry pi. She chatters excitedly to him about the toys she’s coded. She shows him how she built the case herself and what she’s made that’s worked and what she’s having trouble with. Callie smiles at him from behind Max.

Supper is cooling on the stove when Callie finally makes them clear the table and he can’t stop smiling even if he is eating pretty much cold food. It’s real food and there’s these awesome girls who care enough to make it for him. And despite Saeren’s complaints about it being cold every time he looks up Callie is practically beaming at him. After supper he packs Max’s lunch and adds a riddle in binary while Callie coaxes the 8 year old into the bath tub. He laughs listening to them argue about brushing her hair, and how long she can read before lights out.

He’d worried, at first, about having a kid in his life. It’s been six months and it got easier every day. On days like today he wondered how he could be so lucky to not only find Callie, but a whole family that he fit so completely into.

“I get it,” he says when Callie falls into the couch next to him.

“Get what?”

“What you said earlier. Every minute I spend with Max I learn this new awesome thing about her, she’s smart and passionate and it must be frustrating to know how awesome she is and be faced with him.”

“You do a pretty good job of making up for it though.”

“Do I?”

“Oh god yes, coding is so far beyond me, she almost never tells me what she’s working on until she’s finished. I’m excited she can share that with you.”

They fall into the usual quiet of the evening, with Callie testing out a game for her show and him coding something or other. Saeren was coming out of his room more and more, and Max opened up a little more every day.

“Saeyoung,” Saeren asks sitting in the chair opposite them. They both glance up. As much progress as they’d made Saeren was still mostly quite when Seven was home.

“Yeah?” She could see the way he tried not to seem too eager, the way he didn’t quite look up from his laptop screen.

“Aren’t you afraid?”

Callie doesn’t realize she’s holding her breath until she lets it out. “Of what?”

Saeren doesn’t take his eyes off of his brother and he doesn’t clarify.

“Terrified,” he admits. “But a little less everyday.”

“Of what?” she asks again.

“Being like her,” they say in unison.

“Oh god,” she says under her breath. “I never thought, I didn’t know.”

Seven shrugs and smiles. Saeren watches him.

“You know,” Callie says finally, “she doesn’t define you. Either of you. Not who you are, and not your ability to be Max’s family. Max’s Dad has good parents, kind people who care and try despite what a complete bag of soggy horse dicks he turned out to be, and he is a terrible father. If anything I think you guys might be better with her than I am. Maybe you check yourselves more than I ever think to but I’ve never worried about leaving her alone with either of you. Leaving the two of you alone together maybe but not her with you.”

“That’s stupid,” Saeren snorts.

“Which part?” She asks. Genuinely curious.

“You don’t worry when you leave her with us? You should at least worry a little bit.”

“I worry when I leave her with Zen, because he might fill her full of candy or take her on his motorcycle. I worry when I leave her with Yoosung that she might convince him she can use the stove or accidentally delete his LOLOL inventory or make him cry. I worry that maybe she’ll irritate you when you need quiet or she might trip over a powercord and end up messing up a day of work for one of you. But I don’t worry about her safety. Should I?”

Saeren shrugs, and Saeyoung squeezes her arm.

“You guys are our family now. We trust you. So get used to it.”

[artsy-jandi]

I need to finish my second listen of the audiobook.

THE KING IS BACK