#plays the big brother roll when mae is picked on

[maeleelee]

𝐻𝑜𝓌'𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌?

This will be a story following the life of Wooyoung and his sister Y/N. They're the next King and Queen of Utopia. They don't want anyone knowing though, so they go to college and hid the fact that they're royal from everyone but their two best friends Mae and Cassi. Everyone finds out about them being royal after a new article comes out saying Y/N getting married. She doesn't want to marry this man she's been arrange to because she's in love with her brother's best friend, Yeosang. Who gonna get's the happy ending?

warnings: Cussing, loneliness, screaming and yelling, fights with parents.

You weren’t going to lie, you missed everyone. You missed Mae’s apartment. You missed being out of this damn castle. It was too big for its own good.

You hated walking the walls because it was quiet. It used to not be like this. Music would always be playing, or you’d hear the kids running around from the family friends that came over. It would make this place feel alive. There’s nothing that does that now. The only sounds she ever heard now was Mae hitting the punching bag in the gym down the hall. They’ve all been studying for midterms and no one’s been able to hang out with anyone. 

The friend group never stays apart. They’re always together in some form. Mingi and Yunho would come over to Mae’s apartment with coffee and food and just spend hours talking with you and Mae. San would show up to see Woo but end up talking to you the most. Cassi and Hongjoong and Yeosang normally came as a pack as well. Jongho floating between all of them. 

You walked to the library and sighed as you opened the big doors. They were wooden and carved with a gorgeous painting on it. They were slightly heavy so it took a little bit of strength to push them open. You looked at the walls. They were covered in bookshelves and books. There were so many to choose from as well. You had made sure they were organized by genre. Why choose, best friend to lovers, enemies to lovers, mafia, and so on. You went through and decided on a why choose. 

You walked out to the garden, looking at all the flowers. “Princess.” The guard bowed.

“Ed. I told you to call me y/n.” You sighed as you looked at the man. His long brown hair was pulled up and his green eyes were covered with sunglasses. He wore a simple outfit. Jeans and a shirt. Woo and the princess made sure no one had to wear suits all the time when they just stood guard for hours. 

“Sorry prin- I mean y/n.” He smiled softly. “The king is asking for you.” 

You nodded and headed back inside. You walked through the quiet halls again. The closer you got, the louder the yelling you heard got. “I will not be marrying some woman I don’t know. You will not be deciding who I marry. You’ve controlled most of the other stuff but this is one thing you don’t get to pick out. I will be marrying Mae.” Wooyoung was screaming at y’all’s dad. You could tell he was fuming from the other side of the door. 

“You will do as I say. You are becoming King and will stand next to your sister when it comes the time that the crown swaps hands. You will be marrying this princess and that’s final.” Y’all’s dad was stern. You knew what this was about. He’d found you someone as well. If he wouldn’t let Wooyoung have a choice, you wouldn’t be getting one either. 

Wooyoung came flying out the door, so mad you could see the steam rolling off him. He locked eyes with you and sighed, calming himself down. He never liked showing you that side. He was a softy at heart so when he got mad, he'd get MAD. “I’m sorry.” He sighed towards you. “He’s not budging. We’re going to be married within a few weeks. My wedding first, yours a week or two after. I tried so hard, bun. I told him to at least let you pick. I’d marry if you could pick,” he had tears running down his face, “I don’t want you to be with someone who’s not Yeosang.” 

“How’d you know?” You blushed, looking at your hands. You had only told Cassi and Mae that you had a crush on Yeosang. 

“It’s not that hard to see, bun. The way you smile when he’s around. The way your eyes light up at his name. I’ll make it my mission that you two end up together, bun.” He held you close, trying not to let any more tears fall. This was it. You’d be told who you were marrying. 

You pulled away from Wooyoung and turned towards the door. “I’ll be okay.” You said out loud, to Wooyoung, even though it was more to yourself. You opened the door and walked in. “You wanted to see me?” 

Your dad spun around and looked at you. “You know I do everything out of love, right? I want you both happy. I promise. I just also have to deal with what’s right for the kingdom. You two have to get married to another princess and prince. I’ve already told your brother. Here’s your prince. He’s twenty four. Ready to settle down. Names Jack Kindle.” He handed you the paper. “The wedding will be in two months. This is final. I’m sorry.” He smiled lightly. 

“Don’t say sorry if you don’t mean it. You know Woo and Mae are finally together after years of waiting because she works for us. He’s found happiness. You know that crap you said you want for us. Don’t say that and then rip our heart out right after. You don’t care about happiness. You only care about this “kingdom”. You’re going to lose both your kids and it’ll be your fault in the end. I’m not ready to settle down unless it’s with the man I love. So tell Jack Kindle, he’ll be waiting for kids for a long time.” You stood up from the chair you were sitting in and walked towards the door. 

“Y/n. Baby doll. Don’t do this.” Your dad was pleading. 

“Sounds funny coming from the man who just told his two kids that they can fuck off from being in actual loving relationships.” You told him as you walked out the door, tears falling from your eyes. What’s a happy ending, if you can’t be with the one who makes you happy.

Masterlist Royals / friends <- || ->

Tag list: @life-is-glorious @mxnsxngie

[dreamingdragonscion]

To Everyone I Know, With Love From Tiki <3

The blank page of the reflective assignment stared back at her, unmoving and not even a speck of ink nor paint coloured the canvas before her. Tiki continued to stare at the blank parchment with a scrunched face, swinging her legs back and forth in attempts to help rack her brain. The white paper taunted her and the little manakete threw herself into the soft plush bed behind her desk. “It's not fair!” She wailed into her pillow, stuffing her face into the soft covers and rolling around and around on her bed before pulling the pillow down, away from her face, still on the bed as she stared at the ceiling with shiny jade eyes. “I can’t choose just one person to write about who I appreciate.” She whined into the pillow, burying herself under the many layers of blankets on her bed. 

Holding up under the blanket fort, Tiki curled up like a petty child, refusing to leave her tiny cave until she could figure a way out of this plight. She had already been scolded for being late on the assignment, and her teachers refused to give her extra time for the assignment. The reflective essay was already submitted by all the students on the campus and she was the only one. 

The only one, who had yet to decide what to write. 

Peeking out from under the covers at her desk where the blank sheet of paper fluttered in the slight breeze that billowed through her curtains, Tiki stuck out her tongue at it, making faces at it in disdain. The winds picked up a little bit more and the paper was blown off the table, waving in the air as it landed on the small pile of varied items in the corner of her room. Pulling herself out from under the covers, Tiki crawled over to her little hoard and she picked up the paper from her precious pile. 

The many trinkets that were precariously balancing on each other fell over onto the floor, spilling over the ground with a shuffle of sounds. With a pouty huff, Tiki began to pile the trinkets back into their extremely carefully balanced pile, but as she picked up the trinkets one by one, she paused on each and every one of them. 

Her fingers ruffled through the scarf that Xane once had, but this piece was long torn off by the heat of the battle back on Archanea. “I like Xane because he taught me how to feel more free and happy. His tricks are mean sometimes but I find it funny!” She placed his scarf aside. 

A red flower sat next to Xane’s scarf and Tiki held it to her nose, enjoying the scent from the dried pressed flower. The redness reminded her of Maria. “Sis Maria is always so happy and really good at healing. She feels like I have a real little sister, so I like her too!” She placed it together with a pale purple flower. “And Miss Deirdre… she feels like Mother. Its strange but I feel like I like Miss Deirdre too.”

There were other things that she remembered collecting from the ball. A shed feather from Leanne, a dried cherry from Mae that still smelled sweet in the little glass jar she put it in. A colourful gossamer powder of blue and red from Lilith, a deep green petal that reminded her of Kurth and even the strange card she received detailing Big Brother Artur. She smiled and appreciated them all, for being her friend, for coming to her and making her smile.

There was a small card in the pile and Tiki squealed, little fingers wrapped around the card and holding it towards the ceiling light. “This one is from Professor Dark! I love Professor Dark’s class and he is so funny and strong and nice! He says the funniest things and I love it! He makes me feel happy when we play games together!” Storing the card into a tiny box, Tiki continued through her pile.

Her fingers ruffled through the items and pulled out a broken sword handle, rusted on its ends and blunt from time. “I like Kris-Mar because he was really nice to me and he looked out for me a lot! He is a bit serious but he is brave enough to protect everyone!” And she touched the worn out hilt, pressing a thumb into it and pretending to swing the sword up and down before putting it into the hoard. 

A letter from Bantu was procured next, and Tiki took her time reading through it bit by bit, running her fingers over each word that she recited in her head, as if Bantu was speaking to her right there and then in the moment. She held the letter tight to her chest, hugging it with all her might. “I love Ban-Ban for saving me from that awful nightmare. For bringing me where I wanted to go, for showing me all the places I love and want to see.” 

Without putting down the letter, Tiki held up a pegasus feather, hugging it close to her chest. “I love Big Sister Caeda for being so nice to me, for baking me sweet treats, and for helping me when I feel sad. Oh, I love Big Sister Caeda when she takes me flying on her pegasus. She feels like a real big sister that I love so much!” And finally, the famous plush doll of the Hero-King. “Mar-Mar.” And her smile returned ever so warmly to her, reaching out hugging the doll tight. “I love Mar-Mar with all my heart. For protecting me, for being there for me when I felt lonely and sad. He saved me so many times, and I can never love Mar-mar enough.” She stood up, with a giggle. “If my love for Mar-mar could be counted it would be…” She squeezed her eyes to think for a number before she squealed. “Infinite!” The blank piece of parchment paper fell to the floor, touching her feet with a subtle lightness, and then it clicked. The teachers told her to write what she appreciated about people. 

It never said to write about only one. 

Putting all her treasure hoard on her table one by one. Tiki let the warmth in her heart inspire her to pick up the ink pen once more. Her messy penmanship scribbled over the paper in an attempt to write properly for once. 

“To every one I lov with all my haart.” She began with a smile, the sun shining on the paper and her smile from the window.

[thevoilinauttheory]

Junelezen Day 21: Summer

[ My most ambitious screenshot! A big thanks to @donpom-loredex​, @ever-searching​ and @mathemagiks​ for the help! 😃

This is Lothaire’s entire immediate family! (or rather, all in the immediate home lol). ofc we got Lothaire and his husband, Misha on the right. And Maximiloix and Caromont on the left (Maximiloix refuses to take off his robes, and also does not want to be at the beach - Caromont is trying to get him to lighten up... it’s not working). The two boys at the front are the twins (left to right), Maelloux and Naois. The two girls running are (left to right) Camilla and Viera. And in the very back are (left to right) Iris and Noirvois - they aren’t twins, but they were born so close together that they might as well have been (Iris is older by a few months). ]

[ A blooper under the cut lmao ]

[ So I learned... that miqo children have different bone structures than other children. This is what happened when I tried to move the leg:

 so... the angle is awful because I didn’t want anyone to see how fucked up Viera’s arm was 😂 ]

[bts-reveries]

mini me | 27

+photos!

The group had just finished unpacking and filling the fridge with food. By the looks of it, it looked like you were packing for a week when, really, you just had several mouths to feed. 

-in the play room-

“Wait! Soojinie~” Huimang giggled, grabbing the crayon out of the younger girl’s hand. “You draw a puppy like this!”

“Let her draw how she wants it,” Hana says, taking the crayon back from her and giving it to Soojin. “Dogs can be pink too~” 

“Noo,” Moonji says. “There’s no pink doggies.”

“Minseok hyung!” Sian yells, bursting into laughter as he chased the older one around the room. 

“Get Youngjae first not me!” Minseok yells, jumping over the babies as he tries to get away from Sian. Mingyu frowns, getting up on his feet to follow his hyungs. Haneul does the same and the two try their best to catch up, unfortunately for them, the older boys found this funny and began running around them in circles.

“Hey!” Soojin yells. “Don’t be mean to my baby brother,” she says, dropping her crayons and running towards Haneul and Mingyu. 

“We’re just playing with them Soojin-ah,” Sian says, stopping in front of her. 

“Yeah! We’re not being mean, they like it when we play with them!” Youngjae says, kneeling down to the babies’ level. “Right?” He says, tickling them both under their chins, making both of them giggle. 

“Soojin are you going to finish this? Moonji’s about to color all over it,” Hana calls out. Soojin immediately lets go of the two boys and runs back to the table.

“Here Soojinie,” Huimang says, handing her another crayon. 

“Can I color this one~” Moonji asks, looking up at Soojin. 

“Yeah, here!”

“Youngjae-ah, Sianie, do you want to go play outside?-- oh! And you guys too,” Minseok says, inviting the youngests. 

“Yeah I want to go,” Youngjae says. “Do you want to come?” He asks Mingyu and Haneul, holding out his hands. The two babies take it and Youngjae walks towards the door with both of them on each side.

—

“Where are the kids,” Yoongi asks, walking into the main room. The girls were all gathered at the table, talking amongst themselves. Jungkook and Jin were arguing over which game they should play. Jimin and Taehyung were picking karaoke songs. And lastly, Namjoon was showing Hoseok the book he was currently reading.

Sohyun looks up and points behind her.

“They’re all in the room playing.”

“We should all go out while the sun’s still out,” Yoongi says, scratching his head as he walked towards the room to get the kids. 

“That’s true,” Mae says, already getting up to grab the bottle of sunscreen she has in her bag.

Yoongi opens the door to the kids’ play room, almost hitting the kids walking out.

“Oh-- I’m sorry I didn’t see you guys,” Yoongi apologizes. The loud playroom goes quiet and the nine kids in the room just stares at him. 

“Are you all having fun,” Yoongi asks, stepping into the room. Youngjae and the two babies back up.

“Yes daddy,” Hana says as she gets back to coloring.

“AI--” Yoongi yelps out as Sian jumps onto his leg. 

“Uncle can we go plaaaaaaay~” He asks, smiling up at Yoongi. Him and Jungkook both had the same cheeky smile. 

“Ousside,” Haneul says, pointing out the door.

“Yeah, that’s what I came in here for,” Yoongi says, prying Sian off of his leg.

“Uncle are we going outside by ourselves?” Soojin asks.

“No, we’re all going outside so clean your stuff up and we’ll all go. Okay?” Soojin nods, and the girls all grab a box and start placing all the crayons in. The boys helped tidy around as well. 

“Less go out!” Haneul tells Youngjae. 

“We need to help clean first,” he tells them, walking them over to where the other kids were. 

“Ah~ What good kids, go into the main room when you’re done okay?” Yoongi says walking back out.

“Yes!” They all say.

“Are you girls taking the kids out?” Hoseok asks, stretching and laying on the floor. 

“No, we’re taking the kids out,” Sarang says, walking up to her husband and grabbing his hands, pulling him up. “It’s family time lazy butt.” 

“Are we all going out?” Namjoon asks, taking off his glasses, running a hand through his hair. 

“Who’s idea was it to go camping?? You love nature!” Byul exclaims.

“I did and I do, I just wanted to read right now,” Namjoon says, standing up and putting his book down. “But if we’re going out, we’re going out.” 

“Namjoon and I are so different~” Jin says, sprawled across the floor, closing his eyes. Jungkook frowns, throwing down the board game he just picked out. Apparently there were ten kids on this trip. 

“If Jin hyung’s staying here, so am I,” Jungkook says, laying next to Jin.

“We’re done!” Sian yells running into the living room, dropping down to where his dad was at. “Daddy let’s go play!” Sian yells into his ear. 

“I don’t want to~” Jungkook groans.

“Let’s go outside!” Soojin yells as she runs out, immediately jumping onto Jin’s chest. 

“OoMPH--”

“I want to sleep~” Jungkook says, turning to his side, wrapping his arm around Jin and kicking his leg over his. 

“nO!” Soojin yells, pushing Jungkook’s arms away. 

“Mm… yes,” Jungkook mumbles, putting his arm back on Jin.

“NooOoO,” she says again, pushing him off. “Daddy’s mine,” she says, leaning down and wrapping her arms around Jin.

“Can we go outside pLEASE,” Sian insisted, tugging on Jungkook. Jungkook lets out a groan and continues to cuddle into Jin’s side. 

The two begin to pout as their dads wouldn’t cooperate with them. 

“Jungkook get up before you make the twins cry,” Rina says, calling the two twins since they’re the same age. Both Jin and Jungkook proceeded to get up, picking up their kids along the way.

“Moonji-ah! We’re going to go out baby,” Namjoon calls as Moonji was still in the room. She runs out at the sound of her dad’s voice and hands him a picture she drew.

“Oh is this for me?” Namjoon asks. Moonji nods, reaching up to get carried. “Thank you sweetheart, I’ll put it here where my book’s at okay,” he says as he carries her.

Minseok was already getting his sunscreen on with his mom. Mae looks around for Haneul.

“Where’s my baby?” She says. Jin raises his hand.

“I’m right here.” Mae playfully rolls her eyes as Jin laughs. 

“Where’s mine,” Yuna says as well, getting up from her seat.

“Right here,” Jimin says, copying Jin. 

“Youngjae is with them in the room,” Huimang informs them.

“We already cleaned up everything so I don’t know what they’re doing,” Hana says, running back to the room. 

You follow her into the room, along with Yuna and Taehyung. 

“Mommy I don’t think Mingyu wants to go outside,” Youngjae says as soon as you walk in. 

Mingyu was on the floor, playing with a little toy car. 

“Less go ousside!” Haneul says, crouching down to tell the younger one. 

“You can’t stay here by yourself buddy, we’re all going,” Yuna says, walking over to pick up Mingyu. 

“Thanks for watching him Youngjae, you’re such a sweet boy,” Yuna tells him, leaning down to kiss his forehead. 

“Let’s go Haneul,” Youngjae says holding onto his hand once again. 

“You’re already such a good big brother,” Taehyung tells your son, looking back up at you.

“We’re ready for another one,” he tells you, smiling widely, as if you two have been married for years and have been raising Youngjae together.

You laugh shaking your head. “Let’s date for at least a month before we talk about anything as far as kids,” you say as you follow the kids out. 

-

“Let’s go hiking,” Namjoon says, slinging his arm around Byul. Her eyes widen and she stops walking.

“H-hike?” She stutters. 

“Yeah, it’ll be fun. Let’s go,” He says. Byul groans as she follows both Namjoon and Moonji to their cars so they can drive up to the hiking trails.

“You’re going to make me hike AND drive??” She complains. 

“I was going to read but you insisted we get out,” Namjoon says with a smile. “It’ll be worth it, don’t worry~”

-

“Shall we go for a walk?” Jimin says to Yuna. She nods, putting Mingyu down. Right when his little feet touched the ground he was off.

“Oh, we’re running,” Yuna says, running after her son. Jimin laughs as Mingyu’s little legs don't stop. He’s been walking a lot lately, but this was the first time he was running running.

“When did his legs get so strong!?” Yuna exclaims, running next to him.

-

“What should we do?” Jin asks, putting his hands on his hips. 

“Let’s play tag!” Sian yells, running towards Jin and slamming his hand onto Jin’s stomach. “You’re it!”

“I’m not ready!” Jin yells, starting to stretch. “Give me a minute.”

Mae laughs from where she was sitting. Taking a picture of her husband.

Sian came running towards you and Youngjae.

“Youngjae Uncle Jin’s it! RUN,” he yells. Right when the words went through his ears, he went past you and ran to where Minseok and Sian were.

“Jin! HANEUL WANTS TO PLAY TOO!” Mae calls out. “Go, go run to daddy,” she tells him, tapping his little butt.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH,” Jin yells, sprinting towards Taehyung and you and tagging Taehyung.

“What?!” He says in surprise, turning to you and tagging you next. 

“I’m not even playing!” You yell out when he runs away from you. Jin runs towards Haneul, swiftly picking him up and running with him.

“Who’s it?” Jin asks. You smile, running up to him.

“Taehyung is!” You tell him, running next to his side. 

“Okay we’re good, he’s where the boys are at,” Jin says, already out of breath. 

“Just kidding,” you say, tagging him and Haneul. “You’re it!” 

“AISH, KIM TAEHYUNG YOUR GIRLFRIEND IS A LIAR.”

-

Meanwhile, Yoongi, Sohyun, and Hana were playing in the water. 

“Daddy!” Hana giggles, stomping in the water. “You have to get in!”

Yoongi shakes his head. “I'm good sweetie,” he says, putting his hand up. Sohyun then whispers to Hana, both of them looking at Yoongi suspiciously. Although, he doesn’t notice because he was trying to take a cute picture of his daughter.

“Now!” Sohyun says, the two girls running towards Yoongi.

“Huh? Whatwhatwhat,” he says, already whining as the girls pull him into the water. “AaiiSH.” 

“Success!” Sohyun says, both her and Hana putting their hands up.

“Yeah?” Yoongi says, sweeping Sohyun off her feet.

“What’re you doing??!” She says, Yoongi replies with a little laugh, walking towards a deeper end to the water before dropping Sohyun. 

“AH!” As soon as her head resurfaced, I mean, it wasn’t that deep, he turned around to get his daughter.

“No!” Hana yelled and she giggled as she tried to run through the water, away from her dad.

-

After a short drive, Huimang, Hoseok, and Sarang were sitting at the back of the van, eating some food.

“So I came to the conclusion,” Huimang says, Sarang and Hoseok exchanged looks with each other as they didn’t know where she was going with this. 

“Hana asked Uncle Yoongi for a brother and I just want a sibling,” she pouts. “I think it’s time.” Sarang and Hoseok both look at each other and Sarang bursts out laughing.

“Sweetie, Uncle Yoongi can’t have babies, only mommies can remember?” Sarang tells her. Sarang looks up at Hoseok and sees him staring at her with a wide smile.

“Babe that’s two against one we have to now,” he says, giving Huimang a high five. Sarang scoffs.

“What? No,” she says. “We need to wait for a while, let Hope be the only child for just a little longer.”

Hoseok looks at Huimang and they both turn to Sarang at the same time with the same pout.

“See, you two are always doing this! If we have another one, I won’t have a say in anything. Another cute face is the last thing I need right now,” Sarang says, facing away from them.

“Right now? So tomorrow can be different?” Huimang asks, scooting closer to you.

“Good one,” Hoseok says. Sarang can’t help but smile at them being silly. 

“I’ll say yes when Sohyun does, deal?”

-

“Soojinie, where are you taking me?” Jungkook asks, as Soojin pulls him inside the house.

“Mommy hid the banana milk,” she says. Jungkook instantly got where she was going.

“I see,” he says, picking her up. “Well Uncle Kookie knows exactly where she put it.” The two sneakily went into the kitchen and dug the top shelf of the fridge to grab some banana milk.

“What are you two doing?”

Jungkook and Soojin both slowly turned around.

“Hi Auntie Rin,” Soojin says, waving at her innocently. 

“Soojinie I thought mommy said no banana milk earlier,” Rina says, pulling out a chair and sitting down.

“Yeah but Uncle Kookie is getting me it,” she says. Rina laughs at her reasoning.

“Well if you get in trouble it’s on Uncle Kookie not me.”

-

“My legs are getting tired,” you say as you got farther and farther into the hike. After the game of tag with the boys and Jin, you and Tae decided to have some time alone. With Youngjae of course.

“We’re almost at the top!” Taehyung cheers. “We got this!”

“Mommy can you carry me, I’m tired too,” Youngjae says, lifting his arms up. 

“Taehyung,” you say, pointing to your son. “Too tired.” Taehyung laughs, walking towards Youngjae and easily lifting him up.

“You want me to carry you too?” he asks. 

“Can you?” Taehyung laughs at your answer, already kneeling down to pick you up when you laugh and push him away slightly.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding,” you say. 

When you get to the top, you sigh at the view.

“Worth it right?” Taehyung asks.

“Yeah, definitely.”

“Have you been here before?” You ask. Taehyung nods.

“Yeah, by myself. It’s my favorite spot to be alone at. Not that I was never by myself, but it’s where I just fully relax and all my worries fly away.” He says, looking out at the view. He turns to you. “It’s a special place for me.”

“And you’re bringing us here?” You say. “Wouldn’t that ruin it?” Taehyung scoffs.

“Ruin it?? I’ve always wanted to take someone special here. It happened to be perfect timing that we got together and we ended up going near my special places.”

“I think it’s fate,” Youngjae says, putting his arm over the edge and feeling the breeze.

“Oh my gosh, be careful,” you say, pulling your son back a bit.

Taehyung laughs. “Yeah, I guess it can be fate.” He turns to you as you both are looking at the view. 

“You know you still owe me something and this would be a great way to pay me back.” You frown at him.

“Owe you for what?”

Taehyung glanced at Youngjae and he looked like he knew where this was going.

“I’m going to go sit on that rock,” he pointed, it was away from the edge, but not far from you two. He just quietly sat there and faced away.

“Ugh I love him,” Taehyung says, turning back to you. He pushed back the hair that was flying all over your face, letting his hand rest on your cheek.

Before he got any closer, he looked around, making sure no one was there to stop them.

“Finally,” he says, you laugh as he gets closer.

“Hurry up before something happens,” you say, pulling him closer and smashing your lips together. 

Up in the mountains, a beautiful view, a nice cool breeze, and no interruptions~

Except little Youngjae was quietly giggling as he knew what was going on behind him.

But he’s a good boy.

mini me

ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ part twenty-seven: a good boy ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

pairings: artist!taehyung x singlemom!reader

a/n: this was fun!!! i hope you like it!!! it’s almost 3am!!! im so sleepy!!! i have a presentation in the morning!!! but i wanted to do this!!! so it’s on me!!! so pls, enjoy💖

ps. it’s almost 8am and i just realized that i had the wrong character on the last picture annxjshdja just changed it 🙂

taglist: @heartfeltscribblings @taexmichi @prdshobi @smarshere @i-swear-im-a-soft-stan @igotarmyofarohas @butterflylion @miagracegrande @casspirit0705 @ephyra1230 @cosmicdaylight @bbyjoonies @betysotelo18 @strwberry-jam @rjsmochii @chocobetterknot @notmontae97 @alpaca1612 @yoongistruth @dragonqueen01 @silentlyimpractical @hecticwonderer @joanc24 @hopesvlle @momma-said-that-it-was-oke @sweetmoonlight9 @samros95 @dreamcatcherjiah @sonderkook @taekookcaneatme @listless-losers @kookietsukkie @goldenchemistry @salty-for-suga @peoplejustcanthandlemywierdness @softboyfriendtae @raplineh0e @ess-place @callmepaopao @ggukvii @ramyagovindraj @yoongiverse @mipetronella @cloudy-skys @jikachoo @nxtrogers @kookoo-kachoo @taestannie @hispoutylips @hallofbtsmasterlist

TAGLIST IS CLOSED!

[fweasleyswhore]

Who We Are - F.W.

Chapter Five: Your Facade

Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four

a/n: its really outta pocket how late this is, but, i am sorry depression been hittin hard lately im going to try and upload around every three days now !

word count: 2.2k sorry short 

warnings: none! just fluff and a tad of uncomfy a lot of ground work for next chapter also this is a series specific taglist just as fyi

tags: @you-make-children-cry @bohemianspacebabe @levylovegood @louist-pics @rochellestark @hufflepuffzutara @weasleybeb @whoreforfredweasley @fortheloveofthecharacter @ayesha-mae @ma0422

“Darling! How I am so excited to meet you!” Before I could reply I was pulled into a bone-crushing hug by Mrs. Weasley. I was quickly pulled out of the train by the twins, barely able to tell Lee goodbye before I was being surrounded by redheads. If I didn’t know who they were I would have felt like I was being circled by vultures. Placing names to the faces I saw wasn’t so difficult, I knew all of the family from my time at Hogwarts, the only thing I didn’t know was who the two taller men behind Mrs. Weasley were. I only got a glance at them, they were both redheads, obviously of the Weasley clan. One had a dangly earring with longer hair that reached his jaw, the other was slightly taller and stockier, his hair wasn’t as long as the others but had more of a curl to it. They were engaged in a conversation I couldn’t hear or focus on as I was being pushed out of Mrs. Weasley’s arm’s. She held me at arms length smiling. 

“Thank you so much for letting me stay with you, it really means a lot to me,” I spoke softly, bringing one of my hands up to squeeze hers that rested on my shoulder. She nodded enthusiastically. She opened her mouth to reply but was cut off by Mr. Weasley. “No problem, not at all.” He said nodding down at me. He extended his hand which I shook gladly. “Oi stop coddling Y/N!” George spoke up from behind me pushing next to me. “Yeah we want to spend time with her too.” Fred said linking his arm around my shoulders. George let out a chortle that pulled my and Fred’s attention toward him. “I meant for mum to coddle us, you know, because we are her kids.” I felt Fred’s arm drop from around me and I glared at George who smiled wide and looked between us. “Alright children let's get going.” Mrs. Weasley clapped, pulling all of our attention towards her. I let out a short sigh and grabbed my trunk. The ride to the burrow was uncomfortable. I sat in between the twins in the backseat with some extra luggage. Fred started to rest his head on my shoulder around the halfway point which would have been cute if I could relax into it, instead it just made me feel more cramped. I shut my eyes, trying to relax my breathing as my nerves took over me, counting my breaths until we were there. Getting into the Burrow was a flash, moving bodies tumbling up the winding stairs. The house truly was a beauty to behold, seemingly stacked and held together by magic, the outside was remarkable. The inside felt like an ever present hug, little nooks filled with cushions and blankets could be found in nearly every room. It truly was cozy and everything I longed to feel in my own home. Home was void, it was a place where I stayed but it never made me feel the way the Burrow made me feel. “Now Y/N, go put your stuff in Ginny’s room, you and her will be staying together and with Hermione later when she joins us.” Nodding along to Mrs. Weasley’s words I followed Ginny to her bedroom. It was cute there were posters on the wall for quidditch and on her dresser she had a few stuffed animals, they had their fair share of tears and missing buttons but I’m sure that was just from use. “So what’s it like?” She asked as I set my bag down on the cot set up opposite her bed. “Being Fred’s girlfriend of course! Mum’s ecstatic, this is the first time one of the boys have brought someone they are dating home.” I felt heat and embarrassment crawl up my neck like a ferocious fire breathing dragon until my entire body felt hot head to toe. “No, we are just friends.” “Are you sure?” “Very.” “But George said-” “Kids! Dinner is ready!” Mrs. Weasley’s voice flooded the house and I let out a breath I didn’t realize I had been holding in. “Go ahead, I’m going to change.” Ginny nodded and left, shutting the door lightly behind her. Did the family think me and Fred were dating? Did Fred think we were dating? Multiple questions raced through my mind, each one making me grow hotter, but I couldn’t quite place why. I decided against my winter apparel, opting for sleep shorts and an oversized shirt. It wasn’t the cutest but it was the coolest thing I packed and knowing how many people were down stairs I could only assume how much hotter the air would get. Winding my way down the stairs and through the rooms I finally found the one filled with people. The family was surrounding a table where it looked like there was a feast right out of the Great Hall spread out. 

“Ah! Y/N, come! Sit sit, um here.” She pointed to a chair on the far end of the table, on each side were the two men I saw from before but didn’t know. Feeling nervous I nodded and went to take my seat. Luckily Fred and George were across from me and that calmed me a bit knowing the meal wouldn’t be met with awkwardness. Soon my plate was full and the entire family seemed to be going in between a big conversation and small ones on the side.

“You must be Y/N.” Said the man on the left of me. 

“Yes and you are?” He chuckled and sent a confused look to the twins, I followed his gaze and saw Fred looking rather displeased, sending him a glare.

 “Charlie, and that’s Bill.” He pointed around my shoulder to the man on my right. I smiled warmly and waved and he nodded with a sly wink. 

“I’ve heard about you two, you’re the oldest ones right? And you are in Egypt most of the time?” I asked Charlie in between bites of beans. 

“No I’m usually in Romania with Dragons, Bill is in Egypt working with his voodoo.” Placing my attention on Bill, silently asking him for confirmation. 

“I don’t do voodoo, Charlie is just being an ass, it's his specialty.” He was cut off by Charlie laughing, rolling his eyes he started again. “I’m a curse breaker, I work for Gringotts.” My eyes widened as I felt curiosity bubble up within me. If I had to guess I would have assumed that Bill was the one working with dragons, his hair pulled back into a ponytail, his tooth earring, leather boots, it just felt more fitting. Charlie's build definitely proved his occupation; I just would not have guessed it. 

“What does a curse breaker do exactly?” I asked. “Well obviously, you know, but are there any cool perks?” 

“Yeah Bill what are the cool perks?” George asked with a sly smirk, his eyes danced between Fred’s hostile gaze and his older brother, chuckling to himself.

“Yeah other than getting sunburnt.” Fred groaned. I sent him a look but he missed it too busy prodding around with his food angrily. George had an amused look on his face, obviously directed at his twins behavior but I couldn’t place why. 

“He knows nothing about burns, trust me.” Charlie piped up. He rolled up his left sleeve which held a scar that curved and danced up his forearm and around his elbow. 

“Baby Chinese firebolt, I was trying to put it into the incubator when it realized I wasn’t mama.” 

Dinner went on, Fred didn’t utter a word for the rest of dinner, just poked his food with a grimace on his face. I didn’t let his sour mood ruin mine, I was divested in conversation with Bill and Charlie, learning all about their jobs and travels. Bill told me about an old woman who made jewelry in the center of the town in Egypt where he stayed, he told me about how she imbued each item with a different magical property, some were protection charms and others were sister pieces used to send messages between  their owners. Charlie taught me about the different types of dragons and what it was like to work with them. They were both so kind, answering each question I had with a smile on their face. I was so divested in whatever Bill was telling me I didn’t notice everyone had left the table at that point. 

“Why don’t we move into the living room?” He asked looking around, I followed his eyes, noting the once lively table empty. In a weird way it made me feel cold, a shiver tore through me. 

“If you don’t mind I am going to find the twins.” I spoke getting up. He smiled understandingly. “I think Fred might be in their room, second level first door on your left.” I nodded, sending him a small smile as thanks. 

“Wait I said twins, not Fred.” I looked back to him, his smile evident as if he had just caught me.  

“I know.” He said, cheeky grin never leaving his features. I felt my cheeks heat up, turning on my heel I left and found my way to the stairs. Harry was watching Ginny and Ron play wizards chess in the kitchen, Charlie and Percy were arguing in the living room about the ethical uses of dragons as means of labor while their parents were both reading. I didn’t see George or Fred and took Bill's advice and bounded up the stairs. 

Knocking lightly on the door I was met with no response, tried again, nothing. Despite my better judgement I pushed the door open. The room is exactly how you would expect it, slightly messy with blueprints and products strewn about. On each side was a twin bed, one with green covers and the other with blue. On the right side Fred was laying on his stomach, head facing his wall and limbs falling off the sides. George wasn’t in sight. 

I tiptoed around the things on the floor and found his side, sitting down gently in case he was sleeping. There was a tension in the air that made me uneasy and I wanted it gone. I just wanted to spend time with him, I didn’t want to feel like I had to hold my breath. 

I ran my fingers through his hair, unable to hold myself back. I felt him let out a sigh under my touch. He began to shift, picking his head up and adjusting himself so he was facing me. 

“Hey stranger.” I said softly, sending him a smile. His face was unreadable, part way between smiling and frowning like he was fighting himself inside. He scanned me, up and down like he was trying to read my intentions by a quick look. 

“What are you doing up here?” He asked. His voice held no emotion and it stung slightly to see him be so blank with me. 

“I want to see you, we haven’t been able to hang out all day and I missed you.” I kept my head down as I spoke. A beat of silence rang throughout the room. I looked at him for an answer, my eyes met his and I watched the resolve fade away, like a barrier breaking beneath his exterior, his eyes lost their cool touch and they warmed up, returning to their familiar honey pools I know. 

“Get in here.” He wrapped an arm around me, pulling me down to his level. I helped him, situating myself around him, tangling my legs with his and putting my hands on his chest. Both of his arms were around me, pulling me into him like he hadn’t seen me in months, he buried his head in my neck, his hair fell across my face making my giggle at the feeling, realization struck through me as I evaluated his movements in his head. 

“Freddie are you ok?” I asked, my voice was more serious now but his behavior was just hard to read, it felt like since I met his family he had pulled back, the back of my brain was telling me it was because I did something wrong. 

“Yeah I just,” He paused holding his breath. “Please don’t let me go.” His words vibrated against my neck. I felt his arms tighten around me as he spoke, like he was in a dream he didn’t want to wake up from. 

“I wouldn’t dream of it Freddie.” I whispered back, deciding not to push it. Leaning down I placed a small peck to his ginger locks. I felt his mouth curve into a smile against my skin and it made butterflies erupt in my stomach. I felt giddy and drunk, being wrapped up in his arms, smelling, holding, being held by Fred. It was intoxicating and I couldn’t possibly wish for more. 

[prettyboyjackhughes]

-It’ll all be worth it in the end- |M. Marner| [Part 2]

Here is Part 2!! Thanks again to @workhorsefromwhitehorse24​ for all her help on this! Love all the support on the first part, thank you!! Let me know what you think!

After the game, which the Flyers won 2-0, giving Carter a shutout, Grace and I convinced him to go out with us. Nolan tags along which means most of the boys will show up wherever we go. I was secretly hoping that Mitch and his friends would show up where we ended up but I figured it probably wouldn’t work out like that.

“Wake up Sawyer Mae.” Carter says, coming out of the locker room and snapping me out of the daze I was in. He obviously still wanted to know where I had been before the game.

“So now are you gonna tell me where you were before the game?” He asks, hugging Grace to his side. Nolan comes out, followed by TK and a few of the other younger guys.

“I got lost. I told you that. I don’t know this arena.” He crosses his arms and tries to hide a glare.

“I ended up over at the Leafs’ locker room and ran into one of their players. He showed me where to go.” This time, he doesn’t even try to hide the glare.

“You’re kidding me. Why can’t you just do what I ask you to, for once? I told you to stay away from hockey boys. Come meet me before the game so we can do our handshake. And somehow, you just happen to end up in the other team’s locker room?” Grace steps back, leaving the two of us. She’s been around for enough of our arguments like this to not get involved anymore.

“Hartsy, it’s not a big deal. She just got lost.” Nolan says, stepping up next to me. I glance up at Nolan and shake my head.

“Come on Carter, it’s nothing. You can’t control my life.” I say, stabbing my finger into his chest. I turn on my heel and walk away, linking arms with Grace as I walk past.

“Dude, she’s 21. I’m pretty sure she can handle herself.” Joel Farabee says, reaching up to pat Carter’s shoulder. Nolan’s eyes are on me as Grace and I as we walk down the hallway.

“You’re a good big brother, Hartsy. But she’s not a kid anymore. She can take care of herself.” TK says, nudging Carter.

“I’m the big bad brother who’s gonna scare all the boys away.” Nolan says, imitating Carter. Carter finally lightens up a little and laughs along with his friends.

“So what exactly are you planning? Does this involve the number 16?” Grace asks quietly, leaning towards me.

“Possibly...But you’d better not say a word to Carter. I’m not dealing with him throwing a fit again just yet.” Grace nods, but takes a deep breath. I pull out my phone and search up what little I know about Mitch. His instagram pops up and I click on it. Grace watches over my shoulder as we stand by Carter’s car. Suddenly, Nolan was behind me too.

“Uh oh...Another one?” He asks, pointing at Mitch’s profile picture, showing him in his uniform. I nod and press the follow button. Just as quickly, I type up a DM to him, saying hey and who I was. After I send the message, I hand my phone to Nolan to avoid any drunk messages or calls tonight. I’ll probably end up with Nolan taking me home tonight because Grace and I always drink just a little too much, leaving Carter and Nolan to take care of us. Carter finally gets to the car and we pile in, leaving Nolan’s car there for us to get tomorrow. It’s an oddly quiet car ride to Trilogy, the club we usually always start our nights out at. Carter hates it which means he and Grace will probably spend most of it sitting in a booth. Every once in a while, Grace can convince him to dance but he has to be in a really good mood for that.

“Your phone buzzed.” Nolan says, nudging me and handing me my phone as we park around the corner from the club. I follow him out of the car and check my phone as we walk in. His arm rests protectively around my shoulders, guiding me as I read what’s on my phone. Mitch answered the DM.

Sawyermhart: Hey Mitch, I’m the girl you tried to kill lol I just wanted to say hey and that I really liked getting to talk to you tonight and would love to talk to you more

Marner_93: Hey! Yeah, sorry about taking you out...Hope you’re okay. I wouldn’t mind talking, you do kinda owe me after the shutout your brother pulled on us tonight haha

Sawyermhart: okay okay Mitch. When do you guys leave to go back to Toronto? Wanna meet up? There’s a few of us going out tonight

Marner_93: Our plane doesn’t leave until late tomorrow night, probably around the same time your boys will leave. I’ll see if a few of the boys wanna come out. Where at?

Sawyermhart: We’re gonna start at Trilogy and then go from there. See you in a few?

Marner_93: Sounds good!

I look up as Nolan nudges me inside the building. Since it was early on a Tuesday night, the club wasn’t that busy. There were a few people wandering around, the music was pretty quiet too, for once, something Carter would be happy about. He always complains that when we go out that the music is too loud and he would rather stay home and drink there.

“Mitch and a few of his teammates are gonna meet us here.” I whisper-yell, standing on my tiptoes to reach Nolan’s ear. He looks down at me with eyebrows raised.

“You’re really gonna drive your brother insane Baby Cat.” I smile evilly and nod.

“Tell Travis to play nice.” I toss over my shoulder as I walk to the bar. I ordered Nolan and I both a Tequila shot, a little tradition I forced him to start with me a little over a year ago, which definitely started before I was legal. Before we can drink anything else or do anything else, no matter where we are, we have to take a Tequila shot together. As I’m walking back over, Carter is walking towards me.

“You’d better not get too crazy tonight, our flight leaves at 3:30 tomorrow and you still have to pack.” I nod as he passes me, then roll my eyes.

“I saw that!” He calls over his shoulder. As I walk back to the booth, I see a guy start walking towards me. Nolan sees this and stands, hurrying to my side. The guy saw Nolan and automatically turned around, I coughed, trying to cover my laugh as Nolan nudged me towards the booth. It was rare that I went out without Nolan anymore. He was the reason I had basically stopped getting hit on anymore, which sometimes sucked but it kept the creeps away.

“Cute boy watching you…” Grace said, sliding close to me as Nolan and I sat down next to her and Carter in the booth. I looked up and immediately saw Mitch and a few of his teammates who had just walked in the door. His eyes followed my every move. He waved and my stomach flipped. Grace practically had to shove me out of the booth.

“Go talk to him!” Carter overheard that comment and turned to look.

“No way. Sit down, Sawyer.” As soon as the words left his mouth, I turned on my heel and headed for Mitch. I could hear him getting mad like he always does and Grace having to talk him down while Nolan just laughed. I know Nolan is watching me, making sure he doesn’t have to step in and save me.

“Hey Mitch!” I say, sliding in next to him at the bar. He turns to look at me, a drink in his hand already. His eyes light up and he grins.

“Sawyer!” He says, nudging the guy standing behind him, who also turns around.

“Oh is this the hot girl you tried to kill?” The guy asks, looking me up and down. Mitch and I laugh as the guy watches, amused.

“Yeah, that’s me. I’m Sawyer Hart. And you are?” I ask, glancing up at his face then back at Mitch.

“Morgan Rielly. Mitchy calls me Mo.” He says, reaching his hand out. I shake his hand and then glance at Mitch.

“Mitchy? I like that.” I say, laughing and nudging him. He blushes and shrugs.

“You said your last name is Hart? Oh you must be Carter Hart’s sister. Kid put on one hell of a show against us tonight.” I nod, smiling and feeling proud of Carter, even if he is a pain.

“Yeah, he’s my wonderful big brother.” I ask, trying to hide the excitement that I have that Mitch actually showed up.

“Yeah, he did pretty good tonight.” I nod, watching Morgan walk away from us, leaving Mitch and I alone at the bar.

“So...What are your plans for the off-season?” I ask, pushing my hair out of my face and taking a sip of the drink Mitch had ordered for me, a few minutes earlier. I try to hide the face I make, already knowing I’m going to feel this in the morning. Mitch laughs and I smile.

“Oh right. Um, my family and I are heading up to Lake Winnipeg for the summer. My parents own a lake house up there so me and my brother and his family go up there for the off-season.” I nod, smiling. As I glanced around the room, which was still mostly empty even with how late it was, I locked eyes with Carter, who, if looks could kill, Mitch and I would both be dead.

“Hey Mitch, I wanna introduce you to Carter and a few people.” I said, taking his hand and leading him towards the booth that we were occupying. Nolan moved over and Mitch and I sat down, our knees touching.

“Carter, Grace, Pats, this is Mitch Marner. Mitch, this is Carter, my big brother. Grace is his girlfriend and Nolan is my best friend. The other guys are Joel Farabee, Travis Konecny who I think played with you back in the World Juniors, Travis Sanheim, and Phillippe Myers.” They all wave and Mitch waves back. Carter’s glare gets harder.

“Great game tonight by the way, boys. Carter, congrats on the shutout.” Mitch says, looking at Carter who doesn’t even try to hide the glare.

“Thanks.” He says, the word coming out as more of a growl than a word. Grace and I both roll our eyes and I look over at Nolan.

“Shot time. And then you can go get me some fruity drink with too much alcohol in it.” Nolan shakes his head at me but picks up the shot.

“Bottoms up.” We both say, tipping them back as everyone watches, amused. Nolan makes a face like always while I stay straight-faced. He gets up, goes to get my drink and whatever drink he’ll nurse all night and leaves me with Mitch. Everyone else has scattered to either the bar or out to dance.

“So your brother seems to be a big fan of mine.” Mitch says, tipping his head back and taking a drink from his cup.

“That’s just Carter. He’s convinced that every guy is out to get me, maybe even murder me, and that he’s the only one who can protect me. He’s definitely calmed down a bit now that Nolan is around more. But yeah, he sucks.” I say as Nolan brings me back my drink then leaves the two of us to go find Travis.

“Ah. I get it, I mean if my little sister looked like you, I would be pretty protective too.” I blush and smile. As Mitch and I sit there and talk, the more my heart starts to flutter. If this wasn’t all just a game to me, I would’ve fallen so hard, just from spending one night with him. He’s funny, sweet, charming and actually out drank me, which is hard to do. And as I climb into bed that night, I know that things between Mitch and I won’t ever just be for fun. I’m going to fall but will it all be worth it in the end? That night was just the beginning for Mitch and I. Mitch and I played our little game for months. The longer it went on, the more mad and protective Carter got. And as I watched this go down, I knew I couldn’t give up and have Carter win. But the problem was, I was starting to realize that things between Mitch and I were changing. He was starting to become a bigger and bigger part of my life, even from almost 500 miles away. I started to look forward to his texts, calls and pictures more. I scheduled my life around Mitch and the times he could call me. And the longer it went on, the more I started to realize that I was falling for Mitch Marner, the boy with the blue eyes. So I did what I did best when I started to have feelings. I shut down. Grace picked up on it right away, realizing that the bubbly, giggly and very very happy Sawyer that had been spending all my time on my phone, talking to a boy I obviously felt something for, started to shut myself away in my room and stopped talking to that boy. Carter was a lot more oblivious, just happy that I wasn’t giving Mitch the chance to hurt me. He didn’t care that I was making myself miserable. He just wanted me safe and protected, no matter what it cost. Even if it did cost me the one person I cared about more than I’ve ever cared about someone.

I had avoided Mitch’s calls for days. He had texted, called, snap chatted, even DMed me on instagram.  And I felt awful for doing this to him but I couldn’t let myself fall. But one day, about a week after I first started icing him out, I decided to answer a call.

“Sawyer!” He says as I answer the FaceTime call.

“Hi Mitch.” I say, sitting on my bed and tucking my hair behind my ear.

“Is everything okay? I’ve been texting and calling for a week and you haven’t been answering. Did I do something? Did something happen?” He asks, concern in his eyes. My heart cracks a little and I soften.

“No, you didn’t do anything. I needed some time to think things through. Mitch, what are we?” I asked, watching his face.

“What are we? Like friends or…?” He asked, as my heart sank. He thinks of us as just friends.

“No wait, Sawyer. We’re not just friends. I don’t think I could ever be just friends with you.” My eyes widen a little as he starts to talk again.

“When this first all started, I didn’t think it was going to go anywhere. I’ve never heard of something like what we had lasting. I mean, a relationship that was only able to exist over the phone because of the distance between us? Yeah that’s not going to work. But the longer I let it go on, and the longer I talked to you and got to know you, I started to realize that the flutter in my stomach every time your name popped up in my phone was because I actually cared about you. Hell, I like you a lot. And now we’re here and I...I don’t think I can handle not having you in my life, even if this is how things have to be.” I froze.

“So, no. We’re not just friends. I don’t know what we are but we’re not just friends.” He says, finally finishing his speech. I watch him, seeing the honesty in his eyes.

“Mitch...I-I don’t know what to say.” I say, playing with my lip.

“You don’t have to say anything, I just needed to get that off my chest.” And somehow, after his long, drawn out declaration, it made me feel better. But I still couldn’t let those feelings out. So instead of addressing it, I made a joke.

“Awe, is Marner going soft on me?” I said, teasing him.

“Shut up Hartsy. I don’t know why I even try with you.” He says, rolling his eyes and laughing. We spend the rest of the night on FaceTime, something I had missed for the past week. Around 11:30, he puts on music which causes Auston to come into his room and yell at him to turn it down. I laugh, watching Mitch dance around the room as Auston stands in the doorway, shaking his head, wishing I was there with Mitch yet again. Auston waves to me then exits the room again.

“Sawyer!” Carter calls, knocking on the door to my room. He pushes it open and instantly a glare covers his face.

“Why are you talking to him? You're gonna get hurt.” He says, pointing at Mitch.

“Grace come get your boyfriend!” I yell, rolling my eyes.

“I swear, you hurt her and I will...You don’t wanna know what I’ll do.” He says, pointing at Mitch. I push him away, trying to get him out of my room. Grace comes in and gets him out of my room. I follow them to the door and close it behind them, resting my head against the door before returning to Mitch.

“I’m sorry about that, Mitch.” He watches me, having ended his little dance party, his eyes soft.

“Sawyer, it’s okay. But I don’t want to come between you and your brother. I care about you a lot but I don’t want to ruin what you and your brother have.” I shake my head.

“No, it’s fine. He’s too protective sometimes. This happens to be one of those times. He needs to understand that I’m not a little kid anymore and he can’t run my life anymore.” Mitch smirks a little, his eyes on me.

“Hey, so I know we’ve been doing this little thing for a while now, and I was thinking that maybe you would wanna come spend the off-season with me at the lake? I’d really like to spend time with you, not over the phone.” He says, resting his chin on his arms. I freeze, unsure what to do.

“Uh...I gotta go. Nolan’s calling me.” I say, panicking and not even giving him a chance to say goodbye. I sit back, leaning against the wall behind my bed. Grace pops her head in my door.

“Okay I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop but I heard…” I look at her, not even upset, and reach my arms out for her.

“This is...This is the farthest I’ve ever gotten with a boy without Carter completely losing his mind. This was all supposed to be just a game to see how far I could push Carter. But I fell. Hard. I fell so hard for Mitch and now I don’t know what to do!” I say, almost to the point of tears. Grace sits down on the bed with me and pulls me into a hug.

“Oh honey, I’m so sorry. You know it’s only because he loves you and never wants to see you get hurt.” I nod, letting a few tears out and sniffling.

“Sawyer, you’ve gotta let him in. You need to let him know how you feel because I can tell, even from over the phone that he cares so much about you. Carter will learn to deal with it, even if it kills him. I’ll make sure he doesn’t meddle and doesn’t mess things up. Don’t worry about him.” Grace smooths my hair down and I shake my head.

“I can’t do that to Carter, Grace. I can’t hurt him that way. But I...I love Mitch. I don’t want to lose him over Carter. I wanna spend the summer with Mitch. I want Carter to not hate me because I chose to get involved with a hockey boy. Which I still think is so stupid. But I don’t want to be the reason everything falls apart.” I say, finally stopping the tears and sitting up to look at Grace.

“Sawyer Mae, you will not be the reason everything falls apart. Carter is an adult, he can get over it. You can’t let Mitch go just because you’re worried about what Carter will do. Honey, Carter isn’t your entire world.” Grace says, holding onto my hand as I stand up.

“Grace, I understand what you’re trying to do. But I can’t do that. I’m not doing that.” I say, shaking my head and crossing my arms. Grace sighs and stands up.

“I don’t think you’re making the right choice here, Sawyer. But it’s your choice.” She says as she walks out my bedroom door. I sigh and flop back on the bed. I pick up my phone and try to ignore the texts on the screen from Mitch. I found Nolan’s contact and press call. He answers and everything spills out.

“Mitch offered for me to come and stay with him and his family at their lake house on Lake Winnipeg. But of course, I panicked and told him you were calling. But now, I regret the decision.” He just shakes his head and tells me I’m dumb.

“Sawyer, you’re making a mistake. Go spend the summer with Mitch. You’ve been hiding it for too long. And I’m sorry Baby Cat, but you’re not even that great at hiding it.” I sucked in a breath, almost thankful that Nolan could read me that well.

“Nolan but I can’t do that to Carter. He...He would hate me forever.” Nolan shakes his head.

“Baby Cat, stop it. I’m tired of you worrying about doing things that make Carter upset. It used to not bother you but now, it’s the only thing you worry about. I want the Sawyer who could care less about what her big brother thought. I want the Sawyer who purposefully pushed Carter’s buttons, just to get to laugh at how mad he gets. That’s the Baby Cat I want back. Not this sad sack.” He says, pointing at me.

“So help me Sawyer Mae, if I have to come to your apartment and drag you to Mitch’s house, I will.” Nolan says, staring me down.

“I’m...scared. I’m scared that he won’t want me. I’m terrified that everything we’ve had, the phone calls, the texts, the pictures, is just happening by accident and isn’t reality.” Nolan shakes his head.

“Nope, you don’t get to do that. You’re going to Winnipeg and that’s final. Start packing, Baby Cat. I’ll be over in a few to make sure you are.” He says, ending the phone call. I lean my head back against the wall and sigh. Nolan gives me no choice. I have to go, but that also means calling Mitch and telling him that I’ll go to the lake with him for the summer. So instead of facing that reality, I choose to text Mitch instead.

Me: Hey...I’m sorry for my freakout and hanging up on you. I just wasn’t expecting you to ask me something like that. I’d love to spend the summer with you and your family. Thank you for asking me.

Mitchy: Really?!? Are you sure?

Me: Yes, Mitchy. I wanna spend the summer with you.

Mitchy: Great! I’m so excited for you to meet everyone!

I smile at how his obvious excitement comes across my phone screen and wander out of my room and head towards the hall closet where my suitcase is stored. Grace is sitting on the kitchen counter, Carter leaning against the counter next to her.

“Um...I’m going to Winnipeg for the summer.” Grace’s face lights up and Carter’s clouds.

“What’s in Winnipeg? We don’t know anyone in Winnipeg.” Carter asks, standing up. Grace presses a hand in his chest, trying to keep him in place.

“Mitch. Mitch is in Winnipeg. For the summer.” I say, crossing my arms, ready for another fight.

“You’re kidding me, right? You’re going to Winnipeg to spend the summer with Mitch? How? Why? Explain this to me, Sawyer, because I’m having a hard time understanding what you’re trying to do here.” Carter says, his finger stabbing in my direction.

“Carter, I care about Mitch. We have something good and I’m not gonna let that go. I know you love me and I know you only do this because you care about me, but so does Mitch. He won’t hurt me the way you think.” I say, looking up at Carter, pleading with him with my eyes and my words.

“Sawyer, I don’t want to watch you get hurt, you’re right. And I’m never going to stop protecting you. I don’t think this is a good idea. Grace, what do you think?” He asks, turning to look at Grace who’s been quiet this whole time.

“Carter, Honey, I understand Sawyer’s your baby sister. I know you love her. She loves you. But she is a big girl. She can take care of herself, and I know from all the phone calls and texts I’ve seen from Mitch, this boy is head over heels for your sister. I would never pick sides between you two, you know I love you both so much. But Sweetheart, I think you need to let Sawyer do this. If she needs you, she’ll come back to you.” Grace says, rubbing Carter’s shoulders.

“I’m not having this discussion with you two anymore. Sawyer, do whatever you want. If things go south, have fun with that on your own.” Carter says, walking out of the room, brushing Grace and I both off. My head drops into my hands and Grace sighs.

“I’m sorry, Sawyer. I tried.” I nod and try to smile at Grace.

“It’s okay. He’s just being a stubborn jerk right now. Maybe by the time I get back, he’ll stop being such an ass about everything.” I say, wincing as the door to Carter’s room slams. Grace shakes her head again and I leave the kitchen, grabbing my suitcase out of the closet as I walk past. I knew Carter wouldn’t speak to me if I really decided to go to Winnipeg with Mitch. And to be honest, after years of failed relationships because of Carter and Carter controlling every little aspect of my life, I didn’t care. I was going to make things work with Mitch, with or without Carter’s support. I dragged my suitcase back to my room and started packing.

“Grace! Can you come help me?” I called down the hall.

“Grace is doing something that I’m not entirely sure what she’s doing. I’ll try to help.” Nolan says, pushing my door open. I glance up, smile and nod.

“So you decided to go?” Nolan asks, taking the stack of shirts out of my hands and sets them in my suitcase.

“I’m going. Carter’s pissed and I honestly don’t care anymore. Grace tried to talk to him but he won’t listen to anyone.” Nolan rolls his eyes and shakes his head.

“It’s gonna be fine. I’ll come and visit you when I go home to visit my family. Carter will come around eventually.” I nod my head, hoping that Carter will see through the fog of his own protectiveness and see how happy Mitch does make me, even if I’m still refusing to admit my own feelings for him.

“You’re making a good choice.” Nolan says, gently squeezing my wrist, forcing me to look at him.

“Don’t doubt that, Baby Cat. It’s the choice that makes you happy. And that’s all that matters.” He says, smiling. I nod.

“I sure hope so.” Nolan nods and the two of us pack in silence.

[sleepynct]

It’s you - Chapter 3

A knock on your door makes you look up from your book. “yes!” Your door opens and Jeno appears in your doorway. “What do you want?” Jeno rolls his eyes. “Well, hello to you too my sweet sister.” This time it is you to roll your eyes. “hello my dearest brother.” Your tone is sarcastic. “What do you want?” Jeno throws himself on your bed. “I’m here to ask if you wanna come with me to Haechan. We’re gonna swim at his place. He told me that you could also invite Hana and Mae.” You nod. “Yeah, sure I’ll come. I will ask them and get ready.” Jeno stands up from your bed. “Good, we’re going to Haechan’s in about an hour.”

An hour and a half later you are sitting in Haechan’s backyard, Hana and Mae besides you while the guys are throwing each other in the pool. You’re laughing about a story Mae just told you when you’re eyes landed on Haechan. You couldn’t help but take a good look at him. The sun was shining brightly on him, a big smile evident on his face. He was laughing loudly with your brother and his other friends. And in that moment you couldn’t help but think: “He’s handsome.” It’s not that you didn’t know that Haechan was a good looking guy, you knew this, everyone at school knew this, but you had never looked at him like that. When you looked at Haechan it never crossed your mind that he was good looking, the only thing on your mind was he’s my friend and my brother’s. Haechan combed his hair out of his eyes with his hand and made eye contact with you. He threw you a smile and you could feel a blush spreading on your cheeks, giving him a small smile back before turning your head again. 

Your two best friends are looking at you with a weird look on their faces when you face them again. “What?” “What was that?” Hana asks you while she gestures towards the pool. “What was what?” Mae rolled her eyes. “Don’t play dumb! You were totally checking Haechan out.” A nervous laugh escapes your mouth. “No I wasn’t!” “Don’t lie to us, you so were checking him out.” You shake your head and mumble a small “I wasn’t.” You lay yourself down again on the chair and close your eyes, soaking up the sun. Not even a minute later you can feel droplets of water fall down on you. You open your eyes and are met with Jeno standing above you. Before you can ask what he’s doing he picks you up and walks towards the pool. “Don’t you dare!” Jeno just laughs. “I swear Jeno, I will kill you if you drop me.” Loud laughs are heard around you and you sigh, knowing that there is no stopping this. You close your eyes and hold your breath, preparing yourself for what is to come. You can feel Jeno letting go of you and are dropped in to the water. When you come back up you immediately search for Jeno, when you find him you lock eyes. “You are so dead.” Jeno just laughs.

It’s you - Chapter 3

Hachan social media au 

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[angelicichor]

Hi, I just read your somft bois post. Hypothetically speaking, if one were to test you, how much softer could you go? Theoretically, of course. (In all seriousness I really loved it and I’m deadass gonna read whatever else you have to spare my grubby gremlin hands 💖)

You dare?? Question my somftness skills?? 

Bubba Sawyer:

♥ Bubba’s whole existence is softness personified. This boy is the walking manifestation of warm summer days at the beach with wind blowing in your face, but keeping the sand away, he’s the ice cream, the laughter and the joy of lying face-front in the sun, with the essence of dummy that comes with the realization that you did not put on sunscreen and are now burned. Worth it.

♥ Just the way he waves his hands in excitement when he sees you after a long time (so more than 6 minutes) is enough to make your day so much better than it was before and you ain’t even close to him yet. 

♥ He’s the essence of love, pulling you into a tight bear hug, enveloping you in his soft self, squishing air out of your longs and nuzzling your cheeks with his masked ones, it’s a bit disgusting, really, but he’s so happy to do it that you honestly don’t even care.

♥ Bubba’s a damn gentleman is what he is. He’ll take your coat if you’ve been out, sit you down, undo your shoes, pass you your slippers and proceed to take of that funny looking hat he gave you at some point and that funky scarf you’re wearing that was Nubbin’s gift, you don’t dare to question where either of them got those things, but you adore them never the less, makes you feel like a part of the family and I mean - You are! You’re Bubba’s darling! His angel, his everything! 

♥ He makes sure you know that by showering your freezing face with warm, sloppy kisses and pulling you into another hug, gasping in offence when you weasel your hands under his shirt, stealing his warmth.

♥ This man is a gosh darn walking radiator, fight me on this, I WILL WIN.

♥ Once you’re all dressed for staying home he takes your comparably tiny hands and after being stuck with an awestruck expression for a moment (because how can your skin feel so nice to touch?!) he’ll guide you to the main room and sit you down for a nice, warm meal.

♥ He’s already eaten, so instead he crouches by the table and looks at you lovingly, with those big, adorable eyes. And when you pet his head they close in immediate bliss and he shifts to hug your waist and lie his head on your lap while you’re still eating.

♥ In that way he’s like a cat, you’re stuck now, you cannot move him until you finish your soup. By then he’ll leave by himself to show you proudly a platter of cookies he made with his brother.

♥ They might or might not have razors in them, knowing his bastard brother, so he cracks each one of them open to check if he’s right. Yes, he is. With a lot of huffs he steps out of the room to be angry at Nubbins and you can’t help but laugh a little.

♥ And no, Nubbins doesn’t hate you… he’s just… being Nubbins.

♥ After a few rumbles and crashes your boy is back, dusting off his hands in an almost comedic way and picks you up without a warning to carry you to a couch with a TV in front of it.

♥ He sits you down, pats your head to make you stay and you nod at him with a happy smile, watching him leave and come back just a moment later with the cracked cookies. Scooting you over a bit he sits down, the couch creaking under his weight ever so slightly and he puts the platter on the small coffee table before lying down and pulling you on top of him, gently, carefully and only once he notices that he’s alright with moving you.

♥ The satisfied noise he makes once you’re on his chest and belly force you to hold back a squeak, because it’s just so adorable. 

♥ “You’re taking a nap, Bubba?” You ask gleefully, pinching his masked nose lightly. He nods eagerly and just huff a laughter. “Okay, but an hour and no longer, okay? I got work to do.” He pouts a bit and traps you in his arms. You’re not going anywhere before he gets his rest, he’s worked hard for it!

♥ The TV is turned on and before you know it your boy is snoring underneath you, his expression stuck in a stupid little smile that makes your heart flutter.

♥ I hope you don’t need to pee, because you’re stuck on him for an hour now.

Thomas Hewitt:

♥ Moving in with Thomas (without a real choice, but you CAN’T complain) turned out to make your days way more busy, with Luda Mae and Hoyt keeping you on your feet, tending to the house, it’s surroundings and it’s occupants if they needed anything. Thomas had a similar treatment, but being a country boy he was used to it, your city self couldn’t get accustomed that fast, so you worked slower than him, but a bit were a bit more careful with every task, so Luda was more than happy to have you help. Less dishes being broken that way and all.

♥ So at the end of the day you’d be completely wasted and wanting nothing more to just sit down and rest, but almost always Monty would call you to do one more thing, just to see you frown and pout and mope your way back to him to ask what he wanted.

♥ Except this time you don’t make it to his wheelchair, being lifted in the air and placed on a firm shoulder, your hands hitting a familiar, muscular back and your eyes spotting a very squeezable butt that could only belong to Tommy.

♥ Monty’s about to say something, but the Behemoth is quick to turn to him and squint his eyes, daring him to steal you away from him when it was HIS time to have you to himself.

♥ You weren’t dating, at least not yet (at least you’re pretty sure you ain’t???), but you were dear to him and each time someone made you do something when he was just about to grab you he grew just a bit more agitated and it showed. His walk was stiffer, more determined than usual and you were happy that his frame was so solid, keeping you from bouncing with his every step, huffing something under his breath, but you knew better than to expect any words to actually come out. Though he did speak sometimes, simple words, nothing more.

♥ He brought you upstairs into the room he rarely uses and slammed the door behind him with another huff, letting you slip down from his shoulders, you then giggling at his tired eye roll. You knew Hoyt made him chase after a group of teens today, too lazy to do his own damn work, so this Giant was W A S T E D.

♥ To confirm that, he kicked his boots off and slammed onto his bed, jumping a bit as he hit the mattress face first, groaning into the soft pillows. You couldn’t help but laugh at how over-dramatic he was being. Very few people knew this, but Tommy is a sassy bastard when he’s not around Hoyt.

♥ With another creak you saw Thomas turning, a lazy smile hidden under his mask, nudging his head towards the dresser, where a radio was laying, a few CDs right next to it. “Ya want me to play us somethin’?” You asked and he nodded quickly, sitting up and hunching forward slightly, eyes fixed on you as you looked through the albums. “Metallica will do?” you didn’t look back this time, so he just hummed in agreement and lied back down, letting the soft bass at the start of Enter Sandman hush his mind.

♥ This man looks so damn peaceful when his eyes are closed, his usually furrowed brows relaxing and head bobbing slightly to the rhythm of the music, barely paying any attention to you moving onto the bed and sitting on your legs right next to his chest, only opening one eye to see what you were up to.

♥ Didn’t expect to see you pouting though.

♥ Quietly you poked his covered cheek and he understood, lifting his tired body up and turning so you faced his back. Your heart skipped a beat, realizing how much trust he was putting in you, as your small fingers undid the belt that held the dark leather mask to his face, his hair falling down in cascades as he pulled it off, his breath stuttering slightly. It did every time, because even if he trusted you not to make fun of him or flinch in disgust, his trauma was still there and just like always he moved to press himself into the pillows as quick as possible, grunting, clearly displeased.

♥ Taking the opportunity you climb on his back and lay down, groaning as you felt every muscle on your poor, sore back relax. He laughed under you when your arms went around his neck in a nuzzling hug, turning his face to look at you and blushed ever so slightly when your lazy smile welcomed him.

♥ ”Allo, handsome.” You joked and he huffed in annoyance, lifting himself and throwing you off him in the process, letting you fall to his side with a small ‘oof’. “Rude.”

♥ He knew, but it’s an eye for an eye. At least now he’s actually facing you and you grin at his face, disfigured as it might be, you honestly didn’t care.

♥ ‘Sad But True’ rolled on and he starred at the radio, letting his head rest on his fist. Not a favorite for either of you, but still good. 

♥ You adored those evenings with Thomas, quiet, calm, chill, spent on listening to music and helping each other relax, cuddling, laughing at each other, play wrestling, banging you heads to the rhythm of the music and massaging sore muscle if needed. Tommy was great at the last part, well, he was amazing at all of those things, but his fingers were literal magic, kneading your back just right for you to relax, not even expecting you to do the same, because he knew your fingers hurt when you massaged him, muscle does that and it makes your hands sore after.

♥ But with those darling moments it always made you wonder just WHAT were you. It wasn’t just a friendship, you weren’t dating and there was no sex involved so, what then?

♥ Not bearing the question any longer you shoot up, startling him a bit and pinning him under you, eyes determined, making him chuckle at your sudden courage, ready to pounce back if you wanted to wrestle. “Thomas Hewitt Brown.” You start and he tilts his head in confusion, one brow raised, waiting for your next words - what did he do NOW? “What…” your gaze shifted to the side, not unnoticed by him and now both of you were blushing slightly. “What… am I to you?” finally you break the silence and look back at him, only to find his eyes wide in shock.

♥ It wasn’t your question, but the sudden realization that he has NO IDEA.

♥ Cue the slightly panicked shrug and him sitting up, holding you in place on his lap, making you blush at just how close he was. Usually neither of you would mind, but now with both your thoughts racing and ‘Wherever I May Roam’ surprisingly rolling up, the closeness was suffocating.

♥ He looks away, thumbs drawing circles in you back, furrowing his brows before smiling lightly, a cocky grin and a spark of deviousness in his eye as he pulled you closer to him by gently placing his hand at the back of your head.

♥ ”Tommy?” you asked, your body trembling when his dark eyes met yours in a heated daze, asking for something and when he inched closer, tilting his head slightly to the side and you didn’t shove away he knew he found his answer, kissing your lips softly, his heart clenching with pure joy and warmth when you kissed back, again and again, sweetly and carefully. Once he pulled away you were both blushing like crazy and with a happy giggle he pushed you down to his chest and slammed his back into the bed.

♥ You were huffing and puffing in embarrassment and he just laughed, petting your hair.

♥ “That answers no–” “Mine.” He cut you off and you rose slightly, amazed to hear his voice vibrating through his huge chest, the cocky grin not leaving his lips. With another huff you decided to just lay on him, digging your chin into his chest in a form of revenge, feeling his whole body shake in  warm laughter.

♥ “FINE. But that doesn’t explain a thing!” you groan jabbing at his side with your fingers and the way he catches your hand you know that you just brought a round of rough housing on yourself. “Oh, you’re ON.” you hiss and attack his sides, determined to win against him this time.

♥ Spoilers: You absolutely won… not.

Michael Myers (RZ):

♥ To say that Mikey is a problem child would be a SEVERE understatement.

♥ It’s not even his violent tendencies or his obsessive behavior, but the years he spent in the sanitarium, being feared by every single nurse, orderly, guard and doctor taught him, that he has enough power to just take what he wants whenever he wants it.

♥ Even if it meant holding you hostage in his ridiculously huge and strong arms, pressing his chin against the top of your head and sitting on the floor, because your protests made you fall of the couch and he’s NOT giving you the chance to slip away from him AGAIN.

♥ You’re both sitting there, brows furrowed, because he won’t let you go shopping and you are STARVING and it’s HIS fault because he’s just too damn big for his own good and ate ALL YOUR FOOD.

♥ And he won’t even apologize! No, instead he’s forcing you to give him love and affection! That touch starved bastard!

♥ “You’re such a dick.” you groan , trying to jab him with your elbows, but his hold is just too tight. Noticing your struggles he tenses his muscle to squeeze you inside him, making you squeak at the sudden tightness. “MICHAEL!!” you raise your tone and he groans, standing up with you and before you can even think of breaking free he’s throwing you on the sofa, falling onto you right after, knocking the air out of your lungs. “MICHAAAAEEEEEL!!!” you whine, shoving his arms to no avail. You know damn well that his gosh darn mountain of a man ain’t moving an inch unless he wants to humor you and he’s being a grumpy bastard right now.

♥ A low growl runs through his throat and his gaze shots up to you, making you shut up immediately. “Shut up and pet me.” he complains, nuzzling into your chest angrily like a damned child. 

♥ You open your mouth wide, shocked, appalled, distraught, how DARE HE.

♥ “MICHAEL I’M STARVIIIIIIING!!” you moan, slipping your hands from under him (he let you because how are you supposed to pet him otherwise) and brutally ruffling his mane of dirty blonde hair. He catches your hands and squints at you, huffing a loose strand of hand off his face, unmasked for once. You gulp and push further into the sofa, making yourself smaller as he loomed over you, a wide grin slowly rising on his face as he realized something that would give so much trouble. “Michael… we’re both adults… be rational.” you try to reason with him, but he’s already off you, moving towards the kitchen to look for something. Your face pales as you realize what he’s look for and jump of the sofa in PURE FEAR.

♥ You can hear a faint hum of approval as he found the object and is now turning towards you, his eyes squinted in a sinister smile and soon you can hear the whip of rope being pulled together, a lumbering laughter echoing from his chest. 

♥ “Mikey, no.” you warn.

♥ “Run.” But his warning sounds stronger, and you’re sprinting off with a laughing shriek as he chases after you with a wide, childish grin on his face.

Am I grinning while writing those??? A B S O L U T E L Y. 

Does my face hurt from doing that? Y A 

Hope this is somft enough for u bc I am just…. S HAkinG. So much fluffiness, we a pillow factory in this binch now. Amazing.

[groovycatcollector]

The Wonderfully Right, And The Horribly Wrong (Daryl Dixon Love story)

Summery: After losing her brother and his wife, one young woman is left on her own, caring for a new born and trying to survive. After being taken in to a community after years of mistrust, how will she adapt, and what effect will a certain archer have on her. Starts the last episode of season 5

Warnings: slow-burn, angst, eventual fluff, violence, strong language. ptsd, age gape

Pairings: Daryl Dixon x OFC

AU:I am so sorry this is so long I’ve been in quarantine for seven weeks

Chapter 10

My ass was damp agent the wet garden chair while I brought the beer bottle back up to my lips, must have been an odd site, me sitting in a satin blue bridesmaid dress with a cheap bottle in my hand. The wedding was still merry and loud long after night fell. It was a lovely wedding, and now three of the seven Price children were gone and married. I gulped down the bitter drink (given to me by the eldest Mae, who now can’t drink thanks to getting knocked up) hearing Baba walking stick before I heard her call my name

“Natasha” only she called me that “you hardly tired now solnyshkuh” She sat next to me on the damp bench, ruining her purple dress.

She reached a hand out for me to hold once she was settled and I held it “No Baba, just taking a break” She hummed, shaking my hand affectionately. “Sonya found a boy” She remarked, her accent still thick, she only moved to America in her twenties. She didn’t sound pleased about the prospects of Sonya finding a dance partner “He’s too ugly for her”

He wasn’t ugly in truth, even I was a bit weak at the knees for him. He was Sherry’s mysterious cousin from upstate. He was tall with high cheekbones, and short black hair. He was partnered to lead Sonya down the aisle and took great joy in seeing identical twins. We chatting for a while before dinner all three of us, but I quickly excused myself to after Sonya gave me a side-glance meaning: “Please fuck off I want to sit on his face”. So I excused myself to go play with Florence’s new-born Daisy.

I chuckled and handed her the bottle, offering her a sip. I was closest to her, she choice mine and Sonya’s name, which of course it had to be from a Russian old book. Irena Katina Nikolaevna Lebedev was probably the proudest person I know, even prouder to still to be Russian. But Irena Katina Nikolaevna Lebedev didn’t like pretty boys, she didn’t trust them, and my twin had just found one to dance with at our brothers wedding.

“You” She took a swig, still holding my hand. “You find a strong man, with nice arms” I looked at her, her head covered in her shawl, and underneath I knew was a jungle of curls that travelled through the family. “No soft’s like Ray, a good man, perhaps rich man would be nice” Thin lips that often spat out scaving remarks curled into a smile. “Now come” Baba bent forward and allowed her walking stick to prop her up.

Despite the hair, the name and the honesty I have inherited from her, it was the eyes that I and Sonya got. Big dark eyes, but hers like looked at the world like she knew its secrets “I get you real drink, we are Russian, no Americans” I laughed before linking arms with her and proceeded to get hammered.

 Last time I was in a church I was in blue satin, now I stood in a white shirt, holding a small child in an onesie. Maggie, Glenn and Father Gabriel stood around to the holy water. I felt kind of awkward being back in a church for some reason, well more than awkward, I was kinda panicking if I’m being honest. I had barley decided on a name, why the fuck did I always zone out when they got mushy.

“What do you think?” Beau asked, leaning agents the fireplace looking fondly at his girlfriend chatting to our Grandpa. My curly head barley reached the mantel only being thirteen. “She’s real pretty” I said, and he, still not taking his eyes off of her, smiled. My no nonsense older brother finally got bit with the love bug. Florence and Mary-Grace already knew Noelle from school, but it was her first time meeting the rest of us; Dwight, the parents, grandparents and the kid sisters (that’s were me and Sonya came in)

Her dark hair stood out in the room like a sore thumb in a family of blondes and redheads. Mary-Grace and her bright flames of hair took Mae’s place next to Baba by the fire now she had moved out and gotten married. Beau, being the third oldest in the house at nineteen, stood a good foot and a half taller than me, with curls brighter than mine and Sonya’s, and blue eyes like my daddy.

Our house was really only one room that wasn’t used for sleeping, were we all were now. It acted as kitchen, sitting room and dining room all on top of each other since Baba and grandpa had to move in.

“How in the name of Moses did you get a girl like that Beau?” Sonya came sneaking up behind us “Seriously man she’s a ten and you are an ugly motherfucker” My image remarked crossing her arms over her chest. Beau simply rolled his eyes “language” he muttered before pushing her in the shoulder.

Everything was all a blur as Gabriel was mumbling Latin from a book, which in fairness is pretty hard to read considering it’s a dead language. “Name of guardian?” He asked finally looking up at me after taking the boy from my hands.  None of this felt real for some reason, I felt like I was in a dream. I shuffled my feet and licked my lips, my body getting nervous, deep breath Nina.

Pulling my shoulders back I announced myself “Natasha Ilyinichna Irena Lebedev Price” I heard a faint “Oh yeah I forgot she was Russian” from Maggie, forcing myself to smile at her.

Still not looking at my nephew or the priest. I focused on the cross behind his head, I was anxious to get this done with, to make sure he had sort of protection. My eyes darted around the room as Maggie and Glenn were called to pour the holy water over the baby’s head, both giving me an odd look and asking if I was alright.

 “What do you think of it all?” Sonya whispered in a hush as we lay in the dark, both of us trying to ignore the sound of our parents shouting. Parents shouting at the decision Sonya had made. “Think of what?” I asked, tucking the bedsheet up to my chin. She sat up in the double bed we shared. “Don’t fucking play me Nina” Her voice was harsh and bolder then usual, for a girl so reserved and gentile, she was pissed.  

She sat up and turned the lamp on, making Mary-Grace groan and tousle from the other side of the room. She sat up and crossed her arms, her mouth twitching “Well?”

Groaning I sat up too, not wanting to have this conversation. “What do you want me to say?” She was looking for a fight and I knew it. Her sporadic hand gestures gave her away “What you think? What do you think I should do?” Sonya’s eyes welled up with tears. I sighed “I don’t know Sonya, it’s a big decision”

She wanted to move to New York and live with Florence, who had a townhouse with her husband and two kids. Sonya had won a scholarship in the last pageant, and wanted to be an architect… and leave. New York sounded good, fun. Just far away. “Why do you even want to leave?” I asked with a sight, not understanding her longing to leave the safety of trees that surrounded the town.

“What do you mean why do I want to leave?” She looked at me dumbfounded, and a heavy air set between us. “If you were given the opportunity to get out you would too, I don’t want to be sewn to your hip for the rest of my life”. I raised my eyebrow at that, “You’re stuck to my hip?” I scoffed “Fuck off Sonya don’t be such a cunt” My arms got a chill looking at her face contort trying to control her rage.

“I think you’re jealous” She scaved, leaning forward into my face “I think you’re freaking out that you just realized you don’t know what the fuck you’re doing with your life” I leaned over her, not breaking eye contact, and turned off the lamp. My heart racing at her words, wanting to shout and kick and bite for what she said. But I didn’t. “I think you’re freaking out because you don’t know you who are without me” I whispered.

She stared dumbfounded, knowing I was right. Neither of us really knew who we were without the other. Didn’t matter if he had different interests, who liked pageants or cross country. Who was closer to Baba or Grandpa. We didn’t know who we were without each other.

I turned away from her pulling the bedsheet around me “Night Sonya”

“I aint going with you guys tomorrow, I don’t want to listen to you all the way to Roanoke”

 “Do you have a name ?” Maggie asked, just as they were about to pour the water on his head. Snapping back into reality, looking at the kid for the first time since we got into the church. “Uhh” oh shit yeah a name “Cain” I said, suddenly remembering “Cain Lyova Price” I forced a smile, not really listening.

Feeling a pang of grief for my brother that I hadn’t allowed myself to feel. I watched them together drunk his head into the water, whispering prayers of protection. And finally he would be protected, not in this world but in death. I closed my eyes feeling a shudder down my spine, God don’t let him die.

My brothers child, that stupid bastard should be here not me. He could have given him a good name. I mean Cain? What kind of stupid name was that?

I felt all the anger and grief bubble up, making my chest break into silent sobs. No. Not now. I can’t feel it now. I smiled, whipping the tear that had risen in my eye, trying to pass it off as tears of joy before hugging the tree.

I take the kid- Cain, back into my arms, before smiling and saying quickly a thanks and how I had to get to the infirmary.

 **

 The infirmary was as it usually was, quiet. Today we had the riveting excitement of Eugene asking if a mole was cancerous, which it wasn’t as he’d had it for a few years and had not grown, moved or changed colour or shape.

“You okay?” Denise asked me just as our ‘patient’ left. I smiled picking up the bab-Cain and shaking a bottle of formula. “Yeah fine” I lied with a smile, not wanting to acknowledge the tightness I felt in my throat for my brother. The doctor narrowed her eyes, before sitting down in front of her cheat sheet. She was just about to open her mouth to argue when I interrupted “Yah know what I haven’t had in a while?” She knew she didn’t have to answer, my nerves giving me the gift of small talk.

“A good piss up” I stated, nudging the bottle into Cain’s mouth. I laughed to myself while Denise just looked at me confused. “Remember the boxes of moonshine we found? Do you think they’d miss just one?” My colleague stood frowning “Nine we can’t steal, we need them to disinfect wounds” Her scolding me, though not sounding entirely too agents the idea. I rolled my eyes as she came closer, putting a hand on the baby’s foot.

“So what did you name him?” She changed the subject, looking up at me and pushing her glasses back up her nose. “Cain” I whispered looking down at him. “Or Lyova, havn’t decided wich one I want to call him” Denise hummed looking back at him, whos hands were grasped to the bottle, gulping like it was his last ever feed.

“Lyova, havn’t heard that one before” She looked up at me “Russian, for Lion” I explained. She nodded before moving back to study her cheat sheet. “Makes sense if he has hair like yours”. I faked laughed, looking back down, his daddy had lighter hair, more white then mine.

A few hours passed, the normal routine had taken over when Carol walked in with her usual chirpy smile. “Hey girls” she sang, placing a basket on the operating table. I still didn’t trust her, felt like she wasn’t being honest for some reason, no one survives out there and still comes there smiling and cheerful. I figured she was a bit like me in that way, full of shit.

Carol turned to look at me, one hand on her hip “So, what did you call him?” jeeze everyone wants to know this kids name. “Cain Lyova” I smiled back, a smile equally full of shit of the one I was reciprocating. “Oh Lyova, that’s beautiful” She cooed, leaning down to look at him sitting on the floor shaking a toy.  “It was my great-uncles” I noted, not too keen on mention that he was fighting for the soviets in Word War II.

I smiled at her, the colour on her neat jumper suited her, a pale blue. “I was thinking” She straightened up and faced me “Why don’t we celebrate?” She gave a little hmmp after indicating it was more of a request then a question. I raised an eyebrow, maybe she was listening in before smiling. “It’s not every day we’ve something to celebrate, could invite one or two people over and have a drink tonight” shaking my head I let out a sigh. Well I can’t believe it my dreams just came true. “Ma’am I think you read my mind”

 I woke up to the sound of the creaks of heavy footsteps followed by the door squeaking open. It was cold, and Sonya was snuggled up agents by back protecting herself agents the snow that fell softly on the window. My first speculation was that it was some sick murderer dressed up as Santa to kill us, it being Christmas Eve but soon decided that it was just Daddy going for a cigarette.

Just wanting to calm my nerves I pulled myself free of my sister, and immediately regretting leaving the warmth of the bed once the sting of the December air. Pulling my shoulders up close to my neck to try keep the warmth from leaving my body, I opened the door of our bedroom into the sitting room to see the front door wide open letting the snow in. Rushing to see what is was I ran to the door and peeped out, scared shitless and freezing my tits off.

What I saw gave me an icy shock of what I would never get out of my head. Baba stood, bare foot in her white nightgown in the snow. Her curly hair down, reaching past her waist as she fell to her knees and let out a shriek. I turned and grabbed a blanket from the couch and ran out to get her.

“Baba” I called stepping down from the porch “Come back inside its freezing”. She didn’t turn to look at me. Just sat in the snow looking up at the pine trees.

“Baba” I called again, a little softer, I was only a few feet away from her now. Baba sat motionless, her knees now either side of her. I could hear her muttering in Russian, something about a sister

She was rocking back and forth, not breaking her eyes from the trees“Net net ne ona, ne snova ne moya sestra, pozhaluysta, ne moya sestra”. I placed a hand on her shoulder, making her stop rocking.

I cupped my hand under her armpits pulling her up before wrapping the blanket around her shoulders “C’mon Baba, let’s get you inside”.

 Oh yeah I was drunk. Glenn, Daryl, Aaron, Spencer and I may have ended up playing a drinking game. Turns out I’ve done a lot of things and slept with a lot of people because I lost pretty hard. Also turns out, I speak a bit of Russian when I’m drunk, didn’t even know I knew Russian that well, the more you know I suppose.

One or two people according to Carol turned out to be most of Alexandria, not that I minded, it gave me a break from the baby because so many people wanted to hold him.  I liked Carol, even if she was full of shit, I liked her, and I respect people who do what they can to survive. Though, seeing her be all flirty with Tobin was a bit gross. Then all of a sudden I looked around the room and everyone was flirting with everyone.

Anyways, now someone has Cain or Lyova or whatever to fuck I named him, and I was lying on the grass, pretty shitfaced. I liked looking at the stars, one good thing about this godforsaken shithole with dead sons’o’bitches walking around is that we have more stars.

I liked stars. I put my palms down flat to the ground to try steady myself from feeling so dizzy. The other hand rested carefully on my bottle, quiet comfortable on my own. Not wanting to be in a room with so many people. Last time I was in a room celebrating something was with my family, and now they’re all dead.

I heard a whistle behind me and I craned my head back to see, still not knowing who it was I raised a hand waving hi. “Hey kid” ahh the familiar grumblings of Mr. Dixon. “Mr. Dixon how nice of you to join me” I said politely as he stood above my head, he looked confused, but his cheeks were pink.

“Whacha doin’ out here?” Jeeze straight to the point. He was standing pretty close, his feet barley a centimetre from my head. I thought for a moment before answer “I went for a stroll, thought it could sober me up a bit” I was being honest. “Didn’t think I’d screwed so many  people” I laughed to myself, sitting up a bit to bring the bottle to my lips.

Daryl sat down with a sigh “I think you’d had enough” he went to take the bottle out of my hand but I pulled it away, cradling it like a baby “Heyyyyyy hold on a minute Mr. Dixon” He rolled his eyes, before looking away and looking back again. I liked his eyes, even if he acted like he was all tough his eyes were soft, and sweet.

 “So, why Cain?” He lay next to me, our shoulders barley brushing and my stomach suddenly did a summer sault “Well I thought I was being kinda clever” I slurred, my mouth not willing to articulate. “You know the story of Cain and Able?” One hand was rested on the bottle that hung loosely by my side, while the other was thrown up in the air, flopping like crazy.

“Nah, I don’t believe in that bible stuff” He said, moving his hands to rest on his abdomen, I glanced over at him “So who was Cain and Able” He inquired looking at me. I smiled to myself, feeling a sudden purpose in the years my Mama spent telling us the stories.

“They were brothers” I said simply “But when Cain killed Able God cursed him with immortality, no one could hurt him; he would forever be in divine protection” I trailed off, my arm still upright stilled.

“And I was hoping, with me killing my brother God would grant my Cain protection in this fuckin’ curse of the world” I sighed, feeling the guilt and remorse I had been keeping busy to ignore swung  up. I dropped my hand.

“’m sorry” He said and I turned to meet his face. “I had to kill my brother too” I’m not sure if it was the liquor or the grief, but I swear I could feel the ground pulsing beneath me. I looked at the archers’ face, all the lines and scares that told his story presented so plainly but all upstaged by the soul in his eyes. I suddenly felt like I knew him, or wanted to know him at.

For as much as we talked about our home lives it was only pre-apocalypse, never after. “I went out looking for him and found him as a walker, it really fucked with me for a while” he explained “He cut his own hand off right at the start, so he had this” it was his turn to lift his forearm “Badass knife put on in it’s place” He smiled, I like his smile, it made me smile too.

Daryl dropped his arm, and his smile. He turned his head back up to the sky but I didn’t look away, not yet. I decided to share my tale “I was on a run when he was born, and something must have gone wrong” Now I turned my face away, feeling my throat welling up, I barley thought about what happened, let alone talked about it.

“He-Cain must have then been quiet, because when I came in Beau was cradling Noel” I took a deep breath “Who was covered in her own blood, and I had just opened the door when he’d slit his own throat” My voice broke, and the corner of my eyes were stinging with tears. “But the fool didn’t go deep enough so he was just sitting there bleeding out with his wife” I let the bottle drop, not caring anymore.

I felt Daryl grab my hand, and I squeezed it tight. I let out a laugh, trying to brush off the sudden outburst of realizing that was the first time I’ve said his name in six months “Sorry, guess I’m just a sap” Jesus this is embarrassing, at least I didn’t vomit on his, yet.

I felt him squeeze my hand and I looked at him “You ain’t a sap, he was your brother” I smiled at him, grateful. I turned my head back up to look at the glimmers of the night sky. Feeling my throat well up again, I coughed, trying to keep it down.

I listened to the crickets, and the songbirds, and the thumping of my chest before remembering I was still holding Daryl’s hand.

“Yah know” I said, looking at him again “This is real romantic” My chest, previously stifling sobs was now bursting with laugher. “You and me” He said, smiling “Looking at the stars, holding hands, swappin’ stories about how we killed our brothers”

The stupidity and seriousness of the situation spurred my laughter on more

For the first time in nearly four years it was completely safe, I didn’t feel like I had to be ready to attack, or run or suddenly become a mom of a kid I didn’t make.

 It was just him and me, lying in the dry grass, looking at the starry sky.

Tags:https://tmblr.co/mJ8tAevvokZdRi9HxEHeCrw

Part one Part two Part three Part four Part five Part six Part seven

 Part eight Part nine Part eleven

[elsie--bishop]

Hi y’all. I’m Claire and I’m bringing you Elsie Bishop, 28 year old, event planner. She’s probs planned a birthday party, bachlorette party, or wedding for someone that you know. Please hmu if you would like plots. She is sisters with April, Cassidy, and Magnolia Grace.

Name: Elizabeth Mae Bishop Nicknames: Elsie, El Age: 28 Birthday: December 24, 1991 (Capricorn) Place of Birth: Frostford, Alabama

@frostfordstart​

Traits:

Kind, organized, loyal, protective, stubborn, independant, responsible, enthusiatic, judgemental, competitve, bossy, vivacious.

Bio:

Little Elsie Bishop arrived on the scene a whole month early. Determined, her father would say, to become the best Christmas gift the family ever got. She was the couple's second daughter and in time would become a big sister to two other girls.

She grew up on a small local farm that was run by her mother and grandmother. Her father worked as a police officer which would become a real bummer when the teenage years hit.

That little girl that played director to all the plays she and her sister's cooked up. The phrase Elsie the Bossy was earned time and time again. She knew what she wanted though and never wavered when her mind was set to something. There were no half measures with her.

When she was ten and playing in the Tombigbee river with her family, she offered to share her innertube with a classmate, his own having deflated in the middle of the river. His name was Daniel Bixby, and from that summer day on they were best friends.

In high school, she was class treasurer and prom queen. She scored stellar grades and applied for school in Tuscaloosa, earning herself a full ride. She played soccer and liked to watch baseball but she definitely wasn’t down for fishing with her outnumbered father.

At fifteen she started officially dating Danny, but they were a package deal long before that. He would roll down the driveway in his rusted pick-up to pick her up for dates and they'd lay blankets down and watch the meteor showers. He was her coach when she was psyching herself up to complete the nuclear wing challenge. She was his tutor, propping up his grades so that he could get into community college.

She studied Public Relations in college and basically made those four years her bitch. Weekends back home with Danny and the fam, weekdays in classes and sorority responsibilities. On her twenty-second birthday, home for Christmas break, Danny proposed. She had absolutely zero qualms in saying yes.

She would be a fiancee for exacty 213 days. During a party celebrating graduation, there was an accident that took the life of everyone involved, including Danny's three fraternity brothers. In the aftermath, crushed and grieving, Elsie returned to the family farm. It took her months to get back on her feet, but she was no quitter. She tucked her engagement ring away somewhere safe and found herself a townhome in Frostford to move into.

She began working as an event planner. Kid's birthday parties, check. Bachlorette parties, bridal showers, weddings, and festivals managed her to bring home a substantial income. She was perfect for the work, always hyperfocused on the details and obsessed on making every detail perfect.

As always, she supported her sisters and their ambitions. Six years after Danny's death she lives in Frostford with a Frenchie named Bowie.

She is a remarkably horrible cooker and baker. She has been struggling to perfect this skill and has yet to realize it is a lost cause.

Wanted Connections

Friends: Best friends, girl groups, squads, soccer team friends, college friends, friends that were once rivals in high school. Coworkers and friends. Elsie i friendly if at times bossy and can put people off sometimes with that side of her personality. She is a member of the DAR and an adamant supporter of anyone that she loves.

Romantic: Flings throughout the past six years. Elsie hasn’t seriously dated anyone since her fiancee passed but she has made her best efforts at getting back out there.

[nakedmonkey]

any tea about the panel?

Hmmm I don’t know about tea, but I’ll give you some highlights:

The girls are super close and their dynamic is very similar to that of their characters on the show. Apparently, Christina and mae love all the same food, while Retta just does not fuck with Pho. And Retta and Christina are online shopping machines while Mae just couldn’t care less about it.

Retta does not handle the stress of the characters well at all, in fact she hates it while Mae LOVES it and tries to get sneak peeks of what’s coming next, which she then brings to Christina and Retta and Retta cannot stand it. She also said that if she were a viewer and not an actor on the show, she could not watch it because it stresses her out so much. She said she’d get just as stressed and pissed off as “the crazies on Twitter” (lolol)

Jenna talked about first realizing Brio would be a thing: it was while editing the “So what’d you want to talk to me about?” scene, when it cuts to black, that whoever was sitting there editing with her went, “they’re gonna bone” and she was like, “what are you talking about? No they’re not.” And he said, “The way those two are playing it, they’re gonna bone.” and the seed was planted. 

They talked about Annie originally being the who who would MAYBE hook up with Rio and Mae said that around the second episode or something she said, “Come on you guys, I”m obviously going to fuck him, right?” 

Manny is veeeery quiet but he obviously gets a kick out of all of them.

Matthew is VERY funny and seems like a genuinely nice guy. He kept joking about Dean and Beth getting back together and kept mentioning how beautiful Manny is (lol). He also made a point about how he is obviously playing this character so he has to like him; he needs to be able to sympathize with him because he is embodying him, and uhhh he’s hella right so stop giving him shit. 

Mae talked about Sadie’s coming out and how it was such a special thing to shoot because of her close relationship with Isaiah. His mom was on set that day, they did only a couple of takes and then hugged and cried about it. She (and Jenna) talked about how important it was that it wasn’t this dramatic, drawn out thing where someone is upset about it because it should be that easy for everyone so they wanted to hopefully set an example for parents. At that point, Christina started crying, Retta started crying, and Jenna and Mae started crying (and I was crying). It was super sweet and really touching that they gave it so much thought. 

The producer that was there (I think he stepped in last minute because I was sure Reno would be there) said something about the darkness of the show and its appeal and how someone in his family, maybe an aunt, hwas married to a really terrible guy and how he and his cousin (or brother) got together and were like “how do we kill him?” It caused a big laugh and I don’t think he finished the point he was trying to make but i found it fucking hilarious.

The girls HATE filming fighting scenes because they get really emotional about them. They cited the scene where Annie says to Ruby that she’s allowed to talk shit to Beth because they’re blood and the three of them said they HATEDDDD doing that scene. 

If I think of more later, I’ll update, but tbh there wasn’t any drama that could pick up on. They all seem super chill. 

Oh! For you Eddy (Eddie?) fans, he was there with Mae. Saw him backstage. Her parents were also there. 

ETA: Mae was the first one to roll her eyes any time Matthew mentioned Dean and Beth reuniting lol 

[winryofresembool]

EdWin ice skating AU, chapter 5.5

A/N: Tadah, here it is! And yes, you read that number correctly. The reason I’m giving this chapter that number is because it DOESN’T continue from where we were left off in chapter 5. Instead, I’m showing Winry’s point of view of the events between Ed leaving his hotel room and running into Winry at the gym in chapter 5. Also, let’s pretend for the sake of this fic that it’s actually normal for the skaters to hang out together :D Please enjoy, and remember that feedback is the only payment I get for this :)

Previous chapters:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Next chapter: [x]

Words: 1929 (is this the longest chapter yet?)

Genre: this chapter probably goes under ‘general’.

Warnings: Ed’s injury mentioned but nothing else I think?

”I just remembered I need to be somewhere.”

Those were the last words Ed said before leaving Winry to stand alone in the corridor, entirely dumbfounded.

Winry knew that was the lamest excuse he could have come up with, since he had said only one day earlier that the hours after lunch were dedicated to rest. Besides, he didn’t seem like someone to forget his meetings just like that. Had she done something wrong? Had she pushed Ed too hard by asking him to tell about the incident? Those questions ran through her mind as she tried to process everything that had just happened.

“Winry?”

The girl turned around, seeing the dark-haired captain of Ed’s hockey team approach her.

“Huh?” She was still too confused to form proper sentences.

“Why are you standing there? Where did Ed go?” Roy asked.

“I… don’t know. But why are you here?” Winry tried to counter. “I thought it’s a habit of yours to take a nap at this time.”

“I had some plans but someone canceled on me…” Roy smirked like it was not a big deal. “Apparently they had forgotten they have a team photo shoot today. I thought I’d go out for a walk because I couldn’t sleep.”

“Why do I have a feeling I know who that someone is?” Winry smiled mischievously, glad to distract herself with Roy’s relationship issues instead of hers. “Why are you so mysterious about it, it’s not like you aren’t allowed to date female hockey players, right? Is she taken?”

“No, that’s not it… It’s just that our coach set us a no-dating clause for the Olympics – stupid, I know, but apparently he thinks we have more energy in the games if we don’t ‘go around sleeping with all the ladies we meet’ so I’m trying to keep a low profile…”

“What about the other players though?” Winry asked, trying to think about Maes Hughes and his Gracia instead of Ed. She and Ed weren’t even dating, they had just hung around a couple of times! “I mean, Gracia is getting married to your teammate pretty soon…”

“Somehow I have a feeling our coach doesn’t really care about them. Besides, Ms. Hawkeye’s (Winry didn’t miss how Roy mentioned Riza’s name for the first time) grandfather is a general manager on our team and I swear he knows everything. He would immediately tell our coach.”

“Wow. Touch luck.” Winry laughed.

“You are avoiding my question though,” Roy noted. “What happened with Ed?”

“I have no idea,” she shrugged, her expression turning back to serious. “He just left.”

“He didn’t say anything?” Roy raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“No, not really… He just claimed he had some place to be. He was lying, clearly,” Winry stated sadly.

“I’m gonna go talk to him,” Roy said suddenly.

Winry hadn’t expected this kind of reaction from him. Every time she had seen Roy and Ed together, they had been making fun of, borderline insulting, each other, and she hadn’t gotten a picture that they were close. But acting this way implied Roy indeed cared about his teammate more than he let on, as if he saw himself as some kind of a father figure to Ed.

“Wait… I don’t even know where he…” but she didn’t even get to finish her sentence before Roy was already gone.

Shaking her head, Winry decided she’d go out too to get some fresh air and to sort out her thoughts. It seemed almost as if Roy knew something she didn’t…

Suddenly it occurred to her that her first performance would be in only two days and here she was, thinking about something irrelevant. It wasn’t like her to get stuck into relationship drama like this. Luckily she’d have her next practice later that evening, and she’d get to focus on things that made sense, like spins.

After returning to her room to get her warmest and most water-proof coat, she headed out. She regretted her choice to take a walk pretty soon after stepping out of the hotel, because it was snowing and winding rather harshly. It made her thankful she wasn’t a snowboarder, cross country skier, ski jumper or anyone else who had to compete outside.

At some point she found herself in front of the arena in which Amestris’ hockey women practiced, wishing she had an excuse to go in. As it happened, she got one when Riza Hawkeye showed up by the door, apparently planning to get something from the team bus.

“Riza, hey!” she greeted happily.

“Hi, Winry! Why are you here on this weather?”

“I just needed to get out of the hotel for a moment… But I didn’t realize the weather was this bad.” Winry rubbed her neck awkwardly, a habit she had picked from a certain hockey player…

“Right… I hope it gets better soon, I don’t even want to think about how dangerous it would be to compete right now,” Riza noted. “Anyway, do you want to come in? We just had our team pictures taken, we are only having a short ice practice now before the afternoon break.”

“Sure, why not. My practice isn’t for several hours, Gracia’s with her fiancé right now and Rose and Paninya are probably goofing around somewhere so it’s not like I have other places to be…”

Winry suddenly realized she hadn’t really seen her fellow figure skaters outside the practice sessions during the entire time she had been at the Olympic venue and made a mental note to catch up with them when she got a chance. The girls were nice, but ever since Rose and Paninya started dating, Winry felt like a third wheel in their company, ending up spending more time with Gracia. But now that the hockey players were in the same area, both of them had become distracted, something she hadn’t expected at all before the Olympics. Well, she knew Gracia’s future husband was on the team, so she wasn’t surprised about her, but she hadn’t imagined herself getting interested in anyone. Even though she had known Ed in her childhood, she didn’t understand why she was suddenly so drawn to him. Still was, despite his weird behavior, she admitted to herself.

“Hey,” Riza pulled Winry out of her thoughts as she opened the arena door for her, “have you seen Ed today? He took my headphones earlier when his own got broken, but I haven’t gotten them back yet. And I enjoy working out way more when I can listen to something while doing it.”

“Um…” Winry started awkwardly, “I might have.”

“What’s that tone?” Riza immediately noticed. “Did something happen?”

“I was supposed to… have a meeting with him, but he left early.”

“Left early?” Riza asked. She crossed her arms on her lap, urging Winry to tell more. “Why?”

Winry was relieved she wasn’t asking why she had had a meeting with him. “I wish I knew,” she repeated the same mantra she had with Roy. “I asked him about something personal, and he started to answer but suddenly freaked out about something… and just left.”

Riza seemed to think about something for a while and then answered:

“Winry, I know Ed better than you probably realize. He used to visit me with one of his teammates who often looked after him because his father was always absent.”

Winry couldn’t help but roll her eyes at Riza’s obviousness but said nothing. The older woman continued:

“The men’s team works with us quite often, because hockey isn’t that big a sport in Amestris. That means I see him rather regularly, and I think he sees me as some kind of a motherly figure. He seems tough on the surface but has gone through a lot, and my guess is that whatever you were talking about triggered some bad memories in him, and he didn’t want to show you he was upset.”

“Oh. I mean, I figured it might have been something like that but hearing you confirm it makes me relieved.”

“He’s told you about his automail, right?”

“Yeah. Actually, that’s kinda why I was with him today. I asked him if I could take a look at it because as you know, I want to become an automail mechanic one day. Um…” Winry decided to ask the question that was bothering her, “do you know how he got it? I probably shouldn’t ask about this, but it was why he freaked out today.”

Riza seemed to consider her answer for a moment, observing her friend as she sat down on a bench to watch the practice. “It’s probably better if you know. I don’t know everything myself, but here’s what I know through Mr. Mustang.”

Winry smirked slightly. Now both Roy and Riza had mentioned the other one by their name without noticing it. Riza didn’t notice her reaction, instead continuing:

“Someone tried to attack his brother, and he went between them, taking a bad hit from a skate.”

“Oh my god.” The amusement on Winry’s face turned into horror and she covered her mouth with her hand. “That’s… awful… It’s pretty amazing he’s able to play after that.”

“Yeah. Unfortunately, that isn’t the only big obstacle he’s had to overcome, though,” Riza said as an afterthought, not realizing at first she was revealing too much.

“What do you mean?”

“Hawkeye!” Riza’s coach yelled suddenly, stopping Riza from answering. “We are having a practice here, it isn’t like you to just chat with other people when you should focus on hockey.”

“She’s right,” Riza sighed. “I should go. But hey, let’s talk more later.”

“You bet,” Winry agreed, smiling although she still felt a little troubled by Riza’s revelation. She watched as the older woman hit the ice and shoot the puck right in the top left corner of the goal net with accuracy that made justice to her last name.

Seeing Riza’s enthusiasm and hearing about the obstacles Ed had had to overcome to continue playing made Winry wonder why she had chosen figure skating instead of hockey. Maybe she had just found the chasing the puck part silly. Or maybe she hadn’t wanted to continue because hockey was a contact sport and hurting someone or getting hurt herself wasn’t definitely something Winry wished. Hearing what had happened to Ed made her flinch, and she couldn’t help but admire him for continuing playing despite all that. Of course figure skating had its own risks too (even more so on the mental side; Winry was constantly self-conscious about the fact that she was ‘normal sized’, whatever that meant, and busty instead of nearly anorexically thin like some of her rivals), but at least she wasn’t going to hurt anyone else when skating, spinning and jumping on her own.

Eventually Winry got bored of sitting around while the others were having “just a short practice”, which in reality meant a rather tiring looking session; the coach Armstrong didn’t go easy on her players even right before the Olympics. She waved at Riza to sign that she was off and decided she would go to do some training too; she may not have had access to the ice at the moment, but truth to be told, she hadn’t been spending as much time at gym as usual lately.

She was in the middle of her mental practice, going through her moves in her mind, when she reached the gyms the Olympic athletes used. When she realized who was coming towards her, she quickly forgot which jump she was going to go through next.

Edward.

[gabriellapatterson-blog]

[bunvoyagesarah]

Islands of Thailand: Phuket & Koh Lanta

Been there, Thai’d that

Phuket Friday, February 28 After flying through Bangkok to Phuket, Thailand, I met this woman at the baggage claim. She mentions sharing a Grab together to the southern part of the island. However, I don’t really see how the Grab driver is going to drop her on southwestern part and me on the southeastern. Google maps is showing me it’s about an hour to my hostel on a public shuttle for a fraction of the cost of this Grab. I’m soon stuck with this woman waiting outside an airport for a Grab that doesn’t let Grabs in.  We walk to find him and then we explain we want two different drop-offs and he wants considerably more. I’m out and go to find the shuttle that should be leaving from the other side of the airport in about 15 minutes.  The woman is now also going to take the shuttle. There are actually multiple shuttles depending on your location and I’m on a different one than this lady, which I’m now thankful for.  I sit at the airport for another 30-40 minutes before we leave. A couple more people get on and then we drive off for about five minutes then switch to another van.  Then we drop two girls off at a bus station and switch vans again.  We stop and pick people up and then drop them off along the way. I’m one of the last stops this shuttle makes and the only person in the van at the end.  I ask them if they can stop closer to my hostel, and they end up delivering me about 100 meters from the hostel, which was great, because it’s now 9pm and I’m starving.  

I met a girl in my room at Sleepy Station Hostel, who happens to be meeting up with her brother and his food for a bit.  I end up joining them and we eat at a street market with a lot of variety, but I get some spring rolls and fried chicken. After a walk to the beach, we all head back.  

Saturday, February 29 I hang out at the hostel for a little bit and meet a couple guys that want to head to the beach.  We all walk to Karon Beach together even though we’re closer to Kata beach. It’s pretty hot, even by 10:30am so we all go for a swim and by the time I get back to my towel I’m already dry again. I read for a bit, go for another swim and then decide to head back for some food.  I had woken up in the middle of the night, surely sick from the street market food and had decided to take it easy all day.

By afternoon, I felt a little bit better and rented a scooter. I drove inland to the Big Buddha.  And man, it was indeed the biggest Buddha I’ve ever seen. Walked around the whole thing and sat in the shade for a bit enjoying the view.  On the way back down some steep, curvy roads, there was an elephant park. Some people were riding them, and some of the elephants were being washed.  I stopped just to take some pictures of the baby elephant.  Then I drove up to the more famous Patong Beach to check out their market. Everything they had I had seen before, as a typical market in Thailand would. I got some dumplings for dinner there and then drove back to my hostel. I sat there for a bit trying to figure out what islands I wanted to go to, as most people were going to Koh Phi Phi, but I also heard it was gross there.  I opted to go straight to Koh Lanta and bought my ticket for the later option in the morning.  

Sunday, March 1 I woke up at the crack of dawn and drove to the southernmost point to watch the sunrise. Turns out, it’s more of a sunset watching spot than a sunrise watching spot and I couldn’t see much.  I did get some good views on the way back and saw the rising sun poking through some trees at one point.  

I return the scooter and get some breakfast nearby. My bag is ready to go and I’m able to sit and wait for the pick-up to the ferry port. Another guy from my hostel, Buzz is also waiting for the ride, but is going to Koh Phi Phi.  He’s Canadian and we end up chatting while we wait, and then more in the hour ride of picking up more people. We saw goodbye, and then realize we’re on the same ferry to Koh Phi Phi, and then I’ll switch to another ferry to Koh Lanta there, so we awkwardly have a few more hours of hanging out.

Once in Koh Phi Phi, I have about an hour to kill before the second ferry.  There is a mass exodus to leave the ferry and people are getting their temperatures taken for Coronavirus, as well as having to pay a $5 “trash fee” to enter the island. I wave goodbye to Buzz as he continues onto the island and I wait at the ferry so I don’t have to pay the fee for an hour to sit in a Burger King. I sat there reading until it got closer. I then go over and ask some people waiting at a desk and they look at my ticket and tell me to wait.  I am waiting and waiting and then say to myself, “This doesn’t feel right.” So I go and ask some other people, they show me the line of people getting on the boat and I hop in it.  

Koh Lanta

The hostel, Non La Mer, had written in their “About us” section the approximate cost of the tuk-tuk from the ferry port to the hostel and also mentioned the cost from the town at the end of the island. A man had been on the boat trying to sell taxis to people, but I didn’t like this. When I got off there was about 25 women with signs forming a small passageway to get through all shouting “Taxi, taxi” at you. I made eye contact with one woman and negotiated with her. Once I got close enough to the recommended price from the hostel and the driver found two other people to share the tuk-tuk and we were off.  

I loved this hostel with its hammocks and cushions for the floor. I was starving at this point so I walked down the street and got some fried rice with double chicken and a chocolate chip cookie, which I hadn’t seen in ages.  Then I walked to the beach for the sunset because even though I was meant to be getting to Koh Lanta by 2pm, it was more like 5pm before I arrived, which limited the number of islands I could get to drastically as it took an entire day of travel to go anywhere.  I met some nice Norwegian girls in my room. I met a friend from earlier travels at the Mushroom Bar, which had cool neon paint you could paint yourself or the tables with.  We went just for a drink and we got another late dinner together.  

Monday, March 2 I really just wanted to lay out on the beach for the day and relax after the day of traveling. I met the Norwegian girls, Isalin and Mae there, and then played some volleyball with them and some other new people.  

After an afternoon of searching for my scuba diving card and looking up different companies, I found the cheapest to be with my hostel, as they would give me a discount with Go Dive! I lied on the phone and said it had been five years since my last dive and they said since it was beyond two I would need to do a refresher. Little did they know, it had actually been ten years since my last dive.

By evening, I went to a place that the Norwegian girls had said had really good pad thai.  It was a little old man with a cart and a wok and he served the pad Thai in a piece of paper, much like you’d get fish and chips in England. After a beer and hanging out at the beach for a bit, I went back to the hostel and made sure I was ready for the morning.  

Tuesday, March 3 I was picked up around 7am from a truck out front. As the last one in the tuk-tuk, we were all driven to the Go Dive! office. They didn’t have my name when I checked-in, the only blank on the page with my hostel next to it. I had spelled my name for her on the phone, so I laughed a little to myself and then went on to do my paperwork. I was never asked for my diving license, just the number, and I’m not even sure they referenced that.  Then I was asked to try on some fins and a wet suit (I put my on backwards, like I said it had been a while). Then I got on the boat and the next thing I knew, we were off.

The drive was about an hour and they made an announcement about the day, and how breakfast and lunch were to work, where the toilet was, and where the sea sick medicine was and how it worked as a preventative. We had toast, hot drinks, tuna fish, and other random things for breakfast. After seeing one of the dive masters, I took his idea and made a little tuna fish sandwich with carrots.

My dive master for the day, I can’t remember his name so I’ll call him Steve, as part of the refresher course, he asked me to fill out a quiz to see how much I had remembered. He also said I would be with this older French couple and they spoke very little English, so everything he said he had to tell us twice, once in English for me and once in French for them. I actually enjoyed this, because his body language was the same each time, so I could pick up on what he was saying when he told them in French and I remembered more. Anyway, I sat down next to this French couple just in case I had a question, but their questionnaire was in French anyway and they spoke no English, so that was useless.  Steve went over the answers with me, and I actually did ok. For future reference, when in doubt with scuba diving, just go with the most safe sounding answer, because you’ll probably be right!

After the quiz, he had us how we would go re-learn how to put all our equipment together, and then relax until the horn sounded, put our equipment on, jump in and do an underwater quiz, which he had just explained and consisted of finding neutral buoyancy, finding our respirator by reaching our arm behind us, and clearing our masks.  

Then we went downstairs and he showed us how to put assemble our tanks to our BCD, which I couldn’t remember what it stood for, but I knew what it was.  We also practiced turning our tanks on and off and checking to make sure the gauge was working as well as the tank was full.  Then we returned upstairs for a few minutes and left anything we wanted to keep dry up there.  A few minutes later, the horn sounded and we went back down to put our wetsuits on, get our fins, and goggles on, and do a buddy check to ensure the tank was secure.

Steve jumped into the water first and I was the last one of the group.  It took a second for my respirator to kick in and then it was good to good.  We hung out above water for a few minutes before going down for the underwater test.  I had another weight added around my tank and then was reminded to exhale going down. As someone had recently told me, its suddenly easy to forget how to breathe when you’re underwater. I had also forgotten how much my own lungs worked in changing my buoyancy.  

But alas, we all finish the three things we had to do as part of our refresher and then went a little further down and immediately see a sea turtle! We watch him for a minute before he disappears into the rocks and we keep swimming. We saw a ton of other fish including a lion fish and an eel and various types of coral. Before I know it, the French guy is running lowest on air and we start to make our ascent.  Upon reaching the surface, we are a little bit of a swim away from the boat.  I didn’t realize my BCD wasn’t totally inflated, so I struggled a little, but eventually made it to the boat and handed over my fins to the boat guy while I went up the ladder.

Back on the boat, we strip off our wetsuits and weight belts and switch out our tanks so we’re ready for the next dive. The next dive site is just a couple minutes away, so we all enjoy a 45-minute break where Steve gives us a breakdown of this dive, we have some fruit and drinks before the horn sounds again and we get everything back on, the boat moves about 100 meters and we jump back in the water.  

First, the French couple takes some pictures with their kids in a different group.  And then we swim down into this “cave” that has an exit.  It was quite cool being in this room with fish swimming in every direction.  Then we exit the cave and swim along a wall. Steve is point out interesting animals along the way. When Steve asks us how full our tanks are, mine is already running low, so we begin to make our ascent. I screwed up and ascended way faster than I should have. But we made it back to the boat, no problems stripped our wetsuits off again and left everything there for the staff to put away. Steve went over the log book information with me and gave me some recommendations on where to scuba dive in Malaysia, where I was headed in a couple days. After arriving back at the office, those of us that had to pay lined up, and then got in the tuk-tuk to be driven back to our hostels and hotels.  

Log Book Stats Dive 1: Koh Haa Lagoon 3/3/20  Maximum Dive Depth: 15.3 meters Bottom Water Temperature: Above 27C Visibility: 6-12 meters Bottom Time: 53 minutes

Dive 2: Koh Haa 1 3/3/20 Maximum Dive Depth: 18 meters Bottom Water Temperature: Above 27C Visibility: 6-12 meters Bottom Time: 52 minutes 

After arriving back at the hostel, I hung out on some cushions with a bunch of people socializing. Then we all went to the beach for smoothies and a game of volleyball, but were joined by some older people that didn’t allow talking during the game. We were too many people anyway, so the group from our hostel hung out in the water for a bit and then went to a different volleyball court further down the beach.  

It was quite fun and we played until the sun went down, and then all went back to shower. We grabbed dinner across the street, which was quite reasonable and delicious. Then we got beers from the store and took them back upstairs to our comfy cushions while someone played on the guitar and the rest of us pretended that we would sing, but no one did.

Wednesday, March 4 Everyone else had already scootered around the island the day before, but said how fun it was. I had the free breakfast at the hostel and got my scooter from them. My intention was to start at the national park on the southern tip, but I missed a turn, and ended up near the Old Town. I found a new pair of sunglasses, as mine had been missing since I went tubing in Laos. I also got a shirt and a milkshake.  I then drove down the pier and back to the southern point of the island, thinking I could loop back up, but the road doesn’t connect at the bottom. So I drove all the way up, taking a stop to walk through the mangrove forest, crossing the bridge into the northern part of Koh Lanta, and then walking through the Wednesday market, which I found disappointing and as it was all fresh produce.

I’m now at the top of the island and I drive all the way to the southernmost point to the National Park where I’m stopped and have to pay an entrance fee, which I don’t have. I go back to the first beach and try to park my scooter on this hill. I get my scooter very stuck and am sweating profusely and then the scooter topples over. Luckily, it was fine and I could pick it back up, wheel it down to a flatter surface to park it.

It’s about 2pm and the sand on the way to the beach burns the bottoms of my feet, but the water feels so good. I dry off, trying to read, but it’s too hot, so I jump in the water again and then leave. On the way back, I find an overpriced restaurant with a nice view. After getting some food, I make my way to this waterfall, Khlong Chak in the center of the island. I started hiking in with some people but then realized I left my phone in my scooter, so I go back for it and hike in by myself. What I thought was an obvious path, quickly becomes not so obvious and I see people way below me while I’m up on this hill. I thought I saw the path return, and take it, but then am sliding down the dirt and rock based hill on my butt, which is why there is still a hole in my leggings on my right butt cheek to this day. Eventually, I get to this waterfall and it’s a mere drip coming down, hello dry season. Anyway, I’m hot, so I go and dip in the little pool of water and climb the giant log leaning in front of the waterfall. I meet some people from Amsterdam and they seem so nice, and we agree to meet up when I’m in Amsterdam in two weeks.  Little did I know, I wouldn’t make it to back to Europe for quite some time.    

I return to my hostel and find everyone hanging there, mostly because they are extremely sunburnt from the day before and haven’t been able to move too much. We hang out for a bit before getting food at a place the Norwegians wanted to go that supports anti-animal cruelty. It was prix-fixed meal and half the group found it too expensive, so we enjoyed a beer there and then split off to go back to the same restaurant as the night before.

We found everyone sitting on the cushions again when we returned and more people had arrived to the hostel, including one girl that had been in the immigration line with me between Thailand and Laos, and then been at my hostel in Vang Vieng, and then the bus to Vientiane.  It felt like a very small world.  The group went down to drink on the beach, and this girl Megan and I started chatting for a bit as she was just arriving in Koh Lanta, but heading to Malaysia after. Sure enough, she was in the bunk above me, so it felt like fate that we kept meeting.  

[prettyboyjackhughes]

-It’ll all be worth it in the end- |M. Marner| [Part 1]

Thanks to @workhorsefromwhitehorse24​ for all her help on this! I’m super proud of this and can’t wait for you guys to read it! Thank you for all the love and support!!

Carter wasn’t dumb. He knew how much I loved to push his buttons. I mean, it was kinda my job as his little sister. He’d been ridiculously protective over me since we were little. That may have been due to the fact that I was only 16 months younger than him, or just that I was his little sister, but either way, he took his job as my one and only big brother very seriously. It had always been just the two of us, growing up. We got into more than our fair share of trouble, destroying things in the process most of the time. Our mom always called us the twin terrors, even though we weren’t actually twins. But we did everything together. Nine times out of ten, if you found one of us, you found both of us. And that was how it was supposed to be tonight, the first game of the playoffs. Carter and I had a tradition that before every game, no matter what, we did a little handshake that he had claimed as his good luck charm. So before every game, I was in the locker room with Carter.

"Well I'm definitely in the wrong place." I said, glancing around at all the Leafs equipment around the hall way. I knew my way around Wells Fargo Center, but since this was an away game and we were the away team, we were playing at Scotiabank Arena which was an arena I wasn’t familiar with. When Carter had told me to meet him outside the locker room before the game, I had figured I’d be able to find my way there. But now, standing outside of what I figured out to be the Leafs’ locker room, made me realize I had no idea how to find my brother. As I glanced around, I caught sight of a guy walking away from me. As I jogged to catch up with him, I collided with a tall, brown-haired boy.

“Ouch!” I shouted, falling to the ground.

“Oh god, sorry!” The boy said, getting his balance and looking down at me as he reached down to help me up. He glances between my face and the Flyers logo on my t-shirt, finally settling on my face.

“You okay?” He asks, his eyes coming to rest on my face. I nod, pushing my hair back out of my face.

“Uh…anything I can do to make up for the fact that I took you out?” He asks, rubbing the back of his neck and smiling nervously at me. I look him up and down, having to look up a little to see the top of his head.

“You could tell me your name.” I say, smiling at him. His face looked familiar, but then again, most of the guys Carter played against in the NHL looked familiar to me But he was cute. He had dark brown hair, a kinda goofy smile, and blue eyes that pulled me in.

“Oh yeah sure. I’m Mitch. And you are…?” He said, sticking his hand out for me to shake. I shake it, nodding as I do.

“I’m Sawyer. Let me guess, you play for the Leafs?” I say, crossing my arms and pointing at the Leafs logo and the number 16 spread across the sweatshirt he was wearing. He glanced down and looked back up at me with a smile.

“Guilty. Flyers fan?” He asked, leaning against the wall.

“Well sorta. My older brother is the starting goalie for tonight. So I’m a fan because of him.” I say, turning around to show him the 79 and Hart on my back. As I turned back around, more of his teammates started to make their way out into the hallway and my phone started to vibrate.

“Oh shoot, I probably need to go find my brother. Um, it was nice meeting you, Mitch.” I said, secretly wishing I didn’t have to go. I tugged my phone out of my pocket, seeing Grace’s name on the screen. I wave goodbye to Mitch who looks like he wants to say something as I press my phone to my ear and hurry back down the hallway.

“Hey, sorry I got lost. Tell Carter I’m on my way!” I said, glancing around to figure out where I need to be going.

“You’d better hurry up. Hartsy is starting to do his freak out older brother thing.” Grace says. I roll my eyes and end the call. Grace is Carter’s girlfriend, has been since they were 18. They’ll probably get married, if Carter has anything to do with it. Grace is also one of the trainers for the Flyers so they spend practically every waking minute together. The 3 of us share an apartment, which makes things interesting. We’ve managed to find a good balance for the 3 of us though. Most of the time, Carter and Grace spend pretty much the whole day at the rink while I have classes at UPenn. Then in the evenings, on the rare occasion we’re all home at the same time, we each take turns cooking dinner. Carter is the worst cook out of the 3 of us so usually it’s Grace or I cooking. When there’s an away game, Grace travels with the team sometimes but usually she’s home with me. It’s a lot of fun living with Grace and Carter. But it’s usually not just us at the apartment. Lately, Nolan Patrick, who has claimed boy best friend for me, and a few of Carter’s other team mates have been hanging out at the apartment.

I finally find all the signs for the Flyers locker room but run into a problem. Security. I glance down and realize I forgot the pass that Grace and I had both been given before the game. I groan and walk towards the man standing by the locker room door. He glances at me, then puts his hand out to stop me.

“Sorry young lady, you can’t go in there.” I start to plead my case then see a familiar head of shaggy hair walking towards me.

“It’s okay, she’s training staff.” Nolan says, grabbing my arm and pulling me inside the locker room with him.

“Alright, sorry about that, sir.” I muffle a laugh as the man calls Nolan sir. He rolls his eyes and drags me along with him to where Grace, Carter and a few other guys are standing. Nolan is my best friend. We got really close when I first moved here, at the beginning of last year. He’s claimed me as his “Baby Cat”, which is a weird nickname that Kevin Hayes gave him, but I’ll never admit to Nolan that I actually really love the nickname. Even though he seems all dark and kinda scary sometimes, I can tell I’m a little bit of a soft spot for him. Grace leans against the wall, watching Carter and looking very amused. A few of his team mates are watching from the doorway, also looking amused. He’s doing the whole pacing, running his hand through his hair a thousand times thing he does when he’s worried about me.

“Chillax Hartsy. I’m here and I made it mostly in one piece.” He turns around, glaring at me.

“You were supposed to be here 15 minutes ago! Where were you?” I roll my eyes and reach out my hand. He points his finger at me, glaring still but softens as I nudge his finger away with my hand.

“Do the damn handshake Hartsy!” One of his team mates yells as they start to gather in the hallway to get ready to head out onto the ice for warmups. The longer he’s been in the NHL and playing for the Flyers, the more his team mates have started to pick up on how important the handshake we do is to him. They had also started to say it’s a part of their pregame routine, claiming it’s the reason they win.

“We’ll talk about this later, you’re not home free, Sawyer Mae.” He says we do our little handshake. He claims that it helps him but I think he’s just a little superstitious. I nudge Nolan as he walks past me and heads for the door. He and the boys head out onto the ice and Grace drags me with her back to where my parents are sitting.

“You should’ve seen your brother.” She says, laughing as we walk back out to our box. Usually, Grace and I would just sit in normal seats, if she wasn’t working. But since Mom and Dad were coming to the game, Carter got box tickets for all of us.

“He always freaks out before games. And always assumes I’m gonna forget to come down and meet him. This one is even worse cause it’s the freakin playoffs baby!” I say, hopping around a little and making Grace laugh. In the 3 years that Carter and Grace have been together, Grace has become the big sister I’ve always wanted. When I was younger, I loved having Carter as my big brother but I always secretly wanted a big sister. And now, I had Grace. She and I get along so well and she’s the perfect big sister. She and I would gang up on Carter, teasing him about everything when we were at home. We would watch the Bachelor and cry over sappy romance movies together. My favorite thing to do with Grace was get a little drunk, sometimes just tipsy, and sing karaoke with her when we went out. She had been there when I first moved to Philly a little over a year, helping me get to know the city and working through all my homesickness with me. She was easily my best friend.

“Earth to Sawyer, come in Sawyer.” Grace says, nudging my shoulder. I blink, bringing myself back to reality. I look down to the ice where both teams are skating around the ice, going through warmups, when a certain number 16 catches my eye. He’s skating around, weaving in and out of his teammates. He seems to talk to everybody, laughing and joking throughout all of warmups. I can hear Grace talking to my parents and the rest of my family in the box with us. She calls my name but all I can focus on or think about is the brown haired boy who I ran into today.

“Who are you watching?” Mom asks, sliding up next to me as I stand at the railing.

“Oh no one. Just Nolan.” I say, panicking and taking my eyes off of Mitch. She smiles and nudges me.

“Have you ever considered going on a date with Nolan? He’s a nice boy.” I turn to look at my mother and it takes every ounce of will in my 21 year old body not to gag.

“No Mom. Nolan and I are just friends. He’s not my type.” Mom shakes her head and walks away, leaving me at the railing by myself. I can hear Grace’s laugh before she’s even beside me.

“Shut up Grace.” I say, rolling my eyes and coughing back a laugh.

“Oh but Sawyer, Nolan is such a nice boy.” She says, still dying. This time, I actually do gag, laughing along with Grace. I let myself drift back to my imaginary land, thinking of my next way to drive Carter insane. As I watch Mitch skate around the ice after an icing, I feel like a lightbulb goes off in my head. Carter has always taught me that hockey boys were bad news, no matter who they were or what they were. He said there were no good ones, no matter who they were. I always rolled my eyes, ignored him, and have definitely dated my share of hockey boys growing up. But the one thing I will never admit to him is that most of them were just as bad as he had warned me. But do I learn from my mistakes? Nope. As a plan starts to form in my head, Grace glances at me.

“Oh no I know that look. What are you planning?” She asks, leaning over and resting her arms on my armrest.

“Nothing...Just my next way to drive Carter crazy.” She laughs and rolls her eyes.

“You’d better be careful, Sawyer. You know how on edge he’s been lately.” I nod, my eyes still on Mitch.

“Trust me, it’ll all be worth it in the end.” I said, looking over at Grace. The second the words left my mouth, I knew what I was going to do.

[poeticandvaguelysweet]

Prompt #187 - Charlie and a Little Sister

ANON: (one word prompt) no

I’m going to compile these into Despite the Odds eventually. And I am 100% aware, anon, you probably didn’t want a C&E fic but I was going to write this anyway and the shoe fit! 

Inspired by this. 

AO3 - Charlie and Elliot 

CHARLIE AND A LITTLE SISTER

Charlie pouted.

All she did was pout at Claire. Owen she loved and Claire knew nothing would get in the way of that. A small part of her hoped when their wild child reached her teens that some of her loyalty would sway towards her mother. Charlie didn’t give Claire the time of day. Claire would never fight to take Charlie’s affection from Owen, but it would have been nice to just once get her fair share of childly love. Selfishly, she hoped their second child would look at her the same way Charlie looked to Owen; like she held every answer to the world and the moon all at once.

‘Are you ready, bug?’ Owen asked, sitting awkwardly beside his wife on the edge of their chaise lounge as Charlie sat in front of Claire. They had purposefully put space between Owen and Charlie. She told him he couldn’t hold the girl. They had to be separate in this. No mom against dad as she opened the card they put together for her. If Owen comforted her, all negative energy would direct itself to Claire. The last thing she wanted was Charlie thinking there needed to be an us vs them mentality. This wasn’t how their family was supposed to function. Claire was ready to put her foot down.

Charlie shrugged, trying to play indifferent as her eyes jumped between the adults.

It was Claire who handed over the bulky envelope, Charlie trying not to snatch it once it was in her reach. She fiddled with it, keeping herself a few steps away from too eager as she watched her fingers run over the white page.

‘So,’ Claire started, ‘If the inside of the card is blue it means you’re getting a baby brother. And, if the inside of the card is pink it means the baby will be a girl.’

Charlie dragged her eyes from the card to her mother, briefly flicking her glance to Owen before it returned to Claire. ‘I just want a dog.’ She’d been on track for weeks, every mention of the baby had Charlie interjecting the word dog in its place. Claire wondered if Charlie truly believed sheer will would get her a puppy instead of a sibling. Their daughter, soon to be eldest child, was too young to understand how hard her parents had to fight for this baby. Explaining it would be worthless now, time-consuming and mentally taxing. It was enough dealing with Charlie’s constant denial. But, she had been there over the last three years, Claire in and out of pain both mental and physical as they lived each month hoping for a positive test before they finally turned to medical means.

Claire was sure her daughter had curled up in their king bed on a particularly bad day and cuddled with her mother until the hurt turned into a dull ache. Some small part of her understanding, but they had also raised a headstrong and somewhat selfish child who wasn’t about to lie down until she got what she wanted.

Unfortunately for Charlie Grady, she wasn’t getting a puppy anytime in the next half a decade.

‘What would you like the baby to be?’ Owen asked, a hand reaching across his wife’s lap to squeeze Claire’s knee.

‘A Golden Retriever named Spot.’ Charlie answered again, a loud sigh leaving Claire before she could stop it. She leant back against the couch, left hand moving to slide across her rounding stomach as she squeezed her eyes closed for a second. What were they thinking? Had they been delusional for three years? Why would they want to add another child to the sass storm that was Charlie Mae?

Claire straightened her back, hand moving from her stomach to reach for Charlie’s little wrist. ‘It’s really important to me that you understand continually asking for a puppy will not get you one. Unfortunately, Charlie, you’re getting a sibling and we can’t have a dog in the house until the baby is a little bit bigger. But I promise when your brother or sister starts going to pre-school, we’ll reassess the dog thing.’ Claire squeezed her hand, meeting Charlie’s blazing blue eyes with her own.

The girl jolted, finally tugging free the card from its sleeve as she elected to not grant her mother’s statement with a response. Claire didn’t push the point, hurricane Charlie wasn’t worth it right now.

Instead, they watched their daughter intensely both parents already knew what was inside the card. Claire had wanted to surprise them both, Owen and Charlie at the same time but her husband was impatient and her daughter temperamental. He found out at the same appointment Claire did, holding her hand as they had done when they found out Charlie was a girl. That was two weeks ago, the two of them arguing how best to break it to the child who wouldn’t be happy no matter the result.

Charlie pried the card open, fingers sliding between the paper as pink reflected under her chin.

‘What colour is it?’ Owen asked.

She twisted her wrist, flashing the soft pink in his direction as her face started to crease.

‘What does that mean?’ Owen asked, playing stupid to the child who definitely thought he was. Charlie loved her father, mostly because at five-years-old she could talk down to him.

Charlie dropped her head, chin pressed to her chest as her bottom lip started to curl. They all knew what was coming and were powerless to stop it. ‘A sister.’ She wailed tears falling hot and fat down her cheeks ‘I don’t want a sister.’ She wailed harder, tossing the card to the floor. She didn’t stamp her foot, or shout, or scream. Charlie simply cried, like she was suddenly missing a part of herself she couldn’t bear to lose. Grief catching her little mind as it squeezed the tears out of her. ‘I wanted a brother.’

A part of Claire wanted to tell the girl that if she had stopped with the dog debacle she might have gotten a brother, but as an adult who understood how these things worked, it wouldn’t be fair to lie to Charlie. It would have been an effective way to put the girl in her place but she was only five, after all.

‘Charlie,’ Claire started, voice quiet as she ducked her head, trying to catch Charlie’s eye. ‘Do you know what? A little brother is just the same as a little sister.’

The girl wasn’t convinced.

‘It really is, baby, you can do all the same things with them no matter their gender.’ Claire nodded. ‘You can ride bikes and help dad at the zoo, your baby sister can play baseball or football, she might even want to do karate. These things aren’t specific to boy’s, Char. You’re a little girl and you do them, what’s stopping your sister?’

‘She’s gonna like pink.’ Charlie sobbed, heartbreaking like she could see into the future picking out exactly how her sibling was going to be.

Claire shook her head. ‘We don’t know that. You, as her big sister, will need to help the baby make those decisions.’

Her shoulders shook, body trembling as she cried. Claire reached for her daughter, heart aching and initially, Charlie pulled away. Her mother clicked her tongue softly sighing and like magic Charlie curled into her lap, fitting easily around the curve of their second daughter. Despite her tears, Charlie’s little hand sat on top of her mother’s bump.

Owen reached for the card on the floor, picking it back up and reading the small words Claire had pressed against the pink paper. I can’t wait to meet you. Charlie was indifferent until Owen flashed the small packets of candy hearts filling the envelope.

‘Can I have them?’ She asked, one hand wiping at her eyes as the other moved from her mother to reach out for the candies. Owen nodded easily, grin wide as he deposited a roll into her hand, twisting the ends slightly so it was already open for her. ‘What a nice baby sister leaving you candies.’ He added Charlie’s head pressed to her mother’s shoulder as she slipped one of the sugary disks past her lips.

She was an enigma. Never one to seek comfort from Claire and there Charlie was, tucked into her mother’s chest, crying about her new sibling, tears easing with the aid of her gifted candy.

‘Do you love your little sister?’ Claire asked softly, squeezing Charlie’s leg as she kissed the top of her daughter’s surprisingly clean hair.

Charlie shook her head, ‘No’. She sobered, tears drying on her cheeks, free from a fresh fall until the girl started again, her emotional response switched back on. ‘I just want a puppy dog.’ She wailed, Claire rolling her eyes for Owen to see as she cradled the girl to her chest as close as she could, rocking them both slightly.

It was going to be a hard fight but they would get Charlie to like her little sister. She might even surprise them by the time the baby arrives, suddenly accepting of the new addition. Claire doubted life would be so easy with their daughter that liked to keep her parents on their toes.