#probably also their house-hunt fic since it would take place around that same time period | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

siswritesyanderes · 3 years

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If it had been Jasper-Sadie or Alice-Sadie as the vampires and finding their third later, how if at all would any of the “prior” story (the Twilght saga proper) have changed?

This turns the timeline inside out, but Meyer was never great at those anyway.

(Hi, if you're from the Twilight fandom stumbling across this post without context, Sadie is my OC in a yandere Alice/yandere Jasper/OC fic that you can read here.)

Ohhh, so much potential there! I can't answer that in full, because doing so would spoil what Sadie's potential vampire ability is. (Super sorry about that. Feel free to ask again after that information has come up in Rule One!)

I can say that both Bella and Edward would take to confiding in her and seeking her counsel with regards to their relationship. Especially if it's a Sadie-Alice duo; Edward would be super close with both Sadie and Alice (like he's close with Alice in canon), and while he sometimes gets frustrated with Alice, he pretty much always respects Sadie. It's like, Alice would be Bella's best friend and Edward's partner in crime (since she's still the one who would agree to kidnap Bella, whereas Sadie would never), and Sadie would be Bella's confidante and Edward's moral compass. Both Bella and Edward would go to Sadie for advice about each other, and Sadie, though startled by their neediness, would always have something valuable to say.

(Picture Bella or Edward bursting into Sadie's room with a question, and Sadie, wide-eyed, putting down whatever she's doing and saying, "Alrighty then, have a seat.)

Edward trusts that Sadie wouldn't lie to him, so the urgency in having Bella run to him in Italy before he sparkles in front of people (lest he read Alice's thoughts and assume she's lying to him) wouldn't be a thing; Sadie just runs Bella to Edward with vampire speed and is subjected to that whole reunion as an awkward third wheel while Alice parks the stolen car.

Also, Sadie would tip every fight slightly more in favor of the Cullens, but she would also have a habit of really wanting to talk to the enemies instead of attacking them. This is good/useful with the Volturi but not so good/useful with Victoria and Riley.

Oh! Also, Sadie would realize that Victoria will probably follow Edward's scent, in Eclipse, and Sadie would accompany him and Bella in sitting the battle out, so that they have more backup against Victoria. Jasper and Alice wouldn't be privy to the fact that Victoria is coming; this is just a realization that Sadie has that Edward hears in her mind. (As far as Jasper and Alice are concerned, Sadie is sitting the battle out just to be safe, and they're happy that she won't be in harm's way.) This is where Sadie's need to talk to enemies would become a problem, because both Victoria and Riley are too far gone to listen to reason, but Sadie really believes in them and wants to convince them they don't have to die today. It still turns out fine, though. Sadie gets a little hurt, but she's fine. Alice and Jasper would be absolutely smothering, after. Victoria is lucky she's already dead, because they would make her suffer.

And Sadie would think to explain things to Irina before Alice realizes that Irina is going to the Volturi, so that whole misunderstanding never happens.

All of that being said, the thought of "Yandere Alice meets Sadie first" and "Yandere Jasper meets Sadie first" got really interesting to me. So I have to talk about those scenarios immediately.

I'm going to place Sadie sometime in the twentieth century in both cases, and I'm going to try to let the time period matter as little as possible, but feel free to imagine them in 50s or 60s attire, lol. (Or 70s or 80s; again, it doesn't matter that much; I'm just placing her in the twentieth century to keep the rough order of events the same, kind of.) I'm approaching this with the assumption that Alice and Jasper still become vampires in the same way/at the same time as they do in canon; they just meet at different times. I'm not dealing with the Confederate thing here, though, because I'll be dealing with it in Rule One.

I'm gonna go ahead and put it all under the cut. (And if your experience of Rule One is more invested in the potential for wholesome romance than the yandere aspect, maybe the rest of this isn't for you, because this is definitely more yandere-leaning, lol.)

Alice-Sadie

Alice knows three things: 1. Her own name. 2. That she is going to join the Cullens. 3. That Sadie, whom she has not yet met, is her soulmate.

Though she slips up every now and then, Alice does her best not to eat humans. She wants to fit in with the Cullens by the time she finds them, so she's accustoming herself to the animal diet. Anyway, she has a mate out there whom she will meet as a human, and she has to get herself under control before she can risk being around her.

The thing is, Alice knows about Sadie before Sadie is actually an option, so she has to kill time so that she doesn't meet Sadie too early. And Alice hates waiting, so she goes ahead and introduces herself to the Cullens before Sadie. She tells them all about how she'll have a soulmate soon, and how it's killing her to keep her distance but she knows things will be way better if she never meets Sadie as a child. She decorates her room with things that Sadie likes, anticipating that one day she'll be sharing the room with Sadie. Honestly, if it weren't for Edward's mind reading, the rest of the Cullens might think Sadie was an imaginary friend or something.

(Rosalie would normally take issue with Alice's plans to intrude on the life of a human she's never met just because of a potential future where they're in love, but she doesn't really take Alice's fantasizing seriously until it's too late.)

One day, Alice just sort of disappears from the Cullen house, and only Edward knows where she's gone.

Sadie is finally at the right age; it's time.

Alice appears in Sadie's life, and everything she says and does is perfect. She rockets from stranger to friend to best friend at an impressive rate, her precognition easily compensating for Sadie's hesitancy (and Sadie would start off more wary than she is in Rule One, due to the time period). Having left the rest of the Cullens, for the time being, there is nothing (read: no one) holding Alice back from being absolutely surgical about making herself important in Sadie's life and subtly isolating her. She gives expensive gifts, and comprehensive compliments, and she always knows what to say to make Sadie like and trust her more.

When Sadie starts to become suspicious about the evolution of their friendship, Alice drops the vampire bomb and the soulmate bomb all at once, showing Sadie her speed and strength and sparkles. There was no better way to do it. Alice checked; this was the absolute best set of circumstances for the reveal.

Sadie asks for time to process the information. She asks for space. Alice graciously allows it; she's practically living with Sadie at this point, anyway. (Not that Sadie knows it. But yeah, she's in Sadie's house pretty much 24/7 (minus her hunting trips), dodging notice with stealth and psychic powers.)

When Sadie is ready to talk again, Alice pours out every reassurance: how she will never stop loving her; how she would never hurt her; how she thinks about her all the time and loves her so much. Sadie isn't fully won over by the whole vampire lover concept, but Alice does convince her to come meet her family.

They go to the Cullen house. Alice shows her off to everyone, and Rosalie is stunned, and Emmett laughs incredulously. Edward and Carlisle make polite introductions, and Esme hugs her, just glad to see Alice so happy. (Esme has been so worried about her newest daughter, so flighty and constantly pining for someone who wasn't there. And then she disappeared, and anything could have happened to her! But now she's back, and she's brought someone lovely, and she looks happier than Esme has ever seen her.) Carlisle and Edward give Sadie a more in-depth explanation of how vampires operate and why the bond between mates is a big deal. Esme cooks her a huge meal. Before they know it, nighttime has come, and Sadie falls asleep in Alice's room.

She wasn't drugged or anything; Alice just perfectly orchestrated a set of circumstances in which she would be tired by this exact time.

When she wakes up, Alice is an utter angel, offering her breakfast and a bath and telling her that there's more to see, around the house. She hasn't seen Rosalie's garage, yet! She hasn't seen Esme's garden. And soon enough she's sleeping over again.

On that third day at the house, Rosalie pulls Sadie aside to say that she'll drive Sadie home, if Sadie needs her to. But Alice has done her job well; Sadie likes Alice, and she likes the Cullens, and most of all, she's so curious about vampires and the world thereof. She's willing to stay and learn, provided she can visit her friends and family, and provided Alice doesn't try to change her. She fills several journals with what she learns about vampires, all in the span of a single year. She learns so much, and she's never satisfied that she's learned enough.

When Alice asks her to let Carlisle change her, she chooses exactly the right conversation, exactly the right approach, and exactly the right time. Sadie agrees and becomes a vampire. (She kind of has to, for this prompt, lol.) Rosalie is annoyed, but she knows that Sadie thought the matter over thoroughly.

When the day comes that Alice sees Jasper in their future, she drags Sadie off to meet him, barely explaining herself beyond "We have another mate!". Sadie goes along with it because she's used to Alice's antics.

They meet this crimson-eyed, roguishly handsome vampire, and Jasper is pretty instantly enthralled with them both. He's curious about their golden eyes, charmed by Alice's forwardness, and amused by Sadie's mix of intrigue and wariness. The emotional flavor of Alice's joy and cheerfulness, and of Sadie's curiosity and uncertainty, are enough to pretty much have him wrapped around their fingers right away.

Sadie's reaction is more "Ohhhh, Alice, this guy eats people..."

Alice just goes, "It's okay. Jasper will be willing to change his diet if we ask him to. Won't you, Jasper?"

And it's so presumptuous, but also he's into it, because Sadie has already made it clear that eating humans is a deal-breaker for her, and he doesn't want this meeting to end.

He joins the family, and it feels like the best thing ever; he has two amazing soulmates, and he belongs to a large coven that will always be safe from strangers. The animal-eating thing is a downside, but there's no help for that.

The dynamic for the next little while is that Alice is already in love with both Jasper and Sadie, Jasper is already in love with Alice and Sadie, and Sadie is in love with Alice and polite to Jasper but isn't quite sure about him. Like, she's in a peculiar place of "We are soulmates, and I do like you and feel an attraction to you, and I understand how our personalities are good together, but I don't know how long it'll take me to become comfortable with your past", and Jasper is just falling over himself to earn her approval, but she's comfortable with allowing it to take time.

(Rosalie is secretly very entertained by the whole thing, and Emmett is not-so-secretly entertained.)

Unlike in canon, Jasper would never suggest eating any human ever again; even once Sadie is comfortable with him, he never wants to risk making her doubt him the way she did in the beginning.

Jasper-Sadie

So at this point in his life, Jasper is eating people. His eyes are bright red, and he is ruthless, and Alice isn't around to temper that side of him.

This is absolutely a kidnapping situation.

When he runs into Sadie (entirely by happenstance), he doesn't know immediately that he is in love with her; he just knows that he wants to follow her, so he does. He stalks after her like he has stalked lots of prey in the past. Her blood doesn't sing to him, though; after several hours of just tailing her, he realizes that he just likes to hear her breathe and speak and laugh. He likes to look at her. He likes to taste her emotions on the air. He likes this human.

Then he realizes that he's in love with her, as much as Peter is in love with Charlotte.

He never wants to stop looking at her, listening to her talk...

He manages to get her alone, and he introduces himself in a charismatic, gentlemanly fashion. He kisses the back of her hand (managing to ignore the feel and sound of her pulse so close; he shouldn't take a risk like that again) and says, "Good afternoon, ma'am. My name is Jasper Whitlock. May I ask what your name is?"

She notices the coldness of his skin and the redness of his eyes (and again, time-period-wise, this interaction is very weird), but he is sending her the most powerful waves of comfort and calm that he can. She is dazed and perplexed, but not afraid, as she answers, "I'm Sadie Gilder."

It's the most beautiful name he has ever heard.

He abducts her pretty much then and there; he leads her away with a request that she accompany him and a heavy layer of mood control. Sadie is able to break out of the daze (through sheer overthinking) after they've walked together awhile; by the time she asks, "Wait, where are we?", they've reached the secluded mansion of an old widow.

(Jasper doesn't need a place to sleep, but his Sadie does, so he quickly identified this place as the best option.)

The order in which Jasper eats the occupants of the house and brings Sadie inside the house is up to your imagination, as is whether or not Sadie ends up seeing any bodies or seeing him with blood on his face and clothes. Either way, just the kidnapping itself is enough to have Sadie panicking, and he hates to feel her fear.

He holds her, gives her calming energy, and whispers to her. "Don't be scared. I won't hurt you, Perfect Sadie. I won't eat you. You're too special. Just gonna keep you right here." (He's just eaten a lot of people, so he's okay with breathing right next to her, so that he can keep whispering to her.) She falls asleep in his arms. He doesn't stop holding her, and he doesn't stop whispering. (Also, remember how the first thing he says to Sadie in Rule One is that she's warm and soft? Yeah, he still says that, pretty much verbatim, in this scenario. I'm not putting it in quotes, because it sounds dirty in a kidnapping context, but he for sure says it.)

The next day, since he's keeping up the comforting vibes to keep her from being afraid, Sadie asks Jasper a lot of questions. He tells her everything he knows about vampires. He isn't fully versed in vampire mating, so he isn't able to really inform her that his obsession with her is, to some degree, an inherent vampire trait, but he is very good at conveying to her that he is obsessed.

With no one to tell him to cool it with his power, and with his diet of human blood making his power more potent than it would be on animal blood, Jasper uses it at pretty much full capacity every time, instead of subtle shifts in emotion. So, while Sadie does notice that it's happening, she can't keep herself from the effects of his power by self-awareness alone.

He generally doses her with the same kind of peaceful calm he uses when he meets strange vampires for the first time, instead of the lethargic calm he uses to keep prey docile. He uses the latter when he wants her to sleep, but for the most part he just wants her to be unfearful and communicative.

She eats the food that's in the house. When he's able to convince himself to leave her unattended (usually after he's put her to sleep), he picks up more groceries and abducts some humans for himself. He keeps them in the cellar, far enough away from Sadie that she needn't know they're there but close enough that he can still hear her when he goes down to eat them. It's actually very convenient, not to have to hunt often; he just has to pop down to the cellar and enjoy a few of the already-injured occupants. Having a steady home has its upside. It's a shame someone will eventually notice the widow missing and he'll have to move with Sadie. But there will always be another empty mansion, or a mansion that can be easily made empty.

(When it's time to change homes, Jasper carries Sadie to the new destination while she's sleeping.)

Partially due to the mood control and partially due to the upfront-ness of everything, there's honestly very little tension between them. There's fear, sometimes (The one time Sadie tries to leave the mansion while Jasper is eating, he runs up from the cellar to stop her, and he's still covered in blood, and she's terrified, and it takes him a lot of soothing to get her calm again. It upsets him when she's scared.), but no tension. Sadie would like to leave, but she gathers that she can't, so all there is to do is maneuver within the new situation and learn more about her captor.

And neither of them is inherently a romantic. Jasper loves her, but even he isn't under the impression that they're dating or something. As far as he's concerned, he's keeping her; as far as she's concerned, she's studying him. Jasper is ecstatic with the arrangement, and Sadie is as comfortable as the situation allows.

Peter and Charlotte follow Jasper's scent at some point, wanting to hang out, and Jasper socializes with them outside the mansion, explaining that they can't go in because there's a human inside whom he is invested in keeping alive, and he can't risk them eating her. When they learn that he's in love, they ask if he plans on changing her, but he says that he can't yet. His control isn't good enough.

One day, Alice shows up.

She meets Jasper while he's in town, gathering food for Sadie and himself. They still have the little "You kept me waiting" "My apologies" flirtation, but he's a little more guarded, because he has to get back to Sadie, and as much as he is already beguiled by this weird-eyed stranger, he doesn't want her following him home. She's a vampire, and no vampires are allowed near his Sadie.

Alice really wants to skip the wooing; she's already seen herself with Jasper and Sadie. But she knows that mentioning Sadie too soon could make Jasper defensive, so she has to sprinkle herself slowly into Jasper's life, meeting him when he comes to town and letting his instinctive attraction and fondness for her grow into trust over a span of months (even moving towns when he does). She doesn't say anything about him switching to an animal diet, either; she tells him that she eats animals, but trying to influence him at this stage could alter her chances of seeing Sadie. Better to just let him murder.

Once they're at the right place, trust-wise, she tells him that she is already as in love with Sadie as she is with him, due to her psychic visions, and she asks to meet her. At first, Jasper isn't ready, but after she's asked a few more times, he allows it.

Alice has to be extra careful, because she wants to just run and hug Sadie as soon as she sees her, but if she makes a sudden move, Jasper will react badly. (Especially since the speed that comes with her small frame makes her a genuine threat to Sadie, even with Jasper there.) Not to mention, she has to endear herself to Sadie, whose only experience with vampires has been abduction.

"Sadie Lily Gilder," Alice says, barely restraining her excitement. "I am Alice Cullen. I'm your other soulmate."

Sadie is mostly perplexed and a little exasperated, but Jasper feels suddenly as if the sun has broken through the clouds. (Which means a lot, since he was already happy before.) Alice's joy at finally getting to see Sadie seems to fill the room, and this is his first time hearing Sadie's middle name, and...

"I like seeing you together," he realizes.

For the next few months, Alice is allowed to visit Sadie every now and then, under full supervision from Jasper. He can feel that she loves Sadie as much as he does, but he's still got to be careful. Humans are so fragile, and he's used to only trusting himself. When she comes, Alice brings Sadie little gifts that she never thought to ask Jasper before. She brings a new spritely energy to the house that Sadie comes to enjoy.

The following few months, (and after Jasper has watched her hunt animals) she's allowed to stay over full-time. They watch Sadie sleep, together. She's able to answer more of Sadie's questions.

Alice introduces Jasper to the idea of joining a family she's seen in their future. He doesn't want that many vampires around their Sadie, but as always, Alice says just the right things: they're all animal eaters; she hasn't seen a single future where any of them hurt Sadie; and the eldest of them could change Sadie for them.

(She also has to convince Sadie to want to become immortal with them, since she knows that Carlisle and Edward would be against turning her against her will. It helps that Sadie has been captured by a vampire for a while, now, and being a vampire herself would give her a chance of exerting some control over her future.)

When they meet the Cullens, Alice acts like they're already best friends. Jasper is more formal in asking the patriarch if he can change Sadie for them.

Edward calls them out on kidnapping Sadie, but Sadie points out that, unless things come to blows between the Cullens and Alice and Jasper, the only way for her to no longer be kidnapped is by becoming a vampire.

So Carlisle changes her, and she stays with the Cullens so that she can have someone to help her overcome her thirst during her newborn years without slipping up and hurting someone. Alice and Jasper stay with the Cullens, too (and the Cullens tell Jasper that he has to switch to the animal diet if he wants to stay). Eventually, all three of them are close enough to various members of the Cullen family that they just sort of become part of it.

Having been kidnapped at the start of all this, though, Sadie exerts her autonomy in pretty much every way. In her newborn years, in which she is more temperamental (though that isn't saying much; she's still pretty mellow by newborn vampire standards), she confronts Jasper for what he did, and he pretty much just takes it; things have worked out pretty great for him, so it's only fair to let her get it off her chest. Sadie can feel the bond between her and Alice and Jasper, but she can also feel that he didn't have to do what he did. She goes to visit her human family, once she knows that she won't eat them; she and Rosalie go on lengthy road trips; she and Emmett go to football games; she goes volunteering and home renovating with Esme; she learns languages and musical instruments from Edward; she learns vampire history from Carlisle and even joins him on a trip to Volterra.

She lets Alice buy her clothes but overall gives Jasper a wide berth.

Alice, having gained full trust from Jasper, is able to convince him to allow Sadie her space for a while, as she comes to terms with everything that happened. Jasper agrees, since Sadie isn't so fragile anymore and he knows that Alice is keeping an eye on her. So long as they know where Sadie is at all times, and so long as she is accompanied by at least one of the Cullens, he can bear to spend uninterrupted one-on-one time with his newest mate, especially if doing so will help Sadie to forgive him.

The diet of animal blood makes him less wild (but more tense, as he can feel that he is weaker), and the newness of everything in Sadie's life raises her spirits. Maybe eventually she'll be willing to hang out with him again, but it'll take a few years.

#rule one sadie #sadie lily gilder #yandere jasper hale #yandere alice cullen #male yandere #female yandere #yandere twilight #yandere poly #kidnapping #obsession #possessive #yandere/oc #black oc

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heloflor · 3 years

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So, given that I didn’t have much time to work on fics recently because school, I’ve decided to relieve some stress by making a random representation of how I imagine Cavendish and Dakota’s house in their time-period looks like. And since I have no plans to ever describe it in detail in a fic, here it is ! Though, given how bad I am with designs, showing the house is mostly an excuse to infodump on domestic headcanons.

Regarding the last names, I didn’t make a typo for Cav. I like to imagine the two getting married way before the events of the show, with Cav taking “Dakota” as a last name, mostly because he got several siblings in-law on the Dakota side who adopted him on the spot.

And about the representation of the house : yeah it looks like shit. Since I can’t draw, I’ve decided to do something rather quick using MSPaint but yeah, not the best thing in the world. Though, if I get back to playing the Sims 3 at some point and end up making a Dwampyverse savefile, I’ll most likely try to recreate that house and could share a few pics.

I also went with a rectangular house with one floor instead of some futuristic-looking thing, mostly because I have no imagination when it comes to design. Though, you could still use the excuse that they want something more “old-timey” given their job or that they don’t have all the money of the world so they chose a simple house for the small cost. But yeah, by the end of the day, the choice is mostly because I can’t design shit.

But still one thing in my defense : looking at episodes that take place in the future like “Missing Milo” or “First Impressions”, it seems that most buildings are square-y with the roof being the weirdly-shaped part, with B.O.T.T. being one of the few exceptions. And looking at “A Christmas Peril”, the buildings are definitely more wacky but it’s 20 years later so…

I could also mention that I’m a bit unsatisfied with how empty the living-room and the bedroom ended up being but I’m drawing a total blank when trying to come up with the kind of stuff Vinnie and Balth would have that are linked to their interests. Though, maybe the excuse of them not being often at the house works ? Idk. Let’s just say I have ideas for the “basic” stuff, aka what you find in basically every single middle-class house, but draw a complete blank for anything that’s decorative. Still posting a map of the house tho because I don’t really consider it a work in progress if I simply have no idea and may never do. I’m very bad at design so bear with me on that one ! It’s not only about the house, it’s also about the fluffy headcanons !

So here’s under the cut some random info about the look of the rooms and furniture + a bunch of headcanons regarding Vinnie and Balth’s lives in this house. For each part of the house, you first have the info about how it looks first and then the headcanons.

Those headcanons are made with the idea that Vinnie and Balth are married (duh) but also, for a few, that Vinnie has three siblings + a few in-laws that he has a good relationship with.

(very long post ahead)

General :

- They bought the house in 2162, 2 years after getting married.

- It’s in the suburbs, or at least what the future version of the suburbs would look like. In other words, the presence of a backyard is debatable.

- There could be a garage for their time vehicle, so that they don’t have to go to headquarters every single day. And if not an actual garage, there’s at least some space to put it. In both cases, it would be near the bedroom’s side of the house.

- While the walls outside would have that futuristic “metallic” look, the walls inside would be a bit warmer. At the very least, the inside isn’t “future metallic white”, especially with Vinnie having photophobia.

- The intensity of the lights in every room can be adjusted. That way, Vinnie can put the dimmest light and navigate the house without his glasses. This is mostly useful for showering and midnight snacks.

- When they went house-hunting, Balth was the one who insisted that they needed a place with those kinds of lights. This is also the same kind of lights that Vinnie had in his now-former apartment.

- You know how near the end of the episode “First Impressions” you have Balth going into Mr. Block’s office ? Well, the way the door opens in that moment is how the door opens for every room of the house, perhaps excluding the main entrance (I like the idea of their front door being an “old” one, aka the “normal” doors we have today).

- Every room would have a spot that can create “tactile panels”, like some holographic tablet that can be used to change the settings of the house, for example changing the lights or the internet or even lock the doors and blinds.

- In 2175, when they were forced to leave the future, Vinnie stole a device from B.O.T.T. that made him able to create some kind of forcefield around the house that only he and Balth can remove. So, even if they’re not there anymore, the house still is theirs and can’t be sold to anyone else. And before you ask why B.O.T.T. didn’t simply send agents to bring the duo back and force them to open the shield : the forcefield works with hand-scan detection and Vinnie convinced Balth to use their left hands, the hands with the wedding rings. So if time-agents come knocking, they could try convincing the agents to let them use the bathroom first and they could wash their hands and use the soap to remove the rings. That way, the scan wouldn’t work and the agents would have no way of knowing why.

Living room :

- There’s more furniture than showed here like souvenirs from previous missions or some random stuff that belongs to them. I just don’t have enough imagination. : /

- Likewise, the corridor has a few pictures or posters, like pictures that Vinnie didn’t have the space to put in his memory room but still wanted to display. Also, I want to say that Vinnie would display pictures of his family (sibling, in-laws and nephews) but I’ll see him more as having an album for family pictures, or a framed picture on his nightstand.

- There could definitely be a carpet or two. They would either be modern ones to fit the fact that they’re from the future or vintage stuff found in some of their missions. One of the carpets would be under the coffee table. Another would be in the big-ass space between the living-room and the kitchen, or in the corridor.

- The style is a mix between old and new stuff, with also a few things related to their interests. Like, for example, the couch could have an animal pattern or something (AND BY THAT I DON’T MEAN REAL ANIMAL FUR).

- Speaking of the couch, after looking up “futuristic couch” on the internet, they would absolutely have one of those gigantic couches that have like a bed attached to them due to how big they are. Btw I have no idea which company came up with this design and I couldn’t care less. It’s just that the design looks cool and would fit a futuristic house.

- The side table is a floating square, given how we see in “A Christmas Peril” that tables in the future don’t have feet anymore (that’s one way to protect your toes).

- The floor lamp is more futuristic. It’s like a white orb attached to a lamp foot.

- The TV is attached to the wall. The remote is some kind of holographic tablet, kind of like the house settings thingy.

- This is where Balth would spend most of his mornings and evenings when they stay home. He’d just be sitting with a cup of tea, most of the time also a book, with the sun illuminating the room, just feeling comfortable and peaceful. The side table/cube was bought specifically for Balth’s tea. He would also use the lamp while reading in the late evening, either for the peace of having little to no light and solely focusing on the book or as a way for Vinnie to be in the room with the lights at the lowest setting. And speaking of Vinnie, he would sometimes join his husband on the couch, lying down with his head resting on Balth’s legs (cue Vinnie falling asleep, leading to a frustrated Balth who needs to pee but doesn’t want to wake him up).

- Since there’s a mini-table for when Balth drinks tea, the table right in front of the couch is mostly used for Vinnie to rest his legs on.

- And speaking of fluffy headcanons : movie nights. From time to time, aka minimum once a month, probably more, the couple would be in their pajamas cuddling on the couch while watching a movie, with Dennis resting in Balth’s arms.

For the movie choices, Balth would choose science-fiction, especially if there are any Professor-Time-themed movies, but also historical fiction (for some reason I tend to see Balth as having a liking for history ? I think it’s because of the way he dresses + his small rant about pirates in “Game Night” ? Idk honestly. It’s mostly a random headcanon that’s here for some weird reason). As for Vinnie, it’s mostly animal documentaries (Balth falls asleep halfway through but Vinnie doesn’t notice until after it’s over) or animated/family movies (the future equivalent of D*sney, S*ny pitcures, P*xar etc. Which are movies Balth would enjoy as well). For some weird reason I’ll also see the two of them being into mystery movies (crime-solving movies basically).

And if they sometimes decide to watch other genres, I could see Balth having a liking for some romance movies, because for some reason I like the idea of Balth being sappy. Besides, the guy is passionate when it comes to proving himself at his jobs and takes them pretty seriously in order to reach his objective. And given how he can be insecure and sometimes feels like a ball of anxiety, who’s to say he isn’t passionate when it comes to love too ? And no, I don’t mean passionate as in “making out all the time”, I mean passionate as in taking relationships seriously and making it work while also wishing to make sure his partner knows that he’s loved, even if Balth isn’t really the best at expressing his affection all the time.

On a different note, to get back to other genres : Vinnie would probably like horror movies. Because if cuddling in front of a sappy movie is great, having your husband show his love and trust for you by clinging to your arm out of fear is even better, nevermind the fact that you’re as terrified as he is.

Kitchen :

- It’s one of those kitchens with two walls of cupboards/cabinets, both on the ground and elevated. One of the cabinets is used entirely for snacks. Because Vinnie.

- The wall separating the kitchen and the living room “has a hole in it”. It’s like you have a small wall with cupboards, a hole, and a wall connected to the ceiling with a few cabinets. Basically, you look up “kitchen cupboards” and imagine that the space in-between is a hole instead of the wall (why is it so hard to explain something so simple ?).

- This would be the most futuristic-looking room of their house. Looking up at references, they’re that Pinterest post showing a room with white cabinets with round corners and what seems to be slide doors. This is pretty much how I’ll see their kitchen, except bigger, with a different wall color and with one wall not being here (see above).

- The table is floating because of course it does. The chairs don’t tho. Also the chairs are as futuristic as the rest of the room. And looking up the internet again, the chairs are shaped like chairs.

- So I put a stove but tbh I’m not sure how much these two would cook, given how in the show they’re always seen eating out (granted they don’t have a kitchen in their ‘apartment’ in Milo’s time). And given how most things seem automatized in the future, let’s just assume that the house can do most of the cooking itself with like a robot (aka plot-convenience technology) but still needs the necessary furniture and ingredients for the recipes. Also, if there’s an issue with their cooking system, they’ll probably know a few recipes and can feed themselves (Vinnie’s oldest brother Enzie would definitely teach his younger siblings a few recipes, at least enough to survive on their own. And he would be more than happy to teach his brother in-law as well).

- I put 4 chairs at the table but honestly I could see them keep 2 at all times and put the others in the storage room, especially the times they get very busy with their job for a few weeks and don’t have the time for social life.

- At some point, Balth probably tried to convince Vinnie to have better food habits and tried to put his snacks on the higher shelves. Not only did it not work because chairs exist but also it led to Vinnie getting frustrated. So Balth dropped it. Though, he would still try to talk Vinnie into working out to stay rather healthy.

Memories room :

- Vinnie’s personal space. He basically saw the third biggest room of the house and went “mine now” and Balth had no issue letting him have it (hard to say no when Vinnie’s eyes shine like that).

- He already had a memory room in his old apartment.

- Basically, Vinnie brings back souvenirs from his missions, along with pictures he took, and put them on display. For more information, I made a post about it a while ago, so check it out if you want info on it.

And side note : I learned more about ADHD and autism later on and found out that the correct word for Vinnie’s passion for animals is a special interest, not a hyperfixation. The main difference between the two terms is how long your interest last. The reason I used “hyperfixation” in my post is because 1. I didn’t know that “special interest” was a term that existed and 2. people with ADHD kept talking about having hyperfixations and most people see Vinnie as having ADHD. So yeah, my bad for using the wrong term. And while I won’t change the current text from my post, especially with someone in the notes correcting me (I don’t want them to look like an idiot), I’ll definitely add a few words at the end of the post about it.

- This is where Vinnie spends most of his time when at home, trying to keep the room in the best condition.

- There’s a window in the room but Vinnie condemned it in case some of his souvenirs were sensitive to the sunlight.

- The room is made entirely of shelves, with like four-five rows on the same wall. The shelves are either integrated into the walls or they’re floating because future. In any cases, there’s nothing around the shelves, it’s just shelves with stuff on it.

- When you enter the room, one of the rows of shelves next to you has all the animal-related stuff he gathered before starting a relationship with Balth. The rest of the room can have a few animal-themed objects but the pictures tend to be more linked to him and Balth.

- Likewise, when you enter the room, on the shelf you’re immediately facing, there’s a miniature recreation of their wedding altar with their wedding picture in its center. The miniature is made out of the future equivalent of papier-mâché and the altar is themed around time-travel with objects from all kinds of time-periods and cultures. And for those who might ask regarding the picture : Vinnie has a black suit and carries the bouquet while Balth has a white suit. Both have a hat that’s basically Balth’s usual hat (with the Professor-Time goggles, because themed wedding) but colored like their respective suit.

Balthazar’s office :

- The room has quite a few libraries but this is mostly decorations. Basically, this room is more of an 1800th century study than anything, especially a rich/royal study. Yeah, for some reason I see Balth as having an office that’s just “rich 1800th century” aesthetic. I think it’s from the headcanon of him being a runaway prince 🤔.

- So yeah. The bookcases are vintage, the piano is your usual black piano, the armchairs are vintage and tbh Balth almost never uses them because he’d rather read in the living room, and the desk is vintage, though the stuff on the desk is futuristic. Balth is up to date with the technology he’s using to work, he just likes the older aesthetic for the rest.

- On his desk, despite literally living with the guy, Balth has a framed picture of Vinnie (again, I want the stubborn gay disaster to be sappy from time to time, with his love language being small touches and attention to details like for example being able to quickly see the kinds of foods Vinnie like the most so that when he’s in a bad mood, Balth can get him that specific food to make it better ; or learning Vinnie’s body language to know when he’s upset or bothered by something).

- Balth mostly spends his time here to make the reports on their missions or work some administration stuff when needed. When he isn’t at his desk, he’s there to play the piano.

And yes, I throw out the window that line from “Backwards to School Night” that indicates Vinnie doesn’t know about Balth playing piano but tbh I ignore or question quite a few things from this episode such as : the line indicating that Vinnie and Balth don’t live together in their time-period since Balth doesn’t know Vinnie’s weekend habits ; the line about how the ray thing age you down to 90% your current age and yet baby Vinnie seems younger than the parents despite his adult self seeming older; the fact that Melissa read a book 16 times in the span of 6 minutes ; the fact that it’s called a “age regressor ray” and not a “age regressor ray-inator” (seriously, I am the only one always expecting Vinnie to say “inator” and being disappointed when he doesn’t ?).

- The couple absolutely sing songs together with Balth playing the piano. Or at least Vinnie would sing a song in the middle of the living-room and have Balth be annoyed by it, only for Vinnie to hear Balth play the same song on the piano later and join him.

Bathroom :

- Not much to say here. It’s a bathroom. It’s futuristic-looking. The mirror is a cabinet. The tub is round. The bin comes in and out of the wall. The clothes drier also irons the clothes. The toilet is glued to the wall. The walls are dark gray or dark blue or at least a darker color so that Vinnie doesn’t have to dim the lights to the lowest level when he’s showering. There are also several little lights along with a main one so that Vinnie can light the small ones instead of getting a headache due to the brighter light. During lazy/slow days, Balth would take baths instead of showers (and Vinnie would want to join him to make out). Balth may or may not sing in the shower (Vinnie definitely does). That’s pretty much it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Guest/Storage room :

- Only used as a guest room when one or several members of the Dakota family are visiting the states and end up in the Tri-State-Area. So for 90% of the time, the room is used as storage.

- Bed’s not that big and very “squary”. Might or might not be floating.

- It’s mostly random junk that they don’t know where to put and don’t want to get rid of, like some stuff they got from their missions but that Vinnie doesn’t want in his room or some old things they want to give at a garage sale or that one Professor-Time body-pillow that Balth refuses to let go of while Vinnie just wants to trash the thing. The body-pillow being in the storage room in a junkpile was their compromise on the issue. Also, whenever someone might stay in the room, Balth makes sure there’s no way they will find the body-pillow (his sister in-law Bettie would never let him live it down).

- Not much to say here either aside from that.

Master bedroom (the room in which the proportions are way bigger than the rest of the house because I have no idea what I’m doing) :

- I described the room quickly in my fic “nightmares” but yeah basically the room has several posters and pictures related to their interests, along with a bookshelf full of animal encyclopedias, time-travel facts, history books, Professor-Time fantasy books etc. There are also albums, whether it be family pictures or album of the two of them.

- Like for the living-room, there can definitely be more than what I described/pictured here. I’m just really bad at imagining the kind of stuff people would have in their bedrooms related to their interests. And speaking of which : at some point, there was the aquarium that Vinnie mentions in “Time Out”.

- Unlike the other rooms in which the windows have roller blinds (apparently that’s the english word for it ?), this one has curtains on top of it because Balth likes to open the window in the morning but he doesn’t want Vinnie to hurt his eyes. So with curtains, he can open them enough to light the room but not enough for the light to reach Vinnie’s face.

- The bed is pretty classic for a futuristic bed but with round edges and these two idiots definitely go crazy with the sheets design (animals, food, Professor-Time, past time-periods, stuff like that). Also, the bed is “open”. By that I mean that, if you look at futuristic designs, there tends to be some roof thing above the bed and linked to it. They wouldn’t have that.

- The nightstands are floating cubes.

- “Dennis’ chair” is just some random old wooden chair where Dennis stays most of the time. Balth almost never takes him during his missions and Dennis is a comfort object that Balth mostly talks to when sitting on the bed, movie nights aside. So the bear stays in the bedroom.

- The bookshelf would also be made of wood.

- The wardrobe is futuristic, with doors that can open by themselves with sensory detection. Also, unlike what that poor “drawing” shows, the wardrobe is “taller” than it is “larger”.

- The armchair is an egg chair.

- They sleep

- They spoon

- Balth is the big spoon because 1. he’s taller and 2. he grew up sleeping while embracing a teddy bear and old habits die hard.

- When Balth goes to sleep or wakes up, he can’t help but play with Vinnie’s hair and give the small man a few kisses, feeling satisfaction in seeing his husband smile or try to pull away while laughing.

- Vinnie sleeps on the side closest to the window while Balth sleeps on the side nearest to Dennis.

- Balth’s nightstand has an alarm clock that’s basically just a holographic square with numbers on it, while Vinnie has an album or some random animal trinket. Vinnie’s alarm clock is not feeling Balth’s warmth against him. But if Vinnie has to use an actual alarm, the sound would either be some old-fashioned song or an animal noise (is this starting to get too much insistence on the “animal-loving” side of him ?)

- While Balth likes to read in the living-room, Vinnies likes it better to chill in the bedroom when reading. Also, during weekends and vacation days, Balth would sometimes read in bed before sleeping (yeah for some reason I really like the idea of Balth being a reader. I think it has to do with him being old or british ??? Weird brain is weird. And besides, if Balth reads, it would most likely be science fiction related to Professor Time). Vinnie uses this time as an excuse to cuddle.

- They have themed pajamas. Balth mostly has Professor-Time stuff (clocks, Heinz or Perry’s faces etc) while Vinnie has mostly animal-themed or food-themed pajamas.

- Vinnie sometimes sleeps naked in the summer. Balth is still trying to figure out how he feels about that.

- Random headcanon regarding Dennis : while he belongs to Balth who keeps him close when in doubt in order to vent or when he wants to get comfortable somewhere, I actually like to believe that, between the two, Vinnie is the one who talks the most to Dennis, mostly because Vinnie would just enter the bedroom and casually greet the bear, or he and Balth would have a dumb argument and Vinnie would playfully tell Dennis “Can you believe that guy ?” while pointing at Balth. Just, Vinnie being Vinnie and having random one-sided conversations with the bear.

And a little cute thing : while Vinnie really just talked to Dennis because why not, seeing the guy like the teddy bear so much would actually make Balth feel better about himself. I like to believe that grown-up men having plushies would still be seen as a ridiculous thing by most people (because toxic masculinity) and Balth got the habit of hiding Dennis when he was still trying to find the right guy for him. So seeing Vinnie have no issue whatsoever with the teddy bear and even liking him would definitely help Balth’s confidence, along with warming his heart.

- And since this post is all about headcanons : two things about phones and these two being sappy that have nothing to do with houses.

1. One day, Balth left his phone on a table and Vinnie decided to take a selfie with it because why not. After seeing that, Balth acted frustrated but ended up putting the pic as his phone background. Ever since, Balth’s phone background is a picture of Vinnie. The most recent one is from “We’re Going to the Zoo” with a picture of Vinnie holding squirrels in his arms while a third one is coming out of his pistachios-filled pants. The pic on the phone is a closeup, only showing Vinnie’s head and upper body. And for those who like angst, I’ll let you imagine how he must have felt having this as his phone background during the rogue arc.

2. Vinnie’s (numeric) phone password is 2703, aka march 27, the date of his wedding anniversary. The day is put first and the month second because Europe. Also, during busy weeks, this would be a good way for Vinnie to remember the anniversary.

(fun fact : I was trying to come up with scenarios for fics when I ended up thinking about Vinnie’s password and that number came to mind. So I just went “guess that’s their wedding date now”)

#Milo Murphy's Law #Vinnie Dakota #Balthazar Cavendish #Dakavendish #long post #VERY long post #headcanons #Flor talks #hey look I'm rambling again about random shit #I am SO. BAD. at design #but yeah #have a house #and random ideas #also have Balthazar Dakota #it sounds more and more normal when you think about it a lot #also Dennis Cavendish #or is it Dennis Cavendish-Dakota ?#now to edit the memory room post

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jawritter · 4 years

Text

You and Me...

Chapter 20

***SERIES WARNINGS**** Rape, non con, male!rape, injury, violence, discription of injury caused by rape, nightmares, self harm, panick attackes, implied female non con, language, ass hole Jensen, hurt!jensen, dark fic, smut. If there is anything else I will add it as I go.

***Chatper Warnings*** Language, mentions of rape, Jensen caught up in his own head space, hint of depression, talk of nightmares and flashbacks. Angst? Some fluff maybe? I think that’s about it...

Pairing: Jensen Ackles x Reader

Word Count: 1582

A/N: As always all mistakes are mine!, Please do not copy my work!! Feedback is gold! I hope you enjoy this one!

Summery: It’s funny how one choice you made can change your whole life. One mistake can alter you course, and set you on a path that forever will haunt you. Two people find themselves getthing through one of the hardest trials of Jensen’s life, on just one small promise. You and Me. We’ll get through it together…

Want more? Check out my masterlist!!

***MASTERLIST***

***YOU AND ME MASTERLIST***

It had been a long week to say the least.

Not because anything was wrong, it was just a lot more to get done than you thought it would be before Jensen and yourself took your trip.

He'd been up late at night, booking hotel rooms, making dinner reservations in towns that he'd planned to stop in along the way. The whole nine. He was really excited about the trip, and seeing him excited kind of had you looking forward to it.

It was the first time you had seen him that excited about anything at all, and seeing him put so much work into it, really made you see how much it meant to him to do this with you. That wasn't something you took lightly.

On top of all that Jensen had picked up his kids for a few days, they had wanted to see their dad before he was gone from town for a while again.

The days were filled with zoo trips, art projects, and movies in the family room.

Jensen had dropped them back off at their mother's house yesterday, which was awkward, because Danneel still wasn't speaking to Jensen, but Jensen was determined to take it all in stride. He didn't want a lot of tension between Danneel and himself for the children's sake. They had been through enough with the separation, and they didn't need to see him arguing with their mother every time he went to pick them up or drop them off, goodbyes were hard enough as it was...

The rest of the week had been filled with packing, and wrapping up his album so that it could be released when he headed out on his convention tour for season 16.

It felt strange to not be working at the studio anymore, but in all honesty it felt a little freeing as well. People treated you differently since they found out about your relationship with Jensen. Not your coworkers, but just people in general. New coming artists always thought they could get you to get Jensen to notice them, and fans were becoming more aware of you as well, which made it hard to get anything done in Austin period, much less work.

For everything there is a season, and it was just time for the season of you working at the studio to come to a close in order for a new season to take its place. You just didn't know what season that was going to be yet...

The feeling of Jensen's body waiting lowering onto the bed pulled you from your thoughts. You roll over, and snuggle into his chest. Taking a deep breath. Letting his scent surround you, comfort you.

You loved the feeling of his body weight pressing down against you. It made you feel safe. The rise and fall of his chest as he breathed laying next to you. The way he always ran his fingers through your hair until you fell asleep.

Just in a week sense he'd started doing this he'd had you spoiled. It was something you were confident you couldn't live without, and something at the same time you don't know how you ever lived without him in the first place.

"Are you ready for tomorrow?" He asks you in a rough, yet sleepy voice. He was so cute when he was sleepy.

"As I'll ever be." You tell him. Nuzzling into his neck. "You?"

"Oh God yes. You know I'd always try to do things like this with Danneel, but she never would come with me. She never even came with me to conventions all that much. Not even before the twins were born. She only rarely showed up on the set, she never wanted to really go anywhere, unless it was to New Orleans, or something with her family. I honestly almost think she was a little ashamed of me." He said in a huff, settling the covers around the two of you before pressing his lips to the top of your head.

This was the first time he'd ever really talked about any aspect of their marriage with you. It was just something he didn't discuss. You never pushed him either. Honestly when you and Jensen had gotten together there were much more pressing issues at hand than his failed marriage.

"Well her loss is definitely my gain. I'm gonna have to send the girl a thank you card." You tell him, running your nails up and down his back lightly as he turned to the two of you on your side. He chucked against you.

"Yeah I might have to sign that card too."

"There's a lot that I've still got wrong with me you know. I'm nowhere near perfect. Even though I'm doing better. I'm scared to start filming again. I'm afraid of what it's gonna bring back up. I just got the nightmares under control... I don't want those to start up again...." He said, his grip tightening around you.

"Well whatever happens I'll be right there. In arms reach the whole time you're filming, and if it does bring up any problems they already promised to work around anything you weren't comfortable with." You tell him. Still rubbing his back and shoulders. Trying to keep the tension from building in them.

You knew he was scared, and honestly you were afraid too. You didn't know what it was going to do to him the first time Dean had to be tied to a chair, or the first hand to hand combat with a demon... That's what you were scared of..

"One step at a time.." You thought to yourself as he nuzzled himself into you more.

Jensen's POV:

Jensen laid there in the dark room with you in his arms, your nails running lightly over his skin, trying to keep the fear and stress from building in his body. Reassuring him that everything was going to be okay..

Still memories that you knew nothing about ran through his mind harshly in flashs...

Not caring that he didn't want to see them.

Not caring that they were probably going to keep him up tonight...Like they had every night this week...

Not caring that they might affect his career...

More than the flashbacks that some of the show may trigger for him as he has to act out Dean's struggles. He feared that it would put strain on his already struggling relationship that he and yourself had. Even though you never brought up the rape to him. Even though you never brought up the fact that he'd shoved you that night. He still was afraid that all you saw him as was damaged.

Just a shell of what a real man should be...

Not good enough...

He could feel your body relaxing against his as you drifted off to sleep in his arms. Your breaths became slow, and deep as sleep overtook you.

Tomorrow you two would head out on their trip that he'd taken so much time planning. Taken so much time to make sure it was perfect...

He fought hard against the sleep that threatened to over take him. Even though he knew that he needed to get some sleep to be ready for tomorrow, he still had a slight fear of the night, and the dreams that felt so real sometimes.

Even though they hadn't happened in a few days, and didn't happen every night, that didn't stop the fear that they would every time he closed his eyes....

He didn't know if the memory of what happened to him would ever stop haunting him.

Usually they only showed themselves at night. Like something that was too dirty, and vile to show itself during the day, so it would wait until the sun went down. So that it could haunt him like the things he'd pretended to hunt for so many years.

Except this time....

There was no body to salt, and burn to put the ghost of his attackers to rest. It was a battle of his mind. Something to him that was more terrifying than ghost. Because it was a part of him.

And It was also very much alive....

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#jensen ackles #jensen ackles x reader #jensen ackles x you #jensen ackles fanfiction #jensen ackles fanfic #jensen ackles series #jensen x reader #jensen x you #jensen series #jensen ackles dark fic #dark fic #hurt!jensen #hurt!comfort #spn fanfiction #spn fanfic #spn dark fic #jawritter #you and me

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aurelacs · 4 years

Text

Ten of Wands

An Ezra/F!OC Red Dead Redemption AU

WORD COUNT: 3k

CONTENT: mentions of spousal abuse, drinking,

A/N: Thanks y’all for your patience! There’s only a chapter and an epilogue after this one! Hope you enjoy! Also next chapter will have smut I promise.

This is set in the Red Dead Redemption universe, however there’s no spoilers for either game, and you don’t need to have prior knowledge of the games to understand the fic. I’m just using RDR for the setting and the time period (1899). Hope you enjoy!

chapter list | masterlist | read on AO3

IV. The Hanged Man

West Elizabeth was far more frightening at night.

The way the moonlight bore through the trees cast long, ominous shadows along the worn path the two bounty hunters chose to take. Annie was tempted to talk, to ask the man where he was taking her, but she didn’t want to push her luck. The dignity he provided her by letting her ride with him was more than likely the only kindness he would afford. So she rode in silence. The sound of the horses hooves beating against the soil the only sound that late at night. It crushed her spine with the weight of the implication and dried up her throat. This was her death march, paraded through the state so far into the evening there would be no one to mourn her, to ask for her final statement, or write down her last words. The bounty hunters, referring to each other only as ‘Morgan’ and ‘Smith,’ talked idly, like she wasn’t there.

About halfway through the ride, Annie began to recognize her surroundings a little more. Panic began to set in. Even as she was being tied up, the concept of imprisonment and death was so foreign it did little to scare her. To be so close, to have the knowledge that it was, in fact, guaranteed, made her bottom lip tremble. In that moment Annie realized that she didn’t want to die. It wasn’t because of Ezra. Without him, she could live, and she knew that, but she wanted to feel his lips on hers. She wanted to make it to the end of her life fully experiencing what it was like to not have to look over her shoulder. It had been so long that she forgot the feeling. She wanted to reach Armadillo and feel the sand crunch under her boots. She needed to breathe long enough to forget her husband’s face, to make it to the point in her life where she could call him her late husband.

Her heart sank, low, further than the pit of her stomach, as they rode under the ‘Strawberry’ sign. She thought the river that ran through the town looked better in the moonlight. The sheriff’s office was located next to the hill that housed the hotel. The dark wood of the building blended in with the hill and made it look like the office and jail was built into the soil. It gave the building a foreboding presence, as though the hill and the office and the hotel were a solitary castle looming over her.

The porch light next to the door was the only light on across the whole town as the two men hitched their horses. Morgan grumbled a faint apology as he hoisted Annie over his shoulder to help her down off his horse. The three of them all stood by the door. Morgan knocked, hammering on the door until the sheriff hollered at them for waking him up. The transaction was nearly wordless. Morgan handed the sheriff Annie’s bounty poster, who then directed Morgan to lead Annie to the cell across from his desk before handing the men their bounty payment.

“D’you know anything about a bounty for the man she was with? Blonde patch of hair, looks like an outlaw,” Morgan asked.

“Nothing here, but you can always try Valentine. If you’re heading that way, can you let Sheriff Molloy know I got her here?”

Morgan grunted in response and left.

“Valentine is full up, so you’re gonna be with us for the time being. Sheriff up there’s supposed to come talk to you at some point, but he likes to take his time and who knows if those boys will actually let Curtis know you’re here.”

“What good will talking to me do?”

The sheriff shrugged before lumbering back to his cot and falling asleep.

Days and nights passed in near silence. Sheriff Farley, as Annie came to observe, wasn’t much of a talker. He snored, loud enough to occasionally shake the floorboards of the office. She learned that Strawberry’s jail had five cells, one upstairs where she was, and four more downstairs, out of sight. Annie overheard Farley one night, as he conversed with the mayor, mention that the downstairs cells were for the more ‘worrisome’ offenders. The statement gave her a spark of hope. She knew it wasn’t often that bounties were put out on women. Maybe he could read between the lines of a woman killing her husband. Or perhaps he merely saw her as less of a threat because she was a woman. Either way, Annie still felt mildly appreciative. If she craned her head hard enough, she could look outside and see wagons passing through the town. The same position gave her the opportunity to feel the sun on her face right before dusk. Her situation was already hard enough, she was grateful to not have to experience it with the ones she heard screaming below her.

A week into her stay, or what she believed to be a week, Annie gave up all hope in Ezra coming for her. It was a child’s fantasy, to think that he would risk his life and freedom just to save her. She couldn’t find it in herself to blame him, either, even though when she asked herself if she would have come to save him, her answer was a resounding ‘yes.’ What a fool she was to have waited. If she told him, then and there, as he waded out of the lake, how she felt about him, he might’ve been here. Or he would’ve left her. Either way her chest would have been stinging a little less.

More time passed with no word from Farley on the whereabouts of Valentine’s sheriff, or her life. As a nervous habit, Annie would undo and redo her braids constantly until her fingers ached. She paced around her cell. There was no clock in the office, so she measured the time by the sheriff’s actions. Everyday he followed the same routine: breakfast at the butcher’s stall, sit in his office and read the newspaper, smoke his pipe, taunt the downstairs prisoners, if the sun had yet to go down when he was finished, he would invite the mayor for a drink, where the mayor would talk about his grandiose plans for the sleepy, yet beautiful, town. His talk reminded her of Ezra: weaving tales of splendor, swearing up and down that Strawberry’s beauty could not be contained. The mayor echoed Ezra’s sentiments, convinced that the work he was putting into it would make a difference. Annie was sure that Farley was going to kill Mayor Timmins because he no longer wanted bounties to be advertised in Strawberry. It figured that she would be the last, she thought.

One morning, maybe three weeks since the bounty hunters had found her, sheriff Farley woke her by knocking on the bars of her cell. A man stood next to him, a handlebar mustache doing nothing to contain the permanent scowl on his face. Farley introduced him as sheriff Molloy, the one from Valentine and Annie’s blood ran cold. The one who would decide her fate stood there, looking unimpressed at the supposed cold-blooded killer before him, half-asleep and half paralyzed from fear.

“I hope you didn’t pay those boys the full bounty for this,” he gestured over at her, looking sullen and beaten.

“They didn’t seem to be the most innocent of sorts either. Didn’t wanna cause a fuss.”

Molloy laughed. Farley grabbed his pipe from his desk and made his way outside to give the two some privacy. He stood there silently with his arms crossed for what felt like an hour before speaking.

“Why’d you do it?”

“That’s it?” He nodded. Annie was confused. Weeks of waiting and that’s all he asks? No hint of a greeting, an apology. She was hoping that maybe the sheriff would tell her how her husband’s family was doing. They would probably be in the front row the day she hangs, but in an odd way her life had felt so sheltered in the months since she killed him that hearing something was preferred to this. To the brusque ire of a man that she knew had already decided that she was going to die for what she did.

“He hurt me,” she answered.

Molloy scoffed. “I was hoping for a more interesting answer. Not many lady killers ‘round these parts, but they all have the same reasoning.” “Maybe because they’re all telling the truth.”

“Maybe they’re all lying to try and gain some sympathy before they get hanged,” he said as he leaned in closer to the bars. The scowl on his face grew deeper. She started to wonder how many other women in her situation had the misfortune of seeing his face right before a hood was placed over their heads.

“My husband beat me. He would scream at me if there was a speck of dust on the floor when he came home from hunting. Chased me around the house with a knife if he didn’t like the way I sneezed or walked or spoke, when I did. I let him hurt me for over ten years. I had it.” Annie didn’t realize she had started crying until her voice broke. “It’s been months and I still call him my husband. I still love him, but I’d do it again. If you’re gonna hang me for that, then so be it.”

“I’m going to hang you for killing your husband, Mrs. Gray. I don’t care whether or not you regret it.”

Hearing her name felt like a whip cracking. She had gone so long without the sound of it that it was foreign in her ears, like the sheriff was addressing a stranger. For so long she referred to herself internally as Annie Cobb that it didn’t register. It was her trying to move on, trying to turn back into the woman she was before she married her husband, but it didn’t have the same spark. Her identity had always been ‘Mrs. Gray,’ her maiden name taken from her too soon, before she could form herself outside of her husband. But Cobb never resonated. Maybe in her next life she’ll have a name that fits her better, like Michaels, or Robinson. Or Bird.

The dread that churned in her stomach kept her from sleeping more than an hour at a time. It would jolt her awake with the sudden urge to run, and her heart wouldn’t stop racing until her brain finally managed to process that there was nowhere to run. At the third bout, Annie awoke to find Farley fast asleep, his snores once again bouncing off the wooden walls. Night had fallen, deep and heavily, on the town. It mirrored the night she was first brought back to Strawberry; the lantern once again the only thing illuminating the entire town. It was never intentional. Every morning he forgot, Malloy would grumble on for the rest of the day about the waste of oil. This night, this mistake, however, cost him more than a nickel’s worth of lantern oil.

Someone entered, not with a knock, but with a bang, stirring the sheriff from his slumber so harshly he wasn’t able to collect his bearings in time to demand an explanation. The glow of the lantern backlit the visitor and made it impossible for Annie to make him out until he spoke, and even then it was only a hunch. Sheriff Farley stumbled over towards the voice, eyes still crusted with sleep and legs uneasy. He managed his way over to his desk, propping himself up with an arm before asking who had the nerve to bother him so late at night. The man closed the door gently, opposite to his grand entrance. Out of the porch lantern light, the office was enshrouded in darkness until the sheriff lit another lantern at the corner of his desk. It wasn’t until the light illuminated the rest of the office that Annie realized.

“I do apologize for intruding so late into the evening, but I saw the lantern still on, and where I come from that means a gentleman is open for business.”

Ezra looked different from when she last saw him. He looked a little more ragged and worn down. The bags under his eyes had grown darker. His hair was unkempt and she didn’t see his hat anywhere on him. The blonde patch of hair caught the light just right. Ezra made no attempt to speak to Annie; he didn’t even look her way as he adjusted the heavy-looking satchel that hung upon his shoulder. His kept his deep, brown eyes focused entirely on the sheriff.

“I recently purchased myself a new abode in this beautiful little town here and my father always told me to start a new journey with alcohol. And who better among the locale to embark on that sojourn with than the sheriff himself?” Ezra reached into the satchel and forcefully placed two bottles of Kentucky bourbon on the sheriff’s desk. He pulled up a chair, not waiting for permission or refusal and sat down, eagerly awaiting his next move. Sheriff Farley eyed Ezra curiously. Nevertheless, he walked over to the cabinet by his cot and dug out two glasses. He smiled up at the sheriff. Not once did the two men take their eyes off one another.

“Do you have any idea what time it is?”

“When I said ‘recently,’ it was not an exaggeration.” He leaned back in the chair. Ezra’s body language gave off a kind of confidence she had only seen from him once before: in Blackwater, towering over his debtor. Annie grew worried that he might try the same stunt again.

“I have always heard the people of Strawberry are of a hospitable color. At least, that is what they say in Saint Denis. It is possible that they simply meant poor,” the sheriff shot him an angered glance, “but hospitality is taught, never bought, wouldn’t you agree, sheriff?” Farley grunted in response. Ezra poured the bourbon halfway into both glasses before drinking his in one go, and encouraging the sheriff to do the same. Sheriff Farley’s eyes shot up to the blonde in Ezra’s hair. The coolness of Ezra’s composure broke for a second, not enough for the sheriff to notice, but enough for Annie to start worrying. She recalled the question the one bounty hunter had asked him when she first arrived and wondered if he made the same connection.

“Sheriff, please, I insist, drink! There is more than enough for the both of us and I want to make sure your graciousness is equally matched.”

“Is there no way to do this tomorrow,” Farley asked, choosing to match Ezra’s drink.

“Not according to my father’s superstitions, no,” Ezra chuckled. “It has to be as soon as you sign the deed, and the gentleman I was dealing with for this parcel was quite a character. He absolutely insisted we negotiate until the very last second of the day” He took another swig of the bourbon, this time directly from the bottle.

“Was it Mr. Rose by chance?”

“The one and the same!”

Ezra opened the second bottle of bourbon and passed it to the sheriff as he began to tell Ezra stories about the man. Farley eagerly grabbed the bottle by the neck. Engrossed in his tales, he continued to absentmindedly sip on the alcohol, his slowly inebriated mind searching for threads to connect his thoughts. On occasion, Ezra would take a swig from his bottle to encourage him. It was a lengthy plan, but one that seemed to be working. Every time the sheriff tried to stop, Ezra would bring up something else to try and get him talking again.

‘I have heard that your mayor is a curious one.”

“He’s trying to run me out of a job, is what he’s tryin’ to do!” He slammed the bottle onto his desk, and Ezra laughed as some of the liquid came sloshing out of the neck and on the sheriff’s hand. Annie’s worry grew again as she peered over to the window and saw daybreak trying to make its way over the horizon.

“I’m sure the mayor is only doing what he deems best.”

“The mayor is- he’s- the sonuvabitch-” the floorboards shook as the sheriff’s head slammed against his desk, just nearly missing the bottle. Annie wasn’t sure if he was dead or merely sleeping.

The first time Ezra acknowledged her was as the first snore ripped through Farley’s body. He looked over at her and held a finger up to his lips. As quietly as he could, he toed over to the sheriff’s slumped over body. He gently fiddled with the key ring that hung from his gun belt. Annie could see his hands shaking as he tried every key on Annie’s cell before finally reaching the correct one. She hadn’t realized how long she had been holding her breath until the cell door finally popped open, and the only thing standing between her and Ezra was a couple feet of empty, unfettered air.

“Missed you, little bird,” he smiled, breaking the heavy silence.

Tears fell freely from Annie’s eyes, the mix of emotions overwhelming her senses almost to the point of collapse, and she nearly jumped from where she was sat and into Ezra’s arms. Free not only was she of Strawberry jail, but also of any hesitation she might’ve been holding onto with regard to how she felt about him. She buried her face in his neck and took in his scent, something she didn’t realize she missed. His arms gripped onto her something fierce like she would float away and out of his grasp if he didn’t hold on. It was as though the time apart wore away any inhibitions they might have had. The sheer elation of their reunion being the only thing that was on their minds. Ezra came back for her.

That’s what mattered.

Tag List: @immundusspiritu @borderlinedindjarin @aforces

#ezra prospect #pedro pascal #prospect #ezra x oc #my fic

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the-awkward-outlaw · 5 years

Text

Second Chances - Epilogue 2

Cruel World, I’m Gone

Warnings: None!

Word Count: 1800

Masterlist

Read on AO3

This epilogue has kids between reader and Arthur - if you want no kids, read version 1 here

You stand in the barn, dropping your big bay breton mare’s hoof. You named her Ruby after Rain’s mother, and she’s as big, brave and gentle as Artemis was, but looks nothing like her. She snorts lazily as you pat her neck.

Laura runs in, holding a small yellow flower she must have picked from the garden.

“Mommy, look!” she says, smiling. You bend down and take the flower from her, smiling.

“Awe, isn’t that pretty?” You slide the flower behind her ear and she smiles at you. She has her father’s eyes.

When the gang fell apart and Hamish died, you both decided to head out west where you belonged. Arthur wanted to live as far south as Tumbleweed, but you never liked it down there. Too hot, too dry. Not enough green. When he asked where you wanted to live, you said Big Valley and he agreed.

When you arrived in the valley, Arthur found a nice property in the trees with the meadow in sight. He surprised you when he said he wanted to build you a house from scratch. You’d been hearing about some premade houses to buy and suggested them instead, stating it could be built before winter came. Arthur hated the idea and said he wanted to build you a home. You told him that if it was what he wanted, he could do it.

A big problem faced you though, and that was that you both had very little money. You only had what was in your satchel, a few hundred dollars. Arthur recalled the money stashed in Blackwater from before the gang fled there. He had an idea where to find it, so one night you both snuck into town. Arthur found a small chest in the cemetery in a hollow tree by a gravestone marked “Greta Van der Linde”. The chest had $50,000 in it. Never again would you have to worry about money.

Arthur wanted to stay in Blackwater that night to buy some tools and oxen. However, you ended up getting quite sick that night, vomiting multiple times. You thought you just had a stomach virus, but the nausea persisted for a few days. Along with that, you noticed a few other changes. You became tired easily, your breasts were beginning to swell and your lower abdomen was tender. After three days of you being sick to your stomach, Arthur took you to the doctor.

After inspecting you, the doctor announced you were pregnant. You couldn’t believe him, after all he was the same doctor who told you that you couldn’t have children. He explained to you and Arthur that infertility was something very hard to detect and he simply assumed it based on the fact that James constantly tried to have them with you and failed. He that you might never have gotten pregnant before due to high levels of stress or that perhaps it had been James who was infertile. Arthur was pale-faced and silent the entire time the doctor spoke.

When you got back to the hotel to pack up your things, he pulled you into a hug and cried. He couldn’t believe his luck, but he was so happy that you were pregnant. He realized that building a home, which could take years, wouldn’t be the best idea, not when you only had nine months. So he bought a premade home and had the lumber delivered to your Pine Crest, your home.

A few days later, in the town of Strawberry, you got married. It was easily one of the best days of your life, even though the wedding was very simple. Only a few people were there to witness it. One of them was Charlotte. She cried when you told her you were pregnant.

Charles was there too. Word had gotten to him about the gang’s fate and he returned to bury those who died. He expected to bury you and Arthur, but when he could find no trace of your bodies, he believed you to be alive and headed west where he was sure you’d be. He’s the only gang member you’ve heard from since. He told you John, Abigail, Jack and Sadie made it, which you and Arthur are thankful for.

“When’s papa coming home?” Laura asks as you put the grooming tools away.

“I’m sure he’ll be back soon, sweetie. He always comes home.”

“Carson says the fence is broke.”

Carson is a hand on your little ranch. A few days after your wedding, Arthur hired a few hands from Strawberry to help build the house and a barn for Buell. The morgan you’d stolen died from colic, so Arthur bought you Ruby and a gorgeous blood bay thoroughbred stallion named Jake.

Carson was one of the hands he hired and Arthur found out he was an orphan. His parents had been killed during the Strawberry massacre earlier that same year when an outlaw was freed from prison and shot his parents all over a pair of pistols. Arthur felt sorry for him, probably because he felt guilty for being involved in the massacre, so he built a small one-room cabin just off the property for Carson to live in.

Carson also had a yellow lab named Lily. She was his only companion after his parents died. Arthur loved her and you knew he wanted his own dog, so for his birthday the following year, you bought him a mountain dog puppy named Timber. Arthur and that dog became inseparable instantly.

You remember fondly when your belly began to swell, easily observed through your clothes. Arthur was always protective of you, but he became almost a nuisance afterwards. He hardly let you lift anything that was more than 10 pounds or stand for long periods of time. You insisted you were okay, but he wouldn’t hear it.

It was obvious why Arthur was so protective. He was scared he’d lose you and the baby just like he’d lost Isaac and Eliza. You recall the sweet look he had when he first felt the baby move in your belly. He’d been laying down with you, his hand on your stomach when you both felt a thump inside you. He kissed your stomach so tenderly. After that, he’d sit you down multiple times a week just to talk to your belly.

When you were 8 months pregnant, he never left the house, afraid you might fall or hurt yourself. He constantly made you sit down and asked you if you hurt anywhere. He’d been a nuisance before but he became a downright pest during the last month. You frequently reassured him you were fine.

One night though, you were woken by labor pains. You’d had a few false ones before that, but these ones were more intense. Arthur sent Carson to get the doctor while he stayed with you, putting damp towels on your head and letting you try to break his hand. Six hours later, Laura was born. After the doctor cleaned her up and handed her to you, Arthur couldn’t take his eyes from her. You handed her to him and he began to cry. You did too when he said “Hello Laura. I’m your daddy.”

Laura walks over to Ruby and the big horse dips her head to sniff her. Laura loves all the horses on your little ranch, but she loves Ruby the best. From outside, you hear the sound of a horse approaching. A few seconds later, Arthur walks in with a big smile, Buell’s reins in his hand, Timber following them with his tail wagging.

“Daddy!” Laura cries, running over to him.

He bends down with his arms open and picks her up, hugging her.

“How’s my little squirrel?” he says. She leans away from him and smiles, taking his hat off his head. She slides the yellow flower from her hair and tucks it into the rope before putting his hat back on his head. “Awe, it’s perfect now,” he says.

“You kept Buell’s braids in,” she says, eyeing Buell. His mane’s braided up.

“Of course, I couldn’t remove your incredible work.”

Laura smiles and puts her head on his shoulder. Arthur looks at you and walks over.

“How was your hunting trip with Charles?” you ask, your hands on your hips as you smile at him.

“Oh, just fine. Here, I gotta say hi to mama.” He puts Laura down and folds his arms around you, kissing your lips. You both laugh when you hear Laura pretend to gag.

“Mr. Collins, Mr. Collins!” Carson bursts in. “That coyote’s back, scaring the chickens!”

Arthur looks at Carson and lets you go, complaining about greedy coyotes as he follows Carson out.

It was Arthur’s idea to change your aliases. You wanted to keep the name Tacitus Kilgore because it was easy for you to remember, but Arthur said it was likely associated with Dutch by now. He suggested the name William Arthur Collins. It made it easy if you called him Arthur in front of strangers. You changed your name to Y/F/N Alice Collins.

“Are the chickens gonna get hurt?” Laura asks.

“No, sweetie. Papa will take care of them. Come on, we gotta get dinner going.”

You scoop her up with a little difficulty and go inside to start cooking dinner while Arthur chases the coyote off. He comes inside after a few moments, explaining Carson’s fixing the chickens’ fence.

“I got a surprise for you two,” he says, placing his satchel and his hat on the table. Laura runs over and squeals in delight when he hands her a stuffed squirrel toy. “A squirrel for my squirrel,” he says. She hugs his leg and then runs off to plop against Timber, who’s laying down near the table.

Arthur smiles and approaches you, holding something behind his back. “Here’s your surprise.”

He hands you a familiar book. You tear up when you read the name “Fire Bringer”. You lost your copy when the gang fell apart, after you lost everything else too. You wanted to get a new copy, but it was a hard book to find.

“Thank you,” you say. He smiles and kisses you. When you stretch back down, you look at him.

“I’ve got a surprise for you too,” you say. He smiles at you, waiting. You grab his hand and place it on your stomach. His brows furrow for a second and then lift as he realizes what it means.

“You’re… again?” he whispers.

You nod and he smiles the biggest he’s done since he first walked in. He pulls you into a hug. “I don’t deserve none of you, but thank you for this, sweetheart.”

“Oh shush, Arthur Morgan. You deserve all this and even more. I love you.”

The End

**Thank you all so much for going on this journey with me. It breaks my heart to end this fic, but it has been such an amazing ride. I would never have gotten far without all the encouragement I’ve received. I cannot express my gratitude in words, but I’m still amazed at how this led me to meet so many amazing people and the friendships I’ve made because of this fic that was inspired by the incredible game Red Dead Redemption 2. Thank you all so much!**

#rdr2 #rdr2 fanfic #red dead redemption 2 #red dead fanfic #arthur morgan #arthur x reader #arthur morgan x oc #arthur morgan x reader #arthur morgan x female reader #arthur x female reader #arthur morgan x female #R* Games #rockstar games #Van Der Linde Gang #I'm awkward #second chances

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artificialqueens · 7 years

Text

Justifying the American Dream *Title may change* (GROUP FIC/MULTISHIP) ~ Grinder

AN: I know I said I’d return after my University work is over but I wanted to post this little pilot thingie early to see how it does. I’ve got most of my Uni work done, right now I just gotta do an exam and I’m finished.

So basically this is something I wanna work heavily on after Courtney’s Infinite Search for Love. The premise is that paper and metallic money doesn’t exist anymore. The World now makes payments via digital transfers and purchases. There are reasons for this which I’ll explain in later chapters of the fic. But one day there’s a glitch in the system and so many families across the World are left penniless. When the Government refuse to give the families anything from the issue, riots break out all over.

Now you’re probably wondering how Drag Queens come into this but it will explain as the story goes along. For now all I’ll say is that the LGBT is a targeted and persecuted community in this fic therefore the Queens are trying to hide it out and survive against their enemies.

Sorry for the long explanation! I will reupload this chapter at a later date if I feel errors need to be corrected or if certain elements or Queens are missing.

For now! Enjoy :)

*Area 05*Exploris Bay Aquarium 12:43PM

‘Christ, I don’t know if I can stand one more day in this fish bowl. Smells like 200 lesbians just had an orgy on their periods in here.’

Bianca scoffed passing by the giant tank of which Adore was perched at the top on the ledge. The young Queen scraped up a large amount of fish chunks and tossed it into the tank for her babies to feed.

“Wow! You sharkie babies are pretty hungry today, huh?” Adore cooed at the two sharks that circled the tank and ate their meal.

“Better be careful, Delasshole,” Bianca called, “they may be your babies. But you’re also in their plate of foods.”

“Fuck all the way off. They love me.” Adore called back, flipping Bianca off before throwing more fish into the tank. “Where are you going anyway?”

Before leaving the ‘Shark Suite’, Bianca turned once again, looking up to her young friend. “Dela and Manila are back from scavenging. I’m just letting them in. Relax, Queen.”

“Party!” Adore replied, setting the tray to the side. She grabbed for an extra large chunk of fish from the bucket (thank god she was wearing gloves) and held it above the water. “Bette! You want an extra-large piece? I know you chunkier girls prefer a little extra.”

It was easy to tell which shark was which. Bette was the short but chubby Bull shark, formally known as ‘Snap’. How original. Then there was Joan. The long and skinny Mako shark. Her name was the worst. ‘Killer’. It made the Queen cringe hard.

“Beeeeeeette!” Adore whined as the shark completely blanked her. “Stop being a bitch.”

Bianca had returned to the room, Manila and Bendelacreme following in her trail.

“Feeding your ‘puppies’ again?” Manila teased.

“Yeah, but they’re not complying!” Adore continued to whine.

“I wouldn’t do that, honey,” Dela warned, “You could lose a hand.”

“Why would I lose a hand? They know I’m their Mom.” Adore protested before her face became goofy again and she turned her attention back to her pets. “Isn’t that right, babies?”

Adore screamed as one of her children sprang up from the water snatching the fish from her hand. The Queen pushed herself away from the edge of the tank, her back plastered against the wall and her breathing ragged.

‘Bette always was a feisty bitch.’ Bianca thought to herself as they laughed at Adore’s current state.

“Come on, Steve Irwin. Team meeting!” Bianca called up to the young Queen again. She turned to Dela and Manila and said in a quiet voice, “his career ended as well. Too soon?”

Manila and Dela shook their heads and chucked at the statement, not loud enough for Adore to hear.

“O-Oh…Okay…Gimme a second to collect myself.” Adore called to the other Queens, trying to calm herself from her near death experience.

-_-_-_-

Adore had informed Raja and Ginger of Manila and Dela’s return bringing the whole team to the staff room of the aquarium.

“There’s good news and bad news.” Manila began. “Which one first?”

“Bad.” Bianca replied.

“This is all the food we managed to get.” Manila responded setting a small package down on the table. “There is absolutely nothing left. All of the houses and stores have been completely raided.”

“Fuck.” Bianca cursed, leaning over and letting her face fall into her hands.

Adore only hoped that the good news was enough to help them forget about the thought of their oncoming starvation.

“We knew eventually there would be no food left anyway. Don’t forget, it’s not just us trying to survive. Think about those starving families all across the country.” Raja groaned, flipping her raven hair over her shoulder.

“I’m aware.” Bianca snapped. She rubbed her forehead in frustration before turning to Adore. “Sorry to tell you but you gotta cut back on the amount of fish you feed to your ‘children’. Fish themed meals from now on, ladies.”

Adore looked greatly disappointed but remained silent. She knew Bianca was right. The lives of her team were obviously a bigger priority than Bette and Joan’s. The poor sea babies would starve eventually. The thought of not being able to take care of them anymore only made a lump form in her throat. It was the only thing keeping her from going insane when confined in the abandoned aquarium.

“And the good news?” Bianca inquired, looking back to Dela and Manila.

“We saw Bob.” Manila stated, in a matter-of-fact tone but smiled at the other Queens.

“And her team? In the van?” Ginger exclaimed eagerly, leaning forward in her seat.

“Yeah, they drove right by us. At first we thought it was gonna be trouble but we saw Michelle Visage and Cynthia Lee Fontaine in the front. That’s how we got this package. They threw it out the window when they passed by.” Manila replied, clearly awestruck.

“Wow. You Queens saw someone famous. Great news.” Bianca fumed, sarcasm thick in her tone.

“Lighten up, Scrooge.” Dela snapped back. “They’ll have Area 05 searched by now. They’ll know where all the supplies and resources are at. All we gotta do is pick up their signal and get to the locations before anyone else does.”

Ginger stood up from her seat and went to retrieve the radio, leaving the rest of the team to continue discussing the situation.

“So…food?” Raja asked hopefully.

“And ammunition.” Manila replied, smiling hopefully.

Adore’s face lightened up again at the sound of her second favourite ‘F’ word. “So I can still feed Bette and Joan?”

“Slow down, honey. We gotta see if there are any resources around here first.” Dela held up her hand as if Adore were about to pounce on her with happiness.

“And we shall find out pretty soon.” Ginger continued, returning with the radio. Taking her seat again, she flicked the switch bringing the machine to life. Flicking through the channels they mostly picked up static. After a minute of searching, the familiar sound Bob the Drag Queen’s voice filled the room.

“…just about left Area 05, ladies and gentlemen. As always, we have no idea when we’ll be back but keep on tuning in and we’ll be sure to keep you updated. For all the Queens out there, we had our sisters in drag, Robbie and Laila, search the area and, guuurl, is it good news. We have unlocked the storage units at the back of the mall and they are flooded with surprises. But don’t forget to be mindful of your fellow sisters out there. Sharing is caring.”

“We’re heading straight there,” Bianca informed Adore and Raja before listening to the rest of the announcement.

“And also be sure to check out the Prison on the edge of town. Word is it’s crowded with Queens. Take weapons, take a good few of your team and check that place out. If the rumour is true, don’t hesitate to join forces. After all, an army is more effective than a group. Good luck and don’t fuck it up.”

As soon as Bob’s voice was gone, Adore smiled as Kill the DJ took over. It had been so long since she heard Green Day. But Bianca wasted no time in remembering the good old days when good music existed as she was already standing and looking to Adore. “Come on, bitch. Get ready. You too Raja. I wanna get there as soon as possible.”

“Relax, man! Don’t forget we gotta leave some for everyone else too!” Adore whined.

“’Relax, man’.” Bianca mocked. “I’m not planning on taking everything. There could be other selfish people out there you know. We could get there and nothing’s left. Besides we probably wouldn’t have enough arms to carry all of whatever’s there.”

“Ohhh! Party!” Adore beamed, standing up from her seat. They three Queens left the room to get ready for their scavenger hunt.

“So what’s in the goody bag?” Ginger asked, now that the air seemed much more relaxed.

Dela began to unwrap the package revealing inside some food and a letter. The Seattle Queen unfolded the letter and began reading in her usual quirky tone.

“Dear Friend(s),

It was nice to see you earlier! We’re glad to see a lot more Drag Queens continuing to survive through this nightmare of a life we live now. Anyway, as always, have a goody bag on behalf of our team. Inside you’ll find cookies, sandwiches, fresh water and a little something extra (thanks to Laganja Estranja of the House of Edwards) for you Queens who like the ‘Devils lettuce’.

Keep in mind. This pack won’t last long so use it wisely.

As we say always and forever…

Good luck and don’t fuck it up!

Michelle V. & the Bob’s Broadcasts team.

“Well that was lovely.” Dela commented, passing the note to the other Queens. “Do you think they do this for everyone?”

“Of course, honey.” Ginger replied, reading over the note.

“I’m referring to the LGBT community only.” Dela added.

“Well, I’ve briefly read one of these notes before. That’s a story for another day. They’re practically all the same. I remember the part when it says ‘We’re glad to see a lot more Drag Queens bla bla bla’. So it most likely is only for us. It’s not like the broken families are missing out though. I heard there’s this guy who does something similar and travels around the country handing out food and supplies. But it’s way more than this pack.” Ginger explained, gesturing to the goodie bag.

“Do you guys remember the day everything went to shit?” Dela asked, her tone lowering upon moving on to such a dark topic.

“For who? All those families or for us?” Ginger replied solemnly.

Dela was silent for a few seconds, observing Ginger as she passed the letter to Manila and shook her head, pulling a cigarette from its box.

“All of us.” The Seattle Queen replied lifting her gaze to Ginger.

“I don’t wanna be that Queen. But how about we talk about that later. Right now, let’s just enjoy our goodie bag.” Ginger replied, lighting her cigarette. She breathed in its fumes, sinking back into her chair as a smoke cloud escaped her lips.

“Should I let Bianca and the girls borrow my pineapple purse?” Manila suggested, moving away from the dark topic and thinking about her fellow teammates.

“Still think it brings good luck?” Dela teased including a giggle.

“Of course, girl. And besides;” Manila paused, leaning her head on Dela’s shoulder, sighing heavily, “You know what Adore’s like. Always causing trouble. Maybe she’ll need it.”

“True.” Dela replied, wrapping her arm around her worn out friend. “She’s one untameable Queen.”

*5 miles out of Area 18* 01:14PM

“So, what do you think?” Tatianna chirped, tossing her carrier bag on the double bed, to which it only fell off. Turning to face Alyssa, she beamed a bright smile as she tried to contain her excitement.

Alyssa threw her jacket to the side as she observed the bedroom. It was quite cute actually. “I won’t lie. It’s not bad. Kinda pretty.”

Tatianna approached Alyssa, squealing with excitement and wrapping her slender arms around her waist. She squeezed her slightly, planting a kiss on her cheek. “I told you so!”

“Yeah, but listen baby, I still don’t think this is safe.” Alyssa pointing her finger in her friend’s face whilst still admiring the room. “It may be in the middle of nowhere. But that doesn’t mean we’ll never get our gay asses caught. For all we know this farm house ain’t abandoned. The family could be on vacation or something.”

Tatianna rolled her eyes at Alyssa’s whining despite finding it adorable as always. “Well they haven’t been receiving mail. So…”

Alyssa pulled out of Tatianna’s embrace, remaining silent as she went to unpack her bag.

“Coooome on. Relax, Alyssa.” Tatianna rolled her eyes as she reached for her own bag.

“And not to mention that we’re most likely not the only people eyeing this place up. There could be all sorts of hooligans and Queens and creepers and - -”

Alyssa was caught off guard as Tatianna wrapped her arms around her again and pulling her abruptly down onto the bed. Seeing the older Queen’s shocked reaction, Tatianna giggled.

“No, Tati. We just got here. God, gurl, you’re so thirsty.” Alyssa spoke sternly, pointing a finger in Tatianna’s face yet remained lying on her side facing her friend.

“I know, you just need to lie down and relax. God. Get your mind out of the gutter.” Tatianna smirked.

“Nah, baby. We should unpack first,” Alyssa pointed out.

“But old men gotta have their rest!” Tatianna continued to tease. Before Alyssa could even protest about being read, the younger Queen silenced her as she pressed her lips against hers. Despite the sudden clash, her pink lips were soft.

Tatianna lifted her hand to Alyssa’s cheek, caressing her skin gently as their lips moved in sync against each other.

“ALYSSA! YOU GOTTA SEE THIS!”

Alyssa and Tatianna pulled apart quickly, sitting upright on the bed. Alyssa’s eyes widened at the sight of Laganja and Shangela in the doorway. The two looked completely speechless, naturally.

“Well? What is it??” Alyssa demanded, a hint of annoyance to her tone.

“Uhhh…I just wanted to let you know they have a weed grow room.” Laganja tried to explain but finding herself distracted by their messy lipstick. “I can supply more to Bob again.”

Alyssa nodded her head slowly as her eyes just pierced into Ganja’s with that familiar stare she did - god she was such an intense person. “OK, well you two go do…whatever you want, but no leaving the farm! Just get to know the place, set up safety guards or something. Play hide and seek or something.”

“Smoke?” Laganja inquired earning a nudge from Shangela.

“Whatever you want, girl.” Alyssa shook her head but couldn’t help but smirk slightly.

“And what are you two gonna be doing over the duration of the time we do all this?” Shangela teased, folding her arms.

“A lot of unpacking.” Tatianna cut in.

“Well, have fun unpacking our things for us too, girl. Really appreciate it.” Shangela beamed a toothy grin at her as she turned to leave, Laganja following her actions. Before they could leave, Shangela turned around once more looking at the two Queens. “Don’t forget to lock the door this time.”

Before they could see their drag mothers horrified face, the two Queens quickly shut the door, rushed downstairs and out the front door.

*Outskirts of Area 05* 01:17PM

Thorgy Thor took a seat on a bean bag as the engine fired up and the van began to move. She took a bite into her small sandwich when she looked around to Cynthia who was now sitting in the back with the rest of the group, not normal for Cynthia. She always insisted on helping Michelle in the front. Thorgy didn’t like the look on her face quite. She was always so cheerful and full of high energy. But it was the complete opposite in that moment.

“You’ve been kinda quiet since we left Area 05. Something wrong, Cynthia?” Thorgy asked, shuffling closer to her friend.

“I dunno. I don’t think I should bring it up ‘cause everyone’s quite happy right now, you know?” Cynthia uttered, looking around to her team seeing them so happy and entertained.

Thorgy briefly looked away from Cynthia and to her hands, quickly thinking of something else to say, before returning her gaze to the brunette. “Well, if there’s something really getting to you then just know I’m all ears.”

Cynthia smiled and nodded her head before gesturing the Queen to get closer. “It’s just…whenever we pass by Queens on the road I always wonder if I’ll ever see April and Kandy.”

Thorgy’s mouth formed an O as she listened. Taking the information, she looked away and nodded her head. “We probably will eventually. Maybe not any time soon. It could happen a month from now for all we know. A year? Any time to be honest. But we promise, if we do see them, they’re coming with us.”

“But to be honest, with their behaviour the way it is right now, they’re gonna get themselves killed.” Cynthia presumed, sighing heavily.

“You gotta stop listening to the news, honey.” Thorgy cautioned her, holding her hands now.

“I know.” Cynthia groaned looking back to Thorgy. “But I just always worry that they could be in some sort of trouble and I don’t know about it and I miss the chance to help them.”

“Trust me, Cynthia. If that day does come, you’ll know.”

*Boston* Peninsula Apartments 5:30PM

“I’m so bored Brian.”

“Me too, Brian.”

Brian McCook stared out the window of his apartment looking down to the people passing by, free to do whatever they wanted and free to live however they wanted.

His other half, Brian Firkus was seated on the couch, flicking through the gallery on his phone and stopping occasionally at images of his guitar.

“House arrest is the worst.” Brian Mc sighed with frustration, tapping lightly on the window.

“Well,” Brian F started, “that’s what you get for breaking the law.”

Brian F was fully aware of his friend’s house arrest punishment. Yet the crime was still unknown to him. When asked, Brian Mc would only say how he actually deserved what he got. He had once said it wasn’t an extravagant sort of crime like murder or whatever. ‘Cause what crime you commit…isn’t always a shoot up.

“How am I supposed to find a job now if I can’t leave this place?” Brian Mc whined. “I’m definitely not getting money before the rent is due. I guess I’m gonna be homeless soon.” He paused to sigh heavily. “Why is my life so full of problems?”

“You won’t be homeless because you’ll be living here with me while you search for a mother fucking job and new home.” Brian F informed his friend like he did every time this topic came up. “Or you can happily stay with me if you enjoy it AND if you bring in some cash.”

Brian Mc turned his attention away from the window, groaning loudly to exaggerate his frustration. “But don’t you think this city is so boring? I hate this fucking place. It’s full of brainwashed clowns and dead but fully functioning families.”

“I guess it is. I’m sorry, honey, but it’s unfortunately the world we live in today.” Brian F replied, sitting down on the white sofa.

“What happened to the good old days? You know? Gay night clubs. Pride. Just being publicly gay and proud?”

“It’s unfortunately the world we live in today.” Brian F repeated before sighing and kicking his feet up on the furniture. “I suppose you could still be openly and publicly gay but think about the press all those gays out there are getting right now. They might as well go out and straight up ask someone to pop a cap in their asses ‘cause that’s where they’re headed anyway.”

“Yeah but remember; there are some fierce bad ass mother fucking gays out there.” Brian Mc added before his eyes widened and he started waving his hand at his friend. “Ooh! Ooh! Remember that duo we read about in the paper? The two Puerto Rican Drag Queens!”

“I do.”

“I bet we could do something like that. Going out and taking back our rights and shooting up bars full of homophobes and just travelling all over the country spreading the word!”

“That’s a terrible idea.” Brian F replied lifting the needle from the record. “You’re under house arrest and the press will find that out and expose you. A gay criminal traveling across the country with intentions of killing people would make great headlines for the press.”

“I know! But fuck all that! If the Puerto Rican kids can do it, so can we.”

“Well, firstly, those Puerto Rican’s are also Drag Queens. Not just normal re-closeted gays like you and I. They’re both hot as fuck and know what they’re doing. And, secondly, I’m gonna be honest with you.” Brian F started, leaning up on the couch and turning to face his friend. “You and I are idiots. It’s no lie. We are the biggest goof balls going and think about it. Comic relief characters usually get killed off in the movies pretty fast. Like Dobbie from Harry Potter.”

“But that’s just a dumb fake ass movie. I’m pretty sure we could make a statement. Not necessarily by causing mayhem at some bar but through survival. Brian, we could be legends.” Brian Mc pleaded. “I know we’re two dumb guys just thirsty for attention but we have so much going for us.”

“Like what?”

“We’re funny as fuck, well not right now, but usually. You’re a really cute guy and well, I guess I’m not too bad either. We’re charismatic as fuck. We’re unique as fuck. And we’re talented as fuck!” Brian Mc exclaimed, counting his points with his fingers. “And I know deep down that you and I have enough nerve to actually challenge those persecuting our people!”

“Yeah, I guess that is accurately us. But they’re gonna track us down and then our asses are grass.” Brian F continued to explain. “Just bury your dream.”

Brian Mc frowned, slouching on the window sill and resuming his observation.

He couldn’t stand to be part of the system; Hiding his true self, seeking some boring job to help pay bills, putting in his contribution to help create a better society for the people. He longed to live the life he wanted for himself. All he hoped for was to travel the country and encourage those people just like him to not be afraid and stand up against those who wronged them.

But he couldn’t. He knew his friend was right. Even something as small as holding a man’s hand in a store would only earn him a picture in the front page of the cities paper. And knowing those shady bitches, they’d have the worst mug shot to go along with the giant print of his name under the picture. How lucky those Puerto Rican’s are with their pictures in the papers – makeup on point. Hair styled to perfection. How it must’ve been to lead the life of a bad ass, killer, revolutionary Drag Queen.

“Wait!” Brian Mc shot up. “Thats it! Who has to know it’s us! We can go in fucking disguise.”

“Thanks for the idea, Robbie Rotten.” Brian F replied sarcastically.

“No! Shut up! Hear me out, OK. We could go as Drag Queens!” He exclaimed smiling madly at the idea. “How would they even know it’s us? Come on. With a little bit of makeup and some padding or whatever we could become America’s most bad ass Queens.”

“That,” Brian F paused to point a finger directly at his friend, “is yet another awful idea. We don’t even have experience in doing drag.”

“Actually I have experience in experimenting with makeup!” Earning a quizzical look from his friend, Brian Mc rolled his eyes and quickly added, “Jodie Foster Contact make inspired tutorial…Anyway I could pass my knowledge on to you.” Brian Mc’s eyes widened again. “I could be your drag mother.”

“OK. Just for the fun of it I will happily let you do my makeup right now. But I’m not following your Bonnie and Clyde dream thing.”

A few hours and struggles later, Brian F was standing in front of the full length mirror, his mouth hanging open to create a wide O. He couldn’t even recognize the man -or in this case woman- looking back at him through the glass.

“Look at huuuuuuh!” Brian Mc exclaimed creeping up behind his good friend. “She’s got the face of a Barbie doll, the body of Beyonce and the attitude of a mother fucking Drag Queen.”

“I look…nothing like me. It’s like looking at another person. In fact, what person looks like this? I look like a completely different brand of human. I look like my name should be ‘Trixie’ or something.”

“That could be your drag name! Trixie!”

Brian F turned and pointed a perfectly manicured finger in his friend’s face. “No. We’re not becoming Drag Queens, Brian.”

“I’m gonna do my face now.” Brian Mc informed him, ignoring the last comment.

And after another few hours, the moon was now cascading the sky and Brian Mc basked in its glow as he looked at his own reflection.

“I look like a Goddess. I look like the most desirable creature to have ever walked. I look like a legit woman right now.”

“But, girl, look how much you got on! You’re wearing chapstick and mascara compared to my makeup.”

“I know.” Brian Mc continued to admire himself.

“So you get to look like that and I have to look like this?”

“Yep!”

“Great!” Brian F replied, rolling his eyes.

Brian Mc looked away from himself and to his friend’s reflection. “Yeah but don’t you like yours? Like really really like it?”

“Well, yeah, I guess I do really really like it. My eyes look pretty cool. And my lips kinda look like marshmallows.”

“I like what I’ve done to me so far so I dont wanna ruin it by added to it, you know?”

“I get you. So, what’s your drag name.”

Brian Mc thought about it in silence before quickly spinning around and jumping up and down with excitement. “Ooh! Karen from finance.”

“There’s already a Karen from finance.”

“Fuck!”

“If it helps, I once watched an interview with a French Drag Queen who said the perfect Drag name is one that represents you and your interests.”

“Oh, what was her name?”

“Ben Dover. I guess she really liked reaching over tables for things.” Brian F briefly smirked, letting his humorous side come back, before getting back on topic. “But yeah, choose something to do with interests or something like that.”

“I have so many interests though.”

“Well on the count of three, just shout the first interest that comes to your head and we’ll go from there.” Brian F explained. “OK. 3…2…1 - -”

“I LIKE TO TALK IN RUSSIAN TO MEN BEFORE WE HAVE SEX ‘CAUSE IT RILES THEM UP FASTER.”

Silence…Absolute silence…

“Well?” Brian Mc urged.

“You can’t speak Russian.” His friend replied shaking his head giving his friend a quizzical look.

“Yes I can! It’s easy! And guys really do enjoy it. A little too much to be honest.” Brian Mc explained with excitement, beaming proudly of his hidden talent.

“I don’t believe it.”

“Which part? I speak Russian or it really does wonders for my sex life?”

“Both. I need proof.”

“колбаса.”

Brian Mc was confused hearing a loud moan emit from his friend’s mouth he collapsed to his knees. “The fuck happened to you?”

“OK. You’re right!” Brian F replied, standing up again and smoothing down his new outfit, blushing with embarrassment at what had just happened. “You do speak Russian. And it is quite…nice to listen to. How about something to do with that?”

“What about the most Russian name ever? Like something really hard to pronounce!” Brian Mc suggested. “How about ‘Yekaterina Petrovna Zamolodchikova’? Oh my God, I really wish I could hear those brainwashed jerks pronounce that on TV.”

“I like it, but let’s be honest. Who’s got time to say all of that? Pick something shorter, at least for me to use.”

“OK. I’m gonna go with...‘Katya’?”

“’Katya.’” Brian F repeated. “Yeah. ‘Katya’. I like that one.”

“Katya and Trixie it is! Oh my God, I’m so excited!”

“What for? We’re still not becoming out laws.”

Brian Mc practically threw himself at his friend’s feet. “Please, Trixie! I know we can do this. Yeah we may be two goof balls. But we can really do this. Think of all the young gay people out there right now suffering because not enough is being done to help us. Our people are shit on daily all because of one dumb Drag Queen’s actions. It’s not fair and it’s time for someone to take a stand.”

“But the Puerto Rican’s- -”

“OK, forget about the Puerto Rican’s. We can do a better job than them. I mean, all they do is go around the country killing people. We can make a more effective statement! Please, Trixie. Please understand.”

Brian F was silent for a moment. Throughout the duration of Brian Mc’s speech, he noted the hint cracking to his voice. He really did care about his community. “You know, sometimes I do wish times could go back to the way they were. All of this happened because of that one Drag Queen.” He paused. “But why? I just don’t get what would bring a Drag Queen to go out into the street and just shoot down a child. Actually, what would bring anyone to do that?”

“I don’t know. But, if I ever meet him, it’s not gonna be pretty.” Brian Mc threatened.

“To be honest, he’s probably long gone. No one ever found out what actually happened to him. And so many Queen’s and gay people have been persecuted since.” Brian F explained.

“Well, if that is the case he’s lucky. I could just…could just…” Brian Mc couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence.

“Let’s not talk about this. I’m gonna take all this stuff off and go home and sleep. I think it’s best you get some rest too.” Brian F hinted, taking one last look at his reflection and admiring the woman standing there.

“Don’t you wanna watch a movie before you leave?”

“Nah, we got an early rise tomorrow.” Brian F replied, collecting his things from the coffee table and putting them in his satchel.

Brian Mc’s painted eyebrows knit together now. “What? Why?”

“Well, we gotta hit the road tomorrow.” Brian F turned to his friend, the side of his mouth curling up to a smirk. Brian Mc let a grin spread on his face as excitement took him over. “Don’t forget to pack a suitcase. Bring your makeup, whatever girls clothes you got, shit for padding and duck tape. I got us covered for fire arms. They’re kinda shit but they’re for basic home safety. Hopefully we can pick up better weapons later in life. And also- -”

Brian F couldn’t continue as his friend was up on his feet and tackling him into a hug. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

“You best hope I don’t randomly change my mind, bitch.”

“I’m so scared. But excited at the same time!” Brian Mc exclaimed, tears of joy threatening to spill from his eyes. “Fuck this house arrest gig anyway!”

“Tomorrow you’ll be free again!” Brian F smiled, pulling away from the other Brian.

“And we are going to be so revolutionary!”

The two pulled away and looked to their reflections before Brian F cocked his hip to the side, posing proudly. “Katya and Trixie.”

“Trixie and Katya. The sound of it sends shivers down my spine. We’re gonna be amazing.” Brian Mc declared as he wrapped his arms around Brian F once more before attempting to climb him like a koala climbing a tree.

#multiship #trixya #alyssa x tatianna #biadore #trixie mattel #katya zamolodchikova #adore delano #bianca del rio #alyssa edwards #laganja estranja #angst #grinder #rpdr fanfiction #submission #queen au #justifying the american dream

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worryinglyinnocent · 7 years

Text

Fic: The Most Beautiful Mistake (3/?)

Summary: Belle French and ‘Rumpel’ Gold have been best friends for a long time, ever since Belle first walked into Gold’s yarn shop. One stormy night, one bottle of wine, and a couple of heartfelt confessions later, and their relationship will never be the same again.

Rated: NC-17 overall, this chapter is T.

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[One] [Two] [AO3]

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Three

Belle didn’t think that she had ever been so scared. Sitting on the edge of the bathtub with a white plastic stick clutched in her hand and her heart beating painfully in her mouth, she bit down on her tongue, closing her eyes and wishing that it would all go away. Gaston was out, he’d gone hunting with Keith and he wouldn’t be back till late in the evening, probably half-cut from stopping off at the Rabbit Hole on the way home. It was now or never; there was no way that she’d be able to do this with Gaston in the house and no way she’d be able to do it at the library. She wanted the comfort and privacy of home in case it all went south, not some cramped impersonal cubicle. She’d half-considered getting back into her shut up apartment above the library, but it seemed a bit of a stretch to get the water turned back on just so that she could wee on a stick and wait in awful silence for the results. Sure, there was the vain hope that everything was all right and there was no need for her to worry at all, that it was just something she’d eaten or… whatever lie she was feeding herself to try and make herself feel better and not freak out.

The fact remained that she was late. Her period hadn’t shown up ten days after it was meant to and being on the Pill meant that she was regular as clockwork. One day she might have understood. Ten were cause for concern. Added to the nausea she’d been feeling constantly for the past week, and the writing was on the wall, let alone on the pregnancy test. The timer on her phone beeped. Crunch time.

Belle was not in the slightest bit surprised to see the plus sign in the window. In a way it was a relief, firstly that her worries had not been unfounded and were now confirmed and secondly because if she wasn’t pregnant then there was something else significantly wrong with her. But despite the relief that she felt, there was a gnawing sensation creeping in the pit of her stomach that had nothing to do with her present condition. She was on the Pill. She wasn’t supposed to be able to get pregnant. Added to that, during the last few weeks, she’d been keeping Gaston at arm’s length, citing tiredness and headaches and definitely not bringing up the fact that she’d slept with her best friend whilst he’d been away for the weekend. So many lies, all piling up on top of each other, and Belle was feeling suffocated by them all. She was in too deep now though, and she glanced again at the pregnancy test. Way too deep. What the hell was she supposed to do now? How had this even happened? She threw the test into the sink, slipping off the rim of the tub and sliding down the side until she was sitting on the floor, curled up tight into a ball, resting her head on her knees, and she let the tears fall. She was pregnant, she was allowed to be emotional.

Ordinarily her first instinct would have been to call Gold, to ask his advice on what to do next, but that was out of the question. They had not spoken as friends since that fateful night, Belle respecting his need for space and just exchanging the usual pleasantries with him in passing, as if they were strangers who barely knew each other rather than friends who knew most of each other’s deepest and darkest secrets and who had seen each other naked. Belle remembered the feel of his hands on her and closed her eyes, sinking into the memory of his touch before ice flooded her veins. They hadn’t used a condom. She’d been so sure of her Pill and they’d gone bareback.

Oh God, the baby was going to be his. She counted backwards, looking at the calendar on her phone and working out how many weeks it had been, grabbing her Pill blister pack and looking at the punched out holes in it, fishing the empty packs out of the waste bin and spreading them out frantically on the floor then going to grab her handbag and emptying its contents out there with them.

A single tiny pill rolled out of the folds of her handbag lining and Belle swore, pressing her hands over her face and trying to work out what the hell to do now. She’d skipped her pill the night she’d slept with Gold and she hadn’t even realised. She’d seen the correct number punched out the next day and she’d happily assumed that everything was all right. Now that she thought back though, it was painfully clear that she’d not taken it. She’d missed it just once, and it was that one day that had caused all this. God she was in trouble, and she gave a snort of laughter at her choice of words. She’d always laughed when reading old novels when the unwed pregnant heroines were referred to as being in trouble. She’d never really thought of it in that way before now, but oh boy, she was in trouble, and she had no idea who to turn to. She couldn’t go to Gold, what on earth would she say? Hey, you know we slept together and I know you’re trying very hard to forget that fact but guess what? We made a baby. Gaston was out of the question too. She wasn’t sure if he’d work out that it wasn’t his, but she still couldn’t tell him in all good faith.

Rational thought was slow to come, but she reached it in the end. She needed to see a doctor first. She needed to be sure that her hypothesis was correct; there was no use in getting in a complete state about something that might not even be true. Once that was done and she had concrete facts, then she could work out what the hell to do next. Carefully, and with a calmness that two minutes ago she didn’t think that she would ever possess again, Belle cleared up the debris on the bathroom floor and tidied up her purse, then rinsed off the pregnancy test and wrapping it in tissue, put it into her purse to dispose of elsewhere. Gaston was not the type to pay any attention to what was in the garbage, but she really didn’t want him to notice the positive test and ask her about it. Having a baby was not something that they had ever discussed during their relationship so far and Belle had worked on the principle that they would leave off such discussions about starting a family until nearer the time. Neither of them were ready for it now. Well, she definitely wasn’t ready and she was the one who was actually going to have a baby.

For a brief moment she considered just getting an abortion as soon as possible. No-one would be any the wiser. She wouldn’t need to tell anyone. She could forget that it had happened. Go to the hospital for a couple of days, take a couple of pills… She was sure that she could spin some kind of excuse that Gaston would believe, he knew how sick she’d been feeling these past couple of days after all.

No. No matter who the father of this child was and how the baby had come to be, they deserved to know about its existence at least, and have some kind of input in what happened next. And the thought of heaping more lies on top of all the ones that she was already spouting did not sit well in her gut. This was no longer something that she could keep running away from. The shock of discovering that she was pregnant – or at least the grim and cold reality of having her suspicions confirmed to be right – had told her one thing very clearly. No matter what happened, no matter whether she kept the baby or not, she knew that it was time to end her relationship with Gaston. He deserved better than the falsehoods she was giving him, and she couldn’t stand to live with so many lies eating her up any more. It was not going to be pretty, but it had to be done, and she knew that she would feel better for having done it and cleared the air.

Belle finally left the bathroom, determination in her stance as she set out to face some home truths, and she called the hospital to make an appointment at the gynaecology clinic.

“I brought doughnuts just as you asked and I also brought wine. It sounded like you might need it.” Ruby bounced into the living room of the private area of the bed and breakfast. Belle gave the bottle a rueful smile. When she’d called Ruby asking if they could have a girls’ night in at her place, she had known that her friend would supply alcohol, but she hadn’t wanted to warn her against it over the phone, not wanting to get into the details of why during that conversation. Now she had the entire evening to spill her guts and ask her friend’s advice on what to do next.

Her appointment at the hospital had only served to confirm what she had already suspected for herself. She was six weeks pregnant and the timing matched up perfectly to the night she had spent with Rumpel. She waited for Ruby to get comfortable on the sofa and pour a glass, shaking her head when she pushed the red wine towards her.

“No thanks.”

“Come on, Belle, it’s not like you need to drive anywhere. I hate to say it, honey, but you’ve been looking ghastly these past couple of weeks. Are you feeling ok?”

Belle nodded. She wasn’t feeling ok at all, but she wasn’t ill in the sense that Ruby thought she was ill.

“I’d dearly love a glass of cabernet sauvignon right now Ruby, but I can’t.”

Ruby paused with the bottle tipping over the empty glass, ready to pour, and she stared at Belle for a long time before carefully placing the bottle on the coffee table and shoving the cork back in the top before returning her attention to her friend.

“Oh my god, you’re pregnant.”

Belle nodded, and Ruby squealed, throwing her arms around her friend.

“That’s so fantastic! Oh Belle, that’s amazing! You know Granny’s going to go nuts when you tell her, right? She’ll be offering you all kinds of bits of advice, don’t take any of it, it always sounds suspect to me…” she trailed off as Belle shook her head violently.

“Please don’t tell Granny,” she pleaded. “Please don’t tell anyone. You’re the only person that knows other than the doc because I really don’t know who else to go to.”

Ruby’s face fell. “Shit, you’re really not happy about this, are you? Oh Belle, I’m so sorry, me and my big mouth. I’m so sorry.” She wrapped Belle up in a hug again, stroking her back, and Belle felt the tears welling in her eyes. She’d cried so much over the past couple of days, excusing herself from the library front desk to go and weep in the office more than a few times. She felt so lost and helpless, and letting it all out to a friend at long last was cathartic.

“So what’s up, love?” Ruby murmured. “I’m guessing that this definitely wasn’t planned.”

“No, it’s an accident. We never had any plans for kids at all and to be honest, I’ve been wanting to break it off with Gaston for weeks now. Now this has happened and I know that I’m definitely making the right decision. I just don’t know what to do about the baby.”

“Well, you’re going to have to tell Gaston,” Ruby said. “I think you owe him that much. And you know, if you’ve been going through a rough patch then this might be what brings you together again. I mean, if you choose to have it, of course. But he does need to know.”

Belle shook her head. “That’s the problem, though, Ruby,” she mumbled against her friend’s shoulder.

“Belle, honey, you’re scaring me a bit now,” Ruby said, and Belle finally looked up at her, grabbing a tissue and wiping her eyes.

“Nothing I say will leave this room, right?”

“Of course not. What kind of a friend do you take me for? I know I love my gossip I’m not Leroy. Nothing’s safe with him. But you’re my friend and you’re safe with me.” She held up her little finger. “Pinky promise.”

Belle gave a snort of laughter as she hooked her little finger into Ruby’s. “Anyone would think we were eight years old, not twenty-eight.”

“It always helps to be young at heart,” Ruby said sagely. “Now, tell me what’s going on.”

Belle took a deep breath. She was going to have to tell someone, and all things considered, that someone was going to have to be Ruby.

“It’s not Gaston’s baby,” she said.

Four little words, so simple, and yet giving voice to them had cleared such a weight off her mind. The self-deception that she had been living under for the past few days had gone, her secret out in the open.

Ruby’s eyes widened. “What?”

“Gaston isn’t the father.”

“What do you mean? I mean, are you sure? How do you know? I thought you were on the Pill anyway?”

“Ruby, please calm down, this is awful enough as it is without an interrogation,” Belle pleaded.

“I’m sorry, it’s just when your friend tells you that she’s having a baby that isn’t her fiance’s it does kind of knock you for six a little bit.” She paused and reached across to take Belle’s hand. “Please don’t think I’m judging you, I’m just a little bit surprised, that’s all. I’ve got your back, no matter what happens, and if you don’t want to tell me how this all came about, then that’s ok. Your secret’s safe with me and I’m here for you and your little one, and I’m with you one hundred per cent no matter what you decide to do.” She held up their joint hands. “I’ll hold your hand through whatever it takes, you hear me?”

Belle managed a watery smile. “Thanks, Ruby. That really means a lot.”

“Here.” Ruby held out the bag of doughnuts. “You definitely need one of these before you do anything else.”

Belle grabbed a bear claw, taking a large bite, but the dough cloyed in her mouth and she had to force herself to swallow it, and she laid it back in its paper on the table. Although Ruby had said that she didn’t need to tell her everything, the fact that she had told her one thing meant that the floodgates had been opened somewhat, and Belle needed to get the rest of the tale off her chest. If Ruby was going to help her make a decision about her future and the future of her baby, then she needed the full picture.

“I slept with Gold,” she said quietly. “About six weeks ago, the night of the big storm. I went over to his like I normally do, and it just… happened.”

“Is that why you’ve been acting so aloof towards him lately?” Ruby asked. “I’d noticed but I didn’t like to say anything. Your relationship with him has always been so private, you know.”

Belle nodded. “Honestly, Ruby, I’ve been half in love with him for years. And we were drinking wine and watching Casablanca, and I was thinking about love, and I told him that I didn’t want to marry Gaston anymore and I thought I was making a terrible mistake in staying with him. Which I am, I can definitely see that now.”

“All right, we’ll get back to Gaston in a minute,” Ruby said. “Go on.”

“Well, Gold was obviously trying to make me feel better, he was so sweet, and well, I kissed him. And one thing led to another which led to another which led to his bed. And at the time, I knew that it was a really bad idea, but I really didn’t care because…” She broke off, blushing, not wanting to talk about Gold’s sexual prowess behind his back but at the same time remembering his tongue and fingers on her. She saw Ruby give a smirk.

“Oh, now I have to know,” her friend chuckled. “I have always wondered about him, you know. All that spinning he does, he really ought to know how to use his fingers with finesse.”

Belle nodded. “He really does. It was…”

It was wonderful. One of the best nights of her life. The fallout from it notwithstanding, Belle couldn’t regret the beautiful night that he’d given her.

“But no matter how good it is at the time, there’s always a morning after,” Ruby finished for her. “I saw you that morning, you weren’t looking too good. Did you fight, or what?”

“No, we didn’t fight. It was just so awkward. Gold was so uncomfortable and that made me uncomfortable too. I’d misjudged his feelings, I think. He wanted to make me feel better, which he did, but he really doesn’t see me in that way. He was doing me a favour, really, nothing more, and I guess I expected him to react to my jumping on him with just the same emotions as I had. But he didn’t. He still just saw me as a friend, but now it’s all so… strange. We agreed to give each other some space to work through all the emotions, but my word, Ruby, I miss him so much. And now I have to face him again and despite us both having done our best to put that night to the back of our minds, I’m going to have to dredge it all up again and tell him.”

Ruby nodded. “You do need to tell him.”

Belle shrugged. “How can I, Ruby? It’s my fault. He never asked for this. All he wanted was to make me feel better about everything, and because I pretty much jumped on him and tore his clothes off, sex was the way he did it. Now he’s got a baby out of it.”

“Belle, love, I know you like to blame yourself, but it takes two people to make a baby and Gold is the second person involved in making this one.”

“We didn’t use a condom because I reassured him that I was on the Pill, on the one evening that I forgot to take the bloody thing,” Belle snapped. “I think it’s my fault.”

“These things happen.” Ruby wrapped an arm around her friend. “These things are horrible, but they happen. Don’t blame yourself. Don’t blame anyone else for that matter. Just blame fate because she’s a bitch.”

They sat in silence for a while, the wine still undrunk on the coffee table between them.

“You do have to tell him though,” Ruby said eventually. “I know you don’t want to, but he has to know.”

“He’s already got an adult son, Ruby, I can’t ask him to be involved in raising another child from infancy. And fuck! Neal! What the hell is he going to say about all this? He just knows me as his dad’s friend, I babysat him for crying out loud, I mean, when he gets back from college and finds out I slept with his father and got pregnant…”

“Belle, calm down. Let’s take this one step at a time. You need to tell Gold, but you don’t need to get him involved. You don’t need his permission to take whatever next step you choose to take; it’s your body and your decision, but you need to tell him what’s happened and at least let him talk, even if you don’t listen. I’ll be right there with you if you need me.”

Belle shook her head. “You make it sound like he’s going to deck me one.”

Ruby snorted. “I know Gold well enough to know that he’d never hurt a fly and much less lay a finger on you. But having moral support does not equate to having a bodyguard. Once you’ve told him, you can decide where to go from there.” She paused. “Tell me honestly, your gut instinct – do you want to keep it?”

Belle gave a long sigh. After the first initial shock, when she had been making plans and contingency plans and working out what to do, those plans had always involved her keeping the baby. Even though she and Gaston had never discussed having children, it was something that she knew she wanted to do. She wanted to be a mother. She just hadn’t anticipated becoming one so suddenly. If she and Gaston had been in a more stable place and if the baby was his, she would be happy at her pregnancy. Likewise, if her night with Gold had not ended the way it had done and they had continued to be friends and more than friends, then she would have been happy. It was only the circumstances that were making her so unsure.

“Yes,” she said. “Yes. I want to keep it.”

She was going to be a single mother, but she was going to be a mother.

Belle sighed, leaning into the strength of Ruby’s shoulder. There was so much that she needed to do and so many awkward conversations to be had. The first thing to do was to work out just how she was going to have those conversations, and in what order. She had to get her life in gear; there was someone else depending on her to do so now.

#rumbelle fic #rumbelle #angst #Fic: The Most Beautiful Mistake #Belle French

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