#she also put our club name on an email without okaying the email with us??

[horsemage]

Look, I totally get being too swamped with work to not get to an email immediately but I don’t know how many more “looping everyone in on this”s and “just following up on this”s and “please fill out this when2meet ASAP”s i got left in me man

[dameronology]

love in the time of p.t.a meetings {marcus moreno} - 2/5

summary: your kid has taken a liking to marcus moreno - and frankly, so have you {series masterlist}

warnings: swearing, mentions of divorce & very brief mentions of his wife’s death 

i don’t normally update series this quickly but this was originally one imagine that reached about 11k words lmao so it’s all written, just being split up. i’ve also decided it’s gonna be 5 parts instead of 3, cos i reread the ending and realised i was not done by a longshot. enjoy!

- jazz

Mondays. You hated ‘em.

Everything just seemed so...amplified. The peace and relaxation of the weekend was over and everyone had to go back on the grind. The traffic always seemed worst, the clock seemed to tick backwards and you just wanted to be at home, in bed. After an incident involving the dog, a toaster and a small pan fire, you were already running twenty minutes late and you knew in your soul that your child’s shoes weren’t on the right feet. That, and also he was wearing a Chewbacca onesie to school. It had been a compromise. As in, he was refusing to go to school unless you let him wear the damn thing. It was a compromise. You’d lost. 

On the bright side, the past weekend had been the best you’d had in a long time. Jack had spent all of Saturday afternoon at the Heroics headquarters and he was so worn out, he’d slept through all of Sunday. Marcus Moreno must have a been a fucking wizard, because you’d been trying to tire the kid out for five years. You made a mental note to do something in return, though you sensed there was nothing on God’s green earth that could possibly amount to babysitting the world’s most exhausting child for six hours. You were allowed to say that, because Jack was your world’s most exhausting child and you wouldn’t have changed him for anything. 

‘New week, huh buddy?’ You glanced at Jack in your rear view mirror. He was sat on his booster seat, legs dangling back and forth and a power ranger action figure in his hand. ‘A fresh start.’

‘Can we listen to the song from Cars?’ Jack ignored your comment.

‘You gotta try and behave yourself this week. You’ve seen what happens to people who do follow the rules, right? They get to go work at the Heroics-’

‘- I wanna listen to the song from Cars!’

You wanted to have a deep conversation. Jack wanted to listen to Life Is A Highway. That was...actually, it was exactly how you’d expected that to go. It wasn’t that off of the time you were trying to explain your divorce to him and he’d interrupted you to demand that you put Toy Story on. 

‘Sure thing, kid.’ You rolled your eyes, reaching across to hand him on your phone. ‘D’you know how to spell it-’

Your sentence was cut off by the sound of guitars blaring from the speakers. At least he could work out Spotify.

By some miracle, you managed to make it the school with a few minutes to spare. Because most people had dropped their kids off earlier (see: on time), the lot was pretty empty. That meant you could once again dump your car without regard for the painted white lines -- who had time to park properly on a Monday morning? That was for people who had their shit together.

Leaping out the car, you almost cursed when you tripped over your heels. You didn’t have to wear them, but since you’d started working in a managerial role at your office, you figured it made you look a little more professional. And what was the harm in being a few inches taller? It made you feel powerful.

‘C’mon, J.’ You pulled open the back door, helping Jack leap out the car. 

‘You know, I’m starting to think you can’t park your car at all.’

‘Marcus!’ Jack practically flew out the car, his tiny body suddenly jolting with excitement. 

‘Morning, buddy.’ He replied; he then moved his brown eyes to gaze at you, offering a smile. ‘Hey.’

‘Hey, how you doing?’ You greeted him. ‘I don’t normally see you here in the mornings.’

‘Yeah, I normally drop Missy off at the front but it was one of those mornings, you know? She was taking a little more convincing than usual to go in.’

‘My kid is in a Wookiee onesie and backwards Thomas the Tank Engine shoes and you have the audacity to ask me if I know those mornings? I am those mornings.’ You replied.

Marcus chuckled. ‘I think it’s a look. I especially like the Lightning McQueen sunglasses.’

‘Do you have a super suit?’ Jack asked. ‘Can I try it on?’

‘C’mon, Jack. You’ve already managed to get a tour of the HQ.’ You ruffled his hair. ‘And we gotta get going to school.’

‘But I wanna ask more questions.’ He muttered. ‘I have over a hundred.’

‘Don’t I know it.’ You murmured under your breath. ‘But school is more important.’

‘I don’t wanna go anymore.’

‘I let you wear the onesie. That was our agreement, remember?’

‘All good superheroes have to get an education.’ Marcus reasoned. ‘And if you go in, maybe I can show you my suit at some point?’

'Okay!’ Jack grinned. He wrapped his arms around your waist in a quick hug, before peering up at you with a toothy smile. ‘See ya later!’

He turned on his heel and ripped his backpack from your hand, suddenly speeding up the path and towards school. Had...had that just happened? For once in your life, had you not had to wrench him from the car and wrestle him through the school gates? Move aside, Harry Potter, because Marcus Moreno was the new wizard in town. You might have been a little jealous that he was so good with your son but at the same time, it made you like him even more. He was the first parent at the school that had leant into Jack’s wild tendencies. And, whilst you tried not to think too much about it, even his own dad had struggled to do that. It made your heart warm a little. 

‘You are seriously my favourite person.’ You chimed, leaning back against your car. 

‘Kids with character are way more fun than kids who are well-behaved.’ Marcus replied.

‘I spent forty-five minutes scraping string cheese out the USB port of my computer yesterday, but sure.’ 

He chuckled. ‘No, I’m serious. I don’t encourage Missy to misbehave but she does get herself into some situations. I choose to see it as a testament to her intelligence rather than disobedience.’

‘I refuse to believe for a second that Missy ever misbehaves.’ You shot back back. ‘She seems so well-behaved.’

‘What you see in the parking lot is not a reflection of our whole lives.’ He reminded you.

‘Right, because despite appearances, I’m actually a very put together parent.’ You snorted. ‘But I get what you mean.’

‘I gotta get to work now, but it was good to see you.’ Marcus pulled his car keys out his pocket. ‘I was serious about that suit thing, by the way. He saw my katanas on Saturday.’

‘Katanas?’ You spluttered. ‘My kid managed to start a fire last week out of nothing and you want to give him katanas?!’

‘Maybe I can show you how to use them.’ He flashed you a smile. ‘And then you can pass on the knowledge.’ 

‘That’s probably an even worse idea.’ You shook your head with a laugh, pulling open your car door. ‘I’ll see you around.’

‘You as well. Have a good day, pretty lady.’

--

Did you stop thinking about your exchange at any point during the day? Absolutely not. In fact, you’d already written an email to the local deed poll office to change your legal name to Pretty Lady. 

No, but in all seriousness, you’d been a little giddy about it. Had he been flirting? That didn’t seem like a long shot. You got on well, you’d hung out a bit over the weekend and not to toot your own horn, but you were by no means bad looking. Tired and a little frazzled, sometimes? Yeah. But anyone would have been lucky to have you and you were doing a better job at recognising that, especially since your divorce. 

You were almost ecstatic when it got to 4PM and you hadn’t received a single call from Jack’s teachers. That meant that he had behaved, and what Marcus had said had worked. Because you worked past his finishing time, he usually went to the after-school club till you could come to collect him - it had been a lifesaver, especially since you couldn’t always leave early. He usually came home with some kind of weird arts and crafts. Last week, it had been an unidentifiable item made of dried macaroni and glitter. He’d placed it pridefully on the old fireplace in your lounge. 

After saying goodbye to your co-workers, you headed out the building. Your office was right in the city centre and not too far out from the school. It was a nice place to be; your lunch hour, when you could head out to a street cart and eat your food in the local park, was usually the highlight of your day. It was when you could exist just as you. When you were at work, you were in charge on your entire department. When you were home, you were a parent 24/7. That time to yourself was vital.

As you were heading to your car, your phone began to ring. Your heart almost jumped out your chest when you saw Marcus’ name - he hadn’t called you before, only texted to sort out the previous weekend’s plans with Jack. You quickly organised yourself (he couldn’t see you, dumb ass) and cleared your throat.

‘Hey, everything alright?’ You brightly greeted him.

‘Hey! Are you out of work now?’

‘Yeah, I’m literally just leaving. What’s up?’

‘Look, I hate to do this but I’ve had an emergency at work - superhero related, you don’t wanna know - and I’m not gonna be out for hours.’ Marcus sounded stressed. Yeah, I feel that you thought. ‘Would you be able to pick up Missy and possibly have her for a few hours? If not, that’s totally-’

‘- I’d be glad too!’ You interrupted him. ‘I owe you one anyways for the weekend. And this morning, actually.’

‘You don’t owe me anything.’ He sounded surprised that you’d even imply it. ‘But I will definitely owe you for having Missy.’

‘Hey, it’s cool!’ You insisted. ‘Do you want me to drop her off at yours later?’

‘I can come and collect her if you text me your address?’

‘Perfect.’ You smiled. ‘I’ll see you later then?’

‘You’re a lifesaver.’ Marcus said. ‘I’ll text Missy to let her know to find your car instead of mine. I would ask for your plate number, but your car is...’

‘...bright red, covered in dents and hard to miss?’ You finished his sentence.

‘Exactly.’

You’d been in the same situation before; pulled between work and parenting, with Jack stuck at school and an important meeting that felt like it was never ending. It was hard to get a sitter on such short notice - or afford one, sometimes - and it was just another one of the million, stressful situations that single parenting could get you into. If you could help Marcus even a little bit, of course you were going to. You knew he’d do the same for you. Heck, he had done the same for you.

Jack and Missy were both chatty on the way home. Given that she was a little older than him, her conversational skills were strikingly better. It was nice to ask someone about their day and not get where are my Cheetos? as an answer. From what you gathered, she hated science class, enjoyed gym, and her favourite subject was lunch. That didn’t come as a surprise to you - her dad was a literal superhero and probably encouraged physical activity.

(You’d seen his arms, okay? They were more than enough to go on. I digress).

The only thing that made you wish you’d had a little more notice on having her for the evening was the state of your apartment. The place wasn’t bad; you’d lived there for the better part of eight years, and it was crammed with soft furniture and millions of blankets, as well as photos of you and Jack and his questionable art projects. It was just that you hadn’t done the dishes that morning, there was a mountain of shoes by the door and the pancakes from the previous night were still stuck on the roof.

Missy barely blinked an eye; the minute she saw your dog, she’d abandoned her bag and was playing with him. 

‘Hey buddy!’ She grinned. ‘What’s he called?’

‘That’s Oppy.’ You replied, hanging your jacket up. She didn’t need to know that it was short for Optimus Prime. No guesses on whose idea that had been. 

‘He’s so cute!’ Missy continued. ‘I’ve been asking dad for a dog for ages but he won’t budge.’

For some reason, that surprised you a little. Marcus might have been the leader of a super-hero team and a public figure, but you could tell he would do anything for his daughter. You knew because it was the same for you with Jack. He might have ruled your whole life but you would have hung the damn stars in the sky for him if he asked 

‘They’re a lot of work.’ You reasoned. ‘I have to wake up every morning at 6AM to make sure he gets a walk. Then there’s the matter of-’

‘- mum! Optimus Prime pooped in the bathroom!’

‘The matter of that.’ You murmured under your breath.

The rest of the evening went pretty smoothly. You fed the kids some leftover takeaway and between the dog and Netflix, they were easily entertained. Jack seemed to take a liking to Missy, which was good because it meant he wanted to sit with her the entire time instead of bouncing off the walls. She had the same patience as her dad, especially when he asked her a million questions about superheroes. It took her twenty minutes to convince him that Batman wasn’t her uncle, and a further fifteen to make him believe that she hadn’t met Captain America. 

Jack had asked you a few times about whether or not he would get siblings. Of course, it would be different to any interactions with Missy because he would have been the oldest, but it did get you thinking. You were finally in a place where you were moving past your former relationship and healing from the wounds. Time wasn’t much of an issue either - you’d had Jack when you were young and barely out of college. You couldn’t possibly imagine having any more kids right now, not when it was just the two of you, but in the future? You’d never rule out meeting somebody new. If anything, you were hopeful. Your first relationship had been your only one, and it had ended badly. You wanted to experience love for what it actually was, and not what you thought it was supposed to be. 

Not long after 7PM, there was a knock on your door. By that point, both Missy and Jack had passed out on the sofa with Star Wars playing quietly in the background. It had been her idea to watch it - she had good taste. Marcus had clearly done a good job.

‘Hey!’ You greeted him as you pulled open the front door. ‘Come in quick, it’s fucking freezing out there.’

‘Thank you.’ Marcus came inside, dusting a few snow flakes out his hair. ‘Seriously, I can’t say it enough-’

‘- it’s fine!’ You shook your head, offering him a smile. ‘Missy’s been great. She’s really chatty and it was nice to have a coherent conversation with someone that isn’t about Paw Patrol. But was everything at the office okay?’

He was quiet for a minute. ‘Yeah. We uh, we lost someone. A hero.’

‘Shit, man. I’m sorry.’ Your voice fell quiet. ‘You wanna come in? You look like you could probably take a moment.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Of course! Missy and Jack are both asleep on the couch anyways.’ You pointed through to the living room. Marcus leant over to have a look, smiling slightly at the sight. 

‘Thank you. I’d appreciate that.’

He took a seat at the kitchen counter. Your old bar stools were a little old and wobbly, but Marcus didn’t seem to notice. If anything, he admired the place. It was cluttered as hell and filled with useless, old items - cook books you didn’t use, random magnets, assorted toys - but it was nice. His house always felt a little cold and clinical. He’d moved a lot over the course of Missy’s life and now that he was retired from the field, he’d sworn to her that their current house was going to be permanent. Whether or not it felt like home was another question entirely. 

‘I would offer you a drink but all I have is..’ you paused, opening the fridge. ‘Nesquik, vodka or apple juice.’

‘You know what? A Nesquik doesn’t sound too bad.’

‘I like your thinking, Moreno.’

After quickly fixing up the two drinks, you slid into the seat beside him and handed him one. You had never in a million years imagined a situation where Marcus Moreno would be in your kitchen drinking chocolate milk, but here we were. It had clearly been a long day for him and you had enough of those to last a lifetime, so you knew how it felt. Coming home after a day that had beat your ass into the ground and having to put on a brave face for your kids was difficult at best. 

‘Are you sure you’re okay?’ You gently asked.

‘Yeah, I’ll be okay - it just always fucks me up a bit.’ Marcus murmured quietly. ‘Hits a little too close to home.’

He wasn’t an idiot. He knew that you knew what had happened to his wife. You knew why he’d retired, and why he and Missy had moved away from their original city six years ago.

‘Sorry, that was too deep-’

‘- it wasn’t!’ You quickly cut him off. ‘I’ve had random women come up to me at pick up time and say they’re sorry to hear about my divorce. People I don’t even know. So really, after that, nothing is too much.’ 

He smiled slightly. ‘They always say they’re sorry but why would you bring up a subject if you have to apologise for it?’

‘Exactly!’ You replied. ‘Especially when I’ve moved on. It’s been a year.’

‘It’s the same with me. Missy and I miss her everyday but we don’t mope about it. We just...we look back with fondness on the good memories we have. You can’t move forward if you’re stuck in the past, no matter how much it sucks.’

‘That’s...that’s wise.’ You blinked in surprise. ‘S’pose that means I should take down the dartboard I have with my ex’s face on.’

‘From what I’ve heard, he seems like he should have more than a dart board.’ Marcus snorted - then he froze. ‘Wait, not that I’ve heard stuff, I mean...I don’t listen-’

‘- Marcus!’ You whacked his arm. ‘It’s fine. One of the other kid’s mums started telling me about the terrible divorce someone was going through but she realised she was gossiping to the one who was going through it.’

‘I don’t know how much of what I’ve been told is true, but it sounds like it was bad.’ His hand hovered over where yours was rested on the counter. 

‘The rumours pretty much get the gist of it.’ You replied. ‘But we were talking about your thing, so I don’t wanna take away from that.’

‘Hey, it’s okay.’ He finally moved his hand, fingers gently curling underneath yours to intertwine them. ‘If even half of the whispers are true, he sounds like an asshole. You and Jack both deserve better than that.’

Whatever people had said, it had sort of covered the gist of it. You’d married too young and had a kid too young - your ex had been a terrible husband and an even worst husband. He’d chastised Jack for being...well, being Jack. He’d stay out late with his friends, spend money on things neither of you needed and tried to make you take the blame for it all. After giving him a few too many chances, you’d finally reached breaking point and kicked him out. Filing for divorce and taking on being a single parent was single-handedly the hardest and bravest thing you’d ever had to do. In a way, you were glad you’d done it when Jack was still so young - he didn’t really understand any of it, even when you’d try to explain it in child friendly terms.

‘I think people judge me for it a little sometimes.’ You confessed. ‘They see me struggling but they know I made the choice to separate from him, like I brought it all on myself.’

‘That’s bullshit.’ Marcus plainly stated. ‘Parenthood isn’t a dependent thing based on whether or not you’re still married to the other parent. It’s unconditional and permanent.’

‘I should tell him that, but I also don’t want him back in our lives.’

‘I know it’s none of my business, but he doesn’t deserve Jack. He’s one of the best and brightest kids I’ve ever met.’

‘Thank you. I’m glad he doesn’t seem like a complete lunatic.’

‘He doesn’t deserve you either.’ Marcus continued. ‘Again, I might be out of place saying this but you are...you’re amazing. I was a wreck when I was suddenly on my own and you’re still holding everything together and working your ass off.’ 

‘You’ve noticed?’ You quirked an eyebrow.

‘Yeah, in passing.’ He admitted. ‘I remember I once saw you carrying three separate science projects at once and then Carol made a passing comment that you were on your own and...I just kinda admired you from afar.’

‘You, Marcus Moreno, admired me?’ You blinked at him in disbelief. ‘I find that hard to believe.’

‘I wish I’d had my shit together half as much as you did when I lost Missy’s mum.’ 

‘But the difference is you didn’t have a choice in your situation. I chose to boot his dad out-’

‘- you gotta stop discrediting yourself.’ He shook his head. ‘And stop blaming yourself. You did what was right for your kid and that is the most admirable thing of all.’

‘You really think so?’

‘I know so.’

The conversation slowly drizzled away, leaving you two to just look at each other. It was hard to tear yourself away from his brown eyes - there was a lot going on behind them. Fear, pain, anguish, admiration. He was one of the most mind-blowingly impressive people you’d ever met; single dad, superhero, electric car owner. He probably didn’t have a mortgage too and that was kinda hot. You were none of those things and yet, here he was, with you, managing to connect on a level that you never had with anyone. Both of your situations were tough, but they’d brought you together. 

Marcus Moreno was pretty fucking fearless (came with the job, you figured), and he wasn’t afraid to make the first move. He slowly inched his head forward and in return, you gravitated towards him. Your lips met halfway in a soft kiss, his hands moving to firmly hold your waist as he pulled you closer.

You almost stumbled out your chair with the movement, but his grip on your hips meant you didn’t slip. Instead, he placed you up on the counter, standing up as he did. It took you a moment to adjust to the position, but with your legs resting on either side of his, you could reach forward and lean on him. You had one hand tangled in his hair and the other on the back of his neck -  you’d surprised yourself with that. It had been months since you’d kissed anyone, but you weren’t as rusty as you thought. 

‘Oh my god, is the superhero gonna be my new dad?!’

Marcus suddenly jumped backwards at the sound of Jack’s voice. He was stood in the doorway, post-nap hair covered by a lopsided Chewbacca hood. His eyes were like dinner plates, even though he was grinning from ear to ear. 

‘Uh...’ you glanced between him and Marcus. ‘We were just...we were...’

‘I had something in my eye.’

‘He had something in his eye.’ You quickly agreed. ‘But now it’s out, so Marcus is gonna go home.’

He knew you didn’t mean it rudely - it was more of a desperation thing. The longer he stayed, the more questions Jack would come out with. Missy could have overheard too and that would have been twice as much to explain. So really, the sooner he got out, the better.

‘Yeah. I’ll uh, I’ll grab Missy.’ Marcus said, scratching the back of his head. ‘Thank you again for looking after her.’

‘You don’t need to keep thanking me.’ You shot back. 

He disappeared into the living room for a moment, reemerging with a sleeping Missy in his arms a moment later. Your eyes met again, and he gave you a soft smile.

‘I’ll call you.’

‘Yeah, sure.’  You nodded. ‘See you, Marcus.’

--

True to character, the next hour was spent being pelted with questions from your over-curious son. He didn’t shut up once when you were bathing him and he got even louder when you were reading him his best time story. On the bright side, you’d managed to get him to change out of his slightly manky Wookiee onesie and into a clean Buzz Lightyear one. Normally, you would have argued that he couldn’t live in pyjamas, but if it kept him quiet? It was a price you were willing to pay. 

‘Night, kiddo.’ You pressed a kiss to his forehead, switching on his nightlight. ‘Remember our deal, yeah? If I buy you a Happy Meal tomorrow, you won’t mention what you saw to any of your friends?’

‘You said library was bad.’

‘No, it’s bribery.’ You corrected him. ‘And do as I say, not as I do.’

‘Sounds bad, but okay.’ He sleepily murmured. ‘Night.’

‘Night.’ You stood up, flicking out his bedroom lights.

‘Wait, mum!’ Jack suddenly sat up, as though he’d remembered something. ‘You never said no.’

‘No to what, buddy?’

‘When I asked if the superhero was my new dad.’

Well, fuck. 

taglist: @naivara-duneimith @1-2-3-4-5metalfingers @likeshootingstarsinthenightsky @lyanna-the-giantsbane @phoenixhalliwell @crazycookiecrumbles​ @bitchin-beskar​ @comphersjost​ {message me to be added!}

[doubleleoenergy]

iv. Lolita, Lolita Series

Hey Lolita, hey! Hey Lolita, hey! I know what the boys want, I'm not gonna play.

Series Masterlist

Pairing: bestfriendsdad!Andy Barber x fem!reader

Warnings: 18+ ONLY, mentions of alcohol, mentions of relationship violence, oral (female receiving), pet names, dirty talk

Words: 2240

Summary: Andy’s falling at y/n’s feet, just like all the other boys before.

Six days. It had been six agonizing days since their encounter at the club, and Andy Barber was losing his cool. The nightly, and sometimes midday, jerkoff sessions weren’t quite enough to satisfy his hunger.

Things with y/n had been the same, as if their little blowjob fest hadn’t happened. They continued to carpool to the office, continued to be friendly back at home, and y/n continued to tease him as always. She’d wear her tight and barely there clothing around the house and the office and had even started walking around in her towel after her showers. Andy didn’t mind the view, and neither did the boys, stuttering and stammering at the sight of her. But again, it wasn’t enough. 

That morning y/n greeted him with another breakfast and coffee before work, donning a black long sleeve crop top with a slit across to give him the view of just a bit of cleavage. Her light denim jeans were practically painted on her body, her perky ass bouncing with each step in her black strappy heels.

“You look good, y/n. As always.” Andy commented, taking a sip of his coffee. He thought a bit of flirting might help his case of getting closer to his little Lolita, though she didn’t seem phased by the compliment.

“Thanks Andy, we should get going. I’m shadowing you with your clients today, remember?” Her internship had been stellar, learning valuable information about the field and her future career. The only problem occasionally was Neal, who tended to linger too long at her desk and always stared down her shirt as he talked. Normally she would put the man in her place, but it offered a good source of jealousy from Andy, which she couldn’t pass up.

Their ride to the office was filled with conversation as Andy briefed her on their clients for the day, y/n taking notes in her notebook of all the critical details. Though she probably wouldn’t need the notes, she had read over the client’s files for the past two days in anticipation.

Y/N sashayed down the hall in front of Andy to his office, and he watched her ass the entire time she moved, trying not to pop a boner before the workday even started. After arriving at the office door and unlocking it, the two got comfortable for their first client of the day.

“Are you nervous?” Andy questioned, eyes focusing intently on her.

“Of course not. I’m just eager to please.” Her tone was heavy with seduction, lips curving into a huge smile when Andy shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

By the time they had finished up with their clients for the day it was nine o’clock, a much later day at the office for them since y/n had started her internship. The two were both starving since lunch, stomachs growling as they headed home for the evening.

“Jacob said he and the boys are going to see a midnight movie showing after the bar, won’t be back till late.” Y/N announced, fingers typing out a quick reply to Jacob.

“Alright, are you interested in going out for some food? I think it’s way too late to start cooking something. We can go to that Mexican restaurant up the street from the house if you want.” Andy suggested, glancing over at y/n as he parked the car in the driveway.

“That’s fine, let me go change really quick and then we can go.” Y/N walked straight through the garage doors and up into her room, getting herself refreshed for dinner. Andy decided to change as well, pulling on a pair of dark denim jeans and a grey Henley long-sleeved shirt that accentuated his muscles. He was honestly hoping that y/n might consider this a date but given how she seemed to avoid any movement in their relationship, it seemed unlikely.

Andy scrolled through his email on his cell phone, leaning against the kitchen counter as she walked down the stairs. His eyes met hers before traveling down to the tight burgundy floral mini dress, the thin spaghetti straps barely holding in her braless breasts as they poked out slightly above the fabric. Andy’s eyes continued lower to the slit in the dress, staring at where the slit hit mid-thigh and ended right at her hip bone. Was she not wearing any underwear?

“Okay, I’m ready.” Y/N’s black stilettos clicked against the hardwood as she made her way towards the door, headed towards his car once again. Andy trailed behind, his eyes roaming over her backside while his cock stirred in his jeans.

The restaurant was less than a mile from the house, a quick drive for them both, which was a relief considering how hungry they both were. The waitress came up shortly after they sat, a young perky blonde who seemed to be a little extra attentive to Andy, though he didn’t pay any attention to her. He was too busy watching y/n scanning the menu, chewing her bottom lip as she figured out what to eat.

“I’ll have a Coors Light and a southwest salad, please.” Y/N’s voice was soft as she spoke to the waitress.

“I’ll have a Coors as well with the street taco trio. Thank you.” Andy handed over their menus before returning his attention back to y/n. “Did you like sitting in on the meetings today?” He asked, leaning back in his seat.

“Definitely, it’s nice to fully see the process at work. Usually I’m filing the paperwork after a meeting, but today gave me the chance to start from the initial meeting to the filing.” The waitress arrived with their drinks as she finished her sentence, taking a long swig from her beer.

“I’m glad. We make a good team, don’t you think?” Andy had to admit, she was the most impressive intern they’d had since he started there. But the question isn’t just about work, hinting at the possibility of them together.

“We’re alright.” She responded, shrugging her shoulders. Andy sighed, six days of waiting to figure out anything between them was torture, just like the mind games she was playing with him now. His thoughts are briefly interrupted by the arrival of their meal, using the break in their conversation to consider his next words carefully. It was like he was building a case as he had done hundreds of times at work, though this case was a bit higher stake for him.

“Look, in the club I know I said we couldn’t do this...do us.” Good start, Andy-boy. “But we’re both adults as you said. It’s not weird, unless we make it weird, and if we keep things private for a while so as not to hurt Jacob...why don’t we give it a try? Us, I mean.”

Y/N chewed thoughtfully on her meal, listening to his case and reflecting on his words. “I’m not a relationship girl, you know that.” The thought of being in a committed relationship with anyone terrified her, a trigger from her family trauma. What happens if Andy is kind at first, but later turns into a monster like her father? Would she really want to end up like her mom? No thank you.

“I do know that, but I also know that there’s something between us, y/n. You can’t deny that. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have done what you had.” Andy retorted, taking a bite of his tacos.

“Everything I do is because I want to do it.” She declared, leaning back in her seat and crossing her arms over her chest. “A relationship is different, Andy. Why tie yourself down to someone? It’s not like it ever lasts, you should know that firsthand.” She’s referring to his divorce, the thought that Andy even wanted to be committed to someone else after that was confusing.

“Maybe that’s true, or maybe we’re just waiting for the right person to change our minds.” He’s leaning on the table now, his eyes locked on hers to gauge her reactions.

Y/N’s eyebrow raises at his response, her head tilting to the side. “And you’re trying to say that I’m that right person?” Her eyes roll back into her head, straightening her body and digging back into her meal. “You’re thinking a little too highly after one hookup.”

Andy knows they’re going in circles with the conversation and so he drops it, finishing up their meals in silence and not protesting when y/n asks to split the bill. Definitely not a date.

The ride back to the house is uncomfortably silent, y/n playing Candy Crush on her phone to distract herself from any further talk about a relationship. Y/N is about to go up the stairs to her room when they arrive, but Andy stops her, grabbing her wrist and pulling her back over to him.

“What are you doing?” She asks, brows furrowed as her eyes meet his blue hues. Andy tugs her closer by her waist in response to her question, lips hovering inches away.

“Think about it, we’d be good together, you can’t deny that.” And with that Andy is leaning in, pressing his lips passionately against y/n’s own. Without any hesitation y/n reciprocates the kiss, hands instinctively wrapping around his neck to pull him in closer, if that was even possible.

Their lips dance together in the perfect rhythm for a moment before Andy breaks the kiss to pepper wet kisses to the flesh on y/n’s neck. She rolls her head to one side to give him better access, tugging at the hair on the nape of his neck when he nibbles on a sensitive spot. She lets him continue for a moment before pushing him gently off her, confusing laced across his face.

Y/N’s heels click against the hardwood as she starts walking down the hallway towards his bedroom door, stopping right in front of it and looking back at Andy, a cocky grin spreading across her swollen lips.

“I think it’s time you return the favor from the other night.” And with that she slips into his bedroom, Andy following quickly on her heels and shutting the door behind them. He watches, eyes blown wide, as she saunters over to the bed, sitting right on the edge of it. She leans her body back, her weight against her elbows, opening her legs to reveal her bare core, her heels firmly placed on the floor in front of the bed for balance.

“Don’t just stand there and stare, Andy. Get to work.”

He doesn’t need to be told twice, practically crawling across the room, his knees hitting the soft carpet a foot away from her outstretched legs. His strong hands move from her knees up her thighs, pushing her dress up to her stomach to reveal her wet heat to him.

It was glistening like diamonds, just as beautiful as the rest of her body. He rests his hands on each of her inner thighs, pushing her legs slightly wider and locking his eyes with hers as he leans forward and licks a strip up her slit. His first taste of her is incredible, better than he could’ve imagined, and he wastes no time on diving in further, lapping at her core.

Andy’s beard tickles her pussy as he works his tongue into her, sending shivers down her spine. Her fingers instinctively grab at his hair, her grip tightening whenever he lapped at a spot that made her moan. She kept her eyes on him the entire time, loving the way he looked between her legs. She could get used to this.

Andy moved his head back, his pointer and middle finger rubbing against her wet folds before they dive in, curling deep and releasing a satisfied moan from her lips. “Your pussy is so pretty, so wet and delicious. My little Lolita.” There goes the pet name from the other night, though it was quite fitting for her.

His fingers find a good rhythm inside her, eliciting the prettiest moans from her lips. His cock is painfully hard in his jeans, though he knows right now it is all about her pleasure. He can tell her orgasm is building, moving his face back to suck at her clit while his fingers keep their pace in and out of her dripping core.

Her walls start to tighten, y/n seeing stars as she feels that familiar buildup in her stomach, tightening her grip on his hair. Andy’s eyes lock back on hers, a seductive smirk spreading across his lips.

“Let go, Lolita. Cum for me.” And just like that her orgasm rips through her, her walls tightening around his fingers as she pushes his face flush against her folds, allowing him to lap up her release.

She’s shaking by the time he pulls away, his beard covered in her slick, the sight alone giving her a sense of pride and ownership over him.

“That was incredible.” Y/N announces, adjusting her dress and standing back up, stepping towards the door of the bedroom. Andy’s jaw drops, his cock twitching as she walks away. “Where are you going? I’m hard as a rock right now.”

Y/N stops to look at him, her eyes trailing to the bulge in his jeans, shrugging her shoulders. “Guess you’ll have to jerk off to your fantasies of me as always.” And with that she opens the door and exits the bedroom, leaving Andy kneeling with frustration against the carpet.

Tagging those who may be interested. Let me know if you want to be added to the tag list: @midnightf @my-divine-death @saamwilsonn @fierylibraa @fuckandfluff​ @rattlemyb0nes​ @rootcrop @goldenboysteve​  @turtoix​  @jeremyrennermakesmesmile​  @ccmarvelxx ​

[everyhowlmarksthedead]

❛ ROJO ❜

Songfic with ‘Rojo’, J Balvin.

Translation of the lyrics.

with Nestor Oceteva.

Request #1: Can you maybe do a Nestor imagine where you're Emily's cousin or half sister and you're living with Emily and Miguel temporarily. You've been flirting and teasing him and it finally comes to a head. Smut involved please?

BY ANON.

Request #2: hi hi! I have a steamy request~! (If it's not a bother, of course) Nestor + reader are at a club and they keep teasing him,, maybe you can include lines like “shit, mami, you made a mess” and “you just want the others to hear me fuck you, huh?” 😗👉🏼👈🏼 thank youuu c:

BY @glitchinqhoul.

Warnings: nsfw, smut.

Word count: about 3.6k

Aurora says: this writing hasn't been edited, you may find some grammar mistakes, I'm sorry about that!

Gif credits: to the author, I found it on google.

Masterlist.

A quién le mientes si en tu soledad quieres verme otra vez. Por ti respondo lo que tú me das, lo que nadie sabe…

Being Emily's half—sister hasn't been easy. She was a good student, the modelic daughter, always being kind, correct and polite. You used to be like the day and the night. But you supposed that this has to be with the fact that your blood isn't the same. She's american, and you're half—mexican. Different cultures, different cities, different people… Different lifes. But that wasn't a problem to adore each other. Emily and you have been best friends since ever, and even if you're the wild side she doesn't have, you admire her temperance.

When your college in Mexico told you that you could do the MIR at Santo Padre, you both were screaming by the phone for two minutes non-stop, until you heard Miguel telling you to stay at his home. That wasn't a bad idea, keeping in mind that you also could see Nestor every day, for the next six month. That man drives you insane since you met him, and he isn't very sane either.

You're checking the hour on the clock of your car, almost reaching the border with California, checking again that your passport and your papers signed for the University are on the copilot seat. So, when you stop at the frontier, you just have to roll down the window and offer them to the agent. Once that you're actually in American territory, you speed up by the empty road a little confused from not seeing any cars. Actually, you're just tired after almost two days driving. Because yes, you could have flown to San Diego, and rented a car. But you like your old Mustang. He has been with you since seven years ago. Coming back to reality, you see through the rearview two big black SUVs coming closer until one of them places itself after you, making you a signal to stop.

Stopping by a side, you step out of your car as Emily does, both running to each other to collide in a happy hug, screaming again and almost jumping.

“Look at you, doctora!” She says laughing and holding your hands, pulling herself away some seconds, before hugging at you again. “C'mon, let Frankie drive your car, so you can rest a little in ours”.

To your surprise, Nestor isn't the one who is driving, supposing that he's in the other black car before yours. But you're sure he's as excited as you are, waiting to have five minutes alone.

Me decido por ti, te decides por mí, a la misma hora. Me dan ganas de ti, te dan ganas de mí, a la misma hora.

Miguel has organized a party with his sober friends. And you're not in the mood to partying, but the tequila helps a little. You're jumping from senators and other politicians, to lawyers and other rich men, just because your brother-in-law is proud of you. And that makes you feel good, but it's kinda boring. So, when you find a space to disappear, you do it at the speed of the light. Finding shelter in the big garage between expensive cars of different sizes and kinds. Resting your back against the classic red Porsche, you light up a smoke among your lips to take a deep drag. You appreciate all the love that Mikey feels for you, and all the help he always gives you, but you're not the kind of girl who has these kinds of parties.

Turning around for an instant, when you hear the door getting opened, to watch Nestor walking towards you. Rolling your eyes, you smirk at him.

“Ay, ya, no me digas que te pusieron en modo perrito guardián, flaco”. (C'mon, don't tell me that Miguel made you be a guard dog). You laugh shaking your head.

“Más o menos”. (More or less). He says taking you off the cig to smoke from it.

“Okay, ládrame, ándale”. (Okay, bark at me, go ahead).

“Soy más de morder”. (I'm more into biting).

“Mírale… Isn't too early to start with that game?”

“Nah”. He replies bowing to the floor to leave the cig, before placing both hands on your ankles, pulling up the long white skirt of your dress too slowly.

Your eyes are fixed on his, getting somewhat darker as his fingertips touch slightly your skin, until he's able to settle between your legs, that you have been opening for him unconsciously. Soon, his lips find your neck, twisting it enough to give him all the space possible. Your hands go to his head, uttering a soft moan when he nails his hands on your ass under the dress. This is your game. You have it since you met, and it's one of your favorite things. A tug of war to see who gives more.

“Fuck, Nestor”. You mutter biting your lower lip, at the same time his teeth catch your skin, putting himself somewhat closer.

Te quiero sentir aquí. Me dan ganas de ti, te dan ganas de mí, a la misma hora.

“Hey, teens in heat, we're going to serve the coctel!” You can hear Emily's laughs from the other side of the door, making you feel your cheeks burning.

“We're going!” You reply a little loud, with Nestor chuckling against your neck.

Pulling him away to put on your dress well, you arrange your mane behind your shoulders before starting to walk back to the house. But when you're about to open the door, he grabs your wrist to make you turn around. Crashing your mouth with his, the man kisses you trying to hide how much he has missed you after five month without seeing each other. Even so, it becomes softer, slow, as if you have all the time you need. His arms surrounding your waist, and yours the back of his head. You're sure that he has never kissed you like that, but it feels too good. Nestor's touch has been ever so warm that could melt the coldest heart, actually, more or less like yours.

Tres y cuatro de la mañana, ven, mata estas ganas. Vamos a llegarle a mi cama, que todo lo he ignorado por ti, todo ha sido por ti. Mi cuerpo sin saber te llama.

You like to eat. You enjoy eating, and that coctel wasn't enough for you. So, waiting by reading some emails until the family is already sleeping, you step out of your new room silent like a cat. Going downstairs, you walk towards the kitchen to assault the freezer.

“Bendito Miguel”.

You whisper finding all the chocolate ice cream he has bought for you. Grabbing one of the tubs and a big spoon, you sit at the island in the center of the kitchen, with the lights off. And you were so concentrated on your task, that you didn't hear Nestor coming. Not even noticing his presence until he nails a second spoon into the tub.

“Shit! Nestor! Fuck… You're gonna fucking kill me one of these days”. You mutter, placing both hands on your chest, with the covered inside your mouth.

The man chuckles almost in silence, having some ice cream.

“Seriously, you need to stop of being this fucking silent”.

“Yeah, I know you like me being loud”.

Raising your eyebrows, you finally shake your head before such an occurrence.

“What about the kiss?”

“What kiss?” He asks a little confused. “Oh! Ya. What happens with that? It was just a kiss?”

“Yes, for sure”.

“I was just happy for you being here. We're friends, it's been five month since we met last time”.

Right in the friend-with-benefits zone, while you were thinking that finally he was catching the same feelings you have for him.

“Cool”.

“Cool?”

“What?”

“It sounded as if I just stabbed you”.

“Why would my friend like to stab me?”

Y estas no son horas de llamar, pero es que el deseo siempre puede más. Podemos pelearnos y hasta alejarnos, pero cuando llega la hora.

You didn't know that Miguel was a friend of the director of the hospital you're going to work at. And he settled a dinner to meet him. Another boring one, and you start to think that your brother-in-law wants to kill you and doesn't know how to do it. You love your work and what you do, but the work stays in the hospital, and you were too distracted about Nestor's words last night. You have been avoiding him the whole day, not even looking at him in the dinner, placed some meters away from the table studying the perimeter. And you know that he's getting more nervous as the hours pass by.

After finishing the meeting, you finally can breathe again inside the big car, checking some messages from your father asking how everything is going. You better don't reply. Keeping it inside your small bag, before leaning towards the front seat with both arms on them.

“Hey, Cartel daddy”.

Your sister breaks into laughs because of the sophisticated name, while Miguel turns at you frowning.

“Listen. Why don't I pull out the stick inside your ass and we go to a real party, ah? There's a new club some minutes ago from Santo Padre, and looks cool”.

“Did you ca—”.

“Hey, Pocahontas, that's the address”. You say to Nestor, offering him your phone to grab it.

Emily is drowning with her own laughs by your side, making you laugh too, when she remembers that you're not allowed to drink red wine because of this. You have the mania of giving funny names to everybody around you.

“What? Cartel daddy and Pocahontas. Sounds like a bad netflix tv-show I would watch”.

Tratan y se caen de la mata, quieren comprarte siempre con plata, pero ese tesoro tiene pirata. Me voy a toda por ti.

While the men prefer a reserved, watching the whole dancefloor from there, and talking about business and appointments, Emily and you enjoy a bunch of mimosas among the crowd jumping and having fun. You really needed it. And you're aware that she already knows that something is happening between the head security and you. Something bad. She doesn't have to be the most intelligent person of the world.

“I would tell him what I feel!” Your sister says, trying to make you hear her above the noise.

“He kicked my ass to the friend zone last night!” The blonde wrinkles her nose confused, seeing you nodding and drinking by your straw.

“Are you kidding me?! He was super excited to see you again! Like super excited!”

“Yeah! He kissed me! But he kissed me like Miguel kisses you! Then he told me it was just a kiss!”

“He's in love with you!”

“No, sista! He's only in love with your husband and with himself!”

“Tell him you don't want to be just his friend!”

“Me?! Oh, no, darling! I'm not gonna humiliate myself like that!”

“C'mon! You fucking pendejos!” She pouts at you.

“You just want Nestor to have a girlfriend, so you can spend more time with your husband! Bitch, I know you better than anyone!”

“I want my little sister to be happy!”

“You want your Cartel daddy!” Breaking into laughs, you place an arm on her shoulders to come back to the reserved.

“What's so funny?” Miguel asks pouring some champagne on two glasses.

“Your wife wants to settle me on a blind date”.

Me decido por ti, te decides por mí, a la misma hora. Me dan ganas de ti, te dan ganas de mí, a la misma hora.

“I'm not going to let you go on a blind date”.

You were refreshing your nape and wrists with water, when you heard him coming closer after locking the bathroom door of the reserved Miguel rented. Looking at him through the mirror, you give him your back to grab some paper and dry your hands. Throwing it into the bin, you turn around to face him.

“Why?”

“It's dangerous”. He just says, tangling his hands on a fist under his abdomen.

“You stabbed me last night, and I survived. I'm pretty sure I will survive to a blind date”. Good point, taking the advantage to pass him away.

But he stops you with an arm surrounding your waist. His chest meeting your back, while his free hand wraps your throat. You're feeling the characteristic heat that Nestor produces in you being so close, running up your legs to your low belly. His thumb caresses your skin, over the jugular vein, leaning towards you to kiss the line of your jaw. Biting your bottom lip, wrapping his wrists letting the free hand goes down by your stomach with a clear destiny.

“We are made for each other”. Nestor mumbles into your ear with a horse tone of voice.

“Yes, to be friends”. You tease him, grabbing his wrist to make him stop, wanting to hear the reality coming from his mouth.

“To be together”. He corrects you then, without a single doubt hitting his vocal chords and turning you under his hands.

Crashing his lips on yours, he makes you walk backwards until your body finds the cold wall. He's as eager as you are, lifting up a leg to surround his waist, while his hand toures your skin until being able to squeeze your ass with a warm growl dying inside his throat.

“I want you in all the ways possible, (Y/N)”. He mutters, trying to hide the anger he feels imagining you with another man. “I want you with me. Only with me”.

Pulling him to the black and golden velvet armchair, you watch him undoing his belt and his pants zipper, noticing the rock under his clothes. Seeing him rolling them down his legs to his ankles, while you take off your dress to leave it over the sink, to sit over his lap with his body between your legs. You haven't taken off the white lace panties, because you know how much he likes the friction of them in every move he does, on a side of his sensible skin. While one of his big hands massage your breast with some strength, the ringed one strokes his needed cock, lying back on the couch.

“Do you wanna fuck me?” You whisper into his mouth, unbuttoning his shirt to stroke his bare chest.

“You don' know how much I need your pussy, cariño”. He just says, looking at you with parted lips grabbing his erection between your fingers.

“I don't think that's enough”. Teasing him, you guide his throbbing and warmth glans to your folds, pressing it against your wet clit and swinging softly your hips.

“I've been waiting five months for you jumping over my cock, mami. You know I am fucking desperate for your soaked pussy suffocating me and pushing me into the limit”. Nestor almost begs, placing his hands on both sides of your waist. “Ride your cock, baby. Look at how hard it's because of you. It fucking painful”.

“And what if I punish you about what you said last night… putting my clothes on again and leaving you there alone, ah?”

“Don't do that shit, (Y/N). I fucking implore you”. He quickly complains pecking your lips with short kisses. “You're already fucking killing me”.

Leading a little back his hardness between your legs, you dig it into you slowly, feeling every inch of his erection pressing your tight walls. He's thicker than you can remember, having passed too much time since the last time, needing some seconds to mold your body to his. A soft moan escapes from your mouths when his glans pushes your g-spot, urging you to spread more your legs forcing you to feel him completely. And you can't describe that sensation.

“Tell me you didn't miss my cock…” He chuckles, erasing that fancy smile from his lips by swinging your hips just one time.

His growl echoes throughout the bathroom, before catching your lips between his to bite them, making you dance on top of him. The pleasure is immeasurable, bouncing over his hard rock once and again. Once and again, arching your back under his arms, while his mouth now devours the skin of your neck, wetting it with his saliva and marking every inch with his teeth. The pace becomes rough and faster, slapping your ass with both hands to squeeze your buttocks so needed that you're desiring to feel his cum filling you up. But you like his cock pounding you.

“I'm going to make the others hear you being fucked by me, mi amor…” He bellows, making you beg when pulling out himself from you to get up.

Guiding you quickly to the sink and giving him your back, placing a hand on your nape, he makes you lean over the sink before putting aside your panties to thrust his soaked cock back to your pussy. The scream you utter when his pelvis hits you so rough, isn't normal. Being sure that your sister and Miguel already heard you. His hands nailed on your hips make each lunge deeper, watching him through the mirror the pleased look on his face, while his gaze is fixed in your. He enjoys seeing you bite your bottom lip and closing your eyes, every time he slaps you with his ringed fingers, knowing that this pleasure it's going to fuck you up tomorrow. But you love the way he has to uninhibit himself, after being the whole day following orders.

“Shit, baby… I want you all my fucking life”. He gasps leaning his head back with closed eyelids, impaling you against the marble counter of the sink.

Maybe you should have taken off the heels to not lose the balance, but you didn't think about it, and now you're fighting against your shaky legs.

“Look how good you take it all… my fucking god, (Y/N). You're fucking drenching me”.

Yes, you can feel it. You can feel your juices and his slipping down your thighs, producing a soaked dirty sound every time his body collides with yours so hard. Urging you to incorporate your chest from the sink with a hand grabbing your throat and the other arm surrounding your waist, Nestor arches your back, placing his face on your shoulder.

“Drown my fucking… dick with your cum, mi amor…” He begs you, biting your love, without removing his darkened orbs from yours, through your reflections.

“Shit, Nestor…” You're not sure when you start to cry because of the pleasure, needing more, needing to reach the orgasm. “Fuck me harder, I fucking beg you… Por favor”.

You can't barely breathe when his finger finds your clit, stroking it with the same pace he's embedding you against the furnishing. Your moans dance all around the bathroom, while he's gasping over your ear how much he wants to fuck you for the rest of his life, everywhere, at anytime you want it. And by crying out his name and clinging to him, a lash of heat evolves you, making your pussy twitch uncontrollably as the tears fall down your cheek. Your palpitating walls clenching his cock, making his vocals get louder as long as he continues diving his warmth hardness into you, closer from his own ecstasy.

You don't need to tell him that you want him to cum inside you, mixing it with yours, because he already has other plans. Pulling himself out and jerking off his dick, he spills his seed over your wet panties, bathing them on it as his throat collapses because of the pleasure. But don't waste time putting them to the side again to pound you again, pressing his body against yours as much as he can, holding your anatomy into his arms.

Te quiero sentir aquí. Me dan ganas de ti, te dan ganas de mí, a la misma hora.

It's four am and you can't sleep thinking about what he said to you. Sighing, you sit up on your bed, curling your knees against your chest and surrounding them with both arms. He already told you that he wants you, but was he talking or his jealousy? You're doubting about going to his house, or texting him, or doing anything. Grabbing your phone from the nightstand and a cig from the packet, you step out of your dorm to walk downstairs towards the terrace. Sitting on one of the sofas outside, you light the smoke to have a drag, unlocking your phone. Your trembling fingers touch the screen over the keyboard; writing and deleting, writing and deleting. But you're unable to send any message. Feeling stupid, you finally write him that you can't sleep, listening the ding of your own notification so close that makes you frown confused.

“Me neither”.

With your lips pursed and a leg curled over the sofa, you turn ashamed towards him. Nestor is wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and a white big shirt. You're sure that you have never seen him before without wearing a suit. And you are falling loudly for him much more than ever. Putting out the cigarette, you stand up on your feet to lead them towards you.

“Stay with me, at least tonight”. You mutter, tangling your fingers with his.

“But move with me tomorrow”. Nestor asks you then, before hugging you as close as he can.

“Deal”. You reply, placing your chin on his chest to look at him, receiving some short kisses all around your face that make you laugh.

✨ Tag list:

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[sharperthewriter]

Chapter 6 of Possible-y Utah

Chapter 6 - Pool Party II She rolled up the belted overalls and her white croptop in a ball with the sneakers on top and put them on the sofa.

"You got anything to drink, Monique?" Kim asked.

"Some soda, juice, or milk, Kim. Mom's got it all laid out." Monique said, pointing to the refreshments.

Kim got herself a diet soda and headed on outside to soak up the sun's rays. She closed her eyes and laid down face first on the pool chair.

(25 minutes later)

After getting a good slight tan, Ron came up to her seat.

"Hey, KP! You're missing out on the fun!" he exclaimed.

As it turned out, he added goggles, an inner tube, and flippers to his feet.

"Ron..." Kim groaned, "...Monique's pool is big, but we aren't at the beach this summer yet!"

"I wanna soak it all in!" he replied, "Even Rufus is getting in on the act!"

Rufus giggled and put on his small goggles over his beady eyes.

"Rufus?! Is he going to go off the diving board in the deep end?" she questioned. Kim pointed to the deep half of Monique's pool that was at least 12 feet deep. That area had a diving board and slide.

"You bet your Nacos that he is, KP!" Ron grinned.

"That's so him!" Kim chuckled.

"So what do you think is going to happen in our senior year?" Ron then questioned.

"You know what? It is a really big question!" Kim exclaimed. "Considering that we're going to get a lot of our starters back on the football team for the upcoming season, we could make it all the way to State."

"Aww...man!" Ron complained, "My arms are sooo tired from last season!"

It was a longstanding tradition at Middleton High since the 1960s that the Mad Dog mascot must perform pushups on all the points the Mad Dog football team has scored through the course of a game.

"Ron, you need to do this for the team!" Kim insisted, "We need that edge after our Mad Dog football team got eliminated in the second round of the playoffs."

Ron took a deep breath and said, "The pushups are one tradition of the Mad Dog that I wish that can do without...but since you are my BFGF, I am going to do them in your honor!"

"Thank you, Ron, for the support!" Kim replied with a smile before turning her entire body around. "Oh and also, can you rub the sunscreen on my back? I don't want to get a really nasty sunburn!"

"Much obliged, KP!" Ron said in grabbing the sunscreen from the bag. He took out the sunscreen, squirted it a few times, and began to rub his girlfriend's back.

A familiar snarky voice came upon Monique's backyard.

"Out of my way, everyone! The Queen B is here!"

"Oh no..." she muttered, "Not now...please not now"

Bonnie then opened up the gate to the backyard, and she was in a two-piece bathing suit that accentated her figure. However, she wasn't the only one with her.

Another girl also came through the gate. She had blonde hair, light green eyes that were covered by her oversized sunglasses, and, like Bonnie, was in a bikini. The thing that attracted people most was the jewelry with solid gold hoop earrings, four bangles, five rings. She also had her nose and both ears pierced.

"What do you want this time, Rockwaller? You're blocking my sun!" Kim snarked at the brunette.

"Just the usual, Possible! Annoying you and Stoppable like always!" Bonnie replied with a smirk, standing right in front of the sun.

"You know that you haven't been invited to the party!" Kim snarled.

"Yeah!" Ron agreed, "Party crasher!" Rufus gave a raspberry at her.

Monique turned around and saw the three arguing.

"Uh, excuse me, Bonnie, but may I remind you that you and...whomever your friend is...need to leave!" the fashionista insisted.

"But we only just got here, Monique!" Bonnie cackled. "And actually, we did receive two invites from Hope, whom emailed me the copies!"

Kim glared at Hope.

"Sorry, Kim, but Bonnie has been my friend. I just cannot say no to anything she asks me..." Hope whimpered.

"Whatever." Kim sighed at Hope before turning her attention to Bonnie. "Just don't act like a fool for at least a couple hours, Rockwaller. This is Tamara's last party before she leaves for college! And who is your new friend here?"

Bonnie snickered and loudly announced to everyone!

"Girls...and the loser Mad Dog mascot..." she decreed while Ron seethed at her.

"I present to you the newest prospective member of the Mad Dog cheer squad! Rebecca Starlet! She just recently moved from the rich upper crust of Upperton and her family owns the Starlet Oil Company which is worth about $7 billion!"

"Seven billion?!" Ron exclaimed as his jaw dropped.

"That's correct, Stoppable!" Bonnie snarked, "She's like the heiress to the comapny!"

"So that explains all the bling she has on her..." Kim muttered. "Country CB, I would guess?"

"Yep, Possible!" Bonnie replied, still grinning at the glimmer of gold all over Rebecca's body. "She only shops the finest stores and not any peasant dumps like Club Banana!"

"Only sore losers would even wear those fashions that would be dumped into the local Smarty-Mart..." Rebecca snarked before looking at Tara, "...and for those rats that only work minimum wage at the local Cow N' Chow!"

Monique gasped at what Bonnie and Rebecca said about both her and Tara. She clenched her fists, ready to punch them!.

"You take that back, girl, before I am going to pound both your faces in!"

Kim and Jessica held her back before any punches could be thrown.

"We can't fight her now, Monique! Not in public! Not now!"

Monique relented before unclenching her fists. "Someday...karma will shove you right in the face..." she muttered.

Rufus also growled at Rebecca.

"Seems like Rufus doesn't like you on first impressiosn!

"Monique, you never cease to amaze me!" Bonnie chuckled.

"Why thank you, Bonnie, for introducing me to the rest of your squad!" Rebecca replied as she removed her sunglasses. "I hope to contribute to next year's team as we root-root for the Mad Dogs! Oh, and we're going on shopping trips to the World's Richest Mall!"

Kim gasped. "Only the uber-rich visit that place!"

"That's correct...um...what's your name again?" Rebecca asked.

"The name's Kim Possible. Perhaps you have heard my name in the news?" Kim asked, huffing.

"Oh yeah, the stupid crop-top cargo-pants wearing weirdo fighting other weirdoes!" Rebecca taunted.

"I guess you got all that info from Bonnie..." Kim muttered.

"From only the very best!" Rebecca replied before looking at her Club CB watch. "Oh, goodness, look at time! We should be at the salon for our 2pm mani-pedi!"

"Yeah, the both of us would stay and love to annoy you two losers, but we got an appointment to keep!" Bonnie snarked. "Kthanksbye!"

And with that, both Bonnie and Rebecca left Monique's backyard to go to the limousine.

"Ooooo! The nerve of Bonnie to insult me and my friends like that!" Kim shrieked, "And that super-rich so-called 'friend' of hers? I only wish if all that jewelry on her turned to rust!"

"KP! Just chillax! Don't let Bonnie and her rich girl-friend get to you!" Ron replied, "You got me and Monique to hang out all summer long! Plus, we won't have Barkin to push us around for the next two and a half months!"

Kim's frustrations with her rivalry with the Queen subsided...for now.

"Thanks, Ron. I really need to get my temper with Bon in check in time for the new school year." the redhead admitted.

"That's the spirit, girl!" Monique exclaimed.

"I know you can do it, Kim. Just clear the mind off of Bonnie and be in control!" Ron replied.

"Okay, sounds good to me!" Kim said as she sat back down on the pool chair.

"Relax and soak in the summer!" Ron said with a happy sigh, "It is going to be peaceful and quiet!"

[atlafan]

My Everything - Part Six

A Take it Slow Sequel

What happens with Harry and Y/N after he proposes? How will the two navigate the engaged life while also continuing to juggle their jobs, friends, and families? Let’s find out.

Warnings: Fluff and smut.

a/n: not proofread fam, I didn’t have the strength.

Masterpost

“What do you think you’re gonna be for Halloween this year? I hope you step up your costume from last year.” You giggle with Niall at lunch.

“I know, Netflix and Chill wasn’t exactly original. We have somethin’ in mind, but we’re not tellin’ anyone. What about you guys?”

“We’re also keeping it a secret. I’m really excited El’s gonna stay with me while Louis and Harry are in Wisconsin.”

“Yeah, it’ll be good for you guys to get to know each other a bit more. Is it awkward at all that you and Sarah are in her wedding party, but Rachel isn’t?”

“Not really.” You shrug. “Mariah’s taking their photos and Rachel’s actually doing the videography, so she’ll still be there.”

“Oh good! I still can’t believe Harry’s finally gonna see a Packer’s game, he must be so excited.”

“He is! I’m sorry I couldn’t get a third ticket, it would’ve been nice for the three of you to go.”

“Nah, we don’t need to do everything together. It’ll be good for them to have a little trip just the two of ‘em, but I appreciate you thinkin’ of me.”

//

You get home from work, grab the packages waiting for you, and head up.

“Babe! The fabric for our costumes got here, I can start putting it together tonight!” You say as you come in. Buster trots over to greet you. “Hi baby boy, where’s daddy?”

“Daddy’s right here, pumpkin.” He comes over and kisses your cheek.

“Pumpkin?” You giggle. “That’s a new one.”

“I got a little inspired. I bought a couple today for us to carve, thought we could roast the seeds.”

“Oh that sounds like so much fun! We could put them out on the balcony for decoration too.”

“I was thinkin’ the same thing, baby.”

You and Harry eat a quick cauliflower crust pizza for dinner, and you get to work on the costumes. You were so excited to be making them, just like when you were a kid. Once you get a good chunk done, you both sit down to carve your pumpkins.

“What kind of face are you gonna make?” You ask him.

“I don’t really make faces, I like doin’ designs.” He says, concentrating with his sharpie.

“Alright, then what design are you going for?”

“Have you ever seen The Nightmare Before Christmas?”

“Of course I have.” He turns the pumpkin around to show you his sketch.

“It’s the dog.”

“Harry…I didn’t know you could draw.”

“A little here and there.”

“That’s gonna look really cool.” You look down at the triangles you’ve drawn on your own pumpkin. “I guess mine will look pretty sad compared to yours.” You laugh.

“Nah, yours will be a classic.”

You both cut holes in the tops of the pumpkins and take all the guts out. You separate the seeds into a different bowl so you can roast them later. You finish your pumpkin much sooner than Harry’s, so you go in the kitchen to work on the seeds.

“It’s all done, come look, I put some fake candles inside them. They look pretty cool on the balcony.” He says to you as he washes his hands.

“Oh wow!” You gasp. “You’re so talented, babe.”

“Not my best work actually.” He shrugs. “So I’m still comin’ to your office tomorrow to take those pictures?”

“Mhm. Apparently I’ll be in the winter edition of the magazine…I’m really excited! Zach put a really cool video interview together.” You both plop down on the couch while you wait for the pumpkin seeds to finish up in the oven.

“What did you talk about?”

“Why knowing your alumni network is important, why getting involved with clubs on campus is so important, getting out of your comfort zone to make friends, stuff like that. Then I talked about how I fell into the work I did, if it was my dream job, stuff like that. I talked about my hobbies. Even Buster was in the video for a bit. I talked about you too, of course, and how having a supportive partner can make a huge difference.”

“Aw, you didn’t need to mention me.”

“Well, you could see the pictures of us on my desk in the frame, so he just asked quick. I didn’t talk much about my personal life since that wasn’t the point of the interview. I also talked about why checking your benefits when job searching was a really big deal, and how I’m getting my master’s for free.”

“Yeah, that’s one of the reasons why I stayed with Plant Geo for so long, they had great benefits.”

“Speaking of benefits, when we get married did you want to come onto my insurance plan and all that? Or do you wanna keep the state’s?”

“It depends on how cost effective it is. More will be taken out of your paycheck, and it could just end up equaling the same as what I pay now…”

“True, I could talk to someone at HR and they could go over the plans with me. My copay is only like $10, not too bad.”

“Yeah, that’s really good actually. Man, that’s the one thing I miss about home, health insurance and medical bills are way less fucked up.”

“Yup, it’s all just big business here.” You sigh. “At least I work at a company that actually provides what I need.”

“Mhm, like your maternity leave? I still can’t get over that.”

“I think it helps that the CEO is a woman…she gets it, you know?” He hums his response.

“When exactly were you planning to get off the pill?”

“Oh god, I have no idea. We have so much time, I was thinking maybe a year before the wedding? I read that it can take like three months before you have a regular period again if you were irregular before you started the pill, and I was very irregular. Why?”

“Just wondering. I’m trying to mentally prepare myself for havin’ to use condoms all the time.”

“I guess we’ll just have to make sure we’re stocked up. Plus…it’s not like you’ll never be able to stick it in raw, you can, you’ll just need to pull out and come on me.” You shrug.

“You would be way too paranoid.” He laughs.

“Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, okay? Not something we even need to think about right now.” You hear the oven go off. “Seeds are done!” You kiss Harry’s forehead and go into the kitchen.

While the two of you were crafting he couldn’t help but think a few years down the line, having a toddler, and carving pumpkins with them. You’d probably put them in a cute costume for trick or treating as well. With how well you took care of him and Buster, Harry knew you were going to be an amazing mum someday. You come back out and sit down.

“Where are the seeds?”

“We can’t eat them yet, we have to wait for them to cool. They’ll burn your mouth.” He throws an arm around you and kisses you. “What?” You giggle.

“Nothin’, just love yeh.”

//

“Hi, Mr. Styles.” Trish beams at Harry when he comes up with his camera equipment.

“Trish, uh, you know you can just call me Harry, right?”

“I do, but you’re here for a professional purpose today. I thought we’d keep things formal.” She gets up and leads him down the hall to your office. “The CEO was thrilled that Y/N was being featured in her college magazine.”

“She was?”

“Oh yes, what a great way to plug Mark It. Maybe more young people will want to work here.”

“Right.”

She knocks on your door and opens it.

“Y/N?”

“Hi, Trish.” You say without looking at her, finishing up an email. It was nearly the end of the day.

“Mr. Styles from Styles Photography is here to see you.” She giggles.

“Ah, okay, send him in, thank you.” You smile and stand up from your desk.

“Did you tell her to be so professional?” He smirks. “They know me around here.”

“I didn’t say a thing.” You go over to him and give him a kiss on the cheek while Buster trots over to say hello to his daddy. “But…” You move to whisper in his ear. “It does create a new fantasy, doesn’t it?” You step back and blush.

“Don’t you start.” He shakes his head. “If I get my wheels turning on that…”

“I could really see it. A hot photographer coming to take my picture, you do that thing where you brush some hair from my face, suddenly we’re making eye contact…”

“Y/N.” Harry says sternly. “Enough.” You fake pout at him while he gets his equipment set up.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to rile you up.”

“M’not.” His face was flushed and his pants were growing tighter.

“Okay.” You scoff. He side eyes you for a moment and then gets back to his things. “So…how do you want me?” You ask in a genuine tone.

“Alright.” He stands up straight and walks over to you. He takes your cheeks between his thumb and index finger. “You’re not bein’ a very good girl right now.”

“I just asked a question.”

“Well, I-“

“Oi!” Niall says walking into your office. “You know the door’s open right?” Harry lets go of you and turns to look at Niall. “Probably shouldn’t be doin’ all that.” He smirks.

“Just gettin’ her how I want her for the pictures.”

“I hope that magazine is gonna give you credit.”

“They will.” You say. “I wouldn’t have let Harry do this if they weren’t going to put his name in. They’re even giving him free ad space at the back of it.”

“Oh, that’s great! Well, I’m headed out for the day. See you tomorrow.”

“Night.” You smile. Him and Harry wave each other off.

“Okay, can we be professional now?”

“Yes, I’m so sorry Mr. Styles of Styles Photography.”

“You’re a little bit goofy at the end of the, huh?”

“Just a little bit.”

Harry gets some good shots of you in your office, and a really nice one of you and Buster. He has you pack up your things, and takes you outside the building to get some nice outdoor shots before the sun sets.

“Thank you so much for coming to do all of this.” You kiss him. “I’ll see you at home.”

“Be ready for me when we get in.” He says, loading his car up.

“Be ready for what?” He walks closer to you and presses you up against your car, his hips pressing into yours. “Oh.” You blush.

“Yeah.” He kisses you and lets you go.

//

When you get home, you get Buster fed and some fresh water before going into your bedroom. You wanted to freshen up for your man. You were just putting on some fresh lace panties when Harry walks in.

“I appreciate the sentiment, but you can just leave those off.” He smirks.

You slide them back down your legs and kick them away as he approaches you. He grabs you by the back of your neck and tilts your chin up.

“What I don’t appreciate is you purposefully trying to get my hard when you’ve told me over and over that you don’t want to fuck in your office.”

“I wasn’t trying to make you hard, I was just playing around.”

“Just playing around, hm.” He nods his head and lets you go. He undoes his pants and sits down on the bed. “How about you play around with this?” He points to his crotch and you get on your knees in front of him. “Wait, let me grab you a pillow, honey.” He reaches behind him and hands it to you.

“Thank you.”

You get his hard cock out of his boxers and lick your lips before licking up and down his length. You suckle on his tip while your hand pumps him slowly. You look up at him, and he’s already looking down at you. It’s intense it makes you groan against him. You sink down further on him, and his hips buck up, trying to fit as much of himself in you as he can. You think of something, and you pop off him.

“Harry, I need you stand up.”

“Wh, why?”

“So it’s easier for you.”

“Easier for me to do what?”

“You know…fuck my face.” You mumble. His eyebrows shoot up, and he doesn’t hesitate to stand.

“You really want me to do this?” His hands cup your cheeks to get a better grip on you.

“Mhm.”

“You’re gonna gag a lot.”

“I’ll work through it.”

“Just tap my legs if it gets to be too much, okay?”

“Okay.”

You grip his hips and open your mouth wide for him. His slides back in and moans softly from how good your mouth feels on him. He thrusts in and out slowly, going a little deeper each time. He had hit the back of your throat before, numerous time, but usually you were the one in control of that. Your eyes start to water as his pace quickens, and you try to focus on just breathing through your nose. When he hears you gag he slows down to give you a second, and then he jumps back in to what he was doing before.

“Fuck, Y/N.” He groans. “I’m gonna come.” He pulls out, and you leave your mouth open. His comes onto your open mouth, neck, and chest. He helps you up before he sits down on the bed. “Jesus, I think I’m light headed.” He chuckles and runs a hand through his hair. He looks at you, and you’re not saying much as you stand there naked in front of him. You had an odd look in your eyes. “Shit, let me go get a rag to clean you up, baby.” He stands back up, kisses your forehead, and rushes into the bathroom. He comes back out with a warm rag and wipes up your chest. “You did really well, took it all down that pretty throat of yours. Felt so good.” He steps back and looks at you. “There, all clean.” You blink at him. “Are you alright?”

You tap your throat and try to speak but it comes out really scratchy and hoarse. You try to clear your throat but it doesn’t help much.

“Lemme get you some water…maybe I was a bit too aggressive.” You grab his wrist. “What?”

You tug at the hem of his shirt, and he gets the idea. You wanted him, the water could wait. He gets you on the bed, and hovers over you. His lips find yours, and he sucks on your bottom lip. He plants gentle, wet kisses down your body, stopping to suck on one of your nipples. He twists your piercing between his teeth, making your head roll back. His hand slides between your legs while he continues to work your breasts. His middle finger runs up and down your slit before entering you. You gasp when he starts to curl it up.

“You’re so wet f’me baby.” He mumbles, switching to suck on your breast. He slides a second finger in and pumps in and out of you.

You grind against his hand, and he lets go of your breast with a pop. He retracts his fingers, and slides them up to your clit. Your mouth falls open and you moan out his name when his tongue enters you. You hear him groan as he moves his tongue in and out of you, and you tug on his hair.

“Harry.” You moan again, throat dry and hoarse.

He head your legs shaking. Your voice cracks as you cry out from your release. He continues to rub your clit as you come down. He grabs your hips and flips you over gently, spreading you apart and entering you. You loved how quickly he could get hard again. His chest was flush with your back as he rocks in and out of you. His hand snakes underneath you to rub your clit and you feel like you just wanted to melt. It still amazed you how much he paid attention to your body. It was never about him getting his, it was about this mutual pleasure that only you two shared.

Everything felt really good, and you were overstimulated.

“Oh my god, don’t stop.” You say in a raspy voice. “Fuck, Harry, that’s so good.” You clutch at your blankets and pillows. He bits down on the back of your shoulder as he feels you come around his cock.

His thrusts get sloppy and quicken, and a few moments later he’s filling you up. He pulls out of you slowly and rests on the bed to look at you. He smooths some hair out of your face and you smile at him.

“My throat really hurts.” You giggle.

“I know, I’m sorry.” He kisses your nose and gets off the bed. He wiggles his boxers up his legs, and watches you walk into the bathroom. “M’gonna get dinner started.” You give him a thumbs up and he leaves you to clean yourself up.

You come into the kitchen in a pair of light sweatpants and a t-shirt. Buster comes over to you and you pat him on the head. You guzzle down a nice glass of water and try to clear your throat. Harry was working on a stir fry.

“Why’d you want me to do that to you, I feel bad…”

“I don’t know.” You cough, and clear your throat again. “Just thought of it. I like when we take turns being more in control of those things.”

“But I hurt you.” He frowns.

“No! It was fine, it was just different. See, I’m all better now.” You smile. “My throat just got dry.”

“Okay.” He kisses the top of your head and puts his attention back to dinner. “Just veggies and rice, that okay?”

“It’s perfect, thank you.”

You sit down at the island and wait for him to finish preparing everything. He makes a plate up for you and he sits down next to you. He tells you about his day at the studio, and how cute some of the little kids in their costumes looked.

“I still can’t believe parents pay to have Halloween cards sent out.” You laugh.

“I choose not to question it. If these rich people wanna pay me for these little things, I’m all for it.”

“Oh, definitely! I think it’s great you’re doing all these little sessions.”

“The Thanksgiving sessions are all booked, and there’s only a few Santa sessions left open.”

“I’m so proud of you.”

“All that social media stuff you do makes such a big difference, that’s why so many people are signing up.”

“It’s nice getting to work together in this capacity.” He stands up and takes both of your plates.

“My sweet girl.” He says as he kisses your head before putting the dishes in the dishwasher. “Wanna watch TV for a bit? I’m beat.”

“Mhm.”

Harry lays down on the sofa and you lay in front of him so he can spoon you. You were nearing the end of the third season of Glee.

“God, the show got so hard to watch after these last few episodes.”

“Why, baby?”

“Just everything with Rachel and Finn, you’ll see.”

You get to the last episode of the third season. You both sit up so you can watch intently. You were sobbing already, and Harry was getting to that point himself.

“Wait…he’s not goin’ with her?!” He looks at you. “I mean, I wasn’t in favor of them gettin’ married right away, but…he’s sendin’ her off to New York alone?”

You couldn’t even speak you were so upset.

“Finn, no, what the fuck?!” He looks at you again. “That’s how they ended it?”

“Yes.”

“And you had to wait an entire summer to know what happened next…Jesus.” He wipes his eyes. “This show is fucked up.”

“You said it.” You wipe your own eyes. “Come on, we need to go to sleep.”

“You can’t be serious, we need to-“

“Harry, it’s already after ten, come on. We can watch more tomorrow.”

“Okay, but only because I wanna cuddle some more.”

//

“Morning, Harry.” Isaac says as Harry walks in.

“Mornin’.” He takes his coffee from him. “Ah, thank you.”

“So your day is going to be interesting.”

“Define interesting…”

“Lot of single moms and their kids…”

“Oh, why is that interesting?”

“Look at the reviews of you on Facebook.” Harry comes around to Isaac’s computer to look. “See, this one says, both Harry and Mariah are extremely professional, I’m very happy with their work.”

“That’s…I’m very confused.”

“Look at all of the comments. Harry was amazing with my son, I can’t wait to bring my kids to see him, I wouldn’t mind him taking my photos…and they sort of escalated from there. You know how wine moms can be. I made it so some of them weren’t visible.”

“These people do know we do any type of portrait, they don’t just need to have their kids involved.”

“You’re missing the point. They’re thirsty for you.”

“Thirsty?” He scoffs.

“I notice them flirting with you from time to time.”

“A lot of people flirt with me.” He shrugs. “I just don’t flirt back.”

Just then a young woman and he toddler walk in. Her daughter was already dressed like Bat Man.

“Woah, looks like the Dark Knight has arrived, Isaac.” The little girl giggles.

“I had hoped she’d want to be a princess, but she insisted on Bat Man.” The mother sighs.

“Nothin’ wrong with that, is there?” He smiles. “I just need a few minutes to get settled and set up. Isaac can get you anything you need.” He turns and goes upstairs to his office.

“So, how’d you hear about us?” Isaac asks.

“Word of mouth. One of the other moms at Janey’s preschool raved about someone named Mariah, but she was all booked up today. Then someone else mentioned Harry might have more open spots since he owns the place.” Isaac nods. “I heard he’s very talented.”

“He is.” Isaac smiles.

Harry comes down shortly and gets his spot set up the way he likes. Mariah was in her office editing photos.

“Okay, Janey, I mean, uh, Bat Man, come on over.”

The little girl runs over to Harry.

“Janey, don’t run! I’m so sorry, she never listen to me.” The woman huffs.

“No worries.” Harry smiles and looks down at the girl. “Is it okay if I lift yeh up and what not?”

“Mhm.”

“Thank you.”

Harry picks her up and puts her on a chair decorated for Halloween. There were pumpkins and other Halloween things around her.

“Smile, Janey. Grandma’s gonna want to see that pretty face.”

“No.” She pouts. “Bat Man doesn’t smile, mumma.”

“She’s right.” Harry says. “But sometimes he does.”

“He does?” Janey asks.

“Oh sure. Right after he gets a bad guy, like when he sends the joker to jail, that makes him really happy.”

“Okay.” She giggles and Harry snaps a shot.

He’s able to get a lot of great shots of her, and wraps everything up. He hands Isaac the SD card from the camera. Lately, Harry had let Isaac touch up these simpler photoshoots.

“Isaac should have these to you in a couple of days with the design you chose.”

“Thank you so much, Harry. I haven’t seen her have so much fun since…well, I won’t bore you with my problems.”

Isaac has to refrain from making a gagging noises. He knew exactly where this was headed.

“You’re a single mum?” Harry asks.

“Mhm, it was all for the best, but she misses her daddy.”

“Yeah, that’s, uh, gotta be tough.” Harry and Isaac make knowing eye contact. “Well, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go give my fiancé a ring before my next appointment. It was nice meeting the both of you.”

Harry slips away and almost runs up to his office.

“Oh, he’s, um, not single?”

“Nope, very taken.” Isaac smiles. “Will that be cash or credit?”

[knightdale-secret]

Today I learned a haunting truth about a secret hidden right in my very neighborhood. An ugly truth that has been hidden, covered up and mostly forgotten, until now.

In Knightdale, North Carolina the prominent plantation owner, Charles Lewis Hinton, purchased and built a plantation home for his son David Hinton and his new wife Mary Boddie Carr as a wedding present on a stretch of land that would come to be known as the Midway Plantation because it was halfway between two other Hinton family properties. The beautiful, two-story Greek Revival plantation home was built in 1848 as a forced-labor farm. A slave plantation.

I’m not certain how many people were enslaved there over the years, but I do know that at least 130 of those slaves were buried on a site that would later be knowingly built on top of to create Widewaters subdivision. MY neighborhood.

Right behind the community pool and club house there is a strange white gravel path that leads up a slight hill to a black wrought iron fence gate that is always latched. There is a rickety wooden fencing surrounding a wooded area on a hill. This is in the middle of the neighborhood. There was never any explanation for it - for why, in a development, this overgrown patch of trees is fenced in and gated off, untouched, where normally there would be another few houses perhaps. I pass this area almost daily in my car or on leisurely walks. I had noticed the fence but thought maybe it was part of someone’s property. I didn’t think too much of it.

But that changed today. Today I was bored and looking up about local plantation owners in the area because history has always interested me. I learned a little about the Shoppes of Midway being built where the plantation house once stood and that the original house and its outbuildings were moved 2 miles up the road so a Target could be built and the ever expanding road wouldn’t keep encroaching on their lawn. This made way for growth in Knightdale. And grow it has. What was once a small town on the outskirts of Raleigh has become busier and more built up as available housing in the city has decreased and people leave it in search of quieter suburbs to live and raise their families. So as I was researching for no reason in particular other than personal interest, I stumbled upon an article about Midway Plantation and it stated that there was a slave cemetery that was surveyed and a neighborhood was built on top of it. It said it was across the street to the east from where the Midway Plantation house originally stood and that all that was left of the cemetery was maybe 50 graves on a hill in some trees surrounded by a black wrought iron fence. The article states that after the building of the subdivision was started, it was clear that houses were more important than the graves of the many slaves that worked the plantations. And yes, the builders did know about the cemetery. It was surveyed and it was signed off on to be built over. I think this is when the downplaying, lying and covering up started. A letter was reportedly written according to the below article when the preparations for the subdivision were being made that said that such a large slave cemetery couldn’t have existed in this area based on the shaky reference that the present owners didn’t have enough slaves to have this type of burial ground and no church could be identified on the grounds (cause cemeteries only are constructed on church grounds?) this mysterious letter writer conveniently failed to recognize that the land was originally Hinton land and they had slaves numbering in the hundreds here and could most certainly have amassed a deceased slave population of that size over the years it was in operation.

There is a saying about guilt : “A given excuse that was not asked for implies guilt.” If this letter writer submitted this without prompting from any public outcry than he was already defending a guilty mind. He was trying to persuade people away from the truth and to avoid any public outrage over the very wrong they knew they were committing by building here.

That article link is here: http://www.knightdalehistoric.com/pdf/plantations3.pdf

This was the only article or snippet of information I could find about this cemetery that very clearly under my neighborhood and whose remaining grave sites lie just mere feet away from our community swimming pool. This disturbed me greatly because to date, this site is unmarked and unrecognized. So i first decided to submit a request for a historical marker to be made for the site. I was met with an emailed response by a very helpful administrator for the NC Marker Historical Society who said that they no longer do markers for cemeteries but she would contact the National Register for Historic Places and see if the cemetery could be added to the Midway plantation that is already registered as a historical place. She has been talking with archaeologists who are working on this and she’ll be in touch. I also emailed someone in archives to see how I could find the site survey that was done but haven’t received a response yet.

Next I decided to post this information on Facebook to the local community groups and see how they felt about it, and to inform them as well as pose that a marker be made and that I would try to get that facilitated. An outpouring of support and offerings to donate to help fund its creation were given. I knew I was onto something that was important not just to me as a person living in a neighborhood with a secret of this magnitude, but to a community of people who would also want this recognized.

Now, I myself am not African American. I am pretty much as white as they come, I have the genealogy report to prove it. I struggled with the idea that I would be lambasted as trying to be some sort of “white savior” or something by trying to make this happen. I felt guilty that I was the one that found this information and had to be the one to put it out there. I felt like this belongs to the descendants of slaves. this is something that would affect their community,feelings and hearts maybe more than the white community’s in its ramifications and would of course be more important to them on a more personal level. Who am I to come in and make a big stink about something that isn’t even my history someone might say,but it is America’s history. It is the history of the land I now inhabit. And it is an issue that I hold dear to my heart because these men and women and children that lived, worked and died here were not just property or possessions, they were people and their graves should be respected just like anyone else’s. More so I think. Their graves can serve as a reminder of the great bloody sins that occurred in the building of this country. In the building of the south. The only monuments I’d like to see in the south would be to commemorate the slaves, not the enslavers and the people that tried to tear the country apart. The hero slaves that helped build this nation against their will and with great laboring and suffering due to an abhorrent institution that stains our history. They are the ones that should be remembered. Their stories told.

I have always been a sympathizing person. My first hero in elementary school was Martin Luther King, Jr. I gave an oral report on him and did papers later in junior high. I have always been the type of person that hates seeing injustice done to people and the hatred that divides communities and people over nothing more than color or ignorant biases. It never made sense to me and I never understood why people can’t be kind to one another and celebrate differences rather than fear them.

Some people made the point that many cemeteries have been likely built on over the years including white cemeteries, which I also think is awful, but in this situation PART OF THIS CEMETERY IS STILL HERE! Part of our history, this city’s history is still here in OUR NEIGHBORHOOD. We pass it every day! It is here with us and it should be recognized. It should be visited and reflected on. It should be acknowledged.

I visited the cemetery site today and saw the indentations in the ground and the old stone markers left on some of the sites where the slaves were buried. I couldn’t believe that this was just here, between houses and a pool, not in a historical site that you had to pay to see. No fanfare or brochure handouts. Just dusty old bones in the ground marked by grey stones in a patch of trees in the middle of a subdivision, silently waiting to be seen. I whispered to them before I left that I would do all I could to make sure they were not forgotten. That a marker in their honor would be made so they could be remembered. I sincerely hope I can make that happen.

Thru my posts on Facebook, I met a man named Keith Gibbs who has apparently already done a lot of work to try to have this cemetery recognized with a small group of others but they hit many roadblocks. He told me that there are cover ups and corruption surrounding the area from higher ups and people that don’t want this information out there. He was unsuccessful in his journey to get the site recognized, but he has agreed to hand over his research and findings to me in hopes I will be the one to get something done. ME, a curious girl with no real clout, lol. Yeah, ME, I’m the one. I’m the one that will make this happen where others failed. RIGHT?? Right.

Now, it should be said that I have never really been the figure head for anything in my life. I have never been the spokesperson, the leader the public person, the socialite. I am a shy person that works best from the shadows, behind the scenes. The one that does the work but doesn’t get the credit. And I have largely been okay with that role. It’s less stressful. But now people are looking to me to lead them on this issue. To call the shots and take the donations and create the marker. And that was all fine and dandy…. until CBS 17 messaged me asking if I’d like to do a story for them to help get attention and funding for the marker. I got excited and also nervous. I let her know that would likely be a good Avenue to take to get it done but I am still in the information gathering stage. I let her know of my meeting with Keith and told her I’d get back with her when I knew more. She was okay with that.

Honestly, I was relieved I had a reason to stall. I’ve never been on TV before! Cameras DO NOT love me unless its a selfie photo with a Snapchat filter that i’m taking of myself lol. I’m no public speaker. And also I still feel like it shouldn’t be me. I mean, it should since I discovered it and put it out there for the masses, but how can I be the face of this? Me, a white girl from small town Pennsylvania, be the face of a covered up slave cemetery? I feel guilty but also I do feel like there is something to white privilege and power and I hope to only use it as a force for good in this world and to help those with less privilege than I where I can. We only live once and I think a whole lot about how I want to be remembered when I am gone. When someone is building houses over my grave. I’d like to know somewhere out there I might be remembered fondly for doing something that was right in this world of wrongs.

I’m terrified to do the story, but I feel like it is my duty now and my responsibility. I am just so scared of fucking it up. What if I say something stupid or that can be taken out of context? This is such a touchy issue after all. I just want to do them justice. God help me. I just want them to be remembered.

[larryfanficwriter98]

Chapter Twelve

The top five trends worldwide were of Larry Stylinson and Louis Tomlinson the very next day. Number one trend was "#LarryStylinsonIsForever", the second was "#LouisTomlinSONDATASS" with the videos the girls recorded from last night attached to it. The eight of them had danced their asses off with zero thoughts of their dignity for the next day. Louis was seen in all of them his ass and hips getting wilder the more he drank.

The third trend was "#PartyWithLouis" with the video of Louis drowning shots and high fiving the seven people group as well as yelling out the happy birthday song to the girl who was twenty now. The fourth trend was "#PartyWithLarry" with videos of Louis and videos of Harry from his birthday at a club attached to the posts.

Both lads taking shots in their respective videos and both lads having a good time with their friends. The final trend was of his shirt last night which said "Wine and Dildos" and Louis has never regretted buying a funny shirt until that moment. Even the "vanilla is for ice cream" shirt form Valentine's Day didn't draw as much attention as his shirt from last night was.

Louis sighed as he rolled out of bed to go downstairs where Liam, Zayn, and Niall were eating cereal at the counter.

"I hate every single one of you." Louis told them as he pulled down his coco pops

"Shut it cum stains." Zayn said around his toast making Louis glare at him

"Hey what's with the photos of Harry with that guy yesterday?" Liam asked

"His ex tried to get back with him but Harry shot him down. Nothing to worry about. It was just lunch." Louis said

"Just lunch? The guy was at his concert last night." Louis frowned and looked at Liam, "yeah there's photos of him in the crowd and a video of him going backstage after the show."

"Well I spoke with Harry before his show and he probably didn't know he'd be there them after we were sort of...distracted. Look I'm sure it looks bad-"

"Lou none of us is accusing Harry of anything, we all love him and don't think he'd cheat especially after getting to know the real him. I just thought I'd let you know the guy was there last night." Louis nodded pulling his phone out as he grabbed the milk from the fridge. He hesitated but pressed Harry's number feeling bad that it was only 6 in the morning in Brazil.

"Hey, Lou." Harry said answering almost immediately

"Hey what are you doing up so early?" Louis asked

"Watching the sunrise, thinking of you, writing, and eating fruit. Couldn't sleep after 5 so I got up to start the day." Harry said, "how's the hangover?"

"Horrible, but I'll live." Louis said putting Harry on speaker-phone to set it on the countertop as he stood beside Liam.

"Hey, Harry." The lads greeted

"Hey, guys. How was last night? Saw you made friends."

"Niall has a crush." Liam said

"Oh?"

"Shut up. It's nothing." Niall said shoving waffles into his mouth, "how was the concert?"

"It was fine. Had a girl try to get into my dressing room it was a weird night. I'm tired of South America already. Ready to leave." Harry said

"You sound exhausted. You okay?" Zayn asked

"I am. It was a long night. Management wants publicity around me for the UK leg and so they have brought my ex into the media with me without telling me. So now I'm being painted as a cheater over here even though I haven't done anything. Management gave him a ticket and a backstage passed yesterday without letting me know so now there's that going around the web. Then they have a room under his name in the same hotel I'm staying at. I'm probably going to stay in my tour bus or a different hotel tonight. Tonight is my last concert here so the rest is interviews and photoshoots but if this keeps up I'll leave early. Management and I have been arguing about it since last night." Harry explained

"Is there anything we can do?" Liam asked concerned

"Legally yeah, but honestly it's not worth it. As long as none of you have signed anything with Sony you're legally allowed to talk about anything. That doesn't mean you're safe to do so, however."

"What do you mean?" Louis asked

"If they know it's you then they can sue you for misinformation or slander. However, if you just happen to have an anonymous twitter or Tumblr account that can't be traced by to you by email or phone number and it must happen to tell the world about controlling managements. Well, they can't sue someone if they don't have their names." Harry said Louis looked at the boys who grinned

*************

Harry folded his arms sitting back in his seat frowning at his management team.

"Harry this will bring in a lot of publicity." Frank said, "We think it's for the best."

"Also we think Louis isn't the most...appropriate person to be associated with. The shirts, the jokes, the middle finger." Becca said as she spread out screenshots of Louis' tweets and pictures.

"Our point is Louis isn't someone to keep around when your music is for young girls ages 13 and up. That's your audience."

"It's not happening." Harry said shaking his head

"You signed a contract-"

"A contract you guys are going against." Harry argued glaring at them, "it's not going to happen."

"Yes, it will. You are expected at the beach tomorrow at noon for your date. That's final." Harry stormed out of the room slamming the door closed, he headed to the hotel and contacted his lawyer telling him what was going on. After his lawyer confirmed that it was against the contract Harry made his mind up and spent the next few hours talking to him.

*********

"Hey, lads how was work?" Louis asked walking into the house kicking off his shoes quickly. He frowned when silence met his question and was even more confused when he saw the lads sitting on the couch waiting for him. "What's going on?"

"Has Harry called yet?"

"What do you mean? Is it another stupid ex-boyfriend picture because I swear-"

"Harry's tour is canceled."

"What?" Louis asked stopping in his tracks, "is Harry okay?" Liam turned his laptop around and Louis stared at the picture of Harry with his bags and his eyes filled with tears with his head down as he walked through Manchester airport a few hours ago with the title,

HARRY STYLES CANCELS TOUR UNEXPECTEDLY!

LETS DOWN AND DISAPPOINTS MILLIONS OF FANS!

HARRY STYLES CAREER OVER?!

"What...why?" Louis asked immediately grabbing his phone and saw no missed calls or texts. Frowning he quickly called Harry putting him on speaker but got no answer. He tried two more times, but still no answer. "Alright, I'm going to go check his house. Make sure he's okay." Louis said getting up to pull his shoes back on

"Keep us updated." Liam said getting a nod from Louis who hurried out of the house and back into his car.

He had Harry's address and lock code for the time he had gone to his house to let in Harry's yard worker. Gemma usually did it, but or she had been asked to work so Harry had asked Louis to do it and to just stay there until he was finished. Louis had agreed and stayed there all Sunday watching Netflix on Harry's couch in his living room. Harry was on the other side of Manchester, but Louis didn't care as he out in the lock code watching the gate slide open letting him inside. He got out of his car and headed to the door glad to find it unlocked when he tested the handle.

Closing the door behind him, he ran up the stairs and headed to Harry's room opening the door gently and saw Harry laying on the bed. He walked inside the room and closed the door as he took his shoes off then headed to the bed. Louis sat on the side looking at Harry who had fallen asleep crying according to the tear tracks. He reached his hand out and gently pulled his hair away from his face and ran his fingers through it.

"Harry." Louis spoke soft and gentle, "Haz." Harry slowly opened his eyes and Louis smiled, "what are you doing here Haz? What's wrong? What happened?" Louis asked a few minutes later after he was sure Harry was awake

"Does everyone hate me?"

"The tabloids are having a field day, but I don't think your fans are as angry as you fear. Want me to look?" Harry nodded so Louis pulled his phone out and got on Instagram to see what is going on there and saw the picture of Harry at the airport going around. Each post was of support and wishing everything was okay, "nobody hates you, sweetie. Now, what's wrong?"

"They wanted me to cheat on you on a fucking beach in fucking Brazil. I told them no and they said some shit them by the end of it they told I was going to do it and they were the end of it. I walked out and I called my lawyer and he told me it was against the contract so I packed up and I left on the jet. Canceled the tour on the jet." Harry said, "they went against the contract they made up so unless they want to take it to court it'll be a simple case of getting ownership of my songs and making them refund the last ten concerts. So unless they want what they tried to do out in the open them it'll be over within a few weeks."

"Baby you could have called me and told me the situation. I'd of understood." Louis said gently

"No, you don't get it. First, it'd be cheating then they'd make it impossible for us to talk, then we'd break up and make me into the victim somehow and push hate on to you. They'll ruin your life and besides, I don't cheat. I'd never do that to you no matter who wanted me to do it. Can you just cuddle me?"

"Of course. Scoot over." Louis set his phone and keys beside Harry's phone and laid down beside him snuggling his head against his chest. "I love you."

"I love you too." Harry said

[stars-in-my-universe]

Bad Idea: Part 6

Summary: When pop star Trixie can’t get her act together, her team makes a deal with the NHL…one that she can’t turn down. When NHL player Tyler Seguin can’t seem to get himself under control his team decides to thrust a certain Pop star into his life. Can the two play nice?

Warnings: Cussing.

Note: You guys have been so patient and I appreciate you all so much. Feel free to send me your thoughts and any asks, I love answering questions. Hell, even send me prompts! This isn’t much but this chapter did need to happen, so I hope you guys enjoy it! 

Tyler had let two full days pass, he was now completely sober, no hangover to distract him from his adult problems and guilt that sat in the lower part of his stomach making him toss and turn for two full nights. Today though, he had woken up early, taken the dogs on a run, and made himself some eggs before getting ready to head over to Trixie’s which wasn’t as far as he thought it was going to be. 

It was closer to downtown Dallas probably the same distance his place was from the arena. Grabbing his car keys and locking up, he made his way to his car and typed in the address on his phone. He didn’t know what he was going to do or say but he assumed apologizing would be his best bet. Tyler jumped into his jeep and headed down the road to the freeway, the soft pop music playing in the background was immediately cut off as his blue tooth rang through his car’s speakers. 

Glancing at the screen, the name ALI popped up. Sighing he knew it was now or never; without missing a beat he answered the phone.

“Hi, Ali.” He grimaced as she practically screamed his name. She was lucky she was good in bed because after all the bull shit she’s pulled, he was ready to cut her off a long time ago. 

“Tyler, come on. I just want to see you and talk.” He rolled his eyes.

“We both know, when we see each other we never talk.” He listened as she rambled on about how they could fix this and where they could go from here. He loved the girl once, but she was a lot and it was always on her terms. She broke up with him and yet here she was still trying to suck him back into the toxic cycle. 

“Ali, I can’t do this anymore. You ended it with me, remember that.” He heard her let out a squeak.

“It’s cause of that bitch right?” Tyler groaned, of course of all things she remembered she’d remember Trixie. He also could feel himself get angry at Ali calling her a bitch, when he got so protective of her, hell if he knew. 

“No, it’s because my games suffering Ali.” His phone beeped signaling he was arriving soon to the destination.

“Look, I gotta go. I’m sorry but this is done.” He didn’t give her a chance to explain herself as he hit the end button on the steering wheel. Turning into a round about driveway he parked the car and got out. It wasn’t a huge house, but it was bigger than most. Walking up the porch stairs he knocked and then rang the doorbell twice. He waited to hear any noise from beyond the door, rubbing the back of his neck; a habit he had when he was nervous. He shifted from one foot to another and looked up when the door swung open.

“Fucking hell, Cami. You were supposed to be here-” Tyler had to keep himself from letting out an embarrassing moan. Tyler had hooked up with his fair share of girls, hell he even dated a playboy bunny and had a threesome in Mexico, but he had never gotten hard so fast as he stood in the doorway staring at Trixie, who was in fact staring wide eyed back at him. 

He was lucky he had sunglasses on because the way his eyes shamelessly raked her body would make him turn fifty shades of red. He always knew she was attractive, you had to be in her world, but this was not what he was expecting. Trixie stood with her hair in a messy bun, her face clear of any make up, standing in the doorway wearing nothing but a black bra with cute little purple stars and moon with bikini underwear to match. All the bra did was give her more cleavage then he was used to seeing and the little string that hugged her hip did nothing to hide her curves. Tyler had never wanted to fuck someone so bad then he did in that moment. 

Clearing her throat, Trixie let our a ‘Tyler?’ making him snap out of it. He looked back up at her face and remembered why he was here, all the anger and confusion on her face said it all. 

“Do you answer your door like this all the time?” She rolled her eyes and put a hand on her hip.

“What do you want, Seguin?” He watched as she stood there, practically no clothes on, all the confidence in the world and he didn’t think she could become any more attractive. 

“I wondered if I could come in and maybe talk...and uh, apologize?” He watched as she rolled her eyes yet again and motioned for him to follow her in. He watched as she took a step back and let him in, closing the door behind him. She pointed toward the hallway that he assumed lead to another room.

“Go ahead and go in the kitchen, I have beers in the fridge. Help yourself to anything, let me just put a shirt on.” He nodded and walked into the kitchen, not really wanting to go through her stuff, he made himself comfortable on a bar stool and waited for her. 

Luckily he didn’t have to wait long, Trixie walked behind the counter in an oversized t-shirt that covered the majority of her body minus her legs. Atleast now he wasn’t popping a boner like the fucking teenager he was, apparently. Trixie stood behind the counter, arms crossed and eyebrow raised. Tyler knew it was show time.

“Look, I’m sorry. I was out of line, I shouldn’t have said what I said. I was angry and frustrated which is also no excuse. But if you haven’t noticed yet, I’m not the brightest bulb in the box? Shed? See I don’t even know the right saying.” Trixie shook her head.

“Tyler-”

“I’m sorry I made you look like an idiot with those pictures, you told me it was your reputation too and I would ruin it.” Trixie was watching him, intently now. She could see the sincerity in his eyes, the desperation in his voice.

“Everyone says you’re good for me, everyone says we could help each other out, whether or not we see it now, I think on some level they are right, Trixie.”

“Okay but Tyler, you hate me. You want nothing to do with me half the time-”

“I know, I know and that’ll change. We’ll work on this contract for real this time, I won't...I wont be as closed off.” Trixie was now leaning her hip against the counter, she wasn’t as defensive as she first was.

“You helped Crosby, you dated Anderson. I’m not saying we need to fall in love-” Trixie laughed.

“I would prefer if we didn’t” Tyler sent her a smirk.

“But some hot angry sex is still on the table?” Trixie let out a genuine loud laugh making Tyler smile back at her. She was still hurt by the things he said, she was still angry but he did come here to apologize and he was doing a good job. Whether or not they wanted to, they had a contract and she believed this could work. 

“You gotta let me in, Tyler. We don’t have to be best friends, we don’t even have to be friends, but I can guarantee it would be a lot easier if we were.” It was Tyler’s turn to sigh, he hated not knowing who he could trust but looking at Trixie, all doe eyed and innocent he knew she knew about his world, the risks, the drama it all came with. 

“Then let’s work on it, we’ll keep the contract and work on becoming friends.” Trixie nodded.

“We are in this contract for about a year.” Tyler’s eyes went wide.

“A year?” She nodded.

“Did you not read the papers?” He shrugged.

“I figured it couldn’t be too bad, but alas I was wrong.” Trixie giggled and stared back at him. 

“And uh..Ali?” Tyler shifted in his seat.

“I’ll tell you the whole story one day but I ended it with her for good on the way over here, I need to focus on hockey if I ever want to get us a stanley cup.” Trixie didn’t say anything she just continued to stare at him.

“It’s not going to be easy, Trixie. I was on and off with this girl for awhile.”

“Then I’ll help you, get rid of her. Keep you distracted. I really am sorry for what I said in response to you attacking me. It wasn’t fair, I’m also sorry for breaking your sunglasses I’ll buy you a new pair. I was just...angry Tyler, I was hurt. I thought we were making progress. If you really do give me a chance, I’m not as bad as you think I am and we’ll be able to get through this a lot smoother.” Tyler nodded but didn’t say anything, this was all a little much for him but then he felt a hand placed over his making him look up from the counter top. Trixie was looking back at him with a small smile that somehow calmed his nerves. When she wasn’t being Hollywood Princess, she was actually really-

“I smell some sexual tension in here!” Tyler and Trixie both jumped back from each other. Trixie grabbed the nearest thing which happened to be a spatula and hauled it at her best friend. Tyler remember her from the club, the one who warned Tyler not to try to tame Trixie, she was going to do what she wanted either way. 

“I guess I should be going, don’t want to crash...whatever this is.” Getting up from the stool he waved over at Cami who in return waved him off and made her way into the living room. Trixie shook her head and lead him back to the front door opening it for him. He shoved his hands in his front pockets and could feel his cheeks warm up as Trixie sent him a small smile.

“I’ll email my team and tell them it's okay.” He nodded and went to make his way back to his jeep.

“Oh and Tyler, you busy on Friday?” He took a second to think.

“ I have practice in the morning and that’s it.” She nodded.

“If I send you an address would you go? I’m doing this thing for spotify and you being there would be good publicity.” Tyler pretended to act shocked.

“Do I get to hear the princess of pop sing...live?” She glared at him.

“I’ll text you, you asshole.”  She could hear him laughing as she closed the door.

“Bye Trixie.”

Trixie leaned against the back of the door, surprised at how well and how smooth that went. He was trying and that’s all that mattered. They could get through this contract, she would have her money and both their reputations would be saved.

“I know that look.” Trixie glanced up at her best friend.

“What look?”

“That look, don’t you dare-”

“Cami, I’m not going to fall for him.” She gave Trixie a look making the popstar glare back at her.

“He’s just a contract, another number.” Cami eyed her and shrugged.

“I would at least try to sleep with him before the contracts up.” Trixie didn’t say anything as she sat back down on the couch and turned the TV on. He was just another number, didn’t mean they couldn’t be friends? Her phone dinged from the table in front of her making her pick it up right away. She smiled to herself as she saw a message from Tyler. It was a picture of his radio and on it had a radio, with the artists name which happened to be her latest single. She giggled at the caption: ‘must be a sign.’

“Just another number huh, Trix?” Without thinking she threw a pillow at her best friend.

“Fuck off, Cami.”

[ginnyzero]

Completely Harmless Ch. 45

Completely Harmless An SSO SilverGlade Re-imagining Story (Or Fix it Fan Salt fic) By Ginny O.

When Lily and her friends wanted to buy horses and were directed to the Silverglade Manor and its myriad of problems, they didn’t expect to start a revolution. They were just a bunch a stable girls. Completely harmless. Right?

A/N: Things are only canon if I say they’re canon. Pre-Saving the Moorland Stables compliant for the most part. Posted in its entirety on my website. Posted in 2000 to 4000 word bits here. Rated T for Swearing Word Count 177,577

Chapter Forty-Five She sells sea shells by the ... river shore?

Lily tried to regain control of the meeting. “Pauline, where do we stand on the decorations?”

“Okay, here is the ideas I’ve had with everyone talking. Okay, we take flower wreathes and put them on the lamps and then wrap them with more flowers like the ones in the wreathes and our artificial palm leaves, and the sea shell garlands and sea shell lights. Then, if you have an arm to hang things off of, put a paper lantern with more flowers if you want. Um, don’t choose any flowers that are protected ladies. Then we can use the bubble garlands and the jelly fish lights like we did with the clouds and rainbow hearts from the trees. You can mix them up with the regular paper lanterns too if you want. Put the flower lights, sea shell garlands, and paper lanterns in all the stables. You can make the paper lanterns look like bubbles if you do it right.”

“Like with the clouds.”

“Exactly!”

“Then we can use the beach scene lanterns the exact same way we used the heart lanterns. But you can add the decorated anchors or ship wheels in with them. Or use the shell buckets instead. We put up the boats with the selfie walls, boats have nets decorated with shells, the round white circles have flowers and greenery like they’re a big wreathe. Put up some of the round lanterns, throw in an anchor and a wheel for props if they want. Um,” Pauline scrolled through the pictures. “We can create cabanas for the bar and the dance floor using frames, sheets, the flower lights, the artificial palm leaves, and inside have the jelly fish lanterns and more bubble garlands. The bar can have a net on it and be strewn with the decorated shea shells and the shea shell lights.” Pauline stopped at the giggles.

“Sea shells,” Lily said dryly.

“Sea shells,” Pauline repeated. “We can have more bucket, anchor, wheel decorations on that. And the pineapples, because Lily wants the pineapples. We can put more of the artificial palm leaves there too. Above the bar can go the jelly fish lights and the bubble garlands.” She paused. “And these lace sailboats are cute. We can have them as a prop too at the selfie wall. I mean, I think we’re actually set for decorations. I mean, I know it sounds more than what we had for Rainbow Week, but we’re mixing them in more interesting ways?”

“There are more bigger pieces.”

“And no balloons.”

“Right, I mean, we could use the lantern lights instead of balloons to fill up space or use the jelly fish lights and white lanterns to make little scenes.” Pauline shrugged. “We’ll have to experiment.”

“Food,” Lily moved on.

“Jorvik Crawfish Boil,” Pauline checked her notes. “Crabwiches, fruit salad in a carved watermelon bucket, Vegetable and mushroom skewers, popsicles, watermelon on a stick?”

“One sounds too many.”

Pauline crossed out the watermelons on a stick. It seemed redundant.

“I saw mermaid tail favors. We could put candy in them?”

“We should have cookies, like citrus ones.”

“That means they’d be orange.”

“Orange cookies.”

“I also saw plastic seashell favors, we could put something in those too.”

“I think we better put out some things like pretzels and Cheetos for people like Alex,” Lily said.

“Okay, now we need some drinks because I think we’ve covered food pretty well. And I mean, we can all buy snacks to put in the buckets. That’s not difficult.”

“Pretzels, popcorn, Cheetos, and crisps.”

“Wait, can we really have a bonfire without s’mores, sausages, and potatoes?”

“Yeah, and bread for the sausages or to eat with the crawfish.”

“Cheese, we might need cheese.”

Lily rubbed her forehead. “Fine. But we’ll have to figure out how to split it out. Drinks.”

“I make some really chillax awesome drinks.” Tim spoke up. The first time he’d spoken up in a while. Maybe he was overwhelmed with the eager teenage girls. Or maybe he didn’t care that much about the food or the decorations.

Lily turned her head. “Yeah, I think we might want to test your drinks first.”

“Shibby!”

“Why don’t you tell us the ingredients?” One of the girls asked sweetly.

Tim rattled off his ingredients. They included kidney beans. Kelp. Corn water. Fermented potato juice.

Lily held up a hand. “Fermented potato juice is vodka and corn water is basically moonshine. Are you trying kill us and get us drunk?”

“You don’t think people will like them.”

“I think maybe we should stick to things like banana and strawberry smoothies. Orange juice. And grape and seltzer punch.”

“Apple juice. Watermelon and blueberry spritzers.”

Tim slumped in his seat.

“Those will bring the tourists back for more.” Lily patted his arm.

He sighed. “They sound boring to me.”

“We can try to make them exciting. Package them in fun ways! Mermaid, err, okay without lemons this is not as easy as you’d think.”

“Grape comes in clear.”

“Ohhh, that works. Look we did this at home, just color up some different ice cubes, put edible rainbow glitter around the edge of the glass. Put it in some grape juice with soda if you want, and let the ice cubes melt. Mermaid Cocktail. Or as it was described early grape and seltzer punch.”

“Mock up a white grape sangria too, strawberries, blueberries, apple or orange slices in white grape juice, apple juice, and soda.”

“They can be fun, we promise,” Lily patted his arm again.

Tim sighed. “All right, I’ll have to trust you.”

“Put the orange and soda in hurricane glasses, drizzle strawberry juice into it, garnish in a fun way, sunset hurricane drink.”

“See,” Lily smiled at him.

Tim didn’t look convinced.

“Watermelon and grape go with a lot of things. And we can get you the cucumbers too.”

“Okay, I think we’re good to go.”

“We’ll come up with a recipe list.”

“All right, then we’re doing the different wreathes at the different parties,” Lily said. “Let them have the sand souvenirs. We can do necklace garlands and bracelets to I guess for the luau theme.”

“And hide decorated Conch Shells, because they’re big, and colorful,” Pauline said. “Like, I think these are plastic or vinyl. I hope they are. Real conch shells might be too expensive.”

“Okay,” Lily nodded. “Hedgehogs, you’re the source of the crawfish for the crawfish boil. I’m leaving that to you.”

Riley groaned.

“I know you’d rather have the mermaid favors. Kelsey that sounds like something Madison would enjoy doing.”

“She would. So, we’ll take it.”

“You’re going to have to make a lot of them so, yeah.” Lily wrinkled her nose. She didn’t feel bad about giving that to them and only that. “Bulldogz, I know how you feel about Jamie cooking.”

“Someone is trying to hire her for the Midsummer Feast and thank goodness she’s easily distracted.”

“So, you can have the shell party favors.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Josefina spoke up. “We’re the source of the strawberries and the blueberries. Do you want us on drinks or on the fruit salad?”

“We’re going to have to buy watermelons in bulk from the food stalls.”

“Okay, question,” Lily put her chin on her hand. “Who among is a competent melon or pumpkin carver? Because they should be the ones doing the fruit salad. I mean, I don’t think the carved bucket idea was a plain bucket?”

The girls got on their phones and started texting people in their clubs.

Loretta shook her head. “None of mine.”

“Loretta, since you have the Midsummer Festival grounds in your area, are you going to do a beach party too?” Lily asked, genuinely curious.

Tan leapt in. “Of course we are, and we’ll decorate those Dark Core containers and chase off the goons if we have to.”

Loretta made a face. “They’ve been stealing. Can you believe it?”

“You don’t say.” Lily’s voice was bland. “Do you have any records of it?” Lily asked. She wasn’t at all surprised that a company with a name like Dark Core hired a thief.

Tan tossed her head. “I recorded everything.”

“Could you send it to Linda?” Lily asked slowly and raised her brow.

“Linda? Why would she want to know? I mean, she’s one of those weird druid riders,” Tan flicked her wrist.

“Because the Baroness will want to know,” Lily said. Frustrated she had to spell it out. “And Linda is her personal assistant and monitors her emails.”

“Oh, in that case, sure,” Tan said and dug out her phone. “As long as the Bobcats get the credit for catching them.”

“I’m sure Linda will tell her.”

Loretta sniffed. “I had them all file reports with Thomas.”

Lily nodded and texted that information to Linda as well.

Linda texted back she was going to ride over to Moorland to get it. She needed to see Alex anyways and she was probably at Maya’s.

“Or with Justin,” Lily murmured. Had Justin gotten up the nerve to say anything to Alex yet? Lily shook her head.

“I’ve got a carver,” Amelia said. “She sent pictures of her work. She can carve buckets and flowers.”

“Then you’re on for the fruit salad,” Lily said. “Do you mind another club coming and picking fruit for the cocktails and the popsicles?”

“Not at all.”

“Chipmunks,” Lily turned to them. “I know you’ve got the farmers, but you also have Harold.”

“Orange slice cookies. On it, Lady Captain Lily.” Kate saluted and then fluttered her hand and bowed.

Lily restrained a sigh. Of course Kate would choose both.

Pauline spoke up. “I think we should take the popsicles, Lady Captain President, we’ve got the big freezers in the Wine Cellar to keep them in.”

“Right, good plan.”

Pia spoke up. “I’ll take one of cocktail slots. That way I can work closely with Tim to make sure they’re fun and fizzy.”

Sonja spoke up. “We also have the other fruits in our forest. So, we’ll take a cocktail slot too. And help everyone harvest fruit.”

Ingrid was next to volunteer. “Ma Anna knows pastry, and croissants like those crabwiches are pastry. We’ll take the crabwiches and make different meat salads for them.”

“Fish salad, chicken salad, egg salad, ham salad,” Violet muttered.

Pauline checked her list, “That leaves the Pandas, the Bulls, and the Cats.”

“What do we have left?”

“Veggie skewers.” Pauline checked. “Snacks, bread and cheese, etc., and more cocktails.”

Loretta spoke quickly. “We can do the Snacks, bread, and cheese and so on. That’s all shopping. We are power shoppers. And none of the stinky stuff from Will’s Mill either.”

Ami wrinkled her nose. “We have a spa. We know cocktails. We’ll help out there and see what we can do with our grapes.”

“That leaves us the Veggie Skewers, and we can get most the produce from the Farmer’s Market and do assembly in Valedale.” Melissa nodded.

Lily spoke up. “This is going to sound crazy, but maybe we should have Courtney Summers do the Midsummer Feast. She’s a local and maybe she knows the local dishes.”

“Barney, Marley, and Carney can cook too,” Kate said. “Or, so says Barney. They have all the traditional recipes.”

“Kate, can you do the invitation thing? I’m sure the Baroness will refuse to invite her personally. But notice, she showed up last time.”

“I’ll invite all of them to do it. Make it a family affair. It’s a week and if we have too much food, well better than none at all.” Kate nodded.

“All right, well, here is hoping that the budget can take this,” Lily said.

“I bet we can get the farmers to donate lots of the supplies,” Kate waved her hands. “It’s for the Midsummer Festival after all.”

“That would be good.”

“We can approach them individually and get back to the group,” Amelie said with a nod.

Luciana spoke up. “I’d like to put a cabana up on the beach near the Dews Farm to be the gathering spot for everyone finishing up their charity events.”

“Splendid plan, Luciana,” Lily nodded. “We can set up one there, and a dance floor and it can be a celebration. At the end of the week, we’ll have all the money. Where are we keeping the money?”

“Silverglade Manor’s safe.”

“Right, we’ll have all the money and can present Maya with a big fake check. And I hope that will be enough to get them out of their debts and back on their farm.”

“They’re in foreclosure,” Loretta sighed. “Not bankruptcy. I had to go over it with her three times.”

“If they’re in foreclosure, that’s easier than bankruptcy to an extent. Though what did they do? Take a loan out on their farm?”

“From G.E.D. instead of a bank.” Loretta pushed her hair back behind her neck.

“Well, Ms. Drake is going to take the cash or else I’ll shove it where the sun don’t shine,” Lily muttered.

“Make it super public,” one of the girls said. “She can’t be a monster in front of a lot of people.”

“Ms. Drake?” Amelia asked.

Josefina snorted.

“It’s worth a try.”

“We’re going to have to do the same thing for the stables once it happens.” Ginny said.

“Have they tried anything but threats?”

“No. But the stable is in debt. To the bank, not to them, praise Aideen. But if the bank forecloses on the property, we’ll all be kicked out. Though your plans with the Friesians have been working. And Mr. Kemball has started on the Riding Arena. We’ve been having to keep him honest.”

“That must be a job and a half.”

“Like keeping James honest,” Pia said.

There was some nervous laughter.

“All right, Mares, Frogs, Squirrels, Terriers, and Kittens,” Lily said. “Get your areas in order. Your job is to focus on your section of South New Jorvik County and come enjoy the Midsummer Beach Party when it’s on. If you have problems with G.E.D. or Dark Core, report to me or to Linda.”

Pauline interrupted. “Music, Lily. Music!”

“Well, Fort Pinta will have DJ Kai. And I know New Hillcrest will have Syntax.”

“We’ve got a pretty big beach with a lot of islands all picked out.”

“I think asking Mr. Wetton for thirteen acts again is a bit too soon. Plus, it would make Rainbow Week less special.”

“Radio the different music the DJs are doing.” One of the girls suggested. “Set up a transmitter. Jack it through that tower in the Grey Mountains that G.E.D. has set up and it should get the entire county. Or stream it online.”

“That’s devious, and I like it.” Lily grinned.

“They shouldn’t have an obnoxious radio tower that big up there anyways. Radio towers can be much more discreet. I mean, put one on the observatory and it won’t be a blight to the landscape.” There was a sniff.

Lily turned to Pauline. “Happy?”

“Syntax can hack the tower,” Ginny said.

“Yes, keep them hacking for the greater good.” Lily smirked.

Kate shouted. “Okay, pizza time!”

They were all hungry. And there were new people to meet. So, they had pizza and wings and loaded potatoes and talked to each other and Tim. Though they all agreed Tim was quite strange and was it college or something else?

They split up.

FOR THE ACCOMPANYING IMAGES PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE MY WATERMARK AND CONTACT INFORMATION. THANK YOU. I get it. Some of you might get excited and want to see this stuff in the game, especially the clothes, tack, and pets. However, the only way I want to see this in the game is if I get paid for it. If I see it in the game and I’m not paid for it, there will be hell to pay. You think I’m salty. I’d be angry. Personally, I’m not going to send this info to SSO. If you do, leave my contact information there! Don’t give them any excuses to steal.

Now, I’ll know you haven’t read this note if you leave me comments about how ‘salty’ I am about the game and if I hate it so much I should do something else. I am doing something else. It’s called Mystic Riders MMORPG Project. Mystic Riders however is a very baby phase game. You can check out our plans on the game dev blog. (Skills, Factions, Professions, Crafting, Mini-Games, 25+ horse breeds!) If you know anyone who would be interested and has money or contacts about game making, direct them to the blog.

[sassycassie-s-writing]

Post-College Prom

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): DC, BatFam - Jason Todd/Red Hood

Rating: PG/K+

Original Idea: The past is loosely based on my actual past, with names changed to protect the idiots innocents involved. The present is based on an event happening in the future XD

Notes: (Masterlist)(By Character)(About Me) *emerges from the depths of the internet to break hiatus for a moment* Hello! I’m back! For the first time in a while, I have something to write! I’ve been working on a lot of original projects recently, but with the virus outbreak and the social distancing/quarantine thing, I had an idea to make a one-shot! Shoutout to @welovegroot for checking in on me and making sure I’m still writing XD @jason-redhood @jason-todd-squad

^^^^^

I wanted to have a nice post-college prom night. I didn’t expect to spend most of the night peering around at the small crowd for my ex. I hadn’t even considered the possibility of him being there until Jason and I were already there.

My good friend from high school, Freddie, was throwing a prom night because his “greatest regret in life so far” was not taking his then-crush, now-wife to prom. So he decided to rent out an elementary school’s gymnasium to host a prom that he could take his wife to. So, despite the fact that I had graduated college, I was going to prom. Which was just as well. I hadn’t been asked to prom in high school so I’d gone stag with some friends of mine—and we had a fun time regardless even though it had been raining that night and we got lost on the way to the venue and I nearly ruined my sister’s heels.

As soon as Freddie emailed me and told me about post-college prom, I called Jason to ask if he’d be my date. We’d only been officially dating for about a month, but by the time prom came around, we’d been officially together for six. Mostly due to rogues delaying the date of the dance.

“Freddie!” I exclaimed, clenching Jason’s hand tighter and dragging him behind me. I slowed to a stop in front of my friend and his wife, Kelsey. She’d been a friend of mine in high school too and I always thought they’d be cute together.

“Hey!” Freddie replied brightly. “Good to see you!” He gave me a big hug that I quickly transferred to Kelsey.

“Freddie, Kels, I’d like to introduce you to my boyfriend. Jason. Jay, this is Freddie and Kelsey, my friends from high school that I’ve told you about a couple times before,” I said, smiling between my boyfriend and my old friends. I hadn’t even seen Freddie and Kelsey in at least two years. Apart from their occasional Facebook updates that I saw even less frequently than they made them since I was never on Facebook anymore.

“Oh yeah,” Jason said with a good natured smile. “Freddie’s the one who tried to do a full-T with you in swing club and almost dropped you, right?”

My right ankle throbbed just thinking about it as Freddie went red. “Yeah,” I said.

Jason stuck his hand out to shake Freddie’s. “Nice to meet the reason she doesn’t trust me when I pick her up.”

Freddie shook Jason’s hand with cautious confusion. “She doesn’t trust… you?”

I could understand his bewilderment. Jason and Freddie weren’t the same build. At all. Freddie was stronger than he looked, but he was still a scrawny, skinny guy who looked like a strawberry-blond Benedict Cumberbatch (it was the mouth, nose, and blue eyes probably). Jason was at least three inches taller, and built like freaking Superman. Muscular, sturdy.

I snorted. “Thanks Jay. He didn’t need to know that,” I said. “And it’s not that I don’t trust you to pick me up, it’s just that I don’t like my feet being off the ground for more than a few seconds in general.”

Jason chuckled. “Alright, alright. Well, it was nice to meet you both,” he said.

“You too,” Kelsey put in with a grin. She was one of the only people I’d ever met who was smaller than me and fully-grown.

Jason and I made our way back to the coat rack and slung off our overcoats. They were jackets, really. It was evening in late spring and it was almost warm enough not to need one. But it was never quite that warm. Not in Gotham, anyway.

As Jason hung my jacket, I glanced around, noticing a bunch the old swing club members from high school.

A thought struck me.

Davey and I started seeing each other—without ever officially deeming us “together”—because he’d sat next to me in a class and I convinced him to join swing club after he expressed a passing interest in learning to dance.

I tried to shake the fear off as we wandered the small crowd—that also consisted of some of Freddie and Kelsey’s friends from college that I didn’t know—but I couldn’t get the anxiety out of my head. Had Freddie invited Davey? Was Davey coming? I assumed he was still in Metropolis for college since I was roughly a year-and-a-half ahead of him. He’d done a gap year right out of high school and then a humanitarian thing somewhere overseas for a year before going back to school. Maybe he couldn’t make it to Gotham for the prom night.

Davey and I parted on less-than-friendly terms and I hadn’t heard from him in… nearly three years.

“Babe?” Jason asked as he pulled me onto the dancefloor. “Something on your mind?”

I craned my neck around at the crowd. Davey was nowhere to be seen. “Kinda,” I said, looking back to Jason. “Just hoping my ex doesn’t show up.”

Jason just grunted and started to spin me around, wasting no time in breaking out the swing dance moves he somehow knew before he even met me. He wouldn’t tell me, though, how a vigilante came to learn how to swing dance. I’d always just guessed it was because Jason was a closet nerd.

We danced for a long while before I was too tired to go on and needed a break for at least one song. Maybe two. Luckily there were chairs lining the room. Adult-sized chairs, thankfully.

“You okay?” Jason asked. “You’re all red.”

“Happens when I work out,” I teased.

We hung out for two songs before getting up to talk to the few folks who weren’t dancing. Jason did most of the talking, despite the fact that he knew no one at the prom, since he was the one genuinely interested in who all these people were. I looked around and just waited for Davey to walk through the door.

Prom had been going on for an hour before I finally relaxed. If he hadn’t arrived already, he probably wasn’t coming.

Jason and I were in the middle of a waltz when he lifted his hand from my shoulder blade to wave at someone. “Hey, I know that guy,” he said. “Wonder how Freddie does.” He spun me under his arm too fast for me to see who he was talking about. “We were in a couple engineering classes at Metropolis City University together.”

I scrunched my eyebrows at Jason. “You went to MCU? I thought you were a GCU guy?”

“I am. But I got my Associate’s at MCU. They have a great engineering program. Thought I was going to get my Bachelor’s in engineering before swapping to literature and transferring back home,” Jason explained.

He waved over his friend. “David! Come here! I want you to meet my girlfriend!”

My entire circulatory system turned chill. My blood ran so cold it felt like my capillaries were turning to ice. I tried to remind myself that David was a common name, but David, MCU, and engineering. One similarity to my ex was interesting. Two was a coincidence. But three was a pattern. There was too much there. I was going to be even more surprised if I turned around and wasn’t face-to-face with the guy who broke my heart nearly three years ago.

Jason spun me around to face his classmate from Metropolis.

Davey was even goofier-looking than I remembered. His teeth had always been too big for his face, but when we were in high school he hadn’t grown into his features yet. And by the looks of things, he still hadn’t five years later. His dirty-blond hair was so short it made his head look long and rectangular on the sides, which contrasted sharply with his narrow chin. His teeth were still too big for his face and his overbite had never quite been fixed by his braces. His angular nose seemed to have had a nostril-widening.

The biggest difference though was his glasses. In high school he exclusively wore contacts. At some point, though, he’d switched to his glasses.

There was also a girl on his arm. My mom would jump to my defense immediately and say she wasn’t as pretty as I was and that Davey really missed out on me, but she was cute in a different way than I was.

Davey bit my name past his lips with an, “Oh hi,” tacked on at the front like he was surprised to see me. As if I wouldn’t show up to Freddie’s event. Even though I was a swing club member first. I put on my most tightly cordial smile and gave a respectful head-nod of greeting to his significant other first, completely ignoring him.

“Hello there. You must be his… partner,” I said.

“Yes. I’m Rachel. I’m his wife.”

I nodded. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too,” she said. She gave me a smile, and I realized she was what Davey needed. A quiet person. A listener. He and I had both been talkers.

“Wait,” Jason interrupted. “How do you two know each other?”

I bit back a surge of bitterness at the way Davey broke off our relationship. I was happy with Jason but that didn’t mean Davey hadn’t hurt me worse than I’d ever been hurt before. “Jay, this is Davey—the other one I told you about,” I said. My hand tightened in his grip. “My old dance partner from swing club.”

“Oh,” he said as realization struck. He squeezed my hand. “Well, then, David, I guess you already know my girlfriend.”

“Guess so,” Davey said.

“Well, Rachel, it was nice to meet you,” I said. It wasn’t her fault Davey was tactless and immature when he broke up with me, leaving me with lots of bitter feelings.

“It was nice to meet you too,” she said before Jason whisked me back onto the dancefloor—on the opposite side from Davey and Rachel.

“You never told me your ex was in engineering at MCU!” Jason hissed.

“It was never relevant!” I hissed back. “And he was in environmental engineering! I didn’t think you two would have ever met! I also had no clue you even went to MCU until a few minutes ago!”

“Yeah, okay, fair,” Jason said. He spun me under his arm, making my skirt flare out. “But I’m sorry to have put you through that awkwardness.”

“Thanks,” I said.

We danced for a few more minutes before Jason stopped abruptly and pulled his phone out of his inside jacket pocket. His eyes widened as he read the text. “Update from Red Robin,” he said quietly, pulling me off the dancefloor by the hand toward the coat rack. “There’s a robbery at Gotham First City Bank. Possible Joker thugs. I have to go—”

“I’m coming too.”

“Babe, no. You wanted this night. Don’t let me ruin—”

“It’d be ruined the second you left me alone here with David,” I put in sharply.

Jason seemed to think about that for a moment. “Fair point,” he said. He grabbed our coats and we ducked out of the gym. “We can try and come back when we’ve dealt with the bank.”

“We’ll see,” I said.

[prorevenge]

Touchdown.

As I recall this story, I’m aware that some of the comments said by the perpetrators below will seem a bit straw-man in their delivery, but keep in mind that this was in an area considered very extremist.

So, this took place back in high school. This was 8 years ago in the Midwest. I’m 25 now, and While I don’t cherish all that lead to this, I do fondly remember its conclusion.

When I was in 11th grade, I went to a school that had a really heavy emphasis on School Spirit. And honestly, that part was great. It didn’t just focus on sports and other clubs like it, but also celebrated AV, Debate, Dance, etc. We had a pretty good football team and My boyfriend at the time was a first string running back. I wasn’t on the cheerleading squad, but I often helped with choreography for them, Dance and Flag teams. Mostly because I didn’t want the stigma of being the only boy on the cheerleading squad.

I wasn’t often bullied myself. I mean, there was the occasional slur tossed at me in the hall by your run-of-the-mill homophobes. But as far as anything extreme went, it didn’t happen to me. I figured it was mostly due to the fact that I was pretty important to 3 school squads.

However, my boyfriend, when he finally came out and started dating me, did not get the same treatment from everyone. Maybe it was because he was supposed to be Masculine, tough guy, football star but things got a lot tougher for him really quick.

His family and close friends were pretty cool with it all, but school was a different story.

His teammates were the first to turn their backs on him. Treating him like dirt where a week before he was their ‘best friend.’ Obviously not all of them were like this, but enough of them were and they outshined the good players who didn’t mind.

He seemed to take most of it in stride, as he knew what he was getting into when he came out. He told me a little name calling wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle and ‘if being honest with them changed their attitudes so much, then they never really were his friends.’

However, this is @prorevenge. Things never really stop there.

Apparently, this change in attitude didn’t just stop at his teammates. His coach wasn’t a big fan of having a ‘fairy boy’ on his team, and began pushing my boyfriend to the absolute limit.

He had to do twice as much work as everyone else for no good reason. And then, he’d get benched for ‘slacking off’ during practice. This was clearly taking its toll on him and it was hard for me to sit by. I wanted to confront them, and to figure out how his personal life had any connection with his ability to play. But, I was 5’8”. The shortest guy on the team was 5’11”. They were 20 in total. I was 1, maybe more than that if I could convince some friends to back me up. They lifted weights, ate steel and shat bullets. I was a dancer, ate normally and shat healthily. The point is, I wouldn’t have stood a chance in a confrontation with these guys. So, for the moment, I let it go and made the most of BFs time with me.

However, one day, he showed up to my practice, bruised and sporting a swollen eye. Aka, a very frequent black eye. He sits next to me and before I can even ask what’s wrong, he cries for what was the only time I ever saw him crack. I was furious and asked him to tell me what the actual fuck happened and told me something that still makes me queasy to this day.

Apparently it was weight room training day for the team. That room with all the weights and treadmills and such. And as usual, my boyfriend was told to run twice as much and lift twice as much as everyone else. Apparently Coach was having a shit day and decided to push him the hardest he’d ever been pushed. He couldn’t take it and passed out temporarily when he stopped. He said he was only out for a few seconds (thank god.) but when he came to, his coach was looking down on him both physically and metaphorically. He apparently told him that he wasn’t even fit to be on the team if he couldn’t even run without passing out like a ‘sissy’.

Then my boyfriend told me he shared a look with the other team members and left the room. And then several other members started taking turns wailing on him, kicking him and spitting on him. It didn’t go on for long before a few of the good teammates got them to cut it out and he finally managed to get out of the weight room and find me.

I consoled him, but I felt my blood burn from the rage I felt. I know people bullshit all the time about ‘blacking out’ and going all primal on a bitch, but I felt that feeling. Like all reason was gonna flood out of my brain and I was gonna find a bat and crack knees. But my boyfriend practically pleaded with me to not say anything. He said he didn’t want it to get worse, and picking a fight wouldn’t make it better. So I sucked it up but felt the wheels in my head start turning. Something needed to be done.

I couldn’t let this go on. So I started thinking and I figured out a way to get these bastards. To pin them with all of their shit and get some justice for my boyfriend.

I had quite a few friends all across the school. Cheerleading, Dance, Flag and, most importantly, AV Club (Since they recorded most performances for Dance and Show Choir.)

I got a few of my cheerleader friends in on my scheme and convinced our coach to let us practice near the team that day. It was almost playoff season so it wasn’t a hard push. Furthermore, I asked if my AV club friend, Ciara, could record our routines so we could review them so I could see if anyone needed work. She was a really chill coach and said yes to that too. Obviously we hoped to catch these guys on film, and use it as evidence against them... and hope something came of it. Honestly, it wasn’t the best plan but it was what I came up with.

When we got to the field that day, I began running through the steps of a routine we came up with while our plan was put into motion.

And it was a nightmare for me. I heard the coach and saw his treatment first hand. Screaming at my boyfriend to work harder, run faster. And his teammates heckled and pushed him around in their all-to-subtle ways. ‘Accidentally’ throwing passes at his head. Shoulder checking him when they lined up for Defensive Drills.

But I knew I couldn’t say anything yet. He’d be upset if I stepped in and the tormenting wouldn’t get better. So I bit my lip and endured.

I was beginning to think we weren’t going to get anything. If we showed our principal or administration what we’d seen, the Coach or the players could just spin it as harmless heckling and ‘seeing the potential in him’ as an excuse to push him harder.

But luck finally got on our side, and another pass came flying towards BF and hit him square in his black eye.

I flinched when I saw it. He fell to his knees and cried out. I ran over to check on him and see if he was okay. He said he was fine but I could see his ‘good’ shining with tears. It clearly hurt a lot. I heard them laughing. The coach chuckling and those assholes who hurt him in the first place.

I just couldn’t hold my tongue anymore. I wasn’t known for shouting or cussing but I turned, my nastiest snarl on my face and screamed “What the actual fuck is wrong with your asses?”

The football twats started ‘Oooh’ing at us and the coach shook his head. “What? Does he need his boyfriend to fight his battles now?” He said.

I told him that he and his stupid team was the reason he was hurt in the first place. This didn’t deter him. I don’t remember his exact words, but he said something to the effect of “You should be happy I’m even letting this faggot on my team.” And told me that he’d speak with the coach about my position with the Other teams. Get me kicked off so I had nothing.

I looked back at Ciara. Thank God she had the wherewithal to bring her camera closer to watch him. I stood up, taking BFs hand and leaving the field, middle finger raised as I left. When I finally met up with Ciara, she told me she got the whole thing. I still wasn’t happy, but I was relieved we finally had something on these bastards. She told me she’d have a friend get it ready and we’d go to the Principal that week.

We went to her a couple of days later with our evidence and she was almost as furious as I was. She informed us that she was almost ready to call my boyfriend into the office to ban him from the team because his grades had slipped drastically over the past few months. From honor roll to Cs and Ds. Now she knew the reason. She called in the Coach and had us stick by to corroborate our story. When she asked the question, he did exactly what I thought he would do. He spun it like it was some ‘great potential’ he saw in my boyfriend, but that if it was costing him his grades, he’d inform him that he’d need to get them up or be barred.

I almost grinned like a Cheshire Cat when she turned her monitor around and showed him the footage of him insulting and threatening me and my boyfriend. He was stunned silent, and I was on Cloud 9 with a grin only the fucking sun could hope to match. She asked us to go to class for the day and we did, and awaited the fallout.

And oh my God was it sweet. First and foremost, BF was offered a chance to complete his missing work, no penalties. His grades got back to their previous state. But the best part was the Coach’s immediate firing for ‘Blatent Discrimination and Encouraging violence on a student.’ He wasn’t a teacher so finding a replacement wasn’t difficult. The Principal sent out emails to various schools and the Superintendent of our district and explained the situation. No way was he getting any more jobs in this area.

Furthermore, the jerks who actually committed the act faced not only suspension, but also were kicked off of the team. Most of them had to spend their Senior Year watching Sophomores and Second String players win their playoff game. They didn’t win the Championship but they did make it into the top 10.

But most importantly, my boyfriend was able to resume a relatively normal life.

We broke up after high school. I moved across country for School and he went to our State College. But we maintain a healthy friendship to this day. We try to talk at least twice a year. And we saw each other at our 5 year reunion. He’s happily married to a new guy and I’m in a great relationship and we all hit it off.

I never knew what happened to those guys or the Coach after High School. But I like to think that losing out on what they did may have taught them a lesson. And if not... well may God have mercy on their hateful asses. I certainly won’t.

(source) story by (/u/Kayden_Pauser)

[mosylufanfic]

Some Rules Are Meant to be Broken

Killervibe Week Day 4: Free Day

So . . . a little background on this. A long time ago (looooooooooooong time ago) some lovely nonny sent me a request for a matchmaker AU. I went OOOOOO. My brain started popping and fizzing with thoughts and before I knew it I had a whole multi-chapter story in my head. Which was where it stayed, because I think I was working on other multi-parters at the time and there are only so many hours in the day. I maybe wrote one scene, and then it sank into the depths of my Gdocs like a dinosaur succumbing to the tar pits.

This happens way more often than I care to admit.

Then I was whining on Discord about how I was suffering from choice paralysis for Free Day. Too many ideas, not enough words. And I realized I had a whole bunch of partial fics just sitting around, waiting for me to actually finish them up. So what did I do? Went back to the matchmaker AU and wrote the end. From scratch. In about a day and a half. In my defense it was all in the primordial ooze of my brain-meats, I just had to find the words and put them in the right order.

Anyway I hope if that very patient and long-denied nonny is reading this, you like it.

Some Rules Are Meant to be Broken

The offices of Connections were dim and shadowed as Cisco unlocked the door. He didn't bother hitting any lights, so familiar with the layout that he could navigate the waiting room by the dim light of the Central City skyline outside the windows.

He walked down the hall, past a wall of framed pictures that gleamed faintly in the low light. Happy couples, wedding invites, birth announcements, even the occasional letter or printed email thanking Connections for matching the client with the love of their life.

There were more inside his office, some of his personal triumphs. He turned away from them and felt around until he released the catch on two doors set into the wall. He pulled them open to reveal a small but well-stocked bar.

He ignored the glasses and the minifridge full of ice and chilled drinks, and grabbed a bottle of Scotch right off the shelf. A couple of steps took him to a small sitting area arranged by the window, and he dropped into one of the comfy chairs. Scowling, he worked the cork out. It released with a pop, and he tossed it aside and drank right from the bottle.

He didn't normally drink at work unless he was entertaining a client, but this was a special occasion. 

Twenty minutes later, the lights in the waiting room flicked on, and then his door opened and his overhead lights blazed. He squinted and said, "Hey."

His business partner, Iris West-Allen, leaned in the doorway. "Well, don’t you look pitiful."

He slouched in his chair, looking up at her.

"You gonna share?" she asked.

He swung the bottle in her general direction. "Have a snort."

She looked at it, shook her head, and got up to grab a glass from the bar, as comfortable in his office as she was in her own. She poured herself a couple of fingers of scotch and sipped. "You're chugging this?" she asked. 

"Yes," he said. "What’s the problem?"

"Nothing, if it was flavored vodka from Safeway. But this is a Lagavulin that's old enough to drive."

"Time it got drank, then," he said, and took another slug straight from the bottle, while she shook her head. "Great party," he said when the silence threatened to drown him.

"One of our best," she replied. "I saw at least five couples pairing off."

He stared at the label on the bottle. "Uh-huh."

"Even Caitlin Snow seemed to find someone she liked."

This time, the answer was much slower in coming. "Uh-huh."

"I don't know why we didn't think of introducing her and Ronnie before."

He shut his eyes and saw again the way that Caitlin had smiled and laughed with Ronnie Raymond. One of Iris's clients, not his, but Cisco knew him anyway because they matched up each others' clients all the time. Tall, good-looking, nice, smart, a go-getter, and on top of all that a genuinely good guy. Perfect for Caitlin. One of his better matches, honestly. 

Shit.

"Yeah," he said quietly. "They were perfect together."

Iris stared at him, then shook her head. "You ding-dong," she said. 

He rubbed his eyes and didn't offer a defense. He had none. 

"What's the first rule?"

"Don't talk about Fight Club?" When she glared, he sighed. "Figure out what the client wants, and give it to them."

"And the second rule?"

"Don't fall in love with a client."

"I told myself you were fine," she said. "I told myself you were a pro and have been for years. I thought, hey, Cisco really likes this client. She's a challenge, and he likes a challenge. You're meeting her week after week, talking over her dates, texting with her, but that's no big deal. We've all had clients we just clicked with."

"Yeah." Some of his best friends were former clients.

"And then Caitlin and Ronnie hit it off at the party, and I look over expecting to see you doing a goddamn happy dance. Instead you look like someone ran over your dog."

He remembered that moment. Not that he'd noticed Iris looking at him. But the moment he'd seen Caitlin laugh at something Ronnie said, touching his arm, smiling up at him, he hadn't had the bright zing! of a match successfully made.

Instead, it had been like cement pouring into his gut, as he realized that he was watching the woman he loved fall in love with someone else.

Iris swirled her Scotch and stared him down. "Did you sabotage her intros?"

He sat up straight. "No!" 

"Are you sure?"

"I - " He stopped.

What if he had? Maybe, subconsciously, he'd been in love with her since the moment she'd come into his office, grumpy and uncooperative because her mother had bought her a package of five introductions through a matchmaking service. What if he'd been finding matches that he could tell himself were the right guys for her, but in reality, were just wrong enough for her to keep coming back?

Keep seeing him. 

Keep talking to him.

Keep smiling at him with those big beautiful brown eyes. 

"I don't know," he muttered finally. 

Iris held out her hand. "Her file. Now."

Cisco slumped down into his chair and drank again. "Top drawer."

She went and got it, and refrained from pointing out that Caitlin's file was the only one in the top drawer. She flipped it open to study his notes for a moment. "She's got one more intro."

He took another drink. "From the looks of it, she won't be using it."

She shrugged. "We deposited the check for the full package. Until she uses it all, she's still a client."

"Right." Caitlin could come back years from now, asking for her last intro, and she would be entitled to it. 

What would he do if she did? Would he smile at her fondly, remembering that long-ago time when he'd fallen in love with her, the feelings soft and faded like old flower petals?

Or would they still be simmering away? Rising up in him like a volcano?

He didn't know which to hope for.

Iris tucked Caitlin's file under her arm and came back to the sitting area to give him a hug. "I'm sorry," she said in his ear, her voice gentle.

He leaned against her. "My fault," he muttered back. "I should have known what was going on sooner."

"Love catches us all unawares." She ruffled his hair and he ducked away from her, scowling and finger-combing it back into place. 

"You want to come over and watch terrible horror movies with my husband?" she asked. "I'll supply the ice cream and the tissues."

Tempting, but he knew that the whole time, he'd be remembering an evening he'd spent with Caitlin in much the same way. She'd been down because she'd gotten stood up for a third date, and Cisco had been the one supplying the ice cream. They'd ended up snuggled together on the couch - that exact couch right here, across from the chair he sat on - giggling helplessly over a cheesy sci-fi movie cued up on his laptop.

(He'd also taken great pleasure in calling Julian and ripping him a new one the next day. No spark or not, Connections clients did not stand up other clients without so much as a text.)

"I think I'll go home and wallow on my own for a day or two," he said, re-corking the Scotch and setting it on the coffee table. "Maybe crack open some Safeway vodka. I got a bottle of caramel flavor that's calling my name."

Iris eyed the level of the liquor. "Want me to drive you?"

He got to his feet and gulped when the floor tipped under his feet. "Maybe you'd better," he said.

He felt a little steadier when she dropped him off at his building. Steady enough to get up to his loft, anyway. She leaned over from the driver's seat, eyes compassionate. "Call me if you need me. Don't drink yourself to death."

"No promises," he said. 

"You gonna be okay?" she asked.

"I've fallen in love before," he said. "This is just one heartbreak. I'll survive, and I'll fall in love again someday."

But none of them would be her.

A week later, Cisco had clocked several hangovers, lots of empty Kleenex boxes, and about a million calories in ice cream. The sharp slice of pain had dulled to an ache in his chest. 

Three or four hundred times a day, he picked up his phone to text Caitlin. Sometimes it was an absent-minded, Oh hey, she'd enjoy this meme and sometimes it was what would it hurt to say hi? 

Sometimes, when he was being honest with himself, he was about to declare his love and beg her to be with him. 

She hadn't contacted him. Obviously, too busy being wildly in love with Ronnie Raymond. 

In his weaker moments, he pictured them holding hands as they walked by the river, dining by candlelight, kissing on a balcony before slipping inside to a darkened bedroom.

That was usually followed by more drinking, more tears, and more ice cream. 

He managed, somehow, to keep the messier moments out of the office, if only because he was intensely aware of Iris's compassionate and piercing eye. It helped that he'd given their office assistant the key to his liquor cabinet, with strict instructions not to give it back unless he was with a client, and threats of death and dismemberment if he caught Ralph with liquor on his breath at work. 

So Cisco was unfortunately sober as he sat at his desk, riffling through index cards with client names and brief notes on them, trying to figure out who would be enough of a match for each other to set up intros. 

Usually it felt like a jigsaw puzzle, moving people next to each other, making guesses at who would click into place. This guy would love that girl's quirky sense of humor. That guy would gel nicely with this guy's freewheeling lifestyle. That girl would be impressed by this girl's high-powered job. 

But for the past week, it had felt like shoving paper dolls around. The client cards sat on his desk, click-less. Not buzzing or fizzing in the way that meant this could be true love. Just . . . two people standing next to each other. 

He shoved his hands through his hair and let out a deep groan. 

This is what you do. You're good at it, and you love it.

"Not right now, I don't," he said to his empty office. 

His phone dinged with a text. He picked it up. Iris had written, Running late. Not going to be back for my 2:30. It’s an intake. Can you do it for me?

No prob, he wrote back. Here?

She'd prefer to meet at Jitters

Sometimes people asked for that. They didn't want to feel so much like they were contracting a service. More like they were chatting with a friend, asking for a casual setup. Cisco was happy to let them feel that way, even as they were John Hancock'ing the contract and promising to pay their more than healthy fee. 

And it would be good to get out of here. Stretch his legs, get some air and caffeine. Who knew - maybe a new client would kickstart his mojo. 

He tapped out, Has this new girl got a file?

On my desk 

You're the best

Damn right I am

He glanced at the time and realized he was going to need to book it in order to get downstairs to the coffee shop on time. Damn, Iris had cut it close. He dashed across the hall to his partner's office and grabbed the manila envelope that sat on her otherwise pristine desk. "Client meet at Jitters," he called out on his way through the waiting room. "Text if you need me."

"Got it, boss," Ralph said cheerily, scrolling through Facebook as he did a basic background check on a prospective client. 

"And don't call me boss."

"You betcha, boss."

Cisco rolled his eyes and yanked the door shut behind him.

He'd planned to have a quick look at their new client's file on the elevator, but it was occupied by a guy from the next floor up, someone he'd successfully set up last year. Cisco smiled and glad handed and made appreciative noises over the pictures of the house the couple had just bought together, but he stepped out of the elevator with the envelope still sealed. 

Jitters was on the street-level floor of their building. When he walked in, a barista waved to him and started making his usual without asking. He waved back and looked around. Nobody was obviously waiting, so he grabbed a quiet corner booth and settled down to open up the client file.

Instead of the usual intake form with attached picture, there was just a sheet of blank printer paper with Iris's scrawl dashed across it. 

Remember rule one.

He gaped at it. 

Then the heaviness of the envelope registered. He put his hand in and pulled out the sparkling starburst pin that they issued to all their clients, so they could identify each other at an intro. Worlds away from a chrysanthemum and a copy of Wuthering Heights. 

"What?" he whispered.

The bell over the door jingled, and he looked up. "Caitlin," he said numbly.

It felt like a year, not a week, since he'd seen her. He drank her in. God, she was so beautiful. But pale. She looked pale. And there were shadows under her eyes, even though she'd tried to hide them with makeup. 

Had she been lying awake like him? Or . . . maybe she'd been awake for a better reason, with Ronnie.

She smiled. Was it his imagination or was it a nervous smile? "Hi, Cisco. Can I sit down?"

"Hey. I actually - uh - I'm meeting a client here -" He saw the starburst pin on her blouse, identical to the one he held, and stopped. 

"You're meeting me," Caitlin said, taking a seat across from him.

"I don't - " Maybe he wasn't caffeinated enough, even though he'd downed three or four cups since this morning. "Did Iris talk to you?"

"Yes," she said, twisting her hands together on the tabletop. "You didn't text."

He avoided her eyes. "No, sorry, we've been busy - "

"You usually text the day after a date to see how it went, but you didn't, after the party. And you left that night kind of quickly, without saying goodbye. So I -  I waited a day and then I called the office, just in case you weren't feeling well. And Iris told me that she was going to be my matchmaker now."

"We do that sometimes," he said. "Shuffle things around. To redistribute the workload."

Lie and a half. They never, ever did that. They matched clients with matchmakers as carefully as they matched clients with each other. 

"Yes," Caitlin said. "That's what Iris said." 

"So - um. What's this all about? You just wanted to talk?" 

Was this Iris's idea of closure? Did she somehow think this would be good for him?

This was very much not good for him. He was already mentally selecting which flavor of vodka was going to destroy his liver tonight.

"I met with Iris here yesterday," Caitlin said. "We talked for awhile and then she asked me what I want. And I told her." She bit her lip and held his gaze. "I want you."

"Me," he said.

She nodded. Her hands twisted around themselves like a nest of anxious worms. "Not as my matchmaker. As - as my match."

He felt his mouth fall open. "But . . . " he said numbly. "But Ronnie. You were totally into Ronnie at the party."

"Ronnie was very nice," Caitlin said. "He asked for my number and we had dinner the next day. And if things were different, I could see us becoming something. But there was already you."

He swallowed hard. Him.

Him over Ronnie. Tall, hot, good-guy Ronnie. 

She twisted her hands again. "And I know I'm a client and you're a professional and there are rules about this kind of thing. But the best part of this whole experience has been you. Every date I went on, I was just thinking the whole time how to tell you about it. Every time your name pops up on my phone, my heart skips a beat. Every day I just want to come by the office here and see you, talk to you, and the days I could were just . . . better, Cisco, they were better."

She gulped air, as if the cascade of feelings had drained her lungs to the bottom. 

"Maybe this is like therapy where transference is a risk, and maybe you're just like that with everyone, but I -"

"I'm not, though," he said, reaching out across the table for her hand.

She stopped dead, her eyes going big. "You're not?"

He shook his head. "Only with you."

"Oh," she breathed.

"And I am a professional and we do have rules, but I was just - I was in the middle of it before I even knew what was happening."

"The middle of what?"

"Love," he said. "I'm all the way in the middle of love with you, and I've been a complete wreck trying to find my way out."

Her hand tightened on his. "Don't," she said. "Don't try to get out. Just stay here. With me."

She was too far away, a continent of table in between them. He scooted around the booth and took her face in his hands, asking a silent question.

She answered it by leaning forward and kissing him. 

Joy bubbled up, floating him away until his only anchors to earth were her lips on his, her arms around his neck, the curves of her body pressed up against his.

Something thumped, and someone coughed.

They broke apart and found the red-faced barista setting two coffees down in front of them. "Both on the Connections tab?" she asked.

Cisco dug in his pocket. "No, this is personal." He wiggled his brows at Cailtin. "I know how you feel about the first date, but seriously, let me get this."

She leaned into him. "Fine but I'm buying the ice cream later on."

The barista took his credit card away, still blushing, and Cisco took a sip of his latte. It was the same thing he always got, but it tasted like ambrosia. "So, ice cream?" he asked, taking Caitlin's hand.

"Well, or dinner, or . . ." She trailed off. "You're not going to get in trouble for this or anything, are you?"

"Considering Iris set this whole thing up like the scheming schemer she is, I'm gonna go with no."

"But what if you get your license revoked, or something?"

"Just how organized do you think we are?" He kissed her knuckles. "No, I'm not gonna lose my license. No license to lose. There are a couple of rules in the matchmaking biz, but they're kinda like the pirate code."

"Guidelines," Caitlin said, and he grinned hugely at her. 

"Exactly. There is a rule about never falling in love with a client, and that's a grey area for us, but technically you're Iris's client now, not mine."

"Mmmm. Seems like splitting hairs."

"I'll gladly split a few hairs for us," he said. "But the very first, most important rule is, get the client what they want." He squeezed her hand. "And you already told me what you want. Which is coincidentally what I want, which . . ." He paused. "Hang on, does that make me my own client now?" How much did he owe himself? Hmmm.

"Oh! Iris asked me to give you this," Caitlin said. She dug around in her purse and handed over an envelope with the logo of Connections in the return address corner. 

Somehow knowing what he would find, Cisco opened it anyway. Inside was an invoice. Iris's name was neatly typed in the Matchmaker line, and on the line where they would put the client's name, he saw his own.

One introduction, the invoice read. And down where the price would be, Iris had written I totally expect to be your best man.

Cisco grinned at it and tucked it away. "Hey," he said, reaching out to touch the starburst on Caitlin's shirt. "You can take that off. You're not going to need it anymore."

Caitlin peered down to undo the pin. "No, I most certainly won't."

FINIS

[pocket-luv101]

Dramatic Blond || Part 2

Fandom: Servamp Ships: LawLicht (main), KuroMahi (side) Characters: Hyde, Licht, Kuro, Mahiru, Lily

Summary: Hyde enrolls in Juilliard to win back his ex. But then he meets Licht who helps him discover a new dream. He will become a famous actor and show his ex that he’s someone serious. (Legally Blonde AU)

Part 1 || (Part 2)  || Part 3 || Part 4

“I thought you were going to help me practise my improv, Angel Cakes. You’re paying more attention to Dr. Jekyll. He’s cute and all but I asked you to come over to help me with my improv class. You can pet him and read lines from a hat at the same time.” Hyde waved the upside-down hat in front of Licht. When he didn’t respond, he tapped the hat against his nose.

Licht swiped the hat from him and used it to lightly hit him as retaliation. Slips of papers flew into the air between them and Hyde waved them away. He picked one of the papers from blond hair and unfolded it. “Scenario: You are a demon who patrols the underworld. One day, you see an angel on the other side of the gate. What is the first thing you say to this angel?”

“I don’t remember writing that as a prompt.” Hyde took the paper from him and found that it said something different. He chuckled and said: “Of course, you would make something up with angels and demons, Lichtan. Can’t you take this seriously and read the lines like I asked you to?”

“You asked me to help you with improv and that’s what I’m doing. These prompts are from your textbook so you already thought of lines in response while you wrote them down. This is the best way to help you create a scene on the spot.” Licht told him. His reasoning made sense to Hyde so he nodded. “The angel tells you that he intends to break down the gate. How do you respond, Demon?”

“With a declaration of peace and love.” He cupped his hands around Licht’s. “Sweet angel, there’s no need to be so violent. Give us a chance before you decide we’re all evil demons. I will open the gate for you and show you the Demon Realm. We’ll go wherever your heart desires. Maybe you’ll discover that we’re not so different and decide to stay with us.”

“Demons took the love of my life. I cannot forgive them for their crimes against angels.” Licht said to change the direction of the improv skit. Even if he was merely practising his acting, he felt flustered by his light flirting. Hyde was attractive and he could easily picture him on a large stage. More than his looks, he was talented. His eyes appeared sincere and his smooth voice was almost able to trick him.

“Your angel left you for a demon? Then there’s only one thing we can do, Angel Cakes. Let’s date and make your ex jealous! So, what do you say?” He asked but Licht’s response was to hit him with a pillow. Hyde managed to catch the pillow and tossed it back to him. He chuckled and gathered the loose papers. “I guess I went too far. Let’s pick another scenario.”

“Give me a second to think of one you can’t turn into a cheesy rom-com. Do you have any suggestions, Jekyll? Squeak, squeak.” He spoke with the hedgehog as if it could understand him. Their interaction made him chuckle. He could almost believe that the two were having a conversation. He was certain that there wasn’t anyone else like Licht though.

His hedgehog hopped off his lap and scurried into an opened closet. Licht stood and followed the small animal. He guessed that it wanted to explore its new home and it was drawn to dark places. He pulled a cardboard box out of the closet so he could find Jekyll. As he set the box aside, he noticed a colourful scrapbook inside. He didn’t think Hyde would own something so childish.

Hyde noticed him staring at the scrapbook and he took it out of the box. He sat next to Licht and opened it on his lap. “I made this when I was a kid. My baby brother must’ve put it in here when we were packing. Lily is pretty sentimental. It’s a scrapbook of my dreams. My drawings haven’t improved since I made this so it would be impossible for me to get into Juilliard on my art skills.”

“Your drawings aren’t the best but these dreams are interesting. Is this a farm of hedgehogs?” Licht found Dr. Jekyll and petted him fondly.

“A petting zoo, actually. I planned to only have hedgehogs in my zoo. They’re the cutest animal in the world so you don’t need anything else.” He told him but he was a little embarrassed of his six year old self. Licht didn’t laugh at his silly dream though. He pointed to the next picture and Hyde told him, “That’s me building a fortress on the moon. I also want to find a talking whale and befriend him.”

They continued to go through the scrapbook together. He flipped to the next page where there was a stage drawn in crayon. “I forgot about this one. I wanted to star in a production of Hamlet with my friend, Ophelia. We planned to rewrite the play and have Ophelia actually team up with Hamlet. They would pull an elaborate prank on the Uncle. The ghost dad helps them too.”

“You read a Shakespearean tragedy like Hamlet when you were a kid? I can barely understand those plays at this age.” Licht didn’t know if he should be impressed or question how a child discovered the play. “You know a lot of quotes from Shakespeare’s plays. Did you practice them with Ophelia like what we’re doing right now?”

“She joined the drama club in high school and I would help practice her lines. Ayato didn’t like me hanging out with her though. I tried to tell him that Ophelia and I were just friends but he was pretty possessive. Ophelia and I eventually stopped talking and we drifted apart.” He shrugged but Hyde now regretted losing that friendship.

“Isn’t that a big, red flag?” Licht understood that it was difficult for the person in the relationship to see those flags in the moment. His mother dated demons because she thought they were fallen angels. She was a hopeless romantic and believed she could fix them. They broke her heart more often than not. It taught him that demons won’t change until they want to improve themselves.

Hyde closed the book. “My new dream is for Ayato to see me on that stage and regret dumping me.”

“Why is your new dream still centered around your ex when you have this scrapbook of better goals?” Licht leafed through the pages. He thought that it was a shame he gave up on himself long ago. He didn’t know if he could say anything to dissuade him. “Greedy isn’t the worst thing to be, as long as you’re honest and work hard to get what you truly want.”

Hyde’s phone buzzed and he checked the email. “They just posted the audition dates and requirements. It looks like we have to cancel our study session next week. I have to pick a monologue and memorize the short scene they sent me. This is going to take up my weekend and I probably won’t get a big part.”

“Only if you act half heartedly. Print out that script and I’ll read through it with you.”

Mahiru hummed softly as he polished a trumpet. He considered himself lucky to have a music shop close to Juilliard but it kept him very busy. At least he managed to find free time that day. He was expecting a visit from Hyde and Licht since they agreed to have lunch together. He loved both cooking and music. Mahiru offered to cook for them and they were out buying groceries.

The door chime rang, signalling that someone had entered his store and he looked up. It wasn’t Hyde or Licht though. Mahiru didn’t recognize the man. Due to his blue hair, he assumed he was also attending Juilliard. He put on a professional smile and greeted the man. “Welcome. Is there anything you’re looking for? I would be happy to help you.”

“Are you Mahiru?” The question made him pause but he nodded. Mahiru didn’t know how the man knew his name before he gave it. Then, he said: “Hyde told me about you. I wanted to talk to you about him.”

“You must be Ayato.” His brown eyes narrowed. Hyde had only told him about one other man in his life that went to Juilliard. He had to admit that he looked different than he imagined. The man was handsome but much older than Hyde. He appeared to be only a few years older than Mahiru. When he started to speak, Mahiru raised his hand.

“Let me stop you right now. Hyde told me about you, Ayato. It was wrong for you to string him along and I won’t let you do that again. Hyde is my friend. Whatever you want from me, my answer is no. So, please leave my store right now.” Mahiru gestured to the door but then he noticed Hyde’s car in the store window.

Mahiru tried to think of what to do as Hyde parked his car. He was worried that Hyde would cause a scene once he sees his ex-boyfriend again. Before he could, Hyde spotted them as well and waved happily to them. He walked inside and yelled: “Hi, Nii-san! You came earlier than I thought he would.”

“Nii-san?” Mahiru repeated in shock. He looked between the two and Kuro nodded. He couldn’t find a family resemblance between them. Yet, it was clear that the two were siblings by the way they interacted with each other. Hyde poked Kuro and then hugged him briefly. After he talked with Kuro, he faced Mahiru to introduce his brother.  

“It looks like you already met my brother, Kuro. Is it okay if he joins us for lunch? I accidentally agreed to hang out with him today without realizing it’s the same day we were supposed to have lunch. Kuro doesn’t drive down to New York often.” Hyde explained. Mahiru felt guilty for his earlier assumption and readily nodded. “It looks like Licht needs help with the bags. You two talk while I help him.”

“Just put the bags on the counter. I’ll start cooking in a minute.” Mahiru waited for Licht and Hyde to leave until he apologized to Kuro. “I am so sorry I mistook you for Ayato. Hyde didn’t tell me he had a brother but it was still wrong of me to make assumptions. I was planning to cook ramen. Is there anything special you want in your bowl? It’ll be my way of apologizing.”

“Don’t worry. I know the family resemblance is hard to see.” He was glad to see that Kuro was understanding. “I’m happy that Hyde has a friend who would defend him. Honestly, I was concerned about him enrolling in Juilliard. It would be troublesome if he started dating Ayato again. He’s an adult but I still worry about him. Actually, I wanted to ask about him and Licht.”

“They’re close friends despite their differences.” It was clear to Mahiru that he cared for his family. He smiled up at Kuro and placed the trumpet in a case. “But they do need supervision or else they’ll find something to fight over. Go join them upstairs while I flip the open sign. You and your brother must have a lot of catching up to do.”

“I’m pretty sure Hyde has a lot more to tell me than the reverse. I don’t get the chance to meet interesting people often. Well, today might be an exception.” He said before he walked away. Mahiru could feel himself blushing as he watched Kuro leave. He didn’t know if he was flirting with him but his subtle smile was rather charming.

Hyde stayed behind while his brother walked up the stairs. He looked between the two and a knowing smile spread across his face. After Mahiru locked the shop door and flipped the open sign, he approached him. In a teasing voice, Hyde said: “What do you think of my brother? He seems to like you. It’s rare that he’s taken with someone so quickly. You should have another lunch with just him.”

“Kuro seems like a good guy but I don’t know if I’m ready for a relationship.” He told him. “Anyways, I’m busy with my music shop. I don’t know if I have a lot to offer him in a relationship.”

“Don’t say that, Mahiru.” Hyde clapped his hand on his back. While he and Licht were neighbours, he doubted they would’ve become so close without Mahiru’s advice. He thought he could repay the favour. “We’ve known each other for a few months now but I rarely see you go out. Close the shop on a Sunday and go on a date with Kuro.”

“I doubt he’ll ask me out.” Mahiru shook his head.

“Let me show you a trick! It’s called the ‘bend and snap’. When you want to catch a guy’s attention, pretend to drop something. You bend down, wait a few seconds and then stand up like so. It shows off your ass and he won’t be able to take his eyes off you. Now, follow me.” He dropped a pen on the ground. Hyde bent down but then he heard a loud clatter behind him.  

He looked back and saw that Licht was struggling with a drum set. He must’ve accidentally walked into the instrument. Hyde went to help him and straightened the drums. He laughed and asked him, “Are you okay, Lichtan? You’re not the clumsy type who walks into things.”

“It was nothing!” He insisted with a blush. He hoped Hyde wouldn’t be able to see how flustered he was. Licht didn’t know how Hyde would react if he told him that he distracted him and made him walk into the drum set. He couldn’t meet his red eyes so he turned to Mahiru. He changed the subject and said, “I came down to ask if you want any help cutting the vegetables.”

“That would be great.” Mahiru smiled at his friend. “I’ll have lunch ready in twenty minutes.”

“I’ve never been to a musical before. It was more fun than I thought it would be but it’s a little too flashy for my tastes.” Licht told him as they walked out of a small, local theater. The sunlight made him wince after sitting in the dark for an hour. A shadow fell over him when Hyde held a textbook over his head. He grinned down at him and lightly tapped the book against his hair.

“Lighting and other technical things are the unsung heroes of a production. They enhance the actor’s performance. I guess you wouldn’t feel the same since you want to be a concert pianist. You’re the type who prefers working alone too.” Hyde said and replaced his textbook in his bag. “I picked the musical so what do you want to do next?”

“I need to stretch my legs after sitting for so long. Let’s walk through the plaza and look around.” Licht suggested but he was already walking forward. They fell into step next to each other and discussed the musical. He was rarely about to pull himself away from his piano but going to the theater was a fun change of pace. Hyde’s company made it better than he would admit.

Licht left his class and his attention was drawn to a crowd across the courtyard. He was curious about what had their attention. “What’s so interesting about this wall?”

“Our professor must’ve just put up the audition result.” He took his hand and pulled him towards the crowd. Hyde thought that it was best to wait for the crowd to thin before he checked the list. He did his best at the audition but he doubted he got a large part. “Will you come watch me even if I’m just an extra on stage?”

“Did you see what part you got already?” Licht stood on his toes in a vain attempt to see past everyone to the audition result sheet. The text was too small for him to see at a distant. In the corner of his eyes, he noticed Hyde shake his head. “Then why would you say you’re an extra? You’re hopeless, Shit Rat. I’m interested in seeing that play though. What is it?”

“Romeo and Juliet. I like that play but I was hoping that they would put on one of his lesser known plays. Maybe a comedy like…” Hyde trailed off. Licht noticed his gaze appear far away and he turned around to see what caught his attention. A man approached them but he didn’t recognize who he was. He saw how Hyde stiffened. “Oh, Ayato. I don’t see you around campus often.”

“I switched programs a week ago.” Ayato told him. Licht found himself stepping in front of Hyde slightly. He didn’t know why he felt protective of him.

“You switched majors in the middle of the semester?” Licht didn’t hide how doubtful he was.

“His parents are influential people in the music industry and they’re almost as wealthy as my family. Almost.” Hyde whispered into his ear. Licht rolled his eyes at Ayato and it was clear that he was far from impressed by the man. “I didn’t see you at the audition. What part did you try out for?”

“My fiancé and I auditioned to be Romeo and Juliet.” He answered. The short answer echoed in Hyde’s mind and he felt himself froze. Fiancé? They dated for nearly seven years yet Ayato proposed to someone else shortly after their break up. A few months ago, the news would’ve devastated him. Hyde neither felt sad nor upset now.

“Shit Rat, who’s Tybalt?” Licht interrupted them. He faced them and tapped his knuckles on the piece of paper. “You’re playing him and not an extra. I don’t remember much from high school English class but I think he’s important.”

“I got the part?” Hyde knew Licht wasn’t the type to lie but he was still in disbelief. He skimmed his finger over the names until he found his own. Next to his name was ‘Tybalt’ in black and white. He read it a few times and a smile slowly spread across his face. Suddenly, Hyde hugged Licht. He spun in a circle and his feet was lifted off the ground. “I got the part!”

“I know, Shit Rat. I was the one who pointed it out to you. Put me down before all this spinning makes me puke. I will throw up on you.” He warned. He felt dizzy when he placed him on his feet again. Licht wasn’t angry after he saw Hyde’s large grin. He had never seen him so happy or proud. That smile had a charm that made his heart skip.

“I wouldn’t have been able to get the part without you, Lichtan. Thank you. I’ll take you out for dinner as a treat.” He took Licht’s hand and started to pull him away. He faced Ayato and said, “You’re playing Mercutio. I can’t wait for our big scene together.”

Hyde grinned at Ayato before he walked away with Licht.

[fly-with-no-hope-no-fear]

In concluding my #HilltopHideawaysAGR photoseries, I realized that while those pictures gave a glimpse of what my life at Saint Anselm looked like spatially, the project didn’t even begin to tell what Saint Anselm gave me in my four years there. And so I return to what has always been my best form of expression: pen and paper (which now I’m typing to share with all of you). Let’s see if I can do the Hilltop justice this time around.

Saint Anselm gave me a Benedictine liberal arts education that I now use every day. Because even though taking classes that had nothing to do with my majors was sometimes frustrating and difficult (*coughcough*@Formal Logic*coughcough*), I still enjoyed the things discussed in those classes, and my mind grew in so many ways that I didn’t expect. I’ve always been reflective in nature, but to receive an education that stressed the importance of a philosophical perspective, I can only count as an amazing gift. The influence that the Benedictines had on my education, showed me that while philosophy could help us ponder many questions of existence and purpose, it has gaps that only theological musings can fill…and vice versa. Logic and faith go hand in hand. For one to exist without the other, always leads the human mind into a trap of extremism, regardless of which end it may fall to.

Saint Anselm gave me relationships that have absolutely blessed me and helped me grow as a person. There are the monks, several of whom were mentors to me in various aspects of my life, who were professors, friends, and sometimes like overprotective brothers who helped me with papers, gave me helpful resources, poked fun of me, were always available to chat, and interrupted quite a few dates. Their presence on campus and in my life only further convinced me that although human, monks are super-heroes who wear habits instead of capes. The amount of respect I have for these men is immense.

I had professors who were engaging, helpful, inspiring, and cared about my success. Not just my academic success, but also my personal success. They pushed my limits, but were there every step of the way. There are a few I wish I could take just one more class with. There’s one I will always look up to, and I owe him a lot for catching what others missed when I struggled to sort through all the information I was receiving. I’m thankful for our life chats, his support, and the book he gave me that opened my eyes and helped me come up with new answers to old questions. He was great to bounce ideas off of, and he made it clear he’s proud of the direction I’m headed. I know he’s just an email away.

I made so many smart, talented, incredible friends who amaze me every day. We have been there for each other through thick and thin, and overcome so much together. From talking out disagreements, keeping each other awake so homework and papers got finished, movies, late night drives, Red Arrow Diner/Dunkin’/Wendy’s/Chick-Fil-A runs, meals together in Dav, cshop, and pub, walks around campus all hours of the day and night, photoshoots, classes together, life talks, sleepovers on dorm rugs, interventions, and dance or music parties…not to mention the group chats, shenanigans, and paper cranes, of which there were many. And the hugs. Wow. When it comes to my friends, there is always something interesting happening. I am incredibly grateful to each and every one of them, for their friendship and the things they have taught me.

When I committed to Saint Anselm and arrived on campus in August of 2015, I was not expecting to encounter the kind of communities that I did, in the ways that I did. The monastic community. The academic community. The people who work in Dav, cshop, and the pub. Denise in Bradley House. The student body. It was impossible to not run into someone I knew whenever I made my way across campus, whether friends, staff, professors, or monks. Saint Anselm truly is a community.

Saint Anselm gave me experiences. Obviously, that started with moving to school…everyone experienced that. For me, college also meant being in a classroom for the first time since 2nd grade. But it was perhaps the lessons and experiences I had outside the classroom that taught me the most. I learned about many other faiths and political perspectives, and in doing so, transformed and strengthened my own. I learned the power of dialogue. I learned how to listen, be compassionate, and stand my ground. I realized the kind of person I wanted to be. I began fighting back against anxiety, and putting myself out there instead of holding myself back. I went to concerts, I spent quality tie with friends, both in groups and individually. I got on a plane for the first time and flew to Indy for the 2019 SEEK conference. I spent 8 days on a SBA service trip in Mississippi. I applied for a scholarship that would have allowed me to pursue an ambitious and terrifying, but much needed service project post-grad, had I won it. In short, I took risks that pre-college me never would have dreamed of taking…and not only did I grow immensely from doing so, but I enjoyed it. The windows that they have opened my mind to, keep me dreaming every day.

Saint Anselm gave me the realization that I am a creator. High school Alexis was a writer, sure, but she was also a sports kid first and foremost. While I started Just Shine On at 15 years old, college helped me realize that creative writing is much more my forte. I wrote over one hundred poems. And I started getting into iPhone photography. But creation also gave me two more communities: poetry club and open mic. Between the two of them, I got in a lot of performance and writing experience. When I went to SEEK I submitted a poem to their contest and was chosen as a finalist. My poem was displayed for everyone there to see. Besides poetry and photography, I dabbled in music, spontaneously buying a ukulele I named Gavin, and teaching myself how to play. I also took guitar lessons as a class. That didn’t go quite as well, but I plan to pick it up again at some point. (The guitar’s name is Gabe.) The appreciation I have for artistic ventures, and the passion I have to create, I may very well have found on my own eventually. But my gut tells me college and the people I met helped me find it so much sooner. And it provided the perfect environment to practice in. Having professors who encouraged and supported me and many others in our extracurricular passions, is something I’m grateful for too.

Lastly, college gave me…well, me. I have grown a lot. I have found my voice, new passions and interests. I learned that it’s okay to be overwhelmed, stressed, anxious, scared, and sad sometimes. What matters is whether or not I let it overtake me. I learned the difference between what it means to be in love, and to love. I developed a life philosophy that’s still growing and starting to spread to all areas of my life, and a belief that if I’m striving to be faithful to God always, then He will be faithful to me even when I fail. I learned so much about who I am, who I want to be, and who I don’t want to be. Most of all, I learned that I will never be done learning who I am, because who I am is a lifelong journey of development. Saint Anselm gave me so much more than just an education; it truly was the best of times and the worst of times. And I’m forever grateful.

[itsodilou]

Here’s a translation of Maxence and Axel’s last radio interview by Fréquence ESJ at the 2019 Paris Pride on june 29 (you can find the interview easily on YouTube by typing “fréquence esj axel auriant”, I also left a comment there with the translation) 

I : Hello, we are receiving Axel Auriant.

A : Hello, I’m sorry, I lost Maxence in the crowd. I think he’s gonna get here soon…

I : So Maxence is coming. We should say, for the people who are listening to us, Axel Auriant, you are an actor in the famous TV show SKAM, in which you have the role of…

A : Lucas.

I : Lucas, that’s it.

(the guy that is behind the computer says that his name is Lucas too, and Axel and the interviewer joke about it)

I : So Axel, it’s true that you are in a duo in Skam with Maxence, who…

A : Yeah, I feel guilty doing this interview without him, but he doesn’t text me back…

I : Oh okay, so you lost him in the crowd ?

A : Yeah, he asked me to get him something to drink and they didn’t let me…. I am telling you guys my whole life… They didn’t let me get out with this drink, so I drank this thing, which wasn’t alcohol. (they laugh) And I lost Maxence.

I : I mean, there’s a lot of people here today. The gay pride, there was tons of people. On the stage, there’s all of the artists that we previously mentioned and there’s even more people. By the way, Axel, have you ever been to pride before ?

A : Yeah, several times actually, with friends, it’s a good occasion to get together, to dance, to be together….

I :  And had you ever done a pride that was like this ? With so many people.

A : Honestly, I don’t realize. But it’s always, in terms of emotions I mean, it’s always a great moment to share, where we’re together and that’s what I love, when I come here (to pride), we dance, we laugh and we celebrate love.

I : And you even lost your partner, by the way.

A : I lost my partner, who found love elsewhere, apparently.

I : Yeah, because you are in the TV show Skam with Maxence…

A : Wait, Maxence texted me. Should we play some music while we wait for him ?

I : Sure, if you want. We can also chat or we can put music while waiting for him, if he’s getting there in a few minutes…

A : He’s gonna be here in 3 minutes.

(they announce the music that they’re gonna be playing and there’s a cut ; now Maxence is here)

I : Our guests are finally here. Before, we had the poor Axel, who had lost his other half…

M : I was dancing to Léonie (one of the artists that was here I guess)…

A : I told you !

M : … I  was in a trance, you guys, her music is so beautiful.

I : We’re our guests today also because this year, you are parrains (godfathers) of the pride march.

A : Yeah, exactly.

Other radio guy : We should introduce them.

I : Yeah right, I am forgetting the most important things. We have Axel Auriant, who we already heard, and Maxence Dunet-Fauvel.

M : Danet-Fauvel.

(the interviewer apologizes for his mistake and they all joke about it)

I : So, Axel and Maxence, you are godfathers of this 2019 pride march. How do you get selected to be godfathers ? How did you react when you found out ?

A : (Axel makes a dumb joke about e-mails). The PR person at Skam was contacted and she sent us an email. The exact same day we replied.

I : You accepted right away.

A : Obviously.

M : It’s an incredible gift. We don’t exactly know how we were selected. We were in a TV show called Skam, for those who don’t know, it’s a tv show for teens. Each season deals with a different topic, and the season where we have the main roles with Axel deals with discovering that you’re gay when you’re in high school.

I: It was season 3, right ?

M: Yes, it was season 3. And we were… Actually, no, we received the Out d’Or afterwards. I think that we were selected because we made things change this year, especially among teens, and I think that it’s extremely important. We saw hundreds of them today. We’re really moved to be able to carry this voice and this message.

I: During the pride march, when you were walking or right now, here at Place de la République, do people recognize you ? Do they come up to you ?

A: Yes, a lot. But they’re always nice and that’s what really moves me. When you shoot a tv show, you don’t realize the impact that it can have on people’s lives. And if it could at least open minds and have the expected effect, and that really moves us, especially on a day like today. So yes, we have been recognized a lot, even if I don’t like this word. A lot of people came to talk to us, dance with us…

M: It was really really cool.

I: Is there young people who tell you that they’re gay and that seeing you on screen, even if it’s fictional, gave them the courage to come out ?

M: Yes.

A: Everyday. Everyday we get messages. When we started shooting, we had a drink…

M: Five (he means five drinks).

A: Maybe even six.

M: Or eight.

(they remind everyone to drink responsibly)

A: And we told each other, if we could help one teen to embrace who they are at this point in their life, we would have reached our goal. And receiving so many messages, it feels like the best reward, it’s so beautiful and that’s why we were a part of this story and now the adventure continues.

I: Sadly this year, there has been an increase of homophobic acts. Did you also get homophobic messages or threats ?

M: Of course.

A: Yes, but those threats make up only 10% of the messages we get. It’s a minority. It’s people who are behind a screen, and it’s so much easier to send: “f*ggot, I���m gonna fuck you up” when you’re behind a screen with a PSG (Parisian football club) logo as your profile picture. (it makes all of them laugh and Maxence says he needs to gag him for saying that). No, but it’s true, we get those messages. And it’s important to say that yes, we get them, but we also receive so much love.

M: We get so much more love than hate, and we see it even today. It really moves me, I loved being a part of this march. I did it with everyone, I was in the crowd, but with my role in mind.

I: You’re carrying a voice, sort of.

M : Yes, and that’s what crazy with this amazing job that we do. When we work on a role, we’re at home, we’re even really scared and to see that we managed to create those characters that people relate to and that help people, it’s a beautiful victory for us.

I: When you got cast for Skam and got the script, what did you find interesting about your characters? Axel, you play Lucas and Maxence, you play Eliott in the show. When you got these roles, what attracted you to those characters ?

A: Personally, what I really liked about Lucas was that he had a sort of shell in the first two seasons, and then you discover more about him and about what he’s going through. He’s like a lot of young people, in front of his friends he cracks jokes, he acts as if he was okay but you realize that it’s a mask, that the reality is completely different, that he wears a mask to protect himself. I found this character really interesting, he’s lost and he wants to love but it’s hard for him, at least in the first two seasons he’s questioning a lot and he has to face society, his friends, all of the prejudices that we can have when we’re lost and everything that we were told as children. I really loved this character, and I still do.

I: Axel, your character was here since the beginning whereas Eliott was introduced in season 3.

M: Yeah, he appears in season 3 and he is new in the school. Personally, what I loved in Eliott, it’s that he’s the most multicolored character that could have been written for me. He’s a wonderful human, with so many hues…. It gives me shivers to talk about it. They wrote me the perfect character as he is so complex and full of color, he’s really sensitive, very touching. He’s an artist, he is a lover, his whole life revolves around love, he doesn’t ask questions, he just goes for it and obviously he makes mistakes because he’s a human being but that’s also what I love about him. He is a lover, and me too, so I could really relate to him. (then they talk about the noise as they’re right next to the stage and Axel mentions that they’re gonna go on stage later).

I: So what happens next ? You’re gonna go on stage right ?

M: Today, yeah, we’re gonna go on stage and say a few words. I really don’t want to make a long speech because I haven’t prepared anything (Axel laughs).

A: This morning we looked at each other and we were like: What do we say ?

M: Personally I just want to thank everyone. Today we saw stunning people, I kept saying “everyone is beautiful, everyone is beautiful”. It’s amazing, it should be like this every day, the streets should be full of color all the time, not just for the LGBT community but for everyone. The streets should be more colorful, and I say that but I’m always wearing black… The streets should be more joyful and it should look more like this amazing day.

A: And the reality of life, that is to say there’s love everywhere and you just need to search for it. What Maxence said is so beautiful, Maxence for president !

I: Axel and Maxence, you play a couple in Skam, a couple of young homosexuals. Is it true that…? (Maxence interrupts him)

M: Wait, I’m just gonna correct you or I’m gonna get wrecked, my character is pansexual. Axel’s character is gay, mine is pansexual. Last time, I didn’t correct a journalist and I got a lot of backlash on Twitter, so…

I: You’re absolutely right to remind us. Last question before you go on stage, is it important today to show more gay couples or pansexual couples etc. ?

A: It’s important to show life. We should stop saying “more gays, more like this or like that”. The reality is that today, homosexuality, like every sexuality, are in the world, they’re here. And we’re here to put stories to life, and to put to life what some people live. And we should show as much as we can, we should show as many footballers, intersex people, pansexual people, bisexual people as we can, because that’s what people live.

I: Yeah in the show you see sex scenes, kisses…

A: Definitely. And it’s important to say that we should show those things, show what those people really live, without being scared of censorship or bad reactions because we do this job to live and to put these characters to life. (to Maxence) maybe you want to add something ?

M: I just wanted to add something, I completely agree with Axel and I think we should show more LGBT people on TV because we’re in 2019, but we are so behind on this topic that we need to show it to people, shove it in their faces. Today people should go outside, get naked, do whatever they want

A: Okay let’s go (he starts removing his shirt)

M: Yeah, do it! It needs to be shown, those people need to be bothered, those people who still live in the stone age, we need to show them that that’s what it is to live on this earth and to be human, it’s to be free to do what we want, fuck! We fought for years to be free, for years ! We’re almost succeeding, but we’re still struggling on certain topics, it’s unbelievable.

I: You’re full of emotions, Maxence. There’s a lot of emotion in your eyes.

M: Yeah, it really gets me going, it’s like racism, there’s things that I don’t understand. This hatred of difference, this hatred of others but fuck ! You’re all so beautiful ! Fuck, guys stop it ! Love each other for fuck’s sake!

A: Love each other.

I: We’re gonna stop here because you have to go apparently.

M: Yeah we need to go.  

(then they make weird noises and act like goofs, they say thank you and Axel kisses the microphone)