#she got run over by one of the construction guys truck

[fruitpunchbitch]

…

[gracieheartspedro]

Crave

Part 3 of "How Long"

pairing: f!reader x brother-in-law!joel miller

find part 1 and 2 here!

dedication: @jenispunk <3 I love you sm jen. thank you for always supporting my writing and being the best wife a girl could ever dream of. you make my heart so happy. thank you for helping me edit and being the first to read this and encouraging me no matter what! love you love you love you!!!

description: a weekend escape with joel and sarah, kinda. the bed situation is a little confusing. luckily you and joel make it work. when sarah's not around, of course.

word count: 5.5k

warnings: MINORS DNI! this is 18+, pre!outbreak joel, there is smut in this part!! unprotected p in v, oral sex (f receiving), joel is a CONSENT KING AGAIN, dirty talk, daddy kink (aha), hotel sex?, begging? lmao I think that's it.

author's note: finally. it's here. I feel like I've been staring at this doc for 7 years. thank you all for your patience. I want to continue this series but I have to sit down and really brainstorm what I'd like the next parts to be. let me know your thoughts! THANK YOU FOR READING!

“My favorite Millers!” 

Your face was beaming, seeing Joel hop out of his truck with Sarah in tow. The truck was still running, the diesel engine chugging louder than any truck you had been in before. Joel always had a nicer, newer truck. He made great money and he was always having to go into construction zones that needed an all terrain vehicle. They always got pretty banged up with dirt and rocks, but he took excellent care of the interior. 

Joel grabs both of your bags, taking them to the backseat where Sarah would be crammed in with all the luggage. You give him a nod, silently thanking him. Sarah wraps her arms around your waist, giggling with excitement. 

“I’m so happy you’re coming with us! It’s going to be a great weekend,” She explains while you two walk over to the tall truck. You always found climbing into a truck unnatural and awkward yourself, but it was hot watching Joel hop in with ease. You agree with Sarah, all the while opening up the door for yourself. Sarah springs up to her seat, and you struggle to crawl up into the cab. It makes Joel chuckle. 

“I’m making you lift me into this thing next time,” you joke, easing back into the fabric seats, “Especially since you think watching me struggle is funny.”

Joel looks back in the rear view to see if Sarah’s paying attention, “‘s no problem at all, darlin’. I will gladly help you next time.”

You knew he was flirting. It makes your stomach bubble with excitement. He makes sure you two are buckled and starts on the two and half hour journey to Houston. Once you leave your neighborhood, Sarah taps your shoulder and holds out her new CD player. It’s purple and covered in sparkly stickers. 

“Looks like your Dad is supplying you with all the ways to listen to music,” you observe, glancing over at Joel. He’s just watching the road, one hand on the steering wheel, the other propped up on the shifter. He looks younger, the dusk sky the perfect back drop for his pronounced nose and beautiful eyelashes. You couldn’t help but stare, even as Sarah’s talking your ear off. He just nods along to her, making sure she knows she’s heard. 

“Think I’m gonna listen to my Kelly Clarkson CD this time,” Sarah explains, putting her earphones over her voluminous curls, “So don’t try to talk to me!”

You and Joel giggle, shaking your heads at her comment. It’s not like you were the one’s talking before, you both think. 

It gives you both a moment without a kid’s ears nearby. 

“How was the rest of your work week?” He asks, tapping the shifter to the soft hum of the radio.

“Boring,” You mumble, “Think one of the guys in marketing has a crush on me and he’s making it impossible to avoid him. I can’t even go to the break room without him bothering me.”

You didn’t know why you felt the urge to tell Joel about the situation. It wasn’t even a real situation, it was just an annoying thing happening in your life.

“Hmph,” he ponders for a moment, “Want me to kill him?”

His tone is serious, but you know he’s just messing. You grin, nudging his arm with your elbow gently, ensuring it doesn’t move the steering wheel. 

“My hero,” You comment as you watch a smile crack across his face, “No, thank you, though. If it starts to get to stalker status, I will call you.”

“Seems like stalkin’ already, baby girl.”

The nickname makes your stomach flip. You purse your lips, contemplating his words. Sure it was creepy, but the guy was scrawny and you could probably snap him in half with two fingers. He had nothing to really worry about. Right?

Joel steals a glance over at you. 

“Maybe, but I’ll handle it.”

You wanted him to think you were strong enough to deal with unwanted attention, but to be honest, you weren’t sure how to say no to most men. You only ever had Tommy and he scared everyone away. Now everyone around town knew you were on the market, and men were drawn to your natural beauty and somewhat sassy attitude. 

Little did they know, you were hung up on the other Miller boy. 

“You let me know if you need me to talk to him,” He doesn’t take his eyes off the road, just reaches his right hand out to rest on your thigh, “Man to man.”

His hand is so warm, you feel it through your black leggings. He was almost always like a furnace, but it was okay, because you always ran cold. But every time he touched you, you felt that warmth trail up your arms and legs. He made you feel different. Every fiber of your being became electrified when he was around. It was a sensation you never noticed when you were with Tommy. You begin chalking it up to just being nervous because he was older and larger and… well, hotter. 

“Again, my hero,” you respond sarcastically, letting your hand rest on top of his. It makes him more confident, gently massaging that area. You watch as his hand creeps closer and closer to the crack between your legs. You practically gasp at the contact, but you catch yourself before you do, remembering there’s a child behind you. 

So you smack his hand away, shooting him a glare. 

“What are you doing?”

“Nothin’ just… sorry.”

You didn’t want him to pull away, your leg already missing his touch, but you knew what would happen if you did stuff like that in front of Sarah. She’s a teenage girl. She’ll talk. It’ll find it’s way to someone’s ears. 

You wanted to act like you didn’t care if Tommy found out, but deep down you knew it would be a disaster. You didn’t feel like being the talk of the town. You didn’t feel like explaining yourself to Tommy. You didn’t feel like watching Joel deal with the flack from his family, especially his mother. 

If you two wanted to continue this… game… you would have to keep it secret. That included keeping it away from Sarah’s eyes and ears. You and Joel would just be friends. You would just be her aunt. That’s it. 

“Don’t apologize,” You whisper, “Just not here.”

You two let the radio take over the rest of the trip, occasionally chatting about a song or what the newscaster says about the weather. Once you get into Houston, it’s already 8:30 at night. Joel pulls into the parking garage to the Marriot and you already start craving the bed that awaits you inside. 

-

“I call the bed near the window!” Sarah throws her stuff down, jumping straight onto one the huge queen size duvet. The room was nice. A large television set catches your eye immediately, proving that this was probably an expensive room if they were giving you free cable tv. The curtains were open, giving a beautiful view of Houston’s skyline. 

One thing you notice, too, is the fact that there was only two beds. You knew this, but it still made your stomach sink a bit. 

You realize you three hadn’t discussed the sleeping situation. You didn’t care where you would sleep, honestly. You just knew Sarah was a restless one, having slept next to her in a tent when she was 9. Family camping trips entailed you, Tommy, Joel, and Sarah sharing a 6 person tent and being absolutely miserable the whole entire time. Between Tommy’s snores and Sarah practically flailing all around the tent at night, you remember not getting a lick of sleep. 

“Go get a shower, Sarah. We will figure out who’s sleeping where.”

She groans at Joel, like usual. 

“Dad!”

“Shower,” he throws his bag down on the ground near the dresser, “No arguin’.”

Sarah sulks, her bag in hand, straight to the bathroom by the front door. You don’t say anything. You just start following Joel’s lead by putting your bags down next to his. You stand a bit too close to him, waiting for him to say where you’d be sleeping.  

He clears his throat, “I will take the recliner, if you want the bed.”

“Of course I want the bed, but I don’t want you to have to sleep in the recliner.”

It makes him laugh, how matter-of-fact you are. 

You hear Sarah start up the shower. You wouldn’t have to fear she hears you and Joel talk about the possibility of sleeping with one another. Again.

“It’s not a big deal,” He explains, unzipping his bags to grab his pajamas, “Sleep on the couch all the time.”

“But you have a nice plush couch,” You gesture towards the hard and structured looking recliner, “That doesn’t look comfortable at all.”

For a girl who didn’t want Joel touching you in the car, you were practically begging him to sleep next to you in the big comfortable hotel bed. 

“So, where do you want me to sleep?”

“Just take the bed.”

“But you want the bed.”

You swallow, not even looking up at him, “We both can have the bed.”

He’s silent, gripping onto his sweatpants and t-shirt. He slowly looks down at you, his eyes carry a curious glint in them. You cock your head, giving him a mischievous smirk.

“You and Sarah?”

“No, you and Sarah.”

He groans, “You are a fuckin’ tease.”

You giggle, watching him brush pass you to position himself close to the closet. He opens the closet door, slipping in like he’s looking for something in there. 

“What are you doing?”

“Changin’.”

���In the closet?”

He grabs his shirt from the nape of his neck and pulls it off smoothly. You can’t peel your eyes away, partially seeing his right peck from how he’s standing. It was like the morning after having sex with him. Your eyes were glued to him, his tanned skin practically asking to be touched and licked. 

You horny bitch. 

“Joel, get out of the closet.”

He chuckles, “Why? You want me to give you a show?”

Why yes, I really do, Joel. You think to yourself. You hum a response, peeling your eyes away. You needed to find your pajamas, a pair of Nike sports shorts and a black tank top. Lately, you’ve been sleeping completely naked, but that was obviously not an option here. 

Sarah finally leaves the bathroom as soon as Joel slides his pants up. She has her hair wrapped in a towel, which makes you smile. She looked so grown up, it’s hard to believe you met her when she was 6 years old. You wordlessly walk into the bathroom, beginning to change your outfit for your sleep wear. You splash some cold water on your face, your cheeks still blushed from seeing Joel shirtless. 

You hear the door outside open and close. You peak out, your traveling clothes wrapped up in your arms. Joel stands in the middle of the room, fiddling with the remote for the TV. 

“Where did Sarah go?” You question, packing your clothes back into your duffle. 

“She wanted to go get ice from the ice machine,” He grumbles, “Said she wanted to see if any of her teammates were awake or nearby.”

“Is her whole team staying here?”

“Yeah, pretty much every team gets a floor. Last year it was a like a huge sleepover. Fuckin’ nightmare,” Joel mutters, flicking through different channels, before landing on some westerns. You smirk, deciding to plop down on one of the beds. As soon as you lay back, Sarah comes back in, bucket in hand. 

“Can I go stay in Amelia’s room? Her mom is there, just two doors down.”

Well that solves the bed problem. 

Joel rolls his eyes, you can tell he’s already annoyed. “Is Amelia’s mom okay with that?”

“You want to go talk to her? I promise Dad, we will get up at 5:30 like we need to. Pleas-”

“Let’s go talk to Amelia’s mom.”

You hear them leave the room without saying anything else. 

You were tired from a long day at work and the long drive. But some excitement blooms in your stomach when you realize it may just be you and Joel, all alone in a hotel room. 

Before you have time to ponder all the wonders that may be in store for you, Joel comes back with a frustrated huff. 

“She staying over there?”

“Yeah, Amelia’s mom said it was fine. Then she started askin’ who you were. Guess they saw us in the hotel lobby.”

Your stomach twists, nervous at what his response was.

“And?”

“Told her you were Sarah’s aunt. She gave me a weird look.”

“Great, now the soccer mom’s will be oogling me tomorrow.”

“Well they will anyway,” Joel responds, finding a spot next to you on the edge of the bed, “Single ones won’t leave me alone.” 

You know he’s really just seeing if you’ll get jealous. But you don’t play into his little game. You just let out a loud hearty laugh. 

“The ladies just love a Miller.”

He grumbles something inaudible, nudging you with his elbow. “You do, don’t ya?”

“Sure do.”

His face softens, his eyes flicking down to your lips. 

You grin, “She’s 14 and super goofy. Loves to play socc-”

“You’re truly testin’ me today, ain’t ya?”

You can’t help yourself at that point. The way he’s flirting only gives you more reason to taunt him. 

“Is Sarah seriously going to be gone from the room all night?”

“Yeah,” He nods, leaning back on his palms. He acts like he’s watching TV, ignoring your not-so-subtle hints that you want his eyes on you. 

“So, I can finally ask you why you think it’s okay to tease me in the car?”

“Don’t know what you’re on about, darlin’,” He smirks, he knows.

You tilt your head to the side, finally lifting your hand onto his lap. You immediately start toying with him the same way, your hand creeping towards his crotch. His eyes peel away from the TV. He watches you closely, his eyes trailing from your gaze down to your fingers dancing on his pant leg. 

“You put your hand on my thigh and started inching closer and cl-“

“Are you tryin’ to make a point or pose a question?”

He was getting annoyed with the games already. But you’d only just begun. 

“I’m just trying to explain how you can’t do things like that to me in front of Sarah,” You remark, flicking your eyelashes up to his glare, “Especially when you can’t finish it.”

“Who said I ain’t gonna?”

You huff, “Well here we are, all alone in a hotel room. No kiddo in sight. Still not touching me.”

“Don’t think you deserve it cause you’re a tease.”

“How am I a tease, Miller?”

“You exist and that’s enough. Walkin’ around in a tank top,” He gestures to your chest, “Just beggin’ to be touched.”

Your skin is set alight. The words go straight to your core. 

“Joel-“

You’re cut off. His hands work quickly, pulling you by the nape of your neck, right to his eager lips. You begin to realize you had been longing for this moment for so long. He couldn’t resist anymore, his whole body buzzing at the fact that he finally has you again. 

His lips are soft and slow as they make their way around yours. His hands eventually trail down to your butt, his hands cradling both cheeks. He lifts you forward, sliding you up and onto his lap. 

“Been wantin’ this for months, baby.” 

Butterflies erupt in the pit of your tummy. You can feel them travel up to your chest as you look down at him, his eyelids heavy and his lips pursed.  

He waited for you to respond to his calls, knowing you needed time. He needed to be patient. You would come around, he knew it. After months, here you are. 

He thinks back to every time he was touching himself late at night, he would imagine the night you two shared. Your soft curves and needy dripping pussy. It drove him wild imagining you like this again. 

“I think it’s been more than wantin’, Joel,” You grind down on his prominent bulge growing in his sweatpants, “Think you need it.”

He grins, finally getting out of his own head.

“Such a little tease, damn it.”

You lean down, mindlessly speckling kisses behind his ear and neck. Your boobs rest right in front of his face, and you’re right, he needs it. His hands leave your behind, reaching up to the straps of your tank top. He tugs them down your biceps, allowing your cleavage to spill out more. 

Your hands find his dark peppered curls at the nape of his neck, pulling downward. You needed him closer and he obliged. He starts to kiss your collarbones, wandering down to the swell of your breasts. You can feel yourself staining your sports shorts with anticipation. 

You rock your hips, craving more. He takes the hint, reaching back down to lift you from your ass. He switches spots, laying you on your back on the plush white duvet. He’s leaning over you now, which gives you a great view of how spent he looks already. His gray sweatpants are hanging lower, tenting where his cock has grown hard. 

He smirks, taking off his shirt the same way he did earlier. With one hand, it slips right over his head and onto the floor. 

“Jesus,” You huff out, using the time to remove your top, “I need you, Joel.”

The smirk never leaves his lips. He leans down, pushing your legs apart with his pointer and middle finger. You open up for him, wanting nothing more for him to dive into you in every possible way. You watch as he slides his fingers up your thigh, past the openings of your shorts. 

He realizes you aren’t wearing underwear. He sighs as he swipes the pads of his fingers across your wet slit. 

“I know you do,” He drawls, watching you writhe under his touch, “You need me as much as I need you.”

He practically tears off your shorts, not wasting any time fighting with the fabric. 

You adjust how your laying to accommodate him laying between your thighs. He lays down on his stomach, bringing your hips close to his mouth. You watch as he kisses your inner thighs, his breath hot fanning against your skin. 

You remember the last time you were in this position. You spent night after night remembering the best head you’ve ever gotten, from the one and only, Joel Miller. And you could tell Joel was not going to go another moment without making you cum on his tongue. 

When his tongue hits the top of your slit, you whine at the contact. He presses his face in, diving deeping into your lips. As soon as he finds your clit, he puts all his attention there. His nose is pressed against your mound as he hums against your sensitive bud. 

“Joel,” You cry, reaching down between your legs to grab the crown of his head, your hands lacing into his locks, “Right fuckin’ there.”

He continues his movements, only increasing in speed in which he flicks his tongue. He wraps his lips over the swollen area, sucking and lapping your sweetness. He pulls away, the slick between your thighs missing him instantly. He brings his fingers up to his mouth and wets them with saliva. He glances up at your completely dazed face. 

“‘M gonna fuck you with my fingers first,” His voice is deep and hushed, “Make you cum. You gonna cum for me like a good girl?”

You don’t even know where it comes from. But you say it with your chest.

“Yes, Daddy.”

You never expected the moan to come out of his mouth. It’s deep and guttural. He couldn’t believe his ears, and he can’t believe the words came from your mouth. His good girl? That fuckin’ flithy?

He slips his fingers into you without resistance. His mouth finds it’s way back to your core, fucking you in unison. 

You reach up to your chest, cradling your own boobs. Joel’s still only in sweatpants but they are riding low on his hips. As he’s giving you his all, he’s grinding his hips into the bed, trying to get whatever friction he can. Watching the motion alone is driving you wild, sending your hips rotating on his tongue. You knew the release was coming, you could feel it in your fingertips. 

And when it comes, it’s like fireworks inside your stomach and chest. You lurch forward, crying out his name. You knew it was probably way too loud for the thin hotel walls, but you couldn’t help yourself. The orgasm sends stars speckling across your vision. 

Joel fucks you through the comedown. You are the hottest thing he’s ever laid eyes on, he thinks. When your body rests back, you’re panting, trying to ground yourself for a second. Joel pulls his fingers out and sucks each digit. 

“You’re gonna be the death of me,” You mewl, reaching out for him. You just need to touch him. 

He shimmies his sweatpants down and off his legs. He’s sitting back on his knees, smiling down at your desperate eyes. He crawls on top of you, his dick prodding at your thighs. He leans down, trapping your lips into another longing kiss. His hands trail down your sides, leaving goosebumps in their wake. He pulls back after a couple seconds, gazing into your eyes. 

“You still on that birth control?”

You hum in response. 

“Need me to pull out still?”

You smirk, lacing your arms around his shoulders, “No. Need you to cum inside me.”

He shakes his head, sitting back to line himself with your entrance.

“My dirty girl,” He runs his cock head between your swollen red lips, triggering your hips to move closer to him, “You drive me insane.”

“Come on, Joel. I’ve been waiting for ages for you to fuck me. Need you. Now.”

He chuckles darkly, still not giving you what you want. “Waiting ages, huh?”

“Joelllll,” You beg, smacking his chest, “Please.”

“Mmm,” He pushes forward just enough to relieve your ache, “Love it when you beg for it.”

He practically splits you open when he snaps his hips. You both groan simultaneously, unable to hold back this sick fantasy you’re both playing into. You feel more full than you ever did before. You don’t remember it hurting this good. 

“Holy fuck,” you whine, “So fucking full, Joel.”

He slowly pulls back, “You tell me if it’s too much, ‘kay?”

You shake your head, throwing your head back as he sets a cautious pace. He’s watching all your facial expressions, making sure he’s not hurting you. You wince when he starts to pick up the pace, which causes him to halt completely. 

“No,” You plead, “More. Faster. Please, just please.”

He says nothing, just pushes up your thighs so the back of them are flush with the front of his. He leans over you, his elbows on each side of your head. He grinds into you while his dark curls fall into your face. You tilt your head up, finding the crook of his neck again. 

His cock felt so good dragging in out of you. You felt like you could stay in this position forever. You molded so perfectly around him. He treated you like this beautiful mural, taking his time with delicate strokes. His hands wrapped around the back of your head, holding you in the curve of his body.

You latch your lips onto his neck, peppering lovebites everywhere. You didn’t even think about if they could be seen later. In the moment, you only thought of him as yours. He was yours and everyone would fucking know it. 

He’s starting to get more greedy. He pulls back, his warmth moving away from your perked up nipples. His upper body the best view you could get, so you couldn’t complain too much. He grabs behind your knees, using them as leverage as he starts to pound into you. 

Your eyes meet and for fuck’s sake, he’s perfect. You never knew you could see Joel Miller like this. Like someone who fucked you so good, but also cared so tenderly for you. He wanted to see you in the throws of pleasure, not even worrying about when he’d get his rocks off. He got his rise out of seeing how much you enjoyed yourself.

His ravenous drive to bring you to the edge is causing the headboard to slam against the wall which each stroke. He brings his left hand up to your bouncing tits, grabbing your nipple and tugging on it. He knew what touching your boobs did to you. He remembers watching your visceral reactions to him toying with them before. It brings a smile to his face. 

“I’m gonna-”

You don’t even finish your sentence, you just gasp as you feel his cock head hit the deepest parts of you. A place no other man has made it to. 

“I don’t want anyone else,” He musters out, his teeth clenching as your pussy restricts around him. He means it. He may be drunk on you, but he feels those words down to his bones. “I only ever want this.”

It was never just about the sex. Joel cared for you. Fuck, maybe he even loved you. 

You swallow, propping yourself up on your elbows. You glance down, watching his cock slip so perfectly, in and out of you. 

“I’m yours, Joel,” You manage to peep out before the orgasm you’ve been holding back builds to a maddening point, “I’m yours.”

The words make his cock twitch. He can’t help himself, he needs you to cum right this very moment. He doesn’t say anything, just unhooks your legs and uses his right hand to put pressure on your clit. Tears start to prick in your eyes as he lazily rubs circles, humming in satisfaction. He feels you tightening up, he knows your close. 

Your vision goes white. You body starts to vibrate, the pure bliss he’s sending you into takes you to a whole other dimension. You want more. More. More. More. 

As he watches you seize up, he can’t resist his own orgasm. The explosion sends him into a moaning mess. He fucks into you, painting your walls with his cum, not letting a drop go to waste. 

He collapses on top of you. You don’t even care, you feel like jello anyway, he could melt right into you.

He rolls off after a minute. 

You always miss him when he’s not near you. 

You stare at the ceiling, pondering the right words to say to him. Nothing comes to mind. He gets up, walking naked to the bathroom. He grabs a rag from the shelf above the toilet, running it under some warm water. 

When he returns, you let him clean all around your body. You make sure he doesn’t wipe away the wet kisses he left all over you, though. 

“You okay?”

You finally look at him. 

You want to say yes, because you were okay. Physically. But your heart wanted to pulsate out of your chest. 

“I will be,” You state simply, “Just tired.”

He slowly starts grabbing all your articles of clothing off the floor, dressing you once he collects all of them. He’s careful with you. Gentle. 

“Do you want to sleep in the same bed?”

The question rings in your ears. Of course you did. 

“As long as you get up at the ass crack of dawn and move before Sarah comes in.”

He chuckles, pulling his sweatpants back over his waist. He doesn’t even bother to put on his shirt.

“Will do, baby.”

-

When you wake up, you realize the overheard light flickered on. You contort your sleep dazed body, Joel’s upper body practically laying over you. You try to blink the haze out of your eyes, but your tired mind is completely shocked when you see an outline of a girl. 

Shitshitshitshitshit.

You fling your body upward, rattling Joel awake. He’s startled, his arms flinging off of you. 

“I knew it!” Her voice is piercing. “I knew it! Holy shit!”

“Sar-”

“Are you two dating? Or are you just… wait, ew!”

She’s rambling, her words clashing together in confusion. Your heart is about to hammer out of your chest. 

“Sarah, we aren’t dating,” You declare, your voice shaking. 

“But you’re sleeping together?”

You could cut the silence with a sword. It’s so thick and awkward. 

A 14 year old girl shouldn’t know you’re sleeping with her Dad. Let alone walk in after you spent all night tangled up in him. 

“Sarah,” Joel’s voice is buttery and raspy after he wakes up. You hold the comforter up to your chest. You had your tank top on, but it hangs so low on you, you don’t want to risk anything. “Grab your uniform, get dressed. We can talk about this later.”

“Does Uncle To-”

“Sarah! Stop!”

It scares you since it’s so close to your ear. His voice changes so abruptly, it makes you cringe a bit. 

Hearing the question from Sarah’s lips makes you feel queasy. Having the girl who you always considered your niece ask if her uncle knew you were sleeping with her dad... God what a fucking mess. 

You watch her storm across the room, grabbing her backpack and race to the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. 

Joel groans next to you as he slams back into the plush pillows. 

“She will be fine. We will talk about it later,” Joel says under his breath. 

You open your mouth but nothing comes out. 

You hadn’t thought much of this through. Ever since you and Joel first slept together, you pushed your harbored feelings to the side. Sometimes they creep in, which would send you into a panic. Because deep down, you knew you felt something for Joel. Something you hadn’t felt since you first started dating Tommy. Maybe even ever. It was exciting. He made you feel special. After everything he said to you last night, you knew he possessed some similar emotions and feelings.  

You felt crazy for believing this could work. 

You knew this would be complicated. Now Sarah is involved. How do you explain these emotions to a child? You don’t. 

You think about all the horrible outcomes to this situation. Tommy wanting to fight Joel. His mom never accepting you back into the family. Who knows, maybe Sarah gets so upset at the situation, she never treats you the same again. 

But then you think about Joel. How he’s a night and day difference to what Tommy was to you. He wore his emotions on his sleeve. He wanted to protect you. He wanted to take care of you every chance he could. 

You start to think back to the times when you were still with Tommy. Joel defended you when you two had a blowout fight. He always made sure to have a watchful eye on you when you all went out to bars. He was even there when you graduated college, giving you a bouquet of beautiful daises he swore up and down Sarah picked out. But you knew the truth. Joel loved daisies. He even had his Mom plant some in his front yard last year. 

You were just so scared. You didn’t want to be hurt again. You did not want your feelings to be wrong. 

You glance down at him, your back still turned. He could read your face, he knew you were overthinking everything. Your mind was working overtime, trying to muster up some excuse to run away and forget everything that happened between you two. There was nothing normal about this situation. 

But fuck, you both really wanted it. So bad. You couldn’t keep lying to yourself. 

His hand creeps up your back, resting a reassuring palm on your aching shoulder. 

“Stop thinkin’ for a minute,” he whispers, “You don’t need to make any decisions right this minute. We will just take it one second at a time. Ain’t no way ‘m lettin’ you go. I want you here.”

You didn’t know if he meant here in general or in the figurative sense. 

He meant it both ways. 

Maybe it was crazy, but that feeling was deep in your chest. This palpable inkling that this could evolve into you being his. 

This being more than sex? More than a crush?

Being Joel’s sounded like a fever dream.

He wanted nothing more but to wrap you up into his arms, hold you and kiss your head, reassuring you that you two can figure it out together. But instead, Sarah walks out in her soccer uniform, squashing the moment. She stands in front of the bed, finally making eye contact with you. 

“You guys gonna get up and watch me kick ass, or are you gonna to lay in bed all day?”

You smile at her. You silently prayed this girl would stay in your life forever.

“I know my answer.”

Joel smiles, “’s go kick some ass.”

-

again thank you for reading!! let me know your thoughts!

find part 1 and 2 here!

[songsformonkeys]

Saying I love you through an accidental kiss (Joel Miller x reader Pre outbreak)

Month: July

Word count: ~1100

Warnings: None

Notes: I think the title is pretty self-explanatory. Unbeta'd.

The rest of the Year of Creation stories

@yearofcreation2023

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's a little after six when you hear the screech of tire trucks pulling onto your driveway. He's late. You're not surprised in the slightest. If there's one thing you can count on regarding the Miller family, it's that they're never on time. The second thing you've learned - which has probably come about as a result of the first - is that they're always in a rush. And in the eight years you've spent living across the road from them, you have learned to adjust accordingly.

”Sarah!” you call up the stairs as you hear the car door slam shut outside, and you move to open the door before Joel can assault it with his impatient knocking. It swings open, revealing his perpetually frowny face. He looks tired, the way he usually does when he comes to pick Sarah up after a long day of work. Still, you have to admit there's something ruggedly handsome about the slight sheen of sweat mixed with construction dust on his skin and the patchy beard he never seems to have time to properly shave.

”Evening, Miller,” you greet him, cocking your hip and leaning against the wall. ”Driving like that, you better not have run over my lavender bushes.”

Joel looks over his shoulder and pretends to check. ”It's the purple ones right?... Nah, they're good.”

”In that case, please come inside.”

He steps past you into your home. You follow him into the kitchen, grateful for the dry weather since he's made no move to remove his work boots.

”Where's my kid hidin'?” he asks, looking around as if Sarah is gonna jump out of a kitchen cabinet.

”Last time I checked, she was rifling through my closet, looking for something to wear.”

”What?” Joel looks you up and down as if noticing your clothes for the first time in eight years.

”You're gonna stare like that, at least buy me dinner first,” you tell him, and he has the courtesy to look a little embarrassed. ”Speaking of, have you eaten yet?” You ask, even if you already know the answer. Between you and Sarah, you're lucky if you can bully Joel into eating anything for breakfast and lunch, other than hardboiled eggs and coffee.

”I'll make something when we get back from the meeting.” he says.

”I wasn't born yesterday, Miller,” you tell him, rounding the kitchen island to pick up a Tupperware container from the counter. ”For later,” you say pointedly. ”It's even in accordance with that stupid diet of yours.” You clap him on the shoulder as you hand the container over. Then you lean out of the kitchen to shout up the stairs.

”Sarah! Your dad's here!”

”Can you come and help me?” you hear her shout back. Turning to Joel, you shrug before heading upstairs.

”Tell her to hurry! We're late!” he calls after you and you give him a thumbs up over your shoulder.

You find Sarah in your bedroom, standing in front of the full-length mirror. She's wearing one of your dresses, light purple and a bit too big on her small frame.

”Well look at you!”

”It doesn't look good on me,” Sarah says with a sigh.

”It looks great on you. Just a little big. Here...” You pull a jean jacket from the closet and hold it out to her. ”Put this on.”

Sarah shrugs the jacket on and does a slow spin in front of the mirror. She seems pleased with what she's seeing.

”Stunning!” you tell her ”Now come downstairs before your dad has an aneurysm.”

As if on cue, Joel calls from downstairs to hurry up.

”Not my fault he's late,” Sarah mumbles but she follows you out of the bedroom.

”Come on, chop chop!” Joel snaps his fingers as you descend the stairs. Then his phone rings.

”Tommy! ...Yeah no, we've got the meeting at the school tonight... Have you heard back from your concrete guys yet?” He waves goodbye at you as he talks, motioning Sarah out the door towards the truck. ”No? Would you give it another try, we need... yeah, I know!”

Sarah turns to wave at you as well.

”See you at Dad's party this weekend!” she calls.

”Absolutely!” you promise.

You notice Sarah's bag not even two minutes later when you enter the kitchen. At the same time, you hear the car pull into your driveway again, which means Joel and Sarah must have noticed too.

Joel is hopping out of the car as you open the door to hold the bag out.

He jogs up to you.

”She'd forget her damn head if it weren't screwed on,” he complains.

”A trait that runs in the family,” you counter, holding out the food container that he also forgot, with a teasing grin.

”Yeah yeah, laugh it up.” He looks down at his wrist, as always, forgetting that the watch isn't there. When he remembers, he reaches for your wrist instead, tilting your hand to look at the display.

”Fuck, her teachers will murder me!” He tries to sling the bag over his shoulder but it keeps snagging on the seam of his jacket. ”Thanks again for looking after her today. You're a lifesaver, as always!” He gives the bag another frustrated tug.

Recognizing a stressed-out Miller temper tantrum rapidly approaching, you step forward to help him. You're reaching for his shoulder, and before you've even fully registered it happening, Joel suddenly pauses his bag struggles to lean in and oh my god, he's kissing you!

It's a soft press of lips against yours, casual but intimate, like this is something you've done a thousand times before. Like kissing your neighbor on the mouth is the most normal thing in the world.

The kiss only lasts a second or two before Joel's brain seems to catch up with what he's doing and his entire body freezes before he pulls back.

He stares at you. You stare back.

”Did I just..?” he asks, sounding just as shocked as you feel over what his body decided to do with autopilot engaged.

”I think you did,” you reply.

He looks around, eyes a little wild and panicky. You wonder if he's going to bolt.

”You reached for me first!” he suddenly accuses.

”To help you with the bag!” you say, incredulously. ”Not to smooch you!”

”I got confused. I- I...” The rest of the sentence is lost in unintelligible mumbling before Joel turns and stomps back towards the car where Sarah is watching you two with eyes wide as plates.

As he peels out of your driveway, he definitely runs over some of your lavender bushes but you can't bring yourself to care right now.

Because Joel Miller just fucking kissed you!

[secretly-tword-obsessed]

Hi again how are you thank you for accepting☺️ so the prompt is Willy is not having a good day and Lofty and Noodle tickle him to cheer him up. Bonus points if Lofty gives him raspberries.😊

I'm sorry that this took so long!!!

I've been a bit busy lately, but that's not a good excuse. I really hope you still enjoy it - I love this prompt. Thank you for your patience (:

Fandom: Wonka

Title: Bird's Nest

Noodle and Lofty sat side by side, looking out of the window, staring at the construction sight before them. They were both staying in Wonka's factory or, rather, what was soon to become Wonka's factory, sat in a small hut in the corner of a wide property.

Why couldn't Wonka just live in that little hut by himself?

Well, rather embarrassingly, Wonka got spooked out by the sounds of the construction at night, and didn't feel comfortable all alone in the dark at the mercy of the 'truck monsters'. Lofty was staying with him anyway, but somehow Wonka didn't feel like he would be enough to fight off the 'truck monsters' if they intruded. Noodle, however, was very strong, and had agreed to live with Wonka and fight alongside him as, after all, she did owe him quite a bit.

Usually living with Wonka was a delight, but there were two situations in which it could be a pain.

1). When Wonka was out working later than usual, and Noodle and Lofty had run out of things to do so they mutually died of boredom

2). When Wonka snored.

On this particular afternoon, it was situation one. That was why, when Noodle heard the key click in the front door, she immediately bounced off the couch. Although Noodle was overly excited to see him, her mood immediately dropped when she saw Wonka's face. He looked completely sad and flustered.

"Hi Noodle", he said as he walked in, with not an ounce of energy in his voice.

"Ooo", Lofty remarked, "Someone's grumpy".

Noodle shot him a dirty look, directing Wonka to the couch that she had just been sitting on.

"Oh Willy, what's wrong?", she asked, plopping herself beside him.

"Nothing", Wonka replied, letting his eyes dart away.

"Come on", Noodle said, "You can't fool me, I know that face. What's up?"

"Well", Wonka sighed, "There was just this awful customer today at the shop. He told me...never mind, it's not important"

Noodle's heart sunk. She hated seeing Willy this way, she hated seeing him this insulted and hearing about him being mistreated. Wonka was the sweetest, most witty, most vibrant person anyone could ever want to be around. How could a customer have possibly been able to be so mean?

"What did the customer say?", Lofty demanded, jumping up on to the couch on the other side of Wonka.

"It's ok", Noodle interrupted, "you don't have to say".

"Nah", Wonka sighed, "I'll get it out. He said..."

Both Lofty and Noodle leaned in attentively.

"...He said that my hair looked like a birds nest made of fat ducklings that had been trampled over by too many baby elephants".

Lofty immediately burst into laughter, to which Noodle slapped him.

"Hey!" Lofty said, "You have to admit that that's humorous".

Noodle glared at him for the second time that afternoon. However, when she directed her attention back to Wonka, she noticed that the boy had a little smirk on his face, and a few bubbly giggles escaped his lips, although his head still hung down.

"It's okay Noodle", Wonka said, "It was a very creative insult, as well as a hurtful one".

"Well I like your hair", Noodle said matter-of factly, "It's nice and cute and wavy. That customer had no idea what he was talking about".

Wonka sighed again, "I'm sorry Noodle, but I just can't agree. That guy was right. My hair is messy and weird in a bad way".

Noodle opened her mouth to say something, but Lofty interrupted - "Oh come on Willy. You have an array of less than desirable qualities but your hair is certainly not one of them".

Noodle rolled her eyes - what a Lofty compliment. Still, it made Wonka crack a smile again, and caused him to tilt his head up to look at Lofty direclty.

"Well?", he challenged, "What are my 'less than desirable qualities' than?"

Lofty stood up and cleared his throat. "Well, because you have asked, I shall tell you. You have the body of an adult but the mind of a child. You are too hopeful and naive. You have an overactive imagination. Your never fully socially aware, always off in your own little world. You never respond or even listen when others try to catch your attention if you are in the middle of making a chocolate. And you make the most horrid noises at night!"

Wonka hmphed lightly, "Is that so?"

Noodle would have glared at Lofty again if his strategy weren't helping.(Strategy? Nah, just Lofty being Lofty). But Wonka was clearly amused, and seemed in a much better mood than he had been when he walked in.

"Come on Lofty", he stood up, "I am an expert chocolate maker! The best on the planet! The best in a thousand planets! The best in a zillion planets! How could I possibly have the mind of a child?"

Noodle rolled her eyes and chuckled, glad that the old Wonka was back, "Oh come on Willyy, sit down".

"Nope", he said, "I'm staying right here. Until you can absolutely, positively prove that I am childish, I won't be doing anything you say".

There was silence for a few seconds, before an idea dawned on Noodle. She smirked and stood up, reaching Wonka's level.

"Okay, just letting you know that this is your final chance to back out".

Wonka, not phased at all by the mischievous hint in his friends' voice, nodded firmly and turned around, beginning to march away like the dignified adult that he was. Rolling her eyes with a grin, Noodle grabbed the back of Wonka's coat, yanking him back toward her as he yelped.

"Now Noodle, I couldn't possibly think of why you would do that but EEP!"

Wonka squealed as he felt ten digits digging into his sides, literally collapsing in giggles as he fell back onto the couch with a thud. Lofty had to stand up and get out of the way as Wonka reflexively squirmed his way away from Noodle's tormenting fingers and toward the end of the couch, giggling all the way but not making any attempts to swat the girl's hands. Lofty just stood back, watching with an amused smirk.

"Ahahaha!", Wonka cried, his bubbly giggles, scrunched up face and constant movement making his hair resemble a birds nest. Of course, Lofty had to point this out, to which Noodle softly punched him. That was a mistake. Wonka, with his lightning reflexes, sprung up and reached to tweak Noodle's ribs, which resulted in her jumping in a ticklish shock. The young girl glared back at Wonka, who had a very satisfied smile on his face.

"That was very...childish of you Wonka", Noodle said, snapping a successful grin of her own.

Wonka's face dropped. "You see young lady, that is what we call unfair play". Noodle just smiled brighter and stuck her tongue out at the young man below him.

"Why you little-", Wonka reached his arms up to turn the tables, but no sooner had he begun his counterattack than Lofty had pushed him back down and launched an assault under his arms.

"OHOHOHO SMOHOHOHOKE!", Wonka cried, instantly falling back into the vulnerable position he was in before. The chocolatier's arms darted to his sides, to which Lofty smirked triumphantly, "you know very well that there's no use doing that. There it is - those irrational decisions that you are always making. See, now I have no choice but to tickle you there".

Wonka's chest heaved, his laughter spilling out of him with no restraint, Noodle chuckling to herself as she watched.

"NOOOHOOODLE! PLEAHEAHAHSE! HEHEHEHELP!"

"Nah, rather not", Noodle responded matter of factly, "I think you brought this upon yourself Wonka. Especially for being such a stubborn pants. Besides, you could use some loosening up after the day you have had".

Wonka couldn't respond to that, only collapse in desperate laughter as his armpits were 'attacked'. The sensation sent ticklish jolts through Wonka's entire body, making him feel as if he was floating upon a cloud, laughing freely as Lofty smirked evilly down at him. Noodle is right - Wonka thought as he doubled over in reaction to Lofty changing his technique from scratching to tracing the hollows under his arms - I do need this, and I do feel better. It was so nice to just let go, be silly and have fun. (It wasn't like Wonka wasn't silly all the time, but this was special - it was a moment of connection between him and his dearest friends).

"Lofty, youv'e been on that spot for a while, I think you might be breaking him". It was true - Wonka's cheeks had gone dark red, and he was running out of breath to laugh, as well as the effort for his body to struggle.

"Nah,he's fine", Lofty responded simply, as if completely unaware of the mess below him.

"Plehehehease", Wonka said, tears swelling in his eyes, "stohohop".

Lofty imeditately let up - this was the only time that Wonka had asked him to stop, so he must have meant it. The goofy man took in a few sharp breaths, and rustled his hair with his left hand. Sitting up, he chuckled, "Wow, that was mean".

Lofty just shrugged "Your welcome. I could tell that you were a bit tense. I'm sure that helped. I'm sure it would for a guy as childish as you, and so devastatingly ticklish". Lofty emphasized the word "devastatingly" in a way that made Wonka go dark red.

"Hey", Noodle remarked, "Lofty, just for interest, are you ticklish?"

The Oompa Loompa crossed his arms and smirked, "I mean, you can try, but nothing will happen".

"I think I'll leave this to Wonka", Noodle responded, eying her younger friend. Wonka smirked - "Wow, you seem awfully confident. I don't know Noodle - do you think he's bluffing?"

Noodle shrugged - "Only one way to find out".

Lofty hadn't made any attempt to move, so Wonka hesitantly reached out to scratch his stomach. Nothing. His hips? Nothing. Under his arms? Nope. Lofty looked awfully pleased with himself.

"Okay", Lofty said, "You can try one more spot. If it's my tickle spot, than you win. If it isn't, I get to tickle you where you tickled me. Deal?"

Wonka blushed - he was very curious about Lofty, and also, as much as he hated to admit it, wanted more tickles. It was a win win.

Without responding, Wonka scribbled his fingers across Lofty's neck in an instant action of delight, excepting to relish in the sound of his laughter.

No sound came out.

Wonka's cheeks went even more red, and he lifted his arms defensively. He chuckled sheepishly as Lofty crossed his arms and menacingly approached him.

"Co-home on Lofty. We-he can talk about this".

Suddenly, Noodle swooped past Lofty and started tickling Wonka's neck, causing him to squeal once again before falling back in a pile of giggles.

"Noohoohoodle!", he laughed, scrunching up his shoulders, "Thihihihis is Lofty's johohohob!"

"Really, that's what your concerned about?", Noodle said with a chuckle, "Your not at all concerned about the fact that I'm tickling you to bits?"

Wonka blushed even deeper, before screeching as, out of complete nowhere, Lofty leaned over and blew raspberries on over the thin section of shirt covering his stomach.

"Ohohoohoho nohoho!", Wonka cried, starting to kick his legs, to which Noodle and Lofty had to get out of the way, "Sohohohon of a wackadoooohhoooohooodle!". Lofty and Noodle smiled at each other, as Lofty withdrew and watched Wonka clutching his stomach, as if he'd just been given a very ticklish punch. Noodle took this as her signal to stop too.

For the first few second's after they'd stopped, Wonka hadn't even realized. He just kept giggling and squirming, until he looked up and noticed Lofty and Noodle, raising their eyebrows at him. Embarrassed, Wonka stood up and brushed his shirt - "Sorry about that".

Noodle chuckled, "Wow, that was really childish of you".

[coffee-and-manslaughter]

Living in the suburbs is occasionally very funny.

These guys showed up this morning and started moving everyone's trash cans onto the sidewalk - my wife was like ??? today is trash day wtf is going on

Then two huge trucks showed up and I went huh maybe they're moving some of the construction stuff near here? I watch a lady approach one of the trucks, then go out on the balcony

"they're not repaving the road, are they?" I shout down at her

She looks up and goes "yeah, they are. They just said they're going to tow all these cars on the side of the road and I got pissed at them because none of us were notified!! Did u guys get a notice?"

and I said. No. What. What??

For context, the parking where we live is abysmal. Lots of people park on the street bc there is literally no other legal option, and you'd better believe they tow you

so I run out and move my car so I'm not stuck in my driveway for. y'know. when I need to go to work

anyway it is now several hours later and I am watching a shouting match between these road guys and several residents bc someone needed to leave their driveway. Crazy, right? And just. Drove right over the new asphalt. Hell yeah

[kevinsreviewcatalogue]

Review: The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023)

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023)

Rated PG-13 for strong violent content and disturbing material

<Originally posted at https://kevinsreviewcatalogue.blogspot.com/2023/11/review-hunger-games-ballad-of-songbirds.html>

Score: 3 out of 5

The Hunger Games was my jam in my college years. Even being just a bit older than its target demographic of teenagers, it was a series of books that I readily embraced as an antidote to the big young-adult literary sensation of my own high school years, Twilight. No sparkly vampires or Mormon abstinence messages here, no, these books were dark satires about teenagers forced to kill each other, like an American version of Battle Royale or a post-apocalyptic version of The Running Man, and what's more, they were actually shockingly well-written. Even if you were the kind of guy who'd never otherwise pick up a YA novel, there's no denying the appeal of that basic premise. And then came the film adaptations, which ranged from good to damn close to classic, even if splitting the last movie into two parts was kind of a dumb idea, and all the commercialism that got attached to the series was quite ironic given the messages in the books. It's those messages that are the big reason why I'm still nostalgic for the series today, long after the YA dystopia boom has passed us by. Suzanne Collins may not have been a subtle writer, but she was a smart one, and her books, for all their pulpy sci-fi flair, were fundamentally about how difficult it is to organize a revolution against even the most obviously unjust system, and how people you think of as allies may in fact have very different goals that stand opposed to your own -- a lesson that a lot of young people raised on the series and other teen-lit wastelands had to learn themselves as they organized against real-world injustices later in the decade.

Naturally, with the 15th anniversary of the original novel having recently passed us by, somebody decided that the time was right to revisit it. Three years ago, Collins, after having held off for years, wrote a prequel novel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (a title evocative of the trend of epic fantasy novels that took over YA literature after the sci-fi dystopia boom), about the main villain of the series that explored his youth, the early years of the titular Games, and how they intersected to turn him into the bastard he became. I haven't yet read the book, but if the movie is any indication, I want to. It's a big and bloated movie that I thought could've stood to be trimmed down in some places and padded out in others, but it's one that boasts a star-making performance from Rachel Zegler as its heroine, an interesting new twist on its series' setting, and the same thoughtfulness that elevated the original trilogy above its peers. It had my attention from start to finish despite its length, and I'm not at all disappointed by my return to the world of Panem after all these years.

Set about 64 years before the events of the first book/movie, this one is set around the time of the 10th annual Hunger Games -- which is to say, ten years after the "Dark Days", the brutal war between the Capitol and the Districts for control of Panem, the post-apocalyptic wasteland formerly known as North America. The Capitol won the war, but ten years on, the scars are still visible. The film's retro-period setting was designed to evoke the 1950s with the technology and aesthetics on display, and in practice, it specifically evokes '50s Europe on both sides of the Iron Curtain, a time when the British were still winding down their wartime rationing, the cars were tiny econoboxes, the soldiers carried G3 rifles and traveled in Unimog trucks, the new construction replacing the bombed-out ruins was mostly shit-ugly brutalist monoliths, the old elite sought to maintain an appearance of propriety by dusting off old prewar fashions, and the scars of the war were still fresh in the minds of the younger generations. It's how I imagine a post-apocalyptic world that hasn't completely forgotten 21st century science would actually look once it had the time to start rebuilding itself, retaining some elements of modern technology (color TVs, certain plot-relevant biological weapons) but lacking the means to rebuild past a mid-20th-century level of technology, infrastructure, and industry; that would have to wait for later.

It was a creative choice that highlighted not only that this film is a prequel, but also the continuity between Panem's history and what it had become in the original trilogy -- because if "modern" Panem is an exaggerated parody of 21st century Western society, then it stands to reason that "historical" Panem might resemble a similarly grotesque version of what that society looked like seventy years ago. The world of Panem has always been part of the appeal of The Hunger Games, and this film did a lot to flesh that world out, showing us not only what it once looked like but also, more importantly, how it came up with the sick idea of the Games in the first place and how it might have possibly thought it a good idea. Watching the prologue set during the war, it took no time to realize the deprivation that the citizens of the Capitol experienced, and how pissed off they probably were when they finally won their hard-earned victory and peace, the future consequences of such be damned. The Capitol looks down on the Districts the way that Europeans at the time looked down on their colonies, or the Soviets looked down on their "fellow workers' states" in the Warsaw Pact (above all else the German "Democratic" Republic).

If the film's aesthetics look backwards, however, then its themes look forward, specifically to the life experiences that a lot of the books' readers in the years after their publication. Coriolanus Snow was, in his youth, a student at an elite academy competing with 23 of his classmates for a university scholarship, with the recipient of the scholarship decided by having the students each mentor a tribute in the Hunger Games, the winner being the one who puts on the best show for the citizens of the Capitol. Again, Collins wasn't subtle, and neither is this movie. The students' struggles may not be as life-or-death as those of the tributes, but direct and obvious parallels are drawn from the start, highlighting how the Capitol's system grinds down even the children of its own elites and turns them into the worst possible versions of themselves as they compete for favor and stab each other in the back. We see Snow, initially motivated by a desire to provide for a family that lost everything in the war, slowly but surely shed his morals as he comes up with a number of what would become the Games' signature concepts (particularly making the tributes into celebrities) and develop a star-crossed romance with his mediagenic, hot-headed tribute, District 12's Lucy Gray Baird. I liked Tom Blyth as Snow, watching him transform from a naive but well-intentioned rich kid into somebody who's willing to throw everybody and everything around him under the bus to advance his own interests, such that, by the time he finally, triumphantly returns to the Capitol at the end (not really a spoiler in a prequel telling the villain's origin story), even his own dear cousin Tigris barely recognizes what he's become.

The real MVP in the cast, though, was Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray. Implied to have been thrust into the Games thanks to a corrupt mayor in District 12 and her getting on the wrong side of a love triangle involving said mayor's daughter, from the moment she made her grand "screw you" entrance I was immediately rooting for her. Zegler gave the kind of "star in the making" performance that Jennifer Lawrence had for Katniss Everdeen, albeit playing a very different sort of character who has to learn the opposite things that Katniss later would. If Katniss was an outdoorsy survivalist who the Capitol turned into a glamorous romantic figure, then Lucy Gray is a theater kid (specifically, part of a group of traveling musicians known as the Covey) who has to learn how to fight, but one whose charisma and presence become an asset, especially once Snow realizes their potential to sway the audience to her side. Zegler carried a lot of this movie on her shoulders, from her multiple musical performances (putting her background in musical theater to great use) to her being the one who initially forces Snow to confront the ethics of the Games, with the breakdown of their relationship marking the last straw in his descent into villainy. Mark my words, Zegler is going places.

The supporting cast, too, was filled with standouts. Viola Davis devoured the scenery as the loopy scientist Dr. Volumnia Gaul who helps design some of the Capitol's bioweapons, Hunter Schafer had a small but memorable presence as Snow's cousin Tigris who watches his transformation, Jason Schwartzman played the Games' host Lucky Heavensbee like a snappy yet flippant '50s game show host, Ashley Liao made Snow's rival Clemencia such an obnoxious and cocky jackass, and Peter Dinklage playing Snow's dean at the academy as basically Tyrion Lannister as a bitter prep school headmaster, but I'll forgive it because there aren't a lot of people who play "I drink and I know things" better than him. Josh Andrés Rivera in particular got a lot to do as Snow's friend Sejanus, somebody with roots in District 2 who, even after his family got rich enough to become citizens, never forgot where he came from and voices the loudest objections to the morality of the Games. When it came to the tributes in the arena, the film sadly didn't take a lot of time to flesh out the ones not named Lucy Gray, but there were still highlights like the butch District 4 combatant Coral, Lucy Gray's District 12 partner Jessup, and the District 11 guy Reaper whose scary name turns out to be not at all indicative of his personality. The action was up to par with some of the best scenes from Catching Fire, director Francis Lawrence having lost none of his touch since the last time he worked on these films, with the bloodbath that opens the Games in particular being a hell of a one-take action scene shot largely from Lucy Gray's perspective.

Where this film ultimately let me down was its structure. It is a big movie, and there eventually comes a point where it rapidly shifts gears into something completely different, pulling Snow out of the confines of the Capitol and out into District 12. And if I'm being honest, it felt like a completely different movie from the one I'd been watching until then. It was still a good movie and an interesting story, but it felt like a whole new chapter of Snow's life where the problems he'd encountered in the first two acts, while still there, got pushed into the background as new characters and problems were introduced and Snow got sucked into the personal drama of District 12's inhabitants. I would've liked to see another scene of him interacting with his friends and family back home and keeping tabs on what's going on in the Capitol, as well as, more importantly, an scene or two in the first half of the film establishing some more of the people in Lucy Gray's life before she's chosen as tribute instead of throwing all of them at us in act three, especially given how it's all but stated that some of this drama was why she wound up in the arena in the first place. It would've been a minor change that likely would've added only a few minutes to the admittedly long runtime, but it would've alleviated a big problem I had with the third act of this movie, suddenly being asked to care about people I'd only just met knowing that there isn't a whole lot of movie left and there isn't much time to flesh them out.

The Bottom Line

This movie has a lot of, well, movie to cram in, and I'm not sure it entirely stuck the landing, but overall, it's a welcome return for a series I love, elevated by an outstanding lead performance by Rachel Zegler. Whether you're a diehard Hunger Games fan who was one of the first to snatch up the book this was based on the day it came out or a total newbie to the series who only knows it from memes, I recommend this movie.

[pbandjesse]

Today was a super productive day and I want to be proud of it even if it kind of was soured at the end. I'm going to try and be positive though because it was a good day.

I slept a little easier last night. Because I took a melatonin. And I was able to sleep an extra half hour. Which was great. When I got up James was getting ready to leave. Smooch goodbye. And I finished getting ready. I changed the totebag James put my lunch in. And then I was off. James had put the vacuum in the car for me. So once I made it to work, after a fine drive in, I would finish cleaning the car. The vacuum isn't as strong as it could be but it got a lot of the nature grit out of the carpet at least.

I had a thought about hanging my hammock from the rafters in the art building. So after I painted another layer on my MWEE sticks I hung it up. And it's a little high off the ground, and a little precarious but it works! I am very pleased about this development. Though I do think it's funny that I have not considered this in 4 years.

I headed to the office and Heather and me would jump into the gator and deliver a wheelbarrow and some shovels and rakes to the tipi field. And then she dropped me off at the office before she went to start meeting the volunteers from BGE at the lodge.

I would grab my pliers and phone and drink and walked over there too. I would tell her about internet drama and algorithms and she was shocked about things like dog whistles and the manosphere. I will be the internet touchstone for camp. Make sure the kids aren't saying horrible things

It took a while for all the volunteers to come through. I directed them to sign up for different areas. And soon we were getting a safety speech from the woman who organized the project. And then we were breaking up into our groups and we were off.

I have 7 people working with me. And they were lovely. I would point out everything and go through our list of things to do. Which I think may have overwhelmed them a bit. One of them said we should work on one at a time. Which was fair. I asked for us to work on the construction debris behind the chicken run. And they did such a good job!! We worked together and they got all of it out and up to the top of the hill. I had a few of them cutting things down with the sawzalls they had and one nice guy got the slide lock off the old door and installed it on the gate like I wanted.

It wasn't all perfect though. There wasn't a way for us to salvage the bird net. And then when two of my guys were moving a log disturbed a ground wasp nests. Got stung twice. Thankfully the one that was allergic to bees ran away and was not stung. But man I felt bad someone got hurt.

We were terribly productive though. We got everything on my list done. The construction pile at nature. The holes filled. The rocks moved. I was so proud of us. Sarah would be driving the truck back and forth collecting all the debris. And her group would also get all the same moved and the beds stored in the basement and it was just great. We were making such good progress.

I would send most of my group and her group to go move the rocking chairs to the porch. I had slide them all down the to the drive way but I couldn't pick them up so I would leave them to it.

The person delivering the lunch was up there and I would help him out and sign for the food. I called Heather to make sure that was okay and what to tip him. Because I was like. I don't know if I'm allowed to tip you because it wasn't my money but I got a number and was able to pay him and it all worked out.

Me and Sarah would grab two guys from my team and they helped us get the last few rail road ties and then load up ten 75lbs into the truck. Those two guys were gems for helping through the first few minutes of lunch. Me and then would walk back to the lodge while Sarah drove the truck to the office where we would toss the concrete later.

I set up two more tables because I didn't think there was enough seats. And hung out with Elizabeth and Heather and had sodas while we talked about what got accomplished. I was super proud of us.

We were able to have some pizza and salad too. And I made sure we saved some for Sarah. But soon Sarah and Chloe would join us.

I didn't expect to be so tired. We would just sit and be so tired while everyone else finished eating and went outside for a group photo. Me and Chloe talked a out the ceramic class. My guess was right and only me and her are signed up right now. We need at least one more person to sign up. We are trying to convince Sarah. Maybe we could get Heather in too. We will see what happens. Fingers crossed.

I would drive the gator up to the Hogan to move the benches inside and take the new sand. The space looks so good. I'm really happy. Moving the benches was heavy work but I got it done.

I drove up to stockade to grab something I left in Hudson bay and was still so happy with how clean it was. And the. To the art building.

I put some stuff away and chilled in the hammock for a few minutes. But eventually I wandered to the office.

Where I came into angry words. Joe was not happy about some of the projects that were done today. And he was no speaking as kindly as I would have wanted. Like don't speak unkindly to Heather. She looked so sad. We were so excited and he didn't even want to see what we accomplished. He just wanted to be mad about what wasn't done or that things weren't done the way he wanted. And like I really like Joe! But I felt like he was throwing a tantrum. He stormed out and Heather literally had teary eyes. So I was frustrated by that.

Me and Sarah discussed our Friday plans since we will be here alone. But because now we were trying to calm down hurt feelings we needed to go collect tools and things right then. We drove around camp and collected tools and buckets and tarps. Which was fine. I was staying a little later since I came in later. I was feeling some kind of way though.

We ran into Rachel and Aubrey and it was nice to see them. We got to show them our hard work and they made us feel good about it. We would soon say goodbye to them though and headed to the dumpster. Where we found Joe climbing around. Probably seeing if there was wood he wanted. But everything was full of nail and had been outside in piles for over a year and some was there for 3+ years so if you actually wanted it you had time to get it. But whatever. I just hope he didn't hurt himself.

Me and Sarah would finish up the stuff we needed. Except for the tarps. Because they are damp and I'm not sure what to do with those. I thought we could lay them on the field but unsure if that was done the way I wanted. But it's all good we'll figure it out tomorrow.

For the last thing of the day I took a video of Elizabeth pulling the raffle name out of a pumpkin. We are happy for the winner even if we didn't know who this person was. Still really exciting.

I went home after that. And got stuck in some traffic. With people who can't merge. But it's fine. I was home before 530. I was a little frustrated bringing things inside because I kept dropping my keys. James yelled down from our window but they did not come down and help but I forgive them.

They were making dough. They would have pizza for dinner. I opted for a salad later on. For the first hour I was home I just wanted to lay on the couch and hear about their day.

We would clean the kitty litter. And James got the vacuum from the car because I hadn't brought that in. And they would play DND and make me a salad. And eventually I would keep working on catching snails (and snail eggs) from the frog tank. I cleaned that for a bit. And once that was to a good enough place I went and took a shower.

Now I am cozy in bed with James and Sweetp. I need to go lotion my face but I am tired and ready to sleep. Thankfully my body isn't aching to bad but it is surprisingly warm in here. I hope a fan helps.

Tomorrow we have indigo back. And I'm looking forward to it in ways. And not in other ways. But it will be good. I hope. I'm looking forward to seeing Celia.

I hope you all have a good night. Take csre of each other. Sleep well. Until next time.

[cavillanche]

Last night I had dreams that were separate, but somehow seemed to merge. I don’t remember much of the detail, but it started with me in a mall and running into a high school friend, who happened to be the biggest crush of my life, and we hadn’t seen each other in years, which is 100% accurate. The weirdness comes in when I think he’s in complete anguish. He’s literally in the middle of the mall and crying out like someone just died. I found another old friend who seemed to still be a friend, which is 100% inaccurate, because I haven’t seen him in just as long as Crush.

Anyway, Crush comes to me a few minutes later, and apologizes. He was in the middle of some kind of performance art, and he couldn’t stop (WEIRD). But he’s fine. He’s so sorry he upset me. He pulls me into his arms and his hands are all over my back and sliding under my shirt, and he’s still kind of anguished, but now it’s about the fact that I was upset, and he’s trying to comfort me. So, I assure him I’m ok, and I’m just happy that he’s not hurting. And him being who he is, and he’s holding me so tight and with so much concern, and his hands are just all over, and his face his buried in my neck… I haven’t had feelings for this guy in so long, but I’ll occasionally dream about him like this, and I swear it’s like I’m still swooning over him.

Flash forward a bit, and the performance artist is now… Brett Dalton. They look nothing alike, in case you’re wondering.

He’s doing something a bit different though, and it’s more demonstration/magic trick kind of stuff. Anywho…

We’re introduced, and there’s this immediate chemistry. He gets me to help with a demonstration, which is when I realize it’s actually some kind of trick, and then the dream literally jumps to someone’s house. It looks like it’s under construction and they’re trying to move out. They have a young child who I’m super concerned about for some reason. There’s a bunch of electrical cords crossing over the stairs, fed through the railings to reach the other side, and I see people carrying down boxes and tripping, and I think someone is going to get hurt. So, I find the owners of the house and they don’t really seem to care. Too much of a hurry. So, I ask if I can take the young boy somewhere with my boyfriend (Brett apparently) to get him out of their hair (but honestly just to make sure he’s ok) and they say no at first, but eventually agree. The best part of all of this is that while we’re in the construction area, around all the cords, Brett won’t let me go. He doesn’t want me to hurt myself. So he’s either got my hand, or has me pulled into him, hands all over.

The child is still young enough that he needs a car seat, and Brett happens to have one (Ahhh…. Dreams). There’s another woman already in the back seat of Brett’s truck. I have no idea who she is. But there’s only one place for me to sit now. The front seat. But when I open the truck door, the front seat is facing backward. So I’m like “oh, I guess I’m sitting in the back anyway” and Brett goes “hang on” and does some maneuvering so that the seat is now properly facing the front. So I can actually seat with him. We talk and laugh and he keeps taking my hand.

I know I’m missing some detail, and the dream was already fading even as I typed this out, but last night I was really feeling like I needed closeness and comfort… to be held… and my dreams gave that to me.

[dankusner]

GENUINE LEATHER

108

CHAPTER 8

Then they got the wife on the stand, and it was a Perry Mason moment.

She was in tears. "He didn't throw the chickens in the yard. I threw the chickens in the yard. He's not responsible!"

I said, "Ma'am, at this time I have to inform you that you have the right to remain silent." I read her her rights, and I looked at the state prosecutor and I said, "Do you want to pursue charges on this lady?" Because she'd now confessed to a Class C misdemeanor in open court. The state declined to pursue charges at that time. I found the husband guilty.

Judge Tommy Ramirez's precinct in Medina County is one of the highest revenue-generating precincts in the state of Texas for a couple of reasons. A weigh station is located there. According to Ramirez, truckers and the trucking companies they work for get cited for "a boatload of violations": for being overloaded, for flat tires, low tires, lights that aren't working, brake assemblies that are out of adjustment, and "everything in between." It isn't the sexiest part of what a justice court does, but it does bring in the fines. Also, since Interstate 35 runs through his precinct, he has to deal with a lot of drivers speeding back and forth between San Antonio and Laredo. In Precinct 4 of Medina County, chirps and sirens beget reverberating cha-chings in the justice court of divine little Devine, Texas.

The guy called about his ticket and I just asked him,

"Did you have a medical emergency?"

"Well, judge, I had my head up my you-know-what." Well, I guess that would qualify as a medical emergency.

-Hon. Gordon Terry, Garza County

Are all Class C misdemeanors equally wrong? Perhaps in the eyes of the law-or else they'd be classed differently. But they're not equal in the eyes of certain JPs. K. T. Musselman (Williamson County) is just one of many JPs who exercise discretion based on their own belief system. He believes that it even overrides one's political party affiliation, and that voters would do better to vote for candidates based on their espoused principles and values than on which party they belong to.

Downright Criminal!

109

There are things that Republican and Democratic judges do that party affiliation doesn't really play into, especially when you come down to values issues. Are you going to be high or low when you're setting your bond? That's where you see judicial discretion. I know myself well enough to know if we ever have cases where animals are being abused, that's a real sticking point for me and I'll probably be tending more toward the maximum on fines.

When it comes to charges involving marijuana possession, Mussel-man told me that because pot is "legal in half the country," it hurts him that "this person is going to get a fine for something that half the country doesn't have to deal with." So he typically lowers fines on charges involving the possession of marijuana-related paraphernalia.

For Jeff Wentworth (Bexar County), there's a special kind of motorist who gets his goat.

I give lectures on a pretty regular basis to people who come up to the bench having been cited by a deputy sheriff or state trooper for speeding in a school zone or a construction zone. I explain to them that those are the two most serious offenses I hear in my court because you can actually kill or injure a construction worker or a kid.

Criminal defendants in Texas justice courts often annoy the state's JPs. They either don't make nice, or they make stupid, or they just simply get on the judge's nerves. JPs see smart criminal defendants and they see boneheaded defendants who might justify the theory of reverse evolu-tion. Judge Daniel gave me the perfect example of the former, and Judge McIntosh presented the latter.

Judge Randy Daniel (Henderson County): I'd just finished up my ma-gistrations for the day. The deputies brought in a young woman, and they came over to me and said, "Judge, we've arrested this girl for public intoxication, and we were wondering if you could magistrate her this morning."

So they finish up booking her, and I'm sitting there and what's going through my mind is this: What am I going to do here? Is there any way I can have any fun with this? Which was probably the wrong way to think.

When they brought her up to me, I said, "Ma'am, I understand they brought you in for public intoxication. I need to know if you can under-

[the-firebird69]

There are several things happening and there are very very huge and it is a change and it's a big shift. Is occurring at this moment today and it has begun about 25 minutes ago.

--- Very huge forces are going to what look like huge celestial. They are going to investigate what they are and if they are there and they are foreigners they are Morlock they are minority Morlock and gigantic forces from Mack Moorlock probably a total of 1.5 percent because of so many locations and you have to have a good force and miscellaneous are sending large numbers this is it folks they're finally looking into it. The Max are down there bothering everybody. These forces are very very big we put out warnings and we should put one out here yes they're on the move and they're about 500 locations 50 of which are for Teutonic classes what they're calling them. And our son coined the phrase but it is what's after Titanic we are going to begin operations to raise them using this. And she the Max are down below trying to get to them right now and very fast we are sending out this warning to all of the approaching armies you have to go down swiftly they're going after them right now.

Thor Freya

We got the notification and warning from our own armies and we are sending swift shifts now ships I did say it correctly

I did say it correctly

shaq

We did hear the conversation yes and he was saying swips but he did say the word correctly but he's having interference and people used to say the stupid words to him about construction not like he doesn't know it okay. People are **** he told you we had to tell you he just sit there with your stupid fist in your mouth. We can't stand you we'll be getting trouble and he says you have to ORMax are fired And we mean you more luck point you scum boy are you scum.

preston

We hate the living **** out of you don't forget the clones are going in force they're sending large ones can you believe that. It's probably half the size of the whole force going is not right it's about 1/8 and it's about their size. Tons and tons of troops are going there you would not believe it Chris if we showed you you would say what is this is it from one of those desert movies with one of these glory hounding fags Ancient gods of Africa movie so we say no and it is real. Those exhausting we're lucky we survived and you know the max are still gonna be running it with these **** around but really with kind of foreigners but still that was hell and these guys are jerks we're around you're going the wrong way OK thank you we appreciate it we'll check it out you're still going the wrong way and ohh here are the trucks now they get it

And it's an analogy of these two and for Christ's sake you're nearly getting creamed you follow that.

Bill

I suppose we're all going to be on the plane flying around and on trains and automobiles and yeah the leaders are moving out the ones that didn't get mulched by this asinine war. We kinda all started it 'cause we're a bunch of ****.

trump

You've got the biggest **** of all while I was doing a bunch of stuff too. And we're moving out yeah all over the damn place we have to check our area to see if there's a path to Antarctica and he says it's real close and it is South America too it's much closer that sucks. Max will probably fill in the south of South America 'cause people said they moved down. Now there's a cavern down there we have to check.

bja

Olympus oh boy lol and mean to me and f u he says and no money for you now and so what we kill you you plant o torture me in my btothers castle you faggots. and you woud lose all for the time poorly spent aholes. and so what and means your right we die and you get your stuff back. makes sense he says. trully does.

mac proper

louses leave him alone you fags

mac daddy

no we deserve this our cut no all.

macs

and no you dont

mac daddy

ahahhah all. does it look like all you ninnies have some nitrogen narcosis ok

Zues Hera

fine we are bent. so are you and no. we do this. put them down. and we coe in grab you.l.

mac proper

we are not saying that no. it is the sahara and are idiots. we needed this ok

carolinas

we use it squash you losers

sahara

and so on by john r and son. and now is not a good time. macs hv a plan and to stick it to our son though heard it earlier have you say it...and he says play money still so. so what you spun your tires harrassing me and now no inventin and they yell it. they do it. and good you do it then ok and such. they are not amused at how it really is.

we use this they are idiots too

Thor Freya

Olympus

I have had to raise a real army back proper due to your absolute lack of human understanding in my situation in any way not your Mommy I'm not your papa i'm not your uncle I don't forgive you for doing things that could get me harmed seriously you're nuts obviously you're an insane bunch of idiots. Why you think someone my age in this realm would sit through this crap and endure it is completely beyond me. Is not to do that I have an 80 personality i'm a very aggressive person and passive and you're gonna find out the hard way. Very soon then I don't mean your donkey **** attacking you you spazzes

Zues

well said

Hera

It does not sound hilarious to us. For a bunch of morons running around behind our sun for 35 years harassing him he had enough 35 years ago then you're making him sick how you hid in the nuts screwing around with his skin his oxygen his rent his sanity having these idiot lowlifes threaten him every 5 minutes and would you get out of it a black eye you say. Probably not you're missing an eye your organs are ill and it's going to explode. We have to tell you that you are the biggest pain the **** ever. What he said was without trillions upon trillions it's a joke and I'm going to still be thinking it and he knows we're different because you get all **** **** when he says that. You won't let him at his companies to control them or use them but he's going to eventually and that will be to drag the remaining idiots out of bunkers and such. They're not happy with his brother required a lot of money and stuff to be satiated and our son has a better handle on the scope than he did. Is a giant and did huge things and had massive ships well before anyone else. Told you in contempt we are going to hold you in contempt and furthermore you're still playing a hand in a few billion dollars doesn't say whoopty Ding Dong but you're going to leverage it off the government when you think it's time and on to private business to threaten it. They don't want you taking hope away from him still even though it affects you a lot more than us.

Thor Freya

yeh

Hera

yeh

Zues

Olympus

[tea-with-eleni]

Shoutout to our madlad neighbor Ben across the street who is probably responsible for the murder hornet my mother stepped on in our kitchen. At least, we think it was a murder hornet. It was too big and the sting was too painful for it to be much else.

we don't know he's responsible but he also brought in an obscene amount of sod over the last week so it's probably his fault somehow.

Other things Ben has done:

Installed new electrical wiring in his own attic. He is not an electrician.

Burned down his house via the faulty electrical wiring on Christmas Day 2018.

Designed a new house to go on top of the foundation despite the fact that he is neither an artist nor an architect. Our next door neighbor, an architect, told us this with mild horror. The man around the corner, our incredibly classy dentist, was likewise Aesthetically Offended.

Hired like two people to build the Arthur Dent eyesore of a house over the course of 2019.

Cut down a tree in his sideyard he didn't like by climbing said tree with a chainsaw and sawing off branches one at a time. Including the branch he was sitting on. My parents were getting their Best Lesbian Friend to help with some tree branches that fell in their yard at the time because she had a collection of chainsaws and is always down for a good time. She got distracted watching Ben because, "He's going to die."

Built his child one of those wooden backyard playset things.

Rented a cherry picker to deal with the rest of the branches on the tree in his sideyard. My parents had, at that point, hired some very nice people to help paint their house. They sat on our front porch and watched Ben run over the playset with the cherry picker. Also his fence. To quote one of them, "My brother could do that pretty cheap, but I'm not going to tell him. This is more fun."

Tore the bumper off his car trying to remove the stump left from his sideyard tree

Destroyed the fence, again, after renting some kind of heavy machinery to level part of his backyard.

Bought a plastic skeleton for his front yard in 2020. Moved and posed it every day in October. My parents noticed that he left the door for one of the trucks he'd rented unlocked and took the golden opportunity to prop the skeleton up in the driver's seat.

Bought some kind of very sweet and very cute large fluffy dog. Had to get surgery for the dog after it ate two pairs of socks and a towel. The dog has now recovered but is baffled by the way his lovely backyard fence keeps getting crushed by construction equipment.

To continue the skeleton army, he also bought one of those 12' skeletons last year. It was also posed daily along with the other, human-sized skeleton.

We're not really sure how Ben is still alive despite his best efforts. At any rate, murder hornets seem par for the course. He's actually a nice guy, just insane. The working theory is that he comes from family money and was one of those sheltered rich kids who was never allowed to play in the dirt as a child and is making up for lost time now.

[gibbingtonwibbington]

NUber and CVS suck.

I totally did not have the energy for that.

I’m shivvering under a blanket all over again.

I knew it. I knew it as soon as I was forced to sit on the steps waiting 20 plus minutes for a “3-4-3-4” min away NUberfkndriver to show up.

Like what’s he doing? Jerking one cuz he had a young, nubile, Valentine’s day couple to drop off, eh? Fucker in his orange fucking jeep renegade.

Canceled dat BITCH FO SHO BAYBAY.

Then got into a dope ass suv who decided to show off by driving crazy along w two other’s in cvs parking lot.

That guy totally was an ass, truck bitch was at fault 100%. I even wrote a thing to Uber just to make sure they have my say in it. My dude drove forward before the guy backed up ( I didn’t tell them that though lol) I didn’t tell them because we totally would have made it past him if he didn’t back up sideways like a fkn tard on the WORST road to do that on. We needed a second for him to wait and it would’ve been fine. He didn’t cut the wheel at all either. I said “why the fuck did he back up?” then I said “do u just want me to go inside? “ n he was like YA! Walked out n looked at his crushed side mirror n wasliwtf

Hhhhh

it was glorious. He stepped WAY THE FUCK back after this dumb back and forth..

Isaid, that means nothing.”

For the third time to this huge fuckin 6ft whatever tall bald Especially didn’t want to run into my new “best friend” …this one DIPSHIT cop that I made a complete fool put of. Oh god I loved it. I got off later on about it. He was so RED in the face with embarrassment and a flu apparently. He legit blew air in my face. It had to be him. I should call back just to give it back to him. I knew the other cop. He knew me, he knew I wasn’t lying. The last faces i said i wanted to see were theirs and apologized.

Uhh did that flu ridden mofo even search our names? Of course naht! I’m TOO old (for this obnoxious ((mid 20’s but looks older than me) neighbor having no life and being obsessed even though a lesbian joke happened) shit. I’m older than one of the cops by 3 yrs and grumpymcflufuck was at least 41. and I don’t even have a single speeding fucking ticket. flu riddenmofofo

My uber driver would’ve been way more embarrassed if I was standing with that group of middle aged 50-60 yr old men group. Fuck that. I went inside and then snuck over to the 24 store across the street to pee lol. N he said yea. Cuz they had to call the cops n these three dudes were sucking any surrounding witnesses into standing outside with them waiting for the cops. The truck guy was like did u see that can u wait here to some rasta dude in some white eRly 80’s car no shit. I am thinking bro why do u want more witnesses to you fucking up? It’s an accident. That dude wasn’t even a part of it. We had a line of traffic! I can only assume he’s not from around here. There’s a lot of construction shit going on here

So there was this kinda crazy bitch back in my middlechool yrs calles Cristina. I jeard she became a chunky lesbian stripper in Miami. I just searched, I was curious, haven’t heard a word bout this gal in ages, from anyone. Not even the one dude who was obsessed. She makes these pop art super easy canvas things, which an elephant has made look better and it doesn’t have fingers. A trunk is pretty flexible but anyway…lol…she makes these cliché ’ pop-art (insanely simplified) hand-netted basketball nets. Not sure if she’s the only one but it totally seems niche-like. Her art isn’t terrible but it’s NoT something that would make me say wow wtf?

Fkn weaksauce.

So she’s bragging on this fake ass interview thing she posted herself haha and mentions she’s sold to some high rollers like Rlck ross n a bunch of other low mil net worth ppl

n im just like… yea, you’re not applying yourself whole-heartedly, Christina.

HahaHAHA.

Cmon man…

#1 Leave Miami.

Lol

#2 Talk to OTHER people, make friends.., reach outwards.

[lgg5989]

Church Encounters Side Chapter 1.3

Hey guys! Thanks to everyone for your continued support of this fic, @barbiewritesstuff and I are having a great time writing it. She is posting this on her tumblr as well so jump over and give her a like or a comment. We have had a few requests for side drabbles and stuff about these characters and we will be happy to answer them! Just send us asks :)

WARNINGS: This chapter contains NSFW content pinv and oral (m and f receiving), also dom jake if you are under the age of 18 please do NOT interact with this post. This post does not need to be read to understand the plot of our Church Encounters fic.

You can find the previous chapters on my Masterlist, and you can read the whole series so far on my Ao3! I made the moodboard, I hope you enjoy it! :D

Comment on this or any of the Church Encounters posts and @barbiewritesstuff and I will be happy to add you to the tag list.

Tagging: @roosterscock @sydneyhlove

You were watching Jake struggle to piece together the new Ikea TV stand that you had bought when you let out a deep sigh. 

“What’s wrong?” Jake asked, glancing over his shoulder at you. 

“I don’t know,” you replied, “Just bored.”

“You’re telling me that watching me put this TV stand together isn’t the most thrilling thing you’ve ever seen?” he asked with laughter in his voice. 

You let out another sigh, “No, it really isn’t.” 

Jake stood up from where he was constructing the shelf and made his way to you, pulling you in for a hug. 

“Why don’t we go out for dinner tonight?” Jake asked, “It’s been like two months since we got married, that’s a reason to celebrate right?”

You let out a laugh before nodding your head in answer, speaking into his chest you replied, “Yeah we can celebrate two months of marriage.” 

“Alright then,” Jake sighed, rubbing your back, “Why don’t you go get ready, and dress nice!” he said as he let you out of his hold. 

“Where are you taking me Mr. Seresin?” you asked him, turning back at the base of the stairs. 

“That is for me to know and you to find out Mrs. Seresin,” he replied, taking a few steps towards you to kiss your lips, “Now go get dressed.” 

You gave him a mock solute, “Yes sir!” you said, before turning and taking a step onto the first stair. Before you could get any further, you felt him lay a smack on your ass, “You’re such a tease,” he called after you. Turning back to him, you blew him a kiss, sashaying your hips more than usual as you walked up towards the bedroom. 

—

You knew what you were doing to Jake, you just found it humorous at this point. He helped you up into his truck, like he usually did, and you made sure to brush your boobs against his chest as you climbed in. Your hand sat on his thigh the entire ride to the restaurant, rubbing small circles and occasionally brushing over his cock lightly, causing him to stiffen up in the driver’s seat. When you got to the restaurant it was even easier to rile him up, catch a man looking at you in your dress, run your nails up and down his arm at the table, lean a little too far forward and let him see the ample amount of cleavage he knew you had. At this point you were wondering how it was going to go when you got home because you could see with every touch and brush of your body against his, he was going to explode. 

The server seated you in the corner of the first floor dining room, in a fancy booth, accidentally giving you both free run of one of the most secluded spots of the restaurant. Perhaps you should have guessed Jake was going to take his revenge as soon as you had sat down, but it came as a surprise when he sat down next to you and pulled you by the inside of your thigh till you were so close to him you were practically sitting on his lap.

“Think you can tease me, like that and I won’t punish you sweetheart?” he whispered, his eyes darting around to make sure the coast was clear before letting the hand that had been on your thigh wander up and up until his fingers were pressing against your underwear. His index and middle finger hooked around the material, gently sliding up and down against your core.

“Fuck, honey, you wearing a thong?” Jake asked in a low voice so broken with need that it came out as more of a whimper. He coughed, “You’re such a dirty girl,” he praised, running his fingers back up to your clit.

He pressed against it, earning himself a yelp that he quickly swallowed down by capturing your mouth in his with a sweet kiss. Or it would have been if he hadn’t changed the position of his hand so his thumb was rubbing circles on your sensitive bud while his index finger teased your entrance.

“Can I take your drinks order?” A server asked, popping out from behind one of the pillars entirely silently and scaring both of you out of your skin. 

Luckily, Jake recovered fast, “We’ll have a bottle of Cornas, and I think you wanted sparkling water as well, didn’t you honey?” he asked, pushing his finger inside you slightly as you prepared to answer. Not trusting yourself to answer with a steady voice, you opted to nod instead. 

The server nodded and vanished again and Jake leaned towards you again, “See, unlike you, I’m nice. I’ll leave at this, but rest assured we’ll pick this back up at home,” he whispered. A shiver descended down your spine, travelling all the way down between your legs, flooding the thin strip of fabric of the thong with a wave of wetness at Jake’s threat.

The rest of dinner passed by normally, but by the end, you were aching with desire, desperate for his touch. Jake shot you a few sideways glances in the truck, warning you not to try anything but whatever threat he had tried to convey dissipated quickly when you reached across the centre console and ran your hand against his semi. 

He certainly didn’t seem to mind when, at the first sign of a straight, you unbuckled his belt and unbuttoned his pants, lowering his briefs just enough that his member could be freed and took him in your hand, gently jerking him as he drove. 

Jake pulled into your drive five minutes later, his cock hastily tucked back into his trousers and straining painfully against the fabric of the slacks. He swung his door open and walked around to your side of the truck, opening yours with unnecessary force too before all but dragging you out of it. 

You giggled and he pushed you against the truck, kissing you forcefully but mellowing out after a second as he looked into your eyes.

“You’re going to be the fucking death of me, baby, you know that?” he asked, brushing a loose strand of hair away from your forehead, “You drive me wild,” he added.

“Let’s get inside,” you said, taking his hand and walking towards the front door. Once there you waited for Jake to open the door, but he pulled you close by the waist and kissed you again with the same passion as before. 

You broke the kiss, “Open the door, Lieutenant Commander,” you said, trying to sound as authoritative as you could. Jake unlocked the door in a smooth movement, opening it and signalling for you to walk in ahead of him.

—

You walked into the house in front of Jake, his hands trailing up and down the outside of your thighs as you passed through the threshold. As soon as you were both in the house and the door was shut behind you, he pinned you to the wall, “Look at you, walking around in this dress all night, teasing me with all your naughty touches,” he said in a husky voice as he rutted his hips against yours.  

“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” you said, giving him an innocent look like you didn’t know what he was talking about, jumping only a little when you felt his hands on your ass. 

He pushed you into the wall further, letting out a groan, “The innocent act isn’t working on me any more darlin’, you’re getting punished for that, might just have to fuck some sense into you,” he replied, his eyes already somewhat blown out for not having laid a hand on you yet. 

Slipping his hands up, he pulled the skirt of your dress up, letting it catch on your waist. He ran his thumbs under the thin straps of the thong you wore, grabbing one side with his finger he pulled and let it snap back against your hip. You slipped the spaghetti straps of your dress from your shoulders, looking up at him with an innocent look on your face as you pulled the top down pushing the dress to the floor. 

Bringing his hands up, he ran them over your breasts, rolling your nipples with his fingers as he leaned forward, whispering in your ear, “Fuck, you’re a tease, looking all innocent for me, driving me mad darlin’,” you let out a moan at his words, his fingers working in tandem with his mouth. 

Jake bent down and sucked one of your nipples into his mouth, rolling it around with his tongue until you were squirming in the hallway, rubbing your thighs together for any bit of friction. Not willing to be outdone, he pinched your nipple, capturing your gasp with his lips as they pressed desperately to yours. 

Using both hands, he picked you up, holding you up with his grip on your ass. You let out a moan at the feeling of him, the seam of his pants sitting in the just right place to provide you pleasure. As you began to grind on him, you undid his belt, pulling it open before unzipping his fly and letting his pants fall to the ground. Next you pulled at his shirt, working through the buttons as quickly as you could with him rutting against you and pressing open mouthed kisses along your neck. His shirt was pulled halfway from his torso as you struggled to get the tight fabric off of his massive arms. 

He pinned you to the wall with his hips as he pulled his shirt off with one harsh tug, letting it fall to the floor in a wrinkled heap. You looked at him, taking in every inch of his chiselled body, wondering how on earth you had managed to live without this before your wedding night. You ran your hands down his chest, lightly scratching him with manicured nails, making him growl in the process. 

Jake crashed his lips into yours, sandwiching you between the wall and his person. He carefully pressed himself against you as he rutted his hips into you, picking up speed when you scratched down his arms and letting out a sinful moan when you ran your nails down his back. His lips left yours as his head crashed into the crook of your neck, his hips humping you as fast as they could, desperate for any kind of release. His breath caught in his throat.

“Stop, stop,” Jake begged, “‘m so close. Don’t wanna come like that. ‘Wanna fill you up baby,” he pleaded, yet when you stopped your ministrations he pouted. 

You pushed him off of you a little. He backed away, staring at you with blown-out pupils, a drunk sort of look on his face you had never seen before. He blinked a few times, coming back from his high with every single bat of his eyelid until he put you down, turned around, and walked out of the corridor and into the kitchen where he opened the wooden alcohol cabinet and pulled out a bottle of whiskey. 

Jake poured you and him both a glass. His back was turned towards you as you walked up and snaked your arms around his waist, gently running a few fingers against the rock hard cock straining against his underwear, almost involuntarily, his hips thrust themselves into your hand at the movement. 

Unable to deny the urge to chase his pleasure and yet cross and embarrassed you had made him unravel so fast, Jake spun around to face you.

“You are such a fucking tease,” he whispered, his hot breath fanning across your neck. You shivered and he chuckled, a sinister undertone to his voice that only made your panties wetter. 

Jake took a swig of his whiskey and swallowed, staring at you for all of it. He brought the glass to his lips again but stopped short of opening his mouth, moving a hand to your jaw instead, “You want some?” he asked. 

You weren’t sure what you were agreeing to when you nodded furiously, too enthralled by Jake’s tone of voice and attitude to concentrate on anything other than how much you wanted him. He brought the tumbler to his lips again, taking a large swig, his fingers forced your mouth to open. He leaned in close to you and just when you thought he’d make a clever remark about how you didn’t deserve the good whiskey, he spat the amber liquid in your mouth. 

Suddenly unable to think, you heard a pornographic moan rip through the air. It occured to you moments later that it had come from you, and you hastened to swallow the alcohol before kissing Jake with all your might. The kiss was bruising, and if he didn’t get the message that you needed him now, you were fairly certain that your jumping up and wrapping your legs around him, grinding yourself on his length made your needs more than clear. 

He carried you to the living room, unceremoniously dropping you down on the sofa before kneeling down between your legs. He pulled your ankles over his shoulder, angling your hips up for ease of access before licking a strip of wetness down your core. 

You buck your hips into his mouth, using his muscled shoulders to push yourself up against him and Jake laughs at how desperate you are for him, purposefully ignoring that with every movement, he is seconds closer to cumming right on your couch. Still, enjoying the view too much, he didn’t move, instead angling his tongue so that with your next thrust you pushed the muscle inside of you. You cry out at the intrusion, truly starved enough to be relieved when you feel something enter you and Jake can no longer take it. He drops you down and lines himself up, slamming into you in one movement, knocking the breath out of you in the process. 

His pace started off as erratic and some part of his brain, the one that hadn’t gone feral yet, tried to tell him that he ought to be gentle with you, but that part could only whisper and was soon drowned out by the obscene noises coming from your mouth. Jake was close already, he had been looking forward to fucking you all day, and not wanting to embarrass himself, he pulled you up and pushed you up to the nearest wall in the hopes that the change of position would help him out a little.

Sadly for him, the way you were positioned right now was making things so much worse for him. Your knees were hooked over his forearms and your legs were so nicely spread apart that if he looked down he could see himself disappear into you with every thrust. Jake looked up at the ceiling in order to distract himself but was forced to look back at you as you snaked your fingers in his hair. 

He was pistoning in and out of you at a breakneck pace, the wet squelch of him entering and exiting you filling your living room. Your head thudded back against the wall as he kept hitting that spot inside you, but your orgasm was taking too long to wash over you today, “Shit, I’m close,” Jake said with a groan, “You’re just so hot,” he added, the statement ending in a moan. 

“It’s okay, baby,” you said, a breathless quality to your voice, “I don’t have to-” 

“Don’t even say it Princess,” he said, crushing his lips to yours, pulling back before adding, “I might have an ego the size of Texas but it's for good reason.”

You were impressed with his restraint as he worked you closer and closer to the edge, your cunt squeezing him in rhythm with his thrusts as his thumb grazed over your clit. 

“Come on baby, come on baby, come on…” Jake was whispering into your ear, groans permeating every other word. 

His hips and thumb found the just right pace, and you started hurtling towards your orgasm, “Right there, don’t stop, oh Jacob!” you cried out, your hips grinding down on him when he bottomed out into you. 

You felt Jake’s hand leave your hip, a loud sound interrupting your moans but at that moment you didn’t care because your orgasm hit you with the full force of a train. You were sure that the house could have fallen down around you and you wouldn’t have noticed. Jake’s hips stuttered against yours one more time before his whole body tensed up and he came shaking into you. 

Jake’s legs couldn’t handle the strain of holding you both up so he turned, and slid his own back down the wall, leaving you sitting in his lap, his spent cock still pulsing inside your hot channel. 

You watched as he laid his head back against the wall, sweat running down his temples from the strain of holding himself back and holding you up. Running a hand through his hair, you pushed a few unruly strands back off of his forehead before bending down to kiss his lips. 

“I love you,” you said, caressing his cheek with your hand. 

Jake groaned before opening his eyes, “I love you too darlin’,” he replied, his Texan accent thick in his words. 

The floor was hard on your knees, so you couldn’t imagine how the wall felt pressed into Jake’s back. You moved to stand up, feeling his hot seed drip out of you, running down your thighs. You pulled Jake up by a hand, he groaned in an unpleasurable way and pulled his right hand from yours. He staggered a moment, pain flashing across his face as he cradled his hand to his chest, “Ow,” was all he said. 

“What’s wrong?” you asked him, taking a step towards him to look at his hand. His middle knuckle was split, like he had been in a fight, and there was a bruise forming over the rest of them, “Jake, what happened to your hand?” you demanded. 

“Might have gotten carried away again,” he said, glancing back at the wall. 

You peered past him to see a fist sized hole in the wall of your living room sitting right at head height, “Oh my gosh, Jake!” you chastised him. 

He shrugged, “I had to hold out for you darlin’. Also you called me Jacob, I’m not responsible for what happens when you call me Jacob during sex.” 

You let out a laugh, holding his hand gently in your own, “Well it looks like you have more than just a TV stand to finish Jacob, let’s go get cleaned up.” 

He followed you into the bathroom where you turned on the shower, waiting for the water to heat up before climbing in under its spray. 

“Maybe we should go for round two,” Jake said as he climbed in, wrapping his arms around your waist, “See what else I can break, huh?” he asked, nuzzling his head into your neck. 

[brella-boi]

Ideas stewing in my head as I try to construct a narrative 2 years further into the timeline of current events. Keep thinking on expanding Julie's character besides 'feral little fucker with teenage angst'. Because listen listen. She's the same as Chili. He trained her for turf and league and let her indulge in every part of her xeno nature including hunting, climbing and all things heavy physical activity; even more so as she got a growth spurt. She got tall!!! And strong. And if she's any bit like Chili then she has muscle.

I imagine her being another absolute powerhouse of an agent much to the captain's surprise. She's only 16 how is she already matching this strength, if not surpassing it? Even Four would be no match to her feral self. And she went through all these lengths angry and begging for her brother not to find out. To her it's just a way to prove herself and a fun exercise.

With the sinister side of it pushed to the side, she'd not a god either. Julie is a speed demon and by god does she try to get through everything as fast as she can when she's getting frustrated- which only results in failures and clumsiness in the end. As much as I see her strong as shit and physically acrobatic, I am cracking up at the thought that she would be jack awful in her squid form.

Like- She got claws to climb, and feet to run fast as hell and pounce and grab and bite. But as a squid? You're making her manoeuvre obstacles in slippery ink? Making her parkour as a squid? Bro she'd keep slipping and falling, and getting tangled. Overestimating her jumps and ability to cling to walls its fucking hilarious how bad she is at it.

But at the same time she's 100% a better agent than Chili. Faster and stronger, and although she's hesitant to listen to instructions and directions from the captain, she does listen and follow. She'd hold her skills over him. And he'd be enraged. Not only bcos she's doing it behind his back but because she's better at it too.

Now I do go by the cannon that the females of the species are stronger and the dominant ones. Since Chili transitioned he absolutely has more strength than a normal cis guy, but also not as strong as a cis woman. Transitioning lowered the max bar for him. Which MEANS that once he DOES find out the two would get into a fucking fight. And Julie would body him into the floor.

The humiliation of that. The shame of his own sister 8 years younger besting him in what he once did best would not only hit him like a truck, but also destroy the idea that he'd be able to stop her from continuing agent work– the very thing that scarred him emotionally for years. And no one else would be able to stop her either.

[makiiato]

Top 5 Voltage being dumb as a brick moments? (I love her btw, she seems very fun ^^)

@skullchicken Hi I'm a dumbass and completely forgot about this ask while it sat in my inbox untouched for, like, multiple months.

ANYWAY. Everyone should love Voltage, she's very fun. Stories under the cut!

A majority of her backstory is essentially "you fucking dumbass." Voltage is from Miami, which was Caribbean League territory until it was taken over by the CAS in a war that's never actually described or explained. (To everyone reading this who doesn't know Shadowrun geopolitical lore, I'm sorry. I can try to give you a condensed explanation in PMs if you'd like.) I ran a campaign in Miami in the past and basically had to construct the setting from the ground up because there's nearly nothing about it in official sourcebooks, and was salty about the lazy writing decision, so I decided to make Voltage a character who was very directly affected by the aftermath of a war that basically got covered up. I digress. Here's the actual relevant part: It's Miami, so a ton of rich assholes from the CAS are obviously going to want to snatch up some beautiful beachfront property without regard to who lived there first. Among them is a shitty metaracist politician who's rolling in corporate money and doesn't hold back when it comes to his opinions on elves, so Voltage, like any reasonable thrill-seeking go-ganger, decides: "Fuck it, I'm gonna blow up this guy's fancy beach house with him in it." And she does: but he's out on the campaign trail, and not at home. To further complicate things, there are security cameras everywhere in ultra-rich neighborhoods like this one, and they get a very clear view of her while she gloats about pulling the deed off. Luckily, her bike is fast enough for her to evade the cops, and her lieutenant in the Ancients cares enough about her to quickly get her onto a smuggler's truck bound for Seattle. But they know her face and identity in the CAS, and there's a warrant out for her arrest for arson and terrorism that comes with a hefty ¥200k bounty. Whoops. (The others are a little shorter from here, but I had to tell that one first to set the tone.)

She fought a kraken with a flamethrower, just for fun. Her squad was on a smuggling mission from Seattle to San Francisco, and part of their trip was spent on an Aztechnology cruise ship (passage secured by a teammate's contact, don't worry about it). The GM did not plan for us to be on the ship, and in an attempt to hastily figure out how to get us off of said ship, they decided to have it be attacked by a kraken. Now, that's reasonable, but I'm honestly a little surprised that the GM didn't plan for Voltage being Voltage. She runs to get her flamethrower, which she's taken with her on this trip for some reason, and starts blasting the absolute hell out of it until a mage on board the ship manages to summon enough guardian spirits to chase it off.

Accidentally flung her best friend out of a flying car. In her defense, she was able to pilot it shockingly well considering her entire flight experience at the time consisted of casually playing a few flight sims, and the seat belts didn't work. Again, in a classic case of Voltage being Voltage, she gets overambitious and decides to do a fuckin' barrel roll with it, sending Zero (played by @nightingales-thighs ) flying out of the car. Fortunately, Zero is a spellslinger and had Levitate ready to go in just such an instance, but since she doesn't return immediately, Voltage is incredibly distraught and fully convinced she's sent her friend plummeting to her death. (It's okay. Zero landed dramatically on the hood of the car a minute later, and Voltage was overjoyed to see that she was alive.) Unfortunately I can only come up with those three at the moment, but if/when I think of others I'll include them in a reblog.

[justoneofthoseghosts]

X me + brettsey at the hospital maybe some type of hurt/comfort scenario? 😊🥰

It was a freak accident Sylvie thinks as she and Violet rushed Matt to Med. There’s no other explanation for it. She knew it wasn't Matt's fault. It couldn't have been but one of these days, that man is going to give Sylvie a heart attack.

Calls at construction sites were common. With all the heavy equipment around, someone was bound to get hurt if they weren’t being careful. Sylvie had brought a lot of workers over the years to various hospital emergency rooms - those who got sliced with a chainsaw or accidentally stapled themselves with a nail gun or got stuck under some machinery.

So when Truck and Ambo got a call at a nearby site, they quickly got to work. 81 managed to pull out the trapped construction worker and luckily, he didn’t need to go to the hospital because the next thing Sylvie heard on the radio was a mayday call from Gallo. She and Violet sprung into action bringing the backboard into the site. Her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach when she saw all the blood staining Matt’s white shirt, a rebar impaling his stomach, Gallo was crouched in front of his Captain, assessing the injury. Sylvie rushed to them as she took a better look at the rebar. Thank God it didn’t go through. She had no time to panic as she centered herself and took care of the wound, barking out orders.

She told Violet to floor it as she watched over Matt in the back of the ambulance. He was coherent, still having the energy to joke about it with her. She radioed ahead to Med to make sure it would all go smoothly.

They wheel him into the ED as she hears Maggie calling out for Crockett. Her voice is steady as she recites his vitals and a brief explanation of what happened. She sees Crockett smile at her briefly before closing the curtain and it makes her feel just a bit better. Matt’s in the best possible hands and that’s what matters.

Two hours later, 51 is camped out in the ED waiting room as they anticipate an update on Matt’s condition. Sylvie sits quietly with Stella and Violet praying that the rebar didn’t puncture any vital organs. When Violet excuses herself to go to the restroom, Cindy Herrmann slides next to Sylvie with a tray of brownies in hand. She offers it to Sylvie who gratefully accepts.

“How are you, hon?” Cindy asks.

Sylvie glances at the older woman and she knows that Cindy isn’t just asking about her feelings, there’s something deeper in her words. She and Matt have only been dating for a month but since the house knows, she’s sure Herrmann’s told Cindy about it.

“How do you do it, Cindy?” She inquires softly. Cindy and Herrmann have been married for so long, maybe it gets easier with time. All this worrying about somebody you love being in such a dangerous line of work where anything can go wrong at any moment.

Cindy pats her hand, “trust me, it never goes away. You just have to have faith that they’ll come back safely and in one piece. You know that Christopher’s been through a lot but he loves this job and I think only retirement’s going to pry him away from it.”

“Yeah, Matt’s the same. I don’t think this will slow him down even a bit,” Sylvie mentions, taking a bite of her brownie, relishing in the sweet chocolate-y taste.

“Christopher told me the two of you finally figured it out,” Cindy tells her, smiling.

“Finally?”

Cindy nods, “he said something about knowing how the two of you would get together before you did and another thing about Casey’s awkward hand gestures when he’s around you?”

Sylvie lets out a giggle, remembering about that particular moment in the locker room.

Her short chat with Cindy manages to calm her down. She knows she’ll always feel her heart hammering out of her chest every time Matt runs head first towards danger but it’s the line of work they both chose and like Cindy said, you have to have faith that they’ll always come back.

Thirty minutes later, Crockett makes an appearance and everyone crowds in front of him, anxious looks on their faces.

“Hey guys, he’s doing well. Rebar didn’t hit any major organ although, we did have to take out his spleen. He’s in the recovery room now but should be up for visitors in an hour or two. I’ll have Maggie come get you once he’s settled in a room,” the surgeon informs them.

“That’s great news,” Herrmann cheers.

Sylvie feels Stella squeeze her hand as she lets out the breath she’s been holding.

When the Med staff is able to get a room for Matt, Maggie comes to find them. 51 cram into Matt’s hospital room, laughing and joking about all the mind numbing paperwork that he gets to file while being stuck in the bull pen since he'll be out of commission for at least a few weeks.

She ends up staying back when everyone starts to file out.

“Hey,” Matt says, smiling at her, completely cheerful for someone who had a metal rod sticking out of him just three hours ago.

“I remember we talked about you never doing this again,” Sylvie chastises, “scaring me half to death.”

“I think I said I’d try my best,” Matt replies teasingly.

“Matt” Sylvie begins warningly.

“All’s well that ends well,” he reassures her.

“You lost your spleen,” Sylvie points out.

Matt raises an eyebrow before responding, “I heard you could live without those pesky spleens.”

“I was terrified, Matt, all that blood. I know you say how you have things in control but this particular one, nobody could have predicted that,” she confesses.

“Come here,” he beckons to her. He slowly scoots over, careful about his new stitches, so she has some room to sit on the bed.

“I can’t promise you that it’ll never happen again but what I can guarantee is I’ll always fight my way back to you,” he tells her, holding her hand.

Sylvie murmurs, “you’re going to make my hair go prematurely grey.”

“I heard grey hair’s pretty in,” Matt jokes, trying to lighten the mood.

Sylvie laughs despite herself, the rest of her worry starting to melt away.

“You know you’re stuck with me, right? I mean, for as long as you’ll have me, of course,” Matt says.

She looks at him, at this man she’s loved for God knows how long, “sounds about right. You’re stuck with me too.”

“I don’t mind,” he grins lopsidedly at her.