#she likes rori hes a best friend forever ever to her :)

[hqmillioncorn]

Did someone say Happy Nameday?!

“Happy nameday Rori!!!” Babycorn popped out of the ground in front of Rori. After Rori finished screaming he was finally able to process what Babycorn had said to him. It was only just a little bit weird. By her standards. “It’s. Not my nameday??” Rori didn’t even remember ever mentioning his nameday around Babycorn.  “I just know it’s your nameday cause Cherry told me so!” Right next to Babycorn the smaller and younger Cherrypit popped out of the ground as well. “Bah!” He wisely said. Of course he actually had no idea when Rori’s nameday was. He had just read Rori’s mind and picked out a random day. “Here we got you a present!” Babycorn rumaged through Hungstal for a bit before finding what she was looking for. “Ah-HA! Tada!” She held up her present proudly, “The newest B’ig Nunh almanac! I got it just for you!” “...T Thanks.” 

ffxiv write day 24: bar

with @windupiceheart 's rorichaux

on a day like any other babycorn is going to talk to her good friend rori :)

Another year passed, and with it came another Valentiones Day. With the festivities in Gridiania coming to a close for the day. Though that didn’t mean that everyone was gone by now.

Rori let out a yawn. His shift was almost over and soon he would be free.

Free to do whatever it was that Roris did with the time they spent not working. Perhaps he would go on a jog or eat a delicious meal. Truly the possibilities were endless. Yes, it would just a few more minutes until-

Something made Rori pause, something was coming. 

Or more like someone. 

Because even from far away, he could hear the telltale cry of someone yelling out his name. Followed by the sounds of several tiny little steps that could only come from a lalafell wearing a pom on her head. Rori figured that this might as well happen. 

It had been almost an entire day since Babycorn had last visited him during his work hours. Either she was slacking or she had finally died. There was no inbetween or any other explanation for her absence. 

The approaching cloud of dust was enough for Rori to confirm that it was indeed Babycorn heading his way. “Yeah okay.” He grabbed onto a nearby post and braced himself for impact. Then as the cloud of dust got closer and closer, a strong breeze blew past Rori, almost blowing him into the air like the stick-bug he was. 

When the wind died down opened his eyes, looking down to see Babycorn grabbing onto his leg like she was about to fly away instead. Babycorn looked up to stare at Rori with her huge and shimmering bug-like yellow eyes. “Hi Mister Rori-Chow!!” 

“Hi Babycorn.” Rori greeted her. 

He extended his leg out and waited for Babycorn to let go. Once she did, she plopped onto the ground. Looking more like a rag doll that had fallen off the shelf. “It’s Ro-ri-Show.” Rori explained for the hundredth time now. He hoped that breaking it down into sections would help Babycorn get his name right. His first mistake was to hope that Babycorn do anything right. 

“Okay Mister Rori!” Babycorn saluted him. 

Rori sighed, the first of many to come. 

Babycorn bounced back a step and placed her hands behind her back. She was wearing a strange outfit Rori had never seen on her. The big poofy skirt she was wearing sort of made her look like a giant cupcake. Complete with sprinkles. From what Rori knew of Babycorn he wagered that those were real sprinkles. 

There was also a massive candle on her head. Thankfully it wasn’t on fire. 

“Mister Rori! I have a surprise for you~!” Babycorn threateningly sang out loud. She didn’t mean for it to sound like a threat. It just sort of happened whenever Babycorn told people she had a surprise for them. “It’s right behind my back~” 

“Y-Yeah. Sure. Alright.” 

There was absolutely nothing to be afraid of. 

Unless this ‘surprise’ took eleven hours for Babycorn to explain like the last one had. 

Babycorn did a cute little twirl and extended her hand out to Rori. “I wanna invite you to my nameday party!!” That sounded normal enough.

At least, it was normal. Until Rori looked down to see what Babycorn was handing him.

Babycorn’s left hand was stuck inside of a glass jar. 

“Um.” Rori truly was at a loss for words. Which is why he just continued to stare at the jar around Babycorn’s hand and at Babycorn’s rapidly blinking face for the next few seconds. “What’s that you got there?” Rori finally worked up the courage to ask. 

Babycorn wasn’t sure what Rori was talking about. Pretty evident considering the confused smile she was giving him. “Hmm? What? Where?” She turned around in a spin, looking for something that was on her. Like an excited dog chasing its own tail. 

It was kind of cute. “I’m talking about the jar on your hand.” It reminded Rori of the time Babycorn stuck her hand inside of an anthill. Only pulling it out when he told her she could. Then Rori had to take a two hour bath to get all the ants out of his hair after 

“Oh this?” Babycorn wiggled her hand around. There was a simple explanation to this actually. “I was eating berries and I thought there were none left but I saw there was one more and put my hand inside to grab it!” She brought the jar closer to her and bit it for a while before giving up. 

Previous teeth marks showed that she had tried this before. “I also got the invitation to my party inside! See? See? I’m holding it!”  Babycorn held her hand up as high as she could for Rori to see.

Rori looked as close as he could. The jar looked pretty empty, aside from the obvious. True to Babycorn’s word her hand was wrapped around a now pretty crumpled piece of paper. That must have been the elusive nameday party invitation.

Even so this was far from the weirdest thing Babycorn had done.  As far as he knew. And yet, Rori still had to ask. “Why did you put your hand back in to eat berries with the invitation in your hand?” 

“Uhhhhhhhhh…” It seemed Babycorn didn’t have an answer. 

Not to mention that the jar looked pretty empty. There were berries in there bouncing alongside Babycorn’s hand and the invitation. “Were there actually any berries left in there?”

“There were!” This time Babycorn was quick to answer, “I ate em’ and then I put my hand back in the jar.”

“...Why?”

“I forgot it was empty!!”

“...” Rori had no idea what he was supposed to say next. There was a part of him that truly wondered how Babycorn had managed to stay alive this long. Was it luck? Was it fate? Was it some inexplicable third thing? 

Whatever it really was–Rori was glad that Babycorn always bounced back. Even if it came at the cost of several hours of hearing her yapping about some neat rock she found yesterday under a moldy piece of bread that she later ate and saved half of it for Rori.

“Wait-!” Babycorn suddenly exclaimed, “I know how to get this off me!” 

“How?” Rori asked genuinely wondering what sort of method Babycorn was going to come up with. Maybe something like licking it off? That sounded plausible. Though she could have never guessed what was going to happen next.

Without a moment's hesitation–Babycorn slammed the jar into the ground. It smashed into teeny tiny little glass shards. “Yay! My hands out!” Babycorn let out a cheer and waved her hand around. Weirdly enough it was kind of hurting but surely that would go away on its own eventually.

Rori stood frozen, mouth hanging wide open. “a,” That was the only thing he could manage to say. At least until he said the next thing, “You’re-uh bleeding. Um we should probably….” Probably go get that fixed or something. That was the smart move. Right. What the heck.

Babycorn looked at Rori, confused. Until she looked down at her hand. “I guess I’m bleeding now!” She said with a grin on her face. Bleeding suddenly from her body wasn't something Babycorn was unfamiliar with. 

This was the same girl who had an eternally bleeding scar on her body since childhood. 

“Uhhhhhh. Let’s just get some bandages for that.” 

Rori led Babycorn to the first-aid station they luckily had on hand. Turns out there were many accidents that happened to be related to Valentiones day. Babycorn walked behind Rori like a baby duck following her mom. As they neared their destination she suddenly remembered something! The very thing she was still holding in her hands.

“Mister Rori! Here! You can have my invitation now!” Babycorn held it up and waved it at Rori. Waiting excitedly for him to take it. “Here! Here! Here! Mister Rori! Mister Rori! Mister Rori!”

As ‘excited’ as Rori was to take a blood stained invitation he decided to tell Babycorn he would take it after tending to her hand. “I’ll go to your party. It’s not an invitation only party, right?”

“Nope!” Babycorn shook her head. “I think everyone should come to my twenty-seven nameday party! I made invitations so I could drop them from the sky all over everywhere!”

“That’s nice-”

Wait. Rori stopped dead in his tracks. Had Rori heard right? “...How old are you turning?”

“I’m turning twenty-seven!!” Babycorn winked and stuck her tongue out. Posing with her fingers pressed against her rosy freckled cheeks. 

Rori paused, taking in what he had just heard. 

“...You’re twenty-SEVEN?!” 

Babycorn was ONE YEAR YOUNGER THAN HIM?!?!?!

[bratbarzal]

On Your Side (NH13) / Chapter Eleven

Pairing: Nico Hischier x Fem!OC Poppy Jensen

WC: 17k (I've literally been calling this a short filler hahahahaha)

18+ MDNI!!

Chapter Warnings: unbearable amounts of fluff like you're gonna think is this girl okay??? the answer, as you should already know, is no. I honestly think it's just fluff.... and bad smut. oral (fem receiving, very briefly) and p in v. mentions of jealousy I think. cheeto gets a name finally but honestly.... she's cheeto forever let's not forget. discussions around marriage and more babies. yeah - fluffy fluff.

Series Masterlist

Previous Part (Chapter Ten)

A/N: remember the good old days when I uploaded a chapter like every 10 days??? remember me trying to beat the week-ish allegations??? I can’t tell if me struggling to finish this fic is bc I’m worried it’s getting samey and boring or bc I don’t want to let them go but i need to get over myself!!! sorry for the wait on this one!!! I kind of veered off the path that I planned out for the end of this story, I was really adamant I didn’t want something to happen, but it doesn’t really make sense for the relationship and characters I’ve written for it NOT to happen, so pls bear with me while I figure these last couple of chapters out!! I know a few people have discovered this fic recently so thank you for reading!! I promise I do love these two as much as I haven't acted like it the last couple of months!!

BUT ANYWAY!!! MORE IMPORTANTLY!!!!! this chapter is dedicated to my bestie Rory!! it was her birthday on Monday and if I'm honest I don't know if I would have made it this far without her!! she sends me full chapter breakdowns every time I post and she loves Poppy and Nico as much as I do - literally if I perish, she will take the reins!!! she knows everything!!! I accidentally spoiled the gender to her forever ago, and she helped me figure out Cheeto's name (as well as the name cheeto lmao) and we compared lists and literally had the same number one and the same reason we are that connected!! @h1sch13r I love you so much I couldn't possibly put into words how much I appreciate you!! happy belated birthday capricorn queen!!

Nico

Ever since he moved to the states, summers in Switzerland have always been the best part of Nico’s year. 

Spending much needed time with his family - staying with his parents for days at a time, back in his childhood home, eating his mother’s cooking and hanging out with his dad, and annual trips with his siblings, where the three of them got to spend a week together pretending like their lives hadn’t taken them away from each other. 

Despite the chaos that came as hockey season came to a close, he always looked forward to coming home.

And last year, when he had done so after one of the most heartbreaking moments of his career, he had endured what he now considers the worst summer of his life.

And it was all because of Poppy.

He can see it so much clearer with hindsight, how he had taken himself so far off the beaten path just to avoid his feelings for her, and experiencing a summer with her only makes him regret it more.

Last year, he had come home in a slump, and he had thought, at the time, it was the noise of being knocked out of the playoffs and a brief appearance at the world championships that was lingering. He thought he was exhausted, and remorseful, and that it was the failure of carrying his teams any further that was making him feel so down.

And so he had tried his best to do things that made him feel the opposite. 

He bought an apartment, not too far from his family that he felt distant, but enough so that he could be independent when he came back. And he had tried to make it feel like home - furnished nice, with personal belongings from his parent’s house that made the place feel like his, and not some rental he had no place making feel like forever.

He went on more trips with his friends, weekends away, music festivals, sporting events, and made a point of saying yes to things he might usually have turned down.

And that had been what led him to Talia - to being blinded by what probably should have stayed a summer fling, in lieu of sparing a thought to adoring eyes looking back at him from booths in bar corners, and a girl that, in the back of his mind, he had always wanted to be forever, too.

He had missed Poppy more than he ever could have realised at the time - and had fallen victim to abiding by their usual routine of radio silence in the summer, without realising that they had grown way too much since the year before to seriously keep that up.

He wishes he’d have texted her or something, back then. Commented on an instagram post, responded to a story, or called her, even. Her voice might have deterred him from ever trying to move on, and it could have saved the two of them so much time and heartache from what came as a result of that.

But maybe then she wouldn’t be here now, belly round with his child, sat out on the terrace in the back yard of his childhood home, schooling his big brother at Uno. Maybe he wouldn’t come down the stairs in the morning to the sounds of her laughing with his dad, helping him prepare breakfast for the family and asking him questions about what constitutes being offside in soccer when he’d sit down to watch Switzerland play their international games and she’d join him to try get into it, herself. 

Maybe she wouldn’t go on shopping trips with his sister, and come back with bagfuls of baby clothes that she holds up to her front as she shows them all to Nico in their room, and make comments about how she can’t believe that something so big can grow from her belly. 

Maybe she would still be someone he always wants to keep to himself, instead of sharing her with the people he loves the most in this world, only to have his love grow for her even more - and maybe that’s not how he ever wanted things to be. 

So maybe he had to suffer through the facade he put on last summer to get to where he is now, content in every possible aspect of his life, wrapped up under the bedsheets, muttering random stories to Poppy’s belly as she sleeps, the side of his finger caressing the soft skin as he anticipates whatever movement happens inside her that is going to rouse her from whatever sweet dreams he hopes she’s having. 

“What are you doing?”

There’s a brief flash of light before Poppy joins him under the covers, pulling the sheet over her head to shield them from the morning sun’s intrusion before she looks down at where he’s resting beside her belly. 

Her eyes are narrowed like they’re trying to fight consciousness, and her face is swollen in that adorable way it gets in the mornings, puffy and plump, and he wants to kiss it all over. 

She’s so beautiful, and she’s his, and it warms his heart every time he gets to wake up to her. 

“Having a private conversation with my daughter, if you don’t mind,” he smiles up to her, soft and teasing, before she kicks him gently and shuffles her way out from under the covers.

“You made her make me want to pee,” she huffs, feet padding across the room to the en suite, where she leaves the door open as she empties her bladder, and he re-situates himself back against the pillows at the top of the bed, one arm behind his head, so he can watch her when she makes her way back.

Her bump is big enough now that she almost waddles, 6 weeks of eating his mother’s cooking, and all the incredible food they have tried in  restaurants he has told her about over the years, and she had really popped in no time - and it’s the sexiest Nico thinks she’s ever been. Nose and lips constantly swollen with water retention, her voice changing, Nico witnessing the ever-growing struggle that she refuses to acknowledge - but she does everything so effortlessly, and without much complaint, that he finds it all endearing. 

His eyes are drawn to her belly every time he sees her, chest puffing with pride when he takes notice of the speedy growth of it, and he fixates on it for as long as she’ll let him - usually swatting at his chest and telling him to knock it off with a telltale flush to her cheeks whenever they’re around others.

Sharing his part of the world with her these last six weeks have been pure bliss, and as she ambles her way back over to where he lays, he can’t help but be grateful for whatever led him to this - to her crawling back into bed and straight into his arms. 

“I want you to teach me your language.” She mumbles into his chest, her body curved into his, legs tangling immediately as his arms circle around her.

“The language of love?” He asks with a wiggle of his brows, leaning in to kiss her lips, laughing against them as he feels them frown, 

“Don’t be gross you know what I mean,” she sighs, lips fighting a smile, and he kisses her again, helping her hook her leg properly over his so she can straddle him, her bump settling between the two of them as she relaxes over his hips. “Swiss-German isn’t on Duolingo, I checked. And I can’t have you and Cheeto conspiring against me in words I don’t understand, that’s not fair.”

She looks so cute, all pouty and pleading, and as the gravity of what she’s asking weighs down on him, he breaks out into a dreamy smile, himself. 

He can’t think of any other person who had wanted to speak his language. Too complicated for most, with too many dialects to grasp properly, he has always adapted to what the people around him need. English, back in the states, which he likes to think he has mastered by now, but he still trips up on the odd word, here and there.

Some Italian, some French. Odd bits of Czech and Swedish.

And German - he and Talia always spoke in plain German. 

It had never really bothered him, until now - until he has a girl on his lap, willing to learn something for him, and so their daughter can learn it too - passing his culture down another generation and sharing it with the love of his life. 

“What do you want to know?” He asks, hands on her hips as she runs hers along the broad expanse of his chest, fingers trailing on the little patch of hair on his chest that she’s always drawn too, holding him in place so she can lean in and kiss him, herself. 

“Everything,” she whispers against his skin, lips pressing back to the corner of his mouth. “You can teach me, right?”

“Yeah,” he shuffles his hips beneath her so she rests a little more comfortably, “I can teach you.”

He reaches up to move her hair behind her neck, leaning to press a kiss on the bare skin there, edging the strap of her bra down so that he can mutter the word for shoulder against the curve of hers, and she repeats it back to him, breathy and distant. 

He does the same along her collarbone, against her neck, nipping at her jaw and her cheek.

He distracts her with his teachings, and she relays each word back almost perfectly as he slowly repositions the two of them, laying her up against the pillows so she isn’t flat on her back, and pressing kisses down her body. 

With fingers grasped firmly around her calf, he lifts her leg slowly so that he can perch it over his shoulder, pecking at the side of her knee and barely just making eye contact over the curve of her bump. “You’re a fast learner, Mohn,” he praises, fingers tickling up and down her leg as she straightens her back to try and watch him as his face moves upward. “Can you remember what shoulder was?”

“Not with you between my legs like that,” she huffs, her voice just above a whisper - too used to keeping her responses low whenever the two of them have been staying at his parent’s house instead of his apartment, too used to holding back and releasing frustrated groans into the broad expanse of his chest. 

The two of them had gotten creative, most of their time spent around Nico’s friends and family, only a few days here and there alone in his apartment. 

Quickies in the car, fumbling hands under tables, rushed kisses whenever they get a second to themselves. There had even been a time where Poppy sought him out in the sauna.

“Should you be in here?” He had asked, straightening on the bench and running a hand through his hair as she came in and shut the door behind her, eyes on his glistening chest as she slowly made her way forward.

“Google says I’m good for 10 minutes,” she shrugged, reaching back to untie the straps of her bikini top. “Figured you’re so riled up you’ll only need 2 anyway.”

He had been training with Luca most of the day, leaving Poppy to hang with his sister, and the two of them had spent the entire time they were apart texting each other teasing messages about how much they missed each other - but were staying with his family again, and so the outdoor sauna he and his brother had built in the garden a couple of years ago was probably their best bet for privacy at that point.

Nico’s eyes flickered to the clock above the door, making a mental note of the time so he could make sure she was out in 8 minutes max, before helping her guide herself onto his lap, giving into both of their frustrations for as long as Poppy’s Googling would allow them. 

“You might have to teach me again when you get back from your trip.” She tells him, spreading her legs as much as she can to accommodate his figure. He’d feel guilty for leaving her behind with his family if she hadn’t been the one to push him to go away training for a week - him and Luca accepting after her insistence that she’d be fine in the company of his parents and his sister.

“We can do that,” he chuckles, his voice low, too. “And again the day after,” he kisses a little further up, twisting at her calf to reveal the inside of her thigh, “And the day after that,” and again, even further. 

“Nico,” she sighs, face scrunching, eyes fluttering shut as he glances up at her one more time, his face concealed now by the curve of her belly and relying on her subdued sounds to gauge her pleasure. 

Poppy’s back arches about as much as it can as Nico closes in on the apex of her thighs, a finger hooked through the bottom of her panties, pulling them to the side as he nips at the top of her thigh, anticipation building until her hand finds purchase on the back of his head.

He lays his tongue flat against her glistening folds, bringing it up to get a taste of the heaven between Poppy’s legs, and relies on her breathy gasps and the buck of her hips to guide him to pleasure her just how she likes, lips around the bundle of nerves that makes her jolt when he sucks a little too hard, moving slowly, teasingly at first before hunger takes over.

He can’t relent until he feels her legs trembling at either side of his head, Poppy’s body slithering beneath him as his tongue works between her folds, and he can taste nothing but her sweet arousal.

He almost loses himself in her before he distantly hears a whisper of his name, ears perking at the tone in her voice - not like the usual pleasured gasp or moan, just slightly off.

“Babe, stop,” Poppy whines, fingers clutched in his hair as he withdraws from her heat, pulling back enough to check on her over her belly.

“You okay?” He frowns, hand gripping her thigh, thumb rubbing soothingly as he takes in her frustrated expression.

“No,” she pouts, “I can’t see you. I don’t like not seeing you.”

Nico pokes his tongue to the side of his cheek to stop himself laughing, feeling her fingers loosen their grip on the strands of hair in their hold enough that he can sit up a little. “Do we need to get a little creative with mirrors, or something?”

“No, I need you to come up here.”

“But I like it down here.” He sighs in faux-protest, leaning his cheek against her knee as their gazes meet.

Poppy narrows her beautiful eyes at him, and there’s no stopping the smile after that. “My back hurts like this,” she huffs, “And I don’t want your mouth right now.”

“Well if you were patient, I would have used my fingers, too,” he chuckles, retreating entirely so he can crawl up the bed. 

“Don’t want your fingers either.” She starts making grabby hands when he gets closer, until he follows her guidance, holding himself up to the side of her and letting her pull him in to press their lips together. 

“Greedy,” he teases into her mouth, just as one of her hands drops to tug at the waistband of his boxers. He can’t blame her for wanting more, though - not with the way they’ve both been chasing every little pleasure where they can over the past 6 weeks, and not with how he’s set to spend a week away for training with his friends. 

Poppy’s hormones are yet to dissipate, and all he wants is to please her, so he lets her pull at his underwear with ease, distracting him with the swipe of her tongue against his, and the soft little moans she lets into his mouth as he works at her underwear, himself.

“You wanna go on your side?” He mumbles between her lips, remembering the position they had ended up the last time, Poppy unable to lay on her back too long, and her bump now getting in the way if she wanted to straddle him. He was too nervous for her to get on all fours, despite her protests that she could handle not collapsing onto her front, and they had ended up spooning. He had enjoyed it way more than he ever thought he would if anyone had told him months ago that being behind her on his side would have become their default position.

“Mmhm,” she hums, nodding frantically as they position themselves, his hands guiding her to comfort as she lays on her side, hair tucked behind her ear so he can press his lips to the curve of her neck before sinking into her from behind, her back arched just right to make it easy for him. 

“Fuck,” he groans under his breath as he pushes himself in to the hilt, Poppy squeaking, her arm bent back and nails digging into his shoulder, “You feel so good, baby.”

She feels tight and warm around him, in a way that makes him feel like his head might explode in pure bliss, and he presses his chest straight to her back. Their skin sticks together with perspiration, clamminess building as he starts to move, and her head falls back, baring the elongated slope of her neck for him to bury his nose into.

She smells so good, even after a full night tossing and turning in his arms, and the ever-present scent of his body wash lingers in the depths of her skin, Nico inhaling fully as her hips press back onto his, a slow rhythm building.

He holds himself up with an elbow against the mattress, his other arm curling over her waist, hand reaching between her legs to rub at her clit, slick with arousal and swollen from his previous attention to it, causing her legs to tremble again. 

Her arm tangles with his, nails scraping at his skin, pushing to apply more pressure where she needs it the most, and he grunts lowly into her neck, nipping at her skin and lifting his chin every now and then to gauge her response to his ministrations.

He can see her jaw slack, head craned back, lashes fluttering in blissed-out euphoria as she grows closer to her peak - and Nico is so in tune with her now that he feels like he’s there with her. A night pressed against her, and his previous stint between her legs already adding to his pleasure, and he can feel the tell-tale tension in the pit of his stomach, muscles in his thighs growing taut as he kicks up his pace a little, Poppy quietly moaning like music to his ears.

“You gonna come, huh?” He asks in a breathy growl, lips moving against the sensitive skin of her neck, “Can feel you getting close, baby, you’re so good for me.”

Nico can never forget the way such praise had made her cheeks flush all those months ago, the first time they had ever slept together - the night their baby girl had been conceived, and their lives had been set to change forever. He’s always seeking that same reaction, that glint in her eye and the stutter of her hips - and she always gives him just what he wants, walls tightening around him in a mind-numbing pressure, thighs shivering, spine curving, all muscles tensing as she falls apart. And he soon follows, coming inside of her like he’s all too used to now, teeth pressed into her shoulder and chest panting against her back.

The arm she had intertwined with his soon untangles itself to reach back and stroke through his hair as he comes down, scratching at his scalp as she gets her own breath back.

He brings his hand up to his mouth to clean his fingers of her arousal before he goes back to rest his hands against her belly, still inside her until he softens, pressing soft kisses to her skin until she giggles a little when it tickles, and the vibrations of her laughter force him to pull out before he starts to grow hard again.

He does so with a grunt and a hand on her hip, rolling out of the bed and toward the bathroom to get a cloth to clean her up, returning to her blissed out form splayed out on the mattress.

He bites back a smile as their eyes meet, edging her legs apart so he can wipe between them, swiping softly at her sensitive folds and watching her smile sleepily back at him as her chest rises and falls in laboured breaths. 

“Thank you,” she sighs, blinking slowly, and he feels his cheeks push into a dimpled grin as he watches her - completely lost in the afterglow.

“You don’t have to thank me, baby,” he throws the cloth over to the nightstand, crawling up Poppy’s body to press his lips to hers.

“You make me really happy.”

He smiles, slow but big, eyes tracing the way hers crinkle a little in the corners. “You make me happy too.”

“I said really happy.”

“You make me the happiest man in the world.”

“That’s better.” She bumps her nose against his before kissing him again. “You’re a quick learner, too.”

He chuckles against the corner of her mouth, pressing one more sweet kiss there before pushing himself up, looking around the floor for his pants. “Why don’t you take a shower and I’ll bring you some breakfast? Make you really really happy,”

“Or we could eat together and you could shower with me? We could have some more fun-,”

“I’m not falling for that again, babe, you don’t want to have fun, you want me to wash your hair because your arms ache.”

He’s been lured into the shower one too many times over the past 6 weeks with the promise of a good time, only for Poppy to claim they couldn’t get too frisky and risk slipping, so he may as well put his hands to good use and shampoo her hair - guiding him on where she liked him to apply pressure until he was pretty much giving her a scalp massage.

Poppy pouts, sinking back against the pillows as she watches him hop into his underwear, pulling the briefs until the waistband snaps against his hips, her eyes following them all the way up his legs. “I thought you loved me.”

His laughter bubbles all the way up from the pit of his stomach, swirling with adoration and amusement. 

“And now you’re laughing. Unbelievable.” She scoffs, feigning irritation with a telltale quiver at the corner of her lips. “Do I need to remind you that you’re going away for a whole week tomorrow? Living it up with your buddies and leaving me in the dust. I’m owed like 2 more orgasms at least before then.”

“I’ll give you three tonight, I promise.” He leans in again, thinking he’ll never make it out of the room at this point, Poppy having the most kissable lips in the entire universe. “We’ll figure out the mirror thing, so you can see me better between your legs.”

She hums against his mouth as she kisses him once more before asking, “Can you make me avocado toast please?”

“And a smoothie?” He asks, stepping away so that he isn’t drawn back in until mid-day.

She nods, a pretty smile stretching out across her swollen lips, watching as he walks backward towards the door. He keeps his eyes on her until he closes the door behind him, making his way through his family home with a smile that won’t give, feeling confident in his previous sentiment uttered to her. 

Nico Hischier might just be the happiest man in the world.

Nico had thought being away from Poppy for a whole week would have been torturous - that he would be counting down the hours until he could get back to her, distant from his friends and hating every second apart - but it had almost been the opposite of that, and he only had her to thank.

He thinks that maybe 6 weeks of living out the dream life with her, and knowing that would be exactly what he was returning to, allowed him to enjoy his week away - even though it wasn’t exactly a break. 

His off-season training had kicked up a gear while he was away, and he was thankful that he didn’t have to mope around missing her all the time and could concentrate a little on his gruelling routine.

They FaceTimed every morning, and every night before she went to sleep. Texted throughout the day, sending pictures back and forth of what each other got up to - Poppy spending her days with his parents and his sister, being doted on by his entire family in his absence, in ways that made his heart grow ten-fold, and his days spent training, lifting, running, hiking, doing all sorts of activities that he would send her several videos of and she would respond with some crazy comment that made him laugh out loud. 

She never made him feel guilty for being away from her - never made it seem like she felt like second best to his schedule, or his career, or the season looming in the background of their relationship. She never complained about him not being around, only ever gushed about who was back home with her - telling him how much she loved hanging around with Nina, who was back in Switzerland taking her on spa trips and exploring the city with her, teaching her about their hometown and filling in all the blanks that Nico had yet to clue her in on. 

And he was getting chirped like hell for walking around with a constant dopey smile on his face - something he should know better by now than to do on a boys trip, but he was long past caring.

He had the girl of his dreams blending in with the family he loved more than anything, and a little girl on the way - his best friend and brother rallying the boys to poke fun at him at the dinner table could do nothing to diminish the flame that was fuelled within him.

“I’m on my own when we get back to Jersey, even Nico’s wifed off, now,” Timo jokes as they sit around a large restaurant table on their last night of their trip, his big arm resting on the back of his chair as he sips on his beer. 

“You’re getting married, too?” Their friend Leo asks, brows raised as the influx of new information hits him all at once. “You guys don’t tell me anything!”

“It’s just a saying,” Nico scoffs, his bottle pressed to his lips before he takes a swig, “We’re not engaged.”

“Yet.” Luca adds, “I give him a month before he asks her, though. You should see him around her, he’s obsessed.”

“It won’t be a month,” he denies, ignoring the second half of the sentence, completely - there’s really no point denying that anymore, “I’d have to get her dad’s permission or whatever, and her parents sort of hate me.”

Timo barks out a laugh from across the table, “Oh yeah, he yelled at her dad!”

“You yelled at someone?”

“I didn’t yell,” he frowns, the word starting to lose all meaning with its overuse. “I just called him out over something. And, to be honest, I think he might have liked me more after that.”

Nico doesn’t really like looking back on that first night at the Jensen house - there was probably no preparing him for what he was walking into, and, entirely overwhelmed by the grandeur of it all, he had lost his head. But their family dynamic was difficult.

He had witnessed it only in short bursts, before - had seen Poppy around her mom a few times, had met her dad once before that in passing - and being immersed in it, being looked down on by her mother all day, overshadowed by her brother, ignored by her father, watching the whole conversation around their pregnancy unfold at the dinner table, tensions high and emotions rampant, he had let his frustrations build to the point of boiling over.

When Poppy’s brother had first started berating her, he had tried to write it off in his head as sibling banter of sorts. He and his siblings were never quite as cruel, but he knows sometimes brothers and sisters bicker like Poppy and Oli had - biting remarks and words intended to hurt. Then, it had spiralled.

He’s seen Poppy stick up for herself, before, but he’s never experienced her blow up like that. And he had understood it completely, considering he was reaching the brink of eruption, himself - and that’s not taking into account her heightened pregnancy hormones.

He had felt protective, and even upset, himself, that this thing his family had embraced with open arms, had celebrated at time where he and Poppy needed it the most, that was turning his life around in all the best possible ways, was being rained on by the rest of them, and when Poppy had stormed off, and her mom had followed, he couldn’t sit there in silence and not say something.

What kind of partner would that have made him?

“I think you underestimate her.” He had said, quiet but firm, as silence settled over the table in Poppy’s absence. 

The reactions had been slow, a gradual raise of Oli’s head, matching that of his wife, beside him, who pressed her lips together to hide what Nico hoped was a smile, and the prolonged lowering of cutlery from her father. 

“Excuse me?” Philip asked, leaning onto his elbows. “What did you say?”

“Poppy,” Nico clarified, “I don’t think that any of you really understand what she’s capable of.”

“That’s my daughter you’re talking about, I think I of all people understand-,”

“She’s really smart,” Nico had interjected before he lost the courage to do so, ignoring the twinge in his gut that told him to calm down, that he shouldn’t be risking his relationship with the future grandfather of his baby like this. “And really independent, and she somehow always knows what to do if you drop her into the middle of a really tough situation. If you could see her at work, you’d get it, people go to Poppy to fix things and for her to help them, and support them, and she always does it because that’s the kind of person she is.”

Neither of them had seemed to react, but had been so far into hyping himself up to let all of his thoughts out that he doesn’t think he would have noticed if they had. 

“You guys might not see it because you only see her as your daughter, or your little sister, but she is the strongest person I know. She’s an incredible woman, and she’s going to be an even better mother, and she deserves, more than anybody else, for her family to have her back right now.”

“It was just a joke, man,” Oli had scoffed, “It’s not that serious.”

“It is to her. She spent the entire ride here talking about you guys, about your family and everything you’ve built for yourself in California,” Nico had nodded to her brother, remembering all the ways Poppy had hidden her admiration for him behind sarcastic comments - even before the drive from Jersey City, over the years where she had opened up to him about her family, he had always seen a small dash of affection for her older brother - before turning to her dad, “And everything you’ve achieved, sir, everything you’ve built for yourself, and for your kids. She just wants to be seen as an equal, and I think if either of you actually noticed her, you’d see just what she’s capable of, and you wouldn’t make digs at her,” he had narrowed his eyes at Oli, “Or sit in silence while others make her feel like crap.” He hadn’t quite been able to meet Mr Jensen’s eye, but he felt a little relieved that he had managed to say what he needed. “You’re both supposed to have her back.”

Neither of them had come back to him after that, tensions rising once more in the growing silence, the hammering of his heart and the rush of blood to his head the only thing he could hear before he had excused himself, and had ascended through the house to find Poppy in her room. 

He hadn’t told Poppy at the time what he had said - he felt no need to do so, it wouldn’t have changed anything, and might have made her upset or even more stressed, which he never wanted to do. But Philip had changed after - had made more efforts to be there for Poppy, to get to know Nico, and the two of them had even gotten onto texting terms. 

So he doesn’t necessarily think that her parents hate him, but it’s definitely too soon to be asking for their daughter’s hand in marriage, even if it feels like the right thing to do.

Even if the thought of it has started to keep him awake at night, as Poppy tosses and turns to get comfortable beside him. Even if he finds himself stroking at the bare surface of her ring finger when they hold hands, and introducing her to others as his wife in a language she doesn’t fully grasp - pretending it’s a joke she isn’t clued in on, when really it feels more like a manifestation.

He twirls the ring she had gifted him on his own ring finger, the weight of it especially present in the midst of this conversation, frowning as Timo levels him with a stern look.

“You know that getting her dad’s permission isn’t like the law or anything right?”

He does know that. If he’s honest, he knows he’s using it as an excuse, too - but admitting to that at dinner with the boys feels like he’s setting himself up for an entire night of chirps.

He and Poppy have only technically been together for a couple months, and most of that time had already been spent apart. When he had asked her to move in, she had taken offence at him only asking due to the convenience of it all, and he half expects the same if he gets down on one knee.

He can hear her already, some muttering of, you only want to marry me because I’m having your baby, when that couldn’t be further from the truth. 

When Nico pictures his future, he pictures Poppy. 

Everything revolves around Poppy.

And yeah, their baby girl plays a big factor in that - seeing Poppy as a mother, raising their daughter together, providing a happy, stable home for her to thrive in. But it’s so much more than that, too.

It’s her being his partner. Waking up to her, tracing over the soft curve of her lips as she rouses from sleep, and knowing, as sure of anything in his heart, that no day can ever be bad if it starts out like that. 

Feeling secure in his job, despite all the times in his life he has felt anything but, and knowing that he can succumb to the pressure of it all without having to worry about her bailing. She has his back in ways no body ever has before. She understands the demand of his career, the fact that he isn’t available at all hours of the day to her every need - but she can take care of herself. She would rather do so, and she doesn’t make him feel guilty for the fact that sometimes his schedule takes priority - because the times that he can prioritise her are valued in ways that he never thought he could provide - not if anybody asked any of his exes, at least.

She understands his role as a captain, how he has to be there for the guys, understands his love for doing so, and has never in their entire relationship, made him feel like it’s a burden, or that she feels neglected because of it.

Even before they crossed the boundaries of something more. When they were just friends - as if they were ever just anything - and he could vent all of his worries and stresses to her, and she’d talk him out of ever seeing the negatives.

She has some sort of superpower, he thinks, for turning things around like that, and he wants to bask in the glory of it for the rest of his life.

He wants that warm feeling that floods his chest at the thought of going home to her after a long day to never go away.

And he knows that it isn’t a chunk of metal around her finger, or signatures on paper, that solidifies that.

But he wants it, all the same.

“I don’t know, we haven’t been together that long.”

Timo barks out a laugh, and a couple other guys at the table raise their brows. 

“Do you know when I first got to Jersey, Siegs was the one who introduced me to Poppy? You know what he said?”

Nico shakes his head, a crease forming between his brows as he frowns at his friend. 

“He points at her from across the room, we were at a bar, the one near his place, he says that’s Poppy, and I look over and I think, whoa, she’s gorgeous, maybe I will like it here,” Nico narrows his eyes as Timo recalls the story, his hands unintentionally balling into fists below the table, “And before I can even get a word out, he goes, Nico’s Poppy. He told me not to even think about it.”

“We weren’t in a relationship, though.” He argues, despite the way his lips twist into an almost-smile, one trying to hide itself from prying eyes. He does quite like the ring of that. Nico’s Poppy.

It reflects that base level possessiveness he feels when he looks at her - the way he’s probably felt since the day they met, sharing a bond he had never really shared with anyone else. Feeling jealous when any of the other guys would talk to her alone, as petty as it might have been, and only ever wanting her attention on him. 

“You’ve always been in something with her,” Timo shrugs, “There’s no point delaying the inevitable if it means you get to make sure she’s your Poppy forever.”

“We don’t have to be married for her to be mine.”

He does feel comfortable knowing that - feels sure and safe in their dynamic, now - knowing the life they share, the home they share, the baby they’re so close to bringing into this world together. Knowing how much she loves him, how much she’s willing to be there for him, even when he feels like he isn’t enough for her. 

He’s never felt so secure in a relationship in his life, and he doesn’t need to force either of them into marriage when they’ve never really had that conversation - even if the few times he’s attempted to joke about it, she has been receptive.

“I don’t know why you’re trying to talk yourself out of it.” Luca chimes in from the side of Nico, “You’re never gonna find anybody more perfect for you. I think our parents like her more than they even like us at this point,” he tells the rest of the table, swatting at his little brother’s shoulder, before reaching for his beer. 

“Yeah,” Nico sighs with a smile, knowing already there’s no one more perfect for him - he’s only been cursing himself all summer for not coming to that conclusion much sooner. “Mom will probably already have asked her for me while she’s been with her this week.”

He knows he’s delaying the inevitable, trying to pretend that marriage isn’t what he wants right now with Poppy - he had pictured it the second she told him she was pregnant, his life flashing before his eyes in home-movie-esque glimpses, babies, and white dresses, and a big house with a nice plot of land in the back for him to build a tree house like in the movies.

He knows, too, deep down, that there is the slimmest possible chance of rejection. She loves him. She shows him every day just how much - and she’s been so willing, so far, to fit herself into his life in whatever way is easiest. 

He knows when he sees her, tomorrow, that the thought of dropping to one knee as soon as his eyes lock on her will cross his mind.

And he thinks when he does get back, after a week of chirps about being wifed off, he might just test the waters.

Nico doesn’t think he’s ever had a quicker flight than the one he and Luca took back from Tenerife. From check-in, to boarding, to the plane ride, itself, he felt like he had blinked and landed back on home soil, heart beating that little bit quicker in anticipation of seeing Poppy - of his eyes laying on that perfect bump for the first time in a week and catching the slightest difference, making up for lost time while they can in the privacy of their apartment before they spend the week with his brother and sister.

The train ride from the airport flies by too - Nico feeling excitement akin to when he was younger, and his dad would take him and Luca to go practice at their local rink, and he was at a point in his life that he loved nothing more than hockey, wanted nothing more than to don his skates and play to his heart’s content.

He feels that way about Poppy, now, he thinks. 

Like she’s something he can dream toward - push and strive to keep her in his life for as long as he possibly can. 

It feels like the blink of an eye before he’s putting his key in the door of the apartment, pushing in with his case following behind him, discarded in the entryway as he steps though the hall in search of her. 

“Baby, are you home?” He calls, his heart thumping as he waits to catch his first proper glimpse of her in a week.

“In the kitchen!” She calls back, voice like his favourite song, and when he steps into the room he sees her by the oven, prepping for dinner. When she had first offered to pick him up from the train station, he had joked that he didn’t trust her driving alone on European roads, but the truth of it was that he felt better coming home to her - where she was safe, and he wasn’t putting her out just so that he could selfishly see her sooner. 

And seeing her there, in the heart of the apartment he had bought last summer, when the idea of her ever being in it was nothing but a dream, swollen and round and growing their baby, he thinks that reality is more than worth the wait.

“Hey,” he sidles up behind her, arms placed on either side of her body on the counter as she chops at some peppers. Poppy angles her head so that he can press his usual kiss to her cheek, and Nico feels it puff up with a smile. 

She smells clean and fresh, like home, like a mixture of the detergent she uses on their sheets, and his body wash that she still likes to steal, and he swipes his nose at her flesh as he takes a prolonged inhale of her skin, filling his lungs with the familiarity of it and making up for the days he spent away. 

“Hi,” she turns back enough that he can press a kiss to her swollen lips, slow and sweet, “I figured you’d be beat when you got home so I ran you a bath, I only just shut it off like 2 minutes ago.”

He kind of likes how there isn’t a big fuss about him coming home - likes that she’s welcoming him back like it hasn’t been almost a week, and it diminishes the guilt he had been feeling for leaving her behind at all. It reinforces the thoughts he’s always had - that Poppy makes everything easy. 

She puts the knife down and turns in his arms when he kisses her again, and his hand swipes from the curve of her belly to the small of her back, keeping her stomach pressed to his.

“You’re too good to me,” he mumbles before his lips touch hers again, nose bumping teasingly at hers when she starts to chase him for more. “There’s room in that tub for 3, you know.”

“It’s supposed to be for you to relax,” she tells him as her hands travel the broad expanse of his chest, sweeping to his shoulders and down the width of his arms that are circled around her. “And I’ll have dinner ready for when you get out.”

“Trust me, Mohn,” he hums, his hands travelling slowly down her sides, “That is my idea of relaxing.” And then he leans down to hook an arm behind her knees, lifting her before she has a chance to protest, all too prepared after a week of training to carry her down the hall toward the bathroom, making sure she isn’t too curled up that it’s uncomfortable with her bump. “Dinner can wait.”

“You missed me that much, huh?” She giggles as he sends a gentle kick to the door, letting it swing open before he steps into the room. “You gonna have me sit on your lap while we eat, too?”

“Yeah, you can feed me if you want,” he laughs as he places her on the counter in the bathroom, her legs parting immediately for him to slot himself between them. “And I missed you more than it might be healthy to admit.”

“I missed you too,” Poppy smiles softly, hands reaching up to tuck the grown out flicks of hair behind his ears as his own hands place themselves on either side of her hips, “Appreciated all those sweaty workout videos you sent me though, definitely made up for you being gone.”

“Thought they might,” Nico chuckles as he starts working at undressing her, sliding her shorts down her legs and throwing them into the hamper. “Appreciated that video you sent me of your belly moving like something out of Alien.”

“She’ll probably start up soon, she likes to move while I’m eating now, she keeps getting the hiccups, it’s quite cute.”

Nico leans down once he’s lifted the big t-shirt that covers Poppy’s torso, and while she works it off, he presses a soft kiss to her bare belly, nudging the curve of it with his nose before he stands to his usual height and starts to work his own clothes off. He can feel the heat of her gaze as he steps out of his underwear, and it prickles at his skin like a lingering longing, like the way his own feelings have lingered over the past week.

A week where he had pushed forward on the sheer thought of Poppy, and now that she’s in front of him, those thoughts swirl into something overwhelming. 

He offers her a hand to help her down from the counter, and guides her toward the tub, the water still hot, but not scolding, on it’s way to tepid as he steps in and positions himself toward the back. He holds her steady as she steps over the edge, and sinks down as she lowers herself, her bump making it difficult to do so with ease, but he spreads his legs for her to sink back into him, and he soon feels her relax with her back to his front.

“Does it hurt,” he mutters with his limbs curved around hers, “When she moves a lot?”

He had noticed before he left that things had become a little more difficult for Poppy - sleeping, staying on her feet for extended periods - and when she had sent him a video of movements she could see through her belly, he had thought it seemed uncomfortable, but she just shrugs against him.

“It’s just weird, I guess,” she sighs, muscles seeming to melt against him. “Depends how she’s positioned, she was playing my ribs like a xylophone the other day, that wasn’t fun.”

Nico smiles, hand coming around her front to caress her belly, rubbing gentle circles into her soft skin. “Where is she now?”

“I think her butt is at the front,” her hand rests on top of his, moving it up a little, and a bit more to the side, “She’s gonna give me hell later, I can feel it.”

“Maybe she’ll behave now that her daddy’s home,” he mutters, his lips falling by instinct to kiss at Poppy’s bare shoulder before he hooks his chin over it, “Maybe she missed me too.”

“She definitely missed you. She practically did somersaults every time you came up in conversation.”

“My girl,” he smiles into Poppy’s neck, “Did she kick for Nina yet?”

“Oh yeah,” she laughs, her hand moving to trail up and down Nico’s leg beside her, “She jumped around so much in there that I learned a new word while you were gone.”

“From Nina?”

“Häsli,” she says with perfect, practiced pronunciation. 

“Little bunny,” Nico chuckles, both hands patting at the bump where his daughter rests. “I like it.”

“Good, ‘cause your parents have started calling her it, too. No respect for Cheeto around here.”

Nico finds himself melting in ways he didn’t think he needed to - an ache so present in his bones he hadn’t even realised it was there, all of a sudden fading to nothing as he sits in the tepid, soapy water with his girls in front of him. Poppy absentmindedly uses her fingers to trickle droplets down his calves, and makes space for him to rest his head in the space where her neck and shoulder meets. 

“Who’s the better teacher?” He asks, looking up and watching as the width of her cheeks puff out into a close-lipped smile. 

“Well, you have an automatic advantage, considering I can’t ask your sister to teach me all the dirty stuff.”

“Is that all I’m good for, the dirty stuff?”

“I’m yet to be able to hold a conversation that has nothing to do with body parts, so you tell me.”

“Yeah, well the more you learn, the less I get away with, so we might have to put a pause on the lessons.”

“And what is it you think you’ve been getting away with?” Poppy asks, twisting a little so she can look back at him, and it’s when her eyes meet his that Nico feels some warped sense of security wash over him. He hadn’t planned on bringing this up, especially not so soon after coming back from his trip, but it just feels right.

And it’s better to get it out of the way sooner - where better to test the waters than in the bathtub?

“Whenever we meet someone, I’ve been introducing you as my wife,” he admits, cheek pressed to her shoulder blade as he looks up at her through thick lashes. 

Her lips twist in amusement, eyes shimmering in the warm light of the bathroom, and it seems like she’s biting back a smile at the revelation. His heartbeat steadies just a little. “Oh really? How have you been getting around the distinct lack of a ring on my finger?”

“I tell them your hands are too swollen to wear it,” he admits, taking a hand from her belly to pick up her left one. 

Her smile fades slowly as she glances down, his fingers squeezing a little at the one closest to her pinky. “Wait, you’re serious?”

“Very.”

“What about-,” she starts, and before she can glance back, Nico lifts his own left hand in anticipation of what she’s about to ask, the signet ring she had gifted him when she first came overseas, that she hasn’t even noticed for as long as they’ve been together out here, sitting comfortably on his own ring finger. “Oh.”

“I can get you your own, if you want,” he tries, trying not to hold his breath as he makes the suggestion - makes light of it, even, just to test her reaction. Her face is angled forward as she looks down at his finger, and her own hand twists to fiddle with the ring that sits there, so he can’t exactly see what she’s thinking. “I know you said you already had one, but-,”

“Just to sell the story better?” She asks, still looking at his hand. 

“Or because I’m in love with you,” he pouts, his lips moving against her skin as he speaks, anticipating a rejection of sorts - although he still feels the lax press of her spine to his chest. She hasn’t gone rigid, hasn’t recoiled from his touch - their bodies are still merged together in the tight space, and a part of him feels better for it. 

She turns, finally, levelling him with a look that has her gaze flickering between his eyes, like she’s trying to read his mind.

“You better not be proposing to me in the bathtub,” she frowns, “You can’t ask someone for their hand in marriage within 6 feet of a toilet, Nico, that’s definitely an unwritten rule.”

He feels something dissolve in his chest as it bubbles with affection, spreading through his bloodstream and directing itself to every corner of his body - joyous laughter rippling up his throat and spilling out into her neck. 

“Why are you laughing?” She giggles, her body shaking against his in the most delightful way, “I’m dead serious, anywhere but the bathroom, please.”

“Okay,” he chuckles, wanting nothing more than to lean up and press his lips to her beautiful smile. “I’ll bare that in mind.”

“You do that.”

I will, he thinks, taking that as her confirmation.

Not in the bathtub is a far cry from not ever.

Maybe Timo was right - as much as it pains Nico to think - maybe she has always been his Poppy, and maybe, if he can find the right time and place to ask, she always will be. 

Poppy

Last year, Poppy’s summer had felt like the longest of her life.

She had worked all the way through to Mid-July - choosing to work around the summer programmes that were run through the Foundation had taken up most of her time, and she would rather have taken the extra pay than mope around thinking about how everyone else was spending their time off.

Ever since college, she and Nia would spend their weekends together in the summer - and that worked the same last year, with both of them still working in Jersey and having their family nearby. It worked for their other friends too - until their lives away from the group started to take priority, and their group became whittled down to just the two best friends.

Friend group outings had become a rare occurrence, and so when they did happen, they were quite the spectacle - weekend trips down to Atlantic City, or bagging invites to parties the girls really had no business being - like rooftop bars in Manhattan, where a player from the Giants was throwing a party, and their friend Kelsey’s boyfriend, Liam, had somehow secured their names on the list. 

Poppy and Nia always got ready together - reminiscent of their teenage years, blasting music through the speakers in Poppy’s bedroom and letting Nia raid her closet while she did her makeup.

“We’re gonna need to prep Els on how to be cool, she can’t be asking for players to sign her napkin so she can frame it for Jensen.” Nia called as she came out of Poppy’s closet, shrugging into the strappy sleeves of a mini dress she had borrowed, pulling her hair from getting tangled beneath the arms. 

“Elsie’s not coming,” Poppy replied absentmindedly, a small, soft brush sweeping pigment across her eyelid, “It’s just me, you and Kels,”

“What? Why?” Nia had whined, zipping her dress up behind her back. “Did her sitter bail?”

“This stays between me and you, but she’s pregnant again,” Poppy told her, relaying the cliff-notes version of the hour-long conversation she had had with her cousin earlier that day. “So no more girls nights with her for a while.”

“Poor girl,” Nia huffed, falling back onto Poppy’s bed so that she could put her heels on, “I can’t think of anything worse than being pregnant right now, I’m in my prime, I’m not letting anyone dislodge my organs. Nothing is worth that kind of damage.”

“Gross” Poppy shuddered, the thought of having a baby and her age sending literal shivers down her spine. “But same. I’m so far off of being ready to be a parent, it isn’t even funny.”

She had weirdly enough been thinking a lot about what her life was turning out to be around that time - spearing straight for her 25th birthday and feeling the daunting pressure of a looming quarter-life crisis, she had put some thought at least into the traditional stuff.

But babies hadn’t been at the forefront of her mind. 

“Plus, it’s hard enough to find a remotely decent guy to go on one singular date with, never mind raise a child. Elsie got lucky with Jared.”

“Right,” Nia had scoffed half-heartedly, ambling up behind Poppy and finishing off the curls in her hair. There had been a look in her eyes - dismissive and evasive - that had caught Poppy’s attention.

“What’s the look for?”

“Nothing,” Nia shrugged, lips turned down in denial and continuing to work at her best friend’s hair. “Just think that for you of all people, it’s not that hard to find somebody decent.”

Poppy frowned, watching Nia behind her, trying to think of a single guy she had ever dated or spoken to that had garnered her approval.

She had always been supportive of Poppy, knowing that if she were to start something up with a guy, it would be after a lot of thought and meticulous research - Poppy rarely dated, and if she did, it mostly didn’t work because she wasn’t that good at it. She was always so focused on work, and her friends, that trying to make time for anybody outside of all that just felt exhausting. 

Guys usually ended up breaking things off with her, telling her they could tell her heart wasn’t in it, and Nia would always curse them whenever Poppy relayed it back to her, but there was always that look - like she knew something Poppy didn’t.

“You’ve literally watched my every attempt at a relationship crash and burn, Ni,” she narrowed her eyes, “I don’t get what part of my dating life seems easy to you.”

“The part where you have a ready made relationship just waiting for you to press the start button.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Nico,” Nia said, like it had been the most obvious answer in the world. 

The last thing Poppy had wanted to think about - again - was Nico.

She had been trying to think of anything but since he had left Jersey, but everything unfortunately was starting to remind her of him, just as they did every other summer.

Walks in the sun, passing places they would always go together - snapping a picture of a coffee from her favourite shop and thinking of who she could send it to instead of him. Running their shared route, soft breeze running through her hair as she jogged through the park, playing music in her headphones that he had once recommended.

It had been hard to shake him off - but she had grown to be good at it over the years.

Nia bringing him up had been new - unexpected - and wasn’t contributing to the routine of forgetting he existed until he would come back to New Jersey in September. 

“The second that one of you makes a move, you’re literally ready to go with the perfect man.”

“I’m not gonna be in a relationship with Nico,” Poppy snickered, trying to find humour in what nonsense her best friend was coming up with. 

She didn’t have a ready to go relationship with Nico Hischier. They were friends. That was all they would ever be.

And not only had she told Nia that a hundred times before, she also knew that Nico had said the same - shrugging off jokes made in front of the two of them and smiling awkwardly at Poppy whenever anyone had dared to make a comment on their friendship being anything other than just that. 

“We don’t even talk for like 4 months out of the year,” Poppy frowned, referring to the routine Nico had adopted over the years, of returning home to Switzerland for the summers, and leaving his friendship with Poppy behind - only communicating through social media likes and odd messages in the same conversation thread within a wider group chat.

She had never really minded it - not to the point of moping - but she had always wished things could be just a little different on that front.

“I don’t get why you guys don’t just text each other,” Nia rolled her eyes as she ran the barrel of the curling iron down the lengths of Poppy’s hair, eyes meeting hers in the reflection of the mirror. “You act like you’re not allowed to cross his mind all summer, it’s stupid, no offence.”

“He deserves a break, Ni,” Poppy had shrugged, “From everything, especially after how the season ended, I’m just a reminder of his life here, and he probably wants to escape that.”

“I don’t think he means you when he says those sorts of things, babe,” she responded, letting the curl drop into her free hand and scrunching it until it cooled down. 

“How did we even get onto this?”

“Because I’ve been looking for an opportunity to bring it up, duh,” Nia jested, “C’mon, just reach out. It doesn’t have to be a text, what was the last thing he posted on his instagram stories? Just reply to that.”

Poppy’s lips twisted, her phone feeling increasingly heavy in her grip as she weighed her options up. 

For as long as she had known him, her and Nico would never really talk over the summer. She lived her life, and he lived his, away from the Devils, away from The Rock, and it had worked well, for the most part.

Sure, a part of her always missed him. A part of her would watch his stories over, would think about what his life in Switzerland looked like, and if she could ever possibly fit into it - but another part, a larger part, would suppress all that. Push her feelings back down until they were nothing - shut away behind some barricaded door in the back of her mind.

It was weird, she thought, how much they flourished in his absence - thoughts she wouldn’t usually spare dedicated to him. Especially now that Nia was bringing it up out of nowhere.

Her perceptive best friend suggesting there could ever have been something more was sparking a flame within her she had long tried to put out. But it wasn’t entirely Nia’s doing - there had been embers floating around her subconscious for a while, now.

She blamed that night in Finnegan’s Bar, not long before he had left.

Cuddled up to him in that booth, comfortable in the lingering silence, the steady beat of his heart below her hand. She had thought, at the end of that night, that something might have been different - and she realised that had probably been why she was thinking about him more that summer.

Poppy unlocked her phone and brought up her Instagram, scrolling through the stories on the home page until she saw his picture. 

“It’ll probably be some workout video, I can’t reply to that, he’s gonna think I’m thirsty.”

“You are,” Nia had jibed, “Pop, honey, you either gotta put up or shut up. If you’re not gonna reach out, I don’t wanna hear any more of your whining about him for the rest of the month.”

“You brought him up,” Poppy frowned, “Please be kinder to me when you have hot tools in your hands, you’re giving me anxiety.”

“Whatever, I’m gonna get another drink before we go, do you want one?”

“I’m good,” Poppy smiled, watching her best friend put the curling iron down safely on the heat-proof mat on her dresser and make her way out of the bedroom and through to the kitchen. 

Her thumb had hovered on her screen for a good minute before she pressed down, biting the bullet and viewing his most recent story with bated breath. 

There were a few of them - it seemed like he was out with friends - probably-drunken selfies and videos of a DJ at some club - but the last photo was the one that caught her attention, properly. 

Nico with his arms around a girl - a gorgeous girl, sharp features, perfect hair, piercing eyes, a killer smile - and his lips pressed to her temple. 

She had let the photo time out before it shrunk away into his private profile, and she had felt like time had stopped in place after that - until the sound of Nia’s heels clicking back down the hallway caught her attention.

“I know you said no but I made mine too strong so I had to pour it out a little and make two,” she had said as she entered the room, Poppy locking her phone and turning it face down before she could see.

“Thanks,” she had accepted the drink with a smile, gulping it down in the hopes that the liquor might have burned through some of the growing ache in her chest. 

“Damn girl,” Nia had scoffed, “Thought you were good?”

“I realised I should drink for two, considering Elsie can’t anymore.”

“Good point! We should both do that, show our solidarity for the cause.”

“Exactly. Getting shit-faced is what she’d want us to do in her honour.”

Nia glanced down at Poppy’s downturned phone - a look Poppy wouldn’t have caught if she wasn’t nervously watching her best friend in the hopes that she, for once in her life, wouldn’t be so perceptive. 

“I’ll have a baby with you.”

Poppy laughed, right from the depths of her chest, tension easing from her shoulders as she shook her head.

“I don’t want a baby,” she declined, rolling her eyes and standing up, “I want to get drunk on rooftop bars with my friends and NFL players and eat as much deli meat and cheese as my body can handle for as long as it can handle it.”

“That sounds like a plan.”

Poppy didn’t know at the time why that picture on Nico's story had felt like a kick to the gut, but she had swallowed down her hurt and smiled, tight lipped, at her best friend.

Getting wasted and forgetting about Nico for the rest of the summer - that had sounded like a plan. 

Looking back on last summer, Poppy barely recognises her old life. Rooftop parties with endless cocktails, tiny dresses and high heels and hair that didn’t fall flat and frizzy the second she blinked too hard at it in the mirror. 

She can barely remember being able to look down at her thighs without being sat down.

The only thing that remains the same is finding time to lounge around on the beach. Growing up, spending her time on Jersey beaches - her family renting a house in Mantoloking most years, or making the trip down to Ocean City and Cape May with her girls when she was old enough - had become a staple for her, and she has been so thankful that it’s something her and Nico share a love of.

She’s adored her summer in Switzerland, so far - as far away from expectations as it might yet have been. 

She hadn’t expected to get such little one-on-one time with Nico, but she can hardly complain - not when his family and friends have all welcomed her with such open arms. It’s something so new to her too, getting to do everything in a group, bonding with more than just Nico, sharing parts of herself and her life beyond what she has only ever shared with him before, and she’s never really felt so at home with such a close-knit family.

She watches sports on the couch with his dad, goes to the grocery store with his mom, plays cards out on the deck with his brother, spends as much time with his sister as she would with Nia back home in Jersey, and she gets Nico to herself at night, or on the rare couple of days in a row they’ll stay in his apartment closer to the city.

But she loves this - being so close with everyone. Loves it so much that she doesn’t really care that it isn’t just her and Nico, she doesn’t really want it to be.

Katja helps her through the rough stages of her pregnancy - sometimes anticipating symptoms before they even come on, sharing tips on how to lessen the constant ache in her stomach, how to sleep easier, what supplements she can take that don’t make her feel nauseous again or bloated and heavy. 

Rino helps too, recalling what he can of his wife’s pregnancies, remembering how Katja could get her back pain to go away by relaxing in a rocking chair with a cushion wedged into her arch, and he had dug the exact one chair the depths of the garage, making sure it was safe after years of misuse and placing it out on the deck in the backyard, right beside what had always been Nico’s chair.

Luca is probably the best language teacher of them all, not that she’d tell Nico that - he’s the only one with the nerve to correct her, doing so with an amused glint in her eye until she gets it perfect and offering her a proud nod when she can finally speak a full sentence - a useful one at that, instead of random words and nicknames.

Nina allows Poppy to keep an essence of her independence - of the girl she was before she was pregnant, or had come back to Switzerland as Nico’s girlfriend. She makes sure Poppy keeps doing things for herself - accompanies her to the salon, to the local mall, gives her valued opinion on different outfits Poppy tried, and what makes her look like a frumpy mom and not her usual self. The two of them trade books between each other, get ready with each other when the group all go out, and it fills a gap that Poppy never even realised she had until she met her - this desire for a big sister, a want for something she never even knew had been ripped away from her before she was ever even born. 

And Nico.

She has all of this, now, because of him.

He’s given her a life so sweet, and so wonderful, and it’s barely even started yet.

Their little girl is still sat comfortably in her stomach, kicking and moving and causing aches all over, but she’s contributed to a world so beautiful that Poppy doesn’t want to remember life before it. 

And he gave it all to her.

He gave her their baby, his family, summer sun in a foreign country, rocking chairs and card games and trips to the mall. 

Trips to the beach with his siblings, who don’t let him forget his status as the youngest, doting on Poppy while teasing him the whole time, breaking off from the group in search of gelato for her, and none for him, because he has two hands and two feet and a wallet bigger than anyone’s to go and get his own.

And that leaves her with just him, wading in the gloriously warm shallow sea, the sun glistening against soft waves, and his hands around her, large and safe, happy and secure - and so in love she hasn’t stopped smiling in weeks.

So infatuated by the man in front of her, that she’d let him do anything, take her anywhere he wants.

“It’s a shame it’s not just the two of us, today,” Nico hums, a large hand stroking up Poppy’s back, sliding under the straps of her bikini top and tugging, teasingly, “Bet I could have convinced you to take this off.”

“We’re in public, perv,” she scoffs, her own palms flat against his chest, “Also, you can’t accuse your own family of cockblocking you.”

“I can when they won’t leave you alone,” he pouts, “My brother and sister never waited on me hand and foot, if I want gelato I have to go get it myself.” He mimics his sisters voice, face scrunching adorably. 

“My heart bleeds for you,” she groans in feigned pity, “I’m carrying precious cargo, and there’s some serious name stakes up for grabs right now.”

“So you’re pitting them against each other for your own benefit?”

“Exactly, you Hischiers love a little healthy competition,” Poppy smiles, back arching as his hand travels down her spine, the curve of her belly pressing right into his below the water. His skin smooth and hot, making her want to press even harder. “You need to up your game, I’ve got a godparent thing going on with some of the boys, too, you wouldn’t believe how much they’re willing to do for you when they think it puts them ahead in the rankings.”

“We’re not leaving our baby girl in the hands of any of those idiots in the unfortunate event of our deaths, Poppy.” Nico chuckles, lifting her with hands lowered to the backs of her thighs so that he can carry her deeper into the water. 

“I know that, and you know that,” she presses a finger to the tip of his nose before her arms curl around his broad shoulders, “But if it means that Timo always brings me madeleines when he’s around, and Jesper and Nic always buy cute baby clothes for us and send me pictures, then who are we to rain on their parade?”

The smile that stretches across Nico’s lips is fond as he asks, “Who’s the front runner?”

“Well, Timo for now, obviously.”

“Obviously,” he agrees in good humour.

“But I’ve managed to convince Jonas he’s in with a good chance after we went to visit him, he kept bringing cut up fruit out to me while I was around the pool.”

“Baby, I cut up that fruit for you, don’t let him take the credit.”

“Oh, well then he’s disqualified for being a liar.”

“Why’s Timo the obvious choice?” He asks, now at a point in the water that if he let Poppy go, she would only just be able to keep her chin above the water, and she clutches on a little tighter.

“He’s an October baby, like me.” The hands around the back of his neck start playing with the ends of his hair, scratching softly at the skin as she presses herself entirely against him. “If anyone’s gonna raise our daughter, it’s going to be a Libra, we’re fair people.”

“Makes complete sense,” he jokes, “Written in the stars.”

“You get it,” she smiles, ignoring his sarcasm entirely. “But I’m waiting for the penny to drop when they realise all the boys back home are gonna want to be in the running. I have big plans for when we get back to Jersey, they’ve all got a lot of catching up to do, Luke’s in with a pretty good chance, you know.”

“You and that kid, I swear,” 

“He’s very precious to me, Nico.”

“Yeah, don’t I know it.”

“Jack on the other hand has dropped way out of contention. We were talking on the phone the other day while you were training and called me Pop-belly. That’s out of line.”

Nico knows that laughing in any way at that is going to earn him some sort of reaction, but he really can’t help the way his lips quiver of their own volition. 

“Yeah, laugh it up,” Poppy scoffs, swatting lightly at his shoulder, “I’ll be the only one laughing when he turns into my own personal smoothie butler when we go back. He has no chance of getting back in my good graces, but I won’t be telling him that.”

“You’re an evil genius.”

“It’s your devil spawn communicating through the womb,” Poppy hums, leaning in to press a proud kiss firmly to the dimple that forms in his cheek when he smiles at her. “I was a good girl before you corrupted me.”

“You were never a good girl,” he smirks, with his voice low, one hand travelling up the back of her thigh until he can pinch at her ass. 

“Watch it, Hischier,” she warns, feeling steady enough in his hold to take an arm from around his neck and stroke the side of her finger along his slightly stubbled jaw. “You’re on thin ice with me already after shaving again, you don’t want to start being mean.”

“Oh, I’m being mean?” He asks, the hand that had pinched at her flesh now slipping beneath the fabric at the top of the back of her thighs. “You’re the one walking around in this bikini and not letting me touch you.”

“We’re in public, people get arrested for doing the things you want to do to me in places like this.”

“Could be worth it,” he shrugs, “You’re forgetting I’m kind of a national treasure, baby, they’d probably let me go with a warning.”

“Yeah, well, can’t risk it. I kind of need you. Plus, I think you’ve already done enough touching, you’ve literally impregnated me.”

“Way to make it sound romantic.” Nico mumbles, leaning to press a kiss to her bare shoulder, nose nudging once more at the thin straps of her bikini that curve around her slender neck. “Could never touch you enough.”

“You’re touching me right now, aren’t you?”

“Not where I want to.” He repositions where her legs are curled around his hips, just to emphasise his point, pulling her tighter around his torso until he can buck up into her and feel her shudder against him. 

“You can touch me wherever you want later,” she promises, her eyes meeting his, speckles of sunlight glistening off the surface of the water and straight into his irises, warming them in a way that shoots heat all the way down her spine.

“I’ll hold you to that.”

“You better.” She presses a sweet kiss straight to his lips, one hand holding him close as they part, and she kisses him quick again, before saying, “Thank you for cutting up my fruit.”

He smiles, eyes squinting against the sunlight and crinkling in the corners, deep dimples forming in each cheek.

“Thank you for having my baby.”

She giggles, kissing him again, unable to resist muttering, “Thank you for putting a baby in me,” against his lips before he nips at her mouth, moving along her face in a targeted attack as his hands grip firmer at her hips, tickling her until the sound of laughter fills the air around them.

—

Poppy and Nico had made their way out of the water and onto their towels in the shade by the time Nina and Luca had returned with 3 cones of gelato in hand. Luca had already eaten half of his, coffee-flavoured, and Nina had strawberry, handing a cone with a white scoop over to Poppy.

“Fior di latte,” she had smiled sweetly, “Like milk ice, you said that was your favourite.”

“Thank you,” Poppy had blushed, the smallest gesture of her remembering that sending a buzz down her spine. Nico’s putting beside her, and mutterings of how they could have gotten him one, too, soon forgotten when she started to share.

The two of them had gone for a walk to find a bar on the beach front where they could watch soccer, leaving Poppy and Nico cuddled up on their towel, lost in their own world as they shared the cone between them.

She was resting between Nico’s legs, absentmindedly licking at the dessert when a screaming blur had zoomed past them, kicking sand up in their wake as three young children chased each other down to the water.

Poppy thinks that a year ago, she might have pouted about the sand being thrown onto her legs, but she finds herself smiling softly as she reaches back with the cone, waiting for Nico to have a turn taking a bite.

“Do you ever think about having more?” She can tell without looking back at him that he’s speaking around a mouthful of gelato, and even the thought of it makes her chest warm with the rumbles of laughter. 

“Kids?” Poppy asks, and he hums affirmatively in response, “We don’t even have this one yet, babe,”

“I know,” he mutters, and she can hear the smile in his tone as his thumb swipes at the curve of the top her bump, “But do you ever think about what our family might look like in a few years?”

Our family still makes her heart skip a beat, and she finds herself relaxing even further into his embrace - melting, almost, into his chest, warmed by the rays of sun he has been bathing under.

“We probably need to see how difficult this one ends up being before I think about having any more.” She licks quickly at the drip travelling down her thumb before offering the cone back to Nico, who shakes his head as he lowers it to her shoulder, nose nudging against her skin.

“Should have put two in you while I had the chance,” he mumbles, lips pressed into the side of her neck, trailing soft, but purposeful kisses.

“Not how that works, babe,” Poppy chuckles, lifting her chin to give him more space for his ministrations. “Although they do run in my family, my dad’s a twin.”

“There’s two of him?”

“Yeah, him and my uncle Peter. That’s where the whole name thing started in my family.”

“Name thing?” He juts his chin when she looks back, asking for another taste. 

“We’re all P’s,” she frowns as she focuses on directing the cone back toward his mouth, making sure she doesn’t smush it in his face.

“Oli isn’t a P.” The gelato lines his lips messily as he speaks, and her eyes start to crinkle in the corners as she takes him in. How can he be so stupidly pretty with mint choc chip smearing his upper lip?

“Oli’s a fraud,” Poppy chuckles, swiping a thumb against the soft flesh of his mouth, bringing it to her own to clear it of the cold, sticky substance. “His name’s Philip Jr, but people started calling him Lil Phil and it gave him a complex.”

“Poppy, baby, did you start calling him that?”

“No comment.” 

“You get all grumpy when Jack gives you dumb nicknames, and here you are calling your own flesh and blood Lil Phil.”

“I don’t get grumpy,” she pouts, recoiling her hand from his reach when he tries to lean back in for another taste of gelato. 

“You threatened to block him the other day.”

“That’s ‘cause he called me Pop-belly,” she grumbles, “That’s not funny, it’s mean.”

“Not funny at all,” Nico concurs, lips twisting in the corner as he bites back a smile, eyes gleaming as he watches Poppy sit up and face him, fully. Her eyes narrow, gaze zeroing in on where he’s trying not to laugh, again, at the horrific moniker, and her own lips twist with mirth as she shuffles, resting back on her heels, limbs half on the towel and half on the warm sand. 

“We should stick to your thing, when we’re picking a name for Cheeto,” she hums, meeting his eye as her tongue swipes against the cone, watching his eyelids grow heavier as he focuses on the movement of her lips. “4 letters, no chance of funny nicknames, no chance of people spelling it wrong on birthday cards,” she reaches out for him to get the taste he had been chasing before, and just as his lips press to the frozen substance, she adds, “You all have such pretty names, too. Like Luca.”

Poppy shouldn’t like the darkness that flashes across his eyes when his jealousy flares up, shouldn’t want to push his buttons to make it happen, but she can’t help herself - her favourite pastime all summer has been making Nico think she has a crush on his brother.

It’s so stupid, so childish but so so fun.

It had started off lighthearted enough - her first time meeting Luca, she had been a little knocked back by his presence - ruggedly handsome where she might usually have considered Nico softer, but there were definite similarities. And she wasn’t exactly attracted to him, but she had been flustered - obviously so - and it’s Nico’s own fault for making his notice of that fact so obvious - brows furrowed, his grip on her hand tightening, and a persistent urge to be present whenever Poppy hung around his brother.

She blames the fact that she misses that teasing aspect of their relationship - when their conversations were based off of sarcasm and inescapable charm - for how she continued to press his buttons over the summer. It’s hard to maintain their old snark when her hormones are all out whack, and all she wants is for him to get his clothes off and press her to the nearest surface at any given moment. He constantly has the upper hand, and she’s not exactly used to that being a part of their dynamic.

Teasing him about Luca kills two birds with one stone - she gets her fun, and she elicits that possessive part of him that he somehow locks away every time he gets eyes on her belly, that she can see him restraining in order to handle her with care.

“You’re not funny,” he huffs, swiping the melting gelato from her grip and taking an exasperated lick of the sides, not realising how adorable he looks making little swipes with his tongue when he’s trying to look annoyed.

“I’m dead serious, your brother’s a hunk.”

“Mohn,” he sighs, “I’ll dump this in the sand right now, and I know how much you want to eat this cone.”

“Fine, fine, fine,” she relents as she giggles, reaching to grasp at his arm where he’s holding it away from her, fingertips stroking teasingly to make him give in. “I don’t think your brother is hot.”

“Thank you,” he smiles, offering the gelato back to her.

“Your dad on the other hand.”

“Poppy,” he warns.

“Kidding! I’m kidding,” she laughs, shuffling forward and back between his parted legs, “You’re the only man for me, baby, I swear.”

“I better be,” he pouts, guiding her back into the space he leaves, where she had been cuddled up before, where he misses the press of her body between his thighs. “I booked a table at that Italian place you liked the other week for tonight,” he tells her, voice lowered as one hand falls to her waist, and the other reaches up to push her hair behind her ear and cup at her cheek, “And it’s under my name, so you can’t ditch me for my brother or you get no tiramisu for dessert.”

Her mouth drops at the threat, spare hand reaching up to grip at his shoulder. “I promise I���ll never love another man in my life.”

She says it with a tone so serious that he can’t help but laugh, and her lips tremble too as she watches him, rolling his eyes with affection and looking away so that he doesn’t entirely give him.

She doesn’t really think it’s much of a joke, though.

There isn’t a single person on the planet who could make her feel like this - so happy, so warm, so content. 

She might never love anyone like she loves Nico.

Except for maybe their daughter. And whatever other family he wants to give her in a few years. 

Poppy can’t quite figure out why the thought of going out for dinner alone with Nico is making her nervous.

They’re in a relationship, have been for around 3 months now, and she’s literally carrying his child, but as he stands behind her in the apartment, hands sliding torturously slow up her spine as he zips up her dress and making eye contact with her in the mirror’s reflection, she starts to feel her heart race. 

She’s trying not to be quieter than usual as they walk hand in hand in the warm summer evening air, Nico guiding her down the streets that are comfortingly familiar to him, and that are starting to feel more like home every day to her, too. 

It doesn’t help that he looks so good too, hair grown out and pushed back out of his face, a clean shave - as much as she had grumbled about that, she can’t deny how gorgeous he looks - a loose black shirt and baggy linen trousers, fancy watch clutched around his wrist.

And he makes her feel good about how she looks, too, despite flashes of insecurity hitting her over the past few weeks. Their afternoon spent between the sheets when they had returned from the beach, Nico not being able to get enough of her, and whispering sweet nothings and sexy mutterings into her skin as they finally took advantage of some much needed privacy.

He had chosen her dress for her, had strapped her slightly heeled sandals onto her feet with kisses pressed to her calves, and she thinks it’s all the attention he’s given her over the past 24 hours that has her feeling what she can only describe as high.

It’s what has her stopping him at the corner before the restaurant, seeing the perfect place to prop her phone up on a nearby wall so that she can capture the moment - the two of them looking so perfect that she wants her daughter to see, wants to print it out and tape it into her memory book to show her just how in love and happy her mommy and daddy are.

“Can we take a photo?” 

“You want me to take one of you?” He asks, stopping as she starts to adjust her camera settings on her phone, adding the timer so she can leave her phone perched at a good angle. 

“No, I want one together. So we can show Cheeto how hot her parents were.”

Nico chuckles as she places her phone on the side and pulls him to a good distance, holding her in his arms and smiling down at her as she holds back onto him - the two of them repeating a couple times with different poses before Poppy has a nice little collection of photos, and they can carry on toward the restaurant.

She swipes through and shows them to him as they walk together, and she sends them straight to him so he can have them for himself. 

“Is that hard launch material for your instagram?” He asks as she zooms in on one of them, Poppy’s arms circled around his waist, the biggest, toothiest grin on her face and her eyes scrunched shut.

“I’m gonna put them in Cheeto’s pregnancy book,” Poppy hums, not answering him directly. “Remind me to keep a card or something from the restaurant, she loves their pasta. We can come back when she’s older.”

Her nerves have increased tenfold at the mere mention of that godforsaken app.

Her instagram had never been a big deal before - private since the day she started her account, she only really ever had friends from school and work on there. She never posted in search of likes or validation, just to share little updates on her life, but she had to delete it at the start of summer once the requests to follow her started flooding in.

The first barrage had been easy to ignore, but once the zeros started adding up, and the requests went over 10,000, she figured that just getting rid of it would do her a world of good.

Anybody that needed to be updated, she could just text anyway. It wasn’t a big deal, which is why she hasn’t told Nico yet.

She doesn’t want to worry him with the fact that her whole feed had ended up on Twitter somehow anyway - that the thought of posting anything new, and it ending up shared by one of her existing followers to an intrusive gossip account freaks her out. She doesn’t have the energy to whittle down who might be leaking her stuff, so deleting the app entirely and counting the rest of her privacy as a loss had felt like the safest option.

And it’s not like she misses it.

It’s also not like she cares that much about people knowing about her and Nico - she’d scream from the rooftops about him if she could - but the lack of control scares her a little.

It’s all so invasive - seeing herself cropped out of group pictures, with threads of discourse about her, her life, her relationship with Nico and the rest of the team. Everything twisted so far out of context she starts to question her own reality. 

She had sought advice from Nina about the whole thing, and the two of them had agreed that between themselves, they could figure things out - documenting their summer just for them, without stressing Nico out about what was happening behind the scenes. And she’s grateful, at least, that she has someone like Nina in her corner - who understands what it feels like, to an extent.

Telling Nico would just make him feel guilty, or, even worse, apologise for something that isn’t his fault, and so all she can really do is avoid it altogether. 

She hardly posted on there anyway.

“We should probably figure out her name, soon, you know,” 

Poppy snaps out of her thoughts to look up at him, twisting his lips nervously as he checks on her.

“We can’t call her Cheeto forever.”

“We can. That’s her name.”

Nico chuckles as he guides are across the street with a hand on her back, the restaurant now in sight - a small, family business, not too fancy, the kind with the most delicious recipes past down generations and made to perfection.

She loves places like this - much prefers it to fancier joints - where they can sit side by side at a small table and bask in the intimacy of it all.

An older gentleman smiles warmly at the two of them when they walk in hand in hand, and guides them to a table in the outdoor section at the back, a lit candle and a single rose in the middle of the set-up, and the starry night sky twinkling above them.

She knows exactly why she’s nervous.

It’s the first date she’s been on in a long time - her first official date with Nico, period, and it takes her back to being a little younger, when she first started going on dates, first started opening up to the idea of sharing herself with anybody else. It’s daunting, even if he is already the love of her life. Even if she’s pregnant with his child, integrated into his family, and returning to Jersey in a matter of weeks to the apartment they now share.

He helps her into her seat, pulling his around from the opposite side of the table so they can sit together how she likes, his hand immediately finding where her legs cross beneath the table and stroking at her bare skin. The waiter hands the two of them menus, and Nico asks if he can bring water with ice for the table before he nods and departs, leaving them alone.

“This is really nice, baby,” she smiles, gratefully, eyes roaming over how soft his features look out in the dimmed light, chocolate irises twinkling as they reflect the flickering flame in the centre of the table. 

“Only the best for my girls,” he says lowly, and the two of them sit and smile dopily at one another and making light conversation until the waiter returns. Nico says something that Poppy hasn’t quite learned yet in his language, only just about making out the word pen before Nico takes one from the man with an appreciative thank you before he leaves again. He reaches across the table for the napkins that sit beneath their cutlery, sliding one in front of her before writing on the one in front of himself behind his other hand, hiding whatever he’s doing until he folds the paper.

“I want you to write down the name that’s on the top of your list. Then we’re gonna close our eyes and shuffle them up and pick one.”

“How do you know I have a list?” She frowns, taking the pen when he offers it over to her.

“Because you make a list for the pros and cons of what takeout we’re ordering, Poppy. Of course you have a list to name our daughter.”

She rolls her eyes, covering her napkin as she pauses with a hovered pen. 

She does have a list. And she has a definitive number one.

It hadn’t even been an option before the summer, but she’s found herself imagining the name more and more over the past few weeks. Embroidered on blankets, written into birthday cards for the boys, etched into a personalised wooden bookcase like the kind she had as a little girl.

Nico is right. She isn’t going to be Cheeto forever.

“You know,” Poppy leans back to hide her paper as she writes her name down, her legs angled toward his as his hand strokes softly again up her calf, his napkin clutched tight in his other hand. “Most people don’t pick out baby names on their first date.”

“This isn’t our first date,” he scoffs, eyes narrowing at her as she folds her own. “We’ve been on dates before.”

“Name one.” Her head tilts as she challenges him, eyes meeting his as she waits for him to come up with something. 

“All those times we grabbed dinner together back in Jersey,”

“Not dates.”

“There were several candles lit, Poppy.” Nico frowns, and Poppy’s lips twist as the crease between his eyebrows deepens as he thinks back on it. “All those times we got food before or after your scans, and movie nights at your place with takeout-,”

“Not dates. You have to specifically ask for those to have been dates, they were more like hang-outs.” She repeats, a hand reaching out to place itself on his knee, thumb rubbing against the linen of his pants, countering before he can bite back, “But that’s okay, I like this being our first. We’re making our own order.”

“What like getting pregnant before we’re in a relationship?”

“Exactly. Structure is boring. I like the idea of waking up and you deciding today’s the day to put me in your will and tomorrow’s the day to learn my middle name.”

“I thought you didn’t have a middle name.”

Poppy smiles, close-lipped and big, like she’s holding in laughter as she reaches up to caress his face. She kind of doesn’t want to burst his bubble - sweet, naive but well-intentioned Nico, who thinks he knows her like the back of his hand - but she wants to prove her point, more. “Giselle. After my Nanna Gigi.” 

“Poppy Giselle Jensen?” He asks, mouth agape as she nods. “You’re telling me I knocked you up before I even knew your full name?”

“Way to make it sound romantic,” she mocks, just as he had, earlier on the beach, tucking his hair behind his ear and shuffling a little in her seat, legs tangling even more with his under the table. “I think it’s cool that we get to learn new things about each other all the time.” 

“What have you learned about me?” His voice drops an octave, thumb stroking at her skin in an attempt to distract, but she isn’t giving in to him.

“I spent a week with your mom and sister while you were training out in Tenerife, babe, I know all your secrets from all the photo albums we went through.”

“Oh no.”

“Oh yeah,” she smirks, “Little blonde baby Nico with his big, pretty brown eyes and his bowl cut. I saw everything.”

“That’s not fair,” he pouts, grasping at her ankle, “You have the upper hand.”

“You saw me with my head in a toilet bowl for like 3 months straight, I think we’re even.”

“Speaking of,” he places his folded napkin down onto the table and slides it beside hers, “Close your eyes, I’ll mix them up.”

Poppy closes her eyes, but pouts a little as she hears him shuffle the napkins around. There was no speaking of - she was talking about puking. That wasn’t necessarily speaking of their daughter. He’s just deflecting attention from his bowl cut, she thinks, but she has extensive plans for revisiting that one. Preferably with backup, when their daughter is old enough to join in.

“Alright, now I’m gonna close my eyes, and you mix them up.”

She peeks her eyes open to see his scrunched closed, and smiles to herself as she mixes the two identically folded napkins on the table, nudging him with her knee to let him know when she’s finished.

Her heart starts to pound all of a sudden when his eyes flutter open, those perfect brown eyes darting straight to hers, and she holds her breath in anticipation.

“You pick.” He tells her, sliding the two napkins toward her.

She does so without looking, unfolding it in her lap and holding it against her palm so that he can’t see.

Her lips twist as she eyes the familiar name, a sense of victory swirling in her gut until the reality of it crashes down on her, her eyebrows scrunching in confusion.

That isn’t her handwriting.

“It means ray of sunlight in Persian,” Nico tells her, peeking down at the name written in the palm of her hands, already knowing from her reaction which napkin she had chosen. “Or beautiful girl.”

“Like you know anything in Persian,” she scoffs, “It’s just your brother and sister’s names combined.”

Nico frowns, “What?” He whines in denial, a poor attempt at lying that automatically makes Poppy’s lips turn at the corners, “How would you even think of that? I’ll let you know, I did extensive research, okay, I-,”

Poppy opens the other napkin up where it sits on the surface of the table, the exact same name scrawled in the centre in her handwriting.

Lina.

Nico smiles, slow but big, cheeks dimpling and eyes crinkling, and Poppy feels those nerves in her stomach swirl into something else, entirely. Her hands start to shake and her eyes start to water as soon as his gaze meets hers, pride shining through every pore of his features.

“That’s fate, Mohn,” he breathes, leaning closer, his chair shuffling against the floor as he reaches out to caress her face softly, palms pressed at either side of her jaw. “We wrote the same name.”

“I know,” she whispers, feeling a tear slip out that he catches immediately with the pad of his thumb. 

“You wanna name her after my brother and sister?”

“I do.” She nods. Of course she does.

Not only has she seen how much they mean to Nico over the last couple of months, but they’ve started to mean as much to her, too - providing her with a sibling bond she’s never really experienced with Oli, one of unconditional love and support, admiration and affection.

She wants her daughter to embody that too.

To be a beacon of love.

A ray of sunlight.

“Lina Cheeto Hischier.”

Nico’s dimpled smile turns into laughter that erupts from the depths of his belly, and fills Poppy with elation, her body turning to jelly as he pulls her in until their lips press together, giggling against each others mouths until Nico feels the need to part, his head leaning down toward Poppy’s bump, where their daughter lays once again, butt to the front, ready to cause her mother a night of grief. 

“Don’t worry Lina-bug,” he whispers, eyes drifting up to meet Poppy’s, her heart soaring at the sweet, definitely pre-meditated nickname. “We’ll work on the middle name.”

“Maybe something Persian,” Poppy scoffs, her own neck craning to speak toward her stomach, her hand falling to stroke it at the side, “Considering your daddy’s such an expert, all of a sudden.”

“I thought you might need convincing,” he chuckles, “I promise I looked it up.”

He leans in to kiss her again.

“I love you,” she whispers against his lips, “So much.”

“I love you more.”

Next Chapter

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I want to hear more about your opinion that Rory ending up with Logan would go against everything the show stands for. How so? Tell me more!

Bless your heart (complimentary) for asking for MORE of my rambling! :’)

I think there are a few themes that ultimately guide the entire Gilmore Girls narrative. No matter where the plot and characters end up, if ASP is writing, I think the outcome will always adhere to these themes and a specific pattern.

The most important is family - how complicated and imperfect it is, how patterns repeat and break and struggle to repeat and break. We try our best and love in our own ways, but inevitably fuck things up, too. We just keep working at it, which is beautiful and painful and frustrating and gratifying. I think found family and community is just as important, which leads me to the second theme, which is independence and/or individuality.

The show centers Lorelai's quest to build her own life from the ground up which is a pattern I feel repeats in most of the main characters. She rejects upper class life to work a blue collar job, make her own home, build a new family unit with her daughter and close friends, and aspires to small business owner life. Luke shares those values and has a similar journey - taking his father's store and making his own, new thing from the ashes. Jess, the character with the most positive character growth, repeats that pattern, too. He struggles until he, too, strikes out on his own to build his independent life from scratch.

The third theme is class struggle. Although I do think it's clear the show has more respect for the working class, it loooves playing with the back-and-forth of it all and never takes itself too seriously to poke fun at it. It's fun to sometimes see Emily's point even if it's often buried in shallow superficialities. It's thought-provoking to agree with Richard that Rory should use her grandparents' privileges, although we've been rooting for her to make it on her own. We respect Lorelai's independence, but want to yell "just take the money!" when she needs a loan. Or we judge her for it and think "you're not so independent after all."

I love scenes like this one at the end of S4E15, Scene In A Mall:

Lorelai: This is your window on a whole other world, Luke. The world of worthless rich people stuff. People of means see what they want and simply take it, regardless of others. Luke: ... d'you pour your own coffee? Lorelai: Oh, err, yeah. Luke: You're not supposed to do that. Lorelai: Oh yeah, sorry, I won't do it again. Luke: Mmm hmm.

Like, yeah, rich people suck and we dunk on them all the time, but hey, even queen main character can be selfish and hypocritical. No one's really above it!

Anyway, all that to say... Rory is clearly set up to have a similar trajectory where a wrench is thrown in her plans and she won't ever really get back on track until she, too, burns her life to the ground and independently starts all over. She just struggles with the push-and-pull of it all more than her mother ever did.

I get frustrated with fans who think her ending up pregnant like her mother is some pessimistic "history is doomed to repeat itself and no one can ever really change" message, when I see it as her being set up for her inevitable successful ending. She has to figure it out for herself on her own terms. This is why I feel she and Jess will be linked together forever, romantically or not.

If Rory had ended up with Logan, that crash and burn would've just come later. She would've been unsatisfied in that life. Rory and Logan always went to each other for escapism and fantasy - it just doesn't make thematic sense to me that he would ever be a legitimate happily-ever-after option. It's simply not how things are done on this show. Even Emily ultimately follows the pattern - she starts a new life as a more independent person rejecting the "bullshit!"

And conversely, look who is set up in contrast - Christopher is the coward who could never fully run away from his guided cage. The show repeatedly calls him "weak" and makes it clear he's not as brave and independent as Lorelai. He ends up isolated from his kids, accepting the status quo. And ohhh boy, look what his parallel is doing in AYITL - Logan is accepting the dynastic plan, working for daddy and marrying the heiress. That is not the story of a viable end game to me! It feels pretty clear.

Phew - you asked for it! lmao I hope I articulated this well enough??

[agaypanic]

Can you write for Rory where he has like a pen pal for a school project. They both talk to each other ALL the time and he's really excited that he made a new friend! One day the reader tells him she's coming to visit and he gets all excited telling the gang about her and over all just that huge buddle of joy he always is! Well..obv he doesn't know what she looks like because they talk through letters. So when this absolute buddle of cuteness and rainbows randomly runs up to asking about and just rambling on and on about how he's her pen pal he just crushes her with a hug and just can't believe she's really their! And just ends all cute maybe throw in some flustered and blushy moments too if you can!!

My Pen Pal (Rory Keaner X Reader)

Masterlist

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Summary: Rory’s English class is assigned pen pals from the high school in a neighboring town. You and him hit it off right away, quickly realizing that this new friendship should go beyond letters.

A/N: open ending bc i didn’t really know how to end it lol

***

Rory must have been the only one in his class excited to have to do a pen pal project. He liked making new friends, especially since it came relatively easy to him. He was just the type of boy who could get along with anyone.

When you first started talking to Rory, you just viewed it as another assignment. You each had to write five letters, one letter being sent every week. But your thoughts quickly changed when he responded to your first letter. He seemed funny and nice, so easy to talk to.

Rory thought the same about you. You were so sweet in your letters, always giving thoughtful responses to what he had previously sent, and he tried to do the same in his letters. You two had so much in common: the same taste in media, opinions on different topics, how you would survive a zombie apocalypse if the day ever came.

During the last week of sending letters, you and Rory grew sad when you realized the assignment would soon end. While talking to each other, you didn’t think about the fact that your conversations would someday come to an end.

But then you remembered that Rory lived in the next town over. You could easily see him and continue talking if you really wanted to. So, in your last letter to Rory, you asked if he would ever want to meet and talk in person. If yes, he should describe what he looked like so he’d be easy to find.

Rory was absolutely ecstatic to read your letter. He said that he couldn’t wait to see you, giving you his description and telling you the best time and place to meet.

“Rory, I didn’t know you knew how to write.” Erica joked as she watched him scribble feverishly on paper.

“Who are you writing to, Rorster?” Benny asked.

“My pen pal, Y/n!” Rory took a break from writing to look up at his friends, smiling brightly as he thought about you. “We’re finally planning to meet in person! She’s so nice; I can’t wait to meet her.” Then he got back to writing, trying to decide where you should meet. “Hey, is the park a good place to meet someone for the first time?”

***

Before he knew it, the weekend had come, and Rory was sitting on a bench at the park, waiting for you. He convinced his friends to go with him, to calm his nerves while he waited and to comfort him if you never showed. But he knew you would come.

“So, what should we look out for, Rory?” Ethan asked, looking around. A few people were scattered around the park, but they probably weren’t who Rory was looking for. “What does this girl look like?”

“Well-” Rory cut himself off, trying to think. Only then did it occur to him that you hadn’t given him a description for him to look for. You knew what he looked like, but that was it. “...I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Erica asked, crossing her arms. “You didn’t think to ask?”

“It slipped my mind!

“Well, she knows what you look like, right?” Sarah asked, and Rory nodded. “Then I guess we just wait for her to find you.”

“But that could take forever!” Rory knew he was exaggerating. But he had been waiting for what felt like forever to see you; the fact that he had to wait for you to find him first made him even more impatient. 

“Don’t worry, Rory. She should be here soon.” Benny said, checking his watch. “You told her to meet you here at three, and it’s-”

“Rory?” An unfamiliar voice came from behind the boy. He whipped his head around and looked at a girl who was looking at him hopefully, playing with her fingers. He stood up from the park bench.

“Y/n?” Hearing him say your name made you squeal, and you couldn’t help but run up and hug him. Rory gripped your waist tightly, jumping around in excitement with you in his arms, making you laugh. “I can’t believe you’re actually here!” He set you down but kept his arms around you, trying to take in every detail.

“Of course, I’m here! I couldn’t wait to see you.” You caught a glimpse of Rory’s friends watching your interaction and giggled at their stunned reactions. They probably didn’t think that you were actually real, or that you’d be so excited to see Rory. “Wanna introduce me to your friends?”

As if suddenly remembering his friends were there, even though he made them come in the first place, he turned to face them. He introduced everyone to you, and you waved excitedly.

His friends could sense that the two of you should have some alone time. After all, this meeting was for the two of you to finally hang out.

“You know…” Sarah stood up and walked to you, placing a hand on your and Rory’s shoulders and turning you toward the other direction. “There’s a really good ice cream shop down the street. Perfect for hanging out and first dates and stuff.”

You and Rory lit up at the suggestion. Quickly thanking Sarah and saying goodbye to everyone else, you and Rory practically dragged each other out of the park and to the shop. You talked the whole way there, trying to plan the rest of your first day together.

[quietwingsinthesky]

(@transgenderdoctorwhomst )

looks at you with my big eyes and holds out my hand. would you like to be normal with me about master!rory?

yes yes yes yes so badly hold on hold on.

okay. see. what’s got to activate my brainworms about master!rory is the moment we all know and love, this little speech here:

You know what's dangerous about you? It's not that you make people take risks, it's that you make them want to impress you. You make it so they don't want to let you down. You have no idea how dangerous you make people to themselves when you're around.

which, already one of the best rory moments on its own. with regular rory, its an immediate tell of just how insightful he is about the doctor—the guy whose whole thing is being a mystery man in a mystery box. he reads him for dead there, and he’s right. but god. think about that with the context of master!rory. maybe even a master!rory who is still currently fobwatched or whatever, who doesn’t know just how well he knows the doctor. because doesn’t that just cut to the core of their relationship. as much as the master is perfectly capable of doing evil shit all on his lonesome, there’s a part of him that wants the doctor to see. to be impressed by just how far the master can go, has gone.

i mean s3 and end of time are practically him shouting LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! until he’s gone far enough to put his own face everywhere on the planet.

and then, of course, the way that this line could also reflect on missy’s future(?) arc (assuming that at some point rory is gonna regenerate into her. which. extremely funny if you hold to the EU fact that missy is also one of amy’s childhood therapists. missy, that’s your wife what are you doing-) What’s more undoing than wanting to be better because the Doctor knows you can be, promises you can be, and you reach and reach and never quite get a hold on what he’s saying you must. you don’t want to let him down. and you will. inevitably.

you know?

and we gotta get into amy/rory we gotta. okay. again presuming fobwatched!rory -> him getting his memories back. i mean, what’s that like, right? because rory’s world revolves around amy, it really does, but the master has centuries behind him. how do you fit a universe inside you and still love one girl so much. i don’t think he could stop, i don’t think he could help himself. above all, i don’t think amy would let him. that sounds uhhhhh but what i mean is: i don’t think amy would watch rory become someone else and think that she, she who believed the doctor back into existence, couldn’t force a little of him to stay rory, just by holding onto him. very tam lin of her, if she held onto the master as he snarled and spit and lashed out until he ran out of energy to fight it and let himself be rory again just to be in her arms a little while longer.

i think you’re right. i think she really could just go ‘you’re being an idiot’ and he’d completely bluescreen processing that he, the master, is being spoken to like that. that he’s listening to her. he can’t help it, he’s whipped. oh the insane things that would do to him and the doctor both if the doctor couldn’t talk him down from Evil Plan Of The Week but amy could. a compelling parallel too, assuming that somehow fobwatched rory grew up from being a kid (the way yana did?) alongside amy, remembers that still alongside memories of growing up with the doctor. two very different childhood friends, and the real one, the older one, is someone with whom the relationship is so banged up it can never be good or simple ever again. and his childhood with amy wasn’t even real but the love is. the love is.

i think that would be a wonderful way to fuck him up forever. the doctor spends all this time picking up humans and ghosting when they grow older because he’s terrified of facing that and the master mocks that, and then all of a sudden. here’s his human. she’s going to grow old. and he never will. a new kind of fear for him to experience, the horrible understanding of exactly what the doctor does and why. he’d probably bring it up more in response, lash out at the doctor with names of people he hasn’t visited in centuries because he’s so scared, and then turn around and see amy and get cold and shaky because it’s happening to him and he can’t stop it.

ohhhhh river. what do we think the odds are that master!rory would let his daughter be taken away from them? zero, right? and like hell would amy, no matter what the show seemed to believe. so let’s steamroll the doctor’s opinions on the matter, commandeer his ship, because its his future he wants to preserve but its the master’s/rory’s/amy’s present they both want to save. amy’s got a vicious streak that could burn through the galaxy if given enough reason to, and that’s her daughter they took. but alone, the doctor could stop her, because at the end of the day, it’s his ship and he’s got more power over everyone’s lives then is reasonable. with rory, she couldn’t do it. but with the master? the stars are gonna learn to shake when they hear she’s coming.

so yeah. i have. a few thoughts on master!rory. hopefully good ones lmao.

[eclipsewxtch]

okay so i have so much stuff planned for blue moon so MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR RELATIONSHIP DYNAMICS IF YOU DONT WANT SPOILERS FOR ANY FUTURE CHAPTERS LOOK AWAY AVERT UR EYES:

ik i said this before but all relationships r implied n i don’t make anything canon. that being said, i make sure all ships (even the most obscure n rare ones) get their flowers!! whether that’s from POV’s in the chapter, dialogue, or just little moments/details. that being said, here’s what i intended:

• ethan & jesse have the relationship dynamic of two toxic divorced men who have shared custody of their daughter (jane)

• jane is jesse’s kid idc idc idc im making it happen its gonna give reluctant dad/mentor who’s lowkey the Worst Person Ever & daughter/mentee he didn’t want but NEEDED!!! they’re gonna be so good. im gonna eat it up.

• jane is ethan’s kid too ig but it’s not the same. like that’s her protector n her brother sure but JESSE?? he commits war crimes for that little girl she’s his baby

• audrey & ethan have the relationship dynamic of something soft and sweet. like she makes him feel grounded, but not exactly human. safe. i adore them. i rlly wanted it to give monster bf x human gf so i hope it has those vibes(?)

• rory & ethan (im so so biased i love them so much) they have the dynamic of puppy love. they’re just the sweetest n kindest n they make my heart hurt so much. literally aches.

• benny & ethan r very much old married couple. (they’re gonna hurt yall so bad in the last chapter for s1 like yall r gonna hate me!) they fight n bicker, but it’s like a domestic kind (until it’s not) n crazily enough i actually don’t ship them (don’t crucify me yall) but i want to feed the bethan shippers.

• sarah & ethan give nerd x cool girl he’d do anything for. like he is the loser bf to her cool popular gf!! i actually rlly love this ship n its kinda sickening, but i think ethan heals sarah from her past hurts (jesse u asshole) n sarah makes ethan feel seen n less of a dork.

• erica & ethan r just cuties!! friends forever!! like it’s black cat x golden retriever with them. while i don’t ship, i understand it’s a REALLY rare pair, so they have cute moments where they have fun together. its more platonic, i’ll admit, but if u wanna read into it u can.

• benny & erica r unrequited crushes. like i fear they had a crush on each other b4 she became a vampire, n after the bite it just could never go anywhere. she became too different, n he stayed the same. he’s bitter abt the missed chance; n she can’t imagine him ever liking her before she was a vampire.

• erica & rory have the same dynamic in the show but she’s just nicer to him about it. that’s her puppy, n she treats him as such but she’ll be DAMNED if YOU treat him like a dog. who do u think u r???

• erica & sarah are sapphic vampire gfs. soulmates, ur honor. it’s bad. real bad. i fear they are each other’s homes.

• jesse & rory give evil villain n his loyal henchman. it’s cute in a “oh he listens n respects ur opinions” kind of way, but he takes those opinions to further his selfish agenda.

•NO RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JESSE/SARAH OR JESSE/ERICA, THAT SHIT IS PAST TENSE AND FINISHED!! REFUSE TO HAVE A MAN COME BETWEEN WOMEN!

•audrey & sarah r gonna be best friends. they don’t argue over a man; they’re better than that. unfortunately audrey is straight n this won’t be romantic😓

• s2 is gonna be longer than s1–so like twenty chapters probably(?) #longfic #somuchthoughtputinthis and i am probably gonna go back n edit s1 chapters in between updates for s2 but i rlly rlly wanna dive deep in each character. ESPECIALLY JESSE. this redemption arc is gonna go crazy. he’s a horrible, terrible, very bad man and yet!!

• i love audrey n im forcing everyone to love her as well. i normally hate OC’s in fics bc it’s like damn why is this person taking over the narrative(?) n more often than not it feels like an extension of the author’s personality. unfortunately if i was gonna make audrey an extension of me and a self-insert for me i would have her flirt HEAVY w erica. love erica bad😝 if anything audrey is just for fun. i was like hm? what if we gave ethan a little red riding hood?? wouldn’t that be sooo funny? n it is.

• i’m sorry for bringing this up again but the ethan & jane & jesse dynamic goes sooo crazy. so crazy. be thankful im not turning it into a louis & claudia & lestat situation bc i contemplated more than once having jane almost die n ethan beg jesse to turn her. i decided against it but the urge was there.

[dioles-writes]

"THE DAY OF NEW WAVES"

Masterlist | Credits go to @jiphenn | Characters: Felix (he/him), Hiraya (she/her), January (he/him), Maddox (he/him), Alzena (she/her), Nyssa (she/her), Astley (he/they), Rory (they/she), Kuali’i (he/him), Wilder (he/him), Ensio (he/him), Ilona (she/her), Akali (he/him), Della (she/her), Winola (she/her), Vincent (he/him), Haven (she/they), Una (he/they), Reese (they/them), Shehani (she/her), Paisley (she/they/he)

Before Felix knew it, over two months had flown by in Paradise.

For the first time in what seemed like forever, he was genuinely happy again. He had slowly fell into the routine of day-to-day life, and by now it was almost easy to forget about Chumps Jr., or the concert. Everything in his life had finally settled down. He really understood now why this was called “Paradise” in the first place.

Training with the Top Five was incredible. It was probably the highlight of his day, meeting up with Hiraya as the two of them fought and sparred with each other, refining their physical abilities. He had even learned a new skill: “Portal Mutilation”, as the two of them had named it. (Although he wasn’t very good at it yet and almost passed out every time he tried to use it.) He even felt like his and Hiraya’s friendship might actually become something more, as the two of them grew closer and closer. He couldn’t wait to see the look on Akali’s face when he finally took her out on a date. He was sure it’d be priceless.

His fights in the arena had been improving too. For about a month or so, he had been quickly rising in rank, defeating each opponent that crossed his path with ease. It felt good to be finally good at something again - and it felt even better to see the large cash prizes that he was getting off each fight.

Paradise had almost started to feel like home. He wrote to Reagan every day, and sometimes he could almost pretend that she was here with him. The Board Game Club had even started to have frequent meetings at the Mansion, laughing and playing board games as they sat in January’s impossibly large room. It was everything he could have ever wanted. Paradise really seemed like it would be the place that he could spend the rest of his life, perfectly happy and content, surrounded by his best friends.

Today, however, was a special day in Paradise. Today, May twentieth, was the day that the people called “The Day of New Waves”. Everyone was in a bustling mood, all preparing for the huge party that was supposed to be happening at the Lim Residency later.

Felix couldn’t wait. He got ready excitedly, pulling on the most lavish suit he owned, making sure his makeup looked perfect, and styling his hair into a fancy up-do.

By the time he had finished with everything, it was already time to start heading down to the Mansion.

“Hi Felix!” As he started his walk to the Lim Residency, in high spirits, like usual, he heard someone call out his name.

It was Hiraya, looking drop-dead gorgeous in her party attire (though he couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t looked stunningly beautiful). He smiled and waved to her. “Hi!”

“Excited?” She asked, coming to walk right beside him. Felix wondered if this day could get any better.

“Mhm!” He grinned. “You?”

“Mhm,” She hummed, pulling at the sleeve of her dress.

“You look nice.”

She smiled. “Thanks. You do too.”

The two of them continued to walk, eventually reaching the huge ebony-black gates of the Mansion. Felix let Hiraya walk in first, the two of them trailing down the expansive halls and entering the ballroom, where they were greeted by hundreds of happy people talking and laughing with each other. The party was already in full-swing.

“Felix!” January called him, sidling up next to the two of them, dressed in what must’ve been the most expensive suit to exist.

“Hi Hiraya!”

“Hi January!”

“You look nice.”

“You do too.” She gave him a grin.

“Well, I’m gonna go meet with the rest of the Top Five, see you guys around!” She smiled before disappearing into the crowd.

January turned to Felix with a knowing smirk. “Woah, did you two come here together?”

“Yeah.” Felix grinned back.

“Maybe you can ask her on a date soon!”

January led him over towards the rest of the Board Game Club. “I’m back with Felix!”

“Hey, y’know what this whole ‘Day of New Waves’ thing is about?” Rory asked, turning to him.

“I’m not too sure, but it is my dad’s birthday today.”

“Guess we’ll figure out sooner or later.” She shrugged.

“Oh look, there’s Astley!”

It was hard to miss him with his tall figure weaving through the crowd, his bright raspberry-pink streak of hair making him stand out even more. He emerged from the wave of people, Nyssa popping up from behind him. “You guys look nice!” January said, taking in Astley’s nice formal suit and Nyssa’s dress.

He looked around. “Have any of you guys seen Akali?”

“He might be with his family.” Alzena said as everyone shook their heads.

“Oh well, he’ll meet up with us eventually!”

The next few hours passed by quickly, the ten of them contentedly chatting and walking around, meeting with all the guests.

Suddenly, the lights dimmed down and a spotlight was shined on the balcony. Vincent stood in the middle of it, the rest of the unit leaders in a row behind him. “Good evening everyone. I’m glad that you could all join us for this very special day.” He smiled and everyone clapped. “Today on the Day of New Waves we celebrate the birth of my dear friend Howard Restall.” The crowd erupted into a chorus of boos, which made Vincent’s smile grow. “But today, we also celebrate the day that will become his anniversary with death.”

“Soon I will be off to kill Howard Restall.” Vincent grinned and the whole crowd listened in anticipation, hanging onto his every word. “But I cannot do it alone. As a society we rely on each other, and tonight I rely on all of you here. As you may know, Howard Restall has many highly guarded warehouses. Once I kill him tonight, they will send out all those vaccines without a second thought.”

“Get rid of the vaccines, the warehouses, the guards! I want to see ALL OF THEM go down in flames tonight!” His grin widened and everyone cheered loudly. Felix smiled; this day could get better. He couldn’t believe his ears. It was finally going to be over. Howard Restall would soon be gone. He was getting everything he ever wished for.

“But this is just the beginning, our waves will crash and consume all of society. We will make the whole world OUR DIOLE-ONLY SOCIETY. OUR PARADISE.” The cheers from the crowd grew even louder and became more erratic. Felix could feel people pushing and shoving, yelling in excitement. “For fifty-four years they’ve divided us and forced us to hide. But tonight, we reform their puny society into something GREATER!”

Felix stopped cheering.

“Guys what the fuck is going on?” Alzena hissed to the rest of them. Felix turned to January in horror, thinking that if anyone could’ve known about Vincent’s plan it would’ve been his cousin. January didn’t even acknowledge him, his eyes locked onto Vincent with a look of shock.

“LET’S KILL ALL HUMANS! THEY WANT TO SEPARATE US? SO BE IT. THEY’LL BE THE ONES TO DISAPPEAR.” The crowd went crazy, yelling and shouting and pushing at each other. Vincent grinned even wider than before, his purple eyes twinkling with this crazed light that Felix remembered very clearly from the Winter Concert. He looked exactly like Gunther.

“He’s fucking crazy.” He whispered under his breath, his smile gone.

“Haven will dispatch you at different places in exactly two hours, when the clock strikes seven.” Vincent continued, and Haven stepped forward from her spot in the back, looking around and waving. “Once the warehouses are taken down, they will open a door and bring you all back to Paradise.”

“Everyone, enjoy the rest of your time here! This is the last day Paradise will ever be this small.”

“One more thing to add.” Haven grabbed the mic from Vincent. “If you don’t plan to co-operate with tonight’s plan, you better start running now.” She smiled and it sent a chill down Felix’s back.

“Thank you everyone and enjoy your night.” The spotlight turned off and the lights switched back to normal, the crowd bursting into applause.

“We have to get out of here.” Maddox mumbled as soon as Haven and Vincent disappeared from view, making his way through the crowd and leading the rest of the Board Game Club away from the party, which was now two times as loud and rowdy.

“We gotta find Akali.” Felix said, glancing around wildly for the familiar head of dark blue hair.

“You find him, we’ll wait in the hall.” Alzena told him, still following behind Maddox.

Felix turned and pushed through the crowd, trying to make his way through the swarm of bodies, as he instantly realized, just like his first time here, that it was very hard to find anyone in a crowd of people this large. It was even harder with how wild Vincent’s speech had made everyone. And even worse - his portals had stopped working. Again. Not at a worse time.

But he wouldn’t leave someone behind. Not again. Determined, he pushed past the happily chattering people, ignoring the weird looks they were giving him and searching desperately for his best friend.

“Felix!”

Felix whipped around, seeing Akali hurriedly weaving through the crowd towards him, Ensio, Ilona and Della right behind him.

“We have to get outta here. Right now.” Felix whispered.

“Where are the others?” Akali looked around.

“In the hall, waiting for us.” He replied, leading Akali and his family out into the hall as fast as he could.

“Let’s follow that crowd.” Maddox said as they met up with the rest of the group, pointing towards other people that were rushing out the door.

“Where ya guys going?” A familiar voice popped up beside them. Una. He ran ahead of them with a grin. “You gonna leave too?”

“Are you leaving?” Felix retorted defensively. He wasn’t sure who he could trust, if Haven was going to send out the Top Five to deal with the unwilling citizens. One thing he knew for certain is that Una could easily pulverize the whole Board Game Club with ease. He prayed that they weren’t crazy like Mr. Lim.

“Yup, I just gotta wait for my buddies before I go.” Una said, seeming not so stressed about the whole ‘kill all humans’ thing. He was somehow his usual chipper self, smiling at them without any worries.

“You know how to get out of here?”

“You gotta run to the edge of Paradise, but I don’t exactly know the way there.” Una said. “Reese knows the way though!”

“Aren’t they with Mr. Lim?”

“Nope, they took off as soon as he finished his little speech. I’m sure they’ll be here any minute now!” They stopped at the doorway.

The next couple minutes felt like hours as they waited for Reese to show up. The doors swung open and shut as more and more people left in a hurry, the sounds of the citizens enjoying the party still loud in the background.

Felix looked to January again, realizing that he had been unusually quiet since Vincent’s big announcement. He stood there silently, staring out into the void. His eyes weren’t shining like they normally did. He didn’t seem to notice Felix staring, or Maddox anxiously glancing around for Reese. He didn’t seem to notice anyone. His posture was slightly slouched over, his expression completely unreadable. It was like he wasn’t even really there.

With a pang, Felix realized exactly when he had seen that look last. Chumps Jr.

“Una!” A voice caught his attention, and he looked up, momentarily forgetting to worry about January. It was Reese, followed by Shehani. “Are you ready to go?”

“Mhm, these guys are all coming with!”

“Okay, then let’s go.” Reese ran out the door and everyone followed.

Well, mostly everyone.

Maddox tugged on January’s arm. “Hey, c’mon, we have to go.”

January blinked, like he was just seeing Maddox. He pushed his hand away, taking a step back. “Do you think he’s right?” It came out just below a whisper.

Felix stopped, hesitating at the doorway. “What are you talking about?”

“Ever since coming to Paradise our lives have been so much better… do we really want to go back?” January took another step back, even further away from the door.

“Didn’t you hear him? He’s going to kill all humans. He’s just trying to replace your dad.”

“Those humans KILLED AVIL.” He snapped.

It went dead silent.

“Are you listening to yourself?!” Felix shot back, staring at January incredulously. “You want to wipe out thousands upon thousands of innocents just because some of them are murderers?”

“Shut up Felix. Like you weren’t first cheering at the news.” January’s voice hardened, his eyes narrowing. It was a look Felix hadn’t seen in a long time.

“Yeah, maybe when he said we were taking down warehouses. Not every single human to exist.”

“January please, let’s just go, you don’t know what you’re saying.” Maddox kept stepping closer to January, reaching out for him with a look of complete desperation.

“I don’t want to live in a society where they kill my friends on the daily. I don’t want to live the rest of my life hiding in fear.” January’s words became more venomous and his aura flickered, growing more dangerous than before.

“What about Adelio? Wasn’t he your friend?” Felix narrowed his eyes right back at January, clenching his fists, uncontrollable anger bubbling up to the surface. “You’re acting like an idiot. You really think wiping out every human is going to fix things?”

“If you want to call me an idiot then go ahead and leave already.” He looked at them, his pupils shrinking as he took larger and larger steps back.

“I’m-“ He took a deep breath, pausing to calm his shaking voice. “I’m staying here.”

Felix stared at him speechlessly. He couldn’t believe that January was saying this. January, who had been by his side from the very beginning. January, who had promised Felix from the start that he’d protect him. January, who couldn’t be seen without a smile on his face. January, who saw the good in everyone, even Felix when he did nothing but scream and throw insults. January, who was kind. January, who was his friend. No, not just that, but January, who was one of the only people Felix had left.

“January, we’re your friends. We care about you, just please, come with us. We can talk once we get out of here!” Maddox pleaded, grabbing onto January’s hand desperately, his eyes wide and shiny. But it didn’t shake him.

“If you’re really my friends then you’ll respect my decision.” January paused, his multicoloured eyes flickering dangerously, scanning between each of them, before he turned his back and slowly started to walk away. Felix felt frozen in time, standing there watching him. It was as if everything was playing in slow motion.

“Well, gotta go follow my leader.” Rory began to walk towards him. “It was nice while it lasted, guys. Get out of here safely.” She turned around slightly, giving them a bittersweet smile before waving and following January. Kuali’i didn’t even spare the rest of them a glance as he left, right behind them.

The atmosphere around them suddenly started to get hotter, the sound of flames crackling to life disturbing the silence. “YOU FUCKING BITCHES!” Wilder stepped forward, pushing in between Maddox and Felix and screaming after the three of them. His fingers twitched, and small but violent eruptions of flames emerged from his palms, white hot. “AVIL DIED TRYING TO PROTECT EVERYONE THAT DAY, NOT JUST US. DON’T USE HER AS AN EXCUSE FOR YOUR ACTIONS.” His face was contorted with fury, eyes bright with pure rage, as the flames started to multiply, forming at his feet, growing in height. For a second Felix could see the Wilder he knew five months ago, not the sullen and quiet boy that had replaced him.

“AVIL PROTECTED THEM AND WHAT’D THEY DO? THEY KILLED HER. SHE SAVED THEM AND GOT A BULLET TO THE HEAD AS A REWARD.” January yelled back, whipping around. “THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT US. GUNTHER WAS RIGHT. THEY ONLY SEE US AS MONSTERS.” Despite the way he was screaming, louder and more aggressive than Felix had ever heard before, January looked just as confused and hurt as the rest of them.

“SHE DIED TRYING TO SAVE YOUR SORRY EXCUSE OF A LEADER!” Wilder screamed.

“WELL I’M NOT YOUR LEADER ANYMORE.” January ripped his bracelet off his wrist and whipped it at the ground in front of them. The string snapped, and the pale blue beads spilled everywhere, sliding across the floor. Felix watched as January’s specially made charm - the ace - shattered into a million pieces.

The hall went absolutely silent. The flames around Wilder started to grow even hotter, blazing up around his body, flickering angrily.

“Guys we need to go. Now.” Akali said, grabbing Wilder’s wrist.

January turned around again. And this time, he didn’t look back.

Una led them outside, looking around and trying to remember the path that Reese and Shehani went, considering they were long gone now. He followed along the path of blood spots on the ground, quickly turning to glance back at them. “Be careful guys, as soon as we leave the estate is when the monsters come out!” He warned them. “So all of you be sure this is what you want. There’s no coming back.”

Maddox looked back at the mansion longingly, like there was nothing he wanted more than to be by January’s side, but he didn’t turn back.

As soon as they left through the Mansion’s gates, the same eerie feeling that fell along Paradise at night surrounded them. “Look, there they are!” Una pointed towards the distance.

It was hard to make out exactly what they were looking at. The creatures in the distance were large and disfigured, with these horrifyingly wide, pitch-black eyes that watched Felix’s every move. They walked very slowly towards them, never once looking away.

“Be careful, they can run too!” As soon as Una said that the monsters started sprinting, faster than should’ve been possible with their massive and bulky size. Una started running faster, him and Nyssa easily outpacing everyone.

Felix tried to open up a portal, but it still wouldn’t work. “Shit.” He mumbled under his breath, starting to pick up speed and sprinting as fast as his legs would allow.

“CoMe hErE!” The monsters screamed in a distorted, high-pitched tone, running even faster. They extended a misshapen arm, swiping at the slowest of their group.

Winola.

They snatched her up before any of them could react, their long twisted fingers closing around her body, trapping her.

Una’s body made a crackling noise as a clone splintered away, running at the monster. It leapt into the air, kicking the monster’s hand and sending Winola flying out. Winola fell on the ground roughly, rolling through the dirt with a grunt as her ankle twisted in an odd angle.

More clones separated from Una, running to deal with the monsters. One scooped up Winola, who was trailing behind even more than before with her injured ankle. The rest all started to fight, slowing the monsters down bit by bit.

They sprinted for another thirty minutes.

“Shehani!” Una perked up, spotting his two buddies up ahead. When Shehani saw him she let out a little sigh of relief. “You saw the trail?”

“Mhm!” Una smiled.

Una and Shehani continued to take out more of the monsters as the group kept running, Reese leading them in the front. The more that they ran, the more dead bodies they could see scattered around, surrounded by pools of dark blood. Some were missing limbs, others contorted in ways so horrific that Felix couldn’t make himself look. He focused in on running, not allowing his mind to drift any further. They just had to get out of here. That’s all that mattered now.

He just had to get out of here.

“Oh look, someone over there isn’t dead! Let’s go get them!” Una said, pointing to a person in the distance. Felix looked over, and for a second, time stopped.

Paisley.

They stood in front of a pile of monsters, their back turned to him, but it was definitely her. His hair wasn’t the purple that it had been the last time he had seen them, instead a gentle blue, but Felix would’ve recognized her anywhere.

“PAISLEY!” He screamed, loud enough that it could have been heard back at the Mansion. He shoved past Akali and Una, forgetting about January, about Rory, about the monsters that were swarming them. Forgetting about what they were fleeing from. Nothing else in the world mattered to him at that moment, all except that she was okay. That she was alive.

He tackled her in a hug from behind, grinning from ear to ear.

Paisley didn’t turn to face him. They stood there for a second before elbowing him harshly. “Get off of me.”

Felix’s smile started to fade. “Huh?”

“You have someplace to be. Hurry up and go.” They turned around to look at him for the first time in five months, but when they stared down at Felix, it wasn’t their familiar look of gentle kindness that he had come to expect. Instead, he stared at him like he was nothing but a bug. Nothing but an annoyance.

“Paisley?”

“Didn’t you hear me?” He started walking away.

This was all wrong. This was all wrong.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. Paisley was supposed to hug him back; she was supposed to turn to him with a soft smile, eyes gentle and kind. And then Felix would apologize a million times over. He’d tell her everything, starting from all the way back in September, starting from his very day at school. And Paisley was going to cup his face, her hands rough against his cheeks, and give him this look that meant “it’s okay”.

And he would knew it would be. Because it was Paisley, and as long as he had her and Reagan then everything would end up fine.

Everything was going to be fine.

“Paisley, wait!” He grabbed his arm, tears welling up in his eyes. “I’m so, so sorry. Please don’t be mad. I’ve missed you so much. I’m sorry I lied, I promise I’ll explain everything as soon as we get out of here.”

“I told you to get off!” Paisley snarled. He punched Felix, sending him to the ground.

Felix looked up at her in shock. “Paisley please, I just wanna go home. Please don’t go.” His voice cracked.

“I’m no longer a part of your home, so don’t make it sound like I’m going there with you.” Her dark eyes swirled, the gray contrasting against the black. Her gaze made him feel so incredibly small. No one had ever looked at him like he was such a disappointment, like he was so… insignificant. But especially not Paisley. He was sure this had to be an imposter. This couldn’t actually be her standing in front of him, because Paisley would never say that. Paisley would never look at him like that.

It couldn’t be her. It couldn’t be her.

“You are! You are.” Felix shakily got to his feet again, looking at her desperately and reaching out with trembling hands. “I’m so sorry. I’ll fix things, I promise. I was just trying to protect you.”

They slapped him, their jewelry raking across his face. His mouth was filled with a metallic taste, which was oh so familiar, but never from Paisley. He reached up to touch his burning cheek, looking at them with wide eyes. “You’re nothing but a burden.” They spat. “You always have been and always will be.”

She punched him in the face again, just as hard, if not harder, than the first time. But the calmness in her voice stayed unwavering. “You’re always making sorry excuses and promises you can’t keep.”

“I’m sorry.” Tears slipped down Felix’s cheeks, hot and salty. His chin wouldn’t stop trembling. “I’m so sorry, I promise I’ll be better. I can- I can control my powers now. Just let me fix things.” His voice didn’t sound right. It was whiny and shaking, as much as he tried to force it not to be. He swallowed hard, trying to push down the lump in his throat, trying to look up at Paisley, trying to make her see that he was sorry. He was so, so, sorry.

They grabbed Felix by a clump of his hair, pulling him up to his feet again so that his face was only inches away from theirs. “There’s nothing to fix, we aren’t family anymore.” He said in a low voice, staring at him with a hollow gaze. His eyes burned with a pure hatred that shouldn’t have been there - not on Paisley - as she punched him to the ground again.

Felix choked out a broken sob. “Please, I’m so sorry. Please don’t leave me. You’re all I have left.”

She kicked Felix on the ground, the heel of her boot connecting with his stomach harshly, making him cough and gag. “I don’t know why your sister wasted her life for someone as pathetic as you.”

“I’m sorry, please, don’t go. I’m so, so sorry.” Felix stared at her pleadingly. She had been the only person he could think about for over two months. The one person that he had searched endlessly to see. He would’ve given anything to know that she was okay, to have her at his side again. He would have given anything. He couldn’t even recall the amount of times he’d asked Haven about her, just begging to hear about them. And now here they were, standing before him, alive.

And all they could do is stare at him like he was the last person they would ever want to see. Like he was the root of all their problems.

Like he wasn’t their son.

“I don’t know why I stuck around all those years. I wish I never signed those papers.” She said coldly. She gave him another well-placed kick, this time in the face, and his nose started to gush blood, his face stinging all over in pain.

“I love you.” Felix sobbed harder. “Please forgive me. We can just go home. I just want to go home.”

“There’s no home for us to go to together.” Paisley kicked him more violently than before, no longer holding back. Little bursts of pain shot up his body for every time her foot came back down, but he couldn’t make himself move. He couldn’t make himself do anything other than stare at her, silently begging for her to please, understand. Begging for her to just take him home. Just take me home.

“There is, there is. Please don’t say that.” He begged. “Please.”

Paisley delivered one final kick, a million times rougher than the past ones, before squatting down and yanking Felix’s hair, forcing him to look in her eyes. “We’re no longer family. You’re nothing but a stranger to me.” They shoved his head into the ground, hard enough to make his ears ring. Felix sobbed harder, wretching and coughing as she forced him down.

Slowly, she stood back up, keeping their harsh gaze on Felix’s curled up and shaking body for a second longer. He could feel their eyes sweeping over him, filled with nothing but loathing and disgust. She turned her back to him, stepping over his sprawled out limbs, and began to walk away. She didn’t respond to his cries, to his begging, to his pleading apologies, simply leaving him to sob on the ground. Alone.

Someone leaned down next to him, rubbing small circles on his back. Felix sobbed harder, not daring to look in their direction, all while knowing exactly who it was. “Let’s get back to the others.” Una said, picking him up with ease. His voice was uncharacteristically soft and almost awkward.

Una took him to the others, quickly catching up to them almost effortlessly. Felix buried his face into their shoulder, sobbing broken-heartedly. He could feel Akali’s gaze, looking between him and the Una clone, probably wondering what the hell had happened in the ten minutes that they had been gone. Felix didn’t look up. Couldn’t stand to look up. He pressed himself as closely to Una as he could, like maybe if he made himself small enough, he could disappear. Maybe he could make it all just disappear.

The group continued to run for what seemed like forever. They weaved through the streets, speeding past the once-lively parks and shops, which now were now unfamiliar to everyone, empty and dark, littered by bloody corpses. They passed by the Entertainment hall, the Arena, passed by rows and rows of hotels. But finally, Reese stopped.

“We’re here.”

It was a seemingly normal area, no different from the rest of Paradise. The buildings, the ground, the nature, the sky - none of it gave any indication that this was the way out. Reese ran their hand along the side of the building, feeling along the bricks and thinking for a second, before looking towards the rest of the group. Their eyes landed on Felix, still curled up crying in Una’s arms.

Slowly, they walked towards him, reaching out and softly touching his shoulder. “Hey, Felix, I need you to do us a little favour.” Their voice was calm and soothing, unlike its usual monotone pitch. Felix looked up, his crying dying down, just slightly. “I don’t know exactly how to rip out of this dimension, but I do know your portals will work here.”

Hesitantly, he got to his feet again. “I don’t know where to go.” He said, voice barely above a whisper as he tried to blink back the tears that stubbornly kept falling.

“You can open a portal anywhere, right?” Reese stared him directly in the eyes, their gray ones stormy and dark.

“Bring us to Haru.”

Winola belongs to @sleepsloooop || Hiraya, January, Maddox, Alzena, Nyssa, Astley, Rory, Kuali’i, Wilder, Ensio, Ilona, Akali, Della, Vincent, Howard, Haven, Una, Reese, and Shehani all belong to @jiphenn

[roeyliteratiforever]

do you ever think about how lonely jess must have felt when he first moved to stars hollow? to be trapped in that tiny snow globe of a town for his junior year where everyone’s already formed friendships and cliques and groups and his teachers teaching shit he either already knows and knows better than them or shit he doesn’t know and can never catch up with. to know in his heart that staying with luke isn’t an unconditional thing; that the minute he screws up, he’s gonna get kicked out. to have nothing to do all day every day and to know all the things he could be doing in new york. to have left behind friends a month after 9/11, where people have lost businesses and jobs and family members. to just want to be 18 already so he can get out and live independently and not have to be a burden on anyone. trying to find extra income in a town that completely mistrusts him. and by the way, i have no doubt in my mind that there were kids in that town who pulled shit worse than jess did and blamed it on him because jess is like that town’s boo radley. do you ever think about how alone jess is in stars hollow that he latches to the one person he finds a connection with? how lonely he must be to bet $90 just so he can have lunch with this girl who seems to be the only one in town to not have crucified him yet?

Hi Anon,

Awe this makes me so sad 😢 Yeah I do think about how Jess must have felt living in Stars hollow from time to time, and how Rory was the only one he felt safe, and comfortable around in that town that he definitely did latch onto that. The fact that she would go out of her way defending him to her mom ensuring that he is a good person and not who they think he is. Omg yes he did just want so badly to be 18 and independent so he could depend on himself he was scared to have anyone depend on him mostly because he has never had anyone to depend on. Him growing up in a neglectful childhood at best and his condition for staying with Luke if he did slip up he might get kicked out. I do think about these things, and it rips my stomach apart especially the way Lorelai treated him. Like I love Lorelai but sometimes come on he was just a kid. She would use the he was just a kid excuse for Dean all the time, but with Jess it was no he's unforgivable! It's maddening to me really. I also think about how if Jess went to Chilton with Rory would he have done better in school because it would challenge him more because intellectually he was more on that level. (Now I'm thinking of Distilla Truent and I want to go re-read it!) There probably were kids in the town who pulled stuff like that around school and blamed Jess. I am forever wishing Asp had given Jess real friendships and Jess had joined Rory's friend groups and became friends with Lane, Dave, and Paris! Rambles about this forever!

[songforten]

I’ll just never to be able to be pissed at River Song’s ubiquity. Crammed into at least one work of every single incarnation. Like. Moffat saw the power of Rose Marion Tyler and immediately needed to be like NO MY DOLL IS BETTER AND IS THE BEST ACTUALLY. LOOK AT AND LISTEN TO HER ALL THE TIME FOREVER.

I truly feel like the two are masterclasses in how to write a good female character versus how to. Not.

I will forever be so fucking mad.

i’m going to fucking cry i had the whole reply typed out and then the tumblr app glitched and ate it. anyway. let’s talk about river song.

here’s the thing. i like to put river into what me and my mutuals call “the salad spinner”. one of these bad boys:

where you put in your soaking wet lettuce or whatever and press the button on top and it goes WHHSHSHHHHHHSHHHSSSHHH and all the water drains out? yeah i’m putting moffat’s river in there and draining out all the sexism and weird fetishes and she becomes the character that she always could have been.

like, she’s a bisexual time traveling crime committing archeologist. of course i fell in love with her age ten. the “mercy” scene in the big bang was a sexual awakening for me. the scene in THORS where she’s like “i’m an archeologist from the future. i dug you up.” is in no small part responsible for me getting a minor in archeology. river’s a really important character to me, but the more i grew up, the worse her storyline and origins got to me.

and then in early 2021, i had a revelation. the one step you have to take to fix just about everything about river.

make her NOT amy and rory’s kid.

that’s it. that’s all you have to do. it fixes so many of my issues with the story immediately.

my friend @nounpolycule has much more developed headcanons about this based on the audios (and maybe she’ll explain them when he gets the chance?? 👀), but river as a completely unrelated child taken by the silence who grew up in that environment before escaping and running as far as she could is so much more compelling to me than “amy and rory’s kid who is also their childhood best friend”. she escapes the silence, makes a life of her own, puts herself through school, and becomes an archeologist. in this situation, the first time she meets him (in her timeline) is less “i am programmed to kill you and nothing else matters” and more “you showed up in my doctoral thesis research and dude. you’re REAL? the fuck?”

i really like river’s personality, and most of that is thanks to the depth that alex kingston gives her. river would not be nearly as important to me with a different actor; kingston is just incredibly talented and she loves river and she loves playing her, and she gave so much more to the character than moffat ever did.

like you said, moffat notoriously hates rose and originally wanted river to be “better” than her, but he twisted himself around so much and ended up neglecting river just as much as he did rose. according to alex kingston, moffat was the ONLY writer allowed to put river in episodes. no one else could use her but him. a big part of it is “my doll is better than yours!!!” except at the end of recess his doll is left out in the mud, forgotten entirely. he didn’t even believe that she was the best, didn’t care about her at all past her relationship to the doctor, and you can tell!

river deserved better from the narrative from the beginning.

and she and rose should kiss send post

[crystallizedkingdoms]

I had a crazy autism car crash moment and thought about what each of the yiik characters TMA affiliated entity would be so now I’m going to list out all my possibilities + my reasonings. I haven’t listened to tma in forever i need to relisten sometime so this is off of my Memory and the wiki so BE NICE.

Alex: ik The Extinction was kind of my immediate gut feeling because of the whole y2k destruction thing he has going on AND I STILL FEEL THAT FITS. BUT! going off of his actual character alone, the Web is honestly sooo him. with how he spins the whole narrative to fit whatever he feels suits him best. he fears so much about not having control of his life that he turns around and starts doing it to everyone instead. and it’s just never ending in that sense. this feels the most blatant honestly No Notes.

Vella: shes very Buried to me for reasons i am struggling to explain, but i think what draws me to it is how shes been known to shut herself out from situations she cant control and when the world is falling apart around her. like thats literally how we meet her in the first place she had a bad circumstance and she escapes it by trapping herself in another fucking dimension. which feels very Buried to me. also i like how she presses the sides of her head with her hands when shes stressed i like to think tight spaces comfort her just as much as they frighten her in a way.

Rory: IM STUCK BETWEEN THE LONELY AND THE VAST. on one hand the Lonely is so obvious that it hurts, Rory surrounds and pretty much defines himself in loneliness. and to that end you’d think it would be kind of hard to give him anything else. but then you think specifically about his little theories, how thoughtful he is towards the idea of how humanity and souls occupy space, and its like oh shit. so i believe there is Some element of Vast in him. also i love the idea of him and Vella as physical foils OKAY THERE I ADMIT IT.

Claudio: this man could not be more Hunt coded if he fucking tried. his search for his brother is practically endless because he won’t just accept the most likely answer that he’s dead, until the search literally consumes him. when it becomes clear a physical Hunt won’t fulfill his desire for the chase, he starts using the Internet/ONISM to start a digital Hunt that can go on forever and ever and ever. maybe there’s even a little part of Claudio that doesn’t even want to find Aaron, knowing it’ll bring an end to his Hunt.

Chondra: when i make this into a full fledged AU with some semblance of story, i imagine her being the only one who starts out not clearly affiliated with any particular fear because of just how incredibly disinterested she is in anything trying to drag her down. HOWEVER, i think that she would be marked by the End, what with how the death (in her eyes) of her brother haunts her everywhere she goes even if she tries to distance herself away from it, until eventually she gives in and lets it claim her as an avatar.

Michael: i had to save him for last because he’s the one that made me think of this at all and i have so many ideas. HES SO FULL OF POTENTIAL I FOUND THREE GOOD ANSWERS. Part of me wants to separate it into the different facets of Michael that we see throughout the game + the little snippet of I.V. the Michael whos the eternal best friend and blind to the broken narrative Alex creates is such Stranger, i can imagine him Literally being a life sized doll painted to look like the Michael of Alex’s dreams but it’s just. a little off.

meanwhile Red Michael is The Spiral, so achingly aware that everything about the world Stranger Michael lives in is a lie but being unable to communicate that to himself outside of the red room so he spirals into ONISM and consistently tries to find reality where everything is a nostalgia-based deception that further pulls him to the path of Distortion,

FINALLY. Proto-Michael, consumed by the Eye, being painfully aware of everything around him, when no one else seems capable of doing so, and desperately wanting to know the answer to it all. I think this is the entity that fits his entire, Singular the most, because Michael is such a solution-oriented, curious guy and his need to understand every strange, supernatural thing in this world really reflects on his entire character. ALSO the camera motif with him would go FIRE with the Eye. so when i make this an AU separate from the canon events of yiik that’s probably what im gonna go with. But still isn’t this super cool.

uhhhh this was super long and doesn’t even feature other prominent characters but. hey this is the main cast so at least i got that. I’ll keep working on this tho yippeeeee

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

Hi! This isn't meant to be hate, and while I do very much disagree on the chemistry conversation, I understand that must be something that's subjective. I don't understand however, how R*na is supposed to be considered unhealthy, when there's even been friendships on the show that were less healthy than they ever were. I'm just not sure where that came from and I want to know what I missed.

Hey. First off I find it a little odd that your tumblr has no action on it. Makes me think maybe you created it so that whatever your main one is people don't see you asking stuff like this. But it's okay whatever let's ignore that it's not that important. Next whenever anyone says they don't mean it to be hate they actually mean that it's hate. But okay i'll indulge you. I shouldn't because it's always a bad idea but let's go for it.

The chemistry thing is obvious. Just compare Josh's scenes with Olivia and his scenes with Sofia. Compare Matts scenes with Sofia and his scenes with Olivia. Olivia/Josh & Matt/Sofia have natural chemistry & when they kiss or touch or look at each other it feels natural it's not forced.

All the Rina stuff feels super forced and over the top acted. Never said Rina was unhealthy as far as I remember. But they had a terrible buildup. Okay yes they had moments in the early seasons but they were not exciting enough for me to care or remember them.

If they had a gradual buildup that made sense then I'd give them the benefit of the doubt. But all Ricky did was ignore Gina for 3 seasons and then suddenly catch feelings last season. He had no interest in her until Nini left. And even this season he was a terrible boyfriend. He never communicated and he just ran away all the time. And he had to go to EJ to get help on how to interact with his girlfriend instead of just talking to her like a normal person. EJ told him to go to her in the rain and EJ told him to sing her a song at the end. If he didn't have EJ would he have done it himself? Probably not. The kid needs therapy and to grow up. He is not mature enough to keep a relationship or stay in one. Maybe if he worked on himself then that's another story.

Now lets talk about EJ & Gina. I mean they had the best buildup. Enemies to Lovers. They built each other up. They saw the best in each other. He went to the freaking airport for her. He showed up for her. And the whole camp thing was obviously just written to make him look like an idiot and horrible boyfriend so the Ricky/Gina thing would seem like it somewhat made sense but it still didn't and for a growth arc. Because you can't go from giving your 100% to nothing that quick. Come on it's just not realistic. But then this season he grew as a person/matured as a person. He learned from his mistakes and apologized for them. He communicated with Gina. He was there for her and he didn't need to have someone tell him what to do. He was just there as a friend for her after all the shit she put him through. He had her back. He showed up for her when she needed him. All Ricky did was run and run and run.

I'd respect Rina if Ricky made more of an effort the first 3 seasons. If he acknowledged stuff but he just was always making an effort with Nini. And I still will forever believe they were the endgame but Olivia left and Tim was like well we have no other choice now but to put him with Gina. Cause there is no reason for a beautiful enemies to lovers buildup just for a plot device. I'm sorry there just isn't.

Ej & Gina just have so many of the same things that Pacey/Joey & Jess/Rory have and they are the gold standard. So obviously if Tim were not writing this show and Olivia had not left we would have had EJ/GINA thriving this last season.

But you know what it's okay because this show takes place in high school. So 10-15 years down the line Ricky/Nini will be back together and so will EJ/Gina. They are the one that got away ship that ends up together a long time down the road.

I'll leave you with one last thing. They model themselves after Troy/Gabriella supposedly. Well Troy/Gabriella are in therapy. HAHA sorry to break it to you but your endgame is toast.

This is my opinion don't agree or agree with it I don't care. But you asked me so this is what you get.

AND I WILL NOT RESPOND TO ANY OTHER RESPONSES TO THIS OR ANY OTHER ASKS THAT COME AFTER THIS. THIS WAS A ONE TIME RESPONSE. CAUSE I KNOW THIS WILL BE A THING AND I'M NOT GOING DOWN THIS RABBIT HOLE.

[spydoclovr69420]

TIME TO SPEW OPINIONS (Companion Edition):

Rose was a great companion who worked really well with 9 and 10. Her personality really helped exaggerate the Doctor's sass and later his emo-ness as 10. She was super brave and very willing to act on her beliefs. (even standing up to the Doctor)

Martha was unfortunately overshadowed in the Doctor's mind by the loss of Rose (L) but she is a GREAT character who had strong opinions and wasn't afraid to tell the Doctor he was wrong or fucked up.

Donna was a great partner to the Doctor with their bickering back and forth. She would readily challenge him but would also play off of him with her own specializations (The calendar in The Doctor's Daughter, The planets in the stolen planet bits)

I have my own issues with Moffat's writing so I'll leave out things that I believe to be "Moffat Issues" and not individual character issues.

Amy was an interesting character who seemed to understand the Doctor more than some of the other companions. This, combined with the new lease on life that was the 11th Doctor really let Amy be both serious and goofy playing off of the silliness of the Doctor.

Rory felt like kind of a side note until he died the first time. When he came back he was a main character kind of guy. His main priority was always Amy, even when there was other things going on, and I REALLY like him.

River isn't really a companion, she's more of a side character. River feels like she was kind of shoehorned in to some of the Doctor's lore in earlier seasons, but by the time she arrived in the Capaldi era for the Christmas special it felt like she was actually someone that the Doctor would like. Before then it almost felt like she was just there for drama. Her appearance in Silence in the Library was interesting and made her character someone to be excited for, but her appearance in The Impossible Astronaut felt kinda of dramatic for me. (not that drama is a bad thing, just my preference) I'm not really a fan.

Clara... I've written essays on why I don't like Clara's character. I think she's well written, especially when we get into series 8 territory, but I also very much HATE her as a person. Her struggle with 11's regeneration is understandable, but the way she treats 12 hurts me a little bit. The 12th Doctor definitely doesn't help Clara's ego when he makes her choose things for the entire planet Earth (Kill the Moon) but by the time Dark Water rolls around her ego is so big it could have BEEN the moon. Spoilers BTW: Oops her boyfriend dies. She's like "OH, I have a time travelling friend I love and care about, he has nothing to do with anything related to this horrible thing that just happened to me so let's threaten to strand him on this planet forever if he doesn't help me undo an event that I already witnessed" What in her mind tells her to do this. I get it, you're mentally ill and grieving. I hate her. Not only did she think of the idea of stranding him on Earth to be fine, but she also TRIED. She tried to drug him and strand him. The idea that he was ok with that kind of put me off a bit. Him forgiving her aside, she also told him that anything Missy did ever was his fault, which is INSANE. I know Missy did some terrible shit to her boyfriend but Clara using this to guilt the Doctor into MURDERING Missy is insane. If she had a spine, she would have done it herself before he got in between them. Anyway I'm glad she died of her hubris. (I could go on)

Bill Potts is my scrungly and she was SO perfect for the 12th Doctor. Their conflict in Thin Ice really nailed down how different the Doctor is from their human companions and emphasized that he's not morally perfect all the time. His hands aren't clean and she knows that, but she also knows that he has good hearts and wants the best for humanity. They have a very grandpa/granddaughter kind of thing going on, which I think works super well with the grumpy 12th Doctor. They're fun, they get along, and in the end it's the Doctor's confidence in his own ability that gets her killed (at first). Bill did nothing wrong ever.

Graham and Ryan are generally ok. I'm putting them in one section because I don't really feel much about either of them. They each have like 3 character traits and nothing else. I feel ways about Chibnall's writing, but I feel like the crowded TARDIS was a bad idea and if it was going to be crowded I might have preferred that Grace be there. I don't dislike Ryan or Graham but a lot of the things they do (particularly Ryan) seem to be for the plot and have nothing to do with their personalities. In the first two episodes Ryan shows some impulse control issues, (touching a shiny alien thing in the woods, and running out to shoot robots with a gun). Graham shows some anger management issues when it comes to emotional things a couple times(The Woman Who Fell to Earth, The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos)

Dan was a great short-term companion. He had what... 4 stories total? His personality was good and he fit in well with Yaz and the Doctor. He was sarcastic, and missed his crush. He had guts, running around with a wok in Liverpool during an alien invasion.

Yaz. I have feelings about Yaz. If only they had decided to make her crush on the Doctor apparently BEFORE series 13, it would have allowed them more than 3 episodes to deal with it. With what little reference there was to it in The Flux, there was maybe 4 lines and some screentime in the new years dalek episode for that season, and a 2-3 scene reference in the sea devils return episode. That, combined with her saving the Doctor's ass in Power of the Doctor, it feels like this was shoehorned in after audience response, which is almost never a good idea. Otherwise Yaz is a generally ok character with little to argue about, and not enough to her for me to dislike. I do feel like they used Power of the Doctor as the stock standard "companion who has a crush on the Doctor saves their ass" that all these types of companions get at some point. It just feels like it was decided late and they realized that they didn't have one.

Anyway, writing some of these opinions made me feel like it was 2014 again and I didn't like rose because I liked the 10th Doctor. Ofc some of these opinions are from a place of "oh no! They hurt the scrungly!" I did not read this before posting, I just WENT.

P.S. Also I have feelings about the Master, I'll post those later.

P.P.S Also I have watched some of classic who but there's a lot of it so I just skip around to whatever bits sound the most interesting at the time.

[sundayinthcpark]

oh lord five whole different fandoms i’m sure i can come up with them but choosing is evil

‘Just this once, Rose, everybody lives!’ - The Doctor, Doctor Who (my babygirl forever my best friend i need him to give me a hug and this specific scene will cheer me up whenever idc)

‘This guy's walking down a street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep, he can't get out. A doctor passes by, and the guy shouts up, "Hey you, can you help me out?" The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole, and moves on. Then a priest comes along, and the guy shouts up, "Father, I'm down in this hole, can you help me out?" The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a friend walks by. "Hey Joe, it's me, can you help me out?" And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, "Are you stupid? Now we're both down here." The friend says, "Yeah, but I've been down here before, and I know the way out."’ - Leo McGarry, The West Wing (i will always go back to this. always. got me through a lot, like, six years ago, continues to get me through shit today. i have this whole speech written on sticky notes on my wall.)

‘A heart can be broken, but it will keep beating just the same.’ - Ninny Threadgoode, Fried Green Tomatoes (i had to google a quote from this one cos i’ve realised i could easily pick five screencaps from each of these fandoms that i want tattooed on my heart but i am not always good with remembering words HAHA)

‘I’ve always wanted to use that spell.’ - Minerva McGonagall, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (sorry will never ever ever be over her she was like the first character i ever looked at and was like ‘actually i want u to adopt me now but also i think if u had adopted me and raised me even in your world i’d somehow still be a lot less fucked up’ and also while this quote doesn’t have even close to the same emotions as the other ones it is still so nice to see ur heroes be relatable sometimes yk)

‘Oh, really? Well, where the hell where you when she had the chicken pox and would only eat mashed potatoes for a week? Or when she graduated high school and started college, huh? Where the hell were you when I was moving her mattress into her dorm and out of her dorm and back into her dorm?’ - Luke Danes, Gilmore Girls (listen that one moment right there i was so happy cos christopher did nothing to be rory’s father but luke was rlly fighting for her there and he fully deserved to ‼️ he cried at her graduation that christopher didn’t even attend ‼️ ik some ppl will be upset by that but luke was always more a father to rory than christopher was ‼️)

oh and now i tag people right erm @not-all-the-prayers @beturass @torchwood-99 @spellbound-multi ‼️��️

toff starts a tag game

reblog with a quote from your fav character from atleast 5 fandoms that you’re in/used to be in!!

ok mine:

”your fingers might not be so burnt if you cooked with an air fryer!” -frye onaga (splatoon)

“you ever think about runnin in pictures? buy a ticket, they let anyone in!” -albert dasilva (newsies)

“now, what the heck happened around here? oh right- my doing!” -caine (tadc)

“what happened to you that made you hate fun?” -serafine savoy (lackadaisy)

“the romantic tension is so palpable… how can you guys even concentrate??” pavitr prabhakar (atsv)

hey guys 😏 @the-woild-is-y-erster @sluttylittlenewsboy @ftm-megamind @newsiesfixation @itsgrapes-exe @newsiesreference and anyone else that wants to join!!

[harrisonarchive]

Scan - Klaus Voormann's drawing of George Harrison giving him a hug at Abbey Road Studios in 1963, as published in Voormann's book Warum spielst du Imagine nicht auf dem weißen Klavier, John? (2003).

George and being affectionate, as requested. A companion post to this one.

"George giving me (Klaus) a bear-hugggg My first time in London and... what a welcome!!! ‘It’s Klaus!’ George Harrison called, setting his guitar aside and walking toward me to give me a firm hug." - Warum spielst du Imagine nicht auf dem weißen Klavier, John? (2003)

"[W]hich Beatle was the better kisser? 'George,' [Iris] says with a smile. 'He gave me my first kiss. He was lovely. Paul was charming. George had something else.' [...] 'They’d all come round at two in the morning and my Mum Vi made chip butties. I met George at the ice rink when I was 12 and he was 14. Every night he would come round to our house after school. 'He used to play guitar and wanted to get into Rory’s band but Rory said he was a bit young. We went out for ages – but it was a totally different concept to boyfriend and girlfriend today. 'We’d walk down Lilly Lane which was like a lovers’ lane and kiss and cuddle. George was the best kisser ever. 'Rory opened a skiffle club and I wasn’t supposed to go because I was under 15 so I put cotton wool in my bra and blue blusher on my eyes. 'At the end of the night, Rory made a joke about his little sister having cotton wool down her bra. I was so embarrassed I ran out in tears. 'Then I heard footsteps behind me. It was George. I ran into his arms and he gave me the best kiss ever. 'I can still feel it right in my tummy, even now. He was lovely.'" - Mirror, October 6, 2012

"'At all clubs [in Hamburg],' says George, 'they used to read out a notice every night saying that all people under eighteen had to leave. Someone eventually realized I was only seventeen, without a work permit or a resident permit. So I had to leave. I had to go home on my own. I felt terrible.' Astrid and Stu drove him to the station, got him his ticket and a place on the train. 'He was just standing there,' says Astrid. 'Little George, all lost. I gave him a big bag of sweets and some apples. He threw his arms round me and Stu, which was the sort of demonstrative thing they never did.'" - The Beatles: The Authorized Biography (1968)

"I was surprised to see how affectionate he was with Olivia, holding hands, heads touching as they talked, snuggling up next to her at every opportunity." - Chris O’Dell, Miss O’Dell (2009)

George hugging Alla Rakha during the Dark Horse, 1974: here.

"Olivia was in the room and asked Madeleine her name. The next thing she knew, George was walking across the room directly to her, and as if they were old friends, put his arms around her! She was so overwhelmed and she automatically put her arms around him and hugged him back. He asked her her name, and she told him it was Madeleine. She said something to the effect of 'I love you George’ in her cute and charming way, but George only replied, 'It’s Krishna that you love.’ He was told by Bill how many concerts she had attended, so he asked, 'This is your 11th?’ In her shock, she said yes, but when he asked again, she said no, it was her 8th concert. He was knocked out that she had gone to that many. She told him, 'I would have gone to all 50 if I could,’ to which he jokingly replied, 'If I could I wouldn’t have!’ During this time George was holding both her hands in his." - Harrison Alliance, December 1974/January 1975, with thanks to Meet The Beatles for Real [x]

"Even hugging George was a psychedelic experience, what a gem of a man. Love him forever." - Dave Stewart, Facebook

“Just a few months after his death, I was in Bungalow 8, a New York club that Paul Shaffer had dragged me to, when I noticed a skinny fellow who was the spitting image of George, only young George, coming right toward me. Before I could say anything, this young man embraced me in a tender hug. And then pulled back to explain himself. ‘I’m Dhani Harrison,’ he said. ‘One of the last things my father told me was that if I ever come across people who were important to him, I should give them a hug.’” - Martin Short, I Must Say: My Life As A Humble Comedy Legend (2014) [x]

"The last time I met him, he was very sick and I held his hand for four hours. As I was doing it I was thinking ‘I’ve never held his hand before, ever. This is not what two Liverpool fellas do, no matter how well you know each other.’ I kept thinking, ‘he’s going to smack me here.’ But he didn’t. He just stroked my hand with his thumb and I thought ‘Ah, this is OK, this is life. It’s tough but it’s lovely. That’s how it is.’" - Paul McCartney, The Mirror, April 7, 2003 [x]

“George was the kind of guy who wasn’t going to leave until he hugged you for five minutes and told you how much he loved you. We knew where we stood with each other.” - Tom Petty, Rolling Stone, January 17, 2002 [x]

[amelia]

ok here’s my slightly sleep deprived theory. Amy pond is a lesbian and the reason Steve. Moffat never let her have one (1) female friend is because he knew that she would have too much chemistry and marrying the human equivalent of soggy toast would longer be believable. thoughts? feelings? canon evidence? (I am so sorry for how this sounds in advance I am running on 5.5 hours of sleep and 2 cups of coffee)

oh arden believe me. i have been on the lesbian amy train for years and years. canon evidence includes the fact that amy's only female friend EVER is a lesbian (the power of three) (i like to think they met while amy was in her "i hate men" divorcing rory era and. well) and also the fact that in an earlier draft of the eleventh hour amy literally had a firewoman girlfriend (the doctor who companion #515)

so like no matter what… moffat Knows how inherently gay amy is

there's also this little deleted bit where she's definitely trying to flirt here — they kept karen's flirty little look in the aired episode lol

i won't even start on how everything about her relationship with rory is. well. :-) "he's been my best friend forever and he's died for me and he loves me so i MUST love him back even if i'm never completely comfortable he Deserves it and he's a Safe Option because he is never going to Leave" kind of insane. anyway. lesbian amy pond is forever

[justkending]

The Slip Up. Chapter 18.

Series Summary: After a last hurrah to graduating college with a future to be a family practitioner, a little slip up happens… Seven years down the road, just when things finally seem to be going smoothly, Y/N approaches that slip up from all those years ago. She’s not looking for anything right now. She is just where she wants to be in life. It seems the universe has a different idea though. One called James Barnes.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x (Single mom) Reader

Word Count: 3100+

Warnings: Language, adulting, mentions of sexual past.

A/N: Sorry this took a second! I’m hoping to get some chapters of Moral of the Story out soon too, but it’s been hectic! Thank you for the patience and enjoy my loves!!

Chapter 18:

"You really want me to be your dad?" he asked softly.

"If I had to choose a dad, I would choose you Bucky," she smiled in an innocent way. "You're the best."

Bucky smiled wider and looked at Y/N before letting out a breathy laugh and picking up Rori in a hug. Careful of course of her arm. Rori giggled at the hug and Y/N held a cheek hurting grin watching the two.

For Rori, she had just gained a dad and was overjoyed at the addition. For Bucky, he was completely in awe at the little girl in his arms. Sure the universe picked him for her, but she chose him personally. Bucky couldn't even fathom the thought, so he just held onto her and hugged her for the next few minutes taking in the moment that was going to change his life forever.

_______________

The moment was bittersweet and heart breaking in the best way. Y/N was so happy to see the acceptance her daughter had, though she wasn't surprised. Bucky had become a very intimate part of their family and her little girl was always one to love people hard.

She took in the moment, tearing up like Bucky as she watched him practically mold their little girl into his chest as if he were making up for the million of hugs he missed over the last 7 years.

There was one thing though... Sure, Rori chose him as a dad, but the actual fact of that needed to be discussed.

She didn't break up the moment immediately, instead let them talk and hold the other in joy. But once Rori was ready to run off to watch a movie and hang out with Bucky even more, she had to slow her down.

"Sunshine, wait a second," Y/N said just before Rori could make a run for the living room. "We need to talk about something else."

"What else?" she asked with a slight tilt of her head. She looked a lot like her mom right there, Bucky noticed.

"Well, um, I'm overjoyed that you want Bucky to be your dad, but," she paused, not knowing how to go about this. I mean it wasn't going to have a bad ending considering what just happened, but this was much bigger news in a sense.

"But there's a little more to this than it seems, sweetheart," Bucky finished for Y/N, sending her a reassuring look. "Come here for a second." Rori turned to him and he picked her up to place her in his lap as he sat back at the table.

Rori sent the two a confused look, but there was also a look of intrigue.

"Have either of us ever told you how we met?" Bucky asked. Rori shook her head looking up at him. "Well, a good while ago, almost 8 years now, you're mom and I were at a restaurant with our friends."

"I was with Aunt Hope and Uncle Scott and also Peggy," Y/N added.

"And I was with Mr. Rogers, your teacher, along with another friend of mine," Bucky said. Rori nodded her head showing she was following. "We eventually both went to go get a drink at the bar, and you're mom and I ran into each other."

"Quite literally," Y/N mumbled under her breath with a laugh and Bucky smiled at the memory.

"Wait? 8 years ago? That's forever," Rori said.

"It's been a long time, yes," Y/N laughed. "Bucky and I talked for a long time and got to know each other kind of at the restaurant. To keep it short and rated PG," she added softly. "Bucky and I hung out for a little and well... about 9 months later I had you."

Rori wasn't a dumb child. She was quite the opposite. Plus, her mom was a doctor and one that educated her child in how the body works. No she hadn't necessarily given her the birds and the bee talk yet, but she knew that a baby stayed in your belly for 9 months.

She had learned that when she was around 5 years old after a curious question raid in the car from seeing a pregnant woman in the grocery store one day. And like stated before, Y/N treated her like an adult in her knowledge and didn't baby her unless it was really necessary.

"Wait..." Rori said, Y/N could see the gears turning in the little brunette's head. Bucky had a curious look as to if she would understand the reference. "So..." she still wasn't quite getting it fully, but she was on the right track so her mom gave her the final push.

"I'm so happy you chose Bucky for yourself, Sunshine. I really am. But you also need to know..." she paused as she grabbed her daughters hand and moved closer. The three are practically in a bundle. "He's your real dad too."

Her eyes grew at that and she slowly turned her head back to Bucky who had a nervous grin on his face.

Again, she tilted her head to the side, in deeper analysis. Neither of the adults could tell what she was thinking. She just sat there before bringing her non-injured hand up and squeezing his chin to look at him better. His lips somewhat pursed together in a pucker at her pinching them together.

"We have the same eyes," she noted.

Y/N let out a chuckle in the corner and Bucky tried to smile even though it was hard with her hand holding his face.

Without letting go of him, she turned her head back to her mom somewhat and asked, "Do you think we look alike?"

"I would say so," Y/N laughed again.

Rori turned back and smiled at him. Bucky's cheeks hurting now with her suppressing his wide grin forming.

"That's so cool!" Rori cheered, letting go of his face. She grabbed a piece of his hair gently and matched her own to it. "We have the same hair color too! Look!"

As if Bucky couldn't be any happier than he was in that moment, his heart almost imploded with complete elation at what was happening.

Everyone laughed and goofed around for a second before Rori hopped back down on the floor.

"We can watch the movie now as a family!" she jumped up and down looking at the two.

And though that was a conversation Bucky and Y/N needed to discuss, now was not the time to take away this moment for Rori. So Bucky and Y/N shared a look. Bucky's eyes almost asking if that was ok. Y/N just gave him a soft look that showed, "discussion for another time." He nodded before standing up.

"You two go get the movie set up, and I'll get dessert, ok?" Y/N waved them on to the other room.

"Need help cleaning up?" Bucky asked as Rori grabbed his hand and began dragging him to the living room.

"I got it," Y/N shook her head. "You better go before she rips your arm off."

"She's surprisingly very strong for a 6 year old with a broken arm," Bucky chuckled as he let Rori start to guide him to the living room.

"And she's only going to get stronger as she gets older," Y/N shrugged with a grin.

Before Bucky could reply, he was passing the threshold to the living room with his little girl yanking him away.

_____________________

"That's great, Y/N!" Hope shouted on the other end of the phone. "Oh, this makes me so happy. I'm so glad everything went smoothly and Rori loves him."

"It went about 10,000 times better than I could have ever expected," Y/N sighed as she fell back into bed.

Bucky had left about 15 minutes ago after they both tucked Rori in and got her to sleep. They talked about her cast fitting tomorrow, and Bucky said he would be back over in the morning so he could join them.

"I'd say," Hope smiled, but paused. "Did he, um, did he ask about custody or anything?" she questioned softly.

"Um," she hesitated. "I mean no. I mentioned it when we were going over how we were going to tell her, but we never really talked about it. I mean, I told him that I want him to be a part of Rori's life, so it's not like I would limit his time with her."

"Oh, well good. Sounds like a rational way to go about it. You two just splitting the time and such," Hope drug out with a weird tone.

"What are you getting at Hope?" Y/N asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"Nothing, nothing! I just," she sighed on the other end. Y/N heard shifting as if she was moving to another room. "Ok, I'm going to be real with you for a second. Scott and I were talking about this whole situation the other day."

"Do tell," Y/N said.

"Well, Bucky is a sweet guy. We've seen it ourselves and you've yet to have a bad opinion on him. Which is great and all!"

"But..."

"But..." Hope sighed. "I'm just worried this is a honeymoon kinda sweet spot to this whole new family thing..."

"What do you mean by that?"

"It's too early to know everyone's true nature and lifestyle. And by everyone, I mean Bucky. Yes, he's been great this past month, but I'm worried when it gets to a point when you both want Rori for a night. Or something happens where he does want to fight to have a certain amount of time with her, it becomes something you can't argue with."

"Do you mean like court?" Y/N asked, getting nervous.

"I'm not trying to scare you, but I think it's a conversation you and Bucky need to have. With him now publicly being Rori's dad, he has much more of a pull on how he spends his time with her and when," Hope assured. "I'm just worried that if you guys possibly come across an argument about this kind of thing, he may want to make it legal so that it's an equal partnership for Rori."

Y/N didn't respond as she took it all in. She didn't see Bucky being someone to do something so rash, but she had to bypass the butterflies in her stomach at this new situation to really understand the whole picture here.

Bucky technically did have rights to Rori being her biological father. Again, not that she could see him as the kind of man to go that far as he's been very understanding and has worked with Y/N this whole time to stay in her comfort zone. But Hope was right. It had just been a month...

"Look, I'm really not trying to freak you out. I just want you to think about this thing and probably bring it up to Bucky. You guys are co-parents now and a discussion on how you two will go about that in a mature and equal manner, needs to happen. Sooner rather than later," Hope sighed.

"Yeah," Y/N nodded. "Yeah, you're right. I think that's been in the back of my head for a while, but with just how great everything has been going, I didn't want to think about it."

"Understandably," Hope agreed.

Y/N took a deep breath and rubbed her temple as the TV flashed bright colors in her face in the dark room.

"Listen, I'm going to head to bed. It's been a long day," she said softly.

"Ok, sweetheart," Hope nodded. "Let me know if you need anything. You still want me to come over early to help decorate for Rori's party tomorrow?"

"That would be much appreciated. Thank you."

"Of course. I'll put Scott on balloon animal duty. He's been waiting to show off his new skills," she giggled.

Y/N laughed before saying her goodbyes and putting her phone to the side.

Not that these weren't things she was worried about already, but now she couldn't stop thinking about how to approach Bucky about this without coming off as protective and overbearing. I mean she had the right to be. She was Rori's mother after all...

This was an issue for future Y/N. She was too tired to worry about it now. Plus, it was a day of celebration. Rori finally had a dad. And a good one at that.

____________________

"Buck, that's amazing," Steve said proudly, giving a pat to his back.

"I can't believe you, of all people, are a dad," Sam chuckled before taking a sip of the beer in hand.

With the exciting news of talking to Rori tonight, Bucky had invited the boys over to his house for a little when he got back. It was late, but this kind of new life change was worth staying up a little to celebrate.

"Hey, I'm great with kids," Bucky defended himself.

"Didn't say you weren't. I'm just surprised you have a kid of your own," Sam explained. "And how come I haven't been updated on this situation. I just figured out she broke her arm and Uncle Sam didn't even know."

"I"m still trying to figure this all out myself, Sam. Don't get butt hurt," Bucky rolled his eyes.

"You told Steve!"

"Steve's her teacher. Plus, if it makes you feel better you two are the only people that know about her at all. I still haven't even told my sister..." Bucky sighed.

"Why are you holding off on that?" Steve asked.

"Honestly, I don't know. But I guess the same reason I waiting to tell everyone. I just wanted to understand it better myself before telling people that it would affect. I mean with you," he motioned to Steve. "I knew you would have advice and you were kinda connected considering your my daughter's teacher..." He paused. "That still sounds weird to say."

"It sounds weird to hear," Steve shook his head. Sam nodded in agreement.

"I'll tell her soon. I mean I preferred to tell her before Rori's birthday so she could come to the party and meet her, but they're out of town anyway. They won't be back for a week," Bucky explained.

"Speaking of birthday parties, are you excited?" Steve asked.

"More nervous than anything... I mean, everyone that's going to be there has somehow been a part of Rori's life and I don't know any of them. Well, except for Hope and Scott."

"It'll be fine. As long as you have some familiars, they'll be able to give you a helping hand in maneuvering through the crowd. Plus, you're forgetting Y/N," Steve added. "I highly doubt she would make you feel uncomfortable on purpose by not introducing you to people."

"Yeah, but as what?" Bucky sighed, slouching back in his chair. "Is she gonna say, 'Hi everyone. This is Rori's dad that I hooked up with once in a bar and found 8 years later.'"

"Um, I doubt that would be the way any woman would want to introduce her baby daddy," Sam spoke up, getting a glare from Bucky. "Don't stress it man. From what I've heard and been told about Y/N, she's kind and welcoming. Am I wrong?"

"No," Bucky eventually breathed out.

"Ok, then don't think about the worst case scenario," Sam shrugged, leaning back in his own chair.

"I agree with Sam," Steve nodded. "One question though."

"What's that?" Bucky nodded, leaning forward and putting his empty beer bottle on the coffee table in front of him.

"Did you guys talk at all about where Rori will be spending her time and such now that you're co-parenting?" Steve asked. Bucky began to open his mouth with a confused look on his face as if he hadn't thought about that. "I'm just asking because as a teacher, I see parents who aren't together, but raise a kid together, and it can get messy..."

"You think it'll be messy for us?" Bucky asked genuinely.

"I said it can get messy. Not that it will. I'm just wondering about Rori more than anything. Being her teacher means I know how home life affects students' time in school and in their upbringing," Steve explained. "And with that being said, you guys will have to come up with a structured way of sharing your kid now. There has to be a routine and schedule for kids that young."

"Uh, yeah... I guess I didn't think of that," Bucky scratched the scruff along his chin. "I've been more worried about her learning I was her father, I didn't even think about the co-parenting thing to this point. I mean we talked about it sorta in passing with me spending more time with her, but the whole actual schedule? No... I think it freaks her out about me fighting for custody and forcing more time where she would probably already give it."

"Well, I think it's worth noting and discussing now that Rori is in on everything." Steve could see the uncertainty and trouble in his friend's eye. He just got through one nerve wracking experience and was now handed a new issue to resolve. "Listen, if you need help you just let me know. I've seen all kinds of families and parent situations to help you guys figure out a schedule that fits best for Rori. If you need any advice, you know I'm happy to help."

"Right, right," Bucky mumbled absentmindedly.

Steve shared a look with Sam who sent a tight smile.

"Bucky, I don't say it to scare you, I'm just telling you that these are new things that you have to think about. However," he paused. "Knowing Y/N, this isn't going to be a major issue. She's someone I'm a hundred percent certain will work with you to come to a solution that you both agree on. And knowing you, you'll do the same."

"If I'm being honest, by the sounds of it, you got lucky," Sam added. Bucky looked up at him. "Out of all the girls you could have had this one night stand with, you got a family practitioner who has been nothing but kind and open with you during this experience. I'd say that's a win."

Bucky's lip quirked some thinking about Y/N.

"I did get pretty lucky on that end," he nodded, sitting up some more. "Ok, ok. This is something I can work with. Y/N's logical and is a team player. It'll be fine, right?" he asked the boys.

"Right," Steve smiled.

"Agreed," Sam nodded.

"Ok, then. Nothing to worry about," Bucky chuckled with a nervous look. "It'll all work out."

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