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havethetimeofyourstyles · 4 years ago

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Chapter Three.

a/n: get ready for the yearning in this chapter! also please make sure to reblog to share and leave feedback — it really helps writers continue wanting to post and continue writing.

SERIES MASTERLIST | word count: 8.2k

come talk to me about wtsgd! i’d love to know your thoughts!

April 30, 2017

Luci woke up to loud knocking on her front door, too loud for eight in the morning when she wanted to sleep in. She thought she was dreaming, like someone was knocking directly onto her head, telling her to wake up. But the knocking increased, making her scream into her pillow, getting out of bed. Her pink soft house slippers that Ren made sure she brought so she wouldn’t get her new floors dirty with her outside shoes padded on the wooden floor and towards the entrance, opening the door.

Once she opened her door, her parents and Nathan were behind it, smiling as they waved their hands into a jazz-like movement.

“Lulu!”

“My Lucky!”

“Ana!”

Her family charged through her doorway, bringing her into their arms for a family group hug. Luci was wide awake and smiling at the sight and presence of her family. They all eventually let her go to give her individual hugs to have their own moment because they just missed her that much.

They made their way out of the front entrance and hallway, walking more into her apartment as Ren and Beatrice looked around in awe of how much natural light that was provided. She gave her parents a tour before they all settled into the living room where they had a cup of coffee in to-go cups and ate breakfast sandwiches.

Luci then told them the events that happened yesterday, minus her unexpected hangout with Harry, and they were furious. All at once, their hearts broke but were quick to ignite with anger.

“How could she do that?!” Ren had an angry expression on his face, and it was one that she and Nathan had always been afraid of ever since they were younger; it was rare to see their father angry since he was much softer as it would take a lot for him to get him to that state.

She shrugged her shoulders. “People favor power over fairness these days, or else they’d lose their biggest stars.” Nathan scoffed from the sofa chair next to the couch, but didn’t say anything more.

It was the harsh truth of showbiz that almost everyone knew—it was a fact; Broadway and Hollywood don’t play fair, it’s obvious they want the best of the best, and if that’s passing up a new talent that could take them to the moon over the seniority of actors who’ve been in the industry for much longer, they’ll take that opportunity. And Luci knew that when she signed up for this.

Beatrice told Luci that she was sorry this was happening, and they all agreed that whenever her time to perform on stage comes, they’d be there. Luci smiled at her lap, appreciating their support. The Suki family talked for another hour and a half, catching up on the month that passed when they weren’t all together, before they took the subway to the hotel they were staying at to catch their flight out of New York. Luci said her goodbyes to them in front of the hotel, apologizing that they had to come out here for nothing, but they brushed it off, saying that they would do it again just to see her.

She watched them get into an Uber, waving at her family as they took off down the streets of Manhattan. She took the subway back to Brooklyn as she wrote down a list of what she wanted to do today; find more decorations, clean, eat pizza, and crack a bottle of wine because she damn well needed it.

It was almost eleven a.m. when she got back to her apartment and decided to get ready for the day. Her throat felt incredibly dry, so she hydrated herself, gulping the liquid down her throat until she heard a knock on her door. Luci furrowed her brows, wondering if it was Nathan or Beatrice behind that door, asking if they’d left their wallet or phone since they were the more forgetful ones in the family, but when she looked around her living room, she didn’t find anything.

A knock on the door was heard and Luci sighed, walking over to open it as she didn’t expect the person behind it.

“Samuel?”

“Hey, babe.” A smug smile was present on his face, but a scowl was present on hers, rolling her eyes at the pet name.

“What are you doing here—no, how do you even know where I live?” Luci placed her hand on her hip, a wrinkle in between her eyebrows.

“Not gonna let me in?” He gave her an amusing smile, and she rolled her eyes, huffing before moving to the side and letting him in. He walked into the main part of the apartment, looking around.

Luci crossed her arms, trailing behind him. “So, are you gonna answer my question?”

“I got your address when you texted me to come over that one night, remember?”

She mentally cursed herself. Her relationship with Samuel had done a complete one-eighty. After the afterparty on opening night, things were very weird between them after she denied his request to have sex with him in the bathroom of the longue. He had avoided her unless it was work related, but even then, he kept the conversation and words to a minimum, adding attitude and rudeness. If she thought things were weird then, it got even weirder the night leading up to when Daisy took her spotlight on stage last night.

During rehearsals, he’d flirt with Daisy sometimes even kiss her up. Daisy would give Luci a snarky look every time his face was in her neck, biting her skin, and that was when Luci found out the real reason why Daisy despised her. All because of Samuel. All because of a man. The bitter looks didn’t bother Luci and it wasn’t like she was jealous, but it simply confused her because one day he wanted to fuck her and was sweet to her but when she said no, he was rude and would fuck someone else—there was no real type of closure. He probably took her into the bathroom after she left, Luci thought.

So, she didn’t really care for him anymore because after all, he was just a someone to fuck; all she cared about was why he decided to show up at her apartment unannounced and uninvited.

“That was a very weak moment for me.” Luci rebutted mockingly; Samuel scoffed and smirked cockily. He leaned against her countertops, and she hated that she still found him attractive because anyone with eyes knew very clearly that he was a very sexy guy, and the worst part was that he knew it too—he knew it very well. “So, tell me what the fuck you’re doing here?”

“I’m here to tell you that you’re probably not going to perform anytime soon…” he said in a mocking tone, a fake pout on his face as he gave her puppy-dog eyes.

She scoffed, shaking her head lightly. “Aww, did Daisy tell you to come all the way here and tell me that?”

“And if she did?”

“It’s cute that you’re a messenger now. It suits you since you have all this time to waste, like you did mine.” She breathed out a laugh, making him roll his eyes, and it only brought satisfaction to hurt his huge ego. “Well, how about you tell your little Daisy to stop sending people to tell me things because if she had the balls, then she would tell me herself. Plus, you’re wasting your time here to tell me one little thing that doesn’t affect me.” Luci dramatically gasped. “I’m really living in both of your minds rent-free, aren't I?”

Samuel inhaled heavily, biting back his words as if Luci had offended him, but it would only make sense that he felt that way because of his feelings for Daisy. He headed towards the door with Luci hot on his tail as a way to push him out faster than he came in.

“Well, I’ll see you Luci—not on stage, but yeah, I’ll see you.” She wasn’t going to lie, but those few words took a dig at her heart; luckily, she’s an actor, so she was able to mask her pain and anger, giving him a scornful smile as she opened the door. Samuel chuckled, not amusingly but in a way that made him think that she was an outright bitch.

Harry’s door suddenly opened, making him stop in his tracks as he witnessed the interaction happening because it definitely looked like this guy was just leaving her place. Luci’s head turned towards him as her eyes widened slightly; Harry had a weird look on his face, looking back and forth between her and Samuel.

“Hey, Harry.” Luci broke his train of thought and Harry looked directly at her, smiling slightly.

“Hi, Luci.” She suddenly felt a wave of nerves wash through her, butterflies erupting in her stomach once he said her name, thinking that he was by far the best person to say it.

She felt antsy, fiddling with fingers as she started bouncing on the balls of her feet—a habit that she did when she started to feel nervous. Samuel could see straight through her, catching all the signs when she was a bit anxious and he had a feeling that it had something to do with her neighbor.

Samuel brisked past her, giving her a kiss on the cheek to mess with both of them; Luci’s eyes widened, pulling her face back but it was too late as his lips had already connected with her skin.

“See you, Luci.” Instead of the cocky smirk he had when he arrived, he had a loving and kind smile as he left because he wasn’t the only actor in the room.

Once Samuel rounded the corner, Luci looked at Harry and there was a crease in between his brows.

“I-I, uh, that’s not-”

“No worries. You don’t need to explain to me, honestly.” Harry walked out into the hallway, locking his door before giving her a toothless grin and walking down the hall.

Luci’s mouth was slightly ajar as she watched him. She closed her door and placed her forehead against it quite harshly, letting out a frustrated groan.

After much sulking, she decided to get on with her day, hoping she can be as productive as she hoped to be. But the thought of if Harry liked her—even as a person or ‘friend,’ if she could call herself that—lingered around in her head; and she doesn’t know why what he thought of her had so much of an affect on her, but it did. Maybe it was because she had a sort of infatuation with her neighbor, or that she couldn’t stop thinking about him and what he was doing across the hall. Whatever it was, she only hoped that he liked her too.

May 13, 2017

Quite early, Luci received a phone call from Tal.

Her phone was buzzing rapidly on her brown wooden nightstand; and in her sleep, she was trying to determine if she had set an alarm the previous night. When she thought she did, she let her phone snooze for ten minutes. But it was certainly not an alarm because just a few seconds after the buzzing stopped, it had started again.

Grumpy as usual in the morning, she groaned, propping her elbows on her mattress as she pried her eyes open and picked up her phone. When she saw Tal as the caller ID, her brows furrowed in confusion.

“Hello?”

“Luci? Luci? Hi, can you hear me?” The gauging sound of the city was heard on the other end of the call, and she could just imagine Tal placing one hand to her ear as she walked through the bustling streets.

“Yeah, I can. Hi.” Luci’s voice increased, becoming more audible for Tal.

“Great! So, I’m glad you answered. I know things have been a bit weird lately ever since, y’know…” she said, referring to when Daisy had stolen her spotlight. “But I want to let you know that you’re performing tonight. I’m saying this in a calm manner because I know you know the shit in the show, so I’m not worried about it. But I need you to play Kim tonight.”

Luci’s breath hitched in her throat as her eyes widened. She was completely speechless and she felt like she was dreaming. But first thing’s first, she needed to know why Tal’s statement at the end was demanding and slightly panicked.

“What happened to Daisy?” She wondered, sitting up fully on the gray wrinkled sheets from her slumber.

Tal sighed deeply, perceptible through the chaos of the outside. “Last night, she partied a bit too hard. She’s just getting back to her place, according to Samuel, and she was high off her ass. I don’t need that today, or ever. So, I figured this would be the perfect time for you to step in.”

“And why me? Why not Wendy?” Luci referred to the understudy for Kim.

“Listen, I’m sorry I didn’t stick up for you when I should’ve. Daisy has always been…intimidating to me, which is crazy because I run the show, but I should’ve been more stern with her. So, with Daisy out of the picture for today, I want you to perform tonight.”

Tal genuinely felt guilty that she wasn’t being the stage director that she should’ve been. She let Daisy control some of the show when it should’ve been her to direct everyone. Tal loved her job, she did, but every time she had Daisy as one of the lead characters, she almost dreaded work. She didn’t want to be one of those people who dreaded work because although theatre is stressful at times, it’s also fun and her passion.

“Okay…” Luci couldn’t hold it in any longer. “I’ll perform tonight.”

Tal let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank god. Okay, perfect. Thank you so much, Luci. I’ll see you at five.” \

“I’ll be there. Bye, Tal.”

Luci hung up the phone and sat on her bed for what felt like forever, simply gazing into the sheets as she couldn’t believe what had happened. Luci was going to perform tonight; her dream was finally coming true.

When the realization hit her, the corners of her lips turned up into a bright and excited smile. She laughed and screamed and squealed into her pillow, doing a little mini dance on her bed. Looking at the time, it was nearing eight so she had plenty of time to start her pre-show morning routine. But the first thing that she needed to do was to text her family.

I’M PERFORMING TONIGHT!

Instantly, she got responses from them.

Nathan: REALLY?! I get off work at four, I could take a last minute flight.

Luci hearted her brother’s message.

Pa: Luci, I’m so happy for you! Your mother is still asleep but I’ll wake her up and tell her the news. We’ll see what we could do to make it to the show.

She thanked them, texting that she hoped to see them tonight, but would understand if they couldn’t make it since it was last minute.

Hopping out of bed, she washed up and changed into her workout clothes to go on a walk and grab a smoothie. It was such a beautiful day out that there were more people out on the streets in the morning than usual as they were basking in the bright sun and lovely weather.

Once she got back home, she made her favorite breakfast—a bacon, egg, and cheese on a bagel with cream cheese; and rehearsed some of the more emotional and dramatic lines, taking notes on which parts needed more depth of emotion.

The day had gone by relatively fast as she showered, tidied, and packed her belongings; and it was already 3:45, so she headed out the door.

As Luci was locking up and about to walk down the hall, she looked at Harry’s door. She hadn’t talked to him in about two weeks, since the time he opened his door to Samuel kissing her cheek. She had sort of missed him, and she felt like the event with Samuel had put up a wall; she felt like he was avoiding her.

Thinking back to their conversation at the diner, she remembered that he told her he would be there when it was her time to perform, and she didn’t want to not inform him on that because she had a feeling that he would be disappointed hadn’t he known.

Bravely, she stood in front of his door and knocked, hoping that he was home because she didn’t have his number to tell him. Luci waited one minute before she knocked again and waited another minute before sighing. Just as she was two feet down the hall, his door suddenly opened, making her turn around quickly. Harry looked out into the hall without taking a step out of his apartment and saw Luci with a tote bag on her shoulder, wearing leggings, a vintage tee with Stevie Nicks printed on it, and a beige cardigan.

“Luci?”

She turned around. “Harry, hi. Uh, how are you?” Her attitude had visibly changed and brightened as she was ecstatic to see that he answered the door. His hair was wet, separating the strands of hair into slightly thicker chunks as water droplets lingered at the tips; which explained why he didn’t answer the door right away.

“Good, good. How are you?”

“Good—great, actually. I-I’m actually performing tonight and I wanted to tell you that in case you wanted to watch the show.” She suppressed a wide smile, linking his hands together to refrain herself from jumping up and down in excitement.

Harry raised his brows before the corners of his lips turned upward. “Really?” She nodded. “Luci, that’s amazing!” He exclaimed.

“Yeah, I’m really excited. I was just called this morning that I was performing tonight, so I’m heading to the theatre right now.”

“I’m so happy for you. But I, uh, have plans already tonight. I’m sorry,” he said sympathetically. Luci couldn’t deny the ache in her chest when he said that, but she completely understood as it was a last minute decision for her to perform.

“Oh, no worries. Maybe another time whenever I get to perform again. I’ll let you know?”

“Yeah, please do.” He nodded. There was a bit of silence after as there was nothing left to say. “Well, uh, good luck out there.”

“Thank you.” She smiled. “Maybe we could get some coffee or a smoothie. There’s this really good smoothie place down the street-”

“Brooklyn’s Smoothies?” He asked; Luci nodded. “That’s my go-to smoothie place. But yeah, I’m down for that. Just let me know when.”

Now, she had another thing she could be excited about: her second hangout with Harry.

“Great!” She headed towards the hall before she walked back towards him, pulling her phone out. “Here, put your number in—only if you want to.” He chuckled, grabbing her phone as he quickly put his number and name into his phone before handing it back to her. “I’ll text you. Bye, Harry!” She waved as she walked towards the end of the hall; Harry waved back before walking back into his apartment and closing the door.

Once she was on the subway, she found Harry’s contact, which he named himself ‘Harry (neighbor)’ as if he thought she was going to forget who he was. But it was quite the opposite as he seemed to invade most of her mind as she mindlessly thought about him. She almost always curses herself for being so nervous around him, but that was because he somewhat intimidated her; and that said a lot because she’s very confident in her own skin and rarely finds anyone intimidating. But there was just something about him that made her nervous, and that thought slightly scared her.

Hi, Harry! It’s Luci, here’s my number.

She placed her phone face down on her thigh that was relentlessly bouncing before she hit send. Before sending it, she looked over the text, practically overthinking a simple greeting that didn’t need any more thinking. A few minutes later as she was transferring trains and sitting on the blue bench, her phone vibrated. She picked up her phone as the screen lit up; Harry’s message appeared on the screen.

Hiiii, thank you. Good luck tonight x

Luci smiled crazily at her phone, putting her chin to her chest as she hid her smile from the many people on the subway with her. She thanked him, and decided to start another conversation after the show so she could tell him how the show went, which was an excuse to text him again. She locked her phone and turned the volume up higher as G Luné played through her Airpods.

Her cheeks had started to hurt due to the fact that she couldn’t stop smiling, like it was genuinely difficult for her stop. A surge of happiness and relief had washed over her that she felt the happiness line on her chart increase. With a little over two months of living in New York, she had felt like her career was going nowhere when that was the entire reason why she moved there; the whole situation with Daisy had made her life plateaued as her happiness line wasn’t moving upwards. But tonight, it was skyrocketing.

T-minus five minutes until showtime, and Luci was bouncing on the balls of her feet. She started humming and whistling to get her mind off the perturbation that ran along the linings and spaces of her body; it didn’t help that everyone was literally running around, passing by one another through the dark corridor.

Obviously, everyone knew that it was Luci’s first night performing, so they tried keeping everything light and easy for her, which she appreciated. Once she walked through the doors of backstage, she was immediately greeted with warm and excited smiles—the complete opposite as the last time she walked through the door. Nina squealed and hugged her as they both jumped around in elation; Luci truly missed the first friend she’d ever made on Broadway, and they promised each other that they’d hangout more often outside the theatre.

After Luci had her hair and makeup done, changed into her costume, and was mic'd up, she was standing on the side of the stage where she could hear the crowd settling into their seats as they talked amongst themselves. Peter, who was playing Chris tonight, stood beside her, rolling his neck in circles and moving his jaw around. She was glad to know that Samuel wasn’t performing tonight because god only knows what he would say to her, only to get inside of her head right before the show.

She heard the technical and stage crew speak into their headsets, asking if everyone was ready as they counted down from ten. The lights went out, the curtains were pulled to the side, and Luci’s mind went blank as ‘Kim’ took over, completely owning this character because it was fucking showtime.

After two hours of pouring emotion to give her best act while the spotlight was on her, shining brighter than ever before so she couldn’t see the audience below her, watching intently, her first performance was successfully over.

She’d earned a majority of standing ovations and was called for another curtain call, where she ran back on stage to overwhelmingly smile brightly, waved, bowed, and blew kisses to the crowd who were whistling and cheering for her wonderful performance. This amazing and exhilarating feeling was something she anticipated, and it did not disappoint; it was a feeling that she wanted to feel every other night. She loved the praise, the cheers, and the claps that were thrown at her so fast that she could cry at how hard the impact was.

When she left the stage and headed over to the dressing room, her cast members cheered for her as Luci clapped all around the room for everyone’s hard work tonight as well. They all took pictures with one another to share this memorable moment; Luci told everyone to send her the pictures because she wanted to get them framed for her apartment because this moment was definitely frame-worthy.

When it was time to leave, they all took off their costume and hung it on its rightful rack, and changed into their own clothes before walking out into the lobby where the audience could meet and greet some of the cast. Cheers erupted in the lobby once the cast walked through the doors, and they all smiled, mouthing ‘thank you’ and bowing their heads in appreciation.

Luci walked through the crowd as they stopped her to tell her that she did an amazing performance; she was grateful and said thank you to everyone she came across. She weaved through the crowd, trying to find Nathan or anyone she could share this moment with; and she was lucky that Nathan was tall because she spotted him instantly.

When she finally reached him, she was somewhat surprised to see their parents with him because they didn’t mention they were coming tonight, just that they had to see what they could do in order to make it.

Beatrice was the first one to hug her. “Oh, my Lucky Star. I’m so proud of you!” She hugged Luci tight, swaying to the side. Once her mother let go, she hugged her dad who had the proudest and biggest smile on his face.

“Lulu, you did amazing up there.” She smiled into Ren’s shoulder, feeling herself tear up from the positive reaction of her performance.

Nathan was patiently waiting for his hug; and Luci pulled away from her father, giving him a smile before hugging her brother.

“Ana, you’re so talented.” He squeezed her, patting her back as she always found the action comforting since she was a little girl. Beatrice was taking photos of her kids, tears glossing her eyes at her greatest accomplishments.

“Thank you for coming. I know you’re tired from work, but thank you for being here anyways.” She could tell that Nathan had just put a long coat over his navy blue scrubs, meaning that he had flown to New York straight from work.

“No worries. We wouldn’t miss this for anything, honestly.”

Luci pulled away, smiling as she faced her family. She thanked her parents for coming, still surprised, and they said the same thing Nathan did: that they wouldn’t miss it for the world.

They took pictures amongst each other, taking a family selfie before Ren had just asked someone nearby to take a proper photo of them.

“Excuse me? Do you mind taking a picture of us?” The man turned around, making Luci softly gasp. Tonight was just full of surprises because Harry was the one who turned around and nodded, grabbing her mother’s phone to take a picture of her family.

Harry looked dashingly handsome; he wore black trousers, a baby pink shirt with a black coat over. He held a bouquet of flowers in his arms as he took the picture; and for the life of Luci, she couldn’t dare to stop smiling at him instead of the camera.

Ren was the first to walk over to him and thanked him, but Harry didn’t walk away, he simply stayed put until Luci walked over towards him. Her parents and brother were looking at each other warily, wondering how Luci knew the man who took their picture.

“You’re here.” She smiled so brightly as if the spotlight was glued onto her.

Harry blushed, looking down at his feet before looking back up. “Yeah, I told you I would be here when you were going to perform, right?” Something that she hadn’t witnessed yet until now, that took her by surprise, was the dimple that indented his left cheek, more so than his right cheek. He looked absolutely adorable when he smiled, on top of being handsome; Harry was simply a beautiful man.

“You did tell me that, I remember.” She couldn’t stop the giddy grin that felt like it was permanently placed on her face because she couldn’t believe that he was here.

“Oh, these are for you. You did an amazing job—the crowd loved you.” He handed her the mixed bouquet of pink peonies, baby pink roses, white lillies, and baby’s breath wrapped in brown paper. Luci smiled down at the bouquet, admiring how pretty the colors and how well the different flowers looked together. She wondered if Harry picked these out himself; if he individually picked every single flower that was in the bouquet.

Feeling her face heat up, she unexpectedly leaned in for a hug; and this time, he was ready as he opened his arms and hugged her. He squeezed her tighter than he did when she was crying in his arms, making her heart flutter in her chest. Luci had completely forgotten that her family was behind her until she pulled away. Her eyes slightly widened, knowing that they were most likely enjoying the show that was happening off-stage of her hugging a man they didn’t know.

“Thank you so much for coming, Harry. It means a lot to me.” He simply nodded. Luci slightly turned her body, presenting herself to her family. “Uh, Harry, this is my family. And this is Harry; he’s my neighbor.”

Beatrice brows raised, and Luci gave her a knowing look that told her not to say anything weird.

“Hi, I’m Beatrice, Luci’s mom.” She shook his hand.

“Hello, I’m Harry. Nice to meet you.” Beatrice turned towards Luci with wide eyes once she heard his accented voice, and she chuckled at her mother’s reaction.

Ren and Nathan introduced themselves, and they all made conversation quite easily. It was a side that Luci’s never seen of Harry—quite talkative. She wondered if she was the problem as to why he wasn’t so talkative. But she figured that almost everyone wanted to impress and get along with their friend’s parents.

Once they were finished talking amongst themselves, Beatrice whispered into Ren’s ear and then Nathan’s; and Luci wondered what they could be so secretive about that they couldn’t say it out loud.

Suddenly, Nathan said, “Well, we’ll see you soon, Ana.” He gave her a quick hug as Luci furrowed her brows, confused.

“Oh, I thought we could get dinner or something.” It was like her parents didn’t even consider her suggestion as they were hugging her goodbye.

“I have to get back to Boston, work tomorrow, y’know?” Nathan excuses; Luci nodded, understanding before turning her head towards her parents, seeing which excuse they’ll use since tomorrow was Sunday.

“Uh, we have a flight to catch—red-eye.” Beatrice spoke up, a little white lie slipping so easily on her tongue. Luci looked at Ren, finding him nodding, warily looking at his wife.

She could tell, inside and out, that her parents weren’t being truthful because she knew that they’d want to spend every minute with her while they were in the city so they wouldn’t get a red-eye flight on her opening night. Plus, Beatrice had been eyeing her and Harry ever since he introduced himself, so she knew that her family acting weird and how they suddenly had to leave was most likely them wanting Luci to hangout with Harry.

“Plus, don’t you have an afterparty to go to?” Ren asked.

“I mean, yeah, but I could always skip it-”

“Now, why would you do that? It’s your opening night; people are gonna be wondering where you are!” Ren did make a point, making Luci mentally agreeing.

Luci didn’t bother asking any more questions, and decided to let them leave, although she was a bit sad that they had to leave again. They said another round of goodbyes and hugged each other tightly; they planned to come to New York again so they could properly hang out, and Luci said that she’ll see what she could do with going back home to visit. Of course, they didn’t forget to say goodbye to Harry; Ren and Nathan shaking his hand as Beatrice gave him a hug. Luci watched them interact as if he was an old boyfriend or a new boyfriend that they happened to like and adore so much.

She waved to them as they headed outside the Broadway Theatre doors, and then she was left with Harry. He shyly smiled at her, and Luci hugged the bouquet of flowers tightly to her chest.

“Uh, would you like to go to the afterparty with me?” She asked.

Luci watched as Harry considered the invitation in his head. There were two options that he was debating from: go home and have a boring night in, or go to an afterparty with his insanely beautiful neighbor that he was slowly but surely taking a liking to. He realized that wasn’t such a difficult decision after all, so he chose the latter.

“I’d love to.”

The entire cast settled into the same lounge that held their very first afterparty. The lounge apparently didn’t mind since everyone contributed to buying lots of alcohol, so they obviously wouldn’t pass up the opportunity of business.

Luci introduced Harry to the cast who decided to show up, and she was happy that they were very friendly and welcoming to him because the last thing she wanted was awkward tension between her neighbor and coworkers. She wished Nina had gone to the after party because Luci knew that she would get excited about the neighbor she’s crushing on.

Luci and Harry decided to pace themselves with the drinks as they didn’t take the shots that were given to them at the same time as the rest; instead, they nursed and sipped their drinks. They were towards the end of the circle, in their own world as they talked to one another. Luci was happy they were getting to know each other better, but she figured that was the help and magic of what alcohol did. They told each other childhood stories that made each other laugh, increasing the buzz going on inside their heads.

Harry had an additional glow to him when he was tipsy, and Luci thought it was the cutest thing ever. He was very touchy—placing a hand on her arm, shoulder, or knee at any given moment—and his laugh was contagious as it was loud and he threw his head back. It was a side that pleasantly took her by surprise, and she hoped that as they continued talking and hanging out, this side of him comes out more when they’re sober and comfortable with one another.

“Can I ask why your brother calls you Ana?” He wondered, asking at the same time Luci was taking a sip of her drink.

She nodded. “Yeah. So, Nathan is five years older than I am, and my mom and dad said when he was five, he still had a hard time speaking, like he’d babble and seem to talk gibberish. Anyways, when I was born, my parents were trying to get him to say my name, but couldn’t pick up on the first part of it; he started out with ‘An,’ but eventually picked up ‘Ana.’ And since then, it just seemed to stick—he’s the only one who calls me that and would personally get offended if someone else called me that.” She ended with a chuckle and a sip of her shot.

“What’s your full name?”

“Luciana Ivy Suki.” She said slow and a bit sultry, which she hadn’t meant to. The dark light and booze didn’t help that she felt a bit sexy.

Harry smirked slightly. “Luciana.” He stated as if he was testing how it sounded and felt on the tongue. Luci felt a chill run down her body, making her skin prickle from the goosebumps.

If she was starting to melt from the sound of her nickname from his lips, the sound of her full name had completely liquified her.

After an hour, the two moved to the bar, completely forgetting that they were with the cast. Luci suggested getting more drinks for them, and Harry told her that he’d come with. He said something along the lines of “don’t want to miss a moment hanging out with you,” and Luci swore that her heart was becoming a butterfly’s nest as it sank down to her stomach and made her smile.

“It’s genuinely insane how talented you are, like I was nearly crying by the end of the show!” He complimented, sipping on a Pomegranate Paloma through a thin black straw. Harry was genuinely so amazed as he watched Luci act, alas he was near the rear mezzanine, which was towards the back, he was still blown away by the entire production, especially Luci’s talents.

“That’s so sweet. Thank you, Harry.” She smiled down at her Royal Manhattan, swirling the drink around in its glass. She was used to taking compliments about her acting and talent, but when Harry complimented her, it made her insides jittery and her face heat up; she felt so honored that Harry was praising her for her talents.

“Now, can I ask…I thought you had plans tonight. What happened to that?” She wondered.

Harry blushed, nervously chuckling. “Uh, I canceled them.”

Her eyes widened. “W-Was it anything serious?”

“It was a date that my friend, Jeff, set me up with but I wasn’t all that interested in the first place.

She pouted. “Harry, I feel bad.”

“Don’t be. I wanted to be here.” She smiled at that, looking at the contents inside of her glass.

“I’m really glad you’re here.” She reciprocated the thought, clinking her glass with his as they both sipped their drinks.

After another hour, the cast was lessening one by one, calling it a night as they said their goodbyes to Luci and Harry. She hadn’t realized how quickly time had gone by until the bartender of the lounge had told them that they were closing in a few minutes. Luci looked at her phone as the time read 12:55 a.m., which her and Harry laughed about because they were both in shock about the night being so late already. So, they left the lounge, not before generously tipping the bartender $40 each and gathered their belongings; Luci made sure to not forget the beautiful flowers Harry gave her.

Neither of them felt like they were sober enough to get on the subway themselves, knowing they would probably get on the wrong one or fall asleep and end up somewhere else. So, they decided on an Uber, seeming as that was the most responsible and safest option there was.

Luci got inside the black Honda, saying ‘hi’ to their driver. The entire ride back to Brooklyn was quiet, only the soft breaths they both exhaled and the pounding of their hearts. Harry felt himself getting sleepier, and unexpectedly resting his head against Luci’s shoulder. She tensed up at first, not expecting the action, but she welcomed it, placing her head on top of his. They both watched the city through the car window as it disappeared from their sight once they were in Brooklyn.

Once they were in front of their apartment complex, Harry offered her his arm and she looped her arm through his, leaning into his side as he guided her to the elevator. He leaned against the corner of the elevator with Luci pressed up against his side with her arms still around his, and he looked down to see her eyes closed. He softly smiled, moving the strand of hair that had fallen in the middle of her face to the side.

The loud Ding! of the elevator seemed to wake Luci up as she startled awake, making Harry chuckle. They walked down the hall and towards their door; Harry occasionally had to tell Luci to keep quiet as she was singing ‘Wannabe’ by the Spice Girls, but Harry couldn’t help but join in.

When they got to their doors, as usual, they unlocked and opened it; but they didn’t immediately go inside their apartments. Instead, they turned around to face each other; both of their eyes droopy from the slight buzz that was still in their system.

Luci smiled before leaning in to hug him. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders as his arms went around her waist. The hug was sweet and warm as it definitely fed to the touchy-feely side of their buzz.

When they pulled away, Luci leaned up to boldly plant a kiss on his cheek. “Thank you for being here, Harry. Shall we hang out next week?” Harry nodded, not trusting his voice to say anything as his heart erupted into flames. She gave him a smile as he was frozen from the chaste kiss; and Luci walked into her apartment, waving at him before she closed the door.

Harry was out in the hallway, stunned as he blushed from the small kiss she had left on his cheek; and it was something he was going to be dreaming of until he wakes up, only to think about it over and over again.

Harry was cooking breakfast when he heard relentless knocking on his front door. He peeked his head out from the kitchen to look at the door, like that would tell him who was behind it, as he was whisking some eggs in a white glass bowl. Setting the bowl down, he walked over to the door and opened it.

To his surprise, Luci was behind it as tears streamed down her face with her phone in her hand; she was in her soft blue pajama pants with a black hoodie over, and despite her recent state, Harry thought she looked absolutely adorable and cuddly. But he pushed that thought to the side; immediately, Harry was concerned. His eyes widened and his protective side turned on, thinking he was going to lose his shit on whoever caused this poor girl to cry.

“I-I’m sorry. I just…” she hiccupped, and Harry took her into his arms. He was slightly confused about what had happened during the six hours he’d last seen her—when they were coming home from the lounge. He still couldn’t get that kiss out of his head; in fact, it was difficult for him to sleep because he kept reiterating it in his head.

He pulled her into his apartment, closing the door as he sat her down on his brown leather couch. She cried into his shoulder as she passed him her phone that was unlocked on an article. He grabbed it, not letting go of her while he rubbed her arm.

The article read on the bright screen read:

Miss Saigon or Miss No-BE GONE!

Just twelve hours ago, I went to see the show ‘Miss Saigon; for the second time. The first time I went to see it was last month when Broadway star royalty, Ms. Daisy Beck, was playing the role of ‘Kim.’ With its amazing cast, production set, and story-telling, I knew I needed to see the play again.

My hopes and dreams were crushed when I didn’t see Ms. Beck on stage, but instead, a newbie Broadway actress known as Luciana Suki. Before writing this review, I did some research on her to my very best ability because she’s practically a nobody in this business, and found out that she had been in several commercials since she was a child (great another child actor) and has been on Off-Broadway, which definitely explains the acting! At least give a man a warning before I decide to put up with a shit-show of a performance. I couldn’t even stay for the entire show because it was completely horrifying to see injustice served to Kim and a downgrade from Daisy Beck.

I tried, I really tried; but I left during intermission. Luciana Suki is not meant to be playing the part of Kim—almost everyone agrees. There was no connection, no emotion to the character, and it was a poorly done job in Luciana’s part and the casting.

It’s Daisy Beck or no production. Simple as that, or else, the show will lose its audience and precious money that they wasted on paying Luciana Suki.

Harry sighed, balling his hands up into fists as he locked her phone and set it aside. How could anybody be so cruel? He understood the importance of critics to the theatre, but to outright insult and humiliate someone wasn’t even critical—it’s being straight up rude.

Once Luci was ready and had somewhat calmed down, she pulled away from Harry’s embrace, looking at him. Poor Luci’s eyes were swollen and her eyes were red from the crying, and she was a sniffling mess. Harry quickly grabbed her a few tissues to dry her tears, and she blew her nose into the soft cotton paper, not really caring how unattractive she thought it was.

“That article was written by Adam West—the most important critic in Broadway.” She wiped the snot under her nose. “H-He practically just ruined my career and any chances I have on Broadway ever again.” Luci sobbed as it was difficult for her to accept the fact that she may never act ever again because of a senior journalist. Her chest hurt and her eyes started to become sore from the amount of times she squeezed them shut, freeing her tears.

“No, come here.” Harry’s heart ached for her, and he couldn’t imagine what she must be going through when that article was directly made towards her. He pulled her in for another hug, and she softly cried against his chest, staining his white t-shirt with her tears, but he couldn’t care less. “You’re insanely talented—critics or no critics—no one could deny your talent. What he said was unprofessional and poorly written, and that’s coming from an English major and a teacher. Now, I’m sure that you know you’re extremely gifted and you’ve worked hard to get to where you are. So, don’t let him get to you because almost everyone loved your performance last night.”

Harry reassured her quite well that Luci had calmed down; it helped that the vibrations from his chest to her ear as he talked had soothed her—it was quite relaxing. She pulled away again, looking at him through glassy eyes as another tear threatened to fall. He placed his palms against her cheeks, taking his thumbs and running it across her skin to wipe her tears away.

“Would you like some French Toast? Heard it’s a comfort-food, but I may be wrong. Maybe I’m being biased because I think my recipe is good.” He tried lightening up her mood, and it’d definitely worked because she breathed out a chuckle and nodded.

“I’m not intruding, right?” He shook his head. “No significant other to get mad at me and throw me out?” She slyly asked as she had been wondering if he had someone. Plus, she was still wondering about the red-hair woman who frantically left his apartment.

“Nope.”

“The…red-haired girl. You’re not with her?”

Harry smirked as he definitely indulged into the slightly jealous feeling that Luci was portraying. “No, we’re not dating. She’s just a friend.” He chuckled. “What about you? Someone I should be worried about?” He stirred the topic towards her as curiosity also got the best of him.

“Nope.” She answered the same way he did. “Do you make out with all of your friends? Noticed her lipstick was a bit smeared off.” Luci knew later on that she would regret opening her mouth and spewing out those particular choice of words. Her tone also seemed a bit jealous, and she had no right to be, but her crush on Harry was quickly increasing.

“I mean, some of them; when the time comes.” He somewhat joked.

“Would you make out with me?” Luci spat out, but quickly slapped her palm against her mouth, eyes widening. Her mind was speaking for herself as she’d been dreaming of the way Harry’s pink lips felt against her mouth and other places she wouldn’t dare speak aloud. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why-”

“Yeah, I would,” he responded honestly. This was the most honest and straight-forward he’d ever been, which only occurs every few months, so it was time to close that window again and wait for it to open. But he also couldn’t deny his attraction to her, like it was difficult to not be so enticed with her. He felt at complete ease with her, and it felt incredibly easy to talk to Luci and be open. “So, the French Toast?” He changed the subject, walking over to the kitchen, leaving Luci glued to her seat on the couch.

Astonished by his words, she was extra shocked that he was so quick to move on from his response. But she was glad to know that he would want to kiss her, maybe, some time in the future; but the thought made her giddy because she undeniably wanted to kiss him too.

come talk to me about your favorite moments and scenes, and your thoughts and feelings! thank you for reading <3 next chapter will be posted next saturday!

#harry styles fanfiction #harry styles au #harry styles angst #harry styles smut #harry styles fluff #harry styles x ofc #harry styles ff #harry styles fanfic #harry styles series #harry styles writing #teacher!harry #boyfriend!harry #actress!oc

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tasloveskk · 4 years ago

Text

Some folklore thoughts 💭🌲✨🏳️‍🌈

Part 1

I’m going to take it song by song while also tracking key themes in red! Please also feel free to add in your thoughts in the comments, I’m curious to see what else people think folklore is about...

folklore

‘folklore’ is defined as “a body of popular myths or beliefs relating to a particular place, activity, or group of people.” or, by Steve from Taylor’s IC,”the traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community, passed through the generations by word of mouth.” Taylor herself in her introduction/prologue says “A tale that becomes folklore is one that is passed down and whispered around. Sometimes even sung about. The lines between fantasy and reality blur and the boundaries between truth and fiction become almost indiscernible. Speculation, over time, becomes fact. Myths, ghost stories, and fables. Fairytales and parables. Gossip and legend. Someone’s secrets written in the sky for all to behold.”

the 1

- firstly, it’s the best opening track she’s ever had! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

- “I’m doing good, I’m on some new shit” = sounds to me like a conversation you have with an ex, like someone is saying “yeah I’m doing great, I’m dating/doing ‘x’” the first time they run into their ex in a while.

-“I thought I saw you at the bus stop” has BIG “this city screams your name” energy but is also very clever by Taylor because Miss Karlie Kloss is ALWAYS on advertisements on bus stops/literal buses around the globe 🚌

- “I hit the Sunday matinee” to me seems like an inside thing, because obviously as the world biggest pop star, if taylor is going to go to the theatre or cinema, she’ll pick the least busy and most filled with older people which would be the Sunday matinee.

- “you know the greatest films of all time were never made” —> the greatest love stories never get told? happen behind the scenes? There’s something deeper here but I’m still forming the cohesive idea!

- “if you wanted me you really should’ve showed” = showed up or showed for the world, either way Taylor wanted KK to chose her not Josh so they could work but that didn’t happen so now she’s left to wonder.

- “roaring twenties” evokes two clear images for me! 1. They were both in their 20s for the entiretyof their relationship, the best years were spent together and 2. The Roaring 20s were a time of independence, pushing boundaries and breaking the rules of prohibition - which is basically what Taylor and Karlie were doing behind the scenes.

- “if my wishes came true, it would’ve been you” = let’s say, ONLY FOR ARGUMENTS SAKE, that Taylor really IS with Toe, that still means that this song is her yearning for someone else who she always loves more AND had to lose at some point. Looking at her past beards “relationships”, there are only two plausible options - Joe (which seems unlikely seeing as they’re still “together”) or CH who she supposedly wrote “you would’ve been the one if you were a better man” about. Either way doesn’t seem like it fits. However, if you look at it as Karlie is the 1, it becomes clear - it would’ve been fun being best friends and lovers for ever baking cookies and dancing around the kitchen, it would’ve been forever if Karlie hadn’t “married” jerk, it would’ve been her and it still is. 💗

- “in my defense I have none, for never leaving well enough alone” & “I know that I went psycho on the phone, I never leave well enough alone” are about the same moment with the same person = she didn’t leave well enough alone because she kept writing about Karlie and re-engaging us Kaylors as well as I’m sure, she kept up with seeing Karlie or keeping tabs on her to the point where it forced someone to reach out to the other.... she can’t apologise or defend her actions because you can’t explain the things you do for true love.

- “I have this dream you’re doing cool shit” aka starting a podcast, expanding businesses, making headway as an entrepreneur and being a highly-paid and respected international model? Seems straight forward 👀

- “you meet some woman on the Internet and take her home” = 1. Karlie is specifically interested in tech and the internet, it is literally her entire business and 2. if Karlie and Tay did break up, then because Karlie is actually NOT married to Josh, she hooked up with someone she met through the internet somehow (probs social media not an app) and Taylor found out this is probably a snarky comment about that from a jealous ex. Could possibly also be about the dream mentioned above. 💔🔐

- “another day waking up alone” = lost her lover, sleeps alone? Bold claim on opening tack.

- “persist and resist” = very famous feminist saying, civil rights/political echo?

- “the temptation to ask you if one thing had been different, would everything be different today” = this what if mentality continues through the album but personally, I think this is about Kissgate.

- “Rosé flowing with your chosen family” = repeats later, your chosen family could refer to Karlie’s group of friends like Derek and Jourdan etc.

- “would’ve been sweet if it could’ve been me” = flipped perspective, wishes Karlie chose her.

- “dragging up the grave another time” = firstly, THAT pin on her EW jacket now makes more sense. second, Taylor has written about Karlie for 4 straight albums now, she hasn’t let their love story die even if they did.

cardigan

- “brand new phone” = this is not some story, this is current reality. Taylor hides behind era-specific language and imagery in some other songs but this one is clearly about here and now, and her.

- “sensual politics” to me stands out because only really here and in TLGAD is politics explicitly mentioned and sensual politics to me screams sleeping with someone for political gain or with political connections which certainly sounds like someone...

- “when you’re young, they assume you know nothing” = sounds to me like a lot like a) love story and b) “you don’t know you’re gay, it’s just a PHASE! you’ll grow out of it!” 🏳️‍🌈

- “chase 2 girls, lose the one” = supposedly, when KK and TS met, Taylor was still in love/entangled with Dianna so perhaps she’s reflecting on making the wrong choice?

- CIWYW links: my baby’s high above the whole scene—> heartbeat on the high line, tidbit:as is clear in both Lover & 1989 New York is a sacred place for TS and KK’s love story, the high line is a) a beautiful NYC icon and b) right in between the girls’ two places...

- as mentioned, miss Karlie ELIZABETH Kloss was the brand model for Levi’s and definitely has worn some sequins and black lipstick on cobblestones sooooo.... 🤷🏼‍♀️

- “you drew stars around my scars” = see Drake’s birthday party and the infamous third Polaroid mystery 👀

- “stepping on the last train” could mean one of two things to me; 1. The last resort for KK was marrying J*sh or 2. the last train could represent some goodbye the girls had where KK chose something/someone else over Taylor.

- “peter losing Wendy” is such an interesting metaphor on so many levels but specifically, Wendy loses Peter because she wakes up (from nearly dying but nvm) and grows up and stops believing in Neverland and magic, basically Wendy loses an attachment to Peter because her reality shifts and that’s what gets remembered especially in the Disney version of the story. HOWEVER, the opposite is also true meaning Peter Pan loses Wendy because he can never co-exist with her again, he can never grow up or bring her back to Neverland without either killing her or ruining her. So this idea that someone wanted to change the ending from peter losing Wendy because he had to do what was best for her because he loved her echoes as Karlie didn’t want to marry Jerk or hurt Taylor but had to in order to protect her. Right? 😅

- “leaving like a father, running like water” = Taylor’s parents got divorced and there’s SOME thoughts Scott left the house and Taylor lives with her Mom in Nashville in her teen years.

- “I knew everything when I was young” - Taylor has always know she was LGBT+ 🌈 and also, baby VSFS vibes because as we all know, “we were both young when I first saw you...” send tweet.

- “I knew you’d come back to me” hopefully, HOPEFULLY foreshadows the girls being together/coming out soon !!!!!!! 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼

- music video wise, I’ll do a break down soon.

TLGAD

- ‘Rebekkah’ refers to the previous owner of Taylor’s Watch Hill, RI house, Rebekah Harkness. She was a divorcee until marrying Standard Oil heir William (aka Bill) Hale Harkness, a new-money dynasty was formed in this time from their profit. There are MANY wild, whimsical stories about ‘Betty’ (which is obviously an extended metaphor of folklore) that this song tries to re-create/recapture.

- Taylor is also known as ‘Becky’ due to the popular meme so this is quite literally a play on her own character as well as the previous inhabitants of the house.

- St Louis is not only Rebekkah’s hometown, but also Karlie Elizabeth Kloss’.

- “the wedding was charming, if a little gouche” seems like a direct shot fired at Karlie’s woodsy photoshoot of 2018 😂😂(ironically, folklore’s key aesthetic is the woods!!)

- “it must’ve been her fault his heart gave out” refers explicitly to William dying of a heart attack in the house, but subtly I feel like this is a dig at the media who constantly blame women for things they cannot control, as they have done with Taylor too many times to even count.

- “who knows if she never showed up, what could’ve been” seems like Taylor is stuck thinking about what may have happened for her and Karlie if things had been different, see the 1.

- “she/I had a marvellous time ruining everything” is such an incredibly provoking lyric on two fronts, 1. obviously taylor buying her RI house had a massive impact on an otherwise sleepy holiday town that is now more famous for Taylor’s july 4 parties than anything else and 2. seems introspective or personal, as if the things that ruined everything for Karlie and Taylor were the best and most marvellous parts of their relationship (big sur, kissgate etc.)

- “flew in all her bitch pack friends from the city” is not only about the friends and celebs Rebekkah was notorious for hosting but also Taylor’s ‘bitches and model’ girl gang circa 2015 which includes one Karlie Kloss.

- “blew through the money on the boys and the ballet” refers to Rebekkah’s love of wasting her fortune on things, including a ballet company that went under not long after she created it BUT also refers to Taylor paying so many boys to be her beards and PR stunts whilst also spending her money on a certain ex-Ballerina. Also remember her AMA’s performance of Lover/ bts of Shake It Off? 😉😉😉

- “50 years is a long time” - 50 seems deliberate, a bit of a reach but note it WAS the 50th anniversary of Stonewall last year. 🏳️‍🌈

- “free of women with madness, their men and bad habits and THEN IT WAS BOUGHT BY ME.” - this clearly shows that ALL the songs are being narrated by Taylor, some of the lyrics are about her, some are about these fictional or fantastical characters she’s created but there is her truth behind all of them too.

- “the loudest woman this town has ever seen” = Taylor is undoubtedly the most famous woman in the town who regualrly causes uproar there (see the Sea Wall debacle and the Taylor Swift Tax)

- in all, the two famed women owner’s of Holiday House have many overlaps and are forever intertwined.

exile

- “i can see you standing honey with his arms around your body” as the opening line is LOUD. to me, feels like this is about ALL those staged photos of Josh and Karlie uncomfortable/fake as hell on social media.

- “laughing but the joke’s not funny at all” is something we’ve all thought about Karlie’s marriage before and is about that moment where if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry at the situation.

- “it took you 5 whole minutes to pack up ... holding all this love out here in the hall” to me is about someone moving out of a shared home, like Karlie from Taylor’s NYC apartment, after a break up or fight. We know it is MORE than likely that the girls’ broke up, for a while or for good, in 2017/18.

- “I think I’ve seen this film before, and didn’t like the ending” is a lot like “Cause cruelty wins in the movies, I've got a hundred thrown-out speeches I almost said to you” / “All of my heroes die all alone.” which makes me truly believe that delicate > the archer > exile are all the progression of the same love story. ❤️

- “now I’m in exile seeing you out” = both of them have lost their home, exiled from the relationship.

- “I can see you staring honey, like he’s just your understudy” has a lot to unpack. Firstly, see this photo. Second, as a beard, Joe is quite literally Karlie’s understudy - stepping in only to fill a public void or play her part when she can’t.

- “like you’d get your knuckles bloody for me” is basically this tweet

- “second, third and hundredth chances” - hopefully this means the girls WILL be together again soon!!!

- “those eyes add insult to injury” - Taylor has often made explcit reference to her lover’s eyes, but this could also mean the eyes of the public on her every move and relationship not allowing her to properly grapple with break ups. 👁️

- “i’m not your problem anymore, so who am i offending?” - homophobes love to say wlw or mlm relationships “offend” them or their beliefs, so who could taylor be offending if she’s publicly in a straight relationship?

- “you were my crown”, Taylor was/is Karlie’s princess, if Karlie is gone, Taylor doesn’t feel like she’s a princess anymore. Likewise, Karlie is Taylor’s sunshine which makes the moody, misty, dark aesthetics all the more relevant to this album.

- “so I’m leaving out the side door’ - this side door? the other side of the door?

- “all of this time, we always walked a very thin line” between outing themselves and being happy?

- “I gave so many signs” - Taylor has queercoded EVERY album since her self-titled, she has been dropping hints and signs for years that she is LGBT+ so it must be exhausting to have to keep hiding who she loves. This is repeated so many times - it means a lot.

- written with William Bowery who nobody can quite identify, but Karlie and Taylor have been to the Bowery many times together and William is mentioned earlier in TLGAD

- this whole song is a duet, a two-sided conversation between lovers - her and karlie both without each other.

my tears ricochet

- Track 5 is, as per usual, deeply confessional, personal, emotive and moving. 😿😿

- there are lots of theories and layers to this masterpiece of a song, including that it’s in reference to big machine. I personally think every single song of Taylor’s is made up of layers that reflect multiple things in her life and experience so plausibly it can be about multiple things all at once including Sco** and Scumbag as well as Karlie, who was under Scumbag’s management for the majority of the decade. Another theory which with every new listen I think is more and more possible is that this is alternating between Taylor and Karlie’s perspectives.

- ‘if i’m on fire, you’ll be made of ashes too” whoever is associated with Taylor will ALWAYS be dragged down with her. If she’s being attacked, they will be too. Big 2016 energy.

- “even on my worst day, did I deserve babe, all the hell you gave me?” could be directed at a lover, or at Big Machine, or even the public for all the shit they’ve said about Taylor over the years.

- “I swear I loved you ‘till my dying day” seems a lot like the 1, as well as could be about the music and the label she helped build.

- “I didn’t have it within myself to go with grace.” Taylor was LOUD about her split from Big Machine, she called them out (rightly) and made noise which is not a ‘graceful’ split.

- “you’re the hero flying around saving face” very easily is about S+S jackasses but deeper than that, while Taylor was under immense attack and criticism, everyone who actually like her music pretended suddenly to hate it and her to stay ‘cool’

- “cause if I’m dead to you why are you at the wake?” this lyric becomes especially important in the final verse but essentially those who publicly distanced themself from Taylor still showed up when she was thriving again and/or because they actually truly loved her *uhmm karlie uhmm*

- “cursing my name, wishing I stayed” either at Big Machine or with Karlie/Taylor.

- “some to make a diamond ring” > firstly we still have never understood the ring image from the LWYMMD and ME! videos, it is entirely possible this is a continuation of that same symbol/image. Second, I think this hints to Karlie getting ‘engaged’ while still being with Taylor, the rock for the ring in the song was found by the two people gathering stones after all.

- “you know i didn't want to have to haunt you” both Taylor and Karlie have big reputations all over the world that follow them everywhere. For either one, they will always be haunted by reminders of each other.

- “you wear the same jewels that I gave you as you bury me” - on the Big Machine side, Taylor made the label professional and big, she is literally the sole reason it succeeded in the music industry so she handed Sco** his fortune and reputation which he still had when he sold her music to Scumbag and got into a very dirty bed with him. From the Karlie side, many people have noted that not only does she wear her black cartier necklace, which is assumed to be from Taylor, but to her ‘wedding’ wore a necklace she’d worn before with Taylor.

- “when I’d fight you’d tell me I was brave” could refer to Sco** encouraging her in 2016 to defend herself. Could refer to Karlie supporting her behind the scenes.

- ‘and I can go anywhere I want, just not home” seems like a continuation from exile, as in she’s lost the place she called home because her lover is no longer there but could also mean she can’t go back to her other albums and the house (see the lover music video) that they created as her musical home.

- “you will still miss me in your bones” could be about Sco** losing his money and label without her there to physically support and carry it or about the fact that the love Taylor and Karlie had is so ingrained it’s in their bones forever.

- “and i still talk to you when I’m screaming at the sky” this lyric has a lot of possible interpretations (i’ve seen one about cursing out God?) but i think it’s similar to “asking the traffic lights if i’ll be alright” as in, it’s Taylor asking the universe to help her make sense of things.

- “when you can’t sleep at night, you hear my stolen lullabies” suggests a) sco** + scumbag is still haunted by the music they stole from Taylor because it was literally the backbone of the business which is now practically worthless and b) that Karlie is kept awake by the songs Taylor has written for and about her over the years which again were stolen away by the jackasses at Big Machine.

- “you had to kill me, but it killed you just the same” again, same idea - big machine will never be profitable without her/while they hold her masters hostage. BUT Karlie wise, breaking up with Taylor broke her too?

- this is where the song changes. it shifts from Taylor’s story to someone else’s, personally I think Karlie.

- “you turned into your worst fears” as in she settled for the money and sold her values off by marrying Josh. Also, Karlie was under Scumbag’s management for years (part of Taylor’s hatred of him was him keeping the girls’ from doing as they pleased) so by being completely controlled by him, she turned into this completely fake person. Contrast 2014/15 Karlie with 2017/18 Karlie and it so much more all about PR and money.

- “you’re tossing out blame, drunk on this pain, crossing out the good years” - sco** and scumbag have made so many false excuses for their behaviour and completely erased the good relationship between the Swifts and sco**. Not sure yet what the Karlie side is here but it’s here somewhere.

- in conclusion, this is about Big Machine and Karlie. As the first song Taylor wrote for the album, I think it’s clear just how incredibly multi-faceted this album is. ☕☕☕

mirrorball

- first off, we can never forget about this and this look from both girls. ✨✨

- “I’ll to show you every version of yourself tonight”, the public and the private sides to them both. this is big glass closet energy in my opinion

- “and when I break it’s in a million pieces” is so personal and heartbreaking. 2016 and Kaylor breakup vibes. I cannot elaborate at this time.

- “when no one is around my dear” = the secrecy, forbidden love motif returns and again, if she’s in a hetero relationship, what’s to hide?

- “you’ll find me on my tallest tiptoes”, Just an fyi, Karlie, a giraffe, is 6′2″, Taylor is 5′10″ -- thats a big difference. 🦒🦒🦒

- “i know they said the end is near” = end of the relationship or the end of hiding it, either way, it’s a romantic last private moment together, swaying as the room burns down.

- “i can change everything about me to fit in” = Taylor when she was starting out was forced to create this all innocent, american-girl image of herself. She has had to hide herself to succeed, as she said in Miss Americana, she was muzzled.

- “you are not like the regulars, the masquerade revelers” = Karlie is different to everyone else, or any other ex, ‘masquerade’ implies masked or hidden figures at a party, very Love Story

- “and the called off the circus, burned the disco down” = the ‘circus’ could be the media/public, or all the illusions Taylor has cast in order to appear straight. The ‘disco’, and Taylor is the ‘mirror ball’ to her lover means that this isolated existence of just the two of them.

- “I’m still on that tightrope, I’m still trying everything” for now, she’s still closeted, she’s still trying to have the best of everything.

- “I’m still a believer, but I don’t know why” believer in everything working out perhaps, or perhaps believing it’s better if she’s in the closet and it’s only the two of them.

- “never been a natural” = she has completely created herself through years off trying to be what people want, not who she naturally is.

seven

- “picture me” implies this is retrospective of Taylor, she’s reflecting on her childhood/youth.

- “I hit my peak at Seven” could either refer to the age 7 or album 7, ‘Lover’ which many critics argued was her best work.

- “Over the creek I was too scared to jump in” = fear of jumping is something Taylor has discussed in many songs but this is different, the creek represents something she fears will drown her.

- “High in the sky with Pennsylvania under me” = obviously, Taylor was born and raised in rural PA, so this truly is a childhood memory unearthed and explored. It’s personal to Taylor, it’s her story. 👏🏼

- “Are there still beautiful things?” Recognizing the world isn’t all daisies and rainbows

- “cross your heart, don’t tell no other” = again, secret keeping and hiding something is a big queer image, ‘cross your heart’ is a quite childish phrase but it’s adult equivalent in Taylor’s world is an NDA, ie swearing people to secrecy is something she's always known... 🔐

- “Although i can’t recall your face, I still got love for you” = this childhood love has faded with time to memories, this girl simultaneously forgotten and remembered.

- “Your braids like a pattern” = definitely about a girl (1996 rural Pennsylvania was not the kind of place where boys had braids), specific use of YOUR pronoun not ‘my’ or ‘our’ suggesting again it’s about a girl. Very obviously about a first girl crush. 🌈

- “passed down like folk songs, the love lasts so long” = firstly, reference to Neruda’s poem Taylor used in the red prologue. second, folksongs change slightly from generation to generation but the heart/melody remains the same meaning that in Taylor’s mind, the story of her first girl love has changed but it’s still the same song/story all the years later. also, clearly a reminder of the setting of the song and the album as a whole being folklore. 💛

- “your dad is always mad and that must be why” feels a lot like Love Story and forbidden love, also again rural Pennsylvania in the mid-1990s was not the most liberal place so I can imagine a lot of homophobic ideas that perforated Taylor’s childhood.

- “I think you should come live with me” is such an innocent image of someone in love and wanting to just fix things by bringing them home, it also is like a baby gay version of uhauling

- “we could be pirates” = pirates are not just a childhood image/motif but also one historically seen as gay, gangs of pirates often had ‘mateolage’ agreements that basically were like widow’s benefits. See John Swann. ☠️

- “you won’t have to cry, or hide in the closet.” = I think this one is explicitly clear but just to be sure, Taylor could’ve said “hide when he lost it, hide if you wanted, hide in the woods too” etc. Read this for a full understanding of why it such a LOUD image to use. It is VERY DELIBERATE PEOPLE. 🌈🌈🌈

- “just like a folk song, our love will be passed on” = different from the first bridge but deliberate again. Their story, aka Taylor liking girls from a young age will always be talked about, AND their love lives in this song she wrote.

- “picture me in the weeds before I learned civility” = again, given the homophobic attitude, ‘civility’ and straightness should be read as the same so Taylor is saying when she was a child, free in the grass and herself, she wants to always be.

- “I used to scream ferociously any time I wanted” = she wasn’t muzzled as a child, she could say and be who she wanted, screaming it aloud for everyone to hear but that changed as she grew up.

- “pack your dolls and a sweater, we’ll move to India forever” = ‘dolls’ again would imply it’s two girls running away together and India is this exocitc far off place to a child, a place where they can be together without anyone knowing them or controlling them.

August

- Karlie Kloss is born in August. Karlie Kloss posted yesterday about being a Leo (an August born). August belongs to Karlie Kloss. 🦁♌

- “rust on your door” = image of something well-worn, perhaps someone who’s been here too a few times before?

- “whispers of are you sure?” = obviously there is the sexual connotation, but beyond that, what if it’s about Taylor and Karlie going public etc.

- “never have I ever before” = see above but also the game ‘never have I ever’ evokes youthfulness and sounds almost like a reminder of a fun night with friends.

- “I can see us lost in the memory” = implies they’re still together, losing themself in the memory together

- “I can see us twisted in bedsheets” = again, sexual imagery but also the intimacy of sharing a bed with the person you love after sex

- “Like a bottle of wine” = matures the song a bit, the youthfulness of earlier is now more adult. 21 is America’s drinking age, 20s were mentioned early etc. 🍷

- “Cause you were never mine” = the whole of Taylor and Karlie’s relationship, Karlie has publically been dating Josh so she was never solely Taylor’s.

- “Will you call when you’re back at school?” = Karlie attended NYU in 2015, the height of Kaylor.

- “back when we were still changing for the better” = instead of changing to adapt/survive or keep up appearances.

- “wanting was enough” = wanting Karlie without labels was enough, rather than having to go public etc. Many have said for a long time that Karlie and Taylor fought about coming out or not.

- “cancel plans in case you would call” = sounds like a very love-sick Taylor Swift thing to do. Also waiting on a lover’s call when they constantly are travelling like both Karlie and Taylor do makes sense. ☎️

- “so much for summer love” = cruel summer echo? Summer 2015 was again, peak Kaylor so this could be a specific reference to that period

- “Do you remember? Remember when I pulled up and said ‘get in the car’” another specific reference, comes up again later in Betty, clearly is something personal.

- “Back when I was still living for the hope of it all” = back as in the past when everything was happening, hope of it all being the hope they’d still end up together.

TO SUM UP PART 1:

BENEATH ALL FICTION OR MYTH IS FACT & FEELING. Taylor is no longer hiding. Yes, some of these songs are about stories and people not her but there is so much of herself and her own story layered in too. PAY ATTENTION!!! Obviously, these are just my opinions, I’m not Taylor so I cannot know exactly what these songs are about but I think, after years of analyzing her music, these images/themes and deliberate word choice are well-versed in this part of the fandom. It is entirely possible this is the beginning of Taylor’s full, public coming out journey.

I’ll be back with Part 2 tomorrow. Stay Tuned!

#ts8 #taylor swift #taylor swift gay #taylor swift karlie kloss #Kaylor #kaylor proof #gaylor swit #Gaylor #GAYLOR RISE #karlie kloss taylor swift #Karlie Kloss #karlie what you want #tasloveskk #folklore #folklore taylor swift

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thompsborn · 4 years ago

Note

fic where harley is a doctor that works w helen cho that sees peter often because of how much he gets hurt from being spider-man? and they fall in love bc they r already smitten for each other bc why wouldn't they be

i didn’t know how much i needed an au like this until you sent it omg

[read on ao3]

—

He’s in the middle of taking a sip of coffee when the alarm goes off.

“Mister Keener,” Friday says, as he’s cursing over the hot coffee that’s soaking into the front of his shirt. Thankfully, it’s not hot enough to actually burn him, but that doesn’t make it any less unpleasant. “Your assistance is needed in the Medical Wing.”

Harley frowns. “What time is it?”

“Four fifty eight in the morning, Mister Keener.”

“Jesus, really?” Harley sets his mug down and turns his arm over to look at his watch. His brows shoot up towards his hairline, surprised. “Wow. Okay. Didn’t realize it was... Jesus. Alright.”

Friday sounds almost amused when she tells him, “Doctor Cho is insisting you hurry.”

Harley sighs. “Yeah, okay. On my way.”

At this time of the night, the only medical staff on hand are the ones who live close by—like Helen, who has an apartment less than a two minute walk away—and those who live on site, like Harley, who’s had his own floor in the tower since he was fifteen and told Tony over a phone call that he was thinking about coming to New York once he was done with high school. Because of this, Harley isn’t all that surprised to find that it’s only him and Helen that show up in the MedBay—if anything, it’s what he expected.

And he should have expected who, exactly, they’re treating in the middle of the night, but he still finds himself mildly surprised when he comes face to face with Peter’s sheepish grin.

“Of course it’s you,” Harley says, standing at the foot of the hospital bed with his arms crossed over his chest. “Who else would be waking me up like this?”

“Don’t lie to me,” Peter says, sheepish grin turning a bit snarky. “You weren’t asleep.”

Harley purses his lips. “I could’ve been.”

Peter rolls his eyes, but doesn’t get the chance to respond before Helen is hovering by his side, snapping her gloves into place and instructing, “Friday, give me the run down.“

“Mister Parker has several second degree burns along his left leg and left arm,” Friday responds. “His right wrist is broken, and there appears to be a laceration along his abdomen.”

Harley winces in sympathy. “Rough night?”

Peter tries to shrug, but the movement makes his features twist up in a flash of pain. His voice comes out a bit strained when he says, “You could say that. There was—house fire. Not fun.”

“Get everyone out?” Harley asks, if only to provide a slight distraction as Helen assesses the broken wrist, likely checking to see if it needs to be reset or if it’ll be able to heal properly as it is. Peter tries for a grin.

“All of ‘em. Even the kids pet turtle.”

Harley pats Peter’s right knee, careful to remember that it’s his left leg with the burns. “Job well done, Spider-Man.”

“Harley,” Helen says, grabbing his attention. She’s apparently deemed Peter’s wrist not a main concern and is already peeling Peter’s suit off of him. Harley snaps into focus instantly, listening intently as Helen tells him, “I need you to take care of the laceration while I get started on the burns. When that’s done, we need to get that wrist in a cast until it heals.”

Peter pouts. “A cast? Really?”

Helen looks at him sharply. “Last time we didn’t put you in a cast, you managed to re-break your arm before it could heal. Twice.”

Peter’s pout vanishes with a meek chuckle. “It was an accident?” he offers.

“You, Peter Parker,” Helen says, averting her attention back to his burns as she speaks, “are somehow my best and my worst patient of all time. And I’m Tony Stark’s doctor, too, so that says a whole lot about you.”

“Hey—” Peter cuts off with a hiss as Harley starts to disinfect the large cut on his side. Harley offers an apologetic half smile that Peter waves away with another wince and a wobbly sort of grin. “I’m not worse than Mr. Stark.”

Helen hums, high pitched and teasing.

“I’m not,” Peter insists. “I’m not!”

“Believe what you want,” Helen tells him.

Peter huffs. “Why are you being mean to me? Aren’t doctors supposed to be nice to their patients? Isn’t that, like, a thing?”

Harley snorts when Helen says, “Next time, don’t wake me up at four in the morning with second degree burns and a broken wrist, and maybe then I’ll be nicer to you, hm?”

—

The thing is, Harley didn’t plan on this.

As in, growing up, he was sure that what he wanted was to be a mechanic. He loved to build, take apart, recreate, understand. It’s all he ever did. Hell, when Tony Frickin’ Stark broke into his garage, the guy ended up making Harley his own mechanic heaven to say thanks for helping him out.

And Harley still loves all of that, to be fair—he spends a lot of his free time tinkering in Tony’s lab now, helping him out with whatever the man’s working on and often working on his own fun little projects on the side—but it’s not his main drive. It’s not the center of his world.

He thinks it started when he saved Tony.

In a way, anyway—he had only been twelve at the time, and it’s not like twelve year olds are exactly apt on having life changing realizations that change the course of their future. Still, he was a twelve year old that saved Tony Stark’s life, and there was some kind of thrill, almost. It was hard to explain then, and Harley isn’t sure if he could put it into words now, but the feeling had made his fingers feel all tingly and his heart thud heavily in his chest. It was similar to when he built his first successful bot and it came whirring to life, only the feeling was intensified.

He felt like he was doing what he was supposed to be doing. He knew he wanted to save lives.

“You’re getting better,” Helen tells him, after Harley’s helped the medical team with bandaging up the members of the Avengers that just returned from a mission. None of the wounds had been major, mostly just scrapes and bruises, but it’s the most amount of people Harley has helped treat at once, which is a big step.

Harley shrugs, drying off his hands, having just finished washing them. “You’re a good teacher.”

Helen chuckles at that. “How are your classes?”

“Good,” Harley answers, nodding his head. “Kinda boring. I know most of it already, thanks to all the training you’ve given me, but that‘s not really new. I knew everything they taught me in high school, too.”

“You sound like Peter when you say that,” Helen muses, an amused quirk to her brow.

Harley rolls his eyes. “Y’know, people keep saying that, but I only see him when he’s bleeding out and that doesn’t make it feel like we’re all that similar.”

“Oh, you’re similar, alright,” Helen says, laughing a bit. “You’re both genius kids who bust your asses off to save people’s lives.”

Wrinkling his nose, Harley says, “But I don’t do it in spandex. Key difference there, doc.”

Helen holds her hands up in some kind of surrender. “Just saying, you two are alike.”

“I’ll make sure to tell him you said that next time he breaks his leg,” Harley quips.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Friday interjects, “but Spider-Man is reportedly injured and heading to the tower now. ETA of six and a half minutes.”

Harley rolls his eyes up to the ceiling with an exasperated sigh. Helen can only laugh.

—

“Ow. Ow, ow—oh, Jesus, that’s—ow—!”

“Sorry,” Harley says, only averting his eyes for a second to flash Peter an apologetic look before focusing back on the stitches he’s giving him.

Peter curses, slamming his left fist into his own thigh as Harley pushes the needle through. “This sucks,” he complains, clenching his jaw and grinding his teeth. “This is—why is this worse than getting stabbed? Why do I prefer getting stabbed over this? This blows.”

“You need to stop moving,” Harley tells him.

Making an indignant sort of noise, Peter asks, “How the hell am I—I can’t stop moving! This hurts, man, like—like, really fuckin’ hurts!”

“Moving makes it worse, dipshit,” Harley retorts, fighting the urge to roll his eyes.

“You know what else makes it worse?” Peter glares at the wall. “Not having pain killers.”

Harley does roll his eyes now. “Not my job. I just give you the drugs, I don’t make them.”

“I know, but Mr. Stark isn’t here for me to bitch at, so I’m complaining to you about it instead.”

Harley can’t help the way that he snorts at that, finishing off the last of the stitches as he does so. “I usually don’t like to listen to someone complain while I’m working.”

“Sucks to suck,” Peter replies. “Are you done?”

“Yep.” Harley leans back, taking off his gloves and tossing them into the trash. “Any other injuries? Stab wounds? Broken bones?”

Peter hums, tilting his head from side to side. “I don’t think so. Friday?”

“All clear, Mr. Parker.”

Harley frowns. “The fact that you had to ask worries me.”

Peter shrugs. “I get hurt a lot. Kinda used to it.”

“Still,” Harley says. “That’s concerning. Like, you still feel pain, right? You would know if you were hurt somewhere else, wouldn’t you?”

“Oh, trust me, I feel pain,” Peter snorts. “But some things just... don’t matter? Like... I dunno, but if it’s not serious, it’s like my brain filters it out on it’s own to focus on other things. Which, probably, y’know, not good, but, like, oh well.”

“Definitely not good,” Harley murmurs, frowning to himself as he squints around the room for a moment. “Well, if you have nothing else, then you’re good to go. And, honestly, thank god that’s all you have, ‘cause this is the first time I’ve done anything without Helen around and anything more than stitches would’ve had me flipping shit and fucking it all up.”

Peter lets out a light laugh, pulling his shirt down, over the gash that Harley just finished stitching. “You wouldn’t fuck it up,” he says, sounding light and humorous yet entirely serious, too. “You’re, like, really good at your job, Harley.”

Harley scrunches his nose up on his face. “Ew. Don’t be nice to me. It’s gross.”

Peter laughs again, a little bit louder, though the way it makes his stomach jump has him wincing when it pulls at his stitches. “I’m serious!” he insists. “Like, I know you’re still a med student and stuff, but Helen is probably the best person to be training you, so you’re, like, more qualified than most normal doctors. You have the experience that most people still in med school don’t have. I mean, you patch up the freakin’ Avengers, Harley! You gotta be good at this to do that!”

“I help patch up the Avengers,” Harley corrects. “The only person I’ve ever fixed up by myself is you, thanks to your insane ability to always get hurt.”

“It’s a talent,” Peter shrugs. “And hey, I bet it keeps you entertained.”

Harley snorts. “Entertained is not the right word for it, Spidey. Impressed, maybe, by just how much trouble you’re capable of getting yourself into.”

Peter grins. “Gotta impress people somehow, right?”

—

Harley wouldn’t call it bonding.

Because it’s not. It’s not bonding. It’s small talk, and pleasant conversations, while Harley sets a broken bone or treats another burn. It’s filling the silence because, apparently, Helen trusts Harley to handle Peter on his own, unless it’s a major injury that requires more than one person on hand, and Harley isn’t sure why he’s being trusted with this, but he’s pretty intent on not fucking it up.

But it isn’t bonding. They’re just... acquaintances. Who talk. Like, a lot, because Peter comes in at least four times a week needing treatment for something, and that gives them a lot of time to talk. Maybe Harley learns a lot about Peter during this time, like his favorite song, and what his comfort hoodie is, and why he became Spider-Man in the first place. Maybe Peter learns where Harley is from, how he met Tony, and what made him decide to be a doctor over a mechanic.

Maybe, after a few weeks, they start having inside jokes, built not only from the time they spend alone together, but also from the months upon months that Harley was helping Helen treat Peter, too. Sometimes, Peter snorts so hard that he reopens his stitches and Harley has to fix it. Sometimes, Harley can’t stop laughing when he needs to have steady hands and he ends up hunching over on himself and wheezing because of whatever it is that Peter said. One day, Peter comes in when he isn’t injured, dressed in casual clothes with a few textbooks from his ESU courses in one hand and a coffee cup in the other. “I’m headed up to see Mr. Stark,” he tells Harley, “but I thought I’d give you this,” and he holds out the cup of coffee with a big, cheesy sort of grin.

“Why?” Harley asks, though he accepts the cup gratefully.

Peter shrugs. “I’d probably have bled out ten times over if it weren’t for you, and you looked, like, really tired yesterday, so I thought you might need it.”

He is tired—exhausted, really, because his classes may not be hard but there are some big tests coming up that he needs to study for and it’s hard to find the time to study in between training with Helen and doing all the millions of other assignments that are being tossed his way. He takes a sip of the coffee, hums in satisfaction at the way it warms him up, and says, “Thanks.”

“Least I could do,” Peter tells him.

So, maybe they’re friends. Maybe—maybe—Harley is starting to look forward to seeing him and keeps trying to think of a casual way to offer they hang out sometime, outside of the med bay. Maybe Peter starts bringing Harley a cup of coffee every time he goes to visit Tony, and maybe Harley starts to feel a little thrill whenever he hands the coffee over and their fingers briefly brush.

Maybe it is bonding, but it’s not a crush. It’s not.

(”You’re adorable when you’re in denial,” Helen tells him.

Harley sinks in his seat and tries to disappear. “Shut up.”)

—

The letters of his textbook are blurring in front of his eyes when the alarm rings.

He jumps at the sound, looks up at the ceiling with slightly squinted eyes and furrowed brows, expecting Friday to calmly inform him that his assistance is needed in the med bay, like usual. Instead of that, though, the alarm continues to blare, and all Friday says is, “Urgent. Urgent. Urgent.”

Which is code for: someone’s about to die if he doesn’t hurry.

Instantly, he jumps to his feet, feeling wide awake despite being on the brink of dozing off just a few short moments ago. “Okay,” he tells himself, rushing out of his room and sprinting towards the elevator, which is already open and waiting for him. He only just barely thinks to swipe his tablet along the way, clutches it in his hands while he says, “Okay, okay, okay—who, uh—Friday? Who is it?”

“Iron Man and Spider-Man are both heavily injured and require immediate assistance,” Friday informs him gravely. “Doctor Cho is already treating Mr.Stark and has told me to inform you that you will be in charge of Mr. Parker.”

“Oh, god,” Harley breathes, pinching the bridge of his nose and giving himself a second to take a deep breath while the elevator takes him down to the proper floor. “Jesus. Okay. I need, uh—give me a list of Peter’s injuries, Fri.”

“Of course, Mr. Keener.”

The list is sent to his tablet immediately, and it’s—extensive. Third degree burns and multiple shattered ribs and various bullet wounds, only some of which are clean through, meaning that there’s various bullets that they need to remove before Peter starts to heal around them. The more he reads, the faster his heart thunders in his chest while his mind automatically sorts through it to think of what needs to be prioritized, what to treat first, and how to keep Peter alive.

By the time he reaches Peter’s room, he has a game plan figured out, and he only falters for a short moment when he sees Peter on the hospital bed, writhing around and sobbing in pain. The rest of the medical staff in the room freeze, likely already aware that Helen put him in charge, and wait with bated breath.

“Alright,” Harley says, mostly to himself. “Here’s what we’re going to do.”

—

Maybe it is a crush.

Harley is finding it hard to deny it now, as he sits beside Peter’s hospital bed, his hands feeling a little bit shaky where they’re clasped together and hanging between his knees. They had to undergo emergency surgery, and Peter’s heart had stopped four times throughout the procedure. Bringing him back had been the most panic inducing thing Harley has ever experienced in his life, and he couldn’t even show it because he was the one that was put in charge.

But they did, all four times —they got his heart going again and they got out all the bullets and treated all the burns and did everything they could to stabilized the broken bones. They gave him multiple IV’s, all of which he’s still attached to, and he hasn’t woken up since he passed out from the pain shortly after Harley’s arrival—and he passed out looking at Harley, too, with wide, pleading eyes that seemed to be begging for mercy, filled with agony and despair.

Harley would do anything to never have to see that look again.

“How’s he doing?” Helen asks, stepping into the room. She looks tired, undoubtedly exhausted from doing whatever she could to stabilize Tony just a few rooms down. Harley feels that exhaustion in his very bones.

“He’s gonna be fine,” Harley tells her. “Lost him a few times, though.”

Helen hums sympathetically. “But you got him back.”

Harley hesitates, then nods. “Yeah, we did.”

“Good,” Helen says, laying a gentle hand on his shoulder. “You did good.” She stays like that for a moment, doesn’t move, and Harley appreciates the gesture but kind of wants to be alone. Maybe she senses that, because a moment later, she’s pulling her hand back and asking, “Are you staying here?”

“‘Til he wakes up,” Harley tells her.

Helen smiles at him warmly. “Make sure you get some rest, too, okay?”

Harley doesn’t think he’ll be able to sleep until he sees Peter awake and talking again, but he still nods at her and says, “Yeah, alright.”

After Helen leaves the room, after it’s just Harley and Peter again, he finds himself reaching forward and taking Peter’s hand in his, and, other than the innocent brush of fingers when passing a coffee cup, this is the first time they’ve touched outside of Harley treating Peter’s wounds. It’s a bit of a startling realization, but Harley finds comfort in the contact, listens to the steady beeping of the heart monitor and starts to relax with the reassurance that he really did good, that Peter is going to be okay and Harley is the one that saved him.

He doesn’t mean to fall asleep, but with that relief flooding his veins and Peter’s hand in his, he finds himself dozing off and doesn’t bother forcing himself awake.

—

At first, he doesn’t realize he’s waking up, his senses still muddled with sleep. It feels almost as if he’s floating in unconsciousness, warm and comfortable and—

“Harley?”

And he wakes with a jolt, eyes snapping open and instantly searching, only coming to a stop when they land on wide brown eyes looking right back at him. “Oh,” he breathes, blinking once and sitting up straight despite the way it makes his back complain. “Oh, my god. You’re awake.”

Peter tilts his head, just a little bit, and looks down at their intertwined fingers.

“Right. That.” Harley clears his throat and scrubs his free hand over his features, trying to wake himself up with a sheepish little smile. “It’s, um—not important, actually. How do you feel? Any pain, discomfort, anything like that?”

For a moment, Peter doesn’t respond, just keeps looking at their hands before rasping out a hoarse little, “’m kinda—kinda thirsty. M’throat hurts.”

Instantly, Harley gets to his feet and pulls open the mini fridge in the room to grab a bottle of water. He takes it back to Peter, hands it over, and feels somewhere stuck between doctor mode and something else, the worry and the uncertainty and the fear from hearing the flat line all mixing together until he feels nauseous with it. Peter accepts the water bottle gratefully, takes tentative sips from it and only winces slightly when he swallows it. “Better?” Harley asks.

Peter smiles, a bit small and tired, but just as genuine as always. “Yeah.”

“Good,” Harley murmurs, hovering by the chair he had been sitting in before. “Is there anything else? Just, like—anything at all? How do you feel?”

“Tired,” Peter tells him. “Like, um... groggy, y’know? And... out of it.”

Harley nods, a bit relieved that the dose of pain killers he chose was the right amount. “That’s to be expected. You were really roughed up, Pete.”

Peter frowns down at his water, brows knitting together. “What happened?”

“There was an ambush,” Harley tells him. “I guess Doc Ock was out and about, so you went to confront him and he got enough hits in to alert Tony, so he went to help you out, but Ock apparently teamed up with Rhino and they were able to catch you guys off guard and get the upper hand. Rhodey and a few others went to help out, but they didn’t get there in time to stop you guys from nearly getting killed, so, when you came in, it was... not pretty. But, you’re both gonna be fine.”

He wants to say that it’s not a crush. It can’t be a crush, isn’t supposed to be one, even if seeing the way Peter lets out a puff of air and relaxes back into his pillows is kind of a... not so bad sight. He looks tired and a bit beat up and a little too pale, but he’s good. He’s alive. Being alive looks good on him.

Maybe, Harley admits. Maybe it is a crush.

“Thank you,” Peter murmurs, head lulling back into the pillows. He holds out a hand and Harley isn’t sure what the action is for, but he doesn’t think before reaching forward and tangling their fingers together.

Harley clears his throat. “What for?”

“Not letting me die,” Peter says.

The mere idea of letting Peter die makes Harley’s heart stutter in his chest. “Of course,” he mumbles, a bit stricken. “I’ll always save you. It’s my job.”

Peter squeezes Harley’s hand, falls asleep with a sigh and a smile on his face.

Harley still doesn’t leave.

(It’s definitely, one hundred percent, a huge, gigantic crush, and maybe... maybe he’s okay with that. Maybe liking Peter Parker isn’t all that bad.)

#parkner #my writing #mild descriptions of injuries #non graphic near death experience

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artificialqueens · 4 years ago

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Come Home to My Heart, Chapter 7 (Lemyanka) - Plastiquedoll

read on ao3 ✨| previous chapters

A/N: I don’t know if I can say this but this is one of my favorite chapters I’ve written and I’m so excited I can finally share it! it’s literally two people driving around but it matches the song I guess… I hope you enjoy it and thanks for reading it! <3

-7-

“So Lemon thinks I’m dating you.” Priyanka used the home phone to call her friend the day after their night out.

It was almost noon and Priyanka’s hangover had abandoned her body after drinking a gallon of water and taking a long -long- shower. She was walking around the house with the phone in one ear and a half-empty cup of coffee in the other. Her parents were at her sister’s place, having lunch with the kids so she had the house for herself –and when you’re hangover no matter how much you love kids you do want to be alone.

Denali burst into laughter. “Does she?” Her voice sounded distorted after singing all night.

“Well, thank you for being so considerate and laugh at the possibility of dating me. At least you didn’t do it on my face.”

“It’s not that… I’m sorry. You’re gorgeous for what matters.”

“You’re still laughing.”

“It’s your telephone connection. But wait, are you going to tell her the truth?”

“Eventually, if she asks again… Until then, would you mind if I play dumb with it?”

“Priyanka, oh my God… You’re so silly.”

“Okay, I’ll take that. But let me be potentially unrealistic for a moment here… she might be jealous of you.”

Denali gasped exaggeratedly.

“Quit making fun of me, you bitch.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry… This is just so entertaining for me.”

“I’m sure it is.”

“But the night ended up well for you two, right? Progress… character development?”

“She was drunk and called me Sprinky before I pushed her into a taxi.”

“I love Sprinky! Aw, you guys, pet names already.”

“That hardly qualifies as a pet name but…”

“Tomayto, tomahto, same thing.”

It really was Denali the one who lived in a fantasy world.

“I gotta go. I need to pick some groceries from the supermarket.”

“Okay, bye Sprinky!”

Priyanka clicked her tongue. “Bye. Bitch.”

Her mother had given her a list of things to buy since she was staying in all day and she said her lazy ass needed to do something productive, -she didn’t say it like that but that was what Priyanka heard when she was still wasted on her bed.

She had taken her car to the supermarket that was in the center of the city since it was the biggest one around. On her way there, she noticed the engine coughing a little more than usual but she downplayed it when the noises stopped.

The day was sunny and hot, it warmed her skin and made it glow as she drove to the location. She had grabbed a pair of denim shorts that were on top of her suitcase –luckily, since she hadn’t unpacked yet- but she had to dig some more to find an ombré knitted white and blue crop top she had brought, then complimented the outfit with a pair of sandals and vintage round orange sunglasses. After brushing her hair a little, she was ready to go.

She got to the store, picked a shopping cart, and wandered through the aisles with her mother’s list in her hand. She occasionally lifted her feet and slid with the cart when no one was watching. Then she got distracted whereas she was goofing around and almost crashed it on the cereal aisle, fortunately, no one saw that.

Well, almost no one.

“Jesus Christ you’re going to kill someone with that.”

Priyanka stopped in her tracks when she recognized the voice right away.

Naturally, Lemon was there to see her making a fool of herself.

She was there, looking unimpressed as usual with a shopping basket on the floor next to her. Lemon was wearing a NYC t-shirt in pastel yellow, pink and blue, a pair of mom jeans, and white chunky sneakers that made her a bit taller. She also had a giant pair of white oval sunglasses with black glasses on -Priyanka only suspected the reason behind that fashion choice- she had her hair wet but tied into pigtails and lip gloss, lip gloss was never missing with her.

“Fancy meeting you here.” Priyanka mumbled.

“Can’t say the same,” she sighed. “are you following me or something?”

The brunette scoffed. “You wished…”

“Then move aside I’m trying to get the Froot Loops.”

Priyanka looked up and spotted the colorful cereal box above her head. “But the real question is can you get the Froot Loops?”

“Oh, fuck you.” She almost pushed Priyanka off the way but the other girl moved faster.

Lemon had to tiptoe and jump a little to reach for the box and Priyanka enjoyed every second of it.

“Don’t you have anything better to do?” Lemon was surely grumpy that day, it was the hangover speaking.

“Not really.” She grabbed a box of Cookie Crisp. “I was wondering if you made it home alright after the state you left.”

“I did… thanks for pushing me into a taxi.” There was some of sarcasm there, Priyanka detected.

“Anytime.”

Lemon started walking and Priyanka followed her with her cart, at that point to mess with her some more.

“You still have that sweet tooth for the chocolate chip cookies…” The blonde observed.

Priyanka looked at the cereal she had chosen without giving it much thought. “I guess I do… You still like anything colorful and sugary.”

“Some things never change.”

But other things changed too much.

After roaming a little, at some point, they split and when Priyanka collected the rest of the items on the list she waited in line to pay for her shop. She saw the blonde when she crossed the automatic door with her grocery bags.

Priyanka slid the credit card and then left as well. She loaded the bags on the trunk, then sat at the driver’s seat and inserted the keys to turn on the engine. She tried a couple of times without significant results, the engine coughed a little and then when she thought she had it, it died again.

“C’mon girl, don’t do this to me now… I bought ice cream bars.”

The sight of smoke wasn’t a lovely view, to say the least. When she lifted the engine cover, she discovered it was worse than what she expected.

“Shit… shit, shit, shit… this is bad.”

She pulled her flipping phone from her back pocket and called her father who calmed her down but couldn’t do much in the distance; he suggested a mechanic nearby that could take a look at it.

Priyanka was losing her mind. She sat at the curb and buried her face in her hands.

“Looks like you could use a ride.” Lemon’s voice made her look at the girl.

“Not now.” She blurted out. “I don’t have time for your snarky comments so please refrain from saying anything you’d think is clever.”

Lemon lifted her sunglasses. “I’m not trying to get on your nerves; I’m legit offering you a ride.” Priyanka didn’t seem convinced. “Think for a moment, your groceries are going to go bad with the heat and no air conditioner.”

“The ice cream bars…” She was on the verge of tears. “Fine. Yes, I need a ride, would you be so nice and help me out?”

“Come with me, my car is around the corner in front of the drugstore.”

“Buying some aspirins?”

“Cut the slack I’m trying to do a good deed here.”

“For a change.”

They carried the bags to Lemon’s car around the corner and Priyanka raised an eyebrow as soon as she saw her car.

As expected, from all people, Lemon would be the one driving a sunny yellow Volkswagen New Beetle. They put the groceries on the trunk yet again and the blonde took a seat in the driver’s position, Priyanka sat on the passenger seat.

“A yellow car?” She questioned.

Lemon buckled up. “My dad gave it to me.”

“Your daddy bought you a pretty car? For real?”

She adjusted the sunglasses back on. “He felt guilty after getting re-married and I accepted it as a peace offering. Is that so terrible?”

“Of course…”

Lemon started the engine and moved the vehicle toward the roundabout, heading for Priyanka’s house.

“You have to turn right in the next street.” Priyanka indicated.

“I think I know where your house is.” Lemon murmured as she took a different way.

“Yeah, you could get there faster this way but you’re about to enter to a one-way street… on the opposite side.”

“Shit.” Lemon maneuvered her way out with a U-turn.

“Does everyone in New York drive like this?”

Lemon blushed. “This is my third time driving in town.”

“Did you drive all the way from the Big Apple alone?”

She shook her head. “Rita visited me there and then we traveled together.”

“You two get along for what it seems…”

“It took some time and adjustment. That was supposed to be our bonding trip but I’m pretty sure she secretly holds a grudge since I convinced her mother of making the bridesmaids’ dresses pastel yellow for the wedding.”

Typical Lemon.

“But her mother is nice, she makes my dad happy so I can’t complain.”

“What about your mom? How is she?”

“Christina is alright. She got signed by an important architectural firm two years ago and has been working non-stop since then. She dated a few men but nothing too transcendental. She still listens to ABBA on a daily basis and sings every song in the repertoire deliberately loud enough to embarrass me in front of people but she’s happy. She’s on a cruise right now having the time of her life probably, that’s part of why I’m here.”

“Good for her, good for Christina.”

“That’s what I said. I thought this whole thing of my dad marrying someone else was going to trigger her somehow but she’s proven me wrong when getting over exes is about. Maybe it helped a little that the woman her ex married is older than her but who knows.”

Priyanka chuckled.

Lemon turned the radio on, Give Me All Your Luvin played through the speakers.

It was nice, to get to talk with Lemon like that, forgetting all the fights and unresolved problems they had for a moment. If Priyanka closed her eyes for an instant she could almost picture them both chatting in Lemon’s room with the music playing on the radio and the smell of wet nail polish in the air.

But then, when she opened her eyes, she got back to reality in a world where they had missed seven years of each other’s lives. There was a time where she could tell exactly what Lemon was thinking of but now it was a different story, the blonde was inscrutable and Priyanka couldn’t predict her reactions or guess the words that would come from her mouth. There were many things she didn’t know about Lemon now.

“Do you like Rihanna?” Priyanka asked when they stopped in front of a red light.

“What?” Lemon turned her head. “What kind of question is that?”

The brunette shrugged. “A thought I had.”

“Of course I like Rihanna, what kind of monster do you think I am?”

“One that doesn’t like Rihanna… perhaps.”

Lemon laughed at how ridiculous the conversation was. She had to continue driving when the light changed to green.

“Rihanna’s first album came out seven years ago and she didn’t get the recognition she deserved until a few years later…” Priyanka explained. “so I never got to know if you liked her music and I’m asking it now because there are two types of people in the world, the ones who have the taste and the ones that are monsters and dislike Rihanna’s music.”

“Okay, I’m telling you I love her. In fact, open the glove compartment.”

Priyanka looked at her.

“Go ahead, open it.” She commanded.

She did as the girl said and when the glove compartment was opened, a pile of CDs boxes where revealed inside. The first of them was a copy of Loud by Rihanna and the next one Good Girl Gone Bad.

“I couldn’t bring all of them but I have a few of them here and others at home.”

“Fair enough.” Priyanka checked the other albums underneath.

The little collection included Circus by Britney Spears, Teenage Dream by Katy Perry, Survivor by Destiny’s Child, Overexposed by Maroon 5, The Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani and Fearless by Taylor Swift –that last one was Rita’s, she explained- Priyanka inspected the CDs until she found one last album that was in the bottom of the box, it was a worn out copy of Spice World by the Spice Girls, nothing more and nothing less.

“Hey, this is the album you gave me before moving to New York, remember?” A smile grew wide on her face before the memory.

Lemon blushed till the tip of her ears. “I do… that’s actually the copy I used to have in my room… the one we listened to on my radio.”

“Is it?” Priyanka looked at it with admiration. The colors were a bit pale and the box had several scratches, it was clear it has a few years on.

“Yeah… the CD doesn’t work anymore but I still got it there.”

Priyanka looked at the blonde who had her eyes fixed on the road and her hands closed around the steering wheel.

“Why did you keep it?”

“Sentimental value.” Her voice tone was almost inaudible. “I guess I’m not that cold heart monster you think I am, right?” She sounded somber.

“That’s not what I said… I-”

“We’re here.” She announced when she stopped in front of Priyanka’s house. “I’ll help you with the bags and then we can go get the mechanic for your car.”

She got down from the car leaving Priyanka with the words stuck on her throat once again.

It was becoming a pattern now, right when they started getting along again or when they had a decent conversation, Lemon shut the doors and closed all the windows before Priyanka had the chance to break through her walls.

“Your house hasn’t changed at all.” Lemon observed when they walked in with the groceries.

“Ah, yeah. My mom didn’t fall for the charms of the Property Brothers.”

“Do you have the hots for Drew or Jonathan?”

Priyanka cackled. “I stand behind my mother’s beliefs in this one.”

They put the bags on the countertop, Priyanka rushed to place ice cream on the freezer and other products on the fridge before they got spoiled. Lemon folded the paper bags in the meantime.

“Do you have some water?”

“Yeah, here.” Priyanka threw a water bottle at her and the girl caught it in the air.

She opened her purse and took two aspirins and chugged them down with a water sip.

Priyanka just watched her.

“What?” The blonde asked.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“I’m hangover, okay? Tequila is not my best friend… or vodka… neither of them.”

“That’s weird, judging by the way you drank yesterday you’d never guess.”

“Fuck off.” She drank some more water. “Now let’s go get the mechanic for that jalopy of yours.”

“Jalopy?” Priyanka gaped at her. “Excuse you, miss, but I paid that car with my blood, sweat and tears, and two part-time jobs.”

It was the car that was supposed to take her to New York, to Lemon.

“We should hurry then, I don’t know much about mechanics but the amount of smoke that engine released isn’t normal.”

“I know that.”

“Then, let’s go.” The aspirins probably were kicking in.

Before they left the house, Lemon stopped in front of the wall where Priyanka’s mother hung pictures of her and her siblings. In the past, there was a photo of the two of them in school but all over the years her mother probably had saved it just like Priyanka did with all the other Lemon memorabilia. The blonde cast an eye on a photo of the family’s matriarch with a group of children.

“Her grandchildren?”

“Yes, my nephews and nieces.”

“That’s cute… you’re an aunt now.” Priyanka recognized the softness behind her voice and it made her heart skip a beat.

They were back on the road again and Lemon followed the directions until they got to the mechanical workshop Priyanka’s father had suggested her to go. Priyanka explained the man in charge what had happened and then followed the girls with a tow truck.

Priyanka’s car was still where they had left it. It broke her heart to see it there in the streets completely abandoned.

The mechanic took his time to check the engine, he tried to make it work after adjusting some screws and move pieces Priyanka had never heard naming before. Lemon could’ve gone by that moment but she stayed with the brunette, she even shared her bubblegum with her when she noticed how stressed Priyanka was.

After thirty minutes, the man spoke with Priyanka. The diagnosis was not good and he explained that there wasn’t much for him to do. Priyanka felt the knot on her throat and the tears coming at any second. That was her car her baby… this couldn’t be the end of their adventures.

She was beyond surprised when she heard Lemon’s voice.

“But there must be something you can do about it.” She sounded assertive. “The chances are low but there are still chances, right?”

The man babbled some excuses about the car being old and even when it was in a good state; it was going to require some extra work.

“Then do the work.” The blonde continued. “That might look like a piece of junk for both of us but that’s her piece of junk and it means a lot to her so you will take it back to the workshop and do whatever you have to do to save it. Am I being clear enough?”

The man just nodded with wide eyes, maybe too scared to add anything else.

Priyanka was also speechless.

She watched the mechanic hooking her car to the tuck and then stared at Lemon.

“Thanks.” She blinked a couple of times. “That was amazing.”

“I’m sorry I called your car a jalopy.”

“She’s temperamental but it’s okay, I don’t think she heard you anyway.”

“I know you might think of me as this spoiled brat but don’t think I don’t understand what’s like to work hard to achieve something.”

“Thank you.”

“Now let’s go before that guy mistakes the junkyard for the workshop.”

“Hey!”

All was not lost.

That was what the mechanic had said once they left Priyanka’s car at the workshop. It was going to take a couple of days to have a better picture of the problem but maybe replacing some parts would make the difference.

Priyanka sighed of relief and almost hugged the man but then she saw the zeroes on the estimated budget for the repairs and decided to keep the hug for herself… she was more than thankful for having a job back in Toronto that would pay for the bills.

“Well, the good news is that she might live.” Priyanka announced when she got in the car with Lemon.

“There you have. He was just playing hard to get and I know about that.”

“Thank you, Lemon… for helping me so much today. You didn’t have to but still, you did.”

She started the engine. “You’ve done the same for me no questions asked.”

“Are you feeling better after the aspirins?”

“Yeah… I’m never drinking again I swear…”

“That’s a lie.”

“It is…”

“Do you even remember what you said? Last night?”

Lemon stopped in the red light. Her face was as pale as paper and she stared at Priyanka with big eyes, there was horror on them.

“What did I say?”

Priyanka started laughing.

“Priyanka, what did I say?”

The brunette ceased laughing. It was the first time Lemon called her by her name.

“You called me Sprinky and kept asking if Denali is my girlfriend.”

Lemon breathed again. “Thank God… it was just that…”

Priyanka was now puzzled. What else could she’d said?

“I remember that part, you never answered the question anyway.”

She sighed. “Denali is my friend. Just that… we’re friends. Are you happy now?”

Lemon kept driving, it became evening all of sudden.

“I don’t understand though, how did you get to the conclusion that we were dating? I mean, where did the idea come from?”

“Uhm… I’m friends with Kiara and Scarlett on Facebook…”

Traitors, both of them.

“Aha…”

“…and… well, sometimes a picture with you would appear… or pictures of you in nightclubs…”

“I’m so going to kill Scarlett. I told her not to post those…”

“I didn’t mean to assume anything but… I saw you and Denali together the other day and I thought… maybe…”

Priyanka took a deep breath.

“So you know… you know I like girls…”

She nodded.

“And are you okay with that?”

Lemon looked at her. “Why wouldn’t I? Of course I’m okay with that…”

There was a short silence between them, a part of Priyanka was relieved but she could feel her heart pounding.

“Don’t tell me that on top of you thinking that I dislike Rihanna you also consider myself to be homophobic or an ignorant asshole… that being the same thing.”

“I’m asking you.”

“Well, you’ll never have to question it again.” She sounded angry.

“I’m sorry… I take it back, you’re not a monster.”

Lemon’s face softened.

“It’s just… I think of Jan…”

Jan.

That name again, seven years after.

“Jan and her girlfriend Jackie are the one example of true love I have. My parents’ marriage didn’t work but Jan and Jackie… they are grossly in love, it’s disgusting and I love them so much.”

So Jan had a girlfriend… interesting.

“If they couldn’t be themselves and be together I would’ve lost all hope in love, to be honest.” She looked at Priyanka. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to but do your parents know?”

Lemon was probably one of the only people who knew Priyanka’s struggles with her family by first hand; they had spoken about it so many times before but never specifically on that topic.

“Yes.” She took a deep breath. “I told them a few years ago when my oldest brother was planning his wedding and they were trying to set me up with the son of their friends or something like that.” Priyanka tittered. “I told my mom first and she was more sympathetic, I had a long talk with her, lots of tears… then we hugged and she told me she loves me…”

Lemon did the unthinkable: she reached for her shoulder and gave it a little squeeze. It was a small gesture; it didn’t last longer than a few seconds ��she was driving after all- but for some reason, it made Priyanka feel much better.

“My dad… it was a different story. It took him longer to accept it and I believe he’s still digesting it so we don’t talk much about it. It was easier when I moved to a new city… It’s not like I had to need to hide who I am but there I could start from zero and be one hundred percent myself since the first moment.”

“I’m happy for you.” She smiled. “I really am.”

With all the resentment and the bickering, Priyanka had forgotten that Lemon could be sweet, that she could be caring, that she could be her friend.

A friend.

“So your friend Jan, she’s your roommate, right?”

“Yeah, the same.

“Is it Janice, Janelle, Janet…?”

“I’m quite sure it’s just Jan but even after these years they probably don’t even know my real name so it could be anything at this point…”

“And she’s dating Jackie.” Just to make it clear.

“They have the corniest love story that involves love confessions in carriage rides in Central Park, roses and singing songs under the starry sky.”

Priyanka almost choked.

“Exactly.” Lemon giggled. “They are a constant reminder I’m single as hell.”

This time, Priyanka choked for real.

At that moment, Lemon stopped the car, they had arrived.

In the distance, Priyanka spotted her parents’ car arriving shortly after.

Priyanka’s mom got down from the car and got closer to the unfamiliar car parked in front of their house meanwhile her dad put the car in the garage.

“Priyanka and… Lemon? Is that you?”

“Hello Mrs. Suknanan, it’s been a while.” She opened the door of the car and hugged Priyanka’s mom.

“I haven’t seen you in ages… You look all grown-up.”

“Don’t lie to her like that, mom.” Priyanka walked to where the little reunion was taking place.

Lemon rolled her eyes.

Here we go again.

“Are you staying for dinner? We’d love you to stay. I insist… I’m sure Priyanka would love it too.” She elbowed her daughter.

Traitors, even the ones you’d never expect.

“She wants to know if you’re staying for dinner…”

Lemon pulled one of her pageant full teeth smiles. “I’d love to, Mrs. Suknanan but I promised my dad I’d be back by now. Maybe some other day.”

“You have to promise it to me or Priyanka is never going to bring you back.”

“Mom! Leave her alone.” Priyanka wanted to hide under a rock.

“Actually, I’m the one who brought her tonight so that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“I’ll wait for you to stop by next week, alright?”

“I’ll be here.”

Priyanka raised her hand. “Am I invited?”

“We’ll think about it.” Lemon grinned. “Mrs. Suknanan, always a pleasure to see you, please give Mr. Suknanan my regards.”

“I will, dear. Give your father my best wishes.”

“I surely will.”

Priyanka’s mom got into the house leaving them alone again.

“She’s so lovely… why didn’t you pick any of that?”

“Ha. Ha.” Priyanka exaggerated her fake laughter.

“As much as I know you enjoy having me as your driver, I have to leave now.”

“Thanks again for that. My car might live another day because of you.”

“I know.” Lemon seemed pleased.

“I’ll make it up to you… somehow.”

“I’ll think of something just wait for it.” She opened the door of her car and Priyanka closed it for her.

“See you around, Lemon.”

“I knew you were stalking me.” She started the engine.

Priyanka threw her head back and released a laugh. “In your dreams, doll.”

The brunette watched the sunny-side up vehicle getting away and then walked toward her house with a smile on her face she couldn’t erase.

#rpdr fanfiction #drcan #can1 #lemon #priyanka #lemon x priyanka #childhood friends #friends to lovers #lesbian au #come home to my heart #plastiquedoll #concrit welcome

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hithisischris · 5 years ago

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Down The Road. (D.D x reader) pt!1

I got super excited for this idea and so I couldn’t just leave it at one part lol but also i really hope you like it!

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According to neuroscience, the human brain only remembers bits and pieces of one’s childhood; but y/n could remember the day she moved from New York City to Vernon Hills at the age of 5, she remembers it so clearly because it had been a year later that a foreign boy from Slovakia moved to the same little place. She remembers his name being said by the teacher and she remembers how scared he had looked to be there she knew what that felt like, to come from one place and have everything you know up until that point taken from you, so she did what someone should have done a year before to her, she befriended him. The memory from childhood with David mostly faded and the new memories made with the shaggy haired boy were ones y/n knew she’d never forget. Freshman year during homecoming week David and y/n decided to go to the dance together because why not, they were friends personally David believed that he could never be friends with y/n, he never meant that in a bad way he meant that he thought there was more than friendship with them. This became a reality in sophomore year. David was high in his roof with y/n and they looked up at the stars mesmerized by the universe when David spoke up “y/n I have a secret to tell you” y/n looked towards his direction and with a smile, the smile that David tripped over one to many times, “what is it Dave?”

David a little scared but gutsy enough because of their high trance he said “I really really like you, I think I have since 3rd grade and I have always felt we were meant to be more” David giggles at the last part and y/n turned to face him entirely now saying “I completely agree” their first kiss took place on that roof and if it hadn’t been of fear from falling a lot more would have happened, they smiled back at the sky David in a low whisper asked “do you think we will remember this in the morning” y/n nodded “I don’t think I can ever forget a moment we spend together Dave.”

The next morning y/n had woken up in David’s floor while David snored softly she smiled at his direction remembering their confessions and their kiss, she touched her lips and an even bigger smile spread across her lips, she picked herself up from the floor and slid into bed with David to catch a few more minutes of sleep.

The next time they woke up David had his arms wrapped around y/n and she had her face pressed into his chest he smiled down at their position and woke her up softly “y/n/n wake up bub” y/n snuggled closer to him and David let out a laugh because she had snuggled up in a place he had been ticklish in y/n had brought her hands up to his lips and said “shhh sleepy” David smiled at the sentiment and answered back with “come one I want to take you out on a dateeee” y/n hadn’t said anything but was contemplating what to wear “fine but I’m going home to at least try and look pretty I’ll be back here around 2:30” David nodded and said “you wouldn’t need anything to change to look pretty you’re always beautiful” she picked her bag up and said “that was cheesy, is this what it’ll be like from now on?” David giggled lowly and nodded “I’m going to say hi to your mom and then I’ll leave” y/n’s and David’s family had always been close so it really wasn’t weird that she had slept over.

Y/n walked into the kitchen and David’s dad was there making pancakes while his wife made some homemade chocolate milk “good morning my second pair of parents” they both turned around and looked over at y/n “good morning y/n are you staying for breakfast” she shook her head and pouted “no, as much as I would love to stay for your infamous pancakes and chocolate milk David wants to go on a date later and I would like to go home before that.” not really realizing what she had told them she gave them each a hug and waved goodbye.

David’s parents were in shock after years of David and y/n growing up together something had changed and feelings were confessed they were happy but in shock. “Who do you think was the first to confess” asked David’s mom “I don’t know, we will ask Dave later, should we call y/n’s parents to tell them that the bet has finally been settled” they laughed at the memory of both set of parents sitting in the dining room drinking coffee while their kids played god knows what “I bet they’ll end up together”said y/m/n “why do you say that?” Said David’s mom, y/n’s mom shrugged ”it’s an intuition but look how happy they are with one another they are kids but this happiness is one they have forever”

As their husbands sat listening in y/n’s dad was the first to say “shall we make a bet. If they do end up confessing feelings. This bet must be during high school and since they’re four of us we each take a year, so who is taking 9th grade?” David’s mom took that year and so one by one they each had a year. Y/n’s mom having 10th grade and y/n’s dad having 12th grade, while David’s dad had 11th grade and his mom 9th grade.

They had also become good friends over the years too. Family dinner also consisted of them once and awhile and when Ester was born, David’s mom asked y/n’s parents to be her godparents.

Y/n arrived at her house not shortly after, she did live like a street down from the Dobrik home. “y/n is that you” asked her mom from the room down the hall that led to her office. Y/n walked closer to the room and popped her head in “yeah i slept over at David’s” her mom smiled and nodded her head “your dad went to pick up an order of breakfast from IHOP he will be back soon” y/n nodded and kissed her moms cheek so she could get back to work and leaving the room to go to her own so she could shower. Walking up the stairs and into her own room she noticed the mess and scolded herself slightly but decided to clean it up another time, she walked into the shower and turned the water on so it could get warm before getting in. Y/n undressed herself and got under the warm water letting it rinse her back relaxing her muscles.

After her shower she got out and picked an outfit, it was a simple pair of jeans matching with y/f/c shirt and some black vans as she let her hair dry out she went into the bathroom again to put some products in it and a little bit of mascara.

“Y/n your dad's home” she gave a glance at the mirror and walked downstairs she neared the kitchen hearing her parents whisper, “can you believe it, I was right all ya bitches owe me 5 bucks” she watched her dad hit his hip against hers and say “okay okay yeah when they both leave we will go over to David’s house to settle it” her mom grinned and y/n’s was in shock ’had they bet weather y/n and David would start a relationship?’ She walked in as though she had heard nothing and said “hi dad” she smiled and hugged him her parents turned around abruptly their faces with a nervous glance her dad smiled down at her and said “hi sweetie. Where are you going?” He set her plate of pancakes down in front of her and she poured herself some orange juice “me and David are going to the mall” she had been careful not to call it a date she knew they knew what it was, so she wanted to see if she could crack them. They smiled at her and nodded.

As she walked back to David’s house she realized how happy she had been since their kiss. Did it mean they were dating? Everyone thought they already were, what difference would it make, would Nat be pissed at them for this? She had been friends with both of them for a long time so they’d never want her to feel like the third wheel maybe she’d been happy. By the time she reached David’s house he was coming out and said “why did you walk all the way over here when I could have picked you up?” Y/n shrugged “gas wastage dummy” David shook his head and opened the car doors “I have to tell you something and you will not believe it!” Y/n said enthusiastically “ooooo tell me” David giggled “our parents made a bet as to when we’d start dating!” David turned on his seat with his mouth slightly open “you’re kidding-” she shook her head “-ohmygod they are fucking insane” he let out a big belly laugh and started the car “I know I thought the same thing” y/n said as she clicked on her seat belt.

After a thirty minute drive they arrived at Vernon Hills mall. It was not too big nor too small it had most of the major stores and movie theaters. “So where shall we start my lady” y/n giggled and said “well the movie starts at 1 so we can walk around and go eat” they started by going into random stores and playing with anything they found “y/n you’re gonna get us kicked out” David said as he laughed “what do you mean David you're the clown here” she giggled as she zipped up the costume she found “okay close your eyes I think I found my Halloween costume” David shut his eyes and heard the door unlock “okay open them” he did and started to laugh as she was wearing a clown costume “I have decided to go as you for Halloween, a clown” she giggled at her own remark

“where did you find that” “Dave we are in a costume store” he shrugged and stood up to her “I at least make a cute clown” she rolled her eyes “looks like someone isn’t getting a kiss after this date” David looked offended and shook his head “the audacity” y/n walked back into the changing room to take off the costume “well maybe, I’ll reconsider if we go buy some food” after a minute she left the room to find him in the position she had left him in “maybe I’ll get us some McDonald’s” she giggled and grabbed his hand to walk out of the store “what time is it?” Asked David “time for you to get a watch” answered y/n “you’re feeling snarky today aren’t you?” He looked at her “it can happen sometimes. We have half an hour left” y/n said as she looked at her watch. “So Mr. Dobrik where shall you take us to eat?” He grabbed her hand to hold it and lead her “I shall take thee to McDonald’s like my lady asked of me” they neared the fast food restaurant and looked up at the menu knowing what they already wanted. “Okay the McDonald’s burger is delicious and you can’t say anything to change my mind.” Said y/n as she put her burger down to get a fries “Why would I you’re right” she looked at David and smiled “we should hurry to buy the tickets for the movie” David smiled right back at her and nodded.

As they bought the tickets for the movie Thor they went into the screening room and joked till the lights dimmed and movie started, “holy shit he is hot” y/n whispered. David watched her as she looked at the movie he was so entranced in her beauty she’s noticed his staring and whispered “what?” “I’m glad you befriended me all those years ago” he whispered back. Y/n blushed but he could never tell as it was to dark she gave him a smile and turned back to the movie, nothing else was said till the end of the movie. “I’ve gotta say Marvel is becoming such a great cinematic universe I wonder what they have coming next” David said as they left the theater “I know right? It’s gonna be so much fun to see, thank you for today Dave” y/n said as she got into the passenger seat the card ride to y/n’s house was small talk with laughter; as David pulled over on y/n’s house he got out of the car to help with y/n’s door and walk her to her front door “well Davey this was a successful day” David smiled at the name and nodded “I would agree, this is going to sound cheesy but I’ve been waiting to do this all day.” When he was done talking he took a step closer to y/n and leaned down to kiss her. It was slow like their first kiss but with more feeling and David loved the way y/n’s lips fit into his perfectly he’d tell her later on but she was his first kiss; so in summary David Dobrik was glad that he had gotten high on his roof with y/n and had his first kiss with his best friend who he’d love since third grade.

———————————————————————

AN: hi I hope u like it. This took me forever to write cause I want it to be perfect, I am not giving you guys a summary of this story so stick around an find out!

#david dobrik fanfiction #david dobrik imagine #david dobrik x reader #david dobrik #vlog squad imagine #vlog squad x reader #vlog squad #young david dobrik #david dobrik smut

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mhalachai · 5 years ago

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#hour of the wolf au where tony and chris keep meeting up at arms dealers conventions and one day chris shows tony a picture of his daughter #and tony wonders if he's seeing a ghost or having a stroke

@princesssarcastia replied to your photo post: WOW OKAY JUST LEAVE THAT THERE WHY DON'T YOU

Okay you know what, here's another spin on what might-have-been in Child of the Wolf, where Chris and Tony know each other from back in the day at all these arms dealers conventions, etc. They met each other a few years after Allison was born, and they'd usually exchange a little off-hand snarky, because Tony has no time for the small-timers and Chris thinks Tony was an arrogant show-boat. But they talk, and at least it was a relief to get away from the truly smarmy of the others at the conventions.

Then one conference, when Tony's about ready to straight up murder a bitch (specifically, the sonofabitch from Minsk) Chris decides to intervene and direct Tony out of the room to the nearest bar, and they get to talking, and Tony, who is in a foul mood, asked Chris what he does when he goes home, does he have a wife and kids and a picket fence. And Chris, who knows that Tony had been going to have a kid with a werewolf (everyone knew about the Vasquez family, after all), doesn’t want to rub it in, but Tony is really in a bad mood so Chris pulls out a picture of him holding Allison, who was about six by this point.

And Tony looks at the photograph and the first thought in his mind, that was what Clara's baby would look like, because he had seen all her baby pictures, and this little child that belonged to the blue-eyed, blond-haired guy looked exactly like his dead fiancée.

And so he does what any Tony Stark would do in the situation.

He figures he's losing his mind.

He doesn't ask how old the kid is, where she was born, does she like sushi or French fries, does she like to read, is she smart is she smart, because these are not the questions a man is allowed to ask about another man's child, because Allison is Chris’s child, that's not even a question in Tony’s head. It's so much more likely that Tony is finally falling prey to early-onset dementia than...

Than...

So. he represses.

He pushes it all down. He’s mis-remembering what Clara looked like. He’s letting grief knock him off course. It’s what happens with grief, that’s what all the counsellors he didn’t see would say.

He changes the topic.

Another year, another convention. Tony sees Chris and Chris sees Tony and this year, Pepper is with him, and it’s only when she’s gone off to try to fax something from Monaco to Los Angeles do Chris and Tony talk. Tony keeps it light, flippant. Chris responds in kind.

This time, Chris brings up Allison. He shows Tony another picture, because Chris is so proud of Allison he could burst. She’s starting in gymnastics, and Tony sees a tiny dark-haired girl in gymnastics clothes holding a bronze medal and a shy smile and it’s Clara all over again, only Clara was never shy, Clara was always bold and confident, even as a kid.

So it’s easier this time for Tony to say, “Really? Third place?”

“It was her first competition, and she was competing against kids three years older than her.” Chris puts the photo away. “She’s be able to kick your ass in the balance beam.”

“She could kick my ass on a flat floor,” Tony says, and that’s it, he can’t think about little dark haired girls who were the same age his daughter would have been. “You still making those sedge-shaped blades?”

By the time Pepper returns, they’ve both irritated each other enough to part ways.

Each year, the same thing. Allison is in gymnastics. She’s in reading club. She’s a natural at swimming, practically lives in the pool.

The year Allison was 12, Chris didn’t come to any of the conventions.

Or the year she was 13.

And because Tony is a terrible person and only a tiny bit obsessed with this Argent guy, and not his daughter who was around the same age Tony’s daughter would have been, Tony asks Jarvis to do a welfare check. They’re alive, these Argents, Jarvis tells Tony, but moving around a lot.

So that’s it, Tony reasons. Chris is just busy.

Chris shows up at the convention in Johannesburg the next year. He’s aged, even though he’s only two years older than Tony. And he’s quiet, too, but whatever.

Tony doesn’t see much of him until the third day, when he locates Chris morosely sipping scotch in the bar. “Thought you’d had enough of this riff-raff,” Tony said, dropping into the barstool beside and gestures for vodka.

“Some of us have to work for a living, Stark.” Chris rubs his eyes.

Tony busies himself tipping the bartender, then sips the alcohol. The taste doesn’t burn as much as the conversation would. “So, where you been?”

“Busy.”

“With what?”

Chris slams the rest of his drink. “Work. Moving. Family stuff.”

Tony’s heart jumps, and he is reminded that he’s a creep of the worst kind, hungry for the meagerest scraps of this random guy’s family life, and his daughter who looks too much like Clara for Tony to forget. “Huh.”

Chris looks at him for a long moment, and Tony’s trying to figure out if he’s about to get punched or propositioned. Then Chris reaches for his wallet and pulls out another picture. “That’s my sister, Kate,” he says, and pushes the picture across the bar. A blonde cutie, maybe 20, was in the shot with the ghost of Tony’s dead fiancée. Allison is 14 now and it’s like staring at Clara’s quinceañera picture, jesus christ. “She’s staying with the family for a little while.”

Right. Focus on the 20 year old sister, instead of the 14 year old daughter. “She’s younger than you.”

Chris shrugs. “It happens.” He puts the picture away and there’s nothing Tony can say. “Word on the street is that you’re in bed with the big guys these days.”

“World needs protecting.”

“Yeah.” Chris chucks a hundred rand on the bar and gets up. “Just know that the bigger the wolf, the bigger the teeth.”

Tony narrows his eyes, because that’s a very specific dig. “Fuck you, Argent.”

Chris leaves without another word, and that’s the last time Tony talks to the man.

Then there’s Afghanistan, and Stane, and Iron Man. Tony stops going to conventions, stops thinking about Chris Argent, and another man’s dark-haired daughter.

He has his theories, of course. And he’s never seen a picture of Argent’s wife, so he doesn’t know what she’s like. That’s probably where Allison got those dark eyes and her dark hair. That’s all it can be.

Because Tony knows, he knows, that the mountain lion that killed Clara had eaten their baby. That was what the medical report said. That was what the police said.

And that another man’s daughter, who was around the same age as his own daughter might have been if she hadn’t been eaten before she was born, looked a little like the love of Tony’s life when he was 20?

Tony’s Iron Man. He knows how weird the world is. Coincidence happens.

Tony has to stop thinking about another man’s daughter. Tony’s not a father and he needs to cut it out wondering what it would be like.

He has to stop.

Then Ivan Venko bursts into Tony’s life and he invents a new atom and someone digs Captain Steve Rogers out of the ice and then aliens invade New York.

It’s a busy spring for Tony and he doesn’t wonder about Argent, not even a little bit, not an iota.

Until Jarvis informs him one September day that a DNA test had matched to Tony’s DNA, with the results delivered to a sheriff’s station up in Northern California. The DNA test had been a paternity test.

And Tony doesn’t even think about any random encounters where a condom may have broken, because the report also shows that the sample was tested against Clara’s remains and came up positive and all Tony can think is that someone found the baby’s skeleton, no matter how far north it was. Someone found his daughter’s body.

He’s in the suit and flying north before Jarvis can caution him.

He lands in Beacon Hills and finds Natasha Romanoff in backwoods-beige and he is so fucking confused and angry and he lashes out, please tell me tell me, and then from a back office out walks Allison Argent.

He knows that girl. He’s seen her pictures growing up. Only now he sees her and it’s her, his daughter, Clara’s daughter.

The girl in Chris Argent’s photos.

They’re the same girl.

Clarity slams into Tony. He has been watching his own daughter grow up, raised by someone else, someone who had stolen her away.

Tony watched his own daughter grow up and he did nothing.

And so he does what any Tony Stark would do in the situation

He flees.

Natasha’s yelling after him and Allison’s just staring at him with huge, hurt eyes, but he flees.

Things go much the same as they go in Child of the Wolf after this, with Pepper and Clint kicking some sense into Tony, only here he can’t tell them about the absolute guilt eating at him. He spent so much time trying to push Clara’s memory away that he never asked the obvious question about Allison.

But how could he?

It takes Tony a few years to admit all this to Allison in CotW, and she’s hurt, she lashes out, but they work through it.

Then Tony dies to stop Thanos and Allison has to keep going on her own.

The universe start to unravel.

Allison gets flung back in time to 2012.

And that’s the one thing that makes it all easier in this divergence from Hour of the Wolf, gentle reader, for after Allison gets into a fight with Chris and kicked out of the house, gets picked up and dusted off by Sheriff Stilinski and Deputy Rushman and offered a safe place to stay at the Stilinskis’, the second thing she does, after taking a shower to get the dirt and blood of her person, is to borrow Stiles’ laptop and force her way into Jarvis’s server with less tact than speed.

“I need to talk to Mr. Stark,” she tells a very suspicious Jarvis. “Tell him I’m Chris Argent’s kid. He’ll want to talk to me.”

It takes Tony ten minutes to come on the line, and the moment he locks eyes with her, Allison can see that he knows, he gets it, the scales have fallen from his eyes.

She holds her chin up as she says, “My name is Allison Argent, I was born on Sept. 24 in Los Angeles, and we really have to talk.”

Tony can’t say anything. Allison knows he’s running through everything in his head, all the missed opportunities, all the clues, everything he saw and pushed away.

“Tony,” Allison says sharply, because the one way to get Tony to do what any Tony Stark would do in the situation, is to get him working to fix something. “I need your help.”

And just like that, Tony snaps into the present. “Who are you?” he demands.

“I was raised by Chris Argent, only I don’t know if he’s my father.” Allison cocks her head to the side. “And Natasha Romanoff is in town playing deputy and is very interested in me, which I find interesting, don’t you?”

Tony is frozen for a moment. “How do you know Natasha Romanoff?”

Allison decides to kick over every can, every anthill. She has a universe to save and only 27 years to do it. “I met someone this summer who had a lot to tell me about Natasha and everything,” she makes up on the spot. It’s a good enough lie to get most of her knowledge of the current events on the table. “First things first. How are we going to do this?”

Tony stands up. It’s all so different for Allison from the last time. This time, her father isn’t running away. “Where is Beacon Hills?”

“Second star to the right, straight on til morning.”

The corner of Tony’s mouth twitches. “Does that make you Peter Pan, or Wendy?”

“Neither. I call dibs on Captain Hook.”

Tony’s eyes glint. “See you in half an hour, kid.”

“I can’t wait,” Allison said, and her heart burns.

In this divergence, at least, Allison gets her father back without any reservations.

All she has to do now is to save the rest of the universe.

Time to get to work.

~~scene~~

#thank you for coming to my tedtalk #princesssarcastia #hour of the wolf #my writing #aus of aus

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samscns-blog · 5 years ago

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* 𝖎𝖋 ur ready to two step into some absolute BULLSHIT tomfoolery , ya girl 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 is ready for u with my lil firecrotch son , 𝖘𝖆𝖒𝖘𝖔𝖓 . strong silent type , ABSOLUTE buffoon , barely keeping it together so hopefully by the time we’re done w him he’s still in something resembling one piece :’) all my love to u and u cute asses ! i’m so excited to get this all poppin !

⋆ ╰ another year at hollingsworth , another year of the big six rivalry . i hear that SAMSON MAILOTO is ensuring SIGMA ALPHA NU gets a solid pledge class and stays at the top of the ranks . oh , you’re not familiar with HIM ? SAM is the KJ APA look alike from THE BRONX , NEW YORK . a part of PC ‘16 , he is majoring in KINESIOLOGY and has plans to ENTER THE MMA AND ESCAPE FROM THE PUBLIC EYE after undergrad . it makes sense they pledged their house , their PHLEGMATIC & SOLICITOUS attributes make them perfect matches . however , their TREPIDATIOUS & AUSTERE attributes keep their name alive on greek rank . if you don’t catch them dancing to BLEACH - BROCKHAMPTON at a fraternity band party this year , you’ll be sure to catch them nursing their morning hangover at THE SNU HOUSE . cheers to another wild semester !

⋆ ╰ 𝑺 𝑻 𝑨 𝑻 𝑰 𝑺 𝑻 𝑰 𝑪 𝑺 .

𝒇𝒖𝒍𝒍 𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆 : samson ioaleki mailoto

𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 : sam , sammy

𝒃𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒆 / 𝒂𝒈𝒆 : february 4 , twenty

𝒛𝒐𝒅𝒊𝒂𝒄 : aquarius

𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒚 / 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒔 : cismale identifying with he / him / his pronouns

𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 : heteroflexible and pansexual ;�� he’s never actively considered himself as lgbtq+ but has also never given it much thought ddjdjdjdkjdk

𝒐𝒄𝒄𝒖𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 : kinesiology major at hu , aspiring welterweight mma fighter , us olympic representitive for men’s boxing in the 2020 olympics

𝒉𝒐𝒈𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒔 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆 : gryffindor

𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒅 ��𝒚 : eliot alder from mr robot , kylo ren from the new star wars series , detective elliot stabler from law and order svu , steve rogers from the mcu

𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒔 : - trepidatious , austere , apprehensive , hesitant , antisocial , hostile , bellicose .

+ phlegmatic , solicitous , benevolent , rational , stalwart , loyal , reliable , optimistic .

𝑃𝐼𝑁𝑇𝐸𝑅𝐸𝑆𝑇 located here !

⋆ ╰ 𝑨 𝑵 𝑻 𝑬 𝑪 𝑬 𝑫 𝑬 𝑵 𝑻 .

bullet points for the win bc who has time for all the tomfoolery i could spew from my ass !

sammy’s mom was a housekeeper in upper manhattan for some fancy dancy homes who needed their gold toilet seat covers sanitized 3x a day , u know the type 🙄

samson grew up in a run down apartment in a small samoan community in the bronx and has always been a lil antisocial weirdo since those warm dark eyes came into the light . he rlly minded his own business n wasn’t really curious about literally anything besides running and wrestling w his cousins . his mom struggled to keep him fed and housed and dressed and worked relentless hours but never left sam needing anything , a literal fucking legend of a woman and he’s proud to carry her last name !

sammy always felt the weight of never wanting to be an extra burden to his mother and learned to really be self-sufficient , likely explaining his satisfaction with being so alone

he vaguely remembers the night his life changed in middle school , the hushed strained whisper from the living room , he’s your god damned son too , think about him for once in your fucking life . it hit like a fucking train once the story picked up , 5 time nfl superbowl champ father to secret love child . think arnold schwarznegger’s secret son level scandal ! suddenly his shithead of a dead is trying to salvage his image , fighting for split custody arrangements , telling the press how much in child support he payed , anything to save his ass

this is the first time samson remembers being fueled by rage in his life , as a relatively well-tempered child , the injustice of having this near-stranger try to be a “ DAD ” to him while shitting all over his mother’s name made his fucking blood boil and becomes a theme for his future

he spends the next chapters of his life going to the fancy private schools in new york his dad picks for him and tearing his tie off on the ratty bus ride into the bronx to go home to his mom . he hates having to haul ass back and forth , wishing he could stay with the only family he’s actually given a shit about , but bears it for the sake of not causing his mom any more torment . his father is as awful as could be imagined , and samson hates every second of existing with him , the snarky little comments at school and in the ritzy wealthy circles that make him feel more of a black sheep than he ever asked to be

this becomes the root of his anxiety , bearing the weight of the world’s expectations on his young shoulders and repressing his own needs and desires as a result . he goes into every sport imaginable , his father’s DNA being increasingly difficult to deny , but finds a particular talent with fighting and takes on as many fighting styles as he’s able to master

turning 18 should mean freedom for sam , but nothing is ever as simple as he could ask in his life . in order to keep the child support payments that admittedly help keep his mother afloat , his father asks one more thing of samson : hold off on his pro mma dreams for just a little longer in order to attend his alma matter , hollingsworth university , as a publicity move and then he’ll be out of sam’s life in every way except financially . with the dream of completing college like his mom always aspired for him , sam agreed and went on to appease the man one last time , joining his former fraternity to sweeten the deal ( and secure a lovely brownstone in his childhood neighborhood signed in his mother’s name ) and is a year out from graduating and letting mma be the only reason his name would ever appear in the tabloids .

⋆ ╰ 𝑨 𝑵 𝑨 𝑳 𝒀 𝑺 𝑰 𝑺 .

personality wise , i describe sam as the stupid bitch w big npc energy , if u want him to talk u gotta talk to him first and even then he might just give u that hostile stare and just .. . . remain silent KSDFSDF

he’s about as NOT a people person as physically possible , would really be content just sticking to his inner circle for like the rest of his life without concern . he seems like this rude stand-offish dick but the truth is he’s PAINFULLY SHY and has a p severe case of generalized anxiety disorder so interactions ? w new ppl ? are a HARD pass

did i mention he’s on steriods bc that def adds to his anxiety and hostility ! lmao ! he started juicing in high school when his dad kept pressuring him for football and how he was “ twice your size ” at that age , n he HATES the dude but he’s also lowkey insecure abt his lack of a father figure so ? used daddy’s money to start his first cycle and pay off to test clean and now he’s been hooked on and off . he’s currently starting a new cycle to bulk up for the new season and prep for the 2020 olympics but swears he wont be on them forever :/

they make him SUPER aggressive when set off , it’s a decent thing that sam’s so monotone and shy that he’s also pretty laid back and kinda hard to rile up . he really doesn’t take much personally and won’t do a huge “ chest pumped bro lets do this ” show bc he ? thinks all those guys who do that are tools LMAO but find the right button to push n he’ll become the very thing he despises !

if u can get past the literal awkward silence and resting bitch face , sammy is actually really well known for being just a generally decent guy . the perception is often that he’s a dick bc he think’s he’s better than a lot of ppl , but the truth is he’s just too nervous to start conversations n most ppl assume its an ego thing vs a “ i’m about to piss myself thinking abt all the ways this convo can go wrong so i’ll just not talk and glare @ u instead ” thing

if he had his shit together he would definitely qualify as a dad type , but since he doesn’t , he won’t SSHSHSHSH but he’s really just a softie deep down , he has a stupid as HELL sense of humor and is really objective and level headed . the gryffindor in him is DEEPLY loyal , like to the death , but he’s got lots of hufflepuff in the sense that he’s really willing to get his hands dirty to help those in need . u need help moving ? someone to keep u company while u babysit ? feel nervous walking alone after class at night ? sammy might leave u on read if u text him bc he’s a Dumb Bitch like that but he’ll show up on the dot , hands in pockets , exactly where u asked him to be ready to do what u asked him to do . the mans is a super hard worker

he def still feels kinda weird at uni ? he’s p smart but some of the classes unrelated to athletics and anatomy have given him a REALLY tough time ( dance appreciation for his fine arts credit almost tanked his gpa LMAO ) and he’s not top of his class or anything but ppl still try to talk to him bc of the whole “ famous dad , future olympian ” thing , which he can pick up from a mile a way and makes him super uncomfortable . even being in a frat w a bunch of old money rich boys makes him DEF feel like the odd one out , and he’s just counting down the days until he’s OUT OF HERE

in conclusion : i love u all . lets suffer together . :~)

#rank:intro #love u all sm :' (#i'll have emmy's done tomorrow i hope !

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celticheartedfangirl · 7 years ago

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25 Fucking Stupid Writing Choices OUAT Made

This post is a snarky response to Adam and Eddy’s little humble brag article that came out today:

http://ew.com/tv/2018/05/14/once-upon-time-crazy-storylines/

This is meant to be snarky and critical and if you don’t like that -- don’t read it. (MY post, not the link above.)

Look, I am a OUAT fan an there are many things I love about the show. But there are many I just DON’T LOVE and I think they’re worth discussing. If you don’t like criticism, you won’t like this post. That’s fine.

Thank you for all the suggestions! I think I got quite a bit crammed in here.

Under the cut for length and so as not to upset those who only want to ‘think lovely thoughts’ . . . . .

25. Here’s a magic doohickey thingy we’ve never heard of before but NOW we’re using this thing.

Look, I’m not gonna list all the MacGuffins this show has used, I’d be here all day and there are worse things they’ve done, and this IS a show about magic after all.

But there’s also such a thing as overkill. And there was too much MacGuffin use that we didn’t know about before in this show. It was far too convenient and usually used as a cop out in lieu of – you know – actual STORY TELLING. THAT is my MacGuffin issue. Don’t use it to replace character development. We’re not here for that.

24. The Lost Boys/The Untold Stories and Other Dropped Plots

So the Lost Boys -- Did they get homes? Did they grow up? I don’t know! Do you? Of course not – we’ll never know!

What about all those Untold Stories folks? Weren’t there a bunch of them? Are they still meandering around in Storybrooke?

Edited to add: Maleficent and Lily. SO SORRY I forgot to initially include you in this one. My bad. You are missed, ladies!

Edited once more to add: Poor Gideon. Both parents dead and his extended family doesn’t give a shit about him. Or at least I assume so because we don’t know where he is. The child of Beauty and the Beast -- treated like a disposable plot device. Nice.

OUAT is great with creating and LOUSY with follow through. I know there are many others. But there shouldn’t be. There shouldn’t be that many dropped plots on this show. If you’re not going to follow through with a story line, why add the characters AT ALL? Speaking of that . . .

23. JFC, how many new characters do we NEED on this show???

Especially since you still haven’t figured out what to do with some of the ones that are CONTRACT PLAYERS on your show! Hey, didn’t Archie and Ruby used to be those? (Waves hi to Belle! Also the Charmings post S4. More on that later.)

22. You know – Rumple is Henry’s GRANDFATHER

He is! Really!

You’d never fucking KNOW IT, would you? The erasure of any sort of familial relationship with Henry/Rumple was a damned shame. And much of that, I believe, was because if they acknowledged THAT, they’d have to mention the character they want us to forget. More on that later.

21. The Shattered Sight Hype

Remember what a BIG DEAL the whole Shattered Sight thing was gonna be in S4? OMG people say what they REALLY FEEL about each other! It’s gonna be EPIC!!!

And then it – wasn’t. We basically got some Snowing/Evil Queen snark, Henry bitching at Hook, and Belle – well, Belle was asleep – what else is new?

I think of all the things that were PROMOTED as something amazing for this show – this is the one that was a big old dud and a whole lot of NOTHING.

20. Belle’s mom/Belle is written out of her own storyline in S6

In Family Business we met Belle’s Mom for about two minutes. Then she was dead. And Belle didn’t remember what happened. And then – we never heard about it again.

I don’t know about you, but I wanted to know what happened there. Why didn’t Belle remember? Did Moe get a roofie magic thingy from Arthur? Did Belle’s mom turn into an ogre and she killed her and blocked it out?

SO MANY possibilities there. But hey – it’s just Belle. Why write a story for HER?

In the same regard -- whatever your thoughts are on Rumbelle in S6 (MHO – it was garbage and an OOC shit fest, but that’s just me) – what happened with Gideon – Belle’s SON – was because of HER CHOICE. Choices have consequences. And in GOOD WRITING – the person that MADE the choice that caused the mess is supposed to be the person to help CLEAN IT UP.

But apparently – it was a better thing for ZELENA of all people to be the one to do that. And Emma and Hook too. Because why the hell not, right? That makes all the sense.

Yes, Rumple played his part too in the whole Gideon mess. And he did get to take part in the resolution. But that was something they should have done TOGETHER (what a concept!), and overall Belle was just – not part of it. Even in the last two minutes they sidelined her with a sprained ankle. Absolutely ridiculous. Which leads me to . . . .

19. Belle being sidelined since Season Two.

OUAT brought the lovely Emilie de Ravin onto the show as a regular cast member in Season Two, and had no fucking idea what to do with her character. So she gets fridged. She gets stuck in the hospital, left behind while the rest go to Neverland, she’s very fond of naps, she’s forgotten about in Camelot, not cared about while in a sleeping curse because the “heroes” care more about “stopping” her “evil” hubby (see #17) and written out of her own damn storyline in 6B (see #20) – and then she’s dead. (More on that later.)

I love Belle. I love Rumbelle. And I will forever be resentful that for the bulk of her time on the show, the character of Belle, one of my fictional heroes, was written as nothing but a plot device. She deserved so much better.

18. The Musical Episode

I mean – if this nonsense (and it WAS nonsense) had moved the story forward, I could maybe – MAYBE – let this one slide. But it didn’t. It just rehashed the same shit that we had been talking about for 6 seasons. And then Hook married Emma and her Stepford Wife conversion therapy was complete. (More on that later.) This episode WILL NOT HOLD UP in the future. Future generations will be “WTF-ing” all over the place with this one, mark my words.

17. Rumple is a Hero – no he’s a Villain – No wait he’s a hero, nope a villain, make up your DAMN MIND WRITERS!!!!!

I got whiplash trying to follow the trajectory of Rumple’s story, as many times as they changed his characterization. He’s a villain – then in 3A he’s a hero. Then he’s the victim of a molester and kidnapper and show doesn’t address that AT ALL. Oops he’s evil again. Except now he’s not – his heart is PURE! He pulled Excalibur out of the rock, he’s a HERO! Nah – he’s dark again. Bad Rumple! Oooh now he’s REALLY DARK and his fetus with no brain stem hates him and his wife is living on a boat with his sworn ENEMY while pregnant, so he traps here there (!!!!!) and he’s macking on the Evil Queen . . . come ON. Enough already.

Rumple is a complex character. You can’t just flip/flop willy nilly with a complex character. You have to know how to write them as nuanced, and CONSISTENLY complex but never falling fully into one camp or the other of ‘good’ or ‘evil.’

Rumple is played by Robert Carlyle, one of the best actors around. And the ONLY saving grace from the horrible writing of this character over the years is the fact that Bobby knew how to play him most of the time – even when the writers didn’t know how to WRITE HIM. Which was almost ALL the time.

16. Hook is a Dark One/Resurrecting Dead Hook/Hook the Gary Stu

I toyed with ranking the dark one higher on the list and as its own thing because really, this reveal caused the biggest MID EPISODE ratings drop in the history of the show up to that point. Nobody liked it. Nobody wanted it. And it ended up being a setup to the ‘Save Hook’ trajectory because of COURSE of all the characters in the history of the show, HE was the one that deserved saving THE MOST. But I think all of these things tie together.

What this moment did was solidify the fact that Hook was officially a “Stu” character. He definitely had Gary Stu tendencies up to this point, and was basically an irritant to anyone but CS/Hook fans, but from here on? That’s pretty much all he was and all he’d ever be until he was replaced (or should I say upgraded?) by his doppelganger.

I combined the DO/Save Hook/Stu thing because it was in the Underworld that Hook’s full Stu-pification took place. There wasn’t a line of people he had murdered wanting a word with him – as there SHOULD HAVE BEEN.

And Hook still got to keep all his murder trinkets when he got resurrected and made out with his girlfriend over Robin’s grave. What a guy.

15. Regina/The Evil Queen Stay Split

I’m just saying – wouldn’t it have been better character growth for Regina to have to live with her ‘evil’ half than to split it off? And no, the ‘heart mixing’ thing doesn’t count. I get that the whole thing was really fan service to the Outlaw Queen fandom. But that doesn’t make it good writing.

14. The Wish Realm

Oh, I could write a whole post about this (and I may do that at some point) but there are so many damn holes in the whole Wish Realm mess I wouldn’t even know where to start. But so many things about it just DO NOT line up in a sensible way. And even if you find one that DOES, it’ll create three things that DON’T line up.

I’d have bought a ‘parallel universe’ over the ‘wish realm’ stuff. They could have gone with that and it would have made much more sense. But you know – they wanted dead Belle, dead Baelfire, dead Snowing, no Emma and old Hook so – Wish realm it was. I just got to a point where I didn’t care anymore. But that doesn’t negate the stupid.

13. The Timeline

The timeline in OUAT made sense – and then it didn’t. And then they just stopped trying. And I stopped caring. But for paid, professional writers – just not cool. DO YOUR JOB!!!!!

12. Will Scarlett

Do I really need to say any more here? No? Didn’t think so. Moving on.

11. Neal’s Apartment in New York City

Have you ever been to NYC? Places of residence are at a premium there. There is no way in hell that an abandoned apartment wouldn’t have been emptied and taken over by a new resident in that much time. And I’m sorry, but odds are Neal did NOT pre-pay his rent for TWO YEARS out.

10. Belle and Hook – Best Friends Forever!*

You know – no woman with a brain in her head would befriend a man who straight up tried to murder her FOUR TIMES. So, either Belle doesn’t have a brain in her head, or that’s some crap writing right there. (My vote is with the latter if you’re wondering.)

It was bad enough when Belle was just handing over the dagger to “Hook” in S4 (yes, I know it was Rumple but details shmetails, Belle didn’t know that), but a PREGNANT BELLE going to live on a boat with Hook to be ‘safe’ – come on. Who does that? I get that Adam and Eddy wanted to wave the middle finger at the Rumbelle fandom, but they could have found a way to do that without making Belle look STUPID.

*Honorable mention to Belle/Zelena being friends which was equally as stupid

9. Zelena is Marian

Come ON – they pulled that one out of their asses halfway through S4 because they wanted to find a way to bring back Bex. There was NO INDICATION of that until the reveal. Because it didn’t EXIST until the reveal. Ridiculous.

8. Making the Charmings Supporting Players

Starting with S4, Snow and David basically became secondary characters. They had MOMENTS, but overall they were on the backburner and if they left the show at any point – would it have made a difference to ANY of the trajectory they were playing out? I’d say no.

I mean – how the hell did that happen? How do you run out of ideas with the couple that you touted as THE ‘main couple’ after only three seasons? I don’t get it.

7. Golden Queen

Just no. There was never anything romantic between these two characters. It was stupid and out of character for both of them. No.

6. Queer baiting 101

If you gender-swapped either Emma or Regina – made one of them a man – they’d be banging by S2 and by the end of the series they’d be married with at least two more kids and three break-ups/reunions between them. (Hey, I watch soaps, I know how this shit works.)

The chemistry between the actors is there. They share a kid. But they’re both women. And you know – family show -- #nohomo and all. Sure.

The writers KNEW that Swan Queen was popular. Now okay – if ABC didn’t want to go there, fine. I don’t agree with that, but fine.

But don’t keep freaking queer baiting your fans every chance you get! It never stopped. In fact, it got progressively WORSE as the show went on! That’s just bullshit right there. Either do it or drop it. Because what OUAT did with Emma and Regina and the baiting of their fans was just flat out shitty.

And if that weren’t bad enough, we got the whole queer baiting with Mulan/Aurora, and THEN in S5 we’re handed Dorothy/Ruby as a token olive branch to the LGBT community and then – we never see them again!

Okay, in S7 they got on the right track with Alice and Robin. I will give them that. But after six years of baiting, it kind of rang hollow for many, and rightly so.

5. Hey, Here’s a Person of Color – Let’s Kill Them!

One of the first warnings I give to any new OUAT is ‘don’t get attached to any POC’ and with good reason. They don’t last long on OUAT.

Now I don’t want to assume or accuse any of the OUAT writers of flat out racism but . . .. . you’ve gotta admit – they don’t have the best track record there.

It’s especially obvious when they bring on a character that is compelling and portrayed by a charismatic actor that the audience enjoys. Lancelot, Merlin, and Facilier are the three best examples of that. Okay, so Lance was resurrected but – where’d he go? Is he still trying to undo dead-Arthur’s roofie on Guinevere?

And then we have an amazing hero and a compelling villain in Merlin and Facilier, respectively. Both of these characters – and their actors – were bright spots in the show. So naturally – they needed to die. Without their storylines resolved.

But it was just a coincidence that they weren’t white. Of course it was.

4. The Death of Belle

Yeah, yeah, I know, Beauty was a beautifully written episode and Bobby and Emilie loved it and we got some great moments, blah blah blah . . . . . . but was it NECESSARY? Did they REALLY NEED to kill off Belle? You’re telling me that there’s absolutely, positively, not one plausible scenario for S7 wherein Belle is in Hyperion Heights and Rumple can find a way to rid himself of the darkness WITH HER THERE???? Really? They couldn’t write even one lousy full season of Rumbelle (hello BEAUTY AND THE BEAST) happy and in love with struggles but still beating the darkness in the end? Really??? There weren’t any options for that scenario AT ALL???? Give me a break.

3. The Stepford Swan

Over the course of seven years, many of the OUAT characters suffered with out- of-character moments. It’s not uncommon and I would even venture to say that this happens on occasion on MOST television shows. But on OUAT, it was a common occurrence from Season Four onward. And NONE of the characters experienced as much of an out of character de-evolution as Emma Swan.

When we first met Emma Swan she was a badass, intelligent, independent woman. Yes, she had her issues and her inner demons and we saw her work past those as the series progressed.

And then . . . . she got a boyfriend. And he became the center of her universe. And Emma – changed. The writers (and Jennifer Morrison) will swear up and down that it was an ‘evolution’ but I’m sorry – a character that starts OUT like this:

Does not END UP like this:

That’s not evolution. That’s a shell of a woman dependent on a man for her self-worth. That’s NOT who Emma Swan is. This was THE worst character assassination on the show, and I’d say it’d be up (down?) there in the top 10 (er, bottom 10?) of worst character assassinations in all of television. What a shame.

2. Rapists – rapists everywhere!

Once Upon a Time has always been marketed as a family show. For a family show – there’s sure a heck of a lot of rape in it.

The first CANON rapist we have is Regina and her 28+ year imprisonment and repeated sexual assault of Graham. Regina came a long way as a character in the show’s 7-year run – but it would have done great service to her if this had been addressed somehow. Now, I know that Jamie Dornan is all famous and off making money playing Christian Grey but – you know, in this particular case – I’d have been good with either a recast or at the VERY least an apologetic mention. But we never got that.

And that’s the problem with every rapey issue on this show – it’s never addressed for what it is. In fact – it’s really not addressed at all. Hook’s rape jokes in S2 are treated like ‘playful banter’ by the writers, cast, and viewers alike. Zelena’s ‘Hester the Molester’ stuff with Rumple in S3 doesn’t even warrant a discussion. Hook’s rapey innuendo in the CS movie is also waved off. Then we have Zelena raping Robin in S4, Arthur magic roofie-ing Guinevere and probably raping her in S5 (Is she still roofied? Who knows!), and Mother Gothel raping Nook in S7.

That’s a hell of a lot of rape for a “family show.” And aside from the off-handed comment from Robin about lack of consent with Zelena, none of it is addressed for what it is – RAPE.

1. The Death of Baelfire/Neal Cassidy

In Season One there were three main story line arcs driving the series: Regina’s war with Snow White, Emma as The Savior, and Rumpelstiltskin’s quest to reunite with his son, Baelfire. All three stories intertwined, and it only made sense that the trajectory of the show would be that in the end, all of these characters would somehow come together, as they all were tied to one character: Henry.

Unfortunately, the writers made the foolish decision in Season Three to execute one of the main (if not THE main) driving forces on the show. Baelfire/Neal was connected to all of the aforementioned people, and his loss was a blow to everyone. At least it should have been. But that’s not what we saw.

Not only was Neal/Baelfire killed off – he was flat out ERASED from the show. His name from the point of his death on was rarely brought up. We didn’t get to see anyone truly mourn or grieve him. (Okay Rumple, but BARELY – and anyone who has lost a child understands that it’s quite possibly the deepest type of grief imaginable. I’m told you never get over it.) As the show moved forward, you could literally spot the times when the writers made deliberate dialogue choices to avoid saying the name Neal/Baelfire in places where it not only made sense, it was WARRANTED.

Let’s be REAL here – we all know the “reason” Bae/Neal was written off the show. I don’t care what the writers say. I’m not an idiot and neither are you. And I’m sorry, but if the ONLY WAY you can think of to make a “romance” happen on a show is to kill off a character that would be forever “in the way” of said romance – you’re not a skilled enough writer to be writing a television show for a major network. I mean – it works in spiteful fanfic (which I am more than guilty of writing). But for a television show? The viewers deserve better than that. NEAL/BAELFIRE and every character that ever loved him deserved better than that.

I know I probably missed a bunch but I really did try to hit the highlights and put them in the order they deserved.

Thoughts? Comments? If you think I’m missing a tag for this (I’m doing my best) let me know and I’ll add it.

#ouat criticism #anti ouat writers #anti hook #anti cs #anti stepford swan #tw: rape #anti zelena #anti golden queen

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convenientalias · 6 years ago

Text

Yuletide Rec List

Y’all there are 3365 fandoms in the Yuletide noms and some of them are really good so I thought I’d just make a promo post here and also rant a little bc I’m excited even tho it’s barely October just looking at this list.

So I’m gonna put the rest of this barely coherent ranting under a read more but like guys, I’m excited.

So here goes. Some fandom recs!

Books

The Alpennia Trilogy by Heather Rose Jones

Mistress/bodyguard ship in the first book, which leads to so many possibilities! Loyalty kink! Power imbalance! All that shit!

Amazing worldbuilding and magic mixed in with religion

I’ve only read the first book but I’m totally gonna request it

Best for femslash fic tbh, but I guess you could do gen.

The Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab

Again the worldbuilding is good. But the series is overall very dark. Also, an ensemble kind of feel.

My ship is two powerful magicians who seem to be the last of their kind, both working for royal families, one of whom lives as a prince and the other of whom is enslaved.

They’re enemies most of the time but still.

But a lot of people ship other things bc ensemble cast. There is one canon m/m ship. There is a slightly OP female crossdressing thief. There’s angsty brothers. There’s lots of people basically.

Good fandom for m/m, f/m, gen, even poly. Very good fandom for dark fic or whump imo.

Peter Darling by Austin Chant

Trans Peter Pan who used to be Wendy Darling

Ship is Peter Pan/Captain Hook

Writing style is gorgeous

Captures the cruel, childlike side of Peter Pan.

Good fandom for slash mostly, but I imagine you could pull off gen too.

Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout

Detectives in New York in some vaguely historical time period.

Narrator is Archie Goodwin, very snarky and charming, one of my favorite characters of all time.

All the mysteries are fun but you’re mostly here for the dynamics between Archie, Nero Wolfe himself, and all the other regular members in the series--the detectives sometimes brought in to help out, the house cook, the pissed-off policemen, etc etc.

Also totally fine to read out of order, I’ve never really paid much attention to the order myself. Includes both novels and novellas.

A lot of people write slash in this fandom; I don’t really ship any slash ships for it (I’m kind of a gen bitch here) but I admit the potential is there.

Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner

Technically YA fantasy but I’d say it’s not that firmly YA except for the first book.

Land of twists and intrigue with the occasional questing adventure. Pseudo-Greek setting.

Includes one of my favorite f/m ships for which I long for more dark fic.

Surprisingly active fandom, I am nowhere near caught up on the fanfic for the last book published.

Good fandom for het, slash, occasionally poly, and very good for GEN (sorry, the MC’s name is Gen and I couldn’t resist).

Goblin Market by Christina Rosetti

Idk why there’s a fandom nomination for a poem but I guess I’ll go with it, it’s a good poem.

Very ripe for femslash tho technically the MCs are sisters (but do they read like sisters? No, no they do not) so you might have to go AU for it.

Kind of dark and weird but childlike at the same time.

Movies/TV Shows/Anime/Literally Anything But Books

Kakegurui (anime/manga)

I’ve only watched the anime but I hear the manga is good.

Crazy high school obsessed with gambling gets even crazier when Yumeko the gambling freak shows up just to start drama.

Weirdly dark even tho nothing life threatening really happens. Ridiculously grotesque facial expressions on absolutely everyone.

Very good for femslash, decent for het and poly. You could probably write gen. But how.

Kado: The Right Answer (anime)

It’s sci-fi show that’s half about contact with aliens and half about the unhealthy relationship between an alien and his favorite human. And when I say half I mean “gets really dark in the last third”. But if you’re mostly interested in that part, it’s short enough that you still get there pretty quick.

I really just want dark slash fic, that’s all guys.

Two Faces of January (movie)

This is also a book by Patricia Highsmith but I nominated the movie bc it has Oscar Isaac and Viggo Mortensen.

Dark thriller vibes

Slashy vibes with weird daddy kink overtones (it can’t be helped, and this remains constant whether it’s book or movie)

Somehow I still ship it despite not really liking daddy kink.

Just trust me

Singin’ In the Rain

I’m really hoping this was nominated by someone who wants OT3 fic.

That’s all.

Gattaca

If you don’t already know about Gattaca are you even following me

It has Jude Law in it

Also it explores dystopian ableism and yet has an oddly ableist ending which consistently PISSES ME OFF, which is why I always request fix-it fic.

People really like slash for this movie and I get it but I don’t really ship it but a lot of people do so if you watch it, you will probably ship it too.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

British miniseries which I somehow like despite not liking most BBC shows. (Seriously, my roommate and sister have both tried to get me into Sherlock and Dr. Who and I just can’t, good for y’all who like such things tho.)

I’m mostly here for the fae aspects and one of the MCs being traumatized and descending into insanity.

But the aesthetic is also pretty rad.

Harlots

It’s about harlots. Kind of Victorian? I think? Idk time periods guys.

It portrays sex and sex workers in interesting, pretty down to earth ways.

It’s a good place for femslash but I somehow find myself craving gen.

The aesthetic is strong.

Luke Cage

I’ve still only seen the first season but it was rad

A lot of black people, guys

Also superhero-y things

Probably best for het, tbh, tho I would slash ship Luke with Cornell. Why doesn’t anyone seem to ship that?

Sakeru Gum

It’s like a five minute commercial compilation that will change your life.

I’ve probably reblogged it at some point. Otherwise, search it on Youtube.

Loooong looooong mAAaaaaan

Fandoms I’m Not Actually In But Might Join If The Prompts Look Good

There’s a couple different books nommed by Mary Renault! I’m reading the Alexander Trilogy right now (Alexander the fuckign Great, guys), which is nommed, so if things work out I might write for that. There’s also The Last of the Wine and Mask of Apollo.

Also, there are two series nominated that are by K.J. Charles. I’ve only ever read The Henchmen of Zenda by K.J. Charles but that was really good, so I may have to try one of these series out. Of course, I’d have to actually have time, and series are a bit lengthy for me this semester! But I might read a book or two if the prompts look excellent.

Someone nominated Learning Curves by Ceillie Simkiss? Which is an indie lesfic romance novella which was published only this August. I’m shocked it somehow ended up in the tagset and very curious about prompts. But I haven’t actually read this book, I’ve just heard of it.

The Caper Court series by Caro Fraser sounds interesting, too. It’s about a guy trying to become a lawyer who needs to fulfill a pupillage first, whatever the fuck that is, but apparently there’s gay people and intrigue, so I’m interested. I’ve started the first book.

Also, Zorro by Isabel Allende is nominated. I’ve never read this book but I’ve always wanted to because I love Zorro--the old TV show was one of my favorites as a kid. But I’ve never read a literary take on it.

If I can watch the Kdrama for Orange Marmalade, I’m interested in that too. I’ve only ever read the webmanga, didn’t know it was a live action now. It’s got vampires :) and high school drama.

So this rant was kind of unnecessary, but I just have a lot of feelings, guys, okay? Just...a lot of feelings...

#yuletide 2018

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roozenboom · 6 years ago

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Property of him

The two of you were walking down the blocks of New York. It had been a scorching hot day, both outside and inside of the apartment you lived in. As soon as it started to cool down you suggested to Loki to go to your favorite place for dinner.

The restaurant you were heading to was nothing fancy, but it was special to both of you. After all it was where you met. You were working there as a worn-out, sarcastic bartender. It was hard work for low pay, and hardly what you pictured yourself to be doing at this point in your life. But as you had no choice you were making it work. You needed the money as air wasn’t really filling any stomachs and last time you checked a roof over your head cost money. Gorgeous girl after girl flirted with you while working, and it soon became boring. Though you didn’t really care about the person’s gender, you had noticed that it was a much nicer passing of the time speaking with the various man that lingered around the bar area. Talks were easy, comfortable and best of all, without the constant flirtation.

You were working that night. It had been quiet all evening, and no more than a few couples lingered around. Eating, drinking and talking. Not having much to do meant that you were already trying to get as much of the closing down work finished. As such you were cleaning glasses when he entered. The gust of warm air that followed him inside shook you from your dreaming. It was still early spring but the temperatures had been really high already.

The first hint of annoyance at the late night customer quickly fell as you eyed the tall, newcomer. His tall slender body was klad in a sexy, black suit with a green shirt that made his attire seem that much more casual. His beautiful face, lined by raven coloured hair, contained the prettiest green eyes you had ever seen.

The stranger had sat down at your bar. Asking for a drink, whatever drink you had ready for him, and the connection had started. His snarky and sarcastic comments made you like him even more, and he spent the last hours of work sitting on the bar talking to you. It was only after saying goodbye that you found a note with the bill.

‘If you ever want to receive a drink rather than give one, give me a call’

Rest of the story was history. You took up the phone for a drink with this handsome stranger, and he answered with his velvet voice. Time seemed to slow down and speed up at the same time. It was still so clear in your mind. Your heart slamming in your throat the whole conversation. But the date had been perfect and you had just clicked in a perfect way.

Walking down the streets of New-york never seemed to get normal to you. The tall buildings surrounding you so different from the open land you were used to from your birth-village. You had loved the nature that you grew up in and never expected to end up in such a big city, but here you were, and part of you actually loved it. The feeling of being so small compared to the continuous crowd of people and the tall sky-touching buildings gave of a calming sensation. Even after living here for quite a few years, you still discovered special places every time you rounded a corner.

Heat from the concrete seaped through your shoes as the two of you were walking down the street. You could still feel the slight radiation of heat coming from the buildings and that combined with the still air made the temperature fairly high for the time of the day. Loki was already sweating and groaning from the heat. He really did hate anything too hot and prefered the coolness of fall and winter. You understood his dislike of heat, but was always baffled at how fast he thought something was hot or even too warm. It made for quite the hard snuggle time…

You passed a group of giggling girls that threw broad smiles your way accompanied by flirty glances. Loki did not even spare them a glance, but you smiled back. It wasn’t as if you were really interested or anything, but you didn’t want to be rude and just pass them without giving them any attention.

The girls however decided this was their chance and they started walking with you down the road.

‘Hello there handsome, where are you headed this night.’ A blonde girl asked Loki. Her hand sliding flirtatious over his arm. Loki glanced at it before shrugging her of.

‘We are just headed out for a bite to eat.’ You answered for him, but mostly for the girl. You were sure he would degrade her to the point of crying in the kind of mood he was right now. The heat always made him cranky.

‘Oh you are? You must be lonely eating with just the two of you! We should join you, don’t you think girls?’ Another of them stated, as the others furiously nodded along with her and produced sounds along the lines of ‘yeah we totally should’.

Loki grabbes your arm to pull you forward before answering: ‘We are not interested ladies, now please hurry along, I am in pleasant company and don’t need you ruining my night.’

The girls skidded to a halt at the sheer rudeness and the burning anger on his face, but it seemed the blonde didn’t really get the point.

‘Two handsome men like you shouldn’t be alone on a friday night. I am sure we could add a lot of fun to your evening.’

Loki turned around facing the group of girls again.

‘It seems you are too dumb to get the hint fool, but We Don’t Need Your Company little girl.’ He sneered as the girls shrunk to about half their size under his angered gaze.

‘It seems your friend does not agree with you on this. Perhaps he would like to enjoy the evening with us instead of with the likes of you.’ She bitched back.

‘Oh did he now?’ Loki said, his voice dangerously low and seductive as he turned to look at me. ‘Seems I have to change his mind then, as I will not allow him to leave.’ After which he pulled you close by the arm he was still holding, and roughly kissed you, pushing his hard body against yours as he pulled you even closer.One hand still gripping your wrist while the other pushed into the small of your back to keep you locked into place. His tongue forcing into your mouth, before he suddenly retreated from the kiss and left you standing panting on the street, a blush spreading on your cheeks, lips still slightly parted, as the loss of his warm, soft lips haunted you.

‘Do you understand now? He is Mine! Leave at once!’ Loki sneered before pulling you along. And you weren’t at least a bit proud of him, no not at all, and you certainly didn’t feel very warm at how he had defended you. No most certainly not..

#Loki #Loki Laufeyson #writing #fanfic #fanfiction #short #short story #love #possesion

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siobhanwolff-blog · 6 years ago

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Through The Dark

The biggest of thank you’s to @superpupdanvers for being an angel and beta reading this. I love her so much!

TW: graphic violence, mentions of sexual assault and abuse. Proceed with caution.

May 9th, 3am — Las Vegas, Nevada.

Being a superhero is nothing like how they depict in the movies. But sometimes, it is like in the movies— having to fight off super villains in order to protect the city you love so much.

Phoenix was quite possibly the most dangerous supervillain Shade had ever encountered. She also happened to be one of the first he’d fought. She got her jollies on creating chaos and making Shade feel helpless.

An apartment building was on fire and Shade’s intangibility was next to useless against the heat of the flames. He can walk through solid objects with ease but he isn’t immune to temperature and the flames licking at his intangible skin still hurt like hell. He had gone in and out countless times, his head dizzy and lungs burning from inhaling so much smoke. In the building for what could be the eight or twentieth time, Shade grabbed up a small boy in his arms whose pulse was dangerously slow.

And that’s when the backdraft hit, sending Shade flying through the explosion and debris. So many people died when the apartment complex went down, so many people he should have been able to save.

But usually, on ordinary days, it’s nothing like that.

Most nights being a superhero just means rescuing a guy from a potentially deadly mugging, or walking a crying girl who was just beaten by her boyfriend to a women’s shelter. Most nights it is just sitting in a garbage-scented alleyway and comforting someone before walking them home. Shade spent most of his nights just walking people home and being a shoulder to cry on. Because wasn’t a guy in a mask who offered his time a patience better than no one at all?

She looked barely eighteen, stumbling down the alley, being backed up by a large brute of a man. The girl was clearly a prostitute, wearing a tight dark grey dress that left little to the imagination and more makeup than was healthy for her skin.

“I told you to leave me alone,” she had said, on the verge of hysterics as he pushed her against a wall. The guy was massive, tall and easily twice Shade’s weight in muscle alone. He would had have to take him down quickly and quietly.

Shade skimmed down the side on the building he’d been sitting on the roof of. Keeping himself cloaked in the shadows, he silently approached. The guys hand was sliding up under the hem of girls dress now, muttering filth into her ear as she shook. Shade had to lean up on his tiptoes to be able to press his hands over the brutes eyes, whispering a soft “go to sleep”. The man screamed and crumpled as the darkness, cold and unforgiving, pulled him into unconsciousness.

Her name was Isabelle and Shade sat with her in the disgusting alley for an hour, rubbing her back and handing her tissues that he kept in one of his utility belt pockets. When she’d finally calmed down, he offered to walk her home.

And then there were nights that are purely sickening. Nights that left Shade drained and crying himself to sleep. Those were the nights he would much rather be risking his neck fighting other supers. Because those are the nights he’s cleaning a dead man’s blood from his spandex suit, or finding the body of a child tossed to the side like nothing, holding the hand of a dying rape victim he was to late to save, or watching someone commit suicide by jumping from several floors up. He saves lives, but those are the nights he feels like he has failed his city.

Shade didn’t know how a drug bust had turned into this. He had already called the cops, which was definitely his mistake. He was young, hadn’t figured out that he needed to call after he’d knocked out the thugs. But as soon as the cops showed up, all hell broke lose. Two of the cronies took off, but the guy that appeared to be in charge started shooting. Instinct kicked in and Shade let the bullets buzz through him harmlessly. And turn a cop into swiss cheese instead. He was close enough for Shade to grab before he hit the ground. He held the officer in his lap, pressing uselessly at the wounds to slow the gush of bright red blood. He died within seconds. His labored breath stopping and body going slack in Shades arms.

Those are the nights he wishes he could erase from his memory. But the spackle of a hostages brains isn’t something easily forgotten. The world is so, so fucking cruel. And Shade is just trying to help— trying to protect innocent people from what he sees every goddamn night. And that would be a hell of a lot easier if the police weren’t always trying to put him behind bars.

Which is exactly why Shade was running down unfamiliar streets. His breath huffing out of his lungs in harsh pants, heart beating like it was trying to break its way out through his ribs, and boot-clad feet pounding against the pavement. Even on awful nights, this was the worst part of what he did. Running from the cops for hours when he could instead be helping people. When they could be helping people. Instead they were just wasting time, time that could mean the difference if someone lives or dies. But the police weren’t saving anyone— they are chasing Shade. Even if they ever got close enough to him to actually cuff him, he would simply slip away. He was a shadow, and that’s what shadows did. Just disappeared in the buzzing nightlife of Las Vegas.

Bullets whizzed harmlessly through him— into his back and out of his chest, straight through his head to lodge uselessly into brick walls. It was as if he really was made of shadows, completely untouchable.

He rounded a corner that was more tall buildings than flashing excitement. He faded into the dark. Melted back against a wall, becoming apart of the shadowy darkness. He couldn’t do this in the center of the city buzz. Everything moved so quickly in Vegas, and people would notice if a shadow against a wall stopped moving. Shade had made this mistake when he was younger, first figuring out how to be a vigilante of such a busy city. He had taken a bullet to the shoulder for his ignorance. Shade was smarter know.

He watched silently as five police officers and a German Shepard rounded the corner in search of him. He held his breath fearing the smallest puff of air would give him away.

But they went right past Shade, couldn’t see him cloaked in the shadows. Two people stumbled out of the bar directly across the street from him. A man and a woman who were drunk, and leaning into each other, and laughing. They looked so happy and that wasn’t something Shade saw often. Usually when he saw people stumbling out of bars it was accompanied with angry yelling.

The cheap watch around Shade’s left wrist vibrated, it was three in the morning— it was time to go home.

An hour later, Shade costume hidden underneath the broken floorboard in his bedroom, Ronan Kingsley laid in bed unable to sleep despite his exhaustion. Always being tired was something that simply came with being a Las Vegas superhero— it was in the job description. And he knew when seven rolled around and he had to get up and actually function, Ronan would hate himself for not falling asleep until four-thirty. And one of his roommates, it was always Sara, would make a snarky comment about him sleeping around and his other roommate, it was always Kira, would silently hand him the coffee he needed oh-so-badly. And neither of them knew.

They couldn’t know. That was just another one of those things that was in the job description. If they wanted to assume he was sleeping around or involved with a sketchy gang, that was fine. He didn’t care what they thought he was doing when they found him gone in the middle of the night, as long as they didn’t think he was running around Las Vegas in a superhero costume. It was safer for them to not know.

And then Ronan would shower, get dressed, and go to work. Because that’s what twenty-six year-olds did in Vegas on Mondays.

“Kingsley!” Kathy shouted at him when he walked into The Beat, looking irritated. He knew he was five minutes late but traffic was a bitch, due to an awful car accident, but she had never gotten irritable with him before. In fact, ever since she hired him after her son moved to New York to go to law school she had treated him like a son. Most of the time she was more of a mother than his own ever had been.

“I’m so sorry I was late, there was an accident and—”

“I don’t care about that,” his fiery redheaded boss said, simply waving him off. “Did you not get my texts last night?”

“Uh,” no, Ronan thought, because I turn off my regular cell and leave it at home to fight crime on the streets of Vegas and only carry disposable crappy cells incase of an absolute emergency. But he couldn’t say that, because Ronan was not a crime-fighting hero in tights. He was just a guy that worked at a coffee house and he was clumsy, and nothing interesting ever happens in his life. Just boring ol’ Ronan.

“Never mind, doesn’t matter. This is Oliver,” Kathy put her hands on the shoulders of the curly haired guy with her, who was smiling all too brightly. Ronan had not even noticed the guy, with observation skills like that it was truly a miracle he hadn’t gotten himself killed yet. But when Ronan met Oliver’s shining green eyes he swore that his breath got stuck in his throat for a moment. There was no way to deny that he was beautiful. His red hair was messy and his eyes were bright even though they were hidden behind wide, round glasses. He was younger than Ronan, shorter, and his shoulders weren’t as broad. But When Ronan shook his hand he could tell that Oliver was strong.

And Ronan swore that he would not allow this boy to be his downfall. He stayed aloof and kept even the people he loved the most at arm's length. He was not about to forget what he was— who he was— just because some pretty boy made his chest feel like a thunderstorm.

“He is the new weekend barista but since Angie is on maternity leave I will need you to come in for the next couple weekends and train him. I can’t just put a newbie behind the counter without supervision, my customers expect nothing but perfection from us and—“

“Wait,” Ronan cut her off, icily. “Sundays are my only days off, I have things to do.” He had yoga class in the morning and always got a couple extra hours of patrolling in at night. He didn’t want to give that up to work a seven day week. Kathy and The Beat were important to him, but so was his Sunday routine.

His fiery boss rolled her eyes. “Fine, take Monday off,” she waved it off before launching into the story how she built the place from the ground up. Literally and metaphorically. While it captivated Oliver, Ronan had heard it a million times and tuned her out to help the other barista prepare to open shop. Emilia was technically the pastry chef but since they were short-handed she had been helping out.

She said his name softly to get his attention and Ronan arched an eyebrow at her. “I can train him today if you’d like.” She offered with a gentle smile. It was a tempting offer, Ronan wanted very little to do with the beautiful man, but he shook his head.

“It’s my responsibility, besides you do more than enough as it is.” She looked like she wanted to argue, but before she could Ronan walked to the front to unlock the doors and flip on the neon Open sign. Regulars quickly filled up the shop and they were both too busy to make any conversation.

By noon Ronan wanted to strangle him. He was a hard worker, charming, and the customers adored him. Logically, Ronan knew he was a great guy and there was absolutely nothing wrong with him. He was a great addition to the team and would fit right in with the ‘family’ Kathy insisted that they were. But he was touchy and Ronan’s muscles ached from being continuously tensed. Oliver was flirty and Ronan tried not to take it personally when he winked at him but he was so unaccustomed to being hit on that he didn’t know how to handle it and stared at Oliver until they were both uncomfortable.

After the lunch rush dwindled down, Ronan leaned against the counter next to Emilia. “Can you hold up the fort if Oliver and I take a lunch break?”

She smiled sweetly and nodded. “‘Course I can. Are you going to D’Latte?”

“Always do,” Ronan answered. He was already untying his apron and hanging it on one of the hooks behind the wall. “Want me to bring you back turrón?”

“Please.” She said and he nodded. Ronan may scoff at his bosses claims that they were a family, but he did have a soft spot for his co-workers. Kathy, Angie, and Emilia were good people and The Beat was his second home. He would never admit it, and he would always keep his kindnesses to a minimum, but he did care for them.

Ronan showed Oliver to the break room and asked Kathy if she wanted anything from D’latte before heading out. The small coffee place across the street was more than just a coffee shop. They offered a revolving variety of Spanish baked goods and sandwiches and had the comfiest chairs. And Ronan, no matter what mask he wore, always received free coffee. Which was more than a little disconcerting, but he chose not to think on it too long.

“Ah, Ronan my friend!” Mr. Soto greeted in his gruff Hispanic accent when Ronan entered. But he could not even muster out a hello in reply, his eyes glued to the television mounted high on the wall behind the coffee shop counter. The sound was off, but turned to a news channel.

Bank Robbery Leaves Seven Dead the text at the bottom read. “Can you turn the sound on please, Mr. Soto?” Ronan asked as he walked closer, eyes not leaving the screen. He heard the coffee shop owner sigh but did as requested and turned on the sound on the TV.

It happened at eight that morning, when Ronan was complaining to Kathy about not having a day off.

The robbers started shooting when police showed up, used a child as a hostage to get away. Ten men or women in masks taking a child. They were interviewing the missing child’s father, a man in his early thirties, eyes red and wet with held back tears, and begging to have his daughter back. Begging for Shade, Vegas’ vigilante to bring his unharmed daughter back to him. And Ronan felt sick.

Mr. Soto clicked off the television completely.

“I think that’s enough of that,” he grumbled, pressing a large paper coffee cup into Ronan’s shaking hand. He felt like he was going to be sick.

A child hostage. It had been hours. Unless they wanted to use her for something else, she was probably already dead and Ronan could have stopped it.

Ronan was wrong, being chased by incompetent police wasn’t the worst part of what he did. It was this. Feeling so much not like a superhero, because he could have saved her but he didn’t.

#writing #writeblr #amwriting #fiction #superhero fiction #writers on tumblr #story #creative writing #prose #original writing #lgbt+ characters #story: ttd #my writing

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geminimoonbeamx · 7 years ago

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Naive: Intro

A/N: Hey guys! So I’ve been dying to do a mini series reader insert story for a while! I got this idea while I was reading some Tony/Daughter fics and I thought I’d put my own little spin on it. I really hope you guys are able to connect with this, I picked her moms name just because I thought it flowed better to actually have a name instead of putting something like (your moms name) everytime she’s talked about!

Word count: 1k+

Warnings: Disclaimer- I have the dirtiest vocabulary and my stories will probably always have cursing in them. Other then that this chapter was pretty vanilla!

Summary: As the goddaughter of Tony Stark you were no stranger to the Avengers, but when you meet the newest member- you’re a little more then intrigued. Unfortunately for him, Bucky Barnes has caught your eye.

💘💘💘💘💘

There weren’t many things that Tony Stark truly got excited about. Actually, he could tick them off on the fingers on one hand. New scientific discoveries, adding to his classic car collection(but only when it was a real timeless model, something he really had to hunt for), Pepper looking at wedding dresses- and you.

His god daughter was always something he could gush, embarrassingly, about. About how you’d graduated from college with top grades because obviously any god daughter of his was a fucking genius. About how you’d spent the summer in Europe, he’d laughed and showed your videos of Amsterdam to the team repeatedly. About how beautiful you we’re cause god damn it, you looked just like your mom, just like his late best friend and he could never get over it. But what seemed to be all he could talk about lately, was the fact that you we’re moving to New York.

“Finally, I’ve been trying telling her that the only way she’s getting any where with that degree is in this city” Tony had sighed to Pepper. Really, he’d been desperately attempting to convince you to come stay with him ever since the funeral three years ago. “I told her she might as well move into the Tower, since rent is so fucking insane here”

Even though he refused to think of it this way; the truth of it is that you we’re the only link he had left to Jamie, and trying to accept that his best friend of thirty years was gone was something he just couldn’t accept. The three years she had been dead hadn’t done anything to sway that. He still expected a phone call from her. Still expected to hear her bitching at him and worrying about him being the only one he’d ever really been able to count on.

Isn’t it sad? What he’d give to hear your mother bitching at him again?

It was highly amusing, watching the usually snarky Stark wade knee deep through not only wedding plans, but renovation plans for the entire fifteenth floor for the last month.

“Hey Nat, do you think this rug goes with these throw pillows? Or is it too much fur? This kid loves faux fur, what is she a Gotti?!” Tony had been barraging everyone with questions like this, trying to get his “graduation present” ready for you without you finding out about it or being able to put your input into it was hard. But would he ever admit he’d bitten off more then he could chew?

Hell no.

“No, it actually looks really sheik with the geometric gold table. Y/N’s gonna love it” Natasha had reassured, trying to hide her smirking laughter by taking a drink from her mug.

If Tony had noticed she was slightly making fun of him he didn’t say anything, he just went back to fretting, threating some interior designer on his iPhone.

“Between the wedding and Y/N’s homecoming, he’s going to run himself bankrupt” Sam snorts, from the table. Where he sits with Steve and Bucky.

It had been an… odd few months. The team was back together after the whole Sokovian Accords fiasco- but they we’re all still trying to figure out how to mesh right again. Tony being as distracted as he was had been some kind of god send, had given everyone some room to find their place.

Bucky, for one, was happy that the Billionaire’s mind seemed to be pulled in all different directions. It kept Tony from focusing all the hate on him. Because even though it was unspoken, and Tony had agreed to have him join the team- only after Steve gave the ultimatum that the two we’re a packaged deal- everyone with eyes could see the tension was still there. The way that Tony would never really meet his eyes.

Bucky couldn’t blame him. He’d done…what he’d done and Tony had every right to hold a grudge.

It didn’t make it anyless uncomfortable living in the mans house though.

“I don’t think that’s possible” Natasha reasons.

“You’re right. The man pockets are fuckin’ bottomless . Lucky bastard” Sam swirls his protein shake.

“He’s seems happy, which is good. A happy Tony trumps an unhappy one any day” Steve points out. Steve knew what the consequences of unhappy Tony looked like. The drinking, the downward spiral.

“He really loves this kid, huh? Who is she again? His goddaughter, right?” Bucky inquires, his eye brow raised.

“Yeah, her mom was his best friend, he’s always spoiled her rotten” Steve chuckled a little “She’s a real good girl though. A bit of a spitfire, but the sweetest thing once you get to know her”

Bucky’s eyebrow raises even higher at the way Steve regards the girl. The small smile on his best friends face as he talks about her.

“Really? You sound like you’re a little sweet on her, punk. What is she some kind of grade A dime piece?” Bucky teases, expecting the rest of them to at least smile at his sharp joke. When his laughter is the only one that rings through the kitchen his nose quirks “What?…I was just kidding”

Why we’re the three of them looking at him like that?

“Nah, don’t joke around like that, man. Not if you value your thawed out ass” Sam’s tone is warning.

“What?”

“Tony is really protective of her, like real protective. If he caught any of us lookin’ at her like that he’d fire us” Steve’s tone matches Sam’s. Total seriousness.

“Screw firing you, He’d toss you through one of the windows and watch your body hit the cement is what he’d do. Y/N is a hundred percent off limits. Head this warning” Natasha gives him the little “I’m watching you” signal with her fingers before she walks out of the communal kitchens.

“You guys cant be serious” Bucky scoffs, a small smirk on his face. The reaction they all seemed to have about his little joke was entertaining…“Wait? You didn’t try anything with her, did you, Steve?”

That tell tale blush creeps up Steve’s neck and Bucky shakes his head. That little horn dog he’d grown up with was still there, under the righteous Captain America mask he wore.

“It’s not even like that. She’s just- a little flirt. You’ll see” Steve sputters, trying to defend himself.

“She really is. She’s probably one of the most charming people I’ve ever met in my whole life” Sam laughs in agreement “I’m just not the one who got caught cuddling with her on the couch in the middle of the night”

Bucky gives Steve a shit eating grin as the blonde gets even redder.

“Fuck you, Sam-”

“Oh woah, Cap. Watch your language!” Sam and Bucky are both laughing at Steve’s total dismay and the broad shouldered man gets up from the table.

“Yeah, yeah laugh it up. Tony threw me through a wall for that. I could have been killed!” Steve exclaims, walking away from the men who just seem to laugh louder —- You’d never been a morning person and you walked through the air plane ramp in a little bit of a daze, balancing your tote and your laptop bag on each shoulder.

Why you’d chosen to take a 5am flight was now a foreign thought to you as you make your way through the crowds of people, just wanting to find Tony, get to the Tower and sleep for a sold twenty four hours.

Your phone chirps and you look down at the screen.

Tony calling blinked in bright lettering on the iPhone and you your thumb across it, answering it, not able to keep the large smile off of your face.

“Hey Tony!” Your voice is excited and your mood instantly lifted.

“Hey kiddo, how was the flight?” Tony’s smooth voice comes from the receiver.

“It was okay, I tried to knock myself out but couldn’t. Since when are airplane cocktails so weak?” You tease, your eyes desperately scanning for a Starbucks. You knew JFK International Airport had to be littered with them. You could practically smell the sweet, sweet caffeine beckoning you.

“I’ll have to file a formal complaint. We didn’t pay extra for first class for nothing” Tony uses his best ‘haughty taught white soccer mom, I want to speak to your manager’ voice and you cant help but laugh “But listen, I was going to come pick you up myself but the whole team got called into this spur of the moment meeting. I would try to ditch it but it’s with the director of the secret service so I don’t see myself getting out of this-”

Tony rambles, his voice so apologetic its almost pathetic.

Had you been hyped for him to be waiting for you at baggage claim like he’d always done when you we’re younger? Yeah, but you we’re an adult now. You didn’t need him feeling bad for things he couldn’t control.

“Tino stop!” You laugh, using the nickname you’d always had for him “It’s fine, I promise. I’m a big girl. I’m just going to find a Starbucks and caffeinate and then I’ll grab a cab, okay?” You reason with him.

“Uh, no. Find your coffee but Peppers waiting for you at baggage claim and you guys will take a car back. A cab- Cab? Who do you think I am?” You roll your eyes at your god fathers ever flamboyant nature.

“Alright, I’ll text you when I find her. She still like’s skinny white chocolate mocha’s right?” You question “Have fun at your meeting, see ya’ soon Tino! Love you”

“Bye kid, love you”

After grabbing a pair of venti drinks; a triple shot Pink Drink for you and Peppers white chocolate mocha you maneuver yourself through JFK, down escalators and around the travelers that seemed to forget their manners in the hustle of traveling. Your shoulder get’s bumped more then once.

You know you’re a bigger girl, shorter and wider then most but could they at least say sorry!

“Dick!” You hiss at the man who’d almost knocked the coffee out of your hand.

All of the irritation is let off your shoulders when you see Pepper standing tall, a sign in her hands that had your name scrolled on it prettily.

Jeeze.

You’d missed her. You realize, you hadn’t been in New York since your mom…

“Y/N!” She calls for you, grinning widely and you power walk to the red head, nearly bouncing with happiness as you get to her.

“Pepper!” You cry joyously as you hug her, well as much of a hug as you could give her with your hands so full. It’s mostly just you leaning into her as she wraps her arms around you.

“Oh my god, look at you! Look at your hair! You look so goregous” Pepper fawns over you, cupping the side of your head and looking down at you with dancing eyes.

She couldn’t believe how…old you looked. In her mind you’d always be the cute, chubby twelve year old with long curly pig tails. And yet here you were, looking like a grown woman.

“You’re making me feel so old right now” she admits, only half teasing and you roll your eyes.

“Oh shut up. You know you’re still hot. Here, this is for you” you hand her the latte and she gives you a soft look. You were still a sweetheart.

“Now let me see the rock!” You exclaim and she waves her ring finger at you as you two begin to make your way to the car, both of you giggling- your squeals earning you some side ways looks.

You couldn’t remember the last time you were so happy.

-----

I’m so excited for this story y'all! If you wanted to be tagged in the next chapter just ask!😬😬😬

https://xgminigypsy.tumblr.com/post/166573773564/naive-part-1 PART ONE

https://xgminigypsy.tumblr.com/post/166595772104/naive-part-2 PART TWO

https://xgminigypsy.tumblr.com/post/166629591854/naive-part-3 PART THREE

https://xgminigypsy.tumblr.com/post/166664664834/naive-part-4 PART FOUR

https://xgminigypsy.tumblr.com/post/166703266654/naive-part-5 PART FIVE

https://xgminigypsy.tumblr.com/post/166903805364/naive-part-6 PART SIX

#bucky barnes x plus size reader #plus size reader #poc reader #Bucky Barnes #Bucky Barnes smut #tony stark #tony stark daughter #steve rogers #mcu imagine

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blackhawkcomics · 4 years ago

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A lengthy family history of Juliette Rodriguez

Warning for... a lot of things, but it’s Julie, so it’s mostly all implied. Implied eating disorder, implied suicidal ideations, heavily implied emotional child abuse. Minor mention of drug abuse, though that isn’t Julie. There’s a pretty snarky discussion of homophobia too.

“My parents got married and had Kathrine super young, though maybe not in that order? I don’t know the exact date of their anniversary, but, like... there’s hints it wasn’t entirely on the up. Stuff like Grandma being just a little bit colder to Katherine than me and Audrey, Dad mentioning their short engagement once and then shutting up fast, just general caginess surrounding why they decided to get married so soon -- I mean, they were eighteen when they got married. My age. That shit just didn’t happen in the latter half of the twentieth century unless it was a shotgun wedding.

“You know, little stuff like that.”

“I think they were actually, like, decent at first? Like, before Mom got her big-shot job at her law firm, back when they still remembered being broke, first generation college kids. Katherine turned out okay at least, so they had to have done something right. And I mean she’s would-maybe-be-chill-with-me-being-gay levels of okay, which in my family is big. But then if I told her, she’d tell Dad, and then Dad would immediately snitch to Mom and let her be the bad guy, and we all know how that would turn out.

“Actually, wait, that’d actually be great if they kicked me out. I could go live with Lucia. Yeah, no, I should totally come out to my family.

“Anyway, yeah, Katherine’s okay, even if she acts like a middle-age soccer mom sometimes... which, I guess she almost comes by honestly now. Fuck, that’s a weird thought. It’s what she gets for marrying a bland white boy, though.

“Honestly, though, I like Katherine. We’re chill. I think she can relate to the way Mom put a lot of pressure on me to keep up my grades, and that being the only way we felt we could win her approval. You know, normal, healthy mother-daughter relationship stuff.

“Audrey, on the other hand, is annoying. Growing up, she thought just being four years older than me made her so much better, and like, I get it. When you’re a little kid, four years is a big difference, so I understand not wanting to play with me, but did she have to be such a bitch about it? And Mom loved her. Katherine was great because she was smart and Mom could brag about her perfect grades, but Audrey was popular. She was the perfect little dress-up doll right when Katherine got to that age when parents stopped being cool, and unlike Katherine, Audrey never grew out of being a whiny little kiss-ass momma’s girl. Well, joke’s on Mom, because her favorite little girl is fucked up. I’m talking sex, drugs, the whole rock and roll. And Mom still has no idea.

“Now that I’m older, though, I honestly feel kinda sorry for Audrey. It can’t have been easy growing up as Mom’s favorite, and I mean that with a hundred-percent straight face. Mom is a lot even when she likes you, and she expected Audrey to be Katherine two-point-oh, only she forgot the reason Katherine was so smart --- because she studied all the time --- was also the reason she never had time to make many friends. I think Audrey reminded Mom of herself at that age, too, only Mom never really figured out that Audrey didn’t have the same ambition that drove Mom through law school, so she kept pushing and pushing to make Audrey fit into the perfect mold she imagined Audrey in, and eventually Audrey just snapped. But she was still skinny, and popular, and Mom still loved her best. I used to loathe Audrey so much for that. I still do, sometimes, when I’m feeling petty.

“Me, though? I was always chubby, even as a baby, and Mom --- being the control freak that she is --- couldn’t stand it. So even from the start she was harder on me than my sisters, and by that time Dad was so whipped that even if he cared, I don’t think he would have done anything about it. And then Aunt Dorothy got her grubby little lesbian hands on me, and it was all over for me. Literally, she was a lesbian named Dorothy. I can’t make this up.

“Aunt Dorothy was the best. Still is --- at least I think, because Mom’s entire family still pretends she doesn’t exist, and I have no idea how to contact her. But this was back before they found out her ‘roommate’ was really her evil gay wife who corrupted Aunt Dorothy’s good Christian soul with her evil gay vagina...

“I feel like that joke doesn’t work as well when one or more of the participants doesn’t have a penis. Oh well.

“What’s important is that I was nine when, through a happy series of coincidences, Aunt Dorothy and her roommate moved to New York at the same time that both my parents’ workloads tripled in the wake of Iron Man’s Senate hearing, and Mom --- having just enough sense to not put the already-spiraling Audrey in charge of nine-year-old me --- needed a regular babysitter. Enter Aunt Dorothy.

“Now, Aunt Dorothy knew her sister, and she knew the kind of backwards-ass, hypocritical, conservative garbage she must have been filling our heads with, so she took it into her own hands to educate us on such matters as fairness, and compassion, and treating people with kindness and empathy, and critical goddamn thinking skills, which had apparently been flooded out of my mother’s head by the endless deluge of lawyeristic doublespeak that is the official language of the corporate cloud she lives in. Audrey had her lips so firmly adhered to my mother’s ass that she refused to hear a word Aunt Dorothy said to contradict our mother’s narrow worldview, but for some reason Aunt Dorothy never gave up on me. Maybe I was more receptive to what she was saying, what with me already understanding on some intrinsic level that my parents’ love was conditional. Or maybe it’s true that gays recognize fellow gays, even before we recognize ourselves.

“In any case, Aunt Dorothy became my hero. Even at home, it was Aunt Dorothy this, Aunt Dorothy that. But still, at nine years old I already knew that certain topics were dangerous at home and that I shouldn’t bring them up. Audrey tattled, of course, and I’m sure Mom yelled at Aunt Dorothy for trying to poison our impressionable young minds with her liberal agenda, but she was still the only family in the area, and Mom needed her to look after us.

“Eventually though, someone on Mom’s side of the family blabbed, or put two and two together, and they figured out she was a dirty filthy lesbian doing dirty filthy lesbian sex with her roommate, and that was the last straw. We weren’t allowed to see Aunt Dorothy anymore. We weren’t even really allowed to talk about her. I think after a few years she moved out of New York again, but I’m not really sure. I used to daydream about her bursting through the door one day and taking me away to live with her and... shit, I can’t even remember her wife’s name. Fuck. I hope they’re okay. I don’t like to think what I would be like today if I’d never gotten to know them.

“Anyway. My parents managed to beat the liberal agenda out of Audrey --- not literally, of course; they may be awful human beings, but they’re not monsters --- but it was too late for me. They tried to turn me around. God they tried, but I was too stubborn. So... well, they didn’t give up trying, but they gave up on me, in a way. They realized they were never going to change me, so they did their best to mitigate the damage. Make me into a private shame, not a public one. Which meant lots of private screaming, and private dieting, and private misery.

“Lucia and her family were really the only things that got me through middle school. I stopped talking even to her about it for a while, at least not explicitly, but... she knew. I think her parents knew too, or at least suspected, but if I wasn’t ready to open up even to Lucia, they knew there was nothing they could really do to help besides feed me extra portions when I was over for meals and love me like one of their own. Honestly, I --- it was bad for a long time. I owe Lucia my everything, and that’s all I want to say about that.

“Fuck, I can’t wait ‘til I graduate and I can get out of here. Screw college, I’m joining Lucia at SHIELD. She’s more family to me than these miserable piles of festering dog crap I call my parents.”

#uhhhhhhhh so this happened #this is NOT an open starter because julie would never in a million years be this open about family matters to anyone who isn't lucia #and not even her sometimes #short leash and a short fuse ( julie )#does it count as headcanon if it's my character? ( about )#after the end ( verse )#suicide tw #eating disorder tw #child abuse tw #drug abuse tw #homophobia tw

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mathicu-blog · 7 years ago

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hello fam ?? i’m ac and i very much suck at intros, now you’re warned !! uh, my preferred pronouns are she/her, i’m twenty years old and reside in the gmt+1 timezone !! i’m like pretty damn excited to be here, been stalking this rp since it hit the tags, no lie !! anyway, i’m gonna tell you a bit about my son, mathieu. also if you wanna plot please hit me up or like this post !! i’ll try to have a connection page up very soon, ‘cause i have an extended weekend so hopefully i can be productive !!

( francisco lachowski. cismale. he/him. ) // did you see who walked past just then ? couldn’t really tell from the distance but i think it’s ( mathieu blake ) actually ! the ( twenty-three ) year old is a little ( airy ) if you ask me but they’re also ( charming ). i heard that when they opened the capsule, they took out the ( mp3 player ) that they’d left seventeen years ago. i wonder what that even means to them especially now that they’re a ( nightclub owner ) ?

alright so i’m gonna try to keep it short and instead just link u to his full biography, so if you’re interested, it’s right here !!

(trigger warning; slight mention of abuse and cancer)

basically, mathieu is from brazil, was given up for adoption right when he was born ‘cause his father was abusive and his mother wasn’t gonna bring him up in a family like that so yeah, he was born mathieu navarro and still uses it in his full name. stayed at an adoption home until he was five and then he was adopted by michael and christina blake who are some rich bitches from lorfield, except they’re not actually bitches they’re really nice lol.

anyway mathieu got an mp3 player from his grandfather when he first arrived which had some of the most iconic songs on it plus a lullaby they’d used to sing at the adoption center back in brazil. his grandfather died of cancer not too long after mathieu was adopted and all but he had a really big impact on him. even at five years old mathieu became really interested in music and all, also because his grandfather and now father owns a record label it was kind of in the cards. anyway as soon as he could he picked up the guitar and he was basically a natural.

but oh well, he was always a very outgoing and sociable kid, he’d always find something to do or someone to talk to and everyone was always just drawn to him due to the vibes and energy he radiated with. but yeah he’s always been very energetic, thought to have adhd but he doesn’t, he’s perfectly normal??? anyway he was kind of a little shit growing up, like he was nice and all but he was also just super annoying and always getting on someones nerves, he’d always throw pranks and do everything he wasn’t supposed to do, and he kind of got out of hand to the point where his parents send him to a private school in los angeles where he’d live with his aunt and uncle.

la had a really shitty influence on him, to be honest he really didn’t like the city or the people at all and suffered from home sickness a lot which caused him to act out and be even more of a bigger shit than usual. he had a lot of friends or people that wanted to be his friend ‘cause he was rich and wild i guess, he knew they weren’t really there for him when all came down to him and it was proven to be right a few times as well. so yeah, he kinda grew into an asshole and forgot everything about the things that mattered until his senior year of high school when he like realized he’d have to come home soon and he’d just been nothing but a major disappointment to his parents, so he kinda picked up his grades and all but....still an asshole.

oh yeah also during the la years he obtained information on his biological mother and got her address and everything, wrote her like a bazillion letters but haven’t send a single one to this date cause he’s afraid of ruining something..there’s a lot of worries tbh.

anyway, high school finished and he didn’t really wanna go home ‘cause he’d have to face his parents whom he hadn’t seen much during these years, they’d talked and all and met for holidays but he tried to avoid them ooops. parents and authorities weren’t cool in his social circle and he had an image to uphold after all, so instead he applied for berklee college of music in boston and was admitted, so swoosh to the other side of the country to start college, it was practically his dream education however it only lasted a month cause he just couldn’t handle it. it was too much theory and less action and too stiff for his liking.

still not ready to go home he moved to new york for like 3 years he lived there in a fancy ass penthouse and worked as an event coordinator for the marquee nightclub ‘cause boy knew how to make connections and pull people in for an epic night. so yeah, during these years he kinda grew more into himself, and became more sure of his future and so, when he turned 21 he moved back to lorfield to open his own nightclub thing, called the ivy, it’s like his little baby and probably the most serious thing he’s ever done or been part of so that’s pretty big. he’s still set to take over the family record label after his father and he’s quite alright with that.

personality wise, mathieu is a bit complicated, he’s a narcissist through and through. It’s his way or no way. He’s not very good at seeing things from different perspectives because in his mind he’s always right, even if he knows he’s straight up wrong he will play it off as if he’s the one right, and probably make you doubt that you’re right in the process. He’s not very good with empathy and putting other people first, if you ever come to him for comfort you will probably regret it, he’s the absolute worst at emotional comfort and he’ll just make you feel even worse than you already did. He’s very unreliable in various ways, if he seizes the opportunity to gain something for himself but stab someone in the back at the same time, he’d do it without hesitation, you can never be sure with him, don’t ever count on him to show up for anything scheduled, he probably found something more interesting to tend to last minute and didn’t bother letting you know, if you’ve done something to ever get the smallest rise out of him, he’s probably scheming your end as we speak.

He’s the type of person who bullshits his way through everything, he’s never really put much effort into anything besides his senior year of high school, everything else has come easily to him. He can talk his way out of everything, not because everything he says is actually related to the topic at hand but because he just keeps on talking, and while he did that he probably threw in a few snarky insults covered up in sarcasm and a dazzling smile. He’s a relatively smart guy, at least street smart, knows how to make his way through life and you don’t need math to do that.

He rarely does anything for the benefit of others, if he does help you it’s purely because he sees it benefiting himself as well. So basically he’s a snake. He’s not exactly malicious or cruel however, it’s more of a teasing except he means everything he says 100%. He plays everything off as a joke cause he’s incapable of taking anyone or anything serious. Will laugh at your insults or attempts to insult him, ‘cause he’s got himself on a pedestal so high he probably didn’t even hear you.

He thrives on pissing people off, whether they’ll be pissed at him or someone else for something he said is not important he just wants to shake it up a little. He lives for anything that gives the slightest bit of adrenaline and if you bore him for too long it’s a guarantee he’ll just up and leave. He’s very easily bored, of people, hobbies and generally everything. When he was a kid his parents would get him new toys every other week and his interest in them only went as far as a week. That’s the same with girls and hobbies. He’s incapable of relationships because he simply gets bored of people so quickly..also he’s just not very good a monogamy, it’s not that he doesn’t wanna settle down, but he’s just living the bachelor life right now and besides, he’s got enough in himself.

He’s a slut for drama as long as he isn’t involved. He loves stirring the pot and raise hell, watching everyone run around like headless chickens and blame each other left and right, he’s like Littlefinger in Game of Thrones whispering shit to everyone and then just watching the drama unfold, the second he’s involved however, it’s not quite as fun and he will try his very best to…slither out of it and remove himself from the situation. He makes it his business to know everyone else’s business. If you need something you can be sure Mathieu either knows, or knows someone who knows, of course that info doesn’t come free of charge. Doesn’t share anything with anyone cause he knows from personal experience that no one really gives a fuck. He hates being confronted with things and will pretty much always just finger gun his way out of everything or laugh as if you’re the idiot. In general, he’s just an entitled rich kid who’s bored with the world and loves doing everything in his power to make it just a little more interesting.

so yeaaaah, i think that’s like it ???

#lorfieldintro #( — HERE I GO AGAIN ; OOC

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ameryoki · 7 years ago

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Long Awaited Reunion (Liam+MC)

This is my first ever FF story. I’m so much into this book and just had to write something to get over the fact I’m not getting the whole story all together. Also English is not my mother language, so I apologize for any possible mistakes. Book: The Royal Romance Pairing: Liam x MC (Riley) Rating: NSFW

Events take place right after Book1, after Maxwell gets Riley from the airport and brings her back to their house.

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She couldn’t believe everything that happened… she just was the happiest girl in the world, and now she was so badly in pain. Never in her life she was that madly in love and never in her life that hurting.

She still remembered the feeling of Liam inside her, his hands and lips all over her body… Just the thought of the evening spent in the maze made Riley shiver and her heart to beat faster. But after this memory immediately came the other - that look on Liam’s face and his words, that broke Riley heart into thousand pieces: “I choose Madeleine”.

She couldn’t answer to herself why she really came back. Life without her prince seemed pointless, but at the same time he hurt her by doing nothing about his guards throwing her out, by never rushing after her, never letting her explain… Can it be that Liam really believed all those lies? That Madeleine was his backup option all along in case Riley failed in the last minute? After everything that has happened, after everything he has done, how could he pick someone else? Was this all a play? Riley couldn’t find answers on those questions. She decided to trust Maxwell and hold onto this tiny chance that it is still possible to fix everything and clear her name. With this thoughts Riley has fallen into heavy sleep.

Knock on the door accompanied by Maxwell’s cheerful voice woke Riley up early in the morning: “Rise and shine! It’s time to go get your King back! But first we need to prepare you for all the upcoming tour procedures and make you perfect. So, chop-chop!”

With some effort Riley opened her eyes. For a second she has forgotten about the recent events, but then all the memories rushed upon her. Riley didn’t want to leave the bed and her head was heavy and hurting after almost sleepless night, but she made herself to get up. While taking a cold shower she was remembering what Bertrand told her about the closest future. Can she keep her cool and smile up at all those social events seeing Liam and Madeleine together? Can she be respectful to that bitch who is obviously connected to the plot against Riley? And could she even look at Liam while keeping emotions from overwhelming? Riley though it was a good thing that she wouldn’t see any members of the court for several weeks and would be busy with studying and preparation for the upcoming engagement tour, because maybe she would be able to calm down and keep her cool by then.

Though she really hoped to get at least any, even tiny little message from Liam, that would prove he still cared.

But days went by and there were no signs from the new King. Riley’s days were filled with different educational events, jokes, and cozy evenings in Beaumonts brothers’ company, but evenings were hell. When left alone in her room, Riley plunged in different thoughts about uncertain future and those thoughts didn’t let go until sleep came rapidly and heavily. Sometimes there were dreams, most of the time Riley couldn’t remember them, but there were also very real ones, where she was living a common life with Liam in New York, where there was no coronation, any court obligations, where everything was nice and simple, and they were enjoying each other. Riley didn’t want to wake up from those dreams, as with the thought that that desired life could never happen they brought blunt pain in the chest that didn’t go away for a while.

Finally, there was a day of engagement celebrations at Countess Madeleine’s grand estate. Riley and Beaumonts left early in the morning to arrive there in time. The place impressed by its size and scope, which wasn’t surprising: Madeleine’s family was one of the wealthiest in the country. Upon arrival Bertrand told that Countess was generous enough to offer them all rooms in the main house, though it was unclear if that was a good sign. Maxwell and Bertrand took Riley to her room, which turned out to be a large bedroom in a classy style, very cozy and welcoming. Riley didn’t really care about the surroundings: she was nervous about the welcoming party that would start later that day. Bertrand gave Riley instructions and left her to prepare for the event.

Riley took the dress Maxwell ordered from the closet. It was a gorgeous dark blue dress, with sexy low neck and just enough rhinestones. She decided not to go for anything more modest - if she is going to return, she will do it in style.

Beaumonts came to pick Riley up just right when she was ready with preparations. Maxwell offered his hand and Riley gladly accepted. She tried to look relaxed and certain when they entered the grand hall that was already full of guests. As expected, all the eyes were immediately turned to them and there were gasps and whispers. Lady Penelope and lady Kiara were very surprised to see Riley back. And of course, the press didn’t hesitate to start asking questions. Riley was very grateful to Maxwell who was by her side all that time. After the press left them alone, a beautiful blond woman approached. ‘Well, well. Here is the scandalous lady Riley. Welcome. Glad you could make it, because what party it would be without something to gossip about”. Riley immediately recognized her: this woman looked as snarky as her daughter.

- Lady Adelaide. Thank you for having us.

- You are a cute couple with this young man.

- Oh, we are… - muttered Maxwell.

- We are indeed, - Riley interrupted him with a grin.

- Please enjoy the party, I need to attend to other guests now.

Maxwell looked at Riley with a raised brow, - ‘A cute couple, huh?’.

- C’mon, we would be extremely cute as a couple, if we were one, - Riley smiled at him.

- If you put it like that, well… Of course. Always cute, - Maxwell grinned back. Then his face got serious. – Now the most unpleasant moment of the evening. We need to approach Madeleine. Please, try to keep cool, we don’t want to get on her bad side right away.

Riley saw the Countess on the other end of the hall and felt anger rising.

- Lady Madeleine.

- Oh, Lady Riley. Didn’t expect you to show up after the coronation ball. But I’m glad you are here, it’s very brave of you, I respect that. A lesser woman more well-versed in country politics might have gone into hiding.

- Lady Madeleine, I just want you to know that it will take more than a few lied to get rid of me.

- Oh, so you are saying that all those photos aren’t true then?

- I was set up.

- Uh-huh… And who would bother to do that? – Madeleine acted surprised, though Riley felt the steel cold in her voice.

- You tell me, - Riley muttered between her teeth.

– Oh, darling, I’m sure I wouldn’t know. I wish you luck in clearing your name. Though I will be far too busy to follow the news about your progress. What with King Liam and I being very much engaged. Isn’t that right, darling?

- Riley?

Riley turned slowly on the sound of so familiar voice, feeling heart raising and hands getting cold.

- Ahem, I mean lady Riley. I’m surprised to see you… You look… Well, as stunning as ever.

Riley noticed that he really was surprised to see her. But saying those formalities, with his charming grin and in so official voice? After everything? Riley felt anger rising.

- Liam! Don’t think I’ve forgiving you. - Well, here. She said it. And immediately felt the hotness of tears threaten the back of her throat. King’s expression immediately changed, her words ruffled him.

- No, I wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to think that. We need to-

Madeleine didn’t let her fiancé finish, interrupting by putting a hand on his arm and staring Riley dead in the eyes - We need to see to the rest of our guests sweetheart. Being the royal couple if the hour has its obligation, - Countess smiled charmingly at Liam and winded her hand around his arm.

Liam apologetically looked at Riley and muttered, - Yeah, right…

Riley froze, having nothing to say, but Maxwell’s subtle squeeze on the arm made her trail off, so she stammered out - It was wonderful to see you both.

-Lady Riley. Lord Maxwell.

Liam and Madeleine took their leave.

- Riley, we really need to be careful around Madeleine now. - Maxwell looked her in the eye, - I know you have a lot to talk about, but it has to wait, so brace yourself.

The rest of the evening Riley spent in the company of Bertrand and Maxwell, trying not to look at the engaged couple. Though it was hard and Riley couldn’t notice that they seemed to enjoy the evening and she completely lost her appetite.

Later after dinner Riley heard knock on the door. She opened it to find Maxwell standing there with a bouquet of two dozen red roses.

- This is for me? Who sent it?

- Special delivery! Housekeeping sent over a new centerpiece for your end table. - Maxwell gave the flowers to Riley, and when smelling the sweet aroma of the bouquet she spotted a piece of paper around one of the flowers.

“I wouldn’t blame if you are furious with me, but please meet me so I could at least explain. I will be on the balcony outside my room in twenty minutes”

Maxwell looked over Riley’s shoulder, - Looks like Liam’s handwriting! He wants you to meet him! There is your chance for a private talk. But his balcony is precisely on the other end of the mention… I guess Madeleine put you as far away from him as possible.

- I won’t go anyway. I don’t think I can bare talking to him right now…

- I see… It’s fine, Riley. You need to rest, it was an exhausting evening for you. I’m sure you get another chance to talk to Liam. I’ll see you in the morning… Bright and early!

Maxwell left, leaving Riley alone. She took a warm shower, put on her evening clothes, and sat next to the window starting in the darkness of the park. She sat there for a while and suddenly knocking on the door pulled her out from her thoughts. It was already late, and she didn’t expect anyone, so Riley didn’t hurry to open the door at first. But then there was another, more insisting knock.

- No need to break down the door! I’m coming! - Riley threw it open and froze, stunned… - Liam?

- I’m sorry to disturb you, I know it’s late already… But I shouldn’t linger in the hall. It was… difficult to get down here unseen.

Without saying anything Riley let the King in and closed the door behind him. Her heart was beating hard against her chest, but she still felt offended and hurt. For a moment they just stared at each other.

- I really hoped you would come meet me on the balcony. But I see now it was stupid to ask you to come there, the halls are crowded with staff and security.

- What are you doing here? You are an engaged man now, you shouldn’t be breaking into other women’s room, especially this late at night. - Riley tried to talk as indifferently as she could.

- Riley…That’s correct, I got engaged. But Madeleine and I have an understanding. She knows I’m not in love with her.

- She does now? – Riley asked huffily.

- Yes. And… she simply doesn’t care. She is cunning and calculating and this arrangement actually suits her: she doesn’t care as soon as she can be the queen. But this is not why I’m here. I can’t stay long, but I needed to see you, to talk to you… to tell how much I’ve missed you.

Riley felt lump in her throat.

- Then how could you let them throw me out that night? Why did you let me go? After those photos surfaced we never even got a chance to talk! - Riley clenched hands trying to keep tears away.

- I know. I’m sorry, Riley. - quietly answered Liam.

- Are you going to ask me if that is true?

- You and Tariq? No. I don’t need to ask to know it was a set up. Drake told me about how everything went down and about the missing lock.

- Why then…

- Why I didn’t choose you? Somebody wanted to prevent you from becoming queen. They went that far with setting you up, so I knew that if I was to pick you, you would be in great danger. You remember I told you my mother died when I was young? The details were kept secret from the public, but she was poisoned. I can’t lose you, I would never forgive myself if something bad happened to you, Riley. I’m sorry everything happened as it did, but the only way of I could think to keep you safe was to make it look like they’ve won. I needed to come up with something fast and I didn’t see any other choice. All I could think in that moment was finding a way to keep you in my life and to protect you from any harm.

- All this time you knew I was set up… And never let me know… Never reached out…

- I really wanted to, believe me. But it was dangerous to reach out. The only way to make this gambit work was to pretend I believed the photos and had severed ties with you. I can only imagine what you went through…

- It was torture, Liam. I really thought you believed them… I was so angry at you and hurt… and I missed you so much and I…

Riley couldn’t hold tears anymore and she didn’t want Liam to see that, so she turned away towards the window, hiding her face behind her palm.

- Riley… I’m so sorry… Please forgive me. - Liam came to Riley and folded her in a gentle embrace, burying his face in her hair, inhaling its subtle fragrance. His voice was husky, filled with regret and pain. - I missed you too… If it’s any consolation, I’ve thought about you every single minute of every single day since we were apart. I got engaged to Madeline to buy us time. I wanted to protect you from any harm and still ended up hurting you so badly. And it kills me thinking what you are going through right now and what you are to handle in the future several weeks. But if we are able to figure out who is plotting against you, anything is possible. Until then we must make it appear so that we are no longer involved. I know it is hard, it will be for both of us, but only this way we could keep you safe.

Riley turned towards Liam and hugged him tight, resting her head on his chest. She forgave him the second she saw him standing behind that door. But now the future became even scarier: she never thought that her life might be at stake.

- I don’t know if I can do that.

Liam gently kissed her forehead, pulling her even closer.

- I know you can, you are the most daring and capable person I know, Riley Linden.

Riley smiled weakly and rose her face, seeking Liam’s lips. He found hers first, kissing first gently, but then deeper, more passionate. Riley couldn’t hold herself any longer and were answering the kisses hungrily. Liam groaned and pulled apart taking shaking and shallow breaths.

- I already took a risk coming here, I really need to go.

- No, please, stay… Don’t leave me just yet. - pleadingly asked Riley, biting her leap - it’s late and I don’t think anyone will look for you. The whole place will be asleep soon anyway.

- Oh, Riley. How could I say no to you? - Liam pulled Riley into a fiery and passionate kiss, his hands running down her back, pulling closer. Riley moaned, and her body trembled under his touch. She started to unpin Liam’s shirt. While she was at that, Liam nuzzled her neck with kisses, freeing Riley from her clothes. When the King was out of his shirt, Riley locked her hands around his neck and pushed down slightly, Liam slowly followed the push, kissing every inch of Riley’s trembling body leaving goose bumps on her skin. Finally, he was on the soft plush carpet – ‘Come here’, he softly pulled Riley on top of him

- Thinking of this moment has consumed me the entire time we were apart. – Liam looked straight into Riley’s eyes, that burned with passion, his voice low and husky.

- Then we’d better make the most of it… - whispered Riley.

- We do have some lost time to make up for…

- Just shut up already and kiss me like you want me.

She didn’t need to ask twice: Liam grabbed Riley by the waist and gently rolled her on the back, drinking deeply of her mouth . His lips demanding, his grip tightened, crushing his body to hers, gentle yet firm. He slanted her head further, deepening the kiss, both moaning feeling the heat of each other. Liam cupped her breast with one hand and began stroking her nipple with his thumb, making Riley groan. She wrapped her legs around his waist and brought him close to her, where she could feel his excitement building greatly. She wanted him so desperately, it almost hurt. Riley unbuckled Liam’s trousers and he removed them along with underwear almost in one move, without taking a break from kissing her passionately. Then he pulled apart from her lips, moved her hips closer and slid inside her with one firm move, watching her gasping for air. - Liam… Jeez, I’ve missed you. He smiled and started moving, trying to push deeper with each move. He gently bit the tip of Riley’s earlobe and then started sucking it, making her shiver, then moved lower to her neck and then to her breasts. When he carefully squeezed her nipple with his teeth, Riley yelped, instinctively trying to move away, but he kept her steady. Moaning, Riley bit into Liam’s back with her nails, leaving visible marks.That did hurt, but combined with sounds she made, it drove him even more crazy. He played with her strained nipple with his tongue without losing the rhythm, evoking loud moans and waves of pleasure she almost couldn’t handle.

- Oh God, Liam… – she cried .

- Shhh, somebody might hear, - he smiled and filled her mouth with a deep hungry kiss, moving faster, that made her dig into his back even harder. - I can’t… Oh, God… - Riley moaned, arching her back while a wave of pleasure coursed through her body. Liam didn’t stop, continuing going hard and watching her face, enjoying what he saw. In a moment she was almost screaming again, so he had to close her mouth with his palm to keep the noise down and she immediately bit his hand, not being able to control herself. Riley’s body was shaking in another orgasm. He climaxed at the same time, groaning, then collapsing on top of Riley, still inside her.

- Long live the kind, - Riley breathed, gasping heavily. Liam laughed, then kissed her gently.

- I love you, Riley Linden, more than anything. – He said, looking in her beautiful eyes, his fingers running through her hair, - ‘I can never get enough of you’. Then rolled on his back next to Riley, pulling her closer..

She curled against him, sliding her hand up his chest, that was still moving fast up and down.

- I’m madly in love with you too, Liam – she barely had energy to answer, her eyes were closing and she fell asleep in Liam’s embrace, feeling happy probably for the first time since the coronation day.

Riley woke up in her bed, Liam was nowhere around. For a second she was afraid that everything was just a crazy dream, but then she saw a piece of paper on her night table. Liam’s handwriting… “You are incredibly beautiful when asleep. I wish I could wake up next to you… Can’t wait to see you again.” She smiled, remembering the details of their last night’s encounter… Then somebody knocked the door.

- Wait a second, I just woke up! – Riley put on a robe and swing opened the door expecting Maxwell, - What? I thought you were gone!

#teamliam #trr #liam x mc #choices #pixelberry #the royal romace #liam #stories you play

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