#so now that the announcement’s out i might do it

[jo-speaks]

CROSSING PATHS

— right place, right time AU

summary: quinn meets an unlikely friend, and its owner.

warnings: none! wc: 1.6k

note: hope you guys enjoy this and the concept of this au :)

The captain was feeling incredibly overwhelmed- trying to find out why his team just couldn’t pull through in the end, no matter the amount of work and effort they put in at practice. It took a toll on him the hardest, his confidence going down the drain with every sound of the buzzer that announced their loss to the whole arena. 

While others would congratulate him regardless, giving him the whole, “You’re doing great.” spiel, he- for one- didn’t believe it, and two, he didn’t care for great. He wanted perfection. 

“Hun, get out of your apartment, forget about hockey for a minute.” His mother said over the phone after he had called her after a particularly tough OT loss, “It might clear your head a bit.”

Quinn groaned, his mother saying the impossible, “I don’t need a walk, Ma. We just need to win.”

Ellen’s laughter echoed throughout the apartment, “Q, you’ve got to unwind. I’m scared you’re going to blow up that head of yours.”

On some level, Quinn knew she was right. I mean, it was visibly obvious when his mind was running a million miles per hour. He hesitated before saying, “Fine. But if all I get from this is frostbite, you’re taking care of me.” 

“When am I not?”

Quinn let out a lighthearted laugh, saying his goodbyes before going to put his sneakers on and grab a warmer hoodie than the one he had on. He looked at himself in the mirror when he passed it in his hall, his hair disheveled and the exhaustion becoming more and more prominent every day. 

As he grabbed his door keys to walk out of the apartment, he briefly debated grabbing his hockey bag that sat next to his doorway and going to the rink instead. He quickly talked himself out of that idea, ultimately deciding that it would be counterintuitive to forget about hockey for a bit, whilst playing hockey.

~~~

Quinn made his way to the park nearby, settling on just walking wherever his feet took him instead of following an instructed trail. It was chilly, the Vancouver air surprisingly warmer than it had been in previous winters, but still cold enough to send a sharp shiver through his body. 

His eyes wandered as he let his senses become filled with the sounds of nature and the conversations of people passing by. Everyone looked so relaxed and carefree, giving Quinn a sliver of hope that he, too, would feel that way after a few hours here. 

He had become so entranced by his surroundings that his brain barely registered a voice quickly approaching that yelled, “Watch out!”

Quinn turned around, a sudden pressure coming down onto his lower stomach as a medium-sized golden retriever jumped on him with enough force to have him stumbling a bit, but not enough to knock him down completely. The animal’s tail wagged rapidly, its panting breaths reaching Quinn’s nose as it looked up at him. 

“Hey, bud.” Quinn cooed, petting its head, making the dog even more excited. 

You came up to him, leash around your waist as you panted, catching your breath before speaking up, “I am so sorry, she doesn’t normally do this.” He looked up, his jaw dropping slightly as he took you in. He noticed your hair had fallen out of your updo, now messily draped across your shoulders and back, your mascara running the slightest bit under your eyes due to sweat, but still keeping your lashes up and curled. But most of all, he noticed that gleam in your eyes that was a mix of joy and relaxation. 

The dog had now put her paws down fully on the concrete, beginning to circle around Quinn’s legs and even trying to go in between them before a snap of your fingers brought her back to those simple circles. 

“It’s okay,” Quinn muttered, trying to keep his composure as his heart thrummed rapidly in his chest. “Cute dog.” 

“Thank you.” You smiled, noticing her tail not slowing down in the slightest in his presence. “She seems to really like you, she’s not normally like this with strangers.”

Your words seemed to relax him a little bit, a grin appearing on his face as he squatted down, putting himself on level with the pup and rubbing her head, “What’s her name?” 

“Chilli.” You answered. 

Quinn gave you a look of confusion, “I was actually talking to her."

It took you a minute to realize what he had meant, but when it clicked, you let out a bubbly laugh that had Quinn’s head reeling, “Smooth. I’m Y/N.”

He gave Chilli one last pat before standing up, sticking his hand out like you were some lady in the office, “Quinn.” 

You shook his hand, laughing quietly at the formality before meeting his gaze fully this time, your brain registering his admirable features, which were all of them. 

The curve of his nose, his long lashes, and those eyes that reflected a look of relief. You caught yourself staring a little longer than you intended to, clearing your throat with a smile before looking down at Chilli. You hooked the link of the leash to her harness, ensuring she wouldn’t try this stunt again with another person. 

“Well, Quinn, if you’re not too busy, would you like to join us on the rest of our walk?” You proposed, growing enough courage to ask.

Quinn was sure his heart exploded. 

“Yeah. I’d like that.” He said as smoothly as possible.

The toothy smile that appeared on your face after he agreed had a matching one on his face immediately after. The two of you started walking, letting Chilli lead the way as she walked ahead of you, sniffing the ground as she went.

It was a comfortable silence that fell between you and Quinn, but he wanted to know more about the mystery girl and her dog that walked beside him.

“So,” He began, “Why the harness instead of a collar?”

You turned your head to face him, “I’m not a fan of collars. I know I wouldn’t like it if someone was tugging at my neck. Plus, this gives me a little more control of her without having to pull at her.” Quinn hummed, “Do you work with animals?”

“When I have time, I volunteer with this local animal shelter a few minutes from here.” Your words registered in his mind, the conversation flowing smoothly. Before he could ask you something else, you chimed in first. “What about you? What do you do?”

He hesitated. He knew he couldn’t just say, “I’m actually a professional hockey player.” Unfortunately for him, he did say it out loud instead of keeping it in his head like he had intended. 

When he caught the words spewing out of him before he could stop them, he braced himself, ready for you to grill him about his career, and income, or even pull out your phone to google him to find out yourself. So what you said next shocked him a little bit. 

“Oh, that’s fun. Do you like it?” You asked calmly, keeping your gaze straight ahead.

He let out a breath of relief, “Uh, yeah. I mean, not a whole lot right now.” You tilted your head, facing him again, “What’s that mean?”

“My team’s in a bit of a slump right now and we can’t seem to win anything.” He explained vaguely, not wanting to let himself fall into a deep conversation about hockey with someone he just met.

Luckily for him, you didn’t press. You simply hummed and switched topics that had more to do with him rather than his job. 

The two of you walked and talked about anything and everything, and by the time you returned back to where you had started, Quinn felt as if he’d known you for ten years instead of just two hours. 

And by the end of it, he wasn’t thinking about hockey at all.

“Thanks for joining us, Quinn.” You announced.

Quinn smiled, “Thanks for asking. I really needed that.” 

You stood there a bit awkwardly as Chilli licked at his shoes, her way of saying goodbye before you verbalized it and said, “I’ll see you around.” turning to walk away from him and back to your apartment.

Before you could, Quinn stopped you, walking to your side again so you would stop and face him. He stared at you for a minute before snapping himself out of his daze, pulling out his phone, and asking, “Do you think I could get your number? Maybe we could do this again sometime.”

His pupils nearly shaped hearts when you flashed him another smile, a small giggle coming from your throat as you took his unlocked phone from his hands and typed in your number and name into it. 

“Thanks.” He cheesed, “I’ll text you.” 

You bit your lip innocently, “Can’t wait.’”

He bid you goodbye, relishing in the way you turned around to look at him when you were a good distance away. He smiled to himself before making his way back to the apartment. On his way, he went to his call logs and facetimed his mom yet again. 

“You okay?” She picked up with a look of confusion on her face.

Quinn nodded, the smile on his face indescribably giddy, “Thank you for making me come out here.” 

“You look a lot better now, what happened?” She teased, but there was a hint of relief in her voice as he looked… lighter. 

“I met someone.”

[catalyswitch]

Was talking with wife recently about AI and the ways it's incredibly stupid and I am reminded of the time a few years ago the Execs at the place I worked previously wanted to incorporate AI into our workflow in order to help materials development. They wanted to make sure that the company was "utilizing the latest technology to make us more productive" so they partnered with a company that uses AI/ML to predict chemical structures in order to enhance performance based on our desired properties. My boss and I kinda thought this was stupid when it was first announced, but we were still unprepared for how bad it was really going to be.

The problem of course here is that what a computer thinks is good and will perform well does not often make sense according to the laws of physics. So more often than not the computer would spit out extremely specific and nonsensical structures that it believed would increase performance. These structures could range from completely impractical to sometimes downright impossible to actually make, so for every set of predictions we got back we had to first filter all the nonsense and then select a set from the ones that could be made and tested in a reasonable amount of time. In addition, they emphasized that the more data that they have the better the predictions would be, so the pressure was on to synthesize and validate as many molecules as possible as quickly as possible. This was a huge drain on time and energy because again some of these structures were nontrivial to make. Not that the computer people would be able to tell the difference. But still the executives were excited about it so we gave it a try anyway. The idea was that we would start by making a bunch of different materials and test the results and then feed those results back into the machine to predict better structures based on the ever growing data pool.

The funny part of the story, of course, is that with every iteration, the performance got worse. This was not surprising to me. The mechanisms that dictate performance in this field are not fully understood even now, and there are still many papers coming out every year adding more knowledge to the field. Additionally, the predictions weren't being made using some fundamental understanding of the mechanisms at play, but by training an algorithm using a pool of existing literature. You're just not going to get good results by "midjourneying" chemistry. We did around 3-4 iteration cycles with them over that year contract and every time the performance of the structures that it had predicted were worse than the last set, sometimes dramatically so. And they would tell us "no no, the data set isn't really big enough to give good results yet" and "once the model has tested enough structures it'll get better" but it didn't in that period. And it's possible that on a long enough timescale it might be possible? But, the reality was that we had a whole year of time and resources essentially wasted because our CEO thought that some tech guys in SV could use AI to do chemistry and didn't believe us when we said it was stupid.

And you know what? We figured out something that worked really well less than six months after dumping them and getting to do it our way again.

[newtonsheffield]

Stay strong, Molly! 💪🏼 We are all cheering on you. You've got this!

Have you already signed the contract at your new work?

Also, will you be able to take some time off before you leave? Or even sick leave... I know that it'd be best to part ways amicably, but if they don't treat you with respect you deserve, why should you be obliged to do them the courtesy?

I’ve signed all the paperwork, I’m just waiting to start.

The hilarious thing is Gossip Girl finally came to speak to me yesterday at 4:30pm. An entire eight hours after we started work together for the day. Said in a very monotone

“Sorry to hear. Now, we need to focus on what you’re going to tell patients.”

I have built an extremely loyal patient base. Their major concern is my patients not returning to the practice. My patients can’t legally follow me as I’ll be working for the government and government dental isn’t available for everyone in Australia.

I shattered their illusion that this is part of a depressive episode though and had no job to go to though and then she announced my leaving date as 12 days earlier than I had said it would be in my resignation. So basically… they want to fuck me over and not pay me ✌🏻 I might have to go for six weeks without pay. I am waiting for a response to find out if that’s a typo on their behalf.

I was then begrudgingly handed a gift for my seven year anniversary (happened on the fifth of January though they got the date wrong for the third year running).

They now started making pointed enquiries about my friends and whether or not they’re seeking employment elsewhere (yes) and are preventing me from working with all bar one person whose work visa is tied to the practice in the fear that I will start some sort of mutiny I believe.

Live shot of how my work currently views me

All in all… didn’t go as poorly as I thought it could have and yet… still quite badly.

Oh well. Just another few weeks.

[rei-ismyname]

Uncanny X-Men #8 review - Raid on Graymalkin finale

Raid on Graymalkin has been a strange event in a lot of ways. It happened very early after an editorial and creative team change, it's only four issues spread over 2 books, and perhaps most of all, editorial both spoiled the ending and hyped up an ideological divide between Rogue and Cyclops. The big question is 'was the hype paid off?' Sadly, no - Uncanny #8 doesn't so much land the plane as crash it into a mountain. A plane crash can be a spectacle though, let's break it down. At the very least it looks great. This is a long one, so strap in.

We get to know Scurvy a little better.

X-Men #9 ended with both teams in Scurvy/ Philip's psychic thrall and Charles Xavier taking the stage after Kurt and Kwannon freed him. Uncanny #8 opens with his POV of his recent history, showing a 'Not All Mutants' mutant and how he ended up in an abusive relationship with a right wing podcast host. Well, it shows how they met, how his powers work, and how Warden Ellis has used him.

His powers aging him drastically explains why he's reluctant to go all out and perhaps how his powers helped an Infowars knock off to get this job. YMMV on whether this makes him sympathetic; it's certainly a 180 from the plain pathetic he has been portrayed as thus far. We spend a lot of time with him this issue, but it's all so vague I don't feel like we actually know all that much about him. He is portrayed as a victim, though he's also in the process of frying our heroes' brains and enslaving people. On the other hand, we get so little of his motivations and feelings that there's not much there. Villains/antagonists need to be developed to be interesting, and I'm not sure if Scurvy is a victim of Ellis' crusade or a self hating mutant who gave 'everything to a dream' for ... reasons. He's literally killing himself and it'd be good to know why.

Scurvy has been hyped as a Psychic on par with Xavier, something Xavier himself hasn't exactly confirmed but he has admitted Scurvy is an obstacle. They haven't met but Scurvy's been aware of Xavier, presumably because he's world famous and announced Krakoa to everyone on the planet. Scurvy suggests it's more than that - he and Charles are part of a group of five mutants called Avians, one of whom died - Harvey X. Chuck has had an oversized presence in Simone's Uncanny X-Men and another vague mystery about him takes up space that could be used to develop other characters - The Outliers, Jubilee, Nightcrawler. This 'Avian' business feels like The Twelve and other similar half baked plots, and how can Charles have a tumour if he's in a relatively new body? He died last in Inferno AFAIK, but more than that it feels unnecessary. I'm not invested in believing or disbelieving it, though Chuck dying might make X-Manhunt more interesting.

Chuck isn't showing up again until March, and Scurvy ages 10 years during this issue. Why are we spending all this time on these people that aren't main characters? Does Xavier really need to be part of some special unexplained group? He's been a very special and prominent part of the X-Men since 1963 - new old girlfriends and vague hints of specialness feel like mystery box overkill. Maybe Scurvy is lying as part of their psychic battle. Laws of narrative economy suggest otherwise, but either way - what's the point? Also, Avians? Are they birds? Maybe it's a Shi'Ar thing but right now it sounds ridiculous. Avians 🙄

Juggernaut knocks Rogue out of Scurvy's control and she thinks she has time to do the same to one other person. She apologises to Gambit for not choosing him and picks Cyke as the tactical choice, nearly knocking his head off. He snaps out of it too and shit gets bizarre.

For some reason Scott chooses this moment to berate Rogue for 'bringing kids into a war zone' which is a super valid point but I find it difficult to believe he'd bring it up while they're on the back foot and threats are everywhere. Rogue's answer is even more puzzling. I can believe she'd make an appeal to emotion but it's not a real answer. 'At least we don't have Magneto on our team' is not a rebuttal to nearly getting children killed, but it also does not make sense.

Magneto has been reformed for YEARS at this point and was a driving force behind Krakoa. She's saying like he's some irredeemable villain when he's the most heroic he's ever been. He and Rogue had zero interaction on Krakoa, where he was considered a national hero and famously was very tight with her hero Xavier. If she has an issue with the sins that came to light after Inferno, then she wouldn't be so charitable to Chuck, either. Maybe it's Scurvy's influence, but if so then what's the point? This isn't ideology, it's dodging the question at worst or petty bickering at best. Has Rogue forgotten her extensive history with Magneto, or her own start as a villain? What about her husband's involvement in the Mutant Massacre or her parents' unrepentant villainy? When considered in the context of Simone saying that Rogue and Cyclops would occupy the Xavier/Magneto relationship it looks like a missed shot. You'd have to ignore decades of history to make it work. Sigh, this was an unforced error and it really bums me out.

'I'm never going to be you and you're never going to be Professor X' is flat out weird. Cyclops answer of 'good' is consistent with his argument last issue, but it makes it look like they're not having the same conversation. Finally they realise they're in a war zone and only now does Rogue defer to Cyclops. Oookayyy. They say 'Magik and Wolverine' together in a moment that's both cheesy as hell and should underline their commonalities. I'm almost feel bad ragging on this, but it's not executed well. At least Rogue is consistently characterised as a cowboy. That's something.

Magik and Wolverine start freeing people then stop to agree not to kill each other. Deathdream says weird stuff, as usual, and the two make up. Jitter has her second instance of love heart emoji'ing a woman, which is cute but still deniable as actual WLW representation. I hope Simone cashes this cheque.

Queerness should be something that's not notable in a perfect world, just a part of the character. We don't live in a perfect world though, and we don't know a lot about Jitter. We know her powers, that she's Malay Singaporean, that she has a stutter, and that she possibly likes women. It's not enough for issue #8 of the flagship series. The choice was made to heavily focus on Xavier and Sarah Gaunt, and a casualty of that was getting to know main characters. It wouldn't be such a big deal if the payoff was worth it, but what did we actually learn? Instead of giving readers a break from Charles Xavier, he's been a regular presence. His appearance in this event could have been more impactful but I feel like we never had a chance to miss him.

Kwannon and Kurt reveal that Scurvy made them fight, which Rogue is aware of, and she adds that 'we're broken.' I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean, but this undermines the stakes of the ideological conflict. Is it manufactured or isn't it? None of them consider attacking Scurvy while he's fighting Xavier, either. Nobody is acting like they're in danger. It feels unserious, like the characters are just waiting for things to happen to them.

At this point I don't really care who Inmate X is. Uncanny X-Men has been dropping these mystery boxes that readers can only guess at, and like with Harvey X being the one pulling strings, it comes out of nowhere. It's another Avian, which means nothing to us beyond a vague implication of specialness. We know that Ellis considers it a bad thing if he get out of his cell, but that doesn't narrow it down aside from it being a he.

Aw, cripes - popular gen Z saying

Interestingly, Xavier's astral form is that of his Cerebro-helmeted onesie twink. It could reveal that he hasn't changed at all in how he sees himself and his role as shepherd of mutantkind. It's very different from his classic astral battle appearance, and I love it thematically and visually. Scurvy and Chuck as astral giants towering over the schoolprison is striking, though the casualness of their dialogue mutes it somewhat.

Not sure how Ezra or Ellis can tell Scurvy is losing a battle on the astral plane, but she does what she should have done before this and gets a gun. Calico is overjoyed that the Outliers (except Jitter) came for her, but what could be a heartwarming moment is undercut by their dulled expressions. I can buy Deathdream doing this, but Ransom has been emotionally aware prior to this. We have zero details, but aren't these kids tight after months of being on the run together?

It's finally time to stop standing around, as Ellis and guards are here with guns. The X-Men, having already beat up plenty of these dudes, aren't impressed. They stand together (no idea where Chuck and Scurvy got to) and Cyke urges her to stand down, pointing out that they're not as nice as the Avengers. Rogue agrees in the shittiest way possible, thinking 'sometimes visor boy says jus the right thing.' Weird ableist stance from Rogue, but all it does is highlight how shallow their conflict is and remind us that Gail Simone doesn't like Cyclops.

Ellis doesn't blink, telling them her 'brother died because of trash like you.' We knew this already, and I'm wondering if there's anything else to her. She's established as a threat but she's not especially interesting. She helped with Sarah Gaunt out of empathy (?) but here she is flinging the same old slurs. I'm not sure if her dark skin is meant to be noteworthy or say anything. So far it hasn't been a part of her character in any way other than visual, no commentary on how someone who has experienced minority oppression becomes so hell-bent on dealing it out herself. How does a person become willing to enslave and torture, and even (as we'll see) destroy two towns with thousands of humans in them? Her brother died, sure, but that's thin characterisation for a multi-arc villain.

Chuck wallops Scurvy with an uppercut!

Ellis brings out The Trustees again (who the X-Men easily defeated) to have Blob recite 'the pledge.' Very messed up but it shouldn't exactly convince the X-Men to do anything other than smash this place to pieces. She threatens to let Sarah Gaunt loose from her comically large chains that shouldn't stop her for a second.

Cyclops points out that with Scurvy's defeat Ellis' big gun is down. She laughs at that, and for some reason Chuck doesn't immediately take over her brain. Her big gun is more literal - a fucking network of sonic cannon satellites. Who TF gave this lady a Death Star? She has Merle and Haven targeted but Rogue thinks she's bluffing. Logically, you'd think so. Would the US government really accept this maniac destroying towns with a space laser? Not sure how they'd spin that. Also, neither team have any leverage to stop her using it whenever she wants. I feel like she's forcing them to kill her right here and now, lest their strategic position becomes 'able to be killed at any time without effort.' They could even just send her on permanent vacation to Limbo, see how her bullshit flies with Maddie Pryor.

Ellis lets them take the people they came for (why?) but that's not enough for Rogue. Siryn speaks to Rogue personally while crying, indicating she's herself, as much as she can be with all the torture, mind control, and who knows what else? It's only when Xavier intercedes that Rogue listens.

Charles explains why he needs to be in prison (though we know he'll change his mind and escape in March) and they have an emotional exchange. It works, I guess, but Rogue looks super selfish and ignorant. Free Charles for personal reasons when he doesn't want it at the cost of two towns? Doesn't seem like much of a choice (other than knocking Ellis out while she's in your face.) It feels a bit regressive for Rogue, too. She is aware of everything from Fall of X (including Chuck manipulating one of her mothers and trying to permanently kill the other) and hadn't really had or needed a mentor in a long time. Sure, everyone is lost after Krakoa, but WTF is she so attached to Xavier? It's great that he was the first to believe in her but this feels almost infantilising. Rogue is better than this.

Scott has Magik open a big portal before 'she' can stop you. I assume 'she' refers to Rogue, except Rogue is shown willingly walking through it with everyone else. Ellis wasn't interested in stopping them. It's like everyone has the script and realises the event is over so it's time to go. I have difficulty believing any of these characters would just meekly leave, not because of Xavier, but the multiple sonic space cannons that can kill them anytime plus their enslaved comrades. There's eight regular ass humans with guns in the way and this is their shot to do anything about it. How many of these X-Men could take them all out by themselves? Cyke could optic blast them unconscious, Magik has multiple methods, and many of the others could just punch them while ignoring bullets.

Yo, where's Quentin? He arrived with you guys.

Once Rogue has walked through the portal (clearly willingly and without duress) she objects again - 'no. We can't leave him there!' Cyke echoes Charles' own words and promises to get the others out, but Rogue punches him maybe ten feet and not only repudiates Scott's promises (?) but places the blame entirely on him. He blasts her and tells her to grow up (kinda fair) but then their teammates hold them back. Beast tells Scott he won, but this looks like a narrative trick to pretend Cyclops wanted to fight or has any reason to.

Rogue turns to leave with mild venom and her team follows. Hank assures Scott that he had no choice and Scott disagrees but doesn't elaborate. I hate to see X-Men fight but it's even worse when it's over nothing. The post-portal events feel like Simone going 'hmm, didn't really sell that ideological divide or their falling out, fuck it, just have Rogue punch Cyclops.' I think Cyclops was mostly right here, but it's more than Rogue was wrong and the conflict was contrived. I just don't buy the degree of animosity Rogue has and all the reasons given feel out of character. If that's who Rogue is right now I can accept it, but it's not very heroic and she's had multiple egregious failures of leadership. If this is identified as a character flaw that needs working on or a mistake that she regrets it could make for interesting storytelling, but all the information we have suggests that's not the case. Uncanny is frankly a trainwreck, but at least it looks fantastic. The letters page and other media suggests a lot of people are enjoying this book, and I couldn't be happier for them. I just wish I was too. I'll keep reviewing it of course, and I'll be less harsh than this review was. It was hyped and it called shots and didn't deliver. Doing that sets expectations and gives me another metric to judge it by. Hopefully we can get on with learning about the characters who've been neglected.

As for Raid on Graymalkin as an event, it had its ups and downs. Most of the ups were in X-Men and most of the downs were in Uncanny. Ultimately it didn't fulfill the promise it made so I judge it as a failure. We didn't learn a great deal and it boiled down to a cynical excuse for X-Men to punch each other. The mysteries it introduced feel dull to me and I am not especially interested in the Avians or Inmate X. The solicits for X-Manhunt spoiled that Xavier wasn't going anywhere, which left us with forced conflict. I'm far more interested in the aftermath of the event, especially the Alaska team dealing with a visit from the O*N*E. They don't really need much reason to fuck with the X-Men so I'm not crediting the event with that.

Thanks for reading!

[allthespoons]

I put together a little mini-timeline of Will and Mack’s schedules and potential points of contact in 2024 (pre-dev camp) for my own reference when writing fic. Sharing it here because it might be helpful for anyone else trying to wrap their minds around when/how they were talking and what they were doing before dev camp.

I sourced things that might be lesser-known, but did not bother sourcing, like, the day of the draft. We all know where to find that and I’m lazy. You can expect to constantly hear and see Sheng Peng throughout this primer, because he has understood his assignment as the Will/Mack beat reporter from WELL before day one.

April 11 - Mack and BU lose to Denver in the semi-finals of the Frozen Four in St. Paul, Minnesota.

April 13 - Will and BC lose to Denver in the finals of the Frozen Four in St. Paul, Minnesota.

April 19 - Media confirms that Mack is expected to join Team Canada in Czechia for Worlds (source).

April/May ? - At some point, both Will and Mack arrive in Czechia to practice with their respective teams.

May 3 - Mack is named to Team Canada’s 22-man Worlds roster (source).

May 5 - Will (and Ryan Leonard) are officially added to the Team USA roster for Worlds (source).

May 7 - USA plays a pre-tournament game at Worlds.

May 7 - It’s announced that Mack was dropped from the Team Canada Worlds roster to make room for NHL players who are newly out of the playoffs (source). Or at least I think he was dropped because that’s how most articles frame it. However, this one says that he was told he was no longer guaranteed a roster spot but was given the chance to stay with the team, but opted to return to the US for the draft lottery, instead (source).

May 7 - Mack lands in New Jersey on a return flight from Czechia (source).

May 7 - Draft lottery is held at the NHL headquarters in NJ. Mack attends it. The Sharks win the 1st overall pick, Will stays up late in Czechia watching to see if he’s going to be teammates with Macklin Celebrini (consensus #1 pick, though not to the degree of being a Clearly Generational Talent like Sid or McDavid).

May 7 - During a post-lottery interview, Mack gets asked if he knows Will. He says, “Not personally, but obviously I played against him for the last couple years.” Then he gets asked about potentially playing with Will and says, “It would be an amazing opportunity to play with a player like that. What he did this year was pretty special. I’ve seen it for a couple years now, so to be able to play with him, that would be a pretty cool opportunity.” (source)

This video also makes it clear that Mack’s family is still at home in California and that this was a last-minute opportunity to attend after he was dropped from Team Canada. Then, he confirms he’s going to go home to prepare for the combine.

May 8 - Mike Grier confirms to media that the Sharks will pick Celebrini - when asked if they were going to pick Celebrini, he said, "I would think so. He played 200 feet. He's 17 but he's got a really solid build on him already and I think he's got a professional attitude and mentality already. I've talked with (coach) Jay Pandolfo at BU, and he said sometimes they have to kick him off the ice.” (source)

May 8 - Mack confirms to media that he’s aware of the Sharks’ interest in picking him, saying, “Obviously San Jose is an amazing organization. It's pretty cool… Obviously I lived there for a little bit growing up, with my dad with the (Golden State) Warriors (as vice president of player health and performance). They're a great organization. If I'm fortunate enough to get drafted there I'd be very lucky.” (source)

May 23 - USA loses to Czechia at Worlds in the quarterfinals, ending their tournament. Will doesn’t particularly impress during his time at the tournament, held pointless and rarely cracking the 8 minutes of ice time a night. This is not unexpected for a rookie playing limited minutes.

May 26 - NHL.com posts an interview with Will, in which he talks about Mack. He says, “We've had some matchups this year. I think four times. We've definitely seen each other. There's a reason he's going to go No. 1. He's a pretty special player. Obviously, we had some pretty good matchups this year.. Whenever you're on the ice with another player like that you have to keep your eye on him. We were on the ice quite a few times, some shifts together. Definitely we were keeping our eye on each other." (source)

May 28 - Will signs his ELC with the Sharks. When asked about potentially playing with Mack, he said, “Obviously it's a huge opportunity for us. Macklin is projected to go first. If and when he gets picked, that will be pretty awesome to help this team take the next step and obviously get back to where the Sharks were." (source)

May 28 - Will makes his first non-spon con Instagram post since the draft lottery. Mack likes the post, the first post of Will’s that he’s liked.

May 28 - Will gives an interview to NBC Sports Bay Area about signing his ELC, sharing that he’d decided to sign before Worlds. Immediately gets asked about Mack and says, “It’d be fun. Got to see him more than a couple times this year. Obviously, like I said, he’s a great player and he’s a BU guy, but obviously if the Sharks pick him, it would be pretty fun.” (source) Our beautiful boy Sheng Peng tries to get him to talk about it being special to potentially play with Mack, who’s his age, and all he says is, “I mean, yeah, obviously, it’s pretty special that we’re going to make the first overall pick.” Okay, cool girl.

He also gets asked about him and Mack being the centerpiece of the rebuild and says, “Obviously, feels pretty good for people to say that. Obviously, it's a huge opportunity for us, obviously Macklin’s projected to go first and if and when he gets picked that will be pretty awesome to, you know, kind of help the team to take the next step.” And then he says, “obviously, it would be pretty cool to play together, I think we’d be pretty cool together to watch” (attentionwhore4attentionwhore).

Also, hilariously, someone comments on the interview video, “he and celebrini probably hate each other lol.” The average male mind simply can’t comprehend the idea of weirdly DM-ing your college rival that you don’t even technically play on the same team as yet and immediately deciding to be soulmates… god bless!

June 5 - Will posts a thank you/goodbye to BC on Instagram. Mack likes it.

June 7-8 - The 2024 NHL Draft Combine is held in Buffalo, New York. Mack attends and ranks 4th overall at the V02 Max test and in the top 25 in two of the other events (source).

June 7 - During media availability at the 2024 NHL Draft Combine, Mack gets asked about Will, saying, “"It wasn't very fun playing against him. He's a special player. I've played against him for the last three or four years, so I've seen a lot of him. He's a great player, super shifty, super smooth. Every time we went up against them, he lit us up, so you know, he's a great player." (source)

HIlariously, he also refuses to say that the Sharks are for sure drafting him and says he’s “trying not to get too ahead of himself,” like he wasn’t heavy-breathing as he stalked Will’s Instagram (source).

June ? - I think this video is from June 7, too, and it’s definitely from the Combine, but YouTube is bad about exact dates. Our Wonderful and Beloved King Sheng Peng opens an interview with Mack by immediately asking him about Will. Mack confirms that they’ve texted back and forth, which I believe is the first time we get confirmation that they’re in contact of some kind, beyond just throwing each other Instagram likes. Yeah, Mack, you’re definitely not getting ahead of yourself at all, buddy. He also talks for a full minute about playing against Will (source).

June 9 - The NHL flies four prospects to Florida to watch Game 2 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals, including Mack (and everyone’s best friend/first handjob-giver Zeev Buium) (source).

June 10 - Mack attends morning skate and then Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final in Florida, alongside Zeev, Artyom Levshunov, and Cayden Lindstrom.

June 14 - Mack posts dumb Chipotle spon con on Instagram. Will likes the post, the first post of Mack’s that he’s liked.

June 15 - Will posts a photo dump on Instagram that starts with him and Zeev doing shit for Bauer. Mack likes it.

June 20 - Mack posts a photo dump on Instagram. Will likes it.

June ? - At some point, Mack and his family arrive in Las Vegas for the Draft. Mack goes on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast and does a bunch of other media, goes to a Las Vegas youth hockey game with some of the other prospects, etc. This shit is all well-documented on YouTube.

June ? - At some point, WIll arrives in Las Vegas for the Draft. We know he attends because someone got a picture with him there (source), but he is not in any way involved with NHL or Sharks media when he’s there, which is weird. Was he flying under the radar on purpose so he could avoid media shit? Idk.

June ? - In a pre-draft interview, Mack confirms again that he and Will have talked a little bit when asked if he knows any guys on the team. After immediately mentioning Will, he says, "we're trying not to get too ahead of ourselves... if that happens, yeah." Okay. What does that mean in that context, exactly, given that you both know that you're 24 hours away from being teammates? You're trying not to propose to each other yet? (source)

June 28 - The 2024 NHL Draft is held at the Sphere in Las Vegas. Mack gets picked #1 overall. I think we’ve all seen the Mack-focused draft content, but there’s also this long video about a lot of the top prospects, ft. Mack freaking out about robots.

June 29 - Mack posts a bunch of draft pictures on Instagram. Will likes it.

June 30 - Sharks announce their full official 2024 dev camp rosters, including Mack and Will (source).

July 2 - Sharks dev camp officially begins San Jose (source). Also, Mack and Will officially begin whining and complaining constantly about never getting to play together, something that likely seemed funny to coaching staff and fans at the time, given that they were perhaps not yet aware that Mack was going to attack the stars with a hammer until they aligned to let him play with his special boy.

Bonus - July 6 - Mack signs his ELC with the Sharks. Fellas, is it gay to attend three days of dev camp, go full “[met “Will Smith hockey” and got so hard i got nauseous]: i think i hauve Covid,” and then allegedly IMMEDIATELY dump your long-term girlfriend and sign your ELC, after claiming you hadn’t made a decision and were seriously considering returning to college? 

Bonus - Will and Mack have liked all of each other’s non-spon con Instagram posts since May 28. Sometimes they even like each other’s spon con (embarrassing). HOWEVER, Will always comments on Mack’s and Mack never seems to comment on Will’s. I don’t think it’s that deep because they’re not that deep, but someone could probably do something with that info!

Officially submitting the following questions for discussion:

WHEN did Mack decide Will was potentially His Guy, after having played against him for years? Do we think it was the Hockey East final? When a guy who looks like Will Smith and plays for your rival college hangs four on you during a total curbstomping… I can see how that might make Mack’s brain start overheating like a car in the Sahara.

WHO initiated the first DM/text contact? My guess is Will because he was playing it too cool when asked about Mack in any pre-draft interviews. Extremely classic behavior of the outward “Yeah I don’t really know don’t think too much about that guy tbh” while simultaneously inwardly trying to fight the urge to find a reason to double text Mack because Mack didn’t respond to his last text (Mack just fell asleep) type. But who knows!

WHEN did they actually meet for the first time? Not, like, see each other at a tournament or a game, but have a conversation? Pre-draft? At the draft? It really couldn’t have been at dev camp, could it have been???

WHAT is wrong with them?

[onscarlitos]

Too many thoughts re: CAS hearing

Been thinking about writing this for a while but was afraid of putting this out on the internet but here it goes: 

Now that we know when the CAS hearing will be (April 16-17, and they’ll likely announce a sentence a month or so later or even earlier), I’ve been thinking about what a sentence for bearing fault and/or negligence might mean for tennis as a whole. 

I’ve been reading articles about Jannik’s case as well as many other cases and the process; Jannik had a clause in his contract with his old team (as I assume many players do) that dealt with doping and its consequences (now I’m not sure what the official wording was but probably something about provisions and consequences).  He also asked Naldi about the cut on his hand. With these things in place, as well as the usual amount of discipline tennis players have around doping, I’m wondering how do you measure negligence? 

The thing about this process that’s personally been frustrating (frankly in all of the cases from Jannik, Iga, Simona, Max, Tara, etc) is how subjective the entire process is. There’s actually no standardization or threshold aside from the process they have written down that can be applied differently according to the different resources folks have (i.e. Jannik and Iga having the resources to hire great lawyers as opposed to Tara). 

I think that people can choose to believe what they want to of what actually happened with Jannik and his team (though I think people need to actually read the facts and the ruling), and whatever people believe will be influenced by their biases. I personally believe the story. Where I think many people are being shortsighted is how much more careful should tennis players have to be? What was Jannik actually supposed to do to be more careful? (i.e. the clause in his contract, asking Naldi about the cut, etc) 

Precedence can either be great for the sport or make it harder for everyone. I fear that the hearing in April and subsequent sentence will actually make it harder for all tennis players. 

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

01/01-04/2025 Daily OFMD Recaps

TLDR; Happy Belated Birthday Ruibo!; David Jankins; Rhys Darby; Taika Waititi; Con O'Neill; Samson Kayo; Vico Ortiz; Madeleine Sami; Articles; Fan Spotlight: Never Left Podcast; Truly Docked 2026; Love Notes; Hey Lovelies! I am very behind because I'm back to being sick with whatever is causing this stomach pain! SInce I wanted to be caught up on the recaps for the anniversary of the cancellation (JUST IN CASE)... I may leave some stuff out and catch up on them later.

= Happy Birthday Ruibo (1/1)! =

So many (belated) birthday wishes to our beloved Pirate Queen! We love you dear, thank you for all your kindness and positivity over the past year~

Source: Ruibo's Instagram = David Jenkins =

"2025 might just be a great year too 🥰💜🦄"

Source: David's Instagram

Our friends over at Never Left Podcast pointed out that David did a similar picture back in 2024 before the first cancellation announcement...

Source: Never Left Podcast Twitter

And our dear @adoptourcrew pointed out the lyrics on the instagram post were also appropriate...

Source: Adopt Our Crew's bsky

= Rhys Darby =

Rhys and family are still out in Aotearoa!

Source: Rosie's IG

= Taika Waititi =

Taika had a great time during the holidays back in Aotearoa and made a Hangi for Christmas!

Source: Taika's Instagram Stories and Posts / Rita's Instagram Stories / Not Late Late Instagram / lfizzlphillips on Instagram

= Con O'Neill =

More images of Con from Rogue Heroes Season 2!

Source: The Artist Partnership Instagram

= Samson Kayo =

Compilation of Sampson's year 2024!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Samson Kayo (@samsonkayo)

Source: Samson's Instagram

= Madeleine Sami =

More wrapped pictures from Deadloch S2 Cast!

Source: Life With Emerson and Oliver Instagram

= Vico Ortiz =

CW: Adult Themes - More previews of Today in Gay! Wanna support them? Join the Today in Gay Substack!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Vico Ortiz (@puertoricaninja)

Source: Vico's Instagram

== Articles ==

As always! @adoptourcrew keeping us up to date on articles mentioning the show!

Source: Adopt Our Crew Bsky

Source: Adopt Our Crew Bsky

Source: Adopt Our Crew Bsky

== Fan Spotlight ==

= Never Left Podcast =

New episode of Never Left is available now! This time it's Part 2 of Art! Check it out on their linktr.ee!

Source: Never Left Podcast Instagram

= Truly Docked 2026 =

There's a new Truly Docked planned for JANUARY 24, 2026 in St. Augustine, FL! This is an in person Pirate event! To get tickets or learn more visit Truly Docked OFMD

Source: Truly Docked's Instagram

== Love Notes ==

In the essence of time-- I am sending just a few love notes on this recap from other folks so I can try to finish the next one in time for the 9th! Love you crew!

Source: Stay Close To Yourself Instagram

[demigodsanswer]

I really love the royal's au, and I love the percabeth's babies, I would love to read when they found out about Annabeth's first pregnancy because according to my numbers, the pregnancy and the wedding were at the same time hahahahaha

I was wondering if anyone was going to do the math! Yes, they get pregnant very quickly. The backstory to this is that, about a month before the formal wedding they are supposed to have, there's a bit of a public scandal (I'll probably write about this another time), and so to put down any notion from the government, their families, or the public that they shouldn't get married, Percy and Annabeth basically elope. They get married in a private chapel, with just Sally and Fred in attendance. They then abscond to Iceland for a mini-moon, before coming back to have the actual big ceremony. It's only after the big public ceremony that they announce they've actually been married for about a month.

So this fic takes place on their mini-moon in Iceland, and then jumps forward about a month and a half to their actual honeymoon in the Italian Rivera.

~

Percy might now be a member of the Swedish royal family, but he was not, by any means, used to Summers in the extreme north. The sun hadn't set in a month. His and Annabeth's room in the palace had blackout curtains, which helped a little, but his sleep schedule was wildly thrown off. Now in a small hotel in Iceland, hiding out from the rest of the world, he really was struggling to sleep.

He should be exhausted by all accounts. He went from scandal, to marriage, to his new wife riding him for all he was worth in just a few long days. They'd left the hotel once or twice, to see the hot springs and to eat the most delicious hot dog Percy had ever tried. But mostly, they'd been honeymooning.

Percy had finally drifted to sleep maybe an hour before Annabeth's alarm went off. Percy flailed wildly, trying to find her phone to shut it off.

"I got it," Annabeth mumbled. "I need to get up and take my birth control, I don't think I did yesterday," she said.

"Alright, when you're done, come back and cuddle," Percy said, trying to rediscover sleep with little success.

A minute later, she sat on the bed and shook him.

"What?" He asked, cracking his eyes open.

"I haven't taken my birth control in seven days," Annabeth said.

"Well, that's not ideal," Percy said. They'd had plenty of sex, none or it with condoms, and Percy was pretty sure he hadn't pulled out once.

"I have a morning after pill with me," Annabeth said, letting the statement hang in the air.

"Will it work at this point?" Percy asked.

"Maybe not, depends on if I've ovulated or not."

"Well, what do you want to do?"

Annabeth was quiet for a moment. "I mean, I usually take seven days of placebo pills anyway, and I haven't gotten pregnant before. So, odds are low anyway. No reason to worry. I mean, I just got my period, so it's probably fine."

"So ...?" Percy asked.

"So, I think I'm just going to restart the pills and not bother with the Plan B," she said.

"What if ..." Percy said, not sure how to feel about his question. He felt excited about it, but he didn't want to make Annabeth feel like he had any expectations.

"If I'm pregnant?" Annabeth asked with a smile. She laid back down next to him. "Well, that's your job isn't it? To help me populate our royal line?"

Percy nodded, and Annabeth slipped back under the covers.

When they woke a few hours later, Annabeth groaned. "I forgot to take it again!" Before finally, actually, taking the small pill for the first time all week.

~

Six weeks later ...

The Italian Rivera was idyllic. They'd been here for two weeks, and they had two more weeks of honeymoon scheduled. Nico had given them some recommendation for places to eat and things to do. But mostly, they stayed in the large house, or ventured outside to swim, walk, or bike. Percy had never been so relaxed.

Which is why he felt terrible for his poor wife, who was now in bed, her hand over her eyes, complaining that she felt nauseous. They'd ruled out the food -- Percy had eaten all the same things and felt fine. She wasn't feverish. And she probably wasn't hung over. They hadn't been drinking much, favoring other sins (although, he supposed, they weren't sins anymore, now that they were married. Well, except for the anal. That was probably still sinful.)

"I'm gonna be sick," Annabeth said suddenly, tumbling out of the bed and running towards the bathroom. Percy followed behind her, kneeling on the ground next to her as she got sick, holding her hair back.

"Should I get a doctor?" Percy asked, once Annabeth seemed past the worst of it. He handed her a glass of tap water.

Annabeth leaned back on her heels. She had her thinking face on.

"How many weeks has it been since Iceland?" She asked him.

Percy counted. "Six, give or take," he said. Annabeth nodded. Percy caught up to her thinking then. "Do you think--"

Her face was neutral, her hopes low. "I think we should get a pregnancy test," she said.

Percy was able to get one himself, leaving Annabeth in the bathroom of the home, still riding out some waves of ... sickness of an inconclusive origin.

They sat next to each other on the bed as the test worked.

"How would you feel if it was positive?" Percy asked.

"Really excited," Annabeth confessed.

"If it's not?" Percy asked.

"Disappointed but ..." She took his hands and looked at him. "I know we said we'd wait a year, or a few months at least, but I think, maybe, what if we got started sooner?"

Percy kissed her. Her mouth tasted like toothpaste and mouthwash. "I'd like that," he promised.

"It should be ready," Annabeth said, standing. They'd left it in the bathroom, so neither of them would be tempted to look before it was finished.

They covered their eyes and stumbled into the bathroom.

"Count of three?" Percy said.

"One... two... three ..." Annabeth said. Both of their eyes popped open and fixed on the drugstore test. Before Percy's brain could even really process the sight of the two dark blue lines, Annabeth was hugging him and crying.

Percy hugged her back, his eyes still staring at the test in disbelieving joy. "Oh, you are so pregnant," he said. There was no misreading the clearly crossed lines.

"We're going to have a baby!" Annabeth said with a sob, crying into his shoulder. Percy gave her a good squeeze and felt himself start to cry.

"We're having a baby," he said back.

~

The baby, of course, was also the heir to the Swedish throne, which meant a swift end to their honeymoon. The two packed up quick, and tried to make their return to Sweden as covert as possible, but word got out anyway.

"Daddy, I'm fine," Annabeth said to her father over the phone. Fred had called before they even left Italian airspace. "I just haven't been feeling well, and I want to see our doctor, instead of some random doctor in Italy."

They were waiting to make sure everything looked okay before they got Fred's hopes up, but as consequence, Annabeth was stressing her father out. They had considered not even telling him they were coming home so soon, but of course, if anyone was going to hear about Annabeth's movements, it would be her father. And if their staff didn't tell him, Twitter would.

A few random accounts had correctly predicted the reason for their return, but Percy didn't engage with any speculation.

"I'm going to the doctor as soon as we get back, and she should have answers for us. I'll call you as soon as I know," Annabeth promised.

When she hung up, Percy took her hand. "Do you think he'll be angry?" Percy asked.

"No, we were and are married. Even if we weren't, he'd be excited," Annabeth promised.

~

Percy and Annabeth went right from the airport to the doctor's office. Annabeth knew that if she saw her father, she'd tell him, and she wanted to be sure there was a baby before that happened.

The doctor warned that it might be too early for a heart beat, and that if they didn't hear one, it wasn't the end of the world. But Percy was sure Annabeth's kid would be tough and above average in every way. So of course there was already a heartbeat. And of course, both parents wept the moment it was heard.

"Everything looks good here," the doctor said, pointing to the spot in Annabeth's womb that was their baby. She had a heavy Swedish accent, but spoke in English so Percy could participate. "We count weeks from the end date of your last period, not when you think conception happened, so looks like you're about seven, maybe eight weeks along?" The doctor predicted.

"But I had a period six weeks ago?" Annabeth asked.

"That might have been implantation bleeding," the doctor speculated. Annabeth nodded as if she knew what that was, but Percy had never heard of it before.

"So, everything is okay?" Percy asked.

"Everything looks great so far," the doctor promised. "We'll keep doing periodic scans, of course." Then she ran through a list of things that were normal, things to get checked out, and emergencies. Percy listened closely to all of these, taking notes on his phone, as his wife's attention drifted away from the doctor's words and back towards the screen.

~

They left the appointment with three sheets of sonogram pictures: one for them, one to send to Sally in New York, and one for Fred, who was waiting for them the moment they walked through the door.

Annabeth's father said a few rapid things in Swedish to her. Percy could have sworn his hair was going whiter by the minute.

"Daddy, it's okay, I'm fine," she said. Fred seemed to see her face for the first time and registered their uncontrollable joy.

"Why did you come back early?" He asked then, switching to English for Percy.

Annabeth just reached into her purse and handed him the images. Fred seemed frozen as his brain processed what his daughter had handed him.

"I thought you and the government might prefer if I was back home while I'm pregnant with the country's heir," she said.

The moment her father started to cry, so did Annabeth. While he congratulated and hugged her, Percy glanced around, and saw Hugo standing there, also near tears it seemed. Percy realized that this man must have known Annabeth for a while. Percy smiled at him. He tried to tell him this is a secret, but he was pretty sure he said: "[You hold it secret.]" Close enough. Hugo nodded.

"So soon?" Fred asked, pulling away from her. And then he looked at Percy. "So soon?"

Annabeth just shrugged while Percy floundered looking for an excuse.

"We were already married when it happened," Annabeth confirmed.

"You were pregnant during the big wedding?" Fred asked.

Annabeth nodded. "Not that we knew yet. We came back as soon as we found out."

"I'm so happy for you two," Fred said with a smile, pulling Percy in for a hug. "Now, go get some rest. News of your shortened honeymoon has broken, and people will want answers."

"We don't want the public to know this early," Annabeth said.

"We'll figure out something to say," Fred promised. "But we can figure that out tomorrow."

Not that Percy would know the difference between today and tomorrow, since all the hours were still blending together into one long sunlight-filled day.

[babymetaldoll]

Are you mine? - Chapter seventeen: "Hot for the teacher"

Summary: (Y/N) gets what she wants, but not the way she'd like. Linda Barnes tries to  run the BAU her way, but the team is there to fight. Also, (Y/N) might hate certain students drooling over her husband...  Word count: 9.004 Warnings: Cursing, spoilers of Criminal Mind Ep S13 E6, E15 and E16 A/N: I always wondered how would (Y/N) deal with all the girls staring at her husband with heart eyes. Now we know. What do you guys think? 

Series' Masterlist - Author's masterlist

Previous chapter | Next chapter

Spencer’s point of view

A lot can change in a person in six weeks. In the six weeks we had off, my mother got into her new facility home. She seemed happy there, and we were just a 20-minute ride away, which made me feel better. I wasn’t pushing my mother away to another city or keeping her far from her grandkids. We visited weekly, talked to her daily, and the kids brought her drawings to decorate her room.

Having time to be a family helped me fix my relationship with my wife. We talked and relaxed. We also had the chance to be a couple and resolve our problems. We even did a little trip to Disney. I swear, Raven had never been so excited before.

We also decided to move out of our apartment and started looking for a house. I wasn’t ready to leave the apartment yet, too many memories had been made there, but I knew the process was not going to be quick. Besides, after Cat had spied on us, neither of us felt completely safe living there.

Those six weeks were a gift because though we were all trying to overcome the trauma and pain Mr. Scratch had caused to all of us, it gave us the time to clear our minds. And I knew my wife was having a hard time with our work at the BAU. I could pretend I didn't see it, but it was crystal clear.

Even back then I knew (Y/N) could never be a housewife. Those six weeks were nice at first: being at home, driving our kids to school, coming back home to clean, grocery shopping, reading after lunch, and watching a movie every night. But by week three, she was going a little insane.

- “Cookies are baking, the brownie is cooling off and the clothes are off the dryer.”- she announced as she sat by my side on the couch, where I tried to read. I hummed in response and she grabbed a book as well. But she didn’t last three minutes in silence before she sighed and looked at me.

- “I’m bored.”

- “I know.”- I replied without taking my eyes from my book. (Y/N) moved closer to me on the couch and tried to look at my pages.

- “What are you reading?”- I didn’t reply, instead I moved the book so she could take a better look- “Aristotle. So you are keeping it light.”

- “What do you wanna do before we have to pick up the kids?”

- “I don’t know…”- and she wasn’t lying. She sat there, stared at the ceiling, and didn’t say another word. I finished my page and closed the book.

- “Wanna go out on a date?”

- “Sure”- she replied and didn’t move.

- “Coffee?”

- “Sure…”- she answered, not even listening to the question.

- “Or maybe ice cream.”- I suggested and stared at her.

- “Sure…”- it was like she wasn’t there.

- “Can I eat you out until you’ve come five times?”- I thought that proposal would get her attention.

- “Sure…”- but nothing. No reaction.

- “Ok chipmunk, what is it?”- I wrapped an arm around her and moved her closer to me.

- “I don’t know. I’m just… bored and stressed at the same time.” - she mumbled, almost pouting.

- “Do you miss work?”

- “I miss working, I just don’t know if I miss the BAU.”

I wish I could tell you her reply was a surprise, but it was what I expected. We had long conversations about leaving the FBI, and though we didn’t have a plan, we both knew our service days were counted.

- “Have you thought about what you’d like to do instead of the BAU?”- my question hung in the air for a few seconds before my wife sighed and shook her head.

- “Is it too sad if I tell you there is absolutely nothing? There is a blank space in my head when I think about what I could do.”

- “You mentioned teaching a few times.”

- “I did…”- she paused and moved from my arms to turn and look at me for a moment.- “But I don’t know if that is what I actually want or what I should do. And somehow they feel like two different things.”

- “You don’t have to figure it out right now.”

- “But I feel like I do, we have six weeks off, three remain, and if you ask me, all the cleaning and baking can do so much for my mental health. I need something else.”- I held her hand and kissed it, now both of us staring at each other in silence.- “Shit! The cookies!”- she suddenly jumped and ran to the kitchen. I left the book on the couch and followed her.

My limbic system was responding to that scene: my wife taking cookies out of the oven. It made me feel the primitive need to protect her. To make her happy, to show her how much she meant to me. My wife, the woman who always took care of me and our family. I had to make sure she was happy, at all costs.

- “Wha…”- (Y/N) didn’t have time to finish her question as I grabbed her by the waist and kissed her. She moaned as I deepened the kiss and moved my hands diligently to unzip her pants.

- “Spencer…”

- “I told you I was gonna make you come five times.”- I whispered as I sat her on the counter and pulled down her pants until her bare legs were right in front of my face.

- “I thought you were bragging.”- (Y/N) replied and bit her lower lip playfully

- “I’ll give you something to brag about, Mrs. Reid.”

- “What about coffee and ice cream?”- my wife asked as I pulled her underwear to the side and licked her slowly. Her whole body shook as an instant reaction.

- “I’ll get you an affogato on our way to school.”

(Y/N)’s point of view

The first couple of cases felt odd. Being back in the bullpen was like coming back to school after summer break. I could tell Matt Simmons was excited to be part of the team, and it felt good to be back with the gang. We were helping people, making a difference. That was my mantra. Fuck “Wheels up” to keep me sane, I had to remind myself over and over again people were safer because we did our job.

But it only took a few weeks before I started feeling trapped at the FBI. It was overwhelming because I kept trying to fight that feeling, but sometimes I felt paralyzed with stress and anxiety. I kept feeling there was no way out of that job. That I was doomed to be there until my last day.

It didn’t help to see how Spencer was thrilling with every case. He was back to work like nothing had happened. My husband was right back in his element, while I struggled with a gnawing emptiness.

But I did what I do best under these circumstances: I pretended nothing was bothering me. I focused on enjoying the few things that made me happy as I tried to find something that filled the void at work. Raven had started taking swimming lessons back then, which were very exciting, because she was growing up so fast, and she was so glad to be part of a team and make new friends. I tried to go with her to as many lessons as possible, cheering her on and sending all of our family and friends pictures of my baby.

Until Spencer gave me a reality check.

- “Just because Raven found what makes her happy doesn’t mean you have to live through her. You still need to find something to fill your soul.”

His words hit me like a slap of truth. We were in the middle of the dark in our room, as he held me close to him. My head was on his chest, his arms were around me, and his words hit me harder than the bullet an unsub put in my arm a few years before.

- “Why don’t you sugarcoat it a little?”- I whispered and didn’t even look at him. He kissed the top of my head and sighed.

- “Didn’t we agree we were not to lie to each other?”

- “We did. But you don’t need to be so straightforward. That was painful.”- I murmured that last part, almost hiding my face in his chest.

- “I’m sorry ma cheriê”- my husband caressed my shoulder as I rolled in bed and laid by his side.- “I wasn’t trying to hurt you, I just wanna help.”

- “I know… shit, I don’t wanna be one of those crazy moms, living life through their babies' success and dreams.”

- “You won’t”- Spencer sighed and touched my nose softly with his index, making me feel like a little kid.

- “You just said so.”- I pouted and he smiled, kissing my lips carefully.

- “I did not. I just want you to be happy, chipmunk. And you can pretend all you want, but I know you have been sad these past couple of weeks. Not even Morgan’s visit cheered you up.”

- “He was here to comfort Pen, not me.”

- “Because you have me to comfort you.”- my husband cut me a smile and made a pause before he dropped the bomb.- “Also… I was talking with Blake today, and she said she could help.”

- “You asked her for help?”

- “She actually called you to ask for help, which was a happy coincidence, because I think you are gonna like what she needs.”

- “What is it? A profiler? Or a home baker? We still have some snickerdoodles left by the way.”

- “A professor.”- he explained with a sweet smile.- “Specifically, a linguistic professor teaching an undergraduate class in Georgetown.”

- “And she thought of you?”

- “Of you.”

My heart stopped when I heard Spencer saying those simple two words. Yes, I had thought about teaching, but somehow I had never considered it earnestly. Why? Impostor syndrome? Fear of failure? Self-doubt? All above I guess.

- “What?”- I whispered, thinking I had misheard.

- “Alex needed help to find a teacher for a psycholinguistics class, something that you actually like.”

- “I do.”

- “So she thought of you.”

- “Why didn’t she call me?”

- “She did, but you didn’t pick up ‘co you were putting Vinny to sleep, so I talked to her instead.”

- “Answering my phone calls, Spencer Walter Reid. I don’t know how I feel about it.”- I joked only because I didn’t know how to react to what I had just heard. That was a real job offer in a field I liked.

- “She said she is calling you tomorrow again, so you can pick up and ask all about it.”

Spencer was right, Alex called me the following morning and delivered her proposal in detail. One of her best friends in Georgetown needed help finding a teacher for an undergrad course in psychology, and she thought of me. It was just five hours a week for a semester, so it wouldn’t take much of my BAU time. I just needed to talk to Emily and make my schedule match. That was the hardest part.

I don’t know if Emily knew I was unhappy with the job, but she didn’t hesitate to approve my request. In fact, she suggested Spencer could do a similar thing, and give seminars for young agents at the academy.

- “I could make it work so you two spend more time at home with the kids, and help the team from Quantico”

- “Isn’t it a little selfish?”- I asked. We were alone in Prentiss’ office, which was still Hotch’s office in my head, and that made everything less official and more traumatic for me. Somehow it still felt like we were pretending to be the grownups while he was away.

- “I wouldn’t call it selfish if it helps you focus on work whenever you are on the field.”

Emily added and held her cup of coffee with both hands as she stared at me from the other side of her desk, filled with unfinished paperwork.

- “Oh stop it, Reid. I have known you for what seems like a lifetime. You have been unhappy since Aaron left. So please tell me, what is it? you don’t like me as your Unit Chief?”

- “What the fuck?”- the curses rolled off my tongue before I could actually realize what I was saying.

- “I mean it, you’ve been acting strange for the last couple of months. I understand you and Spencer have been through a lot, but this is clearly work-related.”

- “First of all, how dare you bring this up at work and not at a bar with a drink in our hands!”- I start arguing back.

- “This is work-related, (Y/N), and I am talking to you as your superior, not your friend.”

- “Second of all,”- I continued speaking, ignoring the scowl.- “I love having you here. I wanted you on this team way before Hotch left. You were the one who didn’t want to leave the Interpol.”

- “Then what is it?”- my friend was clearly losing her patience with me.

- “I just… don’t know.”- I simply confessed and didn't say another word. I just sighed and stared at my friend not knowing how to explain what was happening.

- “How can you not know what happens to you?”- it was a simple question, I guess.

- “I don’t know what it is. I thought it was caused by the stress of having Diana home and all the fights that brought to us, but it wasn’t. I thought I could blame Scratch, but he is only partially guilty of what is happening. Just as Cat, or any fucking unsub that I might think of.”

Emily stared at me, knowing better than to push me. I stood up and started pacing around the room. It took me a few minutes to finally say it out loud.

- “Sometimes I don’t know why I am still here.”

- “You are making a difference.”- Emily stood up and walked to me as soon as she heard me. I turned to her and raised an eyebrow.

- “Trust me, I keep telling myself that every day I show up. Every day I miss Raven’s swimming competition or school recital and when I miss any milestone in Vincent’s growth.”- I paused because I was about to start crying and I didn’t want to get emotional at work.- “Each time that even for a split second there is a chance Spencer or I might get hurt, making a difference is the only thing that keeps me here.”

- “(Y/N)…”- Emily hugged me ‘cos tears had started falling from my eyes.- “Why didn’t you tell me anything sooner?”

- “Sooner when? Things have been crazy here and you know it.” - she sighed and nodded as I wiped away the tears from my cheeks.

- “I know, and we haven’t had much time to talk either.”

- “That’s the thing with this job, we let time pass us by ‘cos we are always too busy to stop and analyze what is happening to us…”

Emily nodded as she stared at me, both her hands on my shoulders as she tried to reassure me things were going to be better somehow.

- “Teaching this class is gonna be good for you, Reid. You need to find your own path.”

I wanted to believe her. I was already tired of feeling like I was drifting and wasting my life.

Spencer’s point of view

The first class my wife taught, she was so nervous I wanted to sit at the back of the classroom to make sure she was ok. It didn’t help that that very same day, I had been caught with JJ in a bunker, as we tried to catch an unsub who kidnapped women, convinced them doomsday was coming, and kept them locked underground in a hidden bunker.

We both knew the team was right a few minutes away the second the door locked behind us. But they couldn’t reach us underground. There was no signal. I also knew my wife was not with them, because she was teaching her first class at five, and I had sworn I'd wait for her outside.

If I wasn’t there, as promised, she was going to get very scared… and very mad.

- “I can’t get through”- JJ announced the obvious, staring at her cell phone screen.

- “The doors are airtight and the glass is bomb-blast resistant. Our bullets would just bounce off.”- I explained as I knocked on the window, trying to find a way out. I couldn’t be locked with JJ in a bunker. Not that day, not ever.

- “Ok, uh, Garcia told everyone we were heading down here, so… wait, did you say airtight?”- I kept pacing around the room when Jennifer realized what I had just said. Meanwhile, I had already discarded eleven plans to get out of that space. - “Are we gonna run out of air?”

- “No, high carbon dioxide levels are gonna kill us before low oxygen levels do.”- I explained and tried to focus on another plan.

- “What about the keypad, Spence?”

- “On a zero to 9 keypad, assuming a 4-digit code, there are 10,000 possible combinations. If you figure 5 seconds to input each combination, that’ll be 13.89 hours and that is not even accounting finger fatigue.”

- “Right. So, even if we did try, after too many failed attempts, we would probably be locked in here anyway.”

- “(Y/N) is gonna kill me.”- I whispered and sighed, closing my eyes for a second.

- “Why?”

- “I promised I’d be there after her first class.”

- “I’m sure she’ll understand. She knows how this job is.”- JJ didn’t understand my wife’s relationship with the job at that minute, and I couldn’t blame her. (Y/N) didn’t want to share much about her personal crisis with the team. Only Prentiss and Garcia knew how she actually felt. And they were as supportive and understanding as I knew they would be.

- “Yeah, sure.”- I mumbled and kept looking for a way out.

- “Hey, is (Y/N) ok? We haven’t talked much lately. I don’t… I don’t know if she is mad at me or…”

But whatever JJ was about to say, I didn’t pay attention to, because two of the victims appeared at the other side of the glass, holding hostage a woman they claimed was the unsub’s partner. We were lucky enough to be out of that trap quickly, release all the victims, and catch the unsub and his partner. The team was right outside as we made it out of the bunker with the victims, and I was in an SUV in less than ten minutes.

I made it on time, barely. I ran to the classroom door and I was still catching my breath when the door opened and the students started walking out. It was a warm afternoon, the sun was just setting, and as I walked into that room, I found my wife closing her computer, and gathering all her things.

- “Excuse me, professor.”- I said as I walked closer and watched her face light up.

- “It’s Doctor, actually.”- she corrected as my lips curled up in a smile. I just felt so good to see her happy.

- “I’m sorry, Doctor Reid. I’ve always been very interested in learning more about linguistics and I was wondering if I could attend this class…”

- “Oh, I’m so sorry Mr…”

- “It’s Doctor, Doctor Reid.”- I corrected her with a smirk and she just nodded, playing along.

- “Oh I’m sorry, Doctor Reid, but this class is closed.”

- “No… really?”- I finally stood in front of her and placed my hands on her waist as she nodded and smiled back at me.

- “Really.”- her voice dropped an octave, sounding so sexy I started considering that bending her on that desk was a very good idea.

- “Is there a chance I can get a private lesson?”- I asked her and she giggled.

- “Are you really that passionate about linguistics?”

- “You have no idea.”- I whispered, pressing her body closer to mine and kissing her lips. I tried to be sweet and gentle, but I felt a hunger inside me, and I needed to feel my wife.

- “Not many people feel this way about linguistics.”- (Y/N) whispered and smiled as I rubbed my lips against hers and tugged her hair carefully not to hurt her, but hard enough for her to gasp and open her mouth, giving me all access.

- “Maybe I could audit your class…”- and my wife just nodded as I rested my forehead against her, as we tried our best to cool off a little.

- “Excuse… me…”- a student coughed from the door. - “Doctor Reid, I needed to…”

- “Yes, of course. I’m sorry.”- (Y/N) cleared her throat and moved away from me in a second. I smiled and took a step aside. It was so incredible watching her talking with a student, giving him notes from her lecture, talking about what he didn’t get. She was glowing, excited, and in her element. I hadn’t seen her that happy in a very long while.

So I made it my new goal: giving my wife the space to find what she wanted to do professionally, and which classes she wanted to teach. I never liked change before, and I was still struggling with it, but for her, I would do anything. For her, I would embrace change and roll with it. If it was what it took to make her that happy, I would do it gladly.

The first step was to speed up the process of moving from the apartment: I hated it, but I knew it needed to be done. I didn’t want to get out of there, but at the same time, I knew she wasn’t happy living in that apartment anymore. What happened with Cat Adams and Lindsey had affected her to the point of taking the joy from our flat. So we started looking for our own house. It wasn’t a quick process, trust me. It took almost a year to find the right house.

During that time, I started teaching a few seminars in the Academy, as Prentiss had suggested and my wife continued teaching her class in Georgetown. We started spending more time in Washington, which felt incredibly right. It was almost a year since our crisis, since my mother had stayed with us, bringing all the stress and fights, and I was, for once, enjoying life day by day.

Vinny was already two years and eight months old, and he was going through a bedtime crisis. He insisted he wasn’t tired and that he didn’t want to sleep. So every time, we had to come up with the craziest ways to get that kid weary for bed. We would dance, play, run, and tell the longest and most intricate bedtime stories. Most of the time, we struggled to stay away while trying to put him to bed. But somehow, it was the kind of struggle I didn’t mind having in my life. Not after dealing with serial killers.

We had a system and it was working. (Y/N) was a lot happier, and I was facing changes one day at a time. That was until the FBI's Assistant Director of National Security, Linda Barnes, put her eye on the BAU and decided to put us under investigation. She started by suspending Prentiss indefinitely, leaving JJ as temporary Unit Chief. It had been heartbreaking hearing Emily’s voice crack as she apologized for not being able to protect us from Barnes. We knew she meant serious trouble for us. She had dismantled Simmon’s former team, and she had her eye put on us. We knew what she was after: us. She wanted to end the BAu, or at least, end how it worked until that day.

The following day, after Prentiss gave us the news, things got even worse. (Y/N) was teaching a class early in the morning, so she missed the briefing. Which, I’ve always thought was a great thing because she would have snapped way more aggressively than I did when we all realized Barnes had picked the case for the team and planned on going to the field with us.

- “Meet you at the Tarmac.”- she announced as we all stood up from the table and stared at her lost.

- “You are going into the field with us?”- Tara asked her, not hiding her surprise and annoyance.

- “Yes.”- Linda replied coldly.

- “No offense, but you are not a profiler.”- Rossi pointed out, but Barnes didn’t seem to bother.

- “True, but I’ve worked on the field and a fresh set of eyes might be useful.”

She stared at us, probably waiting for any kind of reply, but no one said anything. I had to bite my lips ‘cos I was losing it second by second with her around.

- “I know you think I’m the enemy, but I am not. I can be your greatest advocate if you let me. Now, you’ve had some poor leadership in the past, but I know I can help right the ship.”

It was that last sentence that was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I was not going to let that woman speak ill of Hotch or Prentiss.

- “No.”- I said as soon as she made a pause. - “You are wrong. Emily Prentiss is not a poor leader. She defined what a BAU chief should be. I am not gonna stand here and let you destroy her career like this. If you are going, I am not.”

And I didn’t even let her reply. I just stormed out of the conference room and walked back to my desk, I gathered my things and walked away from the BAU.

- “Spencer, oh my god. What did you do?”- Prentiss argued as soon as I finished telling my story. I didn't want to bother (Y/N) at work, so I did the only thing I could come up with: visit Emily at her house and try to help her return to the team.

- “I had to.”- that was my only explanation.

- “No, you didn't.”

- “Life's too short to deal with people like Linda Barnes.”- I knew that was something my wife would say, but after so many years together, I think there was a lot of her rubbing on my behavior. And I liked it.

- “Spence…”- Prentiss wanted to keep telling me off, but I wasn’t gonna let her. So I just continued talking

- “I wasn't gonna, you know, go with her and help her dismantle the team.”

Emily stared at me and rearranged her thoughts in silence for a moment. Then, she took a big step and stood in front of me, just next to her kitchen island.

- “Thank you for standing up for me. I appreciate you coming to the house for support, but what you did was reckless.”- and I rolled my eyes at her, as she started lecturing me again. - “The BAU is under the microscope right now, and the last thing you should be doing is giving Barnes more ammunition. You're making her job easier.”

- “Why are you trying to get rid of me?”- I frowned as I noticed she had started walking and moving closer to the front door one more time. She turned to me, looking caught, and pretended not to understand.

- “What?”

- “Ever since I got here, you've been trying to keep me out of…”- I took a look around and started wandering around the place. I wouldn’t usually do that, but Prentiss’ attitude was off.

- “No, I just, uh… no, I wasn't expecting anyone and the place…”

And just like that, I found what she was trying to hide.

- “Spence, stop!”

I jogged to her dining room and found a few boxes. She had started packing her things. Emily Prentiss was getting ready to fly away and leave us behind.

- “It's been less than two days and you're already leaving.”- I turned to face her, disappointed and angry.

- “I'm… I…”

Emily sighed as she tried to find the right way to explain what was going through her mind. Why would she just run away from trouble? That wasn’t like her.

- “Ok, look. Barnes wants somebody to take the fall for what happened in Roswell. I'm willing to be that somebody if it will help stabilize the BAU. You're in good hands with JJ.”

- “There's no guarantee that she won't replace her the minute you're gone.”- I argued immediately, but it wasn’t enough reason for her.

- “I think that if I go away for good, she'll leave you alone.”

- “You can still fight this. We can still fight this!”- but as I spoke those words, I could read on her face how the fire was dying inside of her.

- “Ah… Maybe I don't want to.”- and that answer was just as infuriating as discovering those boxes. Maybe even more.

- “Well, now who's making it easy for Barnes?”- I spat those words with anger as I frowned and stared into her eyes. I wanted her to see my disappointment.

- “You don’t get it, Spence.”- Emily said after a few minutes. She just walked around the apartment and started gathering more things to put in boxes and I sat on her couch, trying to find the right argument to change her mind.- “This is the right decision for me. I need you to support that.”

- “What's your plan? I mean, where are you gonna go?"- she had to be joking if she thought I was going to support her running away.

- “When I left Interpol, they said the door was always open to return. I like London. So…”- I looked at her in silence for a moment, as she kept putting books in boxes, driving me insane.

- “Well, if you really want me to support you, just answer me this one question.”- I finally said, standing up from her couch and looking at her. - “Why is it not ok for me to walk out on the team but it is for you?

- “Because you and I are different.”

- “We're not. And if the situation was reversed, you wouldn't give up on me. And you know what? I happen to know that for a fact because you didn't. When my mother was taken and I was losing my sanity, you did everything in your power to help my family.”

Emily stared at me and sighed. Clearly, I had hit a sensitive issue when I mentioned what happened with my mother.

- “What?”- I asked her as I scowled, confused.

- “Yeah. I did everything. I needed to make sure things worked their best for you, your family, and the team.”

- “And they did, all things considered.”- I replied, knowing nothing bad could come from that case, except the trauma me and my family were working to heal.

- “Including leaving out of the documents your trip to Mexico.”- Prentiss confessed and I wide opened my eyes, surprised.

- “Wh… what?”

- “When you went to Mexico to meet doctor Nadia Ramos, you used your personal passport. You should have used your work-issued one.”- Emily looked at me and held her breath for a second.- “I know you weren’t working, but you should have been briefed before leaving the country. That was a violation of security protocol. And I left it out of the case.” - her eyes watered up as she explained what had happened.

- “But… I didn’t do anything bad in Mexico.”- my voice was a whisper, and my friend nodded.

- “I know, Spence. But as an FBI agent, you are always a target, and you know it. You have to follow protocol before leaving the country. But I crossed a line I swore I never would. Barnes called me out on it. And that's when I realized she was right. I do hold this team above the very laws we are supposed to uphold. You made a mistake, but you didn’t do anything wrong, I did. That's why it's wrong for you to quit. But me, I've lost the privilege to run this team.”

I was speechless as I stared at my friend. I never knew she had done such a thing. I wouldn’t have let her do that. Just to think of all the things that could have gone wrong if I had gone more than that one time to Mexico still haunted me, and staring at my friend paying for a crime like that to keep me on the team made me feel incredibly lucky to have her, and immensely stupid for ruining things like that.

We fell into an awkward silence. I knew she didn’t want to talk, and I knew I was gonna have to push her, but I gave her a moment of quiet and peace as I arranged the facts in my head to convince her to stay. I wasn’t going to give up that easily.

- “Thank you.”- I whispered as I grabbed some books and files and put them in random boxes, as I pretended I was gonna help her move.

- “What?”

- “Thank you for covering for me.”

- “You're welcome.”- my friend looked at me and smiled

- “I'm not done.”- I added and she frowned as I continued talking. - “Thank you, but I didn't ask you to. Who knows? Maybe the bureau would have understood why I did it.”

- “Maybe. Now we'll never know.”- Emily replied and continued packing nonchalantly.

- “And that's exactly my point. You know, sometimes it's painful when you look back at your life and you realize how little choice you had in it. Right?”

Em paused her packing and looked at me with curiosity and some frustration.

- “Spence, if there's something you want to say, just say it.”

- “All I'm saying is that it's a lot like when JJ and Hotch faked your death so that you could escape from Ian Doyle.”- I knew I was hitting a nerve by bringing him into the conversation, but I needed her to see my point.- “You didn't have any choice in the matter, but it's what they had to do. They fought just as hard to save your life as you did to save mine. It's what we do."

- “It's… not like this."

- “It is. Do you want proof? Here are some examples. Michael Lee Peterson, Chad Higgins, Kathy and Jessica Evanson, Gloria Barker, and Declan Doyle. These are men, women, and children you've saved at the BAU, personally.”

- “But that's our job. Yours, mine, that's what we do. We save lives.”

- “And here are eight more that need it now. David Rossi, Jennifer Jareau, Penelope Garcia, Luke Alvez, Matt Simmons, Tara Lewis… (Y/N) Reid and Spencer Reid.”

- “Stop.”

- “I don't think you understand. After Hotch left, the team could have imploded. It didn't because you were there. You were there to keep us together. We don't always have a choice in what happens to us, but you know what? Sometimes we do. And right now…”

I choked up because tears were threatening to roll down my cheeks, and I couldn’t speak, feeling my throat closing with emotion.

- “I'm just asking you to make the choice to stay and fight for us. You know, fight for the team. That's what we do. We fight for each other.”

Emily opened her mouth to argue, but she just shook her head and chuckled, tearing up.

- “Ok.”- that was all she said and I immediately stood up to hug her.

- “Let's call the team and get back to work. (Y/N) should be out of classes by now.”

- “I'm suspended.”- Emily announced, like that could ever stop us.

- “Well, I'm not. If you just so happen to hear what I say, then so be it.”

- “That rebel attitude is very (Y/N) of you, Spence.”

- “I know”- and I smiled proudly.

But, by the end of the day, Linda Barnes had gone behind the team and got the primary suspect dead. The team had solved the case, but someone had died. Rossi called us and invited us all for drinks. (Y/N) had joined us in Emily's apartment as soon as her class was over and I had updated her with everything that had happened that day.

- “I am out two mornings a week and I miss all the fun.”- she argued as I finished telling her how I stormed out of the conference room.

However, when we got to the bullpen, to pick up the team, Linda Barnes had saved us one more surprise.

- “Did I hear something about drinks?”- my wife said as she stood in front of Rossi and hugged him and Penelope at the same time.

- “Yes. And I am buying the first round.”- Luke added and (Y/N) raised her hand to give him a high five, but that was the second we all turned and saw Barnes standing there, in the middle of the office. Ruining our moment.

- “Agent Prentiss, Agent Reid, I'm happy to see you.”- her voice was cold as she nodded at us.- “Agent Jareau, I didn't get the opportunity to tell you how much I enjoyed your speech on the jet. But you're wrong that I'm here to shut down the BAU because I'm not. This unit is the crown jewel of behavioral profiling. I couldn't shut it down if I wanted to. But I can help restructure it.”

My blood ran cold as I heard those words. That woman wanted to destroy our department, and she was about to succeed.

- “The director watched the airport video, and he felt, as I did, that we were in public and your validation strategy was failing.”

- “You already met with him?”- JJ asked in shock, we knew she was waiting to talk to him and explain what had happened. But Barnes had, once again, gone behind her back to win.

- “Yes. I've known him for a long time. He answers my calls.”

- “I haven't even had a chance to file my report.”- Jennifer argued, but Barnes dismissed her words like she dismissed everything she didn't care for.

- “He agreed that events should have unfolded quicker, and because they didn't, the suspect died. Now we need to ensure that mistakes, like the ones you made today, never happen again.”

- “Mistakes we made?”- JJ questioned crossing her arms on her chest.

- “That said, Agent Prentiss, your suspension is lifted. You'll be reassigned within the Bureau. Your new post has yet to be determined.”

- “What?”

- “Agent Lewis, you will also be reassigned. Agent Reid, you will be a full-time professor with our exchange program. Agent (Y/L/N), your recent teaching career is taking off, the Bureau will be happy to help you find more classes to teach, along with your husband.”

- “It’s Doctor Reid, and who says that’s something I even want to do?”- my wife questioned her and I held her hand to stop her from talking any further.

- “It’s clear your head is not with the team anymore, agent.”- Barnes replied and didn’t give her time to say a word back.- “Agent Rossi, the FBI deeply appreciates your service, and the director wishes you nothing but the best in your retirement.”

Barnes made a pause and gave Rossi time to argue with her decision, but he didn’t say a word.

- “Agent Simmons, Agent Alvez, you will remain here at the BAU. Garcia, your loyalty to the team is appreciated, but it feels like a fresh start in a different department would be best.”

- “Fresh start? I don't want a fresh start. I need… I need to be here.”- Garcia was already crying as she spoke, but Barnes didn’t even answer her plea.

- “I'm fired, aren't I?”- JJ asked coldly.

- “No. You're the conditional unit chief of the BAU. Congratulations.”- Barnes’ words kept getting colder and colder as she spoke. She was, in fact, enjoying her revenge.

- “There's no such thing.”- Jennifer argued.

- “You're right. There wasn't. But I was able with the director's approval to create a new position just for you. I won't be going into the field with you anymore, but you will run every decision past me, big and small, before you act.”

Linda Barnes stared at us. None of us was able to say a word. We were shocked by her power and the promptness of her actions. She didn’t even give us time to fight back.

- “Good night.”- she cut us one evil smile and walked out of the bullpen.

- “This can't be the end. Can it?”- Garcia asked us, and we didn’t really know how to reply to that. So we stayed in silence, stunned.

(Y/N)’s point of view

Two weeks after Barnes decided to “reassign” most of the BAU members, we were all going insane and I was ready for revenge. One thing is wanting out of the team ‘cos I want to do what I love, and another thing is having some bureaucratic asshole telling me what to do, when to do it, and how.

I hated that bitch.

Do you wanna know what else I hated during those two weeks? All the students that were falling for my husband at the academy. Linda Barnes wasn’t joking when she said she was gonna help me get more classes to teach along with Spencer. She got me a whole linguistic course for young cadets at the academy. And the fact the course’s teacher was me, Doctor Reid, caused a lot of confusion among the female students.

- “Excuse me.”- one of them raised her hand during class.- “I was told this class was taught by Doctor Reid.”

- “Yes, that’s me.”- I explained with an innocent smile, not knowing what was about to happen.

- “As in… doctor Spencer Reid?”- she asked, confused.

- “Oh no, sorry. That’s my husband. It’s a common mistake, we both have PhDs. ”

- “He is… your husband? Spencer is married?”- I could see on her face ‘cos her heart was breaking.

- “Yes, been married for almost nine years now. I don’t know how that could be relevant for the class, but…”- I paused and noticed a few more girls in the auditorium were shocked.- “Anyone else took this class thinking it was my husband’s?”

Eleven more girls raised their hands.

- “You can leave if you want.”- I simply answered and tried not to shoot daggers at any of them. Frank always says I do that when I am mad. Spencer agrees, which makes it even more believable.

Two weeks and life was making me feel like I hadn’t been grateful for my job. Don’t get me wrong, I loved teaching, but there was something incredibly wrong about the way Barnes had pushed us away from the BAU. Garcia was in Cyber Crimes and she was going insane. Prentiss was with the OPR, hating every second of it, especially her teammate, a guy called James Odenkirk, who kept getting on her nerves. JJ kept Spencer informed about the BAU and the lack of cases the team had. Barnes kept JJ, Simmons, and Alvez on the bench, not authorizing any case work until they got one that would- and I quote - “Make the FBI look good.”

It was like she was trying to be hated. And succeeding.

When Prentiss called and invited me over for a ladies' night with Tara, I was in before I could even reply. I texted Spencer and asked if he could stay with the kid for a while. That was the only good side of that whole deal, being there with our babies every day. You could see how they loved having us there for bedtime stories, driving them to school, and cuddling.

- “Who knew there were so many dysfunctional partners in the Bureau?”- Tara chuckled as she told us her experience as a therapist for FBI partners in crisis. We stood on Emily’s balcony, holding a glass of red, trying to make sense of what was happening.

- “I'm learning the hard way. I had three stakeouts with Odenkirk last week.”

- “He sounds like such a charming bud.”- I teased and Emily rolled her eyes

- “Oh yeah, we know how much you love hanging out with him.”- Tara added as we both chuckled, like kids.

- “And it's one thing to be out in the field with him, but sitting with him in a car for hours on end. He smells like dirty tighty whities dipped in sweat.”- Emily’s description actually made him look worse word by word.

- “Gross!!”- I replied, disguised.

- “Barnes really knew how to punish you.”- Tara added with a short smile.- “I mean, sticking you with him. A not-so-subtle reference to what happens to agents who transgress.”

- “And there is no dirt on Barnes in the OPR database. She is squeaky clean.”- we both turned to Emily after her confession, shocked.

- “You pulled her file?”- Tara asked and sipped her wine.

- “I thought maybe we'd get lucky.”- Emily replied trying to look innocent. Which she wasn't at all.

- “I’m guessing that bitch knows how to hide her dirty laundry.”- I finished my glass and rested my elbow on the edge of Emily’s balcony. My friends stood by my side, mimicking my movement.

- “So what now?”- Tara asked

- “Refill?”- I replied and moved my empty glass. Em grabbed the bottle and filled our glasses, as she spoke.

- “I don't know what our next move is. I’m sorry girls.”

- “Well, we have got to think of something. I do not know how much more of this assignment I can take.”- Tara mumbled and I agreed.

- “Eleven students left my class today ‘cos they thought it was Spencer’s.”- I announced and kept my eyes on the horizon as I spoke.- “Eleven. That was half of my audience.”

- “What are you talking about? Why would they…”

- “Because I have a hot husband, Tara! I knew that, but I never thought these stupid students would drool so shamelessly for him! You should have seen their faces when I told them I am his wife.”

- “You told them? Why?”- Emily asked, nearly laughing at my face.

- “Because one of those brats interrupted my class asking if there was any kind of mistake, ‘cos she was expecting Dr. Reid.”- I explained and closed my eyes, mortified.

- “They interrupted you? To ask for Spencer?”- Tara was shocked.

- “Apparently my husband is the current eye candy of the department. His classes are full, but most of the attendees are auditing, just to look at him and drool.”- I finally confessed to someone what had been tormenting me that week.

- “Does he know? What has he said about it?”

- “He has no idea!”- I argued and took another sip of wine.- “He is just so happy people are interested in his classes, I don’t have the heart to tell him.”

- “Then don’t.”- Emily suggested. - “The kid is enjoying teaching, sometimes I feel that’s what he was born to do. I wouldn’t want to spoil it for him just because a bunch of girls are drooling over him. You know they are harmless. Spencer would never cheat on you.”

- “Prentiss has a point, Reid is crazy for you and the kids. He would never jeopardize that for anything in the world.”

I nodded and looked at my friends. Having them around meant the world. I missed working with them and hanging out with them daily.

The next day, I was preparing for my following class when Luke called. He asked us to meet at Prentiss’ for a case. Apparently, JJ didn’t get permission to take a case, and we were going to go behind Barnes’ back and investigate it anyway. Sounded like my team, and my kind of plan.

Spencer showed up in my class and stood by the door as I gathered my things. He didn’t have to say a thing, I knew he knew. He was beaming with excitement. Of course, my husband missed the BAU. He was born to catch unsubs, solve cases, and save the day. He has always been a hero.

- “Thank you, all of you, for coming. I've missed this, us.”- Emily said as the entire gang sat in her living room to investigate a case without formal authorization.

- “We met yesterday for drinks, Em.”- I teased her and she just chuckled.

- “I meant work, Reid. And be serious, before we do this, I need to be sure everyone understands what we're getting into. We have been told not to investigate this case. If we do, we are violating direct orders, and eventually, Barnes will find out. So, if something goes wrong or we don't catch this unsub, she will shut down the BAU and most likely fire all of us. No more reassignments.”

- “You know what?”- JJ said, looking incredibly fed up with anything Barnes’ related- “Even if everything does go right and we do catch our unsub, I mean, the same thing could happen.”

- “Right. Barnes would try to spin it, labeling the BAU a rogue unit that needs to be shut down.”- Simmons knew what he was talking about.

- “Right. So if anyone has doubts, no shame, no judgment.”- Emily said and looked at us, waiting for a reaction. Like any of us would walk away from a case.

- “The BAU started in a room just like this one. If this is how it goes out, so be it.”- Rossi sounded defeated already. So I had to tease him a little, just to make him smile.

- “All right Coronell Cannelloni, no need to get sentimental.”- and he turned to me with a warm grin.

- “We're all in?”- Spencer asked and the entire team nodded. I held his hand, knowing that was something he wanted to do, work with our friends, solve the case, catch the bad guys. And most of all, kick Linda Barnes’ ass.

But, it turned out Prentiss’ warning wasn’t a bluff. Only 24 hours later, JJ was forced to turn over her baggage and her gun, after asking Barnes to open the file of an investigation she had closed a few years before. However, that wasn’t going to stop us. If anything, it made us crack the case, and work harder, even from the shadows.

JJ kept working, and Penelope, from Cyber Crimes, managed to get us the crime scene pictures without getting us caught.

Rossi might have mentioned earlier that day the charm of doing the right thing, even in the wrong way. It felt so fucking good when we got the unsub. I still wish I had been there to look at Barnes’ face when the team caught the psycho and saved the senator’s daughter he had kidnapped. And not only that but Emily told the senator himself that Barnes had fired JJ for trying to solve the case. That woman didn’t stand a chance. She was out before we knew it.

- “I couldn’t wait until morning!!”- Garcia beamed as she walked into the bullpen, holding a box filled with all the toys she keeps on her desk.

- “You weren't the only one.”- JJ said as Luke quickly moved and grabbed Garcia’s box. I stared at that sweet acting coming from a couple that barely seemed to get along, and I realized those two had some angry sex coming their way. If only Luke didn’t have a girlfriend.

- “You look great.”- my husband said to Penelope and she nearly jumped in excitement.

- “I feel great. You guys really did it!”

- “Ohh, I wish I could have been there to see Barnes' face when the senator showed up.”- Tara whined and I joined her immediately.

- “Me too!! Was she fuming from her ears? Did she send daggers from her eyes? I need a full description of the scene, please!”- I begged from my desk as I finished setting the family pictures I had kept there for years.

- “I thought she was gonna melt like the wicked witch of the west when he said Prentiss could hire whoever she wanted.”- Simmons described and we all chuckled at the thought.

- “You think she'll back off for good?”- Luke asked, and we all turned to Prentiss, who stood with Rossi at the top of the stairs outside her office.

- “The director called me.”- she started.- “He said Barnes was told to keep her hands off the BAU.

- “And so, we live to fight another day. Ladies and gentlemen, we're back!”

We all cheered and lifted our cups of coffee. It felt good to be back at the BAU, with my family. Though I wanted to keep teaching at Georgetown, I wasn’t ready to fully leave my friends. Especially knowing how much Spencer loved being there. 

Series' Masterlist - Author's masterlist

Next chapter

[theramblergal]

When writing a single word has become like pulling teeth, it's so fucking annoying. This took much longer than it should've, and it's not even my normal level of quality. This is goddamn agony.

*deep breath*

Anyways. Putting this under a cut because it's super long and most of my followers probably aren't interested.

@mrs-loitersack might you be interested in perusing this, friendo? It's a silly fix-it of the final fifteen in Good Omens. If the Metatrash hadn't made that stupid offer to Aziraphale.

The door to the bookshop closed shut. 

Oh, that bell. Crowley had heard it so many times: that sweet cadence, that exact same pitch, announcing the entrance of someone into Aziraphale’s bookshop. He had suspected for a long time, that it was in fact the exact same bell from Opening Day; now as to how exactly Aziraphale acquired that bell, well, that was an entirely different matter—

Distracted.

He was getting distracted.

Fuck. Was he really going to do this?

Now? 

He saw Aziraphale approach him from the corner of his eye. Crowley didn’t turn. He stared unseeingly at the little canvas in the corner. His heart was pounding in his chest. He was breathing raggedly. Which was stupid. He was a demon; this body—this, this… corporation was only a vessel. He was above all of this.

But Nina’s raised eyebrow greeted him from the corner of the canvas.

“You never say what you’re really thinking.”

Oh, for God’s sake. For Satan’s sake.

He yanked his sunglasses off his face and turned to face Aziraphale, who was smiling at him, hands nearly clasped together.

The words came tumbling out.

“Look, I suppose, um… I’ve got something to say.”

He still couldn’t raise his eyes to meet Aziraphale. They trailed the wooden floors, the books stacked rather haphazardly around, Aziraphale’s outfit, and then: his eyes. His Angel’s eyes. What was their colour? He had never been able to determine. Stop getting distracted, and look at him, a voice inside him hissed. Look at him while you say the words you haven’t said… ever.

“I know we ought to be talking about—it’s probably best if I start doing all the talking, you do all the listening, cause if I don’t start talking now, I won’t ever start talking, right?”

He was blabbering.

Crowley could see Aziraphale was excited. About something. Probably whatever the Metatron had said to him, but that could wait. 

He was about to say the things he’d been thinking about since Before. Before everything began. And he knew that if he shut his mouth, he’d never be able to muster the courage to say it again.

Here goes.

“Yes, so—”

He watched as Aziraphale took a deep breath, still smiling, as though he was willing his excitement away to listen to him. Crowley faltered for a split second.

I never deserved you, did I?

He released a sharp breath.

Words. They were words. He could say them now; Heaven and Hell had finally left them alone, for good (he hoped). It wasn’t a sin; they wouldn’t be punished. 

They were words.

Just start, the voice inside him whispered.

Right. But where exactly was he to start? Whatever they were, whatever they had… it had started long before anything Began. How was he to put into words the adoration and all-consuming devotion he felt towards Aziraphale when it had blossomed when words didn't even exist?

“We've known each other a long time. We've been on this planet for a long time. I mean, you and me.”

He gestured nervously between him and Aziraphale, voice failing as he tried to swallow whatever was stuck in his throat. Aziraphale’s eyebrows furrowed the tiniest amount, his lips parting slightly, belaying his confusion at where this was going. Crowley counted himself lucky to have had enough time spent observing and cataloging Aziraphale’s microexpressions to be able to tell what he was thinking at any moment.

Always so expressive, Angel.

“I could always rely on you. You could always rely on me.”

The Thing with Job. Their Arrangement. The French Revolution. 1827, 1941. 1967, whatever the Hell that year was. The Arrmagedidn’t. 

“We’re a team, a group. Group of the two of us.”

Friends. Partners.

All the words they’d been dancing around for all these millennia. But to Aziraphale, who’d worn the same outfit since the 1800s, who had once said, eyes flitting around his Bentley, in that gentle voice that Crowley so adored, “You go too fast for me, Crowley”, to Aziraphale, who moved so slow it was practically a fucking wonder they’d managed to grow so close in six millennia: it was all Crowley could say.

“And we’ve spent our existence pretending that we aren’t.”

His voice wavered. 

“I mean, the last few years, not really,” he managed, eyes flitting around the bookshop, hand making a vast gesture that really didn’t mean anything. 

He was breathing through his mouth now, tears gathering at the edges of his eyes, not enough to blur his vision but enough to heat his gaze. The only thing Crowley could hear was the ticking of the clock behind him. 

He was going to say it.

He had to say it.

“And I would like to spend—I would like to spend the rest of whatever time we have not pretending.”

Crowley’s eyes, which were, up until this point, unable to look in Aziraphale’s direction, were now fixed on him. Aziraphale was breathing heavily too, eyebrows furrowed but mouth set in that exact way which told Crowley he was scared. Confused. Yet happy, too.

…perhaps this had not been a bad idea.

Crowley allowed himself to consider the idea that his affection was not wholly unreciprocated. But as soon as the thought appeared in his mind, he knew it was not the whole truth. Aziraphale did love him. Back. It had always been true. 

“...Angel?”

“Oh, Crowley,” Aziraphale breathed, the skin around his eyes crinkling and lips stretching in a smile that was worth all of the pain Crowley had gone through in all his existence. 

Aziraphale closed the gap between them and all Crowley could see was the blue in his eyes. Or was it brown? Green? 

Who cared? Whether it was brown as the final assemblage of dust and gas that built up the Pillars of Creation, as the humans had named his little creation; whether it was blue as the surface of a lake that reflected Earth’s atmosphere; whether it was as green as he demanded of all his houseplants: what did it matter? He’d loved Aziraphale all the same.

For all this time that he’d known Aziraphale, he’d never been close enough to determine the exact colour of his eyes. 

Now they were. Face to face.

Tears had gathered in the corner of Aziraphale’s eyes. 

“I think I’ve always known it deep down, Crowley. But I’ve been too much of a fool to have recognised it. I…”

His fingers came up to cradle Crowley’s face. Aziraphale’s hands were not as soft as he’d expected them to be; the reader’s calluses had made their home on his fingertips, especially his thumbs, and there was a faint one near the base of his thumb, from the grip of a sword. The touch was like coming home, Aziraphale’s grasp grounding and reverent, as though Crowley were something even near holy.

“If Gabriel and Beelzebub could do it, go off together, then we can,” Crowley could barely get the words out, so choked up he was. “Supreme Archangel of Heaven and Grand Duke of Hell, if they could do it, then why not us, Angel?”

A single tear slid down Aziraphale’s face. Crowley watched it, his own fingers involuntarily reaching out to wipe it off. It was the purest thing Crowley had touched since the Holy Water. Angelic tears were the closest he’d get to holiness without being burned, and that too because Aziraphale willed it so.

“I’ve been blind, Crowley,” Aziraphale said, after a brief stretch of silence, still cupping his face. “There always has been an us, hasn’t there? I’ve just spent so long denying it that it hurts to say.”

He leaned in closer.

Crowley could feel his breath now, the gentle cycle of inhale-exhale that kept their corporations running. It was intimate, dangerously so.

“I love you,” Aziraphale breathed the words.

A sob caught in Crowley’s throat. It was like the sun breaking through the clouds after a long rainy day, like absolution and liberation; Aziraphale loved him. Him, the Serpent of Eden, the perpetrator of the Original Sin. Aziraphale, the Guardian of the Eastern Gate, wielder and gifter of the flaming sword, who was everything light, good, holy: that angel loved him.

Six thousand years and countless years Before had never prepared him for this. 

Aziraphale leaned in. Crowley stayed where he was, frozen and held in place. Their breaths mingled.

Aziraphale kissed him.

Kisses were a curiously human behavior; it was humanity’s meaning all wrapped up in a single gesture that was hard to put into words. It was everything he’d dreamt of, conjured in his imagination and yet more. Later on, Crowley would never be able to describe it. It was divinity in its simplest and purest form, redemption for his Fall, the love he’d lost when he’d made his choice. Aziraphale chose him. Was actively choosing him now, every moment their lips were pressed against each other’s.

“We’re not pretending any more, Crowley. I promise you,” Aziraphale murmured against his lips. Crowley only pulled him closer.

When they finally broke apart, the part deep within him that had pined these six thousand years and counting was, finally, quiet. 

Aziraphale laughed wetly. 

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” the angel mused out loud, and Crowley brushed his cheek absentmindedly. 

“Nah, Angel. Not one bit.”

A moment of silence.

“Well then, may I tempt you to a breakfast at the Ritz?”

“Tempt me all you desire,” Aziraphale smiled, interlacing their fingers as he tugged them towards the door of the bookshop. “Your longest-waiting temptation has finally been accomplished, after all. So a little bit of a balance: I get to treat you well.”

And Crowley had nothing more to say.

Heaven didn’t matter, Hell didn’t even factor in. 

All that was there (finally) was them. 

Together. 

A nightingale sang, in the bustling streets of Soho, and it was only heard by them.

[friendship-is-unity]

MLP REDESIGNS: Friendship Cadet Rainbow Dash!

Art by ATLAS, the secondary owner of this blog.

Yayayayay!!! The teams honorary speedster and daring-do enthusiast herself Rainbow Dash is here!! 🌈✨

Doodle n more below the cut!

Fast, loud,and sometimes even sassy,RD is definitely a firecracker of a person. She always has a opinion to share if asked and,though not as honest as Applejack,has her fair share of bluntness. She's not mean,far from it- she's just playful and mischievous. Rest be assured, shes always there to lend a helping hand or some words of encouragement to her team if needed. Besides,what's the element of loyalty if not always looking out for a friend?

Also- small MY LITTLE MILITARY: FRIENDSHIP IS UNITY AU announcement thingy.

I realize my recent post might cause some confusion for later ones,so lemme clear this up: even though the Mane 6 are being redesigned NOW,they technically do not POP UP at where I'm planning on beginning this story. I know I know,shocker 😨, But it actually starts wayyy earlier in the equestrian timeline,way before any of them were born,in a arc I like to call the 'FALL OF SKYROS' Arc. This Arc further delves into the world of skyros, Celestia,Luna, and even DISCORD as characters,and shines more light on the Six pillars that came before the colorful girl-group mane 6 that we all know and love. (Starswirl n his gang.)

This does not mean the Mane 6 WONT pop up,or won't have a important role in this story. Far from it. I just feel like it'd be better on a storytelling standpoint to start from the beginning and work my way up,rather than flashbanging you guys with flashbacks every five seconds.

Thank you guys for coming to my TED talk,and as a last note,I introduce to you our next mare coming up on display: Rarity Belle!

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

Little Brother

SORRY SORRY SORRY THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO GO UP LAST NIGHT I JUST FORGOT I'M SO SORRY

hi ur peter and nat fics are everything to me ur so talented and if you ever fancy writing more i would not complain (no pressure ofc!!) – anon

Read on Ao3

Warnings: none

Pairings: none

Word Count: 1504

He's a child, Natasha's brain screams as Spider-Man tries to stand up, shaking and trembling in the cold, he's just a child.

The snow continues to fall. The blood continues to spread, but not as quickly—healing factor, right. She glances around. There's no one else coming to help him, and nothing that could stop her from finishing this now. She can hear the part of her obsessed with survival urging her to do it, just finish it, but the child in front of her is freezing and injured.

"Wait," he cries as she surges forward, wrapping her arms around him, "I can—we can talk about this, can't we?"

"Who protects you?"

"W-what?"

"Who protects you," she demands, "who looks after you?"

"I, uh—"

No one. No one protects this child. No one takes care of him.

She spends about thirty second thinking about this before she realizes Yelena's going to have a field day after the hard time she's given her sister about bringing home strays.

"You're coming with me."

***

Natasha sets the baby spider down in the car, shushing him lightly as she walks around to the other side. The baby spider's eyes are wide, almost pressing himself against the window in an attempt to follow her around the car.

"It's okay," she murmurs as she shuts the door, "I'm right here, I'm not leaving."

In the few minutes since she'd announced she was keeping him, the kid had transformed from the quippy, sarcastic thorn in her side to just a scared child. The switch was jarring and heartbreaking and she grits her jaw, forcing the tension from her shoulders and reaching over. The baby spider clutches as the hand she offers him, drawing it up under his chin like a comfort teddy. Natasha swallows, brushing her thumb against his jaw.

"Are you hungry?"

"Huh?"

"Are you hungry, baby spider," she asks again, "can we get you something to eat?"

The baby spider shakes his head. "'M fine."

"That wasn't what I asked," she says as gently as possible. "do you want some food?"

The kid stares at her, every bit a stray dog too scared to eat. Natasha waits patiently—well, as patiently as she can—for him to slowly nod.

"Yeah? Food sound good? You have any idea of what you want?"

"…I can choose?"

Yelena's young face flashes in her mind. The sudden wonder and fear of being able to choose what they did, what they ate, where they went. Her gut clenches and she squeezes his hand in hers.

"Yeah, baby spider, you can pick."

The kid fidgets, looking at the ground. "Can…can we go to the fast food place near the train station?"

"Good choice. I've been craving fries."

"R-really?"

"Yeah," she says. lightly squeezing his fingers again. "Can I have my hand back for a second? I just need to get the car started."

The baby spider slowly lets go, watching Natasha's hand like it was his favorite toy being taken away. His face is so round, so soft, so young…

Oh, someone's hurt you like that too, have they? Did that happen to you too?

Natasha quickly starts the car and held out her hand again, glancing over with a smile as the kid latches onto it again. She drives slowly, eyes on the road, unable to keep her gaze from flicking over to see him.

He's so small.

Okay, I have a kid now. Another kid now. Shit, I don't know how to raise a kid that isn't Yelena. What if he expects me to explain how to get a real job? I don't fucking know how to be a real adult that isn't lying about everything.

A darker voice whispers how this child might expect an adult to behave and she scowls.

Nope. Fuck it. I'm not fucking up this kid. We're doing the sappy shit first and adulting shit later.

She was definitely going to have to call the therapist she'd used to help Yelena get to sleep again.

They pull into the drive-through, glancing at the menu. She looks over to ask what the baby spider wants only to see his eyes so wide the whites are visible.

"…see something you've always wanted to try?"

"The number 6," the baby spider rattles off, "with a large Sprite and an extra fry."

His eyes widen even more, as if suddenly aware of what he just said, only for Natasha to laugh.

"That sound good, baby spider." They pull up to the speaker. "Two number 6's with large Sprites and two extra fries."

Other great thing about fast food places apart from letting the baby spider be a goddamned kid for once: dirt cheap but really fucking good.

"So," she asks as she sets the food beneath the kid's seat, "where's your favorite place to hang out?"

"Hang out?"

"Yeah, just to sit or something when you're out and about."

"Um…"

The baby spider squirms in the car seat. His hands bundle up in his lap, eyes beginning to glaze over.

"Or," Natasha says quickly, "I can take you to my favorite spot and we can eat there?"

The kid nods quickly. She smiles and nods to the food.

"If you're hungry, go ahead. I don't mind."

"But shouldn't I wait for you?"

"Good point." She reaches over and grabs a fry. "There. Go nuts, baby spider."

She pulls away, trying to keep her eyes on the road to give the kid privacy, unable to stop herself from stealing little peeks over to see if he was actually eating. It takes far too long for the baby spider to follow in her example and take a fry, but the pleased look on his face makes up for it.

They come to a stop near the lookout tower at the top of the hillside. Beneath them, the gravel crunches under the tires as the car shifts into park. The kid glances around.

"Are we allowed to be here?"

Natasha looks over and winks. "I won't tell if you won't."

She grabs one of the drinks and a bag of food, getting out of the car and heading for one of the large flat rocks.

"C'mon, baby spider. Let's get some food in you."

She hears a gasp behind her and hides a smile. The city sprawls out beneath them, glittering lights as far as the eye could see. Reds, yellows, blues, and all sorts of colors in between flash by underneath the sky, a bright moon hanging suspended in the inky blackness.

She remembers her first time up here too, her and Yelena…

"Come sit. View isn't going anywhere."

They each peel back paper wrappers and stuff themselves with greasy food, hunting around for the few napkins that had been tossed haphazardly aside. The night air fills with obnoxious slurping as they drain their drinks and ball up the trash.

"Is this your favorite spot?"

"Sure is." Natasha leans back on her hands. "Not a better view in the city."

"I don't know," the baby spider says quietly, "I think the view from the top of WJYOP Tower's pretty sweet."

She glances over and ruffles the kid's hair. "Guess you're gonna have to show me sometime."

The kid's face falls and he fidgets with a stray napkin. "Why're you being nice to me?"

Natasha lets out a long breath. "Because someone's gotta be, baby spider, and whoever's responsible for hurting you like that clearly isn't."

"Hurting me like what?"

"Not taking care of you. Letting you go out by yourself and get into fights you can't handle. Leaving you on your own."

The baby spider is quiet. Natasha moves closer.

"I mean what I said, baby spider. You can come with me. I'll keep you safe if you want."

"…you will?"

"Yeah, baby spider." She opens her arms and after a moment, a little kid snuggles up to her side. "There…you okay? I'm not hurting you, am I?"

"No." The kid absentmindedly nuzzles her shoulder. "You're warm."

"I'm a lot bigger than you, baby spider. I generate more body heat." And I was genetically engineered to do that too, but we're not going to get to that just yet.

"Mm." She chuckles as he burrows into her. "Give some to me, 'm cold."

"And sleepy," she remarks as a yawn almost splits his head in two, "c'mon, baby spider, let's get to you to a bed."

She scoops the kid into her arms, carrying him back to the car.

***

"Natasha."

"Yelena."

"What is that?"

"A smoothie?"

"Did you get us a baby brother without asking me?"

"Yes."

"How could you do such a thing?"

Peter shifts in his sleep, letting out a quiet noise and stretching like a cat before he resettles. The two former assassins watch him, spellbound.

"You're forgiven."

"I figured."

[casukaga]

MIGHTY NEIN ANIMATED SERIES REAL NOT CLICKBAIT

[cheese-water]

Fuck it I’m speaking my truth. Boobers y’all gotta stop being unnecessarily mean to ConnorEatsPants. I’ve been going through his sf6 vods and every time he references being ostracized and harassed by twitter users, my heart breaks. Connor even said that he no longer mentions being friends with Ranboo and other creators because he doesn’t want boobers to start hating Ranboo for it.

And he’s right btw. Remember when there was a possibility Connor might be in genloss? Instead of being excited or just saying nothing, boobers began linking threads on why he’s such a horrible person and how his inclusion would ruin the project as a whole. We don’t even know if he was joking or not, yet you all still celebrated when he didn’t appear in episode 2. I’m pretty sure Connor will never publicly interact with Ranboo or this community again after the way you all treated him. That’s really fucked guys.

While I understand the want to “hold people accountable” for their past actions, 1) it’s not your responsibility to hold people accountable over the internet and 2) judging everyone on their past mistakes alone is a very dehumanizing and hypocritical way to view other people.

Why is this community all about treating other with respect and kindness, especially when they’re on the spectrum, but Connor is the exception?

[starflungwaddledee]

Gimme that GOOD shit girlie 💅✨ (Starstruck x Galacta knight)

✧˖°. give up what you love, before it does you in .°˖✧

[itsindiana]

gang im not mentally or emotionally prepared to lose bad batch . i lived through the war of '14 ( clone wars season 6 ending ) and the battle of '20 ( clone wars season 7 ending ) . i don't know if i'm brave enough to face another loss .