#so remember the main street? yeah so it's his last name right?

[helenofblackthorns]

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[villainsandvictimsalliance]

Whenever I remember that Tenya almost went full vigilante mode for Tensei I want to scream so bad like it's not even funny.

Bnha somersaults its way into saying "maybe heroes are just good citizens with the power to do good things" and "maybe heroism is not in the big notorious acts but in being kind and fair in the day to day details" AND THAT'S ALL TENSEI.

AND THAT'S WHAT MOTIVATES TENYA TO GO FULL BLOODHOUND ON STAIN.

I'm not denying that the world needs the big ass heroism acts like defeating AFO or saving a city or all those flashy notorious feats. All Might is very needed, because there are threats that are too old and developed and have accumulated too much hatred and damage over the years. You cannot always prevent those things from happening and to believe so would be naive, right?

What I'm saying is that those big events are the lowest percentage. They are the consequences of a systematic failure.

Take two of the biggest evil plots in the manga: AFO planning to still OFA and Overhaul with his quirk-erasure bullets. Both plans depended on an abused child being used as objects, Eri because her quirk was the base of the bullet working and Tomura because he was just meant to be AFO's new body in the future. In both cases, AFO and Overhaul were cornered after losing the child they were using for their plots. In fact it was the kids resisting the abuse that contributed the most to their failure: Eri prevented Overhaul from hurting Deku and Tomura prevented AFO from escaping his decaying body.

In that sense, the little unknown pro-heroes taking care of their neighborhood's children do a lot to prevent cases like Tomura or Eri from happening. Hell, AFO and Overhaul were also kids who went the violent route to survive.

Ingenium's silent heroism is probably the best example of what a hero looks like. They don't seek fame or glory. They regard heroism as their duty, their responsibility. No matter how little the act is, it's still important to do it.

At this point, we must admit the Tenya's crisis over what happened to Tensei is not only about their bond as brothers. Yeah, that was Tenya's big bro, but it is no less than when Deku and Bakugo saw All Might fighting AFO for the last time— the last moments of their role models.

The Iida brothers' crisis was deep rooted in the main issues of the story, so I'm still baffled at how people just tend to ignore it.

Before Stain, the "League of Villains" was just a minor threat. Dabi was a nobody with no real crimes to his name. Toga was just a lost little girl trying to survive the streets. Spinner didn't even think about being a villain. Before Stain, things were bad, but no one really thought they could change the status quo, you know?

The USJ incident was not the big deal because 1) how was attacking kids the answer? and 2) going for All Might was expected, since he was almost invincible and the biggest hero in the world and blah blah blah.

When Stain started attacking minor pro-heroes...

Stain was the opposite of Tomura. He admired All Might and saved those kids, but went after the pro-heroes with less powerful quirks. He gave the population a sense of control. It's like he said "hey, you don't have to go after All Might to change the system and why would you? The real problem are the ones on the lowest part of the pro-hero chain".

Suddenly, they could go against pro-heroes and win. Divide and conquer. Suddenly, there was a ladder to climb. Suddenly, you could target not the institutions responsible for the rotten ideology of your society, but the people who enforced the ideology with their daily work.

Stain defended his posture by saying that those people didn't want to be real heroes. They just wanted the money, the fame, they were not really committed to their duty.

And then attacked Tensei, of all people.

If big crimes are built from little crimes that are accumulated over time, what would happen if you decided to eliminate the people taking care of the little crimes?

The crisis of belief in pro-heroes was triggered by Stain. When Stain pointed out at Ingenium (the one in the suit was Tensei) and accused him of false heroism, it's when shit started to go south. He created the idea that pro-heroes should be punished if they don't perform correctly and that they deserve to die if they don't have pure ideas of their job— or whatever.

Tensei being the victim is supposed to show how hypocritical Stain is. Tensei is probably one of the only pro-heroes that never did anything wrong in the manga and one of the best family men to be presented. A man who was loved by everyone for being good in every sense of the word.

Stain projected his own fantasies on Tensei in order to accomplish his witch hunt, not truly caring to figure out who the person was. He just attacked for the sake of attacking, which explains why he was so popular: anyone could do the same and project their issues on him, fighting different battles disguised as just one cause.

When Tenya went after him, it could only make sense. The little of the Iidas is too righteous and noble, quick to judge and act, prone to making mistakes and getting carried away by the looks of it all. So easily his justice turns into revenge and he falls into the trap Stain set. Who knows what a hero student killing Stain would have caused...

At this point it's obvious I'm just ranting for the sake of ranting but 😭😭😭 give the Iidas the respect they deserve please.

[justlemmeadoreyou]

secret little rendevous-3*

Summary: The meeting with HR goes well (surprisingly). But, there's something else that'll break your heart soon, and Harry will be the one to crush it into pieces.

Words: 3k

Words: ANGST! ANGST! ANGST! There's a bit of smut too, but there's lot of fighting, swearing and degradation. and daddy kink.

(previous part here) | (series masterlist) | (main masterlist)

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Harry hadn’t always been so cold-hearted. He believed in true love and had always dreamed of finding his soulmate. But that all changed after one fateful night.

It was a regular Friday night and Harry was out with his friends at a local bar. He spotted a beautiful girl across the room and couldn't take his eyes off her. She was there with her friends, her short skirt riding up her legs everytime she moved on the dance floor.

Harry stared at her for long enough that one of her girlfriends approached him, saying it was a bachelorette party, and the girl he was eyeing was the bride.

Oh.

That should have stopped him from taking it any further, should’ve made him take his eyes off her, but he just couldn’t. He was mesmerized with the way she looked, the glow on her face, and with the tiara she had worn on her head, she looked like a goddess to him.

He mustered up the courage to approach her, when none of the other girls were nearby.

As the night went on, they grew closer and closer. They danced, they kissed, and before they knew it, they were back at Harry's place. They spent the whole night together, lost in each other's arms. It was magical.

At least for him.

It was a long night, full of kisses and making out and sex. The thought of her being engaged, and never being his was pushed into the back of his mind, and locked into a cage that he never intended to open.

So, the next morning, when she got up frantically, looking for her clothes through the house and stuffing them in a carry bag, pulling her dress on, Harry frowned.

“You’re-you’re leaving?” he asked, and she raised her eyebrows, suggesting how already obvious it was.

“Yeah, duh. What-do you expect me to stay?”

She brushed him off, and he picked his t-shirt from the floor, putting it on and sliding towards the edge of the bed, where she was getting dressed.

“Well-I-I-” she put her finger over his lips, shutting him up, “Shh, you know I’m engaged, right?”

“Well-”

“I know that you know I’m engaged. Marie told me as soon as she told you to back off. But I knew you would come for me, because well-” she finished dressing up, picking up the rest of her stuff, ready for the walk of shame.

“I could drive you home-”

“No, thanks”

Clearly, she didn’t want anything to do with him anymore. Last night was all she wanted, and it seemed like she regretted quite a lot.

“Okay, well-”

“Let me leave, Harry” she blurted out, and he closed his mouth, watching her go away.

Harry couldn't believe it. He had just spent the most amazing night with this girl, Natalia, and now she was leaving him. He watched as she walked away, her hair swaying with each step, and he couldn't help but feel a sense of longing for her. He wanted to reach out and pull her back to him, to tell her to stay, but he knew he couldn't force her to do anything. So he just sat there, watching her disappear into the busy city streets.

For the next few days, Harry couldn't focus on anything else. He couldn't stop thinking about Natalia, replaying every moment they had shared together. He remembered the way her lips felt against his, the way her body fit perfectly into his, and the way she moaned his name in pleasure, as he made her cum multiple times. He couldn't shake off the feeling that she was the one for him, and he couldn't let her go without a fight.

So he did what any hopeless romantic would do, he tracked her down. He found out where she worked, and he waited for her outside her office. When she finally emerged, he approached her, determined to win her over.

“Hey,” he said, a nervous smile on his face. “I know this might seem crazy, but I can't stop thinking about you. I had the most amazing time with you the other night, and I just wanted to see you again.”

Natalia looked surprised to see him, but her face softened as she looked into his eyes. “Harry, I had a great time too, alright? But I don't think it's a good idea for us to see each other again.”

Harry's heart sank at her words, but he wasn't ready to give up just yet. “Can I at least take you out for dinner? Just one more time?”

Natalia hesitated, but eventually gave in. “Okay, just one dinner. But that's it. I’m done then”

Harry grinned, feeling a sense of hope rising in his chest. He took her to a fancy restaurant, where they shared a delicious meal and talked for hours. As the night went on, they both felt a strong connection between them, and before they knew it, they were back at Harry's apartment, tangled in each other's arms once again.

But as the sun rose the next morning, reality came crashing down, once again. Natalia had a husband, and she couldn't keep seeing Harry behind his back. She tearfully explained that she had been going through a rough patch with her husband and had been seeking comfort in the arms of another man. She knew it was wrong, and she couldn't continue to hurt her husband like this.

Harry was devastated. He always knew she was engaged, and had gotten married. But he couldn't deny his feelings for her. So he made a promise to himself that he would wait for her, that he would be there for her when she was ready to leave her husband.

Months went by, and Harry couldn't forget about Natalia. He tried to move on, to date other women, but no one compared to her. He couldn't bring himself to fall in love with anyone else, because deep down, he still hoped that Natalia would come back to him.

One day, he received a call from her. She was crying and begging him to meet her. He rushed to her side, only to find her in a state of panic. Her husband had found out about her affair, and he was furious. He had threatened to break off their engagement if Natalia didn't end things with Harry.

Natalia was torn. She loved Harry, but she couldn't lose her fiancé and the life they had built together. She tearfully told Harry that she had to go back to her husband, but promised to never forget him.

Harry was heartbroken, but he understood. He knew that Natalia had to make a difficult choice, and he couldn't force her to choose him. So he let her go, but he never stopped waiting for her.

Years went by, and Harry never fell in love again. He lived his life, but a part of him always belonged to Natalia. He never forgot about her, and he never stopped hoping that one day, she would come back to him.

.    .     .

At first, the prospect of being called daddy in bed was not appealing in the slightest for Harry. The thought made him uncomfortable, and the kink was never fully understood. He always knew the girls who would call him daddy had daddy issues, and it wasn’t one to feed onto it.

But since the day you had called him daddy, even if it was just because you had been in subspace, he couldn’t shake the way his mind was filled up with it. Your trembling voice, tear-stained cheeks as you asked him to take care of you, vulnerable and exposed, it awakened something in him he didn’t know existed. 

He now wanted you to call him daddy again, but only when he was balls deep inside you, fucking you so good, you can’t even think straight, and the word should flow out of your mind mindlessly.

So, here you were, spread out in front of him, his cock buried deep in your soaked cunt. Your nails were scratching down his back, his cock hitting places that had your mind turning into mush.

The HR meeting had gone well. Olivia was dismissed, because she had no proof of whatever she was accusing you of. And since you were in different departments, they had no issue with it, as long as it didn’t affect your performances at work.

Well, it didn’t.

You didn’t tell Harry the whole story, because you knew Olivia would. After the meeting, you had tried to call him too, but his line was busy.

Of course.

Olivia would’ve called him before you.

So, you left a text, calling him to your house tonight to hook up.

He replied about 10 minutes later, saying that he was working overtime tonight and then he had a doctor’s appointment, so he couldn’t do it tonight. That seemed genuine, because month end was approaching, and the workload was heavy. You replied in affirmative, and waited for the next day, when you could see him.

And now, here you were.

It wasn’t planned for–no. You had called him that once before, and it slipped from your mouth without a second thought.

“Fuck, daddy please.”

Harry’s mind went back immediately, his hips halting and he looked into your eyes immediately, bringing his mouth back up from where it was buried in your neck, biting and creating marks. 

“Say it again.” He breathed out, his belly tightening in anticipation as his dark green irises stared down at you.

You blinked in response, not realizing that you’d just said the word in bed, even though you both didn’t like it. 

“Har–Harry, I swear–I didn’t mean to-.”

“Say. It. Again.” Harry demanded, his hand snaking its way to your throat, lightly applying pressure to the base of your neck. “I won’t ask again. Say it.”

“Daddy.” You moaned, the grip on your neck dizzying. Harry felt more precum ooze out of his cock, and into your tight cunt, his cock twitching as the name fell from your pretty, swollen lips.

“Fuck, that’sit.” Harry groaned, pulling out his cock completely, leaving you empty and clenching around nothing. You whined, and he shushed you, before ramming it back into you with such force it sucked the air from your lungs. “Say it one more time, baby girl.”

“D-daddy, please.” You repeated, growing more confident with using the term. You threw your head back into the pillow behind you, biting your bottom lip as his started fucking you once again.

“You want to cum?” he asked, teasing you. He knew you were close, the tight grip your pussy had on his cock, and the way you were clenching and squeezing him, gave it away.

“Yes, please” you nodded, looking up at him with tear-filled eyes, it felt so fucking good. 

“Daddy, I need to cum,” you moaned, your voice becoming more desperate with each passing second. You could feel the pressure building in your core, ready to explode at any moment.

“Say please” he urged, beginning to rub your swollen clit.

“Oh-fuck!Daddy-daddy please?”

“Good girl. Cum for me. Soak me, baby”

And that you did. Gushed around his cock, wetting his cock and balls as your eyes rolled into the back of your head. He came too, pulling out and emptying his load on your stomach.

“God-fuck! Shit-” he cursed as he came, and you couldn’t help but watch in awe as his head threw back, pink lips parting as he gave you all he got.

He laid down beside you, catching his breath. 

“You’re so good for me” he mumbled afterwards, wiping the sweat off your forehead and kissing your cheek softly.

He went to the bathroom, to clean himself up, and bring you some toilet paper to wash his cum off.

And it was maybe by some cruel twist of fate that you decided to open Olivia's message from last night, exactly at that moment.

And it's everything you were scared of happening.

It says "Guess who he chose" with a picture of Harry's back attached below. He is lying naked on her bed, and probably asleep.

And you know it's Harry, because you would recognise those curls everywhere, plus you can see the fading nail marks on his back that you gave him weeks ago.

What the fuck?

Mr.I-don’t-do-stayovers was sleeping in her bed just after you saved his ass from being fired hours ago.

Great. Just fucking great.

When he emerged from the bathroom, you were already getting up. You wiped yourself clean with a stray napkin he had kept on his chair, throwing it near the trash bin.

“What-what are you doing-did you clean it up? I brought this-”

“Where were you last night?” you asked, voice stern.

“What-why would you ask that?”

“Answer the damn question, Harold. Where were you last night?”

“I told you, I was working overtime and I–I had an appointment–”

“Save your lies, you bastard–I know you were with Olivia last night. You were fucking her, and then you slept on her too. What else did you do with her that you can’t do with me? Do you kiss her while you fuck her too? Or is it just my lips that give you blue balls?”

“I-” 

It was like he wasn’t even trying. He wasn’t even trying to tell you that he didn’t treat you like shit, that he treated Olivia the same way he treated you.

“Or have you committed to her? Became her “boyfriend”?”

“You know I don’t do that stupid stuff. And I didn’t sleep, okay? I left after a while”

“Shut up. Just-shut up, okay? Stop lying. She sent me the message at 2am. And I know you’re blind and you don’t drive in the dark.”

“Alright-fine! I stayed over at hers, but that was it, okay? There’s nothing more”

“And what is it with me, then? I’m too, just a couple of holes you fuck when you get bored with another? Hm?”

“It’s not like that, okay? She told me how you dragged her into HR for sleeping with me and how she saved my ass, my job, so I–I had to give her something in return”

“What the fuck? That bitch didn’t save your ass, okay? I did. Why do you think they’ll listen to her? I was the superior one. And she was the one who went to HR to rant and cry over us.”

“Us?”

“Yeah. You and me sleeping together.”

“But she told me–”

“Well, she’s a fucking liar.”

You fell back on the bed, your head throbbing from all of it. How could she lie like that? Apparently, it didn’t matter that she did, because you knew he would go after her again.

You got back up, staring at him with eyes full of anger.

“Tell  me, Harry, who is better? Me or her.”

“What?”

“Tell me, me or her? So I can take myself out of this fuck-up you have created and find someone else who isn’t afraid to commit to me, and who doesn’t treat me like shit”

You yelled and once you finished yelling, your eyes were brimming with tears.

But you won’t cry. Not in front of him.

“There’s no fucking competition, Y/N. I’m not “choosing: anybody”

“So just choose her, then. I bet she feels better than me, doesn’t she? She takes you better down her throat too? I guess that’s the way to get you to stay loyal.

“I’m not fucking loyal to her—”

“Why? Why aren’t you fucking loyal–”

“I-love someone,” he confessed.

Your eyes widened. Harry, the cold-hearted moron, who can’t even commit to sleeping with one woman, loved someone?

And then he told you the story of Natalia, the girl who discarded him like trash, and somehow, that gave him the right to do the same to other women.

“If she came back to you, would you still go back to her?” you asked him, voice still shaking and broken.

He stayed quiet, his gaze to the floor.

“FUCKING ANSWER ME, HARRY!” you yelled, and he flinched. He had never seen you like this. You were always sweet and soft and polite to him, even after he treated you like shit most of the time. 

He still didn’t say anything, and you knew the answer. He never even thought of something other than sex with anyone. His heart was already full for her, it always had been. He never even thought of you twice, and here you were, catching feelings for him.

“You’re so full of shit. She used you and threw you away like you were nothing. When you had given her everything she needed to stay. And the first chance she got, she went back to him. She doesn’t love you. When will you realize that?”

You got up, walking to him and standing right in front of him.

“Tell me” you demanded once again. 

His voice shook, raspy, indicating he had shed a few tears, “I don’t-don’t want to. I don’t want to realize that, okay? She still loves me. And I’ll wait for her. No matter how long it takes”

You looked up, trying to stop the tears from falling. Your heart was broken, and he didn’t even seem to realize what he had done to you.

“Do I matter to you, Harry?! Do I mean anything to you?”

Still no answer.

“Great. Just fucking great. I am the one who has been with you for the last 4 months, even if it is just for sex. I am the one who got you the promotion so you could pay your fucking bills. I am the one who fought with HR so we could both keep our jobs. All that’s nothing? I did that for nothing! And that bitch, who couldn’t even stay committed to her own fiance. Slept with you once and your stupid heart is made up for her–”

He shot his eyes up, his fists clenching beside him in anger.

“Don’t you dare say anything about her” 

He looked angry, eyes red and jaw clenched.

“Fine. I’ll leave, then” 

You announced, wearing your clothes in a haste. Picking up your phone, your keys, your toothbrush and your spare clothes that were lying on the chair.

You walked out the room, going straight for the door. You were turning the doorknob when you heard him, “And delete my number from you damn phone”

“I never saved it,” you replied.

And it’s after you reach home that you break down into tears. 

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tell me if you like this! i wanted to end it here, but i know, it's too sad :(, and i know this isn't soo good! but read it, please, and tell me what you think! >.<

feedback

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[outermaybanks]

Blood of the Damned - 1 - hellfire

demigod!rafe x demigod!reader a/n: this part is just establishing the story. disclaimer that this is inspired by PJO, I changed some things and the main characters in the real PJO are not present in this AU

 You didn’t mean to kill him. You were mad, sure. But you didn’t mean for any of it to happen. 

“What do you mean you have to go?” your boyfriend, Daniel, asked as he watched you pack from your bed.“I’ve stayed here too long. I just have to go, alright? Are you coming or staying?” you were blunt, but still vague. You couldn’t exactly tell your boyfriend of six months that your whole life you had been haunted by the ghost of your mother, and she gave you warnings of danger. You would’ve sounded crazy. 

“Stayed here too long… that’s called settling down, and it’s an okay thing to do. Will you- Will you just stop and talk to me?” “You’re not listening to me! I can’t stay here, okay? I just can’t, you have to trust me, and if you can’t, well- it doesn’t matter because I’m going.”“I think we both know what’s happening here, y/n.”Something about his tone was already getting you angry. “Yeah? Well, you’re the expert. Tell me what’s happening right now.”“You’ve lived… in a million different places, but you’re only 18. You’re clearly running from something, what, commitment?”You were in utter disbelief, but only because he had you in the first half, you were running from something, but you were dumbfounded when he landed on commitment being the issue. His comment was so idiotic, you had paused your packing.

“Are you stupid, or just dumb? If commitment was the issue, why would I ask if you’re coming with me, and pack right in front of you?” you asked as you resumed your packing. Admittedly, you always had a bit of a temper, and that temper always had consequences. 

“Y/n, you can’t possibly expect to make it in this world running away from everything that scares you.”

Now you were angry. This… man who had no idea the shit you had been through, no idea just how strong you were to survive all you’d been through, thought he had any type of superiority over you, to tell you what you could and couldn’t do. A man who didn’t even know your real last name?

The next thing you knew, you were standing outside your shitty apartment, while a man in an ambulance tried talking to you. “Ma’am, are you okay? Are you hurt? Did you get burned?”

No. Of course not. The fire never touched you.

“I think she’s in shock,” the man said to another person, but you were staring straight ahead, trying to remember how it happened.

Your phone started ringing, snapping you from your thoughts, only one other person had this number: your father. 

“Hello?” you asked softly, and you could make out noises of annoyance from the ambulance worker. “Y/n? What happened?” He always knew. You didn’t know how, but he did.

Now that you thought of it, there was a lot you didn’t know. It had always seemed normal to you because it was just the way things had always been, but now it was getting worse; you had killed someone.

“I don’t know…” you mumbled. “Do I need to send someone?”

That was always your father’s solution. Send someone, someone you had never met, to take you somewhere new. It was never the same person twice. You considered telling him yes, just for the simplicity of it, you needed to go, now more than ever, and they would take you. But as you sat in the back of the ambulance, you noticed someone, a girl, staring from across the street. 

You had seen her before. And to think of it, the last time you saw her was just before the ghost of your mother appeared with her warning. And now, after everything Daniel said, now you were curious.

What were you running from?

“No. I can handle it.” “Six months was pushing it. You’ll have to go further this time.” “I know, dad.”

Then the line went dead. The girl was still across the street, staring at you. She had crutches, but she always had crutches. 

“The girl we pulled from the fire is right over here.” You turned your head quickly, to see the man from the ambulance talking to a police officer, but when you turned your head back, the girl was gone. “Ma’am, we have a few questions for you,” a male police officer said, adjusting his hat.

Your dad’s famous words echoed in your mind: Not safe.

“Questions?” “Well, it’s odd. We can’t find the source of the fire. It didn’t reach any of the other apartments, and the only one hurt was, well…”

Daniel.

“There you are, Ramona! I was so worried when I got your call!” Before you could even fully turn around, a pair of arms were wrapped around you. It was the girl with the crutches. “You, uh, know this woman?” The officer asked after a beat of silence. “We work together, c’mon, you’re staying with me until they fix your apartment,” she said, still hugging you, but you didn’t know what to do; you didn’t know this girl. “You need to come with me. I know what you are,” she whispered in your ear before finally pulling back. “Please, Officer, uh, Farley, she’s been through a lot, can we come to the station tomorrow to answer questions?” The officer cleared his throat. “You know where it is?” “Yes, right off of 23rd and Jefferson, thank you, we’ll be there tomorrow morning,” she promised before carefully looping her arms with yours, readjusting her crutch.

You followed the girl a few blocks before pulling your arm from her. “What the hell is going on? Why did you call me Ramona? Why do I keep seeing you?”

“My name is Suri, I’ve been watching you for a while. It’s my job to get you there safely, you need to come with me.”

Not safe.

“Where?” “I can’t talk about it here.” You actually let out a laugh, “And you expect me to go with you, a stranger? No fucking way-” “Your real name is y/n y/l/n, your mother died of unknown causes when you were 9, you’ve been on the run ever since.” Your face screwed up in confusion. “H-How do you know that?” “Because it’s my job to know, to keep you safe. I can explain it all when we get there. Don’t you want to know what you are? Why these things happen to you?”

More than anything you wanted to know why these things happened to you. Why strange people would follow you, why you constantly had to move, why you had been in contact with your father your whole life, but you couldn’t describe what he looks like. 

“Okay.”

Suri took you to the bus station, you had been currently staying in Massachusetts, but Suri bought two greyhound tickets to New York, and after the greyhound, you took a train, two more busses and finally a taxi, but Suri told them to pull over in the middle of nowhere, a forest.

“Are you sure this is the right place?” The taxi driver asked. “I’m sure. Thank you,” Suri replied, carefully getting out with her crutches. You had come this far, if this was really the end of it, you could handle a trek through the woods. Besides, something told you you could take Suri in a fight if she tried anything. 

You followed Suri into the woods, looking around for any sign that this was a bad idea. “I know this whole thing must be weird,” Suri said suddenly. “But… I mean, is it any weirder than the other stuff that’s happened to you?” She had a good point. 

The rest of your walk was silent, until you reached two huge columns with an arch that read Camp Half-Blood. “Half Blood? What the hell is a half blood? And why did you bring me to a camp?” “They’ll explain once we get to it, c’mon.”

At this point you were intrigued, so you followed. Once you were past the columns, a huge cleared place came into sights, and from the hill you stood on, you could see almost all of it, cabins, a huge lake, people walking around, fencing. “Chiron has been waiting for you for a long time. I smelled you years ago, back in Chicago, I’ve been following you ever since,” Suri explained as she dropped her crutches, your eyes widened as she dropped her pants, and two furry legs that ended in hooves appeared. “What the hell-” “Oh, right, maybe I shouldn’t have done that yet. I’m a faun. Half human, half goat. Ish.” “Ish???” you questioned. But before you could question her further, a man, no- half a man, the top half was man, the rest was horse, came towards you. “Suri, is this-” “Y/n y/l/n, originally hailing from Wichita, Kansas, yes, I finally found her.” “I’m dead. I’m dead and this is all just funky shit my brain is coming up with…” you tried to reason with yourself, the horse man laughed.

“Y/n, I know this is a lot to take in, Suri has been tracking you for almost six years now. I can explain everything, come with me.”

What other choice did you really have?

You walked beside the horse man as he lead you down the hill into the camp, you got a closer look at the people here, 90% looked normal, like you, regular, full humans. And they all seemed used to the appearance of the half human half animal creatures, because they all just waved to him.

“My name is Chiron, I’m a centaur. I’m also the activities director for Camp Half-Blood,” Chiron explained as you two walked towards a big white building. “And Half-Blood refers to…?” “Half gods, demigods. Children born from affairs between humans and Gods.” “Gods?” “The ancient Greek Gods to be specific. Gods like to take, how should I say, vacations down to Earth, and usually, they meet a human and, uh, procreate.”

You were silent as you took it in, but you already decided it was insane, AND impossible. You knew both your parents. But you followed Chiron into the house despite this, maybe it was all a joke, and he was about to explain what you were really doing here.

Chiron lead you into a big room, and watched with your own eyes as his horse legs folded into themselves, and magically became a wheelchair. “Makes it easier in the house. Come, sit, we have much to discuss.”

Now you knew you were going insane.

“Mr. D!” Chiron shouted as he picked up a clipboard. You heard a loud sigh before another man entered the room. “What is it, Chiron? I was trying to nap.” “New camper.” “Oh, awesome,” Mr. D replied sarcastically as he came to sit in a chair beside Chiron. “Um, I think there’s been a mistake. I’m not a-a-a half-blood,” you tried to explain. “We don’t make mistakes here, young lady,” Mr. D said, obviously annoyed. “I can’t be, uh, a child of the Gods. I know both my parents.”

Chiron’s head snapped up from his clipboard, looking at you puzzlingly. He looked back to the clipboard, lifting the pages. “Suri’s report includes the death of your mother, Penelope y/l/n?” “Yes, but I know who my father is.” Mr. D rolled his eyes, while Chiron put the clipboard down. “Then please, by all means, enlighten us. Who is your father?” “I- uh, it’s hard to explain.” “Try us,” Mr. D snapped.

You reached into your back pocket, pulling out your flip phone. “My mom gave me this when I was little. It only had one number in it, labeled Father, he calls me… I just call him dad. Mom said he works far away, always traveling…” Chiron nodded. “So you can call him then? To pick you up?” “He calls me mostly, I mean, I could try, sometimes he answers. But he’d send a car if I got a hold of him.” “Hm. Your father seems like a powerful man… Surely, he could have taken you in when your mother died.”

Your jaw clenched, but you tried to maintain your anger, you weren’t eager to start another fire. But he was right. Why hadn’t your father taken you in? “Well, it’s not like he left me on the street. He paid for me to live in hotels, apartments, paid for chaperones and drivers to take me to new places when I stayed too long-” “And, why couldn’t you stay too long?”

This man was calling all your bluffs. Questioning the same exact things you long wondered for yourself, but it was fine when you questioned them, it was a whole other thing for others to question it.

But as if by some miracle, the phone began to ring in your hand. “See? I’m not making it up,” you held the phone out to show the caller ID: Father. You quickly opened the phone, “Hello?” “Hand the phone to Chiron.”

It took you by surprise. How did your father know you were here? How did he know Chiron’s name?

Hesitantly, you pulled the phone away from your ear, and held it out. “He wants to talk to you.” Chiron’s eyebrows raised as he took the phone from you, and put it up to his ear.

“Hello, Chiron speaking,” he said, and almost immediately Chiron’s eyes widened. “You? Yes… Yes I understand that… You should know the rules better than I… I promise she is safe here… Yes… Mmhm… Okay.” Chiron hung up the phone and handed it back to you.

“Wh-What did he say?” “He said you were never supposed to come here, but that isn’t up to Hades I’m afraid.” “Hades? Wait wait, are you trying to tell me Hades, grim reaper, ruler of the underworld, river styx Hades is my father?” “I was surprised to hear his voice as well, but it’s the truth. Suri brought you here after a fire in your apartment? Tell me, how was the fire started?”

You were silent.

“That’s one of your father’s gifts. Fire, hellfire… If you had been here, where you were supposed to be, you would have learned to control it by now. You see… your father has a wife, and usually… he’s very loyal to her. He probably kept you hidden so she wouldn’t find out about his infidelity.” 

You felt a surge of emotions, complicated emotions. “That… This is all a prank right? Or I’m dreaming, this isn’t real.” “You are wide awake, y/n. It’ll take some getting used to, we’ll have one of our head counselors give you a tour, explain things. It might be easier to hear the truth from someone who’s been in your shoes… Come with me, Mr. D, I trust you’ll get started on the paperwork?” “Whatever.” “Okay, let’s go. I have the perfect camper in mind.”

You followed Chiron outside, still in his wheelchair. This time, when you looked around, you took it in with a new perspective. All these kids had had weird lives, like you. “Pope! Pope, would you please come over here please?” Chiron shouted as he stopped nearby a group of archers. “Archers, rest!” A boy, apparently Pope, called, raising his fist in the air before running over. “Hey Chiron… New camper?” “This is y/n y/l/n, daughter of Hades.”

Pope’s eyes widened as he looked at you. “Y/n, this is Pope Heyward, son of Athena.” “It’s a pleasure, y/n,” Pope said, sticking his hand out. You hesitated, but then shook it. “I want you to give her the tour, explain things. She’s, uh, had a bit of a rough start.” “Of course, sir. Will she be staying in Hermes cabin?” “Why would I stay in Hermes Cabin if Hades is my dad?” you asked. Pope and Chiron exchanged looks. “Well, um. We don’t have a Hades cabin. He’s never claimed a child before,” Pope explained. “She’ll stay in her uncle’s cabin. I’m sure JJ won’t mind the company until we can build a new cabin.” 

“Yes sir. I’ll show her around,” Pope said. Chiron gave him a nod then looked at you one more time. “You’ll like it here, y/n. No more running.”

[flowerhrt]

the end of love | daisy jones.

pairing: daisy jones x fem!reader

summary: two weeks after your break up, daisy decides to confront you and ask what's wrong.

warnings: it's the 70s, internalized homophobia, eddie being a bit of a dick, daisy is clean and the band is still together, reader is a lesbian.

a/n: i interpret daisy as a lesbian who deals with compulsive heterosexuality.

word count: 2.4k

breathe in. breathe out. it's just one song. record it all in one go, ignore billy's stupid complaints, and then go home. 

well, what used to be home.

 “daisy, you ready to go?” she heard teddy ask from the other side of the recording booth. “yeah, i'm fine. let's get this over with.” the redhead said before taking a sip of the glass of cold water she had next to her. she closed her eyes as she felt the liquid make its way through her throat.

 breathe in. breathe out. she opened her eyes to find the band and camila next to teddy, all smiling encouragingly at her. daisy was about to smile back when the door to the recording studio opened abruptly. “holy shit, tell me i'm not late.” 

oh fuck.

 daisy felt like her heart was about to beat out of her chest. why is she here? she was supposed to be in new york, not los angeles.

 “y/n! you are kind of late.. hope it was for a good reason.” warren said with a wink “tell me the guy at least fucks good.” the drummer added while wiggling his eyebrows.

 the blue-eyed singer wanted to disappear. she tried to distract herself by playing with the hems of her long-sleeved white shirt. huh, funny. daisy thought. she always loved it when i wore this one.

 “yeah, warren. he fucked better than you ever will.” y/n answered, not before rolling her eyes at their friend.

 they didn't know y/n didn't fuck any guy last night.

 they didn't know y/n would never fuck a guy. ever. they didn't know y/n was late because she didn't know if she could face her ex girlfriend after she told her she was leaving for good. they hadn't seen each other for two weeks, and it was fucking torture for both of them. they had grown so used to always waking up next to each other, cooking together, and doing pretty much everything together, and god did it feel weird to not see each other for longer than a day. 

daisy felt like she couldn't breathe when y/n left. she always had to remind herself to breathe in and breathe out. it was as if the girl before her took all the oxygen in the world when she walked out of daisy's front door. right. she remembered bitterly as she felt the fabric of the shirt in her hands.

 daisy's front door. daisy's home. 

because she refused to move in with her even after three years of secretly seeing each other. she refused to let anyone know about their relationship. not even simone, who is like… them. and daisy understood, she obviously did.

 it was dangerous to be one of the world's most famous singers and openly date a woman. openly love a woman. openly say the word lesbian. people would crucify you in the street if they knew you were a homosexual. that was the main reason y/n was scared, she was just a tour photographer who happened to become close with the band and fall in love with daisy on the way. if the world knew she was into women, she would never get another job.

 daisy tried to tell her they would be okay, to screw the rest of the world. they loved each other. how could that ever be bad? as far as she knew, love wasn't a bad thing. but maybe she only thought that because she didn't have much experience with it. her parents hated her. men used her. she only has the band, simone, and y/n. had y/n. not anymore. 

“daisy!” her name being yelled at her got her out of the trance she was in. “are you going deaf or are you just high as shit?” eddie asked from the microphone. 

“she's in recovery, eddie. stop joking about that.” she heard a soft voice she could recognize anywhere snap back at him. “right, sorry.” the bassist said with his hands held up high as a way of showing surrender.

 y/n looked at her and they made eye contact for a solid second. daisy gave her a small smile and looked down. “alright, let's get this party started!” warren hollered as daisy put her headphones on to start recording. “okay, the end of love, take one.” 

the redhead remembered to breathe as she heard the first notes of the song.

 i feel nervous in a way that can't be named.

i dreamt last night of a sign that read, the end of love. 

she looked up and saw y/n drumming her fingers against her waist. she obviously knew the song was about her. ever since daisy met the photographer, almost every song she has written has been about her. the singer wrote the end of love the day after y/n walked out of her new york apartment. 

it's pitiful, she thinks. even when they're not romantically together anymore, she still writes about her.

 and i remember thinking even in my dreaming.

 it was a good line for a song. 

daisy tried to steady her breathing but when she looked at y/n she felt like she was about to pass out.

 breathe in. breathe out.

 breathe in. i can't fucking do this. 

the flower-named girl placed her headphones down and said a quick “i need some fresh air.” before storming out of the recording booth. daisy walked through god knows how many rooms, until she found an empty one in the back of the building, she sat on the floor and leaned against the door she had just walked through.

 you dumb fucking idiot, she thought. now they're all going to think you´re singing about someone in the room, or even worse, that you've relapsed and can't record a damn song. she can't go through this again.

 if the band thinking she was in love with billy dunne, when she's not even into men, was bad enough, them seeing her overreact this way is going to make them figure out she has been seeing someone. 

there was a minute of silence while she tried to think of an excuse to say when she gets back into the studio, but it was all interrupted by a soft knock coming from the other side of the wooden door she has been leaning against.

 “i'm fine, karen. just give me a second.” the blue-eyed girl said while running a hand through her long red hair. 

“i'm not karen, but if you want me to go get her, i can do that.” her heart sank as she heard y/n's voice.

 “no!” she heard her own voice answer in a quick desperate way. she grimaced at how pathetic she sounded.

 “well, is it okay if i come in?”

 one beat. two beats. daisy unlocked the door.

 the photographer walked into the room and sat on the opposite side of the singer, facing her. “do you want to talk about it?”

 “talk about what?” 

the girl sighed and leaned her face against the palm of her right hand. “about what just happened. you don't normally walk out of a recording session, daisy. not ever. are you okay?” she asked as she looked straight into daisy's big blue eyes.

 the singer stared back and bit her lip as she felt her eyes start to water. “i miss you.” 

“daisy-” 

“no.” she interrupted. “you say you love me but then decide to break up with me.” she says with a scoff. “without even letting me ask you what i did wrong. without even letting me try and fight for you. for us.” a tear streamed down her right cheek.

 it took everything in the girl before her to not wipe it, the way she always did. 

“listen, i understand being scared. do you think i'm not frightened of how the boys will react if they ever find out we are the way we are? but i didn't care as long as i had you. i know you have your doubts. but why did we have to hide from everyone? simone would never treat us differently. we both know she's a lesbian. just like you and i.” she pointed a finger at herself and the girl who now wouldn't dare to look her in the eye. 

“karen wouldn't either, she's too busy minding her own fucking business to be disgusted by us. even camila wouldn't care, she'd be delighted to know i've never felt an ounce of love for her husband” daisy was fully crying now. god, she loved her girlfriend so much. why wasn't that enough for her?

 “i left for that exact reason.” 

“what?” she asked.

 “you deserve someone who isn't afraid to love you. who isn't afraid of who she is.” y/n continued. “you know, billy and graham saw simone kiss her girlfriend at your birthday party” she said with a sarcastic laugh. “and they didn't give a single shit.” daisy was silent as she listened intently to her ex-girlfriend's voice.

 “when simone realized they saw her, she told them they'd been together for over five years. and shit, they truly didn't care. even warren said it wasn't fair simone found a girlfriend way before he met lisa.” y/n played with the rings placed around her fingers to avoid eye contact. “the entire band knows about simone, and they think it's normal.” 

daisy's heart was racing, she didn't know if it was excitement for simone, because her best friend was able to love her girlfriend without a care. or if it was happiness, because the rest accepting simone could only mean one thing. if the six don't care about simone and her girlfriend, then that means they won't care about her and y/n.

 the photographer was silent for a while, so daisy decided to speak first. “i don't really understand. you left me because you're afraid of them knowing about us. but, you also know they wouldn't care if they find out?” the singer´s eyes scanned her ex girlfriend´s face, trying to find an answer. 

“yeah… it's stupid.”

 “damn right, it fucking is!” daisy sighed. “i love you. you love me. we can at least tell them and simone about our relationship.”

 y/n was the one holding back tears now. “i want to. i truly do.” 

“then what's stopping you?” her voice softened at the sight of the girl she loves the most crying in front of her.

 “I can't openly love you, not when i can't even say… well, you know what.”

 “god, y/n. you didn't tell me you were still struggling with that. i could've helped you.”

 “i know you would've, but i didn't want to be a burden.” daisy slowly raised her arm and caressed y/n's cheek in the soft, loving way she always does. “you're not a burden. not ever. not to me.” the flower-named girl tucked the girl's hair behind her ear. 

“i love you. i love you so fucking much, i can't breathe when i'm without you.” she continued. “you helped me when i was trying to recover from my addiction. you were there when i got out of rehab. you've helped me stay clean.” 

“that was all you, daisy.” 

“yeah, but you were next to me the entire time. the least i can do is be next to you, while you learn to accept yourself.”  “it took me a while to come to terms with being a lesbian, too.” daisy said as she twirled a piece of y/n's hair around her finger. 

“i used to think the only way i could make it into the industry was by not caring about men stealing my music because at least people would hear them. fuck, i forced myself to want them, the same way they wanted me. because that was the closest i thought i'd ever get to being loved.” “but that's not what love is. love is what you and i have.”

 y/n placed her hand over daisy's. “i want to be brave, for you.”

 “you already are. you just need to be brave for yourself. because you deserve it.”

 “thank you, for everything.”  y/n gave her a soft small smile. “you don't have to thank me for anything, seeing you smile is good enough for me.” 

 the two women locked eyes, and they just stared at each other for a small moment. y/n's hands began to shake with desperation, she craved the feeling of daisy against her. and suddenly, she felt a force pulling her towards the redhead girl, daisy placed her hands on both sides of y/n's waist, and instinctively, as if her body was made to be next to her's, y/n placed her hands behind daisy's neck, the same way she has done for the past few years, their bodies were pieces of a puzzle made to be together.

 they both leaned into each other, they were so close, they could feel each other's noses rubbing together, daisy smiled at the sensation. “can i-” daisy started “you don't even have to ask.” the girl interrupted, before smashing her lips into the singer's.

 their lips locked, the two women having been in the exact same position hundreds of times, but this was different. this kiss was about understanding, about forgiveness, about acceptance, about moving forward. it lasted a few more moments until they were out of breath and had to pull away. 

“i love you, daisy jones.” the girl whispered against daisy's lips. “i love you, y/n l/n.” she answered with glossy, vibrant eyes. before getting back into her usual cocky self.

 “well, not to spoil my amazing new song, which is going to be a hit, but there's a specific lyric i think you're going to like.” she said, trying to fight back a smile. y/n rolled her eyes at her girlfriend's antics.

 “oh yeah? what is it?” daisy cupped y/n's cheeks and stared lovingly into her lover's eyes. “i've always been in love with you. could you tell it from the moment that i met you?” the redhead sang before kissing her beautiful girlfriend again, and again, and again.

 daisy still had to finish recording her song, and they still had to explain what took the photographer so long to find her, but luckily, this time y/n wasn't afraid to tell them the truth. 

we were reaching in the dark

that summer in new york

and it was so far to fall

but it didn't hurt at all.

[allmoshnobrain]

𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐬

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

part 04 of ? | masterpost

word count: 2.8k

“It’s just…” you started, blinking back the tears that threatened to spill. “I don’t want you to think I’m a mess.” “I’ve been a mess most of my life, kiddo,” he whispered, letting go of your chin and resting his hand back on the table. You sighed, your heart beating a little off-kilter as you fought the urge to scoot closer to him. “I’m not gonna judge you. I just want to help.”

✦ warnings and tags: jason newsted x reader, age gap (23/38), no use of y/n, slow burn, grumpy/sunshine dynamics maybe?, reader has a backstory and it's kinda tragic, a bit of angst, eventual smut in future parts, stalking (not by Jason), toxic ex dynamics (not by Jason), mentions of cheating

“I didn’t know he was talking about you,” Sophie leaned forward on the balcony, a small smile on her lips as she looked at you curiously. You blinked, puzzled.

“What?”

“Your Mr. Newsted,” she explained, and the way she said his name made your cheeks turn red. “He mentioned wanting to cover a friend’s subscription fee, but I didn’t realize he was talking about you.”

You bit your lower lip, glancing around the Recreation Club’s hall. Jason had said he’d be taking a quick tour of the place while you filled out the membership paperwork, but he still wasn’t back. The morning sun streamed through the windows, casting little patterns of light all over the floor. You could see one of the Club’s pools through the glass behind Sophie. The place looked pretty much the same as it did when you were a kid, and it made your heart ache with a mix of nostalgia and happiness.

“I didn’t know he meant to pay it for me either,” you said, simply. “He said it was a thank-you gift… For helping him get to know the town.”

“He must be loaded if that’s his idea of a thank-you gift. Damn, you’re so lucky. I wish someone would cover my stuff,” Sophie grunted, and you giggled. “Hey, you sure he’s not from around here or something? When I first saw him, I thought his face looked familiar.”

“I don’t think so, Soph,” you shrugged. “Maybe you know him from his work? He said he used to be in a band,” You finished signing the paper with your personal info and handed it to Sophie. “Here you go.”

“Thanks,” she said, glancing over the form. You looked up as Jason walked back into the hall from his quick tour. He smiled at you, and you could feel your cheeks flushing again.

“So, everything good?” he asked, leaning against the counter.

“Yep,” Sophie smiled, handing you both cards and brochures. “These are your temporary membership cards. The official ones should be ready in a week. And here’s a booklet with our rules and an overview of the facilities. Welcome to the Recreation Club!”

You said your goodbyes to Sophie shortly after, holding the membership card and the brochure tightly in your hands as you got into Jason’s car. You weren’t entirely sure why you had decided to accept his offer from the night before; maybe you were being selfish, wanting back some of the happiness you still associated with the place. But maybe it was the honesty in his eyes when he’d talked to you about it. You knew Jason wasn’t lying when he said he thought of you as a friend; the memory of last night’s words made your heart flutter in your chest with a strange happiness.

“You happy?” he asked, catching your gaze. He gave you a soft smile, his blue eyes sparkling in the sunlight before he put on his sunglasses.

“Yeah,” you smiled, glancing down at your hands as you nervously fiddled with the membership card. “What’s with the sunglasses?” you asked, and Jason chuckled.

“Guess I might’ve had more to drink than I remember yesterday. Got a bit of a headache,” he said. “So, should I take you home, or are you headed somewhere else?”

“I need to go to work,” you answered quietly. “But it’s fine if you want to drop me off at home.”

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll drive you. Let me guess… It’s on Main Street, right?”

“Pretty much everything is,” you agreed with a chuckle. “It’s the flower shop near the police station. I can show you the way.”

“I think I can find it on my own, sweetheart. But thanks,” he replied playfully, flashing a smile. You bit your lower lip, trying to hide a small smile of your own. “You mind if I turn the radio on?”

“Go ahead,” you said. Jason leaned forward, pressing a few buttons on the car’s panel to turn on the radio. A soft tune filled the car, and you smiled as you watched the trees pass by the window. It was a sunny day, the first in a while. The start of spring felt like a miracle, and for the first time in ages, you felt alive. It was a good feeling, calm and steady. Funny how most of that came from being around someone you’d only met a few days before.

Oh, I'll twine with my mingles and waving black hair With the roses so red and the lilies so fair And the myrtle so bright with the emerald hue The pale and the leader and eyes look like blue.

You glanced at Jason, a soft smile playing on your lips. He looked focused, one hand on the wheel while the other rested on the gear shift, his finger tapping along to the beat of the song. You wondered how he’d react if you touched him, ran your fingers through his hair, felt its soft texture against your hand. It almost made you wish the ride to work would last a bit longer.

Oh, he taught me to love him and called me his flower That was blooming to cheer him through life's dreary hour Oh, I long to see him and regret the dark hour He's gone and neglected this pale wildwood flower

“We’re here,” he said, pulling the car to a stop and glancing over at you. You blinked and looked around, realizing he’d already parked in front of Mrs. Higgins’ flower shop.

“You really did know the way,” you said, and he chuckled.

“Told you,” he smiled. “You good, sweetheart?”

Sweetheart. He had called you that twice already that day, and each time it made you feel like butterflies were restlessly fluttering in your belly. 

“Yeah,” you muttered, your hand fumbling for the door handle. “Thanks for the ride.”

“No problem. See you later?”

“See you. Thanks,” you said again before hopping out of his truck.

You were so blissfully lost in thought, replaying all the little moments of happiness from the morning, that you didn’t even notice him. It wasn’t until he was right in front of you, his dark eyes jealous and angry, that you realized. You took a step back, your heart suddenly racing as Ethan glared at you.

 “Ethan, what the hell?” you snapped, taking a step back, a mix of anger and fear tightening in your chest. “I told you I don’t want to see you! What are you doing at my job?”

“You’re late,” he growled. “And what the hell were you doing in that guy’s car? Who is he?”

“So now you’re following me? This is none of your damn business!” You were lucky Mrs. Higgins wasn’t around yet. As nice as she was, you didn’t want her to know your ex was showing up at your work. You looked around nervously, taking another step back as Ethan moved closer. “Leave me alone,” you warned.

“I just want to talk,” he said. You shook your head, arms wrapping around yourself in a vain attempt to feel more protected. You could feel your heart racing against your ribs, your breath growing uneven as your fear threatened to overtake the sheer annoyance of having to deal with him. 

“Ethan, it’s over, okay? Just leave me alone!”

“But you gotta listen to me!” Ethan yelled, and you bit your lip, taking another step back. “Why don’t you fucking—” he suddenly stopped, his eyes glaring angrily at something behind you. You jumped when you felt a firm, strong hand on your shoulder.

“Everything alright?” Jason asked, and you let out a small sigh of relief when you saw him beside you, his blue eyes locked on Ethan with barely hidden annoyance.

“Mr. Newsted,” you whispered, your voice shaking with relief and gratitude. “I’m sorry, he’s just…”

“Who the fuck are you?” Ethan demanded, crossing his arms and glaring at Jason defiantly. You stepped closer to Jason, who gave your shoulder a reassuring squeeze. It was funny how small and childish Ethan seemed now that Jason was around.

“Doesn’t matter who I am,” Jason said coldly. “But I think you should leave.”

Ethan frowned, glancing quickly between you and Jason before deciding it wasn’t worth the fight. You let out a heavy sigh as he walked away, your breath still shaky. You looked up when you heard Jason call your name.

“You alright?” he asked, worry coloring his blue eyes. You nodded, but tears were right on the edge as you bit your lower lip. “Hey, it’s okay. Come here.”

Jason helped you get back into his car. You buried your face in your hands, trying to steady your breath as you felt a wave of delayed panic making your whole body shake. 

“Should I call someone?” Jason asked, worried. You shook your head.

“I’m fine. I just need to calm down… I can’t miss work.”

“I don’t think you’re in shape to work right now,” he said, and you looked up to meet his concerned gaze. “Can’t you call in sick? I can take you home if you want.”

You bit your lower lip, mind racing as you tried to think of what to do. Going home was tempting, especially with how shaken you were and the chance Ethan might show up again. But you weren’t the type to miss work for anything. Even when you were sick, you usually dragged yourself in anyway, only to have Mrs. Higgins send you home despite your protests.

“I… I don’t know,” you mumbled, and Jason shook his head.

“Unless you want me to stick around all day, it’s probably best to head home. I’m not leaving you alone if that little jerk comes back,” he said, making you giggle nervously. “Come on, just let me take you home.”

You didn’t answer, which Jason took as a yes. You sighed, resting your head against the window, the ride now feeling completely different from the one just a few minutes before. If you’d felt happy and calm then, now you were uneasy and embarrassed. You hadn’t meant to drag Jason into the messier parts of your life. You were giving him too much trouble already, and he’d only just gotten to town.

“I’m sorry,” you whispered as he pulled up in front of your house.

“Why are you apologizing? This isn’t your fault,” Jason said, and you shook your head. “It isn’t,” he insisted, giving your knee a gentle squeeze. “Have you thought about talking to the police?”

“That won’t do much. His uncle’s a cop,” you laughed shakily. “I shouldn’t be dragging you into this mess, I…”

“Please, quit saying that,” he cut you off. “Let’s get inside, okay? I can make you some coffee, and you can call work… I’ll stick around until you’re feeling better.”

You nodded, getting out of the car and nervously glancing around, still shaken from the run-in with Ethan. To your relief, the street was quiet, the morning nearing its end peacefully. You grabbed your keys and opened the door as Jason got out of the car.

“Come on in,” you said softly as he walked up the porch steps. It hit you that this was the first time you’d invited Jason into your place. You wondered what he’d think of it — the living room that was always a bit cluttered, the kitchen with a few dishes in the sink. You tried to keep it cozy, but it wasn’t easy to keep things perfectly tidy on your own.

Jason didn’t seem to mind at all. He walked into your place with a confidence you almost envied, casually leaving his car keys on the little table by the hall. You headed to the kitchen, grabbing some mugs from the cupboard to make coffee.

“Let me take care of this,” Jason said softly, taking the mugs from you and setting them on the kitchen table. “Don’t worry about it, kid. Go call your job.”

“Okay,” you whispered, feeling your face heat up a bit before heading to the living room to grab the phone.

Mrs. Higgins was practically relieved you were calling in sick instead of dragging yourself to work like usual. You felt a bit guilty for lying — yeah, getting followed by your ex wasn’t exactly fun, but you were pretty sure you could work just fine after calming down a bit. Still, the smell of fresh coffee drifting from the kitchen and the sound of Jason washing the dishes made your place feel less empty for the first time in a while. And honestly, you wanted him to stay — as silly as it sounded, you just wanted him to stay with you.

“Here you go,” Jason said, setting a mug of coffee in front of you as you sat at the kitchen table. He took a seat too, his expression serious and a bit worried. “Look, kid, I don’t wanna pry, but… You wanna tell me what’s up with this Ethan guy?”

You sighed, staring down at your hands as you clutched the warm mug. The heat seeped into your skin, and you took a grateful sip. You didn’t want to burden Jason, not after everything he’d done for you without expecting anything in return. He didn’t deserve to be pulled into the mess your life had become over the past few years.

“Hey,” Jason said, making you look up and meet his serious eyes. “I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s going on.”

“Please,” you whispered, “you’ve already done so much for me. I don’t want to bother you more than I have.”

“You’re not a bother,” he said, gently tilting your chin up. You blinked, your cheeks heating up when his thumb brushed softly across your cheek. “None of this has been a bother. But it’s not gonna mean much if something bad happens to you.”

“It’s just…” you started, blinking back the tears that threatened to spill. “I don’t want you to think I’m a mess.”

“I’ve been a mess most of my life, kiddo,” he whispered, letting go of your chin and resting his hand back on the table. You sighed, your heart beating a little off-kilter as you fought the urge to scoot closer to him. “I’m not gonna judge you. I just want to help.”

You sighed, realizing you didn't really have a choice but to spill it all out. Maybe it’d actually be good to share everything that went down between you and the guy you once thought was the love of your life with someone other than Sophie. It felt so dumb now, so childish, how you used to think you and Ethan were meant to be.

“Ethan and I… We were friends since we were kids, and then in high school, we ended up dating,” you mumbled, taking another sip of your coffee before letting out a soft sigh. “I really thought I loved him. I was convinced we were gonna get married, you know? The whole perfect love story thing. But,” you laughed bitterly. “But then he cheated on me. With the pastor’s daughter. On my birthday, while I was working at the pub. And you know how I found out? I went to his place right after my shift, and there they were, just…” You shook your head, looking up while trying not to cry. Even after all this time, it still hurt just as much.

You didn’t need to go into all the details. You didn’t need to explain how Ethan had been stalking you since, trying to explain himself, even though you’d made it clear you wanted nothing to do with him. You didn’t need to tell him how exhausted you were — exhausted from life taking away the things that mattered most to you, over and over again. Because, when Jason hugged you, pulling you close against his chest, you knew he understood you without needing any more words. 

And when he pulled back gently, his forehead resting against yours, his breath warm on your lips, you knew you would never shed another tear for Ethan ever again. 

“I should go,” he said softly, his voice hoarse. You blinked as he pulled away softly, the warmth of his skin leaving yours as your heart raced, your breath uneven as every bit of the anxiety you’d felt earlier was replaced by something else — a need for him that startled you, a pit in your stomach that felt like hunger.

“Please,” you whispered, reaching for his hands and feeling a sigh of relief as his fingers intertwined with yours. “Please, stay.”

And when he looked at you, conflict and desire in his eyes making your heart race, you knew he would never deny you anything if he could help it. 

You knew you had won.

And you knew you wanted him.

taglist: @jameshettywetty

✧ if you'd like to be tagged on the next parts, let me know and I'll add you to the tag list! ❤ ✧

[fleurrreads]

pairings: benny x cop!reader

warnings: none

author's note: based on this request ♡ im not 100% sure how i feel about it. only proofread once so yeah :)

Five beers deep at a small bar you meet Benny. Blonde, handsome, totally off limits. He approached you instantly, softly asking your name. He smirks at the mention of your name, repeating it a few times to get familiar with it. The blush on your cheeks not going unnoticed by him, he takes a seat next to you.

"So where are you from, darlin'?" he taps his fingers on the counter of the bar, a habit he's developed in the past few months. You give him a small smile, "Oklahoma. Born and raised." He raises a brow. "Oh you're a country girl? Would've never guessed that." he chuckles, taking a chug from his beer. You take this time to study his features. Really study them. He truly was a beautiful sight, and he probably knew it too.

°‧ 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 ·｡

The evening was going really smoothly, no ulterior motives in sight. Just good company and some laughs. You glance at your watch and much to your dismay it is extremely late, already in the early hours of a new day. "Well darn, it's time for me to head home." you say, grabbing your purse to take out your wallet, as a rough hand envelops yours, stopping you. "Don't worry about it, doll. I'll take care of it." Benny says, giving you a lopsided smile. Your heart jumps in your chest. "No I can't let you pay for it, I drank a lot!" you shake your head, a little giggle following your last sentence. You can't remember the last time you drank this much, especially since you've moved to a new city.

Benny insists, "Genuinely, doll. I got it. You can pay f'the next one." Your mind reels. He wants to see you again, he's made it perfectly clear. You nod, world a bit blurry, as you scribble your number on a napkin on the bar counter. "You can call me, I'm mostly at work during the day tho'." you say, handing him the napkin. He takes it and puts it in his pocket. "Yes ma'am. I never asked you what you do for work." he says, tilting his head to the side. Right, you nearly forget what your job is when he stares at you like that, and you gulp. "I'm a cop." you blurt out, and he chuckles. "Usually I ain't on too good terms with cops." he states, gulping down the last bit of his beer before throwing some money down on the counter and standing up, you follow behind him.

"Why not? You a troublemaker, Benny?" you joke. He laughs, "Somethin' like that."

°‧ 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 ·｡

Benny speeds down the main street of town, surely breaking many road rules as he hears the police sirens wail behind him. He stops, his bike is too low on fuel to outrun them anyway. He sighs, defeated as a familiar silhouette approaches him. You take off your glasses, an amused look on your face. "Well well well... what do we have here? You do know that you were speeding multiple miles over the speed limit, yes?" the amusement never leaving your features as Benny laughs. "Well well. I didn't think that this would be how we meet again, doll." he says, running a hand through his hair.

"What can I do to lessen my fine, officer? I promise this'll be the last time you see me speedin'." he frowns, amusement shining in his eyes.

You sigh, "Tsk tsk tsk, I don't know. What can you give me that I don't already have, sir?" you smirk, enjoying the little game. His eyes widen momentarily, a smug look on his face. He takes your hand, placing a soft kiss, rubbing circles on your hand. "Oh I have a lot I can give you, ma'am. Why don't I take you for a ride?" he says, challenging you. You raise a brow, always one for a challenge.

You get on the back of his motorcycle, arms holding to his sides. Benny grasps your hands, pulling you even closer to him. You feel all giddy inside, your heart beating wildly.

"If I get fired it's gonna be all your fault. 'Just sayin'."

reblogs and comments are highly appreciated! ☆

[vodika-vibes]

How about this; Jango meets up with a female informant at a night club; this is the first time they've met, but it's instant, very Strong, mutual attraction and after she gives him the information, they burst out of the back door of the club, into a dark alley, making out and end up having their way with each other in the alley.

I'll keep the ideas coming as I get them; feel free to use whichever ones inspire you the most!

The Alder Job

Summary: When Jango Fett needs information for a bounty, he normally goes to his information broker, a Toydarian named Roz. This time, however, Roz sends him to get his information right from the source.

Pairing: Jango Fett x F!Reader

Word Count: 2159

Warnings: Smut, mentions of Pedophilia and human trafficking (Jango misunderstands a situation, there's no actual pedophilia or human trafficking)

Tagging: @trixie2023 @n0vqni

A/N: So, I very much appreciate all three of the ideas that you sent me and I'll probably write all of them because I love Jango...apparently, lol. I hope you like this one~

Jango is annoyed.

Okay. Jango is often annoyed. It’s his go-to emotion in most situations, but now he’s really annoyed.

“Well? Have you arrived yet?” Roz’s voice is scratchy over the comm.

“Yeah, yeah. Are you sure you can’t give me the information?”

“I could….but I’m not going to. You need to talk to this informant.” Roz replies, before she laughs, “Don’t worry. I told them to look for you.” And then the comm disconnects.

He exhales loudly, trying to shove his irritation away, as he eyes the night club distastefully. He can hear the music coming from the club all the way out to the street.

This is officially the worst job he’s ever taken.

Jango walks over to the bouncer, who eyes him and his armor, before he jerks his head to the side, “You’re expected. VIP section. Don’t cause any trouble.”

As if he would.

Still, Jango nods once and steps into the club, and is immediately assaulted by the scent of stale alcohol and sweat. Distaste, and disgust, cause his lip to curl, but he has a job to do. So he turned toward the VIP section. 

As with most night clubs, the VIP section is cordoned off from the rest of the club. Unlike most clubs he’s been in, this VIP section is situated at the top of an elevator, completely separate from the rest of the club.

The music is quieter up here, and it smells less like stale beer and more sugary. It’s almost as bad as the scent down in the main club. Almost.

The Bouncers up here look a lot more dangerous than the ones down below, but if Jango had to guess, the people up here all have more money than sense, so the better guards are reasonable.

One of the bouncers eyes Jango, but doesn’t move to stop him. Poor guy is probably used to all sorts coming up here. 

Most of the tables are filled with men surrounded by gorgeous, and young, women. Though there’s one that’s clearly a bachelorette party, and another that looks like some teenager’s coming of age birthday party.

But there, in the back, closest to the back door, is a young woman sitting at a private table. She’s alone, with her gaze locked on a datapad in her hand, and she had one knee pulled up to her chest.

And, while Jango’s never been one to put much stock into looks, he has to admit that she’s stunning, and he really can’t understand why no one is giving her a second look.

He crosses the open room over to her, and lightly raps his knuckles on the table. She lifts her gaze from the datapad to meet his, her expression puzzled at first, before it clears and a warm smile crosses her face.

Jango can’t remember the last time someone greeted him so warmly.

“You must be Mand’alor Fett. Please, have a seat.” Her voice is light and warm and Jango is so distracted by the sound of her voice that he doesn’t immediately register what she calls him until he’s seated across from her. 

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” He says, gruffly, “I’m not Mand’alor.”

She pauses, “Ah. Roz indicated that that was your title. Was she mistaken?” Her voice is lightly accented, and Jango can’t get enough of it. He also can’t help but notice that she hasn’t taken her eyes off of him.

“Roz has a tendency to exaggerate.” He finally says as he leans back, and he notices her gaze drop to his chest plate for a moment, before returning to his face. 

Nice to know that the attraction is mutual.

She laughs softly, “I had noticed that, yes. So, what should I call you then?”

“Jango. Just Jango.”

“Well then, Jango,” His name is like honey on her lips, and he curls one of his hands into a fist to keep from doing something foolish. “It’s very nice to meet you.” And then she introduces herself, and he jolts in surprise.

“Wait. Alder?”

She smiles, “As in those Alders?” There’s something wry in her voice, “The one and the same. It’s why Roz asked me to be your informant. There’s no one better to give you the information you need than someone from the family.”

“You do realize that I’m here to kill them, right?”

Her smile becomes even more wry, “Oh, yes. I’m aware.”

“...I’m going to need some clarification before I get any intel from you.”

She laughs, “That’s fair.” She leans back in the chair, and Jango’s gaze drops to her thigh, now exposed since she moved, and then slowly drags back to her face.

“Go ahead.”

“We had a falling out.” She explains with a careless shrug. Or a would be careless shrug, if it wasn’t for the look on her face. “You see, they had…ideas. As to my place in society, and I had different ones.”

“Must be pretty vastly different ideas if you’re okay with them dying.”

“Well, they wanted me to be a trophy wife for my grandfather’s best friend. I had different ideas.” She drops her gaze for a moment, “I was 17 when they started planning my wedding.”

He exhales slowly, “So. Not only are they corrupt, they’re also pedophiles and traffickers. Good to know.” He leans in, “So, about that intel.”

“My mother is holding a gala in 12 days.” She replies, “The whole family will be there. Normally, tickets to these events cost an arm and a leg. But I have a ticket for you.” She slides a ticket across the table to him, “The downside is that it’s black tie only.”

“Of course it is.” Jango taps out a rhythm on the table, “You know the house, anyway for me to sneak my gear in?”

“Hm…you could try to pay the caterers to bring them in and stash them somewhere.” She offers, “Other than that, you might be able to hide the gear on the grounds somewhere.”

“I’m sure I’ll figure it out.” Jango finally says, his gaze dragging down her body again, and then a sly smile crossing his face, “So, you have any other plans for the night?”

“Can’t say that I do.” She replies, as she leans in a little bit, “Why do you ask?”

He smirks at her, and stands, scooping his helmet up with one hand and then motioning for her to follow him. He opens the door, and stands in the doorway, waiting for her.

She watches him for a moment, and then she passes through the door, intentionally pressing her body against his.

And, for the first time in his life, Jango finds himself cursing his armor.

He follows her down the carpeted stairs and into a dimmed hallway, his gaze lingering on the way her hips look in her mini-skirt, on the way the skirt swayed due to her canting walk.

The moment they’re no longer on the stairs he has her back pressed against the wall, and his lips are hot against hers. She kisses back just as eagerly, her arms sliding around his neck to tangle in the hair at the back of his head.

“Kriff,” Jango breathes against her lips, “I’ve never been so annoyed at my armor in my life.”

She laughs breathlessly, “I’ve never been so annoyed at a piece of metal in my life either.” She admits. 

He laughs softly, and presses even harder against her, “I suppose we should do something about that.”

She raises up on her toes and kisses him again, her tongue sliding against his lips for a moment, before allowing Jango to take control back. When he breaks the kiss this time, she’s breathing quickly and her eyes are half lidded, “Later,” She murmurs, in answer to his comment, “I want you.”

Jango’s fingers flex on her hip, “Here? Now?” He murmurs. 

She hesitates, her gaze snapping from one side to the other, before she takes his hand and tugs him out the VIP door.

Jango follows her out the door, down the alley, and into a darker, quieter alley. 

“Here?” She asks him, as he presses her back against the building and slots his thigh between her legs.

Jango quickly assesses the alley. No cameras. No people. Good enough for now.

He doesn’t answer her verbally, instead he just crashes his lips against hers, and moves his leg so he’s able to slide his hands under her skirt. He eases her panties down her legs, and then shoves them in one of his pouches. 

A breathless laugh falls from her and Jango presses her firmer against the wall, “Kriff.” He breathes as his lips fall from hers to latch onto the tender skin under her ear, pulling a moan from her pretty lips, “Later I’m going to make you fall apart over and over, mesh’la.”

“Later?” She asks.

Jango removes his codpiece and presses it into her willing hand, before he adjusts his bodysuit so that his hard cock bounces free, “I need to be inside you,”

She whines and presses against him, “So hurry up.”

“Impatient,” He crashes his lips against hers again, “Arms around me, mesh’la.” Jango waits until her arms are secure around his neck, and then he lifts her and encourages her to hook her legs around his waist. 

He rocks against her a few times spreading her arousal against his cock, and, as an added bonus, making her whine and moan out his name. “You’re so wet, cyare.” Jango murmurs as he nips her earlobe, “Is this all for me?”

“Don’t tease, Jango-” She gasps out shifting and squirming in his arms to try and encourage him to just start already.

He nips her earlobe a little harder, ripping a moan from her throat, “Just for that, princess, I’m definitely going to tease you later.”

“You-” She’s not able to finish her sentence as he thrusts into her, hard and fast, and her words turn into a cry of pleasure as her head falls back. And the only reason her head doesn’t hit the wall is because of his hand resting on the back of her neck.

“Oh no you don’t,” Jango growls as he starts a slow, but hard, pace. “Eyes on me, Princess.” He pulls almost all the way out, before thrusting hard into her.

She struggles to keep her eyes open, but she does. And Jango feels a thrill when she obeys him unquestionably. “Such a good girl,” He breathes, “So obedient. Kriff,” He kisses her deeply, “You’re so tight-”

She arches against him and clenches around him at his praise, and Jango makes a mental note. He’ll have to take advantage of that later. 

“S-sorry,” She gasps.

Jango laughs, “Oh, cyare,” He snaps his hips roughly against hers, “Don’t apologize for feeling amazing-” He adjusts her for a moment, and then snaps his hips against hers again, and she lets out a sharp gasp. 

“A-again. Please. Do that again!” She pleads with him.

“Yes ma’am,” Who is he to obey such a delicious sound? He snaps his hips against hers making sure to hit the same spot over and over. 

Sweat beads at his temple, she really does feel amazing. And it’s been so long since he’s had a partner, he’s not going to last much longer this first time. But she’s not going to go without.

He won’t let her.

Jango dips his hand to where they’re joined, and he presses a firm finger against her clit, rubbing in quick circles. His hips stutter as she clenches tightly around him.

She falls apart silently, her face pressed against his neck, and Jango can’t wait to see what noises he’ll be able to pull from her when she’s in his bed.

“Where-?” Jango gasps out as his thrusts become shallow.

She keeps her legs tightly around him, which he takes as answer enough. A few more shallow thrusts and he’s spilling his seed deep inside her. 

Jango presses his forehead against hers as he tries to regain control of his breathing, and he feels her soft fingers against his cheek. His eyes open and he flashes a cocky smirk, “So, cyare,” he murmurs, “where do you live?”

She laughs softly and drops her legs back to the ground, “Not far.” She admits with a small smile, “Close enough to walk, if I had someone with me to keep me safe.”

Jango watches her fix her skirt, a small smile crossing his face when she reaches out and carefully fixes his bottoms for him, and snaps his codpiece back into place.

“Lucky for you, you have a Mandalorian here to protect you.”

She favors him with a bright smile, “Lucky me indeed.” She takes his hand and leads him out of the alley, “This way, Jango.”

Jango falls into step next to her with ease.

Maybe, just maybe, he owes Roz some nice wine. Maybe.

[tactical-mode]

After a rushed release, I took my time re-editing and reshooting and am now happy with the final product. Lesson learned. Perfectionism is the enemy of putting a product out, but I can afford to take the time to be proud of it.

Between where we left Cloud last time and where we find him in this opening shot, I actually filmed multiple scenes using Remake that took us into the station house, through a combat, up the stairs, and back out onto the street. These scenes were cut because they weren’t in the OG, it’s as simple as that. The 76 shots and ~15 minutes of good footage are waiting on the ancillary hard drive to be used in a music video or something.

[Chapter 01] Scene 10:  Meeting AVALANCHE

(see my post from Episode 1 to read about why I enumerate scenes this way)

This is the first major overhaul to a scene from 7R, and I cut a lot, refilmed, and moved shots around much more than folks might notice, and I had to manipulate a lot to make it seem like Biggs is interacting with Cloud, which he doesn’t actually do in the Remake scene.

The character’s mouth animations surprised me by how well they could be interpreted to be saying the PS1 lines, especially:

Jessie: “--s, this, uh, what was his name again?”

Jessie: “SOLDIER? Aren’t they the enemy?”

Biggs: “He’s a professional, unlike the rest of us.”

Biggs: “He quit them, and now he’s one of us.”

For the dialogue in this scene I blended PS1 and EC. Forever shout out to Yinza for preserving the PS1 script.

(remember to turn on closed-captioning for the dialogue!)

Scene 11:  Opening the Gate

There’s some stage blocking here and another instance where I decide to go with Remake and/or EC’s dialogue over OG. In OG, Barret tells them to split up (they don’t), the player is given the option to rename him, he tells Cloud that he doesn’t trust him, and then he tells the player how to use the controller buttons to run. Yeah, that won’t work. We’re going to keep his one line about trust:

“Ex-SOLDIER, huh? Don't trust ya!” (PS1/Beacause)

“You’d better be worth the money, merc. Every last gil.” (7R)

For this, 7R’s line is the most evocative and gives us just a bit more context for the situation at hand. I’m not super thrilled that it extraneously introduces us to the concept of ‘gil’, the fictional currency of FF7’s world, which isn’t relevant to the story right now (in the OG, Aerith introduces it when selling the player a flower). But the line is just so damn cool. Barret is so damn cool.

I cut the extraneous chatter between Cloud and Wedge here. I added a couple of shots around the door opening, such as moving one of Wedge’s face-muggings and a wide shot of Jessie and Biggs being sneaky.

I blended the different movements of the soundtrack here to match the iconic tilt of the camera up at the reactor. I also made sure to keep the entire sequence timed in such a way that Barret’s cold turn back is accented by the tense cellos. They haven’t said which one of Remake’s many composers is responsible for each individual diversion from Uematsu’s original score, but I would put good money on Shotaro Shima for the cinematic variation that plays during this scene. The forevariance of the Main Theme here is a particularly nice touch.

Scene 12: Combat: Cloud vs. 1 MP and 1 Guard Hound

A combat has begun, which means that our major story moments for the episode are behind us. That’s not to say that there won’t be plot in the following few minutes, but there won’t be dialogue. Enjoy the slow-motion feast for the eyes and ears, I really enjoyed making it.

Because Cloud is the only combatant in these, it’s easy to actually choreograph and re-shoot the fights, finaggling the enemies into the same locations as I use the same moves on them. This fight can be repeated after opening a nearby chest, allowing me to quickly restart it without having to reload, with only minor changes to the starting positions. For instance, in the first scenario, the members of AVALANCHE start on the battlefield and spend the first few rounds taking the lift, whereas they’re already at the top at the start of the second fight.

I really loved the naturally moody lighting on the crew in the warehouse, and cutting back and forth allowed me to mask some of the “jumping around” that the enemies and Cloud do – although not all, as eagle-eyed viewers will see. This will become less possible when more characters become involved in fights, but for the opening encounters I thought it would be important to show how this slow-mo thing could give the impression of fights progressing. Here's my favorite from the cutting room floor:

Scenes 13-14: Through the Warehouse

At three separate times, I mask edits to the score. At the end of the combat, Cloud sheathes his sword, allowing me to cut out 14 bars and restore Uematsu’s original score structure. I then put this opening piano on loop, extending it until enemies are on the screen (it’s masked again by the sound of the lift and by Jessie cutting the wires. In Uematsu’s structure, loops of the song don’t include the timpanis and orchestra hits from the beginning, but 7R’s version does include them, which I think is an oversight. However, it had the unintended upside of scoring the arrival of enemies from behind Cloud really well! Also, we can associate the orchestra hits with Cloud once more as they punctuate him whirling around and preparing to fight!

Fun fact: Bombing Mission has a bpm of 136, so when I found editing the music too repetitive I would use placeholders with the same bpm and then fine-tune it later. Highlights from the playlist I made were Rocket Man, Thunderstruck, Go Your Own Way, Jump (For My Love), and, heh, Sandstorm. 

Scene 15: Combat: Cloud vs. 2 MPs, 1 Guard Hound

With this combat, I chose to introduce the viewer to magic - specifically, Cloud’s ability to cast lightning and ice. In OG, the player learns this by taking control of Cloud down on the train platform, but its quite possible in a playthrough for Cloud to never use magic – and indeed, in 7R he begins with different spell abilities altogether!

However, I feel like this short encounter was the way to introduce magic with the maximum hype possible, and I’m proud of the result. Cloud zaps one MP, dispatches the other with a quick sword slice, then fires off an ice spell to nab the pup.

I tried to have the materia in focus while Cloud was casting in order to provide a visual clue as to where this magic comes from, because it won’t be exposited with dialogue for some time yet.

Scene 16: Combat: Cloud vs. 2 MPs

Around 1 minute of combat footage represents about 2-3 hours of shooting, and about 5 hours of editing. This one took a bit longer because I remained in bullet time so that I could get coverage of the crew running out onto the bridge.

For this combat, I cut out a chunk of the score to make room for the section that uses a variation on the Main Theme, accenting a Cloud hero shot.

Scene 17: The Bridge

This was pretty straightforward to shoot except for cutting out a door puzzle that triggers AVALANCHE running into the reactor. Filming around that was a bit tricky. I also dabbled in my first bit of colour-correction here, as jumping from the gap between sectors back into that metal tunnel was hard on the eyes.

A quick clip of the music to ramp up towards the credits, and about a hundred reshoots of that camera so that it passes between the pipes and not through them. And we're done.

Final Thoughts

I can’t believe anyone reads these things, but if you did, hey thanks. Let me know what you think of the series! And dOn’T fOrGeT tO LiKe aNd sUbScRiBe!

[pink-gladioli]

it has come to my attention that we as a fandom dont talk about axl enough so leave any headcannons/theories/rewrites you have about him!

imma go a rant bellow read more

okay so we all know that axl comes from diggionton or however the heck you spell it right? and he has no last name, my reasoning is that diggington just aint that big so people don't need last names. also most of his family seems to follow the axl name so maybe it kinda works a serionirty thing? like as soon as a son is born the axl name gets passed down onto them and the father becomes "papa" or senior axl.

now when it comes to backstories i feel that axl has a pretty good one, he wanted to become a knight but his dad wanted him to stay home and run the family inn. however i feel like if we were charactize axl as less of a brute, dumb, hungry, pessant boy which lets be honest is what the show paints him as, we would have to a slightly different route. we know that axl was one of the 3 nexo knights that actually wanted to become a knight (lance cleary didn't and aarron doesn't seem to care he just doesn't like all the rules that come with knighthood) so lets use that.

maybe his dad was supportive on him becoming a knight because like we need at least one knight with a good family, it could also show how despite the fact axl wasn't the richest of the group or the most academically smart he was the happiest, but they didn't have the money to pay for the entrance exam or access to a good libary/teacher were axl could learn (remember knighton may be very advance technologically but not socially) so its more of a dream than anything.

however maybe somehow there could be another way to get into the academy and that could be by a recomenidation of a seinor knight. but maybe all the knights in digginton didn't want to bother with writing a letter of recomendation or were just bad knights.

maybe there could have been a grand event were lets say a house caught on fire and no one was willing to go in to save idk whats something innocent, a baby or smth, then boom axl runs in, saves the baby or whatever it is, gets burned in the process and while most of the knights don't admit to the fact that this preteen boy had more guts than them and was willing to risk his life to safe something that couldn't protect itself. lets have 1 knight actually realize how he and his fellow knights of diggonton have lost their values and when axl recovers he sends a letter of recomendation and boom now axl has a chance to get into the knights academy.

cew cutsence of axl working his ass off and boom basic character backstory. but i can already hear that "this sound more like a clay backstory" which yes it would work pretty well for clay but i actually have a different charactization of clay then the show. i think it would be interesting if clay wasn't a knight because it was the right thing to do but instead because he looked up to the ideals of a knight and the determination to get there.

i mean for king halberts sake clay grew up on the streets, he couldn't have gone along carring for every singel person he saw or else he wouldn't have surived himself. and maybe that could be clays main character arc that he realizes that being a knight isn't about doing the right thing because its nobel or honnorable but instead being a knight has it roots in caring and wanting to protect others. and who could he learn that from- AXL BABY! yeah this show needs more of the main five interacting with each other. crap this got long and it probably isn't even readable, oh well

[five-rivers]

Cryptid Crawl! 6

The problem– The main problem– The– Okay, the problem that was pertinent at the moment was that the hunters, cryptid and otherwise, had to leave having seen nothing even remotely interesting, nothing that could be a draw for tourists.  

That meant that, whatever else they did, they could not be seen being anything other than unbelievably lame by the general population.  Of course, the best way to do that would be to keep them from seeing anything.  

The very first piece of prep work Danny and Tucker had done was getting into Jack’s YouTube account and setting it to private.  That was, however, a temporary measure, and in addition to not wanting tourists flooding into Amity Park, Danny didn’t want his parents in hot water with the GIW.  Again.  

Once they filmed, Jack or Maddie could upload videos at any time, so something that would have to be done afterward was getting back into the account, deleting the videos, and corrupting the original files.  Not too difficult, considering that Danny lived with them, had a hacker friend, and could possess technology.  

But for the other groups?  Especially the ones that were filming live?  Not so much.  

They could not see.  Any measures Danny and the others took to stop them had to look either like local kids playing pranks, incompetence, or nothing at all.  Luckily, they were local kids playing pranks, and there was a lot of incompetence going around, lately.  

Danny and Tucker ran through eerily empty streets, listening for the GAV.  They paused, seeing the GAV hurtle past the mouth of an alleyway.  

“Okay, well,” said Tucker, “there it is.  You sure you want to do this?”

“Yeah,” said Danny.  “Who else is going to?”  He went ghost.  “Show me again where the GGBE are.”

Tucker held up the PDA and pointed.  

“Okay, yeah, I can do that,” said Danny.  “I can do that.  Sam, you still managing?”

“Haven’t made contact yet,” admitted Sam, over the Fenton Phones.  “This wig is surprisingly high quality, by the way.”

“Cool,” said Danny.  “Remember, call us if you need help.”

“I’m dealing with two completely normal YouTubers who think you’re some kind of endangered species, not ex-military super-spies.”

“He kind of is an endangered species, though.  Even Skulker says so.”

Danny shook his head and pushed off from the ground.  “Can hybrids even be considered a species?” he asked.  

“The New Mexico Whiptail–”

“It was a rhetorical question!”

.

William Monroe Delaney Montrose Woods the Fourth, generally known as Bill, was remarkable for three reasons beyond his name.  The first was that he absolutely and entirely believed in the existence of cryptids and loved helping Crawly, who he’d met in college, with their YouTube channel.  

The second was that he was a former Navy Seal, discharged due to an elbow injury that had never healed right.  

The third was that his last job was in data analytics… for the CIA.  Nothing special.  He just collated data in a nice, boring, quiet room.  He’d hardly call himself a super-spy.  And he’d quit.  Too stressful.  

But…  All his training did have the side effect of giving him a very good sense for when he was being followed.  

He tried to watch the figure out of the corner of his eyes, excited.  Finally, he was going to see a real life cryptid.  He’d just have to be careful… it was clearly trying to stay out of direct view… he didn’t want to spook it.  Crawly hadn’t noticed yet, either.  He’d have to figure out some way to let them know.  Maybe he could angle the camera towards the cryptid…

“Oh my gosh, Bill, look!”  Crawly jabbed a finger at the space behind his shoulder, and Bill quickly turned to see something black and white skittering around a corner.  “Quick!  Chase it!  This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!”

Bill needed no further encouragement.  Camera in hand, he ran.  

.

Danny flickered ever so briefly into view in front of the GAV, and to the right.  He probably would be picked up on the cameras like this, but, again, his parents’ videos were the only ones he could afford to be caught in.  As expected, Jack turned the wheel so hard the GAV rocked up on one set of wheels before slamming back down.  Danny reappeared further down the street, at the mouth of another road.  

“STOP MOVING, GHOST!” roared Maddie over the intercom. 

“YEAH!  WE’RE FILMING YOU FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION!” added Jack.  “THE PUBLIC NEEDS TO KNOW HOW TO BLAST GHOSTS LIKE YOU TO SHREDS!”

“NOT TO SHREDS, JACK.  WE NEED HIM INTACT FOR OUR RESEARCH!”

“OH, YEAH!”

“Wow,” muttered Danny under his breath.  “That really makes me want to stop, guys.”  He could, just barely, understand them thinking ghosts were evil.  He didn’t understand how they were still under the impression that Phantom, specifically, was that unbelievably stupid.  “Tuck, am I still on track?”

“Man, I don’t know why you’re asking, you know Amity Park better than I–”

“Why… parkour… expert… how?”

“Uh, Sam?” said Danny.  “I think you’re breaking up.”

“I’m being… chased!”

“Maybe I should–”

“Just a few more roads!  At the rate your Dad drives, that shouldn’t be any time at all!”

“Sam, can you hold out that long?”

There was no response for a long moment, during which Danny almost lost his lead on the GAV.  

“Managed to hide,” said Sam, audibly panting.  “Where did that camera guy come from?  He’s built like a tank and he can move.”

Danny let out a sigh of relief.  “I’ll be there in just a minute.”  He let himself fade into view again, luring his parents down a blind alley.  He phased easily through the brick, turning invisible again.  He did a quick check to make sure none of the people on the other side were too close to the wall - they weren’t - and that no one saw him - the tiger might have - and then the GAV plowed through the brick wall, sirens blazing and PA system blasting.  

“YOU WON’T GET AWAY THIS TIME, GHOST BOY!”

Danny flared his aura, well aware of how that would show up on the GAV’s sensors at this point, and snickered as the GAV crunched over the Groovy Ghost Blasters Extreme’s illegally parked ATVs and dirt bikes in an attempt to get to Danny.

“My bike!” shrieked Brenner.  

“Dude, not cool!  Dude!” repeated Sullivan as Jack hit reverse and rolled over the bikes again.  

“Okay,” said Vid, pulling out her blaster (a Dalvco ripoff).  “We already knew these guys sucked, but this means war.”

She took aim at the GAV.  Of course, according to his parents, anything attacking the GAV had to be a–

“GHOOOOOOOOOOOST!” hollered his parents in unison.  And then the shooting started in earnest.  

Danny didn’t stick around.  Unlike all the humans here, he actually could be hurt by most of the weaponry going off.  

Besides, Sam needed him.  

.

“Hey,” said Az, falling back slightly as Ned expounded on some made up personal story that had only tangential interest to the actual investigation.  “Jimmy.  Do you hear that?”

“Hnh,” said Jimmy.  

“Like, a sort of electric sound.  Like the world’s biggest bug za–”  For the fourth time that day, Az tripped over his shoelaces.  

“Oh, I know what’s really haunted now.  Az’s shoes!”

“Screw you, too,” said Az.

“Yeah, yeah, they’re haunted by the ghost of his coordination.”

Az climbed to his feet and angrily redid his laces.  “If you’re doing this somehow–” he started, threateningly.  

“No, no,” said Ned, “I don’t need to make this look any more ridiculous than it already is.  Are you sure you researched this place?”

“I’m sure,” said Az, gritting his teeth as yet another crepe-paper and balloon ghost drifted down into the camera’s view from who-knew-where.  “I researched.  Extensively.”

“Because as fun as these are, I don’t think they’re actual ghosts.”  He grabbed the balloon and waved it at Az.  “Fun times with local pranksters who are really into the whole Halloween aesthetic?  Yes.  Haunted?  No.  The way things are looking, Amity Park falls squarely into the hoax category.” He gestured broadly, exaggerating his mannerisms for the camera.  

“At least let us get to the next location before you say that, Ned.”  He got back to his feet and smiled at the camera.  “Locals aside, this place is spooky.  An old observatory that was damaged and shut down under mysterious circumstances, it has had numerous reports of lights moving inside, strange sounds, and even the dome opening and the telescope inside moving.  Is this the ghost of an astronomer?  Or, like certain others believe, something else?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me of the cryptid YouTubers.  Those lights, though, I’m going to bet they’re kids smoking on the sly, or someone squatting.”

“And on the way there, we’ll drive by a few other points of local interest, such as–”

.

“They’re going to the observatory?” hissed Dani.  “They can’t go to the observatory, Danny will flip!”

Valerie looked at her sideways.  “Which Danny?  Your cousin, or Fenton?”

“Does it matter?  Both of them love that place.”

“Didn’t it get shot up by the GIW?”

“Yeah, and that’s why you don’t mention those guys to him.  He hates them.”

“He’s… a ghost.”

“Yeah, and the observatory is why human Danny hates them.  Keep up.”  Dani leaned forward, careful to keep both her feet on Val’s hoverboard.  She was the one providing invisibility, after all.  “We need to stop them.  We need to get… more drastic.”

Valerie made a face and waved a crepe paper ghost at Dani.  “I’m not sure how much more drastic we can get without advertising that Amity’s got something to hide.”

Dani scrunched her nose in thought.  “Then we don’t do it while hiding anything.  We do it while showing off things.”

“Not my hoverboard or your ghostly face, I hope.”

“No.  We’re going to take a page from my cousin’s book.”

“We’re going to chase a dog into all their equipment and ruin them financially?”

“I mean, that sounds like a good plan ‘B’ if you’ve got a dog we can use.  But, no.  How do you feel about fake-out make-outs?”

.

“Uh, Sam? I’m looking for you, but–”

“Running… again…  swear… last time… I dress up as you.”

“Okay, okay, but where are you?”  There was a sort of scraping sound from the Fenton Phones.  “Sam?”

“I’m okay!  Nasty Burger.”

“Gotcha.”

Danny changed direction and arrowed down to a very familiar alleyway, where Sam was stripping off her costume.  She threw the wig at Danny as soon as she saw him.  

“Get ready to run,” she said breathlessly as Danny transformed.  “Those weirdos are fast.”

“I don’t know if we have any room to call other people weirdos,” said Danny.  He pulled the wig over his hair, then phased the rest of the suit off of Sam, who was struggling with the zipper.  He didn’t like his chances of fasting the suit on, though, and phased off his shoes before starting to pull the costume on.  The material was much thinner and filmier than his own hazmat suit, and wouldn’t be much protection against, well, anything.  “How’d you get away if they were so fast?”

“Cut through Amity Antiques,” said Sam.  “Ms. Larson made them go around.  No cameras in the store.”

“Smart.”  Danny phased his feet back into his shoes.  

“Thanks.  Contacts.”

“Right, right,” said Danny.  He phased his hand through his suit and into his pocket.  “Contacts.”

He hated this part.  Putting stuff like this in his eyes felt wrong.  Worse than swallowing sporks.  But, the ‘Amity Park Phantom’ had super noticeable glowing green eyes, so the ‘fake’ Phantom had to as well, and for Danny’s sake, those glowing eyes had to be caused by contacts.  

These ones had been produced by his parents after Walker’s invasion.  The idea was that a human could use them to walk unmolested among the overshadowed, but when no testing opportunities came up, the concept was abandoned.  

Danny opened the case, and already regretting every life choice that had led him to this moment, stuck one in his eye.  “That hurts.  I don’t know how people do this.”

“You get thrown through buildings daily.”

“That’s different,” whined Danny.  

“I’m getting pings from Cryptid Crawl’s phone, moving to your location,” said Tucker.  “Better get a move on.”

“Heck,” said Danny, squeezing in the other contact.  “Go rest in the Nasty Burger, I’ve got this.”

“I’ll try to shadow you after you leave,” said Sam, “but don’t expect anything fancy.”

“I’ll zig-zag,” said Danny.  

Sam patted him on the back and moved past him.  Time to do this.  

Danny ran back out into the street, but stuck to the shadows, scanning everything.  He had no idea how cryptids were supposed to behave, but he figured–

Holy moly, Sam was not kidding when she said that guy was fast!  He wasted a disbelieving second staring at the sheer speed at which that absolute tank of a man approached him, but he was too used to being chased by unreasonably huge and fast guys to hesitate any longer.  He bolted, using every piece of cover and concealment he could.  

He glanced over his shoulder.  The guy was actually gaining on him.  After chasing Sam on and off for at least ten minutes.  What was this guy made of?

Danny tapped into his ghostly strength and put on a burst of speed.  

… The guy also put on a burst of speed.  

That was scary.  

“Tucker,” said Danny, “which way am I going?”

“Give me a second.”

“They’re hanging out in front of the Skulk’n’Lurk,” said Sam.  “They’re posting live, Tucker.”

“I’m just trying to find the best route!”

“A better one than he can find on his own?”

Danny looked back again.  What was this guy made of?

.

Valerie and Dani stepped onto the street just within view of the cameras.  They were both wearing glasses, to protect their identities, and had swapped headgear - Valerie’s headband for Dani’s beanie.  

“Are you sure about this?” asked Valerie.

“Absolutely!” chirped Dani.

“I don’t think this is actually going to stop them from going to the observatory.”

“But it might make them stop and think, right?”

“... You know, I saw the post about this on the forums, right?  And the whole thread?”

“Shush.  Threads don’t matter, now,” said Dani as they crept deeper into the camera’s field of view.  “I think this is good.  You ready?”

Valerie rolled her eyes.  “Ready when you are.”

This had the side effect of making Dani freeze for a solid minute.  “Uh,” said Dani.  

“You can back out if you–”

Dani rammed her face into Val’s, probably way too fast, because kissing didn’t seem like the kind of thing that was supposed to hurt.  They did various things with their lips for a few seconds, and then pulled apart.  

“Uh,” said Dani, eloquently.  

“Yeah,” said Val.  

They both looked towards the ‘Investigation,’ the members of which were, in fact, staring at them.  

Val pumped her fist in the air.  “The only ghost here is Sappho of Lesbos!” she said, her voice wobbling.  “Yeah!  Girl power!”

“Girl power!” repeated Dani.  She hadn’t heard of any ghost going by that name, but she supposed that Danny couldn’t keep her one hundred percent up to date on his rogues gallery.  There were just a lot of them.

At that moment, Dani was slammed into from behind by none other than her beloved cousin-clone, who was dressed as a bad caricature of himself and running at what had to be something approaching a world-record pace.  Danny, who didn’t have the worst set of reflexes in the world, but did have the most ridiculous set of reflexes, picked Dani up, threw her over his shoulder, and kept running.  

“Is he still following me?” asked Danny.  

“Wh- Who?” asked Dani, lifting her head to see that Danny was being chased by either a red-faced fridge or an extremely buff dude who was pushing himself so hard all the blood in his body had gathered in his skin in preparation for exploding (if that was a thing humans did; Dani was a bit uncertain on the finer points of anatomy).  “Oh my gosh, that’s scary.”

Meanwhile, Valerie had recovered from her surprise.  She started running after them.  “Hey!” she shouted.  “Bring back my girlfriend!”

“Oh,” said Dani, pleased that Valerie was getting so into the act.  

“What are you doing standing there?!” shouted a man wearing a hat that said ‘DIRECTOR,’ his voice starting to go tiny from distance.  “Wasn’t that one of the ghosts?”

“Ahhh!” said Danny.  “Why is that guy so scary?!”

“Why are you scared?” demanded Dani, who had already forgotten that she, too, had been scared.  “You’re a ghost!”

“He’s just scary!”

“Bet I’m scarier!”

Danny’s fingers clenched tightly on her hoodie.  “No.  Are they following us?  All of them?”

“Not yet?”

“Rrrrrrgh,” said Danny, rounding a corner and doubling back down the other road.  “I hate this!”

.

Ned had never thought any of their ‘investigations,’ not even the Investigation, would ever lead to something real.  The image of that thing chasing that boy and grabbing that girl…  It filled him with equal parts wonder and fear.  

This special was going to make them.  They’d be famous forever as the ghost hunters that proved the existence of the supernatural.  

Jimmy put a hand on his shoulder.  

“Not now, bud,” said Ned.  “We’ve got a chase.”

Jimmy did not let go.  Not even when Az and the rest of the crew packed up and took off after the ghost.  

“Edward, dearest,” said Jimmy.  “My heart has been uplifted by the actions of those two young women, and I should like us to express ourselves as they did.”

“Aw, come on, Jimmy.  That’s sweet, but the network would kick us both out in minutes.  Not to mention we’d pasted across every TV in America as the latest scandal.  The shame would kill me.”

“You said it yourself, my love.  What paranormal investigator has self respect?  Let us throw it all to the winds of chance, and let them carry us away.”

Ned blushed.  “You make these things sound so nice.  But… maybe after we get the ghost.  You know how much this means to me.”

“Hng,” said Jimmy.

.

Danny re-emerged on the original street, which still held some of the crew and cast from the TV show.  “Help me find somewhere to crash believably.”

“There!” said Dani, pointing at a small lot with some abandoned construction in it.

“Perfect!” said Danny, throwing himself in that direction.  Time to absolutely eat it on live TV.  He cast himself on the mercy of the lot, and wiped out spectacularly, coming to rest against the fence at the back of the lot.  

The buff guy just… Stopped.  Then very slowly sat down.

“Hi,” said Danny.  

“Ow,” said the guy, which was fair, actually.  

The guy from the Investigation got there next, and spent the next thirty seconds staring reverently at the buff guy while the camera people set up.  “Incredible,” he whispered.

“Oi!” shouted Crawly, clambering over a stack of pipes.  “Back away from the cryptid!  We’ve got evidence to film!”

“You step away from the ghost!” countered Az.  “Our evidence is more relevant to the human condition!”

“The Amity Park Phantom is not a ghost!” Crawly countered in return, stabbing a finger at Danny.  

“What are you talking about, that’s a kid in a costume!”  

“No it–!  Wait, who are you talking about, then?  What ghost?”

“The one standing next to you!”

“Wh– This is Bill.  My cameraman.  Is this because he gets flushed when he exercises really hard?  That happens to everyone!”

“No, actually, it–”

Danny shifted, which was enough for Crawly to zero in on him, only to recoil.  “What,” they said.  

“Well,” said Danny, coughing only a little bit as he got to his feet and pulled off the wig.  “I am just a kid in a costume.”

[mediawhorefics]

hiii can you please recommend me some gay novels ? thank you in advance :)

hell ! yeah !

you didn't really specify what genre you're interested in beyond gay so i'm just gonna rec my favs and go wild with it. apologies, i've prob. recced these books before but *shrug*

edit: i added books that aren't novels cos i couldn't resist. ooops?

edit 2: i've taken gay to mean gay ~umbrella term~ and not gay mlm, hope that's alright x

under a read more cos i got carried away !

the raven cycle | maggie stiefvater | completed series | ya | fantasy | follows blue sargent, the daughter of a skilled psychic who augments her family's abilities, but has no psychic power of her own. she becomes friends with four boys from the local boarding school -- gansey, adam, ronan and noah -- when she meets gansey's ghost and learns the upcoming date of his death. gansey is obsessed with finding the sleeping welsh king, glendower. In his pursuit of the legend, he and his friends encounter all kinds of mysticism and danger in henrietta, virginia.

the dreamer trilogy | maggie stiefvater | completed trilogy | ya | fantasy | raven cycle sequel focusing on ronan's character.

the disasters | mk england | ya | sci fi | star trek vibes | found family | a band of space academy rejects are the only witness to a terrible crime/galaxy-wide conspiracy & are the only ones who can save the day. 

emry merlin series | robin schneider | incomplete trilogy | ya | fantasy | arthuriana | a knight's tale meets bbc merlin | years after her father’s, legendary court wizard merlin, disappearance, emry takes her far less talented twin brother’s place when he is summoned to camelot to train and become prince arthur’s right hand wizard. studying magic properly is everything she hoped for, but posing as her brother isn’t as easy as it seems. not to mention those sparks that are flying between her and arthur.

cemetery boys | aiden thomas | standalone -> a sequel is planned | ya | fantasy | trans rep | yadriel wants to prove himself as a brujo (and a man) to his family so, in secret, he performs the ritual meant to unlock his powers that his family has denied him access to. only problem, he’s accidentally summoned a ghost he didn’t mean to and the guy won’t leave. also his cousin vanished and his spirit is nowhere to be found.

the last binding series | freya marske | incomplete trilogy -> the third one is coming out in november | historical fantasy | alternative edwardian england | romance | each book focuses on a new queer pairing while following an overarching mystery | when an administrative mistake names robin blyth as a civil service liaison to a hidden magical society, he discovers what’s been operating beneath the unextraordinary reality he’s always known. a dangerous deadly curse awaits him as he navigates the magical bureaucracy with his standoffish counterpart edwin courcey.

the kingdoms | natasha pulley | standalone | historical fantasy | time travel | alternate history | 19th c. | 18th c. | joe tournier has amnesia. he remembers nothing prior to stepping off a train in londres, england, a french colony. his only clue, a century-old postcard of a lighthouse in scotland, illegally written in english rather than french and signed m.

the watchmaker of filigree street series | natasha pulley | completed duology | historial fantasy | 19th c. | sherlock holmes vibes | telegraphist thaniel receives a mysterious watch on his birthday whose pre-set alarm saves him from a terrorist bombing on scotland yard. since the bomb was made with clockwork parts and only the bomber could have known when to set the alarm, thaniel is sent by a detective investigating the bombing to live with the suspected watchmaker to figure out what’s going on.

the bedlam stacks | natasha pulley | standalone -> twofs references/characters but not part of the main storyline | historical fantasy | 19th c. | magical realism | merrick tremayne is called upon by the india office to go on a dangerous expedition deep in peru to fetch quinine (essential for the treatment of malaria) despite the debilitating injury that almost cost him a leg. every expedition before his has yielded no results apart from dead bodies, but merrick has family history deep in the country so he goes against his better judgement. there, he meets raphael, a priest surrounded by strange stories of disappearances, cursed woods and living stones, and who might hold the key to his family’s past.

the binding | bridget collins | standalone | historical fantasy | 19th c. | romance | in a world where books are dangerous objects containing people’s painful memories they want to get rid of, emmet farmer is sent to become an apprentice to the local bookbinder after he had some sort of mental collapse.

captive prince series | cs pacat | completed trilogy + some short stories | historical fantasy | romance | no magical elements | dark themes | major trigger warnings apply | prince damianos of akielos is sent as a pleasure slave to laurent of vere, prince of an enemy neighbouring kingdom, by his treacherous half-brother who wants the throne for himself. the court of vere is a pit of deception and lies and both princes must reluctantly ally with each other to gain rightful control of their respective kingdoms. only problem, damen killed laurent's older brother auguste in battle and must keep his true identity secret to protect himself from laurent's hatred of his brother's killer. which is only complicated by the growing feelings between them.

a taste of gold and iron | alexandra rowland | standalone | historical fantasy | romance | kadou, the shy prince of arasht, has no intention of wrestling for imperial control with his sister, the queen. yet he remains at odds with one of the most powerful ambassadors at court - the father of the queen's new child. when a hunting party goes terribly awry and he finds himself under suspicion of attempted murder, kadou teams up with his new bodyguard, the coldly handsome evemer, to investigate a break-in at one of their guilds to salvage his reputation. but what appears to be a straightforward crime spirals into a complex counterfeiting operation, with a powerful enemy at its heart.

the house in the cerulean sea | tj klune | standalone | fantasy | romance | found family | 40 yo caseworker linus baker is given a special secret assignment to check out an orphanage of supposedly particularly dangerous magical children. linus has been a rule follower and someone who doesn’t want to rock the boat his whole life, but the children and their caretaker make him reconsider previously held beliefs.

under the whispering door | tj klune | standalone | fantasy | romance | found family | an unpleasant and selfish man in life, wallace price meets his reaper at his near-empty funeral and gets taken to a whimsical tea shop where he meets hugo, the ferryman whose job it is to help him move on and crossover into the afterlife. a task that becomes complicated as wallace starts developing feelings for hugo.

peter darling | austin chant | standalone | historical fantasy | romance | trans rep | peter pan retelling | ten years ago, peter pan left neverland to grow up, leaving behind his adolescent dreams of boyhood and resigning himself to life as wendy darling. growing up, however, has only made him realize how inescapable his identity as a man is.but when he returns to neverland, everything has changed: the lost boys have become men, and the war games they once played are now real and deadly. even more shocking is the attraction peter never knew he could feel for his old rival, captain hook—and the realization that he no longer knows which of them is the real villain.

the song of achilles | madeline miller | standalone | historical fantasy | mythology retelling | greek mythology | a classic ! | achilles' story, great love, and tragedy...

salt magic skin magic | lee welch | standalone | historical fantasy | 19th c | lord thornby has been trapped on his father’s estate by a strange curse for a year and when industrial magician john blake shows up, they must team up to investigate the mystery.

the secret lives of country gentlemen | kj charles | first in a series | historical romance | regency era | a shabby london clerk who inherits a grand house on the remote romney marsh is unexpectedly reunited with an old lover and gets unexpectedly thrown in the world of smugglers.

the will darling adventures | kj charles | completed trilogy | historical romance | 1920s | it’s the 1920s and tensions are rising along with hemlines. soldier-turned-bookseller will darling finds himself tangled up in spies and secret formulas, clubs and conspiracies, bbolsheviks, blackmail, and bright young things. and dubious aristocrat lord arthur ‘kim’ secretan is right in the middle of it all:  enigmatic, unreliable, and utterly irresistible.

the gentleman’s guide to vice and virtue | mackenzie lee | ya | historical romance | 18th c. | bisexual disaster nobility youth goes on his grand tour on europe with the best friend he has a crush on and his sister. nothing could possibly go wrong.

the seven husbands of evelyn hugo | taylor jenkins reid | historical romance | old hollywood | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | aging and reclusive hollywood movie icon evelyn hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. but when she chooses unknown magazine reporter monique grant for the job, no one is more astounded than monique herself. why her? why now?

the charm offensive | alison cochrun | standalone | contemporary romance | reality dating show producer dev has always believed in romance/fairy tales and he works tirelessly to ensure magical happy endings happen on his show, even though his own love life is a disaster. but when disgraced tech wunderkin charlie is cast as the lead of their next season, dev has his work cut out for him to transform charlie into a man the ladies on the show might want and the viewers might like. charlie is far from a prince charming but as they get closer and closer, dev starts realising he might want him for himself. uh oh.

i kissed shara wheeler | casey mcquiston | standalone | ya | contemporary romance | a month before graduation, chloe green’s academic rival shara kisses her before disappearing. now, chloe is on a hunt for answers alongside unlikely allies.

one last stop | casey mcquiston | standalon | contemporary romance | time travel | a 23-year-old realises her subway crush is displaced from 1970's brooklyn, and she must do everything in her power to help her - and try not to fall in love with the girl lost in time - before it's too late.

red, white, and royal blue | casey mcquiston | contemporary romance | new adult | alex, son of the us president, and british prince henry have to fake a pr friendship after a scandal at a royal wedding puts us-british relations at risk. only problem? they despise each other.

check please | ngozi ukazu | graphic novel | new adult | contemporary romance | coming of age | bitty, a southern ex-figure skater armed with a love of baking and a vlog joins his college’s hockey team and falls for his captain, the prodigal son of a famous nhl player whose own draft was derailed by an overdose of anxiety medication.

angels in america | tony kushner | theatre | aids | angels in america is the story of a gay man, prior alter, a 30-year-old New Yorker, whose lover, louis, abandons him when he falls ill with aids. transcendent forces—visions and angels—help transform Prior from a man dying of aids to a man living with aids. along the way, several romantic and platonic couples come apart, and the final social configuration of the play comprises a loose band of multi-generational, multiracial, queer friends.

the normal heart | larry kramer | theatre | aids | focuses on the rise of the hiv/aids epidemic in nyc between 1981 and 1984, as seen through the eyes of writer/activist ned weeks, the gay founder of a prominent HIV advocacy group.

love song to lavender menace | james ley | theatre | in 1982, two friends bob and sigrid opened their new radical lesbian, gay and feminist bookshop, 'lavender menace' on edinburgh's forth street. on the eve of the shop's 5th birthday, sales assistants paul and david take a look back at its origins, in this funny, moving play.

this is how you lose the time war | amal el-mohtar & max gladstone | sci fi | literary fiction | epistolary novel | time travel | an epistolary story told by two future beings, operatives on opposing sides of the "time war" tasked with ensuring that past events happen in ways that are amenable to their goals.

on earth we're briefly gorgeous | ocean vuong | literary fiction | epistolary novel | a letter from a vietnamese american son to his illiterate mother.

night sky and exit wounds | ocean vuong | poetry

time is a mother | ocean vuong | poetry

crush | richard siken | poetry

brokeback mountain | annie proulx | short story | two ranch hands, come together when they're working as sheepherder and camp tender one summer on a range above the tree line. at first, sharing an isolated tent, the attraction is casual, inevitable, but something deeper catches them that summer.

fighting proud: the untold story of the gay men who served in two world wars | stephen bourne | non-fiction | history | wwi | wwii

coming out under fire: the history of gay men and women in world war two | allan bérubé | non-fiction | history | wwii

fabulosa!: the story of polari, britain’s secret gay language | paul baker | non-fiction | history | linguistics | 19th c. | 20th c.

[jamietxrtt]

🌹🌹🌹🌹

eeee thank u!!

.

Letting his head tilt back on the headrest, he watches the empty field splayed out in front of him, adjacent to this parking lot. Ted knew smalltown life well, once-- when he was 18, just on the cusp of graduating from high school, his grandmother had gotten sick. She was a sturdy, tiny old lady, who Ted always referred to simply as Maw.

She was his father’s mother. She never quite recovered from her eldest son’s death. Despite the fact that she had other biological children still living, it somehow ended up being Ted and his mom who came and took care of her in her last months of life. He still doesn’t know how that happened.

Anyway. She lived in a little house on the river, way out in the middle of nowhere, jacked up on stilts in case of flooding. Ted and his mom moved out there for a few months, the summer after Ted graduated from high school, to be with her, take care of her. The closest town was a ten minute drive away, but it was a tiny, tiny little thing, basically just two gas stations and a diner threaded together by one main road.

This town is slightly larger than that, mostly by virtue of being a tourist trap, but not by much. Ted knew smalltown life well once, but not anymore. He hasn’t seriously stayed anywhere with a population density under a thousand people per square mile in… what, twenty years? It’s unsettling, in a strange way, to be in such a sleepy town again-- main street butting right up next to miles and miles of empty fields. It makes him think about Maw’s house, the scent of mothballs and the sound of her coughing.

Ted didn’t cry when she died. He barely knew her, really. He was sad to witness death, of course, but he mostly just wanted to get out of that house.

On her deathbed, she lost control of her own reality, and insisted on calling Ted by his father’s name. He still remembers the first time she did it; gripped him hard by the arm, her blue eyes unfocused and shining, stared into his soul and said: “Tommy. God, you look so young. Tommy, Tommy.”

Ted looked to his mom, silently asking the question-- What do I do? But his mom didn’t know either. She looked right back at him, equally at a loss.

So Ted turned to Maw and said, “Yeah. Hi, mom. It’s me.”

send me a rose or a word to get a snippet from my wip!!

[onboardsorasora]

Max in a suit is delicious and I think Tennis!Dan agrees. Its Prize Giving Season for our Champs

Part 1 | Part 31 | Part 33

Part 32

Daniel leaned against Max’s shoulder in the car that took them through the Baku city streets. He was a little nervous about going to the FIA Prize Giving Gala. It was about to be a whole night of pomp and circumstance and honestly he expected to be bored out of his mind. Mentally, he was already preparing to deal with the WTA gala the following week.

He glanced over at his boyfriend and a smirk pulled at his lips, he looked amazing. Yummy even, in his tuxedo. He'd flicked Max's floppy bowtie and Max had huffed a laugh at him in return.

Max's hand rested on Daniel's thigh, thumb brushing over the fabric that covered the flower tattoo. He gazed out the window disinterestedly and Daniel couldn't help but stare at his profile that got lit up periodically by streetlights.

“So what can I expect tonight? Sit at the table and look pretty?” Daniel teased. Max snorted and squeezed his thigh.

“Pretty much, yeah.” Max thought for a moment, staring at the roof of the car. “They're gonna have me doing a bunch of interviews and giving trophies to other champions y’know. Of course, it's a lot of boring stuff.”

“It's lot of responsibility being champion.” Daniel laughed when Max scowled at him.

“Obviously I would rather we are at home with the cats. Than doing all of this stupid shit for the fia to feel better about themselves.”

“Well you have the easy job Maxy, you get to talk about racing all night. I have to be interesting to everyone else.”

“You are of course, very interesting Daniel.” Max cupped Daniel's cheek and pecked his lips just as the car rolled to a stop. Daniel gazed adoringly at Max before schooling his expression to something more toned down and not so private when the door opened to the flashes of photographers.

They walked the blue carpet, stopping for each publication before posing at the main backdrop at the top of the path. They made a stunning pair in their sharp tuxes. Daniel's hair was styled perfectly, not a curl out of place, to match the textured waves of Max's haircut.

They were led into the ballroom and shown to their seats before the first PA came and collected Max. Daniel went to the bar, getting a glass of red wine before walking around to look at everything that was on display.

There were some cars, well parts of them, an old McLaren sidepod here, a Sauber front wing there. He stood in front of an older Red Bull that had Max's name printed on the side and sipped from his glass. The placard called it the RB12 from 2016. 

He tried to remember how his own 2016 season went, if there would be anything from that year worth putting on display. Maybe his racquet from Wimbledon? He didn't know, this was a Blake question.

Someone stood beside him, one hand holding a glass of something and the other in the pocket of his trousers. Daniel glanced over and Mark smiled back at him, it was always good to see the other man. 

“What's the significance of this car? I know I'm missing something.” Daniel grinned openly when Mark snorted at him.

“I'm surprised you didn't Google Max or something.”

“I did! Like when we first met.” Daniel laughed and shrugged as if to say that he didn't remember what he read. What did he need to read Max's wiki page for when he could be spending his time basking in his presence?

“This is the car he got his first win in. He'd been called up mid season to replace Daniil and he won the first race he drove for Red Bull.”

“Ah yeah I get it now. He said they're gonna like wheel out Rocky when he collects his trophy. So it'll be kinda like a first win last win sorta uh juxtaposition– is that the right word?”

“Yeah something like that.” Mark confirmed. 

“Oh great, now I gotta call the WTA and have them put out like my socks from my first win or something. Can't have Max show me up at my own prize giving.” 

Mark clapped Daniel on the shoulder as they laughed together before Oscar saddled up and they began chatting about cricket and Aussie rules football.

 A PA came to collect Oscar and then Daniel and Mark separated to find their seats. Daniel was relieved to see Geri sitting beside his assigned seat and he gratefully plopped beside her exaggeratedly.

“Thank God, I thought I was gonna be bored by myself.” He rested his head on Geri's shaking shoulder and she laughingly patted his cheek.

“Don't worry, I'll keep you entertained.” She grinned.

“You look lovely by the way. A vision.” Daniel gushed as he eased up. 

“Thank you darling, you look gorgeous yourself. You clean up nicely when you're not wearing clothes with holes in them.” she teased him back, giggling at his wounded face.

“Ginger! I thought we were friends!” Daniel laughed, unable to keep up the bit. They chattered for a little bit longer, taking selfies together and teasing Christian who had come to sit before the ceremony started. Christian watched them warily, knowing from previous experiences that nothing good came from them teaming up against him.

Daniel smiled when Max crossed the stage, presenting trophies to the various karting champions. He looked sweet, doting on the children. Daniel's phone then vibrated with a new message, only two contacts could breach his DND.

Maxy❤️

Second floor men's room.

Daniel smirked as he got up, meandering to the back of the ballroom and through one of the exits. He found the bathroom relatively easily and ducked in quickly after making sure the coast was clear. The hallway had been deserted but you never know.

Max engaged the lock behind him and Daniel spun to see his beautiful boyfriend grinning at him.

“Hey Champ.” Daniel teased and Max pressed him against an empty wall. They kissed hungrily, grasping at each other like starving men. As if they hadn't seen or fucked each other for weeks.

Max swallowed Daniel's moan as he pressed his thigh in-between Daniel's. Daniel rutted against the thick muscle, breathing deeply.

“Fuck…” Daniel groaned and Max sank to his knees before him. He watched as his boyfriend made quick work of his zippered fly and swallowed his cock. Holding in his moans became harder. 

Max was insistent, and thorough. He worked Daniel over, licking and groaning as if he was about to win the world championship of dick sucking. Daniel wanted to give him every trophy ever.

He was barely able to keep his hands out of Max's hair, instead clenching the shoulders of Max’s jacket and biting his own fist when that became too much. The heat of sensation zinged up and down his spine and it truly took all of his willpower to not thrust into Max's mouth. Even if he knew the man on his knees would appreciate it.

He came with a long exhale that turned into a wanting groan as he watched Max swallow every drop and then lick him clean. Daniel stood against the wall, dazed, while Max set his clothes to rights. When he stood, Daniel grasped Max's jaw and pulled him closer, kissing his swollen pink smirking lips and licking a smear of his own come off of Max's lip freckle.

“Mmm fuck I should get you a trophy if this is what I get when you're supposed to collect em.” Daniel smiled lazily against Max's lips, feeling his huffing laugh.

“I don't think I told you how incredible you look.” Max offered as an explanation with a shrug.

“You don't look too bad yourself beautiful. especially up there being amazing.”

Max flushed, looking away shyly at the compliment. They lingered in each other's presence for a little longer before deciding to make a quick getaway.

Daniel made it back to his seat without any issues, presenting Geri with a new glass of wine as an excuse for his absence. She smiled and accepted the glass before explaining what he missed.

Red Bull’s trophy was then awarded and both Daniel and Geri stood in applause. Lewis and Sergio collected their trophies afterwards and then Max's award was called. Daniel didn't expect for the backdrop to open up and Max to walk out flanked by Rocky and backlit dramatically. He looked amazing, very powerful and important and Daniel needed him again– now.

He took pictures and mentally undressed Max as he stood there smirking to the crowd, speaking into a mic with his breath smelling like Daniel's dick and come. Daniel couldn't wait to get back to their hotel room.

[kazeofthemagun]

@shiroi---kumo is desperate...

There is a sudden yank on the man's cloak without warning as a small pale hand starts to pull at it with an ever quickening pace as if whatever has caught his attention is urgent.  If one would turn to look at the man of the clouds they would see that his sights have fixated on a fruit stand of the local bazaar of this town they have managed to not get themselves thrown out of yet anyway.

"Black Wind." He sounds only to yank at the man's cloak with a bit more urgency. "Black Wind."

His voice joins in this supposed bazaar and the Misterican cannot tear his eyes away from the stand in question. Towards the back of the display sets a singular melon of a slightly dark rind and the swordsman will not pull his gaze away from it.

He can smell it from here even several feet away from the stand just across the way. The man of white clouds has locked onto that singular fruit like an expert marksman locked onto a target.

"Black Wind. Black Wind. That melon. I need it. I need it. Can we get it? Black Wind please."

He'd just go buy it himself if their shared funds hadn't been relieved from his hands since the last time he went shopping in the last town they were in and the prince found himself getting swept up by expert level swindling. It's intoxicating and he would know that smell anywhere. There's nothing quite like Makea Meloni and it's flooding his system in such a nostalgic way, he knows he would spend any amount of money just to get his hands on it again. He can't be trusted with their funds right now.

"Black Wind please."  He didn't even know one of it's plants survived...

A head of dishevelled crimson turned to glance at the uncharacteristically fixated Cloud, blue eyes following jade to the stand that had ensnared his attention. "Hm?" A curious rumble sounded from behind the man's tall collar, followed by a grunt as a passersby pushed past them rather obnoxiously.

The town they had found themselves in was holding some sort of festival, with seemingly endless masses of people pouring onto the main street from every direction. He noted the differences in garments - travelers from all over the Sector, perhaps beyond, had gathered here just for this day. Paper beasts of various colors paraded through the city, forcing the crowds to part and allowing the Unlimited to actually move through the bustle.

Ironically, large crowds such as these were one of the better opportunities to blend in, as everyone was too busy simply trying to squeeze into the bazaar to pay much heed to foreigners. And it certainly helped they weren't the only ones. Wonderlanders of all shapes and sizes browsed the stalls and enjoyed the performances, effectively making the two wanted men invisible.

Still, he had told White Cloud not to wander off alone - just to be safe. Well, that - and he did not exactly trust the damn fool with the gil. Not after the time he somehow overpaid tenfold for street food. For Winds' sake, how did one even do that? He was beginning to wonder whether it could be considered some rare form of talent.

...The bearer of said talent was now repeating his name with increasing urgency, so he pulled him aside to avoid being trampled by a passing creature. Having successfully avoided yet another careless local, the Wind turned his attention back to the Cloud.

"Yeah. I hear you." He assured, once again setting his sights on the fruit stand. And there, at the center, lay a rather large, coarse-looking fruit with dark skin. It looked like a somewhat ordinary melon, alright. The gunmage briefly wondered just what about it could have seized the prince in such a chokehold that he was willing to become a speed bump in the middle of the road when he remembered.

Oh. Right. The smell of sugar, huh?

While a Windarian's sense of smell was keen, his people never had an evolutionary reason to home in on that scent in particular, and at times it took conscious reminding that his Other could sense things he could not. Hearing-wise, he was more than used to the Misterican stopping him only to announce he had pinpointed a voice from miles away, upon which the gunmage simply nodded and trusted the swordsman completely. Conversely, the younger seemed all but blind at dusk, and it fell to Kaze's sight to guide the way for them both. Alike as they were, they were just as different - and they were still feeling out exactly where one's strengths slotted against the other's weak sides.

"Yeah. I've got you. Wait here." The elder sounded as he headed for the stall in long strides, taking care not to get swept away by the stream of people and creatures.

Kaze stood before the shopkeeper, awaiting his turn before prodding for the elderly man's attention. "Hey."

....Part-deaf, or something? "Hey." He repeated more forcibly. That seemed to do the trick, and the merchant turned to face the much taller man. "Oh? Yes, good Mister? How may I help you?"

Kaze wasted no time, pointing towards the sizable fruit. "That one," he said. "How much for it?"

As if on cue, the old man's eyes lit up with a spark of vigor that likely belonged in the gaze of someone half a century younger. "Ah-ah! You got a keen eye, eh? That one's a beauty, alright. A special." And the Soil mage just knew this conversation was going to be entertaining....Sarcasm.

Oh, why did royalty only have a nose for the specials?

The shopkeeper tapped a finger against the greenish shell. "This one isn't from around here at all. In fact, it's the fruit of an imported plant that only grows in the snow, and it's a whole pain to cultivate in this climate. Quickly became a delicacy round these parts, and it's only in season for seven weeks a year. You're lucky, because this is the last one I have."

Kaze's expression was already beyond grouchy. "Yeah. I don't care. How much?"

The old man's features warped in a dramatic manner - the outrage in his eyes plain. Kaze, however, failed to give a proverbial shit.

"That's gonna be 10.000 gil."

The Wind's glare narrowed in an instant. "Bullshit."

He had half a mind to simply walk away, before his thoughts were suddenly dominated by the image of wide, wet jade eyes. Ahh, saßu. Guess he was playing the game, then.

"Half that or no go." He growled.

"You insult me! 9000."

"7000."

As irritated as he was, his glare remained stalwart and did not budge. "7000 and you can have this." He slipped a dark purplish scale on the counter.

The shopkeeper blinked a few times before taking the offering in his hands and smoothing a thumb over its surface. "Mister, that genuine? Well, alright then. You can have it."

The Windarian said nothing more as he took the exotic melon into his bag and disappeared into the stream of people.

White Cloud's patience paid off at last when the former general arrived with his haul. There was a hint of a bitter scowl against sun bronze, but even the man of the Black Wind could not bring himself to be truly angry at the time. "Here." He sighed, mostly just relieved to be done with it. If either of them had to barter, it better be him, after all. He was positive the prince's childish sparkling eyes would have seen him charged twice the asking price, right off the bat.

"You better enjoy it to the fullest, do you hear?" Though his tone was ever the same sullen monotone, there was affection in the gentleness with which he placed the fruit into the younger's arms.

It may have costed them out the arse, but at least the scoundrel had something he really needed, no?

[middleearthpixie]

Seven Days ~ Chapter Thirteen

Seven Days -  Modern Tolkien AU

Firefighter Frerin Durin died in a fire set deliberately. But after he helps his brother, Thorin find happiness, Frerin is offered a second chance. He has to prove himself worthy by righting the one major wrong in his life. Otherwise, history will repeat and he will die for good this time. The catch? He has seven days in which to do this and isn’t even certain what his major wrong is.

At least, he doesn’t know for long. 

Syd Prescott has known Frerin since high school. She spent one night with him and then he vanished from her life. Now, he claims he wants to make it up to her, to right was he realizes was his major wrong. But can she trust him? And can he prove to her that she can before it’s too late? 

A/N - This story is the sequel to Miss Fortune, but is a stand alone story. 

I used google translate for the Spanish, so I apologize for any mistranslations...

Spanish Translations:

“No, no… déjame en paz!” ~ No, please leave me alone.

For favor, no me lleves!” ~ Please don’t take me

esta bién ~ It’s okay

No entiendo. No hablas ingles ~ I don’t understand. I don’t speak English

Por favor déjalo ir! No tengo papeles! ~ Please let go, I have no papers

Cómo te llamos, hombrecito? ~ what’s your name, little man?

Lo seinto ~ I’m sorry.

Qué dijo ella? - What did she say?

Summary: Frerin’s house responds to a warehouse fire and later, a false alarm…

Pairing: Modern!Frerin x OFC Syd Prescott

Characters: Frerin, Syd, Nico Zarelli, Dave Brewer, Holly Cassidy, Tori

Warnings: None

Rating: T

Word Count: 5,462 

Tag List : @tschrist1 @i-did-not-mean-to @lathalea @linasofia @fizzyxcustard @legolasbadass @kibleedibleedoo @xxbyimm @arrthurpendragon @exhausted-humxn-being @rachel1959 @laurfilijames @sketch-and-write-lover @sherala007 @enchantzz @knittastically @notlostgnome @myselfandfantasy @medusas-hairband @guardianofrivendell @jotink78 @frosticenow @quiall321 @dianakc

Normally, the sight and sound of a fire engine racing down Main Street didn’t really draw all that much attention at Miss Fortune’s Crystal, but this time, Syd looked up at the wail of the siren and her heart leaped into her throat as an engine bearing the words Cranford Falls Fire Department and the number two in gold on its side went roaring by. Engine Two/Ladder Two. Frerin’s house. 

It was the first time she really thought about what firefighters did. What Frerin did. She remembered a conversation she’d had with her sister Alex, as Alex and Thorin were in the beginning stages of their relationship and she’d been hesitant about getting involved with him. 

“Well,” Alex chewed on her popcorn,“he’s a cop, for one thing.”

That amused Syd, as Cranford Falls was hardly a hotbed of criminal activity.“So what? We live in a pretty safe town.”

“Yeah, but things happen.”

It was a good thing Alex wasn’t there to see Syd now fighting the urge to pace, the urge to dig out her cell phone and call Frerin to make sure he was all right. How did Alex do it? Cranford Falls was safe, but she knew Thorin had had a few close calls over the years. And Syd knew for herself that Frerin had as well. 

“Like I said,” he replied, carrying her toward the stairs, “I’m a fireman. I haven’t dropped anyone since I was a probie. You’re in good hands.”

“Wait, you dropped someone?”

“It was an accident.” He carried her out of the living room and toward the stairs. “She was trying to get away from me because she didn't want to leave her purse in the room. I told her to hold still, but she wriggled and squirmed and I dropped her and we both went through the floor.”

She’d seen for herself the faded, but still raised surgical scars on Frerin’s right knee, from when he’d torn his ACL his rookie year. 

Don’t think about that.

“Frerin, you’re a big guy. You have a beautiful, soothing voice and a calm air about you. I’ll bet none of those people in that house last night were afraid once they saw you.” 

She sighed, unable to get the thoughts to leave her in peace. Sometimes her brain was her own worst enemy.

“Syd? Are you okay?” Charlie came up to the counter. “You’re white as anything.”

“A fire truck just went by.”

“Yeah, I heard it.” Charlie’s expression grew concerned. “Frerin’s house?”

“Yeah.”

“Syd, you spent one night with the guy.”

“Two nights, actually. And I don’t know, he keeps saying he’s going to prove to me he’s not playing with me.”

“Syd.”

“I know, I know. I can’t be sure he isn’t. But, Charlie, I want to believe him.”

“Yeah, I know, but when someone shows you their true self, sometimes you have to just cut your losses because they are not changing.”

“But what if that isn’t his true self?” The siren’s scream faded into the distance and she sighed as she rested her elbow on the glass and her chin on her fist. “What if he does mean it?”

“Well, how hurt will you be if he vanishes again?”

Syd sighed. Sometimes, Charlie was so flighty, but other times? She was as astute as Gram and that was saying something. “I don’t know I will because part of me kind of expects he’ll do just that.”

“Then I guess you’re good. I don’t know, Syd. You know my track record with guys. I’m probably the last one to give anyone dating advice.”

Syd looked over at her sister. Charlie and Teddy were the ones guys always seemed to chase and it never really bothered Syd before. But now, she tapped her fingernails lightly against the glass counter. “Hey, Charlie? Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Did you sleep with him?”

“Frerin?”

“Yeah.”

To her surprise, Charlie shook her head. “I did not, Syd. I wanted to, before we went out. All I could think about was bagging him, to be honest. But, then he showed up at the house and was the perfect gentleman and we went to go see the original Halloween at the Roark and it was just… I don’t know… it wasn’t there, you know? I mean, he’s hot and he’s nice and all, but I just didn't feel the spark I thought I’d feel. He brought me home and kissed me at the door and there was just nothing there, you know? And the man is a good kisser, although,” she smiled at Syd, “you don’t need me to tell you that, I guess.”

“No, you certainly don’t.” Syd stilled her fingers. “He’s a fantastic kisser. And the rest of it was pretty great, too.”

Charlie’s green eyes glinted with mischief. “Tell me all about it, Syd. I’m curious as anything.”

“Charlie!”

“What? I’m not attracted to him but he’s hot as fuck and I know the rumor mill has been very generous where Firefighter Durin is concerned. I can’t wait til Lex comes home and the two of you can compare notes.”

“Charlie!”

“What?” Charlie laughed, tucking a long lock of golden hair behind her ear. “Come on, don’t you wonder what it’d be like to be with both of them?”

“A threesome? No,” Syd shook her head, “I haven’t.”

“Well, I have. I’d love to be the filling in that sandwich.”

“Charlie! Thorin is practically our brother-in-law!”

“Yeah, I know. I actually kind of weirded myself out with that. It was much nicer to imagine before he and Alex became a couple. Same with you and Frerin.”

“We aren’t a couple, Charlie. We’ve gone out twice.”

“Yeah, but you said you were going out again tomorrow.”

“I know, but it’s… so early.”

“It’s a start.” Charlie smiled. “And I want to see you happy, Syd, so I guess I’m saying you should totally take the chance with him.”

“I don’t think I have a choice, Char,” Syd replied softly, trying hard to not think about the fact that Frerin was probably on his way to a fire on that engine that went screaming by, “because I do like him. I’m scared, but I like him.”

“Good. Everything has to—oh, no…” Charlie’s smile faded as the bell above the door jangled. “Fuck.”

Syd swore beneath her breath as Estella Urlino came into the shop. “Where’s Teddy when you need her?”

“She’s smart and took the day off,” Charlie replied. Then, she pasted a bright smile on her face. “Hi there, Mrs. Urlino. What can I do for you today?”

“I want to speak to my Marco, dear. Is Teddy here?”

“She is not, but I can help you.” 

Syd held her breath at Charlie’s offer, watching as Mrs. Urlino’s eyes widened and her smile faded, but only briefly before she nodded and said, “That would be wonderful, dear.”

“Go with the goddesses and gods, Charlie,” Syd muttered under her breath.

“Thanks. Do me a favor though, be ready to call for help, okay?”

The fire was in a warehouse down on Clark Street, just off of Park, where an entire industrial park stretched out for god only knew how many acres. Thick, black smoke poured through the roof and as he tugged his hood over his head, Frerin said, “Jesus… look at that.”

Nico pushed open the door and climbed down and Frerin followed, along with the others. They moved to the rear of the rig, taking down their face masks and air tanks. Other units had already responded, and as they were ready to go, the chief came over. “There’s reports of a couple of workers trapped in Building Two,” he gestured to the left of the building before them,,. “Durin, you and Zarelli do a sweep.”

Frerin looked over at Nico and they headed toward the second building, as more trucks rolled up. The smoke pouring from the other building was thicker now. Thicker, darker gray and now the flames were visible along the roof and as the roofing material went up and the breeze caught the embers to carry them over, something sparked on that roof. He heard Chief Pratt tell Holly and Dave to forget what they’d just been told and to get water on the second building now as well. 

“Let’s go!” Nico nudged him hard in the side and they moved faster, toward the office door. 

Inside, the air was just beginning to cloud, and the heat grew thicker. Frerin looked over at Nico. “I’ll go up, you check down here.”

Nico nodded. “I’ll meet you up there as soon as I clear out down here.”

Frerin gave him a thumbs up and both of them switched on their emergency locators, which flashed light at intervals and could emit a high pitched signal if either one of them ran into trouble. As the fire continued to grow, the air went from hazy to smoke-choked and Frerin moved more slowly as he made his way up the steel staircase to where the offices were located. There were four cars in the lot, but no manifest of who was in which building, so they had to sweep all four of them in the hopes of accounting for everyone.

The heat thickened around him as he moved down the wide corridor, checking each office as he got to it, calling out, “Fire department! Anyone here?” as he did, only to be met with an odd silence.

Finally, at the last room, a copy room from what he could see as the smoke thickened to almost obliterate any view, he called, “Fire department! Anyone here?” 

He thought he could see a shape, and then something crashed somewhere in front of him. He grabbed his radio. “Durin in Building Two, second floor. I’ve got a least one in here. Any information on how many people there might be? Over.”

The figure ahead of him vanished and he heard what sounded like a woman say, “Por favor, no me lleves!”

“Durin, Garretson here in Building One. At least four unaccounted for. Locations unknown. Over.”

Frerin swore softly as he moved further into the room. “Durin in Building Two. I’m at what looks like a copy room on the second floor. Rear. At least one woman, from the sounds of it in here. Over.”

“Hey,” he called into the smoke, “stop moving and let me get to you! I’m a fireman and I’m here to get you out.”

“No, no… déjame en paz!”

The woman coughed as the air grew hotter and smokier and Frerin finally caught sight of her behind a large multi-deck copier, but when he reached for her, she shrank back behind it. “No, no… déjame en paz!”

“It’s all right! I’m here to help you. Uh… ayudar!” He shoved the copier out of his way, toppling it with a loud crash and crouched before the woman cowering behind it. “It’s all right… I don’t speak much Spanish but… uh.. esta bién.” 

He reached for her, grabbing her one arm with both hands. She looked beyond terrified, but then, relief washed the fear from her eyes and she launched herself at him, coughing and crying at the same time. 

“It’s all right,” he told her, backing out of the corner. “I’ve got you. You’re okay now. Is anyone else with you?”

She stared at him. “No entiendo. No hablas ingles!”

“Ok. It’s fine. Come on.” He looped his arm about her waist and grabbed his radio with his free hand. “Durin in Building Two. I’ve got a woman from the second floor. Smoke inhalation, but conscious and coherent and doesn’t speak English. I’m coming out with her. Over.”

Nico appeared in the doorway. “Did you check the room across?”

Frerin shook his head. “No. I found her behind a copier.”

“I’ll go look. Get her out.”

“Be careful!”

“Always.”

They parted ways then and as they neared the staircase, the woman stopped suddenly as the flashing lights of rescue vehicles reflected off the walls. “No,” she said, trying to pull free. “Por favor déjalo ir! No tengo papeles!”

“No, don’t… it’s okay. I don’t care if you’re legal or not! It doesn’t matter! Let’s go!” He grabbed her just as he’d grabbed Syd last night at his house, and tossed the woman over his shoulder to carry her down as she began coughing even harder now. Visibility was almost zero now and he just wanted to get her outside, where the EMTs were waiting.

It was already growing dark out as he carried the woman out into the frigid December air and she tensed against him, shivering as she whispered words that sounded to him like a prayer. He shifted her slightly higher up on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, miss. No one cares about your status. We just want to make sure you’re okay.”

Her praying only grew louder and as he brought her over to the waiting rig and set her down, he got his first good look at her. She couldn't have been more than fifteen or sixteen, her face smudged with soot, her eyes red and weepy as she covered her face with both hands in a coughing fit. 

“Zarelli in Building Two. I’ve got two in the last room on the second floor. One’s a kid. Over.”

The girl bolted from the EMT, screaming, “Mijo!” as she tried to run toward the building, only to have another coughing fit overtake her.

Frerin grabbed her and brought her back as Cassidy and Brewer started toward the second building. “You wait here,” he told her, indicating to the rig and Paramedic Richards. “Stay here. We’ll get your mijo, I promise.”

“I’ll keep her here, Durin,” Richards told him. “Go.”

Frerin turned and hurried back into the building, which was now ablaze. Trucks and firefighters from nearby towns were still rolling up as the fire spread to the third building as well.   He heard the shouts and boots of other firefighters coming in as well, but he ignored them as he all but ran up the stairs to find Nico. 

“Zarelli! Where are you?”

“End of the hall on your left!”

Frerin found his way back and into the room, where he found Nico, a man and a boy who looked to be about five or six. “Just the two? What’s a kid doing here?”

“Got me. Probably had no one to watch him. You grab him, I’ll get dad.”

Frerin scooped the kid up, who was conscious, but only barely. “Hang in there, buddy,” Frerin told him, giving him a gentle shake. “I’ll have you out of here in a minute.”

“Mamá…”

“She’s outside waiting for you, buddy. I promise. Stay with me, okay?” He gave the kid another gentle shake as he made his way back toward the staircase. “Uh… Cómo te llamos, hombrecito?”

“Antonio.”

“Hi, Antonio. I’m Frerin.”

Antonio clung to him, and babbled on in Spanish, to which Frerin said, “Lo seinto, I speak only a tiny bit of Español. What you just heard is about the extent of it.”

Antonio went quiet against him, his eyes closing, and Frerin gave him another shake. “Antonio? Open your eyes, amigo.”

The boy remained still and Frerin hurried out into the cold dusk and over to the paramedics. “I’ve got a kid here!”

“Bring him here.” 

He carried Antonio over to a rig from Tanner’s Peak, one of the towns just north of Cranford Falls, and the paramedic took him to set on a stretcher. “What’s his name?”

Frerin tugged off his helmet, mask and hood and almost sighed at the cold air against his overheated skin as he said, “Antonio. I think his mother is over there,” he pointed at Richards, who was doing his best to keep the woman still for assessment. 

The paramedic looked up at him and smiled. “Are you okay?”

He nodded. “I’m fine. Concentrate on the kid.”

She turned back to the little boy, who began coughing and then started to cry. Frerin set his helmet and mask on the rig’s tailgate and crouched beside Antonio to take the boy’s hand in his. “Hey, Antonio, it’s okay. It’s okay, buddy, your mamá is right over there,” he twisted slightly to gesture to the woman staring over at them, her oxygen mask steaming over with each breath, “see?” 

“Hi, Antonio,” the paramedic said, “I’m Brooke and I’m going to make you feel all better, okay?”

Antonio stared up at her for a moment, then turned his head to look at Frerin, his eyes wide and shiny. “Qué dijo ella?”

Frerin smoothed the boy’s thick black hair away from his face. “I don’t know what you said, buddy, but it’s going to be okay.” He looked over at Brooke. “He doesn’t speak English and I don’t think his mother does, either. They’re probably both undocumented.”

“That’s okay.” She smiled down at Antonio. “You’ll be just fine. Uh… Vas a estar bien, Antonio. Prometo.”

Antonio looked up at him and Frerin nodded. “What she said.”

Brooke laughed. “I promised him he’d be okay.”

Nico and his charge came out then, and Frerin smiled down at Antonio as his mother came over to them. “See, buddy? Here’s your mamá.”

“Mamá!” Antonio began crying, as did his mother as she engulfed him in her arms, crooning to him in Spanish. 

Frerin straightened up and grabbed his gear. “My work here is done.”

“You did pretty well for a man who doesn’t speak Spanish,” Brooke told him with a smile.

“I have my moments.” He turned to go back to his company’s truck. The fires were mostly under control now, and he leaned back against the rig as Nico came over, yanking his hood over his head. He looked every bit as hot and sweaty as Frerin felt. 

“Hey, I think the EMT is checking you out,” Nico said, leaning up against the truck alongside him.

“Let her. I’m not interested.” He raked his fingers through his damp hair. He just wanted to go back to the station and shower. 

Little by little, things wound down. The fires were finally extinguished, the injured—both civilian and first responders—were treated and either taken to hospitals or released and as he climbed up into his seat, Frerin looked over at Nico, who was driving. “Can we make a stop?”

Nico only barely bit back his grin as he arched at brow. “Do I need to guess where?”

“Funny. I’ll buy you a smudge stick to make up for it.”

“How could I say no to that?”

Frerin grinned, sitting back as they left the industrial park behind them and made their way back into town. “We gotta make a stop, guys. Anyone need witching shit?”

Holly looked up. “Actually, yeah. I need some incense. Do you mind if I tag along, Frer?”

“No, feel free.” Frerin shoved open his door and climbed out. It wasn't quite five yet, but it was dark and the evening rush was underway as he waited for a break in traffic to jog across the street to Miss Fortune’s Crystal.

The bell above the door announced his arrival and when she looked up, Syd’s expression—to his surprise—mirrored the relief he’d seen in Antonio’s mother’s eyes when he’d found her behind the copier. “Frerin?”

“Yeah.” He thumped over to her, taking care not to knock anything over with his coat, which was open. “I—uh—we were just on our way back and I—uh—I just wanted to see you.”

She came around the corner. “Was it really bad? Are you okay? I heard like two more trucks after yours went by.”

“Three buildings. Warehouses. We got it out and as far as I know, no fatalities. And I’m fine. Just tired. And sweaty.”

“He got a kid and his mom out,” Holly chimed in from where she stood by the incense. “And I think a paramedic was giving him the eye.”

“Thanks, Holly.” He rolled his eyes as he turned back to Syd. “Anyway, I just wanted to see you. And Holly needed incense, so I let her tag along.”

Syd smiled up at him, reaching up to brush his hair away from his forehead. “You look a little grimy, Firefighter Durin.”

“I know. I’m going to shower when I get back to the station. And I’m sorry if I smell on top of everything.”

“You’re fine.” She moved closer and almost hesitantly, eased her arms beneath his coat, about his waist. “And I’m glad you’re okay.”

“I’m fine. It was a good run.” He gazed down at her. Christ, she was just fucking beautiful. “We still on for tomorrow?”

“If you’re up to it?”

“I’ll be up to it.” He draped his arms about her shoulders. “Have you picked a place to go?”

“Not yet.”

“I’ll surprise you, if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t.”

“Good.” He smiled and bent to press his lips to hers. Hers were soft and warm and moved sensually against his to send his blood smoking through his veins. He broke the kiss reluctantly, sweeping his lips along her cheek, over her ear, where he whispered, “Make sure you bring an overnight bag, honey. I plan on keeping you.”

“I’m okay with that,” she whispered back, which made his entire body tighten even as he smiled. 

He drew back, catching her face in his hands. He had to touch her, had to feel her soft hair against his skin, to lose himself in her beautiful eyes if only for a moment. And when she looked up at him, he could do nothing more than bend and press a soft kiss into her lips once more. At least, he’d meant it to be soft, but the moment his lips touched hers, it became a slow, deep kiss and when he pulled back, she was somewhat breathless as she murmured, “Wow…”

“It’s been a long day,” he murmured back, “and I really should get back, so, I’ll see you tomorrow, Syd.”

“Be careful and stay safe,” she told him as he stepped back.

He couldn’t remember the last time a woman not related to him told him to be careful. It was a nice feeling to hear those words come from her. “I will. Promise.”

She smiled, then looked over at Holly. “Did you find everything you need?”

Holly nodded, moving around him to set the box on sandalwood incense on the counter. “I think so. Do you guys do special orders?”

Syd nodded. “Sure. Was there something you wanted to order?”

“Not now, but I will.” 

“Okay. That’ll be ten seventy.”

Holly handed her a debit card and when the transaction was complete, she smiled up at him. “I’ll be in the rig. Don’t be too long.”

“I’ll be right there. Tell Nico to just cool his jets.” He waited for her to leave, then turned back to Syd. “For tomorrow night, just dress casually, okay? Nothing too fancy, but not quite Darcy’s.”

“What do you have up your sleeve, Firefighter Durin?”

“You’ll see.” He grinned. “Or, you know, if you’d rather stay in, I can cook.”

“You?”

“Yeah, me. My mother made sure Thorin, Dís, and I all learned how.”

Her smile faded and he had the distinct feeling he’d said something wrong. “What?”

“Well… I was looking forward to going out.”

“Okay, the surprise it is then. I’ll pick you up at six.” He winked. “I’d better go. I need to shower.”

“I didn't want to say anything, but you are a little… fragrant.”

“Yeah. Warehouse fire. Christ only knows what was in that smoke.” He kissed her once more and then said, “I really do have to go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“See you, Frerin. Go, before you get in trouble.”

Back at the station, after the rig was cleaned and restocked with fresh air canisters, the men and woman of Engine Two/Ladder Two trudged up to shower. By virtue of being a woman, Holly had her own shower, but for Nico, Brewer, Frerin, and the others, it meant a communal shower.

There was nothing like a hot shower to scrub off the grime, ease any and all sore muscles, and just to let his head clear and as Frerin stood under the steaming spray, all he could think about was Syd and the steamy shower they’d shared. If he had his choice between showering with his fellow firefighters or his girl? It was no contest, really.

He turned toward the spray, closing his eyes as it needled into his skin. He shampooed, soaped, rinsed, and then shut off his shower head and reached for his towel. He rubbed his hair, his face, chest, shoulders, and arms, then wrapped it about his waist before moving into the locker room. 

“Do you all shower together?”

“Jesus!” He jumped, but fortunately caught himself before he slammed into the row of lockers. “Damn it, Tori, will you stop doing that?”

Her eyes widened as she looked directly at him and for the first time in as long as he could remember, discomfort shot through him. “Tori?”

“Sorry.” To his surprise, she blushed as she met his gaze. “I’ve never seen you this way and… well… you’re really very handsome, you know.”

His discomfort swelled. “Tori, the others will be out any minute.”

“Sorry.” She cleared her throat. “Uh, the Big Guy wanted me to remind you that you only have until Friday.”

“Yeah, I swear to you, I am painfully aware of that.”

“I know,” she winced, “but when He tells me to tell you, you can bet I’m going to tell you.” Her eyes flicked downward very briefly and the color in her normally pale cheeks deepened. “But there’s something else.”

His gut kinked as another set of taps squeaked. “What? And make it quick. Someone’s on their way out.”

“You have to tell Syd.”

“What?”

She nodded. “He said you have to tell her. All of it.”

“Tori, she’s going to think I’m either completely insane or that I’m using her to get out of dying. She’s not going to believe me.”

“I know.” She winced again. “But, He said that’s part of proving yourself to her. Or proving it to Him. Either way, it’s a show of faith and you know how big He is on faith.”

“Tori, I can’t tell her. How does that look? She’ll—”

“She might surprise you.” More taps squeaked and her eyes darted in the direction of the showers.

“Tori. The Big Guy isn’t going to be happy if he thinks you’re trying to sneak peeks at naked men.”

Her eyes went round. “They’re naked?”

“Nico has no shame. He doesn’t care who sees his dick.”

“Frerin!”

He grinned. “What?”

“Ugh!” She rolled her eyes and scowled. “You need to tell Syd the whole truth. And before Friday. Or else…”

His stomach curdled as she faded from sight. “Wonderful.”

“What’s that, Frerin?”

 He looked over as Nico and Brewer came into the locker room, each one with a towel snug about his waist. Looked like he’d warned Tori for nothing. 

Still, how the hell did he not only tell Syd the truth, but prove to her that he wasn’t just using her to get out of being dead? Or that he wasn't completely fucking insane? 

“Hello?” Nico waved a hand in front of him. “You in there?”

“Wait… what?” Frerin jerked away from him. “Knock it off.”

“Sorry, man, I—”

The alarm went off then, echoing through the station, and Frerin swore under his breath as he and the others rushed to get into their turnout gear once more. 

They rolled up to the private residence out on Greenfield Street, about a block or so away from the Prescott house, only to find no sign of any fire. Frerin and Nico both climbed down and Nico sighed. “Wanna bet it’s a cooking mishap?”

“Looks like it. Come on.” 

They walked up to the door, which was opened before either of them could knock by a very flustered middle-aged woman who greeted them with a, “I am so sorry! My husband insisted on this stupid alarm system that goes right to the police and fire departments and all it was is a little olive oil that got spilled on the inside of the oven.”

Nico smiled. “Well, since we’re already here, why don’t you let us take a look and just make sure, okay?”

She nodded, waving her red and white checked dishcloth at the hazy air in the living room. “Sure. Come on in. But it’s really nothing and I am going to kill him when he gets home.”

Frerin followed Nico into the house. A light hazy of gray smoke hung in the air, every window and the sliding glass door were wide open, the ceiling fan in the sitting area just off the kitchen was going full tilt.

“I told him this would happen,” she said, following them into the kitchen. “But, he insisted and it was easier to give in than to keep arguing with him. See?” 

She gestured to the oven, which was open, with a pile of what looked like wet paper towels resting on the inside of the door. “I’ve been trying to clean it up so we can have dinner some time tonight.”

The smoke was only slightly thicker in the kitchen and there was no hint of gas or of anything else burning in the air. Frerin crouched to peer into the oven and saw for himself the splotch of blackened oil remnant on the oven floor. “I think we can give it the all clear, Zarelli.”

“Yeah. I’ll go let Pratt know.”

“Okay.” Frerin turned to the woman. “Make sure you get that all cleaned up or we’ll be back here the next time you light it as well.”

“I feel so stupid, you all rushed over here for burned olive oil.” She tucked a dark blonde curl behind her ear. “I’m so sorry you were all bothered for nothing.”

He shook his head. “Don’t apologize. It happens more often than you’d think. And I’ll take an oven spill over a kid pulling an alarm to get out of phys ed any day of the week.”

“Still. I am sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He smiled. “You have a good night.”

She rolled her eyes. “Donny will hear about this when he gets home, the jackass.”

Frerin chuckled as he followed Nico out of the house and back to the truck. “From the sounds of it, she just might kill him when he gets home.”

Nico swept his helmet off. “Yeah. Hey, remember that cute little blonde who’d set her oven on fire on a weekly basis?”

Frerin rolled his eyes. “Yeah. I remember her. She was a pain in the ass.”

“That’s because she wanted to get into my pants and not yours for once.”

Frerin whisked his helmet off as well. “And if I recall, it worked, didn't it?”

“It did.” Nico’s smile faded. “And she was all style and no substance. I didn't think it was possible for a girl that hot to be so lousy in bed… Damn shame, really.”

Brewer nudged him with an elbow. “Why don’t I believe you?”

“Why would I lie about that?” Nico asked with a shrug. “She was a dead fish. A quiet, still, cold, dead fish. Longest night of my life.”

Frerin tugged open the engine’s passenger door. “Tell me you’ve gotten some since then at least?”

“No, man. I’ve been in the mother of all dry spells.” Nico shook his head. “Let me live vicariously through you, Frer. Tell me how your girl is.”

Frerin grinned. “She’s not a dead fish and that’s all I’m telling.”

“Damn, that’s no fair. You’re supposed to be regaling us with all kinds of stories. It’s a new relationship and she’s hot as fuck and I know you two are having sex all over the place right now. So, take some pity on a brother and give him some details.”

“No.” Frerin climbed up into the truck. “I’m not sharing this, Nic. I like this girl and I just don’t really feel like bragging about the great sex, okay?”

“Damn. I knew it’d be great. Just give me one detail.”

“Okay. One and that’s it.” He grinned. “She’s got an IUD.”

“Oh, fuck me…” Nico groaned softly. “No rubber?”

“No rubber.”

“Oh, you know I wish I was you right now.”

“Man, some guys just have all the luck…”

Frerin smiled as he settled back in his seat. Hopefully, he’d be one of those guys.