#some say wyatt is too much & oliver is too in his head

[not-rome]

i commissioned @imthursdaysyme to draw my ocs from the novella im currently writing AND AAAAAA THEY LOOK SO GOOD!!! WYATT (L) AND OLIVER (R) DESERVE THE BEST

[callmebrycelee]

9-1-1: LONE STAR REACTION

This reaction is for the season 4, eleventh episode "Double Trouble" which originally aired April 4, 2023. The episode was written by Jamie Kessler and directed by Bradley Buecker. Spoilers ahead!

***LAST TIME ON 9-1-1: LONE STAR***

The future of Tommy, Nancy, and TK's jobs are on the line when Pearce Risher (Andy Favreau) makes his return to the show. Tommy's old nemesis is now working for Paragon, a private paramedic service that prioritizes profits over patients. When Paragon's cutting corners results in the near-death of Pearce and a patient, Tommy and her crew step in to save the day. Meanwhile, the 126 hosts a Stand Up to Cancer event at the firehouse. Owen hooks up with a very wealthy donor and receives a generous donation for his services. Or so he believes. 

Now that we're all caught up, let's discuss episode eleven - DOUBLE TROUBLE.

We begin the episode over at the Ryders'. Wyatt (Jackson Pace) is back and he is here to drop some major bombshells. He's brought his girlfriend, Leigh Ann (Jessi Case) to meet his dad and stepmom. Fun fact: Jessi Case and Julian Work, who plays Mateo, starred in an installment of the Hulu horror anthology series Into the Dark. Another thing I like to point out is I love Judd's good-natured teasing of Wyatt. I love how Judd has truly embraced being Wyatt's father and it's proof that it's never too late to have a relationship with someone as long as you're willing to put in the work.

Anywho, Grace asks to hear the story of how the two lovebirds met and we learn that Wyatt being sexiled (love that word) by his roommate resulted in him meeting Leigh Ann in the common room of his dorm. Leigh Ann says that she is an early education major and Wyatt points out that she has a 4.0 GPA. When Judd asks about his GPA, Wyatt drops his first bomb and says that he has dropped out of school. Judd is furious and Grace tries to calm him down. She reminds Wyatt that if his course load causing him to have second thoughts about school that he can just drop some of his classes. Wyatt assures her that it's not that; he says he doesn't need a degree for his new aspiration.- being a firefighter. He asks Judd if he would call the chief to put in a good word for him. Judd is clearly rattled by Wyatt's revelation and asks him what the real motivation is for wanting to become a first responder. We get bombshell #2 when Wyatt announces that he and Leigh Ann are having a baby! Lawd, have mercy! I was not expecting this. Not at all! Poor Judd! Just last season he learned he already had a kid, or rather another kid (can't forget baby Charley) and now he's discovering he's going to be a grandfather. Wowser!

Cue title card!

Marjan interrupts a game of Catan at the firehouse to share the chore list she created for her teammates. She is still on light duty after being shot a few episodes ago and much like Evan (Buck) Buckley (Oliver Stark), she is letting her new role go to her head a bit. Mateo gets a FaceTime call from his troublemaking cousin in LA. The last time we saw Marvin Chavez was during the earthquake episode of the OG series. Mateo introduces Marvin to the crew and they all think he's playing a practical joke on them since he and his cousin are practically identical a la The Patty Duke Show.

Paul: "Is that a real whole another person?" Mateo: "Yeah, this is my cousin from Cali, Marvin." TK: "That's your twin?" Mateo: "No, not twin. Identical cousin." Marjan: "That is not a real thing."

Mateo introduces Marvin to Nancy which I thought was super adorable. Marvin asks if he can speak to Mateo privately. Marvin informs him that he's currently incarcerated for grand theft auto, leaving the scene of an accident, and evading arrests and he needs bail money. When Mateo asks how much, Marvin tells him $25,000. Mateo tells him he doesn't have that kind of money but Marvin guilt-trips him. Mateo says he'll see what he can do. 

We next see an older woman named Marge Mooney (Gigi Bermingham) working in her backyard. Two brothers - Sampson (Aidan McGraw) and Tanner (Liam Risinger) are playing in their yard next door when they accidentally toss a baseball into Marge's yard, decapitating one of her creepy gnome figurines. The two boys apologize for the ball ending up in her yard and ask for it back. Marge refuses to give it back and Tanner calls her 'Mean Marge'. The two brothers climb up into their treehouse and they see Marge's stash of balls that she's collected from all the neighborhood children who have accidentally tossed them into her yard. Sampson and Tanner lament that it was their last ball in a moment very reminiscent of one of my all-time favorite movies - The Sandlot. Sampson says he has something better than a ball. He gets his dad's hunting bow and aims an arrow to hit one of Ms. Mooney's yard gnomes. At the last moment he is distracted by his dad and misfires the arrow. Cue 9-1-1 call.

Tommy, Nancy, and TK arrive on the scene where Carlos is already mediating between Marge and the boys' father, Zach (Mickey Casab). We see that Marge has an arrow going through the middle of her neck but surprisingly there's very little blood. Tommy does her assessment and asks Marge when she's last seen a doctor. Ms. Mooney says she doesn't do doctors. Tommy tells her there's a large lump in her neck, possibly cancerous, that prevented the arrow from hitting her carotid artery. Marge asks if she's going to die. Tommy tells her she needs to get it checked out and reminds her that the two boys' mischief has possibly saved her life. As Marge is being transported, she has a change of heart. She apologizes to Sampson and Tanner and asks Carlos to go into her backyard, open the large bin and return the boys' their belongings. She also asks that the next time the boys hit something in her yard to come over for a glass of juice. Sampson tells her that they can do that. What a sweet ending to a really horrific accident. 

Back at the station, Mateo goes to talk to Owen who is listening to Winston Churchill's "Finest Hour" speech as inspiration for the toast he will deliver at TK and Carlos' wedding. Mateo asks Owen if he can borrow $25,000 for Marvin's bail. Owen asks him what Marvin did and Mateo says that he "borrowed a Ferrari" ... again. Owen asks if Marvin asks Mateo for money a lot and we learn that Mateo's already bailed his cousin out at least five times. Yikes! Owen has such a good dad moment when he asks if Mateo's ever considered the reason Marvin is a repeat offender is because he has a safety net. Mateo tells Owen that he owes Marvin and his aunt and uncle for taking him in when he came to the United States from Mexico. He says that Marvin has always looked out for him. Owen tells him there's a difference between looking out for someone and enabling bad behavior. Owen would know since he's the parent of an addict. I love that he says 'addict' and not 'former addict' because no matter how long TK maintains his sobriety, being an addict is a chronic illness. Owen doesn't give Mateo the money because he says it wouldn't do him or Marvin any favors. Marvin Chavez needs to learn his lesson this time. Great advice, Captain Strand! 

Over in the workout area, Judd is going to town on a punching bag. Tommy joins him and asks if everything is okay at home. Judd says it's been better. Tommy says that having a toddler at home can be very stressful. Judd tells her that it's not Charley - it's his 19 year old toddler, Wyatt. He tells Tommy that Wyatt's got his girlfriend 'knocked up'. P.S. - I really hate this euphemism for a woman getting pregnant because it sounds super violent and sort of dehumanizing. Can we please retire the phrase? Anywho, Tommy is such a good friend in this scene. While Judd vents about Wyatt quitting school and thus ruining his life, she listens and doesn't pass judgment. Tommy tells him that Wyatt wanting to become a firefighter isn't at all surprising considering how much he idolizes his dad. She reminds Judd that he's a great role model but Judd doesn't see it that way. Judd laments that Wyatt wants to be the bum version of himself instead of going out into the world and doing something great. Judd says he doesn't want his son to make the same mistakes he made and Tommy reminds him that Wyatt's decisions are not up to him. Tommy asks him if he could change anything that happened in his life leading up to the day he met Grace.

Judd: "No, I don't reckon I would."

Tommy reminds Judd that if he is worried about Wyatt turning out just like him then he has nothing to worry about. Aww! Tommy, you're such a good friend!!! I love the Tommy and Judd friendship so much!

In the next scene, Wyatt visits the firehouse to ask Judd if he's had any more thoughts about what they talked about over dinner. Judd tells him he won't be making a call to the chief because he believes it would be a mistake. He tells Wyatt that he's been where he's been and Wyatt reminds him that's not true. Wyatt assures him that he plans on being there for his kid which sounded harsh at first but then he tempers it by saying that he knows Judd would've been there if he knew about Wyatt earlier. Wyatt assures Judd he will not make the same mistakes as he did. Judd says he does want to make up for lost time but he won't be making the call. He tells Wyatt he thinks he's too soft to be a firefighter. Wyatt is clearly hurt by hearing this and walks away. 

Meanwhile, Mateo is attempting to sell his Pokemon cards as a means of raising Marvin's bail money. When Nancy discovers what he's doing, she sends him the money he needs because she knows how much he loves his Pokemon card collection. Mateo tells her she's a good girlfriend.

Over at the Ryders' Judd is fixing the kitchen cabinets at God knows what time of the morning. Grace joins him in the kitchen and asks him what's going on. He tells her about Wyatt coming to the firehouse and how he called him soft. Grace asks him if he meant what he said and Judd tells her he did. He says he thinks the world of Wyatt but insists that not everyone is built to do what he does every day. Grace tells him that's something Wyatt needs to find out for himself. Judd insists that he's not stopping him but Grace points out that he's not helping him either. Judd says he can't go to the chief regarding something he doesn't believe in. Grace says that if that's the case then he needs to get to the point where he believes in Wyatt. If he truly believes Wyatt is not tough enough then it's his job to toughen him up. At the end of this scene, Judd points out that Grace is the wisest woman he's ever met and that she will make a great grandmother. Grace scoffs at this and he teases her by calling her granny and memaw. This scene was super sweet because I love how Judd has these two women in his life who can make him see reason when he's being stubborn. 

Back at the firehouse, Mateo receives a call from his cousin Daniela. He learns that as soon as Marvin was released from jail, he stole another vehicle and ended up in an accident. Marvin is dead. Mateo, of course, does not take the news well and I honestly felt really bad for him. He insists that Marvin's death is his fault and Owen assures him it's not. Mateo says he should've listened to Owen because even though Marvin would still be in custody, he would at least be alive. Owen reminds Mateo that it was Marvin's choice to steal that Porsche and that it was a bad choice to make. Owen tells Mateo that he should go home since his shift is over. Mateo asks him for money so he can go back to LA for the funeral. Owen tells him he will give him whatever he needs and Mateo says that was easy. He thanks Owen and leaves.

Nancy tries to console Mateo in the locker room and he tells her he wishes she hadn't given him the money for Marvin's bail. Nancy asks if he blames her and Mateo assures her he doesn't. He tells her he's mad at himself for taking the money and worries what his aunt and uncle will do once they find out he was the one who posted the bond. Marvin leaves to go home and Nancy suggests she can go with him. He tells her no and that he wants to be alone. Nancy is so understanding at this moment.

Mateo heads home and he starts to spiral. He takes several shots of whiskey, trips, and hits his head. He is knocked out cold. When he comes to, we see a bedroom with two twin beds decorated in an old school aesthetic.

What we get next is Mateo's backstory delivered in the style of a sitcom from the 1950's, i.e. The Patty Duke Show and Leave it to Beaver. We see two identical boys - Mateo and Marvin. We learn that it was Mateo who was the troublemaker while they were growing up and Marvin was the well-mannered one. Very Goofus and Gallant. We see Mateo coming in through the bedroom window. Marvin catches him and chastises him for sneaking out overnight. Mateo's hands are pink from tagging their school. Mateo attempts to wash the paint from his hands while Marvin tells him to hurry up and get dressed so they can both get to school. Mateo tells him there's no school left because burned down.

We then get a very classic television-inspired theme song featuring not only Mateo and Marvin, but cousin Daniela (Marjan), Aunt Marisol (Tommy), and Uncle O (Owen). I loved every moment of this because I grew up watching Nick at Nite with my grandmother. That's how I was introduced to shows like Mary Tyler Moore, I Love Lucy, Dragnet, and Bewitched.

Mateo and Marvin head downstairs for breakfast where there's some funny banter between the family. They are joined by Milkman Judd. You know, Jim Parrack in all white really did it for me. Milkman Judd asks if they heard about what happened at the middle school. He tells the Chavez family that the school burned down, soliciting some nervous looks exchanged between Mateo and Marvin. To make matters worse, Officer Reyes and his nincompoop sidekick (Carlos and TK) drop by to let the family know they found a can of spray paint at the scene of the crime and they have footage of Mateo at the school. Marvin steps in and confesses to the crime because he worries if Mateo gets in trouble he will be deported back to Mexico. Marvin is arrested by the officers and taken away. 

In the next scene we see Nancy cleaning the wound Mateo sustained when he tripped and failed. Owen asks Nancy if they should take him to the hospital but Mateo says he actually needs to go to the police station. When Nancy asks why, he tells her that he needs to report a crime. Owen asks him what crime and Mateo responds by saying vandalism and arson. The very first time Marvin got in trouble was because of something he did. Mateo confesses to burning down his middle school when he was thirteen years old. He thinks it's time that everyone knows the truth because when Marvin stepped in to take the heat for his crime, it set him on a path of destruction which ultimately led to his death. Mateo asks Owen to take him to the police station. Nancy says that if he does that, he could end up losing everything. Mateo says if that happens, he deserves it. He tells Owen he needs to make things right and Owen agrees to take him to the station.

Meanwhile, Judd invites Wyatt over to let him know that he and Grace are willing to help him and Leigh Ann out until he graduates from the fire academy. Wyatt is shocked by this news and reminds Judd that he called him soft. Judd doesn't take back what he said but instead tells him that he's going to help toughen him up. Wyatt tells him that he will be starting at the academy the following week. As it turns out, he went and got the job on his own accord rather than waiting for Judd to put in a good word for him. Judd is both surprised and proud. Wyatt asks him if he still thinks that he's soft and Judd says as a baby's belly but he's going to help him change that. He gives Wyatt some workout clothes and a plastic garbage bag. Judd tells him to get changed so they can get to work. The two of them hug and they're officially my second favorite father/son relationship of the show.

Owen does take Mateo to the station but it's not the police station. When they arrive at the firehouse, Owen tells him that if he truly wants to make things right, then this is where he needs to be. 

Owen: "You come here every day and you try to save someone. You do it because you couldn't save Marvin."

Owen reminds Mateo that the debt he so badly wants to take ownership of has already been paid. Owen asks him not to throw away Marvin's sacrifice because his work with the 126 is too important. He tells Mateo he is sorry he lost his cousin but he doesn't want to lose him. This is truly Owen Strand at his best. Owen has many faults but he is truly a good man underneath all the bravado and hair product. He is also a good captain and a good father figure to TK and Mateo. Mateo thanks him.

In our final scene, we see Wyatt running while Judd is driving alongside him in his truck. What a good episode for fathers and their sons.

So, let's talk about the episode as a whole! This episode ranks very high with me and I think both storylines were done well. I think Wyatt Harris was a great addition to the show and I think it's quite interesting to see Judd learning how to be a dad to both a toddler and a grown man. The news of Wyatt and his girlfriend, Leigh Ann, expecting a baby was quite shocking to me but it adds an interesting dynamic to the show. How fun will it be to see Judd and Grace navigating parenthood as well as being grandparents. Also, does this mean Wyatt will be joining the 126 at some point?

The Mateo plot was my favorite of the episode. We have watched Mateo grow so much during the course of this show but admittedly he's mostly taken a backseat for most of this season. I'm so glad we got to learn even more about the character and I think it was a nice twist learning that he was the delinquent. This show has always been about second chances and sometimes third and fourth chances. We have seen other characters have to start over after tragedy has befell them and Mateo is no different. His cousin taking the rap for a crime he committed was the wakeup call he needed to become the man he was meant to be all along. Unfortunately it was also the beginning of Marvin's downfall but ultimately when we become a certain age, our choices are our own and we can only blame so much on circumstances. I admire Marvin for protecting Mateo but everything that came afterwards could have been avoided.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Lone Star is knocking it out of the park this season. I have truly enjoyed every single episode and we still have seven more to go. I hope we continue to get more episodes like this sprinkled throughout the rest of this season. Until next time ...

[achliegh]

Sunflower

Epilogue Chapter 4

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3

This is the epilogue to Olive and Otto

It will mostly be exploring the relationship the cubs have with O&O

There will also be a little storm chasing

TW/CW: Kids, Food, Storms, Smut, Sickness

@domesticatedbeetlenamedjorge

Characters belong to @lumosinlove

The two tallest of the bunch were getting ready while Olive was sitting on the couch next to her brother who was looking much better after sleeping for twenty hours. Olive was wearing the exact same thing as her dad, light jeans with white shirts, flannels under their company track jackets. Her hair was in two braids down her back that her dad did, she was also wearing Logan's snapback that was much too large for her but she was gonna miss him even if it was only for the night. Well, more like one evening.

Leo walks out of the master bedroom still wearing his thin wire framed glasses.

“Harzy, did you move my contracts again?”

“Nope, if I remember correctly you’re out until Monday.”

“What day even is today?”

“Thursday, mon solie” Logan shook his head, smiling a little as he watched them get ready, saying he was nervous about today felt right. Leo said the edge of the storm would be hitting Gryffindor but it shouldn’t be anything too crazy, plus he had Otto to keep him company. A sick child that loves storms, fuck he was screwed. He felt something rub against the back of his leg and smiled a little. When Olive ran off the other day she walked back out of those bushes holding a giant cat, it was the same size as her. She named it Ilya and since she named it they had to keep it. When they walked in the door with a giant mass of grey and white fur Leo just stared at them dumbfounded. ‘You let her pick up a stray cat! What if it's sick! What if it scratched her and gave her something!’ ‘Daddy her name is Ilya!’ He just blinked at them a couple of times and sighed before giving his boyfriends a pointed look. ‘You guys take care of all the things Ilya needs, including vet appointments.’ He shook his head, having the scowl melt off his face when Ilya trotted over to Otto and rubbed up against his hand purring, making a sleepy smile cross the young boy's face. “Hello Smelly” He smiles and picks up the fat cat walking towards the couch to sit next to the kids.

“Logan, are you gonna be okay?” Olive looks over to him from where her and Otto were playing fruit ninja on the table their mom got for them. “I don’t want you to be all scared”

“Of course I will be okay, I have Otto, non?” Otto leans into his side and sniffles a little nodding, God these two are so cute. He lets go of Ilya and settles herself on top of Otto's lap covering the whole thing. She purrs so loud they’re surprised she hasn’t knocked the apartment off its foundation. “So cute” He gives Otto a kiss on the top of his head and pet their ball of fur.

There was a buzz from the doorman downstairs letting them know someone was on their way up, Leo’s parents were there and Finn was getting jittery. He had never been inside of a storm like this but the visuals were supposedly amazing this time of year in Hufflepuff, sunflower fields were in full bloom and there shouldn’t be too much rain, but a tornado was almost guaranteed to drop. Finn was already feeling the adrenaline of seeing a tornado for the first time. Was it going to be beautiful or terrifying? What if it killed th-

“Finn!” He was engulfed into a tight hug as Eloise surprised him. The breath was forced out of him while Wyatt, who was holding Olive now, and Leo chatted away about how this evening would go. “Ready to get into a storm! I’m so happy you decided to come, but it’s okay if you want to stay here and keep Olive here. She will most likely stay in the motel room we use as homebase because it’s too easy to lose her out in the field. But she loves it anyway.” She ruffles his hair and he turns a little red.

“I’m nervous, not gonna lie, maybe I’ll stay with Olive in homebase then.” He smiles shyly and she laughs a little nodding. They walk over to join the other two who are discussing the large cat that has hidden Otto in its fluffy.

“Sure you don’t want to come, Tremz?” Wyatt smiles a calm one at him as Olive rests her head on her Pawpaw’s shoulder. “Maybe we could help break your fear of storms, we are family now.” Logan smiles at the feeling of being accepted into the Knut’s so easily.

“No thanks I’ll keep Otto and Ilya company.”

“Alright, we are gonna head out then.” Eloise leans down to kiss Otto’s head and Logan's cheek, then she remembers something. “I almost forgot.” She opens up her ridiculously large purse and pulls out three large books. “Photo Albums you asked for” Leo smiles and takes them giving his mom a kiss on each kiss and sets them on the coffee table. “Alright let’s go. By sweeties!” They all gave goodbye kisses and hugs as they walked out the door. Heading to Hufflepuff.

Otto yawns and looks up at Logan. “Tremz can we take a nap in your room?” He is barely able to keep his eyes open and his head is lightly nodding to one side. The smile it brings to Logan's face is one of being totally wrapped around this child's finger.

“Want me to carry you?” He sees the smallest little nod and stands up, scooping up the young boy and the cat, walking to the bedroom while feeling Otto’s forehead. He’s still a bit warm but not as bad as the last few days. Laying down the small boy he tucks him in and crawls under the cover on the other side. Ilya is between them on her back already snoring.

“Goodnight Logan, I love you” it was so quiet Logan almost missed it, that was the first time Otto had ever said that to either him or Finn, Olive had said it the first week of being there and all three older men got a little teary eyed in secret about it later. Logan's heart was vibrating in his chest and he felt himself smiling into the dark room.

“I love you too buddy”

Olive was bouncing in her carseat and like she does, talking a mile a minute.

“How long is the drive? Are we there? Will there be lightning? What about thunder? Daddy, can I have some water? Where's my snack? I don’t like frosted flakes!” She started throwing a fit over how she hasn't had Reese's puffs in weeks and Leo was trying to explain why they couldn’t have them in the house because of Otto's allergy. She started crying because ‘I don’t want him to die!’ and then Finn had to explain how he wasn’t gonna die right then and there. All the why the grandparents were giggling in the front seats.

After a two hour drive they pulled into the parking lot where many large dented up vans with camera equipment and radars are, there was a door to a motel room open on the ground floor that people were constantly going in and out of. Finn was getting nervous all over again, there were so many people and they would make so many assumptions.

“Don’t worry, they think Olive and Otto are my siblings and you’re my best friend.” Leo smiles at him as Olive just keeps on talking. “Olive, remember who I am around large groups of people.”

“Frère!” She smiles at him and kicks her legs a little. “Can we go now!” Leo unbuckles her and they get out of the truck. Everyone smiles and greets Leo like old friends. Finn is introduced to so many people he doesn’t have any chance of remembering. Walking into the motel room a large hairy man was sitting in front of four different computer screen his hair was up in a bun and his large beard was braided, his glasses were small and on the tip of his nose. “Hagrid!” Olive runs over to him and jumps in his lap startling him but then he smiles and hugs her.

“Hello little one, ‘owve you been.” He smiles and looks up. “Leo, haven’t seen you in a while mate, and I see you’ve brought a friend. NHL roommate I’m guessing.” Everything fell into place after that.

This was going to be okay, and maybe they won’t get ate by a tornado after all.

[calpalirwin]

Thick as Thieves

Summary: Luke and Leia have always been the closest out of the Hemmings siblings. But will they remain thick as thieves when Luke gains more brothers?

A/N: Sort of an anon request in that more brother!luke was written. So here’s a (badly constructed?) plot for that. 

Content: Mostly sibling dynamics with some build up of Ash and Leia dynamics

Word Count: 2.5k

And away, and away we go!

—

Leia’s hand smeared the ink on her paper as the loud guitar chord rang out. She pushed the assignment aside and went stalking down the hallway. She didn’t bother knocking, instead shoving the door open and putting her hands on her hips. “Could ya not?!”

“Could ya knock?!” Luke shot back, quickly getting up and crossing the room to slam the door in her face. 

Leia was quicker, her hand shooting out to brace against the doorframe. “I’m trying to study, dumbass. I know school isn’t important to you anymore, but it still means something to us nobodies.”

“School’s still important to me! I just have to practice!” His irritation faded as the nerves he’d been trying to get rid of set in again. “We have a show tonight,” he confided. 

“Oh, shit, really?” Leia asked, her blue eyes lighting up in excitement. 

“Yeah,” he continued, fiddling with his fingers. “This isn’t just us messing around anymore. This is like a real show. With real people.”

“You don’t even have a drummer though,” she pointed out the flaw in his plan. 

“Yeah, Mike found a guy. Think he said his name was Ashton. I dunno.”

“Oh? Does he know your songs?”

“The ones were gonna do, yeah. Or he said he did anyway. I dunno. I hope so.”

“You’ll do great, Lu-lu,” she told him. He may annoy her to death sometimes, but he was still her twin brother. And they were thick as thieves their whole life together. “Mum driving you?”

“Yeah,” he said, glancing at the time on his phone. “If she ever gets here…” He swore under his breath. 

“Relax, she’ll be home in like five minutes, watch.” Then, “Is that what you’re wearing to your show?”

Luke glanced down at his plain tank too, blue skinny jeans, and Converse. One foot shifted to rest on the other. “What’s wrong with how I’m dressed?”

She ruffled his hair playfully. “Nothing. Can I come?”

“No way! I'm about to be a rockstar, Le-le. I can’t have my baby sister and Mum at my show. And stop messing up my hair!”

“All the rockstars have messy hair,” she teased, musing up his hair more with both her hands. 

“No, they don’t! Quit it!”

“Say I can come and I’ll stop,” she taunted.

“Fine! Alright! But you’re sitting in the back and keeping your mouth shut.”

“You got yourself a deal,” she agreed and dropped her hands.

“Yeah, yeah. Now get lost.”

~~~

Luke had wandered off, his face a sickly green, so Leia had taken the initiative to tune his guitar. “He’s lucky to have you,” Mike told her.

“Please,” she scoffed. “He didn’t even want me here. He wants nothing to do with me now that he has you guys.”

“That’s what you think.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah! All he does is go on about how smart you are and that you’re the real ticket to him being somebody. Says you got a brain for business. Says we should actually thank you for this,” Mike told her, gesturing around the building. “So, thanks. Although, you coulda waited til we had a drummer.”

Leia blushed. She had secretly emailed the videos of her brother to various music venues. He thought he was YouTube good. She knew he was better. And too shy to take that risk himself. “Well you got one anyway, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, we’ll see how he works out. He’s a little older so I’m not sure how he’s gonna feel about being with us ya know? But he’s good.”

“Is he cute?”

“Not as cute as me.”

Leia laughed. She had always liked Mike. He was wild in a way that was fun rather than dangerous. But she wasn’t attracted to him that way. “I’m not gonna date ya, Mikey.”

“I know. How’s… what’s his name…”

“Oliver?” she offered up the name of the boy she was currently crushing on.

“Yeah, him!”

“He’s whatever,” she shrugged. “I thought he was into me, but then I think Luke said something to him.”

“Well if Luke doesn’t like him then…”

Leia laughed again. “Luke needs to learn when to butt out.”

“Funny,” Mike laughed with her. “He says the same thing about you.”

“Yeah, but you guys need me, let’s face it.”

“True that,” Mike agreed. Then, “Oh, hey! Ash! Ya made it!” Mike called out to a lanky boy with straightened hair, fist clenched uncertainly around a pair of drumsticks.

The teenager’s eyes lit up in realization of a familiar face and he rushed over. “Hey, Mike. So this is the place, huh?” he asked, spinning around in a slow circle.

“Yup, this is it. Need help unloading your drums?”

“Yeah, that’d be great. Hey, I’m Ashton,” the newcomer said, offering his hand to Leia.

“Leia,” she smiled, shaking his hand.

“I thought you said the other guitarist was a guy too,” Ashton questioned Mike as the trio walked out to a minivan.

“He is. This is his little sister,” Mike said, flinging his arm around Leia’s shoulders and grinning.

“Oi! Piss off!” Leia shoved Mike off of her. She hated being introduced that way. “Luke, the other guitarist, is my twin brother. And he’s… somewhere,” she explained to Ashton.

Ashton giggled, a boyish sound that made Leia forget all about Oliver. And when that smile revealed a dimple, she wasn’t sure any of her crushes could compare to what she was feeling now.

~~~

“How’d you even get these mics?” Luke marveled as he checked that the main camera had them all in view.

“I got connections, Lu-lu,” Leia grinned as she played with the settings on the camera in her hands.

Ashton, Calum, and Mike snickered into their hands at the nickname. “Lu-lu!” they sang-teased.

Luke’s cheeks flushed bright red. “You really have to be here?”

Leia rolled her eyes. “This isn’t some cover, Lucas. This is your own material. It needs more than one angle.”

“How much of this did Mum teach you and how much is this you thinking you know what you’re doing? Luke asked, skeptically as he took his spot on the couch next to Calum.

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want the real answer to,” Leia told him.

Luke groaned in response. “You better know what you’re doing.”

“Stick to singing and playing guitar. Leave the technical side to the experts.”

“You’re not an expert! You’re fifteen!”

“You’re not in a band! You’re fifteen!” she shot back. If he could be in a band he was determined to take as far as he could take it, why couldn’t she be a media expert?

“Luke, didn’t you say she got us that gig a few months back?” Ashton cut in.

“Yeah…”

“Maybe she knows what she’s doing,” he defended, with a soft smile in Leia’s direction.

“At least someone in this band has a brain,” Leia said with a playful roll of her eyes.

“Hey!” Calum and Mike pouted.

“Oh, whatever.” Leia moved over to the camera on the stand. “Ready?” she checked, finger hovering over record.

All four boys let out a collective nervous chuckle before nodding.

Leia hit record on both cameras then nodded silently back, letting them know it was okay to start.

“Hey, I’m Mike,” Mike started.

“I’m Calum.”

“I’m Luke.”

“And I’m Ashton.”

“And we’re 5 Seconds of Summer, and this is our song Gotta Get Out,” Luke continued the small intro, a nervous hand pushing his hair out of his face.

They started playing and Leia moved soundlessly about the room, getting different close up shots from various angles. Ashton heartbeat pounded loudly in his ears every time Leia got closer to him, his grin growing. He liked the way she was comfortable around them. That she didn’t run up to her room to hide when they came over, but rather joined in on the fun. Or in this case, offered her help.

When Ashton undercut Luke’s lyrics with a gently crooned, “Gotta get, gotta get out,” Leia’s head swam as she zoomed in on his soft smile.

~~~

“You’re what?!” Leia screeched, blue eyes flashing dangerously.

“I’m going to London with the band!” Luke repeated, his enthusiasm not faltering.

“And just what are you gonna do in London?!” she demanded.

“Make it big time!” His enthusiasm gave way to hot-headed defense.

“So you’re just gonna leave me here?!”

“You’d ask me to give up my dream? That’s pretty selfish of you, don’t ya think?”

“Selfish?! I’ve bent myself over backwards for you and your stupid band! I’m the one who got you your first gig! I’m the one who edited your videos for you! Me! And now you’re just gonna up and leave?!”

“Then what’d you do it for if you didn’t want me to leave?!”

“Because you’re my brother and I believe in you! I’m always gonna be on your side! I just didn’t think you’d leave like it was nothing! I figured you’d at least act a little sad…” Her voice began to wobble as her vision got blurry. “It’s been me and you since day 1, Lu-lu. And now you’re just gonna be gone?”

“You’re still gonna have Mum and Dad. And Ben and Jack,” he assured her his own fight leaving him at the look of heartbreak etched on her face. “And if you don’t think I’m not gonna miss you like crazy… or that I won’t come home at the drop of a hat if you need me… Le-le, you’re still my sister. No matter what this world throws my way, nothing is going to change that, okay?”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

~~~

6 Years Later

“And this is Luke,” Leia smiled, finally introducing her boyfriend to her twin brother.

“Nice to meet ya,” Luke grinned, shaking Wyatt’s hand. “Glad to finally put a face to name.”

“Same,” Wyatt laughed. “You should hear the way she goes on about her brother, the rockstar, out living the dream life in LA.”

Luke’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment and he laughed nervously. “You should hear the way she goes about you,” Luke offered up.

It was Leia’s cheeks who turned pink this time. “And, we’re done here,” she said, tugging on Wyatt’s arm.

Both men shared a laugh over her embarrassment. “She’s modest. She calls me the rockstar, but I couldn’t have done any of it without her,” Luke continued to brag.

“Tell me about it,” Wyatt agreed. “Can’t compliment her without-”

“Without her completely shutting it down, I know!” Luke laughed.

“Oh, my God, I hate you both… so fuckin’ much…” Leia groaned into her hands. “I’m gonna go catch up with the guys. You two have fun. And don’t embarrass me!”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” they both fake promised.

“I mean it,” she warned before walking off.

“Hey, long time no see,” Ashton was the first to greet her, offering her a hug.

“Hey, Ash,” she smiled into the embrace. “How goes it?”

“Same old, same old,” was the generic response. “What ever happened to Oliver?” he asked with a head nod over at Wyatt.

Leia laughed. “We broke up like five years ago, Ash. Where have you been?”

Ashton looked confused for a moment. “Shit… James? No! Charlie?”

“James was three years ago. And Peter was last year.”

“Peter,” Ashton nodded in remembrance. “He was cool.”

“He was alright,” she admitted. It wasn’t that she had been unlucky in love per say. The guys she had relationships with had all been really good guys, and she had enjoyed her time with them. But, right around the time Ashton breezed back home, feelings she had never come to terms with started to flutter within her again. And then every time she looked at him- Oliver, James, Peter- she saw Ashton. And then Ashton would go back to his life in London and then LA, and her relationship would stutter to a halt. And she would cling to it until she couldn’t cling to it anymore. And then she’d take her time, swearing up and down that when she saw Ashton next she would just take her chance. Then Ashton would come home, with a girl on his arms. And Leia would throw herself in the next relationship to drown out the pain.

“So tell me about Wyatt,” Ashton smiled, his own stomach churning. He had been going through a similar cycle. He’d fly home for the holidays, and meet Leia’s newest fling. He’d fly home and throw himself into the bed of models and superstars to dull the ache. He’d fly back and Leia would be crying to Luke over the boy she’d been gushing about the previous year. Ashton would fly back home, break off his own relationships, and allow both him and Leia both time to heal, determined next time he’d make his move.

This time, both Ashton and Leia thought they had finally beat the cycle. Leia had been dating Wyatt for six months. Everything was still fresh and new. And Ashton had been playing a back and forth game of his own with someone else. Which, if their pattern continued to serve them well, meant that both would be healed and single in a year.

~~~

“So, when are you ever gonna move to LA?” Luke asked, throwing a small handful of popcorn into his mouth.

Leia blew out her breath, making her lips fluttered together. “What would I do that for?” She gestured around her apartment. “Where would you stay if I gave all this up?”

“In a hotel because I’m rich and famous,” he grinned.

“And yet, still a total loser,” she teased back, throwing a fistful of popcorn at his face.

“Oi!” he gasped in surprise before upturning the bowl on her head.

“Oi!” she sputtered back. “It’s everywhere now! Thanks, Lucas…”

“You’re welcome,” he chirped, a smirk gracing his lips.

She set the bowl upright on her coffee table and dusted the pieces to the floor, grateful that the snack had been mostly devoured before their small scuffle. “Making my apartment a mess is not gonna get me to move to LA, Lu-lu.”

“Eh, it was worth a shot,” he shrugged.

She laughed, pushing his shoulder. “What would you want me in LA for anyway?”

He shrugged again. “I dunno. I miss you or something. Fuck, I had to live with Ash for the first year we were there because the silence was…”

“Terrifying?” she supplied. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”

He scoffed. “At least you can go home. Keep friendships. The sorts.”

“Aw, wittle rockstar crying in his wads of cash?” she teased.

He laughed as he shook his head, “I’m serious. People treat me differently now. Like they’re either starstruck or act like I grew another head.”

“Well… what did you think was going to happen? That you could run off to London, tour the world, move to LA, continue to tour the world, and that things wouldn’t change?”

“We didn’t change, did we?”

“I mean, we grew up…”

“Le-le… you know what I mean.”

“No, Lu-lu,” she told him, and then she was echoing the words he had told her the first time he had left. “You’re still my brother. No matter what this world throws at us, nothing’s ever gonna change that.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

__

Tag List

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[mehenxe]

◈ ◈ ◈ ◈ & ღ & ♫ bc ur a slut for music ; & ✮ (i want explanaTIONS ...gET META W THIS SHIT )

◈ — share some head-canons you have for a muse of your choosing, but x4.

[ elijah kane ] ◈ — all efforts to get him into studying how to make robotics like hyacinth have resulted in a lot of miniature woodland creatures able to sprint across desks. it’s not exactly what anybody had in mind, but hey, you never know if ilya might not want to send in an actual animal for something he has going on. they can call up sugar kane industries ( big face-palm here ) to take care of the job. ( wyatt voice: seriously, you couldn’t think of anything better than sugar kane. ) / hyacinth kane has a nice ring to it. elijah has tested out several different nicknames: sugar kane also for them, mistah k, ( missus k? ), cinthy ... cindy ... ( sean: yeah! cindy k! like cindy crawford! / who the fuck is cindy crawford? / wyatt — / how old are you. ) / he’s had a life-long dream to be able to go scuba-diving off the coast of — some exotic island he can’t remember the name of. beforehand, it was one of those things that he was too afraid to do, but full-out war changes your perspective. in truth, he’s always been a water baby, growing up going swimming in the local rivers and running pellmell down the dirt lanes. he grew out of it, and then grew back into it. whether or not he’s going to be able to do that without monroe tagging along ( and then by default, ilya, and then probably hojin will want to come, and then ravi will have to, and then oliver will want to watch over them and then jinho will buy a whole yacht with his dumb vampire money — ) — ah, well, there’s worse people to spend an extended holiday with. his father will come along too: sit on the deck in a lawn chair and drink a virgin margarita as he deserves after putting up with this whole extended family. and with his son being a you-know-what.

[ alice bedi ] ◈ — there was a time where she was interested in wigs. she had percival sit down on her shack’s bed and watch as she perused through at least fifteen different styles of wigs. each one got a firm head-shake: too rough on your complexion; lilac looks good as a colour, but the style is horrid; why did they think it was a good idea to make a bob that length? a tough customer. she returned back to wearing veils, her preferred style being that of mantilla, or the veil that’s worn to chapel over a jade comb. due to the volume and length of her natural curls, she rarely wears the combs at all, but will if it’s a particularly formal occasion, like that time she accompanied percival to a ‘high-society event.’ ( translation: they crashed a party because he was bored, and she had a bad feeling about him going alone. ) / as the local librarian’s assistant, she’s the first to get in the way when someone is overtly curious: why are you asking so many questions? hmm? the irony is that she herself asks just as many questions — she insists that the difference is: she reads the room and knows when it’s inappropriate to ask them. ( and if she knows it’s inappropriate to ask them, and instead chooses to risk asking them regardless, it’s because she knows it’ll smooth out in the end. / despite what she wears daily, one of her most favourite colours is moss green. there are a multitude of reasons. moss is her favourite foliage. it’s similar to algae, another favourite foliage. and it reminds her of someone who she says is her sister; however, anybody who knows her, knows that she has no blood-siblings. one or the other might be a lie, or both might be the truth. when she’s in a mood, she’ll smear the moss at the base of her neck like a perfume, a splotch of green beneath white.

[ huang shen ] ◈ — he designed an irrigation system to work, specific to his farm, to be able to make rice paddies despite the surrounding environment. it’s a southern crop in the united states, but there was no way he was going to move to the south just to expand the business. his entire family was so relieved about it that they danced through the sprinklers and set off fireworks — and none of them are really into that kind of thing. it’s particularly incredible due to the area they’re in, being very prone to sometimes too much drought and too much rain, and both are responsible for driving out selling numbers of crops. his plan is to switch into an agricultural degree, and perhaps even expand it into engineering, so that he can continue helping this way. / one of his surprises for algernon was learning sign language. for the longest time, months even, shen made it out like he had no idea what was being said, and let damien, as surly as ever, be the translator when algernon was unwilling or unable to speak. in the background, however, he was working with a tutor and seeking to understand better what it meant to be both HoH and mute. then, when algernon’s birthday came around, everyone went silent ( holy god he was so nervous ) and he gave an entire romantic, long speech entirely in sign language. he’s sure that some of it got lost in translation due to how hard his hands were shaking, but the way that algernon kissed him afterwards, it didn’t seem to affect much. now, they communicate constantly on this even ground. / he’s started up horseback riding again — and has roped tobias into doing it alongside him. tobias might have grace on the stage floor, but certainly not on the back of a horse; he somehow ended up upside-down beneath the horse’s belly, and then fell down in a tangle of limbs. shen has taken to the western side of things, re-learning how to barrel race and rope cattle; but he and tobias have had to separate their lessons due to these antics. lucas isn’t allowed to come to any of them; his stupid remarks send them into fits of laughing. ( bold of us to assume he doesn’t just sit in the truck and shout anyways. )

[ deok bae ] ◈ — due to the empire no longer supporting his upgrades, nor looking in his general direction, he has had to find other ways to obtain new modifications. this is including, but not limited to, going and pulling them out of other people’s bodies as catharsis — but usually, he defects to yuri and silas to fix him up. to his chagrin, the LED-light in his forehead has absolutely no use whatsoever, only displaying his brain’s processing as a symptom of installation. he pulled it out himself via the tip of a knife’s blade. the next time that he’s seen by those who haven’t seen him in quite some time, he might be unrecognisable. i am not deok bae — perhaps deok bae is no longer himself either. if there was no connection to eli in his head, he would forget that; perhaps he would merely succumb to the machinery, perhaps he would succumb to the wolf-dom. there are several pairs of teeth in his mouth awaiting for their moment to bite. / when he was a teen, his version of ‘sneaking out’ would be to wheel his chair to the gardens at the back of the temple, where he would sit and think for hours and hours. his father would come and find him there; sometimes, master jhcor would instead. his father would return him back to where he needed to be, but master jhcor would sit beside him and gaze serenely until bae felt the need to speak what was on his mind: his angers, his fevers, his rages. one time, he was surprised to see that it was not master jhcor, nor master deok, but zan coming to sit with him. his heart had sat in his throat the whole time, half-expecting zan to laugh at him or say something particularly piteous. instead, the conversation was — well, looking back, absurdly normal, all things considering. when bae blinked tiredly, zan rose and took the handles of his chair and took him back. he hadn’t intended to ask him to do so, but it was done anyway. / bae drinks a lot of soda. it’s somewhat fitting, if you believe all that talk about how coca-cola can double as a cleaner due to the high carbonation and way it’s made. he does seem to get shiny after several cans — it’s also convenient that he can’t experience sugar-highs nor malfunctions of the liver or stomach due to too much consumption. he considers himself to be a soda connoisseur as a result. he offers a lot of hmm, that’ll taste disgusting comments that annoy the shit out of the others — but then kisung takes a drink and bae ends up being right, so there’s no regrets.

ღ ━ favourite canon ships for your muse(s). are there any you dislike?

there’s ... none that i dislike. there’s moments of come on, but that’s bound to happen. i think the favourite ships are the ... guardian / princess vibes ( whether it’s literal or not: akane / the samurai, quinn / sehrin, jian / elaine ). i also love the growing from previous immaturities towards each other ( grey / tobias, jihoon / wyatt, playboy / jordan ) — and himbos of course ( hojin / ravi!! ) there’s also the whole ... tsh, vampiric aesthetic that we get ( minzhe / yongha ) ... the ones like jisoo / mingfei, cyrian / ulysses, cadoc / pestilence ( exploring violence against but without the stickiness ). of course, if i keep going, i’ll end up listing all of them and then where would we be.

♫ ━ a small playlist for a muse of your choice

for nam jungsoo, because i actually once did make a playlist for him:

1. brand new — sic transit gloria ... glory fades 2. within temptation — what have you done 3. iamx feat. imogen heap — my secret friend 4. florence + the machine — shipwreck (the odyssey) 5. crown the empire — hologram

i mean, the songs are still kinda relevant considering his current character ...

✮ ━ top three favourite muses that you’ve played

but is it possible to pick three favourites ... that’s the real question. maybe. jianguo, because of catharsis, because of cultural exploration and similarities. grendel, because of the depth, the personal torment, the surrounding family. jinho & julius, because of exploring that darkness. and famine — man, now that’s something. there’s a lot more than three though. like blood and jisoo and tobias and arthur. but. the questions INSIST THAT I CHOOSE.

[monsters-demons-and-ai-oh-my]

What We Lost and What We Have

Chapter 9:   Wookies, warnings and homophobic grandpas

In which Jack’s sneak stat is a 2, Sam has a weird story about a wookie encounter, and everybody needs a pep talk.

TW’s for this chapter: Talk about past sibling death (not of a main character)

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AU somewhat inspired by Episode 2x20 - What Is and What Should Never Be, and the season 14 storyline concerning Jack’s illness.

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AO3 Link

Previous Chapter

First Chapter

Complete Tumblr Chapter List

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Jack spent almost the whole two hours or so Castiel was gone on his phone and part of Sam was elated.

He’d drafted the same email about corporate responsibility (for the proliferation of inaccurate information on rechargeable batteries) six times now. It was incredibly dull technical writing and he hadn’t been able to focus at all.

Every line of legal jargon he managed to type was interspersed with his mind screaming.

“Say something!”

Sam had come back to the hospital with a purpose, to be helpful to hold out the olive branch to Castiel and BE there for Jack.

-

But ‘there’ was all he was…

-

He had no idea what to say to Jack. The day before had been easy enough, everything had been one long train wreck fed by the intrinsic emotions that came with serious illness. But now that things had calmed down and everyone especially Jack was not on the verge of emotional collapse? He had no idea what Jack needed from him.

And outside of what Jack explicitly needed or wanted it wasn’t like Sam had a deep well of topics to draw upon for small talk..

-

‘What the hell did Sam have in common with a kid literally half his age?’

“What do you say to your estranged baby brother when at his age one of your main goals was keeping the hell away from him?”

-

It didn’t help that Jack himself seemed to suddenly become incredibly shy, only occasionally peeking at Sam sheepishly when he thought the man wasn’t looking…

“So you like… Star Wars?” Sam finally blurted after twenty long minutes of silence.

Jack blinked at Sam in confusion at the out of the blue question before glancing at the back of his themed phone case and flushing slightly.

“I… Yes?” Jack looked a little unsure.

Sam grabbed onto the subject, “Who’s your favorite character?”

Jack’s phone buzzed in his hand and the kid glanced between Sam and the screen nervously before setting it gingerly aside.

“I think… I think Finn is pretty cool?”

Sam suddenly realized his mistake, he knew absolutely nothing about the new movies, he’d been too busy to get around to watching any of them

“Oh that’s… cool… I used to have a Chewbacca plush when I was a little kid,” Sam tried instead.

There was a long moment with no noise but the passive whirring of one of the machines and a soft cough from Jack.

“Oh?” the teenager said politely.

“Yeah it was pretty cool, original too, apparently those things are worth a few hundred dollars now…”

-

‘What are you babbling about now Sam?’

-

Jack smiled and that made it seem worth it though.

“So do you collect stuff like that or something?” he asked curiously.

“Well no, it was kind of… destroyed?” Sam huffed a little sheepish.

“Destroyed?”

“Yeah… Like I said, I got it when I was a little kid, I chewed on the fabric weapons belt until it tore off and one day I left it outside and it rained so it got all mildew-y,“ Sam quickly explained fumbling for purchase with the Jack’s interest.

Jack pulled a face, "that’s too bad…”

“The final straw though was when Dean called it a moldy sloth and I hit him with it, he tried to take it away from me and it tore raining the carpet with mildew-y stuffing…” Sam chuckled to himself.

“That’s pretty destroyed,” Jack looked mildly grossed out.

Sam missed his cue to let it go.

“Thing was though even after all that I still didn’t want to throw the thing out, I was too attached, So at six I thought it was a great idea to  put this damp mildewed furry thing in a pillowcase, tie the pillowcase shut and hide it in my bed’s box spring…”

Jack’s only response was to stifle another cough in his elbow.

“We didn’t find it again until my bed started smelling like mildew, somehow it spread into the wood of the box spring and the bottom of my mattress, and the wookie… well it was some other kind of furry when my dad finally pulled it out.”

Things were dead quiet and when Sam glanced back up at Jack, he looked uncomfortable, “O-oh?” Jack said diplomatically.

-

‘You… really overshare Sam, for fu-…’

-

“Yeah… it was… nasty, sorry, that was a long time ago.”

Jack’s eyebrows drew down a little and he looked rejected for a moment. Sam wondered if it was something that he’d said.

There was another few minutes of awkward silence before Jack’s phone buzzed again and he glanced nervously between it and Sam.

“Just… go ahead I’ll… “ Sam awkwardly tapped the side of his laptop and just like that they both went back to their designated devices as if nothing had been said.

Sam didn’t know how to talk to Jack, every happy childhood memory he had was from before Jack was born and didn’t include him, and even outside of that, he didn’t really know Jack’s personality, what made him smile, what bothered him… what he loved.

Jack seemed to be cautiously trying to connect too and somehow that made things worse, like they were both going for a high five and Sam kept awkwardly missing.

-

‘Trying to meet in a middle that might not even exist…’

-

Sam quickly went back to his emails and stayed with his head buried there until Castiel got back a while later.

———————————-

“I’m so, so sorry I fell asleep in the parking lot, Where’s Jack?” Castiel asked anxiously before the door even swung closed behind him..

He looked a lot better, his hair still damp but neatly combed and finally dressed down a little bit in a fresh shirt and no jacket.

“He’s fine,” Sam quickly placated, “the nurse just… took him for an X-ray of his arm. I think they wanted to put on a cast or something.”

The man relaxed a little and sighed going back to his spot beside the bed, “right… yes, they… mentioned they might do that today if the swelling was down… I…” He brushed back his hair wearily, “was everything alright while I was gone?”

Sam shrugged, “it was just like I said, nothing bad happened because you stepped away for a few minutes…”

Castiel shot him a look and for a moment Sam worried if he’d crossed a line but the man quickly relaxed again.

“I know you probably think I’m being… paranoid, and I don’t know, maybe I am, or maybe you just can’t understand this, but Jack…” Castiel’s eyes were far away, “I don’t want to take any chances with him…”

Sam felt the same mild discomfort he had for days now, seeing Castiel vulnerable just… felt wrong. The time away had done him good but for every bit less manic he looked now he looked ten times more exhausted.

“You’re right I really don’t get it…” Sam huffed. “I mean the way I see it he’s already in the safest place he could be.”

Castiel snorted sounding unconvinced.

“I but then again I’ve never been a parent so, guess I wouldn’t…” Sam paused, he was coming off all wrong, “I don’t know… what this is like for you.”

Castiel eyed him a little amused, “I didn’t know you even thought of me that way… I… I don’t want you to think I’m some nut but who doesn’t trust modern medicine…”

“I don’t, I’m sure your not…” Sam said quickly.

“It’s just…” Castiel rubbed at his face. “The doctors were doing the best they could when my sister died, sometimes it feels like “the best” still doesn’t mean much …”

Sam paused trying to figure out whether his next words would be welcome or get him another dirty look.

“I mean, I don’t really think things are that bad…”

-

‘Dirty look, it definitely got him a dirty look.’

-

Sam quickly switched gears, “what I mean is, Jack seems better today so maybe the doctors are on the right track. Or better yet this thing, whatever it is, is just sorting itself out…”

“You didn’t hear what the doctor said last night, you don't…” Castiel sighed and rubbed at his forehead.

“Don’t you have a job to get back to… in California?” Castiel muttered wearily.

For a moment, Sam felt affronted and maybe a little hurt, but there was no real malice in Castiel’s words and the message became clear.

-

'Change the subject…’

-

“I asked for some time off…” Sam shrugged, “most of our case prep work is done over the internet nowadays anyway…”

Some of the senior partners hadn’t been too happy about it if Mr. Roman’s rather passive aggressive “I hope your family matter clears up soon,” was anything to go by.

But none of the other junior partners seemed to mind at all…

-

'Probably glad to have a chance to get ahead and prove themselves…’

'Part of Sam wished he still cared, but lately…’

-

Castiel just nodded noncommittally.

“What about you… the high school?” Sam tried, “you’re a teacher right?, how’s that going without you?”

“There’s a substitute…” Cas said simply.

“Oh…” Sam screamed internally, he thought the man wanted a distraction but now it just felt like trying to keep up a conversation with a brick wall.

“I… already had the last few weeks of lessons planned out and review worksheets written up, so while I can’t be there right now,  my classes should be… prepared.” Castiel muttered suddenly, seeming lost in thought, “That’s… one thing I’ve always prided myself on… being prepared…”

Sam caught the implication but decided not to feed into it.

“it’ll be okay…” Sam said simply.

Castiel blinked at him in confusion, “I know they will, Mr. Wyatt is an excellent substitute teacher.”

-

‘Okay maybe Sam was lost…’

-

He snorted further confusing Castiel.

“What?”

“Nothing…” Sam shook his head, “Jack… he… he told me he misses school.

Castiel blinked in surprise, he opened his mouth to ask something but before he could get the words out there was a knock at the door.

"Delivery,” a voice called.

Jack appeared in the doorway being wheeled in by the nurse Meg with a new violently blue cast on his arm and a sheepish look on his face.

“Jack,” Castiel smiled relieved earning him a nervous smile back from Jack.

He seemed much more stable on his feet than the day before when he climbed gingerly out of the wheelchair as the nurse re-hung the IV bags.

“They’re taking him off the oxygen for now,” the nurse said, her tone seemed considerably nicer now that Jack was awake.

-

'She probably had infinitely more patience for sick kids, than antagonistic asshole family members who just act like children…’

-

“It’s getting easier to breathe now,” Jack said brightly, even though his pronouncement was almost immediately broken up by wheezy coughing.

“That’s um… that’s great Jack,” Castiel said gently eyes still distracted back on the nurse.

'With a pang of amusement, Sam caught Jack carefully peeking at his phone beneath his blanket when he thought his uncle wasn’t watching.’

“So um… was everything alright?” Castiel asked the nurse, trying to keep his voice chipper and upbeat.

She blinked at him sardonically, “Nope, his wrist is definitely fractured.”

Castiel’s eyebrows furrowed, “That’s not what I…”

She interrupted, “I know, but that’s all I really have to tell you, everything else is above my pay grade, you’ll have to wait on the doctor for any more papa bear.”

Castiel gave a frustrated huff glancing back at Jack who quickly dropped the covers back down over his phone and glanced around sheepishly.

-

'If Castiel noticed he didn’t say anything.’

-

“You wanna know my professional opinion on this?” the nurse quickly re-drew both men’s attention.

“I don’t know but I feel like you’re going to give it to me either way…” Castiel sighed.

“I can’t guess at what’s going on with your kid, or whether he’ll keep getting better or worse, I could get the hospital sued and lose my job and all that,” Meg shrugged, glancing back over at Jack who was sitting up in bed and playing with his phone “sneakily” under the covers again.

“But…” her voice softened, “he seems to be having a good day… so I’d say try to take today for what it is… and enjoy it.”

Sam wished her saying that did anything to calm the ripples of anxiousness in his stomach, a feeling that must be like waves breaking on the beach in Castiel…

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Dean wished he could say he changed his mind as soon as Sam walked out of the shop, but it took another day and a half…

He’d finished rebuilding the Cuevas’s Jeep’s engine block, changed a fuel filter on some Uni Kid’s car and an engine coil on another’s before he even looked back at his phone again.

No missed calls, no texts. Either everything was fine or Sam also didn’t want to talk to him.

-

'What else was new.’

-

Either way Dean refused to be the first one to call back. He’d meant what he said and if Sam wanted to act all pissy about it that was his business.

But by the next morning his familiar routine tasted like a Kahlua hangover in the back of his throat.

He was already in a bad mood at eight am when Jesse came to pick up his Jeep from the shop.

“I thought you were going to pick up this hunk of junk yesterday…” Dean scowled hands tucked in his pockets a little defensively.

“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed…” Jesse sounded bemused waving briefly over his shoulder at his husband waiting with the truck running.

“It would have been nice not to be in a time crunch, yeah…” Dean snorted, pulling out a beer from the mini fridge in the garage’s work area.

“Sorry man,” Jesse shrugged guiltily, “I got a call I couldn’t miss. I thought you said you weren’t busy anyway. Something come up?”

“Brother’s in town,” Dean could feel the man eyeing him concerned as he sipped his morning beer.

“You want one?” Dean offered half sarcastically.

“It’s eight Winchester,” Jesse said flatly.

Dean shrugged.

Jesse sighed pulling out his wallet and fishing out an envelope of cash to pay for the repair, “seriously man what’s eating you, 'cause I’ve met Sam and he doesn’t normally get under your skin like this.”

Dean said nothing just took the money and headed towards the office..

Jesse shook his head looking half amused half irritated following him, “look, me and Cesar are meeting with a few friends at Gabe’s to celebrate tonight, maybe come by if you’re feeling less pissy past nine…”

Dean snorted handing over the cash to the teenager behind the desk, “what are you a fourteen-year-old girl? I’m not 'pissy’.”

“You’re one of the pissiest person I’ve ever met Dean Winchester,” Jesse said with a good-natured smile.

“He’s right, you’re like, super pissy…” Claire remarked flatly counting the cash out into the drawer and not meeting her boss’s glare.

Dean snorted tossing Jesse the Jeep keys, “just try the damn engine already…”

Jesse laughed and Dean followed him out to the car, wanting to remain annoyed but significantly distracted.

“What are you celebrating anyway?” Dean finally asked unable to suppress his admittedly childish curiosity.

“Retirement,” Jesse said simply.

Dean blinked in mild confusion, “dude you’re like 36…”

Jesse grinned infuriatingly and climbed into the Jeep cab, “I know right?”

He let the curiosity eat away at Dean as he revved the engine.

It purred like it was fresh off the line and Dean couldn’t help but feel a swell of pride at the pleased look on the other man’s face.

“Beautiful, man,” Jesse said patting the side of the door.

Before Dean could ask Jesse if he’d won the lottery or something he pointed to Dean and said simply.

“Nine-Thirty, Gabe’s.”

Dean shook his head, “fine, fine.”

The man smiled, gave a brief thumbs up to his husband in the other vehicle and they both drove off leaving Dean to sit with his extremely mild curiosity and confusion.

Dean rolled his eyes and tried to get back to work.

“Pissy my ass…”

He hated feeling like this.

He had his mother who was doing better then she had been in years teaching mythology at the University and his standoffish little brother who came for Christmas. That was his family.

A house that was payed off in full and the shop he inherited from John that he kept running like a well oiled machine. That was his life.

Dean had made mistakes in the past, lost people in the past

-

Who hadn’t?

-

He’d made his peace with that and moved on.

He’d decided long ago that Jack and Castiel had their own sad chapter in the Winchester’s life but it was long over. Their lives were two completely separate stories now…

-

'Dean was sure the kid couldn’t want the fact he was born because some guy made a mistake, got drunk, and cheated on his wife following him around his whole life… Or at least… he’d get that was a bad thing when he was older.’

-

As far as Dean was concerned they were better off forgetting that shitty night ever happened, and he knew forgetting was the right thing to do but people constantly questioning his every decision wasn’t helping.

Sam’s self-righteous huffing and puffing.

Jesse’s… amusement.

Castiel’s confusion over the phone.

-

'Don’t act like you care all of a sudden…’

Things were so much simpler when there was just vague dislike and mistrust between the two of them…

-

Why was he even worried about this? Castiel said the kid was doing better, that should be the end of it.

If Dean saw someone hit by a car he’d try to help, call 911, stay by their side and keep them calm until the ambulance came.

-

'He was a decent man, despite what Sam might think.’

-

What Dean wouldn’t do was follow them around the accident victim for the next six months and bludgeon and prod their family for information and acknowledgment.

-

Jack and Castiel weren’t family.

Not really.

-

Jack was blood sure, but he was blood like a great aunt who lived six states away who nobody talked to for some stupid reason no one remembered, why bring up old shit?

There was too much baggage and bitterness.

Better to leave the great dam of 2000’s infidelity up between Kansas and Indiana as a monument to the shitty past rather than go picking at it and have all the crap pour out.

-

‘Dean felt dangerously close to drowning in that bitterness already.’

-

If Sam wanted to swing an ax at that himself (like the lumberjack in business casual he looked like) Sam could deal with the resulting flood himself.

He repeated the last thought to himself until he finished up for the day, leaving Claire to lock up the building.

He was of half a mind to ignore Jesse’s offer and just head home, but…

-

He didn’t think the empty house would do anything to calm his mind and drinking alone was just sad.

-

“Screw it,” He turned at the first red light and headed towards Gabe’s.

He set his phone to silent and decided to act as if that corner of his life didn’t exist for the evening.

He was spotted as soon as he entered the Gabe’s, Cesar grinning at him and gesturing him over to the little group at the bar.

“Hey Dean, sit, first round’s on us,” Jesse called from around his husband.

It was a little bit to Cheers-y for comfort but Dean didn’t fight it sighing and sidling up to the bar.

“Whiskey, neat…” Dean ordered gruffly.

Gabe poured the whiskey one eyebrow slightly raised, “well you’re awful chipper today Deano.”

“Yeah well I don’t even know what we’re supposed to be celebrating yet so…” Dean toasted in Jesse’s general direction smile not reaching his eyes “What’s the party for?”

“New beginnings,” Jesse smiled lifting up his own glass. “Finally bought the property of our dreams.”

Dean blinked, “yeah? How’d you swing that?”

“Finally sold the old shop…” Cesar said smiling at Jesse proudly.

Dean blinked, feeling a slightly bitter pang of nostalgia. He could remember long summers going out with friends and dates to rent kayaks and buy ice cream from Jesse’s family’s old rental shack by Clinton lake.

“Business finally get that bad?” Dean felt how rude the words were in his mouth and cringed internally, but Jesse just snorted and smiled.

“Just the opposite actually, it’s shaping up to be one of the biggest tourist seasons yet…”

“So… going out on a high then?” Dean took another swig of his whiskey.

“Something like that,” Jesse shrugged.

“The Gallager kid turned 25 and he’s been working there since he was 16, we figured he was probably ready to take over,” Cesar explained.

“Wait time out,“ Gabe cut into the conversation brandishing his bar rag. "Dude hasn’t your family been running that place since most of the people in the old folks home were in diapers the first time?”

“That’s the thing though, it’s always been my family’s thing,” Jesse said diplomatically, “I only actually took over because my brother was gone, my grandpa in fact had some strong opinions on ��people like me’.” Jesse snorted, “honestly I think I only stayed so long out of spite, that and I promised mom… I always meant to let the place go when I found someone to take care of it. It was never what I dreamed about doing…”

“Sam was the same way, never wanted to work at the shop…" Dean huffed a laugh, “He never could get along with dad… so it would have been fucking weird if he stayed.”

-

John had been angry; not so much at Sam wanting to go his own way but just… how vehemently against staying Sam had been. “You just can’t wait to leave your family behind can you?”

“Don’t you dare, you don’t get to say that to me, not you!” Sam spat back.

-

“Why wallow in the shitty past when you can just move on…” Dean muttered coming back to himself in the bar.

Jesse turned his glass in his hands looking pensive, “Sometimes it felt like that… but no that’s not really it.”

Dean’s eyebrows rose.

Jesse quickly explained, “I mean yeah there was a lot of shit there, but I grew up around that old shack, me and my brother worked there pretty much every summer after we were old enough to see over the counter…”

Dean whiskey tasted ashy in his mouth, he remembered Jesse’s big brother, he’d always been the cool older teen who’d give you an extra half scoop of ice cream when “the boss” wasn’t looking.

-

He’d drowned on a fishing trip with his younger brother when Dean was in junior high…

-

Jesse shrugged continuing where he left off, “why would I let one shithead ruin all of that?”

Dean hummed vaguely still feeling a little lost, “but you’re still giving it up now?”

Jesse nodded glancing toward Cesar, “Don’t get me wrong, if my brother was still alive… if I still had family interested in running the place maybe I wouldn’t've… For a long time I thought that was going to be my whole life.”

Cesar gently squeezed his husband’s hand and Dean felt a pang of emotion he pushed away before he could identify it.

Jesse continued, “But I have a family now and I… I just… can’t live in the past anymore.”

Dean felt more lost than ever, “Makes sense I guess, why literally live in all the painful bullshit when you have something better…”

Cesar blinked at Dean, “seriously dude why so dark?”

Dean bit back the need to find a smarmy way to tell his friends it was none of their damn business, “Just shitty family stuff…”

“Your brother?” Jesse asked.

Dean snorted, “you could say that…” he knocked back the rest of his glass. “I just don’t get that kid anymore…”

“He do something stupid?” Jesse asked.

“He’s an adult, he can do what he wants,” Dean snorted and tried to get Gabe’s attention for a second whiskey, “It’s not like we really even talk much anymore, who am I to keep him from shoving his foot up his own ass…”

“Yeah, that’s real convincing…” Jesse shook his head bemused.

Dean hurumphed and muttered a thanks to Gabe who finally came over.

“Are you two still on the same crap from a few days ago?” Gabe asked pouring the second glass.

Jesse and Cesar’s ears perked up and even Gabe’s weird brother Gadreel was watching him from across the room. Dean wondered darkly if there was any privacy left in this town.

“Yeah my own, personal, crap,” Dean said pointedly.

Gabe held up his hands in mock surrender, “okay, okay, fine, don’t talk about it, it’s just seems like whatever "it” is seems to be eating you an awful lot…"

“Yeah well Sam has that effect, he does dumb shit and you worry about him, over and over until it’s just too much and…” Dean wrapped his knuckles on the table, “maybe you have it right and it’s time to cut him loose, move on…”

Jesse pulled a face, “that’s not what I meant at all…”

“Yeah well then what do you mean, because I’m getting tired of guessing,” Dean barked.

Jesse had the courtesy not to smirk at him.

“My point is… I don’t really know Sammy haven’t seen him since he was sixteen but… make sure shutting him out is what you really want, and not just some petty shit.”

It dug like a knife in Dean’s gut, “You’re right you don’t know shit…” Dean muttered taking a swig from his glass…

Jesse smiled more than a little forlornly, “all I do know is, having lost him, if I had a second chance with my brother…” he trailed off, “Make absolutely sure you’re ready to give up your chances at this future, when you’re planning on leaving behind your past…”

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Oof, sorry it took me so long to get back, it’s been a crazy few months and it’s been a struggle to get back to my usual writing routine with everything going on. Hopefully, things will be better now.

[misscrazyfangirl321]

Day One: Annoyance

@writersmonth

Fandom: Timeless

Pairing(s): Platonic Flufus, background Riya

Set: Vaguely post-Chinatown and Rufus Rescue

-

There are three things he can count on in this miserable bunker: The food being terrible, Wyatt chewing with his mouth open, and Rufus avoiding him as much as possible.

Needless to say, when the engineer plops down on the couch beside Flynn, head in his hands, it's a bit of a surprise.

Lucy is supposed to be joining him, but she still hasn't finished showering, so he takes a few moments to observe the man to his right. Rufus doesn't seem to be too distraught, which is a relief. Tired, yes. Annoyed, perhaps. But whatever it is, it likely isn't a matter of life and death.

Flynn will take what he can get.

He waits, letting Rufus sort out his thoughts. Maybe he and Mason are fighting? Maybe Wyatt is still pushing too hard to offer an olive branch Rufus isn't ready for? Maybe-

"Did you ever watch Star Trek?"

Well. All gears in his mind grind to a violent halt.

"Ah... I've seen a few episodes." There's a Starfleet uniform in his closet back home, probably collecting dust even now. "Why?"

Rufus finally looks up at him, sighing. "There's this... Song. 'Beyond Antares'. Something about space. And Jiya has just been... Singing it nonstop lately. If she's not singing it, she's humming it. I love her and everything, but it drives me crazy."

Flynn laughs, a little surprised at himself that he can, and nods. "My wife would do the same thing. Her favorite was 'I Wished on the Moon.' Great song... The first time. Fiftieth time, not so much."

The expression on Rufus's face is priceless. He looks almost terrified, as if he stepped into a wading pool and found a shark. Absently, Flynn realizes this is the first time he's ever said anything about Lorena to the man.

"I-uh-"

He waves his hand dismissively, then sobers. "You know something? I'd give... Almost anything to hear her sing it again." He fixes Rufus with a look, not accusing, but willing him to understand.

The air is too heavy, suddenly.

"I'm sorry," Rufus offers. "I didn't think about-"

"Most people don't." His words are a little too sharp, and he swallows. "I... Prefer it that way."

This Rufus seems to accept. He stands, brushing invisible dust from his hoodie. Hopefully he's going to go back to Jiya, to listen to her singing for hours on end. Not that Flynn cares, of course, but those two are probably the only stable people in the entire bunker. It would be inconvenient if they fought.

"Hey, look, man, uh..." Rufus glances down. "For what it's worth... If you ever want to, I don't know... Talk? If that's a thing you do..."

A startled laugh slips out. "Some people would say I talk too much."

"You do." Honest as ever. "And yet somehow, I don't even know your favorite color."

"Burgundy."

Surprise flickers in Rufus's eyes. Not actually expecting an answer, maybe? "Cool. Well, I'm just gonna go... Talk to Jiya."

True to his word, he disappears down the hall, leaving Flynn alone with his thoughts. For once, that isn't a terrifying prospect.

[goalcaufield]

Fate - Jack Hughes

requested: y/n

request: Hi! Love the blog! I was wondering if you could write a one-shot for Jack Hughes? I was thinking something like bumping into him one day, not realizing who he was (idk for some reason I imagine this at a bar or party or something buuut we’d both be underage lol) and then seeing him again in another cute way. And both times he’s like mad at himself that he didn’t get to talk to you more but then you go to a game and he finally finds you and asks you out. Thanks!!

word count:

“I did not sign up for this,” You grumble as you push through the mass of sweaty teenagers dancing and jumping to the newest hit of the week. You tried to make your way through the bodies without getting pushed around too much, and once you finally did you let out a long sigh of relief.

You lean against the wall, trying to survey the crowd for any sign of your friends. You had been dragged along as the designated driver, and being the good friend that you were you accepted. The last thing you wanted was for them to drive intoxicated. So, here you were at some shitty high school party in Michigan. After you recollected yourself you pushed yourself off the wall in search of your friends. You were just about ready to leave and you wanted to tell them to wrap it up.

As you were walking you weren’t paying attention. Your full attention had been on trying to find your friends, not watching some dumb high schoolers every move. A boy bumped into you and that sent you stumbling back, and before you knew it you bumped into someone else.

“Oh my gosh, I am so sorry,” You say, turning around to face whoever it was you had fallen into. It was a boy. A fairly attractive boy indeed. Your eyes caught the huge wet spot on his shirt and your eyes widened. “I am so sorry.” You repeat.

The boy chuckles, placing his now empty cup on the table beside him. “It’s fine, it was only water, it’ll dry. I’m the DD for my friends, so I gotta stick to water.”

“Same here,” You reply, and you look around to catch a sight of either the brunette or the blonde who had both pleaded for you to come in the first place, only to abandon you in the end.

“Y/N!” You hear your best friend Kayla’s voice sing, and suddenly she appears right next to you drunk as ever. “Ooh, I see you girlfriend. I approve,” She teases, and for emphasis she wiggles her eyebrows.

“Sorry about her,” You smile awkwardly at the boy who just shrugs it off. “We were about to head out anyway.”

Kayla gives you an astonished look, her eyes widening and her mouth dropping agape. “We are not!” She protests. “The night is still young, and so are we! Besides, you’ve finally found yourself a hot guy. Can’t let that slip, now can you?” She juts out her hip with her hand on it, giving you a disapproving look.

Once again, you give the boy an apologetic look but he just seems amused. “Kayla, let’s go. We need to go find Maddie.”

Kayla pouts, but she obliges. But she doesn’t leave without one last word. “She’ll find you later,” She sends the boy a wink and your cheeks flush pink.

“Go,” You tug on her arm, glancing back at the boy. “See you. Sorry about the shirt.”

You’re quick so he can’t notice your blushing cheeks, but you’re pretty sure he does anyway. As you walk away you hear a faint “Wait!” But it’s too late. You’re already embarrassed as it is, why embarrass yourself further?

After you finally gather up your drunken friends you head out the door with them trailing and stumbling behind you. However, you can’t seem to get that boy off your mind.

<><><><><><>

You can’t help the giggles that escape your lips as you watch your friends — Kayla and Veronica included — struggle to stand straight on their skates. You can’t recall who’s bright idea it was to go ice skating on a Friday night but you didn’t seem to mind. You got together about ten or so friends, including some boyfriends of a few of the girls, and you were ready to have a good time. You had been stressing about school lately and skating was one way you often cleared your mind.

Stepping on the ice felt like home to you. The sounds of the blades slicing through the ice filled your ears and it seemed like all your worries melted away. By no means were you some professional figure skater, but you could get your way around quite nicely.

“Keep your ankles straight!” You instructed, but it was pretty much useless. Kayla fell as soon as her skate made contact with the ice, sending you doubling over in your laughter as your friends laughed as well.

Luckily for you some of them weren’t as horrible as you were expecting, but there were a few that definitely had to hold onto the boards for some serious leverage. You let yourself wander freely, and soon enough you were off on your own consumed by your own thoughts.

When you had made a few laps around the ice, Kayla, Lachlan, Wyatt and Maddie had barely made it around twice — if that. The others were doing fine it seemed. But you were growing bored, so you decided you needed to spice it up a little bit. You made sure you were as quiet as you could be as you snuck up on the small group. Once you were close enough, you grabbed Kayla’s shoulders and yelled in an attempt to scare her.

It worked.

She screamed so loud she fell forward landing on her stomach. You laughed hysterically, so hysterically that you doubled over onto the ice. You were practically cry laughing at that point.

“You bitch!” The blonde yells, but you knew she was kidding, especially because of how she was still a laughing mess.

“You love me,” You teased her in between giggle fits. “But you should have seen your face!”

Once you had eased up a little bit Lachlan offered you his hand so you could get up. However, he wasn’t firmly planted so you basically pulled him down with you. You started laughing once again and there was no stopping you then. That is, until someone stopped in front of you. They had actual hockey skates, not some rinky dink rental ones from the rink, so it wasn’t one of your friends. You look up, and sure enough it’s the boy from the party.

“You look like you need a hand,” He smiles down at you and you smile right back up at him. Reluctantly you take his hand, and he pulls you up with ease. You stumble slightly as you stand to your feet, but his arm is wrapped firmly around your waist to keep you in place.

“You know, I don’t think I ever got your name,” You look up at him cheesily. He’s still holding you close, probably too close for being practically strangers, but you don’t mind.

“Jack,” He said. “Jack Hughes. And yours?”

“Y/N.” You answer softly, a small grin making its way onto your face.

“Well, Y/N, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Before you could say anything else a group of boys skated up to the two of you. “Jack, lets go.” One of the boys tugged on his arm.

“Can’t you see I’m a little bit busy?” Jack groaned, but you giggled quietly.

“Go,” You ushered him on. “It’s okay.”

Jack gave you an apologetic smile before skating away with his friends, who you soon would learn to be his teammates. You turn back to your friend who are all giving you looks.

“What?” You ask, a sheepish smile making its way onto your face.

“So, Jack, huh?” Kayla teased, clearly remembering the night of the party from hell. You shrug, the blush on your cheeks giving you away almost instantly. “Someone’s got a crush,” She sang and bumped her elbow into your side.

You roll your eyes, but your gaze falls on Jack and a few of his buddies as they skated around. “We’ve met literally twice now. It’s nothing more than a little crush.” You reply sheepishly. You hug yourself slightly, the cold of the small rink beginning to make its way through the thin fabric of your sweatshirt.

Jack glances over at you and so do a few of his friends, causing your cheeks to flush and you to look away quickly. You turn back to your friends.

“Ready to head out, yeah?” You ask and pretty much everyone agrees. You skate one more lap, passing by Jack and his friends once more before you exit the ice.

<><><><><><>

“So, what team is this for?” You ask Kayla as the two of you walk into the USA Hockey Arena. You couldn’t help but be mesmerized by the amount of memorabilia that littered the walls. It was cluttered, but it worked. The whole place was decked out in red, white, and blue which was quite fitting. It felt homey.

“The USA U18 team,” Kayla says as the two of you approach the ticket booth. “You remember Oliver, right?” Of course you remember Oliver. She didn’t shut up about the boy. “It’s the team he plays on.”

You nod, taking your ticket from the women in the booth. You walk around until you find the rink the team is playing in, warm ups for them already in full swing.

“You know I know pretty much nothing about hockey, right?” You ask Kayla who laughs nodding as she did so. “All I know is there's a bunch of guys ice skating, chasing after a rubber thing and they having to beat the goalie in the net. I’m pretty limited.”

“If I’m being honest that’s all I know too. But you know I really like Oliver, and I wanna show him I can support him,” Kayla says and you smile at her. She normally didn’t settle on a guy for a while. It was a nice change to see her so interested in someone for once.

“I’m happy for you, Kay,” You smile at your best friend as the two of you make your way into the stands. You two manage to snag second seats, so you have an amazing view of the team as they skate around.

A huge smile makes its way onto Kayla’s face as her eyes scan around the ice. You assumed she was trying to find Oliver, and when she did the grin on her face only got wider. “Is that him?” You ask, pointing at a boy who couldn’t keep his eyes off Kayla.

“Yeah,” Kayla replies sheepishly, looking at him with pure love in her eyes. You laugh quietly to yourself before surveying the ice yourself. You see two boys laughing with each other, and as the once turns around revealing his face to you, you let out a little gasp. “What’s wrong?” Kayla asks, turning to face you.

“That’s Jack,” You couldn’t even believe and the disbelief in your voice certainly proved it. You never thought you would see him again after ice skating. You thought you had just gotten lucky. “He’s Oliver’s teammate?”

A shy smile appeared on Kayla’s face. “Surprise?”

Your mouth drops open as you gape at your best friend who falls into a fit of giggles. “You knew?” You ask her and she manages to nod. “How did you figure it out?”

“Oliver obviously wasn’t at the rink the other night. But he had told me he plays for the national development team, and Jack was wearing a USNTDP jacket, so I texted Oliver and he told me Jack Hughes is his teammate. He’s a big deal, actually. He’s supposed to go first overall in the 2019 draft.”

You let all of the information sink in. You had a helpless crush on this boy and you couldn’t seem to get him off your mind. And now suddenly he was everywhere? It was too good to be true.

“That’s -- wow,” You chuckle to yourself.

“I saw how the two of you just clicked with each other,” Kayla smiles at you. “You hadn’t been that happy in so long, Y/N. I couldn’t just let it slip away. When I found out they played together I had to get you to a game, so here we are.”

“Thank you,” You say to her and she smiles.

“Of course.”

It doesn’t take long for Jack to notice you, and when he does he looks just as shocked as you had. He turns to Oliver who smirks, motioning over to you and Kayla.Jack turns and he grins at you causing you to blush. It still felt so surreal. What are the odds?

The boys end up winning 3-1, so you were a bit hyped up after the game. And not to mention Oliver scored on a gorgeous set up from Jack. 

“Are we gonna wait for them?” You ask Kayla who nods.

“Of course we are, I mean you gotta see Jack again,” She gives you a knowing look and you find yourself smiling down at your feet.

The two of you make your way out of the rink and over towards the seating area of the concessions. You sit down at one of the free tables and wait for Jack and Oliver. It takes a good twenty minutes before Kayla announces Oliver texted her saying that they’re on their way out. You can’t help your racing heart and the beaming smile on your face as you watch Jack walk down the hallway that comes out from the locker rooms. 

“Hey Kay,” Oliver smiles at Kayla who gets up from her seat to hug Oliver. 

“Oliver, this is my best friend, Y/N. Y/N this is Oliver,” Kayla smiles with her arm wrapped around Oliver. She’s absolutely beyond the moon.

Oliver smirks. “So you’re the girl Hughesy can’t stop talking about?” He teases, which causes Jack’s face to turn a bright pink. “Kid won’t shut up about you.”

“Oh really now?” You smile at Jack who shrugs in response, a light smirk plastered across his lips. “So, how’ve you been? Been a bit, eh?”

“Better now that you’re here if I’m being honest,” Jack grins. “But, I think you’re trying to throw me off my game. I saw you and I got nervous, fanning on my shot. That’s a little rude.” 

“Well, I didn’t mean to distract you if that makes up for it. But I’m starting to think us constantly seeing each other is like fate.”

“Since this is fate,” Jack begins, a cheeky smile making its way onto his face. “How about we go out sometime?”

You smile. “You’re got yourself a deal, Hughes.”

[thepinkwriterr]

Wyatt Oleff Imagine

Guys... This is gonna be bad. I wrote this almost two years ago. I’m sorry if you read this to be honest. Proceed with caution. 

"If isn't my favorite ginger." Jack smiled, letting me into his hotel room. "Look, save it. I have to talk to you about something...someone." I walked into his room, sitting on his bed. 

Jack's bed was next to his, covered with clothes. "Ooooo, who is the lucky guy?" He smirked, sitting across from me. "I-it's serious." He knitted his eyebrows together in concern, "What's wrong?" I broke in a full sob and hugged his waist. 

"Y/N, what's wrong?" "I think I like Wyatt...maybe even love. But he'll never like me back ,he hates me, doesn't he?" "Y/N, you're being paranoid! Wyatt doesn't hate anyone, especially you." "You're right." I wiped my eyes,sniffling. "I'm sorry for the tears." I chuckled. "It's fine," He smiled,"You should ask him out." 

"I-I can't." "Come on Y/N!" "I think i'm going to Sophia with this." I stood up to leave. "Wait, Y/n!" I turned before I opened the door,"Yeah?" "Let me help." I sighed,"You'll just tell him and embarrass me." "No, I promise, I won't." "Alright." We spent the whole night planning. Even Finn helped. "You can't tell anyone about this,alright." "Alright." "Promise? "Promise." "Promise." Jack nodded.

I was aloud to be here because I was Finn's best friend. He scored me a quick role in IT as one of Beverly's school bullies. The cast and I really clicked, and I'm like an eighth member of the losers club. Sometimes it's a little awkward, but we get over it. I'm even on the live streams! They talk about me in interviews, too. Right now we're on a tour to meet fans and talk to journalists and magazines. Nick, Owen, and Jackson were here too!

I shared a room with Sophia and made it even. Jack and Finn, Sophia and I, Wyatt and Chosen, and Jaeden, and Jeremy was with Nick. Sophia and I usually just watched cheesy movie and TV shows and listened to music. I had introduced her to Fleetwood Mac, and she loved them too! I loved being her best friend, she is such a great girl.

 "Y/n,waaaake up!" My eyes fluttered open, "Hmmm?" "I heard you mumbling a special boys name in your sleep." She smirked. "Please Sophia, don't mock me." "I won't!" She smiled. "Thank you." "Who else knows now?"

 "Jack and Finn." "Yes! Now we get to tease you about it all day!" "Stop smirking like that." I laughed. She turned on Every Breath You Take by The Police. I rolled my eyes,"I'm not obsessed with him." I rolled my eyes. 

I layed back and listened to the music. I actually really like this song. There was a knock at the door. "We're leaving soon, get ready!" Finn yelled into the room. "Thanks, Mr.Wolfhard." He grinned. Sophia and I got up and started getting ready for an outting. We were in L.A, and not many of us had been there before. I decided to dress 90s grunge as usual. I put on light distressed jean shorts and a band shirt. I put on thigh-high socks and my black doc martins. I curled my hair a bit and was finished. Sophia was still trying to pick out an outfit. She went with olive branch colored shorts and a white blouse. "You look like a cute lil' schoolboy." I smiled. "Thank you." She grinned back. We stepped out into the hallway and waited for the guys. I texted Finn:

M: What's taking so long?

F: Wyatt's lookin pretty for you!

M: SHUT UP

F: ;)

I turned my phone off and stuffed into my back pocket. I ran back into the hotel room and grabbed my headphones. I can't go a car ride without those! Chosen and Jaeden joined us in the hallway soon after that, then Jack. He kept making small nods at the fact that I like Wyatt. It was pretty funny at first. It'll probably get old after Finn, Sophia, and Jack will make the jokes all day. We all talked a bit before our urbers arrived. We all preferred to ride together, but that wasn't possible today. 

Finn, Sophia, Jack and I all rode in one Uber. Chosen, Jeremy, Jaeden, and Wyatt shared another. Nick didn't feel well this morning and decided to stay home. We were going to get breakfast, then go out to museum or something. Sophia's mom was the only adult, and she was back at the hotel, so we had free rein over everything. When we got to the cafe we decided to eat outside. We had to get two tables worth of chairs and put them at a small round table. I sat in between Wyatt and Sophia. I looked at my Instagram timeline while everyone ordered,I didn't want anything. Breakfast made me nauseous. When everyone got their food and drinks Wyatt asked,"Are you going to eat anything?" "No,not very hungry." "Are you sure?" I nodded. Finn smirked at me from across the table.

M: stop!

F: What am I doing?

He smirked at me again, putting his phone down. I glared him but looked away when Chosen looked over. "Y/n, why do you never eat when we go out to?" Chosen asked. "She has insecurity eating around her crush." I glared at jack from across the table. His smirk stood still. I looked at wyatt, he was confused. Breakfast lasted about fifteen minutes later and then we were all packing into Uber's again. We rode with the same people, even though I Sophia wanted me to go with Wyatt. The museum was a ten minute car ride away. When we got to the museum we all split up into groups so we could look at what we wanted, and not make too much noise. Jaeden, Finn, and Sophia went to see the Egyptian history section. Chosen, Jeremy,and Jack went to the Civil war section. That left Wyatt and I. "Aquarium?" He asked. "Yeah." I smiled. It seemed like forever when we finally found the aquarium. The small talk was awkward,and I didn't enjoy it anyway. "Y/n?" Wyatt asked,stopping in front of the aquarium enclosure. "Yeah Wy?" I asked, looking up at him. "You know when Jack made that joke about your crush?" "Mhm." "W-who is your crush?" I was silent for a moment, questioning whether or not I should tell him the truth. 

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked." He opened the door to the aquarium. "No, it's okay." We walked into the aquarium. We walked around in silence for about five minutes. "Wy?" "Hm?" He asked,looking at the jellyfish. "N-nevermind." When we got to the next exhibit, I decided to stop being a pussy. "Wyatt," 

"Yeah?" "I like you. You're my crush." I couldn't stand it any longer. "R-really?" A smile painted across his face, it looked genuine. "Y/n, I like you too." I smiled as well. I couldn't help it. I felt like jumping up and down and into his arms. "You do?" I asked happily. "Definitely." I smiled as I hugged him, feeling content  and warm in his arms. "You don't know how long I've wanted this." He whispered. "Me too." I pulled away from the hug so we could continue looking at the exhibits. I grabbed his hand and intertwined our fingers. "I told the guys that I like you a couple weeks ago, they always tried to get me to tell you somehow." I laughed,"Jack and Finn found out last night, Sophia has known since the day I started liking you." "When was that?" "The moment I met you." He sighed in relief,"Me too." "So we get to tell them soon." I smiled. 

After about half an hour of walking around the museum the group decided to get lunch. We sat with the same people as usual ,and Sophia still insisted I should sit with Wyatt. When we got to the place we picked out for lunch we all ordered, I got a grilled cheese and some fries. Healthy, right? I sat next to Wyatt and held his hand under the table, smiling like idiot the whole time Finn and Jack told some stupid story. Chosen was staring at me from across the table with a "I know something" look. I texted him:

M: Stop staring at me like that ya creep

C: Stop holding Wyatt's hand like it's a secret you two like each other ya scrub!

M: I can't promise I can stop that.

C: When are you going to tell the group?

M: Soon.

M: Now eat, scrub!

He laughed at me calling him a scrub. I laughed as well and nodded toward his food. We're like best friends so we can have a conversation without saying a word. "I say we go back to the hotel and fuck around." Jack suggested after everyone was done eating. We all did just that. We all got to the hotel and went to Jack and Finn's hotel room because it was the biggest. Jack started an Instagram Live video and we all decided to play truth or dare. Sophia went first. "Jack, truth or dare?" "I gotta go dare." "I dare you to... eat a bowl of Mayo." Sophia smiled,crossing her arms. "Ew, Soph that's disgusting!" Jack shook his head. "Do it or we get to shave your head." 

Jack sighed,"Not too much mayo." "I don't know, he might look good bald." I joked. Jack puckered his lips and made kissing noises at me. I laughed and did it back, then shook my head. After he did it Jack asked me,"Truth or dare Y/n." "Uh..." I didn't want to answer their questions, so I picked dare. "Dare!" "Alright," Jack smirked,"I dare you to kiss Wyatt." I looked at Wyatt,"I-uh-uh..." "Do it or we get to shave your head." Jack smirked. I glared at Jack. I turned to Wyatt and gave him a nervous smile. "Everyone is going crazy in the comment." I heard Jaeden laugh. It would be both of our first kisses, and everyone knew that. We both turned our heads and pressed our lips together. Everyone in the room cheered. We both pulled away and looked at the group. I grabbed his hand,"We're dating by the way." I smiled.

[girlglassestheotherone]

did someone say they wanted a bunch of words about a character who was on screen for exactly two seconds??

2020

Ann Arbor, Michigan

“He is definitely going to get reelected, Leslie,” Ann said reassuringly into the video call on her watch.

“Ann Perkins, you magnificent trash compactor monster from Star Wars,” Leslie said at the other end of the line, hugging one of the Ann scrapbooks she kept on her desk. Faintly in the background of Leslie’s call, Ben shouted how the monster was called a dianoga. “I’m sure you’re right, but I just needed to hear it from your beautiful mouth.”

“Thanks, babe,” Ann and Ben said at the same time.

“Wave your arm, Ann, I want to see how terrible this park is compared to Indiana.”

“Ok,” Ann laughed, slowly moving her watch so Leslie could get a view.

“Damn it, it’s gorgeous. I can see why you live here,” Leslie said.

“You know we don’t actually live in the park,” Ann said, distracted by a sudden noise, “I’m going to call you back.” Ann rushed over to the source of the noise, her son Oliver crying at the base of one of the park slides.

“A doggy bit him,” Oliver’s sister Leslie said, opening her small dolphin shaped backpack and pulling out the tiny first aid kit she asked to take home from one visit to the hospital where Ann worked. “But no blood so it didn’t break the skin.”

“Aren’t you four?” Ann asked Leslie, holding Oliver’s hand in one hand while putting another on his shoulder.

“I am lit-trally five, Ann,” Leslie said, sighing in the same way Chris did when Ann accidentally deleted the series finale of This is Us, before brightly saying that he remembered they had it on Hulu. She was her father’s daughter in almost every way.

“Dogs are stupid,” Oliver said as Ann applied the band aid just in case to the area, his injury now more emotional than physical.

“Dogs are not stupid, Ollie’s stupid,” Leslie said, zipping up her backpack and placing it back on her shoulders.

“Shut up! I hate dumb dogs!” Oliver said, kicking some of the sand in the direction of his sister. Whenever her kids fought, Ann remembered just how similar the two were, Oliver being only sixteen months older and now they were the same height.

“Stop it,” Ann said, preemptively blocking Leslie’s return sand kick before the fight could escalate. “We don’t say hate or stupid. Or shut up.”

“You said them, Ann,” Oliver laughed, his sister giggling now with him.

 2025

Pawnee, Indiana

“We have three dogs,” John Swanson said, answering the question Stephen Knope Wyatt had asked him while they sat together eating more of the breakfast foods their parents had set up. Stephen nodded agreeably with a mouthful of blueberry muffin. Across from the two Leslie Perkins Traeger glanced inside the Parks department window watching as her brother Oliver waved a comic book at Stephen’s sister.

“I have a rabbit, named Mrs. Sprinkles,” Leslie said, frowning at the back of her brother’s stupid head. He was the reason Ann and Chris never got a dog, despite years of Leslie only asking for a dog and no other presents for her birthday or Christmas. The rabbit had been a compromise last Christmas.

“No one should own rabbits anymore,” John said, “My sister Zoey sent me this documentary about how terrible it is for pet rabbits.”

“I don’t think I like you,” Leslie thought to herself, staring daggers at him. Leslie also decided to dislike Stephen too, who had been nodding at nearly everything John was saying. She had already decided she was only going to be friends with Sonia, who she already knew from a Galentines day party two years prior. Now she had to distract Sonia away from stupid Oliver.

“I’m going to go talk with Sonia,” Leslie said, standing up from the table. Whatever Oliver was saying to Sonia, might stop her from being best friends with Leslie and she had to stop it. She walked back in the parks office, past her mom and the triplets’ mom, who had just been watching Oliver and Sonia. Adults were so weird.

“Hey Ivy,” Sonia said, looking up as soon as Leslie walked into the conference room. “Sorry, Leslie.”

“They sound alike,” Leslie said, a little hurt that Sonia only kind of remembered her.

“It’s also a little confusing,” Sonia said, “You and my mom have the same name. But I do have the same middle name as your mom’s first name.”

“Do you think our moms are in love with each other?” Oliver asked, “They keep hugging.”

“Maybe,” Leslie said, “Hey Ollie, there’s a few more muffins if you want,” Leslie said, pointing to the table outside the door.

“Why are you saying,” Oliver asked suspiciously, as lately all of their squabbles had been food based and his sister would never encourage him to eat food, only point out that she thought he was eating too much. Leslie sat on the other side of Sonia, ignoring his follow up question.

“My middle name’s Christine,” Leslie volunteered, since Sonia had shared hers.

“Leslie Christine,” Sonia said, “LC, could I call you that? It would be less confusing.”

“Sure!” Leslie said, eager to please. Sonia was definitely cooler than triplet brothers and her own stupid brother. “Do you actually have a pitbull puppy?”

Oliver stood up, deciding he would actually like to get another muffin and maybe talk with some of the other kids. He thought about calling Leslie an attention hog, it was so easy for her to turn the spotlight on herself, but knew it would lead to her refrain calling him a “lit-teral hog.”

“Her name’s Champion 3,” Sonia said, beaming, “And I have a cat named Pythagoras and three birds, Alexander Hamilbird, George Washingbird and Bird Adams. And there’s Westley’s turtle, but he’s a secret turtle, don’t tell anyone. And we have two other dogs, but they’re not pitbulls. I really want a pig and a rabbit.” Leslie, or LC as she was now practicing saying in her head, beamed at her new bestie and her nonjudgmental view of rabbit ownership. She couldn’t wait to introduce Sonia to Mrs. Sprinkles.

[achliegh]

Positive

This is the last chapter! AHHHHH!

Hello, I asked how everyone would feel if I did a prequel to O&O. I got a lot of yes’ and screaming so I decided it was best to do it. I have been thinking about this ever since chapter 17 of Olive and Otto. So here it is! If you have any questions about characters just send me an ask and I will gladly answer! (Also I just get so happy when people want to talk to me)

Thank you to: @walking-crisis, @clearsuitcasecookienerd, @blingywitch, @waltzintherain, and @moonofthenight, @onlydreamofmysoul (If I missed anyone who answered my asks please let me know! I know some haven’t answered yet but I am hoping they will)

TW/CW: High school bullies, Coming out to homophobic family, Slurs, Mentions of eating disorders, Homophobic languages and attitudes, mentions of sex, and pregnancy, teen pregnancy, probably food and drink. Oh! And cigarettes and underage drinking.

Leo and his family belong to @lumosinlove

Chapter 9

Birth

July 2016

Indigo was laughing when it happened, she was on the phone with Parker just catching up on all the drama she’s missed over the past few weeks. She has been facetiming all of her new friends because she misses them and she wants to be updated on Lola’s arrest. Lola messed with someone a month ago and they decided to press charges for harassment and it worked! Everyone was stoked, even miles were coming out of his Lola cocoon a little bit.

“You should have seen her face!” Parker and her laugh when suddenly there was a bit of a wet feeling down south, now ever since month three indigo has peed a little when she laughs because that's just what happens, but this felt different. She brushed it off as her pregnancy symptoms not even realizing her due date is in a day.

However instead of it just being a small little leak that stops it just kept happening, a steady flow, was it barely noticeable, yes all until she sits down. She goes to take an afternoon bath because her back has been spasming all day. She takes off her clothes with a little bit of a struggle, she goes to step out of her underwear when a sharp pain stabs her in her lower back and pelvis.

Then she knows.

She goes back into the bedroom throwing on some clean shorts and a Leo shirt, she then carefully goes down the stairs to the kitchen where everyone else is. She gets to the doorway and when everyone looks up she suddenly gets nervous.

“Ummm… I think these two are ready to come out.” She mentally slaps her forehead with how dumb that sounded but the way Eloise calmly sets her mug of still hot tea in the sink and walks over to Indigo. She asks a bunch of questions that she no longer remembers as the panic of having to give birth sets in. Eloise sees this.

“Leo, would you be a sweetheart and go grab the bag I made you pack months ago please, Wyatt, will you call the hospital and let them know we are coming in. “ She takes indigo’s hand and gives it a comforting squeeze.

“I’m okay” She was being honest she hasn’t had another contraction yet but it made her all the more anxious for when they do show up.

They got to the hospital and were taken into a birthing room right away. Doctors and nurses were taking diagnostics on her and every once in a while Indigo would notice a furrow of a brow and a concerned look.

She would try to ignore it and put it down to the doctors and nurses getting anxious about helping someone give birth. But when a doctor pulls Eloise to the side to talk to her the feelings all come crashing down. The contractions are getting closer every hour and they are becoming almost unbearably painful. She was angry and in pain and squeezing the life out of Leo’s hand, and he would let her.

They had planned a c-section beforehand, the thought terrified Indigo but she knew with her body and having more than one baby this was going to happen. But what she wasn’t expecting was for it to become an emergency c-section!. Apparently the larger baby was facing the wrong direction and was making it so they needed to be removed as soon as possible. This means she has to be knocked out, and Leo can’t be in the room.

They were getting her ready to wheel her out of the room whe Indigo pulled Leo down the collar of his shirt and gave him one last kiss just in case she didn’t make it. They pull away and she relaxes a little into the bed as they take her away.

But that kiss fucked leo up for the rest of the day.

He would pace around the room, his heart pounding in his chest, his dad was taking pictures to make fun of him later with, while Eloise was equally nervous but not as obvious as Leo. Leo was going insane.

Running his hands through his hair tugging on his clothes sitting down for a couple minutes and tapping his foot before getting back up and pacing the room again. Asking if his parents need anything and they say no for the thousandth time.

When a nurse pokes her head into the room to give them an update Leo about cries in relief when they tell him that it is going smoothly so far. About an hour later a knock on the door catches their attention, when the door opens the same nurse comes in.

“Would you like to meet your son Mr. Knut.” They smile at Leo as she nods still in shock and follows the nurse to a room where babies are after being birthed in the operating room.

He was gorgeous. Small wispy tufts of hair were on his head, he had his mother skin and cheeks, his eyes weren’t open so Leo couldn’t tell what color they were. When he was handed his son she couldn’t help but let a few tears fall down his face. He notices his dad holding up the camera and gives a shaky smile.

As he was setting Otto back into his medical cot the door opened, in came a much smaller baby but still beautiful.

“Here is your daughter, they are fishing up with Indigo and running some tests before bringing her back to the room.” The Nurse nods to the other nurse before turning to leave the room.

Leo reaches out to pick up his little girl and realizes just how small she is compared to her brother, he hope she won’t have any problems later on. Snuggling her to his chest just soaking in her warmth and the feeling of having a child he sets her back into the cot as they wheel both out to do some medical stuff.

Hours go by, they take Otto to have a couple of extra tests run and Leo hasn’t stopped smiling. But the worry is still there. They are moved back into the room they were in originally to wait for Indigo to come back.

Time passes much fast once Leo is able to watch his kids through a window instead of just pacing around a white room. He notices that his son isn’t as wiggly as the other babies in the baby jail but he tries not to worry about it too much.

They made it.

He was called back into the room as Indigo started to wake up. They smile at each other and cry as they hold their kids. This is a journey that has changed their lives forever.

And they wouldn’t have it any other way.

Indigo meets Olive first. It’s love at first sight, her little head on Indigo’s chest while the exhausted new mother takes to Eloise about something random that Leo isn’t paying attention to. Olive has brown hair like her mom but the brightest eyes like him. They were a perfect mix.

Once the extra testing was done for Otto they brought him back into the room to eat and said everything looked fine. So, Leo stole Olive from Indigo as Otto was placed in her arms. Wyatt was constantly snapping photos and Eloise never looked so proud.

Their family was complete.

[yakumtsaki]

CHILLIN LIKE A VILLAIN. Pleased with yourself, are you, Becky with the good hair?

-Oh quite, though I’d be more pleased if my damn arm would unglitch.

HA looks like it got stuck while you were putting your filthy hands on Wyatt. God’s punishment is swift. Know what else is gonna be swift? YOUR DEATH. Get him, Waylon Fairchild Dementia Raven Way!

-Ugh, no way, I’m exhausted, everyone is in love with me and I just want to be with Draco, ok? Why couldn’t Satan make me less beautiful? IT’S A CURSE

Waylon sis truly don’t even talk to me about curses and Satan right now, this entire lot is cursed and crawling with evil spirits and beelzebubian energies. Ever since we moved here my life has never known peace. Next thing you know snakes are gonna start manifesting in this house physically.

Well looks like the snakes are already here. FRANCES WILL YOU FUCKING STOP ALREADY YOU GOT WHAT YOU WANTED JOYATT IS DEAD NOW CEASE AND DESIST

-No way bitch, time to suffer. Look at it and weep, look at it with your own two eyes!

First of all I’ve been weeping since yesterday so joke’s on you. Secondly I still can’t believe you did this to me after I generously gave you this whole debonair look YOU’RE THE WORST

-La la la can’t hear you over the sound of your plans crumbling all around me!!

I’m seriously gonna murder you a thousand times. Wyatt what about you, you dumbass bimbo? What do you have to say for yourself?

-Not beaucoup, I honestly don’t know why I’m doing this, it makes absolument no sense! Huhu! 

I hate you both so fucking much I might actually vomit.

Ugh my poor Jojo </3 I’m so sorry that your love life has turned into a giant pile of crap.

-Please, who cares.. Definitely not me!

Yeah well that much is obvious! Are you sure you’re alright tho? Because you look, you know. worryingly expressionless and in denial.

-Oh no, I’m just focusing on my new proposal,“Project MKUltra: The Comeback”. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I have to deal with adulterous whores again!

Good, good, pour yourself into your art. Speaking of, maybe it’s also time to pour yourself a refreshing drink?

Attaboy, milk that cowplant, Jojo!

-Hmm this process feels oddly sexual..

Yea, I can tell by your massive erection, jesus, I mean even for you-

-Ew no what the hell? That’s just because Ti-Ning is dead!

Oh ok, that’s fine then!

-YES YEEEEES I FEEL THE POWER COURSING THROUGH MY VEINS

Hard to believe anything can course through your veins with all that ice in there but alright. Now we just have to wait..

..for the cowplant to get hungry again. I literally can’t with Daniel and Gunther constantly picking fights with Jojo’s former suitors, especially since Jojo doesn’t seem to give enough of a fuck to fight them himself. We are family, I got all my sisters with me!

Ugh I keep forgetting Daniel has 9 nice points, what a crybaby. How you gonna fight capitalism when you can’t even fight Wyatt?? MAN UP DAN

Nice, there we go! I’m truly living for Brit’s utter lack of interest in fights happening next to her. Her aspiration bar is about to hit the crapper bc I’m even worse at playing popularity sims than I am at getting couples not to whore around, so the time has come..

TO PARTY HARD, TOGA STYLE. I really threw this party thinking it would be a success and save Brit from aspiration failure, so obviously the time has come to acknowledge that I’m even stupider than Wyatt. Things get off to a good enough start with the profs tickling each other, which everyone knows is the mark of a wild college party!

Ti-Ning, gone but never forgotten.

-Hey Brit, want some Ti-Ning to wash down that pizza? 

-Please stop addressing me.

-That’s right, address moi instead! 

NO YOU DON’T WYATT. YOU HAD YOUR CHANCE

..........................................................................all I can say is LMAO

Wyatt, sweetie, full offense, exactly how dumb are you?

-What? I wanna marry Jojό! <3

Ok. Do you have any recollection of breaking his “heart” 2 hours ago, setting him on the path of a complete nervous breakdown?

-Oh, that was just a bump on la route, don’t be so dramatique!

-Does it count as a win if the only thing you put in the hole.. are your tears?

.....god.

Meanwhile and to the surprise of no one, Gunther is being sexually harassed by a professor, namely Down-With-The-Kids-Pink-Beanie.

-Sooo Gunther, half-alien professor told me all about you, you little ginger minx.. What do you say you and I adjourn somewhere private and I see if the carpet matches the drapes..

-EW forget it, lady, you’re not even in the art department and I only have one rule: no whoring without extra scoring.

Um what about the rule of monogamous dating which you are currently doing with Mel?

-RIGHT that too!

Once again...god.

The one person having a great time at this party is Kevin Beare, who eats half a pizza by himself..

..and then moves on to chips. He legit came here for the free food and didn’t talk to anyone the entire time, which is what I do at every party except with drinks. Live your truth, Kev!

Look who’s back from class and still glitched lolol

-Can you please reset me already, I had to take an exam like this!!!

Pfff grades??? There are so many more important things in life, Fran. Live a little, join the celebration.. party like there’s no tomorrow. CAUSE THERE ISN’T

I’ve no idea what happened here but Tiffany is non-stop bullying this 2006-Oliver-Sykes haired professor. Judging from Pink Beanie and sims professors in general it’s safe to say he deserves it. GET HIM TIFF 

-Why doesn’t anyone want to fuck me, Frank? What am I doing wrong? Has Woody Allen been lying to us about hot young women being uncontrollably attracted to neurotic, misogynist, mediocre intellectuals over 60?

Oh great, I thought this party was gonna end as a dud but I see we’re going for full-on disaster.

-I’ve just about had enough of you and your passé casquette, communiste! 

-My casquette is not passé, it’s classic!

-LADY STOP TRYING TO GET UNDER MY TOGA

-Aw come on, please? For mommy?

-You should use that line on Jojo where it might actually work!

Enemies, these bitches my enemies, not on my level so they just pretend to be, yes, why do you envy me? Cause I am the MVP, these bitches my enemies ♪

-FOR THE GLORY OF THE USSR 

Yea, seems about right. Whatever though, cause after the party..

COMES THE CAKE.

Goodbye Francis, it’s been nice, hope you find your paradise!

-Oh please, SEE YOU IN HELL BITCH. WAIT FOR ME CAUSE I’M GONNA FIGHT YOU THERE TOO

It’s a beautiful morning and our llama friend is back to spread some school pride and presumably some bodily fluids. We almost went an entire day without seeing him but here he is again!  GET OUT OF MELODY’S SHOWER YOU FUCKING CREEP

-FINE. YOU’RE GONNA APPRECIATE ME WHEN I’M GONE

Yea don’t worry that day is permanently coming as soon as we milk Frances out of the cowplant. Honestly this fucking llama is the last straw, the time has come for me to take back control of this house..

..starting with getting sweet, dumb Wyatt back with Jojo! I really think the Frances thing was a fluke, I mean W wasn’t in a committed relationship with Jo, he didn’t initiate it and he rolled the want to get engaged to him for the second time after it. So the whole thing = Fran’s + ACR’s fault!!!1 Also and more importantly we have literally 0 other viable options and college is almost done so it’s time for Jojo to put Lemonade on repeat and get over it.

Let’s bring out the big guns!

-Mom! it’s so good to hear your insufferably domineering voice. Did you get my latest murder pics?

-Ha! Yes they are great, thank you mom. Soon I’ll add the french courtesan to my album. Now tell me, in as much detail as possible, how proud of me you are!

-I don’t know how Wyatt is doing, he’s the french courtesan, I’m going to kill him! Are you even listening to me?

-What do you mean it’s probably my fault? Can you divorce dad already, his influence on your brain has been catastrophic.

-Love is a battlefield? Mom seriously. Divorce. Now.

-Ugh yes, I could imprison him in a gigantic safe for a few days instead of killing him, but what on earth would that achieve?

-Well I don’t care about having a husband! Worst case scenario, I’ll just marry Max!

-Yes, Max does look like dad. Yes, he is as dumb as him. YES, MOM, I KNOW. HONESTLY YOU’RE ONE TO TALK 

-Well, I have to go now, but you’ve certainly given me a lot to think about. And by that I mean which care home to put you in cause you’ve obviously lost it. Goodbye, mother.

As soon as Jojo hangs up the phone Melody runs over to autonomously lecture him. Nice move, Mel, let’s peer pressure him till he caves!

-Jojo this is an intervention but please don’t mistake it as me actually caring about you. Your bullshit harem drama has taken over the entire greek house storyline and enough is enough, we demand equal airtime. Just forgive Wyatt already, he’s too hot for you and you were literally dating 2 other dudes at the same time and you also treated him like shit and you are the worst and Gunther is the best and he’s gonna beat you for heir. Melody out.

Yes, powerful stuff, thank you, Mel. Now Wyatt, let’s apologize!

-I’m so sorry I kissed Frances, Jojό, I don’t know what I was thinking </3

That’s a great start Wyatt, now let’s try it facing the right way!

-I’m so sorry I kissed Frances, Jojό, I don’t know what I was thinking </3 Also I’m totally planning our wedding in my head you right now.

Ok, smaller steps, let’s get him to not hate you first!

If there’s one thing I hate about ts2 it’s how ridiculously hard it is to be forgiven for cheating, shit is unreal. Wyatt has been apologizing for about 3 years now and Jojo is still furious jfc, it’s legit easier to get forgiven for cheating irl than it is in this game.

-For the thousandth time, I’m so so sorry Jojό, honestly in the dark of the nuit at first I thought Frances was you and then it was too late!

-Yes, it was also broad daylight.

-Well you know I have bad eyesight, mon cheri :(

Wyatt seriously, we’ve reached the point where you’re throwing junk out there, so let’s take a break.. 

..from this fucking house! It’s date time! Time for dinner and public woohoo in that vegan restaurant downtown, cause I’ve ignored Gunther so hard his aspiration is currently scarlet red. Mel is doing great though, like all knowledge sims in uni, she’s legit never not-platinum. The adorable couple make themselves right at home, by doing literally what they do at home 20h a day. NOT WHAT WE CAME HERE FOR GET UP

-Maybe if we act like children they’ll think we’re under 12 and we’ll get a discount!

-We’re so in sync, babe, I brought my monster trucks with me for this very eventuality!

-Here, let me blow you a kiss, babe. A prelude of tonight’s blowing. 

-Honestly, every time you talk, I just see the eggplant emoji <3

I didn’t vomit from Wyatt/Frances but this date might actually do the trick!

-Do you think the waiter is mad that we insisted on lobster in a vegan restaurant and he had to go fishing for it?

-Whatever, babe, we deserve it. 

-We really do. I ship us.

-I ship us too <3

Good because I don’t anymore.

Yaas, aspiration problems taken care of! Mel’s shy ass hilariously had a fear of having her photo taken, but public fornication she has no issue with.

-Having your photo taken is unnatural! I’m just using the photo booth as god intended. 

Ofc, on the 6th day, god created the photobooth for people to publicly fuck in.

-Wow Mel, my reflection in your sunglasses is so beautiful.

-So is mine in yours, babe.

-I almost wish we could look into each other’s eyes but then it’d ruin our whole look. You know what, screw it..

-..I was gonna wait till we graduated it and were more mature and crap like that, but whatever, babe, when it’s right, you know. Will you marry me, Melody Tinker, despite the certainty that one or more of our kids will get the Komei nose?

-Oh my god, Gunther! I literally thought you’d never ask, because, let’s be real, you’re a gigantic slut.

-These days are gone, babe, I’m a changed man!

-This ring has been in my family for half a generation, ever since my mom stole it from Florence Delarosa who was obviously never gonna need it.

-Oh it’s beautiful and the fact it’s stolen makes it even more precious!

It’s morphin time! Let’s pretend the red around Gunther’s memory signifies passion and not a crippling fear of commitment. Congrats you gross, crazy kids!

It’s also morphine time, cause damn are we broke as shit. In hindsight perhaps we shouldn’t have gotten the lobster.

We return home, where I’m trying to fulfill Jojo’s longstanding wish to see Ti-Ning’s ghost but apparently Ti-Ning is an even bigger asshole dead than he was alive. Bitch seems to be deliberately refusing to scare Jojo, I mean we’ve been standing around playing ghostbusters for like 4 hours now and it’s just not happening-

-but some scary shit IS happening inside. WHAT FRESH HELL IS THIS.

-What!? We’re just talking about our mutual interest in entertainment.

Brit seriously, don’t make me kill you cause I’ll do it, I’m kinda on a roll here and completely exhausted from this fuckery.

-Gawd, fine, I’m gonna go to sleep.

GO TO A DIFFERENT BED. I’ve noticed a sudden and disturbing reappearance of slutty wants in Gunther’s panel immediately after the engagement, which I’m guessing is some kind of regression back to his usual pattern, like he’s rolling wants to woohoo 10 sims and makeout with another 20 and idek. It’s extremely pissing me off and it’s also extremely not happening.

I JUST SAID IT’S NOT HAPPENING. FUCKING STOP IT.

-We’re just friends!!! Paranoid much?

CAN YOU BLAME ME 

Look here, THIS is the distance I wanna see between you two. It’s also NOT the distance I wanna see between Wyatt and Jojo, man this apology shit is taking fucking forever UGGGH

-Jojό, are you still mad at me?

-What do you think?

-No?

-Guess again.

-No?

-Ugh.

-Oh Jojό, I know you hate me but I’m gonna keep apologizing for the rest of ma vie, cause I really have nothing better to do. And also because je t’aime, Jojό.  Why can't I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold cold cœur?

YES. FUCKING FINALLY. I HEAR HEARTS I HEAR HEARTS!!!!!

THEY’RE JUST NOT COMING FROM THE LIVING ROOM!!!!!11

KILL ME. I WILL PAY SOMEONE TO KILL ME. DON’T TELL ME WHEN YOU’RE COMING JUST SHOW UP AND DO IT. TAKE MY CAT ON THE WAY OUT AND FIND HIM A GOOD HOME. I’M DONE.

[roseharlaws]

Dearheart

Much like Helene, this friend was enchanted by books in a way that animated his every word; what resonated between Helene’s voice on the page before me and my friend’s in my memory, was the respect, need, and love for books that characterized their mutual passion.

books provide: a way of reaching out across time and space to friends and strangers, and to the absent presences that play such a large part in all our lives. I

The books arrived safely, the Stevenson is so fine it embarrasses my orange-crate bookshelves, I’m almost afraid to handle such soft vellum and heavy cream-colored pages. Being used to the dead-white paper and stiff cardboardy covers of American books, I never knew a book could be such a joy to the touch.

The day Hazlitt came he opened to “I hate to read new books,” and I hollered “Comrade!” to whoever owned it before me.

I require a book of love poems with spring coming on. No Keats or Shelley , send me poets who can make love without slobbering—Wyatt or Jonson or somebody, use your own judgment. Just a nice book preferably small enough to stick in a slacks pocket and take to Central Park.

Please write and tell me about London, I live for the day when I step off the boat-train and feel its dirty sidewalks under my feet. I want to walk up Berkeley Square and down Wimpole Street and stand in St. Paul’s where John Donne preached and sit on the step Elizabeth sat on when she refused to enter the Tower, and like that. A newspaper man I know, who was stationed in London during the war, says tourists go to England with preconceived notions, so they always find exactly what they go looking for. I told him I’d go looking for the England of English literature, and he said: “Then it’s there.”

The Newman arrived almost a week ago and I’m just beginning to recover. I keep it on the table with me all day, every now and then I stop typing and reach over and touch it. Not because it’s a first edition; I just never saw a book so beautiful. I feel vaguely guilty about owning it. All that gleaming leather and gold stamping and beautiful type belongs in the pine-panelled library of an English country home; it wants to be read by the fire in a gentleman’s leather easy chair—not on a secondhand studio couch in a one-room hovel in a broken-down brownstone front.

Thank you for the beautiful book. I’ve never owned a book before with pages edged all round in gold. Would you believe it arrived on my birthday? I wish you hadn’t been so over-courteous about putting the inscription on a card instead of on the flyleaf. It’s the bookseller coming out in you all, you were afraid you’d decrease its value. You would have increased it for the present owner. (And possibly for the future owner. I love inscriptions on flyleaves and notes in margins, I like the comradely sense of turning pages someone else turned, and reading passages some one long gone has called my attention to.)

Thank you again for the beautiful book, I shall try very hard not to get gin and ashes all over it, it’s really much too fine for the likes of me.

Write me about London—the tube, the Inns of Court, Mayfair, the corner where the Globe Theatre stood, anything, I’m not fussy. Write me about Knightsbridge, it sounds green and gracious in Eric Coates’ London.

P. S. Your mother is setting out bravely this morning to look at an apartment for you on 8th Avenue in the 50’s because you told her to look in the theatre district. Maxine you know perfectly well your mother is not equipped to look at ANYTHING on 8th Avenue.

You may add Walton’s Lives to the list of books you aren’t sending me. It’s against my principles to buy a book I haven’t read, it’s like buying a dress you haven’t tried on, but you can’t even get Walton’s Lives in a library over here.

You can look at it. They have it down at the 42nd street branch. But not to take home! the lady said to me, shocked. eat it here, just sit right down in room 315 and read the whole book without a cup of coffee, a cigarette or air.

Doesn’t matter, Q quoted enough of it so I know I’ll like it. anything he liked i’ll like except if it’s fiction. i never can get interested in things that didn’t happen to people who never lived.

Boy, I’d like to have run barefoot through THEIR library before they sold it.

Fascinating book to read, did you know John Donne eloped with the boss’s highborn daughter and landed in the Tower for it and starved and starved and THEN got religion. my word.

You want to be the murderer or the corpse?

You’ll be fascinated to learn (from me that hates novels) that I finally got round to Jane Austen and went out of my mind over Pride & Prejudice which I can’t bring myself to take back to the library till you find me a copy of my own.

I houseclean my books every spring and throw out those I’m never going to read again like I throw out clothes I’m never going to wear again. It shocks everybody. My friends are peculiar about books. They read all the best sellers, they get through them as fast as possible, I think they skip a lot. And they NEVER read anything a second time so they don’t remember a word of it a year later. But they are profoundly shocked to see me drop a book in the wastebasket or give it away. The way they look at it, you buy a book, you read it, you put it on the shelf, you never open it again for the rest of your life but YOU DON’T THROW IT OUT! NOT IF IT HAS A HARD COVER ON IT! Why not? I personally can’t think of anything less sacrosanct than a bad book or even a mediocre book.

The Book-Lovers’ Anthology stepped out of its wrappings, all gold-embossed leather and gold-tipped pages, easily the most beautiful book I own including the Newman first edition. It looks too new and pristine ever to have been read by anyone else, but it has been: it keeps falling open at the most delightful places as the ghost of its former owner points me to things I’ve never read before. Like Tristram Shandy’s description of his father’s remarkable library which “contained every book and treatise which had ever been wrote upon the subject of great noses.” (Frank! Go find me Tristram Shandy! )

THOU VARLET? Don’t remember which restoration playwright called everybody a Varlet, I always wanted to use it in a sentence.

I shall be obliged if you will send Nora and the girls to church every Sunday for the next month to pray for the continued health and strength of the messrs. gilliam, reese, snider, campanella, robinson, hodges, furillo, podres, newcombe and labine, collectively known as The Brooklyn Dodgers. If they lose this World Series I shall Do Myself In and then where will you be?

Have you got De Tocqueville’s Journey to America? Somebody borrowed mine and never gave it back. Why is it that people who wouldn’t dream of stealing anything else think it’s perfectly all right to steal books?

I write you from under the bed where that catullus drove me. i mean it PASSETH understanding.

Up till now, the only Richard Burton I ever heard of is a handsome young actor I’ve seen in a couple of British movies and I wish I’d kept it that way. This one got knighted for turning Catullus—caTULLus—into Victorian hearts-and-flowers.

And poor little Mr. smithers must have been afraid his mother was going to read it, he like to KILL himself cleaning it all up.

I go through life watching the english language being raped before my face. like miniver cheevy, I was born too late. and like miniver cheevy I cough and call it fate and go on drinking.

I am starting with a script about New York under seven years of British Occupation and i MARVEL at how i rise above it to address you in friendly and forgiving fashion, your behavior over here from 1776 to 1783 was simply FILTHY.

When, as a little boy, William Blake saw the prophet Ezekiel under a tree amid a summer field, he was soundly trounced by his mother.

I will read the three standard passages from Sermon XV aloud,” you have to read Donne aloud, it’s like a Bach fugue.

i am going to bed. i will have hideous nightmares involving huge monsters in academic robes carrying long bloody butcher knives labelled Excerpt, Selection, Passage and Abridged.

Thought of you last night, my editor from Harper’s was here for dinner, we were going over this story-of-my-life and we came to the story of how I dramatized Landor’s “Aesop and Rhodope” for the “Hallmark Hall of Fame.” Did I ever tell you that one? Sarah Churchill starred as Landor’s dewy-eyed Rhodope. The show was aired on a Sunday afternoon. Two hours before it went on the air, I opened the New York Times Sunday book review section and there on page 3 was a review of a book called A House Is Not a Home by Polly Adler, all about whorehouses, and under the title was the photo of a sculptured head of a Greek girl with a caption reading: “Rhodope, the most famous prostitute in Greece.” Landor had neglected to mention this. Any scholar would have known Landor’s Rhodope was the Rhodopis who took Sappho’s brother for every dime he had but I’m not a scholar, I memorized Greek endings one stoic winter but they didn’t stay with me.

Wasn’t anything else that intrigued me much, it’s just stories, I don’t like stories. Now if Geoffrey had kept a diary and told me what it was like to be a little clerk in the palace of richard III—THAT I’d learn Olde English for. I just threw out a book somebody gave me, it was some slob’s version of what it was like to live in the time of Oliver Cromwell—only the slob didn’t live in the time of Oliver Cromwell so how the hell does he know what it was like? Anybody wants to know what it was like to live in the time of Oliver Cromwell can flop on the sofa with Milton on his pro side and Walton on his con, and they’ll not only tell him what it was like, they’ll take him there.

“The reader will not credit that such things could be,” Walton says somewhere or other, “but I was there and I saw it.”

that’s for me, I’m a great lover of I-was-there books.

We had a very pleasant summer with more than the usual number of tourists, including hordes of young people making the pilgrimage to Carnaby Street. We watch it all from a safe distance, though I must say I rather like the Beatles. If the fans just wouldn’t scream so.

I introduced a young friend of mine to Pride & Prejudice one rainy Sunday and she has gone out of her mind for Jane Austen.

I hope you and Brian have a ball in London. He said to me on the phone: “Would you go with us if you had the fare?” and I nearly wept.

But I don’t know, maybe it’s just as well I never got there. I dreamed about it for so many years. I used to go to English movies just to look at the streets. I remember years ago a guy I knew told me that people going to England find exactly what they go looking for. I said I’d go looking for the England of English literature, and he nodded and said: “It’s there.”

Maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t. Looking around the rug one thing’s for sure: it’s here.

We all lead busy lives—perhaps it’s better so.

If you happen to pass by 84, Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me. I owe it so much.

[oliver-reid]

sarabnnctt​:

“Doesn’t it though?” She nearly choked out as she dropped her head onto Oliver’s shoulder. It wasn’t the pregnancy, the baby, that tossed her headfirst into a downward spiral. No, Sara had often pondered what it would be like to give Bennett a sibling. She loved the thought of having another child. But, in due time. Two or three years for now, once the dust had settled and it didn’t feel as though she was struggling just to keep her head above water. When she and Wyatt were more solid, or he’d finally walked away for good. Because, in her mind, that was the only way the curtain would close on their relationship. Now, she’d just given him the perfect reason to do so. And it wasn’t the baby itself. It was her doing. Her lack of faith in them. Her betrayal. It didn’t matter if Wyatt would see it that way or not because it was how she felt.

“If it was just the pregnancy,” she continued, her voice shaky and low as she spilled details that were far too messy, “I could roll with the punches. Just like with Bennett. And I didn’t want this baby until it happened, but I do now, Ollie. I really do.” The confession shocked her. At the hospital, with Tatum standing in front of her delivering the news, Sara knew she had options. But, now sitting on the beach, there was only one right one in her mind. “But, I don’t know if Wyatt can. Roll with the punches, I mean. Because I don’t know if this baby is even his. Because Sam…” Those words filled the little space between them, followed by a broken sob. It became very clear to Sara, then, that she wasn’t crying over the pregnancy at all, but what it could mean for her fragile relationship. “And that does say something about me. That I even let this be a possibility to begin with.” 

The pads of her fingers brushed away falling tears as she shook her head against Oliver, falling apart in the solace of his presence and the secluded strip of beach, knowing beyond any shadow of doubt that he was in her corner. Always had been. “This past year-and-a-half has been one thing after another and I don’t know how much more I can take,” she lamented when the tears began to slow. “I don’t want to do this by myself.” 

-

Oliver listened with trepidation as Sara spoke, draping an arm around her back to hold her against him, hoping to allow her a pocket of comfort and familiarity in the middle of what seemed to be a torrent of emotions. It was not at all surprising to him to bear witness to Sara, yet again, blaming herself for something, assuming responsibility for a thing Oliver wasn’t entirely sure she should have been. After all, from what he understood of the situation, she and Wyatt had effectively been in something of an off period when Sam made his brief reappearance in Sara’s life, and while Oliver hadn’t necessarily felt it befitting to pry, it didn’t seem to be all that serious--at least, not on the scale of Wyatt Hill. Oliver kissed the top of Sara’s head, nuzzling his cheek into her hair helplessly as she cried. “It says you’re a human being with impulses that wanted to have fun with someone and maybe didn’t think everything through. It says you made a mistake. It doesn’t automatically make you some....irredeemable monster, Sara. It doesn’t mean you deserve to feel the way you’re feeling. It doesn’t mean you need to punish yourself for it.” Oliver’s voice was soft, but firm; as he spoke, he was careful not to let it get consumed entirely by the crashing of the tide.

“Wyatt is an adult. And so is Sam. And so are you. And...no, this situation is not ideal, by any stretch. But that doesn’t inherently mean that it doesn’t have the potential to be something wonderful,” Oliver suggested, thinking of how Bennett hadn’t necessarily been a part of Sara’s plan, either, but had effectively turned her life on its’ axis. Still, he understood that, while Sara was nothing if not resilient, that didn’t mean that she always should have had to be. “You can figure this out. You can make this work. It’ll be--it’ll be weird, and awkward, and complicated, but you can do it, Sara. You can have this baby, and you can be happy. you deserve to be happy. And you won’t ever, ever be on your own.” Oliver felt as if this was a given with the implication of his steadfast devotion, but he couldnt discount the presence of Wyatt--or Sam--or both--in Sara’s life, too. “You will never be alone. Not a day you are on this Earth. I promise you that.”

[rcmus]

Marlmus for the ship meme

@marlenebmckinnon

ULTIMATE SHIP MEME!

SEND IN TWO (OR MORE) NAMES AND I’LL FILL ALL THIS OUT ABOUT THE SHIP!

GENERAL:Rate the Ship - Awful | Ew | No pics pls | I’m not comfortable | Alright | I like it! | Got Pics? | Let’s do it! | Why is this not getting more attention?! | The OTP to rule all other OTPsHow long will they last? - Until their dying breath, they might argue, but will always come back to each other.How quickly did/will they fall in love? - They met as kids in the first year and became friends, the more time they spent together and knew each other better, they started to fall in love.How was their first kiss? - Very delicate and a little nervous, mostly for Remus. But the second kiss that came right after that was pure joy.

WEDDING:Who proposed? - Remus proposed to Marley, he wanted it to be a surprise, but she knows him too well and was expecting it.Who is the best man/men? - both Sirius and James were Rem’s best men.Who is the braid’s maid(s)? - Lily, she and Marley are best friends and only them knows how hard it is to live with these guys.Who did the most planning? - Unexpectedly, James Potter.Who stressed the most? - Remus did, he wanted everything to be perfect for Marley, he wanted her to be happy.How fancy was the ceremony? - Back of a pickup truck | 2 | 3 | 4 | Normal Church Wedding | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Kate and William wish they were this big.Who was specifically not invited to the wedding? - Lyall Lupin. Neither Remus or Marlene want to see this man anymore. The wedding was protected by a special charm to warn them if Lyall would appear.

SEX:Who is on top? - Most of the times Remus is, he doesn’t look like it but he loves to have full control.Who is the one to instigate things? - They both are. Marley perfectly knows where *and how* to touch Remus and it’s not that hard to turn him on.How healthy is their sex life? - Barely touch themselves let alone each other | 2 | 3 | 4 | Once a couple weeks, nothing overboard | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They are humping each other on the couch right now (seriously they can’t keep their hands away)How kinky are they? - Straight missionary with the lights off | 2 | 3 | 4 | Might try some butt stuff and toys | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Don’t go into the sex dungeon without a horse’s headHow long do they normally last? - Depends if they’re softly making love, with whispered ‘I love you’s or if they’re fucking against the wall. Sometimes Remus holds himself back to come in time with her.Do they make sure each person gets an equal amount of orgasms? - They try, but no one keeps counting, they do what they want at the moment, but no one complains. They’re very good in communicating their needs to each other.How rough are they in bed? - Softer than a butterfly on the back of a bunny | 2 | 3 | 4 | The bed’s shaking and squeaking every time | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Their dirty talk is so vulgar it’d make Dwayne Johnson blush. Also, the wall’s so weak it could collapse the next time they do it.How much cuddling/snuggling do they do? - No touching after sex | 2 | 3 | 4 | A little spooning at night, or on the couch, but not in public | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They snuggle and kiss more often than a teen couple on their fifth date to a pillow factory.

CHILDREN:How many children will they have naturally? - After discovering that they can have children naturally and they won’t have Rem’s curse, they decided for a big family, wanting four kids. Meet the twins Emerson Marlene Lupin and Alexander Remus Lupin, later their family got bigger when Wyatt John Lupin was born then and the youngest, Oliver Malcolm Lupin.How many children will they adopt? - None, although they were considering it before they knew they can have children naturally.Who gets stuck with the most diapers? - Remus probably, he needs some time to learn how to put on a diaper and apparently a few more tries. Marley finds it extremely funny. Remus doesn’t.Who is the stricter parent? - They both have the same rule and if one of them says ‘no’ the other one will also say it. Who stops the kid(s) from doing dangerous stunts after school? - Marley does, she’s a momma bear, she knows when their little marauders are up to something.Who remembers to pack the lunch(es)? - They eat lunch at school, but if anyone remembers about the food, it’s Remus, he passed these genes on all of their kids.Who is the more loved parent? - what does it mean ‘the more loved parent?’ Remus is convinced they love her moreWho is more likely to attend the PTA meetings? - since Remus works in the school, he’s usually the first to know when their kids are in trouble and sometimes uses a little mischief to help them out.Who cried the most at graduation? - None of them, but they were extremely proud.Who is more likely to bail the child(ren) out of trouble with the law? - They will do everything to keep their kids from doing something dangerous, but if they’ve done it anyway, they will help them and then ground them at home.

COOKING:Who does the most cooking? - Remus eats the most so he cooks the most, he loves to cook and bake.Who is the most picky in their food choice? - No one really, except when Marley is pregnant, Remus will get her everything she might crave, even at 2am.Who does the grocery shopping? - They usually go shopping together, Marley doesn’t like when Remus goes alone, because the cashier there likes him, she stares at Remus from the other end of the shop. He’s not aware of it.How often do they bake desserts? - Every weekend, there have to be something sweet in the house. Usually, it’s 'magically’ gone by Tuesday.Are they more of a meat lover or a salad eater? -Both, depends on the time of the day, they cook rather healthy food.Who is more likely to surprise the other(s) with an anniversary dinner? - Remus tries to surprise her often, whether it’s dinner or a small gift, he just likes to give.Who is more likely to suggest going out? -Both, they spend a lot of times doing various things than just sit in place.Who is more likely to burn the house down accidentally while cooking? - Hopefully neither of them.CHORES:Who cleans the room? - They try to keep the house clean, but if they’ve made mess together, they’ll clean togetherWho is really against chores? - Everyone have their lazy days, the mess can stay until the next day…unless it’d start to irritate Marley, then she starts to clean and Remus joins.Who cleans up after the pets? -They don’t have a pet, when Sirius comes Marley tells him to clean his dog’s hair, she doesn’t like pets’ hair.Who is more likely to sweep everything under the rug? - Ugh Remus is, but his excuse is 'I’ll clean this up later’ he does that when she can’t see.Who stresses the most when guests are coming over? - Probably Marley, she likes to keep everything clean and in place.Who found a dollar between the couch cushions while cleaning? - Marley found and it was probably Rem’s money, when he comes home tired, he often naps on the couch and sometimes coins slip out of his pants.

MISC:Who takes the longer showers/baths? - They’re always bathing together and they take forever, Rem takes his time washing her body :DWho takes the dog out for a walk? - Sirius can use the toilet. Hope so.How often do they decorate the room/house for the holidays? - Marley does, she’s the one to care about details and Remus is glad she does so, because it helps the atmosphere in the house.What are their goals for the relationship? - Being forever together, husband and wife. And they will, they’ll get grey together.Who is most likely to sleep till noon? - Remus is, especially after having a rough night, Marley understands it and lets him.Who plays the most pranks? - They don’t prank each other, they prank others together