#sometimes i feel like the universe is like 'oh you wanna move to canada? ok you dumb desert bitch. practice being cold'

[rurinnfane]

Day 4 of a dead furnace and someone is finally coming today to service it 💀

[wide-eyed--wonderer]

26. “I made four different types of soup. Is that obsessive?”

I’ve discovered I like writing phone conversations because they are mostly just dialogue and I don't really have to describe the action (it’d probably been better if I did but shhh) also, I really like this as a concept...

“Heya Jackie, can you cover my shift today?” Jack frowned and lifted the phone closer to his ear. 

“Everything ok Davey?” Even if it weren’t immediately obvious from the fear in Davey’s voice that something clearly was wrong, Davey rarely missed a day of work. He needed the pay, even if he would never admit it himself. 

Davey sighed over the phone. “Les is sick. Nothing bad, I don’t think, but he didn’t sleep last night, and he’s been in bed all morning. Complaining of a sore stomach, and he has a little fever, and definitely a headache, apparently.”

“Shit, Davey, that doesn’t sound good at all.” 

“I know. I wouldn’t ask you if I had any other option. I know this is the one day you have to spend with your brothers, but Jackie -”

“I’ll do it, Davey.”

“You will?” Jack could almost see the slump of Davey’s shoulders at his response. “Oh God Jackie, thanks so much.”

“You know I get it, Davey, it’s fine.” 

And Jack really did get it. The boys met at the coffee shop they both worked at and had bonded over being the caretaker for their brothers. Jack had two little brothers, who he’d been taking care of for the better part of 3 years officially, but really, he’d been the one watching out for them their whole lives. Davey on the other hand had one little brother, who he’d only had custody of for a couple months when he’d got the job at the cafe with Jack. 

Jack had fought to have custody of his brothers, and get them out. Davey on the other hand, had custody over his brother because his parents and twin sister had moved back to Canada. His dad had gotten a job offer there, and it’s where Sarah’s dream university was. Davey’s dream school was NYU, and his middle-school-aged brother had pitched a fit, apparently, when he was told he would have to move to Canada, and leave his school, friends, and big brother behind.

So Davey had taken custody of Les. His parents weren't super happy with the decision, and Jack had been over a fair few times when Davey and his parents had argued about it over the phone and had on multiple occasions gotten a text from Davey just saying please come get Les out of the house.

Jack obliged every time.

It was for the same reason that Jack was willing to take Davey’s shift, even though it would comprise the one day off he had with his brothers all week. Because He knew that if he was ever in the same situation. That if he needed to be there for one of his brothers, Davey would be there for him. No questions asked.

“Do you need any help with Les? I’ve got some tips, and I can send the boys over with supplies and two extra pairs of hands if you need it.”

“Thanks, Jackie, but I think I got it under control. His temperature’s not too high, he’s got a cold compress on and he took some medicine at 6:03. Which means he can get another dose in one hour.”

“Sounds like you've got it under control.” 

“Also, I made four different types of soup. Is that obsessive?” Davey laughs a little into the receiver.

“Nah. I mean, it’s a little excessive maybe. But really it just means you care. Pick one to give to Les for lunch, and put the rest in the fridge. Les might hate you when you’re having soup for the rest of the week, but he’ll love you now while you're helping him feel better.” 

“Thanks for lying through your teeth to make me feel better Jackie.’

“I’m not lying, Davey! It’s really not obsessive. Trust me. The first time Race got the cold I nearly drove him to the hospital till the boys talked me outta it” Davey laughed with Jack at his overbearing tendencies. (which Davey had come to learn he had a lot of) 

“Sometimes I don’t know if you take care of the boys or if the boys take care of you.”

“I’d say it's a pretty fair 70/30 spilt.”

“That’s being generous Jackie. It’s at least 60/40” Jack protested with a hump, but didn’t argue the point too much either. It was a pretty accurate guess honestly. 

“This whole caretaker thing takes time. You’ll figure it out eventually.” Jack continued once Davey’s laugh died down.

“Thanks, Jackie, and I don’t mean just for covering my shift today.”

“I know Davey. Anytime.” Les breaking out into a coughing fit in the background got Jack’s attention. “You go look after the little man hey? Keep me updated.”

“Thanks again. See ya around Jackie.”

“Bye Davey.”

Jack sighed as he hung up his phone, and looked toward the corridor to his brother's bedrooms. He really had been looking forward to spending time with them today. 

“Heya Charlie, Racer.” He shouted. “I’m covering a shift for Davey today. Wanna come down and make it more interesting?” 

There was a beat of silence before Race replied. 

“We’ll be out there in 15 minutes.”

Jack really hoped Kloppmann wouldn’t mind

Thanks for prompting!! Let me know what you think!!

[callisofcamelot]

sunlight through broken glass

pairing: hort x beatrix

setting: modern au, canada, uhhhhh they’re like in their twenties??? (this isn’t even a setting but you get it)

notes: im not dead!! *insert surprised pikachu face* this also isn’t edited at all, it’s a hot mess but please enjoy.

word count: 1342

part 1/??? (ooooo me making a new series i’ll never finish)

*****

It’s not that much a surprise, and it’s not even bad.

When she looks through the mail and finds it. Beatrix doesn't have to open it to know it's the divorce papers. Chaddick had moved out months ago, leaving their too big home to herself (which was right in the mountains, and Beatrix hated mountains. But if he knew things like that maybe they wouldn't be here in the first place). The home was okay. . . but the smell.

God.

It was horrible.

Everything smelled like him. His favorite cologne was embedded in the walls and even gallons of bleach and millions of Bath and Body Works candles couldn't get rid of it. Beatrix can’t stand it and it hurts so much, and she's a big girl and big girls don't cry but nowadays all she does is cry.

She texts Millie and Reena, and they both tell her they'll be there in a few seconds.

But it's not even that bad, she tells herself. It's not like the time Tedros basically led her on for years and then broke it in a single second.

So here's the inciting incident. She's fifteen and has shelves filled with romance novels and watches One Tree Hill and Gilmore Girls religiously and doodles her crushes names on her binder and she's just fifteen.

Tedros was supposed to be her soulmate. It just made sense to her. Their parents were friends and they’ve known each other forever and childhood friends always fall in love. Right?

She stands in her mother's heels that she stole and a dress that cost far too much just for a dance. Beatrix knows she's beautiful, she's always known she's beautiful, but at this moment she doesn't feel like it, because what is beauty if no ones there to admire it?

It's nothing, she realises an hour into the night.

The punch in her hands is cool but so is her heart, so maybe that's a good thing. She is fifteen and has never really felt this feeling before, she has never felt the sight of Tedros dancing with Agatha, Tedros laughing with Agatha, Tedros looking at Agatha like that, she has never felt this kind of . . . betrayal.

Beatrix feels the knife in her heart, a merciless cold blade that seems to leave a gaping hole in her chest. She is bleeding out while drinking Hawaiian Punch, and perhaps that isn't the worst way to die, but at this moment it sure feels like it. Tears prick her eyes, and she hopes she will turn invisible because at this moment Beatrix isn't the most beautiful girl in the room, she's the most heartbroken.

People can see it because people always see the things you don't want them too.

"Bee," a voice says carefully, a hand slowly being stuck out in front of her. "Do you wanna dance."

She turns her head to Chaddick. Chaddick who has always teased her and never really cared for her, with this crooked smile and messy amber hair and his eyes that are the ocean during a storm. Yet at this moment he looks small and awkward, and very much a teenage boy filled with too many emotions and not enough words.

She gives him her hand. "Okay."

That's the start of them, and you see she hears years later about what would've happened if she'd have said no to him, but that's a story for another time.

-

Millie makes her a cake because that's what she does.

It's a chocolate cake, and it tastes so fucking good, and Beatrix doesn't care it'll take her hours of pilates to work off the calories, because this makes her feel good.

God knows that she deserves to indulge at least a bit.

"Did you know twenty-eight is the prime age of women," Millie says, while they all sit on the couch drinking some hundred dollar wine she got for an anniversary. "You’re super fertile and attractive and funny and smart and like look at your body man, it's bangin'."

It makes her cry, and the fact she's on her period makes her hormones go crazy. "Then, god, why'd he leave."

"He was pretty dumb," Millie mumbles.

"I know," she says. "But he tried, he made me laugh, sometimes made smoothies, and treated me so nicely, and well, his abs were really nice."

Reena rubs her arm. "It's gonna be ok. We'll get through this, we always do." She believes Reena, not only because she's really smart and is married and has kids, but also because Reena is her best friend. "What're you in the mood for Bee," she asks, she flips through movies, thousands of them from her and Chaddicks daily movie nights. It's a collection of them from the past five years, like a mixtape of them living together. "I'm kinda leaning on something Disney."

Her eyes pick something in the sea of thousands, it's a movie that wasn't apart of the mixtape, it's apart of something completely different.

"Put on, The Fantastic Mr. Fox."

-

Beatrix is nineteen, and she's freshly single, and very much ready to mingle.

Her and Chaddick’s long distant relationship ends, and for some strange reason, she isn't upset. But of course she doesn't tell anyone, because that would make her a horrible person, and for some reason, though popularity was left in high school she still puts far too much effort in putting up appearances.

Going into university, Beatrix is alone for the first time. It's her fault for choosing one where none of her friends are going, but for some strange reason, she doesn't mind. She's been surrounded by people her whole life, but now she's free, and it feels good, well until it doesn't.

It's a Friday night and instead of partying she's in the library studying, and it sounds sad and terrible and it is but she's not even that upset.

Ok, that's a lie.

She's a tiny bit upset.

But doesn't try to tell anyone that.

(Even if she wanted to she couldn’t because Reena and Millie are building schools in Asia, and they have no service for the next two weeks)

She stares at her textbook, Policy In The New Age, trying to get all the knowledge to somehow magically go into her brain (it hasn't worked for the last 20 minutes but who knows, maybe that'll change).

"Beatrix," a voice suddenly says to her out of nowhere, she turns her head and is greeted by two long legs and she has to look up and god it's Hort, but it's not him at all. He's so tall, and tan, and almost muscular in some areas, yet still gangly, and his smile is the same because she recognizes those dimples, and god he got hot. "Haven't seen you in such a long time."

Her mouth has forgotten to talk because human interaction has become rare for her, and she feels so dumb, but all she can do is stare at him.

He frowns. "Something wrong?"

Then her brain finally starts to work. "No," she croaks out. "I'm just tired and very bored."

"That's great," he says, and lord she regrets thinking he was hot this is-- "Oh, fuck, that's not actually great it's just I'm very tired and bored too, so . . . like, I don't know, but would you-well, like to go to this new Chinese place around the block."

She has to blink a few times before she can comprehend what he just said, and then, she smiles. "Yes please, anything than this."

He smiles and it's familiar and comforting, and she likes it.

(Hort tells her while they're walking to the restaurant about a film that includes foxes. He tells her it's his favorite movie in the whole world when she says she's never watched it, he seems appalled and invites her over to his dorm to watch it. That where it starts, the movie that is them.)

-

Beatrix is drunk by eight.

(She also has always believed alcohol makes her spontaneous, not dumb. So that's why she emails him.)

Hey Hort!!

What's up.

From Beatrix.

(Her email writing skills have never been good, she doesn't wanna talk about it.)