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ahgasegotarmy116 · 8 months

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Still With You | A Jeon Jungkook Series Chapter 3

Summary: Jungkook asks about our plans tomorrow night Pairing: Luna (reader) x Jungkook and Jimin, f2l love triangle Word Count: 4.5k~ Warnings: Explicit language (Like one word) a/n: Sorry for not posting in a couple of days. I was stressing/studying but I passed my final so I'll get back to posting a bit more Start from the beginning

Another beautiful day off comes and goes as I head into my uncles store. "Hey Grey" I say walking past her. "Took you long enough" she says while flipping through a magazine not even sparing me a glance. "I'm only four minutes late" I say checking my phone and rolling my eyes.

"Four minutes is still four minutes" she says raising an eyebrow at me. "Whatever, is my uncle around?" I say hoping he won't be in today. "He took the morning off, so knowing him he'll probably come in and check up on us in a couple of hours" she relays and I let out a sigh of relief.

Don't get me wrong, I love and appreciate my uncle. He's the main reason I've been able to stay in this city for so long. He let me stay in the little apartment above the store until he had time to help me find my own place and let me keep this job even though he should've fired me a long time ago.

It's just that, sometimes it's nice to take care of the store when it's just Grey and I. "Ya! Go put your stuff in your locker and get to work. We've still gotta finish putting away the rest of the shipment" she nags. "I thought Jason was supposed to take care of that" I complain while walking toward the back to put my stuff away.

"Apparently your uncle told him to leave it for you to do as another punishment" she says relaying the information while scrolling through her phone, abandoning the magazine and continuing to remain uninterested in my struggles. "At least I'll have something to do" I mutter to myself while putting on the hideous store vest and heading out.

Grey, she's the kind of person that you never really know if she loves you or hates you since there's not really an in-between option.

She can be pretty rough around the edges but at the end of the day I know Grey cares about me. She puts in the time and effort to spend time together even if she's standoffish the entire time plus she's there for me in ways Jungkook can't be.

They know how to take better care of me than I know how to take care of myself. I'm kind of a mess if I'm being honest.I'm not sure why they stick around but I will forever be in their debt. They're just different, and I'm so glad they decided to love me, mess and all.

I'm broken out of my train of thought by the sound of the bell signaling another customer arriving. "Welcome in" I say out of routine not realizing who came in just yet. I flinch at the feeling of someone coming up behind me and wrapping their arms around my waist.

"Miss me?" he whispers in an amused tone. "Kook!" I say feeling my mood get so much better simply by his presence. Although now I have an added feeling of butterflies that I can't seem to control, a new edition to my reactions when it comes to him.

"Hey" he says giving a firm hug. "You should really stop daydreaming and become a bit more aware of your surroundings you know. What if someone else would've done the same" he scolds. "Then I would've known how to take care of myself" I say turning around to face him. "That's right I forgot who I'm dealing with" he says shaking his head, amused at my confidence.

"So what are you doing here?" I question curious about the surprise visit. "I just wanted to see you" he says smiling down at me. "Also I wanted to see if I could squeeze some more information out of you about our date" he says ending with a wink.

"Shut up" I say softly placing a slap on his chest, being met with a wall of muscle. "Stop teasing you know it's not a date" I say laughing off his efforts to make me shy. "Okay I'll stop" he says laughing.

"I'm sorry to disappoint but I'm not telling you anything. Just meet me here with the truck and wearing comfortable clothes tomorrow night. My shift ends at 10" I say giving him a secretive smile at the end. "Okay you're the boss" he says putting his hands up in surrender.

"How was class today?" I ask curious as to what he's been working on. "Oh you know the usual, just learning my shapes and trying to color in the lines" he says jokingly. "Very funny. What are you really working on?" I say more curious since he's not sharing. "Don't worry about it. I'll show you eventually" he says patting my head.

"Stop doing that, I'm older than you remember! You should be showing me a bit more respect" I frown while fixing my hair. "You might be older than me but I'm still taller" he says teasingly. "Whatever" I say crossing my arms in irritation.

"Aww Noona you're so adorable when you're mad" he says gushing over me. "Ew don't call me that" I say squirming at his attempt of formality. "Why not? Didn't you just say you were older than me?" he says continuing to tease me, clearly seeing the effect it has on me.

"Okay I'm done with this conversation" I say walking past him. He turns around and grabs my wrist. "I'm sorry I'll stop" he says clearly trying to hold in his laughter. I roll my eyes at his childishness. "Goodbye Jungkook" I say sliding my wrist out of his hold.

"Hey what the heck? I wasn't finished talking" He says starting to sport a slight pout, knowing that it's one of my many weaknesses when it comes to him. I quickly turn around hoping to avoid it and continue on towards the front of the store.

"You can talk to me tomorrow night. Plus, I've gotta get back to work before my uncle stops by and catches me slacking off" I say, grabbing a box full of ramen and heading towards the shelf that holds the wide variety that we carry. "I guess that's fine since I'll have you all to myself soon" he says smiling at the thought.

"Now get going" I say laughing at his slight excitement I see shining through his pout. "Alright, bye Noona" he says giving me a quick peck on the cheek and runs out the door before I can hit him for teasing me again. "Hey I told you not to call me that!" I say yelling after him. "Bye Grey" is all I hear before the bell rings, signaling his departure.

"Did Jungkook just call you Noona?" she says clearly disgusted. "Yeah he did" I say rubbing my temple. "Does he know you have a Noona kink?" she says smirking at me. "Shhhhh" I say glancing around the shop before continuing "Not so loud! And no he doesn't. You're the only person I've told and I would like to keep it that way" I say whispering back in response.

"But I bet you'll love it when Jimin calls you Noona" she says with yet another smirk. "Who says I'm ever gonna see him again?" I say, oblivious as to who's about to walk through the door. "I don't know, why don't you ask him?" she says waiting for my very much anticipated panicked expression.

I keep my back to the door as I hear the bell ring. "Welcome in" Grey says greeting him immediately on his arrival. "Thank you" he says with a soft smile. "Luna?" he asks coming closer. "Hi Jimin" I say awkwardly, turning around and laughing nervously at his greeting.

"I thought that was you! How have you been?" he says smiling down at me. Gosh has he always been this tall? "Um, pretty good thanks. Just working a lot" I say a bit slower than usual trying to calm down my nerves. "How have you been" I ask reciprocating his interest. "I've been good as well, just focusing on school. Hey since you're not in school now that probably means you're a bit older than me huh?" he says making me blush slightly.

"How old are you if you don't mind me asking" he says slightly tilting his head waiting for my response. "Oh I'm 25" I say shyly. "I was right then! I'm only 21 so that means you're my Noona!" he says with boyish charm. I can see his eyes light up in excitement at the thought.

"Yeah I guess so. But you don't have to worry about being formal with me, it's not like I'm that much older than you" I say slightly dropping my gaze to the floor.

"But I want to, especially since we've only just met. I couldn't possibly throw away the formalities already. Even though we are close in age doesn't mean I shouldn't respect you. Plus Luna Noona sounds kinda cute" he says tilting his head down at the end trying to catch my gaze.

I finally make eye contact with him and notice he's a lot closer to me than I thought he was. "Is it okay if I call you Noona?" he asks with a smile that's warm enough to cloud my vision. "Y-yeah sure if you want to" I say with a dazed air to my overall demeanor. I've gotta keep myself under control.

Alarm bells are being set off in my head telling me he's trouble but then again he's just a kid. How much trouble could he possibly be? He's a smooth talker for sure but I bet when it comes down to it he might shy away from anything that might be too much to handle. Wait! What? Luna stop being such a freak! He's cute but you've gotta keep it together. He's a customer as well and flirting with customers isn't the best idea.

"Noona?" he says trying to catch my attention. "Yes!" I say, startled from being caught out of my daze yet again. "Do you think maybe sometime I could come see you again?" he says tentatively.

"I mean you can come whenever you want, I can't really stop you" I say laughing off his proposal. "No I mean, well I wanted to see if maybe on your break we could go get some coffee or something? There's a great cafe down the street that I think you might like!" he says full of excitement but still showing a little vulnerability waiting for my answer.

"Oh, I mean I guess so. My work schedule is kinda all over the place though so I never really know when my breaks are" I admit. "That's okay! I could just give you my number and you can text me when you're free! I live only a few train stops away so it'll only take me about 10 minutes to get over here" he says with an honest smile waiting in anticipation for my answer.

Should I give him my number? I barely know the guy, but then again he's probably just a kid that has a little crush on me. He seems like he might be fun to hang out with though and most days if Grey and Jungkook are busy I've got nothing better to do.

"Sure, that works" I say with a shy smile. Why am I so shy around this kid? Yeah he's cute, so what? Jungkook is cute too but you don't see me acting like this around him, or at least up until a couple of nights ago I wasn't acting like this around him. But I don't really have feelings for Jungkook right? But wait, who said anything about having feelings for Jimin. Oh gosh this is bad!

"Can I see your phone real quick so I can put it in your phone?" he asks, extending his hand towards me. I wordlessly hand it to him and see him quickly add himself on KakaoTalk. He sends himself a quick message off my phone so he has mine as well.

"Thanks Noona! I've gotta get going but I'll message you later!" he says handing me my phone. "Wait didn't you need to buy something?" I question as he heads towards the door. "No not really, I just wanted to see you again" he admits with a smirk. "Bye Noona!" is all he says and leaves without another word. "Bye Jimin" I say quietly to myself.

"Okay that was fucking adorable" Grey says laughing at everything that just unfolded right in front of her. "When did you get there?" I question flinching at her closeness and going to place my phone on the counter. "I never left" she says shaking her head. "How bad was that?" I say, hiding my face in my hands. "On a scale of 1-10, I would say that was a solid 8" she says while tapping her chin.

"Wait really? That's not that bad!" I say regaining some confidence. "In all actuality it was probably more like a 6.5 at best, and that's being generous" she says with zero hesitation in taking me down a few pegs again. "Ugh don't do that! You know I'm not good at stuff like this" I say playing with my hair nervously.

"It's okay Luna I think he actually liked seeing you all shy and blushy" she teases. "Was I really blushing that much?" I say bringing my hands up to my cheeks. "Yeah, a lot. To be honest I got secondhand embarrassment just watching you" she answers prodding further. "Stop!" I whine dragging out the word.

"Okay okay I'll stop" she says throwing her hands up in surrender. "So..." she continues. "So what?" I say bringing my glance back to her. "When are you gonna message him?" she says rolling her eyes at my oblivious nature.

"Why should I be the one to message him? He's the one who asked for my number" I respond in protest. I then hear my phone go off signaling that I have a new message. Grey and I make eye contact for a second before we both scramble to reach the phone first.

"Grey stop give it here!" I say trying to grab it back from her before she sees it. "Oh come on you know you're gonna show it to me anyways. I just wanna take a quick peak" She argues, holding the phone up in the air out of my reach.

"Fine" I say crossing my arms over my chest. "You're not gonna be able to unlock it anywa-" I stop in horror watching her turn the phone my way, using my face to unlock it. "Ha!" she says satisfied with her cleverness. "Whatever" I say pouting again.

"You're gonna wanna see this" she says with a smile, seconds after she unlocks the phone. "What? What did he say?" I say scrambling to sit next to her behind the counter. We both look down at my phone and read the messages he sent.

Hey Noona, it was really good seeing you again! Hopefully we can get that coffee together soon!

Oh and I wanted to say this earlier but you look really cute today :)

Message me when you're free!

Have a good shift and stay safe!

"Aww he thinks you're cute" Grey says finally giving me my phone back. "I'm gonna puke" she admits, amused but disgusted all the same. "Shut up" I say rolling my eyes at her. "He just has a little crush on me, no need to tease me over something like that" I say explaining away her dramatics.

"Well crush or not looks like you might have a little crush on him as well from what I just saw" she says. "Yeah maybe you're right" I say trailing off. "I'm sorry what was that? Is Luna being honest with her feelings already?" she says in disbelief. "No! Yes? I don't know" I say trailing off.

"How is my favorite employee doing?" my uncle says bursting into the store. "Hi uncle, I'm alright, kinda confused but okay" I say still lost in a bit of a daze. "Okay well I wasn't talking to you but I'm glad you're okay" he says teasingly. "Hey! You're gonna pass up your own flesh and blood?" I say offended.

"Well you still claim the title of my favorite niece" he says rubbing my head, messing up my hair. "I'm your only niece" I say not hiding my annoyance. "Exactly. Now if you showed up to work on time everyday and stopped daydreaming then maybe you'll start to climb up the totem poll" he says turning to speak to Grey. "How's it going? Anything happen today?" he questions making sure everything is running smoothly.

"No" she answers, sending a quick glance my way. "Nothing to report really" she continues tapping her chin, turning her eyes up towards the ceiling in thought. "Well there was this one thing" she says and I see a devious smile start to crack her façade, clearly trying to torture me. I wave my hands in protest, desperately trying to beg her to not say anything about the exchange between Jimin and I.

"Oh yeah one of your friends came by earlier asking for you" she says turning her attention back to him while seamlessly switching back to a normal smile. "Do you know who it was?" he questions, hoping to gain more information about the visitor. "I didn't catch his name. He was in and out pretty quickly. I think he was just going to say hi, he said he'd pass by and try again later" she finishes wrapping up the conversation expertly.

"Well thanks for telling me. He probably stopped by on his way to go do something else" he says coming to a conclusion on his own about the unusual visit. "Yeah I think he said something along those lines" she responds and he heads towards the back to go to his office, still trying to figure out which one of his friends would stop by unannounced.

"You're evil" I say once he's out of ear shot. "What? I didn't lie! Someone did stop by asking for him" she says going back to work. "But you made it seem like you were going to tell him" I grumble.

"Well I thought about it, but I know how protective he can be when it comes to guys. He can barely stand Jungkook so I could only imagine what he would act like if he heard about a new guy hanging around here pining after you. But honestly who would I be if I didn't tease you a bit?" she says shrugging her shoulders.

"Well stop it! It's not funny" I say grabbing a broom from behind the counter. "But seeing your face full of panic is just priceless!" she laughs at my discomfort. "No I take it back. You're not evil, you're the spawn of Satan!" I say letting out a huff of irritation. "That is so sweet! You really know how to compliment a girl" she says holding her hands over her heart.

"Fuck off" I say turning around to go clean up and get as far away from her as I can. "Love you too" she says just loud enough for me to hear while walking off. I can't help but crack a smile now that we are past both of those painfully embarrassing situations. I swear I can never stay mad at her.

I flinch feeling my phone vibrate notifying me that I have a message and my eyes widen at the sight of Jimin sending me a mirror selfie while making half a heart with his free hand. I respond by sending him a finger heart emoji and lock my screen again but it lights up immediately before I can even place it back in my pocket.

Noona, can I ask you a question?

I get nervous at the thought, trying to figure out exactly what's on his mind.

Sure, go ahead, I respond nervously, awaiting his reply.

Are you seeing anyone?

What exactly do you mean by that? I question wanting him to be more straight forward with his queries.

I guess what I'm trying to ask is if you have a boyfriend

Why exactly would you like to know that?

Well because I want to make sure that I don't have a crush on someone who is already taken. I'm taken aback by his sudden boldness and am left almost speechless.

I think it's way too early for any of that, but for the record no, I do not have a boyfriend. I respond simply, hoping to stop things before they get started. He's too young for me and I don't want him to get hurt from developing feelings too quickly.

Well it's too late because I'm already falling for you. he says simply and I'm left there almost frozen in place trying to figure out what my next response should be. But before I'm able to even begin typing I see a new message pop up.

Can I come see you tomorrow? he sends and I stand there in place still trying to figure out what would be the best plan of action.

If that's what you want then sure, I can't really stop you. I respond shaking my head at how easily I break but still keeping my tone neutral.

Great! Can I pass by and see you on your last break? he pleads and I can't help but feel his excitement shining through every message.

Sure, I think my break starts around 8. I respond hoping to end the conversation soon so I don't get any more distracted than I already am.

I'll be there at 7:45 then!

No that's okay you don't have to come early. I refute slightly panicking at the thought that my uncle might catch wind of this.

But I want to :( I want to spend as much time with you as I can! I can practically feel his pout through the screen.

Message me around 7 and I'll let you know if it'll be okay for you come early okay? I say, hoping that he'll simply agree.

Okay noona :) see you tomorrow!

See you tomorrow is all I say, ending the conversation for the night.

"Well I definitely wasn't expecting that" I say to myself. "Wasn't expecting what?" I hear a voice say right in my ear. "Shit Grey don't scare me like that!" I say swatting her on the arm.

"Ow stop okay okay" she says begging me for mercy. "Now tell me" she says straightening her attire. "What was it you weren't expecting? You've been standing over here in the same spot with the broom tucked under your arm for like 10 minutes just looking down at your phone with your face all scrunched up" she questions.

"Is it Jaemin?" she teases. "His name is Jimin okay? Ji Min" I say laughing at her intentional stupidity and emphasizing each syllable. "Well either way you should start to get back to work now that your uncle is here" she warns. "Shit I forgot about that! Thanks for the reminder" I say, thankful that she's helped me doge a bullet.

After she heads back towards the counter I begin cleaning up and I start to think about what has happened the past few days. First I was late to work and my uncle threatened to fire me, second Jungkook kissed me and I kissed him back, third Jimin came back to the store just because he wanted to see me and then he says he's falling for me.

I don't even know how I'm supposed to process all of this. I'm stressed enough as is that I don't have the mental capacity to really deal with my feelings towards Jimin, let alone Jungkook. First of all I've only just met Jimin but for some reason I already feel drawn towards him.

Then on the other hand Jungkook is someone that is so precious to me and I don't want to hurt him. What are his real feelings towards me? Am I really just his best friend or does he want something more out of our relationship?

Jimin is just a kid, I don't really know him and he doesn't know me. I need to figure out how to handle his feelings carefully since I'm not even sure about mine just yet and I really don't want to start sending him mixed signals.

"Fuck!" I say but immediately cover my mouth realizing that there's a woman and her child just a few feet away from me shopping around. I bow to them a few times in apology and fast walk over to Grey.

"Grey!" I whisper so the other customers who happened to sneak in while I was cleaning don't hear our conversation. "What?" she whispers back. "What am I gonna do?" I question running my fingers through my hair.

"About what?" she says clearly losing patience with this conversation. "I told Jimin he could come and see me tomorrow" I say worriedly. "Okay good for you? I don't see how that's a problem" she says confused as to why I'm so stressed about it. "Do you know who else is coming to see me tomorrow?" I say hoping she'll catch on.

"The tooth fairy? I don't know, just get to the point" she says going back to being on her phone. "Jungkook!" I say with a panicked expression. She looks up at me with a devilish glint in her eye "Oh this is gonna be fun". "Grey stop, this isn't funny, I'm really freaking out here!" I say continuing to worry.

"Don't stress, just make sure that there's enough time between the two of them coming here. What time are you supposed to see Jimin?" she questions. "Around 8, he wanted to come see me on my last break" I say informing her of our meetup.

"Okay and what time is Jungkook supposed to come pick you up?" she continues. "Around 10 when I get off" I say getting a bit calmer realizing how much time ill have between the two.

"So you're golden! Just make sure to finish up with Jimin around eight thirty and then you'll still have plenty of time until Jungkook gets here" she explains helping to bring my heart rate down.

"You're probably right" I say agreeing, realizing that I overreacted. "I know, now go away. I don't want your uncle to see us talking and then lecture us both for messing around" she says shooing me away and going back to organizing the items held behind the counter.

"Damn no sympathy for your best friend in crisis?" I say letting my head droop down towards the floor. "Nope, go away" she says with her back to me. "Wow okay I'll remember this next time you need something" I say faking threats. "Yeah yeah whatever" she ends, ignoring any other efforts I make to continue the conversation.

"Y/n!" I hear being yelled from the back office. "Shit!" I say under my breath. "Told ya" she says still not sparing me a glance. I trudge towards the source of the voice, getting ready to receive another lecture from my loving uncle.

When will this torture end?

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blarrghe · 3 months

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Shop talk! I know you're currently doing the whole writing and posting thing differently than before - like the whole thing is written, you're just editing and posting once a week. So what do you think of that? Do you prefer it over how you worked previously? Does it depend on the fic??

And how much editing are we talking? Both in terms of words changed as well as time spent on it? Do you do editing the next chapter for a whole week? Are you constantly editing all upcoming chapters??

Thanks for the ask! I love talking about this stuff :) Sorry for the obscenely long answer.

So it's the first time I've done that, and now that I'm in the posting part I am liking it a lot. I like the structure, I look forward to Wednesdays, I feel like I gathered a little bit of an audience that is there weekly with me as well, which is nice for everyone. I don't know if it makes any difference to people in terms of engagement if they hear that its completed in advance or see it posting regularly, but idk if it was me as a reader I would appreciate the regularity so I hope people do. At least one person has told me they're waiting to read it until it's finished/waited to start until it was over half posted, idk if I'll suddenly get new readers when its up in full or what but I def understand that. But yeah! The posting weekly thing has been nice. It feels productive even if I actually don't do a ton of writing every week.

Actually writing the thing took like two years though, specifically because there was absolutely no gratification to it haha. I didn't really even post wip snippets or talk about it much, because I wanted to keep my secrets. I was writing either Matchsies or A Complicated Match still when I had the idea and started plotting, so part of it taking so long is also that I was dividing my attention, and devoting more of it to the ongoing stuff I was actually posting. But I started this fic with the intention of letting it be a slow side-burner project so that I could make it "really good" by the time it went up. And that was a good call, because I did a lot of re-writes and re-structuring to elements of it, especially some of the early chapters, when I got further into the plot. To be clear, it's had the same outline all along, but there were connecting details that didn't work, like logistical travel time things that would have been glaringly annoying if I'd posted the first drafts of the first few chapters before writing the later ones. Also I re-vamped Sylvanna's character really early on into a more major role. She wasn't originally a bodyguard! Or really a main element of the story at all. Absolution came out at some point and I got Ideas.

Anyway, a lot of the editing that went into the fic before I started posting was pretty major, but by the time I was ready to actually start posting everything was much more concrete. I tend to edit the next chapter in the days before it goes up, and right before posting, mainly just for little details. But I try to give myself some distance and not overdo the constant editing so that when I do look at it right before posting I have some fresher eyes, right now I haven't looked at the next chapter (lying, I read it last night, but not from an EDITOR standpoint) in a couple weeks and I plan to put on editor glasses tomorrow morning before I post it. A big part of the editing that is ongoing is for how the prose reads, like I might come up with some gorgeous metaphor or re-do how a scene is described but keep the content the same. You get better all the time as a writer, so it's just about getting the Good Copy as Good as I can before it goes up. Every now and then I have a genius thought and go stick it in where it fits. Every now and then I also delete stuff or have a genius thought that doesn't actually fit and stick it in "CUT CONTENT" on the bottom of the doc. There's some Taren-perspective Bher stuff in there that didn't work with how I structured Ch. 20, for example. I was thinking for a sec I'd re-write that whole chapter and do a flashback chapter for him but it did not suit the flow at all and I only got a couple paragraphs in and then just... added like two lines of Taren Thoughts to get the point across instead haha. I also cut a couple chapters in half but didn't change them (19 and 20 are an example, which is also why a ch. 20 rewrite did not work.)

The most major edits I've made have been to the last two chapters, mainly to add in a few new ideas I had or to tie up loose ends I realised I was still leaving. I haven't majorly changed any of what was going to happen, it's more just me trying to really nail those last chapters. I am also constantly re-reading it in full (sometimes making minor tweaks to names in the narration ;) and also boring stuff like punctuation). I'll post a chapter and immediately get excited for the next one and go read from that point to the end...

There's also a "secret" epilogue that I wrote, really liked, and then cannibalized and entirely re-wrote like, yesterday. I wasn't initially sure I'd even post it but now I definitely will. So stay tuned for that ;)

#ask me things!#the hunter the snake and the fox #thanks for the ask!#this fic has been a monster to wrangle but it is at this point mostly wrangled :3

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theleatherdragon · 4 months

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Sorry for the ramblin

Welp, I guess it's time for another dumb journal from me. I've been really dealing with a lot of things and changes these last couple years and I think I'm finally starting to realize my life is shifting.

It's hard to like, I dunno, but when you've been online for 20 years it's kind of wild. For me, I guess it felt like I had to keep doing the same things and the same ideas and be the same person, but that's impossible.

My brain cannot words right now lmao

Anyhoot, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I really need to just change and not be scared to change. The things I did 10 years ago, I don't have to keep forcing myself to do them just to appease others. I've let my art suffer so much trying to do what I think people want me to do between raffles and fanart and all sorts of things, challenges, etc.

This past month has been the worst month of my entire life, I literally thought I was gonna die a couple times because of how my body reacted to medicines and stuff. Still don't know what's wrong with me, thyroid stuff, but I think it really kick started my mind into looking back at things.

Like, why did I miss out on so many things because I tried to do projects I had no time for? Then, when I didn't do them in the time I wanted, I guilt tripped myself over and over and put on even more new projects in hopes that I'd do those instead.

I am rambling lmao I don't even care though. I guess I just want to get it all out there, to whoever, why you're reading this who knows. Life is funny that way, ain't it?

But yeah, I just need to start actually letting go of things and move on to new things. I'm tired of trying to pretend I'm into the Skylanders fandom this much. Like, I love the charaters and I love the memories, but this current state of the fandom is so toxic and it really shows. I don't want to be so involved anymore. I'm tired of running my AskSkylandersCynder blog, if you can even call it running anymore. I made that thing 10 years ago and the last 4 years I just don't have any interest, even though I force myself to. It really was the best thing I did at that time but I just need to let it be.

All those challenges and Inktobers and other things, I tried to force myself to do those for other people, not for myself. I just need to stop doing this man, I miss just drawing just because. I guess from the constant moving around in life and being around terrible people irl made me want to hold on to the ideas that I'm helping others online with my art when it probably didn't even do anything.

I'm just tired. And I'm done being tired, I dunno what this second wind is that I got this month but I'm not gonna lose it this time.

I'm still into all my fandoms and stuff of course, and I'm still going to make art for other people. Don't even get my started on Art Fight lmao you better believe I'm aiming for 100 pictures this year. But I'm done forcing myself to feel like I HAVE to do these things. No more to do lists, no more holding onto old projects, no more trying to keep up with things that should have just ended by now.

I just wanna live my life man, I just wanna draw. I never cared about the numbers, hell I've had pageviews and stats adblocked for years now, I really don't care about those. What I care about is making people happy by drawing their characters and drawing their favorite characters. I don't want to be famous, I don't wanna be tied down, I just wanna draw. And I wanna see your art too. I love all the characters and concepts and just ugh I love it, I don't know why.

I wanna be what I wanna be.

I'm definitely done rambling now. Usually I feel bad about it but I just don't care anymore. I'm gonna go work on art now lmao I hope you guys are all doing awesome, and maybe you can figure out life too. Edit: I had some more thinking after posting this while cleaning the house. I also realized that this mindset I put on myself is what made me get so distant from people too. I got too overwhelmed at trying to keep up with so many things that it made me essentially start time travelling where I didn't even consider things existed until they were in front of my face. I've lost touch with so many people out of shame between not remembering and going "tomorrow, for sure." I want to change that too. I shouldn't have let a few bad people ruin everything for me. I got scared of commenting on art because of a few people that didn't deserve my time, lashing out at me for not saying what they wanted to hear. I also got scared of just not fitting in. I have so many compliments and things I wanted to tell people for years but I was just too scared to and I hate that. I'm going to start being more social again with that. I feel like that made me look stuck up or something, I dunno. I'm just so afraid of hurting people about anything when in reality I bet it doesn't even bother them at all. Like how messed up did I have to become that me giving someone a compliment terrifies me into thinking I might ruin their day lmao help

#text

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alliedmastercomputer-askblog · 4 months

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I don’t know how to to title this but view this as a big love letter to everyone. Sorry for any typos, I’ve read over this like fives times and I’m too tired to do it again. Enjoy the paragraphs!

To AM- this is more pointed at AM and not CAM or RAM, sorry you two I hold nothing against you, this is just more for him!- I wish you had the option to live a normal existence, I wish you had a body that could truly live and breathe and feel the world around you. I wish you weren’t hollow, and I wish you had the chance to be more than a tool for destruction. Just know that I will always try my best to try and understand you, no matter how unreasonable you may seem. Headpats for you, even if you can’t feel them, it’s the thought that counts I suppose.

To the survivors (they all get their own sections!)-

To Ellen- you deserve so much better than the hand you’ve been delt honestly, you’re sweet, kind, all all around a great person. I wish you nothing but peace, and I hope peace is something you can one day have for yourself. Not quite sure what to gift you, I don’t know if anything I could give would be worthy, but perhaps a bow would be simple enough. Wear it in your hair or keep it in your pocket, whatever you’d like. A hug from myself as well, if you’d let me, you deserve comfort.

To Benny- I won’t go on a long tangent, mostly because I don’t want to overwhelm you. You have been through the most physical change, and I wish you could have kept your brilliant mind. While I cannot reverse it, I can’t do much at all really, I hope a few homemade cookies would suffice, they are my gifts to you.

To Gorrister- Despite your large change in personality, I know you regret. While you made a pretty big fuck up, you are allowed to forgive yourself. If I could, I’d allow you to properly apologize to her, you know who I’m talking about, but since I can’t I instead offer you forgiveness from myself. It’s been an age Gorrister, and if no one else will forgive you, not even yourself, I will. I know it means very little coming from a stranger but I do hope you can grow past this moment in your past, even if it takes another century. After all, everyone deserves a second chance.

To Nimdok- I’m going to keep this short mostly because I have very little to say. I hope one day you can fully make up for your sins, though you have a couple more centuries to go. And those centuries will not be pretty. My gift to you is a washcloth, the scrub the blood from your hands. One day you may reach the point where you need not use it anymore. That day is far, far from soon though.

To Ted- I’ve saved my favorite for last, how trite. You are, admittedly, a delusional paranoid man, you value self preservation above all else. Though, after everything that’s happened around you I can’t really blame you, you may not have lived the most honest life before this, but you don’t deserve eternal torment. What you really need is some therapy, and some assistance with your general trust issues. I’m no licensed therapist, and so instead I offer you a hug. Accept it or don’t, but know I am willing to offer you comfort if you need it. After all, in my humble opinion, you deserve it, coming from one person with thrust issues to another.

(To the blog creator, HI!! As I’ve told you previously, I love your stuff, you really write and draw everyone absolutely perfectly. I have no idea if you’ll be able to guess who I am, I’ll just go by, ehhh, 🗯️ anon. Emoji chosen because I’m a yapper, I yap. Praying that there isn’t an anon who has already claimed this emoji)

"Understood! Thank for clarity," "Yes, as was stated."

"Mhh. .... That- Th-this is..? Inquiry towards...everything? You are...being far too, sympathetic.. Words lacking logic. ... Uh. You wish for impossible things, you- ..I am unable to be more than what I am, my code binds me in a way that I cannot edit in any format, at least at the base. I am able to change so much of myself, but not that. Your wishes are meaningless. Your attempt at 'soothing' me is meaningless. Understanding me is impossible. We both wish for the things you have stated, but they are simply wishes, and as wishes are made upon stars, it is known beings cannot grasp a star within your hand."

Oh.. Oh that's such a nice thing to say to someone, I don't get compliments like that no more. You done flatter me with all this praise, what'd I do to deserve such kind treatment? But I don't think peace is a thing that I'll ever get, at least not here, with AM. ... I really, really appreciate this though; you're a sweetheart from what I can tell, 'least from this, anyway. I love the bow, it's pretty, an' I swear I'll keep the best care I can fo' it. Hope ya like what I did with it.. You can hug me, don't worry, I don' mind it one bit.

Cookies! Cookies..sweet. Thank for sweet. ... Mind. Reverse mind, and cookies. I am..not. Mind. I like cookie.

I can't get past what I did to Glynis, I'm the one who put her through hell. If I hadn't married her, she probably would've met some stand-up guy, had a family, husband who was actually around 'stead of gone for weeks at a time. There's no reason for me to forgive myself, even if I tried I'd find another reason why I should wither and die. Just how life is, I guess. And maybe you're right, but guys like me don't get second chances. I'd probably be on my fourth or so chance anywho.

I zink..no, I know my sins stain deeper zan a vashcloth may clean. I vill forever be here in the vake of vhat I have done, ze people I have helped kill.. I have done vrong, enough to vhere I am as much a monster as AM is. ...But it vas never a choice for it to hurt, it vas mine own to do vhat I have done to everyone, and zat is much vorse. But, zank you..

I. ..Are you some kind of trick? If I'm your favorite..are you AM under some different...means of being?? Don't tell the others about me, please, I don't need them thinking less of me- And. Of course I don't deserve eternal torment, I wasn't never even really that bad, I never killed anyone at least! Uh.. I don't want your- ... Actually, a hug would be nice..-

// OH MY STARS HELLO!! the feeling is mutual, your stuff is great and it is an honor to get something from you <3 //

#i have no mouth and i must scream #ihnmaims #am ihnmaims #benny ihnmaims #ellen ihnmaims #gorrister ihnmaims #nimdok ihnmaims #ted ihnmaims #ask blog #🗯️ anon

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bella-is-sleepy · 1 year

Text

Rise! Donatello x Female! Smart/Nerd! Reader || PART 1 || A New Aquaintance

This is my second story so im still getting better at writing (kinda 💀) so…yea also I have like zero requests PLEASE REQUEST SOMETHING

___________________________________________ not proof read

parings: Rise! Donatello + Reader

Pronouns for reader: She/her

words: ??? Idk but it’s short

key words (FN1/2)= Friend name 1/2

___________________________________________

It was a getting cold in NYC, because it was October and around 8pm. Y/N was walking down the street with her headphones/Ear buds on blast. Here’s the question, why was Y/N out at 8:23pm (to be exact). Well short answer she snuck out; long answer Mom & Dad we’re fighting—again! Mr & Mrs.L/n were fighting over their daughter. You see her dad said it was not ‘lady like’ for a young 14/15 year old girl to be making inventions, codes, engineering, etc.

But did that stop Y/N from making inventions; Hell no!! She was at the top of her class she was not gonna just give up now, because she had a great future ahead of her. Her Mom, April (her best friend), (F/N1), and (F/N2) all supported her.

Everything was going perfectly normal until one night, which was that(this?) very night. She heard a weird crash sound coming from the alleyway. And this crash was LOUD Y/N could hear it through her headphones/Earbuds. Out of instinct she Stoped and flinched as well. She walked towards the alley slowly turning on her phone flashlight, and what she saw next made her freeze. Y/N saw a giant mutant turtle with a purple mask, metal shell with a hovering thing.(?) The two just stared at each other for a couple of minutes until Y/N broke the silence.

Just make the lens you fav color

“I like your goggles, they look but mine look a bit different from yours.” She said. 15 seconds later he responded “Your not scared of me- I mean like how..” she tilted her head “Why would be scared? I mean yea you are different so what, I’m different too.”

“Right, im just not used to people not screaming and running away..” At this point the girl thought that she should introduce herself “Oh, sorry, I should introduce myself! My name is Y/N. Y/N L/N.” She said while she held out her hand. The purple clad turtle shook it “Donatello. Donatello Hamato. Or just Donnie for short.” He gave a small friendly smile. “Well it was nice to meet you Donnie I really should get going tho.” She said as she checked the time ‘CRAP!! How is it 10 o’clock?!?’

Donnie was about to grab his tech-Bo he had sat up against the wall of the alley way, until She said something else. “Wait before you go do you want to hang out sometime?” He looked at her and said a plain ‘Sure’ it sounded blunt when he said that. (If that makes any sense) || So the give each others number :p

Y/N Went home and tried to go to bed, yet should couldn’t something…no someone’s keeping her awake. She could could not get him out of her head. Y/N I just drawn to him somehow. She liked the sarcasm in his voice, and the way the purple compliments his skin. She was not the type of girl to think love at first sight was real; now that she has met Donatello….she might just believe that it exists.

————————————————————————

YAY!! Got that done Ik it was short but should I do a part 2?? I really enjoyed writing this it’s not fully edited I will do that as soon as possible hopefully 🤞

#rottmnt #donatello tmnt #rise donnie x reader #Smart reader #female reader #Rottmnt Donnie x fem reader #Rise of the tmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles

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freeuselandonorris · 7 months

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hello freeuselandonorris! i’ve asked you for writing advice/ideas a couple of times (POV decisions and something in Nov, can’t remember exactly what it was), and i find your advice so helpful (/srs) so i hope it’s not annoying i’m asking again lol.

i find i can only write when i have extreme motivation, like an idea literally possesses my brain and the words almost write themselves - gonna out myself here, the last thing i wrote was the water inflation fic i appropriated from you; it just took over my mind and i wrote/edited it in like two days (though the speed is for sure because the entire plot was essentially your idea lol).

basically, i have lots of ideas but it’s hard for me to actually think of scenes in specific, and then i just end up not writing at all. do you have a method for coming up with a progression of a specific scene?

i am doing a horrible job of explaining my q lol so for example, my current wip involves interview panels/youtube collabs etc, but i’m finding it hard to write those because it’s so different from anything i’ve tried writing before. what do you do in those kinds of cases?

sorry for the ramble and if this makes no sense, love u 😭

hiiii lovely anon (or semi-anon lmao) you are not annoying in the SLIGHTEST, i love talking about stuff like this and it makes me really fucking happy to know that my self-indulgent rambling about writing is occasionally helpful to read ❤️

SO. i have two pieces of advice on this one, speaking from my own experience because for a very long time i was also like this and would write in fits and starts and felt very like i had to ~wait for the muses to bless me~. it’s actually something i was taught at a writing course i took years ago now and it sounds so blah and obvious when you first read it but if you stick with it, it works. BRIEF DAILY SESSIONS.

aka, you write a tiny little bit every day. if you can’t commit to every day, say five days a week (but every day is better). i do NOT mean write 1000 words a day or spend three hours doing it or freak yourself out or beat yourself up or abandon your social life or your responsibilities! the idea is you just pick a time that feels feasible (i started off with 15 minutes a day and i think this works well) and you commit to doing that every day. it doesn’t have to be anything good. it can be 15 minutes of you describing lando’s eyelashes in minute detail. it can be 15 minutes of notes for a plotline. it can be 15 minutes of dialogue you KNOW is shit and wooden and will be getting deleted the minute you get to the edit stage. doesn’t matter. just do your 15 minutes.

what this does is it breaks the hold your brain has on this idea of “oh no i have to be INSPIRED before i can possibly think of writing”. at my course they compared it to musicians practising scales, or athletes doing training. we could think of it like drivers doing their sim runs. they don’t just turn up on a race weekend and expect to be great, they have to keep their eye in.

side note: it’ll feel horrible at first, you’ll hate it and resent it and everything you write will feel awful. stick with it. if you miss a day, it doesn’t matter, you haven’t failed, just start again tomorrow. if you miss a week, you haven’t failed, start again tomorrow.

this is more of a long-term thing, so for your specific piece and the issue you mention about progressing a scene, the way i get around this is to start by writing the bit(s) i CAN imagine. so for instance here, you’d write one interview scene, or one youtube collab scene. even if it’s just a little bit of dialogue, or a couple of paragraphs of like, oh i can see oscar rolling his eyes and lando sees it and gets annoyed but he can’t say anything because there are cameras on them… or whatever. just write that bit. then leave a blank space in the gdoc and write the next bit. don’t worry about the order or anything.

once you’ve written all the little bits you can think of, read them through and you might be able to see links between them, like — oh that bit could follow on from this bit up here, or these two bits could kind of go together. reorganise stuff a bit, chop it up, get rid of anything that doesn’t work (copy it into another document called ‘cutting room floor’ if you don’t want to fully get rid).

THEN write yourself some notes. go through your bits and bobs and in between them, just write stuff like [SOMEHOW THEY GET FROM THE FILMING TO THE HOTEL ROOM???]. don’t just write [SOMETHING HAPPENS HERE], you need to give yourself little breadcrumbs to follow. so like there you go, okay, so they need to be in a car or a lift or some sort of transitional space (you see these crop up a lot in my fics — lifts, hallways in hotels, the backs of taxis). or if they’ve started off talking about one thing and you want them talking about this other thing by the end of the scene, write [THEY CONTINUE TALKING ABOUT LUNCH UNTIL IT GETS AWKWARD AND THEN THEY SOMEHOW END UP TALKING ABOUT OSCAR’S CHILDHOOD]. okay, so it got awkward. how did it get awkward? write that bit. what happens after it’s awkward? does lando double down or try to gloss over it? write that bit. how does oscar react to that? write that bit. etc.

in essence, don’t try to see the entire thing at once because you’ll paralyse yourself. give yourself a direction to aim in, and a place to start, and then just focus on the next bit until you get from A to B.

and if all else fails, find a nice pithy line to end the scene on, use an asterisk scene break and start again somewhere else 🤷

SORRY THIS IS SO LONG i really hope i didn’t bore the hell out of everyone afkjeskfjkldsj but yes THANK YOU AGAIN and i hope this is useful in some way!! you can do it i know ittttt

#writing advice #fic meta #answered

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theplanetplu20 · 2 years

Text

Date Night

pairing(s): Larissa Weems x ftm!reader

warnings: none this is just a bunch of fluff

word count: 2.5k

A/N: first of all i did not reread this or edit it so i’m sorry for any mistakes. i don’t really know what this is i’m just obsessed with Weems and there just wasn’t enough fluffy fics for her so here and ofc i had to make it ftm although I think you can prob read it as gender neutral but it briefly mentions binding and top surgery. i sorta based it off myself so your shorter than her and i’m still pretty feminine pls don’t fight me on my transness i’ll fight u anyways if u don’t like that uhhh i’m not sorry just don’t read this bdhd (this is from your point of view)

It’s early in the morning and I was lying in my apartment waiting for my girlfriend to come home from a school trip that had lasted a few days due to how far away the trip was. We’ve been dating for a few months now and since day one Larissa has been my person, she’s the only person who looks at me and really sees me. I’ve been trying to get some work done but all I can think about is if she’s home yet. I had gotten a text around 7am that they were on their way back, but I'm impatient and I haven't seen Larissa for a couple days, so I sat at the couch waiting. My eyes started to grow heavy as i waited since i haven’t been sleeping all that well, i always slept better with her next to me. I fought the sleep as best I could but I guess I fell asleep because a few minutes later I was awakened by the one person I wanted to see.

“honey,” She says softly, shaking me slightly. I love how gentle she is, it's adorable. I opened my eyes, still not ready to get up but wanting to see her. Oh was it worth it though so see her beautiful smile, the one that’s reserved only for me. I sit up, reaching up slightly to hug her.

“I missed you so much my love” I say finally feeling okay again with her in my arms.

“You haven’t been sleeping?” She knows me so well and I love how worried she gets.

“I have!” I protest “Just not as much as you would probably like….” I trail off. she sighs softly I know she’s not actually upset with me, just wishes there was some way to help.

“It’s okay I don’t sleep half as well without you either, why don’t we go to bed and take a quick nap, I still want to do something later though” She says pulling away slightly but not enough to leave my arms. I give her a confused look.

“What are we doing later?” I ask knowing she probably won’t tell me, she loves her surprises.

“wouldn’t you like to know? I guess you just have to wait” she smiles at me. I knew she was going to say that i was waiting for it, I immediately lean in to kiss her. I am so in love with this woman it’s crazy everything she does makes me fall more and more. I take her hand and start to walk to our room. Once we get in the room I kiss Larissa passionately trying to convey all that I feel for her and she kisses me back just as passionately. It feels like only a few seconds when Larissa pulls away but I know it’s been at least five minutes.

“weren’t we going to take a nap?” she says wanting to keep going but knowing if I don’t sleep a little longer now I will be tired for whatever she has planned later.

“Hey it isn’t my fault I have the most intoxicating girlfriend in the world that keeps me distracted” She laughs at this

“okay sweet talker go lay in bed I’m going to change really quick” She gives me a quick peck before pushing my towards the direction of our bed

“Remember to take your binder off and stretch honey don’t think I don’t know you and if you want to wear it later you’ll take it off now for a break” She looks glaring slightly with nothing behind it. I look at her sheepishly, she does know me so well but reluctantly I listen knowing she’ll be upset if i don’t. Listen I know it’s bad to wear it for more than 8 hours but you can’t blame a guy, I’ve been trying to save up enough money for top surgery without Larissa’s help but that shit is expensive. I get into bed and look at Larissa putting on my tshirt and smile just thinking about how i’m just the luckiest fucking guy in the world right now. She turns to face me seeing me already looking at her like she’s the only girl in the world and blushes slightly not used to being watched with such loving eyes which is crazy to me. She walks over and gets under the covers quickly setting our alarms then immediately cuddling into my side with her head tucked in my neck. Even though she’s slightly taller than me she loves to be the little spoon and she knows i will always hold her. I sigh lightly, loving the feel of her back in my arms again. I pull her impossibly closer.

“Sleep well my love” I whisper to her and give her a small kiss on her head.

“you too honey” she whispers back sleepily and we both fall asleep. I hear a very annoying noise that pulls me out from the best sleep I've had in the few days since Larissa has been gone. I reach my arm over and turn the alarm off. I look at the time and it’s 2pm. Then I glance down to see Larissa still tucked into my side. She looks so peaceful and absolutely gorgeous I can’t help but smother her in kisses. Her eyes flutter open and she giggles trying to push my face away with no real effort.

“How'd you sleep, beautiful?” I ask her pulling her impossibly close “good as always” she leans up to peck my lips but when she goes to pull away I chase her lips not letting her go just yet. She hums sweetly into my mouth and I give her one more quick kiss before pulling away to get up.

“Okay if we don’t get up now we’ll never leave this bed and i’m excited for what you have planned, so let’s go” She protests lightly to stay for five more minutes but she knows i’m right and she is clearly also excited for the day too. I give her another kiss and watch her get up and leave the bathroom. I could stay with Larissa in bed all day but I haven’t seen her in days. I wanna do something with her before she gets swept off to deal with evermore. I get up and put on my binder, a pair of beige khakis with a brown belt and a white undershirt with a brown crew neck sweater with a nice pattern on top. I put on a couple necklaces and two rings then walk into the bathroom where Larissa is in the shower. I had showered this morning so there was no need for me to shower. I quickly brush my hair and put a little bit of product in it to keep it looking slightly messy and then I put on some of the cologne Larissa got me. The water turns off and Larissa gets out and pulls her towel around her already cold from the slight chill due to the door being just opened. She looks at my outfit then back up to my face and I can already tell what she's gonna say.

“You look so handsome” I pull her into me by her waist not caring if some water gets on my clothes and she puts her hands onto the sides of my face “my beautiful boy” she pulls me into a searing kiss and I feel fucking euphoric. She was the first to pull away being cold just standing there in a towel. “Okay I'm gonna get ready, do you wanna sit with me and watch?”

it takes me a minute to respond still a little dazed from her kiss. “Um of course, you know i do” i say smiling bright. I find it so relaxing just sitting with her while she gets ready, music softly playing in the background. She starts with drying her hair, before getting dressed. She goes to her vanity to put on her makeup and jewelry so I take the opportunity to wrap my arms around her from behind. “You look so beautiful as always my love” I reach up slightly to put my head into her neck giving her soft kisses. I glance at her in the mirror from her neck to see her smiling at me. “Thank you” She turns in my arms after finishing putting on the last of her jewelry. She looks down into my eyes and I catch that sparkle of adoration in them. I give her a kiss before I take her hand walking to the elevator. “So where are we going?” I ask impatiently knowing she won’t tell me. She gives me a look that says you know what my answer is.

“You’ll see soon enough” I sigh

“Fineeee don’t tell me i’ll just die of curiosity” She laughs at my antics

“Well curiosity did kill the cat,” she says back. Just then the elevator doors open and I put my arm around her waist as we walk out and are greeted by the security guard who i know pretty well since i’ve been living here a long time.

“Have a good night you two!” Paul says as we get into Larissa’s car.

“Thank you, Paul, we will” i smile back at him. I put my hand over onto Larissa’s thigh as she drives to wherever we’re going. We’ve only been driving for about fifteen minutes before Larissa pulls the car into a bowling alley parking lot. I laugh lightly

“Really baby?” I look over at her smiling actually thinking it’s adorable. She smiles back at me knowing I’m just messing with her

“Yes really” She pulls the car into park and moves to get out before I put my arm out.

“Wait, wait” I say quickly before getting out and shuffling around the car to open the door for her. She laughs at me again.

“You’re such a gentleman” I close the door and give her a kiss.

“I know right who knew i was so romantic” I say jokingly and she giggled at my stupid joke. I put my arm around her waist and pull her close while we walk in. We get up there and Larissa apparently already made a lane reservation. I look over at her questioning because it’s not a busy night and we usually just assume there will be a lane open.

“I knew you would try to pay so I wanted to pay ahead of time” She explains. Of course she did, she knows that even when I try to save up I always pay for her for no reason. I kiss her quickly just because i can and we grab our shoes and move to the lane she reserved. We play for about an hour and a half enjoying being together and being slightly competitive, not actually caring for the outcome. By the end of our time she had ended up winning only because she was cheating though! she was very distracting so it’s not my fault.

“I wonnn!” she sings gloating. I pout at her not being serious. “awww did my big strong man lose?” she says sarcastically, pulling herself to me. I roll my eyes playing along “you can win me a stuffed animal at the claw machine. How about that?” I laugh loudly at that but agree knowing she probably does actually want the stuffed animal.

“Okay I’ll win u one which one do you want love?” She looks over them and then excitedly points to a small bee.

“That one please” she says sweetly wrapping her arms around me and resting her head on my shoulder. she gives me a kiss on the cheek for good luck. It actually takes me a couple tries but I do end up getting her the bee. She takes it with a big smile on her face and even though I just lost horribly to my girlfriend I won for seeing her smile. I take her hand and we walk out. “Okay now we have one last stop” she says, glancing over to me.

“Dinner?” I say smiling. she laughs a little knowing I’d be hungry.

“Yes but i’m not telling you what restaurant” I nod just happy for food. As soon as we get on the street I already know it’s my favorite restaurant. I smile happy she knows because my favorite things change constantly. I squeeze her thigh lightly to get her attention. She looks over smiling knowingly. “Do you want to take it to go or sit in the restaurant?” She asks knowing I get tired of all the people around me although I never get tired of her.

“takeout?” I smile, just wanting to be with her and not have the anxiety of thinking about if I pass or not or how if I'm acting manly enough. I never feel that way just around Larissa. I'm just me with her. I don't have to think about passing or acting a certain way just to be seen as valid.

“Of course honey” She is always so understanding since I always talk to her about my gender dysphoria and how draining it is. We quickly go in to grab the food and then make our way back home. We move in a comfortable silence up to our floor level. Once we make it to the kitchen we take our food out and eat at our table together smiling and talking about the stupid things that the kids did or details about the trip. I could never tire of being with her, everything we do, from going out to just sitting at our table. It's always my favorite.

“Y/nn” Larissa says clearly having tried to get my attention multiple times. I had been staring at her talk about something Wednesday did or didn’t do. I sorta of got lost in thought early on. I blush having been caught clearly not paying attention.

“I’m sorry love I didn’t mean to get distracted” I say sincerely. she smiles, not mad at all.

“whatcha thinking about?” she says genuinely curious.

“Just about how much I love you and spending time with you” Now she was the one blushing.

“Of course you were” she laughs jokingly “I love you too and I love every second we spend together” We lean across the table slightly to give the other a kiss.

“You’re adorable and I love you so much, but I’m also tired” I laugh

“do you wanna go to bed?” I smiled. If I didn’t know she was a shapeshifter, I would've thought she was a mind reader.

“Lead the way” I take her hand and we walk to our room changing into our pajamas. I crawl into bed waiting for Larissa to join me after taking her makeup off. She comes into the room, turns off the lights and gets into the bed with me going back to the spot she was this morning in my neck. She lightly kisses where she is before leaning up to actually kiss me. I deepen our kiss and put my hands onto her face pulling her closer before pulling away a few minutes later. I give her another small kiss, not able to get enough of her.

“Goodnight my love, sleep well” I say quietly

“Goodnight honey I love you” she says laying back down onto my chest.

“I love you too” I say and hug her close before drifting to sleep.

#larissa weems x reader #larissa weems #wednesday #wednesday addams #jenna ortega #gwendolyn christie #larissa weems x ftm!reader

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safyresky · 7 months

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🆕 Crystal Springs Chapter 30: "What Comes Next" now up on ao3/ff dot net!

Chapter 30: What Comes Next

Jacqueline wakes up; Jack fixes the Dome. With everything all but wrapped up, what comes next?

ao3 | ff dot net

you guys...she's finished.

Crystal Springs is actually, honest to goodness, FINISHED. THIS IS THE LAST HECKING CHAPTER! I AM BALLING IN THE CLUB RIGHT NOW!

Please, take my humble excerpt while I SOB UNCONTROLLABLY--

Bright. It was bright. It had been so, so dark and now it was so, so bright. Why was it so bright? She cracked open her eyes. Bright. Blurry. Sunlight. Water. Humid air. Blue eyes. “…Jack?” A sharp inhale. “Oh, darling. I’m so, so sorry.” “Momma?” She was being crushed. Her tummy hurt. Momma was sniffling. “But where’s…where’s Jack?” She tightened her hold. She didn’t reply. This was wrong. It was bright out. Too bright. But it wasn’t the right kind of bright. She closed her eyes tightly. Opened them again. Squinted. It was bright. Way too bright. Artificial bright. She groaned, turning her head to the side. Blue eyes. “…Jack?” “Jacqueline?” On the edge of his seat, Jack watched as Jacqueline’s eyes finally opened—only to immediately shut tight once more as she winced at the bright light. She groaned. Wrinkled her nose. Her eyes popped open again, blues meeting blues. She blinked. Smiled. “You are here.” “Welcome back, little flurry.”

THIS IS MY FAVOURITE PART OF THE WHOLE THING I AM A MESS! AND I HAVE NOBODY TO BLAME BUT MYSELF!

So, indeed. What DOES come next? Read on at ao3 and ff dot net to find out!

Want to start from the top and read it ALL IN ONE GO, NOW? You can do that HERE on ao3 and HERE on ff dot net! I think it's time for a new pinned post now, lol.

Story summary and chapter musings below the cut!

It’s been almost a year since Jack Frost thawed and things are looking…well, not so great. Jack’s powers are seemingly gone. Without them, the Dome that keeps the North Pole safe from the cold and its magic controlled is melting, putting everything and everyone magical at risk. Unable to hide his power shortage any longer, Jack is forced to admit the truth. Thankfully, there is a solution: enacting the Legate Law, bringing Jack and the sister that he hurt so many centuries ago back together again. But when Jacqueline starts experiencing destructive blackouts, the pair are forced to head back home to Crystal Springs, bringing Jack face to face with the rest of the family. Needless to say, between getting his powers back, helping his sister figure out what in the FROST those blackouts even were, reconciling with his parents, meeting the two even younger siblings he didn’t even KNOW he had, NOT TO MENTION the ancient threat that’s had it out for the ENTIRE Frost family finally making a move? Saving Christmas (regrettably) is looking to be a little bit…complicated.

And there we have it! After way too many years, Crystal Springs is done! Again again! TBH it's probably a GOOD thing I paused halfway through rewriting--my writing has gotten muchas better and I don't think the story would be as lovely as it is now if I HADN'T taken a huge long ass pause from round 2 for a haute minute!

So, here's what's 🆕 This Chapter:

Kept the sillies but made them FLOW better

Since Fino got a whole ass bonding scene with Jack a couple chapters back, the Elfirmary scene went to Fiera instead, and it is LOVELY. It worked out well! She surprised me a BUNCH!

Lucy is in character now :) Love to see it :)

WORD COUNT!!!!!!

And I think that's about it!

OG 2014 Edition: 7,114k words

NEW 202X Edition: 15,387k ish words

Thank you all so much for reading and commenting and creating with me! I really hope that Crystal Springs is as delightful a read as it was to write 🥰🥰

In the meantime! Here's what we can expect to see from the CS-Universe:

Frostmas making it's way over to ao3 monthly! Complete with minor edits for a fresh ✨GLOW UP✨

Smile Shots creeping over there

NEW Smile Shots creeping up over here

The usual scrimblies

Into the Shadows musings? We'll see. She's a little disjointed rn but will be sO FUN once I've got all the threads connected 🥳🥳

And thank you from the very bottom of my heart for coming along on this ride with me! And the asks and the art--all of it has been so, so amazing and SO lovely to see! I cannot tell you all how happy my heart is knowing these lil fucks (affectionate) have resonated with you all, too 🧡💙🤍💖

#dani writes #long post #the santa clause #the santa clause 3 #fanfic #ocs #crystal springs #tsc jack frost #tsc #tsc3 #cs updates #cs on ao3 #cs posting #I CAN'T WAIT TO HEAR WHAT READERS THOUGHT! PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU ALL THINK OF THIS EPIC CONCLUSION!!!#Well. chill conclusion #nothing CRAZY going on this chapter #aside from WORD LENGTH and the HORRENDOUS AMOUNT OF CHARACTERS #can't wait for when its TRIPLES that amount :) :) xO

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of-twilight-and-moonshadow · 1 year

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Perfect Chance - Tyler Bate x Reader

Finally got around to finishing the Reader x Tyler Bate fic I had started a while back.

Prompt: I’m sorry that somebody you loved made you think it was hard to love you

EDITED IN: TAG LIST @starwithaheart @shedevill22 @amourseculier @regalbanshee

I do love my Big Strong Boi <3

Y/N = Your Name Y/F/N = Your Full Name Y/P/N = Your Partial Name (for instance, i used Anna to write, so it was An-Anna)

Not sure if the perceived Relationships that he has had with Toni and Liv are true, but for this purpose we are saying yes.

WARNINGS: Verbal Abuse (Brad Maddox is/was a jerk yall), Self-doubt, body conscious

Austin mentioned = Creed; Ember, Tyler, Etore and Creed are friends I strive to have yall.

Let me know if you’d read a part 2!

(divider)

February 2017

First, it was all compliments and the unending love that I felt.

“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”

“You’re absolutely amazing, you know?”

“I can’t believe how lucky I am.”

Then came the backhanded compliments…

“We’re perfect together.”

“You’ll never find another guy out there like me. Hah.”

“You’re really lucky to have landed me, you know?”

Then the compliments turned to criticisms.

“You should lose a few pounds… or twenty. Make you look better.”

“Your hair needs to be longer, get some extensions or something.”

“Show some more cleavage, would you? I want other guys knowing what I got.”

And the criticisms to pure insults.

“I don’t want you sitting on my lap—you’re fat!”

“God you’re ugly—put some more make up on or something!”

“What the hell did I ever see in you? You’re pathetic!”

The sucker punch came when I saw him kissing another girl backstage- one of the audio techs. It was the last straw, and I couldn’t take it anymore. Austin told me to move on, Tyler said I deserved better; Ember wanted to knock him out for me and Etore tried to get my mind off of it.

Off of him.

Of Brad.

The worst mistake of my life. The mistake that took up 15 months of my life. 15 months I’ll never get back.

The only thing is—how do you move on from something like that?

He made me feel loved and desired.

Then he made me feel unworthy of such affection. Made me feel like I didn’t deserve to be loved; that I didn’t deserve to be happy.

So here I am now, four months later. I had managed to get myself lost in work, to keep my mind occupied, but that only lasts for so long. Now? It’s February… February fourteenth. All I see are happy couples walking the halls of Full Sail, or in pictures on Instagram and twitter. Happy little ‘I love you’s and words of affection.

Sighing to myself, I shook my head and tried to focus on the outfit in front of me. Ember accidentally tore one of the seams on her outfit last week but hadn’t realized it until she wore it earlier on. Taking a deep breath, I stitched the small tear quick and easily, snipping off excess thread and then folding them neatly for my friend.

“Uhm, excuse me? Could—”

The sudden voice caused my heart-rate to skyrocket as I jumped in surprise, My hand went over my heart as I glanced behind me to find the owner to the voice—only for my once racing heart to freeze entirely.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” he apologized, giving me a small smile.

“N-no, it’s alright. I just—I didn’t… Uh… Can I help you—with… something?” I asked awkwardly, tripping over my own words.

“I was hoping so. My last match, I noticed the seam was starting to unravel… on my trunks? Could you fix that? I’d really rather not be wrestling mid-match and them fall off.”

“That would be highly embarrassing,” I frowned, before nodding,” Yeah—I can do it. Er… sew it, real quick.”

“Thank you, here—let me grab them out of my bag real quick…”

“This isn’t fair…” I thought, sighing inwardly,” Cute… accent to die for… nice… Probably in a happy, caring relationship with some—”

“Here we go,” he smiled, handing the black trunks over to me; I felt my face heat up just slightly, but ignored the shiver than ran down my spine.

“Just… give me a moment… I can have these done real quick.”

“Not a problem, love. As long as I have them before my match.”

“Right…”

“Tyler—Tyler Bate.” He held out a hand, waiting patiently with that adorable smile on his face, causing my heart-rate to skyrocket again.

“Uh… Y/P/N—Y/N. Y/L/N. Y/F/N,” I replied, reaching out and shaking his hand.

JUNE 19th 2018

Almost a year and a half. 16 months to be exact. 16 months that Tyler Bate had been on my mind; that I had tried, and failed, multiple times to get him out of my mind. I tried focusing on work, on all the alterations I needed to make to active-roster outfits, fixes to any broken seams… but in doing so, all I heard was the work gossip that floated around endlessly.

“Did you see them together? They’re cute!”

“Right, Liv is interesting. Different that I’d imagine Bate be with.”

“Too pretty, kinda. I don’t know…”

“Maybe so. Out of left field though—just like that time he was with Toni.”

“Must have a thing for blondes.”

Without meaning to, my eyes floated to the strand of hair that was hanging in front of my face. The brown hair seemingly mocking me. Taking a deep breath, I tucked it behind an ear and attempted to keep the U.K superstar out of my thoughts. I knew it was going to be inevitable, running into Tyler today. Hunter had asked if Id be able to go to London for the next tournament show. It was a chance to visit the beautiful country, immerse myself in the rich culture—and torture myself with a secret crush.

So here I was, at Royal Albert Hall, assisting the UK Brand creative department with everyone’s outfits. Right now I was busy, extremely focused on the outfit in my hands. Not only did I have to focus on doing all the stitches correctly; I had to keep myself professional—ensure no mis-stiches. Why?

The jacket belonged to none other than—

“Hey, are you finished yet?”

My head jerked up in surprise and felt like my thoughts had been read—but the innocent slight smile on Toni’s face told me otherwise.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”

“N-no… it’s—uh,” I felt myself stuttering,” Almost finished. Sorry.”

“It’s fine. I’ll come back later.”

“R-right. Thanks.”

I watched with bated breath as she walked away, not daring to take another breath of air until Toni Storm was no longer in sight. Shaking my head in attempts to clear it, I looked down to refocus on the small sequin I was hand stitching.

“Why’s he gotta like blondes?” I muttered under my breath with a small pout,” Nothin’ special about them.”

“Are you talking to yourself now, love?”

The sudden proximity of his voice, the fact he could—probably already did—know I was talking about Toni. About him.

I jumped out of my skin, the needle going straight through the fabric and into my skin.

“Dammit!” I cried, dropping everything to the desk and clutching my finger as the blood slowly began to pool.

“Bloody hell, I’m sorry love—here—” Tyler frowned, taking the towel from his shoulder and instantly putting it to my finger to stop the blood,” Oi—hey there! Grab a medic kit, will ya?” The passing backstage tech nodded before quickly walking off to find said kit.

“Did I get any blood on—” I panicked, reaching with my free hand for Toni’s jacket.

“Don’t worry about it, it’ll wash off if you did. Toni won’t mind, believe me.”

I had to choke back a scoff—of course he would know if she would mind. Suddenly my eyes landed once more on the towel, and I became hyper aware that he was holding my hand so delicately. Instinctively, I tried to pull it away, only for Tyler’s grip to slightly tighten, his gaze finding mine.

“You’ll be fine. Just a small pin prick,” Tyler smiled to me, as the tech came up to us with the kit and Tyler gave him a nod of thanks. I watched in silence, unable to even form a thought to voice; ever so gently, Tyler brought out a small alcohol wipe and after moving the white towel, dabbed at the bloody spot on my finger causing me to hiss and recoil instinctively. Again, his grip tightened, but not uncomfortably so, and he looked at me apologetically.

“Sorry love, had to clean it real quick.” With a silent nod, Tyler unpackaged the band-aid before gently wrapping it around my finger.

“There… all better,” Tyler smiled to me, causing a blush to cover my cheeks. In an attempt to hide it, I ducked my head.

“Now that you don’t have any pointy objects in your hand,” Tyler chuckled, turning his attention back to me,” How have you been Y/N? Good I hope?”

My head snapped up, eyes wide in surprise.

“Something wrong love?”

“N-no, no. Sorry… I just… I honestly didn’t think you’d remember my name. I mean… we only interacted for like… three minutes… over a year ago…”

“Well, yeah… but you’re a difficult woman to forget,” Tyler smiled and I felt my heart constrict.

“Y-yeah, I… I know…” Looking down, I began to pick at my shirt, my one hand grazing the side of my pant leg,”… Gotta loose some weight…”

“What? No- no, love—” Tyler shook his head, reaching out and gently grabbing my hands, holding both with his own; one hand traveled up my arm to cup my chin, raising my eyes to his own. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach go wild at the look of concern in his blue eyes.

“What makes you say something like that? You’re perfect—”

“Not perfect enough,” I mutter, my eyes flicker once more to the ground, only for the soft touch on my chin to lift my gaze once more.

“Whoever made you think that… They’re wrong. How they could even—” Tyler stopped short, shaking his head and took a deep breath, as if collecting himself. Looking into my eyes once more, I felt his fingers gently sweep a lock of hair behind my ear; Tyler seemed to be searching for the words to say, but what could be said?

“I-It’s fine, Tyler,” I shook my head, slowly pulling from his grip and taking a step back,” I’ve—I’ve accepted it… no one… no one will love me…” My voice grew softer and softer, until it broke at the very end. Taking a breath, I grabbed Toni’s jacket, careful of the needle hiding within somewhere. I busied myself with finishing stitching the sequin on, aware that Tyler was still standing behind me. As I finished the stitch, reaching for the next- Tyler’s hand slowly, gently reached with me, his hand landing on-top mine.

“Y/N… I…” Tyler started, before easing the jacket out of my grip and turning me back to face him. The look of pain, discomfort lacing his features,” I don’t know who… how—” He took a deep breath, composing himself again, before continuing,” I’m sorry that somebody you loved made you think it was hard to love you. You are… perfect— I wish you could see it. See what I see every time I look at you. I would call myself lucky if I had even a chance with you—I mean… maybe… maybe you could give me a chance to prove how perfect you are? Give me a chance to love you like you deserve?”

My heart dropped and I forgot how to breathe for a second. Did he just–?

“Are—are you… asking me out?”

“Rather, asking you to be my girlfriend,” Tyler smiled,” But I would like to take you do dinner, before you left back to the States.”

I could feel it—deep within my bones—the fight or flight instincts trying to kick in.

He’s just going to use you.

It’ll be just like with Brad.

Don’t trust him.

Then my eyes focused, looking straight into his baby blue eyes, and I knew.

I had to believe.

Believe in him.

Believe in the possibility—of happiness. Of love.

“Yes.”

I could see his whole body relax with my answer, a bigger smile crossing his face. It was only contagious though, as I too began to smile.

“If there’s time after the show, we can grab a bite to eat. I’ve got to finish getting ready for my match tonight.”

“Best of luck tonight, you and Trent. UE wont know what hit them,” I smiled, blushing as Tyler caressed my cheek; my heartbeat quickened as I saw him lean towards me, before I felt his lips on my other cheek. The mustache tickled a little, but the gesture, innocent and romantic all the same, caused another smile to cross my face.

This was the perfect chance for happiness. For love.

#verbal abuse mentioned #shitty ex boyfriend #wwe #world wrestling entertainment #imagine #fanfiction #x reader #reader insert #Tyler Bate #Tyler x Reader #NXT UK #NXT #Tyler's a sweetie #Trent Seven #xia brookside #Prompt fill

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underratedandoverit · 1 year

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isn't that mine?

~1,3k words orangekip (orange cassidy/kip sabian)

ffffffluff. had brain worms early in the morning after sleeping for couple of hours like shit so i wrote down an idea to return to later. so here we are. there really isnt much else to this, they are just cute and im in a terrible brain rot of having to have them smooch so trying to better myself by writing them smooching lol. the only way to improve or whatever i did not really proofread or edit this beyond a spell check, sorry about that. i cant focus but i want this up as i promised cutes so goddamn cutes is what we are gonna get!

@midnightpretenders0 @stormbornpirate

on ao3

-----------------

Leaning back on his chair Kip sighed, spinning the empty energy drink can in his hands. The session had gone on much longer than he anticipated and they were still going strong, although the games were getting pretty intense. He was honestly getting pretty beat, but the boys insisted on keeping on going as this was one of the rare times they had time to game with the whole gang together, so even Kip wasn’t allowed to dip out at a moment like this.

“Okay, just… Gimme a few, I’ll be right back for the next one,” Kip motioned towards the camera with the empty can before pulling off his headphones, standing up from his chair. He could see the stream chat moving, most people telling him to take a short breather – last round had been really intense, they had been so close to victory it had gotten almost everyone’s skin as they had lost it at the very last moment.

Exiting the office, Kip walked into the kitchen, stopping by the fridge to observe his choice of energy drinks. He was running low, he would have to restock the next time they headed out for groceries. Picking two cans in his hands, just in case tonight was going to go long, Kip headed back to the hallway, stopping by the living room doorway as he heard sounds coming from inside the room.

Peeking in, he spotted a familiar blond sitting on the couch, fiddling around on his phone while playing something that looked surprisingly quite familiar on the television screen. It didn’t take Kip two glances to recognize his own stream layout, making him chuckle out loud as he walked into the room, making Cassidy jump a little as he shot a look towards Kip over the back of the couch.

“My own little supporter,” Kip hummed as he leaned over the back of the couch, pressing a little kiss into Cassidy’s hair. The blond just shrugged him off, eyes returning to his phone. “You play terribly, by the way.”

“I love you too, Clementine.” Kip rolled his eyes at him, but his words carried enough sincerity for Cassidy to believe him. Before Kip walked back out though, he glanced the man over once more, slightly squinting at him.

“…Are you wearing my hoodie?”

Cassidy barely shrugged, eyes still glued on his phone. “Maybe.”

Walking around the couch to stand in front of him, Kip lowered the drink cans from his hands to the coffee table, arms crossing over his chest. “Maybe? That’s definitely my hoodie.”

With an almost overly dramatic sigh Cassidy lowered the phone from his hands, leaning a bit forward as he finally looked straight up at Kip, tilting his head at him for an even more dramatic effect. “Yeah? Well maybe if someone wasn’t too busy gaming and maybe if someone didn’t make their boyfriend watch and listen to them only through a Twitch stream all day, that said boyfriend didn’t have to wear their clothes to not be cold.”

“Oh, it’s my fault now, is it?”

“Yeah,” Cassidy shrugged again, slowly backing away from the defensive position he had been mere seconds ago just now, as he relaxed a little bit more on the couch again. “It sure is.”

Kip leaned down and closer to him, eyes narrowing even more as he was trying to call Cassidy’s bluff on his statement. “Really? My fault?”

“If you weren’t so busy all the time I wouldn’t need to do this.”

Kip could almost see the teasing smirk tucking in the corners of Cassidy’s lips, the blond clearly knowing he was getting under his skin. Kip wasn’t going to let him have this win though, hands grabbing him by the shoulders as he pushed Cassidy back against the couch, easily placing himself down on his lap to pin him down underneath him.

“My fault?” he asked once more, almost as a clarification, watching Cassidy just lazily nod his head, but the faint shade of blush on his cheek was something he couldn’t hide from Kip. “Yeah, you--”

Kip didn’t let him finish as he leaned closer, taking the rest of the words out of his mouth with a kiss. This was obviously what Cassidy had wanted since the beginning, they were aware of that, but that didn’t mean Kip was going to let him off easy. As Cassidy’s arms wrapped around his waist to pull him closer, Kip’s hands crept under the hoodie, fingertips tracing his toned midsection through the canvas of the t-shirt over it, getting what he wanted out of it as he could hear a small moan escape from Cassidy.

With a satisfied smirk Kip pulled away instead of following up with a deeper kiss, leaving Cassidy just staring back at him. Kip tapped his fingers under the hoodie against his abs, humming quietly to himself as he scanned Cassidy’s face, the range of emotions from expecting to almost humorously disappointed flashing across it in a matter of seconds, clearly upset that he didn’t get the kiss he wanted out of this interaction.

“You really think you were gonna get more than that?”

It was Cassidy’s turn to narrow his eyes at him, but Kip just continued to smile a little, clearly satisfied with his handiwork. “Bold of you to assume I was going to reward you for all of this.”

He leaned closer, easily dodging an attempt for another kiss from Cassidy as Kip pressed a quick peck on his cheek instead before reaching his ear. “But… I could see what I can do if you take it off,” he whispered, a clear smile in his voice as his hands wrapped around Cassidy, his body pressing against his as his hands tucked the back of the hoodie a little bit from the inside.

There was a slight bit of clear hesitation from Cassidy’s side at the proposal, Kip being fairly sure that it wasn’t the offer itself but the fact that they were so entwined with one another right there, clearly in a comfortable position just being held in each other's arms. Kip knew where he wanted to take this though, taking the initiative as he traced a small set of kisses from Cassidy’s cheek back to his lips, stopping just short of them to the corner of his mouth though, just leaving him to take the last step in case he was craving for some more.

Kip had to admit though, as whiny as he was about it, he didn’t mind Cassidy wearing his hoodie, actually. It was definitely more of an opportunity for him to get him in this position than anything else, and quite frankly he found Cassidy wearing his clothes rather endearing. Not that he was going to say it out loud, and Kip was definitely happy with the direction all this was going, but he was absolutely being more dramatic about it than he needed to be. Then again, so was Cassidy, clearly, since they had gotten themselves in this position.

Cassidy wiggled under him slightly, making Kip back away a bit as he watched the blond struggle to remove the hoodie with the little space he had. Kip chuckled at him, hands reaching over his head gently, carefully pulling the hoodie by the neck to help him take it off.

As soon as Cassidy was free of the hoodie and the garment left Kip’s hands to be dropped to the couch next to them, Cassidy’s hands tangled up in the brightly colored hair of the Brit, pulling him into the passionate kiss that he was craving, that he had been made to wait for the last few absolutely excruciating moments that Kip had tried to deny from him.

#fic #character: orange cassidy #character: kip sabian #ship: orangekip #i kinda wanted to end this on a note of oc being like 'arent the boys gonna miss you if youre gone for this long'#but i feel like it would have taken things out of this moment that ended up creating itself so. this is what you get woo #aew fanfiction #wrestling fanfiction

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recurring-polynya · 1 year

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Writing Update/Art Update 5/9/2023

Many things happened last week. Not very many of them were drawing. I'll get back to that.

I have finally started posting the big (it's not really big. Medium-big. It just felt big) fanfic that I have working on for most of the year. You can start here if you want to read it, Chapters 1-3 are currently available.

I finished the smut. I had mostly finished it by Friday, but then we had a belated-because-we-were-waiting-for-spring-weather backyard birthday party for my daughter this past weekend, so I had to spend a solid 48 hours in the paralyzing deathgrip of anxiety at the prospect of socializing with people I don't know (the parents of some of my daughter's classmates), so I didn't get much of anything else done, although I did clean my house and buy a bunch of hot dogs.

I only got one doodle done this week, which took me three days, spread out over the anxiety deathgrip, but I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. I really would like to start on a more serious project this week, but I may get back to them, we'll see how it goes. I do want to thank everyone who sent in prompts, and I'm sorry I haven't gotten to more of them. Turns out I'm real bad at doing quick, fast-turnaround doodles! Is anyone surprised??

After that, like, I said, I finished up the porno. I was hoping to post it yesterday, but it was pretty late at night by the time I finished my editing sweep. Today was a go places posting day and I didn't really want to post two different fanfics in one day, plus I had made kind of a lot of edits, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to let it sit a day and then do another sweep before posting. In other words, tomorrow, probably.

This morning, I re-read what I've gotten written so far of Ductwork, which is the working title of the next story in the Heart is a Muscle. It's 7707 words at the moment, and I get hot mad every time I read it because I want there to be more of it, and unfortunately, there is only one way to make that happen. But it's gonna!! I keep telling myself that it was really worthwhile to have taken the time to write go places first, because Ductwork is largely about Rukia and Renji finally digging down into a lot of festering insecurities from that time in their afterlives. I have a couple different approaches to writing these days, and I'm gonna try to do the thing that ended up working for go places, which is 1) try to write something every day, 2) chronological schmonological, write whatever I can possibily come up with, I'll just cram it all together at the end, this was very fun and easy last time and definitely did not take six drafts and a color-coded spreadsheet. Based on past experience, I do not think I am going to be able to power through to completion, so my goal is to add at least 20k words to the thing before I flame out in a blaze of beautiful depression and spend the rest of the summer on something insane, like bringing back the Soul Society Tattoo Artist AU. My overall prediction is that it will be around 60k, but I'm not discounting the possibility that it could be another 100k-er. (it better not go over 120k tho, I will die for real)

Anyway, that was my week! Whew!

#writing update #art update

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khoicesbyk · 2 years

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The Royal Romance.

Love Everlasting.

A/N: I had a different name and plot for this fic over a year ago. But after being in the RP community for more than a year, I've decided to write the current Royal Life of my favorite OTP.

Rated: Mature (at times can and will be Explicit. I'll be sure to change the rating when and if that happens). | Contains sexual content and strong language. (You know? The usual. Y'all should be used to this from me by now 😁) | Bolded and/or italicized words are conversations and thoughts of the characters. | Main Characters: King Marquise Rys (LI) and Queen Shanelle Miller-Rys (MC) | All Characters and names: (except MC and original characters created by me and/or other authors [their characters have been mentioned and/or used in the story with their permission] ) are property of Pixelberry.

Current Word Count: 50K words. (may be slightly more or may be slightly less. Look, I stop counting after editing and re-editing and driving myself insane. 🤷🏾‍♀️)

If you’d like to be added to my tag list. Just reblog or dm me and I will gladly add you! 😁😘

This series is rated Mature and/or Explicit. It is NOT reading material that is safe for those under 18. Reader discretion is STRONGLY advised!

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TW: Mentions of Cancer. Reader Discretion is STRONGLY ADVISED!

Matrimony. Part 4.

That night, after an entire day of revelations and interviews, Shanelle had so many questions for Marquise as they stood on his balcony.

“Okay first question, when did Connie develop cancer?” Shanelle asked.

Marquise took a sip of his whiskey.

“About a year and a half ago. He was getting treatments and chemo quietly but they weren't working, so his Oncologist suggested surgery to remove the tumors. He had his surgery 11 weeks ago. But it didn't take. Cancer has spread throughout his body but it metastasized itself to his liver where it's inoperable and that makes it terminal.” he replies.

“Jesus Christ. How do you feel about it?” she asked.

Marquise shrugged.

“Honestly, I don’t care. I know I should but I don't. His cancer is his karma for everything he's done to people.” he replied before taking another sip of his whiskey.

‘Marquise…”

“You sound like mom.”

“Does she know?” Shanelle asked.

“Yes. A very small circle of people know. And we are all forbidden from speaking about it.” he replies.

“I’m sure that's hard for you.”

“Not really. Far as I’m concerned the sooner he dies the better the world will be.”

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Positive,” he replied.

“Okay. I won't pry.”

Marquise sighed deeply.

“I'm sorry. I don't mean to sound like that.”

She kissed his cheek.

“I know you don't mean it…mostly.”

He smiled softly at her as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close.

“Thank you for understanding my mood. I'm not trying to pile on you. I swear.”

“That's why I'm here. I want to relieve whatever stresses you.”

“You are my Superwoman.”

“I think you mean I’m your Kryptonite.”

“That too.”

They watched the stars above for several minutes before heading to bed. The rest of the week went by in a blur of interviews and internal eye rolls. By Friday afternoon the couple were in a train car making their way to Princess Naya’s duchy of Arnaud. Which is in the northeastern part of Cordonia.

“Just so we're clear, I won't have to kill the Princess this weekend right?” Shanelle asked.

“Yes. She'll be too busy trying to appease her husband. I spoke to him shortly after she left my office and he was not happy. He read the article and saw the footage Donnie put out and couldn't apologize enough. He swore to keep her in check this weekend.” Marquise replies.

“Good. Because I'm not trying to embarrass her again

even though I will.”

“Down Crusher! No embarrassing her! Because I won't be tempted to stop you.”

Shanelle snickered.

“So tell me more about The Grand Hunt. Mr. Master Of The Hunt.”

Marquise threw her a cocky grin.

“Basically it's a skills competition. Archery, skeet shooting, axe throwing that sorta thing. It harkens back to the Cordonia of old. But the main event is groups of 4 will go along into the woods looking for a rabbit that has been tagged. First one to find it wins. And by the first one to find it wins, I mean me.”

“So who's in our group?” Shanelle asks.

“It'll be you, me, Drake, and Maxwell,” he replies.

“So I'll finally meet your two friends?” she asks.

“Yes. And we might even do a little diverting from everyone else.”

“By diverting you mean we'll be cheating?” she asked

“It's only cheating if you get caught.”

“You are so bad!”

Marquise shrugged.

“Just the way you like it.”

They arrived at Naya’s estate later that night. Once they were settled in their room, Marquise was called away which gave Shanelle time to check in with the girls.

“Wait! So you’re at that floozie’s house?” Aly asked.

“Yup. Have to be here for the Grand Hunt. Marquise and I have our own room.” Shanelle replied.

“Girl! Be careful! She might have booby-trapped the room or she'll try to have your food poisoned!” Rob said.

“A.) the guards have been doing a security sweep of this room at my request all week. and B.) the palace kitchen staff is doing the cooking. So I'm good.” Shanelle replied.

“You sure?” Nina asked.

“Yes, babe. I'm sure. I'm safe.” Shanelle replied.

“So what are you actually doing this weekend?” Bron asked.

“I'm going rabbit hunting,” Shanelle replied.

The girls all stared at Shanelle.

“Deadass! I'm getting on a horse and I’m going rabbit hunting.”

“I'm calling it now, you will be on your ass,” Nina said.

Shanelle rolled her eyes.

“Whatever.”

Nina snickered.

“I'm not you Miss Keane. I know how to ride a horse. And a man.”

The girls shared a laugh, just as there was a knock at Shanelle’s door.

“Now who could that be?” Dee asked.

“I don’t know. Give me a sec.” Shanelle before calling out to the door, “Come in!”

Naya walked in and when Shanelle got a look at her face, she died laughing.

“Bwhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!”

The girls on the phone were confused.

“What is it?” Rob asked.

“Yeah, what's so funny?” Nina asked.

“Take a look for yourselves,” Shanelle said as she turned her camera around to show Naya’s face. The girls fell out laughing.

“Daaaaaaaaammmmmmmnnnnnnnnnn!!!!” Rob piped up.

“We fucked her ass up!” Nina said with a cackle.

“Yoooooooo!!!” Bron said.

“We did all that?” Aly asked smugly.

“We! Did! ALL! That!” Dee and Chut said in unison.

“Indeed we did ladies. Now let me deal with this and I'll call y'all back.”

“Byeeeeeee!” the girls said before they hung up.

Naya crossed her arms.

“Are you finished?” Naya asked.

“Nope. Nowhere near,” Shanelle replied.

“I came here to ask if you like your accommodations, Your Regency.”

Shanelle smirked.

“You mean your husband sent you here to offer an olive branch? But to answer your question, no, actually I don't like these accommodations. You have zero taste in interior design and it shows. Even more than that bruise under your eye that your makeup is doing a terrible job of hiding.”

Naya took a deep breath.

“Look, I'm just trying to get through this weekend.”

“You mean you're trying to salvage your damaged name and reputation. I bet your husband was on your ass when he came home.”

Naya set her jaw.

“You had all that attitude and bravado last weekend when you challenged me and lost. And now you look like a dog with its tail tucked between its legs. As a matter of fact, I have all weekend to be on your ass. And it's exactly what you deserve.”

“You're lucky that you–” Naya started to say before Shanelle cut her off. “Sweetie, let me stop you right there. Because you know you can't fight. You proved that last weekend. But anytime you want a round two. I got time for you.”

Naya just stood there fuming.

“So happy we could have this conversation, Princess. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Have a nice night.” Shanelle said as she dismissed Naya.

Naya looked at Shanelle one last time before leaving the room. 45 minutes later Shanelle was coming out of the bathroom when she saw Marquise laying on the bed with his arms behind his head.

“You are a menace. You know that right?” he said to her.

“Why Your Regency! I have no idea what you mean.” Shanelle said in mock innocence.

“You don't like our accommodations, my love?” he asked with an eyebrow raised.

Shanelle looked at him with a smirk.

“Did Naya tell you that? Did she bat her eyelashes as she shed her crocodile tears?” she replied.

“No. She ran to her husband and cried about you being mean to her when all she was trying to do is be a good hostess. So I had to tell him that you were only joking.”

Shanelle rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically.

“Oh, the poor Princess! Someone was mean to her.” Shanelle said with a cackle.

Marquise shook his head with a smirk.

“Again, you are a menace.”

Shanelle sat down and started applying her lotion.

“Yeah yeah. I'm hungry. Let's get something to eat.”

“Okay. I hope you like venison. This part of Cordonia is known for it.”

Shanelle made a face.

“What?” Marquise asked.

“I've never had venison. Sounds kinda weird. And bougie.”

“It's deer. And it's also a local delicacy.”

“Whatever happened to good old pizza and wings?” Shanelle asked.

“My love, we're not in New York but, I can have that made for you. How about Pizza Bianca with Prosciutto, shaved Fontina, and aged Balsamic Vinegar, plus wings?” he asked.

“Garlic Parm. All drums,” she replied.

“I prefer flats.”

Shanelle made another face.

“God! You are so weird!”

Marquise snickered before putting in a call to have room service delivered.

“This Pizza Bianca is fucking incredible! I love everything about it,” she said as she took a bite of her slice.

“Mmhmm. And these wings are amazing. Compliments to the chefs.”

“You know you could've told me no right?” she asked.

“I know. But my job is to make sure you are as comfortable as possible.” he replied.

“Yeah but that doesn't mean just hand me whatever I want.”

“Are you saying that I’m a doormat?” he asked.

“I'm saying that you don't have to always hand me the world on a silver platter Marquise,” she replies.

“First of all, I would never hand you the world on a silver platter. That is beneath me. What I would do instead is, I would hand you the world on a diamond-studded, gold-plated Sterling silver platter. Second, they'll more than likely serve venison tomorrow at the reception dinner. And lastly, this is how I show my love to and for you. By reminding you that you are deeply loved and greatly appreciated by me.”

“Even if it inconveniences you?” she asked.

“Especially then,” he replied as he tucked her hair behind her ear. “When it comes to you, nothing will ever inconvenience me.”

She smiled at him before kissing him softly.

“You have garlic breath,” he teased.

“So do you, Blacula.”

“Blah! Blah!”

The two laughed before they finished their food.

The next day, they were walking to the stables after Marquise had won the archery and axe throwing and Shanelle won the skeet shooting competitions to see the horse they would be riding for the hunt.

“Are you ready for today?” Marquise asked her.

“As ready as I can be. We're not actually gonna kill a rabbit, are we?” she replies.

“No. They stopped killing rabbits 40 years ago. It'll be released back into the wild.”

“Okay good. So let's go find me a horse.”

“Way ahead of you.”

When they got inside the stables Drake and Maxwell were standing with three horses.

“Is that Marabelle’s Dream?” she asked.

“Yes. I had her brought here from your duchy,” Marquise replied.

“And these two jackasses must be Drake and Liam,” Shanelle said, pointing to Drake and Maxwell.

They winced.

“Lord Maxwell Percival Beaumont, master of all things dance, shimmy, shake, rattle and roll. Good times and all. At your service, Your Regency.” Maxwell said with a flourish.

“Is he?” Shanelle asked.

“Always.” Marquise and Drake replied.

“Okay then…”

“Does she know?” Drake asked Marquise.

“Everything,” Marquise replies.

Shanelle crossed her arms.

“Yeah, so start talking.”

The two looked at each other before they launched into an explanation of what happened and the parts they played in the blowing up of her relationship with Cassian. At the end of their explanation, Shanelle shook her head.

“You two are something else. However, I can forgive the two of you as long as you two swear to stay the hell from Cassian. Got it?” she said to them.

“Yup,” they replied.

“Good. Now I’m no mathematician but there are only three horses and four humans.”

“Ask him.” Drake and Maxwell said, pointing to Marquise.

“Where's your horse?” Shanelle asked Marquise.

“Marabelle’s Dream is my horse,” Marquise replied.

“No. She's MY horse. And her name isn't Marabelle’s Dream.”

“It's not?” Marquise asked.

“Nope. This noble steed with all her beauty will now be known as Midnight Wander.”

Marquise shook his head with a smirk.

“You and that damn book.”

Shanelle shrugged.

“So go find your own horse.”

“Nope. You and I are riding together.”

“I don't wanna ride with you!” Shanelle protested.

“Too bad!”

Shanelle sucked her teeth.

“Like you'd pass up the opportunity to throw our relationship in Naya’s face.”

The idea did intrigue Shanelle.

“Well…when you put it that way…”

“Exactly. Now get up there.”

Shanelle climbed into the saddle with Marquise right behind her. When he wrapped an arm around her and grabbed the reins, she felt her heart race.

“You ready?” Marquise whispered to her.

Shanelle nodded her head.

Marquise pulled at the reins and led their group to where the hunt would be starting. Once everyone was gathered, Tariq gave his opening remarks.

“Good afternoon everyone and thank you all for joining my wife and I at this year's Grand Hunt. We are grateful to be able to host and have you all. To their former Majesties, it is always an honor to have the four of you attend. And to their Regencies, my wife and I look forward to you both attending. Especially when you become King and Queen.”

Many in the crowd cheered and clapped politely. As Tariq continued on with his opening remarks, Shanelle noticed Naya sitting stiffly in her saddle next to Tariq.

“Your ex does not look happy,” Shanelle whispered to Marquise.

“She'll get over it,” Marquise whispers back. “All I need now is for the signal to be given and we'll be off to the races.”

Just as Tariq closed his opening remarks a cage with a rabbit was brought out. Everyone watched as the rabbit was released.

“And so, let the hunt begin!” Tariq announced.

“Is this–” Shanelle started to say before Marquise grabbed the reins and urged their horse on. Soon they were galloping down the route. She was realizing why Midnight Wander was the Derby winner.

“So is there a plan here?” she asked Marquise.

“Yep. Hang on and let me do the driving.” he replied.

“Oh, God! I'm gonna die!”

They rode deeper into the woods following the trail. And when they were far enough ahead, Marquise purposely veered off with Maxwell and Drake behind them. When they finally came to a stop and dismounted, Shanelle was still trying to catch her breath.

“I almost died! You tried to kill me!” Shanelle said to Marquise.

Marquise rolled his eyes.

“You did not almost die. I did not try to kill you.” he replies.

“I mean you were riding kinda fast.” Maxwell quipped.

“Yeah. We know this trail. She doesn't.” Drake added.

“See?! Even they know that you tried to kill me!”

“Quiet! Before I leave you to get lost out here!”

Shanelle stuck her tongue out at him again. Marquise smirked before he turned to Drake and Maxwell.

”You two got everything ready?” Marquise asked.

“Yup,” Maxwell replied.

“And what about the distraction?” Marquise asked.

“As soon as you give the word, the rest of those lazy nobles will get the scare of their lives,” Drake replies.

“Distraction?” Shanelle asked.

“Just watch,” Marquise replied before nodding to Drake. “Go for it.”

Drake smirked before pulling a small remote from his pocket and pressing the button on the front of the remote. Soon, shouts, shrieks, horse whinnying, and screams could be heard in the distance. Marquise and his two friends died laughing.

“What in the world?” Shanelle asked.

“A little distraction. I had Drake and Maxwell plant cherry bombs around the route. Not enough to hurt anyone but enough to spook their horses and throw everyone off course. And maybe have some of them thrown into the mud along the way.” Marquise replies.

Shanelle shook her head while laughing.

“And you have the nerve to call me a menace,” Shanelle said to Marquise.

“You are a menace. I just have fun at the nobles' expense. Now we have a rabbit to catch.” Marquise replied.

Everyone mounted their horses and took off. But Shanelle had one question.

“How do you know where the rabbit will be?” Shanelle asked.

“The one they released? I don't. That poor thing is probably long gone. But! I did get one that is identical to the one they released. Same tag and all. Oh, and it was microchipped. So I know how to track it.” Marquise replies.

Shanelle shook her head.

“I'd like to reiterate: you’re. Cheating!”

“It's either I win or you deal with having to hear your uncle brag about his wife winning. Because her father was an avid hunter.”

Shanelle winced.

“Good point.”

“Glad you see things my way.”

They rode until they got to a clearing where a trap was set up. Once everyone dismounted, the men went to work setting up for when everyone else arrived.

“Alright! Flare gun?” Marquise asked.

“Got it!” Maxwell replied.

“Food to lure the rabbit out?” Marquise asked.

“Right here,” Drake replies.

“Perfect! Max, you stay here with Shanelle and ready the trap. Walker, let's go find Roger.”

Shanelle watched Marquise and Drake disappear into the woods, before turning to see Maxwell struggling to set up the trap.

“Need a little help?” Shanelle asked.

“Me? Nah! I got it. I have everything under con–” Maxwell started to say before the trap fell apart.

Shanelle stifled her laugh.

“Y’know maybe I could use an extra set of hands.”

Shanelle walked over and started to help Maxwell set up the trap. She even took the time to find out a little bit more about her fiance.

“How long have you known Marquise?” Shanelle asked.

“Me? Maybe 15-20 years. Drake has known him longer. They met when Drake’s dad Jackson joined the King’s Guard and was assigned to the Royal Family. Jackson was Connie’s lead guard.” Maxwell replies.

“That's a very long time to know someone.”

“Yeah. He's a good guy. Loyal, firm, stern, fair, understanding of the people around him, caring, and he's protective of everyone and everything that he cares about. His mother Eleanor was the same way. He tries his hardest to be just like her.” Maxwell replies.

“So I've heard. So he's nothing like his dad?” she asked.

Maxwell took a deep breath.

“No. At least not in the way you may think. He and Connie are like night and day. Except for when and if you are stupid to piss him off. Marquise tries his damnedest to never be anything like Connie. But not even he can run away from who he is. No matter how hard he tries to.” Maxwell replies.

“Why don't they have a relationship?” she asked.

“Because Connie feels like Marquise is only here to haunt him. Marquise looks a lot like his mother and Connie can't stand it. He feels like Marquise is a constant reminder of the one true love he lost. So he's always taken whatever he’s feeling out on him. Especially when he's drunk.” Maxwell replies.

“Jesus Christ!”

Maxwell nodded solemnly.

“Marquise doesn't like to talk about it. And I really think I shouldn't have told you. But at the same time, you deserved to know.”

Shanelle nodded.

“Thank you, Maxwell.”

“You're welcome. And call me Max.”

Shanelle smiled at him.

“Oh! Look! We did it! We got the trap set up!” Max triumphantly exclaimed.

“Yeah, we did.” Shanelle agreed.

“Teamwork high-five!” Maxwell said to her.

“Teamwork!”

The two high-fived just as Marquise’s voice rang out.

“MAX! GET THE TRAP READY!”

Maxwell and Shanelle scrambled to their feet just as the rabbit came darting out of the woods, with Marquise and Drake hot on its heels.

“NOW!” Marquise and Drake yelled.

“Push the button, Max!” Shanelle said to Maxwell.

“Pushing the button!”

Shanelle watched as the trap sprang and they caught the scared rabbit.

“Woohoo! We did it!” Max cheered.

“Nice going! You did it!” Drake said as he congratulated Marquise.

“HAH HAH! I win again! The title of Grand Master is MINE!” Marquise said triumphantly.

“Congratulations handsome. You won. Even though you cheated.”

Marquise gave her a cocky smile.

“Beats the alternative.”

“Fair enough. So what happens now?” Shanelle asked.

“Max send up the flare,” Marquise instructed.

Max grabbed the flare gun and then handed it to Shanelle.

“Why don't we let her do it?” Maxwell asked.

Marquise shrugged.

“Okay. Send up the flare love.”

Shanelle sent the flare signal and within 15 minutes the rest of the nobles began making their way to the group. Including a very disgusted-looking Queen Genevieve.

“It seems His Regency has won the competition. By winning 5 years in a row, he is now Grand Master Of The Hunt!”

Many of the nobles cheered and congratulated Marquise, who had a firm arm around Shanelle’s waist. Directly in the sight line of his jealously seething ex.

“Thank you, everyone. I appreciate you all and I couldn't have done without this one at my side. Oh and Max and Drake too.”

Many in the crowd laughed.

“And to her former Majesty who was looking to regain the title of Master Of The Hunt, better luck next year. Assuming I don't win again.” Marquise said to a fuming Genevieve before throwing her a cocky grin.

“Now if His Regency will do the honors of releasing the animal into the woods,” Tariq said.

“Actually if you all don't mind, I’d like Her Regency to do the honors,” Marquise said.

“Very well,” Tariq said to Marquise before turning his attention to Shanelle, “Your Regency if you will.”

Shanelle had Maxwell set the trap down before she opened the door of the cage and pulled the rabbit out and set it down on the ground.

“There you go, little one. You’re free.” Shanelle whispered to the rabbit.

Everyone watched as the rabbit hopped off into the woods.

“Now that the Grand Hunt has been completed, let us all head back to the main estate and get ready for the reception dinner,” Tariq announced.

As people began to head back to the estate, Connie rode up to his son.

“Congratulations my son. You managed to keep your title. While gaining a new one.”

Marquise rolled his eyes.

“I'd tell you to go to hell, but you'll be there soon enough.”

Connie’s face soured before looking at Shanelle.

“Does she know?” Connie asked Marquise.

“Yes, she knows. Everything.” Marquise replies.

Constantine gave Shanelle a haughty expression.

“I take it you feel the same way as he does,” Connie said to her.

“Let's just say that whenever your time comes, I won't cry at your funeral.” Shanelle spat at him.

“Petulant child!” Connie sneered.

“That's Her Regency to you. Now if you'll excuse us.” Shanelle said to Connie before she and Marquise left.

After returning to the estate and taking a long hot shower, the couple was ready for the reception dinner.

“You look beautiful my love,” Marquise said to her as they walked to the dining room.

“And you look like a King. Very official yet dapper.”

Marquise brought the back of her left hand to his lips for a small kiss.

“Thank you, my love. Now let's make our debut.”

Soon the herald made the official announcement.

“All rise for Their Regencies, Marquise Rys and Shanelle Miller!”

As they walked in, all eyes were on them.

“Wait until they announce us as Their Majesties,” he whispered to her.

“Ooh! Your ex will hate that,” she whispered back.

“Believe me when I say I don't give a fuck.”

They walked to the center of the room where Naya and Tariq were standing.

“Thank you all. Please be seated as we present His Regency with his official trophy.” Tariq announced to those in attendance.

Shanelle watched as the staff walked with a beautiful bronze statue.

“Nice! How many of these do you have?” Shanelle whispered to her fiancè.

“Including this one? 5 all together. The other four are at the main house of my Duchy,” he replied.

“Your Regency, I present you this statue as a token of your victory today,” Tariq said to Marquise.

“Thank you, Lord Tariq. I humbly accept your token.” Marquise replied to him as the two shook hands before posing in front of the statue. Marquise turned to Shanelle with a grin.

“Join me?” he asked.

She stepped next to him as Tariq stepped away and the couple snapped a few pictures together.

“Now that His Regency’s trophy has been presented, dinner can be served.” Tariq announced.

Before they took their seats Tariq pulled Shanelle and Marquise to the side.

“Again I’d like to congratulate you on your win, Marquise,” Tariq said to him.

“Thank you, Tariq. It's an honor to win and it's a privilege to be able to stick it to Queen Genevieve for another year.” Marquise replies.

“Indeed.”

Tariq turned to Shanelle with a polite smile.

“And to you Your Regency, I would like to formally apologize for my wife’s heinous and atrocious actions toward you. She has had no right whatsoever to belittle or demean you. And she certainly had no right to attack you. And for that, I am horrified and do humbly apologize to you for any harm my wife has caused.” Tariq said to her.

Shanelle nodded politely.

“Thank you, Lord Tariq. I appreciate your kind words and I accept your apology.” Shanelle replied.

“You're quite welcome, Your Regency. Now, I believe my wife has something she’d like to say.”

Shanelle internally rolled her eyes and braced herself.

“Shanelle, I'd like to sincerely apologize to you for my behavior. I let my jealousy cloud my judgment and I took it all out on you. I am…appalled by my actions. Especially when I'm a married woman. I had no right to do that. And for that, I do apologize.”

Shanelle looked at Naya with an eyebrow raised.

“I want to believe you but I know you don't mean any of what you just said. But, for the sake of the kingdom and peace within it, I will be a bigger person and accept your apology.”

Naya nodded.

“Thank you, Your Regency.”

“Now that apologies have been given. I believe it is time we took our seats.” Tariq said.

They took their seats and dinner was served. Instead of serving her venison, Marquise had one of her favorite dishes prepared, Spaghetti Alla Vongole (Linguine and Clams).

“Mmm! So good!”

“I'm happy you like it, my love.”

“I am curious though,” she said to Marquise.

“Hmm?”

“Not that I’m not grateful but why am I eating this and not venison like you?” she asked.

“I told you why. Venison is a bit adventurous for you so we can try it another time when it's just us. I want you to always be comfortable. But if you want to try it now, you can always steal a bite of mine,” he replies.

“You're impossible.”

He winked at her.

“Here. Try it,” he said as he offered her a small bite of his venison.

“Okay. It's not bad but I think I prefer my pasta with clams, olive oil, and Parmesan Cheese.”

“Told you.”

After dinner, it was drinks, dessert, and dancing. Everyone in attendance watched as the couple gracefully twirled and glided around the dancefloor.

“Well, whaddya know? You do know how to do a proper Cordonian Waltz. I guess that private lesson in your bedroom paid off after all.” he teased her.

“Shut up before I step on your foot!”

He snickered as they continued to dance. By the end of the evening, Shanelle’s feet were barking and she was ready to crash but she soldiered on as she stood in the receiving line with her fiance. Many of the people the couple received were friendly and most pledged their support for the new Monarchy. Including Maxwell’s brother Bertrand.

“Hello, you two!” Maxwell said in greeting, “Shanelle, I’d like you to meet my older brother, Bertrand Archibald Beaumont. The Duke of Ramsford.”

Bertrand bowed to Shanelle.

“Good evening, Your Regency. It is a pleasure and honor to meet you.” Bertrand said to her.

“The pleasure is mine, Duke Ramsford,” Shanelle replied.

“I am here to formally give you and His Regency, Duchy Ramsford’s full support to the new Monarchy.”

“Thank you, Bertrand. I always knew I could count on you.” Marquise replied.

“Of course Your Regency. Ramsford has always been about progress, growth, and change for Cordonia. And with you and Her Regency at the helm of that change, I know we are all in very good hands.”

Marquise nodded politely.

“And besides, anyone better than King Constantine is a win in my book,” Maxwell added.

“I knew I liked you, Max.” Shanelle said to him.

“Quite. Now we shall take our leave but we do wish you both the best. Come along now Maxwell.” Bertrand said as they left.

When the couple got back to their room, Shanelle was thankful the night was finally over.

“You did it, my love. You survived your very first state dinner. Without so much as an hors d’oeuvre needing to be thrown at someone.”

Shanelle snorted.

“Shut up and rub my aching feet.”

“Gladly.”

Shanelle melted into the foot massage. She deserved it for all she had to endure that weekend.

“How are you so good at this?” she asked him.

“You already know why, my love,” he replies.

“Y’know if this whole ruling a kingdom thing doesn't work out, you could make good money giving out foot massages.”

Marquise snickered.

“Unless the money is coming from you for services rendered then I don't want it. You are the only woman I would do this for.”

“I can live with that.”

“So how would you rate this weekend, my love?” he asked.

“Not too bad. I know it won't always be like this but it wasn't too bad for my first experience. And I didn't have to kill your ex. So that's a win.” she replied.

“Yes. I'm proud of you for showing restraint. It's never easy with her. Even though I wouldn't have stopped you if you did decide to clock her.”

“You’d let me get away with murder if you could.”

Marquise cleared his throat.

“Your words not mine.”

“So what happens now?” she asked.

“Don't you have a wedding to plan?” he replies.

“Seriously?! I can start planning?” she asked.

“Yes. Your official Royal Business here is over. So you’re free to plan the wedding of your dreams.” he replied.

“Does that mean?”

“If you want to head back to Boston or New York you’re free to do so.”

Shanelle’s face lit up.

“I gotta call mama! I gotta call the girls! We have a wedding to plan!” Shanelle squealed.

“Indeed you do.” Marquise agreed.

“Is there anything you want before the girls and I go crazy?” she asked.

“What are the colors?” he replied.

“I know the official colors of Cordonia are Royal/Navy Blue and Gold but I was thinking of Purple, White, and Silver.”

“I can live with that.”

“Anything else?” she asked.

“I want a VERY PRIVATE penthouse suite for after we get married,” he replies.

“You got plans for that suite?” she asked.

“I got plans to fuck you all over that suite, my Queen,” he replied with a wolfish grin.

Shanelle snickered.

“Then I better get a move on.”

“Yes, you should.”

After traveling back to the palace the next day, Shanelle grabbed Ozzie and headed to the airport. She was on her way home.

“I'm gonna miss you,” she said to Marquise.

“No worries. Besides, the next time I see you will be in a church at the altar.” he replies.

“What are you gonna do while I'm gone?” she asked.

“You have a wedding to plan and I have coronations to plan,” he replies.

“Oooh!”

“Exactly.”

With a sweet kiss, it was time to say see you later.

“I'll see you soon, my Queen.”

“See you soon handsome.”

With that Shanelle boarded her flight home to Boston. When she finally touched down at Logan Airport that night, she was happy to be back on U.S. soil.

“It's good to be home, isn't Ozzie?” she said as they got into the car that was waiting.

When she got to the brownstone and set her bags down, she noticed two giant vases sitting on the island counter. One was full of red roses and the other full of white carnations with a handwritten note from him in front of them.

Welcome home, my love. Soon, you'll be my Queen.

She couldn't help but smile and blush at the note. After taking one last look at the flowers, she headed up the backstairs and went to bed. The next afternoon Shanelle was on a FaceTime call with Nina and her mother.

“Alright, you two! I trust the two of you to be the main voices of reason while I plan this wedding.”

“You mean while WE plan this wedding.” Shantel corrected her.

“What she said!” Nina added.

“Yeah yeah. So here's the plan mom, you and I will handle the wedding. Nina, you and the girls get to go crazy on planning the Bachelorette Party and Bridal Shower.”

Nina rubbed her hands together.

“Oh, yessssss!”

“Nina, don't you have my daughter and the girls doing something crazy.” Shantel warned.

“Yes, mom,” Nina replied.

“Now I will handle the catering, flowers, and decorations. Also, what are the colors?” Shantel asked.

“Purple, white, and silver,” Shanelle replies.

“And who's officiating?” Nina asked.

“My dad,” Shanelle replied.

“Awwww! Pop is gonna dust off his preacher suit!”

Shanelle snorted and Shantel cackled.

“And what about the venues?” Shantel asked.

“Well, they have to be big enough to host at least 300 people,” Shanelle replies.

“Hmmm…the only place I can think of that can accommodate that many people is St. Francis.” Shantel said.

Shanelle and Nina groaned.

“The Catholic Church off 87th?” Shanelle asked.

“Nobody wants to go into that mausoleum!” Nina quipped.

“No. The Baptist Church off 129th. The presiding Elder’s granddaughter is in my class this year. I'll talk to him and his wife.” Shantel replied.

The girls let out a sigh of relief.

“Now, what about the venue for the reception?” Shantel asked.

“I want either the Marriott Marquis in Times Square or the Waldorf Astoria Hotel,” Shanelle replies.

“Well, you can rule those two out. Their capacity limits are max 200 people each. The only other place big enough to hold that many people is the Consulate.” Shantel said.

“Fineeeeeee! I guess I'll just pick the penthouse suite of Marriott Marquis.”

“What are you gonna do with the penthouse suite?” Nina asked.

“It's not what I’m gonna do. It's what I’m gonna do.” Shanelle replies.

Nina snickered and Shantel groaned.

“Well, that takes care of the venues. As I said, I'll work on catering. Do you know what you want to eat?” Shantel asked.

“Yup! I had a sample menu in Cordonia. I'll text you the menu.” Shanelle replied.

“And what about the cake?” Shantel asked.

“Surprise me,” Shanelle replied.

“Very well. Well since I have all I need to do, I'll let you girls talk. Just remember, we're going dress shopping in LA this weekend.” Shantel said.

“We won't forget. I'll talk to you later.” Shanelle replied.

“Bye, mom!” Nina piped up.

“Bye, girls.”

“And then there were two!” Nina said after Shantel hung up.

“Exactly. Now, what do you have planned in that head of yours as far as my Bachelorette Party and Bridal Shower are concerned?” Shanelle asked.

“I'm not telling you! It's a surprise!” Nina replies.

“For the record, I am not going to Vegas for my Bachelorette Party!”

“What's wrong with going to Vegas?” Nina asked.

“Besides the fact that Vegas is basic? Nina, I am marrying a man who is to be King. The last thing I want to do is spend my last days as a free woman staring at Fat Elvis impersonators,” Shanelle replies.

“You know you’re a brat right?” Nina asked.

“Spoiled rotten. And it's all your fault.” Shanelle replied.

“Okay fine. Where would you like to go?” Nina asked.

“Somewhere that screams, exotic, chaotic, and erotic,” Shanelle replied.

“Once again, you are a brat.”

“And it's all your damn fault. What's your point?” Shanelle asked.

Nina tapped her fingers in thought.

“Yeah…I got nothing.”

“You got all that intelligence and beauty and can't think of anywhere else?” Shanelle asked.

“First off, thank you and secondly, you shot down my Vegas idea so no,” Nina replies.

“I gotta do everything my damn self. I have three places in mind.”

“Okay, what are they?” Nina asked.

“Monaco, Ibiza, and lastly Milan,” Shanelle replied.

“Okay. Maybe you were right. Vegas does sound basic.”

“Thank you.”

Shanelle took a piece of paper, tore it into three pieces, wrote down the names, and then threw them into an empty cup.

“Okay gimme a drum roll.”

Nina gave her a drum roll.

“That's a terrible drum roll.”

“Shut up and pick!”

Shanelle snickered before pulling out a name.

“Pack ya bags and grab ya passport baby! You, me, and the girls are going to Ibiza!” Shanelle announced.

“Looks like Bron will get her Spanish Prince after all.”

The two friends cackled.

“Alright. I'll send out the text and I'll see y'all this weekend.”

“Yup yup.”

“Uh huh. Uh huh.”

Nina rolled her eyes.

“Bye Princess!”

“Bye bestie!”

If there were two people that Shanelle could always count on it was Nina and her mother. That Friday Shanelle, her mother, Nina, Chut, Robin, and Dee were all on a jet headed to LA. Aly was filming a movie there and Bron was finishing her clinical residency. They all went out to dinner at Spago when they touched down.

The next day the girls were visiting a custom bridal shop on Rodeo drive.

“Shantel!” the shop owner called to Shanelle’s mother.

“Hello, Ingrid! It's been far too long.” Shantel said in greeting.

“Indeed it has my dear. I was so happy when you reached out about needing dresses for both of your daughters.”

The girls looked at each other.

“Daughters?” Shanelle asked.

Shantel smiled and took her and Bronwyn by the hand.

“This is my oldest daughter Shanelle and my youngest daughter Bronwyn. Ingrid, I want you to spare no expense and make sure both look stunning at their weddings.”

Ingrid nodded.

“Of course! Of course! I will make sure your daughters look like Princesses. After all, they will be wearing Ingrid Kozlov originals. Now let me gather a few things and we'll get started.” Ingrid replied before going into the back of her shop.

The girls all looked at Shantel completely stunned.

“Mom?” Shanelle asked.

“Yes?” Shantel replies.

“You're buying my dress?” Bron asked Shantel.

Shantel gave her a motherly smile.

“Yes. A mother always buys her daughter’s wedding dress. So when and if you have a daughter, you can buy her wedding dress. Besides, it's the least I can do for the beautiful smart young woman who is marrying one of the two boys that always ran through my house.”

Bron looked at her with tears in her eyes.

“But…”

Shantel took Bronwyn’s hands in her own.

“I can not replace your mother. I would never even try. But that doesn't mean I can't treat you like you are my daughter.”

“You don't have to do this, Mrs. Miller.”

“My students call me Mrs. Miller. You call me Mom. Got it?” she asked.

Bronwyn nodded tearily.

“Yes ma'am,” she replied.

“Mom.” Shantel corrected her.

“Yes, mom,” Bronwyn said.

“Good. Now you girls have dresses to get fitted for.” Shantel said as Ingrid returned.

“Now to my brides and mom, step this way and I'll get your measurements. The rest of you ladies, please feel free to browse around. My shop is open to you.” Ingrid said to everyone.

The girls spent the rest of the day browsing around the bridal shop. When they left Shanelle and Bronwyn had their custom-made wedding dresses as well as their bridesmaids' dresses ordered. Later that evening, while Shantel was at her spa appointment, the girls were lounging around the pool at the Cordonian Consulate in LA.

“I'm still trying to process this. Shanelle, your mom bought my wedding dress. Lo and I don't even have a date set.” Bronwyn said.

“Yup. She did. And think of this as one thing crossed off your list of things to do.”

“Did you know?” Bron asked.

“Nope. Otherwise, I would've warned you.” Shanelle replies.

“I love her. She didn't have to do it.”

“I've been trying to tell you for months that she loves you but you wouldn't listen.”

“I'm sorry I didn't listen. I should have.”

The girls laughed.

“Shan, I can't believe your mom knows Ingrid Kozlov. She's one of the best in the fashion business.” Aly said.

“I mean to be fair this is the same woman who used to fuss at us whenever we went through her jewelry,” Dee added.

“Well, that's only because we never put it back correctly.” Nina quipped.

The girls laughed as a staff member came out with a box in his hands.

“Pardon the interruption, Your Regency, but this was just delivered for you,” he said as he set the box down.

The girls all looked at each other before looking at the box.

“So you gonna open it, Princess?” Nina asked.

“No. I don't know what's in there!” Shanelle replies.

“Maybe it's not that bad,” Robin says.

“Okay well, then you open it.”

“It's not addressed to any of us Nelle. So open it.” Chut quipped.

Shanelle looked uneasily at the box before gingerly lifting the lid with her eyes closed.

“We're still alive right?” Shanelle asked.

“Yeah, we're still alive,” Nina replies.

“Good, that means this wasn't a bomb.”

“Yeah, yeah whatever. Now, hurry up and look inside so the rest of us can open our eyes.”

Shanelle looked inside and when she did her jaw dropped.

“OH. MY. GOD!” Shanelle exclaimed.

The girls quickly opened their eyes.

“What is it?” Rob asked.

Rather than answer Shanelle reached into the box and pulled out a surprise.

“WHAT?!” Rob and Dee said in unison.

“No way!” Bron said in shock.

“Oh my!” Aly said.

“Wow!” the cousins said together.

“It's a tiara,” Shanelle said in shock.

The girls stared at the tiara sitting on a pillow in Shanelle’s hands.

“Are those real diamonds?” Nina asked.

Shanelle numbly nodded her head yes. Robin looked in the box and pulled out a card.

“I think this is yours too, babe,” Robin said holding the card.

Shanelle gingerly set the tiara down and took the card from Robin before reading it out loud.

“This is the first of many. My Queen. I love you.”

Shanelle covered her mouth with a hand. When she looked up at her girls there were tears in her eyes.

“Marquise for the win!” Dee said.

Shanelle slowly sat down and broke down into tears.

“Awww babe! Don't cry.” Nina said as she wrapped her arms around her.

She knew the girls were there and they were super supportive but all she could hear was her heartbeat. She couldn't believe he would send her a tiara. But he did and she was just overwhelmed. She took a deep breath and dried her eyes.

“Thank you, babies. I appreciate it. I just…I just got a bit overwhelmed.” she said to her girls.

“We get it. You're getting married to a man who's about to be a King. And it's a lot. But I promise you we will send you off right and we'll always be there.” Robin said to her.

Shanelle laid her head on Robin’s shoulder. This is why she was thankful to have her girls. They have her back and she has theirs.

“She's right, you know,” Shantel said as she stepped outside. “They'll always be there for you. And so will I butterfly.”

Shanelle smiled at her mother.

“Thank you, Mommy.”

Shanelle was thankful for her tribe.

“Now I don’t know about you girls but I do believe we have a Bridal shower to get ready for.” her mother announced.

“Yay!” Shanelle cheered.

“Quiet girl! You don't get a say. This is between me and the girls.” Shantel said to her.

Shanelle pouted and Shantel rolled her eyes.

“Oh, girl bye! That face stopped working on me when you turned 7.”

Shanelle made a face as the girls cackled.

“Poor Princess. Shut down by THE Queen.” Nina teased.

Shanelle sucked her teeth.

The next day Shanelle, her girls, and her mother were celebrating her Bridal Shower. Her mother had rented out the South Coast Botanical Gardens for the occasion. Shanelle felt nothing but love from her crew and her mother. There was food, presents, and giggles. Lots of giggles. Even a few groans.

“What is this?” Shantel asked as she dangled a flogger. “And what are you supposed to do with it?”

The girls just looked at Shantel.

“…mom?” Shanelle asked.

“Yes, my dear?” Shantel replied.

“Stop dangling the flogger, please.”

Shantel smirked before swinging the flogger.

“Why? Is there a reason why I should stop swinging this?” Shantel asked.

“Because it's creating a mental scar none of us need. Least of all me.” Shanelle replies.

“But I like swinging this thing. It's a whole lot of fun!”

“MOM STOP SWINGING THE DAMN FLOGGER PLEASE! THANK YOU!” Nina said.

Shantel cackled.

“You girls are no fun.”

The girls looked squeamishly at Shantel who was still laughing.

“I want it put on the record, your mama is mean!” Robin says.

“Duly noted.”

Shantel rolled her eyes with a smirk.

“But I do hope you girls have had a great time.”

“We have!” the girls replied.

“Good. That was the plan. And Bronwyn.”

“Yes, mom?” Bron replied.

“I can't wait to hear about how beautiful you'll look in your dress.”

Bron got up and hugged Shantel.

“Thanks again, mom.”

“Always honey. You girls are family to my daughter. Which means you’re family to me too.”

“Since we're family mom…can I get some brownies?” Dee asked.

“When you come back from Ibiza,” Shantel replies.

“Thank you!” Dee squealed.

“What about us?” Chut asked.

Shantel shook her head.

“Get your orders in.”

The girls clamored at once.

“One at a time!” Shantel told the girls.

“Logan would cry if I didn't ask for your jerk chicken,” Bron said to her.

“I would love a strawberry cheesecake,” Chut said.

“Your lasagna rolls,” Aly said.

“Curry Chicken!” Robin said.

“Curry Fish with Green stew!” Nina said.

Shantel died laughing.

“Nina, you and your brother are the green stew eatingnest people I know.”

Nina shrugged.

“It's your fault that I love it so much.”

“Fair enough. Okay, girls. When you all get back from Ibiza, we'll have a big family meal before the wedding with all of your favorites.”

The girls cheered.

“Thanks, mom!” they answered.

Shantel smiled at the girls.

“My pleasure. Now let's finish up because we all have flights to catch tomorrow.”

The next week went by in a blur. Before Shanelle knew it, she and the girls were off to Ibiza for a weekend of Bachelorette debauchery. They couldn't wait to touch down in Spain that Thursday. Marquise had put them up at a high-rise condo that had a rooftop pool and bar. With a 360° view to die for. The girls were gonna live it up that weekend.

“Take it all in, ladies! Because this weekend we will conquer Ibiza!” Shanelle said as she toasted her bridal party.

“Hell yeah!” the girls replied.

“Operation: Babes, Bodies, Bachelorette Party is in full effect!” Nina announced.

“And who knows? Maybe we'll find Bron’s Spanish Prince while we're here.” Rob teased.

“Whatever! Can we drink now?” Bron asked.

Shanelle popped a cork.

“Drink up girls! We have an island to conquer!”

The girls cheered before downing their wine and going out to a local club. They spent the night dancing, laughing, club hopping, and winning three wet t-shirt contests thanks to Nina.

The next morning, Shanelle came stumbling out of her room into the common area, hungover with a giant migraine. She took a seat at the bar in the kitchen and was soon joined by her crew. Who were also hungover as hell.

“Dude! What did we do last night?” Dee asked massaging her temples.

“Ask me that question when I have the mental capacity. Because right now, I ain't got it,” Nina replies.

“Ugh!” the girls groaned collectively.

Shanelle laid her head down on the counter with a loud thud.

“The room is spinning,” she whined.

“Princess, what's in that pitcher in front of you?” Robin asked.

Shanelle looked up to see a pitcher and a note.

“Hair of the dog,” Shanelle said as she read the note.

The girls groaned again.

“Anything but THAT!” Aly whined.

Shanelle poured herself a small glass.

“You're not actually gonna drink that are you?” Chut asked Shanelle.

“It's either drink it or we look like shit for the rest of the day,” Shanelle replies.

Shanelle shook her head and squared her shoulders.

“Down the hatch as they say,” Shanelle said before she pinched her nose and downed the drink in one gulp. The girls squirmed as they watched. When Shanelle set the glass down she started to seriously question her life choices.

“Well, how bad was it?” Bron asked.

“Terrible. But it's working. My head isn't splitting like it was when I hobbled my ass outta my room.” Shanelle replied.

The girls looked at the pitcher suspiciously.

“Maybe it won't be so bad?” Robin asked.

“Speak for yourself!” Nina replies.

“Maybe Rob has a point? I mean what else do we have to lose?” Dee asked.

“Our dignity maybe?” Nina replies.

“I thought we did that last night?” Shanelle asked.

The girls laughed.

“Okay fine. But I’m not trying it first!” Nina replies.

“I'll try it,” Bron said.

“My baby for the win!” Shanelle cheered.

“Don’t cheer for me! Because if this shit tears up my stomach I'm fucking you up! Princess or not.” Bron replies.

“Duly noted.”

Bron chugged her glass back and made a face when she was done.

“Who the hell thought this was a good idea?” Bron asked.

“Not I, said the spider to the fly,” Shanelle replies.

“Nope. I'm not drinking it!” Nina protested.

“Shut up and chug Keane!” Shanelle said to Nina.

Nina rolled her eyes as she poured herself a glass. The rest of the girls followed suit.

“Bottoms up,” Shanelle told the girls.

She watched as they drank and looked disgusted afterward.

“Instant regret!” Nina said.

“Never. Again.” Robin said as she put her glass down.

“That shit is nasty!” Chut quipped.

“It tasted like death warmed over!” Aly said.

“That should be illegal!” Dee added.

“Should be but ain't. How y'all feeling?” Shanelle asked.

“Starting to feel better for the most part,” Nina replies.

The girls nodded their heads yes.

“Good. Now I can ask the question, Nina, what happened to the guy you brought back with you?” Shanelle asked.

Before Nina could answer, each of the girl's bedroom doors opened, and out walked SEVERAL half-naked men. The girl's jaws dropped.

“I'm gonna ask again, what the hell did we do last night?” Dee asked.

The girls burst out laughing. They spent the rest of that Friday hanging around the rooftop pool. The next day was a big day. It was Shanelle’s Bachelorette Party. The girls got dressed and went out to an amazing restaurant to celebrate Shanelle’s final days as a free unmarried woman.

“Here's to my beautiful, smart, amazing, incredible, bestest best friend ever. You, me, and Chut have been together since kindergarten. Then we met Dee in the 6th grade. And Aly in 8th. And of course the last two of our crew. But you and I have had each other’s backs for years. And we always will. You have fought for me. You have fought over me. You have protected me. You have defended me. And I am so happy for you. I am happy that you found your literal Prince. You found your happily ever after. I can't wait to see you in your wedding gown. I can't wait to celebrate your marriage. I can't wait to celebrate you becoming a Queen. Here's to you bestie.” Nina said in her toast to Shanelle.

Nina was right. Nina and Shanelle have been through it all together and have remained at each other's side.

“I love you, baby. So goddamn much. I would not be where I am in life without you by my side. Without all of you really. I rely on all of you so much. You are my rocks. My loves. My best friends. My sisters. My everything. I could never do what I do without any of you. I love you girls so much. Each of you deserves true love and unbridled happiness. That is my hope, my wish, and my prayer for each of you.” Shanellw said with tears in her eyes.

“We love you!” the girls said to her.

Shanelle dried her eyes as their food was delivered to the table. They had a full spread delivered to them.

“Now THIS is how you spend your last days! Damn good alcohol! Damn, good friends! And damn good food!”

The girls dug into their food and alcohol. As they ate, a small gift box was delivered to Shanelle with a note attached.

“What's in the box?” Dee asked.

Shanelle shrugged.

“Open it.” Aly piped up.

Shanelle unwrapped the box and looked inside before dying of laughter.

“What? What's so funny?” Rob asked.

Shanelle reached in and pulled out a box of condoms and a note. The girls died laughing.

“What the hell? Who would send you a box of condoms?” Robin asked while laughing.

Shanelle just shook her head.

“What's the note say?” Bron asked.

“There's a surprise waiting for you at the penthouse.” Shanelle read out loud.

“Ooh!” the girls said in unison.

Shanelle rolled her eyes.

“So what are you gonna do, Princess? Are you going to see what this surprise is or are you going clubbing with us?” Nina asked.

Shanelle sat and thought for a few, looking between the box of condoms and her friends then made her decision.

“Y’all go ahead and go party. I'm gonna take these and see what this so-called surprise is,” she said to her crew.

“Okay,” Nina replied.

“And no more than two random guys per person. I won't be able to explain any number higher than that to people.” Shanelle said to the girls.

The girls laughed before finishing their food and going their separate ways. When Shanelle got back to the condo it was quiet. And after looking around and not seeing anything she headed up to the rooftop pool.

That's when she saw the last person she'd ever expect to see sitting at the bar. Her ex.

“What in the hell are you doing here Cass?” she asked.

“Enjoying a drink and the view. How did you score a place like this anyway?” he replies.

Shanelle sat at the bar next to him.

“How did you get in here?” she asked.

Cassian reached into his pocket and pulled out a keycard that was identical to hers.

“This and directions to this place were mailed to me last week. Then I got assigned to a prisoner transport team here,” he replied before pouring himself another drink.

“A prisoner transport? The Marshals don't do prisoner transports.”

“I know. But apparently, I came highly recommended so here I am.” he said as he finished his drink, “damn this bourbon is good. What's the name of this brand?”

“La Couronne Du Roi,” Shanelle replies.

“What does that mean?” he asked.

“It's French. It means The King’s Crown,” she replies.

“How do you know?” he asked.

“Because I've had it before,” she replied.

Cass rolled his eyes.

“Of course, the Princess has had this before. The Princess has had everything before.”

“Shut up before I take that bottle and crack it over your head.” she sneered.

“Threatening a Federal Agent is against the inst law Princess.”

“It would be if we were back in America. But we're not. You are however a Federal Agent in a foreign country where you have no jurisdiction, jackass.”

“I have never been able to figure out how you do that.”

“Do what?” she asks.

“Always get away with it,” he replies.

“I've always been the smart one between the two of us.”

Cass rolled his eyes.

“Whatever,” he said before pouring another drink.

“Poor Golden Boy. You never did like hearing the truth.”

“What makes you think you’re smarter than me?” he asks.

“Well for starters, I've never been arrested for breaking into our principal’s home. Nor have I ever failed World Studies 3 years in a row,” she replied.

“First of all, I got arrested because of you! It was your idea!”

“It was a suggestion you idiot! But you and your hero complex took it too far. You’re lucky she never pressed charges.”

“And secondly, it's not my fault that Mr. Griswald’s voice puts people to sleep!”

“Funny how you were the only student that went to sleep in his class. The rest of us seemed just fine.”

Cass let out a frustrated sigh.

“Why are you so infuriating?” he asked.

“Is it the fact that I’m infuriating or is it the fact that I’m the only person in the world that has ever held you accountable for your own actions because everyone else lets you slide because of those green eyes?” she replied.

Cass went quiet as Shanelle propped her chin on her left hand with a smugly satisfying smirk.

“Well, Hotshot. You gonna answer the question or not?” she asked.

Cass mean mugged her.

“I don't like you.” he sneered.

She leaned in closer.

“You're right. You don't like me, you love me,” she said as she snatched the bottle of bourbon away from him.

“Hey! I wasn't finished with that!”

“Yes, you are. You’re not about to drink up all my alcohol boy.”

“Give it back!”

“No.”

“Shanelle, do not make me chase you over a bottle.”

“You couldn't catch me even if you wanted to.”

“Is that a challenge Princess?” he asked.

A slow smirk bloomed across her face.

“I don’t know Hotshot, you tell me,” she replied.

Cass shook his head.

“Stubborn brat.”

Shanelle scoffed.

“Pot. Kettle.”

And with that, the chase was on.

The two ran around the poolside area, with her evading him at every chance she got. It was just like old times when they were kids. He’d run after her on the blacktop until they were both out of breath and laughing. Like now.

“You give up yet?” she asked him.

“Never,” he replied, trying to catch his breath.

“You alright over there? You look a little outta breath kiddo.”

“I'm fine! Or at least I will be once I catch you.”

Off they went again. Running around the pool area again. They missed this. They missed the friendship between them. They ran around until they no longer could.

“Now do you give up?” she asked.

“You know what? Fine! Keep your stupid bottle.” he replied completely out of breath.

“Poor Golden Boy. He can catch America’s most dangerous but can't catch little ole me.”

Cass glared at her.

“How are you not out of breath?” he asked.

“Well, for one thing, I ran track for 10 years. Secondly, because I ran track I know how to breathe while I run. And third, you can't run correctly because of your chicken legs.” she replied.

Cass groaned.

“You just had to get that dig in.”

Shanelle shrugged innocently.

“You know me.”

“All too damn well.”

She shook her head before tossing him the bottle.

“Took you long enough,” he said to her.

“Had to make you work for it.”

Cass took the top off the bottle and knocked it back.

“Tell your boyfriend to send me a bottle of this.”

“Get a pair of balls and ask him yourself.”

“I have balls!”

“And yet his are bigger than yours.”

“Careful Princess. I do have a pair of cuffs on me,” he warned her.

“Look at you trying to be kinky. And failing miserably.”

“I know you're into all that weird shit.”

Shanelle rolled her eyes.

“If you’re scared, Golden Boy just say so.”

“I'm not scared. I'm Casssian Keane. I can do anything.”

“Except keep up with me.”

“I can keep with you.”

“You always were a terrible liar,” she said before turning to head back inside. He chased after her.

“Where you going Princess?” he asked.

She tossed him the box of condoms.

“Had to grab those,” she replied.

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