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bratbarzal · 3 months ago

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On Your Side (NH13) / Chapter Five

Pairing: Nico Hischier x Fem!OC Poppy Jensen*

*I say it's an OC, it's just a name and third person POV. I use minor character descriptions because I don’t get on with writing vague reader inserts/YN for long-form, story heavy fics, but I will generally try to avoid including race and body type or really any physical descriptors. I’m always open to feedback on my writing, or how to be more inclusive.

WC: 17k (holy moly)

Chapter Warnings: I tried to sprinkle some fluffy flashbacks and smutty references later in here just to lighten the mood but this is angsty!! probably cursing I honestly can't remember, and serious warnings rn mentions of hacking/gossip blogs/blackmail/cyber bullying/nudes being leaked, talia is her own warning tbh. I tried not to make a cliched ex comes in between them plot and idk how it comes across but yeah I was trying to toe the line between it being interesting/different and then going too far and not being able to write around it which is why the plot kind of fixes itself quick and is a leeeetle bit bad but there's some unresolved bitterness in that relationship for sure lmao she has a LOT 2 say!! did I mention there's angst in here? insecurity/self-doubt and miscommunication!!! in abundance!!! but!! luke is a cutey patootie in this I wrote his part with a lil smile on my face 💖 also a ridiculous conversation about huffing glue lmao

Series Masterlist

Previous Part (Chapter Four)

A/N: ok so in the grand scheme of things this is both a filler chapter and also like a pivotal point in the story to set something later up, but when I was planning this entire fic out, the only directive I gave myself for this specific chapter was insert angst. you wouldn't believe the amount of times I've written and rewritten and gone back and forth on what's in here. it's the kind of instruction only a complete melon would give themselves and I clearly just hate myself in ways that are spooky and strange to submit myself to this kind of torture.

and I hear your cries of hasn’t this fic just been angst so far??? yes!! you may be correct!! but you don’t get a rainbow without a bit of rain hun!!! grab an umbrella!!! I promise good will come of this lmao

I'm sorry this one took so long, it's the only chapter I didn't have any kind of plan or direction for obviously and I tried to come up with so many different options for the talia plot before I landed on whatever this is, but the next one I do have some scenes written out in my plan so shouldn't be as long in between. my goal has always been a chapter a week but like I said the other day work has been a lot for me the past couple of weeks so I am genuinely sorry for making you wait!!

you guys were very fun and very kind to me after the last chapter so please please please lets keep the good vibes going come chat to me about your thoughts about the fic about the weather about anything!! 💓

Nico

When Nico and Talia had first started dating, there had been an element of excitement to the dynamic. Nico hadn’t properly dated anyone in a while - had casual flings here and there, and for the most part spent his time swallowing down his burgeoning feelings for his best friend - and there was a novelty to starting something with someone new.

He had all the intentions of building something serious with her. She was fun, got on with his friends, had ties close to home that meant he wouldn’t be putting a wedge between the two of them should he want to travel back in his breaks, and sinking his teeth into the challenges of a relationship was something that actually intrigued him.

He liked planning dates, liked buying gifts to see that buzz of joy and gratitude it would elicit, and he liked the companionship - liked having someone there when he came back from a long roadie or a tough string of games.

He liked it so much he never really opened his eyes to the fact that Talia didn’t.

She didn’t like the dates he planned - didn’t like the restaurants he chose, the movies he wanted to share with her, the bars him and the guys frequented. She didn’t like America, didn’t like their coffee shops, thought their pastries were packed with too much sugar, their portion sizes were too large for her ever to enjoy going for lunch, always complaining about feeling bloated and sluggish after every meal. She hated Jersey - wanted to spend all her time across the Hudson, looking down on everyone she met and everywhere they went together. She didn’t make much use of the gifts he bought her - let every bouquet of flowers die a quick, careless death, said the watch he bought her didn’t go with enough of her other jewellery and turned her nose up at every effort he made to make his apartment feel more like her home.

She wasn’t all that comforting when it came to companionship, either. Rolled her eyes when he came home aching and exhausted, went out without him on the days he was coming back from a roadie and returned home when he had long retired to his bed. She would always want to meet up with her girlfriends instead of hanging around the team, and only ever wanted to come to games if she could bring her own entourage - mostly to show off her connections and hardly ever to actually support him.

And so, despite the initial attraction, despite the excitement that first came with their blossoming relationship, Nico can only look at Talia with disinterest and frigidity now.

He barely greets her as he opens the door to his apartment, moving aside to let her in and waiting for her to trudge her small case in behind her before he closes it, leaning against the surface and watching her discard her bag and keys on the counter with familiarity.

When she turns to face him, running a hand through her hair and huffing out a big sigh, he takes in her dishevelled appearance.

Even when travelling, Talia usually takes great pride in her pristine exterior - hair blow-dried, outfit co-ordinated and steam-pressed to perfection, not a crease or stain in sight, and usually a light layer of makeup to cover the slight imperfections like the darkened under eyes and redness around her nose. This isn’t like her.

She looks like she’s been messing with her hair the whole 8 hour flight out and beyond, her eyes are rimmed-red with smudges of brown at the corners, her lips are chapped and swollen like she’s been crying, and her sweatpants don’t match her hoodie. It’s almost like she’d thrown on whatever she could find and caught the first flight out, fresh out of bed.

“What’s going on?” He cuts straight to the chase, losing all formality and courtesy. He should feel bad for his callous greeting, but she had broken up with him over text not even a month ago - she doesn’t exactly deserve outstretched arms and a warm embrace, he thinks.

“Hi Talia, how have you been, Talia? It’s nice to see you Talia.” She mocks, a frown overtaking her features immediately. “I’m absolutely amazing, thanks for caring, Nico!” Sarcasm spews from her tongue like pure venom, and his eyes practically roll into the back of his head.

Nico pushes himself off of the door, heavy footsteps leading him into his kitchen where he can make himself a coffee to get through this. His watch reads 6:05 - far too early for her antics - and rising to her nagging is only going to make things worse.

“Do you want a drink?” He asks, as he busies himself with his coffee press, unable to look at her too long without the pricks of guilt irritating him. He doesn’t even know what he has to feel guilty about.

“I’ll get it myself,” she scoffs, venturing over to the fridge and pouring out some orange juice - her movements around his space eerily natural. She slams back most of the drink as he works out how to brew his coffee - but she sees right through him. He’s hardly ever used the press before, and he’s just doing so now to avoid her in whatever capacity he can. “I need money.”

Nico’s almost positive he hasn’t heard her right - that there’s some kind of mix up between her standard German and his Swiss - and he slowly turns to properly face her, brows slanting into a deep frown as he assesses her expression.

She has a hand on her hip, her jaw set and her eyes darkened and serious.

“You have money.”

Talia comes from money - her father is some kind of film producer and her mother an artist, if Nico remembers correctly - and she makes good money, herself. She’s been a print model since she was scouted in some market in Munich since she was 15, has had her face plastered in ads in magazines and catalogues around the world. She’s hardly strapped for cash. She gets things gifted to her by whatever company she can get a hold of. What could she possibly need him to give her money for?

“Not enough.” Her tone is cold, her demeanour the same, and if Nico can still gauge her emotions correctly, there’s an element of blame that she is starting to shift towards him, and his whole body starts to feel tense.

“Not enough for what?”

He can’t quite tell what feeling washes over him - worry, at the thought she’s gotten herself into some kind of trouble, stress, at the thought this could be a recurring thing, and potentially pity, at the way she’s so clearly carrying the weight of something heavy - something she’s lugged all the way across the Atlantic on a long haul flight with her.

“Not enough to pay the guy who’s blackmailing me not to leak the videos that I sent to you.”

“What vide-“ he bites back, and the immediate arch of her brow tells him all he needs to know. “Oh.”

Shit.

“Oh? That’s all you have to say?” She sneers, fury in her gaze and dismay in her tone. “You’ve ruined my life, and all I get is an oh?”

“Whoa, slow down, I’ve ruined your life?”

Nico has never been one to shame any girl for sending explicit pictures - he’d been more than willing to receive them at the time - but he hadn’t ever forced her hand. He hadn’t even asked her for them, in the first place.

She’d taken it upon herself to spice things up, as she had put it at the time, when the team had gone on the road in early December. It was just after he’d returned from his injury - a time in which he’d spent mentally distanced from her as he’d focused so much on getting back to the game, their relationship consisting mainly of not-so-passionate sex to avoid aggravating his injury and hardly of any kind of meaningful conversation - and she had thought that keeping him on his toes on a roadie would mean he’d come back more interested than ever.

If he’d been looking out for red flags at the time, he might have caught that blaring one; needing to try new things only a few months into a relationship to keep it fun and light.

He’d been in his hotel room in Seattle, freshly showered and ready to throw himself straight into bed when his phone had started to ping. It was suggestive texts at first, are you alone? And I’m thinking about you. Then it had been pictures, hands over lingerie and fingers between glossy, pouted lips.

And then videos, one after the other before he had any chance to respond - her phone set up far enough away that her whole body was in frame, touching herself while laying on his bed and calling out for him.

He had called her instead of sending anything back, and as he realises the severity of the situation, a selfish part of him is glad he did so.

“Talia, I didn’t even save those videos, and I definitely didn’t show them to anyone else.”

Nico could never. Not only for the fact that he was raised to be a decent human being, but he has a sister - if anyone ever did that to Nina, he’d tear them apart, limb from limb.

“You’re the only person I’ve ever sent anything to.” She seems to have made her mind up, and Nico feels as if his heart plummets through his torso at the realisation. She’s travelled all this way because she genuinely believes he’s the cause of this - that he’s shared intimate videos of her without her consent, to someone who would extort her for them. “And he sent me some pictures as proof, had information about me like the address of this apartment.”

“Talia, I swear on my mother’s life, I wouldn’t do that to you - to anyone, not ever.”

Tears well in her crystalline eyes, and Nico waits with bated breath as she assesses the situation in her head.

He isn’t a liar - he has never given her a reason to think he is one. In their time together, he had always been honest, always been loyal, and he hopes at the very least - despite her obvious distain for him now, and how little she ended up caring about their relationship in the end to cut it off in the way she did - she thought of him as kind.

He can do nothing but be patient, let her come to whatever conclusion on her own, and it’s only when he spots the quiver in her bottom lip that he takes an apprehensive step forward, ready to console her if needed.

She practically throws herself into his arms, wrapping her own around his waist and bawling into his chest, and all he can do is hold her and wait. He tries to rub a soothing hand up and down her back, holding the other against her head as her body wracks with sobs. All he can feel is the pounding of his own heartbeat, pulsing throughout his entire body until it’s all he can hear, too.

Nico does his best to comfort her, shushing and cooing and whispering how it’s going to be alright, but it does little to help. She’s beyond relief.

“There’s a guy who said he can track whoever is doing this to me,” she sniffles as she pulls herself away. “He’s in Jersey City Heights, he’s some sort of ethical hacker, whatever that means, I’m going to meet him and he’s gonna go through my phone.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” Nico doesn’t even hesitate to ask - if not to protect her, and make sure she isn’t unknowingly getting herself into an even more dangerous situation, then to protect himself too. If someone has Talia’s pictures, and she only sent them to him, there’s a possibility his phone had been hacked, and if this guy is as ethical as he says, maybe he can check Nico’s stuff, too, just to be safe.

She gives him an appreciative smile, eyes still glassy and cheeks flushed. “I’d really appreciate that.”

“I’m gonna shower, then we can go. You can grab whatever to eat while you’re waiting.” He backs away from her completely, only just able to acknowledge the ache in his muscles once the intensity of the situation has settled a little, and he just needs to stand under the steaming spray and clear his mind before he properly immerses himself in her company.

He has a lot more than this whole mess that he needs to think about, and maybe a shower can bring him a little clarity on how exactly he’s going to explain himself to the beautiful girl whose bed he had abruptly left not even an hour ago.

“Why are you dressed?”

Nico stops in his tracks.

When he had got back to his apartment, he’d made a little effort for it to seem like he’d been there all night. He’d gone through to his bedroom, mussed up his sheets to make it seem like he had been sleeping in them - and not with the anticipation that Talia was going to be entering his bedroom, but with her, he never knows - trying to retrace the steps of his usual routine before he goes to bed, he had closed all the blinds, had moved his gym bag by the door.

But he hadn’t changed.

Still adorned in his sweatshirt and jeans from the night before, the clothing feels all that much heavier on his body as she brings attention to it, and he quickly racks his brain to come up with a valid excuse that doesn’t rouse further suspicion.

“I fell asleep in these clothes.” As easy as the lie comes out, he doesn’t feel great saying it. Doesn’t feel like erasing the night he had shared with Poppy is for the greater good, even if it is just to Talia, but avoiding another difficult conversation is a must right now - especially when he’d already lied to her on the phone. “Was out late with the guys last night, Timo threw a party for my birthday.”

“Right,” she drags out, and when he turns back around, she casts a scrutinising glance over him, top to bottom. “Sorry, I forgot.”

“No worries,” he shrugs, genuinely not offended. She has no reason to remember his birthday. Not anymore. “Like I said, help yourself to whatever, I’ll try not to be long.”

When he undresses for his shower, he’s thankful he hadn’t had the foresight to change in anticipation of Talia’s arrival. He probably would have donned a t-shirt and some shorts, oblivious to the visible indents on his thighs where Poppy had dug her nails in as she took him in her mouth.

His chest and torso are littered with scratches, some faint, some a little deeper, and he can’t get the right angle to see his back but he imagines they’re the same - the memory of her clutching at him as both of their climaxes approached is vivid enough for him to picture the marks she left behind.

He groans as the thought of her brings back that swirling feeling in the pit of his stomach, as he notices the blooming arousal pool there, and feels himself harden as he steps under the spray of his shower.

If his phone had been on do not disturb through the night, he could be in the shower with Poppy, instead.

He could have woken up to her in his arms, could have pecked at her sleep-swollen lips until it brought her out of her slumber, and spent his morning making up for lost time just like he had promised her last night. He could have made light work of the pleasure he had given her the night before - could have had her underneath him in her bed, tangled up in the mess of sheets and falling apart before they shared a morning shower, where he’d have held her up against the tiles and would’ve moved into her until they couldn’t tell where he ended and she began. He’d have made her breakfast, something sweet, so that as she sat and watched him atop the kitchen counter he had tasted her on for the first time not even 12 hours before, he’d press his tongue into her mouth after she had eaten and savour the flavour of strawberries that had settled between her lips.

Instead, he’s here, turning the temperature of his water down until any and all excitement in his body is dampened, and all he can focus on is the effect the cold has on all his other aching muscles.

Once he has showered and gotten dressed - and has come to the conclusion that any further thoughts about Poppy need to wait until the Talia problem is resolved and out of his hands, he finds his ex girlfriend sprawled across his couch, music playing from the speaker in the corner, and taking helping herself to a whole new level.

Her case is opened where she had left it by the door, and she’s set herself a little vanity up on his coffee table, fixing her appearance before they leave.

She’s changed out of her mismatched sweats, has dressed herself in jeans and a sweater, and has found an extension cable long enough for her to plug in whatever hot tool she’s currently running through her hair.

“You take the longest showers in the history of man,” she rolls her eyes, not even casting a glance his way as she focuses on her own reflection in the little mirror she must have brought with her. “I do not want to know what it is you get up to in there.”

“I was barely 30 minutes, are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, almost,” she runs the tool through her bangs until they flick out at the edges on either side of her face, and it reminds him of all the times he had watched her while waiting for her to finish getting ready. It makes him feel uneasy how familiar it all is, how she’s so quickly made herself at home again in his space.

He wants to tell her she needs to pack her stuff back up, that she won’t be staying here and needs to give his keys back, but the weight of the situation at hand dawns on him before he can open his mouth.

He’ll wait until they get back later, his decision depending on the outcome of their visit to her hacker friend.

As much as he doesn’t want her around, he isn’t going to kick her out with no place to go if her life is still shrouded in unsafe circumstances.

Talia unplugs her stuff, wraps the cord around the handle of the brush she was using, and places it on a mat she must have brought with her so it doesn’t burn through the surface of the table. “Kay, let’s go.”

She marches ahead of him, picking up her bag and keys on the way out and leaving him to lock up while she calls for the elevator. They wait together in silence, his heart thudding an anxious rhythm in his chest as he anticipates the arrival of the elevator - and thankfully, it arrives empty.

He tries to distance himself from her as they enter, him standing in one corner, and hoping she takes the other, but she doesn’t quite get the memo, standing obliviously in the centre as she types away to someone on her phone and he presses the button to go to the basement.

Nico watches the numbers go down with bated breath. His floor, the next, the next one after that, and he uses any good will he has left with the universe to hope and pray it skips the floor coming up - but, as is just his luck, the elevator comes to a stop with a soft thud, and the doors open to reveal the very situation he’s been hoping to avoid.

Jack walks straight in, eyes cast down to the phone in his hands, distractedly typing away and not even noticing the button for the parking level has been pressed before he pushes it, himself.

Luke notices straight away, halting in his movements to enter the space as his gaze flickers between the two people already occupying it.

He diverts his eyes when they meet Nico’s head dropping as he steps in and stands beside his brother, uttering a quick greeting of, “Hey, Cap.”

Jack’s attention is captured immediately, spinning at an almost dizzying speed to face his captain, phone disregarded into his back pocket. “Schao! I thought you’d be at-,”

He’s thankfully able to tune into his perception before he carries on with his train of thought, a subtle movement in his peripheral diverting his gaze to the figure stood to the side of Nico.

“Talia. Hi.”

“Hi, Jack.” Nico cringes inwardly at how disinterested she sounds. “Luke.” Talia had never really cared for Nico’s teammates - especially not the younger guys like Jack and Luke. She was quick to pass judgement, making comments on their maturity, or apparent lack-thereof, and wasn’t the biggest fan of how close Nico was with the pair. Didn’t like the time or attention he gave them considering the close quarters they lived in, and had always been resentful. She always claimed her English wasn’t good enough to hold a proper conversation with them, but he’d seen her enough around her American friends to know it wasn’t true.

“We’re just meeting up with some of the guys for breakfast.” Jack says, cautiously, in an attempt to fill the silence. The invitation remains unspoken, but Nico can tell in the way the younger boy cocks his head and meets his eye that he’s gauging his current situation for the morning.

“We have plans.” Talia must be able to tell what he was getting at, too and Nico can see Luke’s eyes narrow as soon as the word resonates in his head. Plans. Pre-meditated. Made before she had sprung all of this on him within the last hour or two. Panic stirs within him, and his throat itches to speak the truth, but it’s just not the right time to do so with Talia stood beside him. If he starts getting defensive, she’ll start asking questions, and the boys will have to bear witness to him skirting around the matter of Poppy.

It’s not a good look no matter which way he swings it. He’s stuck in a thick, dark, tarry mess of not wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings but making all the wrong decisions. A minefield of not knowing how to explain himself without raising a million questions on either side, and hoping one of the brothers might toe the line of the boundaries of their relationship and just straight up ask why Talia is here.

He knows he has fucked up without the way neither of them are looking him in the eye.

He knew it the second Poppy’s door had locked behind him this morning - he doesn’t need Luke refusing to meet his gaze, doesn’t need Jack’s shifting side eye to tell him he’s made a mistake.

“I’ll text you later.” Nico says, mainly to Jack but still trying to meet his brother’s eyes with no luck. It’s an attempt to say something, without saying anything. A silent beg not to jump to conclusions about what they’ve seen - and, although he knows they wouldn’t, not to tell anyone else. Not whichever of the guys they are meeting up with, not anyone else on the team, and definitely not Poppy.

“Yeah, sure,” Jack mutters in a poor attempt to hide his discomfort, and an even worse attempt at masking his relief when the doors ping open on the parking level.

“Have fun with your plans,” Luke huffs out, his tone like a tight fist clutching at Nico’s chest despite his courteous choice of words.

“We will,” Talia forces a smile. Nico gets the feeling she isn’t as oblivious to the tension as he hopes she is.

The four of them separate into their pairs with mumbled goodbyes, Jack and Luke heading off to Luke’s car on one side of the garage, and Nico and Talia heading to his on the other, and Nico can’t even let out a sigh of pseudo-relief before Talia jumps on him.

“That was weird.”

“We broke up, they weren’t expecting to see us together.” He quickly excuses as he starts the car up, turning on the heat and hoping the soft buzz of the air will fill the silence enough that she doesn’t feel the need to talk.

“It’s been like 3 weeks, most couples get back together after their first breakup.”

Has it only been 3 weeks? He thinks, shuddering at how little time had actually passed between her sending that text and him restoring balance to his life.

“We’re not most couples,” he shrugs, shutting that train of thought immediately as he starts to make his way out of the parking garage, ascending the ramp where the doors open up to reveal the dull beam of the winter morning sun. “You dumped me over text a week before Christmas, we’re not getting back together.”

“Oh yeah, I bet you were real cut up about it,” she jibes, sarcastically. “Probably landed straight in the bed of some desperate puck bunny more than happy to take your mind off of how awful I was to you.”

His mind immediately goes to Poppy, to last night, to her bed - and despite the complete bullshit Talia has fabricated in her head, despite how much he wants to tell her she has it all wrong, he can’t bear to twist himself even further into knots to skirt around mentioning the girl who did make him better.

“We’re not having this conversation right now.” He decides, tapping at the screen in the console of his car until he brings up the navigation. “Put in the address you need, we’re not too far from The Heights.”

The location she enters into the system is for an unassuming condo in a quiet, suburban area. The neighbourhood itself is picturesque, the buildings colourful, the paths lined with trees that seemed to flourish even in the midst of winter, and when Nico pulls up across the street, he notices the amount of families around - parents walking their kids to school and couples with dogs getting their morning steps in. It’s the last place he imagines some hacker to be shacked up, but maybe that’s the point.

He still doesn’t entirely understand the ethical part.

“It’s the one with the red brick and the balcony,” Talia points to the other side of the road as she unbuckles her seatbelt, and Nico looks over at the building as if he’s going to be able to see all the secrets stored within it.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, number 414.” She shows him the messages she has exchanged with the guy, and sure enough, the address matches up. “C’mon, the sooner we get in there, the sooner we can figure this out.”

He follows her across the street, adjusting the cap he wears atop his head and making sure it conceals his identity from anyone with eyesight good enough to catch it, trying to shrug off the discomfort of the whole situation as he waits for someone to pick up the buzzer Talia relentlessly presses.

He hears a different kind of buzz, lighter, like the manual zoom of a camera, and cranes his neck to assess their surroundings as they wait, before he catches sight of the device in the top corner of the porch, facing directly onto them.

He hears the click of a lock as soon as his eyes make contact with the thing, and cautiously tries the handle on the door until it pushes all the way down, letting them into the building.

The door to the ground floor condo is open, and stood in the entrance is a guy no older than 20, dressed in all black with dark, beady eyes framed by wire-rimmed glasses. If Nico could find it in him to see the humour in the situation, he’d laugh at how he looks like Luke - a mop of curly brown hair, tall with a slim build and ever so slightly poor posture.

He straightens up as the two of them approach, Nico keeping Talia behind him as he assesses the safety of the situation. If they’re being lured into some kind of trap, he could definitely take this guy - he can’t even maintain direct eye contact, never mind manage to subdue a man of Nico’s stature.

“You didn’t tell me you were bringing someone, Talia.”

He’s soft-spoken, his voice ever so nasally, and despite the fact that he’s talking to the girl behind him, his gaze has settled on Nico’s chest.

“My name’s Nico.” He introduces himself, holding out a hand to shake. He thinks he can write him off as a threat, for now, and if making him feel comfortable encourages him to help them, he wants to put him at ease. “

“I know who you are.” He doesn’t shake Nico’s hand. “I’m Myles. Come in.”

Myles doesn’t wait for the two of them, marching back into his place and leaving the door open for Talia and Nico to enter and close behind them.

Nico isn’t surprised by the space - from his brief encounter with the resident so far, it fits him to a tee; neat, impersonal, furniture that looks fresh out of a catalogue. He follows him over to the corner of his living room, a PC set up with several monitors that he can’t tell are on until they’re standing straight in front of them.

Myles throws himself down into the large swivel chair, spinning until he’s facing the two of them and crossing his arms over his torso with disinterest. “So, nudes?”

Straight to the point. Nico can’t exactly be mad at it.

Talia steps out from behind him, handing her unlocked phone to Myles. “The messages started last week, just after New Years. Straight to my number, not in DMs or anything, but the number doesn’t even come up for me to call it from another phone or anything, just says unknown.”

Myles takes her phone and plugs it into his setup without even looking at whatever she has opened on it, and Nico watches as the screens come alive with mirrors of the device and some other apps that launch as soon as it connects.

“That’s more helpful than you think, they have to use an app to be able to anonymously text you, makes it easier to identify them.”

The way Myles talks is monotonous and detached, but the way he works is anything but. His fingers move quicker than Nico’s eyes can track on his keyboard, typing away at whatever as different things flash up and leave his screen. It like something straight out of a spy movie.

“So we can find out who it is just from that?” He asks, arms folding over his chest as he watches in almost-awe.

“Not exactly. If it is a hacker, I could identify their signature. Doesn’t mean I could identify them, but we can work around it potentially.”

Talia throws herself down on the couch behind them exasperatedly, sighing loudly and making her displeasure known. “You told me you could track them down, that’s what I’m paying you to do.”

“I told you I could help you, I didn’t say I could specifically track anyone, that’s not how this works.”

“How does it work then?” Nico asks.

Myles wheels his chair to the side to make room for Nico to get closer, and starts walking him through the process, pointing through the different apps he uses and explaining how he uses them. One deciphers which app the person used to message Talia. Once that’s been deduced, he uses another to enter a backdoor into that app’s servers, perusing through them until he finds the account that sent the text, making sure the date, time and then content line up. Once he’s found the account, he can see the other texts sent from it, and a gallery spreads across two screens, with maybe hundreds of pictures, videos, messages and transactions all to or from that same account.

“You’re telling me you have the power to do all this and you don’t use it to like rob banks or something?”

“Ethical hacker, clue’s in the name.” Myles shrugs. Nico looks back to Talia, her jaw set as she picks at her nails out of boredom. It’s probably taken about fifteen minutes for this guy to work an absolute miracle, and she looks like she couldn’t care less. “We use all this information, and the access I have on the server, to shut this dude down and cut his con before he can do it to anyone else.”

“Whoa whoa,” Talia shoots up, “Won’t that make him mad? Make him just post all the photos?”

“I doubt it,” the hacker comments, bringing up a couple of the photos on the screens, some of Talia, some of another girl, making Nico divert his eyes. “They’re not even real.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Excuse me?”

Talia and Nico both question at the same time, leaning in to get a proper look to confirm what is being told to them. The other pictures Myles had brought up, the ones of other girls, are actually kind of the same. The same poses, the same backgrounds, the same outfits, or lack thereof, just different faces and different hair.

“They’re called deep fakes. Photoshop, essentially.” He has that aloof tone to his words again, and Nico can’t quite believe how simple it seems for him to say. “They put a bunch of your pictures into an AI generator and give it instruction, like put this face on a body posed like this or wearing that. I’d assume the video they have is the same.”

“How is that even possible?” Talia gasps, pushing herself forward and snatching the mouse from Myles’ grasp. She clicks into what she assumes is the video, and it starts playing before she can think better of it, thankfully without any sound.

It’s Talia - that much is obvious from the initial close up of her face - but Nico doesn’t recognise anything else about it. He doesn’t recognise the room she’s in, the bed she’s on, the things she’s doing. He’s never seen this before. It’s definitely not one of the videos she had sent him, and when he looks closer, he realises the little moles on her ribs aren’t even there.

None of it is real.

“You said he sent you the photos? You didn’t realise they weren’t the ones you took?” He can’t conceal the bite in his tone, his brows furrowing as he looks at her in disbelief. She’s flown out here, disrupted his peace, blamed him for blackmailing her, and she can’t even recognise what is or isn’t her own body.

“They looked real, I-,” Her shock disappears as quickly as it had come about, her mood shifting and a glare all of a sudden being directed at her ex boyfriend. “I wouldn’t have accused you if they didn’t look real, Nico.” She snaps, frowning at him like this is his fault. “You have no idea what it’s like to be threatened like that, I won’t have you blame me for panicking.”

Slivers of guilt seep into his subconscious, and he takes a deep breath, diverting his gaze uneasily and letting out a big sigh.

He knows he should be a little more compassionate, but there’s panicking, and then there’s this.

She had accused him of ruining her life.

“What about the rest of it?” Nico asks, “Like how did he get her number or have my address? You said he had other information?”

“He did,” Talia nods, looking over to Myles.

“The address he probably got when he got your number, and he could have got that from anywhere. Could be something as small as you ordering something online and the store having a data breach, or clicking a link that shared your IP address, and getting your phone information from that.” Myles starts his typing again, keeping a tight grip on his mouse so that it can’t be snatched again. “I could probably find out actually, they’re pretty easy to spot, do you clear your history often?”

“I wouldn’t even know how to do that,”

“Perfect,” Again, his fingertips work at lightening speed, and Nico watches as instagram opens on one of the screens. “Yeah, a DM sent to you from… Devils_tea. You opened a link to a shared drive to upload some pictures, the drive probably had malware and the pictures have location metadata.”

Nico rolls his eyes, that small ebb of pity washing almost completely away, and before Talia can stop him, Myles carries on. “Some of the pictures you sent them are the ones they used for the AI photos, look your face in this one is the exact same as this photo they threatened to leak.”

Nico recognises these photos. The ones that had been plastered all over social media when their relationship had leaked. Pictures of them back in Switzerland, on a weekend trip to Ibiza, selfies of them in his apartment, and even a picture of the two of them with his parents back at his family home in Valais.

He has been far too oblivious to Talia’s games for far too long, he realises.

Of course she had been the one to leak everything - who else would have had those photos - but he hadn’t even considered it would be her; she had faced the harshest aftermath for it, why would she subject herself to all the subsequent grief that came with people knowing about their relationship?

Thank God for this guy’s lack of social cues, Nico thinks, or he would never have known that for as long as they had been together, she had been violating his revered privacy and trust.

“Nico, that wasn’t-,” Talia’s panic is evident, wide eyes, trembling hands raised in defence, “I must have been hacked,”

“Actually, there’s no-,” Myles begins to interject, fingers working again to fact check, but Nico doesn’t need him to validate what he already knows.

“Shut up,” Talia snarls, with a finger pointed at him, “You don’t know what you’re talking about, we’re done here.” She reaches forward to snatch her phone back, yanking out the wire that connects it to his monitors and throwing it onto the desk. “We’re leaving, and if you think I’m paying you anything, you’re deluded.”

Talia marches past them and straight out of the condo, slamming every door she possibly can behind her. Nico can only cringe as the sounds of her stomping footsteps echo until they fade out - until she’s probably outside and waiting for him back at his car.

“Doesn’t she want me to shut this thing down?”

“I’ll pay you.” Nico sighs, reaching into his pocket for his phone and trying to push down the feeling that arises when he’s met with a blank lock screen.

Poppy hasn’t messaged him.

Not that he deserves for her to make it easy, to let him off the hook and pretend he hasn’t royally fucked things up with her.

“If you stop him, does he still have all the photos? He could still release them?”

“Yeah, but they’re pretty easy to validate as fakes, especially when you have the source material. I don’t think this guy is sophisticated enough for a full blown hack into her phone for the real thing. I couldn’t find evidence of any breach of her cloud or her device.”

Nico nods, but the information does little to quell the anxiety that squeezes his chest in a vice-like grip.

This whole morning has been nothing but a giant waste of his time. From the second his eyes opened, to this moment right now, he’s made nothing but mistakes.

Not putting his phone on sleep mode before he and Poppy went to bed had been a mistake. Taking Talia’s call had been a mistake. Not waking Poppy up had been a mistake. Leaving without a note, without a text, leaving at all - it had all been one error after another, and all he has left to do is face up to the fact.

He can’t do anything to dwindle the panic rousing in every fibre of his being, the scarring marks left by torturous lashings of regret that whip at his skin.

He’s never felt so ashamed of himself, in such disbelief at his own decisions.

Why didn’t he just wake her?

She’s the most level-headed, acceptable person he knows. She would have understood. He hadn’t had a reasonable explanation at the time, and he doesn’t really have one now - but she would have accepted it, whatever he could have told her, she would have listened, waited until he could give her more.

He needs to see her, to explain, before it’s too late.

If he thinks about the feeling settling in his stomach, if he can compare it to anything, it’s like running from a blazing inferno of doubt and insecurity, licks of fire racing to catch up to him, the soles of his feet pressing into the sizzling ground - and Poppy is the cool embrace of safety.

She is light cracking through a window he just needs to break through to make it out.

If he can get to her quick enough, if he runs, and runs, maybe he’ll make it before he’s jiggling at a red hot handle that won’t move, won’t give, won’t budge.

If he can just talk to her, maybe the morning from hell will be outweighed by the days of resilience, weeks of efforts, years of loving her in whatever capacity, and the promise of something better.

He just needs to get rid of Talia.

The car journey back to his apartment is carried out in a deafening silence. She had tried to talk to him when he’d made his way out of Myles’ condo, when he had found her waiting by his Mercedes with crossed arms and a sour look on her face, but he’d told her he didn’t want to hear it, that they’d deal with it in private.

He hardly wanted a showdown with her in the middle of the street.

And so, she sat in his passenger seat, jaw set, glaring out the window and letting out the occasional huff or puff for attention that he wasn’t entertaining.

The elevator ride up to his place had been the same. Silent, filled with the type of tension you could cut with a knife, and all he could do was ignore her continued petulance and take deep breaths to calm himself down. In through his nose, out through his mouth, overlooking the way she tapped her foot in his peripheral vision, and almost audibly rolled her eyes every few seconds.

“Would it have killed you to defend me in there?” She scoffs as soon as the door closes behind them in his apartment, “You just let him accuse me of all that stuff and completely invade my privacy!”

Nico screws his eyes shut and pinches the bridge of his nose.

He can’t blow up, can’t stoop to her level. He won’t feel good after the fact. He knows how Talia operates, should have known she’d immediately play the victim card, and he isn’t falling into the trap of arguing to the point of being in the wrong.

He’ll say something he regrets and she’ll use it to her advantage, somehow.

“You asked him to go through your phone, Talia.” He sighs, making his way over to the kitchen and getting himself some water. Chugging at it does little to soothe the burning feeling prickling at the back of his mouth, or the itch of his tongue to spit out a scathing retort. “He’s shut down the guy behind it, he can’t message you or anyone else with any more threats, you should be happy.”

“I should be happy?” She follows him wherever he tries to get away, crowding his space and jabbing a pointed finger into his arm. “You have no idea what I’ve been going through this past week. I thought my career was over! How was I supposed to know it was fake?”

“You didn’t even look at the pictures-,”

“Because I was panicking! I was upset, you can’t expect me to be able to recognise what’s been photoshopped when I’m scared like that!”

“But you can fly straight over here and pin the blame on me for ruining your life? You weren’t too upset to point the finger, Talia,”

“Don’t be an asshole, Nico, it doesn’t suit you.”

“I’m being the asshole? You don’t even care about the trail of destruction you leave behind you, do you? You send private pictures of us, of me, of my family to random people online who you don’t even know, for what, Talia? For money?”

“I don’t need their money-,”

“So it was just for the attention? You get to parade our relationship around like it means nothing more to you than a title, and once you get your fifteen minutes and a few more instagram followers, you just jet back home and dump me over a text?”

“Oh my God,” she cries, flailing her arms dramatically, following him yet again as he makes his way into his living room, picking her stuff up after her that she had discarded here before they left and throwing it into her travel bag. “Stop playing the victim, for Christ’s sake, you’re hardly heartbroken over it. I know for a fact you’ve been hooking up with someone, one of the girls messaged me that they saw you leave a party with her on New Years!”

“So that’s what this is?” Nico snaps, pointing to her, to her stuff, “You think I’m moving on so you fly back out here and spring this bullshit on me, try to make me feel bad?”

“You have some nerve, Nico,” Talia scoffs, folding her arms across her chest and levelling him with a darkened glare.

“I have nerve? You’re the one who broke up with me out of nowhere and think that you can just march back here and make demands, Talia, blaming me for something that was entirely your own doing.” He’s getting sick of walking on egg shells around the topic. If she hadn’t have been messaging people she wasn’t supposed to, this would never have happened - it’s no one’s fault but her own, and as harsh as it may be, he wants to wash his hands of the whole thing. “Calling me in the middle of the night, telling me I ruined your life, saying I need to give you money?”

“Out of nowhere?” Of course she would only pick up on that, he thinks. “My God, you are so self-absorbed.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Do you think that dating you is easy?” She questions with a measured step toward him. “Do you think I want to spend my life waiting around for my boyfriend, only for him to only ever come home grumpy,” another step, “Or whiny,” and another, “Or too tired and achey to do anything? And that’s when you do come home at all and aren’t half way across the country with the communication skills of a candle. It’s a constant uphill battle trying to get even a second of your attention, Nico, so God forbid I tried to gain some kind of advantage from being with you.”

Her words are starting to cut, but he tries not to react, tries not to bite back. He can count several ways in which she gained an advantage being with him, just off the top of the head - a girl like Talia is never shy of attention. Her courting gossip blogs and sending them private information is probably just scraping the barrel of the ploys she made for exposure while she was with him.

“I didn’t break up with you out of nowhere, I put up with you and the whole circus that comes with you for months, but God, is it exhausting being with you.”

“You knew what you were getting into, Talia. You knew my job, knew my life.” They had met initially through mutual friends - hockey friends of his back home, even - and she has other friends who happen to be wives or girlfriends of athletes. She can’t say she came into the relationship completely oblivious to the downsides of dating a professional player.

“Not really,” she shrugs, “All the other guys can find some sort of balance, but not you. All the other girls get a proper boyfriend, someone who spends time doing what they want to do, who sticks up for them when their psycho fans start to turn on them, who doesn’t keep them hidden away like some dirty secret.”

“That isn’t fair, I can’t control that stuff, Talia, it’s not my fault.” He wants to point out that she was the one engaging in their gossip and riling them up, but he can’t keep harping on about something she refuses to acknowledge. He doesn’t have the time, patience or energy for it anymore.

The initial ‘leaking’ of their relationship had caused their first major fight. Fans online had somehow - although Nico can now hazard a guess as to how - found out about the two of them, had dug into Talia, her background, her family, her job, and had found some pretty toxic posts on her social media. They had been old posts, and she had told Nico that wasn’t the kind of person she was anymore - and he had no reason not to believe her, had never seen or heard her act in the ways she had online in what she called her misguided youth - but someone in the PR department at the Devils had cottoned onto the topic, and had warned Nico of speaking out in her defence when the pitchforks started to raise.

He’d told her he supported her, but he couldn’t do so publicly - not without upsetting people within the organisation he had worked so hard to gain the respect of - and she had told him she understood. They hadn’t been together that long, it would have been a little unreasonable for him to put her above his work in the ways she was expecting, but she clearly doesn’t see it that way, now.

“Maybe not, but if I’d have known that being with you meant having my life invaded, my career ruined, I never would have followed you back here, Nico.” She sounds more solemn now - regretful, even - and as deep as her words cut, she says it like a piece of advice, “I just hope whatever poor girl you’ve got tangled up in your mess this time knows what she’s getting herself into.”

“And what’s that?” His throat feels tight as he speaks all of a sudden, his resolve in defending himself fading, and he tries to gulp down whatever lump is forming there but the feeling doesn’t budge.

This is what she’s good at.

Turning the tables. Reducing him to uncertainty of himself, of his actions, of his memory of their time together.

“A one-sided relationship with a guy who will never be able to put her first.”

There’s a point in every game he has ever had the misfortune of losing, as the seconds count down in the final third, where he has to come to terms with the fact that there’s no possible way for him to win. It’s sort of comparable to the way his insides churn when he’s on a plane and it drops into descent, like his body is falling at a different speed to his surroundings, or the feeling he gets in his gut when he’s hiking, and he dares to take a peek over the edge of whatever mountainside he’s trekking up, where his body can predict the fall, and his mind has set on there being nothing he can do about it.

This feels like all those feelings.

“Whoever she is, and I know she exists, she doesn’t deserve that. It’s not fair.”

Nico’s heart pounds in his chest, echoing and thrumming in his ears until all he can hear is the beat reverberating, ricocheting around his skull.

He can put Poppy first.

So many parts of their lives are intertwined, it would be so easy to make it work. They work together, they live close, he speaks to her more than he speaks to anyone else in his circle. They’ve spent more time together as friends than he has with any other girlfriend he’s had.

He’s wanted her for years, of course he can do it.

Except, deep down, he knows he can’t. Being in a committed relationship with someone is an entirely different ball game to a friendship, no matter how close he and Poppy have been over the years.

He knows there’ll come a point soon into the season where he has to knuckle down and focus, can’t let anything or anyone distract him, and he’ll close himself off. It’s what he has always done. He gets in his head, starts to carry too much weight that he can’t shift until that final buzzer blows - and he can only hope that it happens with his team in the playoffs. Winning, thriving, succeeding. And for that to happen, he can’t prioritise anything other than the game he’s already dedicated his life to, his training, and most importantly, his team.

It isn’t about what he wants.

What have you done? He thinks, his chest aching.

Talia is right.

Poppy doesn’t deserve that.

She doesn’t deserve him only being there in the physical sense, if she even gets that at all. Doesn’t deserve him getting snappy and stressed, doesn’t deserve him not being able to give her time, or give her attention or affection like he wants to, or like she’s worthy of.

“I need to go.” He manages to choke out with a shake of his head, shouldering past her to pick up his jacket - needing to be out of this conversation and away from Talia. “Leave the keys, I don’t want you here when I get back.”

He needs to see Poppy.

He never should have left her - he wishes with everything in him that he had soaked up the time he had with her before everything came tumbling down around him. And somewhere deep within him, there is a fragile, wilting piece of hope that clings to the belief he can make things right. He just needs her to hone in on it. If anyone can reach into the deepest cracks of his insecurities, can show him he’s overthinking things and everything is not as hopeless as he has made it out to be, it will be Poppy.

Poppy

The first time Poppy had ever fallen asleep beside Nico was at a movie night in Jack’s old apartment he shared with Ty Smith. Jack had invited more people round than could reasonably fit in their living room, and so everyone was smushed in - each chair and every inch of floor space used to its full capacity.

Nico had attempted to save Poppy a space, to give him credit. He had scowled at each of his teammates who tried to throw themselves down in the tiny slot beside him - prime space, corner of the comfiest couch, facing the tv directly, a small table to the side where one could keep their drinks and snacks - only, by the time Poppy got there, he had barely gotten away with man-spreading to make room, so the small section of the couch between Nico and the arm rest had become her designated spot.

It was cosy, to put it nicely. He had to swing his arm over the back so that she wasn’t being assaulted by the hard dig of his shoulder with every laugh, and her closest leg was pretty much on top of his for most of the film.

She’d known the guys for almost a year - had been working in media, attending every game, home and away, and had integrated herself into the group pretty closely - and she felt pretty comfortable around everyone.

It wasn’t the kind of dynamic she had anticipated falling into when she first got the job with the Devils. She was supposed to start getting serious about her life - cracking down on mingling with co-workers and throwing herself into new social circles, and focusing on building a career for herself, climbing through the ranks and attaining the kind of success and happiness she could shove in her family’s disapproving faces - but the guys had charmed her.

Jack had been somewhat relentless in his pursuit of Poppy’s friendship. He rarely took no for an answer when it came to inviting her out. He was new to New Jersey - a much younger player in a slightly older team - and his rookie season had been rough, so it came naturally to Poppy to want to provide comfort. She introduced him to some of her friends, showed him her favourite spots close to his apartment, found him a decent barber, picked up extra fruit whenever she went to the farmers market near her parent’s house and took it over to his and Ty’s place when she came back home so she could mother him into having his 5-a-day as if he didn’t have access to the best nutrition coaches in the country. Despite her best efforts, Jack had weaselled his way under her skin in the way only a brother could.

Nico’s charm was entirely different.

Nico’s charm came in the form of convenience at first - in the oh I live that way, I can drive you and I have some time, I can do some media stuff for you type of way. Convenience blended into companionship - I haven’t eaten either, we should go for lunch together and I’ve been wanting to watch that movie, do you want to watch it with me?

It turned into grabbing food together, even on days neither of them were working - breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, even coffee or sometimes drinks if they could meet up with the rest of the team. It turned into him spending time at her place, whether it was helping her paint her apartment, putting up her new wardrobes, or just binging whatever crazy long series Poppy had decided to start over from the beginning - she provided him with a sense of familiarity and calm he couldn’t really find in anyone else he had met in his time in the states. She became his person, his home away from home, away from home.

And he became hers.

There wasn’t as much she had to escape; her job not as strenuous, the expectations of her not as high, but when things built up for her - when her mother became overbearing, or her latest endeavour into a relationship crashed and burned - Nico was there. He’d make sure she had a distraction, made sure she was looking after herself, and, in turn, would look after her as well. He made sure she got home safe on nights out, or when they returned from a roadie and landed late - he would always make sure to see her off into the comfort of her own home before he went back to his own.

And that first time she’d fallen asleep beside him, he’d done the same.

He’d wrapped an arm around her to make her as comfortable as possible for as long as he could, and when the movie had finished - when her face was burrowed into the side of his chest, soft snores falling from between her lips - he gently drew her back to consciousness with his hand stroking at her cheek.

She’d been a little startled, hand shooting up to wipe at her chin and thankful she hadn’t been drooling on him - although with the easy smile he was giving her, she had thought he of all people wouldn’t have minded.

“Movie’s done, do you need a ride home?” His voice had been low and soft as not to worsen her apparent disorientation, and his hand was still lingering by the side of her face.

She had nodded, blinking away her sleepiness, and working her way up from the couch and onto her feet, stretching out her muscles as Nico did the same.

The two of them bid their goodbyes to the rest of the guys, made their way together to Nico’s car, and he had driven her back to her apartment, chatting on the drive about work and training.

Poppy had been cramming to prepare for her interview for the Foundation at the time - had been getting herself seriously worked up, staying up late, getting up early, barely allowing herself any time for anything fun - and Nico had seen right through her.

He’d stopped her before she got out of the car, had held her hand, rubbing at her knuckles with his thumb, and had told her that she should get some proper rest, and that she was going to absolutely rock their world in her interview in a few days time. And, knowing she was going to ignore any instruction he gave to make herself some decent dinner and go to bed early, had ordered her favourite Japanese takeout to be delivered a good half an hour after she got inside, with a text that followed telling her to sleep straight after she had finished.

She’d never expected to drift asleep with him on Jack’s couch - had never expected to open her eyes to the sight of his looking so warmly back at her.

And she hadn’t expected the same thing this morning, because, as her eyes drifted open to the intrusive light peaking through the cracks in her curtains, it wasn’t the first time she had woken up.

The first time had been to subdued movements, a slight groan of her bed frame, and the soft pattering of footsteps leading away. It had been to a hushed voice, the creak of her bathroom door, the flush of a toilet and the uttering of a name she had hoped she would never have to worry about again.

Talia.

The rest of his words had been uttered in his own language, but that she could understand.

She had acted purely on fight or flight instinct, laying back and pretending she was asleep - although as soon as she did, she regretted it, her mind racing at the million and one other possibilities she could have gone with. Sitting up, waiting for him to come out and asking him what was going on being the most rational.

But when had she ever gone with the most rational thought?

She tried not to react as she felt his presence, felt the soft press of his lips to her skin, or the placement of her bunny in her arms. Tried not to follow him as soon as he departed her bedroom, beg him to come back and whatever was going on could wait until the proper turn of the morning. Tried not to get up and go after him when the click of the lock to her main door echoed throughout the empty apartment.

And she tried not to cry as she laid in bed, overthinking herself back to sleep, thoughts racing to the point of exhaustion, and hoping when she woke up again it had just been a god-awful dream.

But it hadn’t.

The spot beside her in bed is empty, not even a crease in the pillow to prove he was ever there - only the t-shirt of his she still adorned, the one that when she takes a deep inhale, still smells like him, and the distinct aching between her thighs.

She finds more evidence of their night together in the bathroom, where she undresses herself with sore muscles and glances in the mirror to see the spattering of purple marks forming on her chest and neck. Her fingers trace over them lightly, her fleeting touch bringing vivid images forth of his lips pressing to her skin, practically able to feel the pressure of her flesh being nipped and bitten again.

He had been so attentive to her - so in tune with what she needed and wanted, and so ready to give her whatever that may be. He’d been gentle at some points, and purposeful at others, and every little thing he did, he did it with sweet disposition.

The kind of man who treats a girl like that doesn’t just leave her in the dead of night with no good reason, right?

Her mind races despite her body going into auto-pilot throughout her morning routine. Her shower is over in the flash of an eye, she strips her bed, starts her laundry, makes herself some tea and gets herself dressed - all the while weighing out all the possibilities of what could have taken him away from her, and what she would be able to understand.

That quickly turns to her imagining the worst, and a tight, constricting feeling starts to consume her chest.

There isn’t a single part of her apartment she can get away from the thoughts buzzing around her brain - her kitchen marred with the memory of what had happened on the counter, her couch, her bedroom, her bathroom - all carrying distinct memories of Nico that she needs to bench until she knows the truth.

She mistakenly thinks her escape might lie in her phone. There might be a text there waiting, explaining everything and relieving all the anxiety that has welled up in her very core.

Nia’s warnings from the night before don’t ring quick enough in her mind as the screen comes to life, the immediate barrage of notifications flooding in.

2 missed calls from Mom

Mom: Just calling to remind you of proper table etiquette in case it has slipped your mind, I won’t have you embarrass me in front of a Lyon.

Mom: Cutlery going from the outside in, hold your wine glass by the stem and dab with your napkin, don’t swipe!

Mom: Also let the man tuck your chair in and pay the bill, this 21st century woman nonsense is very unbecoming!

Mom: And I don’t want to have to bring this up but for the love of God, Poppy, have some class. I don’t want to hear mutterings of your promiscuity at the next luncheon.

Whoever taught her mom to text deserves a prison sentence, she thinks.

Tucker Lyon standing a girl up and ghosting her attempts to contact him is what’s unbecoming, not her trying to pay her half of the meal.

She can picture her mother as she reads the texts, sipping on her Manhattan on the couch in the great room, her dad already having retreated to bed at that time, and her having nothing better to do than sit and stew on her daughter’s sex life.

If she knew what was really going down last night, her mom would probably have a conniption.

Knowing she’ll no doubt be getting a call later that evening, Poppy swipes away at her text thread with her mom, immediately checking the notifications she hasn’t long received from her best friend.

Nia: hey if you happen to release yourself from Nico’s wandering hands at all today me and Kelsey are grabbing breakfast by my work!!

Nia: if you need refuelling we’ll be at Marco’s at 9 😘

Perfect. Therein lies her escape. Breakfast with her best friends, where they can hopefully talk her down from the ledge she’s precariously placed herself on.

A catch up with her girls, and then she can distract herself with work.

Poppy: I’ll be there!!

“Hasn’t he text you or anything?” Nia asks, covering her mouth as she chews on her breakfast bagel, the three girls sat around a table inside their favourite cafe close to Nia’s office.

When Poppy and Nia had first moved in together, they rented an apartment in Hoboken, not too far, and their tradition of grabbing breakfast at Marco’s carried on despite Poppy living further down the river and working even further away in Newark.

Kelsey had lived in Manhattan at that time, but she stayed over so often with the other girls that she practically spent majority of her week there, and so Poppy and Nia’s routine became hers.

Poppy had given the two of them a brief rundown of her night with Nico, a safe-for-work version of events, all leading up to the mysterious early morning phone call and swift departure.

“Nope,” she sighs, swiping to refresh her messages as if she hasn’t put her phone on loud just to be alerted when he does reach out.

“Have you text him?”

“Nope,” she repeats, putting the phone down and leaning back in her chair, running a hand through her already messed up hair. She’s going to have to throw it up if she wants to look any sort of presentable when she gets to work later.

“Is he usually this pathetic at communicating?” Kelsey asks, manicured nails swiping at a bunch of Sweet’n Lows like she’s trying to play Tetris with the packets.

Kelsey hasn’t met Nico before, not that Poppy can remember.

Despite considering her one of her closest friends, their personal lives have never quite intertwined like that - not like hers and Nia’s.

In college, things were different. They were coming into their own together, figuring out just what they wanted their personal lives to be, and so Kelsey, Poppy and Nia would all share pretty much everything, just to have someone there to validate their feelings.

But that changed once they graduated.

Kelsey moved in with her boyfriend, Liam - who just so happens to be Poppy’s idea of hell-spawn.

The kind of guy her mother would probably love.

Liam worked on Wall Street, couldn’t go five minutes of conversation without talking about stocks or investment funds. His native language was risky money moves and belittling remarks, and he treated Kelsey like an accessory to parade around in public and discard in private.

Poppy had tried a few times to open Kelsey’s eyes to the way that it was, but it soon became apparent that she had to let her friend make her own mistakes, and some parts of their lives didn’t have to cross over.

They broke up around Thanksgiving, and Poppy had tried with all her might not to show her relief, but it has made her somewhat resentful when it comes to other relationships - like no one can be happy if she isn’t.

She knows it isn’t malicious, but she restrains from letting Kelsey all the way in, all the same.

“Not really,” Poppy lies, not wanting to clue her in on the Big Freezewhere he didn’t speak to her for months on end. It doesn’t entirely help her case. “I just don’t get why he’d sneak out to see her of all people, he told me they weren’t ever that solid, that he wasn’t happy with her.”

“Ooh, what if she’s pregnant?” Kelsey is entirely oblivious to the horrific realm of possibility she has just opened Poppy up to, evidenced by the casual chuckle and subsequent sip of her coffee. “Maybe she’s back to baby-trap him.”

Poppy thinks she would have to flee the state.

Nico is a family guy - if Talia is pregnant, he’d force himself to love her again, if he ever even stopped, for the sake of their gorgeous brown eyed, floppy haired baby, and push Poppy to the side just like he had before. And she’ll have to watch him from the sidelines, yearning for what she had just managed to touch the tips of her fingers to before it was violently yanked from her grasp.

Maybe she’d have to flee the country even - move somewhere remote where she doesn’t even have the chance of being reminded of hockey, let alone of him.

Somewhere with no coffee shops that she’d enter, and the smell of fresh pastries would remind her of all the breakfasts they had together. No railways, where she’d be reminded of his love for model trains every time she came across the tracks. No weird club music that he loves so much, or dorky wizard franchises he chastises her for never having seen.

Maybe Antarctica. They only have penguins there. No real civilisation that she knows of. No brown haired, dark eyed Swiss Gods with deep, honeyed voices that make her knees weak and dimpled smiles that do even worse.

She wouldn’t be able to cope with losing him like that, living her life in an endless mental cycle of what ifs and maybes.

“Kelsey, I beg of you to read the room,” Nia chastises, swatting the girl on her arm before taking Poppy’s hand in her own. “Don’t listen to her, she just wants us all to be single at the same time.”

“Sue me for wanting to have fun! It would be just like college, you and me full-body plunging into the dating pool. Imagine the chaos, Pop, you don’t wanna be tied down to a guy hung up on his ex right now.”

“Dating pool?” Nia scoffs, turning to glare at her, “You’re hardly dry from your last relationship.”

“I’d rather be a grape than a raisin, Ni.” Kelsey chides back, and Poppy can’t help the twitch of her lips at the horrific comparison.

“You’re really gonna listen to a girl who says that?” Nia asks, unable to mask the glint of humour in her eyes, and Kelsey bites back a smile, too.

Despite the ache in her chest at the thought of any of it - of Nico leaving her this morning, filling her up with empty words and false promises, potentially knocking up an ex girlfriend he is still secretly hung up on even though he told her otherwise - she manages to crack a full smile.

“You are terrible at analogies, Kels,” Poppy tries to hide the grin behind her cup, sipping at her tea and letting the warmth of it soothe the pain in her throat.

“I’m trying to encourage you to be a strong, independent woman here!”

“She is a strong, independent woman,” Nia defends, “She also happens to be a chronic over-thinker with a deep seated fear of confrontation.”

“I don’t fear confrontation.”

“Then why are we here chit-chatting about hypothetical scenarios when you could just text him and ask what’s up?”

“Maybe ‘cause that’s scary?” Poppy scoffs, only half joking. “What am I supposed to say, hey I just so happened to eavesdrop on your private conversation before you fled my apartment this morning, and despite me not understanding most of it, I definitely heard you mention someone, so could you just let me know if your gorgeous model ex girlfriend is pregnant with your perfect specimen baby?”

“Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out, you don’t even need us.”

Poppy rolls her eyes.

She could text him. Could be casual about it, a good morning or even an are you okay? Those don’t warrant the alarm bells she’s afraid of raising - the ones that blare out with the siren sound of run, this girl is unhealthily attached to you already!

But she doesn’t want to be the pathetic girl chasing after the guy sending her clear messages that he doesn’t want her.

It’s easier said than done not to overthink the whole thing - not to second guess everything he had said, or everything she had done last night.

She feels like she had rushed things. It was so impulsive, so charged, and after spending the majority of her week away from him, she just hadn’t been able to help herself. And that makes her feel like a hypocrite. She had told him that night he had first kissed her that things between them had gotten intense. It had been the whole reason for spending a few days outside of each other’s company, and in the first possible instance, she had thrown herself at him.

It was desperate.

And maybe that scared him.

It sure as hell scares her.

“I don’t know what to do,” She groans, throwing her head into her hands and scrunching her eyes shut to try and drown out the endless doubt.

She feels two hands rub at either sides of her back, “Listen, Pop,” Nia is the first to attempt to console her, as always, and Poppy holds her breath for the harsh reality check she’s about to throw her way. “You know I am the one person who would usually be trying to convince you to cut your losses and run when it comes to guys who are no good, but this is Nico. I’ve watched the two of you ignore your feelings for far too long to let you get in your own way, now.

“And you’re forgetting I saw him last night, before you got there, there isn’t a chance in Hell he would have left you like that without a good reason. I don’t for a second think he’s still hung up on her.” Nia casts a side eye to Kelsey.

The only problem is that Poppy isn’t sure there’s a reason good enough. Not when it comes to Talia. Not when the memory of those months of radio silence is still so fresh for her.

“I have to go to work in a building where his face is plastered everywhere, Ni, I can hardly forget his entire existence until he deems me worthy of an explanation. Who leaves after a night like that without even a note or a text?”

“An idiot,” Kelsey mutters around her drink, rolling her eyes when Nia sends her another death-glare.

“I’m not asking you to forget, I’m telling you to wait.” Nia frowns, but her tone remains consoling and warm. “You need to stop letting what this thinks,” she flicks at Poppy’s forehead, “Get in the way of what this knows.” She points to her chest on the left side. “You know him. You know how much he likes you.”

She does.

She knows Nico, she trusts him.

She can only judge him based on his actions so far - the ones that tell her that he cares. He leads with his heart, it’s his most attractive attribute. He’s gentle and loving and she needs to focus on those things over anything else.

“Ugh, corny,” Kelsey drags, and despite her repeated efforts to discourage her, Poppy knows she isn’t being entirely serious. “If he has any non-stupid hot athlete friends though, I’m first in line when the two of you kiss and make up for double dates.”

Guilt pricks slightly at Poppy’s chest - for making her recently single friend sit here and listen to her complain about something so monumentally small compared to the breakdown of the long-term relationship Kelsey had just endured. Even if it was perceivably toxic.

“You’d make such a good WAG, Kels.”

It’s a poor attempt to make up for it, but it seems to console her friend all the same, a giant grin breaking out and flashing her perfect pearly whites.

“I know.”

Poppy tries to distract herself with work. Tries to make her way through her inbox of seemingly never ending emails and her list of ever-growing tasks. She types up lengthy responses, puts together a presentation, makes a bunch of phone calls she’s been putting off for God knows how long, sorts all her invoices out - she even sends a fax. In the year 2024. It’s her most productive work day she thinks she’s ever had.

She zeroes in on the ground every time she moves through the building. Ignores the pictures that line the walls of the Rock, pushes down the memories of all the times she’s walked these very halls by Nico’s side, and she thinks she’s done just about enough to clear her mind for the time being.

She hasn’t thought up some heart wrenching scenario in at least an hour by the time she’s wrapping up for the day.

She’s making her way back to her office after dropping some files off for Elaine when she catches sight of a mop of curls over the top of the chair by her desk.

Luke is sat in her chair when she enters, swivelling around and staring at the ceiling.

“You’re gonna make yourself sick doing that, you know.”

“You’re such a mom,” he scoffs, standing up and clearly trying not to sway, “You ever tried having fun? I think I saw a glue stick on a table out there,” he points through the door into the wider office space, where there are a few, less private cubicles and a common area. “We should go sniff them, let loose a little.”

“Is that why you’re here on your day off? To huff glue?”

“Yeah, I don’t get to let loose enough. Being a rookie in the NHL is hard, Poppy,”

“Bummer for you.” She pouts, mockingly, swerving past him as he rounds her desk and sits on the other side, flicking at the bobblehead version of his older brother that stands by her computer. “If you’re chasing a high can you do it with one of the other departments, it’s not a good look for the Youth Foundation.”

“I won’t tell if you don’t.”

When Luke had first joined the Devils, she hadn’t expected that she would warm to him the way she has - but, surprisingly enough, considering the fact they’re brothers, their relationship recently has started to mirror her and Jack’s.

Luke is funny. He’s sarcastic and a little silly, and it can be nice to have him around when work gets a little stressful. He doesn’t let the pressures of his own career outweigh those of hers, and, despite the gap in age, she actually enjoys his company.

But he never seeks her out like this.

Their interactions have always started through other people. Group conversations that dwindle to just the two of them, or he usually accompanies Jack to bug her and carries on when Jack’s ever-so-busy schedule takes him elsewhere.

She can’t think of another time he’s just shown up in her office alone.

Especially on his incredibly rare day off.

“Why are you actually here?” She asks, casting a suspicious but half-playful glare his way as she starts to pack up her things.

“Came to see if you wanted to join us for dinner.”

“Aw Lukey,” she reaches over her desk to pinch his cheek, “I’m flattered and all but I’m a little too old for you.”

“Ha ha,” he swats her hand away, “Us. Me and Jack. Maybe a couple of the others if they’re free but you can pick where we go if you make a decision quickly, we were thinking a steakhouse.”

She narrows her eyes at him, expecting him to crack a joke about her being old, but he just looks back at her awaiting a response. “Why?” She drags out the question, her movements stopping completely.

“Maybe ‘cause humans need sustenance to live? What do you mean, why?”

“Why would you want me to tag along on your bro date?”

“Don’t call it a bro date,” Luke cringes, “Just remembered you were working today and we were in the area, don’t know why you’re being weird about it.”

“You’re being weird. You guys never let me choose where we eat. Don’t you remember that time we grabbed dinner when you guys drove me home and Jack told me to stop being a pussy about my seafood allergy ‘cause he wanted sushi.”

“Don’t blame me for the crimes of my brother, Poppy, he was obviously joking.”

“I had to eat tofu, Luke, I don’t find that very funny.”

“Are you coming or not?”

“That depends, how do you have your steak?”

“Well done.”

“Oh! Then absolutely not.”

“Remind me never to try to be nice to you again.” He scowls as they make their way out of her office, and she locks up behind the two of them.

“Gladly, it’s creeping me out.” She grabs at his elbow before he can carry on, stopping him in the otherwise empty common area where she knows no one is around to listen in. “Is something going on, seriously?”

Luke rolls his eyes, but she knows him well enough that it’s only done in an attempt to avert from her gaze.

Bingo. He’s hiding something.

“I just thought you might want some company.” He shrugs, shoving his hands into his pockets and twisting his lips to keep from saying much more.

“Why?”

If Poppy wanted to spend her life getting a straight answer out of people for a living, she’d have become an interrogator. What is it with these guys and their inability to answer a simple question?

“Jack said you left the party last night with Nico.”

Poppy’s eyebrows scrunch so close together that she can feel a deep crease form between them. What on earth does that have to do with asking her to dinner? Or being overly nice to her?

Unless-

“You’ve seen him?”

“This morning.”

“Oh.”

All of her efforts from throughout the day seem to have been for nothing - an immediate rush of insecurities flooding her mind.

Where did he see him? What did he say? Was he okay? Was Talia there?

She feels like she can gauge an answer from the way Luke looks. Sheepish, almost, like he doesn’t want to say something he knows will hurt her feelings.

She had to have been with him. He wouldn’t just show up to her office like this if it wasn’t something that would seriously hurt.

She wishes she wasn’t the kind of person who did this - who filled in the gaps of conversations and always came out with the worst possible outcomes - but she can’t help it. She’s been doing it all her life, and there’s rarely ever an instance where her instincts have led her astray.

She knows it’s some weird part of her mind protecting her, but she needs to do something here. Nia’s words from earlier ring like a warning. Don’t let what her brain thinks get in the way of what her heart knows.

Her heart knows Nico wanted her. Knows Nico liked her. Knows Nico wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.

She needs to figure things out for herself and stop running, stop letting her mind fill in the gaps of a situation it can’t even comprehend to begin with.

She reaches her arms around Luke’s shoulders, stretching up on her tip toes to pull him into a hug before rubbing her knuckles into his curls, affectionately.

Luke Hughes is sarcastic and silly, and he cares enough about her to not want her to be alone if she’s going through something.

“Thank you for the offer, Luke, but I’ll be alright.”

“Are you sure?”

She nods, a tender smile tugging at the corners of her stubborn lips. It takes over her face, eyes glinting fondly and cheeks warming.

“Yeah, you can walk me to my car if you’re that worried about me though.” She loops her arm through his elbow as they make their way to the parking lot, and when they get there, he makes sure she’s in her car and has set off before him and Jack leave.

As if her day can’t get any worse, the elevator in her building is cordoned off with tape and a sign when she gets home, and she has never regretted moving up a floor as much as she does when she’s trudging up 6 flights of stairs.

She’s exhausted. Emotionally and physically, and she just wants to throw herself into bed and pretend the last 24 hours were a terrible dream.

Only, as she rounds the final corner to get to her door, any hopes of that go straight down the pan when her eyes land on Nico, standing in front of her door with his hands buried in his jacket pocket.

He looks tired too - hair messed where he’s no doubt been taking his cap on and off for however long he’s been stood here, running a hand through the tresses until they’re all askew.

His shoulders are slumped, and he doesn’t even greet her with that pretty smile he usually gives her.

His lips do curve up a touch - limp and half-hearted, not even enough for a dimple to form - but it doesn’t provide the comfort she had thought it would.

She feels anxious. A culmination of the day’s emotions washing over in one go. Sad, regretful, nervous, disappointed - all things she shouldn’t be used to feeling when it comes to Nico, but are all too familiar when she takes the last few months into account.

“Hi.” She gives a weak smile of her own.

“Can we talk?”

She wishes he’d have just said hi, back. That might have relieved the tightness in her chest just a little.

Nothing good ever comes of can we talk?

He steps aside as she approaches, maintaining a safe distance as she opens the door and enters her apartment.

The Nico from yesterday might have brushed past her, the graze of an arm or a lingering hand, but this Nico doesn’t. He barely even meets her eye.

He closes the door behind himself, watching as she discards her bag and keys to the console table on the side, and while she’s turned away from him, she tries to let whatever emotions need to come out cross her features where he can’t see them.

She needs to be cool about this, she thinks.

If she doesn’t get her back up, doesn’t get agitated, she won’t scare him off.

“Are you okay?” She asks once she’s turned to face him, not liking how he stands unmoving by the door. He hasn’t made any effort to settle in - his jacket still on and his hands still hidden in the pockets.

“Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that?”

She realises now that she can get a good look at him that the expression he wears is one of shame. Guilt. Apprehension. She needs to be careful and toe the line before he gets consumed by it, she realises.

She steps toward him a little, and he doesn’t back up - not immediately, not obviously - but he hardly welcomes her approach, either.

She doesn’t like feeling this way when it comes to talking to him - feeling uneasy and unsure, but there’s a part of her that’s tired of having to prompt him for answers.

He had been the one to leave this morning. Why can’t he just come out and tell her why?

“I’m alright,” she shrugs, not wanting to scare him off with the truth. “Super tired, though, can we sit?”

She wonders if he thinks about the same things she does as they make their way to the couch. Wonders if he can feel the scratch of her nails on his torso, or the brush of her lips against his, as they sit in the spot where not even 24 hours ago, their bodies had been intertwined.

He doesn’t sit right beside her as he normally would, and she finds herself missing the way his thigh usually brushes against her own.

She doesn’t know where to start or what to ask, and so she basks in the silence for a little - finding comfort in the fact that, despite the mess they’re currently in, they aren’t quite at the end yet.

But a part of her feels it coming.

She’d known it this morning if she lets herself listen to the rational voice in her head. As soon as she’d heard him say her name, as soon as he’d left, a part of her knew that was it, and maybe if she’d let herself believe it at the time - hadn’t talked herself down and convinced herself she was being irrational - she could have protected herself from all the ways this is going to hurt.

“I’m sorry.” He says, and when she looks up, he’s looking down where his large hands are now clasped together in his lap.

“For what?” She manages to choke out.

“Last night, I,” she digs her nails into the palms of her own hands to stop herself filling in the gaps as he figures out what he wants to say, but it’s no use.

He’s sorry for last night.

Last night, he made a mistake.

Last night, he was drunk, he was confused, he was just looking for something or someone to keep him occupied.

“I care about you so much, Poppy.”

That sentence shouldn’t be the one that fills her with dread, but it is.

“You’re my best friend, and I love you,” he does look up as he says this, eye meeting hers in an attempt to convey his honesty, but she sees more of the truth in his glassy gaze than she hears in his words. “This morning, I panicked, and I just needed some time to figure out what I want.”

No, no, no.

She’d rather he tell her what actually happened than do this. Than pretend he left because he doesn’t want her.

“I love you-,”

“You said that, already.” She can’t help the bite in her tone as she prepares herself for the hit. The I love you, but.

“You’re so important to me. Being your friend, it’s like it’s what keeps me sane lately.”

She chews at the inside of her cheek as she feels the tears start to well at her lash line.

“Poppy, I don’t want to mess up what we have,” he shakes his head as his gaze drops, dark eyes darting to focus anywhere but on her own, pleading and watery as she watches him slip away. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You don’t think this is hurting me?” She feels weak as her voice breaks, “You don’t think this is already messy?”

She reaches out to take his hands in hers, digging in to unclasp them, to try thread her fingers through, but he doesn’t make it easy.

“Nico, I love you, too, you know I do, we can figure it out, you don’t have to run away from me.”

It’s a desperate attempt and she knows it is, but she needs to know she tried. When she’s sobbing into her pillow and crying herself to sleep tonight, she needs to know she didn’t just let him go without a fight.

“I can’t give you what you want, I can’t be in a relationship, I’m no good at it.”

Regardless of what she had told herself earlier, about taking what he says at face value, and trying not to fill in the gaps like she does so often with everyone else, she can’t help herself. When he says, I can’t be in a relationship, he means with her. He can’t be with Poppy. He would be no good with Poppy.

“Why are you doing this?”

“I told you-,”

“No, you said before that you’ve wanted this for as long as you’ve known me, you don’t just wake up and change your mind, not after-,” Poppy starts to feel panic building within her like a flipped over sand timer. Rising and rising until she starts to feel nauseous, getting harder with each second not to jump to conclusions.

The voice inside her that tells her he got what he wanted and decided it wasn’t for him sounds caustic and bitter, and if she hadn’t wound herself up so much about this whole situation over the course of the day - the past week, even, or the months before - she might have been able to fight off the way it so easily convinces her.

“I have to put the team first, it doesn’t matter what I want, I have to focus on them, on hockey.”

She’s too caught up in her own emotions to notice how weak he sounds - glassy eyes unable to catch the glint in his. All she can hear, all she can see, is the minute hints of a cover-up - that she isn’t getting the whole story, that he’s lying to her, and that the excuse he’s giving is cowardly.

He still hasn’t mentioned the call, hasn’t mentioned Talia, hasn’t explained why he left her, why he didn’t say anything, why he didn’t come back.

“And you didn’t know that before?” She scoffs, pushing herself up off the couch and stepping away from him, “I can’t believe you would do this to me.” She wipes the tears from her cheeks as soon as they fall, but she can’t rid her skin of the feeling that they were there, her flesh damp and sore.

“I know we took things a little too far last night, but that doesn’t mean-,” She almost thinks he notices how bad that hurts her, referencing the night they shared as a mistake - an instance where they got carried away, and not where they followed through on years worth of built up tension and adoration for one another. She doesn’t even have to fill in the gaps, this time. Took things a little too far is clear enough. “We can still be friends. I want to be friends.”

“Friends?” Poppy jeers in disbelief, turning completely away from him now and missing the tears that drop from his own cheeks - missing the way his chest cracks and stretches open in a last ditch demonstration of his vulnerability, his desperation not to lose her completely. “You should go.”

“Poppy,”

“I can’t,” she tries so hard not to cry, knowing she won’t be able to stop, but the words come out in a choked sob, and her voice carries on in the whiney way she always hates. “You told me you wanted more, you said I was yours, and I’m supposed to just act like it never happened? Just accept you didn’t actually mean the things you said?”

“I meant them,” he says, defiantly, so sure of himself that it makes her head spin. “I wouldn’t-,”

“No, you didn’t. You’re a liar. You were either lying then, or you’re lying now. I don’t know which is worse. I can’t be your friend. I can’t pretend like you can that I don’t feel the way I feel.”

“Please, Mohn,” His fingertips just manage to reach out to land on her forearm before she shucks him off, wincing as if his touch has pained her.

“Don’t.” She takes an immediate step back, arms crossing over herself as a defence mechanism, body language screaming at him to go away, and she watches his pleading eyes drop to her arms just as she feels the cold of the metal there - so in tune with her every thought despite his denial of their true connection. Her arms move before her mind can make the decision, before it can remember what even sits on her skin, and her shaking fingers fumble to unclasp the jewellery adorned on her wrist. “You should take this back.”

Nico shakes his head, stepping back and away from the outstretched hand that holds her gemstone bracelet like it’s an actual danger to him. “No, that’s yours, Poppy.”

“I don’t want it.” She knows she’s the one that’s lying now. She wants the bracelet. She wants him. She doesn’t want him to leave. She wants to be his friend over being nothing.

But she doesn’t want to hurt.

Looking at him hurts.

Remembering last night, remembering their kiss, the things he has said, the things he has done, it all hurts, and she can’t keep hold of a constant reminder of the pain, can’t wear it on her person at all hours of the day just to know deep down that the man who gave it to her will never want her the same way.

“I want you to leave.”

“Please,” he begs again, head tilting as devastation floods his features, brows pushing together, tears welling at the corners of his eyes, “We need to talk about this-,”

“No, you were right, we went too far, it was a mistake.” Her voice breaks as she says things she knows she doesn’t mean, but he’s already put it out there, so she doesn’t see the harm in echoing his own opinions. “There’s nothing more to talk about.”

She can’t look at him anymore, and so she drops her gaze to his hands, stepping and reaching forward and forcing him to take the bracelet from her before she rounds the couch and heads to the door.

If he isn’t going to give her the whole truth, she isn’t going to entertain part of the story, and she needs him gone so she can give in to the way her body wants to fold in on itself.

It takes him a minute to gather himself, but she refuses to look his way, waiting by the open door to her apartment and staring at the floor in front of her until his shoes appear.

“I do love you, Poppy. I’m leaving because I don’t want to upset you any more than I already have, and I’ll give you space if that’s what you need, but I’ll be here when you want to talk about this. I mean it when I say I can’t lose you.”

She doesn’t say anything. She can’t say anything.

There’s a stabbing pain that’s building and building in the centre of her chest, and she doesn’t even think she can breathe in his presence.

He clasps a hand around her upper arm, and leans into her, his lips pressing a firm kiss into the crown of her head, and he lingers there for a moment before he retreats.

She manages to push the door closed behind him, the click of the lock louder than ever, and waits a good few minutes in silence before her body is wracked with a silent sob.

The one time she had tried to be brave and fight her own intuition, and this is where it gets her.

So much for Nico wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.

Next Chapter

Taglist: @alwaysclassyeagle @bunbunbl0gs @idgaf-if-youre-here @youflowerr-youfeast @thearchersstuff @bellsdi0r @wonderheartz @jjgsunflower @butterflies35 @kenziepickle @josierosie @laheyxlover @mrsmattytkachuk (sorry if your tag hasn't worked btw)

#nico hischier #nico hischier x oc #nico hischier imagine #nico hischier fanfiction #nhl fanfiction #nhl imagine #*oys #*writing #word of warning to anyone writing anything ever don't leave yourself stupid instructions #thinking inspiration will strike when needed #surprise surprise motherfucker it won't!!!!!!#anyway that last convo very our field of dreams engulfed in fire your arson's match your somber eyes and I'll still see it until I die #you're the loss of my life coded

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kiwi-but-the-bird-not-the-fruit · 4 months ago

Note

OMG HELLO HELLO okay so I saw your lil inbox saying “up for requests!” and so I’m assuming that your requests is open and if it isn’t I am SUPERR DUPER SORRY BOOKIE ｡°(°.◜ᯅ◝°)°｡

OKAY SO I was wondering if you would totally be up for Clawdeen x Fem! Humanoid Kitsune! Reader? LIKE FLUFFY HEADCANONS I FEEL LIKE THEY WOULD BE SOO CUTE TOGETHER ( ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)ഒ

ANYWAYY IF YOU READ AND DECIDE TO DO RHIS THANK YOUU SM >.<‼️

Hello Pookie! Yes my request box is always open unless I specify before hand rn they are open as a archway to a temple lol

Okay love this prompt and x reader pairing

I've never done headcanons so bear with me here haha,i love kitsune and their lore so happy to make this

__________________________________________

Clawdeen wolf x fem! Kitsune! Reader (with humanoid features)

(H/t) hair type

(H/c) hair color

(E/c) eye color

(S/c) skin color

Fluff/relationship headcanons

I will make a little background how y'all got together and then the couple headcanons

Clawdeen never thought she would ever find someone that would catch her interest let alone have a crush but that all changed when she saw you.

Walking through the halls with her BFF Draculaura something had caught her eye so she naturally looked over to her left and then she fully focused on the ghoul passing by.

A beautiful kitsune with (h/t) (h/c) hair, beautiful (e/c) eyes that seem so gently yet wise radiant clear (s/c) the seemed soft to the touch, you were dressed in a short kimono dress with kneehigh heels with gold accents all around even on the accents of the flower patterns on your kimono, you gave her a smile and said "hi" as you walked passed her and her best friend Draculaura in the hallway

That was the moment clawdeen knew she had to get to know you and maybe become something more. She didn't know yet but she had this strong feeling in her chest and that she should at least try to find you again today.

And to her surprise later that day Clawdeen had actually found you once more 'okay you got this Clawdeen' she walked up to you and started up a conversation "Hey i wanted to say i love your outfit its so fierce" clawdeen pushed her bangs out the way as she looked at you with a toothy smile.

You look at the ghoul in front of you happily "thank you! I love your skirt, the patterns are so clawsome" the looked at each other a little buzz in the air "mind if I sit down?" Clawdeen asked you "not at all please I'd love some company, oh and I'm [Name] what's yours?" [Name] extended her hand to the ghoul sitting across from her at the outdoor table, "Clawdeen, nice to meet you" [Name] nodded saying "nice to meet you too Clawdeen"

The two ended up chatting about fashion and their interests and then two months into knowing each other Clawdeen had asked [Name] out with chocolates and flowers which made the ghoul swoon and ran into the wolf's arm kissing her cheek and exclaimed "yes yes yes" as her fluffy tails wagged side to side excitedly

_________________________________________

Now the headcanon!

-clawdeen loves holding you by the waist as she talks to you in any place and time she feels so giddy holding you gently with one arm the warmth radiating from you both like a personal heater.

-whenever she's at your house she plays with your two tails and she likes to brush them and the blush on your cheeks when she puts her face in the softness of your fur motivates her to do it every time she comes over.

-you two are very cuddly behind closed doors and she's actually the little spoon because she likes to feel the soft purrs on her back as you hold her close by her middle.

(I'm gonna pretend you can purr hehe)

-Clawdeen loves it when you wear something of hers, since she's a wolf she liked the idea that this is one of her ways to mark you as hers and that no one will try to get with you,if someone tries to get with you they are screwed

-you also like when she wears your clothes just like Clawdeen you think that your scent on her will make idiots leave her alone before YOU tear them a new one.

- kissing is her favorite,the way your lips and her's fit so well with yours,the smell of your fruit flavor lip gloss and hers that mix together to make a new color when you part ways, ughh yes you should kiss her all the time.

-she really likes your human form you look so cute and the way you get slightly shorter than your monster form is actually too adorable

-Clawdeen will often make you two matching outfits, some are suits or dresses whichever you want to match with she's down to do anything for her muse.

-speaking of muses you are hers she's always making outfits inspired by you and your background every pattern every style it always seems she has you in mind throughout the process

-dates are going to the mall, parks, the boovies and just hanging out. Who knows maybe you'll take her to a parking lot and chill with some snacks and music playing (a make out will happen she can't help it you're just so pretty!!)

-Did I mention Clawdeen loves to pet your fluffy ears? Oh and she loves it when you do it to her too, just gently caress them with your soft hand and she's melting

-she spoils you but not in a buying you expensive things, no she remembers the candy's and chips you like and gives you a cute basket of them every few months and since the candy you like isn't expensive she's just buying you one and brings it to school for you to munch on in class.

-but on occasions like your birthday, anniversary valentines day and Christmas she'll get you a specific jewelry for the both of you to adorn, she'll make a romantic dinner and after it she'll hand you the box smilling wide and proud she got her muse something so precious and beautiful just like you..well the jewle almost matches your beauty but your prettier

-the two of you definitely have fashion shows in your room that end up becoming karaoke and just jumping up and down singing your heart out and dancing to a slow romantic holding you close and giving you neck kisses that make you giggle in delight.

-sometimes you'll turn into a fox and lay on her lap just for the fun of it and she pets you while she sketches in her sketch book with a content smile.

__________________________________________

That's all I got for now, thanks for the request I made this rather quickly is surprised with myself (^v^)

And I genuinely don't know if this is the right way to do headcanon. Sorry if it's not correct.

#monster high x you #monster high x reader #monster high imagine #monster high headcanons #monster high #monster high clawdeen #clawdeen wolf x reader #character x reader #fem reader #x female y/n #fem x fem

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clubdionysus · 6 months ago

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MOTHER HOLLY HOLLY HOLLLYYY. I like to think I am an OG as I’ve been reading your works since you had to convince us that Throttle was NOT going to be like Icarus.

Still too traumatized to finish Throttle😭😭 But I know it’s going to be good when I do catch up.

But i HAVE to say, I think you’ve completely out done yourself with this one. Bad Decisions is absolutely insane and I absolutely love it. If this became an actual book in stores, I’d buy the paperback and I only audible novels nowadays😭😭. Even though I still can’t understand the British slang you know in there as an American, I love it solely bc it almost feels like a trademark in all of your stories to incorporate these british words I’ve never heard of even though English is my only language.

We started with You Up being my comfort story to being obsessed Disco Ball and her little buzz lightyear. I LOVE how in almost all your stories (give or take for the couple darker themes) Jungkooks personality is the same to the core, but they’re all still unique to the story line and the female lead is so real. It’s real, the people you create and I love that I can visualize it, feel right there in your stories. Feel involved and understand them.

I just have to express how MUCH i love your writing and BD just so happens to be the best of all time. I don’t think I’ll be able to handle it being finished. Although I only just started #57, I wish you could write them FOREVER!!! I don’t know how it will feeel to reread the story bc the FEELINGS you stole from me!!! RUDE!! TOUGH LOVE I GUESS IS YOUR THING.

BUT YOU ALSO ARE SO NASTY!$!!! THESE TWO ARE NASTY!!! I LOVE NASTY!!! I’m starting to think you’re a TI*** gal with the reoccurring themes maam!!

LASTLY im obsessed with the style you write in. Your ability to go from such beautiful descriptive writing to it being so casual, almost as if we are reading their exact thoughts in that exact moment. I love how you can fluidity transition from internal POV to such conviction. It’s fun and amazing at the same time. I definitely think it keeps my short attention span engaged with the conversational/real world writing. Almost as if you are writing transcriptions.

Anyways HOLLY YOU ARE MY FAVORITE AND IVE BEEN READING YOUR STORIES SINCE LIKE 2020 and I’ve LOVED being along in this journey with you and I’m already dreading the ending of BD and don’t want it. But don’t hold off I don’t like that either. EITHER WAY whatever it is will be good, NEVER BEEN disappointed… excepty maybe for the way Byeol isn’t American bc if that nasty red goblin tried it, we would of been in a fight the second she looked at me funny. LOVE FROM TEXAS MISS HOLLY CANT WAIT TO CONTINUE READING YOUR WORK EVEN IF YKU END UP A PUBLISHED AUTHOR

^^ me @ u rn :( waaa so cute!!!!!!

thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!! where to even begin with this ask??!!!!!! firstly, just pls accept the biggest thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me!! <3 I know it must have taken a lil while to write all that out!!

im answering under a read more just for the sake of peoples dashboards hehe

LMAO im making edits to the answer bc i reread and have just noticed a few more things - first MOTHER? am I mother???!!! hahaha that's killed me off. in my mother era

I AM SORRY FOR THE ICARUS TRAUMA

.... or am i hehehhee

it's funny because i very nearly killed jimin in throttle to make up for not killing him in icarus LOL but I made a promise I had to keep!! the throttle ending is v tame!!! people were actually disappointed with it LOL but it's a fable!!! a cautionary tale!!!! is the opposite of icarus!!!! it does exactly what it needs to :D

Thank you SO much for your kind words!! bad decisions has been such labour of love, and the response has been so heart warming. you really do get back what you put in, yanno!!

the funny thing is, bd is three-four standard novel long already. if it was a 'real' book, it'd be an entire series hahaha, no publisher would ever pick it up, so it will forever be our special lil fan fic <3

i always try and make sure my jungkooks are close to him in some way shape or form. even slut war jk is gonna be very jk (just more so the eccentric, slightly unhinged side). i think the wonderful thing about having a muse like jungkook is that he just offers up so much of his heart to us fans, and it makes it so easy to write something that feels so 'true' to him. our baby star candy <33

i do think, out of all of my jk's, bd jk is probably the one that draws on his real personality the most, but that's partially because it was written in tandem with all those weverse lives of him being the absolute best boy :(

lmaooooooo, bd jk gets his nastiness from my virgo boy. sigh, i just love virgos <33and re: titties it'ss bc i have arguably the biggest ones known to man </3 life is so hard </3333

ahhh see it's funny, my friends irl who don't know much about my writing always say that whenever they read my writing, its sounds like how I talk, so I definitely think my narrative voice matches my actual voice. it's taken me a while to develop my writing style and its something I'm proud of bc I feel like I've managed to establish a voice that you just *know* is mine.

thank you so so much for this ask. i saw it when it came in, but was in the middle of something at work, and so I have just been thinking about it for the past couple of days with a lil smile on my face. I'm so so grateful to have such kind hearted readers <33

sending love from daegu!!! <33

#ask #bd

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webslingingslasher · 11 months ago

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I fucked a guy last night just bc he looked like ethan and now I can’t get myself to think about peter. omfg. ive been converted and he’s legit a side character. peters gna have to do some big catching up bc i have dick on the brain n would leave him for ethan rn oops

I have to tell you more. I was never attracted to ethan/guys who look like him before, but I saw him at the bar and instantly went omg it’s him. Felt like seeing a cool Pokémon irl.

So I went over to him and told him he looked like ethan, he asked who he was and I explained. Surprisingly he actually had rizz? I was a lil buzzed too but he was making me BLUSH and he called me trouble bc I explained the plot for him😂

Anyways. That was like, top 2 best sex of my life? Now I’m team ethan. Sorry Peter😔.

What the hell. I DID NOT EXPECT THAT DHDHDH.

Guys. J. Ethan can FUCK. It’s canon. Incase anyone needed to know. It’s real to me now😭 ahdhdjddn

I cant believe they’re twins? Like he looks like he came right out of the ethan pinterest board.

He’s not my type at ALL, I was purely just entertained bc he looked like Parker’s best friend but now I’ve fully swapped sides😭

-----

you really said 'i'm gonna tell this man about a fictional character in a fanfic about peter parker' and it worked???? im- the way this would NEVER happen to me??

#thanks anon!

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taughtdefense-a · 2 years ago

Text

ik ethan’s ck verse was technically created 12/31/22 but all Six current (aka blogs that i have) versions of ethan r buzzing like crazy in my head rn bc it’s his first anniversary of his creation. he wants 2 Celebrate.

so if he shows up @ ur muses front doorstep wearing a lil party hat, or if my miguel, tory, & mads’ robby & sam roll over in bed to find ethan making a bunch of content eldritch clicking noises or he’s bein Extra Snuggly, that is why. he’s Buzzing™️. ethan vc: i am politely asking for affection all day today, together.

-eyes nadia’s miguel- miggy, ur already hyperactive bff is gonna be Extra Hyper today. i’m so sorry. do not let him near the coffee pot bc he’s already drank like 12 cups.

#ooc. / mia speaks.

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punkscowardschampions · 2 years ago

Text

Casey & Janis Pt.7 (Lamerica & Bibi)

Casey: [she could do it in the car while he’s driving as if it’s a taxi and she’s in a film lol, that was my thought of what y’all would probably do because it’s the most chaotic, even though she’s probably parked right by work and could also run in and get changed there because she owns the place]

Janis: [you’re so real for that, no excuse beyond never wanting to get engaged in a convo with any of the other people who work there lol but that is enough for us, paired with the car acrobatics we’re gonna have to do to achieve it]

Casey: [it’ll bring back mems of your many feral antics in cars during the runaway era so you’ll both love that, just try not to crash, boy, as you’re blatantly checking out every sec of said acrobatics whilst also trying to drive, you’re going on a restaurant date not an A&E one, you’re not java]

Janis: [forever being the most distracting passenger of all time, no shame, but eventually crawling into the front seat to sit next to him ‘like you remembered?’ re. This fit]

Casey: [Winnie has just suggested to me telepathically that we should bring back their OG car crash moment as a means to bring Jimothy out of his baby Jac doesn’t exist and I don’t care era but that’s for nearer to her being born and therefore not for rn, put in a pin in it you evil bear, because for rn he’s LOOKING her over very intensely having a little reminisce in his head before doing one of his dramatic slow nods like YES]

Janis: [a good shout though, it fits very well there, agreed Winola you smart lil man; meanwhile we’re here watching your entire reaction like we’ll be quizzed on it later, placing a joking hand on the steering wheel like you need to keep him on the road because his eyes definitely ain’t ‘still fits’ because you aren’t bigger yet but why not be evil and put that in his head too]

Casey: [mhmm, and he’d be her official next to kin and contact person still for things like that because it’s not something peeps think about changing so they’d call him and obvs he’d come, it makes sense on every level but it will be drama even moreso than when we originally did it hence Winnie is buzzing with himself, but ANYWAY, putting his hand over hers on this steering wheel duh and SQUEEZING it because she’s killing him as she intended to, shamelessly STARING at her boobs ofc because they have grown a lil bit already though I’m sure it isn’t noticeable yet to anyone who doesn’t have this blatant kink, then I don’t even need to say that his eyes and hand are both moving to rest on her stomach because again duh, just leaving that hand there as he turns his attention however briefly back to driving]

Janis: [‘you’re so unsubtle’ as we’re 😳 over how you’re looking at and then touching us, shaking our head like oh you and we’re not totally about it]

Casey: [‘what would I start that now for?’ because he has never been subtle even when she was not his to look at or touch like this he was still out here being this shameless about it we all know, and now she is his so he can and will never stop, smirking at her blush which he isn’t looking at rn since he’s paying attention to the road for once but he knows is there nevertheless]

Janis: [‘decorum’ like lol you’re being SO rude right now, knocking his face with a light tap on the chin like don’t smirk at me boy because we’re only getting redder over here]

Casey: [‘dunno what that means’ could be bants, could be he genuinely doesn’t know what that word means, in my head it’s both cos he can guess hence the pisstakeyness but that’s obvs not a word in his vocab ‘soz, like’ for this and the smirk but ofc he’s not remotely sorry for either lol]

Janis: [a mm sort of noise like yeah, I can tell that because never behaved a day in your life and we’re so here for it ‘neither of us are’ ‘cos no need to lie about it]

Casey: [turning to look at her for a sec when she says neither of them are sorry because yeah too true and he’s gotta do a genuine smile about it and bring back the big hearteyes]

Janis: [kissing the spot on his chin you just punched him because so in love with you and unable to sit still in our seat about it currently]

Casey: [‘I love you’ because HARD SAME, he’s full of love rn and if he even starts kissing her anywhere in any way they 10000% will crash, so saying this and turning away to GRIP the steering wheel like his life depends on it is the only option to keep them alive, but in the same breath he can’t resist adjusting her seatbelt for her when she cannot stop moving, such dad energy always]

Janis: [🤏 at him like I am a tiny bit soz I’m making driving this car such a task for you right now but also a little bit more soz you can’t pay me all the attention always ‘I love you more’ in the quietest voice of all time ‘cos currently trying not to breathe let alone move because behaving in the extreme now]

Casey: [‘nearly there’ as quietly like she’s a child doing the whole are we there yet annoying cliche but really he just needs to remind himself and her that they won’t be stuck in this car having to behave for much longer because they both hate it so much, taking her wrist and feeling her pulse how he do]

Janis: [when he’s being so daddy you can’t actually stand it and are tempted to have a proper sulk about it but folding your arms is interrupted by him grabbing your wrist so you’re just !! at him silently]

Casey: [‘unless’ like that’s a full sentence because we all know he’s saying unless you want me to pull this car over rn immediately and do something about the way you’re looking at me so !!]

Janis: [biting our lip and shaking our head slowly how he did not that long ago because no, we gotta keep going, you’re right]

Casey: [running his thumb over her bottom lip very distractingly for a long and lingering moment but do keep on driving because you always do what you’re told]

Janis: [‘nearly there’ the way you repeat something when you’re trying to comfort yourself and need to believe it, sucking his thumb, however briefly as your mouth moved to talk]

Casey: [an intake of breath that’s almost a GASP but he’s not letting it be because we’re trying to be good and get there, therefore driving a little bit faster, not so cray you could get in trouble but just so she knows how much he’s also holding on to that repeated nearly there and needing it to be true]

Janis: [an almost imperceptible nod of approval because could not need to be there more, keeping hold of this hand a little too tightly because any way to hold off from just losing it]

Casey: [get there so he can stop this car and then IMMEDIATELY undo her seatbelt and pull her onto his lap to kiss her like he’s wanted to do that entire time but could not or y’all would crash and die]

Janis: [the most dramatic kissing like it has been years and you thought you’d never get another chance like truly, there’s no way you had to wait that long but that’s just y’alls vibe, the ‘daddy’ that we’re letting out is beyond unholy because we feel like we’ve never meant it more]

Casey: [it has probably been 10 minutes but it feels like y’all had to wait another decade over here, you’re like teenagers but we know why and we’ll always allow it, absolutely does not need to touching her indecently outside of this food place, but he is and does because the d word has been spoken and feels are high and she’s wearing what she’s wearing]

Janis: [attempting to maintain eye contact whilst he kills you to just kill yourself further ‘you’re so handsome’ yet again loving upon his face but not allowing yourself to ruin his hair how you often would]

Casey: [‘it’s for you’ like have it to do whatever you want with, because never going to discourage feral behaviour when he can encourage it, emphasising this by doing a new lovebite somewhere on her where it’s only just peeping out from whatever she’s wearing, so it’s not blatant but it’s there if you’re looking is the vibe]

Janis: [‘for tonight’ like he might be going on a different date tomorrow with someone else, doing the GASP you did not earlier at this lovebite because always going to be here for and urging you to mark us in all the ways]

Casey: [‘forever’ like the most !!! * of all time, thus gotta kiss her fiercely about it as if she’ll go somewhere if he doesn’t]

Janis: [just grinding yourself against him shamelessly, using a hand on the window to steady yourself, biting his lip hard but not quite to bleeding point]

Casey: [excuse us everyone who’s currently getting out of their cars to go and eat or walking past to go about their business for his ridiculous sound in response to all this, he’s not sorry or remotely concerned with y’all but I am]

Janis: [clamp his mouth with yours as if that’s a solution because we’re not stopping, heaven forbid, doing your staring whilst that close vibe too to really get the SHH across as you’re still doing the most to touch him outside his clothes]

Casey: [meanwhile he’s touching her more as if being like okay let’s make it a competition is remotely a solution either, boy you know you’ll only lose, don’t do it]

Janis: [I don’t have much faith in you either but obviously can never turn down a competition so we must, doing our best unphased act here for all of ten seconds, I’m sure]

Casey: [you aren’t baze lads, give it up LOL, but it goes without saying he’s doing the most to turn those 10 secs into a literal second before she’s losing it, again don’t mind them everyone, they can’t be tamed, especially in this era]

Janis: [lmao there is no hiding here we know it, but trying to prove just how unbothered and quiet we can be by moving your hand for you so it’s fully down our pants like see, so cool, so casual but you simply are not so sort of defeated the point but still]

Casey: [taking them off with the implication of just fully intending to leave them behind in this car because they are so unnecessary for this date actually because he knows damn well you aren’t cool or casual and what a way to express it, no fucks given to the mess y’all could now get into with this, best behaviour simply never lasts, and now his only priority is killing her so]

Janis: [grabbing your pants and shoving them in your mouth like there, will be SO quiet now, as if that isn’t entirely unhinged behaviour, showing how blatantly you need something to stop you from making ALL the noise]

Casey: [we all know he LOVES how unhinged she is though so it’ll only add to his enthusiasm here, as if he needed any more encouragement, in contrast to how feral y’all are both being, giving her the softest kiss ever on the top of her head for the good girl vibes]

Janis: [🥺 having to do your talking for you right now, as well as the blatant way you’re attempting to get him out of his pants but you’re too distracted to fully get there]

Casey: [help her like you helped her with her seatbelt before, same daddy energy, lbr though you need this just as much and you’re as !! about it]

Janis: [taking your pants out of your mouth and using them to coat him in all the drool that you soaked them with ‘please’ in a voice that is barely there at this point]

Casey: [‘please what?’ purely for how his voice sounds asking the question and to make her use hers again because too into how it sounded]

Janis: [breathing so shallowly because we’re overwhelmed with how you just sounded and the endless ways we could ask for this, just continuing to play with you as if debating all these ways in the !! silence ‘love me, daddy’]

Casey: [the way he’s not even intentionally mimicking the exact way she’s breathing they are just that in sync always and feeling the same things so hard rn, STARING at her in the !! silence but almost cutting off her sentence when she says it in his eagerness to do just that, typical him things]

Janis: [the noise that is being strangled out of you with how hard you attempted to keep it in but simply could not when he does shit like that, giving him an aggressive lovebite where he gave you one for the mirroring but also because you need some way to remotely calm yourself]

Casey: [the only acceptable response to any of that is a ‘baby’ that matches the way she said daddy the first time, no notes, neither of them can calm down and are both dying haha]

Janis: [you are right there huns, so funny, at least you’ll have a chance of getting through a course before you need to go again I suppose; just here cuddling him because you need to be squeezing him every which way you can ‘yours forever’]

Casey: [you tried, at least you aren’t going at it outside or inside of whatever this restaurant is because y’all are those bitches and would, some tiny amount of decorum has been found, ridiculous as it is to be proud of you for these antics, try not to squeeze the life out of her when you’re doing this back at her though please, she could barely breathe before as is]

Janis: [wouldn’t be complaining, and we aren’t, the opposite with how we’re sounding and the way we’re putting your seatbelt on for you like we’ve literally trapped you and you can’t leave, not even realising you're also moving more deranged as a result too]

Casey: [bite this seatbelt about how much you love it so you don’t dramatically bite her shoulder or somewhere else because we’re not drawing blood when you’re this pre-date thank you, I’m sure you can and will also choke yourself with it for y’all’s mutual enjoyment and I can’t stop you from doing that so live your best life]

Janis: [just here watching you like a proud parent nbd ‘that’s made you harder, Case, what does that make you?’ pausing our own movements off your body so you have to reach up and thus choke yourself more]

Casey: [a look like you tell me because all he cares about ever is what she thinks and we’re not soz about that ever]

Janis: [‘good answer’ as if any of that was communicated verbally because we just know and you know exactly what we think about you and everything we get up to]

Casey: [the most dramatic nod that turns into the most loving forehead touch because exactly]

Janis: [doing another fave by kissing you as softly as we can whilst being entirely feral in how we’re riding your lap rn ‘I think you’re perfect’ so sincerely between these kisses]

Casey: [‘nah, you know I’m not, and that it’s okay’ because too real to not express yet again how important it is that they don’t have to be perfect ‘I ain’t perfect but you’re still here’]

Janis: [just smiling at him because love you reassuring us whilst mid sesh, you’re too cute sometimes I swear ‘you feel pretty perfect though’ like not soz for it]

Casey: [‘still waiting to feel that for myself’ like yes I know you and your thinking I’m so perfect meaning we have to do penis related arts and crafts, in such an oh you kind of tone but he’s too amused and too loved up, nevermind also being too feral, to really mind atm ‘have to take your word for it’ all the emphasis on word there because really trying to get her to make all the possible unhinged noises ever with what he’s doing]

Janis: [‘not my fault you can’t fuck yourself like that’ with the same kind of affectionate bants because it’s unavoidably the mood right now but we’re also immediately giving you all the words without it remotely being going along with the bit and simply because we gotta]

Casey: [‘who else’s is it I’m not as flexible as you?’ with the bants of we’ve been workout buddies for years and years how dare you not train me for this, but he’s making her do some car acrobatics again just to make the most of how flexible she is and how strong he is, obvs, bringing back all the car hookup mems]

Janis: [‘you wouldn’t need me otherwise’ like yeah, too smart to teach you how to do that, it was a carefully considered plan, thank you v much]

Casey: [a hot lol at her masterplan but ‘I would’ because he needs her for all the reasons and needs to let her know that]

Janis: [‘you would… never leave your room’ like I know you but we’re giving you heart eyes because always love being reassured]

Casey: [‘I’d need to see you sometimes’ not him saying that he wouldn’t be able to fuck himself even in this hypothetical scenario without her to turn him on first, when you’re just that in love and it’s so true]

Janis: [just kissing him so hard because that’s the most romantic thing we’ve ever heard tbh]

Casey: [have a makeout, it’ll keep you both a bit quiet at least, the random passersby are welcome]

Janis: [the only chatting we’re doing is to tell you how much we love you, over and over but still, an improvement]

Casey: [us proud of these deviants again when we have no reason to be, god bless, you know he can’t keep his mouth shut and is therefore joining in with that whenever he isn’t kissing her like his life depends on it]

Janis: [soz not soz you have to stan a drunk in love couple like this]

Casey: [and I do but also hurry up so y’all can get in that bloody restaurant or so help me]

Janis: [tbf honey boo boo, we can leave this here if you wanna ‘cos the vibe is getting to Libi throwing a party in your gaff whilst you guys are out and getting you kicked out so, if you wanna do something else we can because we know you gonna have this dinner and hit the clerb]

Casey: [you’re right because honestly I just want y’all to have a nice time on this date and then the fun time you didn’t get to have on night 1 of him working, so nothing dramatic should happen until the news of the party gets back to you and ruins your good time]

Janis: [thanks, Libi, you flop lmao]

Casey: [is there anything you specifically wanna say happens during the date or the clerb or are you good with it just being a nice vibe?]

Janis: [am annoyed this is so short now lmao but honestly I agree, we can just vibe it was going very well until it was ruined, for sure]

America: u were missed in detention 2day

America: Lucas went psycho, u could of filmed it

Libi: At you? Unfortunately that isn’t enough of a plot twist to make the day’s supercut

America: @ the kid with the crutches in my year, swear that was the only thing stopping it coming 2 blows, 2 weapons on him at all times, not a wise fight to pick

Libi: Typical one for Lucas to pick though, when it isn’t a girl from my year 🚩

America: told you he made a mistake double booking himself when he got you

America: couldn’t get all assault-y like he wanted with me there just ‘cos I couldn’t answer his question about… whatever it is we’re doing atm

Libi: Don’t, the close call is too real, it was already gross as when he used the word “provocative” to describe how I answered his question…

America: ooh la la

America: never happy, him, if you answer his questions or don’t 💔

Libi: I’ll be happy to leave it at the one detention with him, no offence

America: a tease, I understand, I just lack the subtlety myself

Libi: He shouldn’t be getting worked up by me, that’s very much a him issue, not a me problem, but

Libi: you’re not the only person to ever say it

America: who’s saying that to you? 🤔

America: boys are very bad flirts

Libi: Still, I don’t think they were trying to flirt, just make me feel bad, or themselves better, for my serious lack of interest

America: you do have a boyfriend, isn’t that incel defense 101

America: respect other men, not bitches

Libi: Probably if true, but you’ve heard wrong, I don’t have a boyfriend

America: oh, my bad

America: every1 thinks the deaf kid is your boyfriend

Libi: Well 1. Everyone shouldn’t call him the deaf kid, that’s way more insulting than thinking we’re dating and 2. We aren’t, he’s like my brother and my best friend, nothing else

America: sorry, I don’t know his name, I wasn’t trying to majorly put my foot in it but 🙃

Libi: 3. His name is Bobby, now you know and you won’t have to put up with me having a go again

America: it’s cool, it sounded cunty even if it wasn’t

America: you should tell everyone you’re single, then you wouldn’t be, you’re so pretty

Libi: 😳

Libi: might be a big part of the reason I don’t, selfish as that is to him, I’d rather be single right now

America: the pretty privilege 😏

Libi: You’re pretty too, you can’t call it out if you also have it

America: not as pretty as my sister so its irrelevant

America: i’m not 💔 i get to be a total hoe to compensate

Libi: 👌 my only child privilege I’ll accept

America: i won’t hear any arguments on that 1

America: sisters are a living hell

Libi: 😶

Libi: [but drop some films on the subject as recs, idk but you’re that bitch]

America: homework… Lucas?

Libi: I wish that was the sort of homework any of them set

America: as I have NO PLANS for tonight 🍿📼 it is

Libi: You’re so welcome then, since I know the feeling and how 💔 it is

America: who pissed on your plans babe?

Libi: It’s a long story, you would feel like I was a teacher, [namedrop one who emotionally overshares because there always is]

America: you can do that 1. No one believes me, even if I wanted to tell your story for you 2. I’ll tell you all about Gaz and his mind control abuse tactics meaning I’m not allowed to leave my room unless I’m on tiptoes

Libi: [Whatever Violette’s nickname is because nobody’s using her name obvs but I haven’t thought of one] could teach you, she used to always walk like that when we were younger

America: 🩰

America: I’ll ask her but I might also invest in some heavy 🥾🥾

Libi: Yeah, I wouldn’t blame you, by the sounds of Gaz

America: v Lucas vibes but instead of detention he ruins my home life 🥳

Libi: My home is massive, if you ever wanna stay

America: um, duh

America: you can’t be that sweet and be serious though

Libi: The catch is it’s in the middle of nowhere, and there’s more 🐓🐐 living there than people now, but if you’re cool with the longest bus ride of all time, often, it’s alright really

America: awh, i love 🐓

America: people will travel for an empty though, always, just bin off the few living people left 👾👾

Libi: Oh and 🐈 loads and loads, how could I forget that little detail

America: it does sound like you’re flirting with me but that asks the question what the 🐐 means

America: [name/shame your own cats, deffo a cat family, not as many as the cali gaff, of course]

Libi: Least I don’t have to 🤞 you’re not allergic

Libi: but if I was flirting with you I’d say something about how much we have in common, so many of our 🐈 being named after rock stars

America: why my ma wasted her best names on 🐈s is a whole ‘nother debate but you’re right

America: your name is cool, I’ve thought that since you came to China’s bdays when we were little

Libi: Most people think I’m Libby like Elizabeth, but I’m not bothered about correcting them, I think you’re right and my name is cool too

America: when most people’s names are out of the bible, that’ll happen

America: is a bit like mam wanted us to get bullied but

Libi: Loads of my family would say it builds character, the rest would either be the bullies or quick to sort them out

America: 🤡 loads of character

Libi: It made me laugh when you [something she’s done recently which I won’t commit us to but we know the vibes]

America: 😁 earned me an invite to your party

Libi: I never agreed to no party, it’s not even my birthday ‘til [a weekday that’s coming up soon af]

America: omg its never your actual birthday, psychic or what

Libi: You might be 🔮 but ❌🥳

Libi: if you knew who I lived with, you’d get why not

America: what are you going to do then?

Libi: I have my traditions for the day of, Bobby and I do

Libi: but I don’t know, things between us are complicated

America: you have to celebrate, however complicated things are

Libi: Nobody’s in the celebrating mood

America: you should be, it’s your birthday, you won’t get to repeat it

Libi: They’re every year, it’s alright, hopefully by the next things’ll be less

Libi: shit, to be honest

America: never your 14th though

America: what if you’re waiting until your 18th or your 44th

Libi: Normally I’d be the first person to want to make it count 🎂

Libi: but I don’t have anybody to invite, it would be actually tragic, Samantha Baker in Sixteen Candles level of bad birthday 😬

America: no, no, silly

America: that’s not tragic, that’s when you invite everyone, the best guestlist is no guestlist, after-all

Libi: Is it?

America: 100%

Libi: I’ve heard what happens when people try and have a lowkey party and it’s gatecrashed, nevermind what would if I set out having no guestlist

Libi: there’d be no house standing by the end

America: no, it’s never that bad, people are just dramatic after the fact to try and sound so super cool

Libi: There’ll be an element of that, but there’s the real risk 🐓 are too scared to lay 🥚 ever again, we can’t

Libi: unless it’s somewhere else

America: maybe its foot in mouth o’clock again but i did think you sort of moved around a bit

Libi: I did, I used to live with Bobby more, before, when his brother was married to my aunty but they’re not together anymore

America: so that’s why everything is shit

Libi: Yeah, she cheated, and his brother took it how you would take something like that, so I can’t live there, they’re looking after each other and I’m

Libi: looking after myself

America: we can’t keep having things in common like this, people will talk

America: so basically, Bobby is in a mood with you too, I see, I see

America: well, where does your aunty live now?

Libi: With him, her new boyfriend

America: you wouldn’t mind if their place got a teeny tiny bit trashed then

Libi: They’d deserve it, but they do have the cutest puppy there I’d feel bad for 🤏

America: I don’t think anyones gonna kick it

America: don’t go to school with TOTAL animals

Libi: We could look after him, between us

Libi: he loves me, I’ve already had to loads and he’ll wanna be your best friend too, he’s that sort of dog

America: you’d trust me? 🥺

Libi: You’re the only one who isn’t full time in her classes with [whatever the special needs teacher is called] who [again Violette but this nickname] says is nice to her

Libi: I’d call that worthy of trust

America: she’s fun, and funny

America: and she likes my stories

Libi: She is and she does, and from my own POV you’re the only one who cares it’s my birthday

America: she probably wouldn’t like a party, would she

Libi: I’ll ask, but it might get a bit much, if we’re inviting everyone, they live in a flat it’s gonna be well crowded

America: it wouldn’t be much of a gesture if it just freaks her out, all I was thinking

America: I can get to work spreading the word

Libi: Why don’t we do something together the day of, us 3, after school? I have to stop holding my breath at some point Bobby might want to

America: 🥤💳🍦🎉🧁

America: I’ll steal Gaz’ card and it’ll be on me

Libi: You don’t have to, I’ve been given some birthday cash early and I’ll have the rest by then

America: okay, I’ll check his wallet just ‘cos

America: the decades old condoms will come in handy anyway

Libi: If they’re that old, maybe just stick to using them as 🎈 to be safe

America: if that’s your bday girl wish, I will accept

Libi: It properly sounds like I’m flirting now, promise I haven’t had any interest in girls yet

America: 🤫 that I’m a total nun too, no one needs to know

Libi: I’m a total party virgin, throwing one like this anyway, I hope nobody works that out immediately 🤓

America: people want what they want from a party, and they’ll all love you for the excuse you’re giving them to celebrate as well as a venue

America: it’s that simple, promise

Libi: Okay, they’re after the high school party montage, I’ll give them it, easy *😎

America: 👑 and sash before you know it

Libi: Fair question, what are we wearing? To commit fully to being that bitch or nah…

America: we could go on a shopping spree with your birthday funds to decide

Libi: [tell her about all the thrift stores you know that have the best shit because you’re that bitch]

Libi: hands down my favourite kind of montage

America: how many dead grannies clothes can i wear at once 🤔😁

Libi: I don’t know how I’ll not flirt with you then 👒

America: 👵 not 👴 unlucky Lucas

Libi: Please don’t spread the word as far as the staff room, tah very much

America: his invite will get lost in the post, he can jack off to the coming of age novels he reads

Libi: We’ve all seen the battered copy of Lolita he keeps in his desk drawer, he isn’t even a bit niche about it

America: he acts like he’s that cliche but he was actually fuming when I had my 🍭

Libi: He’s scared of you cos he wants girls that have no agency and no clue what it or consent means, which is even more outdated than his misunderstanding of that book

America: you are sounding a bit too like my sister now 🤏

America: i’ve seen the movie though

Libi: Sorry, but there’s a chance she could be right and you can still think having her ‘round you is hell on earth

Libi: I just mean, you know too much about what he’s like to fall for what he’d like to pretend to be

America: oh she just loves an essay, I don’t think any of hers are ‘provocative’ though 🥱

America: I know what you mean, wants his bullshit believed, most do

Libi: I don’t hate an essay, I’d rather film it, obviously, but if we had a decent English teacher I wouldn’t be gutted to have to write them either

America: you’re smart

Libi: I don’t know about that, but I’ve always liked the sound of my own voice 😅 “provocative” or not

America: we can have that in common, I don’t get 😤 when someone else wants a turn on the mic

Libi: When you come over you’ll lose your shit over the music room

America: 🤤 I only stopped having to share one when Zsa finally got herself a flat

Libi: My mum had to share with her sister when she was our age, she hated it too, she used to sleep in there instead most nights

Libi: I like to, but I’m nowhere near as musical

America: you do 📹 too, that’s cool

Libi: Yeah, like her and my dad, they had it in common

Libi: when I was very little I used to think he had a 📹 for an eye, it’s how I remember him, if I do remember

America: my dad was a 🎸

America: I’ve never heard anyone else put it that way before

Libi: Maybe my mum knew him, she was a bit famous, I think she knew everyone

America: I bet, even though your ma was super young, it’s the same scene

Libi: [tell her all about your mum’s musical endeavours because you have so much of it on film and the rest you just know cos everyone would tell you]

Libi: We should have a look for him in the footage, bring a photo so I have a clue who I’m 👀 for

America: I don’t have any but I bet from description I can work it out, if they were

Libi: You’re on 🍿📼

America: and jamming ✌️

Libi: Don’t tell your sister, unless you fancy making her fuming and jealous

America: always

Libi: I can’t believe you remember me from her birthday parties, what a lasting impression

America: you were sort of hard to miss, for lots of reasons

Libi: I wish I was still her and she was still me

America: you can be

Libi: It’s not that simple but 🎂🤞🌠🙏🔮

America: complicated is for the grownups

America: all we have to do is have fun

Libi: 🎼 to my 👂

America: and I won’t make any special attempt to make sure cute boys show up 🚫💘

Libi: I just don’t know any cute boys, that’s all, if you do, you’re allowed to invite them

America: me either but I know what they look like

America: they’d be more likely to come if you @’d them

Libi: Alright, tell me who to @

America: [just start listing off boys from school you think are fit, probably way too old most of y’all like do not girls lmao]

Libi: [idk how the irish school years work and what they are called etc but just know she’s looking these lads up and saying not the ones that are too old and what year she draws the line at, cos a bossy bitch but also you’re not wrong hun]

America: [I feel like Libi and co were maybe 3rd years so America is 2nd? And it goes up to 6th aka 18 year olds so just do not girls]

America: [also list girls like as you weren’t sure but also fine if you’re gonna be like that about the boys lol]

Libi: [again just no-ing any girls she doesn’t like whether that’s genuinely or doesn’t like the look of when she’s doing this lil search because we’ve said you’re a bit of a bitch in this reboot so]

America: 😆

Libi: What’s funny?

America: you

America: for someone who’s never thrown a party you’re v discerning now

Libi: Um, I’m not sorry about it so

America: funny don’t = bad

America: I like it

Libi: Aw, tah for liking me 😘

America: duh, I like [Violette] ‘cos she’s fun and funny, what’s not to like about you

Libi: I like her too, she’s definitely one of my favourite family members

Libi: but I haven’t felt fun or funny lately, suppose

America: we’ll fix that

America: and get you a super hot outfit for the party

Libi: If he could just remember how fun and funny I am, that might help to start fixing things

America: he can’t be emo like you cheated on him forever

Libi: He could, I’d get it, but I’ll hate it

America: my mam has cheated on every boyfriend she’s ever had, told Gaz that when he moved himself in

America: it’s bad but like, no ones dead

Libi: Did your mum ever fuck her boyfriend’s brother though?

Libi: Bobby has 2, you see, well, he did

America: don’t wanna diminish by saying yeah

America: married does hit different there, I guess 😬

Libi: It’s such a mess, and we’re too sober to get into all the gory details

America: I won’t force it out of you even though it sounds properly interesting

America: won’t be when you’re sobbing into your cake

Libi: I’ll save sobbing for when everyone finds out

America: he’s lucky he can’t hear

America: it’ll be a rough week ‘til they get over it

Libi: I wouldn’t rush to translate it, even if he was speaking to me

America: I can take the heat, got time to think up a proper scandal

Libi: That’s the nicest anyone has been to me in ages

America: 😇 but that is not the rep

Libi: Your secret identity is safe

America: your party is a good setting for my cancellation, who knows what I’ll get up to, real or fake

Libi: 📹📼🔒

America: 😈 uploads only

Libi: Promise, I owe you that

America: you’re cute, you don’t deserve everyone talking bad about you over something you didn’t do

Libi: But they’re going to, I might as well do something that’s at least fun at the time and only a bad idea in hindsight

America: you want me, I get it 😘

Libi: Find me when I’ve had a few drinks, who knows

America: 🥵

Libi: Jokes aside, you should, I haven’t been drunk very much

America: I won’t take advantage or let it happen to you when I’m more than willing

Libi: I’m pretty confident I could beat the shit out of most boys on your list, if I had to

America: really?

Libi: Yeah, most of my family 🥊 you have to opt out of getting taught or it’s standard

America: that’s cool, I’m just gonna have to 💋 my way out of trouble

Libi: OR I could teach you some things, one day

America: we can swap skills

Libi: I think you teaching me how to 💋 would only get me in trouble

America: are you accusing me of being a crap kisser?! 🙀

Libi: I would never

America: you’re right though, bringing you into a lesbian scandal doesn’t keep your name out of everyone’s mouths

Libi: And anyway, I know how to

America: did you kiss Bobby

Libi: When we were kids I wouldn’t stop, I always got told off for it

America: boyfriends were SOOOOO easy to keep in little school

Libi: In fairness to little me, we did have a wedding, so technically he was my husband at the time

America: mother mary will be buzzing

Libi: I’m loyal like that 💍

America: good girl like that, blatantly what Lucas thinks

America: not realising you’ve got a 🥊 ready for him

Libi: The scandal is me accidentally murdering him when I get given another detention without you in it

America: no one would be gutted, local hero, like

Libi: I’d rather get on the front pages for my 📹📼 but at least he’ll be dead, massive silver lining there

America: yeah how much say would you get on the prison documentary they do

Libi: I’ll do my best to end up with final say, or who have I become whilst inside but a shell of my former self

America: too good already to find Jesus in there, not sure enough on girls

America: got to stick to your art, babe

Libi: 🤝

America: if I end up inside, I will be SO ready to be someone’s bitch

Libi: I’d visit but I don’t wanna make trouble for you when they end up fuming and jealous about it, we might have to stick to letters instead

America: nothing gay about that 😏

Libi: It would be a plot twist, nobody expects it of me

America: 💔 the male population

Libi: I swear the entire population thinks what you thought, that I’d only write love letters to the one specific boy

America: you were close, you’re both good looking and not technically related, people assume things

Libi: 💔 for the were you just said

America: 😶🤐 ugh, sorry, I only meant that you aren’t right now not that you won’t be again

Libi: It’s not your fault, like it isn’t mine I can’t help missing him so much

America: 😥 it’ll be okay

Libi: 🎂🤞🌠🙏🔮

America: he’s as in love with you, he just needs to be a dude and rage first 🥊😤😡🤬😖😠👿👊

Libi: He isn’t in love and he doesn’t 🥊😤😡🤬😖😠👿👊 I get what you mean though, things have to eventually go back to normal

Libi: even if it’s a new normal 🤏

America: 😢😭😩😣😨😰😥😓😞😔😟😕🙁☹️ would’ve seemed like more of a dig but yeah

America: no one can stay in their feels forever

Libi: It’ll be okay

America: totally, like mam will eventually cheat on Gaz and he’ll leave us to our life like it was before

Libi: All we have to do is wait

America: ⏱

America: don’t mean we can’t have fun in the meantime

Libi: 🥳 starts rn, why not?

America: rn rn?

America: set that rsvp to asap 💃

Libi: One way to find out who’s dead keen

America: oh that becomes well apparent, had a hard job getting some people to leave ours

America: but you won’t have that issue, you can leave when the parties over and not deal with the cleanup or comedowns

Libi: Not caring how anybody else feels is as good as a house rule for my aunty and her boyfriend the rest of the time, I won’t feel bad

America: it’s your birthday, no rules apply anyhow

Libi: Exactly the thinking I need to do more of

Libi: it isn’t gonna feel like my birthday ‘til I start acting like it

America: 🍾🍾🍾

America: I’ll take some of my mam and nans

Libi: And I’ll hit up my granddad, he never says no

America: people should byob but some are stingy so you have to have something to offer, like

Libi: At the very least drinks to offer you and me before people start showing their faces

America: what are you thinking on wearing, what’s the vision

Libi: Think back to how I used to dress for your sister’s birthdays

Libi: we can probably tone it down now I’m not 4, but still, a homage, you know? Something little me’d be proud of this me for

America: ✨🧝‍♀️🦄🤩🧜‍♀️🤠👸😎🦋🧚‍♀️🌈

Libi: 👽🐅🔮👑🦸‍♀️⭐️🩰👩‍🚀🦕🌌🔫🎀 too, yeah

America: i’m excited, i haven’t had an excuse to dress up for forever

Libi: I’m excited for your 💡

America: anything with glitter, feathers, studs or sparkles

Libi: Anything that’ll take ages to clean up, I see where you’re going with this

America: more camp than slutty but with a side of 😘

Libi: 😏

America: if you want ages to clean up, loads of 💡 for that

Libi: I bet you’ve got loads of horror stories from the parties at yours

America: beer is so sticky

Libi: I’ve learned how true that is from granddad’s pub

America: such a useful family member to have

Libi: He’s one of the good ones, for sure

America: nans discount at [some Irish equivalent of poundland, you know the vibe] isn’t that amazing, ngl

Libi: You’ve already helped massively, it’s okay for you to just sit back and be the guest of honour, besides me

America: you’re so sweet

Libi: Credit where it’s due, and you’re the reason this party is happening, so ✨

Libi: I’d have talked myself out of it, same as I did going to yours

America: you’re just feeling shit too, that’s understandable as well

America: just in my experience, it doesn’t help anything

Libi: Nor in mine, I’ve been moping for a whole month and it’s gotten me nowhere

America: trying to be 😁 is at least more interesting

America: besides, if everyone else is moping then you’ll never get any attention doing the same act, trust me, Chi is always ☹️ no point me playing 2nd

Libi: I have the least reason to be upset anyway, accepting the fact makes more sense than not, if everyone’s that determined to have it feel like such a competition

America: most things are, people just pretend its fair when they’re the winners

Libi: But actually nothing’s fair and it never has been, behind all the make believe

America: that’s a thought that needs a few beers to handle, some glitter thrown on it too maybe

Libi: To be continued…

America: good end card

Libi: I like it, has the most possibilities

America: me too ✨

Bobby: What are you even doing

Libi: It’s my birthday

Libi: almost

Bobby: so you, what, exactly

Libi: What does it look like?

Libi: oh and hey, btw, since you weren’t gonna say it

Bobby: Because it’s me whos acting different, right you are

Libi: Different towards me, if you’re ready to have this convo now

Bobby: You’re the one thinking you’re cool having some stupid party and not even inviting me

Libi: I am cool, and you used to be the first one to think so, but you don’t even talk to me anymore, that’s why I didn’t invite you

Bobby: you didn’t invite me for the same reason you’re posting it all over the place

Libi: What, Bobs? Go on, enlighten me

Bobby: for attention and to be a dick about it

Libi: Wanting some attention don’t mean I’m a dick, you know what my birthday means to me, how important making memories is

Libi: and as things stand, I had no idea if we were going to do anything at all, nevermind our traditions

Bobby: so you had a party somewhere I can’t go, makes sense

Libi: *Somewhere that deserves to get trashed

Libi: it’s the only place a party getting a bit messy wouldn’t matter

Bobby: Whatever, I don’t care at all about that

Bobby: just don’t pretend you do when it’s obvious you don’t

Libi: I do care, which is why I’ve been giving you all the space you asked for, even though it’s killing me

Bobby: you care about everyone telling you how cool you and your party are, that’s really lame

Libi: If it was true it would be, but it’s just not

Bobby: yeah, right, it just looks that desperate

Libi: Bobby, come on

Libi: if I’m desperate for anything it’s to get to feel less shit for a minute, aren’t you?

Bobby: and hows that working out for you

Libi: I’m trying, at least

Bobby: Dead happy for you

Libi: Be here, break something, it might help

Libi: please

Bobby: no thanks, I’m not that immature

Libi: Then be here and prove how mature you are, whatever

Bobby: you heard, there’s 0 chance I’m going there

Libi: Okay, tell me what would increase my chances of us back in each others lives

Bobby: You’re being dramatic, none of us have gone nowhere but them two

Libi: No, you’ve shut me out

Libi: but I can be dramatic if you like, if you want me to beg this is me begging right now

Bobby: Why would I want any of this stupid shit

Libi: You tell me, it’s happening on your terms, all of it

Bobby: Have a nice night

Libi: Like I said, your fucking terms all the time

Bobby: I’m not gonna talk to you when you’re being all aggressive, you’re clearly pissed

Libi: You’re not gonna talk to me anyway, it’s just an excuse

Libi: I could be the nicest ever and you still wouldn’t bother

Bobby: I don’t reckon you could, nah

Libi: You reckon I’m who doesn’t care

Libi: Why don’t you miss me even a little bit?

Bobby: You’re just being really childish, about all this

Libi: Yeah well, trying to be mature about it has done nothing

Libi: answer my question

Bobby: No, Libi

Libi: It’s been [a really specific countdown on the length of time, which will make you sound unhinged]

Libi: When will you talk to me then?

Bobby: you’re making things up we talk every day

Libi: We don’t, I tell you what’s going on in lessons every day

Bobby: that’s talking

Libi: No, it isn’t

Bobby: 🙄

Libi: Right, I’m a dick, I’m childish, but it’s alright for you to 🙄

Bobby: I’m not doing no back and forth with you when you’ve got more important things to be getting on with

Libi: You’re the most important person in the world to me, ffs

Bobby: right

Libi: It did used to feel right to you, or I thought it did

Libi: I don’t know what I’m supposed to think now

Bobby: you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re acting like a massive idiot for what, her attention

Libi: You’re the idiot, I have hers whenever I want it, she’s never stopped loving me, she won’t

Bobby: funny way of showing it

Libi: And this was obviously a funny way of showing you I need yours, but everything I do is for you, despite everyone telling me it shouldn’t be

Bobby: I just

Bobby: don’t have any spare right now, he needs it all

Libi: So forget me for a sec, how about what you need?

Libi: I know you’re upset, you hate them, this is your chance to take that out of something other than me, I’m in the perfect place for it and you could be here too

Bobby: You think that wrecking their place will make me feel anything, do you know me at all

Bobby: that’s what they’d do, not me, no thanks

Libi: I’m asking you to try, for me, cos I don’t know what else to do

Bobby: I don’t want to, that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard

Libi: What’s your genius idea? We carry on as we are?

Bobby: I know what I’m up to, I’m looking after Jim

Libi: Okay, I’m glad one of us isn’t totally lost

Libi: give him my love

Bobby: you made this choice yourself

Libi: The choice to celebrate my birthday? Yeah, I did, and I’d make it the same again, I only get one 14th

Bobby: and you made it for you so don’t be chatting no bollocks like you’ve done anything for me

Libi: Tell yourself you’re not front and centre of every decision I’ve made for almost my whole life if you want

Bobby: you didn’t invite me, you didn’t ask me my opinion even

Libi: I can’t fucking hack no more rejection off you, I’m not over how much it hurt when you wanted me to leave

Bobby: I’m not going to tell you somethings a good idea when it ain’t, that you’re not making a massive twat of yourself just ‘cos you wanna hear it

Libi: I don’t care about this party, it’s if you’d said we weren’t going to spend any of my birthday together and what that means

Libi: *when you said, cos you already have that you’ve got no attention left to give me

Bobby: you’ve decided that, ‘cos you didn’t fucking bother to ask

Bobby: you make up problems to have for a fucking plot point

Libi: It’s my birthday, my mum spent her 14th [doing whatever mad shit we all know Edie did always] she wouldn’t be happy if I spent mine gutted and nor would I, that’s all very real

Bobby: so, have an awesome time and film it so its real

Libi: Fuck you, that’s so uncalled for

Bobby: I’m going to bed

Libi: Good, I hope you have nightmares after being such a dickhead

Bobby: 👍

Libi: You should’ve just left it at 👍 ages ago, says it all

Bobby: how much you don’t wanna chat to us is really obvious, you’re alright

Libi: You’re the one using 😴🛏 as a get out clause from having to speak to me

Bobby: you ain’t saying anything

Bobby: and some of us have got reason to be tired

Libi: I’m not saying exactly what you wanna hear, more like

Bobby: bold of you to assume you have any clue what I want to hear when it’s obvious that’s so far from the truth

Libi: Wow, okay

Bobby: Why are you surprised?

Libi: You’d say it or I’d still give you the credit of reckoning you wouldn’t?

Bobby: You’re trying to get in trouble, why are you shocked it worked

Libi: *have some fun

Bobby: since when has that been your idea of fun

Libi: When I was a kid I loved parties, don’t you remember?

Bobby: you’re not a kid now

Libi: I know, but, for one night, why can’t I act like one?

Bobby: no ones stopping you

Libi: You’re right, Bobs, nobody is

Bobby: 👏

Libi: Goodnight

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helloitsbees · 6 months ago

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I am buzzing after reading chapter 20 for Road&Sky omg are you kidding me! The mystery! The heart ache!!

You are so talented, I love the way you've crafted this story. I haven't seen Carol or read the book and atp I think I'm too committed to your story to go spoil anything for myself.

And can I just say. Slow burn is my favourite category in fanfiction and hot take but it's not easy to find well-crafted slow burn out here! Especially in smaller fandoms. Part of fanfiction's charm to me is that anyone can write it and you won't get shamed for not following the "rules" of storytelling, but I have to say with slow burn as a reader you have to commit to a story more as the slow burn tends to be...slow. Ha. So you can be 200k into a fic only for it to fall flat bc the author relies solely on the slow burn and then the happy couple kiss and roll credits.

I find that slow burn as a category sort of relies on everything during and after the "climax" part of the story structure rollercoaster.

Like a looot of slow burn I've read follow the same incomplete structure: The story will be 99% slow burn (background, rising action) the characters get together on like the last two pages (climax) and that's that. Where is falling action + resolution? 😭 You never actually get to read about them living life together, doing all the things that have been set up earlier (falling action, resolution.)

But with this fic it's not like that! With a lot of fics it's felt like the slow burn is either been building up to no proper resolution or it's just filler that's only there for whatever main story piece the author has centered the story around.

But the slow burn you write is rewarding on it's own if that makes sense. Like I am eating up every word lmao!

Sorry ion wanna bore u yapping in your inbox I'm just excited bc you're def writing my favorite fic in the Saw fandom rn!!

I can't help but nerd out a lil on the creative writing apect of it all but trust I could go on and on about how well you handle chainshipping. I love them RAAAHHHH !!!

The road and sky has me in a chokehold. I cannot wait to see what you're cooking up. I am SAT 🍽️

holy shit thank you so much, this was such a lovely thing to wake up to in my inbox!!! i’m so glad you’re enjoying it, i really hope what i have planned is going to be as satisfying to read as it was to plan & write!!

#chapter 21 is coming out in a couple hours i really hope you like it!

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justanotherfanwriter · 2 years ago

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bruh I hate to be that one birdwatching bitch but everyone making Flapjack Hunter’s wingman when cardinals are some seriously territorial birds has me like 😂. They’re known to square up with their own reflections for hours on end because they’re also all a lil stupid. The aggression lasts throughout breeding season, but has been documented to last even longer.

Based on this, below I wrote a few barebone snippets of varying length to distract myself from doom scrolling :) im not having a good time rn bruh i will not lie

UNEDITED. I couldn’t be bothered. This weekend sucked.

c/w: kissing (in last scene)

—————

“Flapjack! Flapjack, no!” Hunter scolded, scooping him out of Willow’s hair.

“Ah, ow,” Willow cringed as Flapjack tugged hard on the strand of her hair that he was refusing to let go of, “he’s still got my hair.”

“Sorry, sorry,” Hunter quickly removed the hair from his Palisman’s beak, “he isn’t usually like this!”

“It’s okay,” Willow smiled, rubbing the spot where Flapjack had pecked her much to Hunter’s mortification, “I’m sorry if I made him mad.”

He scowled at the tiny bird in his hands, who was squirming to escape and attack again, “You did nothing wrong, Flapjack—“ he gave the bird a little shake, “—is being bad.”

“Aw, he’s not being bad,” Willow wiggled a finger in front of Flapjack’s beak and pulled it back quickly when he made a snap at her, “he’s just being protective, is all! I must have spooked him.” She squatted down, and with a coo, apologized, “I’m sorry, Flapjack.”

Flapjack squawked back, and Willow looked up at Hunter for a translation. The way she looked at him made him hot, and he got lost in her smile.

“He said, he forgives you,” Hunter lied.

If anything, Flapjack had doubled down in his efforts to escape and attack, squawking up a storm as he spat threat after threat at the pretty girl in front of them. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Clover bristle, buzzing her way over to sit protectively on Willow’s shoulder.

His grip tightened around the bird, and he pulled the Palisman closer to him. “But, I think I should go throw him outside for a bit.”

—————

Willow gasped, pointing at the top of Gus’s head, “How in the world are you doing that!?”

“Doing what??” Gus looked up at her.

“He’s not attacking you!”

“Flapjack?” Gus snorted, reaching up to give the bird a few scritches, “Nah, we’re bros.”

“He must be finally coming around to us!” Willow cooed, reaching out a cautious finger to scratch him.

“Finally? What do you—“

“Ow!” She snatched her hand back, cradling it. The bite had broke skin, and a bead of blood bubbled to the surface. “Oh, snapdragons, that one hurt,” she hissed, bringing the finger to her mouth and sucking the wound.

“Willow,” Gus reached out, “are you okay!?”

“I’ll be fine, don’t worr—” She ducked, the blurry red dive bomb missing her by a hair, “Ah! No, Flapjack! No! Not my head!”

“Uhhh, Hunt—Hunter!” Gus cried, “Get in here!”

The older boy slid in a second later, eyes wide, searching for the danger. When he saw what was happening to Willow, he lunged for the cardinal, snatching him out of the air.

“Flapjack! No!”

—————

“I’m so so sorry,” Hunter groveled as he bandaged Willow’s finger, “he’s just—”

“It’s fine! It’s fine,” Willow waved off the apology with her free hand, “honest, Hunter, I’m not mad at you or Flapjack.”

“Besides,” She declared, sitting up a little straighter, “I’m completely confident I’ll win him over. I’ve got a habit of winning over the bad guys,” She winked at him, and blood rushed to his face.

“Ha, yeah, of course you will,” He smiled at her, fixing his gaze on their entwined hands, “he’s just—”

There was an offended squawk outside the window of the bedroom they sat in, and the two of them turned to look as Flapjack began rapid fire pecking at the glass. Hunter glared at Flapjack for a moment before Clover thankfully appeared from behind, chasing him off.

Willow giggled, “aww, it’s so cute how they play with each other!”

Hunter threw a dumbfounded look at her, marveling at how oblivious she could be for someone usually so astute. What was going on outside was most certainly not playing. It seemed more “to the death” to him.

—————

“Okay, everyone, dinner time!” Willow announced, walking into the kitchen. It was her turn on Palisman duty.

Ghost weaved between her legs, purring, as she got everyone’s meals together.

“Aw, aren’t you sweet,” Willow cooed, reaching down to scratch under her chin, “for you today, ma’am, only the finest of Gravesfield’s wet cat food. Don’t tell Amity,” Willow winked, placing the bowl down, “she thinks I spoil you.”

“I can hear you,” Amity called from the living room where the others sat.

“Ignore her,” Willow told Ghost, bopping her on the nose before turning to the next dish.

“And for you, my cutest little Clover,” Willow removed her Palisman from her head, placing her on the ground next to Ghost, “here is your nectar and apple slices. Apple skin peeled off, just how you like it.”

Clover gave her a cheerful buzz.

“Emmiline Bailey Marcostimo,” She nuzzled then removed Gus’s Palisman from her shoulder, “I hope you enjoy your hand-selected grubs from the Noceda garden. Still fresh and squirming, so eat up!”

“Finally,” She announced, turning to the bird that still lingered in the living room, glowering at her from Hunter’s shoulders. She picked up the fanciest plate Ms. Camila would allow her to put pet food on and approached him slowly.

“Flapjack, today, I have prepared something I think you’re really going to enjoy.” She presented the plate to the little bird, who hardly gave her the time of day, “A flapjack for Flapjack! I had Ms. Camila teach me how to make them! And you’ll find that I have topped it with only the best seeds, including cracked corn, striped sunflower, and sunflower hearts and chips, white milo, peanuts, and apple chunks because a little bird—” she giggled at her own joke, winking at Hunter, “—told me they were your favorite. Then to top it all off, I drizzled it in a light sunflower oil. I think you’ll think it adds a little something.”

Flapjack stared at her, and she swallowed nervously. She knew he had to be hungry. He was a very active bird.

“Do—do you want to try it?” She asked, holding the plate out to him, “Look see, the pancake’s shaped like you and everything!”

Much to her surprise and delight, he jumped on the edge of the plate and pecked at an apple. She held her breath, standing completely still, and resisted the urge to call out to the others. It seemed that Flapjack was finally warming—

A cold slice of apple chunk hit her on the cheek and Flapjack went back to Hunter. Taking the loose strand of Hunter’s hair into his beak, he pulled the boy backwards away from Willow.

“Flapjack!” Hunter hissed, shooing the bird away from his hair.

Luz swooped in to help, pulling Flapjack out of the air, “Aw, what’s the matter Lil Rascal, not hungry?”

Willow’s heart broke in two as she watched Flapjack nuzzle Luz’s cheek with a happy chirp.

“It is not poison,” Hunter scowled, responding to his Palisman, “eat your dinner.”

With a whine, Willow sunk to the floor and laid face down on the carpet. “Why doesn’t he like me! He likes everyone else!”

“Willow,” Amity tried comforting her, “he—he, uh. Well, Flapjack—”

“—he hasn’t tried pecking your eyes out yet!” Gus pointed out, ignoring the way Hunter vigorously shook his head, signaling him to shut up, “That’s something!”

She let out another long whine, “That’s because my glasses stopped him!”

—————

“Hunter!” Gus cheered through a mouthful of popcorn, patting the spot next to him on the couch, “Saved ya a spot, come on!”

Hunter shrugged off his jacket with a smile, and handed the milk and coffee creamer over to Ms. Camila before entering the living room. He fist bumped Vee as he passed her on the armchair, and carefully stepped around Luz and Amity snuggled up on a blanket palette on the ground.

“What we watching?” He asked plopping down next to Gus, commandeering the bowl of popcorn despite Gus’s protest. He shoved a handful into his mouth, resting his free arm across the back of the couch.

“Only the greatest movie ever,” Luz declared from the ground, “Azura: The Realm of Treachery. It’s not canon to the books, but it’s the only live action we’ve ever gotten from the series, so we forgive the inconsistencies!”

“Ahh,” Amity squealed next to her, doing a happy little dance in her blanket pile, “I can’t wait! I can’t believe this is actually real!”

“Oh, great, Azura.” Hunter drawled, handing the bowl of popcorn back to Gus, “So, this is going to suck? No—”

“Here! I got you your favorite,” Willow chirped, handing him a bag of hard candies and plopping down into the crook of his arm, “Luz says you can’t have a movie without the junk food!”

“—thanks.” He finished lamely, settling back into his seat.

“Willow,” Luz said confidently, “you’re gonna love this, I promise.”

“Totally will,” She agreed before giving Gus and Hunter a small shake of her head. Gus snickered, leaning back into the couch, and Hunter froze as Willow leaned over him to grab a handful of popcorn.

“Do you not like those,” Willow frowned, gesturing to the candy as the movie started.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, sorry,” He removed his arm off the couch and ripped open the bag.

Willow smiled, pleased she had remembered the right candy, and opened her mouth wide. He got the hint that she wanted him to give her a piece and he placed a candy on her tongue before flicking her nose and bravely throwing his arm back across the back of the couch. In a way, it was like his arm was around her shoulders, and the idea of it was enough to thoroughly distract him through the shit ass movie Luz was making them watch.

The three of them—and occasionally Vee—would send each other looks and hide their laughter while Luz and Amity cooed along to the movie in their own little world.

Somewhere in the middle(?) of the movie, Willow leaned closer into him, her mouth hot on his ear, “If they start making out, we’re spilling the popcorn on them.”

A smile spread across his face, and he leaned into her, “Captain, that was always the plan.”

She shivered against him as his breath tickled her ears, and he gave himself a mental pat on the back. One shy smile later, she was resting her head against his shoulder, and Hunter was sure that this definitely counted as cuddling. He steeled his nerves and let his arm drop from the couch to her shoulders, and to his greatest relief, Willow snuggled closer into him.

He was plotting his next move, when a flash of red caught his eye. Quickly, he shot his hand out and snatched Flapjack up mid-air before he could dive bomb Willow’s head.

“Ha! Gotcha,” He mocked, “too slow ya little shit!”

Willow still instinctively ducked as the rest of the room laughed.

“You’re getting faster, Hunter!” Luz cheered.

Amity gave them smug look, “guess that’s what you get for being so cozy.”

“Yeah,” Gus smirked, “leave a little room for the Titan guys.”

Willow covered her face with her hands, red in the ears, and over Flapjack’s indignant squawking said, “Okay, okay, I know, I hear ya. Too close. Got it.”

When they were able to start the movie again, Willow sat a whole couch cushion away from Hunter. Every few seconds, Hunter watched as she shot a cautionary glance at Flapjack, who stood guard on his shoulder. Clover, rustled out of a post-nectar snooze, now sat in Willow’s lap, glaring Flapjack down and buzzing for a fight.

To say the least, tensions were high for one-third of the room.

Hunter rolled his eyes, tossing a piece of popcorn to his Palisman. The lil’ shit didn’t deserve any, but he was still cute enough that Hunter quickly forgave him for being a complete cockblock.

Slowly, not to ruse Flapjack’s attention away from the screen, Hunter put his arm back over the couch, and stretched it enough that his fingers grazed against Willow’s back. She jumped a little, but when she determined it was him and not a ferocious pile of feathers, she sent him a tiny smile and leaned into the touch.

No one asked Hunter what his opinion of the movie was after it finally came to an end, which was perfectly fine by him. He had been too busy tracing soft patterns up and down Willow’s neck and back, watching as she shivered and chewed on her bottom lip to care about the movie. It was funny, though, getting to watch Luz quiz Willow on the movie because he was the only who knew why she couldn’t answer a single plot-related question.

Flapjack thought it was funny too, but for completely different (and mean) reasons.

(Willow was dumb. Flapjack was not. He was the superior birdy.)

—————

“Phew, okay,” Willow sat with a huff, “chores done, Luz and Amity are on their data, Vee and Gus are with the other humans, Ms. Camila said she’d be home late—”

“—and the Palisman are all down for their naps,” Hunter finished, sighing in relief as he looked over at Flapjack nestling into Ghost away from Clover.

“Jeez, it hasn’t been this quiet here, well, I don’t think ever.” Willow mused, tapping her fingers on her knees.

“Yeah,” Hunter agreed, “just the two of us for what, an hour?”

Willow chuckled, “It’s almost too quiet. Titan, what are we going to do with ourselves for an—”

------

Hunter moaned as his back hit the closed door to his and Gus’s bedroom. He grasped around for the doorknob, but Willow’s tongue was too distracting against his own. It took him a total of three tries to get the dumb door open, and when they were in, he toed it shut once more. Lip-locked, they stumbled across the room until the back of Hunter’s legs hit the bed.

He sat down, pulling Willow on top of him so she straddled his lap, and continued scooching up the bed until he was against the headboard. Her hands tangled in his hair as his roved around her body like he was depraved. She broke the kiss first with a wet pop and sat back for a moment to gulp in a breath of fresh air.

Hunter, on the other hand, was fine losing the brain cells, and wasted no time pressing his mouth against the nape of her neck. Breathing hard and without thinking, he rocked his hips into hers and pulled a sound out of her that he prayed to the Titan would haunt his dreams later on. He pushed Willow onto her back and she allowed him to slip a hand up under her shirt.

As fuzzy as his mind was in that moment, he still had the cognitive capabilities to realize that his hand up Willow Park’s shirt was probably the closest he’d ever get to any kind of “paradise.” He was mulling over the revelation when a blood chilling peck knocked on the door.

Together they stilled, panting against each other, and Hunter almost convinced himself it had just been a regular house noise when, again, there was peck on the door. Then, another. And the pecks continued until it seemed like Flapjack was trying to drill his way through the wood.

“Flapjack,” Hunter groaned, letting his head fall into the crook of Willow’s neck, “go away, Hunter’s having alone time.”

The pecking stopped for one glorious minute, but the laugher Willow was trying to hold in escaped her, and the drilling started back up tenfold.

“Willow,” Hunter whined, “you blew it.”

She giggled, “I know, I know, but he doesn’t share well, does he?”

“I’m sorry,” He groaned, cursing the world to doom as he sunk further into the crook of her neck, “he’s just possessive.”

She pulled out from underneath him, laying back on her elbows. “I’m not mad,” She blushed and kissed his cheek, “unlike him, I’m excellent at sharing, and I respect dibs.”

“Dibs,” He snorted, rolling off her and onto his back, “is that what it’s called?”

She fixed her shirt back into place and smoothed down her hair before leaning over and giving him a final kiss. It broke too soon, so he pulled her back in for another one.

“We should probably let him in before he breaks the door,” She whispered against his mouth. He pouted, but let her go.

Willow stood up from the bed and smiled, “aw, come on, don’t pout, you’ll hurt his feelings!”

“He hurt mine first,” He moaned, tossing a pillow over his lap, and Willow laughed, opening up the door. She ducked as Flapjack swooped in, diving at her, and ushering her out the door.

“Sorry, Flapjack, I know. I’m going,” She giggled before turning to blow one final kiss at him, “see you later, Hunter.”

This didn’t please Flapjack in the slightest, but Hunter was smitten by it. A goofy smile spread across his face as he waved goodbye, and it didn’t go away until Flapjack gave him a good peck to the face.

“Ow!” Hunter hissed, rubbing his nose, “Flapjack! No!”

#huntlow #belos gonna come back and attack willow #but the jokes on him because she's been dodging a small and furious bird like nobody's buisness #so shes ready for anythin #especially aerial attacks #unedited #i give hunter a little game he deserves it as a treat but mostly i do it for Willow

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worminstuff · 4 years ago

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hey luv !! your ficus are so good and one of the few things giving me serotonin rn. if it’s not to much trouble, could you do number 20, panic attack, with sapnap because ive been struggling with those lately. tysm !

i wasn’t going to write today, because i’ve also been feeling a bit down, and it’s a bit of a busy day, but for an ask like this i cant say no.

i know you guys don’t know me personally but if you ever need anything (even if it’s an ask like this) please let me know! i won’t mind at all! i love all of you wit my whole heart!!!! i hope you feel better anon, panic attacks are hard, but it’ll all be good once it’s over! and they never last forever! and i’m glad my writing makes you a lil happy, that means so much!!!!!

sorry for all that,,,, here it is!!

Sapnap x reader

tw: panic attack

^^^^^^^^

You were sat on the floor of your bedroom, trembling and overwhelmed. You couldn’t pin point what exactly was causing this panic episode this time, but that could just be because of your panicked thoughts.

Your phone was buzzing, it seemed like it had been forever. With a trembling hand, you reached for your phone. The bright light of your lockscreen lit up your face in your dark room.

20 missed calls from nick❤️

10 missed calls from green man🐢

9 missed calls from sam🙃

15 messages from nick❤️

12 messages from green man🐢

And the list went on, texts from wilbur, from tubbo, and even tommy.

You’d been offline for about 2 or 3 days (you lost count) and everyone was getting worried. You weren’t going to look at any of the texts, as your vision was seeming to blur, until you caught a glimpse of one.

I’m coming over.

It was from Nick. The thought of someone seeing you right now sent your brain into another spiral.

What was he gonna think after he saw what a mess you’d become?

Your thoughts were interrupted quickly when you heard the jingle of keys and your front door open. You’d forgot nick had his own key.

Heavy steps moving quickly through your house brought the gentle giant to your doorway suddenly.

Looking up at him through an ocean of tears you could faintly see his face fall.

His heart broke at the sight of you, instantly he moved over to where you were, sitting behind you with his legs on either side of you. Before wrapping his arms around you he asked gently,

“Can i touch you? Or no touch?” He was quiet, not wanting you to get startled. With only a nod from you he understood and gently pulled you to his chest.

No further words where spoken as he held you through the worst of it, your heaving breath and shakes didn’t cause him to move a bit.

He waited a bit for it to slow, breathing with you, trying to steady your breath. After it was sort of steady, less of hyperventilation, he rested his head on yours.

“Can i run a bath? Or are we hungry? We can go for a ride too...or we can take a nap..or if you wanna call Nikki or Will..I know they usually help with these..” Nick wanted to give you anything and everything. If you asked him to buy tickets to florida to see clay, right now with those teary eyes and shivery hands, he would hand you his wallet instantly.

You turned, slowly, facing him now. You held his large hand in yours, looking at his hands. He lifted one Tucking a small strand of hair behind your ear.

“Did you edit the video you needed done for today?” You looked up at him finally.

He chuckled softly shaking his head. How could you possibly be thinking of that right now.

“I did but it doesn’t matter, what do you need right now bub? How bout some water to start? With some ice maybe?” He stroked your cheek softly, a small smile on his face.

You nodded a bit but when he started to get up a small whimper left your mouth.

“Cant be here and getting you water babe..I’ll be right back I promise.” He gave you a little kiss on your forehead and then got up slowly and made his way out of the room.

Once he came back he sat in front of you, putting the water down gently inbetween you both.

“After some water how about a nap? You look like you haven’t been sleeping good..” his hand gently laid on your knee, rubbing it softly.

You took a sip of the water and nodded shakily.

You both sat as you drank your water in a comfortable silence, until your phone was ringing again. Before you could look at it, Nick grabbed it, glancing at the screen.

“It’s clay. He’s really worried too, how about I answer and just let him know I’m here so he calms down” he laughed a little, and you nodded.

As he answered you could hear clay faintly,

“Oh my god! You finally answered, jesus Y/n I am so worried, so is nick. You need to call him. He’s been a total utter WREC-“

“HEY! Woah there, I’m fine actually but thanks. Y/n’s okay too, I’m with her. Just wanted you to know she’s okay.” Nick cut him off before he went further.

You sort of tuned out the rest of their convo after finishing the water. You slowly scooted a tad closer to Nick, cuddling yourself to his chest. He wrapped his free arm around you holding you tightly. Once he finished talking to Clay, he wrapped his other arm around you.

“I was so worried..next time..try, I know it’s hard but send me something, just a letter and I’ll know. I’ll be here so fast. I don’t care what I’m doing. I’m always free for you. I mean it.”

You only could respond with a nod, and he knew you understood.

^^^

everything will be ay okay, i love you an no matter what you did today I’m also proud of you. Breathing is a hard task yk.

#sapnap fanfiction #sapnap fanfic #sapnap #sapnap x reader #dreamsmp fanfic #dream team fanfic #dreamteam #dream team

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glitterge1pen · 4 years ago

Text

Strawberry Juice Kissing And GirlsGoGames Nostalgia

Keigo Takami x reader, sfw, fluff, word count 1,373

tw; a lil bit of alcohol , this one is also more feminine than my other writing but I still use neutral pronouns

It’s early. Your friends were going to come over for brunch later. You had invited Keigo but he would already be working, when he said he could come over earlier you agreed. You woke up early, a gentle buzz of excitement in all of your movements, making you feel less groggy.

You get ready as best you can. When the knock at the door arrives you’re still half in your pajamas but answer the door anyway. Keigo doesn’t have any semblance of morning on him. He looks as he always does, put together and composed. Even as he tosses his jacket over the side of your couch and gives you a tray of pastries the motions of him seem thoughtful.

“Did you make these?”

You ask as you place them on the kitchen table. Keigo follows you into the kitchen, opening up the windows in the room before hoisting himself up on the counter.

“Hell no, got them from a shop on the way here”

You’re in the cabinets next to him reaching for two glasses.

“Orange juice?”

You ask, already in the fridge bringing the juice and champagne out. You grab the fruit salad you had tossed together the night before, your main contribution to the brunch besides hosting and drinks. You place the bowl of fruit on the table before going back to the counter to make the drinks.

“Yes!”

Keigo says as he watches you pour the liquid into the glass. You make yourself a mimosa but skip the alcohol in Keigo’s drink. He actively frowns at this.

“Hm, no champagne for me?”

“Don't you have to work later?”

“Yeah, but one drink? I’ll be fine”

Keigo grabs two pastries and you the drinks. Once at the table Keigo crosses one leg under himself, and puts his other knee up to his face where he nibbles at his pastry. This is when he notices your laptop on the table, you had been working the night before and left it out on the table. He swipes his fingers on his pants to rid his hands of the gathered crumbs, then grabs at your laptop.

You watch curiously not sure what he’s doing. You groan a bit as he opens up his email. You drag the laptop away from him, mouth half full as you tell him to stop it.

“You’re not on the clock yet, relax”

“I’m always on the clock”

“Yeah, sure”

You say with a smile and a sugar coated mouth that you've collected from the pastry.

“What do you suggest then?”

“If you want to relax?”

You’re puzzled and in thought for a moment before you get an idea. Your fingers gliding over the keyboard. When the screen loads Keigo looks, surprised, startled almost.

“I saw this at the library once”

“What?”

“I snuck out once, and went to the library, and these younger girls were on this exact website at those big old library computers”

Keigo takes an impressive gulp of his drink, and without taking his eyes off the screen pours himself some more. He had an almost unreadable look about him, but you can see some sort of longing in the inquiring way he was glancing at the screen. You put the laptop between the two of you.

“Chose one,”

“What?”

His eyes are wide as he considers you.

“These are great for relaxing, I promise”

You say taking another sip of mimosa. Keigo is hesitant but he does start clicking around on the bright pink page.

"Look this one has wings,"

He says clicking onto one of the fairy dress up games. You resist the urge to giggle or call him cute. He seems overly invested in the little fairy picture on the screen. You debate which color her wings should be. He says that obviously the wings should be red, you counter with the iridescent wings. Keigo drags on each item of clothing to test them out on the fairy. Same with the hair.

You look away for one moment, checking your phone, a notification having gone off. When you look back up at the screen you choke a bit on the tangy juice in your mouth. Keigo has changed the hair, the skin tone, and even the eye color of the fairy on the screen to resemble you. He's still asking you about what clothes he should put on the fake doll, not acknowledging the quick changes he has made. So you decide to ignore it too. Telling him which items look best and what shoes he definitely should not put on.

"I still think it should have the red wings, that way we could match"

"We?"

You question.

"Yes, we, that literally looks just like you, did you not notice?"

He asks in a way that tells you he knew exactly what he was doing. He takes a strawberry from the bowl, you notice that it's the fifth strawberry he's had and scold him, telling him to eat the other fruit as well.

"I like strawberries,"

Is all he says as he eats another one. You also pop one of the fruits into your mouth. It's cold and refreshing and just below too sweet. Keigo finishes off his mimosa and only pours champagne into his glass when he refills it.

"You should eat more, if you're gonna be drinking"

You tell him, a playful warning.

"I only want strawberries"

He says reaching into the bowl. But he stops, pulls the fruit bowl closer to him. No strawberries. He looks to you and you have the last one in your fingers.

"That strawberry should have been mine, you probably have more in the fridge, me I have to go the whole rest of the day without one"

You nod like you are taking in Keigo's proposal, pretend contemplating it. You didn't want to tell him that there were more strawberries in the fridge. Instead you decide to be a bit bold. You put half of the strawberry in your mouth. Keeping it in place with the front of your teeth, putting your head in your palm, teasing Keigo with the last strawberry.

The strawberry in your lips, Keigo places his mouth on the other half you have offered to him. He bites the red fruit, pocketing it in his cheeks, his lips chasing after yours. The cold sweet juice of the berry coating your lips and the corner of your mouth. It’s a clumsy kiss, his lips just barely catching the bow of your own.

When you move back to your place at the table, away from him, you take the back of your hand to rid your face of the sticky fruit juice before it settled.

“Huh? That bad? You gotta wipe the kiss away?”

He’s teasing you, his voice close to your ear, flushed breath dancing over your skin.

“You're such a baby, I just don't like strawberry juice on my face”

He inspects your face, you scrutinize him, knowing he has a scheme to play out. You can tell because of the specific shine that glistens around his irises, the taut way his mouth is, like he’s so fierce in trying to hide his smile, like you possibly couldn’t know what he was up to.

“What? You don't have anything on your face? Nothing I could see, here,”

He leans into you again, like he’s going to brush at your face with a napkin or his hand. Then his tongue is on the spot right above your lips.

“God, Keigo!”

You say, pulling away from him with a laugh, leaning back in your chair a bit.

“What? I couldn't see anything, couldn't taste anything, actually that's a lie, you did taste like strawberries,”

“Hm, wonder if it has anything to do with the strawberries we’ve been eating”

“Doubt it, you probably ate a strawberry flower and it grew inside you”

“Isn't that watermelon?”

You ask him, adjusting yourself to get a better grab at the laptop, wanting to play more silly online dress up before he had to leave. He shakes his head, like this was irrefutable.

“No, you have flowers inside you and you'll die with strawberries growing out of you”

“Keigo, I’m taking the champagne from you”

༓･*˚⁺‧͙·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙　✩　*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ .·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙　✩　*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ .‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

A/N: I AM OBSESSED WITH FRUIT AND FRUIT IMAGERY IT IS IN EVERYTHING I WRITE RN LIKE EVEN JUST HINTS OR MENTIONS OF FUCKING FRUIT SO SORRY FOR THIS also shout to dee-lite for the title, just changed apple to strawberry. Ugh the strawberry. Such a complicated relationship I have with the strawberry. Listened to Heartbreaker by Mariah Carey the entire time I was writing this.

#hawks #hawks x reader #hawks fluff #bnha #mha #Keigo Takami x reader #keigo x reader #keigo takami #bnha x reader #strawberies

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hobeymakar · 4 years ago

Text

Unapologetically | C. Makar Part 1

Chapter word count: 3,526

A/N: Title from the song Unapologetically by Kelsea Ballerini. This is my first chaptered fic in a long time and my first written on here, so please be kind. This fic is based off a set of very vivid reoccurring dreams I’ve had over the last couple of months that involve Cale and like the true psycho I am, I wrote the big things that happened in those dreams down. Then I decided recently to just turn it to a fic, so this is pretty self-indulgent. Is it possibly narcissistic of me to write a fic about me? Maybe, but I’m gonna write it anyway. This first chapter is gonna be a lil boring and weird because it has a lot of time skips but Chapter 2 will be much more exciting and way better

Shoutouts: @pizzasloot and @hockey-and-wine for being my biggest cheerleaders for writing for this fic in the gc and also shoutout to @grenawitka for always keeping the gc lit. I love you girls!

Warnings: explicit language, alcohol use

Tatyana “Taty” Marie Ventura or “Ace” as she is now being known as, never thought that when she started a podcast in the comfort of her Rhode Island home, that she would kind of blow up. Taty started the Ace of Hockey podcast because she wanted a career in hockey media and wanted to do it her way, being unapologetically herself. She started the podcast and started messaging hockey players and other athletes in hopes that they would come onto the podcast to talk about diversity and inclusion in the sport.

That’s how she finds herself on an early October evening receiving a message from Cale Makar on how he’s a fan of the podcast. She internally screams because she never thought an actual hockey player would listen to the podcast. She assumed only hockey fans would listen to the podcast and that it would never reach the notoriety of other hockey podcasts.

From: calemakar_

Hey, just wanted to say that I’m a big fan of your podcast. Buddy of mine showed it to me and I think it’s fantastic. It’s helping me learn how to be a better ally

To: calemakar_

Thank you so much, that means a lot honestly!

From: calemakar_

You’re welcome. I’ve been showing it to the team and they think it’s great for them to learn how to be better allies

To: calemakar_

Wow, that means so much! I just want people to know that hockey is great but it would be so much better if it became inclusive to everyone regardless of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, etc. I just want hockey to really be for everyone

From: calemakar_

That's what we all want. We don't want anyone to feel like they can't play or enjoy hockey because of who they are

She doesn't know how to keep the conversation because she's awkward and just lets the dm sit there. She turns her attention to the latest hockey news and figuring out who's gonna be her next guest for the podcast.

A few hours later, she sees a follow request on her personal IG account and not the podcast account. She sees it's from Cale and is confused on why he would want to follow her personal account. She barely posts stuff about the podcast on there and uses it more to keep up with family with the occasional posts promoting the podcast and the guests. She accepts the request and doesn't think anything of it.

A few days later, she notices that he's been liking her posts and viewing her stories. He's been seeing her interact with family and friends and she still doesn't understand why he cares enough to keep up with her personal account. It starts becoming weird when he adds her on snapchat.

She sends him a dm on instagram to make sure it's actually him and not someone pretending to be him.

To: calemakar_

This might sound totally weird but did you just add me on snapchat?

From: calemakar_

Yeah I'm sorry. Josty thought it would be funny to hijack my phone and add you

To: calemakar_

No need to apologize, I just wanted to make sure it was actually you and not someone trying to be you to catfish girls

From: calemakar_

Yeah no, definitely my account

She accepts him as a friend on Snapchat and sends him a message.

To: Cale Makar

Hope it's okay I added you back

From: Cale Makar

Yeah, that's cool. You didn't have to tho. Don't want you to feel like you had to

To: Cale Makar

Trust me I added you back because I wanted to. I don't just accept anybody

She hits send before she can even think twice about it but then she reads it back and wants the ground to swallow her whole. She panics as she watches the delivered turn into a read and the little bubbles show up saying he's typing. It feels like forever before Cale sends a response back.

From: Cale Makar

Well I'm glad you didn't add me back out of pity

She doesn't know how to respond to that right away so she opens up other messages and posts updates on her work on her story. She goes back to the messages and starts typing a response, not wanting to leave him on read forever.

To: Cale Makar

Why would anybody do that?

She exits out of it and hopes that her attempts at extending a conversation aren't met with disappointment.

From: Cale Makar

I admit you got me there

To: Cale Makar

I get people to say that a lot

From: Cale Makar

Never picked you as the type to brag

To: Cale Makar

There's a lot of layers to me and a lot of things you don't know about me

From: Cale Makar

Well I hope I get to know more about you

She blinks multiple times not knowing if the message was actually real. After blinking several times, she realizes the message was real and she lets out a squeal. Is he actually flirting with her? She pinches herself because she must be dreaming. There's no way her favorite hockey player and crush is flirting with her. Shit like that doesn't happen to her! She has zero game and has been on a grand total of zero dates in her life. She has had zero boyfriends and girlfriends in her life, so this is something brand new for her.

Maybe she's reading it wrong? Maybe he's just being polite and isn't actually flirting. She decides it's better not to stress it and just go with the flow.

That's how she approaches the next couple of weeks with her pumping out content for her podcast, working her actual day job, and working on her social media game for the podcast. She also dms tons of people she sees as potential guests on the podcast.

Her conversations with Cale become more frequent as she eventually finds herself sending him snaps daily. He actually feels comfortable enough to comment on her posts on her personal IG page now and she honestly doesn't know how this is all even real.

Like before she's not stressing it and is going with the flow. However, on the day of Cale's 22nd birthday, she gets hit with a message that causes her to freak out a little.

From: Cale Makar

Hey, is it cool if I got your number? It's much easier if I can just text you. I like you and want to keep getting to know you more

She hyperventilates because she has never had another human being shoe this much interest in her, her whole life. She pinches herself to make sure it's real and it really is real. Cale Makar actually asked for her number. She doesn't know if she should be jumping for joy or preparing for something to go wrong. This is completely uncharted waters for her and she doesn't know if she should go with her heart or her mind. Her mind is telling her not to do it, but her heart is telling her to do it. After a minute, she decides to go with her heart.

To: Cale Makar

Yeah, that's totally cool! (xxx-xxx-xxxx)

She sees a text from an unknown number a minute later pop up on her phone

From: xxx-xxx-xxxx

Hey, it's Cale

She saves the number under the name "Cale 🥰" and types out a response

To: Cale 🥰

Hey, happy birthday btw! Hope you're having fun!

From: Cale 🥰

Thank you I'm in Calgary rn with my family

To: Cale 🥰

Glad you're having fun with them

From: Cale 🥰

Thank you it's good to be back home

To: Cale 🥰

I can imagine! I'll let you get back to your family

She focuses on getting ready for Halloween, which also happens to be her sister's birthday. Her sister is turning 21 this year and she wants to make the most of it, even in the midst of a pandemic. They plan on going to Salem, Massachusetts with family and throwing a little party at a cousin's house in Brookline, Massachusetts. She sees Cale post pictures and videos on his Snapchat story of him and his family celebrating his birthday. She sees all his teammates wishing him a happy birthday on Instagram and Twitter.

As she’s getting ready to go to bed that night, she gets a video call from Cale.

“Hello?” she asks, not knowing why he would be calling her.

“Ace!” he shouts, causing her to cringe slightly.

“How’s your birthday going?” she asks.

“Great! I’m with my brother and some buddies from back home! We got a bonfire going on right now!” he explains, showing off the fire and his brother and friends.

She wants the ground to swallow her whole because she looks absolutely disgusting with her hair tied up in a bun, and old URI sweatpants and an URI sweatshirt on. She has no makeup on and she’s pretty sure she has some acne on her face.

“Hey Ace! I’m Taylor, Cale’s brother!” Taylor shouts in excitement.

She can clearly tell that he’s buzzed, as well as Cale.

“Hey Taylor,” she smiles, waving at him politely.

His buddies also introduce themselves and she can tell that they’re also slightly buzzed. A part of her hopes that they aren’t driving and are gonna make it back home safely whether tonight or the following day.

“You should come!” one of his friends suggests.

“I’d love to but I live in America and the border is still closed,” she replies, feeling slightly awkward.

“It’s a shame! I know Cale really misses his girl right now!” another friend chimes in, causing her to almost choke on her wine.

“I’m not his-”

“He won’t stop talking about you! He’s got it bad for you!” another friend adds, causing her to blush even more.

If the ground would swallow her up right now, that would be amazing because she can't believe the shit that she’s hearing right now. She doesn’t know if it’s the alcohol that has his friends saying that but a part of her wishes it’s true. God, a part of her wants him to want her because she definitely likes him. She likes everything about him but she’s too much of a loser to put herself out there more. So she just lets him do all the talking and flirting because once again, she has no game.

“Shut up Taylor!” Cale cries out, shoving his brother lightly.

“Well you seem to be having a fun time with your friends,” she says, not wanting to bring up anything that was said about his feelings for her.

“It would be better if you were here,” he adds, his voice dropping slightly in volume.

“Yeah, well maybe we’ll meet one day,” she adds, not wanting to sound desperate to meet him or anything.

“When I get back to the States, I’ll make that a reality,” he replies, sounding sincere for being slightly intoxicated.

She’s reminded of the saying that drunken words are sober thoughts and gets a warm feeling in her stomach.

“Well I’ll let you keep having fun, birthday boy. I’ll talk to you later,” she smiles.

“Bye Ace,” he smiles back, before ending the call.

She immediately refills her glass of wine because she’s definitely too sober to be thinking about all the feelings Cale manages to give her every time they talk. She eventually falls asleep and if she dreamed about being in Calgary with Cale, she’ll blame it on the alcohol fucking with her dreams.

The next day is a busy one for Taty as she celebrates her sister’s 21st birthday in the best way she can while in the middle of a pandemic. They go to Salem, Massachusetts and have a blast doing many Halloween-related activities and then once it gets late, they head down to their cousin’s place in Brookline, Massachusetts to watch Halloween movies and to have a good time. Her sister decides to get drunk and Taty posts all their adventures on her Snapchat and her Instagram. She also sees that Cale has been posting his Halloween adventures on Snapchat, which aren’t as exciting this year because there’s no Avs Halloween party this year due to it still being the offseason and not everyone on the team is in Denver at the moment.

The next few weeks go by for Taty and it eventually gets to the point that she’s video chatting with Cale every day. They sometimes will stay up until late at night just talking and getting to know each other. Every day she’s becoming more comfortable and it’s on the first day of training camp, where she decides she’s finally gonna grow a pair and let him know how she feels.

He calls her after a long day at training camp and she actually has the time to talk to him as she isn’t working on anything for the podcast or her day job.

“How was camp?” she asks him, as she locks herself in her room.

The last thing she needs is for her nosy ass sisters to eavesdrop on her conversations with Cale.

“It was tiring but fun. It was great to be out there with the guys again, even though everything is so weird with the virus going on,” he explains.

“Oh I bet, I can’t imagine all the testing and the extra precautions you guys have to take. The whole season is gonna be super weird huh,” she replies.

“Yeah, weird is a bit of an understatement,” he chuckles lightly.

“I really like you,” she blurts out, then immediately wishes the ground would swallow her whole.

She buries her face in her hands and contemplates ending the call to save herself from further embarrassment.

“Oh thank god! I was starting to think you didn’t really feel the same,” he admits, biting his lip.

“No I definitely like you. It’s just I’m new to this. I’ve never dated before or anything. I’m kind of a giant loser if you haven’t already caught on,” she admits, almost rambling at the end.

“Yeah no, you’re not a loser! You’re the coolest, most fun girl I’ve ever talked to and I just want to keep getting to know you because I really like you,” he assures her.

"So are we putting a label on this? Are we dating?" she asks.

"I guess you can say we're long distance dating," he chuckles lightly.

"I did know our video chats were considered dates," she teases.

"I was seeing them as dates and I want our future ones to be considered dates," he confesses.

"Alright so set up our next date," you tease.

"I know you're recording for the podcast tomorrow so what about Wednesday?" he asks.

"I'm off work Wednesday so that would be perfect. What time works for you?" she asks him.

"8pm my time," he answers.

"Yeah that works for me," she smiles.

"So it's a date?" he asks.

"Yeah it's a date," she smiles, getting a warm feeling in her stomach.

She tells him about some funny stories involving her family and he tells her some funny stories from training camp. They chat for hours and before she knows it, it's past midnight and she has to go to work in the morning.

“I need to go to bed. I have work in the morning. Goodnight Cale,” she yawns, waving at him

“Goodnight love,” he waves back, ending the call.

If she cheeses a little at the fact he called her love, no one is around to see it.

December goes by pretty quickly and she feels bad that her calls with Cale become less frequent. December is the busiest month at work because everyone is doing Christmas shopping (being a store manager is hard work) and she finds herself working double the amount of hours she worked before the holiday season. Add doing the podcast three times a week and she’s absolutely gassed. Luckily, Cale doesn’t hold it against her because he starts getting more busy with preseason starting and his parents coming down for the holidays. Taylor is currently in the middle of his final season in the AJHL so he can’t make the trip down to Denver for the holidays. They text each other every day throughout the month however, and she manages to call him on Christmas and on New Year’s Eve, asking him if he’s excited for the new season to start on the 2nd.

2021 starts off worse than 2020 started because of the pandemic but Taty manages to make the best of it. She watches the Winter Classic while on video call with Cale. Luckily, the Avalanche start their season off at home again this year. The following day, she finds herself rushing home from work to be able to catch the Avs first game of the season against the Wild. She makes it home and takes a quick shower before changing into her Cale jersey and joggers. She quickly eats dinner before going into her room. She puts the game on and makes it just in time for the players to come out to the ice. She watches the game and manages to text Cale throughout the game knowing that he won’t see the string of texts until after the game. He finishes the game with one assist and 2 hits, as the Avs win 4-2 to start off the new season on a high note.

As she’s getting ready for bed, she gets a call from Cale.

“Hey, great game,” she smiles, trying not to show how tired she is.

“Oh shit, I just realized how late it is over there,” he sighs, not wanting to keep her up.

“It’s okay. I always stay up past my bedtime to talk to you,” she teases.

“How was work?” he asks.

“Annoying. We’re winding down from the holiday season but we still got a lot of people shopping and returning stuff,” she explains.

“I don’t know how you do it honestly, being so young and running a store, I mean,” he explains.

“Yeah well luckily I’m only an assistant manager,” she replies.

“Still pretty incredible what you do,” he assures her.

“Says the NHL superstar,” she scoffs.

“Hey, I’m not a superstar at all! I’m just another player like everybody else trying to be the best at my position,” he explains.

“Why do you have to be so humble all the time?” she teases.

“It’s just who I am,” he shrugs.

“And I love you for it but like just admit you’re a superstar,” she replies.

“Fine, I’m a superstar. Happy now?” he teases.

“The happiest. When are your parents going back to Calgary?” she asks, switching the subject.

“Tomorrow,” he answers.

“I’m glad you got to have them with you for the holidays, though,” she adds.

“Yeah, it was great seeing them again. I just wish Taylor could’ve been here,” he replies.

“Yeah well you’ll see him once his season ends and on the bright side, he’ll be at UMass next season,” she adds.

“Yeah I just miss him. I always go home for Christmas and this year I couldn’t,” he explains.

“Yeah I can’t imagine what that’s like but it will get better,” she assures him.

“Yeah I know it will,” he nods.

“I wish I could be there to make you feel better,” she sighs.

“Yeah, well we’ll see each other next month,” he smiles, a hopeful tone in his voice.

“February 5th can’t come fast enough. I’m gonna blow you away with the best interview you’ve ever done,” she teases, referring to her interviewing him for the podcast.

“I guess we’ll have to see about that,” he teases back.

“You wound me, Makar!” she fake gasps.

“I’ll make it up to you with a killer real first date,” he smiles.

“I’ll hold you to that. I expect to be really wooed,” she teases.

“It’s gonna be the best date you’ve ever been on,” he almost guarantees.

“It’s gonna be the first date I’ve ever been on,” she informs him.

“I know. That’s why it’s gonna be the best you’ve ever been on,” he jokes, causing her to roll her eyes.

“You’re so funny, Makar,” she deadpans.

“Stop acting like I don’t make you laugh all the time, Ventura,” he teases.

“What happened to humble Cale? I like him better than this smug one I got here,” she teases back.

“Stop acting like you don’t like it,” he replies.

“Yeah, I like every side to you,” she admits.

“Well that’s good because I like every side of you,” he smiles.

She feels her cheeks heat up and that warm fuzzy feeling return to her stomach. Is this what falling in love feels like? She’s never felt this way before and god, she hopes the feeling never fades because it’s amazing. No wonder people love falling in love so much, it’s magical and she hopes she doesn’t fuck it up. She just counts down the days until February 5th praying to god that nothing goes wrong once they finally meet.

#cale makar #colorado avalanche #hockey #nhl writing #nhl fanfiction #cale makar fanfic #hockey fanfiction #nhl #nhl players #nhl imagines #cale makar imagine

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schiavonaspada · 4 years ago

Text

Melody (S.W.A.L.K) 1971 Livewatch

I have seen this movie. but not the whole thing (i got interupped the first time i watched it)... so here goes!

movie load please

20 seconds of logos???

guitar song™

this movie is so nostalgic for no reason

Mark Lester and Jack Wild: did you mean, Oliver Twist and The Artful Dodger?

and tracy hyde shes here too

i love this movie sm wtf

can these credits end????

ok yes they can

70s film marching band scene

ornshaw drinking whiskey before band bc why not

danny is bby

mY mOtHeR dId It SiR

dannys mum is so annoying wtf

i really love tom ornshaw

run bitch run

The BB™

SET FIRE TO THE NEWSPAPER???

look at his lil face ❤

MELODY MY DAUGHTER

a gowdfish please

aww look at her

“ive done all those things i wanna try something new” LIKE DRAWING TIDDIES? DANIEL

“ah a boy gave it to me at school” was it ornshaw, i bet it was ornshaw

BITCH YOU RIPPED DANNYS TITS DRAWING

melody girl you cant play that fucking recorder

this film has great cinematography wtf

Melody Perkins Deserves The World !!

the gang go to school

Ornshaw Gets Bullied

“the jewish boys may now leave for private study” what about the jewish girls?? there’s clearly girls in the class?? why do they have to listen to the bible

ornshaw’s porn bible

DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHO JESUS WAS???

dont smoke at school kids

okay so shes peggy, why is she credited as maureen. who the fuck is maureen

hear me out, muriel is a lesbian. noone kisses for over five minutes unless youre proper horny and this bitch is like thirteen. she also says “i dont know, i never used to kiss boys”, because SHE DOESNT. shes lying because she doesnt kiss boys. shes closeted and thats whys she says she does. also, she got angry at peggy for saying she fancied a boy.

W I C

“saucy turtles make terrible bathmats, charley” okay okay jeez

ornshaws accent is everything

The Gang sneaking through the fence what will they do

uh oh danny

AWH YOURE BARMY

thats def gonna explode later

ornshaw gets kicked off the bus

but now hes on it

ornshaw and danny have such a wholesome friendship too bad melody ruins it oh wait

you’ve heared of ornshaw gets kicked off the bus now get ready for... ornshaw gets kicked out of the strip club!

you cant get a taxi!!! watch me hoe

where did ornshaw get the chewing gum from wtf

“shes always talking about people like you...” OH OKAY DANNYS MUM IS CLASSIST

“he could do with a heart attack!” WOAH OKAY

time skip to school

oh no danny’s seen melody

“we have three admirers of the dance!” ah shit

ah so maureen is the girl in green

why is ornshaw just standing there

FREE YOURSELVES

the girl gang is hilarious i love them

Muriel Kisses A Tombstone

uh oh dannys been found out

“HES A COWARD CMON”

ornshaw just yeeted his cat

i hate dannys mother sm

assembly time, an iconic part of british comprehensive school, since covid, i cant say i miss it

danny and melody !!

DANNY PLAYS CELLO THIS IS IMPORTANT INFO

melody and her friend are there because plot

melody sweetie baby i love you but you cant play the recorder

THEYRE PLAYING IN HARMONY DKDJSKDJSJKK 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

this is cute as fuck

melody is babey

oh explosives time??

i just dubbed these kids ornshaw and the pyrotechnics crew and it fits

dannys parents are annoying

i quite literally hate them

DANNY SPILT HIS COKE ITS SUCH A SIN

“neviw”

melody girl are you okay

melody are you lying about getting raped

oh time skip to school

we’ve hardly seen ornshaws home life so when will we properly meet him??

god i fucking love ornshaw its mad

oh this is an iconic scene if there ever was one

“go on tom dance with her” oh the ONE TIME ornshaw is called by his first name

youre mad !!

“girls are a load of snotty nose little so and sos” ornshaw aro king

is ornshaw.. scared of women

whatddya mean i dont dance very well!?

is it bad i lowkey crackship peggy and ornshaw now

YOU DANCE STUPID!

no one:

ornshaw: kicks peggy in the shin because he cant dance

“you big fat fool” yikes

danny u ok

ALL ORNSHAW AND HIS MATES DO IS CREATE EXPLOSIVES DJDKJSKt

oh it worked for once

i feel so fucking sorry for melody wtf

bb 🥺

im at the bit where melody is crying while putting on her mothers makeup

SWEETIE ITS OKAY

OH TIME SKIP TO SPORTS DAY!

this film is so fast were already an hour in!

ornshaw giving actually solid life advice?? are you sure this is the same movie

“you youre gonna be bloody useless!”

i literally love ornshaw so much

FUCK DANNYS MUM

GO ON DANNY

YES MY BOY

time skip to school 3982903843290

wtf is a young latin scholars book

lahtimah

not ass latimer, arse

i hate the latin teacher

ornshaw every second: right uh erm um uh so yes sir oh uh mhm

*ornshaw and danny shoving pillows up their underwear*

“dont worry about it!!” dude hes getting spanked by the latin teacher ofc hes gonna worry about it

ornshaw and latimah

“vacate your mouth”

“because its a silly out of date language sir!!!” hes not wrong

uh oh

what will slapping ornshaw’s ass with a dap even gonna do???

oh hi melody forgot about you

AWH DANNY SWEETHEART

“cmon danny dont let her see you cry!” i want a friend like ornshaw man

melody is just STANDING THERE LIKE GIRL LEAVE

“you can buzz off now love, tara, tooduhloo” have i said i love ornshaw? because i love ornshaw

danny dont abandon ornshaw !!

oh this is sad

danny? danny?? danny!!!??? DANNY!!?? 🥺🥺🥺

ORNSHAW RIGHTS MAN

ive felt sorry for literally all three of these kids now

ah fuck now ornshaws having a mental breakdown in the school halls

danny and melody’s relationship is so innocent and wholesome

this is literally so bittersweet, like we’re seeing danny and melody being all cute and happy but we know that back in school ornshaw is literally having a breakdown over them

im tearing up over a movie about schoolchildren in puppy love

“will you love me that long?” “of course! ive loved you a whole week already!”

“hes come to tea! his name is daniel!” melody hes not your pet

melodys dad seems so cool why was he arrested

donald????

i genuinely love melody’s dad

melody dramatically eats toast

time skip to school AGAIN

OH GOD I’M ACTUALLY CRYING

melody and danny are out on a date having fun and its the same song playing as the scene earlier on when danny and ornshaw went off somewhere at the start of the movie, melody has quite literally replaced ornshaw

i have real tears rn

they skipped school to go to weymouth

danny and melody are literally adorable man

“shall we get married?” arent yall like 12????

oh back to school they got in trouble for skipping

apparently the poor cast got spanked for real and like yikes

we want to get married :D

ITS NOT MENT TO BE FUNNY!!

leave danny alone!

leave melody alone!

ornshaw please stop

ornshaw stop taunting him this is gonna end shittily

OH SHIT

THEYRE STRAIGHT UP FIGHTING

ORNSHAW AND DANNY ARE MF WRESTLING EACHOTHER TO THE GROUND

okay now ornshaw is literally beating him up okay

danny this is your fault for ditching him for melody sorry

top ten best anime fight scenes

latin man is back because plot

DID ORNSHAW GIVE HIM A BLOODY NOSE

i’m sorry danny 😭😭

ORNSHAW. DESERVES. THE. FUCKING. WORLD. AND. MORE.

let melody and danny get married!

wait so if 20 is twice as old as her then shes.. ten?? i think

melody ily

“all i want to do is be happy” BABY

OH FUCK YOU MRS LATIMER

oooh

THEYRE GOING TO GET MARRIED BY THE RAILWAY

ornshaws unnamed friend is the true hero of this movie

is this the movie climax???

run! ornshaws unnamed friend! run!

IM SORRY THE’RE LITERALLLY GETTING MARRIED I’M 😭

“we are gathered here today to join this man and woman in holy matrimony.. shaddup”

ITS NOT FUNNY ITS SERIOUS

IS ORNSHAW STRAIGHT UP MARRYING THESE TWO IS HE THEIR VICAR

HE IS AS WELL

“DICKS IS COMING!!!” as soon as they were getting the rings

RUN !!!!

ornshaw just threw the bible at his re teacher from the re scene at the start i love him

DANNYS MUM HAD IT COMING

name a more iconic trio than melody perkins, danny latimer, and tom ornshaw, i’ll wait

GO PEGGY!

ORNSHAWS UNNAMED FRIEND IS GONNA FINALLY GET HIS BOMB WORKING!

YES

GO ORNSHAWS UNNAMED FRIEND

“i’ll get you ornshaw!” dude how is this his fault its yours for unterupting the wedding latin man

again ouf is the true movie hero

wait latin man is dicks??? whos wannabe remus lupin then????

this just in: ouf is actually named stacey

oh god thats actually such a bittersweet ending

melody and danny trolleying off into the sunset

im actually crying like a baby rn

god that was such a good movie

#you're my melody #melody #melody swalk #swalk #s.w.a.l.k #melody 1971 #tracy hyde #mark lester #jack wild

7 notes · View notes

snarkwriteswrasslin · 5 years ago

Text

sprung spring | take you home; adam page [m]

Prompt Used:

“I’ll feel much better if you let me walk you home.” + comfort sex + drunk sloppy sex + “Oh my god you’re so much better than the last person I was with.” + A breathy demand: “Kiss me” - and what the other person does to respond. + needy/clingy sex

Notes:

Okay, so… I have literally… Never… used my given name in a work of fiction before and… ya girl found out it’s hard to write dirty things when the OC has your name. Pure self indulgent smut because fuckkit yolo, I needed this. Some of the dialogue prompted above was changed to reflect the situation these two were placed in, fyi. This is mature content, so nobody under 18+ up in these parts. Also, I owe a serious hug to @heelsamizayn & @wrestlingismyguiltypleasure because no matter how many times I whined and bitched and got all squirmy whilst writing this, they really kept me going and I love them for that.

Warnings:

alcohol tw ( it’s the OC this time), clingy unprotected sex, sawwwft!Adam, lots of teasing (and hopefully tension, I was really trying to play at heightening that here) and yeahhh.. It’s tame. I promise ya’ll… I’m going to write actual harder / filthier prompts, I just… had a mighty need. Anyway, that’s all the warnings.

Pairing:

Adam Hangman Page x OFC, Ashley

Ashley narrowed her eyes at the bottle before glancing up at Shane and shaking her head. “I-I’m good.”

“Aw, c’mon hon. It’s just a little drink.” Shane was stepping closer, right in her space all over again. He’d been plying her with drinks and trying to get her to dance or talk to him -or the most annoying request he’d made so far, “Smile, darlin. Ya look prettier when ya do.” and it was starting to rub him the wrong way, the way she kept resisting. She could almost feel it radiating off of him.

Ashley was at that state of drunk where it was more annoying than endearing and now that it seemed to be irritating him that she wouldn’t just give in, it only gave her all the more reason to resist. It wasn’t as if it wasn’t almost cringe inducingly clear what the asshole thought he was doing and she just wasn’t having it.

At all.

Not even slightly.

Rather than even partially entertain his offer for another drink or to go dance with him, Ashley sighed and rolled her eyes in sheer boredom, taking the drink and taking a sip as she scrolled through her contacts list.

As usual, she hovered over Adam’s number in her phone and that loneliness crept in all over again. More pronounced. More tinged with regret.

She found herself missing him so much that before she even realized it, she’d pulled up the text bubble from their last text conversation and she found herself grimacing at the date.

Had they really not spoken at all in nearly 3 weeks?

And then Ashley found herself going back over the last time they had spoken face to face. Before she realized the true depths of her feelings and Adam drunkenly tried to kiss her and in a blind panic, she’d backed away.

Not because she hadn’t wanted him to kiss her, but because she’d been afraid of what might happen if he did kiss her.

And now, Ashley thought bitterly, hugging herself a little as the thought came, I’m lucky to get a Hi, how are you over text out of him..

With a sigh, she finished scanning their last brief text conversation and then, when Shane cleared his throat impatiently, she remembered that apparently, this guy expected her to pay all her attention to him and she put her phone down. Biting her lip, she settled warm brown eyes on the other man.

“I asked ya if you wanted to dance, darlin. They’re kinda playin our song.” Shane chuckled, holding out his hand. When she started to shake her head no, he gave her a sort of put off glare and muttered something to himself about tonight being a complete waste. All his buddies told him not to walk over and try talking to her; they all told him she was bound tighter than molasses from the knees down and every single night she’d come in this week so far, she’d managed to shoot down anyone who thought they might possibly stand a chance of takin her home. I clearly should’ve listened, Shane found himself thinking, because now I’m out fifty bucks and she looks more annoyed with me each second that passes and that real gorgeous chick I know I coulda won over left an hour ago with Greg.

“W-we don’t have a s-song?” Ashley’s brow quirked and she shook her head, holding up her glass. “I-i’m good, actually.” Ashley muttered as she took a long sip.

Moron, do you seriously think I want to dance to this song… with you? Because no. Ashley thought to herself as she glanced around the crowded bar, face falling when she remembered that Adam wasn’t in town right now, he was on the road. When Ashley realized what Shane had just muttered about the night being a total waste, she mildly shrugged. “I-i don’t r-recall askin y-you t-to come up n’ t-try pourin the booze to me, either. Play s-stupid games, w-win stupid p-prizes.”

As Shane grumbled “Fine, suit yourself, darlin. Don’t come lookin for me when it’s late and you can’t find a ride home.” and made his way onto his next target, Ashley let out a long and deep breath, blowing at dark bangs as they flopped right into her eyes, laughing off Shane’s words.

She went back to her phone, scrolling through her contacts.

“Maybe Shayna’s up.” Ashley mused to herself as she pulled up what she thought was a text conversation she’d been having with her friend earlier in the day while they were both stuck in their office working through lunch.

What she didn’t realize -and wouldn’t just yet, was that she hadn’t texted Shayna at all.

She’d texted Adam… The subject of the earlier conversation.

→ First of all, pretty sure I just completely eviscerated this one guy’s poor ego. *eye roll*. Guess whose NOT having the sex right now bc she gets mouthy when she drinks?

→ This bitch, that’s whomst. In my defense, he was the one who kept pouring the drinks to me. I just took ‘em. You know me, guy stood about as much a chance as… Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I chased him off. Like usual when we’re out at this bar.

→ But seriously though.. Maybe it’s the alcohol and the fact that I’m lonely and I’m salty because I’m not getting cuddles rn like youuuuu but…

→ Okay, u were right earlier.

→ It’s late and I’m drunk, otherwise I’d never say that. Maybe a little lonely too. Enjoy your shallow victory and the sex you’re probably getting rn, lmao. ILY Shayna!

→ I know ur probably busy with Samuel - sexy times and all that but… You win. You’re right.

→ I love him and god… I miss him so much it’s making me an even bigger bitch lately, so.. Sorry for that I guess. I wish I’d just… Kissed him back. Climbed him like an actual tree, giant he is… Shoved him against the wall, tangled my fingers in that hair and tugged his mouth against mine. Maybe even rubbed myself against him a lil bit too, just to see if that yummy cologne he wears all the time rubs off. At least then I’d… Well, I sure as shit wouldn’t be sitting here, shooting down pushy douchebag assholes and drinking alone.

→ Anyway, have your moment. I love Adam Page. I always have and it scares the living hell out of me. You were right. Now there’s only one problem… How do I make the big idiot answer my calls?!?

→ don’t answer that rn. Tomorrow… When drunk Ashley isn’t out and doing dumb shit and can think clearly.

→ Okay, no… answer meeee… I just… I need to know what to do here? Pls. I beg of you. If you don’t answer me, I swear to God, I’m gonna wind up drunk dialing.. >.>

–

The cell phone was going batshit crazy on the bathroom counter and Adam mostly ignored it in favor of soaking under a long hot shower. It had been a long drive; made longer by the fact that he was all beaten and banged up from the past few shows but trying to soldier through as usual. Parts of him admittedly ignored the phone because he thought it was most likely one of three people and none of them he wanted to talk to right now.

No, Adam thought to himself, the one I wanna talk to more than anything I can’t talk to now… He sighed as he thought about the way he got too drunk; out of control. He’d tried to kiss her that night and just the sheer look of panic in big brown eyes right before she bolted the hell away in a hurry had been more than enough to make him realize where he stood.

He couldn’t face her after that either, so he’d been keeping a low profile. Trying to distance from… his actions.

Just thinking about it had him both cringing and feeling that raw surge of pain he felt that night all over again, fresh as ever.

She hadn’t texted him or tried calling either, so that only further confirmed his suspicions. And now, Adam thought to himself as the phone buzzed one last time and he stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around his waist after drying off his face, you lost your best friend. The one you could talk to about anything. You messed that up. Being a jerk that night and coming on way too strong.

He picked up his cell phone only halfway glancing at it at first. But when he actually read all the messages, he wound up dropping the phone on the bathroom tiles with a quiet thud. Then he stood there, trying to get his head around everything he’d just read, all the texts from Ashley to what she apparently thought was her best friend Shayna.

About him.

He took several deep breaths and then got himself at least partially together before even attempting to answer the barrage of texts.

← Where are you?

← Are you drunk right now?

At re-reading that her shooting down men when she went out with Shayna was apparently a common thing, Adam let out a few shakier breaths and bit his lip, raising a hand to his head and dragging thick digits through damp hair as he let it sink in.

Blue eyes scanned the next message after hitting send.

← Nevermind, screw it.

← I’ll be there in 10.

← And me and you? We’re gonna have ourselves a serious talk.

After throwing back on the jeans and tee shirt he’d had on before showering, he grabbed his keys and headed out. He knew the bar she always went to because they’d hung out there on more than one occasion.

“Bastard who was pourin the drinks to her better hope he’s long gone when I get there.” Adam muttered as protective urges reared their head and he found himself more than a little worried. Ashley wasn’t a drinker by any stretch of the imagination. And given the rambling in the texts she thought she’d sent to Shayna just now, it was.. A safe guess that she was at least two thirds of the way to being too drunk to function.

And it had him more than a little concerned because he knew how the guys at this particular bar got when they saw a pretty girl sitting there, drinking alone. His grip tightened on the wheel as he sped towards the bar in question.

When he was in the parking lot, he tried to call her cell phone but it went straight to voicemail. Without wasting any time, Adam killed the engine to his truck and got out, hurrying into the bar, blue eyes darting around all over as he tried to pick her out in the crowd.

Maybe she hadn’t left yet. God, he could only hope.

–

“I-i’m gonna stop you right there. Just because I-i’m a lil tipsy right now..” Ashley stared up at the man who’d taken the seat next to her at the bar after Shane vacated in a hurry earlier. “Don’t mean I want any part of y-you.”

“Aw, c’mon darlin. Pretty little thing like you shouldn’t be sittin here, drinkin all alone. C’mon.”

“I’d a-actually prefer it, if you w-want the honest G-god’s truth.” Ashley waved over the bartender, signalling for more bourbon in her glass. She fixed her eyes on the man and raised the glass to her lips. “Thanks f-for the drink though.”

Before the guy even got a chance to respond, a throat cleared loud; almost protectively, from behind the two. Ashley didn’t even have to turn around to know exactly who was standing behind her, but what she was having trouble grasping in her tipsy state, was what exactly Adam was doing here now.

“Just do yourself a favor and leave, buddy.” Adam stared down the man intently, arms folded over his chest, moving to step closer to Ashley’s stool, lightly pressing against her from behind.

“Adam? W-what the hell?” Ashley drawled, turning on her stool almost immediately, brown eyes locking on him with a questioning gaze. “I… y-you w-weren’t home.” she could feel herself starting to sober up just a little at his sudden appearance. She frowned a little, shook her head sadly.

Adam moved to step between her legs and he leaned in and down, brushing his lips against her own as he muttered quietly and firmly, “Kiss me.” catching her chin with his finger curled beneath it just when she went to look down. “My eyes and mouth are right here, darlin.” Adam coaxed, gazing at her mouth intently.

“K-kiss me, he s-says.” Ashley drawled, biting her lip, staring right back at his mouth just as intently as he stared at hers.

Her hand raised, resting across the back of his neck, fingers tangling in and tugging his hair free from the bun he’d thrown it into, threading through it once she had. Her legs wrapped around his waist, pulling him closer and her other hand curled in the front of his tee shirt, tugging his mouth down to her level a little better. Once she’d done that, her lips trailed lazily over his mouth, tracing the shape of his lips, making him give a quiet groan and his eyes flutter open and closed. By the time her tongue was slipping past his teeth, his tongue was fighting against it for complete control of the kiss and he’d leaned into her so much that her back was right up against the edge of the bar. His teeth scraped at her lower lip as the kiss deepened, both of them panting for their next breath and dizzy from it.

His hands slid beneath her ass and he scooped her up, not bothering to break the kiss just yet or untangle her from his body. Her legs squeezed his waist harder and she rubbed against him more than a little. Once they were out in the parking lot again, Adam stopped, sitting her on the railing around an outdoor sitting area, pulling her into another deep and almost bruising kiss.

“I-I was just… about to l-leave. Walk.”

Adam chuckled and shook his head no, nodding to his truck. “I’d feel much better if you’d let me take you home, darlin.”

Ashley eyed him, hints of a pout on her lips. “Y-you s-stopped e-even t-talkin to m-me.” she sighed and shook her head sadly, muttering under her breath, “I-it is m-my fault.” and Adam tilted her chin to make her meet his gaze when she looked down, shaking his head. “It’s not, darlin. Not at all.”

“I-I fucking r-ran. S-seriously?” Ashley whined, her legs squeezing at his waist as she wrapped them around him all over again, staring at his chest for a few seconds, blowing out an exasperated breath, because the more she thought about her choice to run the night he finally kissed her, the more it did truly exasperate her. Of all the times to panic… It had to be then. The worst possible one.

Adam chuckled and leaned down, muttering softly against her mouth, “If it makes you feel any better, darlin.. You made up for it. And it drove me crazy, not talkin to ya.”

“G-good.” Ashley giggled and poked out her tongue as she looked at him. “B-because it m-made m-me really cranky. H-holy s-shit, so cranky.” she giggled again, making Adam laugh and scoop her up into his arms, making his way towards the truck. “I know.”

“H-how?” Ashley’s brow raised as she stared up at him, resting her head against his shoulder. “I-I literally o-only told Shayna…”

“You texted the wrong person, actually.” Adam teased as he unlocked his truck, sitting her into the passenger seat. Ashley’s mouth opened and closed and she palmed her face, groaning in sheer embarrassment while laughing softly.

Adam got into the truck, starting the engine and Ashley was raising the console, curling into his side as soon as she’d moved to the middle to sit, tucking her legs on the seat beside her. Adam chuckled, slipping his arm around her shoulders. “You’re awfully cuddly tonight, know that?”

“Mhm.” Ashley purred, her lips brushing against his neck, making him grip the wheel just a little tighter. By now, the embarrassment over what she’d done was melting away and her internal filter -the little she actually possessed to begin with, was at an all time low thanks to having drinks poured into her all night by random and far lesser appealing men. “Is that a b-bad thing?”

Adam bit back a groan and barely resisted bucking his hips as he felt her lips clumsily moving along the side of his neck as she nuzzled into him and chuckling quietly, he gave an answer. “Not at all, darlin. Except for the fact that you’re getting me all sorts of stirred up right now.” he muttered, the truck coasting to a stop beneath the red light a block away from his place. When he did, he turned to look at her, wasting no time in pulling her mouth up to his as his hand went from squeezing her thigh to slipping between them, rubbing her through her jeans as he swore quietly because he could feel how warm she was and it only made him think about how wet she might actually be.

“Maybe t-that’s what I’m trying to do.” came pouring out before she could stop herself from saying it. Not that she would have either way, but she was at least trying to show a little restraint, still partially shocked that he was there and that she’d somehow managed to confess everything to him under the guise of texting Shayna.

Maybe it was a good thing that happened, Ashley thought to herself as she slipped her hand down, trailing it along the inside of his thigh, then up… Sucking in a sharp breath when her hand settled palm down against the bulge already straining and growing, pushing against his jeans. Adam’s hips snapped and he locked eyes with her, biting his lip, the hand between her thighs starting to move a little harder and a lot faster. Ashley rocked her hips against his hand and sucked in a sharp breath as Adam leaned in, teeth tugging at her earlobe and catching as he muttered against it in a whisper, “If that’s so, darlin.. You’re in for it. Just wait.”

“What if I don’t w-wanna wait, hm?” Ashley muttered as her lips brushed against his neck again and Adam’s breath caught in his throat before making the remark aloud, “Got a lot to make up for, me and you.”

“Mhm.” Ashley could feel herself getting wetter and wetter with every single word he said. She knew he had to feel her thighs clenching tighter with each word he said because his hand was currently buried between them, palm down against her dripping and throbbing heat, rubbing through her jeans and by now she’d trapped his hand where it was. A shiver passed through her body as she continued to rock her hips against his hand, a quiet whimper of frustration coming when all that lead to was him, slowing down way too much for her liking at the moment. She pouted up at him and bit her lip as he leaned in, closer and closer, pulling her face towards his.

“Could take all night.” Adam was turning his head slightly, tugging her neck closer as he ghosted his lips along it, the pressure of his hand reaching an almost feverish frenzy as he growled against soft skin, “Maybe even tomorrow.”

“Oh?” Ashley’s eyes fluttered open and shut and she bit her lip, her hips rocking faster to meet his hand and the way it cupped and rubbed at her heat. Just enough to make a little friction, not by any means enough to give the amount of friction she actually craved.

He was teasing her.

Just the thought had her pouting in sheer frustration as she locked eyes with him. “Tease.”

“Ain’t exactly teasing if I know exactly what I’m gonna do to you when I get you home.” Adam pointed out, giving her a smirk. Ashley swallowed hard, breath catching in her throat at his words. Her mouth opened and closed and it had Adam chuckling quietly because this was one of very few times he’d truly seen her with a complete lack of something clever to say in response.

“Cat got your tongue, darlin?” he practically purred the words as his hand started to massage all over again and almost instantly, she started to rock against it more urgently.

“Adam… Fuck.” she gasped quietly, eyes fluttering open and closed as she started to palm at the way he was strained against his jeans.

The light went green and the careful and almost teasing movement of her hand in his lap felt so good that for about half a second, Adam didn’t realize it had.

“Light’s green, Adam.” Ashley’s voice was teasing, she gave a soft giggle as Adam took a few shaky breaths, nodding as he hurried from beneath the green light, turning down the next street. His house was in view, only a few seconds away and yet… It felt like a million miles away.

Almost the second he was parked at the curb in front of it, he was reaching out, pulling her over the console and into his lap, his hands and mouth all over her, mouth latching onto her neck and leaving a string of hickies down the side as he bucked himself into her from below and his hands disappeared up her shirt, slipping beneath her bra before finally getting frustrated at how in the way it was and unfastening it, gripping her breasts in his hands, palming and squeezing at them as he growled against her mouth when his mouth finally rose to meet and conquer her lips again.

He leaned into her so heavily that her back met the steering wheel and the horn in the center, making them both laugh only to have the sounds of their laughter swallowed by a deep and frenzied, needy kiss. The kiss broke and Ashley backed away slightly, biting her lip, wiggling around in his lap, bucking herself right against the prominent bulge strained and about to burst through his jeans. “I think that’s our sign to go inside, Adam.” she muttered the words as she felt her face burning hot and she bit her lip, squirming around in his lap just a little more, harder, desperate to keep the friction going. Adam nodded, killing the engine and getting out of the truck, carrying her up the steps, stopping to unlock his front door, with her body pinned between his body and the door as he did so. Twice he had to grip harder just because she started to trail her lips down his neck and chuckling quietly into the kiss he stole, he gave a triumphant and joking ‘Yee haw’ when he got the door unlocked at last. Ashley gave a soft whimper as he stepped through the door, shutting it behind him and locking it. He sat her down on a sturdy console table that ran the length of the back of his sofa and stepped away to pull off his boots and Ashley took a few deep breaths, tried to pull herself together.

This was really happening.

Finally.

Adam met her gaze as he straightened to stand again and he stepped between her legs, devouring her mouth hungrily, his hands cupping her cheeks and caressing. “You’re sure, right? Because once we cross the line, darlin…”

Ashley gripped his jaw, guiding her mouth back down against his greedily as she whispered needily into the kiss, “Fuck me, Adam. I don’t wanna remember anyone else but you.”

Adam’s teeth clenched her lower lip; tugging. She was clinging to him and it was driving him crazy because there was… Still too much clothing in between them, keeping them apart. He scooped her up off the console table he’d sat her on to take off his boots and started to carry her down the hall, stopping halfway to put her back against the wall, tearing her shirt up over her head, tossing it onto the floor. Ashley tugged impatiently at his tee shirt, finally getting it up and over his head, tossing it onto the floor a few feet away from where her own shirt lie. Adam did away with the pesky bra next, letting it hit the floor softly, an almost primal growl bursting from his lips as he dipped his head low, dancing his mouth over the tops of her breasts, leaving behind beard burn and littering soft skin with bites with each time his mouth connected with her bare skin.

Ashley writhed around in his grasp, rocking herself into him, gripping his hips tighter with her legs, whimpering aloud, her head falling back and softly hitting the wall as her eyes fluttered open and shut. Her hand gripped his shoulder, fingertips digging into and dancing over his skin, sending a shiver through his body and making him groan as he glanced up at her, biting his lip. Ashley stared right back, both of them struggling to catch their breath but too caught up in the moment to bother putting a halt to the deep and biting and almost bruising kisses. She took his face in her hands, pulling his mouth deep against her own, her tongue trailing over the outline of his lips before parting them, her body rubbing against him even more frantically. Her hand raised to tangle in his hair and in the process, a photo clattered to the hallway floor noisily.

“Let’s take you to bed, hmm?” Adam’s breath against her skin as he mumbled the words into her neck quietly had Ashley whimpering and rocking against him even more frantically. Adam growled quietly as he bucked himself right back against her, starting the walk down the hall to his bedroom all over again. He kicked it open, a quiet creak of the frame echoing through the stillness as he stepped inside and shut it behind him, tossing her against the mattress as he stared down at her hungrily. Ashley went to raise up, reaching for the waistband of his jeans but Adam pushed her back against the mattress all over again, making her pout and give a frustrated whimper as he chuckled softly and leaned down, hands going down her bare skin, sending goosebumps to it’s surface as he lowered his mouth down, ghosting it slowly over her abdomen before raising to whisper next to her ear, “Uh uh darlin. Let me take care of you.” in a husky and firmer tone.

He started to lazily trail his mouth over bare skin all over again, the blunt of his teeth tugging at her nipples as his tongue circled them and he caught her eye, winking at her, his hands drifting down between them, unbuttoning and unzipping her jeans, lingering to rub and squeeze her cunt before hooking in her waistband to tug her jeans and panties down all at once. Ashley tried to rock her hips upward, desperate to feel any kind of friction, frustrated beyond belief by all Adam’s teasing, but almost the instant she dared it, Adam was on his knees, kneeling in front of her, parting her legs with his hands and ghosting his mouth up the inside of her thigh slowly, occasionally placing a soft bite against her skin.

When her fingers tangled in his hair, he grunted against her skin, grazing his teeth against it, his tongue slowly making a lazy broad swipe upward. Ashley whimpered when she tried yet again to rock her hips against the way Adam had her pinned, just hoping to at least make an attempt to steer him where she needed him most, but he chuckled quietly, the shake of his head that he gave making soft hair brush against her skin and sending a shiver through her body. “I’m holdin you still for a reason, darlin. Now c’mon, be a good girl. Be still and let me take care of you.”

“Adam, please.” Ashley begged, trying again to rock her hips upward, only to pout when she realized just how determined Adam was to hold her in place and tease her relentlessly.

“Be patient, darlin. We got all night.” Adam’s tongue was trailing lazily over her folds as he said it, the taste of her on his tongue making him half growl his words as they left his mouth. He smirked a little to himself when he felt her not only try to rock her hips upward to meet his mouth but her hand curling in the comforter on top of his bed and in his hair, tugging as she whimpered and whined, her cries of frustrated pleasure echoing off the walls of his bedroom and shattering the silence around them.

Her breath caught in her throat as she felt his tongue make a long stripe over one side of her cunt. And then, straight across the middle, finally, another long stripe across the opposite side to which he lazily chuckled “A.” as he met her gaze with a teasing smirk. Ashley rose up slightly, staring down at him, biting her lip as a series of needy whimpers and loud whines left her mouth and her toes dug into the comforter. One long and broad stripe and then another curved stripe had her shivering and arching her back, fingers tangling in his hair as she tugged gently, “Fuck.”

“D.” Adam was at it again with the smirk, lowering his head almost a split second later to get back to what he was doing. His tongue trailed a familiar pattern over her folds and he muttered quietly against her cunt, “A”. and Ashley shivered even more because it hit her what he was doing, spelling out his name. “Adam, please… Need you, baby, please.” she begged almost frantically, desperate to ease some of the ache rapidly building because of all his teasing. Despite the urgent begging, Adam’s tongue rolled lazily, the one slanted stripe required to form one side of the M and then the two stripes required to form the middle of the M and finally, the last stripe. “M.” he groaned as his nose bumped right against her pelvic mound and he buried his tongue as deep in her pussy as he could, tilting her hips upward, pulling her closer to his mouth as he savored the taste of her as it started to fill his mouth. He could feel her body starting to tense up and another smirk came, pressing against her soaked warmth as he started to slow way down on the movements of his tongue. When he felt her fingers tugging at his hair again and noticed that she was digging her toes into the bed too, the smirk on his face grew.

Yeah, he was teasing. Taking his time with her, making this last. He’d waited so long already, now that it was happening, he was just… Really savoring the moment.

“Adam, please!” Ashley choked out, back arching away from the mattress slightly, eyes fluttering open and shut as she tried to keep frustrated tears at bay. When she felt him leaving a string of bite marks on the inside of her thighs, she whimpered and tried to rock her hips against his grip at them to no avail.

“Not yet, darlin. Just a little longer, I swear.” Adam breathed against her cunt as his tongue rolled lazily over the folds before slowly slipping in all over again, starting over with his little teasing torture. Ashley’s grip tightened in his hair and he paused, glancing up at her with lust blown eyes. “Pull as hard as you want while my head is buried between your thighs, darlin. C’mon. I like it.” his tone was firm, almost demanding.

And it only served to make her even wetter, she could feel the wetness coating her thighs, dripping. Adam growled quietly, tongue moving a little faster, flicking over her clit, lingering and trailing a lazy circle, grazing his teeth against the circular bundle of nerves as he chuckled against her, “What’s wrong, darlin?”

“You know what you’re…” Ashley writhed beneath the grip Adam had on her lower body, keeping her legs spread wide for him as his tongue slowly dove into and out of her soaked heat, “doing. Tease.”

“Oh, I’m not teasin at all, darlin.” Adam chucked again quietly, “Just said you better not dare cum yet.”

“Adam, it’s all I want to do! Fucking… ahh, hurts. I’m aching, baby, c’mon… Please?”

Adam continued to lick, adding two fingers and Ashley hissed sharp, her breath catching in her throat, her entire body tensing as she tried to do as she was told and resist the urge to cum. The more teasing she endured at his fingers and mouth, the harder that became.

He could feel her body tense up so tight, the way she was propped on her elbows to watch him had her arms shaking. He definitely felt her toes digging into the comforter by now too. Giving a soft nip to the inside of her right thigh as he stopped for a second or two, he muttered quietly, “Okay darlin. Now.” before raising her hips just a little, burying his tongue back deep inside her, rocking her hips against his face faster, his tongue swirling inside her cunt in a frenzy as he felt her shaking all over, heard her gasping for her next breath as she moaned out loud over and over, her cries of pleasure and his name filling the air and driving him over the edge, making him lick and suck harder, faster. He loosened his grip on her hips and she rocked them against his face almost shamelessly, he muttered quietly against her skin, “C’mon, darlin. Don’t stop.” breathing heavily.

Ashley’s hips started to slow and Adam lowered her legs, crawling up her body after dragging the back of his hand across his mouth, his eyes locked on her intently as he leaned down, pulling her into a deep kiss, breaking the kiss quickly to raise up, his hand lowering and wrapping around his thick length just to trace the tip right over and slightly between her folds, shivering himself in anticipation, growling quietly. His hips pinned her hips against the bed and she dug her nails into broad shoulders as he sank into her slowly, carefully, stopping to kiss her cheeks and mutter against her mouth, “You okay, darlin?”

“Yeah.” Ashley answered, trying to rock her hips against him once she was adjusted to the way he stretched her out and filled her up. Her nails trailed lightly across his shoulders, digging in slightly when he sank into her even deeper, his hips smacking against her hips softly and slowly, placing kisses all over her mouth and face, trailing them down her throat as he muttered lazily, “So sweet I could eat you up.” as he met her gaze and slowly licked his lips. Ashley wrapped her legs around his hips and the new angle had him groaning, his hips sporadically crashing against her own for a few seconds as she took his cock as deep inside her as he could go, buried to the hilt. Her hands moved over his face, raising, dragging through his hair after pulling his mouth against her own for a deep and slow and greedy kiss. The kiss broke and he gave a lazy peck at the corner of her mouth, driving deeper and slower into her as he did and muttering softly, “Gonna get way too used to this, I think.”

“I already am.” Ashley breathed out against his skin, making him shiver. He’d always had a weakness when it came to gentle touches against his neck. The fact that she seemed to be enjoying brushing her mouth against the spot, or gently nipping at it with her teeth only had him giving a quiet growl and slamming himself into her slower and with much longer strokes. When she tried to speed him up, he chuckled and his hands lowered, gripping her hips, holding them so that he controlled the pace as he muttered against the shell of her ear, “What’s your hurry, darlin? We’ve got all night.”

Bleak sunshine was starting to peek through the curtains by now and Ashley giggled softly against his neck as she clung to him and he continued to attempt slowly and deeply fucking her into the mattresses on his bed, “It’s morning, actually.” as her forehead softly bumped against his collarbone and he chuckled as soon as the realization hit him too. “Well then, smarty pants, we have the rest of the day. Either way,” Adam’s mouth trailed lazily over her skin, leaving an erratic trail of marks in it’s wake, “we’ve got nothin but time.”

“You make a good point.” Ashley’s breath caught in her throat as his cock bottomed out, brushing against a spot that felt almost magical with each time he did so. She clung to his body, her moans and whimpers only drowned out by his answering groans and the occasional growl.

“I’m so.. Fuck, I’m so close. Please?” her begging had him giving a soft and quiet laugh, capturing her mouth in a deep and breathtaking kiss as he muttered into it, “Me too, darlin.. C’mon, let go for me.”

He sped up his thrusts, almost frantically chasing his oncoming orgasm as she dug her legs into his sides and her nails into his shoulders, raking them down his back as he growled against her skin, feeling her clench tight around him, feeling her body start to spasm, feeling her biting at his skin gently as he fucked her through her orgasm and straight into his own. He tried to stop but every time he tried, she’d grab hold of his hips and rock against him, begging for more until finally, he was throbbing, emptying inside deep, filling her up as he pressed into her heavily, covering her face in kisses before lazily kissing her mouth and having her deepen it as she breathed against his lips, “ That was amazing.”

“Better than the last guy, right?” Adam was only half teasing, but her answer really went a long way to fully reassure him when as he sank back against the mattress, pulling her on top of him and wrapping his arms around her while staring up, she smiled and gave a soft giggle, nodding as she leaned down and mumbled into his mouth, “You were so much better than the last guy. Ten million times better, baby.” before deepening the kiss he gave…

#adam hangman page fanfiction #adam hangman page fanfic #adam hangman page fic #adam hangman page oneshot #adam hangman page imagine #// no one under 18+#// four seasons of sm*t self challenge #// sm*t content #// alcohol tw #// body fluids #// unprotected s*x

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