#sure she's not the right partner for Patty that's obvious

[warningsine]

[peaceloveandstarrs]

50, McHarrison.

out of love

George figures he doesn't stand a chance. Which is really unusual, given his quiet confidence. If this were as simple as going out and finding a shag for the night, George knew he wouldn't have any trouble. He's attractive, and he knows it. He has the face of a movie star, all chiseled cheekbones and impeccable bone structure. And he's long and lean. And he has the bonus of being a Beatle. People throw themselves at him just for the chance to say they've shagged a member of the most famous band in the world. No, George doesn't have any trouble finding a partner to get off with.

But this is different. His one-night stands don't have emotion attached to them. He'll give the other person a good night and leave the next day without a second thought. But this time, he's also in love with the person he has in mind. Which is where the complications come in. Because George is also certain that this person is in love with someone else. Hence why he's sure that he doesn't stand a chance.

George is in love with one of his bandmates.

Not Ringo.

Not John.

George is in love with Paul. He hates himself for it sometimes. It's wrong to be in love with another man. He's supposed to love a woman. Men don't love men, not in this sense at least. And there's a second layer of shame. He's almost positive Paul is in love with John. Hell, they might even be having some sort of private affair. There's something there, affair or not. It's obvious. He sees the way those two look at each other in the studio, during performances, at any given opportunity. He sees the way Paul's eyes gleam with a deep joy when John gives him a smile or a compliment on some lyric or riff or something. And he wishes Paul would look at him like that.

Sometimes he does, and George gets a flicker of hope. Maybe he isn't stupid. But then it'll go right back to how it was, Paul treating him like the baby of the group. It's frustrating; George is growing as a musician and songwriter, why doesn't Paul give him the same praise he does John? Paul's back and forth nature is torture. Does he love George? Does he not? Or is he in love with John and trying to hide some sort of feeling? George drives himself mental trying to figure it out.

One day, it gets to be too much. He has to know. Does Paul love him too, or should he start trying to move on? He remembers that girl from the train scenes in A Hard Day's Night. Pattie, was it? Yeah. If this doesn't work out in his favour, maybe he could find her number and try to reconnect with her. Or see if Brian could get it for him. She was sweet, a pretty young bird. Nice figure too. And she was very keen on him during filming. But he pushes Pattie out of his mind and refocuses on the session. It's winding down; everyone's ready to go home.

“Cyn keeps going on about how Jules is missing me,” John says as he packs up his guitar.

“Ye know he does,” Ringo says as he slips into his coat. “Kids need their dads. Granted...” He huffs a laugh, he knows both of their stories. But he also knows he's right.

John just shakes his head as the two of them head out of the studio. Meanwhile, George ignores their conversation. He's alone with Paul. And something tells him to go for it, to take the chance. He takes one last long sip of his drink to boost his courage. He packs up his guitar, suddenly nervous. He goes quiet.

“Ye alright, Hazza?” Paul asks.

George turns when he hears the old nickname, a relic from their Hamburg days. It's been a while since Paul's used it. Maybe it's a sign. He closes the case on his guitar and stands. It's now or never. He walks over to Paul, muscles moving involuntarily, like he's in a daze. And he sort of is, fueled by the two glasses of white wine he's had as well as tiredness. But he has to do this. If he doesn't now, he'll never do it.

“I've... fuck. I don't know how else to say this, but I've been wanting to do this for ages now. I know I'm not John, but...”

Paul furrows his brow and closes his case. “What the hell are you talking about?”

It feels so good. Paul's lips are soft, only slightly chapped. But still so wonderful. George lets it linger, waiting for Paul to push him away, tell him he's mental. But he doesn't. When he feels like it's okay, George kisses him again. And again. And to his own shock, Paul kisses him back. It takes a few tries, but they find that rhythm. Paul tastes of whiskey and cigarettes and something uniquely Paul. And it's delicious. A rare delicacy. Something George can't get enough of. After a few moments, George pulls back. Paul is speechless, staring at him with wide eyes and parted lips.

“This.”

In two strides, George has Paul against the wall. He isn't pressing against him to keep him there, this isn't that kind of kiss. But he's right in front of him, and for whatever reason, be it desire, curiosity, or something else, Paul isn't moving. He sees the the shock in Paul's eyes and almost stops. But there's something else there too. A silent urging in those wide eyes – please keep going. Before he can back out, George presses his lips softly against Paul's and stays there for a moment.

For a moment, George is proud. He's managed to shut up the ever-talkative Paul McCartney. But something needs to be said. So he says the three words that have been on his lips and in his mind for ages.

“I love you.”

[k3rm1e]

cuddling headcanons! ★~(◡﹏◕✿)

this is more of a test thing to see if i like writing this way and if this blog does well

other imagines and headcanons won't include everyone i write unless it is specifically requested and is a prompt i really like

includes: wilbur nihachu karljacobs quackity dream georgenotfound sapnap p!tommyinnnit p!badboyhalo p!skeppy p!eret p!philza p!tubbo p!ranboo

cw: cursing

wilbur:

wilbur is a very cuddle-y guy

to me he seems very soft

i always see people saying he would like spooning, but i disagree

i feel like he would do more of a half-spooning thing with his head on your chest or the other way around

mans would DEFINITELY make you run your fingers through his hair

i feel like he would lay on your chest and just *nuzzle* into the space between your shoulder and neck

anytime you tried to leave him, whether it was because he had to do something or you had to, he would whine. so. fucking. much.

It would probably always go something like:

you - i need to piss

wilbur - no <3

but the moment he decides its time to stop cuddling its fine

and if you complain that you’re gonna miss him he’ll just call you clingy and tease you

like??? sir???

all in good fun though, no bad intentions :)

nihachu:

i feel like you and niki would face each other

with your head like under her chin and in her chest (this is a bad description but look at the “honeymoon hug” on the list for better explanation ;-;)

she would always want to protect you

so she does that by like almost guarding you and keeping you close

niki would definitely do the arm thing where she just lightly moves her hand up and down you arm

i’m so sorry if you don't understand that, it just feels like something she would do

if you haven't experienced that it kinda sorta feels like spiders??? but in a good way???

but generally she is very protective

she just holds you so close the whole time

even if she doesn’t want to let you go, she’s more understanding about it

she would be upset but wouldn’t show it because she doesn’t want to make you feel guilty

niki is generally just an amazing cuddle-r (is that a word?) and has a super comforting presence

karljacobs:

karl would definitely keep your head on his chest

the whole time he would just absolutely squeeze the life out of you

he would constantly bend his neck down to kiss your head

and instead of just like leaving his head down so he could kiss you it would just be:

*inner monologue karl* hmmm i wanna kiss them on their head

and he would lean down to do so which, cute

but then five seconds later he would do it again

and again another five seconds later

and again

very cute karl but please sir, your neck is gonna be so messed up after this

when you had to leave he would be upset, but like niki, would try not to show it

except karl is very bad at that and his pouting would be so obvious

so you would feel guilty and layback down with him

immediately he just becomes (●´ω｀●)

like a happy little puppy

karl is just too adorable for you to deny

quackity:

now we all know this, quackity is a huge dork

which is why i believe he would DEFINITELY use your butt as a pillow

not even in a weird way

i just feel like quackity isn’t too comfortable with touch so this is sorta his way of being close to you without it being a whole serious thing

like he still is able to be goofy and comfortable without it being a whole big thing

him doing this would almost always come with a flatty patty joke from you

which always causes him to threaten divorce, even though you aren’t married

while it isn’t a very good position for things like physical touch, it is good for talking and having conversations

for some reason i feel like he’s the type of person to text someone when they’re right next to each other

so while he’s laying down he’ll just send you random photos of himself

very annoying when your phone is spammed, but also good blackmail material >:)

i don’t think he’d be too clingy

obviously, he enjoys spending time with you

but if you told him you need to go do work or something he wouldn’t throw a fit or pout

big q just seems like he’d be more rational about stuff like that

overall a 420/69 cuddle partner

dream:

one word: spooning

mans just envelops you and has no shame

very big: “no you are mine! >:(“ energy

while he’s sleeping he’ll unconsciously nuzzle his head into your hair/the back of your neck

when you guys got to bed patches usually climbs in and you hold her

i love patches so much i could write headcanons just about her

dream always wants to be cuddling you

if you try to leave he won’t pout, there simply isn't a discussion on whether you’re moving or not

incase you haven’t caught on yet, the answer is no

you need to do work? just bring the laptop to bed

he needs to edit? just sit in his lap at his desk, duh

obviously, he knows at some point you guys need to stop cuddling

he just isn’t too stoked about it

when it comes time where he absolutely can’t cuddle with you, i feel like he’d be more chill

mainly just annoyed

georgenotfound:

i feel like george, like quackity, also wouldn’t be too touchy

i’m pretty sure he has a hard time expressing emotions (please correct me if i’m wrong!!) and i think that would crossover to his sleeping habits

i think he would prefer a sort of back-to-back cuddling position

it seems cold, i know

but also he would most definitely kick at you

so every night while trying to go to sleep suddenly you would just feel *kick*

and then instead of sleep you’re suddenly playing footsie

lots of laughter and warm feelings involved

george would probably pretend that you kicked his leg hard or something and act like you hurt him

the first few times you were actually worried

but then after a few months your only response was a sarcastic “cry about it”

which just led to more laughter

sapnap:

sapnap and you would do a sort of leg hug thing

you both you try to go to sleep in a cute spooning-type position

but the moment one of you fell asleep it all unraveled

you would wake up apart but you’re legs would still be touching

sapnap would joking blame it on you

“wow can’t believe you don't wanna be close with me even when we’re asleep”

“it’s not my fault! i can’t control where i end up when i sleep!”

“no, no. you don’t have to lie. i see how it is.”

“>:(“

but it's okay!

your legs are the first thing to react in a flight-or-fight situation, so they usually react in an honest way

which is like your legs are both reaching to hold each other!

p!tommyinnit:

i don’t get a very touchy vibe from tommy

i feel like the most he would do is put his arm over your shoulder

not in a flirty way, just in a “hey, there isn’t a lot of space, this will make sitting down more comfortable” way

he will let you sorta fidget with his hand/arm

i don't know if that makes sense but what i mean is that he’ll pretty much let his arm go *flop* so you can control it (by like moving it around or playing with his fingers)

in the beginning he would get annoyed

but eventually he would get used to it and wouldn’t really care

it sounds a bit strange but i personally find it very comforting to just have something to fidget with while watching youtube or netflix in bed with my friends

and it’s entertaining (sometimes i do this to me sister to annoy her :>)

he would act like he didn’t mind if you left him

but holy shit he is so clingy

If you try to leave it’ll just be “no, why??? stay here dumbass”

you would be slightly annoyed when he had to leave  but knew he had to film and stream and all that so you would be okay

p!badboyhalo:

you would kinda sit within bad’s lap

like not on his lap, but more of in between his legs

he would have his arms around you

and his phone would be in front of you so you two could scroll through twt or instagram together

or you guys could watch skeppy’s youtube ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

rat would sit in your lap

she’s just;;;;;;;; so adorable

rat is just so soft and fuzzy in your lap and everytime you move to pet her she just melts

rat is the the superior cuddle buddy to any of these block people

p!skeppy:

skeppy, similar to quackity, is a total dork

he would make sure you guys were in a position where he could effectively troll you

so if your head was near his lap he would just flick you or some

“dude can you please stop hitting me in the head”

“it turns out i am not actually hitting you in your head because based on the perpendicularity of the bisector multiplied by the photosynthesis of the dividend, it is impossible for me to do so”

“wtf”

lya is so goddamn sick of you guys

she's trying to get him to actually do something but instead he’s just sitting there throwing paper airplanes at you while you sleep

he’s an annoying asshole but it's okay because he gives you money for absurd reasons

p!eret:

eret has such a comfortable presence

i feel like she wouldn’t be up for cuddling too much

more of like putting your head on a friends shoulder so you can see the tweet their showing you

but they do like to hold hands

holding hands isn’t very intimate but it's also just such a sweet comforting thing

she even holds your hand when you guys are out walking around

like if you guys were getting food somewhere (post-covid of course)

you most likely would get addressed as a couple

and he would just be like”...wut?”

it’s happened so many times at this point you just go along with it

“you guys look like such a cute couple!”

“oh we aren't-” “thank you!”

can you tell that i love eret?

p!philza:

phil always has such dad vibes

i feel like the closest he would get to cuddling is hugs and hand holding

even though cuddling isn’t inherently romantic, he is married to kristen

so i fell he would get most of his touch in with her

but with you he’s just so fatherly

hello dadza

whether you have a good or bad relationship with your father, everyone can admit that philza minecraft is dadza

this is such a dad thing, but tries to hold you hand when you cross the street

no matter the age, he just feels the need to protect you

hugs are similar

uses hugs as a way to comfort you and protect you

just so amazing all around

p!tubbo:

tubbo would love cuddling in any way, shape, or form

if you guys are hanging out at like the park or something and lying down

get ready to become this mans pillow

this is really fun to do with your friends but imagine you guys are hanging out in a field type area (with my friends we hand out in the field next to the cemetery but it can be any open grass area)

tubbo would just use your lap as a pillow the whole time

and when you guys were walking back to his house he would sorta drape his arms over your shoulders (assuming he’s taller than you)

he would do the same thing when you guys were sitting in chairs or at a desk

just drapes his arms over your shoulder with his chin on your head

if it's really late and he's tired he’ll just hug you

p!ranboo:

if you thought tubbo is bad, ranboo is even worse

not even really cuddling, he just likes having a sort of skin-to-skin contact

so handholding and laying on top of eachother

if he’s streaming he will legitimately message ou to just sit next to him

so sometimes if he’s just chilling by himself on the smp you’ll end up on his streams

he’ll have you next to him just because he likes be near someone

and so randomly it’ll just be like “chat, a real human is here, behave”

chat does not behave

(they heavily bully him)

he’s pretty clingy but when you HAVE to leave he’ll understand and just be a bit bummed out

holy shit this took me so long-

if you read this whole thing thank you!

[fakeloveaskblog]

I'm glad someone gave you some logical answers-

Thank you Logan, I appreciate that.

And Janus, I'll give you all the results, including a full video edited like a 2012 vine

And to answer your question, yes. Here's a short list:

One I found out recently, I can make tiny versions of myself. Thats been quite fun, actually

One that I think most watchers have is to travel back and forth from the void

I can talk to people telepathically

I can teleport objects

My shell is bigger on the inside

And if anyone was interested on how I can be a 'snail assassin' with no arms, I simply fill their internal organs with snail goop.

I hope this answers your question:) and again, very different depending on the watcher.

🐌🕸

(For some reason I had assumed the tiny snails haunting Oswald were like non sentient snails u had formed out of clay or something fhjf knowing theyre just tinier versions of u somehow makes it better)

"A 2012 vine of somebody having a miserable possession time sounds lovely!" Janus replied to you "You understand my taste so well darling"

Rowan leant her head back against the couch cushion and sighed "Ugh I wish I also had a void to travel through. Eventually airplanes and endless train rides between filming sites gets reaaaallly boring a- DID YOU JUST SAID TELEPATHICALLY??"

"The telepathic x-men were always my favorite ones" Logan said in what was for him a very excited tone.

Janus choked on his drink from surprise. He held his hand up as if to say something before he got this thoughtful look on his face. He took another sip from his drink and squinted before eventually saying.

"Wait. We all already knew they could do that. That's how they talk to us without anyone else hearing"

A long string of Ooooooooh came from everyone else.

"I always assumed they were just Really Really good at whispering" Patty said.

"I thought they turned small and climbed into my ear" Remus added.

"That was a very obvious answer Janny-dear" Logan moved his hand up and down his partner's arm without really thinking of it "I suppose I got so excited about the prospect of a Charles Xavier type of telepathy to think clearly"

Janus smiled slyly "Everyone's stupid sometimes. The dumbass disease gets us all eventually"

"Me? Stupid? Preposterous. The only times I say something foolish is when I willingly do it!"

Logan waved his finger around to show how serious he was which made Janus laugh.

Patty's eyes lit up like small fireworks when you said your shell was bigger on the inside. She waved her hands around and grinned.

"OH!! it's like the tardis!" She looked over to her husband knowing how much they both enjoyed Doctor Who, even if he had roped her into it "Right?!"

"Right!"

He consciously made his smile bigger than it usually was. He did that sometimes to make sure she saw he appreciated what she'd said. Their ways of showing emotion where very different after all.

Remus put his grubby gremlin hands on your shell "Can I look inside?" Before realizing it would be like asking to look inside someone's house and let go of your shell "Nevermind. You know what they say about monsters in horror movies! It's better if you don't see it so your brain can imagine the worst!"

When you explained the way you could carry out assassinations Remus somehow managed to get even more hyped. He happy stimed with his full body, flapping his arms while moving his head side to side.

"OHOHOHOHOH!!! That's so cool!!! And you could control how quickly the organs fill with goo!! You could make it a super slow agonising death!!! And it wouldn't leave any evidence!!"

He looked over to Janus with a big grin. They smiled back at him and moved their hand like they were stabbing someone. Their eyes met and they both let up into laughter like a silent joke had been said between them.

The moment suddenly stopped as Remus looked to the entrance "Hey shouldn't Remy have come back by now? Unless they're chainsmoking for the whole neighborhood"

"You're very right dear. I'm unsure if it's a good thing to leave them alone for a longer time right now with their....fragile..situation" Janus replied.

It took a second before Remus and Janus said at nearly the same time "I can go check on them!" "I'm willing to go talk to them"

They looked to each other before babbling out to each other that OH for sure the other could go talk to Remy. It didn't matter who. Yes for sure it was fine.

It was quite clear neither of them could decide who should go and none of the others thought they were close enough to Remy to go check up on them in the case something had happened.

Janus turned to you "You're usually a good decision maker. Could you- You don't happen to have any good like vibe about who should go talk to Remy?"

[florrickandassociates]

TGF Thoughts: 5x04- And the clerk had a firm...

You can tell I’m enjoying this season when episodes air on Thursdays and I’ve written a recap by Friday night. More under the cut, as always. 

I woke up very early on Thursday morning and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I decided to just watch this episode on my phone (I write these on rewatch). I’m sure the show was hoping that the upside-down clips of fake!Love Island would be disorienting, but wow, did this work on me. Between the lack of sleep and how plausible it would’ve been for me to accidentally have my phone upside-down with rotation lock on... I truly thought it was an ad for Love Island and also had to pause the episode to check my phone settings. Good job, show!

It turns out, however, that Carmen is doing a headstand and watching reality TV on her laptop. Very happy to see Carmen at home. It would be easy for the show to have her just be a mysterious presence at the firm, so even seeing her do perfectly normal things is a good reminder that she is a whole person and not just Associate Who Will Defend Anyone.  

(I wouldn’t have expected Carmen to enjoy reality tv, but then again, I love Big Brother so...)

Carmen lives in a studio that doesn’t look like it is brand new!!! I’m ridiculously excited to see an apartment that actually looks like a place someone fresh out of law school might live. I’d believe it if Carmen lived in a studio in a luxury building or a one-bed on the salary she’s surely making at RL, but it’s very refreshing to see a character who isn’t super-wealthy on this show that tends to be about, well, very wealthy people.  

Carmen is smarter than every other character on this show and on most TV shows: instead of opening the door without taking any precautions, she puts the chain on first. Remember how people used to just show up at Alicia’s door when she was the governor’s wife, and she’d always just open the door and look surprised?  

Charles Lester is at Carmen’s door even though it’s nearly midnight. She tries to get him to leave, but he insists on staying. She closes the door to undo the chain, and uses the privacy of the closed door to grab a makeshift weapon, just in case.

Carmen explains her apartment by saying, “student loans.” So she doesn’t come from (excessive) money. (Or she was cut off by her family, but I feel like the early character description of Carmen said something about her family not having money.)  

Lester has something very important to tell Carmen, but all his notes are on different scraps of paper and, even though he says his information is time sensitive, he takes his time looking for the right piece of paper.

He says Carmen can’t say she heard the info from him, blah blah. He’s there to share that in ten minutes, someone at the firm is going to be searched by the FBI. This info comes, of course, from Rivi.  

Do we think Lester has to reference his notes to remember that the FBI is searching a name partner of Carmen’s firm? Or do we think he’s fucking with her? I think the latter.

Carmen was doing exercises to help with migraines, btw.  

Carmen calls Diane to tip her off. Diane and Kurt are already asleep, but luckily, Diane has her phone on full volume and takes the call. She’s not happy about it and asks if it can wait until tomorrow. Asks is the wrong word—she instructs the caller to hang up if it can wait.  

Even though Carmen can’t say where she got the information, Diane knows it must be from Rivi. Seems obvious enough.

Kurt gets out of bed and starts locking up guns and getting to work; Diane calls Liz. Liz is in bed with a guy we’ve never seen before and she does not really want to talk.  

Liz notes that the info also could’ve come from Wolfe-Coleman, since Carmen is “tangled up with some rough characters.”  

I’m sorry, fake Netflix CEO man... WHY ARE YOU STILL TRYING TO KISS AND PLAY WITH LIZ WHEN SHE IS ON THE PHONE TALKING ABOUT PURGING FILES AND THE FBI????  

I don’t even hold this against the character. This is one of those things the writers of this show LOVE doing to heighten tension. They think people behave like this in real life and that it’s funny to have a million competing priorities at once, so they insist on doing things like this. In reality, I would be concerned about any person who did not hear “FBI” and go, “um, what the hell is happening? I should stop trying to fuck rn.”  

Kurt starts burning papers. Is no one going to point out that maybe being on the phone (after you KNOW you’ve had NSA issues) talking about tips from powerful criminals and asking questions that are pretty clearly about document destruction... is a bad strategy?  

Dude, why are you STILL GOING after Liz clearly tells you to stop!? Do you want me to hate you?!  

Liz adds Jay to the call. He is asleep and also his hallucination from the premiere is (sadly) back. I still don’t get what they’re going for with this, so I’ll just be happy that (1) there is only one hallucination this time and (2) it’s only on screen for a minute.  

This dude is really chanting “Let me see ‘em!” at Liz while she is on a frantic work call! This is how we are introduced to him! This is not funny! If this weren’t being played for laughs/to raise the stakes by having a lot going on I would be calling this man misogynistic!

Liz remembers that Diane has full boxes of files! They spill onto the floor as she tries to hide them! Drama!  

And then the FBI arrives, so Diane asks Liz to take her 9 am with Wackner

The FBI enters, accompanied by... Nancy Crozier! Nancy is now an AUSA for some reason!

Nancy has graduated from “just a girl from Michigan” to using her pregnancy for dramatic effect. I guess she’s aged into being Patti Nyholm, or something. (I would LOVE to see Patti Nyholm show up on TGF.)  

I know the client files are top of mind for Diane, but isn’t it kind of obvious that the FBI would be there about Kurt, given that the FBI was talking to Kurt days earlier?  

9 mins in is early for credits!! (This first act flies, too—did not feel like 9 minutes.)  

I say this once an episode, but isn’t it so fun to see all the characters from season one of TGW pop up in season five of TGF?  

Liz sees her new man, Del Cooper, in reception. He’s a client. They try to be professional with each other. Liz remembers Diane’s 9 am with Wackner and asks the receptionist to tell her when he arrives. She dismissively says it’s “Some judge guy.” Wackner is, of course, already there and watching the interaction with interest. He uses this as an opportunity to “look for the restroom,” observe Liz meeting with someone else, and walk down to the associate floor.

He asks associate Leah (we’ve definitely seen her several times before) where he’s supposed to go for the staff meeting. She asks if he means the partner meeting or the associate one—he wants whichever is more interesting. She says she only knows about the associate meeting, and so he tags along.

Leah and Lucy (the associate from last week; Michael Boatman’s daughter) talk and assume that Wackner is from STR Laurie and thus in charge of the fate of their careers.  

The associate meeting is fairly small—Leah refers to it as their “daily” so I wonder if it’s more like a team meeting than a meeting of all the associates.  

The COTW is about a comedian who isn’t always PC. FakeNetflix is getting a lot of Twitter pushback.  

“Ah, so you’re worried about being cancelled,” Liz notes. “Don’t say the ‘C’ word,” Del jokes. Then he asks the firm to do a sensitivity read of the comedian’s act.

Liz asks why them. David doesn’t get why she’s asking, though obviously Liz knows he won’t be offended by her question since they have a relationship outside of work. Del thinks that RL is the right firm for this task because they are a black firm, and also because this can be an audition for the rest of their legal business.  

This seems like it is better for a PR firm or image consultant? Not a law firm? But sure.  

Diane explains the whole January 6th situation to Liz. Liz immediately understands that if Kurt is in trouble, Diane is the one representing him. Because Kurt is Kurt, I’m willing to accept the “spouses-representing-each-other" trope here. But let the record reflect that, as always on this show, it is a TERRIBLE idea to have your spouse represent you! Just pick someone outside of the firm! JUST PICK ELSBETH, KURT.

Diane asks how her 9 am went; David Lee interrupts to ask Liz why she is being so casual with Del. “David, I am on the phone,” Liz responds. I love that she doesn’t really answer him.  

Leah and Lucy try to turn the associate meeting into a showcase of how great they are; the other associates catch on quickly and all are happy to answer Wackner’s questions. He wants to understand jury trials.

Nancy’s pregnancy act does not work on Judge Farley, yet she keeps it up anyway. Court doesn’t go well for Diane, but it also doesn’t go well for Nancy.

Some of these interactions remind me a little too much of Peter’s trial at the end of TGW, like this one where Nancy goes to Diane with information about Kurt.

Leah gets off the elevator as Diane and Nancy talk, and to Diane’s surprise, Wackner is shadowing Leah! She takes a moment to look surprised before we return to the scene with Nancy.

I like all the little interactions within this Wackner plot. Diane asking Liz to meet with Wackner both connects Wackner to Liz AND shows that Diane would turn to Liz for back-up, and having Wackner/Leah run into Diane in court is a good reminder that even though Diane is dealing with a pressing issue, Wackner hasn’t just disappeared.  

Diane encourages Kurt to talk. She wants to know if he’s not telling her something because she’s his wife or because she’s his lawyer. This is maybe why you don’t hire your wife as your lawyer.  

Kurt says it’s because of politics—Diane doesn’t like that, since this is one issue where their politics should be shared.  

“Diane, this works between us because we don’t let our political judgements overwhelm our respect for each other,” Kurt explains. But... is that relevant to this particular issue?  

Diane asks the same question, essentially, noting that January 6th changed “everything” for her and she can’t treat this like a “chess game” anymore. Kurt wants to know what she’s calling a chess game. She says their marriage is the one thing that’s not a game.  

On one level I understand exactly what Diane is saying and on another level I have no clue what this dialogue actually means. She can’t treat things like a game anymore, but also their marriage is the only thing that isn’t a game? So does that mean she can treat everything else like a game, then? I think what she’s trying to say is that the time for seeing political disagreements as a calm and rational game of strategy is over, and that she values her marriage and won’t play around with it.  

Kurt tells her what he burned—a list of people in his little group. He says he’d protect them just like he’d protect Diane’s book group friends. Oh, wow, I was not EVER expecting to hear about that arc again! This is a pretty perfect time to mention it, though, since Kurt DID protect book group for the exact same reason he’s protecting the members of his club.  

Other than “winning over a new client is important,” I have no idea why Liz and David Lee would gather together a group of partners to do the sensitivity read. I don’t know who IS the appropriate person to do the sensitivity read, given that this is a law firm, but I know this is a bad call.

Oh, they are going to go through line by line dissecting each joke in a group. They get through one joke before Madeline notes that the comedian is “objectifying black men.” A black male partner says he doesn’t mind. Madeline says that doesn’t matter because the joke is racially insensitive.  

Overlapping chatter ensues, and the partners try to make changes to the comedian’s jokes, like substituting Norwegian for Nigerian. This... is not what law firms do. The joke isn’t funny with the substitution, but it also wasn’t funny before. It was low hanging fruit and the correct answer is to just cut it entirely. (Also, if you’re a comedian and all your jokes are about common stereotypes of groups to which you do not belong, you are probably not a very funny comedian!)

Diane has Jay do some more investigating. Jay looks up when Diane says, “ringleader of the insurrectionists,” and Diane is just like, “I know.” Then Carmen walks in.

Diane congratulates Carmen on “hitting the ground running” and then asks again how she knew about the warrant. Diane says she’s covered by the same attorney-client privilege, so Carmen should be able to share. Carmen notes the warrant was actually about Kurt, which does not answer Diane’s question. “So this came from Rivi?” Diane asks. Carmen says she can’t confirm.

“Carmen. You have been here three weeks. You have two clients: Wolfe-Coleman and Oscar Rivi. It’s one or the other!” Diane notes. Yep. I love that they didn’t forget that this isn’t much of a mystery. It’s more about principle than anything. If Diane knows it’s one of two sources and needs more information, I’m sure Jay can figure it out.  

Carmen knows she’s stuck, so she asks if she can make a phone call. “I think that would be smart,” Diane says.  

I’ve noticed that Liz and Diane are both being quite firm with others this season—and I like it. They're spending more time with lower-level characters, and both Diane and Liz have reasons to be more curt this year. Diane is under a lot of stress and it’s showing in all of her interactions; Liz is making a point of seeming in control to establish herself as the leader of the firm.  

Then Marissa walks in. ��What is going on with your crazy court judge?” Diane asks. “My?” Marissa asks. “Marissa, I am in no mood for defensiveness,” Diane insists. She mentions Wackner missing his meeting and shadowing Leah. That’s news to Marissa.  

Marissa heads to Wackner’s court to figure out what’s going on.

Wackner is now experimenting with juries. This is interesting to me—I'd wondered before how smart it was to just have Wackner make all the rulings, so exploring the idea of having a jury shows he’s thinking about that, too. Also, it’s another sign that Wackner wants his court to have many of the same structures as a real courtroom. There are still judges, juries, witnesses, trials—he's starting something new, but it feels more like he’s testing out improvements for an imperfect system. I wonder if his end goal would be to set up separate courts, or if he’s more interested in shaping laws/reforming the system? Surely Wackner has ambitions of scaling up whatever conclusions he comes to. So what are they?  

The reason for the juries is that the associates told him that juries are racially biased, so he’s trying to correct it. He also explains how he ended up shadowing Leah, and advises Marissa to go exploring whenever she’s kept waiting. (I have a feeling Marissa doesn’t need to be told this, but then, that’s why she’s Wackner’s “muse.”)  

Marissa notes that Wackner’s court is looking nicer—there must be money coming in from somewhere new. Wackner confirms there’s been a sympathetic donor.

Wackner is dealing with a case about NFT fraud. Marissa says she doesn’t know what that is. I’m going to assume that Marissa is using Wackner’s strategies against him (she had just accused him of playing dumb to get others to talk) because I cannot believe that Marissa, who always knows random facts, ESPECIALLY ones that involve weird corners of the internet, would not know what an NFT is.  

Marissa hears the case is about $4 million, and she’s shocked because this raises the stakes a little more than even she is comfortable with. Wackner has a signed and notarized document saying that both sides will honor the verdict. It is, as Marissa points out, notarized in 9 ¾ court by Wackner about a fictional case. “About a fictional crime,” Wackner adds on.  

I’m a little surprised this is all these writers had to say about NFTs! Maybe they knew that by the time this aired, the actual topic would feel dated.  

Mandy Patinkin is just SO GOOD as Wackner! I’m watching a fictional show about a fictional crime in a fictional court and even I am starting to believe in his ludicrous court!  

Wackner’s jury selection process involves catching potential jurors in traps, like pretending to know the national anthem when they don’t. Smart. Probably super problematic if you think about it too hard and put it in the wrong people’s hands and people start to know the system. But smart, for now.  

Diane is now in the sensitivity read meeting, for reasons passing understanding. They are still talking about the first joke. Jay calls Liz out of the meeting and notes that everyone in the room is old and no one is funny. “I’m funny!” Liz argues. Diane tries to leave the meeting, and Liz tells Diane Jay’s idea about needing younger people. “Oh god yes,” Diane agrees. I’m glad she sees it and a little alarmed that Liz doesn’t! I feel like they should’ve sent the tape to everyone interested in participating, then asked them to write up (separately) anything they found questionable or offensive, and gone from there, ending with a close review of anything that wasn’t previously flagged. If you debate every single line for hours you’re going to get nowhere.

I don’t know why Liz is so concerned that Jay thinks she’s not funny? But she is.

Diane asks Liz to join her meeting with Carmen and Lester. This is a scene I’ve been waiting for! Diane and Liz are both there and so the scene FEELS important. The plot advances. And, most importantly, they address why Carmen is staying at RL!

Lester reiterates that Carmen is super important to Rivi, so if Carmen says she can’t share info, then she can’t share info. Liz and Diane do not accept this. “I am a name partner. Carmen is a first-year associate,” Liz says. “Now, Carmen is free to resign and hang her shingle wherever she’d like. She can even go and work for you. That is up to her. But while she is here, she is subject to the rules and the mentoring of this firm.”

Lester tries to take Carmen out of the meeting. Liz and Diane won’t let him: They need to know if Carmen is staying with the firm, now.  

“You have a lot to learn, Carmen. And you can only do that here,” Diane pitches. I don’t think that’s exactly true, but it’s not untrue.

Here is a question I have about Carmen: she is WILLING to represent drug dealers and rapists. Does she WANT to? She chooses RL, so I’m guessing her interests lie in big law and not in aiding criminals.  

Lester leaves, but not before saying Kurt is about to get a grand jury summons. Diane gets one too. It’s not the usual guy! Too bad.

A bigger group is now deciding on if jokes are offensive or not, and they’re doing so with paddles that are red on one side (offensive) and green on the other (funny). I’m sure this is going to go well.

The group sees the replacement jokes and they are confused. Marissa wants to see the original joke. Julius shows the room, and everyone laughs. The joke is funny—and offensive. Someone from the mail room notes that he would be the butt of this joke, but he finds it funny, so he thinks the comedian should be able to continue with her set.  

Here is where I think I fall on this: Get sensitivity reads to get ahead of any huge issues (like, don’t be Pepsi with the ad with whichever Jenner it was who solved racism). Be aware of the potential issues. Let viewers decide what is and isn’t offensive, and make informed decisions rather than arbitrary rules about what content to show. You’ll KNOW if you are indulging the tendencies of someone with a history of making the same type of problematic jokes (for example, maybe if you are reviewing something by Tina Fey and she tries to write another edgy plot where racial stereotypes are the punchline, you advise her to not do that because, I mean, why WERE there so many episodes of 30 Rock that involved blackface??). You’ll KNOW if you are giving a platform to someone who is actively trying to spread misinformation and be cruel to others. Someone’s going to be offended by everything, and it may be a huge deal and it may not be. IMO, it doesn’t really matter that I can’t make an exact set of rules about what is/isn’t smart to air. I don’t think anyone—not networks, not creators, and not audiences—would benefit from that. Lawyers might, though, for all the billable hours...

“You can’t tell a joke without offending someone,” Jay notes. I do not think this is true! Puns don’t offend anyone!  

David Lee’s counter-example to Jay’s point is Gilbert & Sullivan. Of course it is.

As always, the argument devolves into overlapping chatter. These episodes exhaust me. At least this episode has some fun with the topic of the week and seems to have more of a point of view than some of the past episodes where the only conclusion is, “Wow! Controversy is controversial!”

Marissa ends up in the mail room with Jay and one of the mailroom guys (captions say his name is Jimmy). They are mocking the partner’s ideas of comedy. Jay and Jimmy agree that the best comedy is mean. But, Jay says, now it feels like you need “a permission slip to tell a joke.” Is... this true? This feels like one of those things people who would never actually get “cancelled” worry about because their fear overtakes their ability to understand what really gets someone cancelled.  

Then again, this episode was written by professional writers who would absolutely know better than I am if people are really hesitant to tell jokes.  

Jimmy has started making literal permission slips to allow people to tell jokes about specific groups. Jay and Marissa are down.  

Jay asks Jimmy to make a card for something so inappropriate he wouldn’t joke about it... and Jimmy prints a card that says Greta Thunberg. No one wants to joke about that.

And you know why this joke lands well for me? Part of it is that the vibe of this scene is very fun and laid back. But mostly it’s because Younger tried to make a Greta Thunberg joke this season, and it was quite possibly the worst, most embarrassing thing I’ve seen a TV show do in ages. It wasn’t funny, just mean, over the top, lazy, and never-ending. (Poor Younger. That show had an awful final season.)  

Liz is still worried she’s not funny. She asks Del if she’s funny and mentions Jay’s comment. He says she’s funny, but she’s not convinced he’s being honest. He points out this is a discussion no one will win. Del ends up accidentally saying “I love you” to Liz, which is a big deal for a relationship we’ve seen for all of two seconds. Liz says they don’t have to talk about it, but Del insists on explaining that he meant “affection,” not love. I’m glad they’re talking about this.

“Then maybe we should get married,” Liz says as seriously as possible. She stares at Del and smiles. He laughs and admits that was funny. It was VERY funny!  

Grand jury time! Yet Another Ham Sandwich: The Sequel: The Musical: The Series. (Am I funny? Pls tell me I’m funny and hip with the teens!)  

It’s Diane’s turn first. She does well, but there’s not much to say when Nancy plays the recording of Diane phoning the FBI with the rioter’s name. I did not need the clip from last episode in here. Diane is calm in court, but rushes to tell Kurt immediately. Nancy predicted Diane would do that, so she calls in Kurt before Diane has a chance to warn him.

So, wait, Kurt thought all of this was just a COINCIDENCE? Diane didn’t tell him earlier?! I don’t love this choice, but okay.  

Liz finds a joke permission slip on her desk. Julius has one too. “Did you use it?” Liz asks. Julius doesn’t understand what that even means. Then they trade clothes, because Liz does want to tell a joke about white girl clothes.

Julius suspects the cards are a way to make fun of the partners for being unfunny. The associates are also chatting about the cards, having lots of fun, so it’s clearly not about the partners.

I think now is an appropriate time to mention that TGW and TGF have both been consistently hilarious shows and have been on the air for a combined twelve years. Neither rely on the types of jokes that these cards permit. This is a kind of interesting thought experiment, but... doesn’t it say something that the shows never use these jokes as crutches and still manage to be funny? This is what I meant earlier about people being afraid of cancel culture when they’re not actually really at risk of coming under fire. These writers know how to write things that are funny. They know how to make comedy out of absurdity and subverting expectations. And yet they’re worried about how to have jokes that aren’t mean? Really?

The first laugh out loud funny TGW moment that comes to mind right now is the episode that ends with that obnoxious talk show guy trying to out Diane as a lesbian. That joke deals with identity. But it still holds up 12 years later, because the joke isn’t that Diane could be gay... the joke is that Diane DOES NOT GIVE A SHIT what this pest is saying about her on TV, and so she laughs. And because the tension of the talk show guy’s BIG DRAMATIC REVEAL is cut with Diane’s dynamic, loud laugh, we laugh with her! I’m not really sure what I'm trying to illustrate with this example. I’m just noting that you can be topical, funny, and entirely appropriate at the same time... and these writers are great at finding that balance.

HR starts, like, texting (they TEXT Marissa!!!) employees about the joke permission slips? It’s so bizarrely done that I thought this was going to be a prank.  

Jay decides they won’t go to HR, and Jimmy decides they’ll delay. Why wouldn’t HR just come down and take away the cards?

For this week’s dose of Wackner Wackiness, witnesses will be fully costumed, and it goes without saying that the costumes will be as over the top as possible.

David Cord is the mysterious donor. Marissa spots him and instantly puts the pieces together. Cord explains he met Wackner on the elevator. I can’t say enough how much I like that this season has a lot of moving pieces that feel like part of a whole. Cord showed up as part of a case that caused internal debate at the firm and had a thematic parallel to an ongoing plot, then crossed over into Wackner’s plot once he was established as a character!  

Cord says he’s interested in “disrupting things” so he’s interested in Wackner. I did not need the still photo of where they founded HP that’s used to illustrate humble beginnings, I guess.

Nancy mentions Kurt’s unfortunate last name—she so would. Kurt takes the fifth. Was this thing about needing a reason to take the fifth true in the earlier seasons and just not mentioned? Didn’t Kalinda and Will use this strategy?

Nancy, obviously, plays the recording of Diane reporting the rioter. Kurt conceals his reaction for the grand jury, but he’s pissed.  

Diane tries to apologize and Kurt asks for another lawyer. This is the right move. I can’t be all that sad.

The partners have collected all the cards and are trying to do damage control with HR. (Interestingly, there are certain topics the cards we see don’t touch on. Like, where’s the rape joke card? Aren’t rape jokes what we usually talk about when we talk about comedians getting cancelled? And where are the jokes about minority groups (aside from little people, referred to using the PC name instead of the names that would probably be used in most offensive jokes about little people) not represented in the TGF cast? I find this little bit of self-censorship quite notable, especially given that the writers seem to be arguing in favor of not regulating humor. These omissions, which MUST be intentional, tell me the writers do have their own lines they won’t cross...)  

(My larger point there, and where this funny-but-unnecessary subplot fails for me, is that this whole episode feels like a bit of a panic over cancel culture and winds up being a strawman argument. I don’t disagree with the conclusions the writers come to and I do find some of these scenes funny. But at the same time, I don’t think Cancel Culture is actually about coming after every single joke that makes fun of any person or group (if we must do a cancel culture plot, why not do one about someone who is an odious person and yet still has a following even after they’ve been “cancelled”). And I don’t think that showing HR as a very stern, strict, humorless body is helpful. I’m getting ahead of myself, but all that accomplishes is having Liz win on a point that pretty much everyone can agree on, because no one is actually as humorless as STRL’s HR department! Humor has so many gray areas and if you try to make it black and white, obviously the side that’s saying YOU CANNOT MAKE JOKES ABOUT ANYTHING is going to be the one that is wrong.  

I did just remember that all of these writers have probably dealt with unfun and strict standards & practices departments, and I like the way HR is portrayed more if I try to imagine them as Standards & Practices.

Liz decides she is going to see HR so she’s seen as an authority figure, not someone subversive. But first, Liz has to meet with Del and the comedian.

Wackner and Cord are in Diane’s office. Diane’s skeptical of their alliance. She also points out that it is corrupt for Wackner to be financed by Cord and decide on Cord’s cases. This is true. Cord says he has no vested interest in any of the cases. And Wackner says he’s the “most untouchable man on earth” and quotes a song again. Yet another example of how this court only works if Wackner is in charge.

The comedy meeting does not go well. David Lee is already trying to pitch their other servicces. The comedian finds the censored version hilarious in how terrible it is, and then she starts making fun of it, loudly, and for way too long.  

David thinks it went poorly; Liz isn’t concerned. David is all, “you failed” and Liz asks him to cool it and notes that David isn’t the highest-ranking person at STRL, so he should “stop the shit” and work with her. She’s already sounding more like a boss.  

Julius complements her on being “Boseman-like,” which is true (though I wish she didn’t need to be compared to her ex-husband). “I know,” Liz says quietly, likely because she hates that Adrian is still influencing her this much.  

Del joins Wackner and Cord in the elevator, and this isn’t the end of the episode but I’m going to pretend it is so all the episodes can end on elevators this year. It’s close enough.

Kurt’s new lawyer is Julius. Ah, yes, choose the corrupt judge Trump pardoned who works at your wife’s firm to represent you. Seems smart.  

Liz walks past Diane’s office and the camera follows her up to HR. She tries to get HR to understand humor. They do not. And that’s the episode.

So, a few thoughts to conclude. First, I went into this recap thinking I’d have a lot more to say about cancel culture and the way this episode handled the debate. But I ended up liking this plot—and this episode-- more the second time around. I still don’t think this episode said anything groundbreaking about cancel culture, because I don’t think it actually engaged with the topic beyond the surface. As I noted earlier, coming to the conclusion that jokes should be allowed because we’re all human isn’t really a resolution the real topic. What about accountability? What about allowing for some jokes to be too far without taking the teeth out of every joke? What about the way people panic over cancel culture when they’re not being canceled (this episode felt a little bit like a panic over cancel culture, which is why I reacted negatively to it the first time through) or about how cancellation doesn’t always stick or have meaning? There is SOMETHING to explore here, but I don’t think this episode found that something.  

Second, because I didn’t find a way to work it in above... is it me, or is it actually HELPING the show to not have Adrian or Lucca around!? This season feels so much more focused than the past several, and I think it might be because the writers (who are, as always, very good at adapting to curveballs) had to restructure the show. Lucca always had her own subplots that were separate from everything else, and Adrian’s charisma tended to overpower others’ presence (especially Liz’s) whenever he was in the room. It didn’t help that the writers seemed to LOVE writing Adrian plots, even if it meant neglecting others.  

Don’t get me wrong—I love Adrian and Lucca both. But there’s something to be said for a tighter show with three main interconnected pieces (Liz/firm drama, Diane/FBI and Kurt, Marissa/Wackner’s court) that carry over from episode to episode. Like the titles of the season, these episodes build on each other.  

Also, there’s the right amount of every character this season. David Lee is used sparingly; Jay and Julius are supporting players who sometimes get the spotlight; Wackner is a huge presence but his plot feels like part of the show; Carmen feels important but isn’t being given screentime for the sake of screentime; Liz is finally the type of lead she should’ve been from the start; Marissa has nicely grown into a role closer to leading than supporting; Diane remains a clear lead.  

5x05 next week!!! I am expecting some Hitting the Fan level quality and at least one fan-service-y reference. (Not really, but wouldn’t it be fun?)  

[starrybethany]

I’m Sure - Adam Boqvist Imagine Part 1

Word count: 3.3K

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

I heard about Adam before I met him. The guys had hung around my office, claiming they wanted to catch up with me, but I really know it’s just because they want to gossip. Hockey players are like that. We were catching up on how their summers went.

“Hey, did you see who was drafted, Y/N?” Dylan asks, wandering around the small room and staring at various objects.

“Nope,” I pop the ‘p’, scanning over the email recently sent to me. “Who was it?”

“This Swedish kids with sick hands,” Alex gushes.

“Really? Is he gonna be the next Patty Kane?”

“Please, like anyone could be like Showtime,” he scoffs.

Dylan pulled up some videos of his highlights, showing them to me.

I nod in approval. “Looks like hockey.”

They give me unamused looks.

We’ve had this talk plenty of times- they think that since I work at the United Center, I should understand hockey more, I think that since I work for United Center and not for the Blackhawks, it really doesn’t matter.

Adam had spent that season in London with the Knights. I had heard about him sprinkled into conversations here and there but really, I just focused on my work as being the suites advisor and making sure everything went smoothly. It was a great year for bookings, and apparently a great year for him.

Alex tried explaining the kid’s talent to me when we were on a double date with our partners, but I still couldn’t understand hockey that well, so I just smiled and nodded. He let that slip by.

It wasn’t until he was here in Chicago that I got it.

For some reason I had been down at the rink, watching practice take place. He had spent a few weeks with the Hawks- weeks that I had taken off to take care of my boyfriend after his knee surgery- and was sent down to Rockford almost as soon as I had returned.

The boys were really upset that I hadn’t met their new friend, Kirby especially, who was a new addition to our group almost as soon as Dominik introduced him to me.

But then there he was, back on the ice. I squinted my eyes, not remembering a ‘27’ on the team. The last name clicks, and I watch as he flies around on the ice, joking with the guys and passing the puck skillfully.

I got it. I understood then why the boys thought he was so talented and why he was back in the NHL at the mere age of nineteen. He played with confidence and speed, a conscious defenseman- something the boys tell me they’ve been struggling with.

Then I un-got it.

Alex had invited a couple of us over for drinks one night and my boyfriend, as he did often, accompanied me.

“Oh, you guys haven’t met yet,” Alex comments, pouring glasses of wine for all of us. “Y/N, this is Adam, the defenseman we’ve been telling you about. Adam, this is Y/N, she works as a suites advisor for the UC.”

“Nice to meet you,” I reach out, shaking his hand. I thought he was attractive, I won’t lie. From the detailed tattoos to the messy hair, he was just my type. But my boyfriend was sitting right next to me, so that was a line I didn’t want to cross.

It didn’t matter to Adam, though. He winked at me as we shook hands, which I found distasteful, but allowed myself to send him a tight-lipped smile.

“And this is my boyfriend, Steven,” I emphasis, resting my hand on Steven’s thigh.

“Oh yeah,” Alex mutters.

Alex always tended to forget about Steven. In fact, everyone seemed to forget about Steven.

“So, suites’ advisor?” Adam questions, ignoring the man sitting next to me. I could feel my boyfriend freeze up at the clear dismissal.

“Yep.”

“What do you do? Just say hello to all of the rich investors?” By the smirk on his face and the small sip of wine, I can tell the dig is intentional.

He knows there is much more that goes into this job than that, so I don’t know why he’s trying to get under my skin. Especially when we just met.

“Um, no, actually, I schedule who books suites for when, what suites are available, who caters what suite. A lot goes into it, actually,” I send him a fake smile.

His smirk just widens, digging under my skin even more.

Steven and I had left early that night.

~

I ungot it again at the family skate. I’ve never learned how to skate- the guys tried to teach me, but I get frustrated easily so they stopped attempting. I’m stumbling around on the ice by myself, the boys stopping by once and a while to check on me but quickly rushing off to be with their significant others. Steven has work today and we had an argument a few days ago, so I didn’t even bother inviting him to the family skate.

A hard body runs into me from behind, causing me to become unbalanced and hit the boards, catching myself before I fall right onto the ice.

“Ow,” I turn around to glare at the person who pushed me, narrowing my eyes even more when I see the familiar blonde boy and the smirk that he’s always wearing. “What’s your problem, dude?”

“What do you mean?” His accent is thick with his words, making my stomach flutter but the irritation replaces the fluttering quickly.

“You’ve just been rude to me for no reason. What’s up with that?”

He gives me a surprised look, like he didn’t expect me to confront him on it. But I don’t know why he would think that- if you’re going to be a dick, I have a right to call you out on it.

He scoffs quickly, an annoyed expression quickly replacing his surprised one. “You’re overthinking everything.”

I watch as he skates away in annoyance, Kirby replacing his spot next to me.

“You two are close, right?” I question.

He nods.

“Why does he hate me so much?”

He laughs at that and I’m the one who’s shocked now. “Isn’t it obvious? He likes you.”

I give him an unimpressed look. “You’re saying he’s acting like an asshole because he likes me?”

“Hey, I didn’t say it was logical,” he puts his hands up in defense, skating away.

I’ve always thought that was ridiculous. If you like someone, just tell them. And if you don’t, just avoid them. There is no reason that meanness is needed, especially if it’s because you really like that person.

I try to avoid Adam after that.

~

It doesn’t last long. About a week of avoiding him goes by before I find myself out at a bar with him and a few other players. I had just broken up with Steven, discovering that I no longer did my ‘in love’ giggle with him or smiled when I saw his name pop up on my phone.

But just because I fell out of love with him didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt. It hurt. It really hurt. So that’s how I found myself one, two, three, four drinks in at the bar, too drunk to remember what I was saying and too drunk to care about how I might feel the next day.

I went on the dance floor to blow off some steam, swaying along to pop songs and screaming the lyrics.

Arms wind around my waist and I look down at them, spotting a familiar sleeve. I turn around in his arms, careful to not move my hands. I’m worried of what I might do if that happens- even though Steven and I had just broken up, I’ve been touch-deprived for weeks.

“What are you doing, Adam?” I question, leaning closer so that he can hear me.

“You’re single now, right?”

“Yes, but did I give you permission to touch me?” I raise my eyebrows.

He takes a step back with amusement, raising his arms defensively to show me that he’s respecting my boundaries.

Then I can’t help but think: fuck it. After being in a committed relationship for years, why not mess around with some guy I have intense sexual chemistry with? He’s hot, he’s sexy, sure he’s an asshole but I’m sure that confidence would do wonders in bed.

So, I throw myself at him, wrapping my arms around his neck and tangling in his blonde locks as I pull him as close to me as he can get. One of his hands rests on my ass while the other rests on my hip, tugging me closer and closer to him.

He’s staying with Alex and Lyndsey, so we end up at my apartment in my bedroom. And when I wake up in the morning, I don’t regret it.

I regret it when I go to work the next day. He gives me a knowing look every time he passes me in the hall and even Kirby sends me a look or two.

It happens for a couple more days until one day he finds himself in my office with Dylan and Alex Nylander, another young rookie.

I’d been struggling with work all day, people bitching at me on the phone and numbers not adding up so all I really wanted was to finish the last hour of work and go home.

Then Adam gives me a look.

“What’s your problem?” I snap.

He gives me a confused expression, causing me to elaborate. “We slept with each other once and now you think you know so much about me? Do you think you can hold this over my head or something?”

Dylan chokes on his spit and Alex stifles his laughter, Adam flustering with words.

I organize a stack of papers on my desk, not even bothering to make eye contact with any of them. “I think it’s best if you three leave.”

They respect my wishes. An hour later I lock my door with a deep sigh, turning to make my way towards the parking lot. A body pushes me up against my door suddenly, causing me to gasp and dart my eyes up to see who my attacker is.

My eyes meet familiar blue ones and my body relaxes at the sight, then freezes up again when I realize I’m stuck in between his arms.

“You know, I didn’t really like that stunt you pulled earlier,” Adam breathes out, breath fanning over my face. His head leans down and he nibbles at the skin on my neck teasingly.

I hold back a moan at the action. “You didn’t?”

“No,” he bites down a little bit harder, causing me to wince. “I think you’re going to have to be punished for that.”

“You think so?” I whisper out.

“I think so.”

“Then I think we should get started on this now, don’t you think?”

“I agree.”

~

And that’s how I began sleeping with Adam Boqvist. Neither of us are looking for anything serious- I want to live the single life after being in a committed relationship for so long and he wants to enjoy his single, youth years in the great city of Chicago.

Plus, he would be the last person I would date.

He’s cocky, selfish, obnoxious, loud- I could keep going.

But either way, the relationship between us, or whatever you want to call it, isn’t end game. He isn’t the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. He’s not the one I want to raise children with or sit with on rocking chairs on the porch.

He’s just a guy I want to have sex with until I find the right person for me.

So, tell me why I’m sitting in my shitty apartment bathroom with two pregnancy tests sitting on the small basin of the sink.

I crisscross my legs on the toilet, fiddling with my fingers anxiously. They have to be negative. They have to be.

I can’t have a child right now. I want to focus on my career and build my reputation in the field. I don’t want to have a baby just a couple years into starting this job. I can’t afford a baby anyways; Chicago is an insanely expensive city and I can barely afford to live by myself.

Hell, I live in a loft.

Besides, I can’t be connected to Adam for the rest of my life. I can hardly stand the guy as it is.

As the minutes slowly pass by, I convince myself that I’m not actually pregnant. The ache in my ankles and lower back are due to stress from work and the vomiting is because my eating habits haven’t been as consistent as they usually are.

I’m just going to completely ignore the fact that I let Adam have sex with me without a condom while I was off my birth control for a while due to the weird side effects it was giving me.

It’s like I’m watching from outside of my own body as I reach forward, grabbing the sticks and holding one in each hand.

Positive. Positive.

My heartbeat fastens and I can feel my breath getting shallow. I try to focus my breathing, counting to four over and over and it slowly helps.

My eyes open back up as I ground myself and I can’t help but just stare at the sticks, switching between the two. I’m pregnant. I’m having Adam Boqvist’s baby.

~

I really didn’t prepare myself for the next time that I’d see him. I’ve already prepared myself to deal with this on my own- whichever way I decide to do that. I haven’t really decided that yet either.

“Hey,” he grins at me as he enters my office, shutting the door behind him. “I have about ten minutes before Kirby starts to look for me, let’s have a quickie.”

“No, Adam,” I sigh, swallowing the lump in my throat. The words are just begging to come out. I’m pregnant. You’re going to be a dad.

“Why not? Is it because we’re at work? We’ve done it in your office before,” he protests.

I set the pen down next to the pad of paper gently, crossing my hands on the top of the desk and turning to focus him with a serious expression. His mischievous grin fades when he notices that I’m not in the playful or teasing mood that I’m usually in when I see him.

“What’s up?” He questions.

“Adam, I’m pregnant.”

His reaction is not one I expect. His face turns to one of confusion, like he’s genuinely unsure why I would be telling him this.

“Congratulations?” He says it more like a question.

My eyes narrow into a glare at the word. He doesn’t believe that it’s his child. I feel hurt, disrespected, and angry. Who does he think I am, the type of girl who has unprotected sex with everyone who walks?

Not that there’s anything wrong with those girls, more power to them, it’s just- he knows me. We’ve been in each other’s beds most of the time for the past couple of months. I spend practically every night with him, and he has the nerve to doubt paternity?

“It’s yours, idiot.” I can’t help but let that dig slide.

“Well how do you know that?”

“Because if I’m not working, I’m having sex with you,” I say slowly, like I have to spell it out for him.

“Well how do you know it’s not- uh- what’s that guy’s name- Steven’s kid?” Adam inquires, his eyes showing that he’s searching hard for an excuse to not take responsibility.

I scoff, leaning back in my chair. “Whatever, Adam, I don’t care if you believe me. I’m going to figure it out.”

“You better.” And by the way he says it, I know what he wants me to do. I know that he doesn’t want to be a father- although actions do have consequences, there is a reason that abortion and adoption are options.

I can also tell that now he knows for sure that he is the father. And he sure as hell doesn’t want to be the father.

~

I don’t know why I’m so nervous. It’s just scheduling an appointment- I can always cancel or reschedule.

But my finger rests over the call button for a long time, ‘Planned Parenthood’ looking up at me, mocking me, taunting me.

Do you want an abortion or not? Do you want to be a mother or not? Do you want to go through this pregnancy or not?

There are so many questions flashing through my head. Quite frankly, I don’t know what I want to do. I have no one to turn to- as much as I love the team, I don’t want to cause a rift between them and Adam, and I don’t want to think that we’re closer than we actually are.

I cut out my family years ago.

My friends are all party girls, they wouldn’t know the first thing about a baby if it hit them.

Everything is telling me that I shouldn’t do this. I shouldn’t want to raise a baby on my own, I shouldn’t want to be a single mother.

But why do I so desperately yearn for it? Why did I feel joy when I looked at those sticks and why do I get excited at the thought of little footsteps running around on hardwood floors?

I press the call button.

It gets two rings in before I end it, knowing I’ve made my choice despite all odds.

I need to keep this baby. I know Adam won’t be there for me, but he doesn’t need to be. All this baby needs is to feel love and support and it’ll get that from me and me alone. I need to start fresh, though, to make sure that I’m the best mom that I can be.

~

“I can’t believe you quit, just like that,” Alex states with a disappointed tone.

I told the guys I quit because I want a change in scenery. That’s not a lie, I’m excited to be moving to the beautiful state of Colorado to start new. But I also hid the news about the baby. They don’t follow me on social media, so they’ll never know- unless Adam says something to them about it. But I doubt he will.

“We’ll miss you,” Dylan adds.

“I’ll miss you guys too,” I respond, closing the cardboard box containing all of my office supplies. Picture frames, pens, cool knick-knacks. All packed into a box ready to be shipped to the mountain zone.

“Hey Adam, Y/N was just getting ready to say goodbye,” Alex says, making me look up from taping up the box with wide eyes.

Sure enough, the blonde is leaning in the doorway, looking unsure for the first time since I’ve met him. It’s weird to see him so hesitant. It’s not him.

But I also don’t feel bad for him. A real dad would step up and want to be there for their kid. A good dad would do that. But clearly, and unfortunately, I was right. Adam Boqvist is and always will be selfish.

I say my goodbyes to Alex and Dylan, the box in one arm while I lock the office with the other hand.

“You’re really leaving?”

“Let’s just get this over with, Adam,” I start, turning to him. He winces when I look him in the eye, seeing all of the resentment and anger I feel towards him. “I’m keeping the baby. I’m raising the baby on my own. Don’t worry, I won’t put you down on the birth certificate. You’ll never see us again.”

His mouth opens then closes. “Are you sure?”

I scoff at the question, shaking my head in disbelief. I go to push past him. “Oh, trust me, I’m sure.”

[obeydontstray]

I Want More (A Maxwell Lord X OFC rp)

0(A Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal - Patty Jenkins universe) rp between myself and my girlfriend @historianwithaheart ) Can be found under the same name on AO3)

Maxwell sat at his desk, getting his first breather of the day. He looked around for his son. Being the first month of summer, Alistair was spending time at the office with him, but the kid was not in his office where he left him. Max hit the button on his desk and spoke. "Hey Britney, did Alistair leave me any messages of where he was going? Did you see him?"

“No sir I thought he was with you.” In Melony’s office she sat typing away. The little black haired boy munched on his carrots and drank the soda she had gotten for him. She didn’t know who this little boy belonged to but he had stolen her heart. “Like the new Mario Alister?” She asked him. He smiled.

“My daddy is so busy most of the time so it’s nice to come hang out.”

It wasn't uncommon for Alistair to take walks around the offices. Max always made sure he had a piece of money so he could buy anything he wanted from the cafeteria, vending machines, or gift shop downstairs. But he wasn't usually gone this long. It had been....an hour? Maxwell began to get nervous.

“Sorry I couldn’t get you McDonald’s this time but I figure that you shouldn’t be eating junk every time we visit.” She felt her heart ache when he smiled at her. “I get bored so it’s nice to come sit with you.” Alistair smiled. “Well I think I’m gonna have my Lunch break soon if you want a player two?” He nodded.

Maxwell walked through the office hurriedly, asking random people if they had seen the small boy with black hair and dark eyes.

“Did you tell your daddy where you were going?” She asked typing on her desk top. Ali stair nodded. “Left a note.” She smiled at him. “Good boy.”

Someone stopped Max. "I saw a kid go that way, down the hall." He thanked the person and began opening doors.

“Hey kid, have some water okay? Only one soda!” She handed him a water bottle. She sighed. One week late for the meeting. Wonderful.

The door flung open and a head appeared. One with dark blonde hair, handsome features, and dark eyes. "Alistair!" He said, stepping in the door and reaching out his arms.

“Hey daddy!” Melony nearly choked on her drink. “Well Mr. Lord you’re only a week and three hours late to our meeting.” She stood.

He hugged Alistair and quickly stood, straightening out his clothes with his hands and suddenly turning on the biggest smile. "I'm sorry, you are?" God she was beautiful! She had shoulder length blonde hair and the biggest, bluest eyes he had ever seen. Her ruby red lips were perfectly shaped.

“You new head of financials Mr. Lord.” Ali stair smiled. “She’s my friend!” Alistair said. “Look she brought me stuff to play with.”

Maxwell scanned the room. A few scattered toys, food wrappers still out, and a a Nintendo. "So this is where you have been disappearing to."

“She’s nice, and she bought me a Nintendo and she was gonna play with me on her lunch break.” Alistair said. “ if your daddy says you can we can still do that.” Melony smiled. “Melony Morningstar, Head of your financial division. We were supposed to have a meeting one week and three hours ago.”

Maxwell sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Shit, yeah you're right. Sorry, things have been so busy."

Alistair went and hugged around Melony’s thigh. She pet his hair. “Well unfortunately for you my schedule is full up until next Wednesday at two. We’re diversifying your portfolio Mr. Lord.”

"My, you are a busy busy woman. Could we meet now?"

“Well I have a very important meeting coming up, with a top partner.” She winked at Alistair and he smiled. “Can I have another soda?” He asked drinking the Mountain Dew.

"How many have you had?" Maxwell asked. "Your mom's gonna kill me for letting you drink too many."

“He’s only had one! I let him have one when he visits.” Melony said. Alistair leaned against her shoulder. “Mommy doesn’t let me have anything, she’s too busy with her new boyfriend.”

Maxwell frowned. "That's okay, you'll always get attention from me." He promised. "If it's okay with Mrs. Morningstar, you can have another."

“Miss.” Melony corrected. “I’m a Miss and I think you’ve had enough. Don't want to send you home to Daddy and have you bouncing off the walls.”

"How considerate." Max smiled warmly. "Miss Morningstar is right. How about some water, or juice?"

“I gave him water a few minutes ago.” She blushed. “Well I guess you better go little buddy. I think the jig is up.” She ruffled his hair. “If you want you can take the NES system home. That’s up to your daddy. I..I can’t make that decision.”

He nodded. "If she doesn't mind your visits, that's fine. You can keep it here and I'll get you one for your room at home too."

“Alright little man you should probably head to lunch with your pops.” She smiled at the boy. “As for you Mr. Lord, seems you're as irresponsible with your child as you are your money. I’d like to know why you just couldn’t make our meeting a week ago.”

"I'm not irresponsible!" He said, a little flash defiance in his voice before he ran a hand through his perfectly coiffed hair. "He usually makes quick trips to the gift shop or cafeteria and back up. I didn't expect him to start touring people's offices. And I apologize, my only free time lately has been in the late afternoon. No business like show business, ya know."

“Mmm. No worries, little man and I keep each other company!” She smiled. “Oh yes far too busy. Then I guess it will have to be a business dinner then. Tonight at 6 your choice though perhaps a nice place to sit outside. The office is stifling.”

His eyebrow raised and a lopsided smile shown on his face. "Really? Tonight huh? How does Thai sound?"

“Fantastic. It’s my favorite. I’ll see you at six.” She penciled in her planner. “You best be there Mr. Lord, I am your new head of finances you hired me for a reason. And it wasn’t because I’m pretty, because you weren’t even there to look at me.”

"And I regret that deeply." He said, giving her a very obvious look over. "I'll meet you there." He said, laying his hand on Alistair's shoulder. "Come on baby, let's go."

She waved at Alistair. She sat down and smiled to herself. She had just strong armed the most powerful man in this company. Not taking his his excuses. Alistair walks with Max. “You’re not mad at me daddy, she’s really nice and she plays video games with me sometimes. She says that if you were smart you’d start investing in Nintendo.”

He grinned. "Well I'll have to think on that. No buddy, I'm not mad at you. She's a very nice lady."

“Are you gonna date her?” Alistair asked. “She’s pretty, really pretty almost prettier than Momma.”

"No no, this is just a business meeting." He assured him, even if he had different things in mind. "She is really pretty, isn't she?"

“She looks like that Disney princess, Aurora.” Alistair said. “She sings pretty too.” He said. “Can I still hang out with her?”

"Sure thing buddy." He said, ruffling the boy's dark hair. "When did you hear her sing?"

“Well one day when you were super busy, and I got bored I went exploring and I got really lost, and she found me. I was crying a lot because I was scared. She picked me up and she sang a song to me to help me stop crying because I was scared.” Alistair told him.

He lay his hand on his son's shoulder and bent down to his level before pulling him in for a hug. "I'm so sorry you were lost and scared. I'll thank her tonight for caring for you."

“It’s okay, I know you didn’t mean it to happen.” Alistair hugged him. “Just be nice to her okay?” Soon five o'clock came and Melony went home to change into a sweet little blue floral patterned summer dress. Cuban stockings, blue pumps. She did up her hair and spritzed her perfume. She picked up the phone as she put on her pink lipstick.

Maxwell looked himself over in the mirror. He wore a sunset yellow blazer with white slacks and a pastel orange shirt. His white loafers were shined and he pushed up his sleeves to his elbows. His hair was perfectly coiffed and he was cleanly shaven. He picked up his Polo cologne and sprayed it on. "Daddy, if it's not a date then why are you dressing up?" Alistair asked. "Dress for success, buddy. When you're a business man, you have to always look your best. This is a meeting, it's just outside the office so I'm dressing different." The phone rung and caught his attention. He lifted a finger at Alistair. "Hold that thought."

“Good evening Mr. Lord, Raquel said this was your home number. I’m honored.” Melony laughed.

"And who said you could call me at home?" He said in a flirty tone. "What do I owe the pleasure?"

“Well Mr. Lord by proxy of not specifying which Thai restaurant in DC you have hence forth invited me to call you at home.” She spoke. She heard the flirtatious tone in his voice. She felt a zap of desire run down her spine. Oh Melony, don’t you know any better. She thought to herself.

“Precisely. I’ll see you there soon.” She smiled over the receiver. “Oh and come prepared to work Mr. Lord. I’m not one of your office floosies.”

He smiled broadly and chuckled. "Work for what?"

“Honestly you think you’re so charming. Work work. Like portfolios and the future of your company, I’m sure you enjoy being able to spoil your little conquests. In order to keep doing that my darling Mr. Lord you need to be wise about the market.”

He grinned even harder. "I could have you fired for speaking to me like that, you know." He tested.

“Then I guess you wouldn't have a company much longer Mr. Lord. I will see you in a bit. Tell my little buddy that next time he wants to come play he brings me a snack okay?” She smiled.

"Okay I will. See you soon." He hung up and Alistair looked up at him with a worried look. "You would fire her?" "No! No!" He assured his son. How could he explain himself without telling him he was flirting? "I was testing her! It's hard to explain, you'll understand when you're older. But she passed. And she said when you go see her again you can bring the snacks."

Alistair smiled. “Okay!” He happily went to to go get ready for the babysitter. Melony was sitting at a table overlooking the river into a forest. She checked her watch, her legs crossed as she skimmed through a book and sipped a beer.

"Daddy, can I dress up next time I go see her?" Alistair asked. "Sure buddy." Soon Max had dropped off his son and strolled into the restaurant looking for her.

She sat there. Looking much different from before, more soft and feminine. She checked her watch again, when she heard whispers. Ah he's here. She thought to herself.

Women stared at him as he walked past, a handsome grin on his face and he shot random women flirty winks. His bright gold watch and rings flashed in the low light of the restaurant. "Miss Morningstar, nice to see you again." He greeted before took off his jacket and draped it on the back of his chair before he sat down.

“It nice to finally capture your attention for a moment or two.” She smiled at him. It was a flirtatious smile. She couldn’t help it.

"I'm a man in demand." He said with a wink.

She rolled her eyes. “Indeed.” She grabbed her brief case. “Okay so you started in oil but how long before that goes dry, you need to diversify.”

"Alistair said you told him I should invest in Nintendo." He chuckled. "What about that little computer company? Apple is it?"

“I think that’s a solid bet, personal gaming systems, personal computers, making it individual is going to be big.” She continued. “Your oil company is a great start, it really is, and your other investments are doing well but we need to be able to have more than one leg to stand on, what are the big draws? Entertainment, technology and of course oil and trade.” She handed him a large book. See.”

He flipped through the books pages quickly. "Hmmmm, I see." His lips were pressed together in a goofy shape, making him look as if he was only half considering the things he was looking at.

She looked at him, she knew that look. He's only half considering it. She bit her lip and let her anger simmer. “Sir, I’m trying to be diplomatic but do you think I’m a joke? I’ve spent hours doing the job you’ve hired me to do, and then you can’t be bothered to see me at our planned meeting and then you come here and half ass your considerations.”

"What? I'm thinking!" He said, his warm brown eyes flicking upwards and locking with hers.

“If you say so.” She sipped her beer. “I apologize, this is important to me.”

He nodded and looked her in the eyes again. "And it shows, I apologize if I'm not demonstrating my interest. I'm just a little distracted, but here, let me take another look."

She sighed. “It is kind of late and if I’m being honest Mr. Lord. I’m tired.” She spoke. “At least I have you thinking.”

He nodded. "Yes it is late. I'm sorry we got off to a rocky start, but I really enjoyed your company tonight." He said with an earnest face.

“Well I guess at the very least you can continue to enjoy my company. I wouldn’t protest.” She said to him sipping a beer. I mean our first meeting was supposed to be just a get to know your employee type deal, but your company took a big chance on me and I..I just don’t want to fail.”

"I'm really glad whoever made the decision did. I uh-I'm not as involved in the hiring process as I should be. But I would like to get to know you more. And if it's okay, can I borrow this book? I'll review it in the morning with fresh eyes and a clear mind."

“Don’t you eat breakfast with your son?” She asked him. “And what we’re you distracted by.” She handed him the book.

"I do. I'll look it over again after I get to work." He looked up at her again. "Who wouldn't be distracted by someone like you."

She scoffed. “Honestly, Mr. Lord, I hate to sound pretentious but, again, I’m not one of your office floosies.” She looked at him. God, his eyes were so sincere. “But I have a feeling you know that.” She handed him his beer.

He nodded and took his beer before taking a sip. "I know you're not like them. I don't pay attention to them. But you..."

“But what about me Mr. Lord?” She smiled at him. She moved a strand of hair behind her ear.

"You're authoritative and commanding and just...beautiful. You fill up the whole room with your presence."

She felt her face betray her emotions flushing pink. Clearly not the rouge one her cheeks. “Mr. Lord, I..”

"And my son told me what you did for him when he was lost and alone. And that, I'll forever be grateful to you for."

She was really blushing now. “Oh it’s nothing, anyone would have done that. I honestly thought maybe he was like a receptionists son, or something I didn’t know he was yours, but I...I can’t stand to hear a child cry. Especially...a sweet little boy like that.”

Maxwell's eyes moved to his empty plate. "I never thought of him getting lost like that and getting scared. I trusted him to just go to one of two places and back. I never thought of him getting lost. It broke my heart when he told me what that was like. But, he told me he thinks you are like Princess Aurora."

“Mr. Lord, if I could be so bold.” She said to him and took his hand. “He never blamed you, and he loves you dearly.” She said to him. “I just heard him cry and I just wanted to help. But you’re a good father.”

He nodded. "I try. I only get him on weekends right now and I try to set aside time to be with him, just one on one, but it's so hard to make time in the business."

“He sees you try. I’m sure.” She realized that she was holding his hand and blushed. “I..I’m sorry.” She pulled her hand away and chugged her beer.

“This is inappropriate and I’m sorry. I should go.” She went to stand.

He reached out and lay his hand on hers. "No, no please. Don't leave. We're just getting to know each other."

She felt her heart leap up into her throat. The story playing out in her bright blue eyes. The felt it, the attention, but her mind raced. What would he do with her when he was done. He could see it, she was sure. She sat back down. “I guess then maybe I should tell you more.” She didn’t take her hand away.

"Yes, tell me everything." He said, curling his fingers so that his hand wrapped around hers.

She felt her breath hitch. Her mind racing. “I...I..” she stammered. This seemed like a hazy dream. This man, the man who ran the most successful company right now, and her. Little old her. She wasn’t worth his time. “My name is Melony, I’m twenty eight, I have masters degree in finances and law. I...I like nature, and art and archaeology. I..I’m single. Have been for a while. Because being woman, having feelings gets you no where in this big business world. I’m witty and intelligent. Some men call me frigid or a bitch but I call it getting by.”

"You don't not seem those bad things to me. And I'm Maxwell Lord as you know. I'm divorced. You know Alistair. I'm 35. We have similar tastes."

“And I’m being incredibly stupid right now. Letting you know these things about me. Letting my guard down.” She confessed. “I should have Just kept it business.” She felt the room grow hotter. “This is how a woman gets a reputation.”

"How? Just by talking to me?" He asked, confusion sparking on his face.

“By letting my guard down around you.” She said to him. “Maxwell Lord, the infamous business man, being seen with his head of finances, a young woman.” She searched his face. “I guess one of my poor traits is I’m obsessed with my image.”

He raised his eyebrows and shrugged. "We can keep our meetings strictly business and in office, Miss Morningstar."

“I suppose, but you’re still holding my hand Mr. Lord.” She breathed out.

He drew back his hand slowly. "Well, I guess I should let you go. I'll see you at work Monday afternoon to give you a decision." He said as he stood and grabbed the book.

“Mr. Lord.” She reached out for him. “Don’t.” She looked at him. “I, am just scared. I haven’t, I haven’t let myself be vulnerable in a while. You astound me. Have since I first saw you on tv, have since I applied to work for you. Your company gave me the opportunity to do more than fall into the darkness that was waiting to take me. You’ve set the annals of my heart alive with flames once again. Forgive me if I am a guarded woman.”

He looked down at her with the softest expression before he sat down again. "Really? You'd use such beautiful words for me?"

“Perhaps you need a little beauty and honesty in your life.” She replied.

He reached out and took her hand once again and his thumb smoothed across her knuckles. "Maybe you could be the sunlight in my life, then."

“Mr. Lord, I...I don’t know about all of that, but I think perhaps maybe for a little while we could make each other realize that the sun still shines.” She paused. Not knowing what to do next.

"Call me Max, please." He looked at his watch. "It's getting late, I shouldn't keep you. The babysitter will be ready to go home soon, it's after Alistair's bedtime."

“What if...I want to be kept. Max.” She looked up at him and stood. “Maybe it’s the beer or maybe it’s just your touch, and maybe it’s just my personality but I feel brave.”

"I'd love to stay but I have to be home by midnight. Unless..."

She stood and moved closer to him she took his hand and placed her lips on his in a slow sensual kiss. But her shaking body betrayed her confidence.

He moved to hold her cheeks gently in both hands and kissed her again. "Then come home with me."

“You don’t have to ask twice.” She replied. Thank god they were at a secluded table.

"Come with me, let's take a taxi."

[vannahfanfics]

Double Trouble

Category: Friendship Fluff, Action

Fandom: Soul Eater

Characters: Death the Kid, Liz Thompson, Patty Thompson

Requested by: Destiny19404 (Ao3)

“What about this one, Sis? Is this a good one?” Patty cried as she bounced up to Liz, brandishing a cucumber above her head. After waiting for Patty to finish waving it around like a toy, Liz plucked it from her hand and turned it over to inspect it. She grimaced when she found a various obvious lump on the side of it, like some kind of tumor jutting out of the fruit. When Liz looked at her sister in disdain, all she did was giggle and twirl in delight. “It’s got a lump!” 

“Yes, I see that, Patty. First of all, I don’t want to eat a cucumber that has a lump. Second of all, Kid will throw a fit if we try to feed him a nonsymmetric fruit,” Liz explained. 

“Aww,” Patty said, instantly deflating like a balloon. Liz sighed; she didn’t like to disappoint her sister, but really, the deformed cucumber could only present more challenges than it was worth. She handed the green fruit back to Patty, who trudged off back to the basket in the corner of the fruit stand to pick one more normal-looking. Liz could only watch, shaking her head. Why did things even as mundane as grocery shopping be so difficult? 

Her eyes slid to the boy who made it so difficult in the first place. He was currently arguing with the vegetable vendor across the street, berating him for selling non-symmetrical wares. Still, Liz accepted him for all his eccentricities… even if they could be a major pain in the ass sometimes. He’d taken them in and been there for them through it all, so she could deal with a few minor inconveniences from the shrimp. 

Though, she did have to keep up appearances. 

“Oi, knock it off!” she said as she walked over and bopped him over the head— not enough to leave a lump or even a bruise, but enough to get his attention. He turned his pouty gaze on her, and she waggled a finger scoldingly while chastising, “You’re disgracing the name of Death God, acting like this! This vendor is selling good wares to the public. Apologize.” 

“But…” he started to mumble, looking at the lumpy tomato that had offended him so. 

“Kid, we’ve talked about this. The world does not obey the laws of perfection, and this is something you have to make peace with,” she reminded him carefully. He grumbled under his breath some more, then obediently bowed his head apologetically to the vendor, who was just bemused at the whole ordeal. Liz steered Kid away from the baskets of vegetables before something else could send him into a spiral, and as she did, she noticed that Patty was holding a perfectly symmetrical cucumber— 

And being leered over by two very large men in trenchcoats and broad-brimmed hats that shielded their faces with darkness. 

“Hey!” Liz barked, shoving Kid aside to stomp over. Patty was just looking at the two men with her head tilted to the side, blinking curiously, and so she didn’t notice that one of their hands had changed into a sickle blade. Liz just barely managed to grab her sister by the shoulder and yank her back before the man struck. The blade sliced through the air, clipping a few of Patty’s short blonde hairs while it cleaved where her neck had just been. Patty stumbled back against her sister, her eyes filling with tears. 

“You big meanie! Whadja do that for?” 

“It looks like these bitches don’t remember us,” the man without the sickle hand huffed, tugging the brim of his hat down. Liz narrowed her eyes; that raspy voice did sound oddly familiar, but how the hell was she supposed to recognize someone when they were concealing their identities? Duh! Before Liz could tell the two bozos that, however, they ripped off their hats and trenchcoats, throwing them onto the street behind them. 

Oh. Liz recognized them, all right, and it was not good that they were here. 

Liz hugged Patty closer to her as the two men gazed at them with matching homicidal grins. They were dressed in the same kind of ratty attire they had been the last time the twins had the misfortune of running into them: torn suits, faded gold watches, scuffed shoes— two mockeries of wealthy businessmen. They conducted business, all right, but nothing of the savory type. That was what brought the two girls to them in the first place; down on their luck, they’d entreated the two sharks for a loan, and they might have skipped out on paying. 

It seems they’d come to collect, and their interest might be too high a price to pay. 

“Hey, girls,” the loan shark smiled while his partner changed into a vicious-looking sickle, falling into the man’s hands and gleaming like the cheap rings adorning his fingers. “Long time, no see. I just came to talk.” However, the way he sliced the sickle a few times through the air, making the metal sing, didn’t really make Liz feel too assuaged. 

“You won’t be doing any talking,” Kid said, shoving himself between the girls and the man. The man squinted at the small boy who’d suddenly come on scene— one who was way better dressed than he was. “These are my Death Scythes, and I am Death,” he warned. “I won’t take it easy on you if you harass my partners.” 

“Death?” the man guffawed, throwing his head back as hoarse, raspy laughter rocked his frame. “You sure are a bold little brat, ain’tcha? Go home and drink some milk, boy, I ain’t got time for your games.” As he swung the sickle in warning, Kid produced Beezlezub, using the skateboard’s sturdy underside to block the oncoming blade. While the man just blinked in confusion, Kid looked back over his shoulder at them. 

“He irritates me. I want him gone.” 

“You don’t have to tell us twice!” Liz grinned, and they changed into their gun forms. Kid pushed the sickle away with the skateboard, then dropped it so he could snatch the two pistols from the air. While the man was still stunned from the turn of events, Kid pointed both the barrels right into his face and pulled the triggers without hesitation. 

Of course, that wouldn’t kill him, but it sure would hurt like Hell. 

The man yowled, clutching his face as he went blasting backwards. He landed on his back on the piles of clothes they’d discarded, and he rolled around in them while he yowled and whined in pain. With a blase look, Kid stalked up to him and stomped down on his chest, then shot him a few more times. 

“I don’t take kindly to people disrespecting me,” Kid said, then shot the man’s arm. The thug immediately rolled his upper body forward to clutch at it. “I especially don’t take kindly to people disrespecting my partners,” he added with a shot to his back, making him arch up and convulse. Deciding that was enough, he lifted the pistols to blow the steam wafting up from the barrels, then allowed Liz and Patty to change back. They both crouched on either side of their unfortunate victim, grinning from ear to ear. 

“He warned you, you know,” Patty giggled, grabbing his hat from the ground and plopping it on top of the one she already wore. “Don’t mess with a Death God’s partners!” 

“I suppose we can consider our debt settled?” Liz hummed, grabbing the collar of his shirt to pull him up, and the man nodded eagerly in between his sobs. Licking her teeth in satisfaction, Liz dropped him back down into the dust and stood. Patty hopped over his limp body, parading the cucumber she was still holding as she ran up to Kid. 

Of course, ever the sensible one, Liz wasn’t in such a carefree mood. 

“I’m sorry, Kid,” she apologized, bowing her head while he inspected the fruit Patty had brought him. “I knew that someday our old life would catch up to us, but I didn’t want to get you involved and cause you any trouble…” 

“Don’t worry about it,” he shrugged, then smiled and gave Patty an approving pat on the head. Squealing, she took the cucumber back and hurried off to pay. Kid looked back to Liz, his smile softening. “You’re my partners. I think that means we all have to cause each other trouble from time to time.” He cast his gaze back to Patty, who looked absolutely elated waving her cash at the fruit vendor. “I wouldn’t trade you two for the world… no matter how many thugs from your past come calling.” 

Liz’s eyes watered, and then she jumped forward, wrapping Kid up in a hug. He made a choking sound as he was smothered right into her cleavage, but he was used to it by now— he’d learned to hold his breath instead of flail around. 

“Uwahhh, how did we get so lucky as to find you?” Liz sobbed while she nuzzled the top of his head with her cheek. Patty, not sure what was going on as she flounced up, just latched onto Kid’s waist and snuggled into his back. 

“Yay! Hugs!” 

It was definitely true that Liz and Patty were double trouble, but they’d gotten lucky in finding the one meister in the world who would put up with it. Just like they’d put up with his own oddities. 

“If you’re gonna hug me, at least do it symmetrically!” he screamed into Liz’s bosom, pushing on her stomach until he could pop his head out of her cleavage and glare up at her, red-faced. Laughing, she just patted his head affectionately. Oh, there were oddities, bless Kid’s heart. But she couldn’t help but accept him, just like he’d accepted them. 

After all, they were in it for the long haul.

Enjoy this oneshot? Feel free to peruse my Table of Contents!

[rons-wheezely]

Ron || Inseparable

[Requested]

Genre: Fluff

Summary: this dude you don’t know really wants to be your friend??; Ron x reader “...I mean, I guess he’s cute or whatever, so it’s fine.”

----

It all started in charms class. Ron dreaded that class more than anything in the world, spells and incantations were definitely NOT his thing. Today, Professor Flitwick set up a bunch of locks in front of each student. He cleared his throat and said," Today, students, we will be learning blah blah blah.."

Every time Flitwick speaks, it's like jibberish to Ron. He's tried many times to concentrate, but last time he pulled a muscle or something because he had migraines for a whole week. Hermione says it's because his brain was smaller than a pea. What in the bloody hell was a "pea"? Definitely not piss, he hoped. He sucks at this class and it's painfully obvious..

"Ah, everyone play close attention to y/n's incantation and the subtlety of her wand. It's near perfect for a first try."

Ron turns his sights to you, who is now burning a Gryffindor red, as you redo the spell for everyone in the class. There was something beautiful about how you casted the spell, dare I call it magic. Ron Weasely couldn't take his eyes off of you like a star struck fan meeting his favorite quidditch team.

After that, Ron kept spotting you in crowds from class to class. He didn't want to sometimes, but he couldn't help it. He couldn't escape the memory that replayed in his head. The way his heart leaped out of his chest, how his fingers itched to shake yours for the first time and introduce himself. It was like you radiated some type of aura that drew him in. It's an overused description, but there was no other way to describe the way you pulled him in like a sinking black hole.  A problem still stood between him and his desires, however.

"I just wish we weren't strangers and that I could ask her out already, but then I'd--" Ron pouted to his friend Harry, who always seemed to get the girls. "You wouldn't understand though, since everyone seems to think you're the 'chosen one'." He mocked the voice of the masses. Everyone loved Harry, after all.

"Why don't you just talk to her?" Harry shovels his lunch into his mouth,"There's nothing stopping you, is there?" Harry says this so nonchalantly as if he's done it several times himself. "Unless you're chicken of course."

Half out of spite and half out of impatience, he wanted to prove that he could be friends with you. He introduced himself to you in the next class he shared, and days after that he'd wave to you when you two made eye contact. He thought it was embarrassing to be so excited to see someone he didn't know well, but it didn't stop his heart from beating faster than it had before.

After a week, Flitwick assigned a new project. "You shall team up with one person of your choosing and begin today's work." Before he was even finished speaking, you could see people making eye contact with their friends across the room. You didn't really have anyone you knew, as per usual, until you suddenly make eye contact with Ron Weasley.

His eyes are sparkling and it's like his whole life has lived up to this moment. He coughs into his elbow as he dusted off his robes when he stood up. Did he remember to brush his teeth this morning? God, he hopes so. He takes a deep breath and walks over to your seat. "Do you, uh, want to be partners?" He shifted under the feel of your gaze,"For the project of course; only if you want to."

Of course, you aren't in the position to say no, being that you've never been asked before, so you agree. However, that was just the beginning of your friendship with Ron. Overtime, it was like you two were always joined at the hip. You two would meet up and walk to class together, eat together, and even get caught up in Harry's adventures together. You never expected to be this close with Ron, or even anyone for that matter.

After school hours, you and Hermione hung out in the courtyard. It was her move in Gobstones when she brought up an interesting question. "I'd never actually think I'd see the day that Ron could be tolerated for more than a week. How do you do it?" She paused and mulled over her words. She spoke up again saying," Do you ever think he's clingy sometimes? It's like you two are conjoined twins or something... I'd say he was in love with you if it wasn't for Lavender Brown."

You hesitated in your response, feeling as though you were revealing too much," ...I mean, I guess he's cute or whatever, so it's fine." you attempt to shrug it off and focus on the game. Hermione's eyes burned holes into your skin as you tried to shake her uneasy stare.

Hermione gasped so loudly, it caught you off guard. Did you say too much? Did you say something wrong??? You shushed her in a panic, looking around at the other students staring at you. She recomposed herself with a deep breath, but she exploded in a flurry of whispered questions.

"So you think he's cute?? As a friend or... as something more? How long have you felt this way? Does anyone else know about this?" Hermione bombarded you with so many questions it was like the room started spinning.

"I wouldn't mind if we were something more," You could see Hermione about to gasp again," BUT I really don't think this is the kind of love story you think it is. He dated Lavender Brown up until two days ago, so he probably doesn't think of me that way, like you said earlier." The more you talked, the more you felt like you were giving away the secret krabby patty formula. Why can't you shut up?? "He probably likes girls like that."

"Or maybe he wanted you to be jealous?" Hermione spoke and won the game in one smooth turn,"Think about it." As you clean up the game pieces, she puts her hand on your shoulder. "I know that when he was dating Lavender, he walked with her to class, right? But don't you normally walk with him?" Hermione strolled the hallways with you. This situation was so stiff the outside air of the courtyard was suffocating you, leaving no room albeit to give in.

"I.. I don't know, Hermione. Maybe we're thinking into it too much?" Your head drifts to the outside scenery of Hogwarts. "Besides, why would he want to date me?"

A couple days later, Ron came back to the old routine of walking with you everywhere as if he'd never left. You wouldn't have even noticed if it weren't for that conversation with Hermione. It itched in the back of your mind like a spider on the back of your neck. You felt like you were reading too far into his jokes, and when he laughed at one of yours, there was a flip in your stomach and blood rushed to your face.

Now, his touches set your skin ablaze. It lingered and danced along the surface of your senses. Every breath of his that reached you was warm, his hands were a little too soft, and you could list a thousand other things that sent your mind running. Does he really like you like that?

"I thought she'd crack by now, Harry." A frustrated Ron brewed in his own bits of misfortune. "What if she's not into me like that?"

Harry looked at him. Harry's eyes glance at the clock before responding," Ron, it's like 11 pm and you're thinking about y/n?"

Ron nodded with a pout on his face.

Harry sighed," Why don't you just tell her?" Before Ron could reply with a flurry of doubts, Harry interjected. "You've literally had a crush on her since like First year, and I haven't seen you make your move. If you're that worried, you could try..." He looked around the dormitory room for a clue. His glasses glinted like an anime character when his eyes settled on a potions book. "You could always make a uh, forgetfulness potion?"

That seemed to satisfy Ron's stress and he laid back down in bed. He predicted that in the next 24 hours, he'll have confessed his feelings and then forced you to take his concoction of a "forgetfulness potion."

"Y/n." Ron had taken you outside the Great Hall during lunch. His palms are so sweaty and cold it could be a slip 'n slide (except he wouldn't know what that was.) You were talking to Harry about the next Quidditch game when he decided to confess. It took some persuading to leave the conversation, but you eventually gave in.

"Yes, Ron?" You prodded his shoulder. His face was pale, and the awkward silence was becoming unbearable. "...Ron? Are you monologuing or something?"

"I... I like you."

"Uhh me too? That's why we're friends." You weren't sure if your mind was playing tricks on you again. He wasn't confessing.. right?

"No I--" He stammered. "I like you. Like a lot. Since first year.." This was it. Any second you would reject him, and then he'd have to whip out his potion and apologize profusely while you guzzle it down.

"Oh." You blinked. Once. Twice. "Really? So this is a confession?"

"Will you go out with me?" He looked into your eyes. He was done for, he knew it. But, the disgust of rejection never came.

"Yeah.. I'd actually like that, Ron." You hugged him with all of your might. If this was a dream, then you hoped you'd never wake up. You were trying so hard not to let your feelings get the best of you, if only you knew he felt the same way. This past month's emotional procrastination was futile, and you can now admit the blooming feeling in your heart.

Ron was stunned. It was only until his robes were getting wet that he looked down. You were crying, but they were tears of joy? He really was prepared for the worst. Once the shock had died down, he embraced you. He never thought this day would come, but when it did, it was the greatest emotion he'd ever had. He kissed your forehead as the rest of your face was buried in his arms. "I love you."

---- 

-A/N-

Just a heads up, in the future I’d like to write and include other HP characters if y’all don’t mind (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ It’ll be about other HP characters in the same year probably, except for the other Weasleys. Love you guys ♡

p.s. I’m sorry that I took so long on this rip I wrote a whole different ending where you fake date Harry for a hot second, but it got out of hand and I scrapped it lol

[ikesenhell]

Together, Alone

AMERICAN DREAM, Chapter 4. You can find all other IkeSen works of mine here. NOTES: Thanks to @missjudge-me for this commission!

---

The bonfire was everything Masamune wanted. 

Darkness fell early, a boon. Nobunaga and Mitsuhide built an expert fire, and by the time the burgers were rolled out, everyone was good and hungry. Thick patties with cheese (vegan cheese and an impossible burger for Ieyasu), roasted potato rounds, a side salad—silence reigned for around twenty seconds as they all tucked in. Masamune considered it a compliment. 

Mitsunari chatted about his time in Tanzania. His violet eyes and grey hair were stark against his now-bronzed skin, his t-shirt stretched rather than hanging loose off formerly bony arms. Every time he grinned, Ieyasu practically shoved his face into the burger. 

“Y’good there, sport?” Masamune checked him in the ribs. 

Ieyasu scowled. “Why?”

Mitsuhide, too, had clocked onto the new state of affairs. He carefully concealed his smile and rounded on Mitsunari. “Why, Mitsunari, my friend, you certainly have physically changed since your last time stateside.”

Mitsunari blinked. “Have I?”

“Yes. You’ve toned up. Stand, would you?”

“The food—” Ieyasu choked, struggling to change the discussion. “The food is—is really good—”

It almost worked; Mitsunari opened his mouth to agree, but Mitsuhide already had him by the arm, pulling him to his feet. “I want to see how many abs I can count now.”

“Why? I don’t have an abnormal number of them—”

In the glittering firelight, she shoved her face into a cider bottle, trying to mask her laughter. Masamune’s chest tightened. “How many crunches can you do now, Mitsunari?”

“I don’t know.” Puzzled, Mitsunari let Mitsuhide strip him of his polo. His newfound figure flickered in sharp edges in the firelight. Ieyasu gagged on a potato round. “I didn't spend a lot of time in the gym at Tanzania…”

“No?” Nobunaga folded his arms across his chest, staring pointedly at Ieyasu. “I’m sure you were kept busy with your charity work. Obviously, your enviable mind was the reason you were most valued.”

“Oh, definitely.” Even the Kitten joined in, popping a cherry tomato into her mouth. “Going on two tours with the Peace Corps and getting an accelerated masters? Not a lot of people can do that.”

Mitsunari was practically scarlet. “Well, thank you. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without all the support I received, especially from Ieyasu—”

“Go to hell,” Ieyasu muttered.

“—there you go, being too modest to accept the praise.” 

Masamune had never seen anyone chug their beer as fast as Ieyasu managed in the moment. “If we’re gonna try and troll someone—which isn’t working, by the way—”

Mitsunari blinked. “Who are we trolling?”

“—then why haven’t we given Masamune hell yet?”

“Me?” Masamune laughed. “I’m shameless. Besides, I don’t even know what you’d get me for.”

Hideyoshi doubled with laughter. Four pairs of eyes blinked in his direction. 

“Anyway.” Ieyasu cut in. “If anyone wants to just help me get the dirty things inside before we attract ants, that would be great.”

Mitsunari volunteered with a smile. Ieyasu scowled, but stacked up his arms with dishes anyway, the two of them disappearing into the house. Nobunaga and Mitsuhide dipped their heads together to confer on some unknowable secret, Hideyoshi stoking the fire protectively. Left to their own devices, Masamune wrapped his arm around her shoulders. 

“Cold?”

“A little.” 

Tugging her tighter to him, he rubbed her arm slowly. “Do you need a jacket or something?”

“No.” Quietly, she curled her knees under his, resting her cheek onto his shoulder. His stomach blazed protectively. “I’m good right here.”

“Nothing like a fire in the fall, huh?”

“No, nothing.” She sighed. “I love the clear smell of the air and the burning logs. It’s really nostalgic.”

That it was. But as much as he’d been thinking about the past, as he carded a hand through her hair, he couldn’t help but ask. “Where do you think you’ll be in five years?”

Her soft smile was everything. “Why do you ask? You’re not much of a person to make future plans.”

Masamune chuckled. “No, I’m not. I prefer living in the moment. I was just curious. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the past since my dad died, so I’m trying to get back into the now and the future.”

It sounded like nonsense out of his mouth, but she smiled, so he assumed something made sense. At last, she shrugged. “There are a whole lot of things in flux right now. I suppose I just want the next five years to end with me being happy.”

Good answer. Scrunching her hair affectionately, he answered, “That’s all I’d ever want for you, Kit Kat.”

He felt her smile in the crook of his shoulder. Resting back on his elbow, he stilled himself, and before long, she was sound asleep, breath fanning on his skin. In the quietest part of his heart, he prayed for her good dreams. 

---

Mitsunari offered the guest bedroom that he’d been staying in, so Masamune tucked her in himself. She roused only a little when he brought her inside. 

“Where are we going?” She mumbled into his shoulder.

“To bed, Kitten,” Masamune murmured. “Go back to sleep. I’ve got you.”

Even after all of these years, she trusted him, curling tight against his chest. He turned back the covers and peeled off her shoes and socks, arranging them under the bed. Lights of a passing car shimmered through the blinds and scanned her sleeping face. 

Beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Masamune gently slid her cold toes under the covers and wrapped her tight in a blanket. “Goodnight, Kitten.”

Ieyasu was the only one still awake, subtly stirring a mug of tea. Masamune lingered in the shadows of the hallway. The blonde kept glancing over the bar into the living room, his eyes searching over the others sleeping forms, lingering over Mitsunari’s fluffy bedhead, mouth softening. 

Masamune finally broke his silence. “Hey. Got a second mug?”

Those green eyes blew wide, but Ieyasu kept his composure and fished one out of the cabinet. “Not a lot left.”

“That’s fine. You don’t mind, do you?”

“No. I’ll fix more.”

“I said it’s fine.”

Ieyasu ignored him and fished out the tea tin. Masamune hoisted himself onto the counter. “So when are you gonna talk to him?”

“Who?”

“Mitsunari.”

No doubt it was only the late hour that kept Ieyasu from his usual snark and defense. Instead the blonde sighed raggedly, pouring hot water over the strainer. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yasu, buddy. You haven’t stopped giving him heart eyes since he got here. Tanzania was good to him, clearly.”

Ieyasu shrugged. 

“You gotta say something eventually.”

“I really don’t.”

Someone in the living room shifted. They both fell silent before Masamune continued. “I mean, theoretically, yeah, you don’t have to. But I think it would go better than you think. You’re obviously head over heels for the dude.”

The faint clink of a spoon echoed in the kitchen. Without ceremony, Ieyasu placed the dark blue mug in Masamune’s hand. “Made like you like it.”

“Thanks, bro.”

Ieyasu tucked himself into the corner of the fridge and the cabinets, cupping his own cup tight in his palms. In the shadowy under-cabinet light, his dark circles were almost picturesque. “Are you gonna ride my dick about this?”

“I don’t think so.” Masamune paused. “I’m not trying to, like, annoy you. I just think it would go really well. He’s had a thing for you for ages.”

Those green eyes flared with hope and indignation. “Come on.”

“I’m serious.”

“You’re not.”

“It’s been obvious to everyone but you for years.”

Ieyasu ground his teeth. “Why does this matter so much to you anyway? Trying to get me to do what you won’t do?”

A beat. Masamune hesitated once more, mug halfway to his mouth and mind reeling. What the hell was he talking about? “I don’t have a crush on Mitsunari—”

“No, you idiot.” He thumbed into the hallway. “Her.”

For the briefest of moments, time stilled. A crush? He didn't have a crush. Did he? Sure, he thought she was beautiful, and funny, and he treasured her, but there were lots of people that met those criteria. Right? He treasured Ieyasu and didn't want to kiss him, and kissed a lot of people that he hadn’t treasured, but still respected. She just happened to fall into both of those categories. That didn't mean he had a crush. 

Did he?

“You haven’t even realized.” Ieyasu’s eyebrows were in his hairline. 

He’d never grown tired of her, not once. He’d never tried too hard to make her more than what they were—why? All those years of closeness, the easy intimacy, the reckless way he’d always cared for her. Was that just friendship? Of course he could envision himself in bed with her (who couldn’t?), and he valued her thoughts, and he wanted the best for her, and—

When they were in high school, he’d asked her to junior prom by flinging a balled up piece of paper at her head across Government class. She went, of course—they wore matching gold and blue—but the next year Hideyoshi asked her with a bouquet of roses he’d grown from his bushes. Masamune never knew what jealousy felt like before that. He’d swallowed it down with the consolation that it was just as friends, that it was technically like they were going together anyway, right? 

And then he’d been defensive when Hideyoshi held her hand in the hall today...

“Holy shit.” Masamune concluded. 

“You didn't know?!” Ieyasu barely restrained his volume. 

“I didn't think about it too hard,” he admitted. He reeled, searching his feelings. He’d never been too invested in finding a long term partner before, let alone concerned in finding one in general. He could always find someone to be with if he was lonely. But her? So much more of him was invested. He could feel her name all the way down through his toes. Hells, the only thing that mattered to him was her happiness. “I—fuck, man. I never really sat down and had this conversation with myself.”

“We all thought you knew.” Disbelieving awe reflected in Ieyasu’s face. “That’s why Hideyoshi laughed tonight. We thought you’d been carrying this torch for ages and at least knew about it. You’re more oblivious than Mitsunari.”

Masamune chose to sip his tea instead of answering. Her face played out a thousand different ways in his mind’s eye. They were going to Virginia for a job interview, and he had to stay home with his mom, go back to his old life and his old job eventually. That was hundreds of miles away. And there was no way she felt the same about him. As much as things stayed the same, no doubt she believed he’d changed somewhat. 

And yet…

“Tell you what.” Masamune drained his mug and placed it in the sink. “I’ll think about it. And you should, too. Deal?”

Ieyasu rolled his eyes. “Not like you’ll give me a choice.”

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’. Good night, ‘Yasu.”

Well into the small hours of the morning, Masamune lay awake in his makeshift bed on the living room floor, surrounded by the soft breath and snores of his friends and remembering how the weight of her head felt on his shoulder. 

[skvaderarts]

Apocrypha Chapter Twenty One: Expedition

Masterlist can be found Here! Thanks!

Chapter Twenty One: Expedition

Notes: Can we talk about how amazing Bury the Light is? Ok, good. Just wanted to make sure we were on the same page. Moving on!

(-~-)

Considering the fact that he’d spent the better part of the night trying to ignore the feeling of tiny toddler toes digging into his back, the darkslayer had slept relatively well.

It had been challenging to him to even tolerate the concept of sharing a bed with another living being at first, more or less due to the fact that he had not done so in over two decades. Add to that the fact that he was still adjusting to the sensation of sleeping in a bed again after spending a lifetime in the underworld, and the fact that he had a difficult time sleeping through the night because he’d trained himself to wake up almost instantaneously at the slightest sound as a defense mechanism to prevent his enemies from being able to easily sneak up on him, and you had a recipe for an unpleasant night’s sleep practically evening. But there wasn’t much that the little boy could to to sway that outcome one way or another. Vergil was going to be cranky come breakfast time regardless of how little or how much he tossed and turned in his sleep.

Practically the second that the sun dared peak over the threshold of the windowsill, Kyle sat up and yawned, repeatedly jabbing Julio in the back with his free hand as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Once the middle child was up, so was his older brother. That was simply the way the children did things. As soon as Julio was roused and somewhat capable of functioning, he jabbed his little brother back, an action that immediately led into a poke fight. Had an adult, especially Vergil, been awake to see it, they would’ve more than likely dissuaded them, but the only “qualified” candidate was trying his level best to just tune out the world around himself and get a few moment’s rest.

Well, that was until Carlo woke up.

As if from nowhere, the little child sat up in the bed next to his grandfather and whimpered in frustration. His tiny child brain was incapable of processing the concept of lethargy, and as such desired nothing more than to turn back over and go to sleep. The main issue with that plan was that he didn’t comprehend this idea, so his only recourse was to become immediately flustered and frustrated. Clearly seeing that they had probably woken their baby brother up by accident, the two older boys shared a glance between one another before Kyle went to his younger sibling’s side and tried to shush him while Julio tentatively attempted to wake Vergil up in a manner that he assumed wouldn’t get him a stern lecture later on. Or worse, simply upset him.

Julio didn’t have the slightest idea why the older man was so… antisocial? Was that the right word for it? Regardless, he wanted to stay on his good side. While he wasn’t scared of him by any means since he assumed he meant them no harm and that Nero wouldn’t have entrusted them to someone who was a danger to them, he still didn’t want to make someone he barely knew upset. Vergil was supremely intimidating, especially to a small child. He didn’t want to be on his bad side, especially since he knew that he would probably tell Nero. The last thing he wanted was his father and his grandfather to be upset with him.

“Um… mr. Vergil? Can we go downstairs? I wanna find our mom.” Julio asked quietly as he gently prodded Vergil’s shoulder. He paused for a moment, waiting for Vergil to turn over and face him or sit up so that he could tell if he’d heard him, but he didn’t move. Still, right as he was considering repeating his request, the child stopped short of raising his hand to repeat his action. Something told him that Vergil was awake and probably just considering his request before delivering a reply. He couldn't be sure, but it just seemed like it to him.

“... Do you have any idea what time it is?” Vergil said in an almost hushed tone, still not moving. Not a single muscle shifted aside from the motion his lips made as his vocal cords moved in the proper manner necessary to assist in the production of the vernacular required to render his request audibly detectable. (Wait… what? Wha?)

The young boy glanced over at the analog clock that sat on the bedside table, unsure as to what the time had to do with anything. He’d overheard someone mention that breakfast went until noon, so he could only imagine that they hadn’t missed it yet. The others wouldn’t leave without them, right?

“Um… It’s nine o’clock, sir.”

Vergil sighed, still not moving. “Is that AM or PM, child?”

Julio furrowed his brow and glanced between Vergil, the window, and the clock, wondering for a moment if simply pointing out the level of light in the room would be an action that could get him into trouble for being rude. It was clearly morning. The sun wouldn’t be out if it wasn’t unless they’d been transported to another planet during the night. And if that was the case, they had an entirely different problem on their hands. After signing under his breath, he shrugged nebulously and decided to respond. After all, what harm could it do?

“That would be nine AM. It’s morning.” He made an earnest attempt to cover up how confused he was by the obvious question he’d just provided an obvious answer to, but Vergil caught the tone of his voice effortlessly. The blue devil slayer didn’t really care one way or another. He simply wanted to see what the child would say to him. He was Nero’s son, after all. Perhaps being around Kyrie or ever the adults at the orphanage they’d adopted him from had taught him some manners. He was inclined to assume the former as opposed to the later. 

From what he understood about public childcare institutions, especially the ones based in remote places like Fortuna, the concept of individual children receiving one on one time with the adults that supervised them was a completely foreign one. They more than likely had no time or interest in making sure that every single child was taught perfect manners, unless it served to expedite their adoption.

Why oh why did he have to meet Nero’s mother in Fortuna?

There were so many places he could conjure up that would've been preferable to that hyper-religious cultist paradise. And yet, there he’d found himself, digging through the archives that the Order of the Sword possessed, more than a little invested in finding out what -if anything- they could tell him about where his beloved father had disappeared to. To this day, Vergil had no idea where Sparda was or what had become of him, and it drove him slightly insane to consider it for any length of time. While it was realistic to assume that he had died and that he simply would never know, Vergil found it incredibly difficult to do so. After all, if the legendary Dark Knight Sparda had been struck down in combat against some unknown advisory, shouldn’t every demon in the underworld know about it? In all the time he’d spent in that accursed place, he’d never once heard such a rumor pass through circulation. The underworld worked on a different time rhythm than the human world did. Their little three day excursion turning into six weeks had been a perfect example of that. What was less than half a century to a seemingly immortal population?

He needed to stop thinking about it. The children needed to be returned to their parents. And he needed to find something to eat before he became even more irritable than he already was. After all, it was far too early to develop such a negative disposition towards the rest of his day. He hadn’t even ran into Dante yet. No, he had to pace himself or this day, like every other day, would get the better of him. There were too many possible undesirable outcomes to contend with to get so befuddled before even parting ways with his bed. He would get the children dressed and ready to meet back up with the rest of their family, and then he would plan accordingly from there. But first, the breakfast bar. He truly did need a snack.

For the sake of the hotel, he hoped they had something with blueberries in it…

(-~-)

Sun pierced the delicate green leaves as a cool breeze blew in from the north. The mountains parted, allowing an ample forest to line its borders. The creek that snakes across the ground in front of them had originated farther up the pass, it’s spawning point basically invisible from where they currently stood. And all the while V couldn’t help but wonder how in the hell he had allowed himself to be talked into this group hiking trip with the girls.

Nero had cited a desire to spend a few hours alone with Kyrie, a request that had garnered a few surprised looks and a teasing whistle from Dante, but they had resolved to head out without him, leaving the young devil hunter to his devices and at the mercy of his lovely domestic partner. Dante had decided to stay behind as well, stating that there was something he wanted to look into. While V was certain that probably had something to do with the fact that the girls hadn’t invited Vergil on this trip due to his lack of presence at the time they had decided to embark on it, he still wasn’t sure why he had decided to come at all. There had never been a time in his entire life that he had aspired to go hiking. Yes, he did enjoy nature in all it’s wild splendor, but he was also woefully clumsy, and clambering up a steep embankment was liable to get him injured in one way or another.

The group had stopped for a moment to catch their breaths when Patty chimed in, more than likely uncomfortable with the silence that had settled over the group. He’d realized that she was the talkative sort practically the moment he’d first seen her, though they had yet to actually introduce themselves to one another. She seemed friendly enough from what he could tell, however, and the others clearly adored her. The young blond woman had been around for quite some time and it showed.

“Ok, so like, I’ve just gotta ask… Does anyone know where we're going?” Patty asked as she gestured to the wide open space around them. She was clearly taken aback by the expanse laid out before her.” Because I like walking around in the woods as much as the next girl, but if I have to get Dante to find us out here or something, it’s going to be super embarrassing and he is never going to let me live it down. You know how he gets.”

“Look, your guess is as good as mine, Blondy. I don’t live here, either. Not even close.” Nico shrugged as she stood up from fixing her shoe. She’d managed to get caught on a fallen branch, and was having a hell of a time picking all the little pieces of debris out of her foot. “What I can tell ya is that V has a magic chicken, and that magic chicken is gonna help us find our way back if we get lost. It’s about the only thing it’s good for besides roasting over a campfire on a stick. A big stick because it’s a big chicken.”

V sighed, already aware that his avian companion wasn’t going to take that comment lying down. He could feel Griffon itching for a fight already, and he was still in his dormant form. The second he manifested, he was probably going to raise hell. For whatever reason, the mouthy bird had a special type of hate reserved for those who referred to him as a chicken. Perhaps he didn’t enjoy the idea of being edible? If so, he was in for a rude awakening if Shadow ever got particularly hungry…

As expected, Griffon suddenly materialized in front of him, clearly riled up and ready for a fight. His beautiful iridescent blue wings sparked it traces of electricity as he flapped furiously in place, shooting Nico an especially angry look. She just stared back at him, he hands on her hips. “You got somethin’ to say, lil chicke? Because you look upset. Better cool off before you roast yourself from the inside out.”

“Why you- now you look here missy, I’m no chicken! I’ll have you know, I was very dangerous in my heyday. You wouldn’t have wanted to mess with me when I was a few hundred sizes bigger!”

Nico shrugged, unthreatened by the mouthy bird. Picking fun at him was one of her favorite pastimes.” Then I would've just needed a bigger net… and a much bigger grill, because it sounds like there would’ve been leftovers! Now unless you're gonna help me fix my boot, go bother Trish or somethin’. I’m a lil busy.”

Griffon mumbled something under his breath about how he’d like to help her, earning him a stern look from V. While the summoner knew he wouldn’t actually do anything to Nico and she wouldn’t do anything to him, he still didn’t need him getting any ideas. Griffon was a crafty sort, and basically everything he did had some sort so wicked streak involved. The last thing he needed was Griffon accidentally igniting some of the dry underbrush and setting the entire forest alight. V had come there to enjoy the splendor and spectacle of nature, not destroy it. Rampant industrialization would do that at some point in the future without any needed input from him. All he needed to do at the moment was not trip over any of the rocks as he made his way to the precipice of the hill. 

Supposedly, there was a lake up ahead. That was the entire reason he’d hauled his beach gear all the way out there. After spending an entire day at the beach, the rest of the team had come to the conclusion that hanging out at the beach for hours at a time with nothing of real substance to entertain themselves with got relatively dull surprisingly quick. And while the pristine waters of the bay area and the shops were fun to look at and good at taking them for every cent that they owned, the forest provided much appreciated things like privacy, shade, and silence. The forest was obscenely quiet compared to the boardwalk, almost uncomfortably so. V almost had to almost physically fight off the urge to smirk as he considered all the quality reading time he might get in during this little expedition. Maybe camping was worth it after all…

“So, I don’t think we’ve talked before! I’m Patty Lowell. And your… um?”

It genuinely took V a minute to register that the young blond woman was talking to him. While they were not particularly far apart in age, he was considerably taller than her, so she just slid below his range of detection without much real effort on his part. That and her talkative nature had earned her a spot on his list of people that he tended to tune out. He had nothing against her, but he just liked to hear the silence inside of his own head every now and then. From what he could tell, she was quite nice, however.

“My apologies, Patty. You can call me V. I intended to introduce myself sooner, but I was… preoccupied.” He said, leaning over slightly to get a better look at her. She looked up at him and smirked, nodding in approval. He didn’t seem to need to elaborate any further as to what had held him up. Still, he was somewhat surprised upon reflection that he had managed to make it through an entire train ride and a dinner with her present without speaking to her even once. He wondered for a moment if she thought he was avoiding her. Hopefully that wasn’t the case.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you! I didn’t think Dante had any family for years before you and Nero showed up. He used to seem so sad sometimes, but now there’s four of you guys! Who would've ever guessed that would happen?” Patty seemed elated as she practically skipped along the path next to him. Despite his towering height compared to her, his commitment to careful foot placement meant that he had to walk considerably slower than he normally did. He didn’t feel like falling on the loose rocks that dotted the river banks they were walking near.” Your his… nephew, right? Like, your Nero’s brother? Older or younger? I bet you're older. I don’t know why, maybe you just seem like you're more mature or something.”

V shrugged slightly and nodded. He wasn’t entirely sure if he’d consider himself more mature than Nero. Perhaps he thought things through a little longer before enacting his plans, but his younger sibling was bright and capable in his own right. Not to mention the responsibility he’d helped take on by helping Kyrie adopt the children. Where were they, by the way? He was willing to bet that little Carlo would enjoy the woods. Maybe they would meet up with them later?

“You’d be correct in that assessment. I am slightly older, although by what margin, I can’t say. We have different mothers.” V said simply, cursing himself internally as the ascended the steepest part of the embankment. The lake was becoming more visible now, though it seemed to be closer to the size of a very large pond than a lake, per say.

Patty made a face as though he’d just told her something absolutely scandalous. He could tell she was being dramatic on purpose, but she’d done so nonetheless and it was honestly somewhat entertaining how animated and excitable she was. To be fair, the idea that Vergil had managed to get multiple members of the opposite sex in bed with him during his youth while Dante had no children of his own was quite interesting in its own right. Maybe she wasn’t too off base after all.

As they reached the top of the hill and approached the pond, V took in the area around him. The scent of fresh water and wet leaves permeated the air as unseen birds chirped and crickets rubbed their legs together to produce their melodious song. Despite the ever present fact that the forest was simply uncomfortable quiet still nagging at the edges of his subconscious, he decided to push his concerns aside for a little while and try to relax. He was determined to make the most out of the situation, especially considering the way yesterday had gone, and it seemed that everyone else was, too.

He could only hope that Nero and Kyrie didn’t make… well, anything else.

Three was enough, as far as he was concerned.

The compact house they called home simply wasn’t big enough for any new editions.

(-~-)

Well, this was fun to write! Only two or three chapters left of the Beach Arc, and then they return… and then the fun really begins. Cue the Phantom of the Opera theme, because things are about to get… dramatic.

[letswritebangtan]

Mafia!Jungkook x Reader

You were glad that it was raining heavily outside. It simply drowned out the painful screams and cries of agony coming from downstairs. How much longer were you to take this?

Being born into one of the most powerful gangs in the city, you were exposed to all kinds of harsh realities that were out there. Your brother Yoongi, he’d come home every single day with a bleeding, whimpering man on his tail. His eyes held no sympathy, no concern, it was with a cold, blank and empty gaze that he looked down on the pleading man. And just when he had enough he’d press his finger against the trigger and shot out whatever life was left in that poor, unfortunate soul.

Yoongi was the only member of your family you had left. And that’s why he made it a point to protect you, he swore upon your parents’ grave.

“You can’t keep me in here forever!” you yelled.

“Yes I can, and I will.” he snapped angrily. “Listen y/n, you have no idea what’s going on out there. One foot out of that door unaccompanied you’d be lying in your own pool of blood. Is that what you want?”

“I can fend for myself.” you retorted. “I’m not a child anymore, Yoongi. I’m a part of this family, I’m a mafia by blood. Let me do my part-”

“I wish you were there to see it, maybe then you wouldn’t be so insensitive.”

“See what?” you scoffed.

“The look on mom’s face before she died. She was crying, she was breaking down in my arms, and she kept pleading over and over that I keep you alive. That if anything should happen to you it would be my fault, and I took up on that responsibility. I don’t think you understand how important your safety is to me, and to others y/n. So stop being so selfish. I just want you to be safe because I love you. Mom loves you.”

Yoongi always pulled the ‘mom card’ on you. Ever since she passed, you always felt some form of guilt. She passed just after giving birth to you, and as much as people tried to convince you that it wasn’t your fault you couldn’t help it. From then on, whatever you could do to honour your mother, you did it without hesitation.

“Throw him out!” you heard your brother yell.

The rain had died down, and you were relieved from all the noise coming from the earlier commotion downstairs. You heard men shuffling in, probably to carry the corpse outside and dispose of it. Usually after incidences like this Yoongi would go up to his office and smoke a cigarette. But since you were feeling a little bored today, you thought you’d bring one downstairs and light it up for him. He kept his cigarettes in one of his desk drawers, usually locked to keep you from smoking them. But what he didn’t know was that you’d rather drink your own pee that take a drag from one of those poisonous sticks. They smelled at felt horrible, you had no idea why people could get addicted to those things.

You grabbed a spare pin from your dressing table and walked into Yoongi’s office. Once you picked the lock open (something you’ve done countless times just for the fun of it) you grabbed a pack and a lighter and shut the drawer, making sure to lock it again. As you walked down the stairs you heard your brother speaking, but the person he was speaking to didn’t sound so familiar.

“So? Did they deliver it?” an unknown voice asked.

He sounded young, but his voice was slightly deep too.

“They better have had them delivered otherwise they’d be happy to find out that their asses are going to be shot at tonight.” you heard Yoongi grumble.

You peeked around the corner and spotted your brother conversing with another man. He was way taller than Yoongi, every muscle in his body built to perfection. His chest and shoulders were broad, enclosed with a white button down shirt. You could practically see his defined muscles through them. His hair was long and curly at the ends, you wished you could run your hands through it to see how soft it was. His face was perfection, he was so incredibly handsome in his formal clothing. His voice was sweet, but you were sure they could get lower and raspier if he tried. He had a light smile on his face, probably amused at your brother’s stressed out reaction.

“Calm down, hyung. I’m sure they did a good job. My men are hard workers, they got this under control.” the handsome man said.

His men? He just went from hot to hotter. You imagined him being authoritative, strict and merciless with the people that he dealt with. That made him look so good in your head.

“y/n what the hell are you doing just standing there?”

You snapped out of your thoughts and realised that Yoongi and the handsome stranger were staring right at you. You got slightly flustered, not expecting your first meeting with this hot stranger to be so awkward.

“I heard you were finished with the body so I thought you might want a smoke as usual.” you said stepping forward.

You could feel the stranger’s gaze rake up and down your entire body, almost making you shiver. You were only dressed in some pyjama shorts and a t-shirt, making yourself feel exposed.

“I thought I told you not to touch those.” Yoongi groaned.

“Alright, I guess I’ll just keep them back-” you teased as you turned around.

“Dammit, wait. Just give them to me.” Yoongi grumbled in frustration.

He put the cigarette in his mouth and let you light it up for him. You were still holding the pack, unsure of whether or not to offer some to the attractive man next to you.

“y/n, this is Jeon Jungkook. Head of the east district. He’s partnering up with us to get some work done. So if you see him around here a lot, don’t freak out. Jungkook, this is my little sister, y/n.” Yoongi introduced.

You made eye contact with Jungkook, and he sent you a half smile and a half smirk. He extended his hand towards you for you to shake.

“Glad to meet you, y/n. Yoongi mentioned quite a bit about you.” Jungkook said.

He grasped your dainty little hands in his big ones. He licked his lips after his small introduction and it sent your brain spiraling out of control at the sight.

“I-it’s nice to meet you too. Cigarette?” you offered awkwardly.

“No thank you, I don’t smoke.” Jungkook smiled as he shook his head slightly.

“O-oh, oops, sorry. It’s just that all of Yoongi’s friends have a habit of smoking.” you apologised.

“Don’t worry about it, princess.” Jungkook said smirking lightly.

That nickname made you swallow nervously and you turned to look at Yoongi.

“Well, you’re welcome for the cigarette, I’m gonna go to my room now.” you told your brother.

“Hey wait, I need a favour.” Yoongi said.

You huffed, “What is it?”

“I need to leave for a bit, I gotta sort out some things at the bar. I told Jungkook that you make one hell of a good burger and that’s exactly the kind of food Jungkook’s into.”

“You want me to make him hamburgers?” you asked in disbelief.

“Yoongi it’s okay, I’m sure I can find a restaurant nearby. And I’m sure they’ll be better.” Jungkook said with a glint in his eye.

You gaped slightly and turned to look at him. “Okay Jungkook, you may be new around here and all, but I’m not taking shit from anyone about my burgers. I make them well and I make them good.” you argued fiercely.

You saw Jungkook’s eyebrow cock in amusement. “Oh yeah? Then show me what you’ve got, babygirl.” he challenged.

“Don’t ‘babygirl’ my ass, just go sit at the table and be prepared to be proven wrong.” you retorted, and then stormed off to the kitchen.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but your sister is really hot when she’s mad.” Jungkook said, his eyes not leaving your behind.

“Yeah, I’m definitely taking this the wrong way.” Yoongi said glaring at Jungkook.

time skip

“I would have gotten ten burgers if I dined in a restaurant by now.” Jungkook complained.

“Jeez, who knew you could be more annoying when you’re hungry?” you mumbled as you watched the meat patties cook.

Jungkook chuckled, “You know when I first saw you, I never thought you were a feisty one.”

“Hm, so?”

“So it means I find you incredibly beautiful, hot and sexy because of it.”

You froze for a few seconds and then turned around to look at him. He was smirking at you again, his chin resting on his palm as he gazed at you from the counter top.

“Did you just hit on me?” you asked in disbelief.

“Sweetheart, I’ve been doing it all along.”

You scoffed and laughed slightly. “You have no shame.”

“Why should I be ashamed for hitting on a really beautiful woman?” he retorted.

“Jungkook, I suggest you don’t tick off the person who’s cooking your food.” you said and turned around to smile sweetly at him, with obvious malice under your tone.

You heard him chuckle at that, making a small genuine smile break out onto your face. Thank god your back was facing him so that he couldn’t see. Once you finished making the burgers, you put two on his plate and one on yours. He smiled and thanked you when you handed him the plate. You sat across him and waited patiently to see his response. He wasted no time in biting into the burger. When he did, he paused for a few seconds, chewing. And then his gaze met yours. He let out a loud groan, and then wasted no time in taking another bite.

You smiled, feeling accomplished. “Not too bad, huh?”

“These are fucking amazing! Where did you learn how to make these?” he asked enthusiastically like a boy.

I guess Jungkook did have an innocent, kind side of him too.

“It’s my mother’s recipe.” you said and let out a soft smile.

Jungkook’s eyes widened briefly before resting in a sympathetic gaze.

“I’m so sorry, I had no idea-” he began.

“No it’s alright. I’m sorry I was rude earlier I just, it really hit a nerve when you talked about it like that. This is most of what I have to remember her by.” you said as you played with your fingers on the table.

“Oh damn y/n, I really am sorry. I didn’t mean to.” Jungkook apologised again.

“I know you didn’t. I’m kinda glad you said it though, otherwise I would never have made some for you.” you replied smiling a little.

Jungkook smiled back at you, “Well thank you for sharing this with me. It’s great.”

“I’m glad you think so. My mom taught it to Yoongi when he was four. And then he taught me. Sometimes I get jealous you know? He got to see more of her than I did. That’s something really special.” you said.

“Despite that though y/n, I’m sure your mother still loved you so much. I’m sure she was incredibly happy to have you.”

You looked up at Jungkook to see that he was staring intently at you. You knew he truly meant what he said. You smiled at him thankfully. “That’s a really beautiful thing to say, thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” he grinned and continued to eat his burger.

Time passed quickly at the dinner table. You and Jungkook talked and talked, and you found yourself liking him even more.

You yawned softly and rubbed your eyes, Jungkook noticed this and pulled your fist away from your face.

“Okay sleepyhead, it’s bedtime.” he said standing up and walking over to your side.

“No, I can stay up.” you complained.

“No, you need to sleep. Yoongi will kill me if he sees that I kept you awake until this hour. Let’s get you to your room.”

“I’m not a kid, I can stay up until whenever.” you huffed.

“Don’t make me put you over my shoulder, babygirl.” he warned.

You glared at him for a while, and after realising he was serious you sighed and got up, following Jungkook as he led you to the room. You collapsed onto your mattress and Jungkook chuckled. Something about that point in time made Jungkook look a lot more attractive, his lips more kissable, and you didn’t know whether it was your drowsy state or your own confidence that made you do it, but when Jungkook leaned down to pull the blanket up to your shoulders, your arms latched onto the back of his neck, pulling him closer and pressed your lips against his.

You heard him grunt in surprise, but soon his hands were on your back, pulling you closer and his mouth was moving against yours in a fast, feverish way. You moaned softly when his fingers dug into the flesh of your hips, and his tongue explored your mouth. He pulled away to place hot kisses and bites all over your neck, making you squirm and cry out his name.

“Jungkook.” you gasped when he placed his cold hand on your thigh, and started to slide it upwards.

“You okay with this, baby?” he asked as he stared into your eyes.

You nodded quickly, urging him to continue.

“You have no idea how much I had to restrain myself around you.” he whispered lowly.

“Do you know, baby, hm? How hard it was to not take you right then and there?” he said and then pressed his hips against yours creating friction.

You threw your head back and shut your eyes as Jungkook worked his magic.

“Fuck, you’re beautiful.”

time skiiiip cuz I can’t go any further >-<

“Just one more before I leave.” Jungkook begged.

You sighed and rolled your eyes playfully before leaning forward and kissing him softly. He whined when you pulled away, making you giggle.

“Head of the east district my ass.” you scoffed and giggled afterwards.

“You saw just how powerful I can be earlier just now, babe.” he smirked.

You blushed and pushed at his chest. “Okay it’s time for you to leave. I’ll see you tomorrow, Kook.”

“Hmm, fine. Can you make hamburgers again tomorrow?” he asked with puppy dog eyes.

You giggled, “Of course.” You ran a hand through his soft hair and then pushed at his shoulders lightly.

“Let’s hope I don’t run into your brother on the way out.” he said as he slipped into his pants.

“That would be horrible.” you agreed.

“Goodnight, princess. See you tomorrow.” he said as he placed one last kiss on your lips and then opened the door.

“I fucking knew it.” Yoongi said as he stood cross armed at the entrance.

“S-Shit, hyung, it’s just, um, l-let me-” Jungkook began.

“Come on, y/n. Him?” Yoongi asked disappointedly.

“Excuse me, what does that mean?” Jungkook asked offended.

“Yoongi, just let it go.” you giggled.

“Yeah, it’s not my fault your sister’s attractive.” Jungkook complained.

“You make an excuse one more time and I’ll beat your ass, Jungkook.”

____________________________________________________

:DDD like and reblog pretty please <3

[freekshow17]

Reddie Ch2 ‘The Red Carpet”

Reddie with short appearances of Benverly and The Uris’ 

Word Count 1.9K

Richie was able to convince Eddie there was no time for a shower, wiping off would have to do. Eddie compromised with extra cologne. Richie laughed as Eddie sprayed himself liberally, "You can cover up the smell all you want Kaspbrak, but unless you got make up lying around, those little love bites ain't going anywhere." Eddie's eyes shot up to the mirror he stood in front of, he was instantly aware of the perfectly circular near purple bruise dead center, he whipped around to glare at Richie who was standing tall, full of pride, with a toothy grin stretched across his face. "Are you fucking kidding me Tozier?!" Richie kept his pose, only tilting his eyes down to meet Eddie's "Curious. What's a bigger problem? You with that, or me - with these." Richie rotates his head side to side exposing all the blue and black marks that trail from ear, down his neck around to the other ear. Eddie's jaw slowly lowers as his eyes go wide "Shit." Richie lets out a deep belly laugh opening his arms to embrace Eddie "Oh Ed's. It's alright, if you want, I'll blame it on a wild girlfriend, you can... well… say Myra came back to town" as Eddie leans into Richie's chest allowing his arms to wrap around him Richie finished that statement, Eddie snaps back. "Fuck you." Richie nearly topples over from the immediate anger radiating from his new partner, catching himself on the corner of the bed frame. Richie lets himself fall to the bed rolling to his back clutching his stomach, Eddie stares at him blankly "Why? Why are you the way you are?" Richie tries to look serious but the second he looks to Eddie he starts to laugh again. "Seriously, Fuck you Rich." Eddie says as he starts to walk out of the room, kicking Richie’s leg as he walks past him.

A few minutes pass and Richie has composed himself enough to exit the room and join Eddie where he sits on the arm of the couch in the living room by the door "Ready?" Eddie asks with a hint of anger still in his tone, Richie clears his throat before replying "Yes sir… hey, you actually had make up?" Richie says as he approaches Eddie realizing his bruises are not as noticeable.  "Myra wasn't good for much but she was kind enough to forget to take all her crap from the bathroom." Eddie said as the two men make their way to Richie's car, Eddie sitting in the passenger seat, arms crossed over his chest. Richie takes the wheel and begins their journey to the premiere. With only a few minutes between them, camera crews, and more importantly, the other losers, Richie slows down to the actual speed limit instead of his normal 10 over, to give them time to talk. "Really though Ed's, if you don't want me to tell anyone it was you… I won't. But no matter what I say out there, you gotta know I don't regret what we did. Quite the opposite, actually." He turns to look at Eddie for a moment before directing his eyes back to the road, catching a slight smile peek at the corner of Eddie's mouth. That's all Richie needed; some sign, or gesture, to know Eddie wasn't regretting what they had shared. "I don't regret it either Rich… I'm… just not yet, okay?" Eddie looked up to Richie with what Richie could only interpret as uncertainty, he replied with a nod at first "You got it buddy." Richie said softly, hoping it would ease the obvious worry Eddie was feeling. He couldn't blame him, Richie had these feelings for 30 years and is just now acting on them, he can't expect it to all change at once. "It…" Eddie paused a moment, and they both went tense at the word Eddie hesitated on. Eddie quickly tried to continue "It's just, Myra and I haven't been separated long. I don't want anyone thinking… I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea." This time Richie just replied with a nod, he tried his best to forget Myra was ever apart of Eddie's life, tried to forget she got to have him in the years HE should have had Eddie. Just hearing her name would send Rich on a downward spiral. Eddie sees it but thinks it's from his proposed plan to keep the two of them quiet for now. "Also, I'm embarrassed to say I'm with trashmouth" Eddie adds to cut the mood, it makes Richie smile and a slight huff escapes him. "Understandable Kaspbrak. Here we are." He says as they pull up to a Red Carpet roped off with a small walkway for them to follow to the doors. "Are we supposed to walk together?" Eddie asks nervously. "Don't worry, we can wait a minute for everyone to get here." Richie replies as he watches his rear view mirror to see if anyone else is pulling up. "Rich." Eddie says pointing toward the doors. All the other losers are already inside just beyond the door. "Fu- wait!" Richie started and cut himself off "I knew I loved that man for some reason." Eddie turns to look behind them to see Stanley walking around to his passenger door, opening it and holding out a hand, leading Patty out of the car. "Hurry!" They say in unison as they scramble to get out of the car, cameras already flashing in their direction. "STAN! PATTY!" Richie yells to them as he puts a hand on Eddie's lower back guiding him toward their friends, he quickly moves his hand away and whispers a Sorry to Eddie "Oh, we thought we were gonna be late. I'm so happy we get to walk in with the star." Patty says as she opens her arms demanding a hug from her husband's childhood friends. They've met before and had time to get to know each other over the last couple of years, after Stan decided returning to Derry on a blood oath was not something he counted as an acceptable excuse to miss the vacation he had planned for his wife and himself. They were 40 with no kids and made damn sure their time together was memorable, introducing Patty to the horrors of his childhood were not the memorable moments Stan had in mind. However, after he got a SECOND call from Mike, saying it was all over, he decided to celebrate by bringing Patty into a world he did enjoy: The Losers Club. Now it was as if Patty was an honorary 8th member. "Congrats again Rich, we're so proud of you" Patty continued as they separated from their hug to allow Eddie to get one. "Well… more like surprised for me." smirked Stanley, offering a hand to Richie "Didn't think this trashmouth had it in him?" Richie questioned in a rhetorical sort; he knew Stan always showed his love through his sarcasm. A literal translation of what Stan had said would be more like God I love you Richie Tozier, and I am so proud of you for getting past your demons and making something of yourself. and Richie knew that, so he accepted the sarcasm. After the four friends have greeted each other they make their way up the carpet together, Richie purposefully positioning himself to the far end of the line next to Patty, with Eddie opposite Stan. Seeing the other losers inside he waves them out and they follow. "Richie! Mr. Tozier" Richie heard his name being called from multiple directions. As he stops to pose for photos, he answers a few questions Who's your date? "My best friend's wife" the crowd laughs Who are your other guest? "Oh, these people? Just a bunch a losers!" More laughter Is one of them responsible for all those hickeys? Richie looks down the line before replying making quick eye contact with Eddie but breaking before it was too noticeable "They all wish! But this neck is reserved for the finest of teeth… just ask your mom she'll tell ya." The crowd erupts and Richie thinks that's a good place to leave it be, just before entering the door they pose for one last group photo, the photographer tries to split them into two rows with the tallest man, and man of the hour centered back row, to his right stood Mike, and next to him Ben, to Richie's left was Stan. In front of Stan stood Patty making sure to reach a hand behind her grabbing the hand of her dear husband, then Eddie, Bev, and Bill. "Great guys, perfect, okay and three, two..." the photographer counted down and everyone gives their best smile. Just after the flash Patty took it upon herself to approach the photographer to be sure he had the names right and in the right order. Bev, still linked in arms with Eddie leans in close to whisper, "I never noticed just how perfect your teeth are Ed's." She says perfect with a hint of suspicion, she turns to offer Eddie a smile but that too seems pointed. Does she know Eddie panicked in his head; he goes to question the compliment as Ben steps up beside Beverly "Wow! Am I right? This is amazing." Ben says as he slides his arm around Beverly's waist, and she repositions herself against him. Beverly has had issues in the past with being touched like this, she would wince away from it, it was always out of possession, claiming her as if she were property. But that wasn't the case with Ben. Every time Ben touched her, she could feel his love illuminating from his fingertips, making her feel safe and comforted. Ben always had a way to make her feel better, even when she thought she was at her best. "I know right?!" Bev responds offering a bright smile up to Ben. "To think our Richie is getting an award for being the same knucklehead he was at 13? Priceless. Right Eddie?" Ben asked trying to bring Eddie into the conversation, Ben could tell he was in his own head somewhere. "Yeah. Yeah it's great." Eddie replied still giving Bev a confused stare. "Hey Bev-" Eddie started but was interrupted "Hey! There you all are!" Richie approaches with the rest of the losers crew in tow. "We were gonna head in, but I wanted us to all go in together." Everyone nods in agreement ready to go take their seats. "Now once we're all in there I think a couple people speak, they give me the award for 'up and coming blah blah blah' then the special starts. BEFORE you see it, I want you to all know" Richie waves a hand in front of each loser giving a thoughtful look "You're all in it, I bash all of you, it's hilarious!" He continues as a smirk creeps across his face. All the losers give him a wave of the wrist or a fake punch as the laugh their way from the lobby to their seats. Bev takes a step back from Ben and places a hand on Eddie's shoulder, leaning close to his ear "You used the wrong shade of concealer on those love bites babe, it's still pretty obvious what's under it." She pulls back glancing toward Richie and back to Eddie "Don't worry though, I'm pretty sure I'm the only one to notice. And you know I can keep a secret" she smiles widely, leaving Eddie with a wink as she turns on her heels and heads back up to Ben.

[spacegaywritings]

The one who’s royally fucked - Chapter 6 “A Kingdom of Misery” (END)

Once upon a time.. there was a vibecheck..  

Tags: it is a bad ending, I mean.. what do you expect. Also, consider every trigger warning I gave - especially the archive warnings because you HAVE BEEN warned

The room was filled with bantering, if not rather quiet.

Remy and Emile were holding hands, curiously eyeing the happenings before them as Patty carefully brushed over tainted skin and faint lines of violet glows that sprung from Virgil’s body.

She let her eyes slip shut and gradually felt the warmth ooze into her hands as she traced her touch over the seemingly lifeless body that was her sibling’s beloved partner and her own best friend.

 It had been more than a day ever since Virgil had passed out and while Logan had worked enough magic with Patty and their biology skills, the abused body was laying still and seemed unmoved after all. Nothing good nor bad could really stir from him.

 For the time being, Remus had been literally chained to Virgil.

When awake, he was able to give Remus freedom. However, being a ghost, he was invisible to others and rather powerless without more than enough will to move some objects and maybe annoy people a little. But with Virgil’s power connecting to him, he was able to be more than a ghost yet still less alive and enabled as a living being in the world of life and breath.

So, for now, he was holding onto the little life and light that was still burning in his master.

It was not just that he was literally bound to him and that all his steps depended on his survival and his whims.

 Remus liked the snarky man and enjoyed messing with him and getting real shit back without malice because one of them had hard feelings and at least they had stayed honest at all times unlike Roman. But Roman was a whole different story and he knew that.

 Probably, without even knowing him, the others knew as well.

That much just was obvious.

 Patty was moving her healing glow over Virgil again. Every so often, she would come in and check up on him, try to heal his wounds and energise him by exchanging power with him but it seemed to be to no avail.

Logan would always try to induce some things into his beloved.

 Ever since Roman had been defeated and thrown into jail (that bastard had the timing to just not get the swing in time before Virgil fainted so Remus has basically disappeared into another dimension of physical visibility to the others right when he had been ready to strike the other with his hammer), the group had moved into the castle and they had taken on the rule for the moment.

 The royal couple still seemed to be lost despite all guards having been sent out to find them or any clue that could lead up to them and just reach the King and Queen.

According to law, they were in legitimate line of ruling but Roman had taken over in their absence and nobody really had had the power to deny his deeds and wished. Especially not after he had murdered his own brother in apparently cold rage.

 Nobody would ever turn against a royal. The commoners knew better than to do so and the servants had suffered enough punishment to very much not start a riot no matter their dissatisfaction.

And on top of that, everyone knew someone who or did personally know at least one case of royals going insane and you did not want to get on their bad side. You wanted to wait and sit still until you could flee or take them down in a moment of weakness.

  And that is what they had all been doing.

 Waiting.

 Just waiting and nothing more.

 And when their moment has come, they had not dared to seize it but instead stayed loyal to the first best person to fit a crown and throne.

And really, you could say that one size fit them all.

 But back at the issue, even with yet another set of healing, Virgil remained still and would not budge even a single bit.

 The others could not see him but Remus did see them after all.

He saw them come to Virgil during days and nights. Talking to him, stroking his face. Healing him, reporting things and just begging him to wake up or get better - just please get well.

It was annoying and disgusting to see. It gave him a heat that was not anger and it was not lust either. It was a heat he wanted to push off and have it go away after all because it made something rise in him that he had never felt before, something he would never really care for.

 Patty stayed composed mostly but she seemed supported and close to tearing up a lot.

But Logan?

 Logan was about the worst.

 The leader of the group seemed stoic but their face had grown from apprehensive to distraught at nearly all times and there was a certain piece missing in this usual appearance. They did not just look out of place, but looked like they had rushed into everything and was neither prepared nor calm enough to even take another breath without a break.

 They would spend whole nights with Virgil, sleepless or passed out from exhaustion.

They would cry and talk and try to find things to heal him. They would study and sometimes just be quiet and whisper how much they loved and missed him and that they regretted their deed and what they had decided together.

 Remus was not sure what exactly they had meant but he would guess it was either about taking Virgil into the group and taking it so far to get not just a lot of people murdered on the way but also get him hurt. So hurt, he may not even survive, he may not wake up and be able to live life more than just waste his breath as he drifted further away from his friends and closer into Remus’ realm.

 Virgil would always dance between the life and death, the living and the dead creatures. He would probably never stop crossing lines and doing his graceful steps on them - each measured and perfectly coordinated to play with the balance but never quite tilt it - or his feral sprints. Sometimes, you just had to fuck over boundaries.

But if he did not wake up soon, this might be a thing he would have to try doing from the side of the deceased and Remus was not sure whether it worked that way.

 He was actually pretty sure that it was not.

 Logan had said something about Virgil’s chances sinking with every moment longer it took him longer to get his usual life together and just be and live and enjoy himself.

 Remus surely was not always around and he was not in the position to communicate with anyone other than people with Virgil’s magical ability but he knew that this was bad .. Not that he could tell them. He had no idea how to get this moving, how to make a change without being really able to influence the world with Virgil lacking the ability to enforce their connection and allow Remus to have an effect.

 Patty gave Logan another of these helpless looks.

She was usually so full of enthusiasm and energy.

Remus had been surprised at so much positive energy floating around one person’s moods so much that she would just counter all the bad and misery with little quirks and jokes. She was always there for others and constantly looked out for them, even wiping another’s cheek when her own eyes were drowning in the hot saltiness of her own frustration.

 The leader shook their head and stormed out of the room.

It was a common occurrence but it never ceased to make Patty tear up in guilt and have Remy suck in a breath.

Whether he wanted to protest or not, he kept quiet and he would just keep it to Emile and Patty with clenched teeth and helplessly angry hands.

 The others left right after. It was slow and sad. Their movements mimicking the march of a grieving bunch that attended the funeral of a beloved one who was too far gone to ridicule the fashion crimes of people walking around in so much black without irony in it.

Virgil would certainly complain about that.

Heck, he would too! All-black was so tasteless if not in well put-together variations of some sort of clue.

 Once the room was empty, the silence among the little riot seemed to fade into a more intense elation rather than a funeral mood.

Remus sat down, letting his ghost butt rest on the bed as he fell through Virgil.

He could not even touch him in this state, not really. He had tried before and now there was just nothing and he felt so odd and weird about this. Usually, he would always be able to touch Virgil even when the other restricted his powers to not let Remus touch others.

 Despite having been a ghost when they had met for the first time, the Duke had always had the power to create things like he had been before.

With Virgil, he had been connected to the present so he would be able to just dip in and let his creativity be shared with the world and let the planet tremble from his actions.

 The ghost glanced over the unmoving body.

It was still quite the sight to have Virgil there with closed eyes. Even asleep he had always seemed to struggle in fights, ready to claw your throat out if you dared closing in too much. And this was coming from Remus, a ghost who could and would and actually did try these thing, so he absolutely knew what he was talking about.

It felt so wrong, it felt as if all deities, people could and would believe in or ever did and will come up with for worshiping purposes, just pissed all over the world and broke the contract of keeping order in the universe.

 Everything was broken and chaotic but the world outside was so normal, so threateningly normal. It was basically an insult to see everything go on, the tides still work, the winds blowing and the earth trembling as the temperatures fell further and the trees turned red and purple and silver as winter approached.

Yes! Even the stupid seasons were still in order and came according to their turn and took over their duties of fulfilling their jobs and changing the worlds in the regular rhythm of their five seasons.

 It was wrong.

It was not fair!

No order and law should be in place with Virgil falling and suffering while the liquid rain solidified enough to make little flakes of silver travel down the way and land on the floor to decorate the world in the pale silverish glimmer of cold.

No order should be in the world when Virgil was not fighting anymore but also still struggling as he seemed peaceful on the outside.

 Remus leaned over him.

He knew he was being overly dramatic right now, thirsting after a touch just out of reach, a person he would never be able to warm and a closeness he would fly right through even if he actually was a materialised person.

There was no reason, no logic or any way in which he could ever get a sweet taste of Logan’s place, he would never see Virgil’s cool eyes light up with joy and spark in mischief for him because he was just a noisy ghost who promised him to help bringing down the tyranny of his brother.

Why, Virgil had asked but Remus would just shrug and always say that it was for fun.

 The ghost whisperer probably noticed the resemblance of their faces and bodies as soon as Roman had been in front of him and started being a terrible, delusional piece of shit.

Roman’s mind, at some point, must have been put into a pot with stew and mixed through enough to just be all over the place and blended in with all the trash that was now his thoughts. Otherwise, there would just be no explanation for him to be such a twisted little malice.

 He reached out and let his fingers ghost over Virgil’s face.

It was bullshit but he could imagine the warmth he was longing for just tickling his finger tips and teasing into his body with little tingles and soft sparkles that reminded him of fire magic and artistic light work.

But he knew better, he knew so much better and the joyous smile that deceitfully stole itself onto his mouth just dropped as he realised how he had gotten too absorbed in the sonnet of false hope that were his thoughts. His fingers fell through the skin and he felt an odd, blocking sensation within him as his hand nearly disappeared in Virgil’s head.

 Usually, he did these things to mess around, to play a little with how much people would freak out about these things. After all, he could drive into someone’s body or charge at them without actually interacting with them on a physical level that could leave them to collisions.

Remus was left wondering about how Virgil’s nose would scrunch up at his silly shenanigans while the younger one was panicking about trivial things such as whether this mushroom was poisoned. It was a common mushroom and he had left it without supervision for a second. When surrounded by friends!

 “You are dumb, Virgil. Very very silly.”

 The ghost smiled and looked over at the sleeping beauty before him, the dying undead who jumped off the tip of Death’s blade in fear just because dying seemed too stressful and implied a workload that made the man too anxious to function.

It sounded ridiculous but really, Remus had seen Virgil merely making it because the idea of dying got him into the incredible survival mode of somehow getting out alive just because he could and had to and his fucking stubbornness was all that would get him through the night.

 Virgil truly was the epitome of a miracle if not the personification of spite.

 “You are even too stubborn to wake up, emo, are you not?”

 His lips twisted downwards and his eyes cast down to the slowly moving chest. The tiny heart in it was still trembling enough to shake the whole body it was inhabiting. This was just about how weak he was, even after Logan and the others made sure to use all the spells and magical knowledge they could muster up just to nourish the other.

Over injections and similar methods, they have literally exhausted all the practices Remus has ever heard of and even freshly learned ones due to their odd yet somewhat effective ideas.

He was sure cures for several ills have been found during these attempts. But none of those were the unfair damage that was taking down Virgil.

  Speaking of which, he seemed less bony but he was still too small and fragile for a person of his age. Which was .. basically an adult, in human years, was he not?

 The dead prince let his fingers retreat and he trailed them down to his chin, the perfectly sculptured downward hill simply reminding him of how strange the other was.

He had all these thoughts and problems that Remus never had ever since he had been adopted by the royal family when they thought they could not have a legitimate heir to the throne.

After all, he was just a fill in but then there was his half brother who was not a denied-then-accepted bastard excuse of a social reject.

 Remus sighed.

Tears were marking his cheeks with blackish colour as he filled himself with the poisonous emotions of memories with Virgil by his side - or rather him by the side of Virgil in his annoying yet absolutely helpful glory of screaming ‘’juicy butthole’’ while taking down a particularly snarky enemy. The squashy sound that would come with it usually made him laugh in mania.

 The black dropped down and down from his cheeks, tainting his greenish appearance that represented the colour of his vibes.

Coal-coloured rivers fled from his body and sank down like the foolish ash rain of his dying macabre jokes whenever he tried to just be extra enough for a little bit of attention.

 Virgil had not even been like this. Neither had the rest of his group after they had found out about him.

 “It’s not fair!”

His words were choked down by his own sobs. The ghost who shimmered like transparent algae was trembling.

Virgil was his only friend, the only reason he did have friends ever in his life. No people judging him to be a proper person and dressed well.

 Remus curled up and sighed as he rested next to Virgil, their faces nearly touching.

The patient was facing the ceiling, hence not ‘looking’ back at him. It still felt so close, so intimate and Remus could hear his own existence tremble before the divination of actions and thoughts he was entitled to.

Things even he should not be thinking or joking about.

  Remus felt himself being absorbed in the tears that pearled over his cheeks and stained the sheets under him. Precious black deepened the fabric beneath his body.

The world around him seemed to blur away with the liquid veil that covered his sight and messed with his vision enough to make him doubt reality.

It might very much be that he was losing his manifestation more and more at the moment and would fully glide through all matter if he did not focus on existing in the here and now. He wanted to stay in the living world with the others, he really did but he did not know how to fight the urge of throwing it all away.

 Seeing his little master like this just.. hurt.

It hurt on a level different than being stabbed. When he focused on that pain, he could summon the memory and relive his own death again, feel the splitting of his flesh and the piercing sensation burst through his rib cage and destroy the integrity of his chest.

It was another thing for him

The pain was within him, deeply buried in his whole existence and it was weaved into every fiber of his being. The little net of his cells was glowing with pain and throbbing due to the unbelievable variable of him continuing to be when others may not.

 Remus curled into himself.

‘’Emo’’, he sniffed softly as his insides seemed to stir. 

It hurt so much…

 He was but a ghost but he felt obliged to let go of all the things within him but he was no living being anymore yet he still denied death. He was forced into making it through, bearing all the pain he could not project onto something or someone.

There was no escape, no coping. All his anguish was instilled in him.

 The ghost reached out for Virgil, his fingers curling around his chin again.

‘’You tickle me’’, he mumbled.

And he did. The punk did, his little master always did! And he was the only one.

He tickled his insides and stirred up all the things he ignored with his silly comments and sexual innuendos he would bring up just to shut out all problems and issues in his head and instead get back on track with disgusting facts and various imaginations that nobody wanted to participate in.

 Royals were supposed to smile and drown in gluttony and sin.

 His grip slipped and his hand dropped from Virgil’s face to his unconscious chest.

It was only moving with the regular breath in and out that came and went when the lungs decided to.

But it was also very much moved by the sudden coughs that came from the small man’s chest.

 Remus jerked up into a sitting position, suddenly stricken by the power of a lightning bolt when he saw the chest contracting and the little body shaking under the warming blanket that was drawn over the little magical being.

Was he dying? Was he coughing? Was that bad???

He should get Logan, he should get Patty or someone, just someone but they could not see him so he would just have to make noise, big big bad noise so they would understand that something was happening and that the little guy needed a lot of help and maybe was choking.

 Shit, did he do that?

 “Of course people choke! Virgil is not dead, silly!”

 Remus pulled himself up and was more than ready to simply bodyslam himself into the next shelf and wreck total havoc within just a mere moment because if that was all it needed to get the attention to the little bean, then he would do that.

Before he could, however, his eyes caught sight of the golden that had shimmered under Virgil’s eyelids for too long and finally went back to streaming into the world and brightening the day.

 His body quickly started feeling warm again, a flame raising in him and his ghost form quickly materialised enough to be visible to the whole of the living world.

The Duke blinked and stared back as the snarling yet soft golden treasure wired into his soul and seemed to hug him without a single motion. His whole heart was wrapped up in the imaginary embrace of seeing the other move to retreat into his little ball of softness as he pulled the blankets around him with weak paws at the soft fabric around him.

 ‘’Emo!! You are alive’’, he cheered loudly as he threw himself onto the other and gained a yelp in return as the other scrambled to stay on his butt and curled up against the wall as he tried to remain in his seated position.

‘’You are alive! I thought you would join me in being a cute little ghost and stop looking so ridiculously dead under these funny sheets!! I mean- you kind of gave me vibes to wrap you up like a mummy and maybe suck your toes but I forgot I don’t really exist anymore, so-’’

 The master sighed and carefully pushed at the other’s chest with tired attempts at moving his arms fully in the first place.

‘’The fuck’’, he whispered with a broken voice. His sentence was twisted like mosaic but just as beautiful yet nearly impossible to make out its origin.

Good thing Remus was a master of the odd and quickly retreated to pet Virgil’s hair and gently soothe him.

 ‘’Let me get Logan. You need to swallow some stuff to get your voice buttered up and I only have my cock to offer’’, he proposed eventually and carefully patted his head again before he swept out of the room and came back just a felt heartbeat later with Logan trailing right behind him, nearly running through Remus as the ghost quickly flew around to settle at the other side of the bed while Logan quickly rushed to where Remus had previously settled to stare the patient into life.

 ‘’Nerd, your joyfriend needs some oiling so he can sing again when you make him happy’’, he commented with his voice scratching the chalkboard in excitement. Why did Remus have such a cranky voice? It was about as smooth as swallowing a shot of white vinegar.

Virgil did not do much more but groan and stick his tongue out at Remus but when Logan sat down by his side, he sighed and simply let himself be immersed in the warmth of Logan and the strong hold of their arms that he could have only dreamed of in his last waking moments.

 Basically, he fell unconscious in Logan’s arms and woke up with the other being around again. Once again, his body was in the direct presence of Remus and Logan at the same time.

Funny.

The dizzy man carefully dipped his arms against the blanket and helplessly nudged the heavy cloth as he could not even move it enough to get it off. It was too heavy, too much.

Why was he so weak… He had not felt that heavy before..

 ‘’mm.. l-lo..’’, he mumbled softly before he started coughing just a bit again and Logan silenced him with a little smooch to his forehead.

  There were serenades of feelings under Logan’s tongue, sparks of compliments and praises to all powers they believed and did not believe to exists just to show the immense gratitude they felt for Virgil finally being awake and looking back up at them.

They wanted to, they wanted to speak to him so bad, tell the truth of their feelings and unleash the beast of feelings they had for their right-hand man.

 It was no secret they were close, dating.

Logan just felt they did not let their partner know enough about their mentality towards the other being not just alive but also willingly by their side when they were stoic and blunt more often than not.

 But the hopes and sparks vanished.

With a door opened and icy air falling through them, the light and warmth was blown away and Logan realised that their love’s life had been long gone and all that had him seem alive was the magic of his existence transcending from here to .. to nowhere.

Just barely out of reach.

 For once, being split was not so much fun. It was no fun at all and did not give him any kind of advantage or secret trick that would help them out.

This had not been planned.

 Their attempts at giving Virgil a meaningful kiss to his forehead ended up being nothing but an idiot pursing their lips at the air while nearly pushing their head into the headboard with full force and enthusiasm.

There was nothing but the essence of Virgil floating around them in icy spills running down their spines as if to mimic the soothing touch of their beloved that would travel down their back and pull them closer until they were so close, their hearts were excitedly jumping at one another and kissing through their chests connecting.

 The punk was there, in full glory, in all his body even with the clothes he would usually wear when together with the others.

His patched up jacket with large stitches and messy patterns of plaid purple covering the basic, black jacket that was thin and worn out so much, it frequently displayed more and more spaces of fabric that rubbed away so much, it was see-through a lot. Hence the many many patches. There was more patch than jacket by now.

 Virgil felt the other fall through him and both pulled apart, shivering and crossing their arms over their chests in order to touch something that was more like them, more like the kind of being and the world they belonged to.

 The second in command looked back at them and blinked, his heart... empty. There was no feeling, no nothing. It was cold like his whole existence and it was merely wavering around in this world, unfinished and unprepared for life and death all-together.

 “What..”, Logan asked.

Their words were light and intangible. The questions were far away from his intentions, the answers he could and should take and the huge abyss between these dimensions of warming dreams with heart and soul and the contrast of the harsh reality punching them all in their guts when they were already on the ground and wincing in obvious pain.

 A silence stretched between them. Long and thick like an empty road that painted the difference of the two worlds they were in.

They were right before one another, they were so close yet so distant.

 Virgil was void of feelings of any physical body. Except for the discomfort and the icy feeling running through his insides like ice water running through him like the river of defrosted glacier water.

All he felt was the mental pain of being wretched away from the one he loved when they were right in front of him.

Logan before him, Remus basically next to him.

 “I think Virgil’s fate finally settled on a secure answer.”

 Well, that comment, as much as it seemed insensitive to others, was something Remus ripped from his throat as he tried to sound over the breaking and falling hopes he used to have in his own heart.

He wanted to be happy Virgil was with him now, was close to him and in his world and realm but not once before in their time spent together had they encountered the issue of non-interaction with one another since Virgil had been in the perfect place to be with the living and dead all along.

Now he was stuck, stuck here with him and whether he wanted to love it or not, he could not, would not. For all it had done to him was take his long-term beloved away from him and leave him without the support he had wished for in his whole life.

 Virgil shot the other a glance, helpless and lost. Short of breath as he was about to drown in the raging sea and never make it back up to live for another breath of sweet oxygen or a glance through the salty veil of the sea to the beauty around him and the assembled orchestra of water crashing and thunder flashing around him.

 “I ...I can still be with you”, he insisted and took a deep breath, “ I love you, Logan! We can stay together. I am still here - it must be my power!”

 Maybe he was high on being a damn ghost. Maybe he lost more than their weight of a physical vessel but also his fucking mind. All he knew was how his chest was unusually free - breath a matter of everyone but him.

 Logan was reaching out for him, love and welcomes on their lips -

“I can be with you Logan!”, he sounded

 Virgil’s voice dissolved into the empty echo of nothing as finally, his self was soaked up and Logan’s unbelieving eyes stared into nothing but a bed. Empty with Virgil’s abandoned corpse in it.

New tears were spilling as Remus witnessed the two lovers break down, fully torn apart by now.

 He could not make it work.

None of them could, neither alone nor together.

 Virgil’s body was Logan’s shoulder to cry on as they mourned the loss of their datemate, their soulmate.

 Remus could hear heart-wretching cries from the two as he allowed himself to relish in the masochism of watching two people he adored fall and die and inevitably suffer because and in place of the other.

He seated himself between them, seeing that they were, as always, so close and so divided.

 Roman really did rule a whole kingdom. And poisoned the foundation is was supposed to regrow on.

 Salty tears did not make an ingredient in the conditions of nurturing life - or allowing it in the first place.

With Roman’s deeds and Virgil’s corpse, all hope of Logan taking over had been diminished.

 Sometimes, there was no good and bad. And where there was no good nor bad, there could be nothing but endings that fell into the category of neither.

It was just a kingdom of misery that was life.

 ‘*** A/N:  (post-reading note: to make it clear: Virgil was born in a body assigned as female but met Dee who magically fixed that because Dee is magic. Roman is abolutely out of his mind and twisted in jealousy. After he had killed his half brother, his insanity dropped into destruction of all life. His dad was the king, his mother was a servant. When The Queen did not produce children herself, they settled on adopting Remus and declaring him a chosen child of royalty (he did have creative powers! He can create things, even as ghost) but then the King heard of Roman and acknowledged him as child.Remus IS older so he was the prince but Roman wanted to be more important, more than a bastard. He did not kill his parents but nobody can find them.Virgil is beyond living and the dead, as he always had been. He is in a special ever after because he doe not belong with ghosts like Remus. Him coughing was his last breath, basically. When he got up and Remus hugged him, it was Virgil slowly merging from the mortal world into the world of the dead so Remus saw him pass his realm for a bit.Virgil can still see Logan and Remus but they cant interact.)

[withthebeatlesgirls]

Favorite song written for each beatle girl?

Before I answer this please no one come at me and be like ‘uh that wasn’t written for them!’ because If I chose a song it is because I do believe it was written for them, and not all Beatles girls have had official songs written for them we just theorize that some things were probably about them.

I Feel Fine For Cynthia 

While John as far as I know never stated this song was for Cyn I do think it was about her. I think it’s about her undemanding love for him and how content he is in his life with her. It’s very sweet and fun to sing along to, and who wouldn’t be so glad to have Cyn as their little girl! 

Little Willow For Maureen 

Ringo did write a song for Maureen called ‘Cryin’ which was about their divorce, but I gotta say I prefer Paul McCartney’s song for her, written as a tribute to her after her death and also a comfort to her children. I always get emotional listening to it, it’s a beautiful song for a beautiful person. 

Here, There, And Everywhere For Jane

Paul wrote a lot of great songs for Jane so this was hard, I was torn between this one and for no one, but here there and everywhere is the winner. It’s romantic and calming even John Lennon couldn’t deny he was impressed with it. If someone ever wrote a song like this for me I would totally just melt.

Something For Pattie

Pretty obvious choice, but I think out of all the beautiful songs Pattie has inspired this is the best one. It’s my favorite love song of all time, it captures the feeling of being in love just so well. The doubt, the fear, the admiration, and the love, you feel of it and George was able to represent all those feelings in a simple 3-minute song. It’s just so sincere and honest, a man talking directly to the woman he loves and being inspired by everything she does. There really was just something about Pattie, no denying that. 

Oh My Love For Yoko

I was having a hard time deciding what was my favorite song for Yoko because John wrote so many beautiful and meaningful songs for her, some were sexy, some were sad, and some were happy, but this has to be my favorite because it describes love in just it’s purest form. I think Yoko has even said it’s her favorite John song saying “It’s not so much about sexual interest or ‘I miss you’ – it’s more to do with true love.” And I absolutely agree. This song is so tender and really shows John’s softer side, and how falling In love with Yoko opened up his world. 

Maybe I’m Amazed For Linda

Paul at one point said if he was going to be remembered for anything he would want to be remembered for this song and I see why. This was written after the Beatles broke up and how Linda really saved him and helped get back on his feet. He’s amazed how devoted she is to him, amazed by how much she loves him and amazed by how much he loves and needs her. It’s beautifully romantic and touching, this song sure is evidence that true love exists!

Never Get Over You For Olivia 

You listen to George’s voice and the lyrics in this song and you just know this song came straight from the heart. It’s a goodbye love song to his beloved Olivia who had spent the last 27 years of his life with, out of all the beautiful songs he wrote for her I see this as the ultimate testament to his love for her, George loved Olivia from the moment he saw her right up until his death. Even though George has been gone for 17 years when you listen to that song his love for Olivia couldn’t be more alive

Show Me The Way For Barbara 

A song that shows how thankful Ringo is to have Barbara as his partner, to be the person to share his happiness, tears, and life with. These two have gone through a lot together, and it’s so lovely to see how they came out of everything strong and truly in love and this song represents that. And as Ringo said she still got him writing love songs for her after being together for over 30 years. That’s true love 

My Valentine For Nancy 

This song is so deeply touching, showing the great and positive influence Nancy has on Paul. My heart always warms at the lyric ‘’And I will love her for life’ the way he sings it just so sweet. It’s just a lovely song

So yeah those are my favorite songs written for the Beatles girls, what lovely ladies they are to have inspired such beautiful and heartwarming songs! 

[mitchmarnier]

semi charmed life | chapter ten | 4k | teen |

“You guys have kept in contact this whole time?” Bill asked, brow disappearing underneath hair line as he looked like his old friends in amazement. “And you guys are.. what? Room mates?”

Eddie avoided looking at Richie as he answered. “Yeah, uh… room mates. Something like that.”

[or: the adult!losers reunion, done 2000s sit-com style, just like we all deserve.]

PREVIOUSLY ON SEMI CHARMED LIFE: “I just…” the woman shrugged. “My boyfriend… the father… I’m not sure if he’s the smartest. He’s an amazing boyfriend, I love him so much. But I’m sure if I can rely on him.” “I… I’m a writer, b-b-b-but my girlfriend-““She pregnant?” The man chuckled. “You’d be surprised how often that what we hear ‘round here.”  “I-I-I-I didn’t fuh-fuh-feel right about i-i-i-it!” Bill declared. “I-I-I was truh-try-trying to get o-o-o-out! They d-d-d-didn’t luh-luh-like that.” |  “I was trying to find a place for us both to live, That’s not my problem anymore, but you’re not staying in my family’s house. I’ll be calling the realtor tomorrow to make sure the house is emptied.” |  CUTEST COUPLE. Richie traced his hands over the words, smiling softly as he took in the appearance of himself and Beverly Marsh at fifteen.  Richie had dismissed her. Claimed that Eddie had had some sort of weird experience at work, and that it wasn’t anything she had done. Beverly wasn’t entirely sure she believed that, but she was willing to give Richie the benefit of believing him. No doubt he knew what was going on in Eddie’s mind space better than she did.  Beverly had no idea what took over her in that moment. Her stomach clenched up and she stared at Richie for a moment. She felt as though every possible human emotion that was able to felt was deep in her gut and she didn’t even notice she was moving forward until she was kissing him.

Stan scooped up Periwinkle as he passed by the small cat. He cuddled her up to his chest as he dropped onto the arm seat in his living room. Patty was sitting and making small talk with Audra, pouring them both cups of wine. Audra gave Stan a nervous smile.

“Thank you for meeting with me,” Audra said, rubbing gently across her belly. She hadn’t started showing too much yet, but if Stan looked hard enough he could tell the girl was with child. His stomach churned a little bit at the thought of what was happening with Bill right now, and how Audra and their child deserved better. Try as Bill might, Stan knew that Richie was right. All Bill was doing was throwing his life away and putting other people at risk. Which was all the more reason for Stan to have this meeting with Audra today.

“Well, this isn’t officially what I do,” Stan said with a smile. Periwinkle mewed happily while Stan scratched behind his ears. “But you seem nice and I want to help you.”

Audra’s eyes fell down to Periwinkle in Stan’s arms and sighed sadly. “I think my boyfriend and I should have started with a pet before jumping right to a baby.”

Audra still hadn’t explicitly told Stan that the father of her child was Bill Denbrough, and he wasn’t sure if he knew who he was. Or if maybe, she just didn’t know that he knew who she was. It didn’t matter too much, really. Stanley wasn’t helping Audra as his old friend’s girlfriend, or anything to do with Bill. He was helping her because he knew that she needed it.

“Are you planning on leaving your boyfriend?” Stan asked her, pulling out manila envelopes from under the coffee table. Patty was a little awkward with the situation, despite only meeting Bill the one time. The love of Stan’s life had never been particularly good at lies or deception. It was something he admired about her, the way she’d stumble over her words and get quiet in any less-than-honest situation, but it was keeping her and Audra at a distance.

“I don’t know,” Audra said slowly, rubbing her hands together slightly. “I love him. And he was a great boyfriend, we always had so much fun together. We had plans to start a family and do this adult stuff some day, but I just don’t think he’s ready for it yet. But I…” Audra wrapped her arms around her stomach and smiled down at herself. “I couldn’t imagine not having this baby now. I want to do this with him, there’s nothing I’d want more but if he’s not ready for this then I’m not going to let him drag this to shit. My baby is going to come first. End of story.”

She seemed so strong and genuine, it made Stan’s heart hurt to know what Bill was trying to do. Maybe Bill had good intentions, yeah, but he was putting everybody into harm's way. Richie was right, a sentence that had rarely applied to the Richie he’d known but Stan was starting to learn that he’d missed almost all of Richie’s growing up.

“You don’t have to do anything.” Stan said seriously. “I’ve mentioned that before, I think, when we first met. All these funds are your own, you have no legal obligation to share them with your partner. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be safe.” Especially since Bill seems to be one bad run away getting tossed in jail or killed, Stan thought a little sadly to himself but couldn’t mention. With Audra giving no indication to knowing that Stan knew Bill or anything along those lines, it wasn’t really Stanley’s place to tell her anything of what was going on. Bill needed to tell her, but Stan highly doubted that he would. If Bill was telling the truth, he was trying to get out but Stan wasn’t going to pretend that the events from the night before hadn’t made him more inclined to meet with Audra. Even going as far as to push up their plans to the next day.

“You said that your family has their own financial advisors, and I’d recommend that you go talk to them before making your final decisions-”

→  →  →

Richie rubbed his thumb along the back of Eddie’s hand, wondering if his husband even wanted to hold his hand after everything Richie had just told him. Eddie had been quiet nearly the whole time, staring out around the living room without saying a word or asking any questions. Richie had gone through the story, from Bill’s phone call to Beverly in the car and they were now sitting in silence. The anxiety came to be a little too much for Richie, and he moved to take his hand back, but Eddie clutched at it and dragged it into his lap.

“Richie…” Eddie exhaled hard, pressing the hand that wasn’t clutching at Richie’s hand against his mouth. “Somebody shot at your car? With an actual gun.” Richie nodded slowly and Eddie let out a soft whimper. He squeezed Richie’s hand with both of his, pushing their hands into couch cushions between Eddie’s legs. “You could have died.”

Richie nodded again, but shifted to look at Eddie. “I was afraid when I came home last night, and I’m sorry if i’ve gotten you too worry about this. I’m not sure that it was as bad as I’ve made it out to be. And everything with Bev after that-”

Eddie let out a wet laugh. “Oh, Richie, you don’t need to do this.”

“What?” Richie asked, frowning deeply and biting at his bottom lip.

“This whole Bev kissed you thing.” Eddie waved at Richie’s face as Richie gaped at his husband. “I appreciate it, baby, I do. But I know you’re just trying to make me feel better about Bill putting your life at risk like that. I’m going to kill him, by the way.”

“Eddie, I’m not just…” Richie shook his head, frowning deeply. “You don’t believe me?”

“Bev would never do that to me. To us.” Eddie said with a shake of his head and a small smile. Richie’s heart dropped when he looked at the genuine belief on Eddie’s face. Guilt bubbled up in Richie’s chest when he accepted that he wanted to let Eddie keep thinking he was lying. He could pretend that nothing happened, if it wouldn’t hurt Eddie. He could let Eddie believe that it wasn’t true.

Beverly came into the apartment, carrying Marty in her carrier and a tiny Frankie toddling behind her. She froze when she saw Richie and Eddie holding hands on couch and instantly looked nervous. “Oh my God.” She set Marty in the carrier down on the ground and stepped quickly into the living room. Richie’s heart jumped into his throat. “Eddie, I’m so sorry.”

Quick confusion came over Eddie’s face, and Richie watched him move through the understanding. Eddie’s jaw clenched, and he took his hand away from Richie’s. He stood slowly and moved over to the seat with the baby within it. Scooping up the carrier, he brought it back into the living room and started pulling the baby free. He pulled Marty up to his chest, and cooed at her.

“Eddie?” Beverly asked slowly, stepping towards him. Eddie held one hand up to her before lowering it to wrap around their baby. Richie remained seated on the couch, glancing around the scene unfolding in front of him. Frankie came padding into the room, eyes wide with the clear tension within the room, and crawled up into Richie’s lap. He wrapped his arms around the girl, and let her cuddle into his chest.

“Eds, do you want me to take the girls out?” Richie asked his husband lightly.

Eddie smiled lovingly at his daughter and shook his head. “No. As long as I’m holding onto her, I can’t hit Beverly.”

Richie whistled lowly, and tucked Frankie’s head a little more under his chin as an attempt to block out everything around the girl. Part of him felt that he should leave, taking Frankie, but he didn’t really want to. Richie had always had a serious fear of missing out, and this was a situation that Richie was dedicated to seeing through.

“Eddie, I’m so sorry.” Beverly said, keeping her distance from her friends. “I don’t know what came over me. Tom had showed up to the diner last night, and I was so upset. And Richie seemed upset and he just told me to be with whoever made me happy and it just… sort of happened. I didn’t mean to hurt anybody.”

Eddie turned around slowly, his eyes still not leaving Marty’s face. “Your response to Richie telling you to be with whoever makes you happy was to kiss him? Kiss Richie?”

“My life has been so complicated!” Beverly cried, tears obvious in her eyes and bottom lip trembling. “Things were so simple when Richie and I were together! I miss simple! And you know, if things had been different this could have been my life.”

Richie winced.

Eddie’s eyes flashed. He stepped backwards, not even looking away from Beverly’s face as he handed Marty over to Richie. Frankie kept her head pressed against Richie’s chest, hands immediately going out to let Marty wrap a tiny fist around two of her fingers.

“Get out of my house.” Eddie said firmly. “You need to figure your shit out, Beverly. I don’t care if you want to be with Ben, or if you go back to your husband or if decide that you’re a strong independent woman who needs no man. But you’re not going to figure that out here, and you’re not going to have these delusions that you could have had a life with my husband. You don’t get to look at my kids and think about how they could have been yours.”

“Eddie, that’s not what I meant-” Beverly start to plead but Eddie shook his head.

“When Richie told me that you kissed him, I thought he was trying to soften the blow of the rest of his story. Something to distract me. I thought it was a lie.” Eddie hissed, fists clenched at his side. “I told him that you would never have done that to me. And then you come in here, and not only admit that you kissed my husband, but then you try to excuse it by saying that you dated him once when we were fifteen years old so it’s within your right to kiss him. Fuck you, Beverly.”

“That wasn’t what I meant!” Beverly cried. “Eddie, I care so much about you. And Richie and the girls. I would never do anything to hurt you, I swear. I was just confused!”

“Tell me right now, to my face, that you aren’t hung up on my husband.” Eddie said firmly. “Because now I can’t help but wonder if maybe that’s your problem.”

“Eddie, come on.” Beverly sighed sadly, tilting her head back to stare up at the ceiling. “This is ridiculous.”

“Say it!” Eddie almost shouted, sounding nearly frantic. Frankie let out a small whimper and tucked her head harder against Richie’s chest. Richie stood up, one girl in each arm and started to duck out of the room but Beverly’s response cause him to freeze in the doorway.

“You stole him from me!”

“Wow...” Eddie chuckled slowly. His hands had come down to rest on his waist and he was shaking his head. There was a smile on his face, but it didn’t hold humour. Richie was trying to debate if he’d be able to hold both his daughters and his husband in his arms at the same time. “You’ve got some serious issues, Beverly Marsh. Get the fuck out of here.”

Eddie walked past Richie, taking baby Marty without meeting Richie’s gaze and moved back towards the girls bedroom. Frankie dropped onto the ground and Richie gestured for her to follow Eddie. Richie turned to Beverly and shook his head.

Beverly wiped angrily at her tears, and took a shaky breath. “Richie…”

“Don’t.” Richie said sharply. He shook his head again, running his hands through his rough curls. “Just get your stuff and get out.”

“Where am I supposed to go?” Beverly sobbed out, pressing her hands to her face.

“I don’t know. I can’t care about that right now. It’s not my problem.” Richie said simply, shrugging. He turned away from the sound of Beverly’s muffled crying and walked back to the girls bedroom. Eddie was standing on the other side of the room, putting Marty in the crib. Frankie was playing with her dolls on the floor, but even Richie could see it was half-hearted.

“Do you want me to leave, too?” Richie asked, leaning against the doorframe. Eddie whipped around, starting at Richie with wide eyes. He seemed to flounder for a moment before frowning sadly.

“Why would I want that?” Eddie asked quietly, walking quickly past Frankie on the floor. He came up to Richie and joined their hands. “Beverly kissed you. You didn’t kiss her back, you told me right away. You didn’t do anything wrong, baby, okay? I am not mad at you.”

“I love you…” Richie whispered, leaning forward to rest his forehead against Eddie’s. “I’m so sorry this happened.”

Eddie knocked their noses together. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”  Eddie bounced up onto his toes and pressed a kiss to Richie’s lips, squeezing Richie’s hands and pressing their chests together. Just as Richie ran his tongue along the Eddie’s bottom lip, Frankie let out a shriek.

“EWWWW!!! KISSING IS GROSS!” Frankie shouted, jumping up onto her feet and ran at Richie’s knees. She wrapped herself around him and tucked herself in between her fathers. Richie took a hand free from Eddie’s and dropped down onto Frankie’s head. He ruffled up her hair and made the girl squealed, but cling him all the harder. Eddie dropped his head down and rested it on Richie’s shoulder, taking his own mental pride in knowing that nothing was ever going to take priority over his family.

The phone ringing broke through the moment.

→  →  →

Ben Hanscom tapped his fingers on his desk. It wasn’t so much of a work space as some tiny Ikea desk shoved into the corner of the room, behind a pile of boxes and facing a brick wall that he was expected to call a workspace. He read the email from Beverly again and pinched the brim of his nose. Part of Ben had known what he was getting into, knowing that Beverly’s divorce wasn’t making any progress and that Beverly seemed to be putting it off but he didn't let that bother him. He’d realized so soon after being reunited with Bev that he’d never really let go of her in his heart. The idea that Beverly was interested in him had been enough for him. But looking at the email now, he could tell that something was wrong. It was vague and distant, just giving the barest hint that something had happened with Eddie and Richie and that she needed somewhere to stay. There was nothing incriminating within the message itself, but it left a sick feeling in Ben’s stomach. He couldn’t put a finger on what seemed wrong about it, but he gut was telling him to tread very carefully.

“Hanscom!” His boss called angrily, stomping past the boxes and glowering at Ben. “Is that a personal email? I thought we were pretty clear about the use of company property for personal use!”

Ben clenched his jaw. As though this bastard didn’t spend five hours a day locked up in his office watching porn on his company computer. Ben knocked his hand against the desk a little heavier and turned around in his chair. Because he had to physically turn around in it, because he was the only person in this office with a chair that didn’t have wheels. “You know what, Kent.” Ben said, forcing a smile onto his face and shook his head. “Why don’t you get the fuck off my back? I do my job, I do well, and you pay me absolutely garbage. If I want to check my fucking email, I’m going to.”

Kent looked taken back, mouth dropping open. “Watch your tone with me, Hanscom. I control your future at this place-”

“What future?” Ben laughed angrily.  “What future is that? The one where I sit here in the back corner, making minimum wage for the rest of my life while you take credit for all my ideas and ring in thousands of dollars for doing nothing at all?”

“Hanscom-” Kent hissed, glancing over his shoulder almost nervously. Ben burst out laughing, and pushed himself out of his desk. There was so little room in this area that Ben and his boss were nearly pressed chest to chest. Ben pumped up against him, knocking Kent a little further into the main office. He started picking up his belongings, quickly logging out of the desktop.

Kent stepped backwards as Ben moved past him, stomping into the office and waved overly dramatically towards all the other bastards sitting in the main office. “It’s really grand, all of you!” Ben shouted, saluting towards the co-workers. He recognized that, yes, he potentially throwing his entire life away but in this moment absolutely no fucks were being given. “Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you,” He called out, pointing at the other office workers as he walked past them. “Fuck you, fuck you, you’re cool, fuck you.”

He stopped at the door of the office, bag thrown over his shoulder, and as he stared he knew that he wasn't going to miss a single thing about this place. “I’m out.”

→  →  →

Mike was laying across his floor, staring up at the ceiling, when Eddie let himself in. A small pair of feet padded across the floor, and the tiny body flopped onto his chest. “Uncle Mikey!” Frankie Kaspbrak cried happily, cuddling up to his chest. “My pops said that you were sad.”

“Already feeling better, sweetie.” Mike said, ruffling at Frankie’s messy braids. The little girl made a happy noise, and Mike thought on how he’d spent too much time in the last few months worrying about Alexander. He’d dedicated so much of his time and effort into making finding an apartment, into trying to make things work for somebody who hadn’t been trying for him, that he’d forgotten that he’d already had people who loved him in the city.

“Yeah, little gremlin has that effect on people,” Richie said as he came into the room, Marty’s baby carrier in his hands. Eddie had come in behind him with bags of Chinese take out that he was setting up on the living table. “Franks, why don’t you let your Uncle Mike up, huh? You can cuddle with him on the couch while you guys eat your dinner, okay?”

“Don’t call me Franks!” Frankie cried, crawling off of Mike’s middle and waiting for the man to stand up and make his way back to the couch. “He was a already on the ground when I gots in. I didn’t knock ‘im over this time.”

“Already on the floor, huh?” Richie raised his brow as Mike got up and let Frankie crawl up into his lap. “How you doing, honey?”

Mike sighed, and leaned his head against the back of the couch. “I just feel so stupid, you know? I was out here, busting my ass trying to make things work for us, to get us together out here and hoping everything would be great and he was just…” Mike shook his head. “How could a person cheat on somebody else? What has to be wrong with you to get to that point?”

Richie raised his eyebrows, cheeks puffing out with half a  chicken ball. He swallowed roughly, and coughed a little bit. “Seems like it was a rough night for everybody, huh? It was like… fuck those Losers from Maine, and them specifically.”

Mike laughed, watching as Frankie ripped apart a spring roll. Eddie came in, cooing at little Marty and sat directly on Richie’s lap. He grabbed a fork full of Richie’s chow mein and rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Bill’s gotten himself involved in some drug bullsiht, nearly got Richie and Stan killed in the process, Bev had a run in with her husband and then responded to the stress by kissing mine even though she’s also dating Bev. Fun times all around.”

Mike whistled, accepting the fried rice that Frankie was trying to force into his mouth. “Richie, you hung out with Stan last night?”

“Of all the…” Richie laughed, grinning down as Marty grabbed his finger and put it into her mouth. “I assure you that I was ambushed.”

“You told me you drove him home,” Eddie pitched in, scratching mindlessly at the small curls at the bottom of Richie’s scalp. Mike looked over at the couple, smiling softly as he felt Frankie resting against him.

“Okay, and what?” Richie shot back, moving to take his hand from Marty’s mouth until the baby made a sad noise and Richie quickly returned it.  “Was I supposed to just leave him in middle of nowhere to possibly die?”

Eddie shrugged one shoulder and shot Mike a playful smirk. Mike smiled back and bounced Frankie slightly on his knee. “I’m glad I found out, you know? I’m glad that I know, and that I’m not stuck being played for a fool anymore. It hurts, of course, I really thought Alexander was the one.”

“You’ll find them, Mike.” Eddie said firmly. “We’re not even thirty yet. Most of the people we know from high school are complete messes. Bill got his girlfriend pregnant and now he’s dealing drugs. You’ve got a dream job and a roof over your head. Everything else will come when it’s time.”

“Yeah!” Frankie cheered happily, patting her hand against Mike’s cheek. “Don’t get married, and come have tea parties with me. Ima better than a smelly boyfriend.”

“There’s nobody better than you, sweetheart.” Mike said happily, rubbing Frankie’s back.

Frankie batted her eyelashes and blushed. Richie’s mouth dropped open and Eddie burst out laughing.

→  →  →

“Ben…” Beverly leaned against the front door of Ben’s apartment, knocking weakly. “Please open the door. I know you’re in there.”

Ben walked up to the door from the other side, dropping his hand to the door knob. He went to turn it, let Beverly walk in and pretend he hadn’t felt the shift in their dynamic. He turned around, leaning against the door, unknowingly against Beverly’s form.

“I’m sorry…” She said tearfully. “I know I messed up, okay? I don’t need you to tell me that, too. I’ve heard it plenty today.”

Ben clenched his jaw. So something did happen, then. He knew that Eddie and Richie would never kick Beverly out for no reason, and Ben’s gut had been tense all day from the vague email. That momentary feeling of freedom that he’d gotten from walking out of work today had burst into another round of anxiety when Beverly knocked on his door.

“Okay.” Beverly said tearfully. “Okay, Ben. If this is what you want, if you don’t want to open this door, then that’s okay. I’ll just… It doesn’t matter. I’m not making this about me. I’ve fucked this all up, and I’m going to make it better.”

Ben reached for the door knob again, letting his hand hover on it until Beverly’s footsteps started and faded away. He sunk down to the floor, pulling his legs up to his chest and pressed his face into knees. From his apartment, he couldn’t see how Beverly got to the stairway and sat down against the wall with matching tears in her eyes.